Desirable Trinity

Chapter 9

Kenna did not know what she was expecting when she finally met Niklas Adair, the mysterious vampire responsible for the capture of her best friend and her own involvement in a grotesque fantasy world, but she didn’t expect him to be so beautiful. A bold smile has not left this tall and lean man’s face since the three girls had first laid their gazes on him, his stance filled with confidence. Kenna wants nothing more than to take steps closer to this man with charcoal eyes and long black hair, but the alluring qualities are due to the creature he is, not the beauty that embodies him.

She had momentarily been awestruck by a female, a gender she is not attracted to, due to the mythical being she is and the powers they must possess. Almost immediately after the thought dawns on her, Kenna takes a step backwards and Niklas’s eyes zero in on her at that very moment. Marie and Elizabeth are unable to look away, just like with Faline, and so Niklas’s focus is only on his resilient damsel.

“Why run from me, my damsel?” Niklas takes a step forward, noticing the warmth of both Elizabeth and Marie’s body heat brushing against him as he stands in between them, his gaze focused only on Kenna. “I only wish to talk.”

“What are you doing to them?” Kenna attempts to sound angry, to shield her own anxiety as she normally does with fury, but she is unable to show anything but the truth to this alluring man. “Just by looking at you, Elizabeth is no longer scared; Marie isn’t trying to talk her way out of this…”

“And you are not so angry.” He finishes off, taking another step closer to Kenna and away from her friends, those black eyes consuming her whole. “It is not just your friends that are affected by me, but you as well, my beautiful damsel.”

“D-damsel?” Kenna stutters the word, stepping backwards once more, but Niklas matches each of her steps.

“And I, your knight.”

His smile only continues to grow, his perfection dizzying Kenna the closer he comes to her, but with each advancing step he takes towards Kenna the more focused her friends are becoming. Already, out of the corner of her eye, she can see Marie shaking her head with slight confusion and Elizabeth’s eyes pooling with tears.

“Niklas,” Kenna whispers his name, hating how perfect it sounds against her tongue. “That was really f*****g corny.”

Immediately, Niklas’s smile that Kenna has been growing weak staring at dissipates and he turns around, seeing both Elizabeth and Marie out of their own compulsion and staring at him with their true emotions. The girls are surprised to hear Niklas softly laughing, the tone not filled with malice but entertainment. As he rummages his hand through his wavy black hair, he looks at the three of them as they regroup together.

“That was very wise, my damsel.” Niklas laughs once more. “This is going to be a fun game indeed.”

“We want no part in your game.” Marie interjects, her brown eyes not once wavering towards Niklas’s but staying rooted on the floor around his feet, fearing her own resilience towards him.

“Not even if it gives you a chance at your friend and your departure from this home?”

Elizabeth shivers at the thought of joining this game, but at the sound of leaving this vampiric nightmare, she looks up at the handsome monster in front of her. All three girls, now, are staring at Niklas, waiting for what he says next. A large smile envelopes his face again and he takes a step towards them, but the trinity move backwards due to his advance.

He laughs. “Smart girls, indeed.”

“What kind of game is this?” Marie asks.

“This home is a labyrinth of mystery, fantasy, and pure malice. It is either to be your home for the rest of eternity, or it will be but a simple arena for a game you will dismiss in the near future. You have twenty four hours to find your friend within my home and get out; your freedom within the cusp of your grasp.”

“But?” Elizabeth squeaks out the word, and like a light switch Niklas’s smile turns mischievous and he looks at each girl with amusement.

“My girls and I will be stopping by throughout your journey, leading you towards what I want, which is you three to forever live in my home. If you do not leave my home in the time I have graciously given you, then your friend will die and you three, my desirable trinity, will be mine to do whatever I wish with.”

A strangled sob escapes Elizabeth, the thought of living with vampires the rest of her life near traumatizing, but Kenna instantly puts her arm around her frightened friend and silences her. Marie, however, looks up at Niklas with slight interest, a competitive game pumping the adrenaline within her.

“When does this game start?” Marie asks, her eyes leveling off with Niklas’s, and his smile grows larger than humanely possible.

“Now.”

