Trinity
I 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. The banners hung from the rafters, trimmed with gold. When I reached the banquet hall, I was struck by how opulent it looked. The chandelier gleamed with the firelight hanging above the room. Through the windows, blood-red light streamed in. The long table was dressed for the banquet, but there were no plates or glasses. Instead, there was just one large tablecloth over something laid across the table. There were a few figures beneath the cloth laid across the table. At the distance, I couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but I tried not to think about it any further. My heart was racing even as I got lost in all the luxury for a moment. I had once dreamed about being invited to a fancy party like this, wearing some dress more expensive than a car and knowing that all eyes were on me, but I had never wanted it to be like this. Fear filled me. How was I supposed to get out of this? Could I get out of this? It was like something out of a horror movie. My stomach churned. There didn’t seem to be any other people there except the people dressed in simple black and white. The servants, I guessed, glided around arranging and adjusting things, but no one looked up at the table. They all had thin faces and fangs that glinted when they smiled at me in passing before carrying on.I shuddered, thinking of the man on top of me and hoping that I was wrong about the answer that was screaming from the back of my mind about who all these people were. Or rather, what these people were.I hoped I was wrong, but the fear continued to mount in me the more I looked around. I wanted to escape or walk forward, to pretend that I was all right, but I couldn’t move. I really hoped that this was all just a bad dream. My head ached, but I pushed it away. What was I doing here?Would I ever make it home?“Miss.” I clenched my jaw as one of the women who had bathed me came up beside me. “Your seat is this way.”I didn’t want to move. I didn’t want to go with this woman, but I allowed the woman to take me by the arm and guide me to the seat that was in the center of the table. I felt sick as the man seemed to appear in the seat beside the one that she indicated would be mine. His seat looked more like a throne carved of black stone and inlaid with rubies. My seat was cast in the same red gold that trimmed my dress. He was dressed in an old-style suit trimmed in the metallic red-gold that my dress was trimmed in. Thrones had to mean royalty, right? At least nobility. This man was someone of importance not just in this castle but in this world.That meant he had enemies too. Would they be willing to help me escape? Would they be able to help me?He lounged on his throne and looked up at me with a soft, almost tender smile. His burning red eyes looked at me as if I were the world. His eyes were filled with hunger and interest. I blushed as I reached his side. Now that he wasn’t hooded and looming over me, I took in his face. He was handsome. He was more handsome than any man I had ever encountered, but he was also a murderer and a kidnapper. What else did he plan to do to me?Was this all just a lead-up to when he would finish what he’d been starting up in the room? The thought made me even more nauseous. I hadn’t even managed to sleep with my current boyfriend when he’d kidnapped me.“You’re lovely tonight.” His voice was warm and welcoming. “I am glad that the dress still fits you. I promise you won’t have to wear it too often. I know how much you prefer your comforts.”I couldn’t breathe. I still didn’t know why he knew my name, but I didn’t speak as a servant pulled out my chair and ushered me into it. What did that mean that I wouldn’t have to wear it often? What comforts?He took my hand, twining our fingers together as if we had done this often. His thumb rubbed small circles on the back of my hand. Surprisingly, his hand was warm, almost burning. There was color beneath his skin. If it weren’t for his eyes, I would have believed he was human.He couldn’t be what I thought he was. They were cold, like long-dead bodies and stone.Just some other sort of monster, I guess.The thought brought me no comfort as I realized that everything I knew about monsters of the night had never been proven.“You were always so tense,” he said fondly. “Relax, my love. It will only be us eating at this table tonight… The servants will be gone soon. Indulge me in having you back at my side this way?”Who the hell was he talking about? I didn’t speak and didn’t pull away though I wanted to. So long as he was calm, he wasn’t killing anyone, including me. The servants hurried around, casting glances up at me occasionally.They said it was dinner, but no one had brought a single tray up to the table. I hadn’t smelled food at all.“I can’t wait to show you what I’ve done with those sitting rooms you hated so much. I know you never managed to finish, but I think you will be pleased….” His eyes brightened the longer he talked. Smiling widely, revealing his gleaming white teeth. He, oddly, didn’t have fangs, but there was no way that his glowing red and amber eyes were human. “And the garden, of course. I have made sure they kept it pristine for your return. Do you remember… all the delightful things we got up to in the garden?” He licked his lips as he rose from his seat. He stood and walked behind her, trailing his fingers over her bare shoulders. “How lovely it was to get your gown off with you beneath me….”I went still as he leaned close, thrusting his nose against my neck and taking a deep breath. There was something cold drifting over my shoulder. I felt something sliding over my neck, then my ear, and I shuddered as I realized that it was his mouth. His cold mouth was on my skin, licking and nibbling gently as he talked about having me naked in the garden under the blood-red moon. The image was striking and horrifying. His fingers drifted over my bare skin, wrapped around me and squeezing my sides meaningfully.“You’re being so sweet tonight,” he said, his voice husky. “Usually, you would have swatted my hands away… Have you missed me so much?”He was insane. He had to be. I had never met him before in my life, yet he was gliding his hands all over me, taking a firm hold of my breast like some horny teenager and licking my neck as if I would get in the mood. I felt sick. The drag of his teeth sent a shiver of fear through me, but he squeezed my breast, pressing a nipple between his fingers, and I moaned at the spike of pleasure that went through me. The shame that followed made my blood go cold. “It seems so,” he said with a low groan. “Let us eat, then have our desert.”He withdrew his hands and his lips before leaning over and lifting the long tablecloth in front of me. My blood ran cold as the naked body of a living, breathing woman was revealed.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
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