Love Charms (168 page)

Chapter Thirty

Trinity felt the
sweetest blood God ever created fill his mouth and he moaned with pure ecstasy.
His body convulsed, bowing upward, moving the beam on top of him as though it
was a stick as his fangs sank deeper. The coppery fluid saturated his mouth and
he drew another hot mouthful as electric sparks of life charged through his dry
veins. It was ambrosia, finer than any blood he'd ever tasted and he growled in
pleasure, sucking again.

But a feeling of
complete fullness clamped over him making him feel as if he took another drop
he might explode. His brain knew he should need more — the few gulps
could hardly be enough — but he couldn't make himself take any more.

His fangs
receded and his tongue healed tender flesh without thought. He heard a feminine
sigh that caressed his mind. His body relaxed and without thinking much of it,
he swept aside the beam that had lain so heavy on his chest and he felt the
spike of wood push out of the wound closing on his thigh. Had he ever felt so
strong or so alive? It was as though power poured through his body.

"Trinity,
you moved the beam! Oh my God, you look younger or-or healthier or not so
pale," Beth's voice exclaimed, as his eyes shot open.

Beth's inky
black hair was in disarray around her lovely face and he saw a cut on her cheek
that lurched him into a seated position. He cupped her creamy skin with the
intense need to heal her. He leaned close, lapping his tongue across the wound.

"Trinity,
are you all right?" she whispered. She patted his chest as though to check
him. "You seem better," she murmured.

"You smell
like heather on the moors." He breathed in. She smelled like the
intertwined tendrils of tangy and sweet combined, a scent he'd never tire of …
never forget. He pulled her to him, embracing her. Her softness flowed into him
as her arms reached over his neck.

"I was so
terrified you'd not be all right." Her breath warmed his throat.
"Everything seems different, though."

He nodded,
murmuring. "I believe your blood is special. With just a few sips I feel
revived like I've not felt since I was human." He did feel different,
completely different. He felt like he was a part of Beth. It was a good
feeling.

"Trinity?"
she questioned, caressing his hair. "You were so hurt and now you seem so
very much better. Even the sun stopped hurting you." She leaned back in
his arms, touching his face. She traced his jaw.

"The sun is
not bothering me at all. Normally it would feel uncomfortable." He was
amazed.

"You were
blistered just moments ago," she said. "Before I gave you my … "
She stopped, looking wary. Her face grew more determined. "My blood,"
she stated as though daring him to become angry.

"Your
sweet, luscious blood," he murmured, turning a surprised look from her.
"Blood I need very little of to be replete."

"So you're
not mad?" She twirled the tie on his shirt, searching his face with her
glistening, multi-colored eyes.

"I feel
complete." He leaned in to find her lips for a kiss. Her gossamer lips
molded to his then he released them. "I think my wife is wise and I would
do well to listen to her."

Her smile was
his reward. She understood his reference to her assertions he should take her
blood even through the many times he refused.

"Oh,
Trinity, the driver," Beth exclaimed. "He is very hurt."

Trinity took
them both to stand with hardly an effort, shrugging off debris from the broken
carriage. "And you are all right?" he asked, looking her over. She
looked disheveled and smudged in places, but he could see no more wounds.

"Your blood
I tasted — it healed me." She blushed and he realized what an
intimate and precious thing it was, sharing their blood.

He squeezed her
waist. "From now on, Beth, my blood is yours any time you desire it."

Beth wanted to
crawl up Trinity's tall, strong body and show him how much she wanted his blood.
Something more had happened since she'd given her blood to him … when he was
sucking it from her. It had been otherworldly and accompanied with pleasure so
intense it was slightly embarrassing to comment on. It had been nearly as if
she had climaxed through husband and wife congress. That was impossible,
because they'd not been embraced in sex; however, she had to leave the wonder
of it aside.

"He is over
here," she urged, leaving her answer until later. Trinity followed her,
but he held her back when they got close.

"Stay here,
love," he muttered.

