Love Charms (157 page)

Chapter Thirteen

Trinity slept
most of the day and when he woke, he was disturbed at where his thoughts in his
resting state had concentrated.
Beth.

"She's a
silly little virgin," he growled, pushing his muscular body off the cold
pallet he'd rested on. The heavy drapes in his bedchamber were closed, making
the room lightless. He didn't need his night vision to move about the room,
knowing where each piece of furniture was. The room held a large bed, but most
days he preferred the pallet. Old habits were hard to change. He also rested
naked. The beast that was a part of him somehow found clothing too confining.
When he stood his hard erection jutted freely.

Normally, he'd
attend to it with his hand. He knew that wouldn't be enough this time. If he
was going to excise the memories of a full-figured, soft virgin from his mind,
he'd better find another woman to bury his shaft into.

An hour later,
after a vigorous training regimen, he'd bathed, thrown on some clothes, and he
was coming down the grand staircase, when he heard a bellow from within the
depths of the mansion. "Second brother, attend me!"

Trinity nearly
continued on, ignoring his eldest brother's command. However, he knew Church
would hunt him down. Church was the first turned into a vampire and the
strongest of their brood. While all of them were forced to do many vile things
under the control of their Sire, Church had seen the worst of it. Their
stepfather had kept Church as his only subservient vampire for years, before
he'd drained the next brother. Church didn't reveal much of what happened those
years, but he'd become the first day walker of the brothers during that time.

That meant
Church had bitten and drank from the blood of another vampire after it had
freshly fed. Years later, after they'd killed their Sire, Church had made each
of them drink his blood, until they all had the ability. The brothers held the
secret close because many of the vampire brethren would like to know how to
accomplish day walking.

Trinity
continued down the mahogany stairs, and then he turned toward the ballroom
where Church's voice had emanated from.

"You've
forgotten the ball haven't you?" Church frowned with clear irritation the
moment Trinity stepped into the ballroom, which was alive with activity.

Trinity arched
an eyebrow at Church. "This week?" he guessed.

"Next,"
Church snapped. He added, “If I didn't work so hard to keep up appearances, the
lot of you would be in cold graves with stakes through your …" Church
stopped his lecture obviously realizing the company of servants they were in.
Some servants were setting up chairs, while others were on high ladders hanging
flowing white panels of airy material.

"White?"
Trinity offered, for Church's efforts.

"Damn
things have to have a theme." Church exhaled a breath with obvious
annoyance.

"Snow"?
Trinity guessed.

"Blast
no," Church uttered. "Angels."

Trinity nearly
laughed, and that surprised him as he caught sight of a burly servant hoisting
none other than a replica of an angel high up toward the ceiling.

"You know,
Church, all of us are very grateful for your single-minded efforts."
Trinity tried to keep the smirking of his lips to a minimum.

"You don't
mean a word of it." Church's voice was a growl as he set down an empty
champagne glass on top of a long bar set up in the ballroom. "This really
needs a woman," he muttered, turning to face him. "I'm afraid if one
of us doesn't take a bride soon, the speculation about us will become entirely
too intense."

"You cannot
be serious." Trinity's spine stiffened. "Can't we just be reclusive
lords?"

Church motioned
for him to follow away from the servants' hearing. They ended up in the
anti-room to the ballroom, where Church stopped and turned to him. "The
lady mothers of this decade, who are looking for suitable husbands for their
daughters, are too scrutinizing, Trinity. They meddle and inquire about everything."

"We could
try another failed engagement," Trinity offered. "Baptiste's worked
out well a decade ago with that lovely countess from France."

"
Do
you want to have to leave here and start over?" Church demanded.

Trinity
grimaced. They both knew there were too many reasons they needed to stay in
London. One of those reasons was the growing and untamed vampire population.
Vampires might be predators of man, however, many men banded together could
easily make vampires extinct.

"So we have
a problem." Trinity said finally with a grim slant of his lips.

"One of a
growing list," Church replied, looking just as menacing. He relaxed his
wicked glare, bringing a hand up to rub his neck. "So, report to me,"
he muttered.

"I wasn't
able to track the murderer," Trinity said. "Yet," he added.

"I believe
the virgin’s blood clouded our abilities to detect him," Church said.

Trinity clamped
his jaw tight, unwilling to speak about Beth. "You think it's a
vampire?"

Church nodded.
Trinity raked a hand through his dark striped blond hair. He was not ready to
say it was a vampire. Not the way the bodies were ripped apart.

"How's the
young woman?" Church asked with a curious glint in his rich, blue eyes.

"She will
recover," Trinity supplied, not adding anything more.

