Dark Nights Read online

  Jubal took a deep breath and stepped onto the first stair, found it solid, and reached back to aid Gabrielle. “Hurry, Joie.”

  “Come with us, Traian,” Joie pleaded.

  Water gushed in a dark, muddy stream from the side of the wall. Insects poured into the gallery. The wall to Traian’s left collapsed in an oozing pool of dark sludge.

  Two hideous creatures flopped onto the floor of the chamber, abominations in the crystal perfection of the room. Gaunt and cadaverous, they were covered in black muck. Baring their jagged, spiked teeth, they stared at Traian from red-rimmed eyes filled with venomous hatred.

  Chapter Six

  “Gabrielle, run,” Joie urged. Fear clawed at her insides, but she dropped back to protect her sister and brother. “Jubal, go, don’t look back.”

  She couldn’t leave Traian. She wouldn’t leave him—not to face hideous monsters on his own. It didn’t matter that he claimed to have hunted vampires all his life, she was incapable of abandoning anyone to face danger alone. And somehow, Traian was connected to her. A part of her blood and bones. Of her heart and soul. She would stand with him.

  “Not without you, Joie,” Jubal said. “I mean it. Gabrielle, start down that staircase now.”

  “Go with them, Joie,” Traian urged. “It will be easier for me to defend myself without having to worry about your safety.”

  Heart beating hard, Joie hesitated just for a moment and then whirled to run after her brother and sister. Guilt settled hard on her shoulders, but arguing when action was called for was just plain stupid and she refused to be that woman.

  Seeing that Joie had committed to following them, Jubal caught Gabrielle’s hand and jerked her down the stairs in a race for their lives. Joie took three steps and the chamber shook ominously. Great blocks of ice burst from the walls, shooting across the room from every direction even as the giant icicles hanging on the ceiling rocked, cracking with loud explosive shocks and fell like giant missiles, rocketing toward the floor. Some shattered, so that large chunks and debris fell with the spears of ice.

  Traian leapt across the distance to throw Joie down, shielding her with his own body as well as hastily constructing a force around them to deflect the attack from the cave itself. The thick slab of stone slid back into place, cutting them off from the hidden stairway leading out of the chamber. Great chunks of ice fell over the escape hatch, locking Joie in the cavern with Traian and the two furious vampires.

  Traian buried his face in her hair for a moment, holding her tightly against him. We will be all right, Joie. You can do this. Follow my instructions and do not look directly at them. They are masters of illusion.

  Joie had one knife as well as her utility knife, her ice axe, and a few other smaller, less effective weapons and knew Jubal no doubt was inventorying his weapons as well. He would have to protect Gabrielle and find a way out of the elaborate labyrinth while she faced the undead with Traian. Neither seemed a very good position to be in, yet Traian exuded such confidence, in the calmness of his mind and the steadiness of his voice.

  Put your brother and sister out of your head. You will need to focus solely on this situation to come out of this alive.

  Joie knew Traian was right, but it didn’t make it any easier to push her siblings out of her mind. Be safe Jubal and Gabby. I love you both.

  She took a deep breath and nodded. The warmth of his body infused hers with much needed heat. She flexed her fingers in preparation. I’ll do whatever you need me to do to help. What else could she do? She had no idea how to fight such evil creatures. You killed them and they just got back up.

  Gabrielle cried out as Jubal pushed her in front of him, and then the stairway went completely dark. Jubal caught her shoulders in a firm grip to give her confidence. He turned around, shining his headlamp along the walls of the narrow tunnel they found themselves in.

  “Joie didn’t make it in, Gabby,” he said. “She’s on the other side and I think the ceiling came down. I can still feel her—and Traian—so they’re alive. We’ll have to find our own way out and trust them to find their own way as well.”

  “He took your blood. Can you talk to him? Can you reach Joie?”

  “There’s tons of ice between us, Gabby. I tried when the ceiling caved in, but you and I were never as strong as Joie in telepathy. I think it’s possible Traian could reach us, but most likely, taking the brunt of the ice fall and vampires hounding them, they have their hands full. We’re on our own. We can do this. We’ve been in caves all of our lives.” He spoke confidently, deliberately reminding her of the fact that their parents had belayed them up the sides of cliffs and down into caves when they were toddlers.

