Trinity
I had had only planned to pick up some cash from the bank. My mother was sick, and my father was taking care of her while I worked at my dead-end waitressing job. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was enough for now while I was still in school. I had only meant for this to be short deviance from my route home. Normally, I wouldn’t have even thought about deviating from my route this late in the winter because of how dark it was, but this bank location was close enough on the way home that it wouldn’t make me too late. My job was on the better side of town, so I thought I’d be safe.
Then the robbers had come in swinging their guns and demanding the money from the tellers. I had been the only other person in the bank that wasn’t behind a desk, so as soon as the police showed up, they dragged me up from the floor and pressed a gun to my head as they hustled me into the car and dared the cops to shoot. I remembered trying to keep quiet and not draw any attention to myself as they drove, but the man who had grabbed me had taken to playing with my hair and pressing in as close as he could. When the car had flipped, I’d been almost thankful. Despite the headache, I’d been mostly unharmed. I’d been dragged out of the car by one of the men. I heard gunshots, but it was so hazy as the man took off from me, leaving me standing alone on the street beside the flipped car. How had I gotten mixed up with a bank robbery and taken hostage? The crunch of bone filled the air. I looked over to where a tall, broad figure in a black, hooded robe dropped the last man with a sick thump to the ground. I ducked behind the car and tried to back away and escape as quietly as possible.How had I ended up here? How had that man killed him so easily? What happened to the other two? The figure glided around the car. My stomach lurched as I glanced back down to the bodies I could see now from where I stood. One was missing a head. The other’s chest had been caved in, and blood bubbled out of his mouth. The pain in my head faded around my panic. I looked back at the hooded figure.“P-Please, h-have mercy, I—” The wind blew my scarf from over my face, and he stopped. “Please…”Who was this man? I couldn’t see his face, but if he came just a little closer into the light, I would be able to. Then, I’d have nothing to bargain with. Did I even have anything to hide behind now? He’d killed those three men with ease and without hesitation. What was I going to do?He hadn’t gotten any closer since he’d whispered my name, but he hadn’t seemed keen on letting me go. What murderer would, especially if I saw his face?My heart was beating out of control. I had been hopeful when he’d first shown up, but now, I was on the edge of panic. “P-Please don’t hurt me,” I gasped. “I-I haven’t even seen your face. I won’t say anything….”Bargaining with a murderer who shredded human men like paper. I was going to need a lot of therapy that I would never be able to afford. He didn’t move. He didn’t even speak, but I knew he was staring at me. Did he not understand me? Police sirens grew louder in the distance. I felt a bit of hope as they drew closer. I turned as the police cars rounded the corner. I turned and ran towards the lights as fast as my feet would take me. “Someone help me!” I cried. The man hissed behind me. I heard the rush of air and then felt an arm wrapping around my waist. I screamed and tried to fight as I was lifted into the air and flown away from the police cars that didn’t even seem like they’d seen me. The faces behind the glass seemed unaware of me, focused on where the car had tipped over. Darkness wrapped around me. The lights of the storefronts flickered and rushed past until I was in complete darkness. The air turned cold and stale like the inside of a cave. The beating of wings grew loud, echoing off the rock as my heart thudded. The man had me clamped tightly to his side. “Please let me go!” she cried. “Please!”The cave around them grew tighter as I struggled and pleaded, then it opened as if the winged man had simply flown through a tunnel to somewhere far different. The sky was dark, but there wasn’t a single star in the sky. No clouds either, but there was a single red disk hanging in the air that cast blood-red light over the landscape. It was like something out of a fantasy novel and beautiful if this had