Love Me to Death (Underveil)

by Marissa Clarke

  “That way,” he continued, “I can rub you here”—he tweaked the most sensitive part of her and her breath caught—“while I slide in…” He pushed two fingers all the way inside her, and she groaned. “And out.” He pulled his fingers all the way out, and she moaned. “And you will be in control and will tell me how hard and fast you want me to take you. And I’ll obey your every command.”

  She was so close. The way he touched her. His smell. The deep rumble of his voice. All of it was just right. “Nikolai, I—”

  He slid his fingers back inside and rolled his thumb over her, and she cried out despite her best efforts to remain silent.

  He nipped her earlobe. “You don’t have to tell me now. You can surprise me.”

  Right there. Almost there. No more holding back. Screw the rules. She needed this. She thrust against his hand, and he chuckled and struck a steady rhythm, bracing her lower back with his other hand. His mouth took hers at last, and she reveled in the minty taste and smell of him. Her angel of death was what she needed right now. And he said he was hers—that he belonged to her.

  And now she understood why he’d said it. Mine, she chanted in her head as the stars gathered behind her eyelids and the pressure finally built until she couldn’t stand it. Mine.

  “Come for me, Elena,” he ordered, and she obeyed.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Nikolai wasn’t surprised when Aleksi and the Time Folder appeared only moments after he had removed his hand from Elena’s shorts. He was grateful they hadn’t appeared a minute or so earlier, because he believed he’d gained some ground with her. One orgasm was worth a million words at that moment. It had been foolhardy, though. Before he had touched her, he should have thought to move her to the bathroom or another location. He needed to take Darvaak’s advice and start thinking. Her culture wasn’t like his. She would have been embarrassed to have been discovered. Now that she was receptive, he didn’t want to blow it. He’d reached her body and soul, but now he needed to appeal to her mind. That was what stood between them now, and it was a substantial obstacle. She was smart. Brilliant, in fact. And he loved that about her.

  “News?” he asked once the two had solidified from teleporting.

  “Yes!” Aleksi said. “Both of the sorcerers were there. We just need to locate one.”

  Darvaak walked to the bar. “Drinks, anyone?”

  When Aleksi strode to the bar, Nikolai caught Elena’s eye and placed his fingers in his mouth and licked them. She gasped and he winked. That would get her going—that, and the idea he had planted earlier. By the time he had her alone again, she’d be ready for anything. Everything. And Nikolai wanted everything.

  “I’d love a glass of wine,” Elena said. “Red, if you have it.”

  “That sounds good to me, too.” He put his mouth to his ear and whispered, “You taste much better, though.”

  She trembled with desire and he laughed.

  Darvaak opened a bottle of wine and set it on the counter. “We need to give it a moment.”

  “So you saw both of them?” Nik asked, running his fingers down Elena’s spine.

  “Yes. I’d never thought to look for them before. They were hiding a distance from the site. They were not there at the same time. Borya was there before whatever occurred. Zana showed up at the end. I can’t tell what happened while they were in the erased area, but I could see them outside of it.”

  “Erased area?” Elena asked.

  He spread his hands out on the bar. “Yes, in the past, it looks like a bad Photoshop job. You see the men talking, and then they are rubbed out until the blur dissipates and they are dead in the snow. The area around the fight scene is clear and intact. I can’t even walk into the erased area. It’s blocked by some spell. If we can break it, we can see it. That would involve finding the one who cast it or ordered the spell, and convincing him or her to lift it.”

  “Or killing the one who cast the spell in the first place.” Aleksi grinned. “I like that option best.”

  The Time Folder didn’t react. “We must find one of the seers.”

  “Impossible,” Nikolai said.

  “Theoretically, very little is impossible, Itzov. Well, other than making you a decent, civilized being.” He crossed his arms over his chest.

  “I’m perfectly civilized.”

  He took in a deep breath through his nose, then arched a brow. “Not quite, but better.”

  Smartass Time Folder and his creepy bloodhound nose.

  “It’s my understanding that Gregor Arcos was almost never without his seer. Surely at some point, Elena saw Zana, Could maybe even give us a clue where she is now,” Darvaak said, pouring four glasses of wine.

