Page 18 of Nearly Dead

I remember Costin’s face, watching me with horror and regret.Or was it pity and guilt?

I flex my hands, remembering the feel of bones cracking and the squish of…

Oh, gross, what have I done?That’s not me.I can’t be me.I didn’t…

I try to lift my arms, but the chains stop me.I lift my head, half-expecting to find my hands still covered in goblin blood, but they’re clean.Someone has bathed and dressed me in a white cotton gown.White?That seems like a bad joke.I’m hardly pure and at the rate I’m going it’ll be stained the second they release me.

At this point being handled while unconscious is the last of my worries.It’s better than waking up drenched in the evidence of my brutality.

“Kill me,” I whisper, not expecting an answer.

“I remember that feeling.Don’t worry, it passes.”

The voice doesn’t belong to Costin or my family.It’s smooth and feminine, with a slight European accent I can’t quite place.I turn my head to find a woman perched elegantly in a chair near the window, her posture so perfect it makes my spine ache just looking at her.

Costin’s bitch sister, Elizabeth.

“Soon you’ll just want to kill everyone else,” she continues.There is a resignation to her sad tone.I don’t buy it.I doubt the vampire feels such things.If she’s sad, it’s because her scheming didn’t work out.

The last time I saw Elizabeth was at the failed ritual.Diana had launched her into a column by channeling Draakmar’s magic.Costin used the opportunity to subdue his sister by her throat.He had the chance to end her schemes, to avenge everyone she’d hurt.I remember her taunting him through bloody lips,“Do it.Finish what you started all those centuries ago.”

But he couldn’t.He couldn’t kill her.Just like he couldn’t let me die.

Now she’s sitting here in Costin’s house like she’s the guest of honor at a blood-soaked tea party.

My teeth sharpen in response to her presence.The mortal in me wants to give up, but the monster fights to live.“Come to finish the job?”

“Is that any way to greet family?”Her smile doesn’t reach her eyes.“After all, you are from my bloodline now.”

“You’re not my family.”

“Ah, now, don’t be like that.”She stands and lifts her arms to the side.“Give grandma a hug.”

“Fuck off.”I pull at the chains, feeling the metal cut into my skin.She tried to kill me.She tried to kill Diana and Paul.

Elizabeth drops her arms and laughs.She waves a dismissive hand.“Calm down.I’m not some goblin you can tear apart.Besides, I’m here to help.”

“Help?”I snort in disbelief.“The only thing you could offer is to leave and never come back.How did you get in here?”

“Good servants are so hard to find.”She touches the corner of her lip before rubbing her fingertips together.

“Where’s Costin?He wouldn’t let you anywhere near me.”

She walks to a small table and lifts a wine bottle from a bucket of ice.She stabs her fingernail into the cork and pulls it out.Sniffing the top she smiles before pouring red liquid into a glass.I instantly smell the blood and hunger curls through me.“My dear brother is busy cleaning up his mess with the council.Well, technically, it’s your mess, but since he made you they’ll blame him.Seems they don’t appreciate hybrid monsters tearing apart other supernatural creatures, even ones as lowly as goblins.”

I remember what Costin told me about their shared past.Elizabeth was only fourteen when he arranged her marriage to a nobleman who turned out to be a vampire.Marcus killed her after forcing her to watch him impale her lover.She was nineteen and pregnant when she was turned.No fetus would survive the transition.Afterward, she sired Costin as revenge or perhaps as a twisted way to keep her only family with her forever.

Their history is a tragedy that’s played out over centuries.No wonder he can’t bring himself to destroy her, despite everything she’s done.

“My dear simple brother...”Elizabeth muses, watching me over the rim of her glass as she swirls the blood.“First he sold me to a monster, and now he’s turned you into one.Being a female in his orbit isn’t exactly the safest place, is it?”

“At least he didn’t mean to hurt me,” I say, defending him despite my anger.“Unlike you, who tried to sacrifice me on an altar.”

“Next to an altar, not on it,” she corrects.“Don’t be so dramatic.It’s the past.”

“It was days ago,” I grumble, gritting my teeth.I ball my fist and wait for her to come close enough to grab.

“You survived.We shook up the supernatural world.Tell me you don’t feel all the released magic floating around in the air just waiting to be claimed?Admit it.”She grins.“You’re having fun.”

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