been a different circumstance, but where was he taking me? And why was he taking me there? He was clearly some sort of murderous monster. Was he taking me back to his nest or something like some monstrous bird? I felt sick at the thought. I turned my head in the direction of where we were flying. In the distance and growing closer was a tall castle that seemed to be practically floating. The stone was dark and highlighted with the red light. It looked like a dream, but I couldn’t find any reason to be happy about it. He slowed and circled the highest tower before landing on the balcony and dragging me into the room. “Please let me go! Please!”He threw me onto the bed. I bounced and scrambled back and away from the man, but he simply prowled after me, yanking me down the bed towards him, oddly gently before looming over me and leaning into me. I closed my eyes, turning my head as he thrust his head into the junction of my neck, holding me down and breathing deeply. He shuddered above me. Groaning something again, with such longing and desire, my stomach jolted.He groaned, pushing up against me, rolling his hips against mine, and groaning. My heart beat wildly. I was frozen and embarrassed at the feel of him thrusting against me. I could feel the hard length of his erection against my stomach as he tried to force his way between my legs.Was this normal? Would he eat me or…? My heart lurched at the thought, and I twisted in his grip, but that didn’t dislodge him or even seem to budge him. He hadn’t reached for my clothes. I was grateful for that, but that didn’t change the fact of what he was doing to me.I got my hand free and pushed at his shoulder. My hand slipped and pushed back the hood on his head. Inky black hair fell free, spilling over his shoulders in thick waves. He reared back, and glowing red eyes looked down at me, flecked with amber and gold. He stared down at me. My chest heaving as I stared up at him, frightened and trembling beneath him. His eyes cleared for a moment. There was a flicker of surprise, but it vanished. He licked his lips, and the desire that had been on his face seemed to fade. He withdrew from me like a dark, passing cloud and drifted across the room to the door. The great black wings that had carried us there were gone when he rematerialized across the room and pulled open the door. He called out in a language I didn’t understand before leaving. His black robes flared out around him as he swept down the hallway.As he left, three women appeared in a rush of air and silence. I pressed myself against the headboard, shaking as my heart threatened to beat out of my chest. “Who are you? What do you want from me? Where—”“Miss,” one of them said with a heavy accent. The glint of her teeth sent a shiver of fear through me. A word I didn’t want to think about was blaring in the back of my mind like someone screaming into a microphone. “We must hurry. The master has ordered that you be dressed for dinner.”“Dinner party?” I asked, incredulous and horrified. “I want to go home!”“The baths are this way, miss,” another one said. “It would be best not to keep our master waiting.”I shuddered in terror and clenched my teeth. My eyes burned, and I thought of my mother and father at home.I should have just gotten the cash on my lunch break instead of waiting until the end of the day, or I wouldn’t be in this situation.TrinityI lowered my head and followed the three women to the bathroom and let them put me in the bathtub. They tended my wounds and washed my body like she was some precious princess. Meanwhile, I had to force myself to breathe through my rising panic as I tried to figure out if I could escape this place in one piece. They put me into a dress that was more fabric than I would have ever chosen but wasn’t tight or uncomfortable. I didn’t recognize myself in the mirror.The gown was trimmed with a metallic color somewhere in between gold and copper. I thought of red gold for a moment, something out of an old mythology book. The dress flattered my figure, but it wasn’t something I would ever wear outside of a renaissance festival.I looked like I belonged in a painting from the Middle Ages. When I was dressed, and they’d fixed my hair the way they wanted, they led me out of the room and down the hall. I tried to breathe, taking in every inch of the building and trying to plot my way out.
