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 bulls.h.i.t, 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. s.e.xy. 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 b.u.t.terfly 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 palafertiilam. " 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 pinp.r.i.c.ks 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 h.e.l.l 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.

Jubal handed his sister the knife. "Let's get out of here while we can. I don't think I want to meet any more of these things."

"I'm going to pretend I never met this one," Gabrielle said firmly. She shuddered, and took a deep breath. "Just do it. If we're going to kill the thing, do it fast please."

Traian nodded and stepped in front of all three of them. Joie watched him closely. He seemed to be gathering something unseen into his hands. She could feel the buildup of energy in the chamber. The gallery was actually warming, increasing the dripping of the water dramatically. Between Traian's palms, light glowed, a bright orange-red, emitting heat. It appeared just smaller than a basketball, the energy coiling and spinning.

The vampire screamed in rage and attempted to rise, desperate to attack the hunter. When he couldn't make it to his feet, he threw himself forward across the floor of thick ice, and reached for his twisted heart. The blackened organ responded to his desperation, rolling toward him in little macabre stops and starts.

The ball of glowing energy left Traian's hands, hurtling through the chamber to land squarely on the writhing organ. The heart burst into a white-hot flame, burning blue and then purple. Tiny writhing maggots fell onto the ice, burning. The flames leapt from the heart to the outstretched hands of the vampire, racing up his arms to his shoulders. The long strands of dank hair caught fire. The vampire's mouth gaped open, his eyes wide with shock and horror.

The heart incinerated completely, ashes erupting in a blackened volcano, throwing more maggots into the air. The blackened worms lay like drops of black soot staining the ice. The undead shrieked, his cry carrying through the labyrinth of caves, high-pitched and horrible, the sound hurting their ears. Jubal, Gabrielle, and Joie clapped their hands over their ears in an effort to drown out the noise.

Above their heads, great spears of ice shook. Spider-web cracks ran up the walls surrounding them. Jubal caught his sisters by the arm and jerked at them, trying to get them moving out of the chamber as the ominous sound of thousands of years of tons of ice pressing down thundered through the gallery.

Traian sent another ball of fiery energy toward the vampire. Fire engulfed him completely, burning hot and bright. For one ghoulish moment, a blackened skeleton of a man rose up in the smoke, bony fingers reaching for Traian. He stood his ground without flinching and blew on the apparition. A foul stench filled the cavern.

The black smoke vanished, taking with it the stench. The ice settled, all at once quiet, other than the persistent sound of water dripping.

Jubal let out his breath. "Holy s.h.i.t."

"Okay," Gabrielle said, one hand on her throat, "that's just gross."

"Handy little trick," Joie observed. "You'll have to teach it to me."