Page 18 of How to Stake a Vampire (Diary of a Reluctant Werewolf #2)

MEAT AND GREET

“God, I can’t believe I wasted twenty years of my life avoiding meat. This is incredible!” Ellie stabbed another chunk of her steak and practically moaned as she bit into it.

Bo and I studied her warily where we sat opposite her.

Caroline and Kent had gone home to their kids and the rest of us were having breakfast.

My best friend looked the picture of health as she enthusiastically devoured beef so rare I half expected it to moo.

Bo leaned over.

“Is she even chewing?” he hissed.

“I don’t think so.”

“I am chewing,” Ellie protested, though this came out as “Gnf hrf gnuhaffhrf.” Something seemed to strike her then. She swallowed and beamed, blood oozing down her chin in a thin trail. “Hey, I can hear Bo!”

“Congratulations,” Pearl offered scathingly where she sat on a high chair next to Victoria. “I’m sure your life will be thoroughly enriched from the experience.”

“Fur Ball, I can’t help but feel that was an insult,” Bo protested.

“Oh.” Ellie made a face. “I can hear the kitty too. Rude much?”

Pearl hissed.

Samuel sighed and bit morosely into his toast. Victoria and Hugh were doing their best to pretend this entire situation was completely normal. Bernard looked like he needed a drink. Virgil was watching Ellie with a fond expression that did little to mask his feelings for her.

“Maybe you should slow down,” Barney advised Ellie coolly as he watched her eat.

“Slow down?” Ellie narrowed her eyes while Virgil dabbed at her chin primly with a napkin. She pointed her fork at Barney. “Dude, I could eat a whole cow right now.”

I blinked. I don’t think I’d ever heard my best friend call anyone “dude” in my entire life.

Virgil scratched his cheek guiltily at my expression. “Yeah, about that. Ellie, er, might inherit some of my mannerisms for a while.” He shifted uncomfortably under our stares.

The sight of my formerly vegetarian best friend enthusiastically devouring what appeared to be barely cooked steak for breakfast was bad enough without that little morsel of perturbing knowledge.

“Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” I asked Ellie carefully.

The smell of blood was making my wolf restless, though probably not for the same reasons as Ellie’s newfound enthusiasm.

My best friend nodded. “Fit as a fiddle.” Her eyes brightened.

“I mean, aside from the whole wanting-to-bite-people thing and the weird urge to sleep hanging upside down in a closet, I feel amazing. My senses are incredible, I think I’m stronger than I’ve ever been, and”—she paused, fork halfway to her mouth, and blinked at Virgil—“I’m having some very inappropriate thoughts about jumping Virgil. ”

My eyes bulged. Victoria choked on her bagel. Samuel looked at the ceiling and muttered something. Bernard swayed and clutched the table.

“Wow,” Hugh said in a disgusted voice as he sipped his coffee.

Barney curled a lip in equal revulsion beside the werewolf.

Virgil had turned bright red. “I—that’s?—”

“It’s not just because I drank your blood, Virgil,” Ellie told the vampire in a deadly serious voice. “I mean, sure your heartbeat sounds like a lullaby and you smell really, really good, but I liked you even before I became a vampire.”

I narrowed my eyes a little. This was news to me. But then again, I had been rather preoccupied lately.

“Really?” Virgil asked hoarsely.

Ellie nodded a little shyly. “Really.”

I watched their display of mutual infatuation with mixed feelings. Virgil was practically floating off his chair and Ellie looked like she was ready to start composing sonnets about him.

Bo seemed equally ambivalent beside me.

“I don’t like this,” my dog finally stated a tad sullenly. “One of you gets bitten by a werewolf and the other one is now Miss Succula. I thought my life was going to be normal.”

“So did I, but here we are,” I muttered.

“Normal is overrated.” Pearl glowered at Ellie and Virgil with the look of someone throwing down her napkin.

“Also, must you two be quite so demonstrative before noon? It’s bad enough Abby keeps trying to drain Samuel’s life force with her loins, now I have to contend with a pair of lovesick vampires under my roof. ”

Samuel flushed. Victoria’s eyes glazed over. Hugh sighed heavily. Bernard eyed the pot of coffee like he wanted to lace it with booze and mainline its contents.

My mouth flattened to a thin line.

“I must say I’m still shocked at how well you’re holding up,” Barney told Ellie thoughtfully.

My best friend wrinkled her brow. “What do you mean?”

Barney waved a hand vaguely. “You have a neat appearance, you’re eating with utensils instead of tearing into raw meat with your hands, and you’re demonstrating a conspicuous lack of feral behavior.”

Ellie stopped eating and stared. “Is that how newborn vampires usually behave?”

“Yes,” Barney replied steadily. “Most newborn vampires spend their first few weeks in a state of barely controlled bloodlust. They’re typically violent, unpredictable, and completely unable to integrate into normal society. Not to mention their insane strength.”

