Dark Hunger

Elize crossed her arms across her chest. 

Owen spewed more venom. "You did nothing but tattletale to your husband that we mistreated you, when it was you who mistreated us!" 

"You mean I mistreated you when Nessa stabbed her knife in my body when I came for our father's funeral?" she scoffed. 

"That was nothing!" Owen shouted. "That was nothing compared to what you did to us afterwards. You made sure that I never ever get a job. All we wanted was a little money from the vast pool your husband has, but you are such a greedy and a miser bitch that you couldn't part with a penny!" He spat on the floor. "Instead, you sent Neal after us." 

Elize shook at her head. "Look at you, Owen. What have you become? I am unable to fathom your depravity. If you wanted money, you could have begged for it. I would have gladly given you all that I have earned. But you tried to steal from my husband when you didn't even accept him in the family? Why would Caleb give you anything? You threw me away from the house when I needed it the most!" She was feeling so angry that she became breathless. 

"But Caleb is married to you. You own half of his money!" Owen insisted. 

"Money. Money. Money! You are so greedy Owen! Because of your greed, you attempted to blackmail him by instigating people in the community against me, by sending them to kill me. You knew that Caleb loved me a lot, and by harming me, you could wring money out of him. But Caleb smelled your gluttony, your selfishness." 

"Elize!" Owen yelled. 

She added, "At that time, I hadn't sent Neal after you. Just before that time all I needed was your support. But guess what? I am so happy that you didn't help me because that was what fate had designed for me. It was like a blessing in disguise. I got closer to Caleb. I realized that there is no one in this world who would love me more than him." A shudder passed through her body. She felt like crying but she stopped herself. She couldn't show her brother that she was affected by his hatred for her. 

Caleb came right behind her and clasped her shoulders. She swallowed her emotions down feeling confident again. 

She continued, "Both you and your wife wanted to kill me, not once, but twice. Right now, also, you lied to Daryn about being shot at? How low can you go, Owen? You wanted to extract money from me by faking a hospital bill?" She crossed her arms across her chest as she frowned. Her eyes narrowed. "But this baffles me. How did you fake it? What were you thinking when you sent Neal to the hospital room where he would find you injured? Wouldn't he come to know that it isn't you?" 

Nessa and Owen's both became tense. Owen's lips pursed as his neck muscles corded. They didn't reply to her question. Instead, Nessa deflected her, "You deserve to be killed vampire, if you can't help your brother with a little bit of money. We were pushed to the corner to fake his injury. We don't have money to sustain ourselves. All we want is money and then we will disappear from here? Can't you help us? Doesn't your so-called rich husband have enough money to give us a drop from the ocean?" 

Gods. Elize was totally shocked at Nessa's outburst. She was not normal. "Oh, he is very rich. So rich that you can't even imagine in your dreams. Do you know that my husband owns gold mines?" she said, tilting her head.

"What?" Nessa's mouth fell to the floor. "G— gold mines?" 

Elize nodded. "Yes, not two, but five gold mines. He owns a forest under which you won't find anything but gold. Not only that, he has treasures beyond comprehension. With the money he owns, he can buy countries. And I think I shouldn't even tell you how rich Daryn is because you must have already read about him in the magazines," she said pointing with her thumb at the two brothers. 

Nessa gaped at the brothers. What the hell did Caleb see in the bumpkin like Elize that he married her? After a moment of silence she blamed, "If you are so rich, then why didn't you send the money we needed? Instead, you chose to snatch Owen's job and he is unable to get another job. No one is recruiting him! You have destroyed us, you bloody bitch!" 

Rage bubbled in her chest. It traveled from her chest to her hands and dropped in the form of thick red tendrils. They swirled around her fingers, impatient to hit the target. She snarled, "It was Caleb who gave that punishment to you and at that time I didn't know about it. But now when I think about it, there was nothing better you deserved!" 

Owen and Nessa both backed when they saw thick red tendrils swirling around her hands with real fear in their eyes. Elize's eyes glowed like red embers. 

Elize couldn't stop herself. "I hate to say this, but I am glad you hate me, because what I am about to do now, is going to be so soothing to my mind." 

Owen shouted, "Get back, you monster!" There was shock etched on his face and fear in his voice. "Stay away." He held Elize's hand and backed more to create space between them. 

Elize inched forward. "Tell me how you were planning on fooling Neal." 

"We don't know anything!" Nessa shouted. "Get out of our house." 

"Who is helping you?" Elize's voice dropped to a low, dangerous level. 

"No one!" Nessa lied. 

"Oh, that can't be." Elize flung her hand towards them. Her magic, impatient to do something, destroy something, hit the wall behind Nessa. It splintered and pieces blasted out, making a deep hole. 

Nessa and Owen screamed, protecting themselves with hands and ducking. They looked at Caleb and Daryn who were standing calmly and watching Elize. Elize looked like she was going to kill them. 

"Will you leave us if we tell you who is helping us?" Owen asked. 

"Yes," Elize replied.

"A woman called Laurel, and two men, Edrym and—" Nessa clamped her mouth shut. 

"And?" Elize prodded inching closer. She couldn't believe that Edyrm was alive. She thought she had killed him. How was this possible? And Laurel? So, she was with Edyrm now? 

"And U—" Nessa tried speaking his name, but unintelligible words came out of her mouth. "U—" she tried again, but she couldn't speak. She caught her throat as if she would choke if she spoke his name. 

"Nessa!" Owen held her hands. "What is wrong?" 

She shook her head, coughing heavily. Why couldn't she speak his name? "I— I can't speak the third name!" 

"Then you try telling the name, Owen," Elize growled. 

"U—" Owen said, but the moment he tried to speak Urhan's name, he felt a sharp pain in his tongue. And the next he knew, he tasted metal in his mouth. His tongue started to bleed.. Horrified, he looked at Elize.