Page 46 of Taming the Beasts (Crooked Point #3)

Saturday

Zoey

What. The. Fuck. Is. Happening?!

I’d been doing my best to pay attention to Callum and Emma’s sweet vows. They were ridiculously romantic and cute. But it was a little hard to focus on the wedding when the people in the crowd were behaving so strangely.

First Ray and Patrick, Bennett’s two now un-missing friends, had gotten up from their row.

Ray went left and Patrick went right. Now they were both just standing at the edge of the chairs of the ceremony, looking around.

I didn’t know much about them at all. But.

..this seemed like strange behavior. They were last minute guests at a wedding.

Shouldn’t they be sitting down like normal people would?

They weren’t exactly creating a scene or anything.

They were just standing there. But it just seemed so bizarre to me.

I stared at them. Otto had shown me pictures of him with his friends in college.

And they looked...different. They were both pale now.

Which maybe made sense, given the fact that the picture I’d seen was of them from some trip to the beach.

But still. Patrick was an archeologist on a dig site.

You’d think he would have kept his tan. At least a little .

Maybe they had gotten up because they were feeling ill? They may have both picked up a bug on the plane or something. But if that was the case, why hadn’t they kept on going toward the bathroom? They were both just standing there, surveying all the wedding guests.

And I swear both Ray and Patrick had light eyes. Yeah. Ray’s had been blue. And Patrick’s had been green. I was sure of it. And yet...their eyes looked dark right now. So dark that they almost looked black.

They both stood there with their arms folded as they scanned the crowd.

I turned to my boyfriends. I tried to nod toward their friends so that they’d see what I was looking at. But my men were too busy listening to the perfect vows Emma and Callum were dishing out.

Shit. I turned to Grudge to see if maybe I could get his attention. But he was busy looking at Kebe. They weren’t talking. Well, she was. Kind of. She was hunched over in her seat whispering something.

I saw a glint of silver in her hands. I squinted to get a better look. My eyes grew round. Was that the Anubis head coin?! What the hell was she doing? All the guys had agreed to take the cure after the reception tonight. We were still in the middle of the freaking ceremony!

Maybe she wanted to surprise them. I looked at Callum’s face. Did he know this was happening? Was he part of it? Some kind of romantic gesture as a wedding present?

I tried to get his attention. But his gaze was solely on Emma.

Which it should be, because he’d just said “I do” to her. And I’d somehow missed the whole thing .

Damn it! I needed someone to figure out what Kebe was doing. To make sure all the guys were on board. It seemed strange to use the cure in the middle of the ceremony surrounded by a bunch of people who didn’t need it.

I poked Emma hard in the back. “Emma,” I hissed.

She jumped. She turned around and gave me a look. Which I understood. I was interrupting her perfect wedding. But we had a major problem!

“Emma...”

“I’m kind of in the middle of something, Zoey,” she said and turned back to Callum.

Obviously! Fuck! I turned back to Kebe. Smoke had started pouring out of the coin. I knew it was a cure, but there was something so sinister about the look of smoke oozing into the air. Like it was leeching a bad, gray aura.

But it wasn’t bad, right? It was good?

Seriously what the hell is happening?

I looked around to see if I could get anyone’s attention without disturbing the wedding. And that’s when I saw him.

A man stepped into the aisle. A man wearing glasses, khaki pants, a blue button up shirt, and he had no visible piercings or tattoos that I could see.

It was the serial killer that I’d gotten the alert about.

The one that was supposed to be one town over and not interrupting my best friend’s wedding!

His eyes met mine and he smiled.

I swallowed hard. I recognized him. At least, I thought I did. It was Elias. Only the normal hue of his eyes was different. His irises looked almost black .

Oh fuck. Elias was the loose serial killer! And I knew that wasn’t entirely accurate. Because he wasn’t a serial killer. He was a freaking vampire!

Was that why Kebe was activating the cure early? Had she already seen him in the crowd?

I stared at Kebe. It didn’t seem like she had any sense of what was going on around her. She was completely immersed in her whisperings. But was it because she was trying to cure Elias? Or... God, I didn’t know what the heck was going on!

Elias took a step down the aisle, his eyes still focused on me.

“Emma,” I said. But my voice was barely a whisper now.

Someone groaned in pain.

I turned back to Kebe. The smoke pouring out of her coin had spread to the row in front of her. The people in front of her were bent over in pain. Their bodies distorting awkwardly as they tried to stand and run. Why was the cure hurting them? Was it because they didn’t need it? Shit!

