Page 106 of How to Stake a Vampire

Melvina appeared from the shadows beyond the altar. She was dragging something behind her.

“I found the coffin,” the dwarf announced cheerfully. “It was in a chamber back there.”

We all stared at the ornate coffin she was hauling.

Ludvik flinched where he was hugging the ground. He looked up jerkily.

“No,” he wailed, his wild-eyed gaze locked on the wooden box. “Not the coffin!”

Barney’s eyes gleamed with satisfaction. “Here will do, Melvina.” He indicated the ground next to the altar.

Melvina beamed. “Right you are, Master.”

“Please, Uncle Barnabas!” Ludvik pleaded, his voice quaking with terror. “I promise I’ll disappear. You’ll never see me again, I swear it!”

Barney watched his great-nephew coldly as he crossed the cavern. “That’s what you told the vampire courts in Europe several hundred years ago. And yet, here we are.”

Ludvik blubbered as Barney grabbed him by the collar and dragged him to the altar.

Melvina began removing stakes from her chain mail.

“Er, Barney,” I said hesitantly. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Yeah,” Didi muttered. “We ain’t got no virgin blood.”

Barney frowned. “What do you mean? We’ve got plenty.” He indicated the blood stains next to the altar. “I could tell by the smell when he gave his blood to Ellie.”

We stared. Our gazes rose as one to Virgil.

The vampire froze where he was sitting on the edge of the altar and rubbing the chain marks on his wrists.

“What?” he asked suspiciously.

“No way,” Samuel muttered.

“You wouldn’t think so, looking at that face, huh?” Finnic grunted.

“Seems you really can’t judge a book by its cover,” Didi said pensively.

Gavin’s nostrils smoked. “He was a shy boy even at school.”

Gregory patted his son’s back, his expression a mix of parental love and manly sympathy. “My sweet child.”

Ellie’s eyes gleamed with an unhealthy light. “Boy, is he in for a wild ride,” she said under her breath.

I grimaced at the thought of Virgil’s cherry being popped by my best friend, AKA the new horny super-vampire in town. On the list of problems to have, it seemed pretty minor compared to the fate he’d almost suffered.

It took a moment for Barney to explain to Virgil how one truly staked a vampire. Virgil flushed and covered his face in his hands.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” he mumbled.

Gregory hesitated. “Should we have that birds and bees conversation we never had when we get back home?”

“Father!” Virgil snapped.

“So all we need is a prayer, right?” I asked Barney while Finnic’s warriors tied Ludvik up, gagged him, and dumped him inside his coffin.

“I may have muttered something along those lines when I thought we were all going to die earlier,” Didi admitted.