Dark Nights

Chapter Three

“Joie, this is out of this world,” Jubal said softly, in awe. He turned in a full circle, shining his light on the walls of the gallery. The descent had been a long one, well over three hundred feet. “I’ve never seen anything like it. What a find. The ice formations are incredible. I swear I actually saw a vein of gold in more than one place. There are so many halls and galleries to explore.”

The century-long hidden domain was breathtaking. Despite the urgency she was feeling, Joie allowed herself a brief moment of wonderment, looking around her into twisted corridors and tunnels, shadowed pools lined with gem-like crystals and a network of narrow crevices and grottoes. The gallery opened up into an entire underground world. If they hadn’t found that strange crack allowing them inside, they would never have seen the sparkling world deep beneath the earth.

Small ice balls and ice draped the ceiling and walls, shimmering all hues of blue; steep slopes and wide outcroppings marked the magnificent gallery. Inside the subterranean world were peaks and crags, the ice forming mountains and valleys, ridges and gorges. Underground rivers were frozen after carving out tunnels and shapes. “Windows” gave glimpses of moulins deep beneath them.

Gabrielle cautiously moved around an ice sculpture that rose like a living flame from the floor. “Look at this. When I shine my light on it from this angle, I’d swear the thing had gems in it. It’s as brilliant as a polished diamond but reflects the light as if it were red like a ruby.”

Movement caught her attention, and she turned her head to watch Joie as she examined the glacial ice that formed the gallery. “Be careful, I suspect that a good number of viruses previously unknown to us come from insects and even perhaps the fungi in caves such as this one. These microorganisms exist with no light and few nutrients, locked inside the ice, yet still capable of living. There’s such a wealth of information down here.” She gave Joie a quick, excited grin. “No one has probably ever touched this ice. Can you imagine the microbes living down here? This is a scientist’s dream.”

Joie took a long breath and let it out, looking around at each of the tunnels leading to other chambers. She was so close now, she could almost feel him breathing. Somewhere in this labyrinth of halls he was waiting for her. Smoldering. Angry that she had disobeyed him and put herself and her siblings in danger. He was real, not a voice in her head, not a part of a split personality. He was real and alive and in pain. She could feel his pain, throbbing through her body, beating at her head.

Tell me. She demanded it. Forced him to deal with who she really was, not who he thought she should be.

Tell the others to be quiet. They are in danger. I have battled the same enemy three times since you first found me in the cave weeks ago. I am a prisoner and wounded and extremely weak. I cannot aid you much in the battle, and the enemy has powers you cannot possibly comprehend.

Joie pressed her lips together, her heart suddenly pounding. His tone rang with truth. He believed in what he was saying. Joie tended to keep her cool with humor. She gave him a mental image of rolling her eyes in exasperation.

Sorry for the fluff in my head, but I’m usually found wrapped in cotton or bubble wrap to protect me from all the evil people in the world.

“Jubal, Gabby, we have to be quiet. Something’s in here with us and it isn’t good.”

She took the lead and Jubal dropped back to protect his sisters, neither sibling asking questions. They knew Joie, knew she was good at her job and she had switched easily into hunter/protector mode. She trusted Jubal. He was the steadiest man she knew in a fight, and she worked with a lot of good men.

“Tell us what’s happening, Joie,” Jubal demanded.

She shook her head and placed a finger to her lips. “He’s telepathic. I don’t want to chance communication he might overhear until we know what’s really going on.” She mouthed the words to her brother and sister and waited for them to nod in understanding before she continued. She was ready to trust the stranger in her head, but she wouldn’t risk Gabrielle and Jubal without knowing what they were getting into.

There were several halls and tubes leading away from the open gallery they had descended into. She moved slowly to stand in front of each to feel her way. The pull of Traian was strong and she knew the moment she was at an entrance that he was somewhere in that direction. Using hand signals, she started down the hall, as stealthy as one could in climbing gear. The long hallway continued forward but two other tunnels branched off from it, one leading down and the other appearing to climb upward. The pull to go down was strong.

Joie, Traian’s voice seemed weaker. I’m asking you one last time to get out of here. You’re risking your life and the lives of your companions.

