Free Dead Certain (Eve Benson: Vampire Book 3) by P. S. Power

that, based on how cute the guy was, but didn’t really
feel it, herself. He was hot, sure, but being dead between her legs, that
didn’t mean much to her. More, it really shouldn’t have to her companion,
either.
    When Bohdan looked over at her
again, she kind of understood it all though. He was compelling. Constantly, and
in a general way, that probably made it seem like he was magnetic to most
people. She looked at his face, but didn’t lock eyes with him, just in case he
could capture her that way.
    If it bothered him it didn’t show
at all.
    “Nicole is normally in her bed by
now…” Again, the feeling behind it all sounded right, and not like he was
paranoid, and suspecting that death had arrived for him.
    Eve felt like freezing, but then
just did what she probably should have the whole time, and told the truth. The weak lied, because it was their only defense. She might not be the most powerful
being ever, but she wasn’t going to keep acting like a baby either, if she
could help it. Trying to spare her partner in this had already led to problems hadn’t
it?
    Still, she didn’t have to tell
the man everything all at once, so started with the Nikki centric things first.
    “We’re traveling, in part so that
I can learn the language here, and in part to keep Nicole awake during the day.
It’s part of her new training. I’m Eve Benson.” She waited, in case the name
meant something to the man, but there was nothing more than a polite expression
on his face. It was nearly servile for a Russian, from what she’d seen of them
so far.
    “I am most pleased to meet with you,
Eve Benson. I am Bohdan Constantine. Among other things I run Moscow, and the
surrounding area, for our kind. Currently we are having a dispute with the
Council, over taxes. It is a bit of a petty thing, but I fear it has put us
against them directly for a time, and we seek to remove ourselves from their
oversight.” He was staring right at her, and there was a fine sense of buzzing
in her head, which meant he was working to control her now, Eve suspected.
    It was easy enough to change the
feeling though. To master it and shift her mind away. So either he wasn’t all
that powerful, or he wasn’t trying to do it too hard yet. She needed to stay
ready, just in case.
    “Oh? Over the new blood rules?”
That was the thing most of the Vampires had a problem with, after all. It
wasn’t exactly hard to see either. Most of the good blood products were in
North America. These people had the hard rules, but no way to smooth that over
with their own people, did they?
    There was a slow nod, as they
continued walking, his voice mellow and relaxed. The man was holding Nikki’s
hands as they did it, too. Like they’d never been apart, almost. That wasn’t a
great sign, at least given the current situation.
    It wasn’t lost on her that this
Bohdan had almost instantly introduced the topic at hand either. He was,
without a doubt, trying to subtly influence her over to his side. More to the
point, he was trying to compel her to do that, without being too obvious.
    “Yes. It is that conflict
directly. We have been placed under the boot of these new American rules, but
have not the resources that they enjoy. We are ordered to make do with animals,
but here, in the city, that is nearly impossible for most of our kind. Are we
to lose all we have then? Abandon our businesses, and homes, to run to the
countryside, in order to fulfill their wishes? For most of us here there is
little else that can be done, I fear. So we prepare to fight, even knowing that
death will come upon us at any moment.”
    She could see that, actually. It
never paid to push people into a corner they felt they couldn’t get out of.
    Nikki, still smiling at the man,
shook her head a bit. It was almost like she was trying to clear it from a fog,
or a dose of drugs.
    “Bohdan… What if we could fix
that? There’s a new animal blood product being sold in the states. It isn’t
bad.