Love Me to Death (Underveil, #1)(66)

“Where are we?” she asked as they stepped out of the tiny alley onto the sidewalk.

“New York City. You said you’d never traveled outside of your home state. I thought I’d put a spin on your normal date.”

She took his hand, thrilled by this adventuresome, romantic side of him. “Cool.”

“Cool,” he repeated, grinning.

As they strode down the street hand-in-hand, Elena’s heart soared. She was actually spending time with Nik like a normal person. Well, sort of. They had teleported well over a thousand miles in seconds, and the god of a man holding her hand had an ancient sword strapped to his back, used to kill immortal creepies. But still, since the convenience store, normal was relative.

The diner was fantastic. For fleeting moments, she could almost imagine “all hell” would not break loose in less than a day. That she and this beautiful man could just enjoy their pancakes and coffee without the fate of the human world hanging in the balance.

But it did hang in the balance. Since seeing Uza’s cats transform into human form, Elena could no longer deny this bizarre, invisible world was as real as her feelings for this man. Real and dangerous.

“Are you okay?” Nik asked, finishing of the last of his scrambled eggs.

“Yeah. I just…”

The curvy brunette waitress refilled their coffee and grinned at Nik. He ignored her completely and took Elena’s hand. “You just what?”

The waitress moved to the next table, and she tried to untangle her thoughts into a coherent thread. “I just wish we had more time.”

“We have forever.”

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at what would have been a totally cornball sentiment had he not meant it literally. “No. I mean before whatever Uza alluded to happens.”

“Ah.” He wove his fingers through hers. “Well, I’ve learned to plan for the future, but to also live in the present.”

She looked down at their entwined fingers. Hers looked so tiny and delicate laced through his. “I wish we could stay here, like this, forever in the present, not thinking about the future, but I really think we need a strategy or plan.”

“We don’t know what will happen. Planning is futile,” he responded.

“You didn’t get where you are without planning and training. Because of your experience, you can adapt to handle any situation.” She took a deep breath and realized she was trembling. Nik placed his other hand over their entwined fingers. “When whatever horrible thing is coming happens, you’ll be able to act on instinct and training, while I only have ignorance. Everything is new to me. I need help to learn how to fight whatever is going to come along. If I’m really this Uniter person, I need to stay alive.”

“I’ll protect you,” he said.

“What if you’re injured or we get separated?” She pulled her hand from his. “I have some wacky superpowers now, and I need to know what to do with them.”

The waitress returned and dropped the check on the table. Nik picked it up and retrieved a roll of cash out of his pocket. He slid some bills from the roll, put them with the check, and handed it back to the waitress. “No change,” he said.

The girl’s eyes widened. “Wow! Thanks. Thank you so much.” Then she scampered off super quick, probably thinking he had made a mistake and would catch it.

“I won’t let anything happen to you, Elena. You’re too important to me.”

Her heart skipped a beat. He cared. “Then you’ll train me and get me ready?”

He stood and held out his hand. “I will.” She placed her hand in his and stood. He pulled her against him in an embrace. “I want to show you something first.”

“What?”

He looped his arm around her waist. “Well, you’ve never been to New York City before, so I thought I’d show you Times Square. It’s only a short walk from here.”

She adored this side of him. It felt so human to stroll from the restaurant arm in arm. The streets were buzzing with people rushing to work.

He guided her to the end of the block and turned left.

Then she saw them—three creatures walking in a huddle directly ahead. She froze, jerking Nik to a stop. “It’s some of those things,” she said with a shudder.

“What things?”

“The ones on the snowmobiles.”

“Wood elves, here, in New York? That’s impossible. They can’t tolerate urban areas.”

“Well, they’ve developed a tolerance, look.” She pointed to the three creatures crossing the street one block up with a large group of people. They stopped halfway up the block from them, crossed the other side of the street, and looked into a luthier shop with stringed instruments hanging on display in the window. “Don’t suppose they’re musical, huh?”

“Not at all,” Nik said, tensing. “Something is up.”

Then, one of the glowy creatures like she’d seen in the forest with Nik exited the shop.

“And a light elf, too,” Nik said. “Very strange.”

The light elf saw the three wood elves and basically lost it. She screamed at them so loudly everyone within a mile radius should have heard it, but no one reacted. Obviously, the creatures were under the Veil. They spoke a funky language Elena couldn’t understand, but pissed off was pissed off in any tongue.