We’ll see about that, Dimitri thought.
Ileana continued with a diabolical smile. “I’m not surprised that Alba didn’t kill you—or herself, thanks to the Egyptian prophecy. Apparently the prediction holds no power over the vampire’s curse. You must have disturbed a very important vampire that night at Bran Castle.”
I did.
“It’s no matter. For all intents and purposes, Alba is dead,” she said. “Deader than a doornail, as they say!”
Dimitri lunged for Ileana, but she jerked back and rose off the ground, her fingernails projecting into claws and her eyes growing serpent-like. She withdrew the bracelet of Amenhotep from a pocket of her dress. “You were so upset when you lost this, weren’t you?” Waving the bracelet tauntingly in front of him, she threw her head back in hysterical laughter.
Then it dawned on Dimitri. The moment he became a vampire, the curse of Tousret’s amulet didn’t apply to him or Alba because he was already dead and Alba hadn’t killed herself. He’d wondered about the curse affecting them all along, and Ileana had just supplied him with the answer. It seemed the vampire’s prophecy had dueled with the forces of ancient Egypt, and this time the power of Petra Laskov’s curse had trumped everything.
Smiling voraciously, Ileana came closer and stuffed the bracelet into the front pocket of his jacket. “It’s a shame that this can do you no good. But it’s more of a shame that Alba is gone.”
Once she landed on the ground again, she retracted her hand. Dimitri grabbed hold of her wrist. Snarling at him, she whipped her free arm around and revealed a sharpened wooden stake.
“I knew you would appear, Dimitri!”
They began to struggle, but Ileana was stronger than Dimitri anticipated. While he managed to send her crashing against the stone wall, she came back seething like a savage. With blood dripping from her head wound, she flew at him with the stake. Dimitri tried to duck and move out of the way, but his foot slipped on a puddle of her blood. He landed on his back, and while his vision clouded, Ileana brought the stake slamming down at his heart. By way of a miracle, it struck the metal of the bracelet and ricocheted off.
Dimitri locked eyes with Ileana, panic seeping into her own.
He yanked her to her feet, sending the stake plunging to the ground. When he saw that it’d become wedged in a crack in the brick floor, Dimitri grabbed Ileana roughly and lifted her in the air. She wiggled in his muscled arms, but she couldn’t free herself. She eyed the sharpened stake as he dangled her over it.
“You wouldn’t dare.” Her eyes grew round and black.
“I must—to get what I want in the end,” Dimitri said as he dropped her onto the pointed stake.
Ileana’s scream died in her throat. Dimitri turned away and patted the bracelet of Amenhotep inside his pocket. It came in handy after all. He moved quickly to Alba. Dropping to his knee, he brought her ice-cold hand to his cheek.
“Can you hear me, my love?” His tears began to flow. “Ileana is gone. I thought her death might bring you back to me, but it hasn’t.” He reached forward to stroke her petal-soft cheek. “We’ve had an odd time of it, haven’t we, darling? We ran from our past, changed our names, and transformed ourselves into things we aren’t. But I think I’m most guilty. I was obsessed with making myself a respectable gentleman to win your hand. Still, I think we were happier when we were young and true to ourselves. I loved you for you and you loved me for me. And as long as the earth orbits the sun, that will never change.”
Smiling ruefully, he pressed her stiff hand to his lips. Then he reached inside his vest pocket and produced the rustic promise ring he’d carved for her in Romania when he was sixteen. “I’ve been carrying this around for a very long time.”
He slipped the ring on her finger. It was a perfect fit.
“Try and find it in your heart to forgive me for what I’m about to do,” he whispered. “I cannot allow you to sleep forever, so you must undergo one . . . last . . . change.”
He stood and leaned over her reclining body. In her deep sleep, Alba’s blood scent had dissipated, but Dimitri’s fangs descended anyway. Pulling his lips back, he lowered his mouth to her neck and bit into the cold, fragile skin that covered Alba’s jugular vein. He drank and drank.