Like a game of chase, the three girls flee towards the staircase, and Niklas begins counting with an ever growing smile upon his face. He amusingly watches as Kenna throws off her heels, the two pink pumps falling onto the floor a few feet in front of him, while the other two girls attempt to run in their shoes. Niklas patiently waits to win them, each one individually, until they are all beneath his fangs and sheets.

 He knows this to be their inevitable future, just as all of the hundreds of women before them.

As Kenna chucks her shoes, she hikes up her dress and races to catch up with Marie and Elizabeth. Both of them are sprinting up the staircase with no clear plan as to where to look. Just as Niklas had previously said, this mansion is a maze in which none of them know the dead ends of. Kenna tries to speed up to her friends, to warn them of the land they are oblivious to, but the moment she lands on the top of the staircase a figure blocks her from her wandering friends.

“The damsel,” Faline stands in front of her, a malicious smile coming across her face as she takes a step closer to Kenna. “Going somewhere?”

“Why do you fangs keep calling me a damsel?” Kenna’s aggravation for this name continues to grow by the moment but Faline only continues advancing towards Kenna as if she is the woman’s meal.

“Because you’re the weakest link.”

“Bull shit.” Kenna barks, continuing to take steps distancing herself from Faline, but the glittering gold vampire only continues to smile wider.

“Why do you say that? Do you think the blonde is the weakest because she won’t stop crying?”

Kenna continues to step backwards, but one fateful step has her foot instantly caught on a rope, hoisting her off of her feet and dangling upside down. A prey caught within Faline’s trap, Kenna screams with frustration while Faline only continues to gleam with pride. While Kenna was retreating away from Faline, she found herself in a dim lit bedroom, her ankle brutally rubbing against the rope she is dangling from.

“The blonde would’ve looked behind her shoulder at least once.” Faline retorts, shutting the bedroom door shut so it is just Kenna and her. “And here you are, a damsel waiting to be saved.”

“f**k you.”

It is the only thing Kenna can dare to say at this moment, as the sound of her heart beating a thousand miles an hour is keeping her from saying any quick witted remarks. Kenna often thinks about how she is going to die during her panic attacks, the thoughts going from gruesome to simply pathetic, but never has she envisioned herself dangling off of a ceiling by a rope around her ankle as a vampire tortured her to death.

Now? That is all she can think about.

“I can smell your fear as if it is your natural essence, and I must say the scent is invigorating.” Faline glides towards Kenna and as the blood flow moves down to her head, Faline captures Kenna’s chin with her sharp prehistoric claws. “Until the day Niklas turns you, I am allowed to do whatever it is I wish to you, but I am not a murderer. Murder entertains me, yes, but I do not enjoy getting the blood spilled upon my own hand; instead I watch as others inflict it.”

Kenna cannot speak, her fear paralyzing her in ways she has never exhibited before. Her entire body is growing cold, as if death is already becoming her, and it takes Kenna complete control not to shiver with complete fright. When the door to the bedroom opens, Seraphina is the first thing she sees, and the sight of those silvery eyes leveling with hers brings tears to her eyes.

She is going to die tonight, or worse, become the monster Niklas wants her to become.

“I’m sure Niklas wouldn’t mind with one of the girls gone, don’t you think?” Faline turns her head to look at Seraphina.

“And why do you think that? Because this one didn’t find you beautiful?” As Faline opens her mouth to respond, with one quick motion, Seraphina has her hands around Faline’s neck, cracking it. While Faline slumps onto the floor unconscious, Seraphina strides towards Kenna. “Yes, Faline, Niklas would mind if you killed her.

With her long blood red nails, Seraphina cuts the rope around Kenna’s ankle and watches as she drops head first onto the floor. Black spots begin dancing around Kenna’s vision, and she can barely see Seraphina as she kneels down in front of her. Kenna, in defeat, slowly closes her eyes but Seraphina’s words keep her from slipping into the darkness.

“Niklas would prefer it if I kept you chained here, unable to leave this horrid game of his.” Kenna feels Seraphina’s fingers grazing across her bruising forehead, tucking a piece of her ombre hair behind her ear. “But I have something better in store for you.”

Gingerly, the vampire Kenna once feared picks her up and takes her away from the room that she almost died in as she slips into unconsciousness.