Page 6 of How to Stake a Vampire (Diary of a Reluctant Werewolf #2)

COFFEE, MISTAKES, AND ALIBIS

That got everyone’s attention.

“Humming?” I repeated.

“Classical music,” Pete said, nodding. His head slipped slightly to the left.

“Beautiful melody,” Steve admitted. “Very haunting.”

Barney had gone very still. “What piece?”

I could practically feel the tension vibrating off the vampire.

“I’m afraid I don’t recall the name,” Steve said apologetically. “But it was lovely. Very dramatic. Had this famous singing bit at the end.”

Barney flinched. “Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony?”

“That’s the one!” Steve beamed.

Didi flashed a small frown at Barney before focusing on the ghouls. “How long was the perp here?”

“Couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes.” Bethany shrugged. “He was very efficient. Like he knew exactly what he wanted and where to find it.”

My scalp prickled. It seemed Samuel and Barney had been right.

This thief was no amateur.

“How did you get out of the closet?” I asked curiously.

The look the ghouls exchanged made me regret the question.

“Pete detached an arm and sent it inside the vent to unlock the door from outside,” Steve said.

“We can control our body parts remotely,” Bethany explained at my expression.

Yup, that was going to give me nightmares.

Didi finished taking notes and looked up from her notepad. “Who was the last customer who visited the blood bank that day?”

Confusion washed across Gladys’s face. “Why do you want to know that?”

“Because it might be relevant to our investigation.”

Steve hesitated. “It was that nice young man who comes in every week. Very polite. He always asks about our specials.”

“His name is Virgil,” Bethany elaborated. “He works at that coffee shop in Sycamore Grove.”

My mouth went dry. “You mean Virgil from Bean Me Up?!”

“Yes,” Steve confirmed. “He was here right before closing time.”

“What did he do?” I asked, desperately trying to keep my tone casual.

“He just got his regular order,” Bethany said. “Type A negative, two pints. He made a deposit for payment.”

I blinked. “Deposit? You mean, he donated blood?”

“Yes,” Pete said. “The Tremaine reserve is particularly popular.”

You could have heard a pin drop in the hush that followed.

“Tremaine?” I repeated dully.

Didi’s eyes rounded. “Wait. You mean, like Gregory and Constantia Tremaine?!”

“Ho boy,” Bo huffed excitedly.

Pete looked horrified at his faux pas. He attempted to cover his mouth with his hand. His arm fell off. He picked up the limb and covered his eyes with it instead.

Barney sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Gregory is going to lose his mind.”

“Yup,” Gavin agreed with a sickly expression.

“Barney knowing is one thing, but you knew too?!” Didi asked the dragon newt accusingly.

“Virgil and I went to the same school,” Gavin said defensively. “Also, his true identity is meant to be a secret.”

Gladys had gone deathly pale.

“You know our clients’ information is confidential, Pete,” she croaked.

“I know,” Pete mumbled while Bethany and Steve patted his back sympathetically and helped him reattach his limb. “I’m sorry. I crumbled under the pressure of the interrogation.”

Ghouls were nowhere near as scary as I thought they’d be. Bar their unhealthy obsession with brain muffins, they were actually pretty nice.

I finally recovered from the shocking revelation that Bean Me Up’s vampire barista was somehow connected to the Tremaines. “Did Virgil act funny in any way while he was here?”

“Not really,” Steve said.

“He looked distracted,” Bethany contributed. “And he kept looking at our client board.”

I stared. “Client board?”

Bethany left the room and returned with a clipboard that looked like a wine cellar inventory. Instead of vintages, it listed blood types and donors.

“We like to let our customers know the options we have available, so we keep these lists in the withdrawal rooms,” Gladys explained at my pinched look.

The pieces were starting to form a picture I didn’t like.

Virgil being at the blood bank the night it was robbed and being related to the Tremaines weren’t the only things I was concerned about.

Ellie was working at Bean Me Up and Virgil was her boss.

“We’ll need a record of everything that was taken,” Barney said in a hard voice.

We left Eternal Reserves and made our way across town to Sycamore Grove.

Bean Me Up looked the same as it had three weeks ago, when I’d first stumbled across Amberford’s supernatural community.

The only difference was that there were more macramé plants and crystals in the windows and someone had added the words and Clean Fun!

to the board sign on the sidewalk that said Ethically Sourced Coffee and Good Vibes .

I recognized Ellie’s handwriting.

“Do you think she’ll make me one of those dog-friendly drinks she always talks about?” Bo said in a voice full of hope as we approached the entrance.

“You know what happened the last time you had coffee, right?” I reminded him.

“Technically, I don’t have any recollection of that incident,” my dog sassed. “Also, that was human coffee. This is supernatural coffee.”

“I hardly think that’s going to be any better.”

The bell above the door jingled when Gavin pushed it open.

The interior was busier than I remembered, the usual mix of supernatural creatures and oblivious humans scattered across the vintage tables and chairs of the café in a pre-lunch rush.

Ellie spotted us from behind the counter. She beamed and waved enthusiastically, nearly knocking over a stack of cups in the process. Though she looked frazzled and sported what appeared to be coffee stains in her hair, my best friend looked happy.

“Perfect timing,” she said excitedly as I approached. “I was just about to make a new batch of—” She stopped mid-sentence when she noticed Didi, Gavin, and Barney behind me. Her smile faded a little. “Oh. Hi. Are you here for the, um, special drinks?”

I noticed Bo staring at a couple of the tables.

The vampires sitting there looked tired. Not just tired, but drained, like they hadn’t fed properly in days.

Barney frowned at them faintly.

“Actually, we’re here on business,” Didi told Ellie. “Is Virgil around?”

“He’s in the back doing inventory,” Ellie said uncertainly. “Do you want me to get him?”

Gavin’s nostrils smoked a little as he stared at my best friend.

It seemed Ellie was going to be popular in both the human and supernatural world.

“We’d like to speak with Virgil, if that’s okay,” I told Ellie.

“Sure.” Ellie turned toward the espresso machine and promptly knocked over a pitcher of what looked like red-tinted milk. “Oops.” She grimaced. “Sorry, that’s our special strawberry blend.”

I watched my best friend clean up the spill and saw several vampire customers shudder out of the corner of my eye. A terrible suspicion began to form in my mind.

“Ellie,” I said carefully, “how long have you been making the drinks on your own?”

“Oh, about a week now.” She straightened and gave me a proud smile.

“Virgil said he wanted to focus on the business side of things for a while, so he’s been letting me handle most of the customer service.

I’m getting really good at it. Well, mostly.

” She wrinkled her nose at the coffee machine. “That thing is a bit temperamental.”

She disappeared into the back room before I could ask more questions. My wolf picked up muffled conversation. Ellie returned with Virgil.

The vampire was sporting bohemian clothes and a preoccupied expression. He looked as far removed from being the firstborn scion of the most powerful vampire clan in Amberford as a poodle was from a wolf.

“Hi,” Virgil said with an affable service smile. “How can I help?” His gaze landed on Gavin. His eyes widened a little. “Gavin?!”

“Hey, Virgil,” the dragon newt said awkwardly.

“What are you doing here?”

“I work for Hawthorne & Associates,” Gavin confessed.

Confusion clouded Virgil’s face.

“I’m afraid we’re here on an official capacity,” Didi said briskly, flashing her badge. “We’d like to ask you some questions about the blood bank robbery.”