Beth wondered if
he knew he'd used the endearment, as it felt like warm wine pouring through
her. Trinity crouched by the driver, but glanced back at her as though he could
read her thoughts about the endearment. In that instant, she knew he had a hint
of what she'd been thinking. She was certain of it, and then he turned to the
driver.

"He'll
never survive this." His hand touched the driver's brow. There was no
response. She watched Trinity turn his boot heels on the ground, until he faced
her, still crouched. "I'd never consider turning him," he stated
flatly.

She'd actually
not thought of such a fate. "But your blood?"

He nodded
slowly, looking grim. "It's an unknown factor as you know. But Baptiste has
had some success and most of them without the addiction you feel." He
lowered his gaze to the driver, with his hair falling forward.

"It is more
than that," she stated firmly. It was as though she had impressions of his
feelings.

He didn't look
up at her as his hand pressed to the driver's chest above his heart. "The
temptation to play God with people's lives is at once alluring as it is
illicit. My brother, Christian, would remind me we are not the keepers of man's
fate — that is for God alone."

Beth realized
the heavy dilemma Trinity and his brothers must live with. Would the driver
want such interference? Would he want to live craving Trinity's blood and
knowing vampires existed? Would the driver feel he'd imbibed evil and not the
goodness of a helping heart? How many people should Trinity and his brother's
try to save? All of them? Impossible. What then determined which to save?

"My
God," she whispered feeling the heavy burden fill her.

Trinity stood
slowly, looking at her with the intensity of his new power and it stole her
breath. She knew then they understood each other without words.

"I can make
his suffering end." His voice was low and she slowly nodded, needing to
share the burdens of the decision with him. He gestured toward the horses, two
still caught by the tangle of carriage reins. "Go wait over there for me,
Beth."

Hours later,
they rode on one of the carriage horses through the night toward London.
Trinity held her in front of him with strong arms that never let her slip
against the gait of the horse's sway. She'd long since leaned her back against
him, using his strength to support her. They'd spoken little since the
heartbreaking decision about the carriage driver. But as they drew closer to
London, she could no longer stay silent about the growing commotion in her
mind.

She pressed her
fingers to her temple. "Trinity," she called into the wind under his
chin. "Trinity, something is terribly wrong. I can feel it."

She felt the
horse slow to a walk beneath them and Trinity's arm squeezed her gently in
response as she felt his voice rumble against her spine. "You feel
something is wrong?" he questioned.

She thought he
might think she was losing her mind. "It's in my head as if flies are
buzzing in a torrent getting stronger the more we go toward London. I just
know, Trinity, I just
know
something is terribly wrong with my brother
and-and I think your brother, Father Christian, and maybe Baptiste too!"
She'd exclaimed the last part, trying to make him believe something she was
certain about, but unsure how she could be so positive.

"Beth, it's
all right." He'd grabbed her, and she realized she was so agitated she'd
nearly fallen off the horse. "I know the feeling. I have it too," he
uttered against her ear. She turned her head, trying to see past his chin.
"These feelings are things my brothers and I have experienced since we
each were turned. We can sense each other."

She gasped.
"How can I?" she began to question, then stalling.

"I don't
know," he murmured against her ear. "I'm not certain how you could be
feeling your brother. Perhaps our unique connection has made it possible."

Trinity looked
down at Beth, seeing the worry in her eyes of blue and green. He was amazed she
seemed to have the gift of sensing he and his brothers carried. It was stunning
to believe their exchange of blood could be changing them both. He knew he
wouldn't have healed as quickly or regained his power under the sun as fast if
not for Beth's blood. It was as though her blood held superior qualities
existing only for him. The feeling of power was immense and unusual in its
strength. Vampires had exceptional strength, sight, and hearing, but this was
heightened beyond any bounds he'd experienced before.

"I think we
need to hurry," she whispered, rubbing her temple against the side of his
neck.

He clasped her
nape, massaging the slender column and gossamer flesh. "Think toward the
inner call you hear. The more you try to ignore it, the angrier the buzzing can
get."

