Bound by Curses and Vows – By Samantha Shaye
BOUND BY CURSES AND VOWS
BY SAMANTHA SHAYE
Draupati lay in her bed, waiting for her husband's return.
This battle was not one she could fight in her position.
While normal vampires were unable to get pregnant, she was the strongest type of vampire: a Pishacha.
No other creatures like them existed. Perhaps that was why Rome's leader wanted to unite with them. Pishachas’ powers allowed them to see the past and future.
While most vampires could burn to ash in the sunlight, be fatally wounded, or die without feeding, none of those ailments pertained to Pishachas.
It was an honor to feed from and bind life forces with them.
Whatever the Roman leader’s reasoning was, she was glad it’d led her to her husband, General Decimus. Draupati prayed for him to come home safe as she rested her hand on her stomach. It was too early for her to start showing, but she could already feel the life growing inside her.
She awoke with a start, unsure when she had drifted off to sleep, to her husband standing over her. But when her eyes focused, her heart beat wildly as she caught a glimpse of unfamiliar fire-red eyes.
"Who are you?" Draupati’s shrill voice masked her fear. She jumped off her bed and willed her sword to her hand. As it materialized, she gripped it tightly and held it out toward the stranger.
"Don’t you recognize me?” His voice taunted her as he manifested an ax.
Anger and fear swelled in her as the hungry look in his eyes grazed her body.
How could she forget the monster who had tried to murder his own brother on his wedding day?
She prayed to the gods to aid her in this battle and come to her rescue, but none of them responded.
Please, Draupati pleaded, any of you. Please help me.
Again, she was met with silence. She was completely and utterly alone.
She closed her eyes and thought of the love she carried.
I do not suppose you can help your mother from in there, can you?
She didn’t expect an answer, and yet the silence she was met with left her hollow.
“What are you doing here, Caelus?”
A sinister smirk spread his lips, fueling the cold gaze set upon her. “Putting an end to my misery.”
His misery? What misery? He was the next in line for his father’s throne, a position his brother gave up after marrying Draupati. Was that not enough for Caelus?
He stalked toward her, and she inched along the wall, trying to make it to the doorway.
Before she could, Caelus seized her by her hair.
He should not have been able to overpower her, to control her like this.
He was never as strong as Decimus. How, then, had he become stronger? Something wasn’t right.
The red eyes. His ability to summon the ax. His strength. These were not abilities that humans possessed. Even his brother, hadn’t been able to do any of it before he’d first fed from her.
That was when it dawned on Draupati: Caelus was no longer human.
He must have killed …
“It was you!” The words escaped her before she could think. “ You were the one who murdered my father in battle! You drank from him!”
The blood must have been poisoning Caelus.
Pishacha blood was not meant to be drunk by just anyone.
A young vampire would turn corrupt and need blood magic to sustain themselves if their life force wasn’t bound to the Pishacha before drinking their blood.
By the crazed look in Caelus’s eyes, she already knew that was the case.
He laughed maniacally and hooked his ax over his shoulder.
“So I did.” He licked his lips. “And now, my queen, it is your turn.”
Before Draupati knew what was happening, he was at her throat, and everything turned to black.
Surrounded by the crashing waves, he sat on a rock, staring toward the horizon, careful not to touch the water lest it turn him to ash and swallow him back into reality.
There was no land in sight; it almost seemed like he could swim right into a cardboard sky.
Would anyone be so stupid to try? He probably would if only he could touch the water.
It was surprising he could even sit on the rock when he was supposed to go right through it.
Maybe his imagination had created the rock for him.
Out of the corner of his right eye, a shadowy figure caught his attention.
Turning toward it, he gritted his teeth.
Of course his mind would do this to him, but he couldn’t turn away.
Wouldn’t turn away. Walking along the shoreline was a beautiful woman with the shiniest dark brown hair he had ever seen.
It fell in curls to the small of her back and highlighted her sun-loved skin against her beautiful white gown.
She turned to look at him, captivating him with her soulful brown eyes.
She removed a stray strand of hair from her face and smiled. What he wouldn’t give to touch that face!
“What are you doing over there?” She spoke each word carefully and strongly.
God, why couldn’t he stay out of his memories?
