Wicked Lord: Part One Read online

Trinity held his left arm out from his side as virgin's blood dripped from the cuff of his shirt. He needed to feed and feed quickly before his hard-fought control snapped and he did something he would regret for eternity

  "Baptiste has brought down a buck. It still lives," Church called to him from deeper in the woods. "Come, feed, Trinity. We will all feed and regain our purpose."

  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.