She moved through the halls with confidence, recognizing the feel of him now, knowing she was moving toward him. She picked up the pace, although she remained very conscious of the layers of ice surrounding them. The walls appeared thick, but they creaked and cracked, loud popping noises signaling ice falling or shooting out of the walls from the weight above them.

I doubt very much if I’ll need your aid, Mr. Brawny, but I’ll keep it in mind. How many?

Traian sighed, obviously unwilling to argue with her anymore. Worse, she felt his strength draining away and had to fight the need to run to him.

There is one with me now. The others will return well fed and high with a lust for killing.

Joie didn’t like the sound of that. Lust for killing held very bad implications. Could you be exaggerating just a little? She desperately hoped he was.

You do not want to meet them.

Joie gave a little sniff, her heart slamming hard just once at his tone. He wasn’t joking about his enemies. She took a deep breath and let it out. Isn’t that the truth. Anyone with a lust for killing isn’t going to be invited for Sunday dinner.

She glanced back at her brother and sister, frowning, suddenly afraid for them. What was she getting them all into with her obsessive behavior? She hesitated at the next twisting tunnel. He was so close now, and so was danger. She felt it and she could tell Gabrielle felt it as well. Her sensitive sister pressed her hand hard into her stomach and had a look of fear stamped on her face. Behind her, Jubal had produced a gun, his features hard-edged and sober. They would stand with her, back her up under any circumstances, but she didn’t feel it was right to force them—through their love of her—into a dangerous and unknown situation.

“Let me go in alone, figure out what’s wrong and . . .” She began, mouthing the words rather than speaking them aloud or telepathically. She still didn’t want Traian to be privy to her private conversation with her siblings and she didn’t know how strong his psychic abilities were—but he felt powerful. She had to find the man, but she didn’t trust strangers with her siblings’ lives.

Jubal held up his hand to stop her and indicated with a hand signal for her to proceed. She looked at Gabrielle’s resolute expression. No, they weren’t going to leave her. They were in it together, good or bad, they stood with her. She took a breath, nodded and stepped into the water-carved tunnel.

Bands of green and blue in wide circular stripes surrounded them and ordinarily would have had all three examining the beautifully constructed tube, but the moment they entered the hallway, all of them felt the presence of evil. Joie’s mouth went dry. She touched her belt, assuring herself her knife was close at hand.

I guess I’d best pull your butt out of trouble and get the heck out of Dodge.

Traian sighed. You do not act like any of the women I know.

Thank you, I appreciate your saying so. Her stomach was in knots.

Evil permeated the narrowing hallway, so that every breath drawn in was foul, the air dense—thick with poisonous breath. The tunnel narrowed and the ceiling dropped considerably, making it impossible to walk upright. Joie dropped to her knees and crawled through the tube on her hands and knees. Jubal and Gabrielle followed close behind. The steady drip of water reminded Joie of the clicking of the branches at the theater the night she was shot. There was a peculiar rhythm to the drops, almost as if some unseen hand, not nature, guided the water’s descent. The tube began to widen until she could once again stand.

A strange growling noise assaulted her ears, sounding like a cross between a hyena laughing and a dog growling viciously. Immediately she held up her hand behind her, signaling Jubal and Gabrielle to stop while she scooted closer. She used the tall columns of rock and ice formations as cover as she worked her way into a position to be able to see into the chamber.

A man—and it had to be Traian—was literally pinned like an insect to a wall of ice, his feet actually off the floor. Blood ran down from each shoulder and leg where sharp, twisted stakes had been thrust through his body. It was the most horrific form of torture she’d ever seen. Joie held her breath to keep from crying out in dismay. It was no wonder she could feel the pain radiating from him. Every movement of his body had to be excruciating. Who would do such a thing? And far beneath the earth in an ice cave, it was bizarre, unreal and too cruel.

She could see something that resembled a man—or at least had a man’s shape—prodding at Traian’s wounds with a bony finger, dipping it in blood and licking with a grotesque, purple tongue. A shudder ran through her body.

She forced herself to look at the terrifying apparition holding Traian prisoner. He was nearly as tall as Traian, but his body appeared skeleton-like, as if his skin had shrunk over bones. His clothes were filthy and tattered, thin strips of material that should never have been worn in an ice cave. The thing—she had no other name for it—had longish strands of hair sticking out haphazardly in all directions over his misshapen skull.

