Page 128 of Taming the Beasts
“King. Who are you?”
Otto laughed. “King? Really? What kind of name is that?”
“My legal one,” King said firmly.
Really? I’d kind of thought he’d made it up.
“Sure,” Otto said. “And why are you talking to Emma?”
“She was the one livestreaming with me. And if you could please give her the phone back, we were just getting started.”
Emma shook her head. She looked truly horrified.
Otto sighed. “I knew your stupid name sounded familiar.” He turned to look at me. “Were the two of you camming?”
“Just Emma,” I said.
“She made me do it,” Emma said at the same time.
Emma, be cool! I’m the one that’s going to get in major shit for this!
“Oh, is Zoey there?” King asked. “If so, I’m happy to continue this with her...”
“In your dreams, asshole. That’s my girlfriend.”
“Zoey’s never mentioned having a boyfriend before.”
I groaned. “Because I never got a chance because I stopped camming! Just like I said I would, Otto. But we needed to talk to King about the coin and Kebe.”
“So Zoey is there?” King asked. “And wait, did you say Kebe? Was that who you think is the super powerful vampire?”
Well, crap.I’d been so flustered I’d forgotten to keep that under wraps. “Yes.” I sighed.
“Fascinating,” King said. “I should have known. She just has such a majestic quality about her, doesn’t she? Truly beautiful to her core. A true gem.”
Ew. No.
“Not really,” Otto said.
King stared at him. “Oh, I see. You must be one of the werecats Kebe told me about. You wouldn’t be able to see something beautiful if it was staring you dead in the face.”
Whoa. Excuse me? Where the hell had that come from? And what the hell...Iwas beautiful! King had just insulted me too.
“Why the hell would you ever cam with this asshole?” Otto asked.
Because he was filthy rich and paid me well.Plus he had important information. Although I trusted him a little less now. His praise for Kebe was way off base. But he just didn’t know her.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “It’s in the past. What matters is that King thinks that Kebe actually is a vampire. Just a really powerful one.” It’s what we’d all originally thought. Some things didn’t add up. But maybe King was right and her powers had evolved over the years.
“But you were adamant that she isn’t,” Otto said.
“I’m not sure what other supernatural creature she could possibly be,” King interjected. “What you described certainly sounds like a vampire to me. And you won’t really have to worry about her being an issue. Just use that coin on her to cure her. Then she won’t be any trouble to you at all.”
Emma, Otto, and I all looked at each other.
I mean...it wasn’t a terrible plan.
Otto asked King a few questions that we’d already asked.
