Wicked Lord: Part One (11 page)

Still, as soon as the door clicked shut
behind Adam, Beth opened her eyes again. She moved to sit in the
bed, leaning back against the pillows as she pressed her hands
together in her lap. Someone had put her dressing gown on and
pulled her hair back into a braid. Yet, the last she remembered was
lying in bed, naked beneath the covers, while only one of Trinity's
firm hands held her down.

Was it infatuation
? Was that the
strange feeling she had to see him again? She'd never been in love.
She'd thought herself slightly attracted to Lord Bellingham once,
yet nothing close to the feelings churning inside her now. She was
nearly embarrassed she could be so overturned.

"He is handsome," she muttered, twisting her
fingers together. "And dangerous."

Thinking of Trinity made her body ache in
places she'd never known could ache with such temptation. But he
knew. Lord Trinity knew about where women ached with desire. He'd
been attracted to her. She felt it, or confused, she wondered if
she'd seen it, when she'd … Oh lord, when she …

"
Drank
his blood," she hissed. She
shivered with goose bumps flooding her skin and her fingers grasped
the bed linens on either side of her. She realized she knew from
swallowing his blood, she
knew
… "He's a …" She gulped.
"He's a
vampire.
"

Beth's squeezed her eyes shut. Since she'd
tasted Trinity's blood, she had impressions of things: craving the
taste of blood, living in coldness, and unrelenting power. She knew
through the effects of his blood, flowing through her, that he'd
had a violent past. One that troubled him deeply and which drove
him now. She knew he loved his brothers with feelings that were
overpowering.

"He fights the greatest temptations with
ironclad willpower every second of every day," she whispered, her
fingers curling and uncurling in tension.

Trinity was not really a man. He was a
lethal copy that looked like the perfect reflection of a man, but
he fed on human blood to stay alive.

"And last night he saved my life," she said
seriously as she moved to get out of bed. She knew, if she could
see her back, she'd find the wound was healed and the stitches were
already gone. "Because of Trinity's blood."

She walked across the room to the drapes
covering the glass-paned doors that led out onto a vast, stone
courtyard at the back of the mansion. She pulled the heavy draping
aside enough to see the sunlight. It was still daylight out and she
was glad because she had some intuition that nightfall would make
her craving for Trinity's blood worsen.

She'd drunk the blood of a vampire
…
and now she was changed. It was unnerving and terrifying. Yet, even
as it frightened her, she wanted to show as much strength of will
as Trinity showed every minute of his life. He'd told her the
way.

"Be stronger than your urges, maiden."

He expected no less of himself, and oh, how
she wanted him to respect her. She looked out into the sunlight
wondering if she would ever see him again. She thought not. He was
a man not to be interested in the trite involvements of society
where young girls dressed up to go to balls, trying to find
husbands. His pursuits were about serious business, not the
silliness she moved through of gossip, aspirations, and
parties.

"Maiden, you want my blood,
not
me,"
she expelled the words Trinity had thrown at her.

He was right. Could she separate the two?
Yesterday she'd been a carefree, silly girl, and today she'd woken
to growing new understandings of life that more than surpassed the
entire previous years of her life. Beyond her imagination. "But I'm
still alive," she said fiercely, and she wasn't going to squander
the gift of life she'd been given.

Adam came to visit her again later that
afternoon. His handsome face looked very grim when he entered the
room. She'd wanted to retire to her own rooms, but she didn't want
anyone discovering she was healed … so quickly. Therefore, she sat
in bed, because she was plagued by tiredness.

"Adam, what is it?" she asked without any
preamble that others who weren't brothers and sisters might
employ.

"Lady Ariel returned your letter unopened."
He lifted the letter to her gaze as he moved to sit on the bed
beside her.

Beth frowned, looking up at him with worry.
She didn't reach for the letter he held toward her, as if she
touched it would make its return real. "That isn't good, is it?"
she confided softly.

She'd taken the task of writing a note to
Ariel to call her to her side so they might sort through the events
of last evening, and frankly, so she could do some inventive lying.
She at least thought Ariel might wish to know about the health of
her friend.

