Page 145 of Taming the Beasts
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 cureafterthe 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!
