Isabel and the Werewolf Beast (Vampire Tales #1)

20. Dante

Chapter twenty

Dante

I shoved open the castle door, muttering under my breath the entire time I stomped up the stairs. Why did my emotions go from one extreme to another with Isabel? I’d always been the level-headed older brother. The one who’d foraged for food. Stole food. Begged for food when I was desperate. The villagers never let me forget that. I don’t know why I’d clung to our former life after Asher bit me. I suppose there was some comfort in familiarity, but I was no longer comfortable going back to that life. To the cottage where our parents left us alone. To the village that hadn’t helped the starving children. Isabel might be the reason I didn’t want to go back to my lonely little cottage, but I couldn’t let her be the only reason.

Pausing at her bedroom door, I placed my ear against the timber and listened for the killer raven. Maybe I should have found something to cover my head. I glanced down the long hallway and spotted an ornate bowl. What was another priceless piece of art? Isabel would be angry but oh well…

I strode to the bowl and picked it up. The swirled colored glass would be an excellent protection for my head. Glasses would have been good too, but I didn’t see any of those lying around. I headed back to her bedroom door and flung it open before I changed my mind. I charged in like a bull. The raven swooped for my head with an ungodly squawk, but its beak tapped against the glass.

“I won, sucker,” I said, running across the room to Isabel’s dressing table.

The raven took that as an incentive to land on my back with its talon claws and ripped into my flesh. A howl of pain erupted from my lungs at the unexpected change of attack. I grabbed the box and ran for the door. The bird kept up its assault until the last second before I dove through the doorway and out into the hallway. I skidded to a stop heaving in fast breaths. The door shut behind me with the magic of the curse.

I couldn’t wait to get out of here, but first I made a detour to the library again and selected another armful of books for me and Isabel to read. It’d been nice having her lay beside me and read. I’d never had company before when reading. I finally felt accepted for who I was around Isabel. Even with her snarky attitude, she was never cruel to me, and considering she was supposed to kill werewolves, it made her treatment of me even more monumental. I thought so anyway. Whether she did was another matter.

As I approached the front door, it opened, I glanced around almost expecting to see a ghost-like Isabel inside because she hadn’t listened to me, but on the other side of the door, Isabel stood in the moonlight. A picture of beauty with her raven hair cascading down her back. Her pretty face turned up to the sky, and the stars twinkled in her eyes.

I wanted her so much that it hurt my chest.

She dropped her chin and watched me walk toward her. “I see you got more books too.”

“Of course,” I said, having to concentrate on each step so my knees didn’t collapse under me and then I’d crawl to her feet. Beg her to bite me again and suck my blood. A surge of desire ran through my body.

I held the box out to her. She grasped it in her dainty hands, a small smile playing across her lips.

“You forgot your hat.” She laughed.

I lifted a hand to my head and then joined her in laughter as I removed the glass bowl.

“Did it help?”

“Yes, until that killer bird of yours went for my back.”

“Show me.”

“It’s nothing.”

“Dante.” She tapped her fingers on the box.

I huffed and turned a fraction, so she’d see one of my clawed shoulders. They stung, but they’d heal. One perk of being a werewolf was our accelerated healing abilities.

“I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault. The curse is that idiot Silas’s doing.”

“True. I hope you get to meet Nemisis one day without the curse.” She glanced down at the box. “It will probably be impossible but well, I’d like you to meet my pets.”

She peered up at me through her thick lashes and whatever anger I’d held about going inside to get the box vanished. If she looked at me like that, then she could ask me to do anything, and I’d lay my body at her feet. Her fingers worked on the box and a moment later a soft classical music song drifted from the object.

“What is it?” I asked.

“A jewelry box.”

My eyebrows rose. “You had me risk my eyes for jewelry?”

She drew out a long gold chain that had a shiny white stone pendant surrounded by an ornate swirl almost like a crest.

“It’s for you.” She closed the lid of the box and tucked it under her arm. The necklace dangled from her fingers and swayed catching the moonbeams on the pendant. “Will you wear it?”

“What is it?” I touched the pendant with my fingertip careful to not snag it on my claw. The stone drew me toward it for a reason I didn’t understand.

“Moonstone. It will help you get in tune with your true emotions and hopefully you’ll then be able to change your form at will. Lucian gave it to me. I wore it when I was first turned into a vampire. It helped me balance my emotions, so I thought it might help you.”

I closed my fingers around the gem and held it in my palm. “So, I risked my eyes for me?”

She smiled. “Yes.”

“Isabel,” I whispered her name like the plea hovering inside me to let her love me.

“Shall I put it on?”

“Please.” I turned around and kneeled on the grass so it would be easier for her.

“Dante.” She gasped. “Nemesis ripped your back.”

“I’ll be fine.”

Her hands stirred in front of my face then softly touched the back of my neck as she did up the clasp on the necklace.

“Your blood smells good,” she said .

“Bite me.”

“But I thought you said…”

“I know what I said, and I want to feel your fangs in me right now.”

“I should tend to your wounds.”

“Isabel bite me or I’ll bite you.”

Her soft gasped inhalation was music to my ears. She liked the sound of me biting her. Now I’d said it, I wanted to put my teeth marks on every inch of her skin. Her lips brushed over the back of my neck. My fur-covered neck, yet I didn’t care how I looked, Isabel made me feel desirable in this form. Her tongue swiped over my pulse and she suckled the skin into her mouth drawing it closer to the surface. The sharp sting of her fangs exploded next followed by the euphoric sensation of her bite. I wanted this. I wanted her. My head swam with pleasure. My body pulsed with need.

Her bite disappeared. A loud thump sounded behind me. I sagged a little with the ecstasy running through my veins.

