The shrouded moon cast ominous shadows in the back alley—exaggerating the fact that they were here in the middle of the night. Alba visualized rows of eerie sarcophaguses and towering Anubis statues and her neck hair stood on end.
She moved closer to Teddy. Perhaps she was not as strong and brave as she thought . . .
“What I was going to show you inside the museum can wait until daylight,” she insisted.
Teddy paid her no mind. “Wickley!” he repeated. “For God’s sake!”
The door flung open and a uniformed guard with a pair of overgrown white sideburns greeted them. “Teddy! How good to see you, my lad. What are you doing here in the middle of the night?”
“My lovely companion, Miss Alba Spencer, shall tell you. But first, may we come in?”
“Certainly,” Wickley said. “Your father has always been more than generous to this place. Please . . .”
The guard gave Alba a genial nod as she followed Teddy inside. He closed the door and motioned them toward a central hallway.
“What can I do for you, Miss Spencer?”
“I was here at the museum several months ago,” she said. “There was a bracelet from ancient Egypt on display. Is it still here?”
“The bracelet of Amenhotep?” Wickley asked, wide-eyed. “Why, yes. It’s tucked safely inside a locked case.”
Alba’s shoulders rolled forward with relief. She’d feared it was gone.
“I won’t ask why you want to see it,” Wickley said cautiously. “But promise me you won’t tamper with it, Miss Spencer.”
“You have my word,” Alba replied.
With shaking hands, Wickley held up a lantern at shoulder height. He managed to point it in the direction of the main lobby. “Mr. Rollingsworth, you know where the Egyptian Room is, don’t you?”
Teddy patted the guard on the back. “I certainly do. Thank you, Wickley. We shan’t be long.”
Wickley grunted as he passed Teddy the lantern and wobbled out of sight.
As Alba and Teddy made their way through the enormous repository, Alba was struck anew by all the treasures the museum held. From the famous Rosetta Stone to the Elgin Marbles and the revered Magna Carta, the British Museum was a source of pride for the United Kingdom. And rightly so.
She and Teddy climbed two flights of stairs until they reached the floor containing the bracelet. Onyx drapes trimmed in geometric Egyptian designs framed the doorway and made for a dramatic entrance to the exhibit. Drawing from her memory, Alba moved to the main display case centered by a brightly painted stone column. Teddy was right behind her. His hands encircled her waist as she leaned over the glass to look for the bracelet. She nearly complained about the intimate contact, but she had more important things to think about.
“There it is,” she said.
Teddy walked around her. After he set the lantern on the display case, he peered at the spot she’d indicated with her finger.
The stunning gold bracelet sat atop a purple velvet pillow. Its coral inlays and burnished gold caught the lantern’s light.
“Read the inscription,” Alba instructed Teddy.
He cleared his throat and struggled to make out the words in the dim light.
The bracelet of Amenhotep
Fabricated in the year 1017 B.C., this bracelet was discovered by famed archeologist Sir Harris Farrington beneath the Temple of Luxor in the Nile Valley. It belonged to Amenhotep, a priest who served Princess Tousret, ruler of Egypt in the Twenty-First Dynasty. It is the counterpart of the amulet of Tousret, a cursed stone that dooms any female who wears it to kill her lover, then kill herself.
The curse mimics Tousret’s murder of Amenhotep and her suicide following the Temple’s discovery that the two were secret lovers. Amenhotep commissioned the creation of the bracelet to protect himself from the forces of darkness.
Unfortunately he did not don it in time.
The location of the amulet of Tousret is presently unknown.
Teddy locked eyes with Alba and shrugged. “Fascinating story, but I don’t see how it pertains to us.”
“Teddy.” Alba stepped closer to him. “I have the amulet of Tousret.”
“You? I . . . I don’t understand.”
“Dimitri gave it to me.”
Teddy’s eyes grew dark and heavy. “It’s like him to give you something so foul. But I have no interest in speaking about Dimitri Grigorescu.” He slipped his hands around her waist and lowered his voice. “I want to talk about us, Alba. There is something I didn’t have the courage to ask you during the opera.”
