Love Me to Death (Underveil, #1)(80)

Elena wiped the snowflakes from her nose and maintained her calm.

“He’ll never join you. Let him go,” Aleksi sobbed.

“He will join me to save you and his mother.”

“He’s too strong to give in to you.” She screamed in pain again and Elena cringed. Whatever he was doing must have been terrible. Her palms itched with current. She needed to conserve energy, so she consciously willed the charge to recede.

The screaming subsided and he practically growled. “I will bring him to you, and you will convince him. You will either convince him or kill him.”

“He’s done you no wrong, Fydo—” The thud of something solid hitting flesh cut her off, and she groaned.

Elena exhaled in a white cloud, hands buzzing with renewed current. She wanted to go in and just zap the sorry bastard. There were too many variables, though. He could have others in there with him. He could have an order to kill Nik if he doesn’t return. She blinked against her tears.

“If you do as I ask,” Fydor said in a sickening sweet voice, “the pain will stop, love. Convince him or kill him, and you will be free.”

“It will never work.” Her voice was weak.

A knock sounded on the door, cutting Aleksandra’s next scream short as he abandoned her to answer it. There was the murmur of male voices, and then a heavy door slammed shut, causing Elena to flinch. She pressed her back harder against the outer wall of Aleksi’s bedroom. Through the lead mullioned windows to her right, she saw the man from her visions, club in hand, and another giant man storming through a hallway toward a round turret section jutting from the other end of the wall she was standing on. It had only one window up high. Perhaps that was where Nik was being held.

No sound came from inside Aleksi’s room. Surely he hadn’t killed her. Nik had said Slayers could only be killed with one of those special elf-forged swords, and he didn’t appear to be carrying one. She patted the one strapped to her thigh, then gingerly swung the window several inches wider so that she could peek inside. No one was in the room except Aleksi, who was on the bed, motionless. The coppery smell of blood was powerful, but didn’t affect her like it had when Nik was injured.

Just as she had with Nik the first time she was here, she silently entered the room, pulling the window shut behind her. Willing her heart to stop hammering, she leaned against the sill and took in the scene. Aleksi was bound to the bed with metal chains. Why hadn’t she simply teleported out?

“Aleksandra?” she whispered, sneaking closer. Feet from the bed, she stopped short and covered her mouth to trap the scream threatening to erupt. What she had thought was a dark sheet thrown over her was actually blood. Her entire body and bed were covered with it. The aborted scream turned in to the urge to vomit. She’d been tortured for a long time. Maybe being immortal wasn’t a good thing in some cases.

Calm down, Elena told herself. Nik needs you.

Staring down at Aleksandra, she remembered Nik’s broken body from her visions, and then his angry words wishing her to hell ran through her head. She couldn’t blame him really. He thought she’d turned him over and abandoned him.

“Who’s there?” Aleksi asked.

Elena wanted to touch her for encouragement, but was worried about shocking her because of the residual current still buzzing in her hands. “Hey, it’s Elena. It’s okay, Aleksandra. I’m going to get you out of here.”

“Niki,” she whispered.

“Yeah, him too. Where is the key for these chains? Please don’t tell me Fydor has it.”

Her voice was raspy and weak. “No. He likes to keep it where I can see it. It makes it worse to see freedom and not have it. It’s hanging on my dresser.”

Sure enough, a skeleton key hung from a big round ring looped over her drawer knob. She grabbed it and made quick work of the cuffs holding her ankles and wrists. “Why didn’t you teleport to safety?”

“I couldn’t. Can’t teleport in fortress. Plus, backup: elven-forged chains.”

Like the cuffs Margarita had used to keep Ricardo from teleporting. Maybe it was a good thing this Aksel guy was locked away so he couldn’t make stuff anymore. So far, she’d seen nothing good come of his handiwork, from these chains, to the sword that had beheaded the old man in New York, to the cord that had bound her to Nik.

Aleksi groaned as she sat up. “Shit, it hurts. I think he broke everything this time. Lock the door. It won’t keep him out, but we’ll hear him coming at least.”

“You need to get out of here.” Elena locked the door, then pulled the key off the huge ring and slipped it in her sports bra. She didn’t want that * to be able to lock anyone else up in those cuffs and chains, and it took the key to close them as well as open them.

“I can’t teleport yet. Too weak. Besides, I need to help Niki.”

Elena went to the washstand and poured water into the bowl next to it, just as Aleksi had done to clean up Nik’s blood. She dipped the washcloth in it and handed it to her. “I’d help, but I might shock you accidentally.”

“Yeah, been there. Done that. No thanks. Keep that to yourself, girl.” Her voice was a little stronger already. She wiped the blood off of her face and wrinkled her nose as she examined it. “He usually doesn’t touch my face.”

“Usually? He’s done this before?”