Page 25 of How to Stake a Vampire (Diary of a Reluctant Werewolf #2)

“I can’t believe there’s an entire training facility under our building,” I muttered as I descended the stairs to the basement of Hawthorne & Associates the next morning. “Why wasn’t I made aware of this?”

“It’s on a need-to-know basis,” Samuel replied cagily. “And until recently, you didn’t need to know.”

“Besides, you’ve been busy working out in other ways,” Didi remarked tartly, her heels clicking on the concrete steps.

My face grew hot. Samuel’s ears reddened.

Detective Johnson smirked. “I hear you two are at it like wild ani?—”

Samuel stepped on the detective’s foot.

“What they really mean is, they don’t trust you not to accidentally wreck the place,” Gavin said morosely while Detective Johnson cursed and hopped on his non-injured foot.

I shot the dragon newt a puzzled look as we reached the bottom landing. “I’ve never wrecked anything.”

Didi narrowed her eyes. “He meant himself. Someone got a little excited when he first learned about this place and tried to scan one of our clients in his distraction.”

Bo carefully edged away from Gavin.

“He tried to scan a client?” I asked skeptically.

“It was a pixie.” Samuel shuddered. “The copy machine broke. Mindy was livid.”

“That ghost didn’t stop wailing for a week,” Didi said, still eyeing Gavin accusingly.

The dragon newt had the grace to look guilty.

“Your workplace is a nuthouse,” Bo told me unhelpfully as we navigated a gloomy corridor.

“Ditto,” Detective Johnson said.

A reinforced steel door with a digital security pad appeared at the end.

Bo brightened when Samuel typed in a code. “This is very spy-movie-like. I bet this place looks like one of those secret lairs the good guys use.”

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Samuel muttered.

The secret lair my Husky had been expecting turned out to be more like a high-end gym than a superhero training facility. It had padded walls, rubber flooring, and the kind of reinforced equipment that suggested the place saw some serious supernatural action.

“Wow.” Bo visibly deflated. “This place is a dump.”

He padded over to investigate a collection of chew toys that were clearly designed for creatures with much larger jaws than his.

“Those are for stress management,” Didi explained at my wary expression. “Janet comes down here for her howling sessions.”

“Every Friday at exactly three-thirty,” Gavin said promptly. “Sometimes on Mondays too, depending on how the weekend went and whether she crossed paths with a certain witch.”

Didi sniffed haughtily.

I grimaced. I knew Janet stress-howled. I hadn’t realized she did it at work.

I was still processing this revelation when Barney appeared from an equipment room. The vampire looked like the world’s most reluctant gym teacher as he carried an armload of wooden stakes and a few hammers, and lugged an actual coffin complete with brass handles and a heavy wooden lid behind him.

Bo’s ears flattened at the sight of the coffin.

“Right, then,” Barney said grimly, setting the coffin on the floor and the stakes on a nearby table. “Before we begin, there’s something I need to remind everyone of.” His expression grew even more serious, which I hadn’t thought was possible. “The next full moon is tomorrow night.”

I could have told him that. My skin and bones were itching like crazy and I could feel all the other telltale signs that told me my wolf was dying to cut loose.

“Which means Ludvik’s timeline just became much more urgent,” Barney continued. “If he’s planning to complete the ritual, he’ll need the full moon’s power to accomplish his goal.”

Didi exchanged an uneasy glance with Gavin and Detective Johnson. Barney had sworn them to secrecy that morning before telling them about the secret ritual.

“So we have less than two days to stop him,” Samuel said tightly.

“Less than that, actually,” Barney said. “The ritual would need to begin at moonrise on the night of the full moon. Which gives us roughly thirty hours to locate him and end this.”

No pressure, then.

Barney gestured to the stakes. “This is why you all need to learn how to stake a vampire properly.”

Didi raised her hand. “Question. When you say ‘stake a vampire,’ are we talking about the traditional wooden-stake-through-the-heart method?”

Barney curled a lip. “That’s a myth perpetuated by humans who clearly never tried to penetrate vampire skin with a piece of wood.”

Bo tilted his head, his eyes taking on a familiar morbid gleam. “So how do you actually stake a vampire?”

“You nail their coffin shut while they’re inside it.”

We stared.

“Come again?” Detective Johnson asked carefully.

“A vampire can only be truly staked while they’re in their resting place,” Barney explained. “The coffin acts as a containment vessel. You drive iron nails through the lid, pinning them inside, and then stake the coffin itself to consecrated ground.”

I scratched my cheek. “That seems unnecessarily complicated. Also, do we even have consecrated ground around these parts?”

Barney frowned. “It’s supposed to be complicated. We’re not exactly designed to be easy to kill. And it’s easy to make consecrated ground.”

Bo wagged his tail excitedly. “Let me guess. A dash of holy water, right?!”

“No,” Barney said irritably. “All it takes is the blood of a virgin and a prayer.”

Didi and I exchanged a cautious glance in the hush that followed.

“The virgin part could prove to be a problem,” I volunteered with a grimace. “And I’m pretty sure the rest of Amberford is running low on that item too.”

“It doesn’t have to be a woman,” Barney said.

We all turned to Gavin.

The dragon newt’s horns popped out.

“Why are you all looking at me?!” he protested.

“You seem the most likely candidate in the room to fit the condition,” Detective Johnson said with brutal honesty.

“Well, I’ll have you know I’m not, okay?!” Steam puffed out of Gavin’s nostrils.

“It can be any species,” Barney grunted.

Bo huffed indignantly when he became the focus of our wary stares. “I’ve had some lady friends!”

