Page 8 of Nearly Dead

“I’m sorry, Tamara,” she whispers.Genuine emotion cracks through her icy facade.“Until we understand what you are, this is the only way.”

That shot is why my thoughts keep cycling and I can’t concentrate.

“She’s dying, isn’t she?”Anthony sounds far away.“No one has ever survived the mixing of werewolf and vampire bloods.”

The needle plunges into my arm.I feel the cold spread through me, a momentary relief from the burning.

As consciousness starts to fade, I lock eyes with Costin one last time.The sire bond swirls between us, a connection I can’t escape.

I sink into a magic-induced haze, completely paralyzed.I hear a familiar voice whispering along the corners of my mind.

“Poor little Tam-tam...always someone’s puppet.”

Whatever was in the shot causes me to shiver.

“And you thought I was a monster.Look what they’ve made you into.”

Conrad?

I try to answer but can’t.

This isn’t happening.Leviathan has him trapped.Conrad can’t be here.My vision is blurry as I look for him in the room.My head won’t turn.

“Did you really think a necromancer could keep me locked away forever?I’m coming for you, sister dear.”

His mocking laughter echoes through my fading consciousness.I want to warn the others, but no sound comes out.I’m trapped in my own mind with my dead brother’s ghost.

I pray it’s just the drugs.Maybe I’m going insane from the transformation.Maybe the wolf and vampire parts of me are creating hallucinations.

Conrad can’t be back.He can’t be.

Can he?

Costin touches my cheek, stroking it as he leans over me to kiss my forehead.

“I’m sorry,” Costin whispers.

I want to tell him that sorry isn’t enough.I want to rage at him for taking my choice away.I want to beg him to never leave me alone with the monsters inside.

Darkness reclaims me before I can force the words, and as it swallows me completely Conrad’s whispers follow me into oblivion.

“Poor little Tam-tam…”

ChapterThree

I’m no longer restrained.Thank the gods for small victories.

The hunger pains are still there.The constant gnawing makes my stomach feel like a hollow bottomless pit.At least the cravings are manageable.For now.

I sit up slowly, inspecting my limbs, half expecting claws or fur.There’s nothing.Just my regular arms and legs.

I’m in one of Costin’s guest rooms, not one I demolished during my last feral episode, or the one before that.This one is decorated in muted grays and blues with heavy curtains pretending to keep out the fake sunlight since we’re safely underground.I remember getting a peek of this particular bedroom once.A vampire was feeding on a willing human in the chair next to the bed.

Is that my future?Drinking people?

The thought makes me want to gag, even as I salivate.

I keep staring at the curtains wondering if I’ll ever see the sun again.I think about walking out into daylight and letting it turn me to ash.During the worst of the pain it’s a persistent fantasy I can’t stop.There is something beautiful to the idea of just blowing away.

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