Love Me to Death (Underveil) (34 page)

The woman reached for the button on his pants, and he stayed her hands. “Together, you and Elena are a formidable team, making up for each other’s deficits. Her brains, your brawn. Think about it.” He released the woman’s hands and brushed her hair over her shoulder as she worked his zipper open with a zing. “But please think about it somewhere else, Nikolai Itzov. I think my castle is about to be under attack, and I have something to do first.”

When Nikolai was a few yards from the door of the bedroom he’d been sharing with Elena, female voices brought him to an abrupt halt.

One was Elena; the other he didn’t recognize. “Thanks for putting it together so quickly,” Elena said.

“I owe you my life. This was my honor.”

Nikolai peeked in to find Elena with a female light elf. The elf handed her a vial of purple liquid that looked to be the elixir his uncle was addicted to. No. He wouldn’t allow Elena to even sample that shit.

He consciously unclenched his fists. “Hello, ladies.”

They turned to face him, but didn’t act the least bit startled. In fact, Elena held the vial up to the light as if it were a jewel. “Fee just gave me a gift.”

He shot the elf what he hoped was a warning glare, but based on her lack of reaction, clearly it was ineffective. “How…nice.”

“Prenatal vitamins,” Elena said.

From down the hall in the great room, Vlad cut loose with a burst of laughter.

Vitamins
. He looked from the elf to Elena’s smiling faces. What an ass he was. An overbearing, shortsighted, completely head-over-heels-in-love ass. “Thank you…”

“Oh. This is Fee the Alchemist,” Elena said.

“I’ve heard of you often. I’m sorry about your brother.”

“Thank you. I am certain we will be bringing him home soon. My father thinks we are close to locating him.”

“I hope so.”

“I must go,” she said. “Be careful. I’m not sure how quickly the vitamins will take effect, but I am confident they will have the desired result.” She wrapped her slender arms around Elena, and they held one another like sisters. Clearly, lots had happened while he was chained to the wall in Fydor’s “rec room.”

The elf disappeared, leaving no trace except the floral scent common to all light elves.

Elena slid the vial into her pocket and pulled her hair back, tying it up with a leather cord she gathered from the bathroom counter. “I’ll see you later, Nik.”

“Wait!”

She lifted a perfectly formed eyebrow, which made him feel more chastised than any words ever could.

“Look, I…”
Fuck. This shouldn’t be so hard
. He loved this woman. Needed her. Still, asking someone for help was hard, but going against every instinct he had to protect his mate was almost incapacitating. And he was about to ask her to risk her life—probably a Slayer first. “I’m sorry I was such a prick. You’re right. I need you to go. Not only are you a better planner and strategist, you are the Uniter, which means this is your show. I’m just there to wield a sword and keep you…” He was pleased when she let him approach and run a hand over her belly. “Keep both of you safe. Allow me that.” He brushed his lips against her jaw. “Please.”

A knock sounded on the door, and then it was thrown open by Dalca. “I brought some clothes for Nikolai, along with this, since he arrived without a weapon.”

Nik stared at the all too familiar sword in the vampire’s hand. “That was my father’s.”

“It was. I took it from Ivan’s body before Fydor arrived. I couldn’t bear the thought of that worm even touching it.” He passed it to Nikolai and handed a stack of clothes to Elena.

Nik’s vision blurred as tears stung his eyes. He blinked them away. Slayers never cried. “Thank you. I’d thought it was lost forever.”

“No. Just in safekeeping until you were ready to receive it.” He patted him on the shoulder. “You’re ready now.” He took the pile of clothes from Elena and passed them to Nik.

“And as for you, Elena Arcos. I wish Gregor were alive for more than one reason, but right now, I wish it so that he could see you. You are magnificent and he would be proud of his daughter.”

He opened his arms and she stepped into his embrace. “I wish you luck,” he whispered into her hair. “Make wise choices.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

S
word drawn and with “Happy Birthday” running in her head to mask her thoughts, Elena pushed the window open to find Aleksi’s room empty. Nik followed her in silently and closed the window behind them.

