Into the Blue (Triad Bite Book 3), page 1
Into the Blue
Triad Bite Book 3
R.N.A.
Copyright © 2023 R.N.A. / RNA / R.N.A.Author
All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 9798852806505
Cover design by: Valentina Migliore.
Formatting/interior by RNA.
Printed in the United States of America
This is for everyone who fought for themselves, to heal their pasts after being dragged through the dirt, to hell and back again.
“You can close your eyes to the things you don’t want to see, but you can’t close your heart to the things you don’t want to feel.” – Johnny Depp
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Content Warnings
The Aftermath
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Epilogue
Into the Fire
Acknowledgments
Other Books
About the Author
Message From the Author
Content Warnings
Drug use, grieving, MFM scenes, depression, coping skills, talk therapy, blood play, multiple partners, bondage, light BDSM, rope bunnies, mentions of Shibari, struggles with mental health, suicide ideation/thoughts, suicide attempt survival, grief over deaths, along with the process of healing and how messy it is.
Karina has a few scenes where she is together with her jade-eyed twins, although the twins don’t touch each other, it could be considered gray-area incestual to some or taboo.
Always do your research and ensure safety when practicing any BDSM scenes and techniques.
As always, if I forgot any TWs, my deepest apologies as it’s not my intention.
No book is worth the expense of your mental health.
This book is intended for readers 18+ due to its mature nature.
We did it, we made it to the last book! I will hold your hand through this journey amidst the pages ahead.
The happy ending is coming.
-R.N.A.
The Aftermath
A heart is a burdensome thing. Emotions are processed in the brain, but every living thing feels those processes settling heavy or light upon their chest.
It is said the heart can drive us to insanity, how intensely it can feel, the mighty highs and gloomy lows.
Love is, but an echo, a story to give others hope to find a silver lining. It is madness, illogical, but ever so freeing. Love is jealous, sexual, and liberating. Obsessive and possessive. It is blinding and all-consuming. It can be controlling, dominating, and harmful at times.
The yearning for closeness with another person is built into our genetic coding. It’s why we bury the pain and seek escape when we feel alone or when something is missing and unfulfilled.
We’re all searching for love, every last one of us.
Not all love is romantic. Sometimes it’s in a stranger’s kindness, or compliment. A random act of kindness even.
On the other side of the spectrum, grief is also consuming and maddening. It causes the body to sometimes shut down or freeze in time.
The heart can also kill us. Too much of one thing, or not enough. Broken heart syndrome.
It exists for people who die in such a state. Perhaps it’s stress or someone’s heart simply stops. A medical mystery as two hearts may beat but not all beat equally. A connection that transcends beyond life and death.
Grief can keep a person from getting up in the morning and can lock themselves in silence for days or years. Like love, it feels unending. It is depression and anguish, tension, numbness, and emptiness.
What do people do with their grief?
Sink? Drown? Swim?
It feels like an endless ocean, dark depths pulling me under until I no longer see the light.
Heartbreak and loss have no easy answers, because if there were, books wouldn’t be written, and stories never told. Everyone has their journey, and all of us are trying to find our way under the same sky. It is why sunsets are calming but heartbreaking, and music exists to resonate within the soul.
As with the first fall, how long can someone fall until they finally reach the bottom, or is it falling forever?
Complicated emotions and processing them, all I can say is that the walls caved in around me, and the foundations have been obliterated.
It’s only me standing here in the shadowy remnants of the past and present. The future is left unwritten, and all I have are questions left unanswered, and people that are no longer breathing. I’m part of the blame, but I wonder if there’s a solution underneath all the rubble and ashes of what once stood. Perhaps the answers lie in the pieces of my mosaic. Until then, I’ll let that undertow pull me under.
Chapter 1
Margo
Karina was still unresponsive when Lucien arrived alone later in the evening. When he did, Fabien and I explained everything from our perspective, and he sighed sadly asking for liquor. Patrick left immediately once he spoke the magic words.
I could see the distress written all over everyone’s faces, minus Karina. She either stared off into space or had her eyes closed.
No words, just an empty gaze. As if all the life had been sucked away from her, leaving an empty shell behind. It brought back my own older memories from a time when I felt those same things upon my rebirthing.
Fabien sat on another sofa nearby; I sat in the chair next to him. Lucien cradled Karina with her head buried in his neck.
