Page 48 of A Curse So Vile

He stretched as he rolled out of bed, what little good it did him. His muscles ached from the days of travel, but he knew better than to complain because, for Dorthea, it was likely far worse.

He arched a brow at his sister. “Did you sleep at all?”

“No. I wasn’t tired, and all the screams kept me awake.”

“Screams?”

“Well, they weren’t loud. They were startled.”

Brenna said the transition wouldn’t be easy, but he hadn’t expected his sister to hallucinate.

“I’ll be up with food in a bit. Mind yourself.”

“I don’t think you should go down there without Brenna.”

“Why?”

“Something isn’t right.” She scrunched her nose. “There are smells.”

“It’s probably from what Brenna did to you.”

“I smell blood.”

Cole frowned. “I’ll be up soon. Stay in bed. Don’t wake Dorthea.”

Fiona looked down at the older woman she shared a bed with. “Dorthea is sick. I can smell it everywhere.”

Cole’s frown deepened. Dorthea has been complaining for some time about her many aches and pains, but sickness was never her issue. Hopefully, Fiona was wrong, but he couldn’t help but wonder if there was some truth to it. After all, she was old and, over the last few months, had slowed down considerably.

But now was not the time for such thoughts.

He pulled on his clothes and made his way downstairs, mulling over Brenna’s words from last night.

Fuck me like you would a whore,she’d said in a mocking tone.

It made him miserable, because that’s not what he’d wanted from her, and for an insane moment, he’d believed they could be more.

There was a quietness to the air. An eerie foreboding that made his hair stand on end. He almost laughed, as he knew it was absurd to think that in the wee hours of the morning there was anything to fear, but then he remembered his sister’s warning. He couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling prickling his spine, and it only seemed to grow as he descended to the first floor.

And at once, a sickening smell hit him like an avalanche.

“I was beginning to worry I’d have to wake you up myself,” an ominous voice called.

He exited the staircase and turned the corner into the bar, unprepared for the sight that awaited him.

Blood coated the walls as tendrils of carnage decorated the tables, spilling onto the floor. As Cole took in the chaos, he remembered his sister’s words.I smell blood…

“Care for a drink?”

It took Cole a minute to spot the man who stood behind the bar, polishing a glass, his fingers ending in sinister claws at least three inches long. He was taller than Cole by a foot, with teeth twice as large as the ones that had jutted out of Fiona’s mouth the day before.

Without his ax, he had no hope of defeating the beast that stood so calmly. He wasn’t even sure his hunting knife could pierce its flesh.

“What is this?” Cole finally said, his stomach lurching. “What have you done?”

“Consider this a warning.” The man-creature smiled. “Oh, where have my manners gone? You may call me Julian.”

Cole looked around the room, wondering if he was perhaps dreaming.