“My mother’s apartment is just down the hall,” he said.

Dammit.
Where was Aleksandra? None of this would work if she couldn’t get the elixir to her. “I need to talk to your sister.”

“It will have to wait.”

No. It couldn’t wait. Nothing was more important than this. Not even his mother. “Go on. I’ll stay here in case she shows up.” Which she hoped to hell happened soon. Everything hinged on this. “I will only get in the way.” She pointed to her head. “I’m the mastermind. You are the trained swordsman.” Yeah, some mastermind.
Happy birthday, dear whomeveeeeeerrrrrr. Happy birthday to yoooooooou.

He ran his hand over her bare back. “When this is over, I’m buying you a dozen of these halters. I love seeing your markings…among other things.” He ran his fingers down her cleavage, and she trembled. Lips replaced fingers, and she had to concentrate to keep singing as his warm breath fanned over the exposed swells of her breasts. Behind the leather, her nipples hardened.
Happy birthday, dear…

He moved his lips up her neck and whispered in her ear. “I want you close. Come with me. Leaving you here alone feels wrong.”

It sure did. But she needed to see Aleksi. “I…”

The door burst open, and Aleksi stormed in, then slammed the door behind her. “Asshole! You’ve got it wrong, Mihai. I’ve never been anything but loyal to Fydor.”

“You were not supposed to leave your room until the danger had passed,” a deep voice said from outside the door. “You promised to defend this entrance to the castle in case the Uniter tries to gain access this way again.”

She jumped but made no sound when she discovered Nik and Elena in her room. “Okay, fine.”

“Aleksandra, you know how I feel about you. I would never—”

“Fuck off, Mihai. Just go.”

After many long minutes of silence, she took a long breath. “Ballsy move coming back here, Niki baby. Fydor has been in a rage since you were “stolen” from him.”

Nik sheathed his father’s sword and pulled his sister into his arms. “Did he hurt you?”

She shook her head. “He’s been too high to do much of anything since Borya left.”

“Borya was here?”

“Yeah. He locked Fydor in the rec room with him for a while. Fydor has been fucked up since. Said something about a vision Borya had about Mom proclaiming you king or something. Really shook him up. Well, that and the quality one-on-one time with Borya.”

“Are there any other mind readers here?” Elena asked, still singing in her head.

“No. There are no vampires or sorcerers. They are the only ones with that power. And not all vamps at that.”

Thank goodness for small favors. She stopped humming and reveled in the silence in her head.

“I’m here for Mom,” Nik said. “Elena saw her burning at the stake. Where is she?”

“Her apartment, I guess. She never leaves anymore.”

Pulling Elena close, he leaned down, his familiar minty smell folded around her like a warm blanket. “Say it,” he whispered. “I need to hear it.”

“I love you, Nikolai Itzov.”

“Aw, shit. Don’t make me barf,” Aleksi teased.

Nik’s lips met hers, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, sword still in her hand. He ran his warm palm down her back and pulled her against him, then gave her butt cheek a squeeze, which made her whole body flush hot. She’d never get enough of this man. Good thing they’d live forever… Well, if they made it past tonight. “Wait for me. I’ll be right back,” he said against her lips.

He stopped just inside the door. “I can’t wait to introduce you to my mother.” And with a gorgeous grin, he slipped out the door and out of sight.

Focus.
She shook off her lusty haze and pulled the vial out of her pocket. “Here’s the plan. You need to get it into Fydor’s stash somehow and make sure he takes it sometime before midnight tonight.”

“He takes that shit all the time. Mom got him hooked on it by calling it medicine. He thinks it makes his thinking clearer. Getting him high won’t work.”

“This ‘medicine’ won’t make him high. It will kill him.”

For a moment, her eyes lit up, and then she slumped down onto the bed. “Impossible. He won’t let me anywhere near. He’s on a bender and says he knows I’m in with you somehow. It will never work.”

“Who is he letting close?”

