Love Charms

by Multiple

  “It was staggering.” Trinity’s lips settled into a grim line as he placed his elbows to the table. “It drove me to near insanity wanting to fuck her while at the same time suck her luscious hot blood. Blood so pure it brought me to my knees denying it.”

  “We’ve all had the driving need to bite as we ejaculate, I dare say.” Baptiste’s gaze trailed toward the cell that hid Irene.

  “Yes, but only at the last, bursting instant. It’s always gone in seconds and not a constant driving demand when just close to the woman.” Trinity sighed, adding, “She’s not the least bit affected by me.”

  Trinity heard Baptiste’s surprised breath. “No entrancement?” Baptiste’s voice sounded harsh as he reached to the left for a piece of parchment and a quill. He began writing on the parchment in a flurry. “She showed no signs of arousal, even though you were aroused —”

  “I’m not your test subject,” Trinity interrupted irritably. He added, “But my shaft was hard.” He left the obvious unsaid, therefore my arousal should have affected her.

  Baptiste paused with his quill raised above the parchment as the fingers on his other hand rubbed his temple. “Nothing I discover about vampirism is ever really constant, is it?” he muttered. He laid the quill down and both his hands came together on the tabletop as he sighed. “All right, brother to brother, the virgin temptation could easily point to the nature of the wickedness inside us instead of some predestined mate. You’ve sensed her above all others, and I might add it seemed as if it is the same way you sense us at times. This anomaly with Lady Winslow happened when she was in danger. Further, there’s the point she’s not affected by your aroused allure, when every other woman you tempt is. Times are changing, definitely changing.”

  “I’ll never see her again,” Trinity uttered, jerking his chin forward. “Then none of these troubling questions will matter,” he finished flatly.

  “But she’ll continue to tempt you.” Baptiste pinned him with a serious gaze.

  “We live with and fight with constant temptation as it is.” Trinity stood, breaking their locked gazes. “Just add another to the heap.”

  “But, what if she were your destined —” Baptiste started.

  “Don’t!” Trinity charged, “Dare go there.”

  Trinity moved the chair away, and then he asked in a quieter voice, “Can she survive the addiction to my blood, do you think?”

  However, he knew the answer to that had not yet been tested.

  Chapter Eleven

  Beth dreamt about Trinity. When she woke, nearly all she could think about was him, his blood, then him again … until she wanted to pound the bed covers in teary frustration.

  “Beth?”

  She turned her head against the pillow and saw Adam quietly entering the room. “Say that he is here!” she exclaimed. “Come to see me.”

  “Who, Beth?” Adam asked, walking to the side of her bed.

  “Lord Trinity,” she explained in a strident whisper.

  “Oh no, Beth, of course that Trinity Blacknall, whose title I learned is Marquis Montrose, is not here.” Adam raised his hand to her temple. “You look feverish.”

  She tried to rise and Adam’s bandaged hand moved quickly to her shoulder to press her back. “I must see him.” She continued to press upward.

  “I know you’re in pain, sweetheart,” Adam began.

  “No, no,” she said. “No pain at all.” She tried to rise again.

  “You must stay still.” Adam’s tone was firm as he pressed back against her wish to rise. “Doctor Latham spoke of no fever,” he muttered.

  “When was the doctor here?” Beth asked, wondering where Lord Trinity might be. Surely, he would return to see her. Wouldn’t he? He had to.

  “Within the hour, Beth. Don’t you remember?” Adam asked with concern. “He bandaged my finger and came right in to see you for a good twenty strokes.”

  Beth’s eyes filled with tears as she looked up at Adam. “He did?” she barely whispered. How could she not remember it?

  “It’s all right,” Adam soothed. “You’ve been through so much, too much. It’s no wonder some things seem vague.”

  “I need to see him,” she whimpered, and her gaze rose to Adam’s eyes, pleading with him.

  Adam’s returning gaze looked furrowed with worry as he hushed her, saying, “You need sleep, sweetheart. Just get some more sleep.”