“Decimus, what are you looking for, my love?” She walked over to him, placing a hand on his knee.
He took her hand in his. “Nothing, amica mea.” He drew her nearer and kissed her forehead. Oh, how he ached for this moment to last, but he needed to wake from this dream.
When Decimus woke, she would be gone, but this time together would give him peace for a moment of eternity.
“Why haven’t you come yet?”
He pushed out of her hold and turned away.
“I haven’t been judged yet,” Decimus whispered. The truth would kill her, and she’d be trapped here with him as well. He wouldn’t do that to her.
“There is something you’re not telling me. What’s wrong?”
“I have to go.” He walked out into the water, tears pricking the back of his eyes. “We’ll meet again, Draupati, I promise.”
“You’ll drown,” she protested.
“Here, yes. But there I shall awake to horrors I wish you will never experience. Wait for me, Draupati. Promise me.”
She showed Decimus her wedding band. “I’ve waited all these centuries.” She forced a smile.
“I love you.”
“And I love you, dear Decimus.”
He waded out into the water until it consumed him and left only bubbles in his wake.
She awoke with tears streaming down her face and an ache in her heart.
What the hell was that!?
She was tired of that guy being in her dreams, calling her Draupati. Her name was Suhana, for crying out loud. If only she could get her hands on him for invading her sleep.
Her rage against him didn’t change the hurt in her heart and the hollow feeling in her stomach.
Every part of Suhana knew this man, but from where?
Surely, he lived close by. She never ventured far.
He could only be one out of the select few she had met in this crazy world. Perhaps finding him would be easy.
Sitting up, Suhana wiped her tears. The dreams were getting weirder; she wished they would stop. It had been about a few months now with the man visiting her dreams every night. In one, she wore traditional Indian bridal attire, waiting for him.
There was no logical explanation for it, and she didn’t believe in reincarnation and the supernatural. She believed that those things were all myths of the past. But then what is that connection I feel?
Uneasy, Suhana decided she wasn’t going back to sleep.
She got out of bed, made herself a cup of coffee, and grabbed her history textbook.
At her dining table, she started to read the next chapter for the lesson her professor would be babbling about later.
She reached the part about Plato, four pages into the chapter, before sleep claimed her again.
Suhana startled awake to her alarm blaring from her room.
When she got there, she realized she only had an hour before class, so she sprung into motion.
Her best friend Brad waited downstairs for her. “I was just about to ring the bell,” he said. “You’re late. I’m usually the one who’s late.”
“Tell me about it.” Suhana sat on the back of his motorcycle and fastened the spare helmet before wrapping her arms around his torso. The building their classes were held in wasn’t too far from the apartments, but they’d never make it on time walking.
“Did you do the reading?” Brad asked as he stepped off the motorcycle and took his helmet off.
“I got to page four and fell asleep.”
“Was it really that boring?” Brad narrowed his gaze at her. “I kind of liked it.”
“I don’t know,” Suhana admitted with a shrug. “I was reading, but the only thing I could think about was what I dreamed of last night.”
His dark green eyes widened. “You’re still having those dreams?” he asked.
The first night she’d had the dream, Suhana immediately called Brad, heaving and crying, at three in the morning. They had been friends since they were in diapers and told each other everything.
“Yeah,” she sighed. By this time, they were outside of the classroom. “I’ll tell you after class, though. We’re late enough as it is.”
They sat next to each other during class, and although Suhana heard the lecture, she wasn’t listening.
She copied notes, but she didn’t retain the information.
Her mind went back to her dream and who the guy was.
Who in their right mind would name their child Decimus? Why would she know anyone by that name?
She had to admit, though, he was gorgeous. His blue eyes stunned her and were a beautiful contrast to his warm, golden skin. Somehow, she knew it was soft to the touch in some places and rough in others. His lips, curved like a bow?—
Don’t even think about it, a voice deep inside her warned.
Suhana mused about the way he’d sat there, lonely, desperate for home. Her eyes began to close, and she drifted back into the dream world.
Draupati …
It was Decimus’s voice, or what sounded like his voice. She couldn’t be sure, but he sounded in pain, tormented. That sadness in his eyes in her dream now transferred to his voice.