Love Me to Death (Underveil)

by Marissa Clarke

“Yeah, but who is he?”

  “Don’t know, but he’s delicious, isn’t he? If he were anything but a vamp, I’d so do that.” Aleksi reclined back on her elbows between the two young teens, who squirmed with excitement to have her near. “I understand abandoning the wood elf, but why did you leave him in the dungeon?”

  “I…I had to.” She was hesitant to mention she could see glimpses of the future, even though she was certain everyone in the barn was an ally. “I just kind of know stuff sometimes, and I knew I had to leave him there.” Hopefully, her vision was accurate and he had not been killed after she escaped. Where are you? She called to him in her mind. We’re in the stable.

  The other vision, the one with the elf, was as puzzling as that of the vampire. “Tell me about the elf.”

  “Oh, Fee the Alchemist? Not much. I’ve never even seen her before.”

  “Why ‘Alchemist’?”

  “Elves don’t have surnames. They use their talents as identifiers. Her brother is Aksel the Forger, her mother Leione the Weaver, her father is Dalra the Warrior, which is why it was a fucking stupid move for Fydor to pick this particular elf to kill. Dalra puts the bad in badass, and he keeps his daughter under close watch ever since his son disappeared. I have no idea how Fydor pulled off capturing her.”

  That was not exactly what she had meant. “So, Aksel makes the swords and stuff from enchanted metal. What does Fee do specifically?”

  “She deals with infusing the metal with properties that bind powers. The elves are all about making money off other species. She also helps formulate multiple elven elixirs that are sold by intermediaries to Underveiler dealers.”

  “So she’s a drug dealer?”

  “Sort of, only under the Veil, most everything is legal as long as it doesn’t involve humans. I guess from your perspective, light elves are the weapons dealers and drug lords of the Underveil, but it’s not a bad thing, so stop thinking like a human.”

  God, she hated being told that. “She makes the elixir your uncle is hooked on. The one you told me about?”

  She put her arms around the boys’ shoulders. “Maybe. Several elves are Alchemists.”

  It would explain how Fee had contact enough with Fydor to catch his eye and to get caught by him, perhaps. The image of her from her vision popped to mind again, and a sparkle of hope shimmered in Elena’s heart. She couldn’t beat Fydor using brawn or nonexistent fighting skills, but she just might be able to play on his weakness and outwit him. Grab him by the Achilles heel Stefan talked about.

  “Okay, you two know what to do, right?” Aleksi ruffled the boys’ hair in a sisterly way.

  The larger one nodded. “Simion and I are going to run to the castle and tell everyone the Uniter has teleported to the elves’ forest with Lady Aleksandra and Mr. Claude as hostages.”

  She smiled. “Right. And then?”

  “Then we’re gonna run home and not tell anyone anything else or you’ll cut off our testicles and use them as marbles,” the other one said, grinning ear-to-ear. If he’d had a tail, he would have wagged it.

  Elena shook her head. “Niiiiice.”

  “Visual imagery works. Easy to remember, motivational, and highly effective.” Aleksi stood, brushed off the hay, and flipped her black hair over her shoulder.

  Elena remembered the hostile reception Nik received when he asked the elf for help in the forest. She was pretty sure there was no way that was their destination. The story the boys were to tell was a red herring. “Where are we really going to go?”

  The door slammed open, knocking Claude down, and two huge men stormed into the room. Not Slayers, Elena noted immediately, based on their dark brown eyes and brown hair. “Where are you really going? You’re going to the dungeon,” one growled.

  “Bear shifters,” Aleksi said, pulling her sword from the sheath on her back. “Slow moving. Strong. They claw and bite.”

  Still in human form, one charged her while the other one stalked toward Elena, making a low, grumbling sound in its throat. Aleksi brought her sword down on the huge man’s shoulder, nearly severing his arm when he got within reach. “And they’re stupid.”

  The one closest to Aleksi shifted into a huge bear with black claws and fangs as big as the head of a claw hammer, while the one nearest Elena remained in human form. He grabbed Claude by the collar.

  “She took me prisoner!” he shouted. “She’s dangerous. Release me!”

