“You passed out.” Lindál drew the robe over her shoulder.
“I fainted?” She tried to sit up, but his hand on her shoulder kept her still. She realized they were lying on the floor of the training room. He had removed the cuffs from her wrists and ankles.
“Not unexpected,” he said softly. “Human minds aren’t designed for empathetic sharing. You did very well, Beth. You’ll get used to it.”
“You mean, I won’t faint every time I do this, in future?”
“No. Besides, once the full bonding has finished...” He sighed. “Well, who knows?”
“So why try this now? Why not wait until after?”
He turned her and tucked her more comfortably in his arms, so that she was on her back and could see his face. “Because we don’t know what comes after and I wanted you to feel me as I am now. This might be the last time you get that chance.”
She considered this. “And I thought Zack was the philosopher.”
Lindál smiled a little. “Zack will be the philosopher outside the bedroom and the animal in the bed, while I will be the...thinker, in the bedroom.” He frowned. “You will be the thinker for everyone.”
“The thinker for the three of us. The ‘trinity,’ Zack called it.”
“No, for everyone. You’re Seaveth.”
She sat up and this time, Lindál let her. “What if I don’t want to be?”
“Fate has a way of ignoring what you want,” Lindál said calmly. “Look at us now.”
“Someone who thinks for everyone is a leader, Lindál. Not just a figurehead. A leader.” She looked over her shoulder at him.
His eyes narrowed. “What did you think ‘warrior queen’ meant?”
“The one queen I am familiar with on earth is a figurehead. She pats children’s cheeks and cuts ceremonial ribbons. She has a prime minister who leads a government who do the real work of running the country.”
“Ahh...” He turned her to face him again. “You are not that sort of queen.”
“I’m not a leader. I’m a dirt poor student with no family and bills and debts, and a tiny little ambition to get to business school and maybe have a career one day. Three days ago, I didn’t believe in the tooth fairy, let alone believe that elves and vampires existed. Now I’m supposed to lead them in a war against mythical Grimoré who are going to wipe out the human race, too, if I don’t get it right?”
“That’s exactly what you’re going to do,” Zack said from the door. “But you’ll have help.”
He shrugged out of a sodden full length coat and dropped it to the floor and strode toward them, looking dark and dangerous in a black shirt and jeans. He pushed his damp hair back and sat on the floor next to them. “I’ve found some answers in some very old texts...in children’s lore, actually. But if the Grimoré have been treated as mythical until now, while Seaveth was a fairy story. We now know they’re both true, and if they’re true, then even children’s lore is fair game.”
“Wait...in vampire children’s lore?” Beth asked. “I thought vampires couldn’t procreate?”
Zack grimaced. “It’s one of the darker chapters of vampire history. Any human can be made into a vampire. Even children. The act was outlawed two centuries ago, but before then, something had to be done with those children, before their long-life experience gave them a kind of adult wisdom despite the child-like bodies they possessed. They were raised much as human children were raised. Toys, education, stories. That’s where I found the tale of Seaveth, the warrior queen, commander of the trinities who defeated the Grimoré.”
“Trinities,” Beth whispered.
“How old is the story?” Lindál asked sharply.
“Seven centuries at least. There’s no clue who wrote it. I tried hard to find one.” Zack crossed his legs and rested his elbows on each knee. “I’d be interested to know if there’s an equivalent story in elvish children’s literature.”
“Elvish children’s tales are all verbal,” Lindál said. “Handed down through families. They’re all different, according to lineage. You’d have to go back to a source—one of the elders.” He shook his head. “We may not have time, anyway. What’s the tale?”
“Full of blood and glory. It’s irrelevant, except for some interesting details. Seaveth was head hunter of her own trinity.” He held out three fingers to point at the three of them. “She was also commander of two other trinities, which makes a total of three trinities.”
“Seems to be a significant number,” Lindál murmured.
“For some reason, it is,” Beth said. “I’m assuming, Zack, that each trinity has a hunter?”
