Jubal entered the narrow hallway first. His shoulders sc.r.a.ped along the ice. "It"s tight in here," he called back. "It dead-ends into a hole."
"That"s the chute. It is a long slide. It was pa.s.sable the last time I used it and it is the best chance we have." Traian didn"t add that it was the only one. What little strength he had left had to get them down that long slide without mishap and then close the way behind them.
The three siblings exchanged a long, shocked look. Jubal studied the entrance, shining his light inside the hole to study what he could see of the narrow tube. "This is too dangerous, Joie. It goes down very sharply. We"d be sliding out of control within minutes."
Joie stepped up next to him and peered inside. She whirled around to face Traian. "Are you crazy? We"re not going in there."
"You have no choice," Traian said quietly. "We may be trapped in these caves for a couple of days so whatever you have to do to stay alive, you will need to keep close." He hoped that wasn"t so. He didn"t want to explain to them what would happen to him when the sun rose above them.
Joie planted herself in front of him, her eyes glittering. "Obviously we aren"t like you. We"re human. Sliding down an ice chute without checking it out and knowing what we"re getting into is just suicide. No way can the three of us go in there."
"Then all of us will die right here. I cannot abandon you nor will I be able to defeat the vampires in pursuit of us. I am too weak. If you do not take this chance, the only answer is death. And if you must die, you do not want vampires to get their hands on you." Traian spoke as matter-of-factly as possible.
To him there was no other choice. He would stay with this lifemate and defend her brother and sister. In truth, his first reaction was simply to grab her and force her to go with him, but the bond between the three siblings was incredibly strong. Joie wouldn"t leave them unless forced and she wouldn"t forgive him if he took her. She wasn"t looking toward him to protect her, she would only enter the chute if her family agreed with the decision. He had a long way to go to earn her trust. The three of them trusted one another implicitly, knew each other"s strengths and weaknesses. He was the outsider.
Jubal closed his eyes briefly, glanced back in the direction they"d come and shook his head. "We have to trust you, but if anything happens to my sisters ..." He nodded at his sisters.
"I plan to keep you all alive," Traian said.
"Get your crampons off," Joie advised Gabrielle. "You don"t want a broken leg. If we"re going to do this, we have to take every precaution."
The three hurriedly removed the crampons from their boots.
"I"ll go first," Gabrielle announced, her chin up. "If I get stuck, you"ll know you won"t fit," she added over her shoulder to her brother. Her voice trembled but she was obviously determined.
Jubal caught her arm. "Not a chance, Gabby. I"ll be in front. We don"t know what"s down there."
"The chute may be blocked," Traian explained. "The cave is fighting back and we seem to be tripping mage traps as we go. I will lead the way down the chute and clear it. Once we are clear, I will seal it up behind us so the vampires cannot use that shortcut to follow us. It will not stop them, but it will slow them down. As you go down, shine your light ahead. I"ll let you know if the ceiling is low and you have to lie all the way down, but once you do that, you will not be able to see anything ahead of you so once past the obstacle get back into a sitting position as fast as possible."
"Gabby, when you sit down, keep your axe to your side, hold with both hands and dig the point in to act like the brake," Jubal instructed.
Gabrielle swallowed hard. "This sounds more dangerous than I thought."
"We"ve practiced using the axe as a break," Jubal reminded. "You"ll glissade down on your b.u.t.t. You can do it."
Gabrielle shook her head. "I"ve done it on skis and we"ve practiced in soft snow, but not on ice, Jubal. Not like this in a tube. We don"t even know where it leads." Even as she protested she leashed her ice axe to her wrist.
"We have no choice, honey," Jubal said. "We"ll be fine. Joie will be right in front of you and I"ll be close behind."
Gabrielle looked for a moment as if she might cry, but then she squared her shoulders and nodded. "I can do it."
"You may need your axe to self arrest. If I call back, use them fast. I will be clearing the way ahead of us. Hold until I give you the okay to continue." Traian spoke tersely, confidently, needing the three humans to follow him without question.
"You know that doesn"t always work, depending on how fast we get going," Joie said. "It"s a hit or miss proposition and that chute might be too narrow to flip over."
"It is the best shot we have at living," Traian reiterated, "and if we"re going to do it, we need to get moving."
The descent into the ice tube was perilous to say the least. A mage cave was extremely dangerous, filled with all sorts of valuable items and as many or more traps to protect them, each more lethal than the one before. They had stumbled upon a great underground labyrinth, a mage haven beneath the mountain. Few could get past the mage spells pushing dread and fear into the hearts and minds of any trying to make the descent into the deep abyss, making certain to keep everyone away. Traian didn"t think the caverns were abandoned. The fact that vampires had entered didn"t mean a powerful mage was not at work here. He wanted to get his lifemate and her family out as soon as possible. He didn"t understand how they had made it into the caves in the first place, how they had managed to get past mage barriers.
