Lucianus When my servants arrived with the news, I was irritated, but I was also oddly impressed. She must have been conserving her energy, her strength, to be able to take the blade and do so much damage so quickly. That or the woman there had simply underestimated her. It didn’t matter. The issue was whether or not I was going to allow her to get away with this. She was a blood slave as far as I was concerned, a prisoner of mine. Never have any of my prisoners been allowed to decide on their own freedom, least of all human ones. I drifted through the hallways as little more than a shadow until I reached the dungeon cell where they had left her. Her arm had been bandaged tightly, but my servants knew nothing of human medicine. No more than me, anyway. I pulled the vial of elixir from my pocket. Once when humanity and vampires had not been at war, we had had something like a peace treaty. They offered us a steady supply of humans in exchange for magic. Humans had always been greed
TrinityI woke up slowly. I couldn’t say where I was, but I knew I wasn’t where I had been before I’d cut myself. Had they thrown me somewhere else? Was I dead? My lips twitched, and I moved my hand. I felt no pain and frowned as I sat up and looked at my arm. There wasn’t even a scar. How was that possible?I had to be dead. It was almost a relief. “You’re smart… for a human.” I looked over at the man who had been in charge of my torture. I didn’t flinch, but I met his gaze evenly. He looked less derisive of me as he stared back at me.His lips twitched, and he turned his head. “She’s awake.”A woman came in that I didn’t recognize. She wasn’t one of the servants who had been in charge of taking my blood. She wasn’t the vicious one that seemed to enjoy cutting me, but I couldn’t remember her clearly if she had been a nice one either. The man stood. “Strong-willed too,” he chuckled. “You certainly got the master’s attention with that little stunt. Ira will get you cleaned up and tak
TrinityI didn’t see him again after that meeting, but the servants who came to take my blood also came with food. Even the few who didn’t come with food weren’t cruel about taking my blood. In place of their daggers, they’d brought needles. That made me pause. It seemed that vampires spent enough time in the human world to get human medical supplies. That meant they had a way of getting there quickly and without being noticed. He’d flown away on great black wings with me, but there was no way he and the rest of them just flew into the human world whenever they pleased. They’d be caught. They had to have some other way to get there. I had to find it and use it as soon as possible. But how was I going to get there? Was it in the castle or outside?Ira drew my blood gently as if I was just getting blood drawn at the doctor’s office. The other woman was silent and standoffish, but I didn’t see the man again. It was a start. A few days in, the man showed up again and told me that I wo
LucianusI felt the slightest disturbance at the edge of my territory, or maybe it was somewhere in the castle, but I didn’t pay any attention to it. Whatever it was would have to wait, and it was likely just the girl trying to find a portal to the human world. I was tempted to have the castle drop her back into the dungeons just to teach her a lesson. My gaze traced the familiar planes of my wife’s face in the portrait that had returned to my desk. For years, it had been too painful to look upon her face, yet it seemed that I could not go a day without seeing her in her portraits or walking around in her old gowns that still had the faintest trace of her perfume lingering on them. My wife had been so beautiful and bright. Her name felt lost to time and too sacred to be uttered, yet I felt it trembling on my lips. Her presence was long gone, yet my heart ached as I stared at the small portrait of her. I remembered when she sat for it. I could almost hear her complaining about it, a
TrinityThe man didn’t look quite human or even like the vampires at the castle. He was almost skeletal, frail-looking, but there was nothing in the way he spoke that told me he wouldn’t snap my neck in an instant, given half a chance. “What have we here?” He hissed as I reared back. “A human.”“A human?” I screamed as another one appeared in front of me. His eyes were dark as the night. He was pale and drawn as if he was starving. “It’s been centuries since I’ve tasted human blood. How could a human have stumbled into our little prison?”“A gift?” Another one said. “A sign?”“What does it matter? Let’s just—”“Out of the way,” another one hissed. “I get the first bite.”They hissed at each other, and as they squabbled, I turned and ran back through the red-lit path. I didn’t know if I was heading back the same way or just away from them, but it almost didn’t matter. At least in the castle, I knew he wasn’t going to kill me. There was hopeHere, I was just prey without a hope of su
Lucianus I landed on the balcony of my bedroom and threw her to the ground. I expected her to scramble away, to sob or please with me, but she just lay there, staring bleakly into some middle distance as if her mind had escaped her body. The shock had seemingly settled in, and the realization that there was only one escape from this castle, from me, was likely settling in. Good, but the sight of her so broken did not bring me the gratification I thought it would. She was so still, I thought she might be dead. I grabbed her by the front of her dress and yanked her up. Her jaw trembled. Her eyes overflowed with tears, but she said nothing. Where was all the will to survive in her now? Where was that bit of life that had led her to run out that open door into the darkness of the forest? It didn’t matter. I called my insignia ring to my hand and heated it until it was blistering hot. I pulled the collar of her dress aside and pressed the seal in her flesh. A wild, animal scream of ago