“Isabel?”

“It’s okay, brother, I got her. She won’t hurt you,” Asher said.

“Asher?”

I fought against the pleasurable sensation of her bite and slowly shifted my body around. I couldn’t comprehend the scene. Asher stood with a sword in his hands, blood dripping from the blade. My slow eyes drifted to the ground. Isabel lay motionless. And then I noticed a short distance away was her head.

He’d sliced her head off.

“No,” I whispered, anguish piercing my heart at the sight before my eyes.

“Dante, it’s okay. I rescued you. You can leave with me now.”

“No,” I said .

Isabel. Not Isabel. He didn’t kill her.

“No,” I yelled, my claws digging into my palms and drawing blood.

“Calm down,” Asher said. “You’re safe.”

“Isabel,” I screamed and crawled across the ground to her body. I picked her up expecting to see her head still there, but it wasn’t there. A stump sat on her shoulders. I choked on a sob. “Isabel.”

Pain lanced every inch of my body. My throat closed to the point I could no longer breathe. My eyes couldn’t see through the tears that refused to fall.

“Silas said you might be under some sort of vampire spell,” Asher said. “I’ll fix this too.”

He stepped toward me, and that’s when I focused on him. Asher picked up Isabel’s head by her hair and ran across the grounds. I roared and chased after him, but Asher had a head start and he was faster than me. He’d always been the more athletic of us. I didn’t stop though. What if I could save Isabel? I didn’t want to believe she was dead. Gone from my life after I’d had her in it for such a short time.

Asher burst through the gate but I slammed into the barrier and bounced back across the grass skidding along my back and leaving an indent in the soil. I shook my head and staggered to my feet.

“Undo the curse now,” Asher said. “I have her head like you wanted.”

Silas stood at the edge of the trees to the forest beyond. A dark shadow. An evil stain like Isabel said.

“He looks rather mad,” Silas said.

“You were right, she turned him into her blood slave with a spell. How do I fix him?”

“Give me her head.”

“You haven’t removed the curse yet.”

“With a crazed werewolf waiting to kill me, what do you expect? ”

“I expect you to hold up your end of the deal,” Asher said. “Do as you said and give me my brother back.”

Silas drew in a long breath and eyed me warily. He should be worried. I’d get Isabel’s head back, and I’d kill him for everything he’d done to her.

He held up a vial that swirled with a luminous green liquid. “Throw me the head and I’ll throw this at the curse.”

“Curse first.” Asher held his ground. “I’ll stop Dante from reaching you.”

I’d say one thing for my brother and that was he wouldn’t let this evil scum get away with his part of the deal unfulfilled.

“If he lays one ugly claw on me, then I’ll curse you both.” Silas glowered, raised his hands, and murmured a few words.

The air in the castle grounds changed. The moon disappeared and then returned as a sliver in a different phase. My body quivered and contorted as my shape shifted no longer under the effects of a full moon. I ran toward the gate even though I was no longer in my deadliest form. If I concentrated hard enough, perhaps I’d shift at will like Isabel said I could. I burst through the gateway, but Asher tackled me to the ground. We rolled over and over until we hit the trees at the edge of the forest. I shook out of his hold and stood. Silas had disappeared.

“No. He’s gone.”

“It’s good to have you back,” Asher said, standing and dusting himself off. “Let’s go home.”

I rounded on my brother. “You don’t understand what you’ve done.”

“I freed you from a curse that you had no reason to be a part of. And I stopped a vampire from using you like its own person blood slave. ”

I grabbed my brother by the collar. “She. Isabel is a she. And I wasn’t her blood slave. I asked her to bite me.”

“Why would you ever do that?”

“I like her.” I let him go, never wanting to hurt my brother. He didn’t understand. Asher hadn’t been inside the curse with me. He hadn’t seen Isabel care for me time after time and help me on a path to accepting the werewolf side of myself. “Liked. Shit. She can’t be dead.”

“Wait, you liked a vampire as in like as a friend or more?”

“Both.” I grimaced at the look on his face.

As forbidden as it was, we’d developed feelings for each other. Feelings I longed to explore. To talk to her again. Care for her. Have her bite me.

“And I just killed her?” Asher asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

The remorse rang through his voice, but I’d had enough of Asher doing things first without asking me what I wanted.

“I don’t know if she’s truly dead. I have to go back and see her body.”

“But Silas took her head. If she’s not dead, then she’ll need that. Shit, the first woman you’ve ever had feelings for, and I… I’m such a shithead. I’m sorry, Dante.”

“Sorry won’t bring her back.” Moisture welled in my eyes as my throat threatened to close over.

“I’ll get her head. I know where Silas is.”

“Do you think he’d go back to where you found him knowing I’m after him?”

“No, but I might pick up his trail.” To punctuate his point, he lifted his nose and inhaled deeply, his chest expanding as his nostrils flared.

“Asher, stay out of this. You’ve done enough.”

“I want to help you.”

I firmed my lips into a tight line. There was no point standing here arguing with my brother. What was done was done. I needed to fix it. Fix Isabel. Bring her back and end Silas for good. Could vampires survive without a head?

“Dante?”

I turned and walked back inside the castle grounds. Asher followed me. I couldn’t tell him to leave. He was my brother, and he’d thought he was helping, but it stung that he never asked me what I wanted before acting. My steps grew less sure as I got closer to Isabel’s headless body. I sucked in a deep breath through my teeth steadying myself for the brutal impact of seeing her bleeding to death.

Except there was no puddle of blood. I kneeled at her shoulders. The wound across her neck had sealed as though her skin had grown over the cut and sealed the blood inside her. Did that mean I could save her?