BOUND BY FANG AND CURSE

CHAPTER 5

Adonay

Ishtar's scent was sweet, which surprised me. Knowing she was a vampire and lived off other people's blood, I imagined she would smell of copper. Perhaps she hadn't fed lately? I inhaled deeply. She almost smelled like... what was it?... lime. Yes, there was a hint of citrus in the scent emanating from her hair as the wind ruffled her long, black braids.

Her hair was so thick I ached to tear it apart. I shook my head. Where had that thought come from? According to Asher, I should fear vampires and not find her beautiful. But she was. Her skin was pale, but not in a deathly sickly way. It almost glowed with vitality in the moonlight. Was her skin as tender as it looked? I curled my claws in my palms to avoid touching it.

She had a sharp tongue, which made me want to silence her with a kiss.

Oh my God! I needed to get a grip on myself. My werewolf side wouldn't listen to reason. I wanted the vampire with a lustful, determined purpose. I punched a tree to distract my wandering thoughts from the curve of the vampire's rear end walking in front of me. The sway of her hips beneath the skirt of her white ball gown...

Ishtar's head whipped around. Her eyes narrowed to slits.

"Why are you damaging my tree?"

"I'm sorry," I said, tearing my thoughts away from the beautiful woman in front of me. "I'm still struggling with this shape."

"Great," she murmured. "Now I'm trapped here with a rabid beast. I should end your suffering and get this over with."

I felt a chill run down my spine. Her words held so much truth that they made me stop and reconsider the beauty of the woman before me. The lethality of the vampire who now stared back at me with death on her lips.

“Wait,” I begged. “Give me a chance.”

"I guess," she said, baring her fangs in warning.

I didn't need to be told twice.

She turned, with grace and poise, but with the speed of a vampire, and walked toward the building. As she approached, the enormous wooden door swung open.

I looked over her shoulder. There were no lights. Dust motes swirled in the moonlit air as it blew through the door. I didn't even hear the scurry of a mouse. The castle was like an icy tomb. One she wanted me to enter. With her by my side, after she threatened to take my life, I had to think about my brother's life. It was never just mine.

"Follow me and close the door behind you".

She crossed the threshold. Her dress lit up, as did her skin. The ethereal glow that surrounded her transformed into a delicacy that faded into a vision. She shimmered, almost translucent. She appeared like a ghostly apparition as she glided across the floor. I hesitated on the threshold and rubbed my eyes, unable to comprehend what had happened before them.

"What's going on?"

"A curse, remember."

"But… you’re… "I couldn’t believe what I was about to say". I can almost see you now.

"I was wondering if that's how you saw me." She turned around and put her hands on her hips.

I took a deep breath. At least his hands didn't disappear from his body. "Will that happen to me?"

"There's only one way to find out." A hint of fang appeared between his lips as a small smile graced his face.

Even with the implicit threat of death, I said, "I think I'll stay out here."

She tilted her head to one side. “I didn’t take you for a coward.”

I bared my teeth at her, showing her I wasn't as placid and helpless as she'd made me out to be. Damn it, I was a werewolf. "I'm not a coward."

"Good." He turned and walked"no, glided"down the castle stairs. "I suppose you don't want to see the castle and all the hidden treasures?"

"What kind of treasures?"

I leaned forward on my tiptoes, my head almost passing through the door, but the fear of becoming a ghost kept me outside. I'd already become a werewolf. Now there was the possibility of becoming an apparition. What would that mean?

"This and that. Imagine what an old vampire can collect..." His mocking voice trailed off as he disappeared onto the first-floor landing.

I glanced back over my shoulder. My neck felt tense as the tension radiating through my body increased tenfold. I would explore the castle grounds, since I hadn't become a ghost there. Surely, that meant I was safe. There were surely treasures hidden outside as well, but the vampire lured me to her with her words and her body. Not to mention her sultry voice. And the beast inside me yearned to follow.

A door creaked open somewhere inside the castle. Where had she gone? What was she doing? The temptation to know was too much. Curiosity was always my weakness. My downfall. I took a deep breath, my chest expanding even further in my beast form. I held it. Should I? Shouldn't I? I entered the castle. Pausing in the doorway, I raised my hands and held them in front of my face. My body was still solid and not translucent like Ishtar's. Curiouser still. Why wouldn't the thing that made her a ghost make me a ghost? I walked across the parquet floor, which once would have gleamed in a way it didn't now. A layer of dust covered the floor, but Ishtar's footprints weren't in the dust. A tall column rose from the bottom of the stairs. I took the first step, then turned around. My footprints bordered the dust. Whatever this curse was, it didn't seem to affect me like it did Ishtar.

