Wicked Lord: Part One
By Shirl Anders
*This is #1 of a 3 part serial version of The Lords Of Blacknall: Trinity
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Allure Books. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyrighted 2016© Shirl Anders
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Chapter One
Fog choked the London night air with damp and cloying tendrils as Trinity crouched on the wings of a stone angel parapet on the east corner of Blacknall mansion. His nostrils flared, inhaling stale night air like a lethargic limb barely able to lift and move. He'd not get much distance through the clinging fog to pick up scents further than the half-fouled Thames. Yet something gnawed at him as he flung back his chunky damp hair and his heavy coat settled around him. It was an awareness he couldn't name, and with his senses attuned, his gaze was sharp. He'd trained the last half-century to sharpen his instincts and perceptions just as he'd exercised his body to hone his uncanny strength.
"Still, I do not trust my intuition without proof of actually seeing it," he admonished himself, balancing on the cold marble of the angel’s upturned wings.
He knew it was the humanity remaining inside him.
There were many who didn't believe vampires carried any humanity after they'd been turned. Yet he and his three brothers believed. They lived their entire existence bound by that comforting fact.
They were born from humans.
Four brothers. Lords of Blacknall. This century. Trinity chuckled, turning his sharp gaze to the west. Holding the title of Duke of Blacknall had irritated his eldest brother Church for the last fifty years. Church would rather be a scientist like Baptiste or even a rector like their youngest brother, Christian.
Trinity hardly believed that. Church could no more be a clergy than he could stop being the eldest. One of them had to pretend, in this decade, to be an English lord, for their family's best placement. English dukes and their families, seen as eccentric, were not questioned as much as common men. Therefore, they could employ more privacy. Trinity carried the courtesy title Marquis Montrose, while Baptiste was Earl of Sterling, and Christian, Viscount Ash.
Trinity stretched his tall body to stand balanced on the stone angel's wings as though he were an evil apparition come to devour the pure angel. A small, unexpected gust of wind blew the edges of his coat outward as he felt Church beckoning him. It was unusual, the connection he and his three brothers had. They'd not turned each other into vampires, but they were all born from the same evil Sire. Perhaps that was why he could forever feel his brothers' call.
They knew other vampires turned by one Sire, yet none of them connected the way he and his brothers did. But there was nothing common about the Blacknall men, as either humans or vampires, and there never had been.
Minutes later, Trinity slid with unearthly quiet into the rosewood study on the second floor of Blacknall mansion. Because it was night, both Baptiste and Christian were there, having left their normal vocations for the daylight hours. None of them appreciated daylight; however, after a century of walking the earth as vampires, they'd discovered arcane ways to move about in sunlight.
"I still hear you, Trinity," Baptiste called, without turning his head of light blond hair as he sat on a settee facing the fireplace, which was burning with a glowing fire.
"I do too," Christian announced. He didn't turn his even blonder head, so that Trinity looked at the back of both their heads after gliding so close behind them as they sat on the settee. He didn't believe they knew that.
"Sorry," Christian added, ever the soulful brother.
"Don't be," Church said. "He has to keep challenging his skill level, as we all do."
Church was a tall figure beside the fireplace as he gazed at the flames. He did not turn his head either, as he added, "Be a useful skill if one of us could master it."
"It would," Trinity admitted loudly, startling both Christian and Baptiste, who jerked their dark blue-eyed gazes around toward him.
Trinity suspected he'd startled Church a bit too, but Church held his reaction well, only turning his head slowly after long moments. The flames from the fire slashed red glints through Church's snow-white hair, while his black eyebrows arched with an elder brother's look of congratulations. Church's icy-colored hair was part of the toll it cost him to gain liberation from their damnable stepfather, who was also their depraved Sire.
"That was good." Baptiste's gaze captured Trinity's, and his unnaturally handsome face, framed by wavy blond hair that clipped his square jaw, showed approval.
They were all like that … beautiful vampires. Church's face appeared the most natural because he had some maturity to his features, except for his blond hair gone white, which they endlessly needed to explain away as the tragedy that occurred when he'd seen their parents die. When told, it was a grievous tale about a harrowing carriage accident that only Church survived.
All a lie.
They were all master liars. Trinity wondered if they even knew the truth anymore. But Baptiste tried to hide his youthful Adonis looks with a moustache. Christian tried with a goatee. But Trinity never tried to hide his appearance with anything but a glaring sneer.
"There's been another woman killed in the Blood Cull's territory," Church reported with a grim slant to his features. He turned to face them before pinning them with a grave stare.
"Eleven in as many weeks." Trinity stilled his fingers on the edges of his long coat, his mood shifted … darkened. He'd been set to remove his coat, but he lifted his fingers away. "Cull." The distaste was evident in his snarl and the thickening of his tensed muscles. None of them appreciated Cull's ways.
However, in their world, there weren't many vampires that lived by rules. They had been able to enforce a rule not to kill humans for quite a few years and another rule, not to turn humans, for half that time. The Blacknalls lived by five unbreakable rules.
Because they chose to.
Because they came from humans.
And because they had to live among them.
These rules defined their existence. They did not kill humans and they did not turn humans into vampires. They did not use human slaves for feeders, did not let humans know they were vampires, or take any blood not freely given.
"My Bow Street Runner source states the woman was ripped apart like the others and left as though half fed upon by animals." Church glared at them all with the inner disgust of blood wasted. Christian and Baptiste rose and all four men growled their disgust. "Her dress suggested she was a young woman of some means this time. Unlikely one of Cull's, but considering the area …"
"If she'd been one of Cull's, it would be because she was forced into prostitution against her will." Christian's mouth pursed with anger as his gaze shifted between them.
"That is an issue for another time." Church grasped Christian's shoulder for an empathetic squeeze he'd used numerous times on all them. There was a time, Trinity thought, when they never touched. He knew Church continually worked to overcome the abuse of their youth.
Church continued, "We must discover who or what is killin
g women on London's eastside before someone or the constables run across a vampire as the culprit." Church's fierce gaze glinted; they all knew what that meant.
"And because it is wrong for any vampire to rip apart and murder innocent people," Christian added, with his stubbornness born of devout faith. His sermons could bring people to tears or propel them into shouting God's name. Ever the scientist, Baptiste said it was some quality in Christian's voice or vocal cords that entranced people. Trinity thought that it was his littlest brother's heart.
They were all parts of the whole. Church was the soul, Baptiste was the logic, and Christian was the heart. Trinity thought he, on the other hand, was the dark side of every man.
"I will go and convince Cull to tell us what he knows," Trinity muttered foully as he turned to leave.