“I presume. It was a kid’s tale. It didn’t go into great detail. It was in an old Armenian dialect, too.”
Beth frowned. There was something...
“What is it?” Lindál asked her softly.
“It’s going to sound stupid,” she said. “But I remember something from school. These trinities are threes. Triangles. When I was in school, before my parents died, they made us build a rectangle out of strips of paper, with pins in the corners. You could hold the rectangle at any corner and pull it out of shape. It had no rigidity. No strength. But if you took one side out of the rectangle and turned it into a triangle, the thing didn’t move. It had strength, stamina...”
“Makes sense,” Zack said gruffly. “You see that in buildings all over New York.”
She nodded. “It was supposed to be a lesson in engineering, to demonstrate why they use cross bars for everything in buildings. But I keep thinking that’s why we need trinities. For some reason, the trinities are more powerful, they’re a weapon against the Grimoré—and not just one of them. We must have three. We can and must build all the armies we can raise, but the trinities will lead them and without the trinities, we will fail.”
Zack glanced at Lindál, and they both smiled.
“What?” Beth demanded.
“If you could only see yourself,” Zack said. “You say you’re not a leader, but everything you do and say denies it. Did you just hear what you said, Beth? Really hear it?”
She stared at them, recalling what she had just said, and trying to hear it the way they might have. “It was a stupid theory about trinities and you were the first one to talk about trinities, so—“
“You were talking about ‘we’, Beth,” Lindál said. “You’ve stopped thinking about yourself as a Beth Siegel. You’ve already become Seaveth in your mind.”
She jumped to her feet. “That’s fucking ridiculous—“
Suddenly, they were both there beside her, crowding her, protecting her, soothing her. She wasn’t aware that she was crying until she felt Zack wipe her tears away. They cushioned her between them, gentling her, until she had no more tears left.
“I’ve made your shirt all wet,” she told Zack. “Some queen, huh?”
“You’ll always be Beth to me,” he rumbled. “Especially when you’re naked in my arms and your hair is tumbling down your back like a molten river, and the elf man is trying his hardest not to ram his cock into you until you’re at least half-way recovered.”
Lindál cleared his throat. “Is this where I say ‘fuck you, vampire’?”
“Would you?” Beth asked, her heart doing a little funny flutter.
Zack’s jaw sagged, before he caught it back up and growled, a non-human sound.
“Don’t, Zack. This enmity between you is ridiculous,” Beth said.
“It’s not I who thinks in terms of enemies here,” Zack growled.
“That’s where you’re wrong, vampire.” Lindál’s voice was low.
Beth bit her lip. She had no idea how to keep two such powerful men from tearing each other apart, if they chose to do so. Words would not stop them, once they took action, and they were quivering on the brink of action.
For a long moment they stayed frozen in that moment of tension.
Then Lindál spoke. “Beth, undo his jeans.”
Zack’s eyes narrowed, but the gleam in his
eyes said he found the idea of her following Lindál’s orders intriguing. She realized that Lindál’s idea of being the thinker in the bedroom was more accurate than any of them had thought.
She moved closer to Zack and unbuckled his belt. She slid it from his jeans, unfastened the jeans and pushed them undone. As she worked, Lindál moved behind Zack. Beth’s breathing quickened as she worked, because she didn’t know what Lindál planned. The unknown excited her.
As it did Zack. His cock was already erect, pushing above the opening of his jeans, against his abdomen.
“Take his shirt off,” Lindál murmured.
Beth vented her arousal with a sigh. She unbuttoned Zack’s shirt, feeling his heat through her fingers as she worked. His breath was quickening, but he stayed silent as she pulled the shirt from his jeans and slipped it from his shoulders and dropped it to the ground. She badly wanted to run her fingers over his gleaming shoulders and chest and the flat abdomen muscles that arrowed into his unfastened jeans that barely clung to his hips. But Lindál had not said she could touch, so she clenched her fists and didn’t. Her clit was throbbing and her breasts painfully erect and sensitive to the touch of the air in the room as it washed over her nipples as she moved.