The thick perversion of evil emanated from the creature. The apparition turned slightly and she could see the fingers ended in long, wicked-looking nails, almost like a bird’s talons, very sharp and yellowed and stained. It was hard to control the pounding of her heart. She’d faced many human monsters, but this—this thing—was not human, at least not any more.

She knew Traian was aware of her presence, but he didn’t make the mistake of giving away her position by so much as glancing toward her. He watched the creature hovering over him with cool eyes.

“You seem nervous, Lamont,” Traian observed in a low, amicable tone. He sounded polite, almost friendly and just a little bit amused.

The creature hissed, a low, ugly expression of hatred. Without preamble he bent his head to Traian’s neck and sank his teeth into the pulse beating there. Joie could easily see the long canines stabbing into flesh; something she’d only seen before in films. Her heart pounded so loud she was afraid the thing would hear the drumming even above the sound of water and cracking ice.

She dropped to the ground, crawling on her stomach, using her elbows to propel herself across the floor between two columns of ice to get into a better position for attack. She came up on her knees behind a large ice formation, her gaze fixed on her target. It took her a couple of tense moments to quiet her shaking hands. She’d been afraid many times in her life, but always—always—her body was as steady as a rock. Facing this hideous apparition, not knowing what it was or how to kill it, was quite frankly terrifying.

He is very dangerous, especially now when he is filled with the blood of an ancient. Traian’s voice was calm in spite of the ghastly creature tormenting him. He is very angry with me because I killed his master, Gallent.

Joie stared at the hideous thing closely now that she could see more of it, grateful for the steadying sound of Traian’s voice in her head. The creature was tall and emaciated, the skin shrunken around its skull, almost as if it were dead. Tufts of hair stood straight out, a curious gray-white color, while the rest of the hair hung in oily, twisted ropes. He gulped down the blood, smearing it on his lips and stained teeth, all the while making growling noises in his throat. Definitely more animal than man.

My family always warned me if I hung out underground too long I could end up with a troll. At the risk of seeming shallow, I have to say he isn’t very handsome and doesn’t appeal at all to me. She was rather proud of the fact that she managed to sound amused instead of slightly hysterical, which was exactly how she felt.

Her hand went up to the back of her neck, sliding down between her shoulder blades in a well-practiced move, and came out with one of the knives she always carried.

The creature lifted his head alertly and looked around the large gallery with suspicious eyes. Joie froze, remaining motionless, hardly daring to breathe, praying her brother and sister wouldn’t make a sound. They were still safe in the twisted tunnel, but Jubal would be worried by now. The cold air rushed through the chamber and touched Traian and the creature with icy fingers. Immediately Lamont caught at one of the stakes pinning his victim to the ice floe, pushing at it viciously.

“None of your tricks, ancient one. Your blood belongs to us now. The others will be back soon with a victim to force you to do our bidding. You are far too weak to resist.”

Joie closed her eyes against the ripple of pain on Traian’s face. She swallowed bile and forced air through her lungs. What is he?

He is vampire. The undead. And there are several more. You must get your family out before the others return.

Traian watched his tormentor intently. The vampire leaned close to the gaping wound in Traian’s neck, his breath a sickly green vapor as he licked at the blood with a thick, dark tongue. “I just might kill you instead. A stake through the heart for what you did to my master.” He lifted a lethal-looking stake over his head and gave a maniacal laugh.

Vampires are difficult to kill. You will only get one chance. Go for his heart.

Joie didn’t dare hesitate. She didn’t want to lose her nerve, or risk waiting and allowing the terrible creature to kill Traian. She threw the knife with deadly accuracy. It hummed as it rocketed across the chamber and buried itself deep in the vampire’s chest. The creature screamed, the sound cracking the ice so that sharp daggers broke from the high ceiling and rained down like deadly missiles. Joie flung her body against Traian’s, in an effort to protect him from the falling ice. The vampire went down hard, thrashing wildly, the sounds echoing through the cavern, and then there was sudden silence. Once again the sound of water was overloud in the chamber.

Joie moved back slowly, slipping a second knife from the scabbard on her calf. “That didn’t look so difficult to me.” She drew in a couple of deep, shuddering breaths and managed a small, tentative smile. “If you want, I’ll give you a lesson or two.”

