Page 40 of Taming the Beasts (Crooked Point #3)

Emma slowly nodded. “Please be careful.”

“I will be.”

I grabbed Otto’s hand to pull him away from the door so that they could have a moment alone.

A minute later the door closed and Emma was standing there with tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Emma.” I ran over and hugged her as she dropped the bag she’d packed on the ground.

“I don’t want to leave him,” she sniffed.

“I know.” I hugged her tighter. “And we’re not,” I whispered.

“What?”

“Sh. Follow my lead.”

She looked very confused when I pulled back. I turned to Otto. “What exactly is the plan for tonight?”

He raised his eyebrow at me. “I can’t tell you that, Zoey. I’ve been sworn to secrecy. ”

“Shit. Like blood oath secrecy?” That meant he actually couldn’t say.

He shrugged.

Well that made it just seem like a normal swearing of secrecy. Not a magical one. “Tell me,” I said.

“I’m not supposed to.”

“But Emma and I can help.”

Otto shook his head. “Absolutely not. I’m going to go finish packing. And then we’re heading out.”

“Or I can give you head and you can tell me all your secrets.”

Otto laughed. “Or you can just give me head and then we can leave.”

“Otto!”

“I’m not telling you, baby.”

“It’ll be really good head.”

“You always give me good head,” he said with a smile.

Damn it! I knew that my perfect mouth would one day ruin me! “Please tell me.”

“No.”

“Pretty please?”

“Have you already tried asking everyone else?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“No one else folded then. And neither will I.”

Gah! Since when had Otto gotten such good self-control? “I’ll let you do whatever you want to me.”

“Really?”

I was finally getting somewhere! “Yes.”

He stepped forward. He leaned down like he was about to kiss me. But then he whispered, “You already let me do anything I want to you.” And then he pulled back.

“Otto! You’re supposed to be on my side.”

“I am on your side. For the record, I fought to let the two of you stay. But I was outnumbered five to one.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “Full transparency, I didn’t fight that hard though. Because I was excited to be alone with you for a few days.”

“Emma will be with us though.”

“She can watch.”

Emma laughed.

I looked over at her. The tears were dried from her eyes. I was glad she was finding this interaction so entertaining. Because it was infuriating me.

“I’m going to go finish packing,” Otto said. “We’ll leave in a few minutes.”

I sighed as he walked back up the stairs. “I’m used to him being on my side,” I said.

“It sounds like he was,” Emma said.

“Hardly. But it’s fine. I have a backup plan.” I pulled out my phone and opened up the MyFanatics website.

“What are you doing?” Emma asked as she stole a peek at my phone.

“I need to talk to King.”

“Zoey. You promised your boyfriends you wouldn’t log in to the site anymore.”

“Well, it’s an emergency. We need to get information from King about the coin. And ask him about other supernatural creatures to figure out what Kebe is.”

“But you said Kebe compromised him. ”

“I think I jumped the gun on that,” I said. “King really liked me. He wouldn’t just be suddenly enchanted by someone else. Besides, Kebe said all they did with talk. The filthy things I did with King definitely earned me some loyalty.”

“But he’s going to expect you to do those filthy things right now.” Emma eyed the staircase.

“It’ll be fine.”

“Zoey, please. You’re not supposed to livestream anymore.”

Fine. If she was going to protest so much... I logged in and moved the camera lens in front of Emma.

“What are you doing?!” Emma screamed.

“Not livestreaming. Like you said, I promised the guys I wouldn’t. So you’re doing it.”

“I’m not doing it!” She tried to shove the camera away.

“You already are.”

Her eyes grew round.

“Is King requesting a private chat?” I asked.

“How am I supposed to know?!”

“Look at the top bar.”

She shook her head. “No. But a KingOfTheDead is.”

Bingo. “Click on it.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Emma, just do it!”

“I’m not doing sex acts with a stranger!”

She was probably losing me so many subscribers right not. I did my best to not get in the shot and clicked on King’s username .

King came into view. He was wearing his fancy Anubis mask, but you could see the scowl on his face. “Who are you?”

“No one,” Emma said.

“Where is Zoey? Or that new girl? Kebe?”

He’d asked for me first. That was a good sign. I waved my hand in the air to try to get Emma to speak.

She cleared her throat. “They’re busy.”

“Okay, I’m leaving,” King said.

“No wait!” Emma said and grabbed the phone from me. “Zoey isn’t busy. She’s in danger.”

“What happened? I told her to take me up on my offer for bodyguards.”

