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