Makeda’s lip curled. “So now I’m Baojia’s child?”

“As of right now, you’re no one’s child. He turned you to fulfill a deal we’ve had in place for years. We would each turn one human of the other’s choosing. No argument. No obligation. You are not under Baojia’s aegis unless you want to be. You are not under Katya’s because I won’t allow it.”

I won’t allow it. A rising sense of panic shot through her. “So where do I belong?”

Lucien looked at her long and hard. “Though Baojia cannot demand your loyalty as per our arrangement, he has offered his own. You may choose my aegis or Baojia’s. Those are your options.”

Bitterness soured her mouth. “What if I don’t want to belong to either of you?”

“Those are your options, Makeda. Baojia or me. You know enough about the way our world works to know you must belong to someone.” He took another step back. “So choose.”

Before she could respond, Lucien walked out the door, closed it, and Makeda heard him turn the key in the lock.

Saba

Sevastopol, Black Sea

Saba waited across from the young fire vampire, Kato at her side. The man was one of her blood, his sire of her direct line, but his element had manifested in fire. She didn’t know him. Didn’t know what to think of him except that when he’d been required to kill his own daughter to protect their race, he had done so.

“Do you distrust me?” Oleg asked. “To bring a water vampire to our meeting?”

Saba cocked her head. “That would imply I had some fear of you, child. I do not.”

“No?”

Without another word, Saba held her hand out, palm up, on the table between them. Oleg looked at her hand for a long time. He frowned, deep lines forming between his eyebrows, then he reached out and put his hand in hers.

Saba closed her fingers over Oleg’s warm palm and gripped it. Hard. “No,” she said. “I do not.”

“I had no desire to hold your hand,” he said. “I do not like to touch others.”

She could hear his heart. “And yet you did.”

A flicker of fear in his eyes. He was a wise one to be scared of her. For though some thought of Saba as a grandmother and others as a benevolent and wise spirit, Saba was of the earth.

And the earth could be a cruel mother.

Oleg asked, “Who are you?”

“Who have you heard that I am?”

“The oldest of us. The oldest of all of us.”

“You may be correct.” Saba didn’t release Oleg’s hand. “I do know your blood comes from the earth. From one of my line. So, Oleg Sokolov, you are mine, whether you want to be or not.”

The vampire’s eyes flared. He didn’t like that news.

“What do you know of the Elixir?”

“I know that I wish I’d never listened to my mate. She’s dead now, with good reason.”

Interesting. Had he killed his own mate for involving him in Elixir? That was… very interesting.

“Do you have any dealings in it?”

“Do I look like a madman?” He shook his head. “You know I am not lying. Anyone in my organization who was involved in that filth is dead. Dead by my hand. Those who had my blood and those who did not. And I have paid the price for my foolishness many times over. Ask anyone.” He waved a hand around the tavern. “Oleg’s ships cannot pass without paying half their profit in tariff to the Greek.”

“Because you killed his lover?”

Oleg’s eyes flared, and his heat permeated the booth. “Because I will not be played the fool. Especially not by those seeking to spy on me within my own house. Anyone taken in by that madman has been put to death.”

“Where did the madness lie?” Saba asked. “Was it Laskaris? Or your daughter?”

“I do not deny the madness sprang from my blood, but those who dismiss the Greek as lazy or only opportunistic do so at their peril. Zara was no criminal mastermind, though she was evil. Now she is dead, and the Elixir still flows through the Bosphorus. That is all I know.”

“I am glad,” Saba said, “you did not put your own sentiment over the greater good of our race.”

“You’re speaking of Zara?” Oleg shrugged. “She was nothing to me.”

“She was your blood.”

“She was nothing.”

Saba smiled. If the fire vampire wanted to deny his connection to the malicious troublemaker, it was no business of hers. The job had been done, and Oleg had been the one to do it. She approved.

“There may come a time when you must put the good of our race over sentiment again.”

Oleg said, “I am a self-interested man. I do not believe in a greater good, a higher power, or a master plan for our world.”

“Then you do not know me.”

A smile touched the corner of Oleg’s mouth. Just a hint of one. “And I thought I was the most arrogant thing at the table.”

Kato spoke for the first time. “It’s not arrogance.”

Oleg opened his mouth, then closed it. He nodded at Saba and pulled his hand away from her grip.

“Is there anything else you need of me, Baba?”

She smiled at the title. Perhaps Oleg might win her affection after all. “Not now. But perhaps soon.”

He bowed, lifted his head, and said, “You are the oldest and wisest of our people. I am at your service should you have need of me.”