The two of them
eyed each other, Church obviously looking irritated at the curt answer. He
sighed. "What about what she said of us … of
you
, Trinity?"
His voice was tight as though he was keeping his temper in check.

Trinity turned,
looking out into the ballroom, wondering why he felt such a need to keep Beth
and his interactions with her to himself, as he said, "She will come to
think it was her imagination." He paused. "Who would ever believe
her?"

"Then it
will be a wise move to invite her to our ball, so she can see us as just normal
gentlemen." Church's black eyebrows rose against the shock of white hair
on his forehead. Trinity whipped around toward him with a foul growl mounting
in his throat. Church added, "This simple human woman, whom
you
can
sense at great distances."

Trinity's fist
clenched. Church was baiting him to some unknown end that only Church could
see. However, he didn't intend to see Lady Winslow again. His brother would
just have to live with that fact.

"I'm going
to see Cull," Trinity's voice snarled. "See if he lost another
whore."

Church didn't
stop him as he turned and left the mansion, which should have made him wonder,
but he was too tightly wound to consider it. He knew Cull would not be out in
the early evening light. Cull wasn't a day walker and Cull would very much like
to discover how to become one. However, the Blacknall brothers were all mute on
the subject. Therefore, Trinity knew he'd find Cull in the darkest corners.

Where he did
find Cull was in a candle-lit room laying under an ample-figured whore. They
lay upon a groaning feather mattress. Bouncing actually. Trinity raised an
eyebrow as the red lace curtains fluttered when he entered the room. He'd never
have believed Cull would enjoy being dominated. However, that's all it could be
called, seeing the naked and rotund woman heaving over Cull, who was tied to
the bedposts by his wrists. The hearty woman was slapping Cull's red face,
calling him belittling names, as she demanded that he fuck her harder with …

"Your puny
little cock!" The tart was not even a vampire.

"Unbelievable,"
Trinity muttered.

The woman was
too involved to hear his remark. However, Cull's sharper hearing caught it
right away. Even as involved as he was. "Bloody hell, who's there?"
Cull exclaimed, trying to see around the large curves of the bouncing woman.
"Stop, Rose! Bloody well, stop fucking, will you? Someone's here!"

Trinity leaned a
shoulder against the wall watching Rose's buttocks gyrate. She seemed
un-inclined to halt her vigorous intent. He picked up Cull hissing urgently at
her. "Untie me, ya damn bitch, or I'll rip your neck out!"

"
Don't
do it, Rose," Trinity's voice flung sharply across the room. Rose's heavy
undulations ground to a halt as he stepped forward, baring his fangs and
letting the predator’s yellow glint fill his eyes.

Rose screeched
as Cull bucked beneath her, cussing and trying to better threaten her into
untying him. Trinity supposed the loose vampire won out over the bound one, and
Rose lumbered off Cull to clutch her opulent nude body unsuccessfully with her
arms and hands.

"Out!"
Trinity snarled, stomping one foot forward.

Rose bolted as
best she could with her obese size, and then he turned, leaping onto the bed,
standing over Cull.

"Fucking
cunt!" Cull screamed, twisting his wrists violently against the leather
straps, made just for the purpose of holding someone prisoner to the bed.
Cull's eyes turned into glowing red diamonds with fear and anger as he hissed
upward, trying to use his legs to push him away.

"I saw that
last night," Trinity hissed, ignoring Cull's futile attempts as he lowered
to a crouch, and he grasped Cull's agitated chin.

"Seen
what?" Cull heaved over his distended fangs and the clamp on his jaw.

"Red glints
in the woods," Trinity charged, planting his other hand into Cull's chest
and shoving down hard. "Be still," he ordered sharply.

Cull grunted
several times before stopping most of his body's bucking motions. "You're
nearly sitting on my cock, Blacknall," he spat.

Trinity snapped
Cull's head to the side, exposing his neck as he snarled and bared his fangs
lowering his mouth for a ripping shot.

"No!"
Cull screeched. "Please, Master, I'll be good. I'll be good."

Trinity stopped,
holding Cull arched, as he spoke. "Another woman slaughtered in the woods
last night, Cull."

"No,"
Cull rasped beneath the hard stretch of his neck.

"Are you
missing any more whores?" Trinity asked.

"No,"
Cull's strained voice echoed. "I don't know. Been here."

"I saw the
eyes of a vampire in the woods," Trinity muttered.

A newly turned
vampire began its transformation with just a red glint in its eyes. The longer
it lived, and the more it fed, expanded the red in its irises, until they were
full red like Cull's when aroused with emotion. It took many decades and blood
to turn a vampire's eyes fully red, which meant the red glints he'd seen
suggested a more recently turned vampire. Only day walkers, such as the
Blacknalls, had yellow eyes with hints of red slashed in their centers.