Someone from the row in front of them stood up to get away from the fog. But the guy ran right into Ray’s waiting arms. And I watched in horror as Ray bit into the side of the guy’s neck. He pulled back and blood dribbled down his chin.

Now Ray and Patrick’s sudden eye color made sense. They were the same hue as Elias’ eyes. Because they were freaking vampires too! And their eyes darkened when they were hungry! Why was no one else seeing this right now?!

“Emma!” I hissed.

“I do,” Emma said, ignoring me .

“Then by the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife,” the pastor said. “You may now kiss the bride.”

One of the people that the fog had hit cracked his neck to the side and looked right at me, the hue of his eyes quickly darkening to black. And then he leaned over and bit the neck of the person right in front of him.

Fuck! The coin wasn’t a cure at all. It was changing the wedding guests into vampires! I freaking knew the coin was bad news! Shit, shit, shit! Kebe wasn’t trying to save us from Elias. She was trying to kill all of us!

“Emma!” I yelled this time and grabbed her arm, pulling her away from her first kiss as a new couple. “I’m so sorry but...but...vampires!”

“What?” Emma asked.

“Vampires everywhere!”

Callum snapped his head to the left, like his senses had just been awakened. He took a step down from the gazebo to block Emma from the scene unfolding in front of us.

But it certainly wasn’t blocking me. People started screaming in agony as the fog hit them. It was spreading faster now. Hitting row after row of people.

I watched in horror as Grudge’s eyes darkened to black. No.

And Kebe was sitting there with a huge smile on her face as she looked around at the fog spreading, changing the town of Crooked Point into blood thirsty monsters. That lying, manipulative asshole! She’d tried to make it seem like I was crazy for not trusting her. But I should have trusted my gut .

Another person tried to run away from the fog, but Elias stopped her. He looked me dead in the eyes as he lowered his mouth to her neck and took a bite. And then he pushed the woman to the side and prowled down the aisle toward me.

I backed up until my butt hit the side of the gazebo.

Emma backed up too. “I don’t understand...how...what is happening?!”

“Kebe’s whispering to the Anubis head coin.” I pointed over at her whispering her incantations. “It’s not a cure. It’s a curse!”

Callum looked over at her and frowned. “She wouldn’t.”

“She fucking is, Callum! Stop letting her manipulate you with her old world charm! She’s a demon or something!”

Callum’s frown deepened. “But this isn’t how vampires are made.”

Did he seriously not believe what was happening? I didn’t care how vampires were usually made. I guess the way Elias, Ray, and Patrick were doing it. But there was literally an evil smoke pouring out of that coin, and everyone it touched was now biting other wedding guests!

“Kebe!” Callum yelled, like he was finally waking up from his daze.

Kebe didn’t look up. She just kept whispering to the coin, smiling like a psycho at the carnage around her.

I could tell Callum finally believed us. But I didn’t love the way his eyes were darkening by the second. The smell of blood all around us was going to make him lose control.

“Callum,” Emma said .

“Emma, Zoey, you both need to get out of here,” he said firmly.

Yeah, no shit. But where the hell would we go? Everyone who was trying to run was being attacked.

The loud growl that erupted made the hair on the back of my neck rise. Oh no. I turned just in time to see Otto fall onto all fours and change into a huge werecat. As soon as he shifted, three vampires jumped on him, trying to bite him.

“Otto!” I screamed and stepped forward.

Bennett came out of nowhere and caught me around the waist. “Zoey, you need to run.”

“Otto!” I reached out toward him as another vampire jumped on his back, making Otto’s knees buckle.

But Bennett held me back. “Zoey.” He grabbed the side of my face so I’d look at him. “We were made to protect humans from vampires. Otto will be fine.”

He didn’t look fine to me! Tears started spilling down my cheeks. Otto.

Another growl erupted and I hoped it was one of my other boyfriends shifting to help.

Bennett kept his hand on the side of my face so I couldn’t see.

“Your friends from Egypt...” My voice trailed off. “They’re....they’re vampires. And Kebe’s using the coin...”

“I know.” He turned to look at Callum. “Everyone the smoke touches changes. We need to stop Kebe.”

That wasn’t all they needed to stop. Everyone in the crowd was killing each other. Or more accurately...changing each other into more vampires. Maybe both? I had no idea how it worked. But there was so much blood .