Lucianus She was as beautiful as I remember in the dress, trimmed in the blood gold of my station. Our station. My lips twitched as she glanced around and walked cautiously toward the main table. I remembered how timid she’d been the first time she’d dressed for dinner like this, as a proper vampire noble. She was as timid and as beautiful then. I couldn’t help myself from touching her. The warmth of her sent a thrill through me as I thought about her could fading body from so long ago. I taster her skin and shuddered. I wanted more of her. The way that she had trembled and squirmed beneath me.Looking back, I realized that her fear had been reasonable. It had been years since I had considered what I looked like to anyone. I preferred to spend my days drifting through the castle as little more than a wraith before going to the human world to catch my next prey.I had missed her so much. To have her back like this, so completely untouched by time, made that battlefield from so long a
TrinityI couldn’t think. How long had I been here? He had told his servants to take me down to this dark place. I hadn’t seen even a glint of red light or torch light since they’d brought me down here. Something clinked in the dark. I turned sharply, startled by the sound. The door opened, and light flooded in, burning my eyes. I squinted and covered my eyes, wondering who it was. I didn’t recognize the person, but my heart filled with hope as she came towards me. He had to have realized his mistake. Had my pleas reached him? How long would it take to go home?I got up just enough, a little dizzy from the time since I’d last eaten or drunk anything. Then, she shoved me back to the ground. I twisted as she kneeled over me, and someone else came to restrain me. “Let me go!” I cried. A sharp, hot pain cut through my palm as I screamed. I felt dizzy, feeling the blood leave me. I shuddered and tried not to cry at the pain. Then, she wrapped something tight around the wound, and the
TrinityThis time, I made my breathing seem weak. The torch was relit just as he opened the door and the light of it filled the room. I realized then that the torches had to last at least a few hours at a time. If vampires ate at the same rate that humans did, I estimated about four hours. I shuddered. I was lucky to have made it a day losing blood so frequently without food or water to help me replenish. If I had any doubts about whether or not these people didn’t intend for me to live long like this, I didn’t have them any longer. The weaker I seemed, the easier it would be to get this done as soon as possible and make my escape. He left me quickly the next time he came. I blocked out the pain. I didn’t even whimper. It took him several minutes to get his fill, then he stood to leave. I waited, shifting just enough to make sure more of my skirts were caught between the door and the frame of it. I heard him walk away.Finally, his footsteps were gone. I sat up quickly and checked t
TrinityThere was no way out. I couldn’t outrun him. I pressed myself against the wall, waiting for the moment that he would attack and kill me. His eyes were blood-red as he approached, looming over me. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. The fear was making me dizzy, but slowly, I started to accept that I was going to die and there was nothing I could do about it. I felt oddly calm, almost hysterically calm like I’d taken Valium in the middle of a gunfight or something. I felt on edge and oddly too calm. My hands were shaking. My heart was racing and my mind was so clear that I could almost see my memories glittering like little stars in my mind.“Food has no right to run away,” he said. His eyes narrowed. “You’re asking for your death.”My heart lurched as I stared at him. “You kidnapped me.”His eyes narrowed at me as if he didn’t expect me to speak. It made me angry in a way that I couldn’t suppress.“You’ve kidnapped and tortured me! You’ve done terrible things to me. What ma
LucianusI returned her to the dungeon, dragging her naked through the hallways and strung her up so her toes barely grazed the floor. She didn’t wake up then, letting out a soft groan and turning her head. The light caught her face, and I thought of my wife’s face in the cool light of torches at night. My blood boiled as I pushed that thought and lifted my hand so the long, cursed whip appeared in my hand and spiraled into a pool on the floor. My mouth watered. The fury in me was itching to get out, even as I just wanted to drain her dry and ravish her. She woke up with a screech of pain when I swung the black whip, and it cut across her chest, turning the skin red. It would take almost nothing to break her skin. The cry infuriated me. I struck her again and again until the welts turned bloody, and she was screaming in agony. The scent of blood made my mouth water even as I couldn’t seem to pull back on my fury. I saw her eyes looking at me from within her dead face and imagined w
TrinityThe woman scoffed at me. She stood and struck me across the face. My face stung, but I didn’t cry out. Was she allowed to do that? How hard had she hit me? My ears were ringing like a bell, and my jaw throbbed. I tasted blood in my mouth as if I had cut my cheek on a tooth. I was more surprised there was any blood left.“You’re an idiot if you think you have the right to call our master by his name just because you have the late lady’s face,” she hissed. “Do your best to learn your place and await the day that the master will release you into death. Do not speak any further. You will only irritate me.”She left then and closed the door behind her with a loud, metallic groan, yet I didn’t hear a lock click. Was that the castle’s doing or her doing? I didn’t know, and I couldn’t bother to focus on it. Until I was down from this position, until my hands were free, trying to run away again would be impossible. Besides my hands, I couldn’t even imagine being able to walk. Somethi
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