Page 4 of How to Stake a Vampire (Diary of a Reluctant Werewolf #2)

BAD BLOOD AND brAIN MUFFINS

I spent the weekend dodging questions from Ellie about the Alliance meeting. Luckily, it didn’t take much to distract my best friend.

Sunday morning was pack brunch at the Hawthornes and I found myself the unwelcome topic of conversation once again.

It was a good thing I was too mellow after an intense night of passion involving my alpha and some bed posts to take offense at the wild suggestions flying around the table.

James kept asking Samuel why he looked tired, Pearl made several scathing remarks about alpha stamina training, and Victoria was asking Bernard for a Bloody Mary by ten o’clock.

All in all, it was a standard Hawthorne family meeting.

“How did it go?” Charlene said the moment Bo and I stepped into the lobby of Hawthorne & Associates on Monday.

Fred materialized from the room behind the reception desk with the kind of speed that suggested he’d been lurking there just waiting for us to arrive.

“Did anyone try to kill you?”

I sighed at the half demon’s bloodthirsty tone. I didn’t even have to ask what they were talking about. Chances were, someone in the building had a betting pool going about my fate on Friday night.

“Really? That’s the first thing you guys want to ask?”

“It’s a legitimate question,” Fred said defensively. “Alliance meetings have a reputation, after all.”

“He’s not wrong,” Bo huffed. “Those people were weird.”

No one pointed out that a sassy, talking Husky of indeterminate supernatural lineage was even weirder.

“Remember what happened when the gargoyles tried to join?” Charlene reminded Fred worriedly. “Half of downtown had to be rebuilt.”

“The gargoyles tried to join the Alliance?” I asked warily.

“Maybe we shouldn’t talk about the gargoyle incident.” Fred looked over his shoulder and shuddered.

I made a mental note to ask Samuel about the gargoyle incident later. Assuming I survived whatever fresh hell this day was about to throw at me. Three weeks working for Hawthorne & Associates had taught me one thing if nothing else.

Okay, two.

My coworkers were batshit crazy. And the supernatural community of Amberford was even more so.

“But seriously,” Charlene said in a voice that was half zeal and half dread, “how was your first meeting? Did Daria try to hex anyone? Did the dragon newt set anything on fire?” She paused and gulped.

“Please tell me Finnic didn’t bring his drinking horn, get totally wasted, and throw his axe at someone? ”

Bo and I exchanged an uneasy glance. It seemed Friday’s meeting had been exceedingly mild compared to usual standards.

“He brought a tankard,” I admitted, seeing the dwarf chieftain in a whole new light.

Charlene and Fred traded knowing looks.

Bo and I took the elevator to the fifth floor.

Janet, Gavin, Didi, Mindy, and even Nigel were loitering in the open office area in a suspicious cluster. Bo and I became the object of intense stares once more.

“Oh, hey, Abby,” Janet said with forced casualness. “We were just thinking of having a coffee break. Want to join us?”

I looked at the clock on the wall and frowned. “Isn’t it too early for a coffee break?”

“The early bird gets the supernatural politics gossip,” Didi declared with unashamed honesty.

“You might as well give up and spill the beans,” Bo told me stoically. “These guys are like a dog with a bone when they want answers. I should know.”

Mindy abandoned any pretense of subtlety and flickered into full visibility. “Did you accidentally command anyone to do anything embarrassing? Did the dog insult someone important?” She leaned forward excitedly. “Did you threaten to punch anybody?!”

I narrowed my eyes. “Why does everyone assume I threatened to punch someone?”

“Pattern recognition,” Gavin said promptly.

“They’re not wrong,” Bo panted, tail swinging.

I scowled. I could hardly deny their inference.

“For the record,” I said with as much dignity as I could muster, “I did not threaten to punch anyone at the Alliance meeting.”

The others looked crestfallen at this news.

“How disappointingly mature of you,” Didi muttered.

I was debating which one of them to punch when Hugh appeared around the corner. He slowed at our sight.

“I see word has gotten out about the meeting,” Samuel’s brother said with mild exasperation.

“Word got out the moment Abby left the building,” Janet said. “Fred had a betting pool going on whether she would survive her first Alliance encounter.”

My mouth pressed to a thin line.

Hugh saw my expression and hastily addressed the others.

“How about you people disband before Samuel catches you standing around gossiping?”

A commotion from the direction of Samuel’s office reached us right on cue. The group dispersed with supernatural speed, though several people lingered by their desks in obvious eavesdropping positions. Nigel developed a sudden fascination with the water cooler.

Samuel appeared, his expression grim enough to make the ambient temperature drop several degrees. My belly tightened.

Damn if I didn’t find his grumpy look sexy.

He shot me a wary look and cleared his throat.

“Abby, Didi, Gavin. My office. Now.”

Bo’s tail drooped as we followed Didi and Gavin toward Samuel’s office. “So much for a quiet morning.”

I made a face. “When have we ever had a quiet morning in this place?”

Barney was making coffee in Samuel’s office. His expression made it clear he didn’t want to be there. My gaze landed on the open takeout box beside him.

