Chapter 53

Trinity

Red light flashed behind my eyes. In the distance, a large, dark stone castle grew bigger and closer. The wind whistled past me. I remembered this. I had been here before.

I looked up at large dark wings. Then, I fell. My body slammed into the cold hard stone that smelled like stale water. Pain throbbed in my hands and feet. I felt dizzy and weak. I had been here too.

Furious, glowing red and gold eyes stared down at me. Pain assaulted me from every direction. I couldn’t escape it. I couldn’t close my eyes and go to sleep. I couldn’t run from it. I couldn’t breathe around it.

Then, I saw Lucian’s face again, smeared with blood, in a long dark robe. A car was overturned nearby. A headless body was on the ground. It was so cold around me as he turned to me, and I could see through the shadows of the hood so clearly.

As I opened my eyes, it felt like I was surfacing from a deep pool of water, but my mind felt different. It felt so much lighter. The wall around my memories felt lighter and thinner as if I could see right through it into the past, yet I didn’t have the urge to look at it. I could hear screaming. I could hear the sound of

I hadn’t felt like I wanted to know what happened to me in so long, yet now I knew. I could hear all of my memories beating on the thin wall in my mind. The glint of a gold ring winked at me through the dark. I felt sick. Pain went through my body as I saw Lucian’s red-gold eyes in my mind’s eyes.

I groaned and turned over, and looked at Mark. He was slumped over my bed with an ice pack on his head. He didn’t move as I sat up. There was a bandage on my leg. I felt mostly fine, but from the way Mark looked, I could tell something had happened. The woman was leaning against the door, glaring at me.

“Start talking,” she said. I glanced at the gun in her hand as she aimed it at me.

“What happened?” I drew back. “Stop pointing that at me.”

“You tell me,” she said. “Mark’s one of the best, and he’s nursing the migraine of the century.”

I looked at Mark and shook my head. “I didn’t do anything.”

“You’re lying,” she said slowly. “He was inside your mind.”

I blinked. “My mind? Mark?”

She cocked an eyebrow at me. “Do you always just repeat what you hear? Yes, you idiot. And if you’re really as innocent as Mark seemed to want us to think, then you’re going to start talking. I have no qualms about blowing your brains out.”

“Vash,” Mark groaned. “Stop.”

She didn’t lower the gun. “You worry about your head. I promise to kill her in one shot.”

Mark reached out blindly. His eyes were still closed, but he held up a palm toward her.

“Let me.”

She set her jaw and said nothing, but she didn’t lower the gun as Mark lifted his head a bit, still cradling the ice pack against his forehead.

“Trinity,” Mark said softly. “Do you… remember anything?”

My stomach turned. “Why do you always ask that?”

Mark opened his eyes. He looked a little pale as he looked at me. His eyes narrowed a little, and he slumped forward, panting.

“You do remember,” Mark said. I looked away. “How much do you remember? How long?”

“It doesn’t matter. I want to call Lucian.”

“Can I kill her now?” The woman asked.

“Know it off, Vash,” Mark said without looking back at her. “Lucian told me…”

I looked at him, gasping. “You called him?”

“You’ve spoken to him?” Vash asked.

“He was… with me in Trinity’s mind,” Mark said. His eye twitched, and he grimaced. “He’s… way older than we thought… More powerful. He was… in the first war.”

I blinked at him. “I don’t understand.”

“Yet, I was able to get something out of him. I don’t think he meant to let me know, but it was written all over the walls. That castle full of red light… that’s in the vampire’s world.”

I didn’t look at him.

“He took you there… He knows you from before you met at the resort. He’s the one that—”

“I know,” I said, cutting him off.

I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to remember the details. The little flashes of pain and fear were enough for me to know that everything that had been done to me was horrible.

Mark sat up a little straighter. “He’s a danger to every human in the city… We have to kill him now.”

The thought sent a spike of fear through me. He turned slowly to the woman.

“He knows she’s here. The only thing keeping him out is the holy barrier, but that won’t last long.”

“What do you mean? It’s a holy barrier!”

He shook his head. “I can’t explain it. He was… He’s patient. He knows something we don’t about the church. About everything we’ve been taught. He’s not worried about getting in. We just have to use the moment to our advantage.”

He looked at me. “We need your help.”

I shook my head. “I can’t do that. I love him.”

“He tortured you.”

“I know.”

“He kidnapped you. He would have killed you!”

“But he didn’t!” I cried. “Doesn’t that mean something? Isn’t that enough?”

“She’s fucking crazy,” the woman said.

Mark met my gaze. “You know I would protect you… until the very end.”

My eyes burned with tears.

“But I can’t protect you from yourself,” Mark said. “Either you choose to help us, or we do it some other way. I’m going to kill him at the first opportunity for what he did to you.”

My jaw trembled. “I don’t want that. I want to be with him. Why can’t you just let me—”

“This is war, Trinity!” Mark yelled. “Do you think he’s the only vampire out there stealing women off the streets? Do you think you’re the only one?”

Faces flashed through my mind. Corpses that either died right in front of me or just before I had been taken flashed through my eyes. I pushed them away.

“I know I’m not.”

“And you still want to help us eradicate something like that?” Mark asked. “He’s the reason your father is dead, why you didn’t get to say goodbye to your mother. How many other people will have a similar story if he remains alive?”

Mark stood. “The moment we kill him, it’ll send a message to the rest of his kind. Humans aren’t just easy prey. He’s got to be the strongest vampire alive. At least one of the strongest. Who knows what they’re planning to do with him? We could be on the brink of a full-on takeover and not know it.”

I heard was he was saying.

But I didn’t care.

“She doesn’t care,” the woman said. “Look at her face, Mark.”

I glanced at her and looked away. “I already know what you think of me.”

“Glad we’re on the same page.” She went to the door. “I’m going to go check on the guys and report in.

Mark sat on the edge of the bed. “Look me in the eye and tell me that you love him so much you don’t care what he’s done to you.”

I lifted my head and met his gaze. The words came so easily.

“I don’t care,” I said.

Mark’s eyes widened.

“But… I want to know the truth.” He frowned. “So… I’ll help you, but you have to promise me that he won’t be hurt.”

Mark blinked and blinked again. Then, he stood. “Don’t worry about it, Trinity.”

“Mark—”

“I was hoping that you’d come to your senses,” he said. “I was hoping that you would see how absolutely crazy it is, but I can see that’s not going to happen.”

“Mark, you can’t—”

“Don’t worry about it.” Mark looked back at me. “You know… before your father started losing his mind, he asked me to take care of you. He asked… He asked me to protect you, to make sure you lived.”

My eyes burned with tears.

“You’ll… get your truth,” Mark said. “And I’ll… fulfill my promise.”

I lifted up on my knees. “You said you needed my help! You can’t just—”

He snorted and shook his head. “I did, but there is more than one way to make sure that what has to be done will be.”

He looked toward the door as someone knocked on it. “Get some rest… He’ll be here soon, I’m sure.”

My stomach turned. As he left the room, I tried to get out of bed, but an invisible wall kept me from moving far. I couldn’t even reach the phone. The room had no windows. My eyes filled with tears at the thought that I wouldn’t be able to do anything to keep Lucian out of trouble.

All I could do was hope that he wouldn’t come.