"No." Adam admitted to it not being a very
good sign, and he set the letter on the bedside table. "What did
you say in it?" he questioned, then he added, "Had she come this
morning, I dare say your condition would have sent her packing in
fear," he paused. "But you look much recovered now."

Besides the gnawing desire to taste
Trinity's blood again, she was rather well, considering the ordeal
she'd been through. She reached for and clasped Adam's hand so
their hands sat together on the bed beside them. "Thank you so
much." Tears gathered as she squeezed his hand and she willed them
not to fall.

"I'm just glad I was there," he replied
gruffly.

"I feel much better physically." She knew
Adam would take up her meaning. She was undecided how much to share
with him. However, her views on her brother hadn't changed after
last night. In fact, certain aspects had become stronger. She
wanted Adam to be able to go to the university unhindered, and
everything that had happened was not moving him in that
direction.

"I will not question you now, so close in
your recovery, about what happened to you last night, Beth, but I
expect us to speak about it as soon as you are able."

Beth played demure in front of him on the
subject and she felt a stab of guilt. Nevertheless, if she
explained everything that happened to her last night from her
viewpoint, she'd only succeed in miring him deeper into her
troubles.

"I don't remember most of it," she responded
quickly to him, watching him raise his eyebrows in disbelief. "Just
that we couldn't find Ariel, and I went out into the gardens to
look for her."

"You don't remember Lord Trinity Montrose,
one of Duke Blacknall's brothers?" Adam asked tightly.

Beth quickly lowered her gaze. She despised
lying to Adam. "I've heard of Duke Blacknall and his brothers, of
course."

"But last night …"

"I feel weak," Beth interjected over his
words, bringing a hand to her temple.

"Deuce," Adam swore, and she imagined he was
chastising himself for pushing her. "Beth, lay down and get some
rest," he said, rising from the bed. "I will get Spindle to bring
you some soup to try for dinner."

"Thank you, Adam." She tried to appear
weaker than she was as she scooted to lie down.

Adam stood looking down on her for a long
moment. He said, "I only want you safe and happy."

He looked so troubled as he turned and left
the room, it broke her heart. She wished the same thing for him:
wanting him safe. The only avenue left for her was the one she'd
concluded last night. She needed to write to finishing schools that
very evening for a position and have them posted in the morning.
She personally knew several dames of society who sat on the boards
of well-named schools she could speak to in person.

Yet it would take her very far away from
Trinity.

The thought leaped into her mind with an
instant feeling of dread. She raised the heel of her palm to her
temple, rubbing. "Go away!" she exclaimed to the thoughts. She
rubbed more forcibly. "Leave me be!" She wouldn't think of him. She
wouldn't. Surely, the attraction of having tasted his essence would
fade eventually.

God, she prayed so.

Chapter Twelve

Fanton stood in the dark shadows of the room
over the sleeping form of Beth. Her insolent brother sat guard
outside the door. The fool completely ignored the courtyard doors.
Fanton was not smiling, though; something was different about his
little Beth, and he didn't like it. She lay on her back with the
covers twisted about her waist, leaving only a thin night rail to
cover her tits. He wondered how she could manage to endure the pain
laying on her back in her sleep.

Yet the rise and fall of her large tits
distracted his hand. He cupped one, feeling the fat globe. He was
hungry, so famished that he felt weak from the loss. Sweet
delectable Beth. His other hand reached for the mound of her other
tit.

Beth saw the wildness in Trinity's gaze. He
hungered for her with cravings that made her moan and undulate her
body in sensuous invitations. She saw his tangled long, blond hair,
deep penetrating eyes, and his hard jaw. He was so handsome … so
masculine, he made her breath quiver with longing as she raised her
breasts to his touch. He was harsh with need, twisting her nipples
and making her cry out as she felt his hot breath against the
column of her throat.

"What foulness has tainted
my
virgin!"

It was a snarled voice she feared beyond all
else. Beth's eyelids flew open and she was staggered, as she'd
thought she'd been awake with her eyes open and her fingers
reaching for Trinity.

