Page 30 of How to Stake a Vampire (Diary of a Reluctant Werewolf #2)
RITUAL INTERRUPTED
The tunnel opened into a vast cavern that looked like something out of a nightmare.
Candles flickered in nooks and crannies along the walls, casting dancing shadows across the ancient stone formations rising from the ground.
In the center, an elaborate altar had been constructed from slabs, its surface covered in symbols that radiated evil. I swallowed heavily.
Virgil was bound to it with iron chains.
A tortured sound left Ellie at the sight.
“No,” Gregory mumbled, his voice breaking.
The vampire had rocked to a stop a few feet ahead of us, shock rendering him immobile.
Virgil looked unconscious but alive, his chest rising and falling steadily. The iron chains looked cruel against the young vampire’s pale skin, the dark stains on the stone beneath him telling their own grim story about what he’d suffered through since his abduction.
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony echoed through the cavern from speakers I couldn’t see, the powerful music lending a macabre atmosphere to the horror in front of us.
“That sick bastard!” Ellie snarled, her eyes blazing red.
I followed her gaze, my heart thumping.
Ludvik stood with his back to us in the shadows at the far end of the cavern. He wore flowing dark robes and was completely absorbed in whatever he was reading from an ancient tome.
Samuel and I shifted, our wolves instantly recognizing the deadly threat he posed even though he seemed oblivious to our presence. The familiar heat of transformation flowed through me as I shook myself out, the change now as easy as breathing.
Gregory abandoned all pretense of stealth and charged across the cavern, his son’s name a roar on his lips.
“ Virgil! ”
“No!” Barney barked, alarmed.
Ludvik spun around. His expression shifted from intense focus to mild annoyance.
“How tedious.”
He moved faster than my eyes could track.
“Watch out!” Samuel shouted.
Gregory gasped when Ludvik appeared in front of him and backhanded him with enough force to send him flying into the cavern wall. Stone cracked from the impact.
Virgil blinked his eyes open on the altar. Confusion danced across his face as he tried to process what he was seeing. “Ellie, what are you doing here?!” His gaze found Gregory. Horror widened his eyes. “ Father! ” He struggled weakly against the chains binding him.
“He’s coming!” Finnic warned.
Ludvik moved like fog, striking Samuel and Barney before either could react. My wolf grunted as a blow landed on my flank and sent me crashing into the dwarves.
Ellie’s shriek of rage echoed through the cavern as she launched herself at Ludvik. The older vampire avoided her attack with inhuman grace and punched her in the face. Ellie staggered back a step, her head snapping sideways with a sickening sound.
She grabbed Ludvik’s wrist and turned to face him.
“This stops now, you monster,” she growled, her fangs gleaming in the gloom.
“Keep him pinned down!” Finnic shouted as he charged the vampire.
Ludvik wrenched himself free and was gone in the blink of an eye. The dwarf’s axe skimmed the space where his neck would have been. Finnic cursed as the momentum spun him around.
My heart pounded as we regrouped in the middle of the cavern, our gazes frantically scanning the shadows.
The air shifted to our left. Barney stumbled, fresh wounds appearing on his leg and arm where Ludvik had attacked him.
A flicker of pain echoed across the mate bond and had my head snapping around.
The sight of the claw marks on Samuel’s shoulder made my wolf snarl with fury.
I’m okay! my alpha said, his fangs exposed and his hackles rising where he towered beside me.
“He’s too fast!” Gregory’s voice dissolved in a grunt of pain as he dropped to one knee, his hand rising to clamp the wound in his abdomen. The vampire’s blood splattered thickly to the ground, the scent flooding my wolf’s nostrils and causing Ellie to gnash her teeth.
Ludvik’s next invisible attack sent Finnic flying into a cluster of candles, scattering wax and flame. The dwarf swore and shook his head dazedly as he climbed to his feet. Leoric, Belinda, and Wildred rushed over and took up defensive positions around him.
“The wraith’s abilities!” Barney snapped. “He must be using them again!”
