Page 40 of Taming the Beasts

“Hey,” Grudge said through my phone. “Nice to officially meet you. I’m Grudge.”

“Who?” Kebe mouthed silently at me.

But Grudge saw through the cameras in my house because he added: “I’m one of Zoey’s clients. Well, really just a friend.”

“So you watch her naked?” Kebe asked.

“Not usually. Although I’m happy to watch you naked if you’d like.”

Grudge!

But Kebe blushed. I don’t think I’d ever seen her react to a guy like that, even though she flirted tons.Huh. Maybe she wouldn’t be annoyed when I told her that I’d agreed for her to do a private session with Grudge in exchange for him helping me last night…

“And I’m excited for our private session,” Grudge said.

Kebe’s eyebrows pulled together. “What?”

“Bye, Grudge,” I hung up on him.

“What was he talking about?”

“Nothing,” I said. I’d bring that up later. After I got some straight answers from her. “How much of our conversation were you eavesdropping on?”

“I heard you talking about your client that you think might be a vampire too? So crazy.”

It didn’t look like she was all that shocked by it.

“But you have nothing to worry about,” she said.

“We don’t?” Emma asked.

“Of course not. Even if Zoey’s client is a vampire and comes here? Which are two bigifs. It’s not a big deal. We have the cure. Wait, where did I put the coin?” She turned in a circle, like she thought she’d put it on the carpet last night. She’d left it on top of her suitcase clear as day. Did she really not remember?

“I’ve got it,” I said, but didn’t pull it out of my pocket. I didn’t trust her. And it was better if she didn’t know where it was.

“Phew, good. For a second I thought I lost it.” She laughed and sat down next to me on the couch. “Also,for the record, no one has ever described me as sinister. I’m not whatever your little furballs are referring to.”

Little furballs? What the fuck?“My boyfriends aren’t furballs. Or little. And they’re not dirty and crass either.”

Kebe laughed awkwardly. “Emma, that was a private conversation. I was just freaking out about everything for no reason. I talked to my daddy and he told me all about the coin again and how it works. So we’re good. And the coin is very easy to use. So let’s hop to it and get it activated.”

Emma and I both just stared at her.

“So now you want to use it?” I asked. “We wanted to use it last night, but you convinced us not to. And then you stole the coin and tried skip town.”

“I did no such thing,” Kebe said. “I just went for a walk around town while I talked to my daddy on the phone.”

“With your suitcase?”

“I’m always on the move. I’m used to taking it with me everywhere.”

I pressed my lips together. That was a bunch of bullshit. I looked over at Emma.

She shrugged.

“And you said all that stuff about how our relationships would change if we used the cure,” I said.

“I’m so dramatic sometimes,” Kebe said. “Sure, maybe things might change. But they’ll probably just change for the better. It’s like you said. Your boyfriends are going to be so happy.”