Free Dark Nights by Christine Feehan Page B

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
    “L amont 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