  Beth trusted her brother above anyone and for him she struggled against the intense fascination she felt to see Trinity again. “All right, Adam.” She gave in and she felt him lean forward to hear her as she closed her eyes with tears drying on her cheeks.

  Still, as soon as the door clicked shut behind Adam, Beth opened her eyes again. She moved to sit in the bed, leaning back against the pillows as she pressed her hands together in her lap. Someone had put her dressing gown on and pulled her hair back into a braid. Yet, the last she remembered was lying in bed, naked beneath the covers, while only one of Trinity’s firm hands held her down.

  Was it infatuation? Was that the strange feeling she had to see him again? She’d never been in love. She’d thought herself slightly attracted to Lord Bellingham once, yet nothing close to the feelings churning inside her now. She was nearly embarrassed she could be so overturned.

  “He is handsome,” she muttered, twisting her fingers together. “And dangerous.”

  Thinking of Trinity made her body ache in places she’d never known could ache with such temptation. But he knew. Lord Trinity knew about where women ached with desire. He’d been attracted to her. She felt it, or confused, she wondered if she’d seen it, when she’d … Oh lord, when she …

  “Drank his blood,” she hissed. She shivered with goose bumps flooding her skin and her fingers grasped the bed linens on either side of her. She realized she knew from swallowing his blood, she knew … “He’s a …” She gulped. “He’s a vampire.”

  Beth’s squeezed her eyes shut. Since she’d tasted Trinity’s blood, she had impressions of things: craving the taste of blood, living in coldness, and unrelenting power. She knew through the effects of his blood, flowing through her, that he’d had a violent past. One that troubled him deeply and which drove him now. She knew he loved his brothers with feelings that were overpowering.

  “He fights the greatest temptations with ironclad willpower every second of every day,” she whispered, her fingers curling and uncurling in tension.

  Trinity was not really a man. He was a lethal copy that looked like the perfect reflection of a man, but he fed on human blood to stay alive.

  “And last night he saved my life,” she said seriously as she moved to get out of bed. She knew, if she could see her back, she’d find the wound was healed and the stitches were already gone. “Because of Trinity’s blood.”

  She walked across the room to the drapes covering the glass-paned doors that led out onto a vast, stone courtyard at the back of the mansion. She pulled the heavy draping aside enough to see the sunlight. It was still daylight out and she was glad because she had some intuition that nightfall would make her craving for Trinity’s blood worsen.

  She’d drunk the blood of a vampire … and now she was changed. It was unnerving and terrifying. Yet, even as it frightened her, she wanted to show as much strength of will as Trinity showed every minute of his life. He’d told her the way.

  “Be stronger than your urges, maiden.”

  He expected no less of himself, and oh, how she wanted him to respect her. She looked out into the sunlight wondering if she would ever see him again. She thought not. He was a man not to be interested in the trite involvements of society where young girls dressed up to go to balls, trying to find husbands. His pursuits were about serious business, not the silliness she moved through of gossip, aspirations, and parties.

  “Maiden, you want my blood, not me,” she expelled the words Trinity had thrown at her.

  He was right. Could she separate the two? Yesterday she’d been a carefree, silly girl, an
d today she’d woken to growing new understandings of life that more than surpassed the entire previous years of her life. Beyond her imagination. “But I’m still alive,” she said fiercely, and she wasn’t going to squander the gift of life she’d been given.

  Adam came to visit her again later that afternoon. His handsome face looked very grim when he entered the room. She’d wanted to retire to her own rooms, but she didn’t want anyone discovering she was healed … so quickly. Therefore, she sat in bed, because she was plagued by tiredness.

  “Adam, what is it?” she asked without any preamble that others who weren’t brothers and sisters might employ.

  “Lady Ariel returned your letter unopened.” He lifted the letter to her gaze as he moved to sit on the bed beside her.

  Beth frowned, looking up at him with worry. She didn’t reach for the letter he held toward her, as if she touched it would make its return real. “That isn’t good, is it?” she confided softly.