And while all the memories they had created together danced through his mind, he punctured his wrist with his fangs and brought it to Alba’s mouth. As the blood trickled past her lips, he offered her immortality.
Dimitri drew back. Alba remained still for a few moments. Then her eyes fluttered open—those delphinium-blue eyes that made his spirit soar. Gathering her to him, he felt the odd pump of a vampire’s heart against his chest. I’ve done it.
“What happened?” Alba asked in a weak voice. “I remember being at the courthouse—and Ileana . . .”
In a swift recount, Dimitri told her how he’d bitten Edith in order to escape from prison. Then he pointed to Ileana’s impaled body. Alba recoiled and buried her face in his jacket. He ended the explanation with the daunting news that she was a member of the undead.
“I . . . I’m a vampire?” The words caught in her throat. She began to tremble and shake in his arms. “I don’t believe it.”
“It was the only way. Please forgive me.”
After a long cry, Alba pulled away and met his gaze. “I don’t know what to think.”
“You’re like me, which is a better alternative to sleeping forever.” He paused. “At least we can be together now.”
She nodded, yet anguish shadowed her features.
“Perhaps this will make you feel better.” Dimitri ran his thumb over the ring on her finger.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“I made it for you during our summer in Romania.”
She wiped her tears away and raised her hand to look at the ring. “It’s beautiful.” After a pause she added, “If I had to guess, you wanted to give me this instead of the Egyptian amulet the day we went to the graveyard, didn’t you?”
“Yes. But Simona convinced me that the necklace would impress you more than any cheap wooden ring.”
Alba brought the token to her heart. “She couldn’t have been more wrong.” Grimacing, she touched her bite marks with the tip of her other hand.
“Alba.” Dimitri’s expression grew solemn. “Do you forgive me for bringing you over?”
Her tone was sorrowful but firm. “I know you had no other choice, Dimitri. The sleep of death consumed me at the courthouse, and there was no turning back. Except your way.”
“I suppose the vampire prophecy played itself out after all,” he said solemnly.
She sagged against him.
He stroked her smooth locks and inhaled her scent. Her fragrance was different now, but just as sweet and enticing. He held her at arm’s length so that he could look into her eyes and study her soul. “You need to know that we will be together. Forever.”
Her eyes softened and he knew that she would be his princess for all eternity. He would never tire of her and he would never have to watch her grow old. He dropped his mouth to her lips and claimed them with a kiss—a kiss that proved his undying devotion. She moaned against the pressure of his mouth, and he understood just how she felt. At the moment, she could swear she was a stranger inside her own body, confused but in possession of an incomparable energy. Her senses were magnified a hundredfold—and she was willing to try things she hadn’t experienced before.
He broke the kiss and met her stare. “I love you, Alba.”
“I love you too,” she whispered breathlessly. “Do you want to know the last thought I had before I fell into that horrible sleep?”
He nodded.
“I regretted that we never made love.”
“Then,” he said, helping her to her feet, “making love is the first thing we shall do.”
Chapter Thirty
No doubt the police were looking for them, but Dimitri wasn’t going to let anything prevent him from being with Alba. He knew he couldn’
t take her back to his Park Lane house—nor could he take her to the Bloomsbury dormitory. Thankfully, he’d decided on the perfect location.
Following Dimitri’s lesson on how to alter her physical state into a mist, Alba traveled with him to the Kensington Garden house and slipped through the window he’d broken earlier. Once they had morphed back into humans inside the house, Alba grasped Dimitri’s hand and led him into the corridor. Down the carpeted hallway they treaded, until they came to a closed door at its southern end.
“This was my grandmother’s house,” Alba said, her expression glazing over with sentimentality. “I was twelve when I came to London with my mother.” She pushed open the door. “And this was my room.”
Draped in soft shades of blues and grays, the room was furnished with an ornate canopied bed, an elegant vanity, and velvet curtains trimmed with large tassels. It was thoroughly feminine—but grown-up enough to make a twelve-year-old girl feel like a young woman.