“No one. He just broods alone in his room. The entire place and everyone in it is on lockdown. Including me.” She buried her face in her hands.

There had to be a way. She turned the tiny bottle in her fingers. Always another answer. She’d spent her time in graduate school troubleshooting potentially hopeless problems. She just needed to step back and think about it logically and analytically: goal, obstacle, solution.

First, define the goal. Well, that was easy. Get Fydor to drink the replacement elixir, which meant getting it into his possession in such a way he would ingest it today.

Define biggest obstacle. Easy as well. Lack of proximity and access.

Discover solution. Not as simple. She had to get someone close enough to sub that vial into his supply, but he had closed himself away.

There’s always an answer. Always a way… She paced the room and stopped short dead center. Adrenaline surged through her in a prickly wave. The solution was obvious as well. Her stomach sank. Nik was not going to like this. Not at all. “What is the one thing your uncle wants to get his hands on more than anything else in the world right now?”

Aleksi raised her head from her hands. “You.”

N
ikolai peeked around the corner to find only one bear shifter standing guard outside his mother’s apartment. Wrapping his hand around his father’s sword handle, he slid it from the sheath on his back and took a deep breath. The sword felt warm and alive in his hands, and for a moment, he could almost feel his father’s presence.
For you, Dad. I’ll free her for you.

The guard’s head was separated from his body before the beast had even registered the danger. The door was locked, but it was easy enough to find the key on the guard’s ring. Careful not to track blood into his mother’s room, he paused inside the doorway. “Mother?”

No answer came in return. He shut the door behind him and crossed the room he had spent so many hours in as a child. Still decked in white and gold, the airy space reflected his mother perfectly: classic, elegant, understated—so unlike his uncle.

“Hello? Mother?”

Sharp, stinging pain erupted on the back of his neck, like the time he was stung on the ear by a wasp when he was seven. He slapped his hand over it, plucking the insect off.

His uncle’s voice sounded far away. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist coming here.”

He opened his palm to find a feathered dart.
Fuck.
He’d been poisoned or drugged. The edges of his vision blurred. “Human tricks.”

“Yes.” Fydor moved closer, but not close enough to grab. Nik tried to lunge, but ended up face down on the floor.

The image of his uncle waved like ripples on the surface of a pond as he leaned down and pulled his father’s sword from his hand. “And shortly, I’ll have
all
of the human tricks, just as soon as we lift the Veil.”

Nikolai had never experienced helplessness like this. Unable to move or even talk, he could only listen as his uncle spoke from far away. “I’m so glad you dropped in. Your mother will be delighted to see you.”

Fucking bastard
. He tried to lift his head, but couldn’t even open his eyes.

“Uncle Fydor! I have something for you,” Aleksi said from behind him somewhere.

Surely she’d see and help him. Any second now, she’d liberate Fydor’s head from his body.

“Oh. I see you found Niki.”

No.

“What is your surprise?” his uncle asked.

“You are going to love it.”

She sounded so far away. Using all of his strength, he cracked his eyes open to see her rubbing against him. Hands all over his body. She slid her hands into his front pockets, and he groaned.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

“I brought you the Uniter. She came in through my window.”

“Where is she?”

“Mihai has taken her to the dungeon.”

“I want her in the rec room.”

No…

“She can teleport. The dungeon was the only place secure enough.”

“Call one of the witches. I’ll arrange to get rid of this.”

Nikolai heard the thud and knew it was his uncle’s foot connecting with his rib cage, but he felt nothing other than the ache in his heart knowing he had failed. All his training and power couldn’t help him now. And he’d never see Elena again. Never hold his child. Never…

E
lena brushed the hair from Nik’s forehead. “I have no idea what they drugged him with, but he seems to be coming around.” He groaned, and she took his hand. “Nik, I’m here. So is your mother.”

The oppressive darkness of the dungeon made it almost impossible to see the woman sitting on the other side of the tiny space. Unlike the wood elf in the next cell, they weren’t chained.

