Vampire Lords of Blacknall: Trinity (28 page)

Beth grasped his hand. “You must call me Beth. I am your sister-in-law now. You will tell him I love him no matter what has happened.”

Father Christian nodded with somber, blue eyes. “I have a delicate question, my, I mean Beth.” Father Christian’s gaze turned to Trinity for a moment as though they spoke without words, then Father Christian said, “I need your permission to deny your brother human blood, until such time as he is clearheaded enough to make the decision on his own. It is an intensely personal decision.”

“Beth,” Trinity said, grasping her hand from Father Christian and pulling her to his side. “I would recommend you allow it, even though it will cause your brother more physical torment for a while, but in the end it could save his soul.”

Beth leaned against Trinity’s strong frame with tears in her eyes. In her mind she kept repeating,
he’s alive, he’s alive
. Guilt made her ache as she wondered why Adam had come back to Fanton’s mansion. Was Adam looking for her? Surely he was. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered, then with an anguished voice, she said, “Yes, do as you must, Father.”

Father Christian nodded and moved toward the church doors. “I will keep you closely apprised,” he said. Just before entering, he said, “Trinity, you need to speak to Baptiste or Church as soon as you are able.”

Trinity nodded and he turned and grasped her chin as Father Christian disappeared inside. He lifted her gaze to his. “Tell me why you are taking this guilt on. I can feel it pouring from you.”

“It is my entire fault!” she cried, beating a fist on his chest once. “I knew what Fanton was. I had found out, but I was too ashamed to admit it. And I
never
told Adam.”

Chapter Thirty One

A
shamed to admit it?
Trinity wanted to howl at the moon as answers gnawed through his body with denial. The demon Fanton
had fed
on Beth. She’d been ashamed to admit it to him. They looked at each other … knowing the truth through their intimate connection. He realized their bond of feelings was different from his brothers’. He could sense the feelings struggling inside her. It was bewilderment dawning on her and the agonized feelings of being raped. She wondered if the evil bastard could have taken more than her blood. When she was hypnotized beyond her capabilities, would she know?

“He didn’t,” Trinity growled, lashing her against his body, holding her close. “You’ve given your husband the treasure of your virginity,” he reminded her. Yet still she trembled in his embrace. There were so many things to discuss, hard and terrible things, but he felt the urgency to bide Christian’s words. He needed to speak to Church and Baptiste. “I’m taking you home,” he murmured in Beth’s silky hair.

Hours later, Trinity looked in the mirror, adjusting his crisp cravat and tugging the cuffs on his black evening jacket. After learning about Adam’s tragic circumstances, he brought Beth to Blacknall mansion. Upon arrival, they’d realized they were going to be in the middle of a ball. The timing was bad; however, he convinced Beth it would be advantageous to present her as Countess Montrose, rather sooner than later, for society’s wagging tongues.

Actually, Church had pressed it on her, besides needing her last minute help with the event. At the moment, he could feel her in the room connected to his and she felt like a soft, solid caress in his mind. He’d left her to the opposite, more feminine room to bathe, while he’d paid extravagant amounts of money to have an appropriate dress delivered for her.

Her gasp of surprise just a short time before had converged in his mind and in his extraordinary hearing, connected so intimately to her. She was pleased.

“Your bride will wear these.” Church strode into the room on the wave of brisk irritation. The event of the ball was trying his patience. Church had a square, black box in his hand, which he flipped open as Trinity turned to look.

“Mother’s necklace,” Trinity uttered, remembering the emeralds and diamonds as clearly as if she were standing in front of him wearing them. He was shocked, as he’d thought all of his mother’s possessions were lost, destroyed, taken and sold off by their stepfather.

“I’ve added the earrings and bracelet to match over the years,” Church’s voice grumbled.

It was a magnificent set meant for royalty and it would awe the
ton
, which was exactly why Church was doing it, Trinity realized. With jewels like these offsetting Beth’s beauty, her possession by the Lords of Blacknall would ring throughout the ballroom. For him, Church, Baptiste, and Christian, it would mean intimate acceptance into their family.

