Chapter 10 Tatyana
Tatyana
Tatyana curled up by the fire at her mother’s house in Wilga with Pushkin purring on her lap and a book in her hands.
She was trying to read more, and since her mother’s bookshelves were not strong on economic treatises, she was attempting to enjoy a suspense novel set on a small island in the Aegean.
The problem was, every time the narrator talked about the island—the olive groves bathed in afternoon heat or the wind that swept from the sea—Tatyana thought of sunshine, closed her eyes, and remembered the warm wash of color and heat.
It was starting to depress her. Perhaps she needed to read some of her mother’s Agatha Christie novels. It always seemed to be raining in England.
She closed the book and turned her thoughts to the last time she had been in the Mediterranean Sea, on a vampire-safe yacht that Oleg had personalized years ago. The weeks they could take away from the world on the yacht where some of the happiest times they had together.
Oleg drew and Tatyana danced in the moonlight, enjoying the sound system that poured music into every corner of the very fancy boat. She was surrounded by water on the yacht—her element soothed her and made her strong.
She lifted her hand and stirred the simple glass of water in the tall glass beside her.
Her mother came into the living room. “What is wrong with you?”
“Nothing is wrong with me.”
“You just came from a week of seeing your man—”
“I came from a weeklong business conference that my husband happened to be attending. I was working, Mama.”
“You were dancing at parties and seeing Oleg every night, no?”
Tatyana opened her mouth, then closed it. There was no point in arguing about vampire economic politics with her mother. “Yes, Mama.”
“Then what is wrong with you?”
There are rumors that my husband is secretly arranging a marriage with a Georgian vampire queen.
I had a week of seeing my lover every night, and now I’m irrationally angry with him that he never mentioned these rumors that I secretly fear are true.
I’ve been living with secrets so long that I feel like lying has become part of my character, and it disgusts me.
“I probably just need to drink more blood.” Tatyana lifted the cat, who hung like a fuzzy, oversized scarf in her hands. “I tried feeding from Pushkin, but I don’t like all the hair in my mouth.”
Pushkin gave a slight “Eerp” but said nothing else.
Anna’s eyes went wide for a second; then she scowled. “Stop being ridiculous and open a bottle of that wine then. Or some of that bagged blood you keep in my freezer.”
Tatyana rose and set Pushkin on the spot that she’d left, even though it was not warm. The cat stood up, arched his back in a stretch, and shook his furry head before he hopped off the sofa, dissatisfied with the lack of active petting.
“I’ll open some blood-wine.” Tatyana walked to the cabinet on the far side of the room. “The frozen blood is just for emergencies.”
She wasn’t hungry at all, but though Tatyana was a vampire now, Anna was still a Russian mother who was fairly certain that any mood could be solved with the correct application of food.
Saying she needed to feed was always the answer.
“Why is Sándor lurking around outside?” Anna asked.
Tatyana twisted off the sealed cap of the blood-wine. “I finally told him about Oleg, so there’s no need for him to keep his distance.”
Because leaving Budapest without taking leave of her husband was definitely going to precipitate a visit. She was only surprised it hadn’t been on the same night she arrived.
She’d also turned her phone off, partly to avoid Oleg but also to avoid Kezia, who had been drilling Tatyana about her dance with Ivan, the brooch she’d been wearing, and also why she and Oleg were still at each other’s throats because didn’t Tatyana know that Oleg was a valuable trade and territorial partner and despite her personal dislike of the man, she needed to get over it?
Tatyana was avoiding everyone.
“What a beautiful brooch you have, Terrin Tatyana. An unusual jewel.”
Ivan’s words kept mocking her. He must have known the firebird was a gift from Oleg, but there was no way he could have known it was for Tatyana specifically. She had told him it was a gift to the Poshani. It could have come from anyone’s safe.
“So if Sándor is closer and you’re not worried about him seeing Oleg, does that mean he’s coming to visit?” Anna perked up. “Good. Then maybe you will stop—”
“Oleg might come to visit.” Tatyana slammed the bottle down on the sideboard. “Or he might not. I don’t know, Mama. Kezia might descend on me instead. I left Budapest quickly.”
“Why?”
“Because I was tired of being social!” She spun on her mother. “And I came here to rest and have some quiet, and now you are badgering me.”
Anna humphed and crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re sulking. You’ve had the same expression when you’re in a mood since you were four months old. Just tell me what is bothering you so I don’t have to keep poking at you.”
