Love Me to Death (Underveil, #1)(53)

“Your situation… Fydor?”

“Not nearly as bad as yours.” She stood and paced the wall of windows like a large, lithe panther, her thigh-high boots silent on the carpet. “The shit is totally about to go down. Fydor’s gone all comic book supervillain, complete with maniacal laugh and plans to rule the world.” She stopped and met his eyes. “I’m scared, Niki.”

He took a deep breath through his nose. In the centuries he’d known Aleksandra, he’d never heard her say she was scared of anything. “Why do you seek the Time Folder?”

“I believe all of this revolves around what happened between the two kings up there on that mountain ridge. I don’t think they killed each other. I’m here to ask Darvaak to fold back to the fight again and see if he can figure it out.”

Nikolai ran a hand through his hair. “He has already witnessed it. He, as well as the two other Time Folders. All of them say the same thing: the event has been masked.”

“They missed something. There has to be a clue there somewhere as to what really happened.”

“The real question is who masked it and why? There are only a handful of beings with magic that strong.”

“The elves tell me there are only two: the twins Borya and Zana,” she replied. “And both of them have gone missing since that day. One of them must have been there.” She flipped her long, black hair over a shoulder. “A spell that strong requires proximity. Whichever one was there knows what happened because he or she cast magic that hid it.”

Zana, Gregor Arcos’ seer, was capable of great magic, but she’d never been involved with black arts or anything deceptive like masking a murder—at least not that Nikolai knew of. Borya was equally powerful, but worked freelance. Little was known about him other than the Itzov family had called on him from time to time. He’d only seen him once when he was just a boy. His uncle had called Borya for a conference while Nikolai’s father was out negotiating with the wood elves. He shuddered at the memory. Dressed in flowing purple robes, Borya had looked at Nik with his jet-black eyes and ordered the boy removed. “He’s dangerous. I will kill him if he so much as looks at me again,” the sorcerer shouted, the ground shuddering in a magic-induced earthquake under his feet. To this day, he could still hear his uncle’s laughter and taunts about the terrible, powerful seer being afraid of a smooth-faced boy.

“If Borya and Zana don’t want to be found, you won’t find them,” he said, “And three Time Folders have gone back to the event and found nothing.”

“They weren’t looking for seers; they were trying to witness the murder.”

He shrugged. “It’s your money. Suit yourself.”

She covered her face. “I don’t have the money.”

Of course she didn’t. She’d been on a spending spree unlike anything he’d ever seen. A time fold cost one million dollars, nonnegotiable. “Then why are you here?”

“I was hoping to appeal to his…” She took a deep breath. “I was hoping he was a typical man and I could barter.”

With her body, no doubt. Nikolai shot to his feet. “No. Absolutely not. Even if he weren’t some kind of biological eunuch, I would forbid it.”

“What on earth do you mean, ‘biological eunuch’?”

“He only desires one person, and you’re not it.”

She turned back to the bank of windows. “I didn’t know that. Pity. He’s pretty.”

He was sure his head would explode. “I suppose anything is preferable to Fydor.”

She spun on him, crossing to come toe-to-toe, fists clenched. “Fuck you, Niki. I’m not discussing that right now. And I’m not a little girl you can intimidate anymore. That’s what your human is for.”

They glared at each other until he conceded defeat and looked away. She was right. That was what he had done to Elena. He had been an overpowering ass, which was why he was alone and miserable right now. He’d realized that over these last days. She wasn’t like the Slayers and needed a different approach. And he needed her. More than anything before or perhaps ever again, he needed Elena Arcos.

Aleksi took a step back. “Do you know how to reach Stefan Darvaak?”

“Yes.”

“Please do.”

“There’s a price.”

“You sound like your uncle.”

“And you act like a whore.”

“How dare you!” Her punch to the jaw sent him reeling. “How dare you judge me for keeping you safe! Safe while you f*ck a vampire! Who’s the whore, Nikolai?”

He placed his hand on his aching jaw. “I did what I had to do.”

“So did I,” she shouted. “So did your mother.”

He’d never seen her this worked up. She was usually unnervingly cool. It was as if he were watching a stranger. “What do you mean?”

“Do you really think she wanted to marry him? To…” She shuddered. “She did it to buy you time to get your shit together and find the Uniter.”

It had never crossed his mind that his mother had married his uncle for any other reason than it served her own purposes. For two decades, he’d convinced himself she had betrayed his father and turned her back on him. He’d looked at it through the lens of a selfish, self-righteous grieving son who had loved and lost his father. Not a man trained to lead his people. A sickening dread pooled in his gut. What else had he missed while he was off blindly slaying every rogue vampire he could find in order to alleviate his grief?