"You
couldn't smell him?" Cull asked.

The question
itself was innocuous. It was a logical progression. However, there was
something in Cull's tightening posture and the tone of his voice that caught
Trinity's attention.

"No, I
couldn't," he answered, releasing Cull's neck to watch his face.

"Strange,"
Cull muttered, but his face said otherwise. It revealed that Cull was very
pleased.

"Yes."
Trinity's eyes narrowed. "A vampire, yet one that cannot be scented."
Although, he'd detected a faint scent at the Row Street murder scene. Even
then, he should have been able to smell the bastard better. Vampire … or not.

Then it came to
him, with awareness so forceful, he nearly revealed its arrival on his face.
What power would another vampire hold if it could move about and not be traced
by other vampires? Not trailed by the Blacknall brothers …

"What are
you up to?" Trinity demanded, snarling fiercely at Cull.

Cull started to
sputter and lie. Trinity reached for a short sword that must be Cull's, on the
bedside table. Within one aggressive motion, he stood and swung the sword downward
toward Cull's neck.

"No!"
Cull screamed.

Trinity stopped
the blade's edge just at the edge of Cull's neck. "I heard a rumor!"
Cull cried out.

"And?"
Trinity asked in a hissed utterance.

"One blood
claimed that he could …" Trinity's gaze suddenly leapt to the east.
"Watch the edge of that blade," Cull yelped.

Trinity ignored
the fact that he'd cut the side of Cull's neck as he jumped off the bed and he
let the sword drop to the floor with a clatter.

"Where are
you going?" Cull exclaimed. "You can't just leave me like this!"
he screamed.

But he could,
and he did.

Beth …

Chapter Fourteen

Trinity leapt
off his galloping stallion before it reached a full stop. Beth had been in
danger … terrified. He'd felt the jolt of it at Cull's. Yet since that first peal
of fright … nothing. His boots attacked the ground running. His last sense of
her placed her well behind the mansion that she resided in. The reason he
couldn't feel anything about her now threw fear through him.

Why not inside
the mansion? He looked from a dry creek bed up to the back of the mansion in
the distance as he ran. Why was there no sense of her? He was afraid it meant
she was dead … He didn't understand his ability to feel her fear. It could be
corrupt or false, but he didn't stop.

His sharp gaze
pierced the darkness and clinging fog. On the grass just before the trees, his
acute vision caught sight of a pale limb. He turned toward it, scanning the
area for danger. Whatever brought Beth to this spot appeared to be gone.

"Maiden, be
alive," he whispered with desperation that was foreign to him, as he
landed over her crumpled form. The fog and sweat drenched his long hair, making
it cling in chunks against his shoulder as he went down on one knee over Beth.
She lay on her side and she looked naked wearing just a thin gown that was wet
with the night dew and painted to her lush curves. Her coal black hair was so
long it covered her face and clung to the mound of her breasts. Her arms were
outstretched, as though she'd been blindly running and fallen where she lay.

He felt
wretchedness he'd not felt in decades seize his chest.
No.
He scooped
her upper body toward him, bringing her to his chest, shoving the grasping hair
away from her face. She moaned and he felt her lips move against his chest. The
agony sprang free from unnamed pain into overpowering relief.

"Maiden,"
he uttered hoarsely.

"Trinity?"
Her hot breath warmed his chest. "I prayed you'd come, even as I knew I
shouldn't."

"What
danger?" he asked, amazed at the strength she held to deny the craving for
his blood that had to have its demand on her.

"It
w-was," she stuttered.

Beth couldn't
name all the reasons why she hesitated to tell Trinity the revelations about
her stepbrother. Shame being one of the strongest making her reluctant. "A
horrible nightmare," she said, lying with a trembling voice. "I-I
dreamt of being chased."

He shifted her
body, lifting her upright, and she clasped her hands to his shoulders, leaning
her head back to look up at him. She was acutely aware of the promise of his
blood so close to her lips. The excitement and heat of desiring it flowed
through her as Trinity's wide hand settled on the slope of her waist. She could
feel each of his long fingers as if they touched her skin. A sound rose from
her throat like a low moan of longing.

"Are you
hurt?" he asked as long strands of his damp hair clung to her cheek.

"No,"
she said. "But, how did you know …"

"I don't
know, Beth," he responded, with mild yellow glows circling his irises.
She'd seen them full yellow in color. "I felt your fear."

"I'm
sorry," she whispered. Yet she wasn't sorry at all. Hearing her name on
his lips was like a caress.