  Gabrielle nodded. “It’s so cold. I think my brain is getting fuzzy. I’m with you, Jubal, I’m not going to panic on you. Let’s just find the way out of here.”

  “I’m going to get out in front of you and I want you to stay close to me, Gabby. I don’t know how many of those vampires were in the caves. If we run into one, we have to kill it by going for the heart.” He felt her shudder and he squeezed her shoulder. “We can do it. You know we can.”

  He pushed past her on the narrow stair. The steps were carved of ice and very slippery. There was nothing to hang onto. He proceeded with great caution—examining the walls and each stair before he placed his feet. It was very quiet, almost too quiet. He could hear Gabrielle’s labored breathing and every breath she took came out as white vapor.

  Jubal slowly became aware that the strange weapon on his wrist emitted heat, somehow infusing his body with warmth, regulating his body temperature. He paused to shine his lamp on the mage object that seemed to have chosen him. Instead of looking like a weapon, the blades had slowly retreated, forming a simple thick band around his wrist. He could make out a pattern etched into the metal, a design he was vaguely familiar with. He’d definitely seen it before.

  “What are you doing?” Gabrielle asked curiously and stepped close to him, looking over his shoulder at the band. “What is that?”

  “A crest,” Jubal answered. There was disbelief in his voice. The design wasn’t just any crest—specifically it was the family crest—his father’s family’s crest. The weapon had changed its looks. Could it somehow have “felt” his history through the odd metal? Being made of some kind of metal, the bracelet should have been cold, yet it was warmer than ever.

  “This is creepy, Jubal. Maybe you should take it off,” Gabrielle suggested.

  Jubal felt the weapon’s reaction—it gripped his wrist tighter and shuddered. “I don’t think so, Gabby. I think this was made for someone in our family to wear. If feels . . .” He paused, searching for the right word: “. . . right.”

  “That’s impossible and you know it, Jubal. Mom comes from South America and Dad . . .” She trailed off.

  Jubal nodded. “Exactly. Dad. I’m very much like Dad and he never talks about his side of the family. Never. Mom is a very dominant personality and he’s very quiet, but you and I both know we all three are above-average intelligence and we get that part from him. Mom’s the one with the athletic abilities and we managed to get that as well. But just suppose Dad’s family was somehow part mage?”

  Gabrielle drew back. “They’re evil.”

  “An entire species couldn’t be wholly evil, Gabby. In any case, we need to find our way out of here. Whatever this thing is—it doesn’t feel evil to me and I want to keep it.” There was something about the wrist band, a kind of growing attachment, almost affection, he couldn’t explain. The thing made no sense, but he was sure, once out of the labyrinth of caves, he could unlock the puzzle.

  Jubal turned back to the stairway, hating that Gabrielle shivered continually and yet he was warm. His headlamp revealed that the steep stairway curved around, almost spiraling, taking them down thirty feet or more, and then curved back up. Suppressing the urge to hurry, he kept a steady pace, every once in a while reaching out to make certain Traian and Joie were alive. He couldn’t reach either of them telepathically, but he knew they still lived.

  Gabrielle didn’t say anything at all, but followed him, stumbling every once in a while and catching herself by grasping his shoulder. Jubal knew he had to get her out of the caves and down the mountain—or at least to the tents where he could warm her up. It seemed a lifetime on the winding staircase of ice, with only their headlamps to light the way.

  “I think we’re close, Gabby,” Jubal said encouragingly.

  His lamp found the end of the ice stairs. There was a narrow strip of ice that dead-ended abruptly into a thick wall of ice. Gabrielle sank down onto the stair and covered her face with her hands.

  “We’re trapped, Jubal. I searched the walls as we came down and they’re solid.”

  “There has to be a way out, honey,” Jubal said. “Just give me a minute. The entrances and exits seem to be all about patterns and math. You know how my mind works. I practically see in numbers and patterns.”