“What took you so long?” Traian asked.

She made her way cautiously around him, kicking aside the bigger chunks of ice. “Bad directions. You know how traffic in these places can be.” She leaned close to study one of the stakes slicing through his shoulder to hold him to the wall. “I hate to point this out to you, but you’re in a bit of a mess. What was all that he-man macho crap telling me to stay away? If you ask me, you’re in serious need of rescuing.”

Joie! Answer me now, Jubal demanded.

I’m good. You’d better come in here, she assured him. How was she going to explain any of this to him?

Traian arched an eyebrow. His skin appeared pale, and he was clearly weak from loss of blood. Unattended wounds from a recent battle leeched away more of his precious life fluid. He shook uncontrollably, unable to maintain his body’s temperature. His hair was black and matted with blood. “I am certain I would have thought of something. He has friends. They will be returning soon, and when they see him, they are not going to be happy. And if I do not incinerate his body immediately, he will rise again.”

“Lovely thought,” Joie said and turned to keep a wary eye on the repulsive corpse. “Lucky for you I travel with a doctor. My sister Gabrielle is quite mad, always peering into microscopes and lecturing us about how we’re parasites on earth, but she does have certain skills.”

Jubal entered, coming in low, gun in his fist, his features hard and determined. Gabrielle peered into the chamber and gave a soft cry when she saw Traian’s bloody body. Immediately she started across the floor to him, but Jubal caught her arm, halting her.

“Explain.” A single word. A command.

Joie did so quickly, stumbling over the word vampire. The creature lay on the floor, looking foul and scary, but her brother hadn’t seen his teeth tearing into Traian’s neck as she had. She pressed her lips together, watching Jubal closely.

“We have to hurry, Jubal,” Gabrielle said. “He can’t stay like that. He needs medical attention right now.”

Joie noticed Traian didn’t attempt to plead his case to either of her siblings, he was conserving energy and leaving her to do the explanations.

Gabrielle made the first move, her compassionate nature getting the better of her. She pushed past Jubal and, carefully avoiding looking at the vampire, stepped right up to Traian, studying the wicked stakes pinning him to the wall.

“You do know the strangest people, Joie,” she murmured softly. “I don’t even want to ask where you met him.”

Does everyone in your family have the same weird sense of humor?

Joie nodded. Pretty much. We’ve had to find humor in everything to get by. It’s that or cry. Laughing is better.

Gabrielle frowned and stepped closer. “I’m going to touch this. I’m sorry if it hurts you.” Her fingers probed gently around the wound in his shoulder where the stake had gone through his body. “Jubal, you’ll have to pull these out. They go all the way through and are buried pretty deep into the ice.”

“If I pull out the stake, is he going to bleed to death?” Jubal inquired. He had followed Gabrielle into the middle of the chamber, but stopped beside the vampire, crouching down to study the undead. “This guy is twitching. I don’t think he’s dead.”

“Twist the knife in deeper and cut out the heart. That will buy us a little more time,” Traian suggested.

Jubal’s gaze jumped to his face. “Are you kidding me?”

“No, he’s going to rise again and soon. The only way to kill one permanently is to incinerate the heart.” Traian closed his eyes, took a breath and slammed his body forward against the stakes holding him.

Blood oozed around each of the stakes and Gabrielle jumped back, nearly tripping over Joie. “Don’t! You’re going to make it worse. Jubal, you have to help us.”

“You have to cut the heart out of his body and do not get any of his blood on you. It acts as an acid and burns through flesh and eventually bone.”

Jubal’s eyes met Traian’s.

“If you cannot,” Traian continued calmly, “then your sister must. That blood will eat through the blade and he will be free.”

“I’ll do it, Jubal,” Joie said, her stomach churning madly. She wasn’t certain she could find the courage to touch the hideous creature, not now that he was twitching.

“Like hell,” Jubal said and grasped the hilt of Joie’s knife, glancing back at Traian, over his shoulder. “But you had better be telling the truth. If you lay one finger on my sisters, I’ll shoot you right between the eyes.”

Sickened, Joie looked away from the black thick goo bubbling up around the blade of the knife to look once more at Traian.