TrinityI had no idea what to think, but when Ira had said nothing and dressed me in this black dress, any hope that this would all be over vanished. This was… my life now. Being dressed up and bled every day. Maybe I could make it easier on myself and content myself with being trapped, or I would just stop functioning. I’d just let my mind drift away until nothing of what made me remained. I’d forget my parents, my boyfriend, the future I had planned for myself, and every glimmer of hope I had. After the second time, they held me down and crammed dry bread and water down my throat. I knew there was nothing worth hoping for. It felt like my mind had gone dark without even a glimmer of starlight. The mark still burned on my chest, throbbing every once in a while. I kept waiting for another wave of pain to come and tried to ignore the low burning ache, but it was almost impossible. The room was beautiful, decorated in an oddly tinted gold that reminded me of old antiques. There was t
Lucianus I stopped. The dagger froze in midair, trembling merely a breath away from piercing her chest and ending my torment. I shouldn’t have stopped, but I couldn’t help it. I had to stop. I wanted to drive the blade through her chest and be free of this, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t with her looking up at me with my wife’s face, my Trinitia looking up at me, to die by my hand? To have her last words be that nickname as I plunged this dark cursed, blade into her chest. I couldn’t. I knew this woman wasn’t my wife. I knew she wasn’t, yet I couldn’t. It would be forever engraved in my mind. It would break me in a way her first death had not. I had gone on a rampage against humans for her first death, but I could not do the same against myself. I shook myself. This had to be done. This torture had to be over. I couldn’t continue on like this. Trinitia was dead. My Trinitia would never speak my name again. This woman was not my wife, and I would prove it by wiping her from existence.
TrinityToday, I walked down the hall. Luke was off somewhere with a tutor, and I was taking a moment for myself. It wouldn’t be long. Today was the day. “Trinity,” the man called from within his study. “Come here for a moment.”I frowned and turned, entering the room. He was reclined in a chair by the fire. He sounded so tired, but he had been sounding more and more tired the closer we got to the day. He looked up with a smile and reached out his hand to me. I took it and sat beside him. “Now that the day is here… I find myself unable to keep this from you.”I frowned and looked up at him. “What do you mean?”“The child I spoke of, the woman I loved….” His lips twitched. “The truth of why you are here in the first place. I would have liked to tell Lucianus this directly, but that is not to be.”I frowned and looked up at him. “I have already told Luke,” he said gently. “I imagine that he will be a bit morose not having grandfather around.”He chuckled. “Give him something sweet,
TrinityI wailed as I watched the light and awareness fade from his eyes. He went slack in my arms. “No!” I cried. “Lucian, you can’t leave me! Wake up! Wake up!”Something shuffled nearby. I turned to look and saw Mark. He was covered in wounds. He looked terrible, but he lifted his gun and aimed at me. His hand shook. His eyes narrowed at me even as they filled with tears. “Mark…” I whispered.His jaw trembled. The gun went still as he glared at me. Tears slid down his cheeks as he dropped his gaze to Lucian in my arms. I didn’t know why. He said nothing. Then, he lowered his arm to his side, staring at Lucian for a few more moments. Without a word, he turned around and left, trudging through the forest alone. Relief filled me the farther away he got, but as I turned to look down at Lucian, I couldn’t even enjoy it. He wasn’t moving. His eyes stared out into nothing. I was alone more than I ever had been before. My dad was dead, and the man I loved was dead. I felt a pulsing i
Lucian“Trinity?” Mark called. I watched her. She didn’t move for a long time. It was as if she couldn’t hear or see us, but then she shot to her feet and went running into the forest. “Fuck!” Mark yelled, running after her. I took the lead and grabbed him before he ran into her line of attack. She lunged at one of the vampires nearby, tearing into his throat. Another screamed and tried to attack her. Mark fired on him, turning him into a burst of blue flame. “Traitor!” They sneered. “We’ll kill you here!”One of them ran at me. The other ran toward Mark, and the third was trying to get Trinity off the vampire she was currently devouring. I dodged the one that lunged after me and rushed toward Trinity. I snatched the other out of the air and slammed him into the ground, recognizing him as a member of the royal family. I caved in his chest with a vicious sneer, glad to be rid of him and hoping to be rid of the rest of the royal family by the end of the night. I couldn’t help but thi