  Elena strode to the bar and collected two glasses. Nikolai was mesmerized by her fluid, sure steps. Her immortality had changed her gait. What was she?

  “What does Zana look like?” She handed Nikolai one of the stemmed glasses. He intentionally rubbed his fingers across hers and grinned when she met his eyes. She was thinking about his plan. He was sure of it.

  “Zana is gorgeous,” Aleksandra answered. “Drop-dead beautiful. Dark red hair down past her waist and skin like snow. I used to pretend to be her when I was a little girl. I even had a doll with red hair named Zana. Well, until my little brother beheaded her.”

  Nikolai lifted his glass in toast. “I was practicing for my career as a Slayer.”

  “You’re lucky I didn’t give you like punishment.”

  Elena’s brow furrowed as she took a sip of her wine. She shook her head. “No, I never saw anyone like that. Dad never brought anyone home, and I never went to work with him…well, obviously.”

  “No one ever came to your home? No friends, no visitors?” Darvaak refilled Aleksandra’s glass. “Because it would go a long way toward saving lives if we could find her.”

  “No. Well, no one except for my aunt, but believe me, she’s not a redheaded knockout. She’s a middle-aged, crazy, eccentric cat lady.”

  “What exactly do you mean by ‘cat lady’?” Darvaak asked.

  “Um, an old lady who has no family, so she has a lot of pet cats.”

  “Shifters?” Aleksandra set her glass down. “Under the Veil, Zana had a whole cult of shifters at her disposal.”

  “Could be.” Darvaak leaned closer. “Is she an aunt on your father’s side?”

  “I have no idea who she’s related to. I don’t think she’s really my aunt. She’s always just…been there.” Elena’s brow furrowed. “She lives next door and looks in on me a lot and…”

  She drank the rest of her wine in two swallows. Nikolai knew she’d connected the dots.

  Darvaak refilled her glass. “And?”

  “And she’s always been a little weird. Well, really weird, actually. She seems to know what’s going to happen before it does.”

  “Because she’s a seer,” Aleksi said.

  “And she talks to her cats. Not like, here, kitty-kitty. I mean full conversations.”

  “Because they’re not cats,” Darvaak and Aleksi said in unison.

  “Holy shit. Aunt Uza’s been deceiving me this whole time.” Elena took a sip of wine, then muttered, “Why, that witch.”

  “Technically, a sorceress and seer, but witch will do,” Darvaak said. “She must have a glamour in place to hide her true appearance.”

  Nikolai placed his empty glass on the bar. “No glamour. I saw her, and there was no trace of one on her. No magic aura at all. She just looked like a human—but then, so did Elena—to me anyway.”

  The Time Folder crossed his arms and leaned back against the cabinets behind the bar. “Aunt Uza, you say?”

  “Well, she has me call her Aunt Uza, but her name is Uzana.”

  “Zana!” the four of them said together.

  “We might actually be able to stop this war.” Aleksi sighed with relief.

  “Here’s to crazy cat ladies,” Elena said, raising her glass.

  Nikolai clinked his glass to hers. “And t
ables.”

  Aleksi and Darvaak exchanged confused looks, shrugged, then joined the toast while Nik enjoyed watching Elena flush the most arousing shade of red.

  Elena had never noticed how many tables were in Stefan’s condo before. Dining table, end tables, occasional tables…the coffee table. It was like she was under an I-spy-a-table spell of some kind, and invariably, every time she glanced at one, Nik was watching her. Then, he’d grin like crazy, and her face would get hot.

  “Shall we?” Stefan said, holding out his hand.

  “Shall we what?” She set her wine on the bar.

  “Teleport to your home to talk to Zana.”

  Aleksi placed her wineglass next to Elena’s. “I have to go buy some things and get back to the fortress before the guard gets antsy.” She touched her brother on the cheek. “I wish you luck, Niki.” Her gaze shifted briefly to Elena, then back to him. “Keep her safe. Keep us all safe. Especially yourself.”

  He pulled her into his arms. “Give Mother my regards.”

  She nodded, stepped away, then chanted some foreign words. Before a tear could breach the rim of her eye, she disappeared.

