Love Me to Death (Underveil, #1)(113)

“He’s only half Slayer. The other half is vampire and human with some seer thrown in.”

“Puppies, since he’ll be a mutt.”

Elena ran her hands over her abdomen. She wasn’t showing yet, but the day before he returned home, Stefan flew a doctor in from Belfast with a portable ultrasound, and they now knew for certain it was a boy. She was pretty sure she could have just asked Aunt Uza to get that information, but nobody had heard from her or Borya since the day of the battle.

Children’s laughter rang out in the hallway as Claude’s kids pushed each other in a wagon, pretending it was a human car. Mihai had stepped down as Commander of the Elite Force, and Claude had taken his place, moving into the fortress with his family. A happy squeal was followed by giggles.

“Thank you,” Aleksi said. “You did this.”

She closed the wallpaper book. “What?”

“This.” She gestured to the door. “Laughter. There hasn’t been laughter in this building in twenty years. Now it’s everywhere. Niki laughs all the time. So does my mother.”

“What about you?”

She smiled. “Yeah, me too.” She sighed. “You’ve brought love here. We always had it, but we covered it, like we cover our fear.”

“Love should never be covered up or hidden. It should be used and savored and screamed from the rooftops.”

“Kinda like you screamed last night?” She winked.

Heat raced up Elena’s neck and over her face. Their bedroom was all the way at the end of the hallway, for goodness sake. She picked up a teddy bear Ricardo had sent when he got back to the States and pitched it at Aleksi’s head. Nik had made her scream all right. More than once.

Her body hummed all over at the memory. Time for a change of topic. “We’re going to name the baby Ivan Gregor Itzov, after both of our fathers.”

“I think that’s a fantastic idea.”

“It was Vladimir Dalca’s idea.”

“Mmm. Vlad.” She ran her fingers over the teddy bear’s ears. “Too bad he’s a vamp.”

“Yeah, too bad.” Elena grinned and went in search of Nik. It wasn’t much of a search, actually; she knew exactly where he’d be: the rec room. Which was now truly a rec room, complete with wet bar, huge flat-screen TV, multiple game consoles, and oversize—or Slayer-sized—comfy leather sofas. And at that moment, her oversize Slayer was snoozing on one of those sofas with a rugby match playing on the television. She picked up the remote from his chest and switched it off.

“I was watching that,” he said, not even bothering to open his eyes.

“Ah, men and their sports,” she said, climbing over his body to straddle him. That got him to open his eyes…and grin. “I have a sport in mind. It involves a lot of practice.” She leaned down and kissed him.

He put his hands on her thighs. “I hope it’s a contact sport.”

“It is.” When she reached over to put the remote on the coffee table, two wrapped packages caught her eye. “What are the boxes for?”

“For you.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” He wrapped his hands around her backside. “But what about our sport?”

“Well, we’re taking a brief time-out.” She turned the smaller of the two boxes over in her hands, but found no card. It was wrapped in shiny gold paper. He released her backside and rubbed his hands up and down her thighs, gorgeous smile on his face. She swatted his hand. “You’re distracting me.”

“You don’t say.” He put his hands behind his head, soft T-shirt stretching over his muscled chest and upper arms.

She slid her fingers under the wrapping paper, revealing a velvet box. A ring box. Her gaze shot to his, and his smile broadened. Heart fluttering, she opened the box and gasped. It was a ring with a blood-red stone surrounded by diamonds.

“The ruby was your father’s. He wore it in a pinky ring Vlad collected when he retrieved my father’s sword. I had it reset,” he said. “I had wanted to give it to you on the day we married, but it took much longer than expected.”

She looked down at her plain gold band he’d given her at their wedding. “This works fine.”

He took the ring out of the box and slipped it on above the gold band. “Yes, but this one suits a queen. And the mother of my child. And the love of my life.”

Wow, how far they’d come since that day in the convenience store. Nothing on earth would tempt her to go back to her old human life.

“Thank you. It’s amazing.” She picked up the other box, wrapped in plain brown paper. “What’s this one?”

He propped up on his elbows. “I assume it’s from your Aunt Uza because it was addressed to Queen Ellie Baby’s Baby care of King Hottie-Totty.”

“Well, that certainly narrows the possibilities.” She tore the paper and read a note scrawled on the lid. “I made these myself. Nimble fingers/nimble mind, as they say.” She lifted the top and peeked in. “It appears she’s taken up knitting?” She pulled out two booties of entirely different sizes made out of the oddest yarn. It was soft, but uneven… Surely not. She turned one over in her hand and…

“Cat hair!” she and Nik said simultaneously. She busted out giggling as he grabbed the booties, box, and wrapper and tossed them over his head.