Page 27 of How to Stake a Vampire (Diary of a Reluctant Werewolf #2)

ACCUSATIONS AND VANISHING ACTS

The emergency Alliance meeting that evening had all the warmth of a tribunal. The Twilight Conference Room buzzed with tension as supernatural leaders filed in, faces grim and tempers already frayed.

I sat between Samuel and Victoria, my stomach churning.

Pearl observed the proceedings lazily where she perched on the armrest of Victoria’s chair.

Bo was unusually quiet next to me, the gravity of the situation evidently not lost on him.

Barney maintained a stony silence beside the Tremaines, his expression still dark.

“This is a complete disaster,” Titania muttered, her gossamer wings flickering with agitation.

“Disaster doesn’t begin to cover it.” Cornelius’s fae features managed to look beautifully ethereal and depressingly glum at the same time.

Victoria shifted uneasily in her chair. I understood her discomfort. The room felt like it was one wrong word away from exploding.

Daria called the meeting to order with a sharp rap of her gavel.

“As you all know,” she began, her voice cutting through the tension like a well-honed axe, “our security has been compromised. Ludvik Bludworth has been operating from the subbasement of this very building for at least two weeks.”

“Two weeks!” Wendall’s nostrils sparked with rage. “How the hell does a homicidal vampire set up shop under our noses without anyone noticing?”

“Because someone wasn’t doing their job.” Melody’s voice carried an edge that could cut glass as she looked pointedly to her left.

Sulfur wafted weakly around Oscar as he slumped deeper into his shadowy corner. The demon’s usual pompous demeanor had deflated and he looked like he’d rather be anywhere else but here.

“Oscar,” Daria said with the kind of calm that preceded executions. “You’re in charge of building security and maintenance. Care to explain how this happened?”

Oscar’s zone of darkness shrank a little. “Well, the thing is…” He trailed off and gulped audibly.

My wolf wrinkled her nose. I could smell his fear from where I sat.

“The thing is what, Oscar?” Gregory’s eyes flashed crimson.

“I may have, er, sublet some of the unused basement space,” the demon mumbled.

I narrowed my eyes while the room exploded.

“You sublet Alliance space?!” Finnic roared amidst the cursing and protests. He slammed his fist down hard enough to make everyone jump. “What kind of idiot?—?!”

“It was perfectly legal!” Oscar objected, puffing up slightly. “Those basement levels have been empty for decades. I thought, why not generate some extra revenue?”

“Revenue for what?” Daria asked, though her icy tone suggested she already knew the answer to her question.

I had my suspicions too, based on my first Alliance meeting.

“To fund”— mumble mumble —“for the”— mumble mumble , the demon said indistinctly.

Wendall leaned forward menacingly. “Care to repeat that?”

“To fund the expansion of Amberford’s demon community, alright?!” Oscar blurted out.

Daria and I adopted similarly disgusted moues.

The demon continued. “We’re severely underrepresented and I thought?—”

“You thought you’d rent out secure Alliance space for your pet project?” Portia interrupted, her banshee voice hitting a pitch that made everyone wince.

Melody was studying Oscar like he was a bug she wanted to squash. ”Did you even vet the tenant?”

Judging by Oscar’s increasingly uncomfortable aura, it was clear the answer was no.

“The arrangements were made through a lawyer,” he said, like that excused his actions. “He was very professional and paid six months in advance, cash. He told me the client valued privacy.”

“Privacy,” Barney repeated in a deadly voice. “A mysterious cash client who values privacy sublet the basement and that didn’t raise any red flags?”

“Look, business is business,” Oscar said defensively.

A low growl left Samuel.

Pearl jumped on the table.

“I see expecting competence from a demon who decorates his office with velvet paintings was overly optimistic,” she said with arctic disdain.

Oscar spluttered. “Now, see here?—!”

“No, you see here,” Gregory snarled, rising from his chair. “Your incompetence has put every supernatural being in this town at risk! Never mind the innocent humans we cohabit with.”

“It’s easy to point fingers now,” Wendall shot back, sparks popping from his nostrils. “But where was this concern when we voted against increased surveillance six months ago?”

“That was completely different,” Titania protested, her wings buzzing.

“Is it?” Cornelius narrowed his eyes. “We’ve been so concerned with privacy that we’ve ignored basic security.”

“Don’t spread the blame around,” Melody said sharply. “This is on Oscar.”

“Actually,” Finnic said icily, “I think we’re missing the point.”

The dwarf seemed remarkably calm, considering the circumstances.

Daria frowned. “Which is?”

“We’re arguing about blame instead of solutions.” He brought out an impressive battleaxe out from under the table. “Seems we’d accomplish more if we just cut down the demon first.”

Not so calm after all.

Cornelius and Wendall grabbed the dwarf chieftain’s arms as he lunged for Oscar.

“That dwarf’s lost it,” Bo panted while Oscar hastily retreated inside his kingdom of gloom.

I felt my blood pressure rise and swallowed a groan.

“Killing Oscar is not the solution, Finnic,” Daria told the dwarf firmly as Cornelius and Wendall wrestled him into his chair and took his axe away.

“I mean, it would improve our moods,” Melody said sourly.

“This is not the time for jokes!” Gregory snapped.

Titania nodded jerkily. Irritation surged through me.

Samuel shot a warning look my way when he picked up on my emotions.