Zack’s eyes were black with lust. He was responding to her. He would be feeling her need, too. His cock pulsed against his stomach and his chest was lifted as he breathed in heavily.
Lindál studied her. “You like Zack in this state, hmm?”
“Yes,” she admitted, her voice hoarse.
“So do I,” Lindál admitted.
Beth caught her breath, her heart leaping, her pussy clenching.
Before Zack could react, Lindál reached around the vampire’s chest with his arm, locking it across. He slid his other hand down into Zack’s jean’s and curled it around his cock.
“Before you react, vampire,” Lindál murmured into Zack’s ear, “look at Beth’s face, at the pure lust in her eyes. Look to your own body. Tell me you truly do not want the pleasure I can give you, that you’ll deny the pleasure Beth will share and I’ll let you go.”
Zack was trembling as Lindál’s hand stroked gently up and down his cock. Finally, he groaned and his head fell back against Lindál’s shoulder, his eyes closing. Surrender.
Beth moaned, clutching her arms around herself. The image was burned upon her retinas. Liquid gushed from her pussy. She could not, would not close her eyes for a moment, as she watched Lindál work his hand up and down Zack’s cock, making Zack groan and his hips thrust. His cock turned red, the veins distended and the head flared, became purple.
Beth realized she was clenching her own thighs together, as close to coming as it was possible to get without direct stimulation. Helpless to do otherwise, she sank to the soft floor, almost panting with excitement as she watched the two men.
Zack came with a choked cry, his semen spurting in a jet across his stomach and onto the floor in hot strings. The climax was a powerful one. He sank to his knees, panting, to recover.
Lindál sat beside him and drew Beth to his side, too. He rested a hand on Zack’s shoulder. “You did well, vampire,” he said softly.
“Fuck off.” Zack’s voice was hoarse. He shrugged off his jeans impatiently and threw them away, like they sickened him, sat on the floor and pushed his hand through his hair. He did not look at either of them.
Lindál smiled a little. “Zack, look at me. Look at us.”
He took a deep breath and lifted his head. The expression in his eyes was bleak.
Lindál curled his hand around Zack’s neck. “You enjoyed that, didn’t you?”
Zack growled. It was the same animal sound as earlier.
“You did. The evidence is on the floor there. Beth, did you like what you saw?”
She knew that she had to answer honestly. “I think it was the most erotic thing I’ve ever seen in my life. I nearly came just watching you two together.”
Zack’s gaze moved over her face, looking for deceit. She kept her gaze steady, letting him look.
He let out an unsteady breath.
Lindál was stroking Zack’s neck. “This bonding is a three-way street, Zack. Don’t tell me the thought hadn’t occurred to you before now.” He spoke quietly. “I have less cultural bias to overcome than you, so I’ve felt the bonding effects sooner.”
Zack closed his eyes and dropped his head down. “Son of a bitch,” he muttered.
“I will take that as a ‘yes’, then,” Lindál said. He dropped his hand. “But that leaves us with a small problem. The world we must live in doesn’t operate that way. The cultural bias does exist. If we’re supposed to protect humans from the Grimoré and move amongst them, we must be free to maintain the bond. So it must be something that is strictly held between us. Others can speculate, but we never confirm...agreed?”
Zack lifted his head. “Is that something you can live with, son of morning?”
“For the privilege of sharing my life with the two of you? Yes.”
Beth smiled and tucked her hand into Lindál’s, but Zack stiffened.
Lindál tilted his head to one side as he looked at Zack. “Too much frankness for you, vampire?” he said softly. “Did you think we were only talking about sex?”
Zack pushed his hand through his hair again. “You’ve been doing way too much thinking,” he said, with a sigh.
“Am I wrong, Zack?” Lindál said softly.
Zack shook his head. “No. The bonding is permanent.”
Lindál just looked at him steadily.
Zack slowly leaned over and took Lindál’s face in his hands. “I’m not very good at this,” he said softly and kissed him.