“I’m not sure bodyguards would help in this situation. It’s a supernatural problem.”

“I warned Zoey about this,” King said. “Is this about the vampire in town? Once a villain, always a villain.”

Emma frowned. “No this isn’t about a vampire. And Callum isn’t a villain.”

“Once a villain, always a villain,” he repeated.

Emma looked pissed now. “Look, King, or whatever you real name is. This isn’t about my fiancé.”

“You’re engaged to this vampire? Interesting.”

“What other supernatural creatures exist? Because this girl showed up in town and she’s claiming to be a vampire but nothing is adding up.”

I gave Emma two thumbs up. It was good that she hadn’t accused Kebe outright. Just in case King did like her.

“Well, what is she doing that seems supernatural?”

“She’s disappearing. And it’s not super vampire speed. Because we have her on camera. ”

“Disappearing? Huh.”

“What?” Emma asked. “Do you know what kind of creature does that?”

“I’m not sure. What other information do you have?”

“She claims to like blood and all the normal vampire things, but it seems like she’s lying. She also says she’s like a bajillion years old. She’s from ancient Egypt...”

“Fascinating,” King said. “Egypt? Really?”

Emma nodded.

“And you said she claims to be a vampire?”

“Yeah, but...”

“I’ve always had suspicions that vampires actually originated there,” he said.

Wait, what? Really?

“No, they’re Romanian,” Emma said.

“Not necessarily. They became prevalent in Slavic folklore. But that doesn’t mean that’s where the disease began.”

“Disease?” Emma asked.

“What else would you call it?”

“A curse.”

“A curse, a disease, what different does it make? But there was magic in ancient Egypt. That fits more to me. The folklore always seemed so religious. I don’t think vampirism has anything to do with Christianity.

It’s older than that. More powerful. And if this stranger you met is similar to a vampire, but a little different?

I think maybe she’s telling the truth. She’s just the most powerful vampire in existence. ”

Emma looked over at me.

I shrugged. We hadn’t used Kebe’s name. But I knew she’d talked to him about the coin. Did he know we were talking about her? I waved my hand to keep Emma talking.

“Oh did I say it was a she?” Emma asked. “I meant he. It’s a guy that’s lying about being a vampire.”

“Is he like really feminine looking or something?”

I stifled a laugh.

“Yeah,” Emma said. “He’s a real...lady boy.” She made a face. “So you think he’s a vampire? Despite disappearing and being caught on film?”

“I think a vampire that old is capable of a lot more than one born more recently.”

“Interesting. I know Zoey asked you about this magical silver coin with an Anubis head on it too. Do you think that could cure even a powerful vampire?”

“I think it will cure whatever supernatural creature it comes in contact with.”

“Without hurting them?” Emma asked.

“It’s a cure,” King said. “I can’t promise it won’t hurt. I’ve never seen it work, so it might be a painful transition back to being mortal. But it will cure them.”

“What if a vampire is actually super old? Will he just...kind of decay and become a skeleton?”

King chuckled. “What kind of cure would that be?”

“A very bad one.”

“Sounds more like the curse you mentioned earlier. This isn’t a curse. It’s a cure. I’m sure of it. I’ve asked all my contacts in Egypt. And they all told me the same thing.”

Well, it was good he had contacts that were still alive.

“So...the cure works,” Emma said. “And this new supernatural creature in town is a super powerful vampire? ”

“That would be my best guess,” King said. “I don’t know of any creatures that can actually disappear. She must have just gotten faster with time.”

I pretended to shovel food into my mouth.

“And could she develop a tolerance for normal food after all that time too? And not only crave blood?”

“I can’t see why not,” King replied.

“Well, great,” Emma said. “Thank you for answering all my questions.”

“Anything to help Zoey.”

I smiled. He was still obsessed with me. Screw Kebe. Even if she was telling the truth, I still didn’t like her. Ever since she’d stepped foot into Crooked Point bad things had been happening. She may have been a vampire, but she wasn’t a very nice one like Callum.

“So...” King’s voice trailed off. “Are we doing this or not?”

“Doing what?” Emma asked.

Eek. He was paying for a show. Not to answer a million random questions.

“How about you take off your dress,” he said. “And bend over that couch behind you?”

I eyed the couch in the other room. Well, King wasn’t that loyal to me I guess.

“I want to see two fingers inside of you, stretching your wet pussy for me.”

Emma looked like she was seconds away from tossing the phone.

“What the hell are you two doing?” Otto said as he ran down the stairs.

Oh, shit.