  The guy let him go and spun to face Elena right about the time the bear stood on his hind legs, towering over Aleksi, who remained in fighting stance, sword in both hands in front. The bear roared, and both boys shifted into dog form.

  Keeping her eyes on both the bear and the man stalking toward her, Elena sent a charge to her hands. Very little energy was building up. She must have used it up zapping the guard on her way into the dungeon or maybe lighting the cells with her palm. She slipped the sword from the sheath on her thigh.

  “We’re not supposed to kill ’em,” the man hollered to the bear. “Jus’ maim ’em.”

  The bear made a swipe at Aleksi, and she ducked, spun, and buried the sword in the beast’s chest. It roared in pain, right as the second bear man grabbed Elena by the hair, knocking the sword out of her hands. One of the dogs launched itself at his neck, but missed, biting and latching on to the man’s shoulder instead. Immediately, he shifted into his bear form, and before Elena had built up enough power to deliver a shock, he sunk his fangs into the dog’s neck, ripped it loose from his shoulder, and flung it across the barn, where it slammed into the wall with a yelp and a sickening crack. When it turned its enormous head back to Elena, she shoved her palm against its nose and released all of her current into the beast. His human-looking eyes widened, and soundlessly, his body went rigid and tremors jerked through his huge form. When his eyes glazed into a blank stare, she released him and he collapsed to the floor, bear skin sluffing off to reveal the man again.

  Completely drained, Elena was mildly aware of the sounds of struggle going on behind her, but could focus only on the boy in a heap on the floor where his body had landed, limbs sprawled at unnatural angles.

  As if someone had turned the volume up on the television, the sounds of fighting behind her came back into focus, and she spun to find the bear swinging wildly at Aleksi, Claude, and the other boy, still in dog form, barking and biting at the enraged animal. She had no charge left. In fact, she was having trouble standing at this point.

  Claude picked up a pitchfork, hefted it over his head, and slammed it down right between the bear’s shoulder blades. It gave a roar and rose on its hind legs, towering over Aleksi, sword still in her hands. The dog bit its heel, and as it dropped to all fours, Aleksandra thrust up with her sword into its chin, driving the blade all the way through the beast’s skull and out the top of its massive head.

  Elena turned away, unable to watch the transition as it turned back to a man, but what she saw instead, was the dog shifter resuming his human form, then throwing himself over his friend’s body. She closed her eyes, surrounded with the smell of blood and the faint whimpers and whines of the surviving boy. Was this the world she was condemned to live in now? A world of violence and hate?

  Shouting came from outside. “More are coming,” Aleksi said to the surviving boy. “Shift and run, Iosif! Get out of here.”

  “No, Lady Aleksandra. I will fight for you. For Simion.”

  “Now. Dammit. Obey me. Out!”

  Iosif shifted into a dog and loped to the back of the barn and squeezed under a board at the back of a stall.

  “You should have teleported out,” Aleksi said, scooping Elena’s sword from the ground and handing it to her. “Claude can’t and I’m not healed enough yet.” She wiped the blade of her sword off on the bale of hay beside her. “Why did you stay?”

  The shouting grew louder as the new enemies approached. “It never dawned on me to teleport out.” Everything was still too new. Stefan was right; she needed to stop thinking like a human. Thou
gh, she would not have left them to fend for themselves against two of those creatures. She would have remained regardless.

  “They’re in the barn!” a gruff voice shouted.

  “Fuck. I’d know that voice anywhere,” Aleksi said. “That’s Commander Mihai.”

  A quick glance at Claude confirmed this was bad news. “Leader of Fydor’s Elite Slayer Force. We are as good as dead.”

  No. They were not going to die. “Not yet.” She hadn’t seen this ending here. If the visions were correct, she still had to hug the vampire and take an item from the elf. “Whatever happens, I need you to remain here. You must go back to the fortress and act like you were against me. I have a plan.”

  The first three Slayers, swords drawn, filled the wide opening at the front of the barn. Backlit by the rising sun rendered a dramatic silhouette effect, like something from a horrible second-rate action movie. Only this was real.