He smiled and plunged to one knee. “Alba,” he said, withdrawing a small box from the pocket of his dinner jacket. “I love everything about you. From your intelligence to your extraordinary beauty. Will you do me the honor of being my wife?”
He pulled back the lid of the tiny box and revealed a breathtaking engagement ring. The emerald-cut diamond, cushioned by a pair of large oval rubies, glittered in the shadows. Alba put a hand to her stammering heart. What should I say?
Just then the lantern clattered off the display case and landed on the floor. With the only light in the room extinguished, darkness descended on the place with an ominous hush.
Silence ensued, raising the hair on Alba’s arm.
“What the hell?” Teddy asked.
A blast of cold air rushed at them unexpectedly. Teddy gasped as Simona materialized on the other side of the room, her ghostly white face set in a snarl and her knife-sharp fangs gleaming in a beam of moonlight.
“Christ!” Teddy stood immobile.
“Not Christ,” Simona hissed. “I am more a product of the devil.”
Fangs bared, Simona lifted herself off the ground and streamed toward him. Teddy turned to protect Alba, but Simona assailed him too quickly. He dropped the ring box in sheer horror and it went skidding across the tiled floor.
“Leave him alone!” Alba screeched. She tried to pry Simona off Teddy, but the female vampire had him captured in a choke hold. Terror convulsed through Alba, yet she wouldn’t give up. She continued to pull at Simona’s shoulders to prevent her from piercing Teddy’s neck, but Simona flung her backward with a violent thrust. Alba went reeling into a stone sarcophagus, cracking her head upon impact.
As she lay slumped in the corner of the exhibition room, the scene before her blurred. She could focus just enough to see that Teddy was wrestling Simona with all his might. His arms were rigid against her chest while Simona’s open mouth loomed inches from his jugular. Suddenly, a figure swathed in a black cape swooped down. Alba struggled to make out the man’s face, but it wasn’t until the figure spoke that she knew it was Dimitri.
“Get away from him, Simona!” He exposed his fangs in a seething challenge.
Simona jerked her head in his direction.
With an easy swipe of his arm, Dimitri sent her flying across the room, and she let out a bloodcurdling scream. She crashed into a display case, shards of glass shattering and crumbling beneath her weight. A single glass spear protruded from her heart. Simona stared at Dimitri with a mixture of sorrow, accusation, and anger before she closed her dark eyes forever.
Dimitri rushed to Alba and helped her to her feet.
“Are you all right?” he asked gently.
She nodded groggily and leaned against him. He felt strong and warm and she yearned for him to gather her in his arms. But there was Teddy to attend to.
“What the devil just happened?” Teddy thundered, pulling himself to a standing position.
Dimitri and Alba looked at one another. “He mustn’t know I am a vampire,” Dimitri whispered.
Still disoriented, Alba didn’t answer him.
“Do you trust me?” Dimitri asked quietly.
“Y-yes,” she said as she rubbed the back of her neck. Blood coated her hand.
Dimitri strode slowly toward Teddy without saying a word.
“What is the meaning of this, Grigorescu?” Teddy demanded. “Have you been following us?”
The closer Dimitri came to Teddy, the more entranced Teddy became. His eyes drooped as if he were under a spell—and by the time Dimitri reached him, he’d slumped into Dimitri’s bent arms. Alba had never seen anything like it.
Dimitri laid him on the ground while Alba eyed the ring box that sat nearby. “I’m sure the crash summoned the night guard,” he said. “I have only seconds . . .”
Alba watched Dimitri retract his lips and bare his vicious-looking fangs. His eyes, which glowed an unearthly crimson, stirred something deep inside her. As she saw an extraordinary bloodlust take over Dimitri’s face, waves of lust exploded through her. Any decent woman would have averted her eyes from the sight of a demonic creature, yet she couldn’t tear her gaze from his features.
Dimitri pushed Teddy’s head to the side and then put his mouth to the exposed skin.
Piercing the largest vein that bulged from Teddy’s neck, he drank for five or six seconds.
When he stood, Alba took a step back. She finally looked away as he yanked a handkerchief from his dinner jacket and wiped the blood stains away.
