Elena liked Aleksi’s pet name for her. E beat the hell out of parasite. “Sadly, no.”
Aleksi ran her palms over the back of the woman’s thigh, and she let out a glass-shattering screech, arms flapping in the hay.
“Hey, what kind of bird are you, a chicken?” Aleksi rolled her eyes. “We don’t have time for this kind of thing. You’re absolutely right. This is not the safest place. Now lie still unless you want to be a roasted hen day after tomorrow at midnight.”
Elena moved farther into the barn, and Claude closed the door behind them. “What are you doing?”
“I’m removing a piece of elf ore implanted by one of Fydor’s witches that prevents Underveilers from using magic. In this case, it keeps her from shifting into her alternative form.”
“Where is the elf?”
“Ack!” the bird lady squawked.
“Bingo! Now hold still because it’s gonna hurt like a—”
“Eeek!” The woman covered her mouth as Aleksi pressed her palm to her leg.
“Yeah. Ripping that piece of metal back out is probably worse than putting it in there. Hold still.” Aleksi kept her hand over the woman’s leg but looked up at Elena. “I sent Fee back to her people to get them on our side. An army of enraged fey will scare the crap out of Fydor. You just don’t screw with those guys.” A grin spread across her face. “I take that back. You do screw with those guys. Elves are wicked in bed.”
Elena was glad she didn’t have Ricardo’s mind-reading abilities at that moment. She was pretty sure she’d know way more about elves than she wanted to know.
“Owwwwww. Ow.” Blood splotched the back of the bird woman’s pants below Aleksi’s palm. She pulled her hand away from the woman’s body, sat back, and relaxed. “All done. Fly away.”
The woman jumped to her feet in a startling, inhuman burst and shook her leg. A slender, bloody metal dowel the length of Elena’s thumb and the diameter of a pencil slid out of her pant leg into the hay. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” Aleksi waved her off. “Go bring back some bird badasses, okay?”
Even knowing she was a bird shifter, and being prepared for the transformation, Elena gasped as the woman crumpled and morphed into a hawk of some kind, human skin sloughing off in sheets like the cat pelts had in Aunt Uza’s yard. This sort of thing was just too freaky to take in stride. She’d never get used to it, no matter how long she lived. If she lived. She rubbed her hand over her belly. “We need to get Nik out of there.”
“It may be best to leave him for now,” Claude said. “Going in and getting caught would be bad. Lord Nikolai would be the first to die if trouble started.”
“He’s right. We need to buy time to let the factions organize,” Aleksi said. “Besides, Fydor expects you to go back in after him. It would be suicide.”
This helplessness sucked. “I can’t just leave him there.”
“You risk everything if you don’t.”
She really wanted to talk to the vampire from the cell. Something in her believed he’d know what to do. “Who is the vampire in the dungeon?”
Aleksi patted the hay next to her, and the boys rushed to her side. “I call him Vlad,” she said, “but no one knows his real name. He used to live in the old Poenari castle before he was captured by my uncle.”
“Yeah, but who is he?”
“Don’t know, but he’s delicious, isn’t he? If he were anything but a vamp, I’d so do that.” Aleksi reclined back on her elbows between the two young teens, who squirmed with excitement to have her near. “I understand abandoning the wood elf, but why did you leave him in the dungeon?”
“I…I had to.” She was hesitant to mention she could see glimpses of the future, even though she was certain everyone in the barn was an ally. “I just kind of know stuff sometimes, and I knew I had to leave him there.” Hopefully, her vision was accurate and he had not been killed after she escaped. Where are you? She called to him in her mind. We’re in the stable.
The other vision, the one with the elf, was as puzzling as that of the vampire. “Tell me about the elf.”
“Oh, Fee the Alchemist? Not much. I’ve never even seen her before.”
“Why ‘Alchemist’?”
“Elves don’t have surnames. They use their talents as identifiers. Her brother is Aksel the Forger, her mother Leione the Weaver, her father is Dalra the Warrior, which is why it was a fucking stupid move for Fydor to pick this particular elf to kill. Dalra puts the bad in badass, and he keeps his daughter under close watch ever since his son disappeared. I have no idea how Fydor pulled off capturing her.”
That was not exactly what she had meant. “So, Aksel makes the swords and stuff from enchanted metal. What does Fee do specifically?”
“She deals with infusing the metal with properties that bind powers. The elves are all about making money off other species. She also helps formulate multiple elven elixirs that are sold by intermediaries to Underveiler dealers.”