Taking one step at a time, I searched for footprints in the dust, and sure enough, I left them. I ran a finger along the banister and examined the layer of grime on the pad. How long had Ishtar been trapped in this curse? A long time, judging by the thickness of the dust. I approached the landing and paused, listening for any movement. Hearing nothing, I walked down the hallway. All the doors were closed, with an ornate knob as a focal point in the carved wood, but I'd heard Ishtar open a door and not close it, so she wasn't in any of these rooms, and I felt an innate desire to ask her more questions.

Questions I probably wouldn't answer again, but the hunger, the longing to learn everything about this place, about her, pounded in my head. Perhaps it was the way our parents abandoned us when we were young, the unanswered questions they left me with, why they left us, that made me this way.

I found an open door, the heavy white wooden door wide open, leading into the room. My steps led me inside. My heart pounded with excitement.

"Interesting," Ishtar said, gliding beside me with her ethereal, ghostly air. "Suddenly, your heart is beating very fast. Why?"

My gaze couldn't stop. It scanned every white wall, trying to take in all the leather-bound books on the white wooden bookshelves. The ceiling was so high that a black wrought-iron ladder over a railing led up to the bookshelves. In my werewolf form, I'd climb those shelves, but it would be sacrilege to damage them.

“This library,” I said, a bit of drool accumulating in my mouth like a starved animal, hungry for the feast ahead.

-Do you like it?-

"Love." I walked over to the nearest shelf and tilted my head to read the titles on the spines.

Vampire wisdom. The world of witchcraft. Sorcery and scandal. Werewolves and mayhem. Carefully, I pulled it off the shelf. Knowledge, so much knowledge at my fingertips, waiting for me to find the answers to so many questions in my mind.

Where did you get all this?

From various places. Some were gifts. Others I stole.

I opened the book with a jerk. The yellow pages creaked as my finger ran over them. The ink on the words was a little faded, as if many years had passed since it was written. "Stolen? You couldn't buy them?"

She laughed. "Oh, to be so young and innocent! You just can't buy books like these."

"I'm not young." I frowned and looked up from my book, even though I didn't want to let go.

He raised an eyebrow in question as he asked, “So tell me, how old are you?”

"I'm thirty years old."

"How many of those long thirty years have you spent as a werewolf?" she asked slowly.

“Two,” I admitted. Two long years of being this beast. After two years of struggling to accept this new version of myself, I had never fully accepted myself before Asher bit me and turned me into this beastly version of myself.

"Look, young man. You've been immortal for two years. It's just a matter of time." Her voice was light and ethereal, but with a heaviness that made me wonder how long she'd been a vampire.

I closed the book, tucked it under my arm, and leaned so close to her that my toes almost touched hers.

"I'm not a baby and I'll prove it".

She rolled her eyes. "Men and their male egos. You don't even understand being a werewolf, do you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're walking under the light of the full moon in your werewolf state, but you're wearing pants.

I frowned.

"And who made your pants in this size?"

An old man. I killed him. Look, I'm not that innocent either.

Guilt pierced my heart. The man had been so kind to me, and yet, when I changed my attitude and he got too close, I accidentally killed him.

His shrewd eyes scanned my face.

"Why are you wearing a mask now?" I asked, changing the subject before he could ask me who I'd killed.

"The curse."

You don't leave footprints in the dust, but I do. Guess the curse?

She walked over to a chair and sat down, adjusting her dress. She sat down on the chair. How did she do it? I sat down across from her and placed the book on my lap.

-How old are you?-

"A woman never admits her age".

How long have you been cursed?

Her ruby-red lips firmed into a thin line.

-You don't know, do you?

Her fangs protruded from her lower lip. They were white and shiny. Different from mine, but no less menacing. I almost smiled at her attempt to scare me into not asking any more questions, but from where I was standing, she looked like a very beautiful woman. If it weren't for the fangs and that translucent thing, I wouldn't have thought otherwise.

"Too many questions again?" I opened the book carefully, so my claws wouldn't tear the pages. "Maybe I can help you break the curse if I understand a little more about it and about you."

"You don't even realize who you are".

Her words struck me deeply. I knew nothing about my parents. Where they'd gone. Why they'd left us alone. At least I had Asher. The only one I could count on. My only family. He was his older brother. That was the only certainty in my life. This beautiful woman"vampire, apparition, whatever she was"smiled at me with a sly smile; wisdom floated in her icy blue eyes. Knowledge that was within my grasp to understand this new form of myself. The werewolf. The beast.

"Tell me then, since you seem to understand so much."