Page 36 of Taming the Beasts (Crooked Point #3)

“I’m sorry,” I said. “He called us to tell us about seeing Kebe disappear. Zoey brought up the wedding and then it felt rude not to invite him.”

“He lives in town?”

“I don’t think so.”

“I have no idea where he lives, actually,” Zoey said.

Callum shook his head. “But you said he saw Kebe disappear too.”

“Yeah. On the video feed.”

“That’s not possible,” Callum said.

“I have it on my phone. I can show it to you if you want. There is zero blur there, Callum. I watched it myself last night.”

“Show me.”

I was curious about this too. Zoey pulled out her phone and clicked on the video. We all watched Kebe walking around the living room for a bit. And then she looked over her shoulder, like she was worried someone was watching, and then she completely vanished. No blur. Nothing. She was just...gone.

Callum grabbed Zoey’s phone and rewound it to watch it again.

“By the way,” Zoey said. “I booked a portrait artist for your wedding. But we should get a videographer too.”

Wait. I looked at the footage again. “We can see her.”

“What?” Zoey asked.

“Shouldn’t we not be able to see Kebe on video? If she’s actually a vampire? How have we not thought about this before?!”

Callum looked like he was in shock.

“I just figured video was different than an actual snapshot from a camera,” Zoey said.

“Is it that different?” I asked.

“I don’t know, I’m not a tech expert. That’s what I have Grudge for.”

Callum finally looked up from the video. “It’s not possible. It’s...not.” But he didn’t sound completely sure. And he looked a little worried.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I’m not sure I’ve ever looked to see if I could be filmed. I’ve never bothered to search for video cameras before I...indulged.”

“You’ve murdered people on video before?” Zoey tried to keep her face even, but I could tell she was disturbed.

“I don’t know.” Callum ran his fingers through his hair .

I’d never seen him look so worried before. But who knew how many videos of him sucking people’s blood were out there? He could be the most wanted man in America.

Or...maybe there weren’t any videos out there at all. Because I was no videographer, but I knew a lot about cameras. And the technology was pretty much the same. “Or you can only see her on video because she’s not a vampire,” I said. I knew Zoey was thinking it too. And someone needed to say it.

“But she is a vampire,” Callum said.

I shook my head. “Not necessarily.”

“We can test out the video thing,” Zoey said. “Let me video call Grudge!” She grabbed her phone back and called him.

He answered in two rings. “Hey, hot stuff,” he said.

Zoey centered herself between me and Callum so Grudge could see us.

“And Emma,” he said. “Looking as sexy as ever. Is this my lucky day? Is everyone getting topless? Feel free to go nip to nip. I’ve been dreaming of that for a while now.”

Callum cleared his throat.

Grudge gave me a weird look. “You okay?”

“I’m fine, but I’m obviously not getting topless in front of my boyfriend. I mean fiancé.” I smiled. I really loved calling him that.

“Oh, is your fiancé there? Tell him I say hi.”

Zoey and I looked at each other.

“You don’t see him?” Zoey asked. “He’s right here.” She put her arm on Callum’s shoulder.

“No one is there,” said Grudge. “You need to get your eyes checked. ”

“Everyone needs to stop telling me I need to get my eyes checked. My eyes are fine.” She thrust the phone right in Callum’s face. “Can you really not see him?”

“There is no one there.”

“You really can’t see me?” Callum asked.

“One of you has got a great deep acting voice,” Grudge said. “And not in a sexy way. You just straight up sound like a dude.”

We all looked at each other.

Callum looked relieved. Probably because there wasn’t a manhunt for all his false identities.

“Kebe’s not a vampire!” Zoey yelled. “I freaking knew it! We finally caught her!”

Callum’s relieved expression immediately faded. “Then what the hell is she?”

“Seriously, stop it with the deep voice,” Grudge said. “You’re giving me the ick. Is that you, Emma? It’s super gross.”

I grabbed the phone. “It’s my fiancé, Callum. You can’t see him because he’s a vampire. Vampires can’t have photos taken or be filmed.”

“Really?” Grudge squinted like he was willing Callum to come into view. “But wait. I can always see Kebe on video.”

“Because she’s lying about everything,” Zoey said. She looked so pleased with herself. “Kebe is not a vampire. She’s definitely something supernatural, but I have no idea what. And I know she murdered those guys! She teleported!”

“What guys?” Callum asked.

“It really freaks me out when the invisible man talks,” Grudge said .

Zoey ignored Grudge and turned to Callum. “Kebe disappeared early Saturday morning. Or late Friday night. However you want to put it. Just in time to make Bennett’s two contacts that knew about the coin disappear before they could tell Bennett what they knew.”

I’d told Callum about Ray and Patrick being missing.

I’d just left off Zoey’s theories about it.

Because at the time, I didn’t think they were valid.

Since there was no way for someone, let alone a vampire, to get across the world, murder two people, and then be back in such a short amount of time.

But someone could do it if they could teleport.

I felt sick to my stomach. We’d all been around Kebe. She could have easily offed one of us instead.

“Is anyone else hungry?” Zoey asked. “I’m always starving after solving something. Wait. Oh my God, I’m such an idiot.”

“What?” I asked.

“Remember that first day when we met Kebe? We ate with her at that Italian place. And she went to town on that garlic bread!”

Callum shuddered.

“I can’t believe I forgot about that,” Zoey said. “It’s one thing to grow a tolerance. It’s another to eat vampire poison.”

“I didn’t even notice that she had,” I said. But yeah. That was just more proof.

“After I confronted her last night, I think all the guys believe me,” Zoey said.

“But we put it to a vote and they decided to just keep an eye on her instead of torturing her for information. Once they know for sure that she’s a disappearing flight risk though, I think I can sway them to the torture thing. Let’s go talk to them. ”

Callum sighed and sat down on the couch.

I knew he was never physically tired. But he looked exhausted right now.

“Callum, I’m sorry. I know you really bonded with her.” I sat down next to him.

“I thought she was like me. I thought I wasn’t alone.”

I ignored the sting of his words and grabbed his hand. “You’re not alone. You have me.”

He nodded. “I’m sorry, Emma. That wasn’t what I meant.”

“I know what you meant. And I get it. I do.” I hated his relationship with Kebe.

But it didn’t mean I didn’t understand it.

“I’m not a vampire. You thought she was.

It’s not something I can bond with you over.

” There was a piece of me that was relieved Kebe couldn’t really bond with him over it either.

Seriously, screw her for messing with Callum’s head.

“Elias is a vampire too,” Grudge said. “And he’s still out there. So you’re not the only vampire, invisible buddy.”

Callum laughed.

“This is so weird. It’s like a phone call instead of a video call with him. But what’s our plan of action here? Because I’m voting to not torture Kebe. She’s too hot. Unless you want to use lots of rope and some nipple clamps in a sexy way.”

Zoey rolled her eyes.

“We need to figure out who and what she is,” Callum said. He looked at me.

I nodded. It felt good to finally be on the same page about this one last thing .

Callum grabbed my hand and pulled me off the couch. “Let’s head to the bank. I need to talk to your boyfriends, Zoey.”