  “Get out, E!” Aleksi whispered from behind her.

  “I’m too weak to teleport,” she answered under her breath, standing perfectly still.

  “In here,” one of the Slayers shouted over his shoulder.

  There was no way they could fight off the Slayers. Their only hope was to buy some time. “Overtake me,” Elena whispered. “Act like you’re my hostages and are turning the tables.” Not a great plan, but it was all she had since she had no clue how she would get out of this.

  “Move and die, parasite!” Aleksi said, yanking Elena back by the hair and placing her sword blade against her neck.

  Claude caught on to the ruse and pointed the pitchfork, still slicked in the bear’s blood, at her chest. “Tell Fydor we’ve got Arcos,” he shouted to the Slayers. “She killed the bear shifters and the boy.”

  “You should consider a career in acting, there, Claude,” Aleksi murmured.

  Heart hammering, Elena closed her eyes and searched for a vision showing her how the hell she was going to get out of this one, but came up blank. If only she had freed the vampire and had him come up here with Claude. Stupid mistake.

  “Not stupid.” The deep, rumbly voice behind her caused her to flinch. “What was stupid was broadcasting your location by calling out to me in your mind with Borya in the fortress. It’s how they knew to come here. He is telepathic, too. Now, hum.”

  She did. It was a shrill version of “We’ve Gotta Get Out of this Place,” and the vampire actually chuckled as if they weren’t facing Slayer Armageddon.

  “Send word that the vampire escaped the dungeon!” one of the Slayers shouted.

  “They already know,” he replied calmly. “Well, those I left alive, anyway.”

  Aleksi pulled Claude close and whispered in his ear.

  When the first three Slayers began to advance, swords raised, the vampire moved within inches of Elena. “Touch me. Do it now. You must choose to come, or it doesn’t work.”

  Without hesitation, she did as he instructed, and the moment her fingers met the cool skin of his arm, everything blurred and the pressure of teleportation wrapped her body like a cocoon. She had no idea where the vampire was taking her, but wherever it was, it beat the hell out of a barn full of angry Slayers.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Elena solidified from teleportation with more discomfort than usual. Her knees buckled, and the vampire caught her before she hit the floor—the very elegantly appointed floor covered in an Aubusson rug.

  “Nadia,” the vampire called. A square-shouldered woman with high cheekbones and full lips rushed to them from across the huge stone room. They appeared to be in the great room of a castle or fortress of some kind. Expression neutral, the woman called Nadia stood silently as if running over to wait for his command were a normal thing. “Please escort our guests to rooms and provide them with baths.”

  Guests? Elena swung her gaze around to find Claude on the other side of the vampire, still clinging to his tattered, filthy shirt. The vamp was a fine one to order baths when he had the dungeon grunge working. She met Claude’s gold eyes. “You were supposed to stay behind with Aleksi.”

  “This wasn’t my doing,” he replied. “Aleksi ordered me to stay with you.”

  “Nadia, they are not to leave their rooms until I return, are we clear?” the vampire said. “I have work to do.”

  “Yes, sir.” She took Elena by the elbow, grip firm, and started to lead her away.

  Jerking her arm out of the woman’s grasp, she suppressed the urge to zap her. “Wait a minute. I need to do some things. You can’t just lock me up, Vl… Whatever your name is.”

  Dozens of people had entered the cavernous room, servants or friends perhaps… Did creepy vampires even have friends? Most of them wore hooded capes in a dark brown, leaving their faces only partially visible. None of them reacted to her outburst; it was as if someone had flipped an emotional off switch on the entire population of the place.

  The vampire moved close. So close she could see the variations in the shades of red in his eyes. “Keep your voice down and your emotions in check, and never again tell me what I can or cannot do in my own home. I can do whatever I wish. I can slaughter every living creature in this castle in the matter of minutes, and no one could do a thing to stop me. Not even you, Elena Arcos.” He calmly turned and strolled toward the gaping mouth of an archway at the other end of the room where several women wearing long, drab dresses stood in a cluster. “At least, not yet,” he added over his shoulder. At the snap of his finger, the women stood shoulder to shoulder, and he pointed to the tallest of them. She smiled and approached him, no fear evident in her features despite his ominous threat to butcher everyone in the castle.