I looked around and spotted Bo, Didi, Gavin, and Mindy at the edge of the cavern. Just as we’d planned, they were searching the place for the wraith and the object Ludvik had used to bind her while we engaged the vampire, Melvina and Hilda assisting them.
“Mindy says she’s struggling to sense her,” Didi called out, magic crackling around her hands as she kept a lookout for Ludvik. “There’s too much interference!”
Barney’s eyes widened. “The music.”
We met his stunned gaze.
“That’s why he’s using the music. To mask the wraith’s presence!”
An unearthly wail erupted across the cavern, the sound coming from everywhere at once. Bo’s ears flattened. Our breath began to mist as the temperature in the cavern plummeted.
“There!” Ellie pointed.
A pale figure had materialized near the altar, translucent and with eyes full of pain and rage. My stomach lurched.
It was a little girl with a gaping hole in her chest where her heart should have been. She was hunched over and clawing at her head.
Fury burned through my veins.
Mindy flickered alarmingly, horror etched in every line of her face.
“A child,” she mumbled. “He bound a child ?!”
The wraith turned toward us, mouth opening in another bone-chilling scream that sent the dwarves stumbling backward. I glimpsed fangs and a glint of crimson in her eyes.
She’s a vampire, Samuel growled.
Ludvik blurred into view beside the wraith. The little girl flinched.
My wolf stilled and blinked.
A thin red chain had just shimmered into view. It connected the wraith to Ludvik.
Is that the binding?!
Samuel shot a confused look at me. What binding?
“Can anyone else see that crimson line connecting that bastard to his ghost?!” Ellie asked in a low voice.
Barney and Gregory looked equally perplexed at her words.
“I can,” Mindy ground out. The ghost was scowling.
My heart raced. Mindy, Ellie, and I were the only ones who could see the connection.
“We need to find the binding object.” Frustration made Mindy’s eyes glow. “It has to be here somewhere!”
She was right. It was the only way to slow Ludvik’s insane speed so we could stop him. I lowered my head and curled my lips on a threatening growl as I approached the altar.
Ludvik sneered. “You can try all you want. You’ll never find it.” He cocked his head to the side, his expression mocking. “Now, how about I kill you all? Your bodies will make a nice offering for this ritual.”
I braced as he vanished.
His attacks when they came were even faster than before.
My wolf detected the change in the air next to me a fraction of a second before he struck. I jumped, narrowly missing the claws aimed at my eye.
Power rolled off Ellie and Barney as they leapt, their faces dark with bloodlust. Ludvik grabbed them by the throat and hurled them across the cavern. They struck the wall hard and plummeted to the ground.
Samuel sprung, Gregory coordinating with him. Ludvik flickered out of view just as the wolf’s fangs and the vampire’s claws were about to carve his chest and back open. He reappeared beside them, took hold of their heads, and smashed their skulls together.
The sound made my wolf whimper.
Samuel and Gregory dropped to the floor with a groan. Blood streamed from a gash on my alpha’s forehead as he struggled to rise, the sight making my stomach clench with dread. Gregory shook his head dazedly and tried to get back up, his temple bleeding where his skin has broken.
There was movement behind them.
Finnic dashed past with a throaty ululation. He leapt and managed to land a glancing blow on Ludvik’s arm.
The vampire scowled at the sight of the thin line of blood blooming on his skin. He backhanded the dwarf violently across the face. Finnic went flying into Samuel and Gregory, taking them to the ground again.
The rest of the dwarves attacked, their battle cries rending the air.
Virgil’s shout had my head snapping around.
“The base of that wall!” The vampire indicated the left side of the cavern with an urgent tilt of his head, the chains rattling around him. “He hid something there!”
I watched as Mindy, Bo, Didi, and Gavin headed swiftly to the location he’d indicated. Ludvik snarled and made to attack them.
I moved, my wolf letting loose a bloodcurdling sound.
Ellie got to Ludvik first, her figure moving so fast my pulse spiked.
“Oh no, you don’t!” She grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground before he could vanish.
I was beside her in an instant, my heart slamming against my ribs.