She nodded her
head as he turned the carriage horse back to a canter. He'd not told her the
things he could detect with his senses. He'd had a century and a half to
perfect the connection to his brothers, but not even that explained how he
could feel her brother's agony. A familiar agony he'd felt before that left him
haunted. It was the torturous suffering of a newly-turned vampire. Along with
it, he felt Christian's anguish and he knew dire events had transpired.

Trinity followed
the call of anguish and torment interwoven as though the two souls were bound
as one, and the trail led him to Christian's church.

"I've been
here before," Beth said, turning to embrace him tightly as he brought the
horse to a stop. He was surprised Beth had been to his brother's parish.
"This is your brother's, Father Christian's, church," she murmured.

"How does
the summoning feel in your mind now?" he asked. For him it was nearly
tactile. He knew Christian was there and Adam too. Unfortunately, he knew Adam
had been turned and he felt, as impossible as it seemed, it was Christian who
was Adam's sire. He just couldn't believe it. But he set it aside, because he
had to warn his wife. He couldn't let her enter the tragic events blind.

"Trinity, I
feel them both here, and in such pain," she whispered. "I'm so
afraid. Is he all right?" she exclaimed.

"Beth,
Beth," he soothed. "I have to tell you. But he is alive."

"Tell me
what?" she asked, working her way halfway out of his embrace to look up at
him. "What do you know?"

"He's been
turned. I don't know how or why. But Adam has been turned."

"Do you
mean into a vampire?" she gasped. "No, no. It can't be." Her
head shook in denial.

He grasped her
head, turning her gaze to his, just as she hissed, "
Fanton.
"

There was such
loathing and disgust in her voice, but the next moment she was pushing him away
to scramble down off the horse. He steadied her frantic motions, lowering her
as shock lurched through him. The connection shot through him like an
explosion.
Fanton. Stepbrother. Vampire.
Fanton
was
a vampire.
His gaze leaped upward and he saw Christian catch a hold of Beth on the steps
leading up the ornate doors of the church. How could he not know? How could he
not
smell
him on her?

Beth listened to
Father Christian's words with an increasingly cold and desolate pit growing in
her stomach.

"He'd not
want you to see him now. You must understand. I'm so sorry, I had no
choice." Father Christian fell to his knees, clutching her hands, with
tears falling down his face. Her horror leeched away beneath compassion.
"Oh, my lady, I had no choice. He was dying and I didn't think but to save
him. I turned him into a vampire," he cried.

Trinity was
there, kneeling with Father Christian, holding him. She was horrified, but she
knew with certainty that, for whatever terrible reasons, Fanton must have left
Adam for dead and Father Christian had brought him back. She knew Fanton had
done this.
She knew.
How could she revile Father Christian when she
knew, were she given the choice, she would want Adam here with her, no matter
what.

"Father,
don't despair, I would have done the same. I would have."

"You don't
know," Father Christian, uttered. "You don't know what an existence I
have sentenced him to."

"I
know," Trinity said. "You acted with faith as you always do."

Beth looked to
Trinity. "Why is Adam in such pain? Is it really best I not see him?"

She watched
Trinity help Father Christian to his feet. Trinity nodded to her. "Yes,
it's best. Your brother would not want you to see him this way. Turning is very
painful, but it will ease with time and he will learn to control his new
vampirism. Christian will look after him with care."

Father Christian
wiped at the dampness on his cheeks. "You have my word I will help him in
any way I can, my lady."

Beth grasped his
hand. "You must call me Beth. I am your sister-in-law now. You will tell
him I love him no matter what has happened."

Father Christian
nodded with somber, blue eyes. "I have a delicate question, my, I mean
Beth." Father Christian's gaze turned to Trinity for a moment as though
they spoke without words, then Father Christian said, "I need your
permission to deny your brother human blood, until such time as he is
clearheaded enough to make the decision on his own. It is an intensely personal
decision."