  “I’m having a difficult time thinking clearly,” she confessed.

  Jubal turned to her. She needed to warm up. Her body was protecting her heart and lungs. Soon she wouldn’t be able to walk if he didn’t find a way to warm her. He glanced down at the thick band of metal circling his wrist. If he could take it off and put it on her . . . the weapon tightened as if reading his thoughts. He put his hands on his sister’s shoulders and began to rub her arms up and down through her jacket.

  The bracelet brushed against her sleeve. At once he felt the warmth spread through her coat. Immediately he pressed the metal against the back of her neck and when he noticed she stopped shivering, he took both of her hands and cupped them over the weapon. “Are you okay now?” he asked.

  Gabrielle nodded. “Much warmer, thank you.” She touched the etching on the bracelet, tracing the strange lettering. “You’re right, Jubal. I have seen these symbols before, in Dad’s study.”

  He turned back to examine the wall. “Keep your light running over the wall in three foot sections. See if you can spot any differences.”

  The ice at first seemed to be smooth and very solid and thick. Jubal stepped closer. He moved first to his right and then to his left, examining the wall. When he moved left, the bracelet grew very warm and pulsed with energy. Elation made his heart jump. Oh yeah. He’d found it. He moved his hand carefully over ice and the wall sprang to life, glowing beneath the ice layers to reveal thousands of symbols.

  “How is that going to help?” Gabrielle asked. “My God, there’s so many.”

  Jubal walked back and forth, scanning the wall up and down and from left to right and then right to left. The secret was right there. He was certain he would find it. Patiently, he held his wrist up, adding to the light their lamps gave off. Several times the bracelet pulsed in recognition. He knew in the midst of all those symbols was the key to unlocking the door. He cocked his head to one side, eyeing the symbols from every direction. Abruptly he stopped, a slow smile spreading over his face.

  “Of course, Gabrielle. It was there the entire time. Do you see it? Do you remember Draco, the dragon constellation Dad told us stories about? We had to memorize all the constellations, but Draco was his favorite. He would tell us stories about the great dragon in the sky. How the sky was dark, and he was born of fire, a great raging beast with fire in his heart, courage in his soul, and wisdom beyond the ages. Look at this from a right angle. It’s a night sky with all the constellations and here, on the northern hemisphere, you can see his head and the way his tail slithers between the Big and Little Dippers.”

  Gabrielle tilted her head. “You’re right. How in the world did you spot that among all the other graffiti on this wall?”

  Jubal grinned at her and confidently touched the first point of the Draco constellation. He traced his way along the wedge-shaped great head and down the body to the long tail. The ice began to shimmer with every touch of his hand along the dragon’s back. The ice rippled, appeared to flow, going nearly transparent so they could both see through the wall to the other side, to the open mountain.

  Gabrielle, eager to get out of the cave, took a step toward the wall.

  Gabby, stop! Don’t move or make a sound, Jubal cautioned. He held his wrist up for her to see the bracelet was no longer etched metal, but the curved blades had opened like the petals of a flower, unfolding to look lethal and ready for battle. Something isn’t right.

  Gabrielle took a firm grip on her ice axe and nodded. Jubal was grateful she didn’t panic. Gabrielle might not be as tough as Joie, but she always could be counted on.

  I smell that same foul odor those other vampires put off, Gabrielle told him. There’s got to be one close by, that’s why your bracelet turned into a weapon.

  It made sense to both of them. If mages had to protect themselves against vampires, even hundreds of years earlier, they would have had to have weapons to aid them.

  It would have been better had it come with an instruction manual, Jubal pointed out.

  Gabrielle gave him a wan grin and both turned off their headlamps as he laid his hand over the last star in the dragon constellation. The weapon pulsed and gave off a faint glow, so that both could see the waves rolling in front of him, curving back to form an archway, allowing an escape. The ice glistened and sparkled, the seamless rolls a beautiful entrance—or exit. Instinct told him that the door wouldn’t hold long. Jubal stepped in front of his sister. She put her hand on his back and followed him through out into the night.

