“You’re making jokes about this?” Anna was serving bowls of stroganoff to the Hazar in the house.
Marie was sitting across from Tatyana, holding a bowl of stroganoff and staring into the fire. There was a bite mark in her neck from the vampire who had broken into her house before the Hazar had come.
“Make jokes,” Marie murmured. “Please. Or I will go mad.”
The wounds in the woman’s neck were slowly healing from the blood that Tatyana had personally spread over them to help the fang marks close.
They were waiting on a call from the hospital in Warsaw, but the good news was that Marko was still conscious when the Hazar went to check on him, and the arrow had not pierced his lung as the one in Tatyana’s chest had.
Two dozen Hazar from Warsaw were now circling the house as they waited to hear about Marie’s husband.
Betty the donkey was in the barn, consoled by Dymka and a group of human Poshani guards who were delighted with all the animals.
“I’m sorry they even touched you,” Tatyana told the dark-haired woman. “We will make sure whoever was behind this is killed, and I will make sure there are more guards around the house. Day and night, Marie.”
The vampire Sándor had questioned remained silent for most of his initial interrogation, but a particular team of Hazar had come and taken the captive with Sándor’s blessing.
Whatever they chose to do with him was not Tatyana’s concern.
“Eight vampires and two humans approached from the woods,” Sándor said in Poshani. “We dealt with most of them quite quickly, as you did, but the sniper was harder to track. Wind vampire and an excellent archer.”
“No sound,” Tatyana said quietly.
“Much less than a rifle to be sure. Greta finally found him.”
Greta was the medic who had pulled the arrow from Tatyana’s abdomen.
“Wind and earth vampires,” Tatyana said. “Archers.”
“There are many wind vampire clans with some connections to the earth, but there is one Bashkiri clan around the Volga River that is particularly known for their archers,” Sándor said. “If there are ties between these vampires and that clan?—”
“Are we thinking of my brother-in-law-to-be?” Tatyana continued in Poshani so her mother didn’t become alarmed. “Could he have hired them?Arethey for hire?”
“They are.”
Tatyana nodded. “See if we can find ties between the captive and these men.” She spoke in Ukrainian. “They smelled like sour milk and some kind of roasted meat.”
“The clan I am thinking of eats horse meat,” Sándor said.
Marie blinked. “Horse meat?”
“That could be it,” Tatyana said. “I don’t think I’ve smelled horse meat before.”
“It’s not uncommon among the old ones.”
“Who would eat horses?” Anna asked. “You should tell that to Oleg when you call him. I don’t think he would like that. He is fond of horses.”
“We’re not calling Oleg,” Tatyana said. “This is a Poshani matter, and Sándor and the Hazar will deal with it.”
“Of course you are calling your husband!” Anna hissed. “You had an arrow through your chest, Tanya.”
“It was more like my abdomen.”
Sándor looked cautiously between Anna and Tatyana. “I would not advise concealing this from Oleg. If there is a blood price on your head and this Bashkiri clan has taken the contract, they will not give up until it is completed.”
“And by completed, you mean me dead.” Tatyana had never had a price on her head before. What an odd feeling. “Are they expensive to hire?”
“The Bashkiri earth vampires?” Sándor shrugged. “I mean, not themostexpensive, but they’re not cheap.”
