“Do you know where he is?”
He closed his eyes, then after several moments, shook his head. “None of my staff have seen him… Oh, wait.” He smiled and opened his eyes. “My cook thinks he has a nice ass.”
She wasn’t sure whether to be amused or jealous, but she knew to keep her emotions in check. “So, he’s in the kitchen?”
“Was. Would you like to join us?” He gestured to the two men at the table, who like him, were still standing.
“No, thank you.” She didn’t want to join them. She wanted to join Nik before he zapped out on a suicide mission to rescue his mother.
He gestured to the chair to his right. “Please sit. What we are discussing involves you.” When she hesitated, he held his hand out. She could totally see him fitting in centuries ago in a more formal society. “Please, Elena. He cannot ‘zap’ anywhere without me. The entire mountain is secured to where no one can teleport without possessing something of my person.”
And what the hell did that mean? “I teleported to go get him out of that cell.”
“Yes, you were in possession of something of my body.”
His blood.
“Yes.” He wiggled his fingers and she placed her hand in his. With a gentle tug, he pulled her to the chair next to him. Once she sat, the others did, too, which was weird, but oddly flattering.
“Several of the Underveil factions have already mobilized. Sending the dungeon prisoners as emissaries was an excellent idea.”
It had been Aleksi’s idea. Elena wondered how she was faring. Her chest ached when she thought of how she’d found her tied to the bed, coated in blood. That memory, though, didn’t present an alternative interpretation of Fydor’s character thanks to Vlad’s gift of seeing the past with unbiased clarity. Nothing but rage and fear of Borya colored Fydor’s actions, which in some ways helped. Discovering any sympathetic or redeeming traits in the man would make it harder to do what she had to do.
“Most of the Underveil factions have mobilized and will be poised to strike once it’s dark,” he continued. “The wood elves and some of the shifter groups are still siding with Fydor’s revolutionist movement, but the rest have taken up arms for the resistance.”
“Have we heard from the light elves yet?” the hooded vampire to his left asked in a monotone, expressionless voice. Her father had been an empath, but he was always charming and animated—at least around her he had been.
“No, but I’ve known Dalra and Leione for over six centuries. They will join us.”
The other empath spoke with the same odd lack of expression. “They have always remained neutral and apart from the rest of the Underveil factions. Don’t you expect they will simply avoid the conflict altogether like they have in the past?”
Vlad leaned back in his chair, arms folded across his chest. “No. There is too much at stake this time.” Then he smiled, fangs barely visible. “Besides, Fydor made a very stupid mistake where the elves are involved.” His smile broadened into a grin, exposing his sharp, deadly fangs, and Elena shuddered. “He kidnapped and imprisoned Dalra the Warrior’s only daughter. The light elves’ days of being passive, uninvolved observers are over. Taking Fee was declaring war. Had he destroyed her, the Slayers would have been obliterated.”
Nik, wearing something that looked like a monk’s tunic, burst into the room. “Let me out of here, Dalca.” His gaze flitted to Elena and stopped on the two vampires to Vlad’s left. Immediately, his shoulders dropped to a more relaxed stance as he reigned in his emotion. “Please.”
“Join us, Nikolai. We were discussing strategy for tonight. The factions are converging on the Slayer fortress at this moment and plan to launch an attack sometime after dark.”
“I plan to launch an attack right now,” he said, not moving. “How do I teleport out?”
Squawking and racket from the other door cut off Vlad’s response. The bird lady from the barn trotted into the room and stopped short, out of breath. “The avian flock is joining the battle on the resistance’s behalf. So are the light elves,” she said. “And Fee the Alchemist requests a key to teleport.”
Pose still relaxed, Vlad arched an eyebrow. “For what purpose?”
The woman’s jerky, nonhuman movements made it hard for Elena to take her seriously. “She has business with the Uniter.” Now that she could take seriously. Maybe this crazy plan would work after all.
Vlad plucked a hair from his head and gestured her over. “Deliver this to Fee and thank your flock leader. Tell him King Nikolai is honored by her decision.”
The woman left immediately without words of parting.
“I am not the king,” Nik said.
“Yes, you are. Fydor usurped the throne by committing a crime, and we all know it.”