Trinity sprinted toward redemption … this time, and as he ran, he tore his shirt off, throwing it aside. There was still blood on his hand and when he came across a small stream, he stopped to wash it off. Crouching, he looked at the blood drying on his hand and fingers, wondering how they’d all lived this long and not known virgin’s blood held such diabolical and monumental cravings for them.
Forcibly, he sunk his hand into the water, when all he wanted to do was lick the blood from his fingers. He growled, shaking his entire body, and then he used his other hand to wash and rub the blood away from his chest, arm, and hand. He felt Church’s presence and he looked up to see his brother standing across the small stream. Church’s face looked relaxed and his fangs were receded. Church had fed.
“Come, little brother, it’s not far.” Church inclined his head and Trinity rose from his crouch, stepping across the stream to stop beside his older brother. Church’s hand clamped his shoulder. “Well done, brother, you saved that woman.”
Trinity wondered if that were true why he felt as though he’d marked or scarred the young woman for life. He ignored Church’s praise and he sprinted toward the blood he voraciously needed. Normally, he didn’t take animal blood as Baptiste, and especially Christian, did. Animal blood did sustain, yet wasn’t satisfying. Of course, Christian couldn’t find it within his faith to drink from newly dead corpses, Trinity’s preferred food. Christian never denounced him for it or the freshly-leeched blood he drank that their ally, Doctor Latham or others of his like, gifted them with.
Trinity reached the buck just as the last of its noble life left it and he knelt beside it offering a silent prayer for its sacrifice, which he was certain all his brothers might be surprised he did. He began to feed with a need harsher than he’d felt in a long time as he heard his brothers’ intense conversation above him.
“I’ve not come so close to losing my control in so long I’d forgotten what it felt like. Forgot the overpowering demand,” Christian admitted, with his voice sounding confused.
“I felt it once in the last year,” Baptiste said, surprising them all. “I think she was on a monthly and I strayed too close.”
“That’s never been a problem before.” Church’s voice was on edge. “Why didn’t you say something, Baptiste?”
“Damnation, Church, you know we never speak about women or sexual relations together. All we do is argue about it or don’t know how to handle it.” Baptiste glared at Church.
“You should tell us everything, especially something this important.”
Baptiste ignored Church’s rise of temper, saying, “I’ve thought about it ever since it happened and really the only conclusion I could come to was we’re reaching our prime as men beneath this damned vampire’s curse.”
Trinity wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, straightening his torso. “And men in their prime, physically, seek virginity, health, and youth above all else to spread their seed.” He practically snarled out the words as the trueness of it sank into his soul.
“So an innocent young virgin, freshly bleeding, shouted to our darker natures,” Christian said, then he added, “Then the murdered one was surely not a virgin.”
Trinity could feel his bloodlust retreating with his blood intake and feelings of fullness slowly seeped through his body. His maddening hunger was abating. As he stood to form a circle with his brothers under the full moon now escaped from the clinging fog, he still felt edgy with thoughts of a maiden named Beth.
“What we need to know,” Church said as he leveled a glare at each of them in turn, “is why none of us could track the murderer’s movements or blood?”
“But Trinity, was—” Baptiste began.
“I followed the woman,” Trinity injected. He felt the rise of his brothers’ curiosity over this. However, he was in no mood to discuss what he couldn’t understand.
Whether Church understood his complicated feelings or not, Church passed the question by, moving on. “We cannot scent every vampire.” Church shrugged his broad shoulders in the twilight. “None of us knew when our stepfather, Nikkos, was around.”
“Some of those women he forced us to bring to him …” Christian’s yellow-rimmed blue eyes looked as haunted as they all felt.
“Had to be virgins.” Trinity arched his neck with a growling voice.
“That adds another line of proof to my theory.” Baptiste remained the clear, scientific head among them. “They didn’t overly tempt us, then.”
Trinity slowly looked along the dense tree line. “So we have a murderer that could be a vampire or not.”
“But this monster tears apart its victims like an animal.” Church punched his fist into his palm.
“Some could easily accuse us of being animals.” Trinity sneered.
“You’re cynical to think such a thing.” Baptiste grasped his shoulder. “We’ve all conquered our baser inclinations.”
Trinity didn’t stop his leering cynicism as strange intuitions began to claw through him. Really, they’d never left his concern. He turned his gaze to the west.