He shook his
head slightly at her apology, but no words came with it, only his gaze lowered
to look at her mouth, while his hand moved down to the curve of her hip, then
stroked upward again.

In that instant,
she saw the lengthening of his front teeth into sharp fangs. Shocking and so
close as she'd not be able to deny their existence. She quivered with a gasp.
"Will you bite me?" she asked, afraid, but confused at the partial
hopeful feelings that rose inside her.

"You are
temptation beyond temptation, maiden."

His voice was a
low rumble, but the inflection of his words was strange over the thickness of
his fangs. He raised his hand not supporting her to brush the hair from her
temple. "We are stronger than our urges," he said, and she nodded
slowly to him. He looked from her lips to her eyes. "You seem to have
found your strength."

Beth looked at
the vein in his wrist quickly, then back to his transfixing eyes. "I'm not
so certain," she whispered, clenching her fingers into his strong
shoulders.

His hand
continued to brush the hair from her face. "The craving is there, yet you
are not crazed because of it."

It was true, yet
this close to him it was so much harder. "Will it go away?" she
asked.

He sighed
settling his hand on the side of her neck. "I don't know. With time apart,
for you, I hope so." For reasons she couldn't name, she didn't care for
the implication she knew was coming from his lips, as he said, "Maiden,
this must be the last time we see each other." Then, she knew why she had
the awful feeling …

"No!"
she cried, shamefully throwing herself upward against him. She understood he
spoke the truth, yet she couldn't stand it. She expected him to push her away.
Instead, he put his arms around her holding her within a tight embrace as her
tears fell against his collarbone.

Tremors ran
through Trinity's body. He'd not felt the like of them since he'd been beneath
his sadistic stepfather's control. The slight tremors were not of fear … pain,
yes … and definitely the temptations of blood and a soft curving body. More he
couldn't put a name too. Yet before the thought caused him caution, he stroked
his hand downward as his mouth lay pressed to the warmth of Beth's fragile
neck.

One rounded
bottom cheek filled his hand. He squeezed, feeling the heaviness of Beth's
barely clad breasts against his chest. Her curving, ripe figure was made for
his desire and he wanted to stroke every inch of her. What was it about this
woman? Her body was as cold as his was against the stroke and kneading motions
of his hand. He should stop. He didn't. He should push away from her temptation
… he didn't.

The only solace
to his brand of moralizing was that he didn't bite her. Yet by the Devil that
made him, and by the God his mother had worshipped … he wanted to.

He inched his
mouth away from her neck, throwing his thoughts into the feeling of her lush
body beneath his hands, the lesser of two evils. He shouldn't, yet he was a
selfish beast. Lechery taunted him to sample that it might appease the greater
threat of taking her blood. Yet no amount of internal combat seemed able to
stop his touch.

Beth's lips
moved against his throat, warm and soft. So innocent. The excitement of a woman
untouched by any man filled him. He leaned back slightly, dropping his head and
the pleasure of her mouth was against his lips. She gasped into his kiss as he
wound thick damp strands of her hair around his fingers.

Beth knew the
difference between wanting Trinity's blood and wanting him … the moment he
kissed her. All rational thought left. She moaned sounds of needy pleasure,
pressing against him as though she could become part of him. He took control of
her mouth, repeatedly molding her lips beneath his. Her hand gripped his hair
as her other hand curled into the cloth of his jacket. It was the most
pleasurable thing she'd ever felt and her body swayed into his body and against
his hand stroking her back and squeezing her bottom. Her mind whirled with
pleasure as little moans panted from her throat.

His tongue
pressed between her lips and entered her mouth. She felt the pointy tip of his
fangs grazing her lips; they weren't long and intimidating as she'd seen them
before, but retracted.

"Beth,"
Trinity inhaled, lifting his lips from Beth's sweet mouth.

She moaned at
the lost kiss, undulating her curves into his body, and Trinity saw the dazed
lust in her luminous eyes. This was what a woman befogged by his lust looked
like and he wondered if she'd finally succumbed to his unnatural allure. It was
nearly enough to halt his ill-cautioned lust. He despised the puppet-like
quality of women transfixed by his arousal.

Nearly … but
then, there was the feel of her full figure beneath his hands. Large breasts
with big nipples, tightening to his fondling fingertips as he wished the
nightgown were torn away. Beth's eyes closed and her lips panted as he taught
her new extremes of pleasure.

His life was
always black fighting white. The darkness had to see her as the ultimate
temptation and the light would not allow him to take her virginity or her
blood. His fangs made quick work slicing the ties holding the thin cloth across
her breasts as her back arched over his supporting arm. He was beyond wondering
if she were mesmerized or not.

