Page 4 of Marked by the Pack (Crooked Point #2)

Tuesday

Zoey

I held the garlic powder container in my hand as I crept toward my bedroom door. I opened it as quietly as possible and peered out. The upstairs hallway was completely empty.

But then I heard a thumping noise from downstairs. Quickly followed by another. Why was Callum ransacking my house? I stepped out into the hall and all the lights went out.

What the actual fuck is happening right now?! I reached along the wall to find the light switch. But when I hit it nothing happened.

There was the loudest thump yet from downstairs and the sound of glass shattering on the floor.

I kept my hand on the wall and turned the corner to look down the stairs. There was nothing but darkness down there too. Vampires didn’t need light. Because they could just a smell human’s blood and easily find them.

God, I was too young to die! I didn’t want to be taken by surprise. I wanted to defend myself.

I tried to hit another light switch but nothing happened.

The asshole had cut my power. But I wasn’t going down without a fight.

If Callum was here…it meant he’d hurt Emma.

And that he wa nted to kill the only other person who knew his secret.

Me. Or that he’d just completely lost control and would eat anything with blood.

Also me. This was exactly why I’d been trying to figure out just how dangerous this guy was.

I wished my clients had been a little more helpful.

I tiptoed down the stairs as quietly as possible. It was taking forever for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. I blinked faster, hoping that would help.

My feet were only a few steps away from the landing when I heard my cell phone ringing upstairs. Shit. I froze.

But the intruder didn’t. I heard more glass shattering in the kitchen.

Stop breaking all my stuff, you asshole!

And then I heard footsteps approaching. He’d heard my phone ringing. He thought I was upstairs and was going to finish me off.

I could just make out a big, menacing figure lurking toward me.

Stay and fight…or…run? I didn’t have much of a choice. If I ran up the stairs right now, he’d hear me anyway. And it wasn’t like I was going to fling myself out the upstairs window to get away from him. There was only one choice here.

This is my house, you stupid vampire. As soon as Callum was close enough, I jumped off the bottom step and flung myself at him.

I was not an expert at karate or anything. But I knew a lot about the male anatomy. As my body collided with his, I kneed him right in the crotch. Hard.

He screamed at the top of his lungs like a little bitch as he started to fall backward .

“Die!” I yelled as I reached out for his face to try to cover his mouth. Or nose. Or poke his stupid eyes out. But I was momentarily distracted by how soft his skin was. I would have asked him what his skin care routine was if he wasn’t undead.

As I fell on top of him, he screamed again, even more high-pitched this time. But then he immediately punched me right in the boob.

Fuck. He was fighting as dirty as me. I rolled off of him, grabbing myself.

“Zoey!” he yelled in the same high-pitched voice. “Why are you naked?!”

“Why are you trying to kill me?!”

“What the hell are you talking about?” He slapped me, but his hand kind of stopped mid-slap on my face. “Ah!” he screamed. “Is that leather?”

Were vampires allergic to leather or something? I was glad I’d kept my mask on. “Get out of my house, Callum!”

“I’m not Callum! It’s me! Emma!”

I grabbed my container of garlic powder and chucked it at his lying face. One second too late. Because I’d finally just processed what was happening. Wait… “Emma?” I blinked, finally realizing who was right in front of me.

“Zoey, what the fuck?!” Emma screamed. “What did you just throw at me?” She started coughing.

Shit. Had Callum turned her? Is that why she was having a bad reaction to the garlic powder? I didn’t know whether to comfort her or run away. “Are you a vampire now?” I asked.

She started coughing harder .

Crap, even if she was a vampire, I didn’t want to kill her.

“Gah, what did you just throw at me? It smells terrible!”

Vampire. “Garlic powder.”

“Why would you throw an opened bottle of garlic powder at me, you jerk!” She started gagging.

“I’m so sorry.” I reached out, but she swatted my hand away.

And then the lights turned on. I put my hand out. The light was practically blinding.

The garlic powder had spilled all down the front of her shirt, but it didn’t look like any had actually touched her skin.

Emma put her hand out too. But not to block the light apparently. “Seriously, why are you naked?!”

I looked down. I hadn’t thought to grab anything. There was an intruder loose in my house. I put my arm across my bare chest.

“And what is going on with the mask and the black hair?”

Oh. I reached up. I really hadn’t thought it was her or I would have changed out of my online persona. “I’m just trying out a new look.”