Trinity touched the bold, glistening emerald at the center of the necklace, perhaps secretly wishing he could feel his mother’s presence. He was afraid of what Church might have had to give up to even possess this relic from their mother. As he stroked the cold jewel, his gaze raised to Church’s, searching.

Church’s gaze remained locked … there would be no hint of the sacrifice. Yet, Church must have sensed his train of thought because he rasped in a barely-audible hiss, “It was worth it.”

Trinity nodded. They wouldn’t speak of what price their vile Sire extracted. They would simply appreciate the memories the necklace brought of happier times. “I remember when you and I snuck out of the nursery to hide at the top of the stairs the night they held a ball,” Trinity muttered, dropping his fingertips from the emerald.

Church looked startled for a moment. “You remember that? You were so young.”

Trinity arched an eyebrow. “As were you.”

Church smiled. “She was radiant that night. We both swore she made the emerald sparkle as father waltzed her across the dance floor.”

They’d been little boys wanting to look for soldiers attending the silly ball and perhaps their swords, Trinity thought. But their mother and father had captivated their ruckus attention.

Church thrust the box forward. “So take it,” he said gruffly.

Trinity tapped the box closed, still in Church’s hand, and laid his palm across it. “You should save this for your woman.”

Church jerked his head once. It was a sharp denial that he would ever have a woman. “Take it,” he demanded, and then he left the box so Trinity had no choice but to take it. Church stalked to the windows. The night fog had clouded them, but still the torches in front of the mansion flickered on the windowpanes.

“You’ve seen Christian and her brother Adam?” Church turned his piercing, blue eyes to him. Trinity nodded, as Church continued, “I don’t know who could have done this vile thing. And to a noble, no less.”

Trinity interrupted anything further Church might add. “I do.”

Church’s black brows rose against the shock of white hair on his forehead. “You do?” he demanded.

“I’ve a suspicion it is the same one who has been mutilating the women.”

“And you
know
who this is,” Church challenged. He growled, “It would take a vampire to kill Cull like that.”

“Exactly,” Trinity answered with his irises turning predatory yellow.

“Trinity, is something wrong with Adam?” Beth exclaimed, hurrying into the room with the crackle of petticoats. “You look so fierce.”

He turned to her, for a split second admiring the dress she wore before she was embraced against him. “No, your brother fares just as we left him.”

Church’s features instantly turned from predatory to fond as his gaze slid over Beth. “You do this family’s uncouth bachelors proud, my lady.”

Trinity watched his bride blush at the compliment and he could not agree more as pride filled him. She was exquisite in the green and dappled-silver gown, with pearls shot through the hem, collar, and sleeves. He especially appreciated the modest, but full, cleavage she presented and he would envy the emeralds nesting atop the creamy mounds.

“You must call me Beth in private.”

“My pleasure, Beth,” Church responded. “I will be forever in your debt for shouldering some of the social expectations from this blasted ball.”

She smiled again, placing her hand on the black sleeve covering his forearm for a light pat. “I wish we didn’t have to care about such social nonsense. I have spent half my life worrying over it.”

Church covered her hand for a moment. “It is better to confront them and keep up appearances. They don’t know we have more to hide than they do.”

Beth nodded. “You are correct and wise.”

Church’s hand lifted from hers and hers fell away. “Your husband makes certain I am not always right.”

Trinity tilted his head with a slight smirk. “Your head’s already swelled enough, brother,” he teased a bit caustically.

Trinity heard and felt the arrival of Baptiste behind them — what interested him was Beth appeared to also. She truly was connected to his brothers through him.

Baptiste wasn’t dressed for a ball. He looked disturbed and the discontent thrummed in Trinity’s mind. Baptiste bowed slightly to Beth, and then he said, “There was a vampire in the mansion, hidden behind the walls by the look of it.” Baptiste turned his gaze to Beth. “Your brother screamed the name Fanton, so I thought …”

Beth gasped. Trinity strengthened his arm around her as her horrified gaze met his. He looked deep into her eyes and nodded. He watched her gulp and straighten. “That is my stepbrother,” she stated distinctly. “He
is
a vampire.”

Both Church and Baptiste made amazed sounds, before Trinity advised, “Let her finish.”

