BOUND BY FANG AND CURSE

CHAPTER 4

Ishtar

The two werewolves stared at me as if I were completely crazy. Maybe I was. The night never ended with this curse. I didn't realize how long Silas had trapped me within the castle walls and grounds. It could have been an eternity, for all I knew. None of the castle clocks worked. I lay down on a bed and counted once, but I soon gave up on that nonsense because I counted to an astronomical number before losing focus.

The werewolves' large brown eyes shone under the full moon. If they weren't my natural enemies, I'd find them almost majestic. Almost.

“Born or bitten?” I asked.

"Bitten," said the one trapped inside.

"For whom?"

"My brother." He nodded at the werewolf who was standing with his mouth half open.

"Mmm. What should I do with you? "I approached.

"Adonay, run!" the stunned werewolf shouted from the safety of the castle gates. I didn't think the exchange would work, but my brief experiment was a success. Now, what to do with this werewolf? What other experiments with the curse would I ask him to help me with? For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, excitement coursed through my veins.

"What for?" Adonay, as the other called him, frowned.

"She's a vampire." He moved a little further away from us and closer to the forest. He moved closer to the freedom and safety of the forest, but he was already safe on the other side of the castle walls.

Vampire? Huh? It didn't even occur to me that there could be other creatures. Adonay rubbed his chin.

"You didn't do it?" I asked, with a tone of surprise in my voice, and I thought he would help me.

"No," he admitted.

You're weird, aren't you?

He sighed, a long, painful exhalation that rumbled in his chest as it came out. “I’ve heard that all my life.”

I tilted my head as I watched the werewolf. “I didn’t mean it. Weird is good, but your brother is right. You should run away from me.”

Why? You don't look dangerous.

I laughed at the sudden urge to pinch her cheeks like a baby, like I had many years ago, when I was human and my friend had a child. "Aren't you adorable?"

Moving forward slowly, I raised a hand to touch her. I must have gone mad. Vampires and werewolves had been enemies since their existence, and vampires had always defeated them. Her brother was right to fear me. Under normal circumstances, I would have ripped her throat out by now, but this curse was anything but normal.

His brother growled, long and deep. A warning to stay away, but the noise was useless, as he was on the other side of the cursed barrier. The only thing keeping him in this place.

I lowered my hand; the urge to touch Adonay vanished as quickly as it had appeared. "What are you going to do out there?"

He growled, another one of those warnings, and crept closer, his large build menacing and silent as he stalked me.

It was ridiculous. I could kill them both before they realized it. The werewolf's pose was almost comical, but I needed to assert my dominance because he didn't know I was the superior creature. Smirking, I said, "I'll rip his throat out if you keep that attitude up."

"Asher," Adonay said, his voice deepening into an assertive command I hadn't expected from him. "Back off. I'll take care of it."

I gave Adonay a surprised look. He seemed the calmer of the two, less of a beast. Perhaps I was wrong to underestimate him. Perhaps he was the wolf in sheep's clothing?

"Give me back my brother," Asher said.

I strode toward the door, furious and resentful because he was on the other side while I was trapped there. I stopped before the barrier threw me back, as it had so many times before.

I can't. See this magical barrier? Some i***t wizard put it there, and I can't get out. Neither can your brother. So, if you want to get him out, you have to find Silas Constantine and get him to undo his curse.

"A curse?" the brothers said at the same time.

“Yeah. So many questions, and I thought I could use some company again.” I examined my long nails. Maybe I should rip the werewolf’s throat out and finish him and his brother off, because I was sure if I hurt Adonay, Asher would come running in and be within my reach to dispatch him too.

"Where do I find it?" Asher asked.

"The last place I saw him was in this castle, which was in France, but that's not where we are now, is it?"

The brothers exchanged a long, heated look. They probably thought I was crazy for talking about curses and moving castles.

“Asher,” I snapped. “Hurry up. I don’t know how long I can contain my urge to kill…” I gestured to Adonay.