“A half-naked bunny look?” She slowly stood up and shimmied a bit to get the garlic powder off her shirt.

She still hadn’t touched it. Was she purposely avoiding it because if she touched it her skin would burn? I kept staring at her.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Emma asked.

“Like what? ”

“I don’t know…you’re looking at me weird. Put on some clothes!”

I laughed. It’s not like she’d never seen me naked before. I grabbed a blanket off the couch, avoiding a pile of glass on the hardwood floor. “Why did you break my vase?” I asked as I wrapped the blanket around myself.

“That’s not all I broke. I almost died walking through your house! I probably have a million bruises from running into things. Why did you turn all your lights out?”

“I didn’t.”

We both just stared at each other.

“Then…” Emma’s voice trailed off. “Who did?”

“Your boyfriend?” I held the blanket a little tighter around myself. Actually, it kind of felt like someone was watching us right now.

“Callum isn’t here! He’s back at his house.”

“Oh. So why are you here? I thought you said you were spending the night with him?”

“Are you kidding me right now? I came over right away because you sent me an S.O.S. text.” She lifted up her phone.

I looked at her display. “That’s not a text from me.”

“Zoey, you definitely texted me. And we’re only supposed to use S.O.S. when it’s an actual emergency.”

“I know, I did text you. But I didn’t send that text.” I pointed back at her phone. She’d gotten a text from an unknown number before she’d shown me her screen. All I could see was that it was from a contact she didn’t know.

“What the hell?” She stared at her phone. “Sorry about the lights, hot stuff, I thought you were trying to murder my girl?” She shook her head. “Who the hell sent me this?”

I laughed. Classic Grudge.

She raised her eyebrow at me.

I laughed again. I knew it wouldn’t take Grudge a couple of hours to hack her phone. More like a few minutes. Wait. Since when had he hacked into the smart technology in my house? I really needed to ask him about that…

“Who is this random text from?” Emma squinted at me.

“How should I know?”

“You definitely know. You laughed at it, whereas I’m completely freaked out.”

“You’d think you’d be less freaked out about stuff ever since you started dating a vampire.”

“Don’t deflect.” Emma kept staring at me when I didn’t tell her who the text was from. “He called you his girl.”

I ignored her and pulled off my leather bunny mask. And my black wig. “Do you want some wine? I want to hear all about your night.”

“No.”

Uh oh. I felt like if she was turning down a midnight drink I was probably in trouble or something. I smiled. “Why, did you break all my wine glasses too?”

“Zoey,” she said sternly.

“Emma,” I said back.

She walked over and grabbed the mask and wig I’d tossed on the couch. “Bullshit on you trying out a new look. You love being a blonde.”

She really had me there .

“And you hate covering your face because it’s so beautiful.”

Facts. “Speaking of which, are you doing something new with your skin care regime?”

“Did you just say regime ?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s regimen .”

I laughed. “I don’t think so. Spill all the deets on what you’re doing differently while I grab us some wine.”

She caught my arm before I could wander into the kitchen. “Something weird is going on. And I know it. The lights. The weird text. The nudity. The wig. The mask.”

Damn, that was a lot of things. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how I’d kept it a secret from her for so long. Probably because she was a really deep sleeper.

“Spill it, Zoey.”

“Gah, fine. I have a MyFanatics account.”

“That porn site?” She looked horrified.

“No, that’s a common misconception. It’s an account where fans pay to see pictures of me. And a livestream a few nights a week. And sometimes they pay me to go into private sessions and I do whatever they want.”

“Like…sex stuff.”

“Mostly. Some guys just like to talk.” Which really was suspicious. What was Elias’ end game here?

“That’s porn, Zoey.”

“No, it’s definitely not. It’s more of a cam girl situation. Regardless, it’s my job.” I shrugged. “Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I don’t want you to think I’m ashamed of my profession or anything. I’m absolutely not. I just like the thrill of sneaking around.”

“That’s not your profession. You’re a personal fitness instructor.”

“Yeah, as a front. I don’t want anyone to know my real business. And if I did nothing during the day people would get suspicious of how I live like this.” I gestured around my house.

“I was already suspicious of that. I thought you were sleeping with your married clients for money.”

I laughed. “I know. That’s also a common misconception. I legit train those men. Why are people so weird?”

Emma finally laughed. “You’re serious right now? You’re a cam girl?”

“Honestly, you should look into it too. It pays so well.”