Why could he feel this one lone woman and her fears?
Unable to ignore his concern, he suddenly started forward, becoming a blur with vampire’s speed. “I
must
go.”
“Brother!” Church yelled with a voice that wanted him to stop.
Trinity kept going, and then Christian was beside him. “Don’t try to stop me,” Trinity warned.
“Nay, brother.” Christian laughed. “Just take my jacket, will you?”
Christian tossed the jacket toward him, and Trinity caught it. “Thank you.”
His direction was his horse and he heard Christian speaking loudly to him, “When you see to the lady’s welfare, see that the brother fairs well too.”
Trinity raised a hand aloft as he ran, in acknowledgment of Christian’s request. At least one brother didn’t find his sudden urges strange and unfathomable.
***
Beth felt pain stabbing across her back, and she didn’t understand how she’d not felt it in the woods before. Vicious eyes like the inky, black depths of a lightless pool flashed through her mind and she gasped, remembering the pain of the slashing cut. But after …
After that, she only remembered the dark and mystifying Lord Trinity. She shuddered against Adam as he carried her and he chased after … Beth tried to make her mind focus, but it was so hard and she desperately wanted to go to sleep. She wanted to hide from everything that was so horrible. If only the pain would let her sleep.
“Beth!” Adam looked down at Beth jostling in his arms. She’d gone limp and he could see her eyes were closed. He knew enough from classes he’d taken at the university to know she was still in physical danger. She was so cold, combined with shaking, and the presence of some wound he’d heard Lord Trinity speak of that could put Beth into shock’s clutches.
“Damnation!” Adam shouted. “If this is how you treat your friends in need, I’d not want your friendship. My god, Lady Ariel, she’s passed out and needs our help desperately!”
Adam gasped a labored breath of relief when he saw Lady Ariel finally stop running away. She’d nearly made it to the steps at the back of the mansion before she turned back.
“Thank god,” he heaved, slowing his pace slightly to intercept Lady Ariel as she hurried back to them. He could see Lady Ariel was shuddering in the cold night air in her inadequate ball gown and her once perfectly-styled blond hair had fallen about her bare shoulders.
“Beth!” Lady Ariel exclaimed with her small hand reaching up to touch Beth’s cheek. There were tears in Lady Ariel’s eyes. “She has to be all right.” She looked up at him beseechingly.
“She will be,” he reassured her, when for some odd reason he’d been so angry at her moments before. “We need our carriage. She needs a blanket and warmth,” he stated, starting forward again, and then he asked, “Were you with Lord Fanton? Is he still here? Gads, I hope he’s not taken the carriage.”
“He wanted me to play some silly game out in the gardens and it was so dark,” Lady Ariel said out of breath beside him, trying to keep up. “I-I,” she stuttered, and then she seemed to force herself to blurt, “I left him …” Her voice trailed off.
Adam came around the side of the mansion and he saw the line of resting carriages. Good god, he thought, how hard would it be to identify theirs? “A game?” he asked, distracted, as he looked at the line of dark carriages, trying without luck to pick out any defining characteristics. There had to be well over thirty.
“A courting game,” she answered breathlessly, stopping beside where he’d stopped. Her words jerked his attention back. It was too dark to tell, but he was certain Lady Ariel blushed. She hurried on, saying, “But for the longest time I couldn’t find you or Beth. I search the entire ball, but then a servant boy said you’d gone to the gardens … S-So I braved them again … for Beth.” Lady Ariel patted Beth’s shoulder. “Has he hurt her terribly?” she asked in an agonized murmur.
Adam had turned his eyes back toward the carriages again, distracted at Lady Ariel’s long explanation. He saw a carriage pulling out of line and a footman jumping off the back to come towards them. What miracle was this?
“He might have tried to kill her out there in those woods,” Adam muttered, glancing down at Beth limp in his arms. He really had no idea of the impact of his words. “I think this is our carriage footman. Come on.”
He heard the swishing of Lady Ariel’s skirts beside him as he once again hurried forward to meet the footman. His one thought was to get Beth safe, warm, and home in bed. Perhaps then, Lady Ariel could check Beth for any wounds. The murdered woman in the woods bothered him greatly. He had to tell the authorities, but Beth’s welfare was more important at the moment.