  “Heaven help her if Fydor discovers her treachery,” Stefan said.

  “Heaven help Fydor if he harms either her or my mother,” Nik replied.

  Stefan clasped his upper arm. “You are doing the right thing. Going in there now would jeopardize any hope at all of stopping this war. You have to focus on keeping Elena out of his reach and yourself alive until you have a clear picture of the entire situation.”

  Nik nodded, pain clear in his face. And then Elena understood. Love was love, whatever his species chose to call it. This man was as capable of love as any human.

  He took a deep, shuddering breath. “Let’s go.”

  Elena’s house looked just as it had when she left it: drab and out of date. Stefan was the first outsider other than Nikolai to set foot in it. The few men she had dated always met her out somewhere. She flipped on the living room light. “So you’re sure Fydor’s goons aren’t going to come busting in here again?”

  “Not likely. They can’t track me though the dagger anymore.”

  “This is your father’s house?” Stefan asked, walking to the fireplace to look at framed photos on the mantle.

  “Yeah. I plan to fix it up, but haven’t gotten around to it.” More like with the bills and student loans, she couldn’t afford to on her researcher’s salary, but a time-folding Daddy Warbucks would never understand that.

  Stefan gave Nik a pointed look, the meaning of which flew right over Elena’s head.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Nothing,” Stefan responded, picking up a photo of Elena’s mother. “It’s just not what I’d expected.”

  She put her hands on her hips. “What did you expect? Coffins and vats of blood?”

  Nik coughed and Stefan laughed outright. “No. I expected a palace, or at least a mansion. Your father was one of the wealthiest men on this planet…next to me, of course.” He gestured to the faded navy blue velour sofa and love seat. “This makes no sense at all.”

  “Maybe he wanted his daughter to have a normal life if she turned out to be human like her mother,” Nik said, sitting on the sofa.

  “The mother did survive undetected a long time. Perhaps that was it. Hide in plain sight.” Stefan put the photo back on the mantle. “So you mentioned your Aunt Uza lives next door?”

  “Yeah. Ordinarily, I’d call before going over, but I don’t have a house phone, and I haven’t seen my cell since the hospital. She won’t pick up if I use yours. She’s anti-stranger.” She strode to the kitchen and the two men followed. “I hate to do this in the middle of the night, but I guess we’ll just go on over, though she’s always asks me not to do that.”

  “I can’t imagine why.” Stefan’s droll tone made her chuckle.

  Over the low fence, she noticed that cats seemed to come out from under every bush as the three of them neared the gate connecting her yard with Aunt Uza’s. They’d always greeted her with ankle rubs, mewling, and purrs before. This time, they eyed her in silence from a distance, eyes glowing in the security light from her porch that shone into Uza’s yard.

  She pulled up on the latch and opened the gate. The cats tensed. It wasn’t until Nikolai followed her into Uza’s yard that they crouched and began to growl.

  “Maybe we should wait over in Elena’s yard,” Stefan suggested, backing up several steps.

  “They’re only cat shifters,” Nikolai said. “We can take them.”

  The closest cat growled low in its throat and then made an eerie howling sound. Two cats closest to the porch of the house slunk over and flanked him. Elena nearly screamed when they stretched and contorted, human skin visible in swatches between openings that popped in the fur.

  Stefan grabbed Nikolai’s shoulder. “There are ways other than violence. Let Elena make contact. We are strangers.”

  Nik shook him off as if he’d been shocked. “Fine.”

  She looked from the now half human/half cats in front of her to the street and back. Holy shit. The neighbors would call the cops for sure. Thank God it was nighttime.

  “Calm down, kitty cats,” Nik said, after retreating back to Elena’s yard and closing the gate. “We’re just looking for someone.”

  The first guy stood erect, pieces of cat pelt sloughing off his naked body. Yep. The neighbors were going to freak out for sure. She expected to hear sirens at any minute. Two more naked men emerged from their cat forms.

  “Uza,” she managed to say. “I need to talk to Aunt Uza.”

  “You were not announced,” the center guy said.