“Gregory’s right,” my alpha said grimly. “If we don’t work together, Ludvik will pick us off one by one. We’re the only ones standing in the way of his crazy plans.”

That sobered everyone up.

Pearl swished her tail coolly. “You fools need to get your act together.”

Daria’s eyes shrank to slits. “What we need is to track down Ludvik and eliminate him.”

“Easier said than done,” Barney said. “He’s had weeks to prepare.”

“So what do you suggest?” Melody snapped. “Wait for him to come to us?”

A fraught hush ensued. I glanced at the clock on the wall and clenched my jaw. We were wasting precious time.

“We should set a trap,” Cornelius said. “Use bait he won’t be able to resist.” His gaze flickered to the Tremaines. “It seems he was after the blood of another powerful vampire lineage, after all.”

The room’s temperature dropped.

“Absolutely not,” Gregory said, his voice so quiet the hairs rose on my nape.

Constantia’s expression had grown feral beside her husband.

“I agree with Gregory.” A muscle jumped in Barney’s jawline. “It’s too dangerous.”

“It’s logical,” Cornelius pressed. “It’s why he attacked the coffee shop where your son works?—”

The power that flooded the chamber made everyone wince and had Bo shooting under my chair. My wolf stilled where she watched the proceedings from behind my eyes.

The air churned violently around Barney where he’d risen to his feet, his gaze a violent scarlet and his hands curled into fists at his sides.

“I said no,” he growled.

I ignored the way the sound grated across my nerves and addressed the room coldly. “I agree with Barney and Gregory. We cannot risk someone’s life just to stop Ludvik.”

Victoria nodded. “Abby’s right.”

Wendall crossed his arms and scowled. “Then what do you suggest we do, wolf?”

I bit down on a sharp retort and took a steady breath. “What Daria said. We find him first.”

“How?” the dragon newt asked irritably. “He could be anywhere.”

“Mindy and Nigel are trying to find the wraith working with Ludvik,” I explained through gritted teeth. “They’ve already covered a lot of ground. We should help them as best we can.”

There was still the small matter of the strange message we’d found in the hidden room in the subbasement. Mindy’s best guess was that the wraith had left it. What it meant, no one yet knew.

“He can’t have gone far,” Samuel said, frowning. “The ritual requires specific conditions, namely a ley line.”

Titania groaned. “Amberford is full of ley lines, Samuel.”

“It’s better than sitting here doing nothing,” Samuel retorted.

“We need to pool resources,” Portia said firmly. “Each faction contributes to the search and covers one area of town.”

“Who coordinates?” Melody asked suspiciously.

“I will,” Daria replied.

“Vampires should lead,” Gregory protested. “It’s our problem.”

“Like hell it is,” Finnic growled. “This affects everyone.”

“Dwarves do have the best tracking ability,” Titania murmured.

“Fae and witches have underground connections,” Melody countered.

Cornelius dipped his chin.

The thin thread of my sanity finally snapped. The power I’d manifested at Springhill General flooded my veins and lit up my blood. The chandelier trembled and the floor shook as I stood up, my nails and fangs lengthening even as I maintained my human form.

Gasps echoed around the room. The Alliance members pushed back hastily from the table, their stunned gazes locked on me as my wolf’s powers buffeted them.

“What the—?!” Daria mumbled.

“Calm down, Abby,” Victoria said tensely.

“Now is not the time for this,” Pearl added sternly.

Cornelius recovered first and narrowed his eyes. “It seems you’ve been hiding the truth about your luna powers.”

The other Alliance members exchanged wary glances.

“She wasn’t hiding anything,” Samuel snapped.

An unholy growl left my throat. I was about to speak when my wolf froze. My head snapped to the doors, my instincts screaming danger.

Something had just entered the building.

Something that was moving fast and seething with rage.

Barney and the Tremaines stood up, power rolling off them as they took a defensive stance. Amber lit up Samuel’s eyes as he rose in a half crouch, ready to transform at a moment’s notice.

“What the hell is that?!” Wendall hissed, horns flaming and tail out.

“I don’t know, but I don’t like it,” Melody murmured tensely.

Magic bloomed around Daria’s hands. Portia’s hair unraveled. Bo hugged the floor under my chair.

“Oh.” Pearl blinked and relaxed fractionally. “How interesting.”

The doors of the conference room slammed open before any of us could make sense of her words.

Ellie burst in, hair disheveled and eyes glowing a red so vivid, her pupils looked like they were filled with blood. The air boiled around her, the power she wielded almost matching mine.

“He took him!” she snarled, her fangs gleaming. “That asshole took Virgil!”

I blinked, my rage fading to shock.

“What?” Gregory mumbled.

Constantia gripped her husband’s arm tightly, her face ashen.

Ellie squeezed her eyes shut for a moment.

“Virgil was supposed to meet me for dinner, but he never showed up,” she ground out.

“When I went to his apartment, the door was open and there were signs of a struggle.” She swallowed convulsively.

“I could smell him. I could smell the bastard who turned me!”

I moved and hugged Ellie, my heart pounding heavily.

My best friend froze before shuddering, her arms locking tightly around me.

Gregory’s voice was barely controlled when he spoke. “We have to find them. Now! ”

Constantia sat down heavily, a raw sound of pain leaving her.

Victoria and Titania rushed over to console her.

The rest of the Alliance members traded tense looks.

“All disagreements are tabled for now,” Daria said in a hard voice. “We have less than twenty-hours until the full moon. That’s our deadline.”