I narrowed my eyes. “Oh yeah? Who?”

The Husky carefully avoided my gaze.

Samuel sighed heavily and indicated the wooden stakes on the table. “So these are for practice?”

“Yes,” Barney said. “The key is not to aim for the heart. That won’t kill us, but it will make us extremely angry. Instead, you want to target the joints.”

“The joints?” I echoed.

“Shoulders, hips, knees,” Barney demonstrated on himself. “A properly placed stake will pin the limb and prevent movement. It’s painful and debilitating, but not fatal.”

“That’s horrible,” Gavin said, looking queasy.

“Better horrible than having your veins sucked dry,” Barney snapped. “And given that Ludvik has absorbed a wraith’s abilities, traditional vampire combat techniques won’t work on him. This may not be much help, but it might be your only option to slow him down.”

Didi picked up one of the stakes and examined it critically. “They look like they’ve been modified.”

“Iron cores wrapped in wood,” Barney confirmed. “The iron prevents vampire healing, the wood provides grip. The iron also reduces the chance of the stake shattering on impact.”

“Smart,” Detective Johnson said approvingly.

“I have my moments,” Barney said coolly. “Now, help me bring out the dummies.”

Five minutes later, we were facing a collection of training dummies arranged along the far wall. They were humanoid in shape and clearly built to withstand supernatural abuse judging by the scorch marks and claw gouges decorating their surfaces.

Someone had put googly eyes on their faces.

“Melvina needed cheering up,” Barney said defensively at our leaden stares.

“Right,” I murmured. “About the coffin.”

“It’s for demonstration purposes.”

“That’s both reassuring and deeply weird,” Detective Johnson observed while I swallowed a sigh of relief.

Barney sniffed. “Let’s begin with basic stance and grip.”

The vampire went on to demonstrate proper staking technique on the practice coffin.

The gravity of the situation was slightly ruined by Didi asking questions and taking notes, while Bo added a running commentary that featured lines like “Shouldn’t you yell something when you do that?

” and “In your face, bloodsucker!” None of this was helped by Gavin’s tendency to accidentally singe things when he got excited.

“How about we move on to the dummies?” Samuel suggested hastily when Barney’s eyes began glowing crimson.

“I think that’s a great idea,” the vampire ground out.

I was soon lining up for my first practice throw.

“Remember,” Barney instructed. “You’re not trying to pin a butterfly to a board. You need force and precision.”

I hefted the stake, aimed for the dummy’s shoulder joint, and let it fly.

It bounced off the dummy’s chest and clattered to the floor.

Bo sat down and scratched his ear. “Well, that was embarrassing.”

I narrowed my eyes at the Husky. “That’s gold coming from someone without opposable thumbs.”

Samuel stepped up behind me while Bo huffed indignantly. “Here, let me show you.”

His hands covered mine, adjusting my grip and stance. The familiar warmth of the mate bond flared between us, making it suddenly very difficult to concentrate on vampire-staking techniques. I bit my lip.

“Focus on the target,” he murmured in my ear, his breath sending shivers down my spine while his heat and scent flooded my senses. “Don’t overthink it.”

My wolf stood to attention. I tried to focus on the dummy instead of the way Samuel’s body felt pressed against mine. It was harder than it should have been, especially considering we were less than two days away from the full moon.

“Now,” he said softly.

It took all my willpower to ignore the way my wolf was panting lecherously and release the stake. This time it hit the dummy square in the shoulder joint with a satisfying thunk.

“Much better,” Barney said approvingly. “Although we could all have done without the romantic coaching.”

“Yeah, how about we focus on not dying?” Didi said pointedly.

Heat flooded my cheeks as Samuel stepped back with a slight smile.

Damn my alpha and his sexy moves.

Detective Johnson was up next. His first throw hit the dummy's center mass with enough force to embed the stake six inches deep.

Gavin sniffed. “Show off.” The dragon newt promptly set his stake on fire before he could throw it.

Didi cursed and grabbed a fire extinguisher from the wall.

By the time we de-sparked Gavin and moved on to close-combat techniques, I was starting to feel like we might actually have a chance against Ludvik. The key, according to Barney, was working as a team and not trying to be dumb heroes.

“Vampires are designed to hunt alone,” he explained as he demonstrated a defensive position. “We’re not used to coordinated attacks from multiple opponents. Use that against him.”

“We tried that yesterday,” I reminded him.

“This time, we’ll know what to expect.”

Samuel frowned. “What about his speed?”

“Anticipation.” Barney sighed at our expressions. “He’s fast, but he’s also predictable. Vampires, even enhanced ones, have patterns. Study his movements, predict where he’ll be, not where he is.”

“That sounds easier said than done,” I muttered.

“Everything worthwhile is,” Barney replied.

Detective Johnson looked like he’d been mulling something over for a while. He finally spoke.

“What if we can’t find his coffin?”

His words were followed by a fraught silence.

Barney lowered his brows. “Then we’ll have to find another way to stop him.”

“Like what?” I asked warily.

Barney hesitated. “I honestly don’t know.”

Before anyone could respond to this less-than-encouraging statement, footsteps pounded down the basement stairs. Nigel appeared, a few tentacles writhing in agitation around his head and his face flushed from running.

“You need to come,” he gasped. “Now!”

“What’s wrong?” Samuel asked sharply.

My chest tightened. “Has there been another attack?!”

Nigel shook his head. “No! It’s Mindy. She thinks she’s found something.” The boogeyman shone brightly, causing us to squint. “And you’re never going to believe where!”