“What goes around comes around. You should have let me go,” the elf taunted through the darkness. “Then you wouldn’t be here as a prisoner, too.”

Actually, being a prisoner beat the hell out of the other possible scenarios. “Shut up.”

Nik groaned again and covered his mouth and nose. “The smell.”

“You’re in the dungeon,” she explained. “It appears you were drugged.”

He sat up with a groan and pulled her into his arms. “Never thought I’d…” She couldn’t make out his face well enough in the darkness, but it sounded like he’d choked up emotionally.

Knowing how Slayers admired the strong outer appearance, she took his face in her hands to ground him and bring him back. “Hey. You’re okay. We are all alive, and we need to hold it together to get out of this with our lives. Lie back and heal, because we’re going to need your strength soon.”

The door at the entrance to the dungeon creaked, and several sets of footsteps descended the stairs. The cellblock door flew open with a bang, and Elena squinted against the light of the torch carried by the big Slayer called Commander Mihai. With him was a hideous woman with tangled hair, wearing a filthy dress of sorts. It looked more like a burlap sack with armholes and a hole for the head.

He unlocked the door and grabbed Elena, yanking her out with him, then slamming the door shut. Nik tried to rise to his feet but couldn’t get past his knees. Having seen her memories from his perspective, she knew how hard this was for him to be helpless. It broke her heart to see him struggle.

“It’s okay, Nik. Recover. They are not going to kill me right now. I know what I’m talking about.” And she did. She’d seen his mother bound to a stake. What she hadn’t told him was that the point of view of the vision was from a stake right next to her. She’d at least live long enough to be burned alive.

The big Slayer pulled her into the cell where she’d first met Fee. He pointed to the stone bench at the back of the cell. All the surfaces undulated in the flickering light of the torch, giving the cell an eerie fluid quality. Not wanting to cause a scene and agitate Nik, she sat on the bench.

The old woman got right up in her face, but didn’t look directly at her. Her weird, cloudy eyes stared straight ahead. She ran her fingers over Elena’s face and grunted. Then she placed her palms flat over the markings on her chest and grunted again. It was all Elena could do to sit still while the old woman ran her hands over her breasts and down her ribs. She gasped when the woman shoved her hands under the front of the leather top, laying her palms on her belly. “No.” she said. “Not going to do it.”

Mihai shifted uncomfortably. “You have orders.”

“No.”

He pulled out his sword, and the old woman cringed. Holding the torch in one hand and his sword in the other, he looked fierce. Too fierce. Charge built in Elena’s hands, and she nailed him in the chest full force with a bolt of electricity.

“Elena!” Nik yelled from the cell across from her. She grabbed the key ring off the unconscious Slayer and inserted it into the keyhole of the cell where he and his mother stood just inside the narrow bars.

Before she could engage the tumblers, a
tsking
sound came from the entrance to the cellblock followed by a sharp sting in her arm. Almost immediately, she ripped the dart out, but not soon enough. Her vision blurred within seconds.

“You will now insert that elf ore in her body, witch, or I will kill every man, woman, and child in your coven. Are we clear?” Fydor said.

“Y-yes,” the old woman answered, pulling a wicked-looking medical instrument from a bag slung over her shoulder.

Nik looked ready to roar in anger, but she shook her blurry head. “Let them,” she slurred. “S’okay. Heal. Trust.”

His mother put a comforting hand on his arm as Elena sunk to the ground, too dizzy from the drug to stand.

Too bad it hadn’t been enough to knock her out, she thought as the woman placed the instrument against the inside of her bicep. Yeah, really too bad, she lamented as the steel penetrated her flesh with an intolerable breath-stealing sting. The woman, hands shaking, depressed the plunger that inserted the metal plug of ore that would dampen her powers, leaving her one step short of human again. She gritted her teeth and held in a scream as the procedure was completed and the instrument removed. No anesthesia, no sterilization of the instruments, not even a freaking Band-Aid. She pressed her palm to her arm to stop the flow of blood from the incision sight. Welcome to the Underveil.