LucianVash as she preferred to be called, turned out to be more helpful than I expected. I dealt with the idiotic church members and managed to thwart their intentions for the vampires I had murdered, and I managed to replenish my strength with their blood. There were several trucks worth of them around. Most of them knew nothing about how the church was using vampire blood to strengthen hunters and give them abilities, but I had a feeling that it wouldn’t matter. If the Blood Ancestor was smart, he had launched an attack on the church already, and there would only be these few operatives in the field to worry about in the future. I felt something tug on my mind from a distance, and resisted. It was the Blood Ancestor I knew, trying to find me, trying to compel me to return. If he were furious and wanted a fight over Trinity, I would need my strength. So, I drank from every church member I found on my way towards where I could feel Trinity. By the time I had started to feel a litt
TrinityMark picked me up and carried me into another section of the forest. I heard Vash on the phone talking to someone behind us. “The church is on the way. They’ve lost a guy already.”“It’s Lucian,” Mark said, panting as he carried me forward. “He’s coming. I… I can’t tell how far, but he’s headed our way.” I tried to turn back to see. I wanted to call out, but I closed my mouth. Now wasn’t the time if the look on Vash’s face was anything to go by. “We’re going to run into trouble soon,” Vash said. “I can’t reach the other forces from the church.”Mark stumbled to one side and crouched down. His grip on me slipped, and I slid down his back onto the ground. The dizziness hadn’t stopped, but having had a bit of time to rest, I felt a little better. Vash shoved me aside and forced Mark to turn toward her. “Fuck,” she cursed. “Cut the link, Mark. Cut it now!”“I…. I can’t,” he said breathlessly. Blood started to trickle out of his nose. “He can’t.”Vash went still, and she clench
LucianI watched droves of vampires leave through the gate that had opened. With the gate opened, I could feel Trinity’s state of mind easier. She was frightened, but she didn’t seem to be in danger. A spike of terror rippled through her, and I went stiff. I pushed power into our bond, trying to see what was happening. But all I got were flashes of fear. I saw Mark’s face. I heard gunfire and that woman’s voice shouting orders. There was worry and I pulled on my connection to Mark, trying to get a better sense of what was going on. As I expected, Mark’s vision was clearer. His mind was calmer as he pulled Trinity down a set of dark stairs and started running. There was a sense of urgency. I could hear him counting at a slow, steady pace as they ran. The woman came up behind her and then went past him. I tried to hold on to the connection, but there was too much information coming in across the distance. It stretched and thinned. The only constant thing was Trinity’s fear and the od
TrinityI sat on a really uncomfortable chair as the other two hunters pulled up outside and began to pour stuff on the ground. Mark and Vash left me alone in what seemed to be the living room and went into the room at the back of the little house. I went to the window and watched the two other hunters stab silver knives and forks into the ground. They threw water around and chanted, holding their crosses. I guess it was something like blessing the ground. Watching them made me a little queasy. I leaned against the window and looked out into the night. For a moment, I thought I saw Lucian’s glowing red eyes, but a moment later, they vanished. I pressed my hand to my stomach, still amazed. I was pregnant. Lucian and I were going to be parents together. I wondered what vampire marriages were like. A flash of beautiful fabric and two ornate goblets filled my mind. I shuddered and tried to push the memory away. Whatever that memory was about. It didn’t matter. Nothing else mattered but
LucianIt was a dangerous game I was playing. I had no idea what would happen to Trinity while she was pregnant. However, I couldn’t help but be a bit excited. My wife and I… never got the chance to have children. We hadn’t been married long enough to try for children when she’d been murdered. I left the hospital, hovering above it and waiting. Soon, the cars headed out, carrying Trinity away from the building. I followed, unsurprised that they were going to Mark’s house. I waited to see where they would take her soon. I made sure to push the need for Trinity to keep the child through our bond. Soon, I saw them moving through the rooms of the house and preparing to leave. Mark’s car pulled out of the driveway and headed down the street. Soon after, the other two hunters went to the car down the street and followed. They drove out of the city and into the woods to a small wooden cabin that couldn’t have been built by the church. Other than the silver each of them carried, there wasn’
TrinityThe drive back to Mark’s house was quiet. They put me in the back seat, and Vash was in the front beside Mark, looking out the window and blowing cigarette smoke out the window. The other two hunters parked down the street and went to the house. When they said it was clear, Mark drove into the garage and parked. He walked me into the house, and Vash went outside with the other two to do something. I could still smell blood in the air, but the vampire bodies that had been there were gone. “Vash, did the church send a clean-up crew here?” Mark asked into his radio.“No,” Vash said. “Unless someone else called it in.”He cursed. “We’ll reconvene about it. The bodies are gone… just like in the clearing.”He turned to me, but I couldn’t look at him. “I’m going to kill Lucian, Trinity.”I glanced at him. “No, you won’t.”“You think he’s stronger than the church?” Mark asked. I set my jaw and stood up. “I think it won’t matter.”“If it comes to it,” Mark started. “Would you let h