“He will remember nothing,” Dimitri said.
“But he’ll become a vampire!” Alba replied in a panic.
“No,” he said. “I did not take enough blood.”
Footfalls sounded on the stairs beyond the black curtains.
“The guard!” Dimitri whispered. “I’ll take Simona’s body and disappear. You must get Teddy home.”
“Thank you for saving his life,” Alba whispered back. She stared into Dimitri’s bewitching eyes—eyes that smoldered an intense gold even in the shadows of the room. Her heart surged.
“I shall come for you at ten o’clock tomorrow night, my sweet,” he said.
She nodded numbly. Before he left, Dimitri spun the handkerchief around his hand and pummeled it straight through the display case that housed the bracelet of Amenhotep. After he seized the artifact, he lifted Simona’s bloody corpse into his arms and disappeared in a cloud of bluish mist.
Alba snatched up the ring box bearing the name “Cartier,” then bent over Teddy’s body. She managed to stuff the box into her reticule before Wickley shuffled into the exhibition room.
The elderly guard eyed Teddy on the floor.
“What in the name of sweet Christmas happened here?” he asked.
“A vampire.” Alba tried to swallow the dryness that lined her throat. She inched in front of the display case so that Wickley wouldn’t see that the bracelet was missing. “It attacked Teddy,” she said. “They fought . . .”
“Good God!” Wickley said. “Are you all right, Miss Spencer?”
She tried to ignore her throbbing head. “I’m fine.”
“Where is the vampire?” The guard’s eyes darted around the room.
“She disappeared.”
“She?”
“Please, Wickley. Can you help me get Mr. Rollingsworth into a carriage?” Alba asked. “I shall attend to him at his house.”
Despite his confused state, Wickley agreed. He knelt beside Teddy and put a trembling finger to the puncture wounds that marred his neck. “Are you sure you don’t want to take Mr. Rollingsworth to the hospital?”
“No.” She shook her head. “We must be very discreet.”
“Oh, yes.” Wickley seemed to catch on. “Mr. Rollingsworth wouldn’t want anyone to find out about this.”
“Thank you for understanding, Wickley. Now, can you help me lift him?”
As she and the guard managed to carry Teddy down the main staircase, the horror of the night replayed in Alba’s head. Only one good thing had come of it: she’d have more time to think about Teddy’s marriage proposal.
Chapter Twenty
The night was cold and steeped with dampness as Dimitri moved in and out of the city shadows. While he cradled Simona’s limp body, mixed emotions about her death swelled inside him. She had always been a vicious thorn in his side—a devil woman who’d brought him nothing but trouble. Yet, long ago, they had been friends. It was an innocent time in Dimitri’s life—when adolescent infatuation reigned over everything else.
Now Simona was dead because of him. Or maybe in spite of him. He couldn’t be sure. What he did know was that he had never loved the temperamental girl. And that very obstacle led to her downfall.
At least she can’t hurt Alba now, Dimitri considered as he reached the edge of the River Thames.
Big Ben chimed the two o’clock hour, and amid the shoddy surroundings, his heart grew heavier. Simona would go to a watery grave here in the middle of this smoky, impersonal city—with no relatives or friends to mourn her.
Dimitri had chosen the industrial district of London for the disposal of the body because the docks were empty this time of night. However, the stench was overwhelming.
He laid Simona on the ground for a moment, then moved to the frigid waters of the embankment. As he resisted the urge to cover his nose, a barge sounded its horn in the distance. Dimitri watched the boat meander through the muddy waters until it disappeared from sight. The image of the empty river and the shift of Big Ben’s hands jolted him back to the urgency of the moment.
He grappled in the dark for something with which to weight Simona’s body. Although he regretted the fact that she would not have a proper burial, he couldn’t risk being involved with her dramatic demise. He’d come too far in his quest to save Alba—and he would stop at nothing to see it through.
Urgency shot up his spine as he spotted a large rock nestled along the rubbish-ridden shore. He hoisted it into his arms, moved back to Simona’s body, and laid the rock next to her. Looking at her face, his stomach roiled. It had taken on a strange, greenish hue. She resembled the vampire they had unearthed in Castle Bran’s graveyard—and the memory surged bile to Dimitri’s throat.