"Fanton!" she gasped, and before she could
move, he leapt to straddle her body on the bed. He tugged her wrist
to his mouth and she bucked her body beneath him trying to force
him off her as she tried to jerk her wrist away from him. His
irises flashed red, and she reacted to his attack crying, "No!
No!"

"Why aren't you mesmerized to my will?" he
demanded with harsh and wet hissing sounds around his teeth, which
had extended into two long lances past his lips,

Beth tugged her arm with all her might. "Let
me go!" she cried, wondering why she didn't scream.

A terrible sting penetrated her wrist. Now
her mind screamed in terror, as Fanton hissed horrible vibrations
against her wrist with his mouth. His entire body recoiled — one
second he was on top of her, and the next he was halfway across the
room.

"
Foulness
," he growled gutturally,
like a beast.

She didn't wait to understand what he meant.
Terror sent her running from the bed. Fanton was a vampire! Was she
in a nightmare she couldn't awaken from? She pushed through the
drapes to find the glass doors open to the courtyard. On bare feet,
she stumbled past them, out onto the cold, damp tiles of the
patio.

The word, "
Bitch
," whooshed through
the air from behind her, back in the room, as she fled forward into
the foggy night.

The long braid of her hair began to unravel
as she cast her frightened gaze repeatedly over her shoulder. Was
he following her? She couldn't tell, and it reminded her too much
of the terrifying chase in the woods she'd endured just the night
before. Her nightgown was not a garment to be wearing in the
curling fog. It became damp and clung to her body as her bare feet
ran onto the grass beyond the courtyard.

"Trinity!" she cried, terror-stricken that
Fanton would attack her at any moment. That he would
bite
her again. However, she was still too weak and her lungs burned as
her legs grew heavy.
Fanton would catch her!

Fanton snarled as though he were a rabid
wolf shaking his head at tasting some putrid meat. His spittle
sprayed across the room with his gyrating head as his spine fell
against the wall. He'd never tasted blood so polluted before that
it made his insides twitch and shudder.

Something was happening to him. It was more
than a bad reaction from blood. The same blood that used to be the
sweetest virgin's blood. Then he saw it. One flash of memory. Blond
hair, gore everywhere, and four vampires feeding.

Vampire's blood? He looked wildly about,
clutching his throat. He'd tasted another vampire's blood. A much
older vampire than he was. What would it do to him? His gut began
to lurch in spasms just as knocking sounded on the door beside
him.

"Beth, I heard sounds, are you all right?"
Adam's voice called beyond the door.

Fanton hissed. He'd been ravenous, and he
still was, beyond the cramps in his belly. Maybe fresh blood would
lessen the abnormal reaction. His hand clamped over the lifting
door latch, stopping its motion.

"Beth!" Adam's voice called.

Fanton could hear the blood pounding in
Adam's veins. He'd never sucked the boy's blood … just the
sister’s. Men made him feel inadequate, somehow. Women he could
dominate. Nevertheless, his stepsister was rancid now and he would
need a new source of fresh blood close to him. It made him feel
more secure, having it close. He unclasped his hand from the door
lever letting it lift as he ignored the strange tendrils in his
chest and belly gnawing at him.

"Beth!" Adam exclaimed, throwing the door
wide, and then rushing into the room.

"Adam," Fanton snarled, making Adam whirl to
face him.

"What are you doing in here?" Adam demanded
as he stalked up to him.

Closer,
Fanton thought,
come
closer
. Fanton whipped his arm forward, grasping Adam by the
back of his neck, so surprising him he didn't think to resist. At
first. Then it was too late as Fanton's hungry breath belched
outward, crawling over Adam's startled face and Fanton's gaze
delved into the depths of Adam's startled stare. A sigh released
from Adam's lips, and then the stiffness in his neck melted
away.

He really is handsome
, Fanton
thought, watching Adam's eyelids lower with a seductive tilt.
Fanton caught Adam's half-slumping body with an arm braced across
his back as his other hand pushed his chin to the side revealing
the strong column of Adam's neck.