I could read my brother’s conflictions over the gesture, but there was much echoing from us all. I could see his pain, along with Lucien’s.
Karina eased her sobs not long ago and rested in Lucien’s arms as he leaned his head against hers; no one said anything until Patrick returned.
His arms were full when he walked back through the door, and I stood up to help. We exchanged a knowing look once we made it to the kitchen.
I helped Patrick prepare the glasses, neither of us dared to speak.
What could we say? Words wouldn’t bring Adrian back or fix Tristan’s mistakes.
A sigh left me as I brought Fabien a triple shot of whiskey. I sat next to him as Patrick handed Lucien the same before standing off to the side nearby.
Lucien thanked him before draining his triple shot immediately. He seemed conflicted before finally speaking as Patrick refilled all our empty glasses. All of us were feeling the tension in the room.
“I’ll get to the bottom of things, Karina. We’re in this together. None of us will leave you now; you don’t have to speak if you don’t want to, and you don’t need to see anyone you don’t want to either. However, we will not leave your side. Whatever you need, we’re here. Cry as much as you want but let us be here for you in whatever ways you need. You are not alone in this. I think everyone in this room can agree with me.”
Lucien’s words made me tear up, stealing a glance from my brother’s devastated face. We most certainly agreed.
None of us had seen Karina in such a state ever.
So broken. Frail.
She would go through fits of wailing or staring mindlessly, never speaking, not since the police showed up and we waited nearby listening to every word.
“Do you have a moment to speak with us?”
“Where were you last night?”
“We found Adrian dead…”
“Did you know of Adrian’s whereabouts?”
“We found a ring in his pocket… Did he ever mention marriage?”
She broke down again over the news and answered their questions through her sobbing. They seemed to buy it and quickly left her to her grief.
Then, we found her on the floor with the ring. None of us could say anything to reverse the damage, only to remain there.
To my surprise, she let Fabien hold her even if she stopped speaking completely. We wouldn’t force her to either, not after everything…
After a total of six shots later that all of us downed, minus Karina, she moved to lay her head in Lucien’s lap.
&nb
Along with how Fabien couldn’t stay away or resist touching his mate even then. My heart panged at the thought, reminding me of the dire situation Tristan got us involved in.
Foiré (Bastard).
Pat refilled our glasses a third time, and I felt the buzz come through already. He moved to sit beside me once he finished, lightly rubbing my thigh in comfort.
“Can I tell them, Karina?” Lucien asked so quietly I wondered if he spoke, or if I imagined it.
She said nothing aloud, but he lightly rubbed her shoulder as she remained motionless with her eyes closed. He stared into his glass as we waited.
“She answered me in her mind. Mind reader, remember?”
We nodded, almost forgetting that simple fact. It wasn’t easy to forget, but other thoughts occupied our minds, the main ones being, what the fuck are we going to do now, and what the fuck happened?
“Tell us about Adrian,” I urged on, keeping my tone soft and quiet as he took a sip from his glass, looking at it in great contemplation.
He took a deep breath before beginning.
“Karina originally ran into Adrian long before she met her sire, back in The States. He had only met her once, but he remembered her twelve years later. After her run-in with you in Paris,” he said indicating his head towards Fabi, “she left for Ireland as a destination she hadn’t been to before. She was still processing the aftermath with Gabriel and all that went on during that time.”
Fabien scrunched his eyebrows, no doubt thinking of all that was said at The Society meeting last year and what was possibly left out. I held back my own conflicts about everything, but I left that in the corner of my mind to deal with later.
This wasn’t about me.
“It hasn’t been an easy road for any of us,” he continued, “but Adrian was a fast friend when they ran into each other. He offered kindness and a fresh perspective. Human and uncorrupted, at least in the sense of all the baggage we carry. Yes, he knew of loss, but he grew up in a stable environment with a loving family. Hence the perspective. A refreshing change from the previous chaos, no doubt.”
He paused, taking a drink of his latest refill as Fabien looked at me with a myriad of emotions; emotions of his mate navigating treacherous waters, but also allowing another man into her life that wasn’t him or Tristan. Yet, underneath all of that, there was a sense of gratitude she wasn’t alone to navigate either.
It was a strange toss-up, but it was written all over his face as if he laid open his book pages.
My heart broke to know my friend also suffered at Gabriel’s expense. I couldn’t even imagine the real story she didn’t share all the dirty details with The Society.