  She’d taken the task of writing a note to Ariel to call her to her side so they might sort through the events of last evening, and frankly, so she could do some inventive lying. She at least thought Ariel might wish to know about the health of her friend.

  “No.” Adam admitted to it not being a very good sign, and he set the letter on the bedside table. “What did you say in it?” he questioned, then he added, “Had she come this morning, I dare say your condition would have sent her packing in fear,” he paused. “But you look much recovered now.”

  Besides the gnawing desire to taste Trinity’s blood again, she was rather well, considering the ordeal she’d been through. She reached for and clasped Adam’s hand so their hands sat together on the bed beside them. “Thank you so much.” Tears gathered as she squeezed his hand and she willed them not to fall.

  “I’m just glad I was there,” he replied gruffly.

  “I feel much better physically.” She knew Adam would take up her meaning. She was undecided how much to share with him. However, her views on her brother hadn’t changed after last night. In fact, certain aspects had become stronger. She wanted Adam to be able to go to the university unhindered, and everything that had happened was not moving him in that direction.

  “I will not question you now, so close in your recovery, about what happened to you last night, Beth, but I expect us to speak about it as soon as you are able.”

  Beth played demure in front of him on the subject and she felt a stab of guilt. Nevertheless, if she explained everything that happened to her last night from her viewpoint, she’d only succeed in miring him deeper into her troubles.

  “I don’t remember most of it,” she responded quickly to him, watching him raise his eyebrows in disbelief. “Just that we couldn’t find Ariel, and I went out into the gardens to look for her.”

  “You don’t remember Lord Trinity Montrose, one of Duke Blacknall’s brothers?” Adam asked tightly.

  Beth quickly lowered her gaze. She despised lying to Adam. “I’ve heard of Duke Blacknall and his brothers, of course.”

  “But last night …”

  “I feel weak,” Beth interjected over his words, bringing a hand to her temple.

  “Deuce,” Adam swore, and she imagined he was chastising himself for pushing her. “Beth, lay down and get some rest,” he said, rising from the bed. “I will get Spindle to bring you some soup to try for dinner.”

  “Thank you, Adam.” She tried to appear weaker than she was as she scooted to lie down.

  Adam stood looking down on her for a long moment. He said, “I only want you safe and happy.”

  He looked so troubled as he turned and left the room, it broke her heart. She wished the same thing for him: wanting him safe. The only avenue left for her was the one she’d concluded last night. She needed to write to finishing schools that very evening for a position and have them posted in the morning. She personally knew several dames of society who sat on the boards of well-named schools she could speak to in person.

  Yet it would take her very far away from Trinity.

  The thought leaped into her mind with an instant feeling of dread. She raised the heel of her palm to her temple, rubbing. “Go away!” she exclaimed to the thoughts. She rubbed more forcibly. “Leave me be!” She wouldn’t think of him. She wouldn’t. Surely, the attraction of having tasted his essence would fade eventually.

  God, she prayed so.

  Chapter Twelve

  Fanton stood in the dark shadows of the room over the sleeping form of Beth. Her insolent brother sat guard outside the door. The fool completely ignored the courtyard doors. Fanton was not smiling, though; something was different about his little Beth, and he didn’t like it. She lay on her back with the covers twisted about her waist, leaving only a thin night rail to cover her tits. He wondered how she could manage to endure the pain laying on her back in her sleep.

  Yet the rise and fall of her large tits distracted his hand. He cupped one, feeling the fat globe. He was hungry, so famished that he felt weak from the loss. Sweet delectable Beth. His other hand reached for the mound of her other tit.

  Beth saw the wildness in Trinity’s gaze. He hungered for her with cravings that made her moan and undulate her body in sensuous invitations. She saw his tangled long, blond hair, deep penetrating eyes, and his hard jaw. He was so handsome … so masculine, he made her breath quiver with longing as she raised her breasts to his touch. He was harsh with need, twisting her nipples and making her cry out as she felt his hot breath against the column of her throat.

  “What foulness has tainted my virgin!”

  It was a snarled voice she feared beyond all else. Beth’s eyelids flew open and she was staggered, as she’d thought she’d been awake with her eyes open and her fingers reaching for Trinity.