They readied their equipment quickly, and very efficiently, hugging each other briefly before nodding to him that they were ready.
Traian pulled Joie tight against him, ignoring the harness with her rack of climbing gear. "Stay close to me, but try to give yourself room to stop fast if you need to," he said. "It gets narrow in places. We don"t want to be crushed in there. We have to get down before they know what we"re doing. If there"s a problem, call it out and I will do my best to aid you. You will be sliding fast, so pay attention. You will need quick reactions."
"Maybe we should share a rope," Gabrielle suggested.
"It wouldn"t be of any use," Jubal said. "Remember to keep your heels up."
"You follow me, Joie. Your sister next." He looked at Jubal over their heads. "You will know in advance that the vampires are close. Insects. A foul smell. A feeling of absolute dread. They are as capable of collapsing the tunnel as I am, but we have to believe they want our blood and they will not. Call out the moment you think they are behind us."
Jubal nodded. "We"re ready. Let"s do it."
Traian didn"t wait, knowing that time was premium now and not wanting any of them to change their minds. He slipped inside the chute and pushed off. The smooth ice looked like a giant slide, but it was so dark the others wouldn"t be able to see without angling their heads to point their lamps straight ahead. His shoulders were wide and he touched on both sides. The women wouldn"t have much of a problem, but Jubal had good-sized shoulders as well.
"It"s snug," he called back and heard Joie relaying the information to her siblings.
Joie took a breath and slipped in after him. It was dark and frightening. She sat on her b.u.t.t, lifted her heels and placed her ice axe to her side, gripping with both hands, the spike digging into the ice. With the leash of the axe wrapped around her wrist, she breathed through the dread, counting to ten to give Traian a head start and then pushed off into that unknown world.
Are you all right? Traian asked.
A little scared. In all of our conversations, it didn"t occur to you to mention a few pertinent facts such as how you"re a peculiar sort of man who likes blood and has vampires and other mythical creatures stalking you? You might have mentioned, just once, that you weren"t telling me cheery bedtime stories but that you lived this sort of life. Didn"t you think that might be important in the grand scheme of things?
Even in his mind, Traian heard the trembling in her voice. She was more than scared and that was all right with him. She had a bravado about her that at times worried him. Vampires were wholly evil. There was no reasoning with them. He didn"t want her to ever think defeating them would be easy.
I took into consideration your fear that you had lost your mind. It occurred to me that if I started talking about vampires being real and not fictional, you would have yourself committed.
The ice chute was cold after the unexpected heat Traian had generated in the chamber. Joie slid down into the freezing world of blue ice and crystal, knowing he was right. She would have had herself committed to a hospital for the mentally ill at the mere mention of vampires. The ice sloped alarmingly and she began to pick up speed. Her heart accelerated in direct proportion to how fast she was going.
I still might, she murmured in his mind, trying to stay focused through the unrelenting fear. She was sliding down a narrow chute with no real vision, following a man she didn"t know and he wasn"t even human. Having a boyfriend with a neck-biting fetish is definitely not sane.
Traian heard the underlying note of genuine fear in her voice. Finding him in the ice cave, fighting for their lives against such creatures of evil and knowing he needed blood to survive had shaken her confidence in herself. She had been unknowingly trapped by the connection of lifemates.
Gabrielle is right behind me, she informed him.
He felt the tears in her voice. She definitely felt guilty for bringing her brother and sister into such a dangerous mess. You had no way of knowing.
She didn"t pretend to misunderstand. They shouldn"t be here. Especially Gabby. Jubal"s in the chute. It"s difficult to control speed.
Traian caught sight of the first danger sign. Tiny ice b.a.l.l.s clung to the sides of the tube. Overhead little icicles had formed, growing larger as he slid deeper into the abyss. Instantly he thrust the sight into Joie"s mind, knowing she would relay the information to her siblings and they would be trying to slow their descents.
He felt rather than caught the first b.u.mp as the ice beneath him had flakes. Cursing to himself, he used more energy trying to smooth the way ahead of them. He could taste fear the other three radiated, especially Joie"s sister. She was holding it together by a thread. The intensity of the emotion was amplified by the combination of natural fear, the vampires, and the mage caves. He couldn"t waste his strength shielding them from the disturbing broadcast.
He"d slid another ten feet when he saw the large obstacle blocking the path. A ball of ice closed the chute. It was thick and solid. He felt Joie"s instant awareness. She was locked in his mind, clinging to the fact that he seemed confident.
On three we self arrest, Joie instructed her siblings.
Gabrielle"s sob of alarm echoed through the tube, and Traian"s heart stuttered for a moment. If the woman couldn"t stop her descent, she"d slam into Joie"s head. He had to concentrate on removing the huge block of ice stopping up the slide and there was likely to be more ahead.
One. Two. Three.