She remembered the conviction in his voice when he’d said it to her many years ago. She understood it, and she respected him for it even if the thought of an eternity of conflict exhausted her.
“I love you for you.” She gripped Oleg’s hair in her fist. “But I know the empire that comes with the man.”
She knew the empire, and she loved the man.
The question was, would she be forced to turn from the family that had embraced her to defend the vampire who held half her soul?
Chapter 7
Oleg
Ivan Sokholov had brought a retinue of forty vampires to the Báthory Summit, though he was only permitted five to accompany him within authorized summit events. He had rented a house in Budapest, a modern structure with brutalist lines and a fleet of expensive cars parked in the front.
The governor of Moscow clearly wanted to appear as a czar to the immortals he met.
Oleg found it as amusing as Mika found it infuriating.
“He’s trying to appear a bigger player than he actually is,” Mika muttered as they exited their vintage Rolls-Royce in front of Ivan’s modern mansion. Petr had secured their use of the antique vehicle for the week. It usually sat in a museum. “Trying to outshine you with this house and this… entourage.”
“Yes. He is trying.” Oleg buttoned his jacket as he stood from the sedan and surveyed the men and vampires stationed around the garden. “A moment before we go in.”
He walked to a tall, burly man with a heavy jaw and a stern expression. “Dimitri, good to see you.” He shook the guard’s hand. “Did your granddaughter have her baby yet?”
The earth vampire had been with Ivan for a century, and his harsh features immediately softened. “She did. A little girl.”
“Congratulations.” Oleg slapped his shoulder. “Children are our greatest pride and blessing, are they not?”
Dimitri bowed slightly. “They are, Knyaz. You honor my family by asking.”
“Of course.” He glanced at the men he didn’t know. “Do you have time to introduce me to the newcomers? There are a few I do not recognize, and I wish to greet them properly and thank them for their service to our territory.”
“Of course.”
Oleg took his time, walking the grounds, greeting the men he knew by name and introducing himself to the ones he didn’t recognize, keeping his voice and his presence casual.
At one point, he casually snapped his fingers to light a cigarette to share with a human who was smoking to stay awake, exchanging a joke or two about the benefits of immortality on the lungs.
“That was good,” Mika murmured in Estonian, which few of the men would speak.
“They’re not bad sorts, most of them.” He glanced at Dimitri. “It’s a good reminder.”
“Of what?” his boyar asked.
“Of why we are taking our time with Ivan.”
Immortal kings who endured did so because their people were loyal. Oleg knew his druzhina would live and die for him because, as he had told Tatyana, he would commit violence on those who threatened them.
Truvor had forgotten this, and Ivan had never learned. His temper was untested, even after a thousand years. Though Ivan was older than Oleg, he had been Truvor’s favorite for too long before he fell out of favor.
That fall had led Ivan to back Oleg when Oleg took over, but Ivan did not love Oleg, and he never had.
“Brother!” Ivan stood at the doorway of the house, waiting as Oleg climbed the stairs.
Mika glanced at Oleg from the side, and he could read his boyar’s thoughts.
He wants you looking up to him.
The corner of Oleg’s mouth turned up.Ivan’s posturing was painfully obvious.
