Dark Nights Read online

  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.

  Chapter Four

  “Lamont is not the only one,” Traian agreed. “His friends are coming this way fast, and they have murder on their minds.”

  He had to get Joie and her siblings to safety. The network of caves was a huge maze. How was he going to quickly explain a concept to them they all found impossible to believe? He looked at Joie. She was a miracle to him, an impossibility, just like the vampires and his need of blood must seem to them—as if they were caught in a nightmare and he was caught in a dream.

  The vampire struggled to a half-sitting position on the floor, black blood and spittle running down his chin. His red-rimmed eyes fixed on Joie with a mixture of hate and fear. Long fingernails dug into the ice and he dragged himself another inch toward the blackened heart, all the while staring directly at Joie.

  Traian’s heart jumped, and then began to accelerate. He tasted fear in his mouth. Apprehension was alien to him, an emotion he hadn’t felt in hundreds of years. Now, with the vampire silently vowing revenge on the one woman who mattered to him, Traian found dread filling him. Of all places for his lifemate to show up—in a labyrinth of caves when he was drained of his enormous strength—with a brother and sister in tow. He’d searched centuries for her and when he was at his most vulnerable, she appeared. Fate was a terrible jokester.

  Joie! Do not look at him directly like that. It is easy to become ensnared.

  She pulled her gaze away with an effort. “What the hell did you do to my knife, you fiend? Do you have any idea what a blade like that costs?” She held out her hand to Jubal for the knife she had given him. “Give that to me. I think I’m going to need it.”

  The vampire snarled, spraying foul blood across the ice, where it burned deep. His fiery eyes promised a vicious revenge.

  Gabrielle gasped and covered her face. “I want to go, Joie. I’m not like you and Jubal. I can’t do this.”

  Jubal immediately put his arm around her. “We’ll get out of here, honey.” He looked at Traian. “Can you kill it? We’ve got matches in our pack, so we can set the thing on fire.”

  Gabrielle made a sound of horror in the back of her throat. “We’re going to burn it alive?”

  “We have to do something,” Joie said, taking a step toward the creature.

  Traian swept her firmly behind him with a strong arm. She was worried about her sister and feeling guilty that she’d brought her siblings into such a dangerous situation, but he couldn’t allow her to place herself into danger when he could kill the foul creature. He signaled to Jubal and Gabrielle to move away from the vampire. They did so carefully.

  Lamont continued to make hideous noises, his talons cutting deep gouges into the ice. The blackened heart wriggled and rolled a couple of inches toward the outstretched hand.