“We have to get the stakes out of him one at a time,” Gabrielle said. “I think we can do it, Joie. As soon as we do, I’ll apply pressure and you’ll have to find something to pack the wound to stop the bleeding. He can’t afford any more blood loss.”

“You’ll have to pack it with a mixture of my saliva and any dirt you can find.”

Gabrielle made a face, and pointed to her pack. “The first-aid kit is in my pack, Joie, but I don’t know how we’re going to get him to the surface.” I think he’s in so much pain, Joie, that he’s delusional. Saliva is not going to save him.

Joie looked around the cave. “If there’s dirt, it’s under fifty feet of solid ice. It will have to be my shirt.” She opened her jacket, stripped quickly down to her Patagonia tee shirt and quickly cut it into strips before retrieving the first aid kit.

When she would have put the cream onto the material, impatience crossed Traian’s face. “I told you what to do, Joie.”

“Do you really want your saliva on the strips?” Caught between Gabrielle and Traian, Joie didn’t know what to do.

“Yes. My saliva will heal me faster. Hurry,” Traian advised. “Or we are all going to die. Vampires are very dangerous and extremely hard to kill. You were lucky.”

Joie hastily donned her jacket, zipping it up tight, and shoved the strips of cloth into his hand, his urgency catching at her. Clenching her teeth, she grasped the stake in his shoulder. “Are you ready for this?” The question was more for herself than for him. She glanced at Gabrielle, who nodded.

“Just do it.”

Her stomach lurched as her fingers curled around the thick stake. She closed her eyes, took a breath and yanked. Traian grunted, his face going white. Tiny lines appeared around his mouth. Joie felt the stake slide a couple of inches out, so it was no longer stuck in the ice behind him, but it was still through his shoulder.

“Jubal, I need you.” She looked over her shoulder at her brother.

“I’m trying,” Jubal bit out between his teeth.

The moment she saw what he rolled across the floor, she was afraid she was going to vomit. A blackened, shriveled heart left a trail of smoking acid across the ice, etching a trail of dark gooey liquid into the floor of the chamber. Jubal stood up slowly, a grim expression on his face. He tossed the hilt of Joie’s blade after the rolling heart. The metal was pitted and breaking just as Traian had warned what would happen.

“Did you get any of it on you?” Traian asked. “It will burn right to the bone.”

Jubal shook his head. “I used her knife and mine to carve it out of his chest.” There was distaste in Jubal’s voice. He moved Joie out of his way and grasped the stake with both hands and yanked hard.

Blood spurted, but Gabrielle pressed her palms over the wound hard. “Stuff that strip of material into the wound. Did you put antibiotic cream on it? He needs blood as quickly as possible.”

Joie held the material up to Traian’s mouth, ignoring Gabrielle’s gasp. She stuffed the rag into his shoulder. Traian broke out into a sweat.

“There will be others. Try to go for the heart. You will not kill them unless the heart is incinerated. They are masters of illusion. They can shape-shift. Do not look them directly in the eyes and beware of any pattern. They can trap you with their voice. If one of you becomes trapped, break off all connection and no matter how difficult, leave them. You will not be able to save them.”

Jubal grasped the second stake and yanked hard. Traian slumped forward before he could catch himself. The strain against his legs had to be excruciating. He gasped and caught Jubal’s shoulder to steady himself.

“Keep talking,” Jubal advised as Joie pressed the strip to Traian’s mouth while Gabrielle applied pressure to the wound. “Tell us more.”

Traian took a breath and righted himself. “I am sorry. They took a large amount of my blood and I am very weak.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” Jubal pointed out, his hands already grasping the third stake while his sisters attended Traian’s shoulder. “Just tell us what to expect.”

“Wounds will slow them down, but not stop them. Attacking the heart buys you a few minutes at most, but it isn’t permanent.”

He indicated with his chin the blackened heart. To Joie’s horror the shriveled organ rocked. With every movement, the vampire stirred, those long talons slowly unfolding, the bony fingers beckoning toward the heart.

Jubal swore. “Do bullets stop them?”

“They’ll slow them down. You can’t allow that heart near him.”

Jubal yanked the third stake free and crossed the ice floor with long, deliberate strides. “Damn it, die already,” he snapped as he slammed the stake through the middle of the pulsating organ, pinning it to the floor of the ice cave.