Alba stepped forward and grasped the pole of the canopied bed. Her hands shook around it.
“Is it just as you remember?” Dimitri asked. He lit a candle and set it on the bedside table, then stepped in close enough to press his chest to her back.
Alba nodded. “Thank God Ileana didn’t change it.”
“She will never disturb anything again,” he whispered in her ear. “Alba, I want to erase the last month of our lives from your mind.”
He curled her hand into his while his mouth dropped to her neck. Warm, wet kisses slid over her skin, and goose bumps sprang up on her arm.
“You mean everything to me,” he said. “Now I finally have the chance to show you.”
As unhurriedly as an island breeze blows over a beach, Dimitri cupped Alba’s breast. He caressed the soft mound through the material of her dress, and she moaned. His body felt hotter than a raging fire against hers—and Alba closed her eyes against the energy. She tilted her head to the side so that he could nuzzle her neck as he played with her breast. The bite marks he’d left behind were incredibly sore, but she refused to dwell on the pain. Not only had Dimitri’s fangs redirected their fates, they had bound one another to a parallel destiny.
“When I awoke, your face was like the brightest sun I had ever seen,” she said softly.
“You weren’t scared?” he asked in a whisper.
“I wasn’t scared until you told me I was like you.”
“Are you still scared?”
“No,” she whispered back. “Because you’re all I need in any lifetime.”
Alba felt his erection pressing into her backside and she sucked in a breath. As his every muscle flexed against her in anticipation, she suspected that he was about to burst with the rapture he was restraining. And she desired him the same way. While she couldn’t begin to understand all of what took place today, she knew that she belonged in Dimitri’s arms at this very moment . . . wrapped deeply in his world . . . loving him completely and profoundly.
He spun her around and when he locked eyes with her, his passion found its way to the center of her heart. Lips swollen with lust, he bent forward and kissed her, sending a thousand white-hot flames to her every recess. Crushing her closer, he glided his fingers into her hair, loosening her hairpins. Her tresses exploded in waves around her shoulders, and as he deepened the kiss, she became as breathless as she had as a teenager. Uttering a little cry against his mouth, Alba clutched him with desperation. He responded with a fierce groan. Then he took her clothes off. Her overskirt dropped to the carpet, followed by her dress and bustle. And when he peeled away her corset and filmy fichu, her breasts spilled forward, an offering to him.
Left in nothing but her underpants and stockings, Alba clung to Dimitri again. He gathered her closer, but this time, her nakedness did not cause her to flush with embarrassment. She liked the feel of him being fully clothed against her bare skin.
Virile and strong and indestructible, he stepped back and let his gaze roll over her body. Then he kissed her again. She smiled as his unshaven cheek brushed across hers. And she smiled even wider when he reached down and tugged off her underclothes and stockings.
“I’m going to take you very slowly,” he said as the garments floated to the floor. “And with more passion that you could ever imagine.”
Dimitri directed her toward the bed. Once he spread Alba across the mattress, he straightened up and removed his clothes. Soon his broad chest, chiseled stomach, and ramrod cock increased her desire for him. Wearing a hungry look, he took her face in both hands—and as she whimpered with anticipation, his hot tongue slipped into her mouth and plundered the open space. Alba’s heart raced. She yearned to feel his stiff manhood in the damp juncture of her thighs, but she realized that taking things at an unhurried pace meant they could savor every moment of their lovemaking. After all, they’d waited eleven years to solidify their love—and there was no rush now.
As Dimitri hovered over her, moonlight bathing his face, his pale skin shone like polished silver. While his topaz eyes came alive, they filled with excitement as he took in the sight of her—from her face and shoulders, to her erect breasts and her hollow stomach.
“Let me kiss you all over,” he murmured.