Beth squeezed him, and then said, “I didn’t know he was a vampire. My brother, Adam, didn’t either. We’ve known he was evil forever, but this …” She shook her head. “We never knew there were …” Her voice trailed off.

“Vampires,” Trinity uttered, finishing her words.

“He was massively torn about the throat, wounded badly. And he ran. But what I don’t understand is why Christian or I couldn’t detect him,” Baptiste muttered. “Perhaps it was all the blood.”

“Nay,” Trinity said, glaring at his brothers. “It’s
wolfsbane
.”

“What is this?” Church demanded.

Trinity shrugged. “I’ve not had time to tell you. However, I came across a meeting of Cull and Mongrel. I heard them speaking about an elixir that would leave them undetected by their brethren.”

“Of course it’s quite possible,” Baptiste muttered.

“It obviously works,” Church stated, turning his flashing gaze on Beth. “This Lord Fanton killed Cull and tried to kill your brother.”

She nodded, clutching Trinity’s arm. “He was evil before. I know it,” she whispered the terrible knowledge.

Trinity watched Church’s gaze turn to him. “Evil before, was he?”

“It’s why he mauls them,” Trinity uttered. “He was a killer before he was turned into a vampire.”

Beth whimpered at the revelation, and he pulled her fully into his embrace as he turned them away from his brothers. “These women who were killed, he-he, you think he …”

He grasped her chin and turned her anguished gaze up to him. He had to tell her the hardest things he suspected. “Yes,” he stated, and then he hesitated, but forced the words out, “It had to be him in the woods chasing you.”

She nearly crumbled, but he held her upright. “How could I not know any of this?” she exclaimed, “How could I be so blind?”

“You are not,” Church expelled behind them.

But Trinity said it for him. “Vampires live to deceive, Beth. We are
masters
at it.”

Chapter Thirty Two

B
eth left the discussion of how to find and destroy Fanton to the brothers. It was too heartbreaking, knowing she’d been as if an accomplice in all the horrors Fanton had wrought. They could say vampires were master deceivers, but she should have known.

Nonetheless, she had to leave her guilt alone to fester on its own for a while. At least until the ball was over. Her skirts swished on the floor as she walked the long hall to the main staircase. She worried over how to present herself. She had secrets that needed to be kept now, and she was a new wife. She thought about how other new wives she’d known acted at their first balls after marriage, so carefree and a bit triumphant they’d made their catch.

She couldn’t be carefree, not with her brother’s life so destroyed and Fanton such a threat to innocent, unsuspecting women. But she could be proud. Proud to love a man such as her husband. She felt the touch in her mind right before she heard a unique swishing sound, then suddenly, as if a blur, Baptiste arrived beside her.

“Oh my,” she gasped, startled even with the warning.

“Apologies,” he said. “It might take a bit of getting used to.” She smiled, nodding, but noted the pensive look on his handsome features. “I came to ask you if you could perhaps help a, um, acquaintance of mine.”

Beth raised an eyebrow as she stopped walking and turned to him. “If I can, my lord, of course.”

“Baptiste,” he interjected, and then he said, “Her name is Irene, and she’d require a dress for this ball.”

An hour later, Beth stepped down the main staircase, with emeralds at her throat and sparkling on her earlobes and the large ring with the Blacknall crest on her finger. They were nearly ready to open the main doors to start greeting arrivals. She was very pleased with what she’d accomplished with the mysterious Irene. She glanced sideways at Irene, stepping shyly beside her. The woman’s rich fall of deep red hair was caught upward in a fashionable twist as her gaze darted nervously.

“Will he be here?” she asked for the dozenth time.

Beth clasped Irene’s hand for reassurance. “Lord Baptiste will be here.”

Beth smiled inwardly; there was definitely something of the heart going on here. She wondered if Trinity knew. Then she saw him across the grand entryway watching her arrival with heat in his gaze that caused her to blush slightly. Trinity nodded his head to her inner question and she felt startled. It was going to take time to become used to the secret connection of the mind they had.

Mischievously, she started imagining kissing him with great passion and his irises began to glow in what she saw as she drew nearer was the beginning of yellow rings. The image of her lying naked as he split her legs and kissed her mound flashed with amazing heat into her mind.