Asher's eyes glared at me. "I'll be back. With your damn wizard, and when I do, Adonay better be safe."

I touched a fang with my finger. “I can’t promise anything.”

It raised its head and roared at the moonlit sky, then ran into the woods. I gazed at its freedom with longing. To be on the other side of these walls, to experience day again even though a vampire should be ecstatic with perpetual night. It was exhausting. I was tired... so exhausted.

"What's your name?" Adonay asked in a low voice, barely a whisper, as if trying not to frighten a wild animal.

“Ishtar,” I said, turning to look at him again. “Ishtar Monet.”

"Like the painter?"

I smiled. I'd heard that question from humans, often before I feasted on them and then hypnotized them into forgetting me.

He was a charming artist. However, he was not related.

"Were you Monet's friend?" Adonay's voice sharpened on the last word, as if it were inconceivable that anyone alive could be Monet's friend, but he hadn't believed in the existence of vampires until just now. How long had he been a werewolf to be so unsure of the world he lived in?

"Hardly. I met him twice by pure chance," I said, waving my hand toward the castle, the place I had called home but which was now my prison. "He was determined that I buy one of his paintings and hang it in the castle."

Adonay's head swung between me and the castle. His questions and his desire to ask them were reflected in the sparkle in his eyes.

"Can I..." Her throat tightened as she swallowed. "Are you going to watch it, or are you going to kill me?"

I approached him, the werewolf who was now trapped inside this curse with me.

You're in an interesting dilemma, Adonay. Every ounce of my vampire self tells me to rip your throat out and let you die, while the part of me that's been trapped here for who knows how long tells me to let you live because maybe you can get me out of here.

His eyes widened, but he didn't move away from me. I liked his bravery, the way he faced me with a firm gaze, as if he'd accept anything I gave him as long as his brother was safe. That kind of protection was rare.

"I don't understand anything about what happened here. How can I help?" He spread his enormous palms in a submissive pose.

I shrugged. "Misery needs company. I'm bored. You're a werewolf who's now trapped under a full moon."

"What?" he gasped.

There is no day, nor time change. This is all. I pointed to the full moon above our heads. The round globe shone brightly, as if driven by a magic even greater than the curse. The moonbeams illuminated us, illuminating our features in the ethereal glow.

He looked up at the moon, frowning with the hatred I expected him to look at me: a vampire, the one who killed his own kind. "I hate being in this form." His words came out as a guttural growl, as if he were angrier with himself than with the predicament he was in.

I laughed gleefully at the contradiction. "A werewolf who hates his most powerful form. You're a strange creature. Are you hungry?"

"No." He jerked his head back and stared at me, as if I was the one who had caused the full moon to remain fixed in the inky night sky.

"Luckily for you, neither do I."

"Do you drink werewolf blood?" Her eyelids lowered to hide the surprise in her expression, but I caught a glimpse of it before she closed her eyes.

Any blood will do when I'm hungry. Humans are by far the tastiest. That's probably why they fear us so much.

"I'd say it has to do with you killing them.

A mocking smile spread across my lips without me even noticing. I liked Adonay's wit. I'd made the right decision by trapping him here with me while I sent his brother to find Silas. I had to find him. This madness had to end. At least now I had someone to talk to about it.

"True." I shrugged. "Not all of us kill when we feed."

"¿You…?", tartamudeó.

"So many questions."

I'm sorry, I can't help it. My mind is always asking me questions. That's why I read so much. A deep furrow formed between his brows.

A bookish werewolf. Adonay became more and more interesting the more he talked to him. If he shared any interests...

I have something you might be interested in seeing. Follow me.

I walked past him, not bothering to look back to see if he was following, for I was trapped in this curse and there was no escape. If I ran, if he hid, my heightened sense of smell would detect his werewolf stench long before I did.

A moment later, his footsteps echoed on the path behind me.

Smart man. Let's see how smart he was.