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 shit.”
“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.”
Traian managed a boyish grin. “Finally, something impressed you.”
A terrible howling, like that of a demon pack, echoed through the subterranean caverns, sending chills down Joie’s spine. She swallowed sheer terror and managed a small, wan smile for her sister’s sake—sheer bravado. “I think that’s our cue to leave.”
“Can we climb? How do we know where they are?” Gabrielle asked anxiously.
“Damn it to hell, how many of those things are there?” Jubal demanded.
“It used to be, they hunted alone. Essentially, vampires are very self-centered and vain,” Traian answered. “But what I’ve found here is unprecedented as far as I know. Three master vampire—Gallent and Valenteen allowed a third, a much more powerful master to manipulate them and their followers.” He reached out and plucked hair from Joie’s head. “They are coming for us. We have to get out of here now.”
“Ow!” Joie glared at him. “That hurt.”
“I need hair from all of you, preferably from the scalp, do not just break it off,” Traian instructed, pulling a hair from his own head.
Jubal frowned, but did as Traian asked, handing him his hair. Gabrielle followed suit. Traian pulled a tiny bit of cloth from the wound on his leg, ignoring Gabrielle’s hastily covered protest. He wound blood-stained threads around the hair.
“Stay where you are.” He rose into the air, moved over the ice to a tunnel leading to the right and gathered more energy. He threw the hair and thread into the chamber and sent a powerful blast of air shooting through the tunnel.
“I’m going to carry you all to the hall you came through and then we’re going to run fast. Try to run light. Vampires are creatures with great hearing. We want them to think we went right while we’re going left,” Traian instructed. “If possible, run single file.”
“I’ll bring up the rear,” Jubal agreed, nodding his head.
Traian caught Joie’s hand and tugged, dragging her after him. Joie reached out for Gabrielle.
If we talk telepathically, my brother and sister will hear as well as long as we remain connected like this physically. And we can run in synch, Joie explained as she tried to match Traian’s strides, settling her feet where his had been. Her crampons made it easier to run along the ice without slipping, but she feared the scrapes in the ice would alert the vampires.
The vampires will follow the scent of blood and I am masking our noise.
Gabrielle reached for Jubal, who tucked his gun into his belt and ran as lightly as possible in his sister’s footsteps.
I don’t really understand how you can do that, but you managed to make some kind of fireball and you sort of flew a bit, so I’m convinced, Joie said, careful to use telepathic communication so the sound wouldn’t travel through the caves.
A Carpathian needs blood to survive, he explained as they hurried down the hall away from the bloody, blackened chamber. We do not kill those who give us blood. They are treated with the respect due them. We cannot be out in full sunlight and we sleep beneath the ground.
He felt it necessary to educate the three humans as quickly as possible. Should they become separated from him, they had to know how to survive. He could feel the stirring interest in all of them. Gabrielle was a scientist, and the information would appeal to her. Jubal would