“I thought you said Bennett and his friends helped grow your money?”

I shrugged. “I mean, yeah. But I already had a ton. I’ve been saving up for years. And now I have my investments all situated. I’m pretty much set for life.”

“Then why do you keep doing it?”

“Because I love it. Just like you love photography.”

“Zoey, that’s not the same at all.”

“Of course it’s the same. You take photos because it makes you happy.

And you’ll keep doing it because you love it even though the pay isn’t good.

I keep doing this because I love it too.

And it’s a total bonus that I make bank.

Oh my God, best idea. You should take my photos for my weekly uploads. I can pay you handsomely for it.”

“I’m not taking nude photos of you. ”

“Emma, if I showed the goods in my photos I’d never get private sessions. They’re tasteful photos of me with different phallic fruit.”

Emma opened her mouth and then closed it again. “Everything makes so much more sense now.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I just…it was kind of fun having a secret.”

“I don’t get it.” Emma sat down on the arm rest of the couch. “You’re usually so terrible at secrets. I’m surprised you haven’t blabbed to half the town that Callum is a vampire.”

“I know, I’m really proud of myself. For both the Callum thing and the MyFanatics thing.”

She pressed her lips together.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing.”

“No, not nothing. What were you about to say?”

“Well…is this why you always say you never want anything serious? Because you don’t want to stop doing your fan site thing?”

“It just keeps me busy. I’m used to kind of dating a bunch of people at once online. So it feels normal to be casual when I’m not online too.”

“But what about when you want to settle down? You’ll have to stop doing it. You’ll have to be happy with just one guy.”

“Or maybe I’ll find a really hot, understanding man that doesn’t mind what I do for a living.”

Emma laughed. “I can’t imagine any guy being okay with that. He’d be so jealous all the time.”

“A total bonus.”

She shook her head. “We should try to find you a new hobby. ”

“It’s not a hobby. It’s my passion.” I’d just told her this. Why wasn’t she getting it?

“But I see a future of us going on double dates. And I want Callum to be best friends with whoever you want to be with.”

“It’s not a bad thing to have more than one best friend. I’ll give him a few at a time.”

“You’re my only best friend,” Emma said.

I scrunched my mouth to the side. That was a fair point. I only had one best friend. But the thought of settling down with one person kinda freaked me out. I liked variety. A little spice in my life. Something fun and new right around the corner.

But…Emma looked so happy. She was practically glowing. Honestly, she looked like an entirely new person. I stared at her. Is that what true love did? Or was that a vampire thing?

“You know what?” I said. “I’m going to try the dating thing. For real. I’m going to ask Huxley and Ace out.”

Emma laughed. “The twins? You can’t date twins. That’s not a thing. You have to choose one person to date.”

“But how can I choose between them? They’re identical.”

She laughed again. “I don’t know? Maybe get to know them? They don’t have identical personalities.” She shook her head. “Scratch all that. Just find someone else. Those guys are bad news.”

She kept saying stuff like that. But I liked bad boys. And if I couldn’t have the twins… “Fine, I’ll ask Otto out.” Honestly, he was probably my top choice anyway. Th ere was something about his Hazel eyes that did something to me.

“I just said those guys were bad news.”

“I know. I can’t wait to see how bad he is in the bedroom. I mean naughty. Not bad at pleasing me. He’s going to be wonderful at that. I can tell.”

The lights flickered. I looked up. Was Grudge listening to this conversation? Seriously, was there a camera in here somewhere or something? I didn’t see anything, but knowing Grudge that didn’t mean much. He could have been spying on me through my smart TV or something.

I looked back at Emma. “Seriously, what’s going on with your face?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” Emma touched her cheek.

“Are you doing something different with your regimen ?” I guess her skin care wasn’t as strict as mine or something.

“No. Nothing different.”

“Really?”

Emma nodded.

“You look amazing.”

“Well, thanks.” She smiled.

Did her teeth look whiter too? Honestly everything about her just seemed…off. I swallowed hard. “I’m going to ask you a question and I need you to answer completely honestly.”

“Okay…” her voice trailed off. “What’s up, you’re kind of freaking me out. Please don’t ask me to start camming with you.”

I laughed. No, I didn’t want to share my men. Huh, I wondered if that’s how they felt? Emma might have a point there. I shook away the thought. This was important, and it was like she was purposely distracting me. “Emma…are you a vampire now?”