The vampire’s mouth gaped open in a silent scream. He bared blood-stained, pointed teeth as he expelled his foul breath in a kind of promise of retaliation.

“Never show them emotion. They feed off of fear. They want adrenaline-laced blood. It gives them a bigger rush,” Traian continued.

Jubal glared at him. “You might have considered the danger to my sister before you decided to lure her down here,” he pointed out, grasping the last stake in Traian’s leg. “How the hell could you live through this?”

“Just get it out,” Traian instructed. “We really have to hurry.”

“Do what he says, Jubal.” Joie caught the sense of urgency emanating from Traian. Little white lines were etched around his perfectly sculpted mouth. “Vampire babe is beginning to find his legs.” To her horror, the heart, even with the stake through the middle of it, was vibrating, wiggling back and forth as if slowly emerging from the rotted flesh. “Hurry—we may have a little problem with handsome. He seems to be coming back to life.”

Joie’s mouth went dry. No matter what Jubal had done, the creature kept coming back.

“Pack the last wound. Hurry,” Traian instructed.

She didn’t want to take her eyes off the ghoulish creature, but the dark compulsion in Traian’s voice alarmed her; she obeyed, trusting her brother to keep an eye on the vampire while she and Gabrielle pushed the strip of cloth into the wound in an effort to stop the bleeding in the gaping holes in his flesh.

Jubal had his back to them, his eyes on the foul creature thrashing on the floor. Without warning, Traian reached out and dragged Jubal close to him, murmuring something Joie couldn’t quite catch. He bent his head toward Jubal’s exposed throat.

Gabrielle screamed and rushed to her brother’s aid, but Traian lifted his hand and murmured something aloud, the words in a language she didn’t know. Gabrielle stopped abruptly and stood absolutely still as if under a sorcerer’s spell.

Fury burned through Joie. “You blood-sucking fiend! Let him go or you die. I’m not kidding you. Let him go or I’ll tear your heart out. And don’t try using your voice on me, because it won’t work.” As she hissed the words in a low, smoldering voice, she pulled her knife from the sheath strapped to her calf. At the same time, she tried to keep the vampire in sight.

“If I do not get blood, we are all going to die,” Traian said calmly. “That is a fact. You need me to get all of you out of here and I need blood.” He looked at her, his gaze steady and honest.

She let her breath escape between her teeth as she reached out and jerked Gabrielle away from him, thrusting her sister behind her. “Release them now.”

“We have only minutes.”

“Then don’t waste time.” Her hand didn’t waver. Neither did her stare.

Traian spoke softly to Gabrielle and Jubal. Jubal jerked away from the man, drawing his gun as he did so. He put his arm around Gabrielle’s. Tears swam in her eyes and she hid her face in his shoulder.

“For someone who is supposed to be so damned weak from blood loss, you felt strong enough to me.”

I’ve never run across anyone with that kind of strength, Joie. If he gets any stronger and he turns on us, we’re in serious trouble.

We’re already in serious trouble, Joie pointed out.

She studied Traian. His expression hadn’t changed at all, even with Jubal’s gun and her knife. He just looked back with his steady expression.

“Tell us what’s going on,” Joie suggested. “It isn’t as if we didn’t witness the zombie man on the ground here, doing his sorry imitation of Dracula. You forgot to mention you’re a little vampish yourself, dragging my brother to you and wanting to bite his neck.”

“I am Carpathian, of the Earth, a species that has the unfortunate capability to turn wholly vampire. All the stories I told you were true when we had conversations at night. I did not make them up to entertain you. I lived the battles; they were not fiction. I need blood to survive, but we do not kill for sustenance. I have fought the vampire for hundreds of years.” His voice was every bit as steady as his gaze. “This one will rise again, and he has friends. You cannot stop them, nor can I without blood to build my strength.”

Jubal caught at Joie and tried to drag her backward, away from the wounded man when she took a step toward him. “This is bullshit, Joie.”

“Take a look at Lamont and tell me I do not speak the truth,” Traian said.

Joie held up her hand. “I have to believe him, Jubal. There’s a terrible dread building in my stomach. I can feel others coming—can’t you?” She handed her knife to her brother, ignoring her trembling hand. “If I’m making the biggest mistake of my life, I expect you to avenge me.”