As more wetness gathered in Alba’s core, Dimitri pressed his lips to the tiny recess at the base of her throat. Then he ran his tongue up her neck and lowered his hand to stroke her damp curls. Her folds were ripe for his fingers to explore. As her petals contracted like violets shrinking from the sun around them, she arched off the mattress and Dimitri let out a groan. His mouth wandered to her breasts. He retracted his fingers and rubbed the aching mounds with his palms. Giving another grunt of desire, he found her darkened nipples with his mouth. For a long while, he lapped at the hard buds, teasing, pulling, and commanding them into sharp points.
“You are magnificent,” he murmured in a voice raw with lust.
As he thumbed her erect nipples back and forth, a furling heat quickened Alba’s pulse. And her center flooded with more cream than she thought possible.
“Now I want to kiss your stomach,” Dimitri said.
His fiery lips traveled to the indent of her belly button. The sensation of his tongue thrusting in and out of it caused her body to shiver with delightful convulsions. As she raised her arms over her head in sheer surrender, Dimitri’s thick prick hardened against her shin. It proved that he was enjoying giving her pleasure. That was Dimitri. Assiduous and devoted to the end—and the thought made her smile.
He urged her thighs apart. After sending her a mischievous grin, his head disappeared between them. Alba sucked in a breath. Is Dimitri going to kiss me there? Her nipples tightened, and as he pressed his tongue against the cushion of her thigh, anticipation swept through her. While his fingertips petted the skin that framed her core and his mouth found her drenched folds, she let out a little cry. She fisted his hair, which shimmered like sea glass, and when his tongue made contact with her cleft, she swore she saw heaven’s gates.
“Good God,” she murmured.
Sliding his tongue halfway inside her folds, Dimitri probed the recess. Then he gripped her thighs and pulled her core closer to his mouth.
“You taste so sweet. I want to make you come again,” she heard him say in a muffled voice.
Inflamed, she bit her lip while his tongue flattened on a magical spot. The bead hidden in her petals began to pulsate and Dimitri held it in his mouth so that he could taste her climax. As hundreds of tingling daggers racked her body, she moaned and thrust her head to the side, the sensation almost more than she could bear.
“Now you’re ready for me,” he whispered.
He rose up on his knees and Alba ran a hand down his cut torso. With muscles stacked so close together they looked like brickwork, his chest heaved in breathless grunts. He grabbed his rock-hard penis and directed its tip toward her center. After supporting himself on his free arm, Dimitri rubbed his engorged staff against her slickness. Completely roused, he rocked into Alba, filling h
er with a satisfying warmth. Her fingertips strayed along his torso as he thrust his cock fully forward and ecstasy streaked through her.
He’s inside me and we are making love. There were times in their relationship that Alba had doubted it would ever happen. Against all odds, they’d created closeness without physical intimacy. How many couples are capable of that?
Pumping his way to bliss, Dimitri craned his neck forward and captured her mouth. Her hair became tangled against his face and his strong chest crushed her breasts, but neither of them seemed to care. She held on to him desperately, as if the thrill and the meaning of their lovemaking would end the minute she let go. She pushed her hips up to meet his thrusts and he moaned.
“Yes. Dear God—like that,” he said.
Perspiration pooled on his forehead. His bangs dripped and his biceps bulged as he took Alba’s raised hips and gripped with a fury. His slim hips banged against her core and she began to feel her center vibrate again.
She inhaled a sharp breath.
“Christ, Alba,” he said sharply. “I can’t hold out any longer.”
His cock was swollen to maximum size inside her channel and she knew he was about to spill his seed. In a blind frenzy, he ejaculated his desire while she climaxed for the third time.
Slumping over, he wrapped his powerful arms around her. And as he breathed against her in heavy gasps, his embrace calmed her and filled her with hope. It also banished the vacancy she had suffered ever since they were separated. She didn’t have to pour her efforts into creating a new life anymore. Now she could simply love Dimitri—without the debilitating fear that he’d put her in danger again.
She melted into the curve of his chest, envisioning the endless stretch of their future. He held the key to all that was important to her, and in his arms she belonged.
Dimitri caressed her face and smiled.
“That was incredible,” she whispered.
Snow White and the Vampire (The Cursed Princes) Page 22