“The gentleman said to bring the carriage up fer you, my lord,” the footman announced upon reaching them. Adam didn’t halt, and the footman turned to walk with them.
“Gentleman?” Adam questioned.
“Aye, I didn’t catch his name, sir. He was tall with blonde hair and a goatee. Not dressed for the party though.”
Christian Blacknall.
Adam’s gaze scanned the area, but somehow he knew he wouldn’t see the handsome Mr. Blacknall about.
“I hope we done right,” the footman stammered.
“Yes-yes,” Adam answered. “Hurry ahead and open the door. Get out as many lap blankets as you have.”
Adam reached the carriage and he didn’t stop, but he carried Beth up into it, laying her on the seat. “Lady Ariel, we need to make her warm, but can you check for a wound first?”
“Adam?” Lady Ariel questioned, crouched up inside the carriage beside him.
He was trying to untangle the cloak from around Beth’s limp body, as he said, “It would be more proper if you do this …”
Lady Ariel made a strangled sound beside him, and then she cried, “Her clothes! Oh lord in heaven. She’s not got all her clothes on!”
Adam turned his gaze toward Lady Ariel’s shrieking, seeing her backing out of the carriage. “Wait! You cannot go,” he insisted with anger shaking his words.
“I can’t! I can’t!” Lady Ariel cried. “I’m so sorry!” She whirled around to flee away toward the mansion.
“Damnation,” Adam cursed, folding the cloak back over Beth. He grasped two lap blankets to cover her as he lifted her up and held her in his arms. Her head fell against his chest and he stroked the tangled strands of her long hair.
“Driver! On to the Westfield mansion as quickly as possible,” he ordered with a shout.
Chapter Eight
A
dam knew things were dire. Life-changing events had occurred that night. Yet he could only be grateful Beth was alive as he remembered the bloody remains he’d seen in the woods.
“Beth, oh, Beth.”
His heart wound around the words as he grasped her tighter against the sway of the carriage. He worried that she didn’t wake and still felt so cold. He wondered what he needed to do first when he reached his step uncle’s mansion. Then they were pulling up front and he saw another carriage was there as he thought sourly of Fanton. He simply knew Fanton had something to do with the terrible events that had transpired.
“If I find out you did,” Adam hissed. “I will beat you unconscious, Fanton.”
The carriage halted and he was readying to order the driver to fetch a doctor, when a gentleman he’d never seen before opened the carriage door.
“I’m Dr. Latham, Lord Winslow. I was sent by Blacknall,” the thin, elderly gentleman stated briskly. “I understand the lady requires attention?”
Adam was surprised … a bit startled, if the truth be known. “Yes,” he rushed to answer the doctor as the man finished opening the door.
The doctor leaned in with a lantern held high. He clasped his palm over Beth’s forehead. “No fever.” He squinted through his spectacles. “That’s good. We need to bring her inside.”
“She won’t wake up.” Adam knew his anxiety showed.
“A bit of shock, I’m sure. She will be all right,” Doctor Latham said.
“You know what happened?” Adam asked as he followed the doctor’s urging hand to carry Beth down out of the carriage.
“Blacknall explained the events pertinent to this young lady’s care,” Doctor Latham supplied, evenly.
“Which one?” Adam asked as they reached the opened front entryway into the mansion. “Which Blacknall sent you?”
“Lord Trinity, Marquis Montrose,” Doctor Latham answered with brisk efficiency. “I’ve taken the liberty and had my servant set a fire in a small bed chamber we found down the west hall. It looked unoccupied, and I didn’t want to waste time trying to discover the lady’s proper bed chamber.” Adam looked blankly at this as he followed the man. Doctor Latham added, “No one seemed about when we took the liberties.”
Adam knew no one would be about. His elderly step uncle and his one indoor servant, Spindle, would be well-bedded and snoring. The cook and her husband, the outdoor man, lived in a cottage set at the very back of the large property. That left Fanton, who’d hired the carriage and footman for the evening, otherwise they’d not had one. Beth would have used Lady Ariel’s if Fanton hadn’t interfered.
If I get my hands on Fanton
, Adam thought, just as Doctor Latham opened the door to the small bedchamber alight with a warm fire. A middle-aged woman in a dark, serviceable dress with a long white apron stood beside the bed. She had its comforter and blankets folded back and waiting. Adam felt his knees wobble with relief at finding better-qualified people to help his sister.