by Tess Oliver
An agonizing roar filled the chamber and the gun slipped from my hand and smacked the floor with a clang. I grabbed for it. Then the only sound in the chamber was my own frenetic breathing. I tucked myself into a tiny ball. The surrounding atmosphere was dense with silence and a frigid cold. With the torment I faced, astonishingly, I found myself growing sleepy from the icy air. I’d read somewhere that people lost in snow fell into a deadly slumber from the cold, and I had no doubt as my feet, hands and face grew numb, that this could happen. In fact, the drowsiness I now felt beckoned me. It comforted me and seemed to dull my senses. My eyelids grew too heavy to hold. Then the sound I knew too well shook me from my dreamlike state.
My eyes shot open when an earsplitting sound echoed through the chamber. It was stone splintering against stone. I hugged my knees to my chest and gripped the gun in my hand. A shadow loomed across the entrance to the small alcove. Dizziness swept over me, and I rocked unsteadily on my feet bracing myself against the stone box to keep from falling over.
Heavy breathing, his breathing, radiated throughout the room. But the odor did not follow. The usual scent that preceded the beast was not there. I convinced myself it was the frigid temperatures that kept the odor from penetrating the air.
The shadow disappeared and another explosion of shattering stone jarred me from my thoughts. Several agonizing cries followed the crash of stone. I squeezed my eyes shut as if somehow that would block out the sound. Then I don’t know whether I’d been squeezing myself too hard or the dangerously low temperatures had slowed my pulse, but the sleepiness took hold of me again, and I had no will to stop it. As I drifted into unconsciousness, I wondered if I would be fortunate enough to sleep through my own murder.
****
I turned over in my sleep and smacked my head on something hard. It was not my bed post. My eyes searched in the darkness. Solid white stone. I sat up remembering where I was. I looked down at myself. Aside from a stinging pain in my side, I seemed to be completely intact. Still numb with cold, I used Marybeth’s sarcophagus to stand. Morning light seeped beneath the opening in the door to the vault. There were chunks of marble everywhere, and the carving of the family patriarch was gone. And lying there amongst the rubble, half naked and trembling uncontrollably was the boy I loved. I raced to him, stumbling through the debris, and sat down hard on the floor next to him. He lifted his head and laid it in my lap. My hand smoothed his black hair.
I took off my cloak and threw it over his bare shoulders. “What happened, Nathaniel?”
“It tried to take hold, but my body wouldn’t allow it. Your blood must have stopped it.” His voice trailed off, and he drifted in and out of sleep. I glanced around at our rather inhospitable surroundings.
“Nathaniel?”
“Hmm?”
“How often do these mausoleums get opened?”
“Far as I know, only when someone in the family dies.”
“Well then, let’s hope that someone in the Hampton family is on their death bed.”
“Bloody hell,” Strider muttered.
When Strider had regained his strength, we strolled briskly around the chamber trying to warm ourselves before deciding that we were probably burning up to much oxygen during our trek. We sat down against a wall and huddled together beneath his coat for warmth. The face from the sculpture lay at our feet. Except for a severed ear, it was completely whole. I pushed it away with my foot. “He has a terrible scowl. I’ll bet he wasn’t a nice man.”
Strider’s arm went around my shoulder. “Rich men are generally not nice men. You have to step on a lot of people to make money. Me, all I need is enough food to eat, a warm place to sleep, and a sweet angel to kiss.” He leaned over and kissed my forehead.
“If we get out of here, Nathaniel--“
“What do you mean if? I’ll figure a way out of here even if I have to dig through the marble by gnawing it with my teeth.”
I laughed. “That would be a sight to see. Well then after you chew our way out of here, I think you should stay with us permanently.”
He dropped his arm. “I don’t know. After all I’ve got a lot of ladies waiting for me on the east side of town.”
I pushed away from him. “You bloody bastard!” I smacked his chest with the palm of my hand.
He smiled and grabbed my wrist and kissed the same palm. “I guess those girls will just have to live without me.”
I yanked my hand from his grasp. “Never mind. They can have you. I’ve changed my mind. I’m going to search for an altogether more appealing boy to court me.” I waved my hand. “Why don’t you start over there. The walls look thinner on the far side.”
He pulled me into his lap and held me against his chest. His stubble-cevered chin rubbed the top of my head. “First of all, you will not find any boy more appealing than Nathaniel Strider. And secondly, I would have to kill any boy who tried to come near you. You are mine and only mine.”
He held me for a long time, then voices outside the mausoleum door made us jump to our feet. “Thank heavens! Somebody died!”
As the door creaked open and more light filled the chamber, the havoc Strider had wreaked on the sacred monuments became more evident. How would this destruction be explained? We squinted into the harsh morning light at the figure in the doorway. But it was not a member of the Hamptom family. It was Dr. Bennett.
His eyes were bloodshot as he stepped into the vault. “Thank God, you are both alive.”
I ran to him and threw my arms around him. He returned the hug as if he never intended to release me.
The cemetery worker who’d opened the vault stepped inside. His mouth dropped open, and he scratched his head. “What happened here?”
Dr. Bennett turned to him. “Isn’t it obvious? Earth tremors.”
The man did not look completely convinced of the explanation. “Well, let’s get out of ‘ere before they come again.”
“Grand idea,” I said.
I had not realized how much I missed fresh air until we stepped out into it. A cab waited outside the cemetery gates. We crawled inside and onto the warm soft seats.
I pressed back against the seat. “When I die, please make sure I’m surrounded by cushioned fabric and not cold marble.”
Strider smiled. “And don’t forget the laughing angel.”
“Precisely.” I glanced over at Dr. Bennett. His face was nearly washed of all color, and he looked wearier than I’d ever seen him before. “I am sorry, John, about the chloral hydrate, but I had to.”
He put up his hand. “We’ll talk about that later. My head is throbbing, and I don’t have the energy to discuss it right now.”
I shrank back against the cushion realizing now that he was plenty angry with me. “How did you know where we were?”
“I’d overheard you in my office. We had to open several mausoleums until we found the right one.” He shook his head. “I never would have expected you to do something so foolhardy, Camille.”
“The important thing, John, is that the experiment worked. My blood does contain immunity.”
Dr. Bennett stared out the window. “So it seems,” he said, “so it seems.”
I tucked myself next to Strider’s side. It always felt so right being next to him.
We rode in silence for a long while, then Dr. Bennett turned to me. “Camille, I’ve had a letter from the continent, from a minister in a church in the city of Transylvania. There have been a number of attacks there these past few months. We set sail in a fortnight.”
“We?” I sat forward and Strider followed.
“Yes, we. I cannot go without my partner.” He looked at Strider. “And I’ve gotten you a position on board the ship.”
“A job on board a ship?” Strider could not contain the excitement in his voice.
“It’s a local vessel, so you’ll be in port a great deal of the time. But I know it’s what you wanted. And Camille will not have my head for sending you far away.”
Strider reach
ed forward and shook his hand. “Aye, thank you, sir.”
We pulled up in front of the townhouse, and Dr. Bennett paid the driver. He gave me a hand out of the cab and held it for a moment. “When we return from our trip, Camille, we will bring you sister home.”
I smiled up at him. “Absolutely.”
Dr. Bennett climbed the steps, but Strider and I stayed outside. He turned me toward him. “Now I seem to remember something about a kiss like it’s never been done before.” And he kissed me long and hard.
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23