"Trinity …
Trinity. I-I … "she moaned, and he tugged the cloth away from her breasts,
freeing them.

"Maiden,"
he growled, gazing at the pale white globes. "Heaven and hell."

Beth whimpered,
lifting her hands to her breasts trying to cover them from his lecherous gaze.
He pulled her hair arching her further as he lowered his head to kiss her
timidness away. His mouth was demanding this time, until he felt her soften and
yield beneath him with a moan that called to him. His hand covered her hand
over her breast making them both knead the plump mound.

Beth mewled into
Trinity's mouth over hers.
She wanted
. Her body twisted, twisted again
with something making her own hand squeeze and release her breasts and her hips
began rolling to the throbs building between her thighs. That feeling blossomed
into fitful excitement as the warmth of Trinity's hand cupped the mound between
her legs and his tongue suckled her tongue deeply into his mouth.

She should be
completely scandalized, but it felt so exquisite she couldn't let it stop.
Trinity
was hers
. Then, the feelings overwhelmed her coherency and she flowed with
them into mindless need.

Trinity stroked
Beth's inner thigh, pushing her gown upward to bare her hips. He could feel her
blood, hot and pure, throbbing through her body, then, pooling in her loins.
His fingers slid over the warm, damp lips of her sex and he growled into her
mouth. She squealed in fear or passion, thrashing her body as though she would
take it away from him.

He lifted his
lips from hers, hissing the words, "It's too late for that."

"Trinity,"
she panted, with her generous breasts jiggling as her fingers snatched at his
wrist between her legs.

""You
will
give me this," he insisted, as he rubbed his finger along her slit, to
center on the spot that made her quiver.

"Oh!
Oh!" she yelped with her eyes widening as her fingers dug into his wrist.

He would be the
first to give her sexual pleasure. He
would
be the first. He circled the
spot as his mouth lowered to the jut of her hard nipple. Devil have him, he
wanted to bite it. Penetrate the fat breast and suck hard. Then her legs fell
open, distracting his damned weaknesses, turning his hunger toward carnal
desire and he took her tit into his mouth to suckle.

His fingers
played relentlessly deep in her wetting slit, until her inner thighs jerked
with spasms and her moans came high and uncontrolled. He dared a touch, for a
memory, to last him an unnatural lifetime. His finger slipped inside.

"Oh!
T-Trinity!"

She climaxed,
clenching his finger inside her heat with her head fallen back as the tremors
licked her body.

He found his
mouth opened with his fangs bared to her arched throat.
One taste
. The
thought of one taste, taunted him. But then, a sob ripped through his internal
strife, filling his head with the sound. "Beth," he said her name
hoarsely, pulling away from her throat.

"Beast!"
she sobbed suddenly. The word struck his body like a blow, tensing every limb.
"What is happening to me?
What
have you done?"

Beth rolled away
from the wicked Lord Trinity. He didn't stop her as she settled upright,
leaning on the side of her hip in the grass. Horrified and embarrassed sobs
trembled from her lips, and she tried with jerky motions to pull down her
nightgown to cover herself. She was afraid, terrified by what she felt. She
didn't understand what had happened to her. All she knew for certain was her
desire for Trinity had grown even larger, until it cracked.

"I will
take you to your room."

"No!"
she cried, swiping at his hands that tried to catch her. "Leave me be! Go
as you said you would."

Without words,
he ignored her, lifting her struggling body up into his arms. His strength was
beyond her ability to fight and she sank against him with her tears dampening
the cloth at his shoulder.

She realized,
nearly too late, where he was taking her. "No, go to my rooms upstairs.
Not back there," she cried clutching him as she tried to stop crying.
Fanton.
It came back to her as though Satan had touched her with his deadly fingers.
How could she return to the mansion? But she had nowhere else to go.

"Put me
down you …
beast.
Put me down now!" She became so incensed she
scratched Trinity's cheek with her fingernail.

"Maiden,"
he growled.

"I am no
longer a maiden!" she cried. "Do not call me that."

She'd finally
provoked him enough that he halted before the stone patio at the back of the
mansion. He was leaving her. She couldn't tell him about Fanton. "You play
cruelly with me," she accused with hot tears streaking her cheeks.

"Innocent,
you wear your virginity and naiveté like a shield," he informed her
caustically.

She gasped,
pushing on his shoulders. "Put me down. I would enter my home on my
own." She added a threat, the truth, but threat nonetheless. "You
fell close to completely ruining me should anyone see us."

She felt
desolate when she won, yet she didn't know him and the things she did know
about him frightened her. Then his strength was setting her bare feet on the
stone patio.