He gladly looked away in search of something he could secure the rock with. There, in the overflowing rubbish bin, lay a knot of rope discarded from a parcel. He quickly tied the rope to the rock and the rock to Simona’s waist, then waded into the icy water. Murmuring something respectful, he dropped her body into the soft waves and watched her uncanny face disappear into the water’s depth.
Exhaling, Dimitri trudged out of the river. When he reached a broken piece of cement, he sat upon it and drew his knee up. His thoughts turned to Alba. Will she come with me tomorrow evening? Something told him she would. Alba knew Dimitri was a vampire now, but she didn’t seem afraid of him. Perhaps it was the Egyptian amulet at work, but he preferred to think that she would come of her own accord. Of course, if she had been enchanted by the amulet’s curse, it was no matter. Dimitri had the bracelet of Amenhotep.
He hadn’t gotten a proper look at the trinket inside the museum, so he delved a hand beneath his greatcoat. His hand fumbled inside the empty pocket, and he froze.
Where the hell is the bracelet?
Standing, he ripped at the lining of each pocket. The bracelet must have fallen out of his coat while he was in the water! Could it have sunk to the bottom of the black river—never to be found again?
Panic gripped him. He splashed back into the water. He was about to thrust his head beneath it when he heard voices. A group of vagrants was nearing. Dimitri peered over his shoulder and saw the degenerates teetering about in their drunken state, laughing loudly at one another’s jokes.
He scowled. If Simona’s body happened to wash ashore—and witnesses attested to his presence here—he was doomed.
Forced to abandon his search for the bracelet, Dimitri emerged silently from the water and slipped away into the night.
Alba rapped on the Rollingsworths’ front door. “Please, Reeves. Let us in!”
She feared that making a commotion would wake Harold Rollingsworth, but she couldn’t support Teddy’s weight much longer. He was propped against her at a sharp angle, one arm slung around her neck as she grasped his waist. Teddy had managed to regain partial consciousness in the carriage that transported them here, but now he was murmuring de
lusional words with his head flung back.
Alba knocked again. Thankfully Reeves opened the door. The sleep-rumpled butler bore a horrified expression but said nothing as he lunged for Teddy. A moment later, Mavis Bedford appeared behind Reeves—both of them in their dressing gowns.
“What happened to Mr. Rollingsworth?” she asked.
Alba and the butler brought him across the threshold. “He’s been attacked,” said Alba.
“My God,” Mavis gasped, eyeing Teddy’s badly bruised neck and bite marks.
“Let’s get him to his bedchamber before Master Rollingsworth wakes up,” Reeves suggested.
The two women helped the servant move Teddy toward the staircase. After they’d managed to get Teddy settled in bed, Reeves went to fetch a glass of whiskey. Teddy was still muttering a string of inaudible words while Alba and the nurse removed his shoes and jacket.
“Unbutton Mr. Rollingsworth’s shirt,” Mavis instructed. “I need to take his pulse and listen to his heart.”
With shaking hands, Alba removed Teddy’s silk cravat and dinner jacket and unbuttoned his starched shirt. She propped his torso away from the headboard so that she could slip the shirt from his body. She couldn’t avoid the brush of her fingertips against Teddy’s bare chest. It was as muscular as Dimitri’s, yet Teddy’s skin was much paler and tufted with copper hair.
Alba’s cheeks burned. She drew her eyes away and stared at the floor. She’d gone from never seeing a man naked from the waist up to snatching two glimpses in a matter of days.
Reeves reappeared with a snifter of whiskey and the medical bag Mavis asked for.
Mavis leaned over the bed and put a stethoscope to Teddy’s heart. Meanwhile Alba pulled a chair close to the bed and clasped Teddy’s hand tightly.
“I’m so sorry this happened,” she whispered to him in a soothing voice. “But please don’t worry. You will recover.”
At least Dimitri said you would.
“Mr. Rollingsworth seems to have experienced a traumatic shock. Do you want to tell me what happened?” Mavis asked.
Snow White and the Vampire (The Cursed Princes) Page 15
