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 h.e.l.l," 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. "d.a.m.n 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 h.e.l.l 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 d.a.m.ned 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.