  The curved blades on the weapon around Jubal’s wrist began to spin. Cold air blasted them, a wind coming off the mountains as they emerged from the cave. The bracelet on his wrist blazed red, pulsing with energy, the blades spinning so fast, Jubal lifted his arm away from his body to keep from being cut. Behind them, just as smoothly, just as silently, the entrance was gone and they were left in the open with a monstrous vampire staring at them with red eyes.

  Jubal barely saw the attack. The apparition had been crouching on the ground and it drove forward at him the moment he emerged. Gabrielle screamed and swung the ice axe at the vampire’s head as the spinning blades suddenly leapt from Jubal’s wrist, as if alive with a mind of their own. The weapon hummed as it spun through the air, glowing red, giving off a tremendous heat. The whirling blades slammed into the vampire’s chest, right over the heart, cutting a perfect circle hole through the chest, burning as it did so.

  The spike drove deep into the right temple of the undead. He opened his mouth wide in a scream that had the mountain rumbling ominously. Snow slithered down from above them, the first sign of an avalanche. Jubal shoved Gabrielle back towards the overhang and both watched in a kind of horror as the undead burst into flame and incinerated. The mountain rumbled again and shook itself. The weapon leapt toward Jubal’s outstretched arm just as tons of snow blew down the mountain, taking the ashes of the vampire with it.

  Gabrielle and Jubal clung to one another there in the shelter of the overhang, waiting for the snow to settle. He stared down at his wrist. The bracelet was once more just that, a thick band of metal with familiar etchings keeping him warm.

  Gabrielle lifted her head from his shoulder and gave him a small, wan smile. “If we’re going to spend any time around Joie’s man, I’m going to have to buy a new ice axe . . . fast.”

  The two burst out laughing, half relieved, half a little hysterically.

  The chamber stopped rumbling and the ice settled around Traian and Joie. Traian was on his feet instantly, facing the threat of the vampires, his hand pulling Joie up with his easy strength. Her heart thundered loudly in her ears and she tasted fear in her mouth.

  Let your heart follow the rhythm of mine.

  His voice was terribly intimate, a soothing balm that allowed her to keep her breathing even. She moved a distance from Traian, giving him room to fight. She could taste fear in her mouth. She had no gun, and only one knife.

  My fourth dan black belt doesn’t look too promising considering that those very nasty things have wicked-looking talons and mouths full of shark teeth. We could use a gun or two. Maybe a machine gun.

  Stay close to me. I want you where I can protect you. They can move the earth, and rain down missiles from the ceiling. They will not fight in the way you expect.

  Traian had never really experienced gut-wrenching, bone-deep fear before. He had never had anything to lose. Now there was everything. A woman whose mind he shared, whose body he didn’t yet know intimately.

  I’m well aware of that. Joie inched closer to him, trying to appear confident in a situation she’d never encountered and had little idea what to expect.

  For some reason her simple words made Traian relax, want to smile. Joie didn’t panic easily. She didn’t lack for courage and she was committed to fighting with him. She wasn’t going to faint because vampires were real and had come with vengeance and death in mind.

  Don’t count on it, she denied, staying close in his mind, reading his thoughts. Fainting might be my only option if they get their hands on me, and I’m not above trying it.

  Her wry amusement told him she was a shadow in his mind, looking for strategy on how to defeat the enemy.

  Do they have a weakness?

  Ego. Vampires are extremely vain.

  Joie took a deep breath as the creatures slowly pulled themselves up to their impressive heights. Fire burned in their eyes. A foul stench permeated the cavern, choked off all the cool, clean air and replaced it with a thick putrid substance. The falling ice hadn’t come from them, that much was obvious. They had protected themselves just as Traian had done.

  Which is the stronger?

  Traian noted her calm manner. She accepted that they would have to fight their way clear. Having battled with the same vampires on three occasions, Traian was well aware of their strengths and capabilities.

  The one with the incisors over his lower lip—he is extremely powerful. He is called Valenteen and is a master vampire. The other is called Shafe. There might be more, so stay very alert.