Beth held her breath as the kiss lengthened. After several heartbeats, Lindál groaned. They separated and both men were breathing heavily.
Beth’s heart was thundering. “Not very good at it, huh?”
Lindál chuckled. “He sucks at it. He needs lots of practice.”
Zack glanced at her, his expression like molten fire. “I could get used to it,” he agreed. “Especially if you’re watching and taking notes.”
She shivered. “Zack, I want to seal the bond. Now. You were going to the keep to find out how the bonding was to work.”
He nodded, a gleam in his eye. “I’m pretty sure how to seal the bond, yes.”
“Can we do it now?” Beth asked.
“Are you ready for this? There really is no going back after this.”
“The bonding so far has been compulsive. We haven’t had much choice anywhere along the way,” Lindál pointed out.
“You could have locked yourself in a room and thrown away the key, and fought it that way,” Zack said. “You’d have gone mad, but you would have beaten it. After this, though, you will be beyond saving. The seal will change you forever.”
Lindál rested his hand on Beth’s shoulder. “I’ve already made my commitment.”
Beth bit her lip. “I’m afraid,” she confessed. “I’m afraid of what I might become.”
Zack nodded. “You have a right to be afraid. I can’t tell you what lies on the other side. No-one can.”
Lindál’s hand was warm on her shoulder and she grasped it. “But I know I don’t want to go back to my life of three days ago, either. I can’t bear to think of a life without you two in it. I don’t know what lies ahead...but if you’re a part of it, then I think I’d rather take that risk.”
Zack closed his eyes for a brief moment, drawing a deep breath. When he opened them again, he smiled at her. “Then you have to know, Beth Siegel, that I love you. Before we go through this, before you change and before you wonder if it’s because of the change or anything like that.” He blinked hard and rubbed at the corner of his eye, annoyed, then pulled his fingers away, examining them. “Tears,” he said hoarsely.
She threw her arms about his neck and kissed him. He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed back, his hands curling through her hair. His arms shifted and he caught her ass, lifting h
er. In one flex of muscles and tendons, he rose to his feet, bringing her with him. Instinctively, she curled her legs around his waist.
Zack carried her through to the bedroom, where he laid her on the bed with one last kiss, before he lifted himself away from her. Lindál climbed onto the bed and laid next to her, his hand on her waist, stroking softly. Zack stretched out on the other side, his head on his hand.
“You are the sexiest woman I’ve ever met...I really do think your legs go on forever,” Zack said, his voice rumbling in a way that made Beth’s pussy ache.
“As Diego found out the hard way,” Lindál said with a smile, his hands moving up to her breasts to tease the mounds of flesh with soft, fluttering touches alternating with lingering strokes. She drew in a breath in reaction and tried to push her breasts into his hands to make firmer contact. The little, light teasing wasn’t enough, not nearly enough. It was merely making her pussy trickle fluid and her clit swell inside its protective hood.
Lindál lowered his head over her breast as if he meant to take her nipple into his mouth and she held her breath, waiting for the touch of his teeth and tongue but it didn’t come. She fell back on the bed with a frustrated gasp and he glanced up at her with a wicked smiled, before rasping his tongue over her distended nipple in one searing pass.
Sharp, electrifying pleasure shot through her at the single touch, but before she could protest or even demand more, Zack’s fingers slid between her pussy lips and found her spasming clit. He gently rubbed it.
Beth jerked, her back lifting off the bed, as fiery, unexpected bolts of keening pleasure tore through her. Her heart slammed against her chest as she tried to ride out the subterranean movements building deep inside her.
Lindál was at her back, supporting her, keeping her upright. His hands were on her breasts, hot and demanding. Not light touches now. He teased her nipples, pulled on them, elongating them. The tips were hot, red and sensitive.
Zack was in front of her, his hand between her legs, his fingers making her hot and crazy, and his black eyes measuring her excitement. His hand had to be coated in her juices, for she could feel her pussy clenching repeatedly, forcing them from her.
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