Page 154 of Taming the Beasts

“And I can’t embalm werecats to slow down their death. They’re the only creature I can’t embalm. It actually speeds up their demise when I do it.”

“Which means you have done it in the past,” I said. God, she was so awful.

“Of course I’ve done it in the past! Daddy has always been very strict about controlling the werecat population. It wasn’t my fault. He tricked me. But I know now that werecats can be good. They’re not disgusting animals. And two of them literally saved me. I want to return the favor.”

Emma and I looked at each other.

There was zero way to know if Kebe was being sincere. And zero way to test out the sistrum without thepossibility of hurting someone. Including ourselves. Because the last time Kebe claimed there was a cure, it turned all the humans in town into freaking vampires.

But time was limited. My boyfriends were outnumbered. And I wasn’t going to stand in this vault in fear as vampires just took over the whole freaking world.

We were out of time. And out of options. I put my hand out. “Give it to me.”

Chapter 30

Saturday

Zoey

For just a second, Kebe hesitated. Which actually made me feel better. In my head she was still a monster. More likely to hand over a curse than a cure. So hesitancy was probably a good thing in this case.

She placed the sistrum into my hand.

It felt warm in my palm. The same way the Anubis coin had. I didn’t love that. I’d thought I’d felt the goodness seeping out of the coin, but I’d been dead wrong. I stared at the sistrum. Was this the same thing? A trick by a rude Egyptian goddess?

Damn it.There was no time to debate this any longer. We really were out of time to fix this situation.

“How do you use it?” I asked.

“It’s a percussion instrument,” Kebe said. “You play it.”

“How?”

Kebe sighed like I was an idiot. “You shake it.”

“Like a rattle?”

“It’s more sophisticated than that. But...yes.”

So just like a rattle.Noted.I shook it and it made a sad metallic noise. I was sure the sound was beautiful if I knew how to properly use it, but I did not.

Kebe raised her eyebrow at me. “I don’t think anyone can hear that outside this vault.”

“I know. I was just seeing how loud it was.” And it was quiet. Way too quiet. “It’ll take too long to go around playing it individually for everyone. Or even if we can get people into small groups. We need everyone to hear it at once. And I have no idea how to use the town alert system that they use for hurricane warnings and stuff. That leaves...”

“The mics we set up for the reception speeches,” Emma said.

I nodded. “Exactly what I was thinking.” Everything was set up already. We just had to get to the mics and play the sistrum so that everyone could hear it at once.

Emma bit her lip. “But those are right next to where the ceremony was. There’s no way we’ll be able to get to the mics alive. For all we know, everyone could have turned by now.”

“We have to try,” I said. We’d barely made it out of the town square alive. It was crazy to go back out there. But what choice did we have?

Kebe nodded.

Which I was suspicious of, but this wasn’t about her right now. My boyfriends were outnumbered. They needed my help.

Emma nodded too. “Okay. You’re right. Of course we have to try.” She looked terrified and I was pretty sure I looked the same.