Page 61 of Marked By the Pack
The rain pelted against my window even harder.
I needed to talk to King immediately. I went back to my livestream, even though I hadn’t composed myself. There was a 100% chance that I looked as frantic as Elias had. But KingOfTheDead was waiting for a private session. I clicked into it.
“Zoey,” he said calmly. His eyes fell to the tops of my breasts in my lingerie. “Have you reconsidered my offer of the bodyguards?”
Was it that obvious that I was freaking out? “I need to change Callum back into a normal human so he doesn’t hurt my friend. How can I do that?” I probably shouldn’t have said Callum’s name, but it was too late. Besides, he was technically going by Theo Gold right now. Who for all we knew was an old dead man.
Thunder boomed in the distance and I jumped.
“Callum? Is that the vampire’s name? If you’re worried then maybe you should…”
“Of course I’m worried!” King hated being cut off. Especially when he was in a bad mood. And he probablywas, because he was currently sitting in his office. His hair was more unruly than usual and his eyes were stern behind his Anubis mask.
But of course I was worried! I was terribly worried about the fact that Elias was on the run for his life because of me. And even more worried that his franticness had just proved that vampires were as dangerous as King claimed. “And don’t tell me to leave town again. I’m not moving. I just need a cure for Callum.”
“Making a villain is one thing. Curing one isn’t as easy. Once a villain, always a villain, Zoey.”
“But people can be redeemed. Callum’s trying. He…”
“He’s a monster. And he’ll always be a monster.”
“That’s not really fair.” I didn’t think I’d be sitting here defending Callum. But he hadn’t hurt Emma.Yet.“You said you could cure one?”
“I didn’t really say that. I said…”
“Please just tell me about the cure!” I’d cut him off again.
“There’s a relic.” He loosened his tie.
“A relic?” I leaned closer to the screen. Otto and his friends were thieves. Specializing in antiques and relics. They had a whole vault filled with them. “What does it look like?”
“It’s an old coin from Egypt.”
I leaned forward even more. A coin? I thought about the mind control pocket watch that Bennett had. There was a coin molded onto the back of it. Could I really be so lucky?
“A little bigger than a silver dollar. And it’s made of silver, but it’s not as clean cut as a silver dollar. It washammered out centuries ago. And carved in the middle is an Anubis head.”
I stared at him. “Like your mask?”
He nodded.
Why would the relic to cure vampirism have an Anubis head? I thought it would be like…a cross or something else holy. But Anubis was the king of the dead. Maybe he was the only one that could cure the undead. “You said it was silver?”
“Unless someone’s taken good care of it, it’ll be tarnished.”
I had a necklace from a guy I’d seen several years ago that was tarnished. I knew exactly what to look for. I thought about the pocket watch again. It was possible that someone had found the tarnished silver coin and dipped it in gold. And then molded it on the back of that watch. The watch was magical. Maybe it had a few uses.
Emma had said that Bennett was out of town. And now we both needed to talk to him.
“Zoey?” King said.
I looked back up at him.
“Take off your…”
“I’m sorry, I gotta go. Thank you for everything!” I exed out of the feed and turned my computer off.
King would be furious about me leaving our session. But I was too freaked out by the storm to properly perform for him. I pressed on Bennett’s name in my phone and pulled it to my ear.
