Love Me to Death (Underveil, #1)(67)

Elena covered her mouth to prevent a scream as one of the wood elves pulled out a gun and shot the light elf in the chest. The creature shrieked, fell to the ground, and disappeared.

“Oh my God,” Elena whispered. “They killed her.”

Nik took her hand and pulled her back against the building. “No. She’ll be fine. She teleported back home to heal. They just wanted to get rid of her. If they killed her, the light elves would eliminate every wood elf from the planet. They have some kind of pact that goes way back.”

The oddest thing about all of this was that the people on the sidewalk continued on as if nothing had happened. They hadn’t heard the gunshot. They hadn’t seen the woman fall.

“So, has shit like this been going down my whole life, and I just never saw it?”

“Yes,” he answered, never taking his eyes off the men as they headed down the sidewalk. “We should follow them. I find it odd they’re here, but odder yet they’re wearing human disguises. They plan to lift the Veil, and when they do, they are in violation of the code. I will have to take them prisoner.”

She punched him in the shoulder. “Hey, big guy. Stop thinking like a cop. Who will you turn them over to? Fydor? I think your Slayer duties have been suspended.”

“I can’t let them harm humans,” he said. “I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself.”

And this, she realized, was why she was so attracted to him. He was a good man who longed to do what was right, and something in her had recognized that from the moment of their dubious first meeting.

He placed a hand on her shoulder. “I guess your training starts now. Do you know how to cloak yourself in the human Veil?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know how this Veil business works at all. I need a full tutorial.”

“We need to follow those wood elves, so abbreviated lesson for now. If you’re like the rest of us, you simply wish it so. Try it now. Wish to not be seen.”

I don’t want to be seen, she thought, and her body hummed for a moment, then returned to normal. “Did I do it?” That seemed ridiculously easy. She must have done it wrong.

“Test it. See if humans interact with you.”

She approached a man speaking on his phone at the corner. “Excuse me,” she said. The man did not acknowledge her. “Hello!” she shouted, waving her arms in front of him. Still no response.

“It appears you are successful,” Nik said. “Let’s go.” The three wood elves had taken off and were about to turn the next corner.

She broke into a run to keep up with his long strides. It turned out that the creeps shot the block, and blocks in NYC were big. As they followed them around to the street that ran in front of the luthier shop, one of them looked back and met her eye to eye. Shit.

“Slayer,” he called to the other two. One pulled a sword out from under his full-length jacket. The blade was much smaller than Nikolai’s but equally ornate.

“Shoot him,” the one with the sword ordered. Nik pulled a dagger out of his boot and shoved Elena behind him. To her horror, the man pulled a gun out of his coat pocket, but before he could raise the muzzle, he was sporting Nik’s dagger in the middle of his chest.

An old man walked out of the luthier shop, and the elf with the sword went blurry for a moment, then solidified.

“Fuck. He lifted the Veil.” Nik bolted toward them, but got there too late to save the poor human, whose head separated from his body with one quick slice from the elf.

The elf handed the sword to his companion and shouted, “Kill them both, and then find the cello,” and sprinted away down the street at full speed.

Nik withdrew his sword, and before Elena knew what had happened, he freed the remaining elf’s head from its body in a black, sticky mess.

Nik leaned down to retrieve his dagger from the first elf’s chest right as his body disintegrated. He picked it up, and it was clean of the black blood. So was the sidewalk. In fact, there was no trace of the elves anywhere.

The poor human was another story. A crimson pool crept across the pavement from the headless body and oozed into the street. People screamed and shrieked all around. And then a woman came out of the shop. A young woman about Elena’s age, wearing an apron, clutching a violin.

“No! Uncle Frank!” The young woman shifted her weight foot-to-foot, anguish filling her cries. “Not you, too. No, no…” She threw her body over his, violin crashing to the pavement and splintering into pieces.

“Take us to the Time Folder, please, Elena,” Nik said, pulling her several feet away. He placed the wood elf’s smaller sword in her hand. “We need to get there quickly, and you can teleport us much faster since I used so much energy getting us here. They saw us, and others will arrive right away.”

She pried her eyes from the gruesome scene, took his hand, and pictured Stefan’s living room.

Nik sighed with relief when he reformed in the Time Folder’s place, holding Elena’s hand. They had made it out safely. He knew he should have called first, but had they waited, the elves certainly would have come with reinforcements. Darvaak emerged from the bedroom wearing rumpled clothes and a furious expression.

“It’s a bad time, Slayer. Zap out now,” he ordered.

“We can’t,” Nik replied. “The wood elves just executed a human on a busy New York City street. Elena was seen. They will hunt her now.”