Bo’s ears flattened. “Are those brain muffins?”

“Yes,” Barney said morosely. “They’re fresh from Ghoul’s Kitchen, on Fifth Street.”

Bo slinked behind me.

“Barney,” Didi said carefully, “why do you have brain muffins?”

“They were having a special. Buy five, get six free. Seemed wasteful not to take advantage.” The vampire’s tone turned even more glum. “Besides, it looks like I won’t be able to get my usual blood fix for a while. This was the next best alternative.”

My scalp prickled. I suddenly recalled Gregory’s report at the Alliance meeting.

“Does that have anything to do with those blood bank thefts?”

Didi frowned. “What blood bank thefts?”

Barney and Samuel traded a loaded look.

“You’d better sit down,” Samuel said.

Ten minutes later I began wondering whether my life had peaked at “accidentally turned into a werewolf” and everything since then had been a steady decline into “how is this my actual existence?”

Because I was currently drinking vampire-made coffee that could strip paint while listening to my alpha explain to me, Didi, and Gavin why someone robbing a blood bank on Saturday night was now apparently our problem.

Samuel ignored our sullen expressions and slid a file across the table. “Whoever did this almost cleaned out the facility, including the products in the emergency reserves. The Tremaines want us to investigate.”

Didi, Gavin, and I looked at the folder like it had cooties.

“Weren’t Gregory and Constantia already looking into the thefts?” I hazarded with thinly veiled hope.

“They were,” Samuel confirmed. “This is too big an incident for them to handle on their own.”

The witch and the dragon newt gave me “you open it” looks. I nearly pointed out they had seniority over me but decided this would be a waste of my breath.

I pulled the file over and opened it gingerly.

Bo peered over my arm, his eyes alive with the ghoulish interest of a dog obsessed with true crime shows.

“When you say ‘cleaned out,’ you mean someone stole the blood products, right? Not that they, er, consumed everything on site?” I said as I cautiously studied the crime scene photos of the empty blood bank.

To my relief and Bo’s disappointment, there was a glaring lack of bodies and gratuitous gore. I passed the file to Didi and Gavin.

“Stole,” Barney confirmed. “We think whoever did this is an expert.”

I arched an eyebrow. “Vampire?”

“More than likely. Hence why Samuel wants me to join your team for this investigation.”

I hesitated. Barney was Hawthorne & Associates’s Head of Finance and Investments. That seemed a far cry from vampire detective.

“Barney has experience in the field,” Samuel grunted, no doubt picking up my unease through our bond.

Gavin’s morning coffee steamed faintly from his nostrils. “Do we have any security footage from the bank?”

“Only a partial recording.” Samuel worked his keyboard and showed us his computer screen. “The ghouls who run the place said the perpetrator took the cameras offline shortly after this. They still don’t know how. He locked the night staff in a closet.”

Didi, Gavin, and I studied the short, blurry black-and-white video.

It depicted a tall figure in Victorian-era clothing moving faster than the cameras could track in the lobby of the blood bank.

“So we’re looking for a really old vampire with questionable fashion sense?” I said with a grimace.

Didi curled a lip. “Please. All vampires have questionable fashion sense.” She shot a pointed look at the elbow patches on Barney’s suit.

Barney bristled. “I’ll have you know that this suit cost an arm and a leg!”

Bo brightened. “Whose?”

Samuel’s mouth twitched.

Barney narrowed his eyes at my dog. “What’s his blood group again?”

Bo’s tail drooped.

“Anything else we need to know?” I said hastily while my dog quietly crawled under my chair.

“Yes.” Samuel’s expression turned sour. “The thief also broke into the administrative offices and stole some medical records.”

“Anyone we know?” Didi asked.

“Only the most powerful vampires in the region,” Samuel grunted.

Gavin’s tail popped out. “That’s not good.”

“No, it isn’t.” Samuel sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t even want to think about what the thief intends to do with them.”

I raised a hand hesitantly. “Aren’t medical records digital these days?”

Samuel, Didi, Barney, and Gavin gave me pitying looks.

“What?” I asked defensively.

“Vampires and ghouls are leery of new technologies,” Samuel explained. “They keep paper copies of everything.”

I suddenly remembered Barney’s vintage typewriter and his two-finger typist attitude.

The vampire rapped said fingers on his armrest, his expression troubled. “Those medical records were pretty extensive. They contained the genealogical files for every major vampire bloodline in New England.”

That got my attention. “Genealogical files?”

“Family trees, lineage documentation,” the vampire explained with a wave of a hand. “The kind of information that would be invaluable to someone planning something nefarious.”

I swallowed a sigh. Chasing after supernatural creatures doing nefarious things sounded about as fun as tap dancing across a lava pit in flip-flops.

Gavin’s horns smoked slightly. “Could it be someone with an academic interest in vampire genetics?”

“I doubt it,” Samuel said curtly. “Worst-case scenario, they intend to use this data to target those specific bloodlines. For what reason, we still don’t know.” He met our gazes steadily. “That’s what you’re going to find out.”

I studied the security footage still on the screen.

“So where is this blood bank?” I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster, which was hardly any.