That crazy asshole. Good riddance…
“Adrian and Karina both found friendship and healing in one another and eventually, as you can imagine, they loved each other not only as friends but as lovers. She battled with the guilt of the past few years and the uncertainty of how to navigate that territory, so while he was a distraction, he became more after she told him the truth about vampirism and her world. She left out the mate part as she didn’t want to confuse him during an already uncertain time. At some point, and at his request, Karina sired him. Even once he found out about the mate bond, he didn’t walk away. He wanted them to figure it out together. At the meeting, she didn’t want to provoke any of you or be cruel, so they pretended not to be together. He was the dark red-haired man on Carmen’s arm.”
It took all of us a minute to recall the gentleman on Carmen’s arm, but we all nodded, remembering.
Leave it to Karina to only romance the best. If I didn’t have Patrick, I wouldn’t blame her. We were all assholes’ years ago.
Lucien finished his drink.
“After that meeting, as heavy as it was, we all needed a break. From what Karina says,” he lightly tapped his head, “Tristan saw them holding hands briefly before you left after the meeting, or so he says. The question that comes to mind is how did he find this place and where they were?”
That’s what I’d like to know too.
I spoke in a soft, hushed tone, “None of us knew until Tristan called angrily saying less than two sentences. We tracked his phone location and found her on the dock when we called you. I hadn’t seen Tristan be so…unlike himself in over a century, maybe two. I’m not making excuses for my brother, because none of it was right. Had we known, we would’ve stopped him or intervened somehow.”
“I know,” Lucien lightly rubbed Karina’s shoulder again as tears leaked out of her closed eyes.
“Tristan saw them out together and lost it. He snapped. He ripped his heart out like it was nothing. In front of Karina. Then told her cruel things.”
Lucien sighed and then added, “After all this time…You still chose other people. Time and time again, you chose everyone else. I’m surprised it took me this long to finally snap.”
I finished my drink and stood up walking to where the bottle was on the counter.
Fuck.
“Refill anyone?” I suggested as my hands shook anxiously.
No wonder she doesn’t want to speak after that. Dammit, Tristan!
I refilled everyone’s glasses before I sat back in my chair with the rest of the bottle.
“Thank you for telling us,” Fabi mentioned quietly as Lucien held out his drink in agreement, and they each took a long sip.
After a large chug from the bottle myself, my head was swimming with thoughts and whisky. I exhaled in defeat over my brother’s actions and leaned back into the chair staring up at the ceiling.
“My guess, knowing him, is that he searched for her. He probably made some calls to see who might know. Not sure what he told people, but he found her and her location. None of us knew, and by this interaction, it certainly wasn’t you,” Patrick thought out loud, looking to Lucien for confirmation.
I looked up and saw something cross over Lucien’s face. It was brief, but I had a feeling he knew that answer.
“I will look into it. I also investigated; they will be transporting Adrian back to Ireland for a proper burial. His mother and family will get the notification of his death tomorrow. The official report is that he was at the wrong place at the wrong time on the way home from a late night at work. Karina was at home awaiting his arrival, but he never came.”
I swallowed, and I could tell Fabi was processing as he looked over at Karina. His heart was breaking over his mate’s grief. She began to cry quietly; Lucien rubbed her upper back in comfort as Fabi continued to trace circles on her leg.
“I doubt having any men go with her will look good, so I volunteer myself to keep her company if she chooses to go to Ireland,” I told them after taking a long drink out of the bottle, finishing what was left.
“She agrees,” Lucien stated, mouthing a thank you to me as I nodded.
“When do you think we should leave?” I asked quietly, my vision becoming blurred with my old and new griefs plus my drunkenness.
“Tomorrow,” he answered immediately.
“What do we do about my brother?” Fabien asked in a low tone of voice, almost afraid of the answer.
Lucien sighed, looking at him before turning his gaze to the rest of us.
“I’m unsure. For now, it is best to keep him away from Karina since everything is recent and fresh. While they go to Ireland, I recommend the three of us figure out the what, who, how, and why for Tristan. Leave out the Ireland part if you see him. If he follows her, I can’t say that Karina won’t snap if pushed too far. Consider it a warning now. I think the only reason she hasn’t strangled him yet is because he left and there’s still the sire and mate bond. The past also doesn’t help… We don’t need history repeating itself in any way.”
Fabi leaned his head back on the couch staring up at the ceiling too.