  She kept her eyes on his face, trying not to check out his thin, muscular form. God. She knew this cat, too. He was the calico that always sat in her lap when she and Aunt Uza watched Dr. Who reruns. She repressed a shudder. “I lost my phone.”

  The taller one closest to him spoke next, pulling the remains of the Siamese pelt from his shoulder. “You brought enemies.”

  She stared at the man’s face. This was the cat that always rolled over to have its belly scratched. Unable to help herself, her eyes dropped to his ridged abdomen and then flitted back to his face. Yep. That belly. God, this was so messed up. “They are not my enemies, which means they are not Aunt Uza’s enemies. Please tell her I need to talk to her.”

  “She is not in,” the third one said. She recognized this one from the longhaired, bright pelt shreds at his feet. He was the big, blond Persian cat that cried to be fed all the time. He had a golden beard and was much stouter than the other two.

  “Hi, Elena!” her neighbor, Mrs. Prescott, called from the sidewalk in front of the house, little dog in tow. She approached the chest-tall fence and placed her forearms on the top of it. “Isn’t it lovely weather tonight?”

  Holy crap. There were three naked men in her aunt’s yard, and this woman wanted to chat her up about the freaking weather?

  Ah. The cat boys were under the Veil. The women couldn’t see them. But she could see Elena. Why? She was immortal now. “Um. Yeah the weather’s great.”

  The small white dog at the woman’s feet yapped, and she picked it up. “Was just giving Chester his last potty call before bedtime.” The dog growled low in its throat at the men, and one of them hissed. The dog fell silent. “Your aunt and I are going to the Friends of the Library meeting tomorrow afternoon. Do you want to join us?”

  It was bizarre to see all these powerful men put totally on hold by this woman wearing a terry cloth bathrobe and baby-blue Crocs. “Thanks for the invite, but I can’t.”

  The dog growled again, and she set it down. “Uza needs to try to keep some of these cats indoors. The neighborhood committee has received a couple of complaints. She’s only allowed to have four pets. And they need to be neutered and have their rabies tags, too.”

  The murderous expressions on the cat shifters’ faces were so comical when Elena looked back she laughed out loud. “Yeah.
Neutered for sure. I’ll tell her.”

  Ms. Prescott nodded and wandered back across the street to her house, and the big shifter with the gold beard took several steps closer, growling low in his throat.

  Nikolai’s sword made a shing sound as he pulled it out of the sheath on his back. “One more step, kitty, and I’ll neuter you here and now.”

  The man opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by the slam of the front door.

  “Well, run me down and call me road kill! Ellie baby is back.” Aunt Uza grinned from her porch. She threw both arms up in the air. “And hallelujah, she brought a hottie along.”

  Elena looked over her shoulder and saw only Nik, and then Stefan straightened from where he’d been crouched behind the fence.

  “Woo!” Aunt Uza wolf whistled. “Two hotties! You go, Ellie!”

  At her puzzled look, Stefan shrugged. “I’m visible in both planes, but I cannot cloak myself under the Veil. I thought it best to conceal myself from the neighbor.”

  “Oh, speaking of concealing… We don’t want Fydor’s flying monkeys to swing in, now do we?” Uza raised her arms over her head and shut her eyes. A rumbling sound like the echo of thunder rolled in Elena’s head. “There. You’re undetectable in your house for a while. Didn’t have juice for much else.”

  The shifters lost their hostile stances and relaxed, acting like it was normal to be standing naked in the yard. Maybe it was. Normal for Elena was a moving target these days.

  Aunt Uza shuffled in her housecoat and slippers through the side yard toward her. “Why don’t you sweet kitties go on inside and I’ll be with ya in the span of a flea hop.”

  The one in the center nodded, and they followed her instruction, including the ones still in cat form lurking in the bushes and on the porch. As Uza passed the thickest one with the beard, she patted him on the backside, and Elena swore she heard a purr. Holy crap. Elena shook her head to clear it.

  “Figured you’d turn up soon,” Uza said, passing her and opening the gate between yards. Stefan held it for her. “Ah, a foldy hottie. Good company, Ellie baby.” She winked at Stefan, who gave a shallow bow.