Page 42 of Taming the Beasts (Crooked Point #3)

Kebe sighed. “Fine. I wanted it to be a surprise. But I went out of town real quick. I had this perfect idea for a wedding present for Callum. And the only way it would get here on time was if I went to pick it up myself.”

“We really don’t need anything,” Callum said. “But that was very sweet of you.”

No! Not sweet! She’d said a wedding present for Callum . Not Emma and Callum . And she didn’t say what it was. We needed the physical evidence. “So? Where is this present? ”

“Are you really going to make me spoil the surprise?” she asked.

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Callum said and gave me a pointed look.

Why was I the one in trouble here? Kebe was the one being terrible. “If you can’t show me the present, show me how you teleported. Do it right now. Which artifact did you say it was?”

“I can’t,” Kebe said. “It could only be used a dozen times and I used my last few teleportations on getting the gift and returning.” She smiled at Callum.

He smiled back.

“You’re saying that some of these artifacts expire?” Emma asked. “Really?”

“Indeed.”

This girl was lying out of her ass. Why had we come here to help her? “Look, the only way we’ll all know for sure that everything is safe is if you take the cure right now, Kebe,” I said. “Right in front of us.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Bennett said firmly.

Probably because he didn’t believe Kebe either.

“I think it’s a great idea,” Emma said. “Do it. Use the coin.”

“We were actually talking about that,” Callum said. “Kebe and I have decided to use it together Saturday night. After the wedding.”

“One last celebration exactly the way we are,” Kebe said.

Callum nodded.

Was he under some kind of spell or something? Maybe it was just me, but doing that with Kebe felt intimate somehow. And entirely inappropriate on his wedding night to my best friend.

“Callum...” Emma started.

“It’s all decided,” Kebe said. “And we’re both so looking forward to it.”

Yeah, she was making Emma and Callum’s wedding day all about her and Callum instead.

“The coin is safe though,” I said. “So why not use it now?”

Emma shook her head.

I understood why she was scared. All of this felt wrong somehow.

“I mean...” Callum looked at Kebe.

“No,” Emma said. “Callum, you promised you’d wait until Saturday.”

“Then I’ll wait too,” Kebe said. “It’ll be the highlight of our week.” She patted Callum’s shoulder.

Oh, hell no. The wedding was the highlight of Callum’s freaking lifetime! But I didn’t even know what to say. “I... You...” Gah! I eyed the artifacts on the table. “Kebe you said the stuff in the vault all had a gray aura. That a lot of it was evil...”

“Gray auras kind of tend to run the show,” she said. “A few evil artifacts can really alter the aura in a whole room. That must have been what happened in the vault. But these are all very good items.”

I saw the silver Anubis coin sitting on the table. I really wished I could sense auras.

Everyone was quiet for a moment.

I wanted to believe Kebe.

I wanted to believe King.

But something just felt off to me. My gut was screaming at me that Kebe couldn’t be trusted. “Wait,” I said. “You said you used your last few teleportations. Did you go somewhere else?”

“Did I? I thought I said two.”

Emma shook her head. “No, you definitely said few.”

“Oh.” Kebe slowly nodded. “Right. I almost forgot. I did use it three times that night.”

Got you, you lying liar pants. “So where’d you go with the third one?”

“I went hunting. For animals. I do mostly eat animals anyway, and Callum had told me I couldn’t kill any humans in town while I was here.

” She shrugged like the idea of murdering a human wasn’t so bad.

“So, yeah. Hunting. I had the most delicious coyote. I was hoping to find a black bear, but no such luck.”

I mean...crap. That did make sense. And there were coyotes and black bears in the woods outside of town. But her delivery of it was so insincere.

“If you’ll excuse me,” Kebe said. She stood up and stretched. “I saw that it might be partially sunny later this afternoon so I want to make sure to get home.”

It was something a vampire would say...

“Good thinking,” Callum said. He stood up too. “You ready to head out?” he asked Emma.

“I guess?” Emma didn’t seem to believe anything that was happening either.

Callum grabbed her hand and the three of them just walked right out the front door.

I turned to my boyfriends. “Well that was a bunch of lies. I know I came here to defend her, but...come on.”

Bennett sighed. “Agreed.”

Titan nodded. Then so did the twins and Otto .

“So what are we going to do about it?” I asked.

“What can we do?” Bennett asked. “We can’t convince Callum. He’s completely blinded by her. He’s taking the cure on Saturday whether we trust it or not.”

My stomach churned. “But what if it’s bad?”

“We just have to hope it’s not.”

That wasn’t a very good plan. This was Emma’s whole future we were talking about. I exhaled slowly and slumped down onto the couch. “What happened to torturing her? I thought I was going to be walking into an epic fight.”

“About that.” Bennett looked at Otto.

Otto held up his hands. “They literally ran away from me.”

Huxley laughed. “And you couldn’t catch up to them?”

“Emma had a head start.”

I groaned and leaned back on the couch. What the heck was I going to do? We’d confronted Kebe. And she’d wiggled her way out of trouble again, that sneaky little bitch.

It seemed like the only thing I could do was help Emma focus on the wedding. And hope to God everything went okay.