  “Fanton!” she gasped, and before she could move, he leapt to straddle her body on the bed. He tugged her wrist to his mouth and she bucked her body beneath him trying to force him off her as she tried to jerk her wrist away from him. His irises flashed red, and she reacted to his attack crying, “No! No!”

  “Why aren’t you mesmerized to my will?” he demanded with harsh and wet hissing sounds around his teeth, which had extended into two long lances past his lips,

  Beth tugged her arm with all her might. “Let me go!” she cried, wondering why she didn’t scream.

  A terrible sting penetrated her wrist. Now her mind screamed in terror, as Fanton hissed horrible vibrations against her wrist with his mouth. His entire body recoiled — one second he was on top of her, and the next he was halfway across the room.

  “Foulness,” he growled gutturally, like a beast.

  She didn’t wait to understand what he meant. Terror sent her running from the bed. Fanton was a vampire! Was she in a nightmare she couldn’t awaken from? She pushed through the drapes to find the glass doors open to the courtyard. On bare feet, she stumbled past them, out onto the cold, damp tiles of the patio.

  The word, “Bitch,” whooshed through the air from behind her, back in the room, as she fled forward into the foggy night.

  The long braid of her hair began to unravel as she cast her frightened gaze repeatedly over her shoulder. Was he following her? She couldn’t tell, and it reminded her too much of the terrifying chase in the woods she’d endured just the night before. Her nightgown was not a garment to be wearing in the curling fog. It became damp and clung to her body as her bare feet ran onto the grass beyond the courtyard.

  “Trinity!” she cried, terror-stricken that Fanton would attack her at any moment. That he would bite her again. However, she was still too weak and her lungs burned as her legs grew heavy. Fanton would catch her!

  Fanton snarled as though he were a rabid wolf shaking his head at tasting some putrid meat. His spittle sprayed across the room with his gyrating head as his spine fell against the wall. He’d never tasted blood so polluted before that it made his insides twitch and shudder.

  Something was happening to him. It was more than a bad reaction from bloo
d. The same blood that used to be the sweetest virgin’s blood. Then he saw it. One flash of memory. Blond hair, gore everywhere, and four vampires feeding.

  Vampire’s blood? He looked wildly about, clutching his throat. He’d tasted another vampire’s blood. A much older vampire than he was. What would it do to him? His gut began to lurch in spasms just as knocking sounded on the door beside him.

  “Beth, I heard sounds, are you all right?” Adam’s voice called beyond the door.

  Fanton hissed. He’d been ravenous, and he still was, beyond the cramps in his belly. Maybe fresh blood would lessen the abnormal reaction. His hand clamped over the lifting door latch, stopping its motion.

  “Beth!” Adam’s voice called.

  Fanton could hear the blood pounding in Adam’s veins. He’d never sucked the boy’s blood … just the sister’s. Men made him feel inadequate, somehow. Women he could dominate. Nevertheless, his stepsister was rancid now and he would need a new source of fresh blood close to him. It made him feel more secure, having it close. He unclasped his hand from the door lever letting it lift as he ignored the strange tendrils in his chest and belly gnawing at him.

  “Beth!” Adam exclaimed, throwing the door wide, and then rushing into the room.

  “Adam,” Fanton snarled, making Adam whirl to face him.

  “What are you doing in here?” Adam demanded as he stalked up to him.

  Closer, Fanton thought, come closer. Fanton whipped his arm forward, grasping Adam by the back of his neck, so surprising him he didn’t think to resist. At first. Then it was too late as Fanton’s hungry breath belched outward, crawling over Adam’s startled face and Fanton’s gaze delved into the depths of Adam’s startled stare. A sigh released from Adam’s lips, and then the stiffness in his neck melted away.

  He really is handsome, Fanton thought, watching Adam’s eyelids lower with a seductive tilt. Fanton caught Adam’s half-slumping body with an arm braced across his back as his other hand pushed his chin to the side revealing the strong column of Adam’s neck.