Page 90 of How to Stake a Vampire

I clenched my jaw. “Mindy, is this barrier metaphysical?”

She shot a startled look at me. “Yes. Why?”

“Good.” I let my wolf slip under my skin, gathered our strength, and punched the wall.

It exploded inward. Bricks crumbled, outlining a large opening.

The smell of blood and magic that came from inside made Barney scowl and the rest of us gag. The vampire headed inside first.

The room was small and dark. Nigel gave us some more lighting. I looked around as the shadows retreated, revealing more blood on the floor and walls. Mindy watched us anxiously where she floated on the threshold, still unable to come through.

“Shit,” Didi mumbled.

We followed her gaze to where Barney squatted in front of a makeshift altar at the far end. My chest tightened as we approached. A circle of strange symbols were carved into the floor. Dark candles sat in pools of their own wax around it.

The whole thing was giving me bad-juju vibes.

Samuel studied the setup with a hard expression. “Looks like he got pretty far into his preparations.”

“But he didn’t complete it, right?” I said, unable to mask the hope underscoring the question.

“No.” Barney rose, his face locked in a thunderous expression. “He’s still missing a key ingredient. A pureblood vampire.”

“Hey, guys,” Detective Johnson called out from a corner of the room. “You should see this.”

We headed over to where he’d dropped on his haunches.

Papers were scattered across the floor. But these weren’t old Alliance archives. They were documents with familiar logos and names on the letterheads.

“These are the medical records he stole from the blood banks he targeted.” Samuel’s voice was tight with anger.

“There’s more,” Detective Johnson said grimly.

He was holding a detailed map of Amberford. Red X’s marked various locations throughout the city.

Didi scowled. “Blood banks, the hospital, the homes of vampires.”

I fisted my hands. “He’s been planning this for weeks.”

“Months, more likely,” Barney corrected. His eyes gleamed crimson as he looked around the secret room. “This setup took time to prepare. He didn’t just decide to hide here on a whim.”

I swallowed heavily at his meaning. This wasn’t just a hiding place. It had been Ludvik’s base of operations, where he’d studied his targets, made meticulous plans, and waited for the right moment to strike.

The more I got to know about this vampire, the more I felt like ripping his throat out.

“We have to tell the Alliance.” I met Samuel’s and Barney’s gazes, my heart thundering against my ribs. “We’re going to need extra help if we want to track him down before the full moon. Besides, they need to know Ludvik’s been in the building all this time.”

Samuel pinched the bridge of his nose. “Something tells me they’re not going to take the news well.”

I noticed Bo nosing at a stack of paper. “What is it?”

“I smell something,” he huffed excitedly. His ears suddenly flattened. He whined and backpedaled behind me, his tail down.

I leaned down and picked up what he’d unearthed.

It was a blank piece of paper. My belly twisted when I turned it over.

Someone had scrawled “burn the doll” in blood on the other side.