Love Me to Death (Underveil, #1)(75)

“Please, Ricardo,” Margarita said.

“Not until I see it.”

“My word isn’t good enough?” Stefan asked from where he leaned casually against the column.

“No. You could be like the others of your kind. No one’s word is good enough.”

“Oh, shut up,” Elena said. “I’m kind of in a hurry, and your squabbling is holding me back. What is it you want to see? The markings?”

Ricardo nodded.

Elena tugged at her T-shirt neckline, but it was too tight to show much of anything. Damn. She wished herself cloaked in the Veil, hoping she’d done it right. If not, she’d be giving some travelers and tourists something to write home about. She slid the backpack off and set it at her feet, then ripped off her shirt. “Yeah?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Ricardo answered. “Almost.”

Almost? Oh. The sports bra. It covered a majority of the glyphs. Damn.

Human modesty,” Stefan said with a shrug and a half smile. “You had seemed to have gotten over it when I first arrived.”

After she scanned the area, it was clear from the men and women walking by without a glance that she was truly invisible because a shirtless woman in a hot pink sports bra would probably draw at least a little attention. Fine. She needed to put an end to this so that she could save Nik. She pulled off the bra and gritted her teeth when her breasts bounced.

Ricardo took off his sunglasses and made some kind of appreciative, growly sound. If it had it gone on any longer or been any louder, she would have shocked him into the next county. “Well, you are right, Darvaak. She is without a doubt the Uniter.”

“Isn’t that interesting?” Stefan said, circling to face her, eyes sweeping over her chest.

Yeah. My boobs are real interesting, *.

“Look down, Elena.”

She did. Holy shit. There were more of the odd shapes. They now expanded across her ribs and down to her navel. She gasped and met Stefan’s clear blue eyes. “What the hell?”

“What, indeed,” he remarked, still studying the markings.

She leaned over and grabbed her bra from the floor and yanked it on. “Spill, Stefan.”

He lightly ran his fingers over the markings across her ribs, and a grin crept across his face as he traced them to her navel. His touch wasn’t sexual, but affectionate. Reverent, almost. He splayed his hand across her abdomen and spoke in a strange language.

“Stefan! What the hell is going on?”

He opened his eyes and took her face in his hands. “Sweet girl. I am asking the powers that be to protect the child you carry.”





Chapter Twenty-Five


Elena rolled the words written on skin over in her head. “Guardian of the bridge between species above and below the Veil.” The child she carried was the “bridge,” Stefan had explained. Evidently, the meaning was clear in whatever freakish tongue the glyphs were written. She may be the Uniter who was prophesied to dethrone tyrants, but the child was the key to long-term peace.

She shook her head in disbelief. This was a real game-changer. She couldn’t just go blasting in there and risk her life to save Nik. She had to be careful now.

From her seat in the back of the plane, she pressed her palm to her stomach. Margarita patted her hand. “It is a good thing. A miracle.”

Yeah, no shit. Miracle was right. She wasn’t supposed to be able to get pregnant with someone from another species. Like cats and dogs, right? If she lived through this, she had a few words for Aleksandra and her absolutes. She rolled her shoulders and took a deep breath. And then, in spite of herself, she smiled. Nik’s baby. She’d never really thought about having kids—she’d never met anyone whose kids she wanted to have…until now. Her heart stuttered. Nik’s baby was growing inside her right now. And that was awesome.

Stefan and Ricardo were in the cockpit. Had Stefan not laid this little bit of news on her, she would never have agreed to let him fly her. She would have done this on her own and owed a debt to no one. Somehow, that didn’t matter anymore. What mattered now was keeping this baby safe while rescuing Nik, offing Fydor, and ending this war, regardless of how many favors she’d owe when it was over.

Stefan walked back and joined them in a seat facing across a table.

“Who’s flying this thing?” Elena squeaked.

He smiled and relaxed against the back of the seat. “This plane practically flies itself. We are over the ocean on a straight course. Relax.”

Planes didn’t fly themselves. “I don’t like this.”

“You are immortal. You would survive a crash, though that will not happen, I promise. I only want to speak with you for a moment.”

“Could we talk with you back at the controls?”

“If you would feel more at ease, then, yes. Please join me.”

He held out his hand, and she took it. He squeezed. “You still have a charge in your palms. Do you feel threatened?”

“No.” She followed him to the cockpit. Not threatened. Just terrified. Terrified of everything. Of failure. Of losing Nik. Of somehow losing this baby.

She perched on the little jump seat behind the two pilot chairs, probably intended for a flight attendant or assistant of some kind. The panel had tons of controls and knobs that would be impossible to keep straight. “What did you want to talk about?”