She sighed. “It is stressful to keep secrets. That is all. And to have to live separately from Oleg. It causes me to doubt…”
Anna frowned. “Doubt what?”
Tatyana couldn’t say it. She shrugged one shoulder.
Her mother’s eyebrows went up. “Doubt Oleg? You doubt his… What? His faithfulness?” Anna began to chuckle. “I forget with your important job now that you don’t really know a lot about men, do you?”
Tatyana scoffed. “And you do?”
Her mother was still an attractive woman, but she never dated. At least not that Tatyana ever saw.
“I know more than you, Tanya.”
“Oleg is a vampire, Mama. Not an ordinary man.” And vampire emperors had other considerations than just their own feelings.
“Bah! He’s a man,” Anna said. “And he’s just like other men in most ways that count.”
Tatyana couldn’t disagree with her mother about that. At least not much. She shrugged one shoulder and sipped her wine.
“Men cheat on their wives because they’re insecure and don’t know what they want,” Anna said. “Or they fear death and want to feel young. That is also a reason.”
“And you’re saying that since Oleg is a vampire—”
“Your husband isn’t going to die, and he’s not insecure.
In fact, he’s the most arrogant man I’ve ever met, and sadly, he has reason.
” Anna walked over and looked her daughter straight in the eye.
“And most important, he met you one time” —she raised a single finger— “and has pursued you relentlessly ever since, even after he convinced you to marry him.”
A heavy weight in her chest disappeared. She felt foolish. “Mama—”
“That man knows exactly what he wants, and it is you. Do you think he is going to settle for anything other than exactly what he wants?”
Tatyana sighed. “No.”
“Good. Now get out of your mood.” She waved a hand with a grimace. “It’s spoiling the air in the house.”
“Slowly.” Sándor repeated the command. “Sidestep to my rhythm, holding your axe up.”
“If my arms could get tired, they would be exhausted.”
They had been practicing her martial arts for hours, and Sándor was focusing on footwork.
As a wind vampire, her personal guard usually didn’t think much about footwork, but since Tatyana couldn’t fly, Sándor kept his lessons on the ground.
“Think of it like learning a dance,” he said. “You don’t start at full speed—you start slowly.”
“But I know these steps already.”
“Do you?” He waved an arm and nearly knocked her off her feet with a gust of air. “What about if the ground beneath you started to move?”
She snarled and swung her practice axe down, raising one arm and pulling a stream of water from the pond a short distance away.
Sándor spun around and lifted his hand, twisting Tatyana’s element into something like a water spout and pushing it back toward her.
Tatyana scooted to the edge of the pond, sinking her legs into her element and drawing more power to shove the water closer to Sándor.
In the process, she dropped her axe.
“Dammit!” She huffed out a breath as she dropped her arms, and the waterspout Sándor had been spinning over her head splashed down on her, soaking her to the skin.
“I can fight with water or I can fight with an axe,” Tatyana said. “I cannot do both.”
“You will,” Sándor said. “Let’s be honest, surati—you’re not a warrior; you’re a strategist. That doesn’t mean you can’t gain proficiency with both a weapon and your element.”
“Proficiency?” She wanted to be more than proficient.
The corner of his mouth turned up. “Just keep them busy long enough to let your Hazar reach you, and you’ll be safe.”
Sándor and her Hazar were always with her, but Tatyana had a hard time putting all her safety into the hands of anyone. She wanted to feel more secure.
Especially with Ivan lurking on the edges of her memory.
“Do you think Ivan would ever try to harm me?”
Sándor held out his hand to steady her as she walked through the mud on the edge of the pond. “Ivan Sokholov? Doubtful. That would be very stupid.” He tilted his head. “Then again, Ivan is not smart.”
“He’s not smart, is he? But he’s…” She narrowed her eyes. “He’s not dumb either.”
“He’s cunning in the way of a clever animal,” Sándor said. “He reacts and he plots, but it is shallow. He is most concerned about his survival above all else.”
“I would agree with that based on my interactions with him.”
“And you suspect that he knows of your relationship with Oleg?”
“Suspect? Yes. But I’m not certain of anything,” Tatyana admitted. “Especially not if it exists in the mind of another.”
Not even her husband. Though her mother’s words had lifted the cloud of worry that had been hovering over her and pricking her irritation, Tatyana still doubted her mate.
Oleg did not lie to her. Well, he did not lie to her any more than he lied to himself. But there was much he didn’t tell her.
In fairness, there was much she didn’t tell him.
“Will Lord Oleg be visiting you here before we return to the city tomorrow night?”