I realized I’d missed out on a lot of information last night. It was also dawning on me that Samuel had taken a huge risk bringing Ellie to the Hawthorne estate. I now understood why Victoria, Hugh, and the Hawthorne pack enforcers had looked so anxious. My chest tightened.

I knew they’d done it for me.

“Well, I feel very integrated,” Ellie said firmly as she cut another piece of bloody steak.

“Maybe it’s love,” Bo panted.

We all stared at my dog, Ellie with her fork aloft.

“Like Virgil’s pheromones are keeping her sane, somehow,” Bo added, tail swinging.

“That mutt shows a surprising understanding of vampire psychophysiology,” Pearl grunted.

I stared, not least because I wasn’t expecting the word “psychophysiology” out of a cat’s mouth. “You mean he’s right?!”

Barney frowned. “It makes sense. Virgil’s blood must have created a stabilizing bond that’s overriding Ellie’s natural newborn instincts.” He glanced at me. “Your best friend is very lucky.”

I wasn’t sure my best friend turning into a vampire was luck, but I decided to keep that thought to myself.

Samuel sighed. “Well, at least now we can focus on the bigger problems still facing us.”

His serious tone cut through the room like Ellie’s knife though her steak.

“Ludvik is still out there and as dangerous as he was last night.” Samuel’s expression darkened. “I just hope he doesn’t attack more humans.”

Barney drummed his fingers on the table.

“He’ll only do that if he needs a reason to create chaos.

Though he likely intended to kill Ellie last night, turning her into a feral newborn would have served his purpose too.

” He narrowed his eyes. “My great-nephew loves nothing more than a bloodbath where a lot of innocent people die as a distraction from his true goal.”

A fraught hush befell us.

“What’s our next move?” I asked tensely.

Samuel and Barney exchanged a look that made my stomach clench.

“We need to inform the Amberford Alliance at tonight’s meeting,” Samuel said reluctantly. “Gregory and Constantia have a right to know what’s happening, especially since Virgil is now a target.”

Virgil flinched and opened his mouth to protest.

“Samuel is right, Virgil,” Victoria said firmly. “It will only make things worse if we don’t tell them.”

Virgil clenched his jaw.

“The other supernatural leaders need to be warned about Ludvik’s scheme,” Barney added.

Not only had I forgotten there was another Alliance meeting tonight, I didn’t like the sound of any of this.

“We can handle it ourselves,” I protested.

Samuel frowned at my bullish look. “Abby?—”

“What if the Alliance decides to lock Ellie up? What if they—” I faltered, my nails sinking into my palms. “What if they decide she’s too dangerous and they sentence her to death?”

Hugh grimaced. “That’s a bit melodramatic, isn’t it?”

“But not untrue,” Victoria said uneasily. “It has been known to happen. I’ve heard stories of dangerous newborns being eliminated for the greater good of the vampire community.” She glanced at Barney.

I felt my temper starting to rise, along with the familiar tingle of my white wolf power. The crystal chandelier above us trembled slightly.

“Not in Amberford, but in other vampire communities,” Victoria added hastily.

Barney confirmed this with a nod.

The chandelier shook some more.

Bo whined softly and nudged me with his head.

“Easy,” Samuel murmured. He rose and came over, his hand finding my shoulder even as he sought to calm my emotions through the mate bond.

Ellie looked nervously around the table. “What’s the Amberford Alliance?”

Victoria explained.

Ellie stared. “So these guys could really do what Abby is afraid of?” she asked uncertainly.

“Over my dead body they will,” Virgil said coldly, pupils a bright crimson.

“We have to tell them eventually,” Barney pointed out in a steely voice. “This isn’t the kind of thing we can keep secret forever. And it’s better if we control the narrative.”

I chewed my lip. He wasn’t wrong, but the thought of subjecting Ellie to Alliance bureaucracy made my skin crawl.

“Fine,” I agreed grudgingly. “We tell them. But on our terms and only after we’ve prepared Ellie for what she’s going to face.”

Victoria pinched the bridge of her nose. “There’s less than a day left until the meeting. Will that be enough?”

Pearl swished her tail in a way that said pigs could fly first.

Ellie squirmed under our stares.

“I’ll make sure she’s ready,” Virgil said firmly.

Ellie reached for Virgil’s hand in the strained silence. He tightened his fingers around hers, his expression resolute.

My stomach churned. Maybe this was going to be the disaster I feared it would be.

But watching my best friend discover happiness in the middle of this unholy mess made me care a little less about what the Alliance might do.

Besides, I had new white wolf powers and I knew how to wield them.

I ground my teeth as my thoughts turned to Ludvik.

That vampire had made this personal when he hurt Ellie.

And I was going to make damn sure he paid the price for what he did.