She made her way to where Traian remained slumped against the blue ice, pulling off her helmet as she did so. “Go for it, but remember, my brother can hit his mark every time, and if you’re like these creatures, you taught us how to kill you.”

Traian touched her then, circling her wrist with his long fingers and drawing her slowly, inexorably to him. Joie’s heart skipped a beat, and then began to pound, whether in fear or excitement, she didn’t know. She knew only that her mouth went dry and her insides were melting at an alarming rate. His eyes went dark, focused on her completely, shutting out everything else. Everyone else. He pulled her into the shelter of his large frame.

Joie felt his every muscle, hard, defined, rippling with power. He should have smelled of sweat and blood, but his scent was masculine, clean, inviting. Sexy. The world seemed to drop away. Danger didn’t matter. His arms swept around her, held her close so that her heart beat with the same rhythm as his. She placed her hand over his chest, felt his heart beat strongly against her palm. She lifted her gaze to his and was instantly lost in the burning intensity she saw there.

There was a storm of emotion between them, a dark cauldron every bit as roiling and wild as the gale raging above ground. Mesmerized, she could only stare up at him. His fingertips brushed the hair from her neck—sent fire racing through her bloodstream. Where he had been businesslike and abrupt with Jubal, he was gentle, even tender as he enfolded Joie closer. He bent his head to hers.

Gabrielle made a small cry of protest, and stepped toward them with every intention of stopping him. Traian lifted his head, his eyes glowing with a strange fiery red, halting her in her tracks. His eyelids drifted down, his arm curling around Joie possessively so that she nearly disappeared from sight, completely engulfed in his embrace. There was something very protective, yet predatory, in his posture.

His lips barely skimmed over Joie’s skin. She felt it. A brush of butterfly wings, no more, yet that slight touch sent heat spreading through her body. He kissed her eyes until she closed them. Sensations increased. He whispered to her, in her mind an intimate, soft litany of words in an ancient tongue.

“Te avio päläfertiilam. ” The seductive ancient language wrapped her in velvet, an erotic spell of enchantment she willingly embraced.

Joie felt his breath warm on her neck. His tongue swirled over her pulse. Once. Twice. Her entire body clenched, every muscle contracting breathlessly. Waiting. Wanting. His lips feathering over her neck sent heat pooling low, and her legs went weak. One arm, of its own accord, slid upward to curl around his head, to draw him closer, cradle him to her. White-hot lightning pierced her skin and sent whips of lightning dancing in her bloodstream, a pleasure bordering on pain. Nothing had prepared her for the sheer erotic fire coursing through her body. A soft moan escaped her. She moved restlessly against him.

Traian pulled her closer, imprinting his body against hers, feeling every lush curve and soft, rounded line. Lifemate. He had waited so long. Endured so much. There was no shield providing her with a protective barrier. She knew exactly what he was doing and yet she accepted him, accepted his need for her blood. That rich life-giving liquid rushed through his body with the force of a freight train; his shrunken, starving cells soaked it up; tissue and muscle and damaged organs demanded sustenance. He wanted to savor the moment, savor his first taste of her, his first touch on her skin.

Even as Traian struggled for sufficient control to blur the horrified gazes of her siblings, he was aware of the undead struggling to rise again and at least two vampires rushing through the maze of halls to reach him before he could escape. He took from Joie only what he needed to have strength when the battle came. He couldn’t risk her being too weak to defend herself. They would have more than one skirmish with the undead before they were out of the labyrinth of caves.

Very gently, almost reverently, he swept his tongue across the pinpricks to close and heal her skin. “Thank you, Joie.” His arms held her up, his body taking her weight.

She shivered as she lifted her lashes to study his face. At once she was caught and held in the dark depths of his eyes. “You’re welcome.”

“I hate to break up the love fest the two of you are having,” Jubal snapped, “but we’ve got a little problem. The stake just fell out of the dead thing’s heart. It’s rocking, which is gross, by the way, and he’s beginning to crawl around. With a big hole in his chest and black acid dripping everywhere, it isn’t a pretty sight.”

Jubal’s voice broke the spell Traian seemed to have woven around Joie. She pulled her gaze away with an effort and looked over at the creature clawing the floor of the cave in desperation, looking for his shriveled heart.

“He looks angry,” she observed.