  Stopping right in front of him, she appeared totally relaxed as he removed whatever held her silky brown hair in a tight bun on the back of her head. He ran his fingers through the strands, fanning them out over her shoulders in an affectionate caress. “It has been so long,” he murmured, brushing the hair to one side to reveal her neck and bare shoulder. “Too long.” The woman, still showing no fear, tilted her head to expose the bare column of her long neck. “The things we do for love,” he said as he ran his fingertips over her skin and she closed her eyes.

  Surely, he wasn’t skeevy enough to bite that poor woman, no matter how willing she appeared, in front of all these people.

  His rumbling chuckle stalled her heart for a moment. “Skeevy is not a word with which I’m familiar. And, yes, I am…not skeevy, based on context, but planning to bite her. Stop thinking like—”

  Like a human, yeah, I know.

  “And hum or sing in your head when you don’t want your thoughts to be heard. In fact, for my benefit, do so now, so that I can concentrate on refueling rather than refuting.”

  Too bad his personality and manner weren’t as good as his looks.

  He straightened and glanced over his shoulder at her, a wide, cocky grin exposing his fangs.

  Shit, shit, shit. She launched into the chorus of the old Carly Simon song her mom used to play when she cleaned house, “You’re so Vain,” and he chuckled again before returning his attention to the woman in front of him.

  Still singing the song in her head, she took in the reactions—or lack of reactions—from the others in the room. They watched him bite the woman’s neck with complete detachment. The only ones who reacted were the vampire, who made a yummy sound, the girl who moaned as if being bitten were pleasing, and Claude, who turned away in disgust.

  The woman he’d called Nadia took Elena’s elbow and pulled. Another person, a guy much taller than Claude, did the same to him, and they were led through a doorway at the opposite end of the room. When the girl made a louder, clearly erotic moan, Elena sang out loud, wishing she remembered more than just the refrain.

  She and Claude were taken to separate rooms off the same hallway, and she took note of where he’d been taken in case she’d misjudged the vampire and needed to find Claude in a pinch. Nadia entered the room with Elena and locked the door behind them, then slipped the key into h
er pocket.

  “You cannot teleport in this wing of the castle, so don’t waste your time or energy.”

  Elena gave the woman her best “screw you” glare, but it had no effect whatsoever.

  “Please assist Miss Arcos with her bath,” Nadia said in a clear voice. No one else was in the room, at least no one visible.

  The click of the tumblers seemed unnaturally loud as Nadia left and locked it from the outside. She was a prisoner. Again. Nik was being tortured in the Slayer fortress, and the thought of that made her want to vomit. She had to get out of here somehow.

  “You asshole!” she shouted to the vampire, hoping it was as loud in his head as it was in the room. “I have things to do! You can’t just lock me up. I’m the reason you’re free at all, you ungrateful, bloodsucking…”

  The sensation of being watched crawled over her neck like a spider, and she spun to again, find no one.

  “Who’s here?”

  A scratching drew her attention to the corner. She almost screamed when a tiny gray mouse lifted its head high, whiskers circling as it sniffed the air.

  Surely not. Not even in this messed up world.

  The mouse recoiled when she narrowed her eyes to a glare, and then it scurried under an armoire.

  “You can’t just lock me into this vermin-infested hellhole, Vlad!” she shouted.

  “I can and will.” The voice was deep and menacing, and close—right behind her. His breath ruffled the hair on the back of her neck, but she didn’t flinch or react at all other than to ball her fists at her side as he continued to speak. “Keep your voice low and level in my home, please. And maintain your control.”

  “It’s a little hard to control myself when I’m a prisoner.”

  He rested his hands on her shoulders and kept his voice a bare whisper. “You are not a prisoner. You are a secured, temporary guest. I have something I must do. It is important and you will wait here.”

  She shrugged off his hands and faced him, then took a step back because he was way too close for her comfort. “Why? So you can go make some other poor girl moan while you drain her blood?”