by Meg Xuemei X
Slow burn. That’s what was happening.
It was as if snowflakes had started falling on my lips and melted at my warmth.
I heard a magical bell chiming in the distance and the cursed inner scales in me fell off me one by one.
Had I just found one of my true loves? This felt like true love, though I had no reference to that or any experience. Blaze could also be my true love—his kiss had scorched my soul.
Then the scales stopped peeling off me, leaving me feeling incomplete.
I still had more scales than I could count.
If all the scales dropped, the hex would leave me, and I would be free.
I needed to be patient for a little while longer. If I had kissed two true loves, I needed one more. If I could kiss the last masked prince, then probably the curse would be lifted.
A new worry rose in my mind. If the dragon brothers all proved to be my true loves, would they agree to share? They didn’t seem to get along. Would I have to choose only one of them? I didn’t know how I felt about that.
Iokul laced his fingers into my hair, the heel of his palm anchoring at the base of my skull and deepened his kiss. He was done playing the gentleman. But that suited me just fine. I didn’t need a gentleman at this moment.
The weight of his kiss carried such passion that I moaned against his lips, my hands clutching at his broad shoulders.
A rumble sounded in his chest—the sound of his dragon.
At his urging, I parted my lips.
Iokul’s tongue claimed my mouth with raw hunger, and I tasted the purest ice from the glacier of ages ago. His ice, rich and exotic, didn’t freeze me and never would. It only made the fire inside me burn brighter.
With the promise, his ice magic weaved the fire into my heated channel.
I wanted to have him completely.
I wanted him to fill me with his ice-kissed fire.
I rasped for breath, my hands fumbling on him, tugging at his clothing. I wanted his skin on my skin. Suddenly, I realized I didn’t have enough time. I didn’t have the luxury to enjoy him elegantly and sensually, as much as I wanted it. I needed a quickie to release the throbbing pressure between my thighs. The heat inside my sheath had become unbearable.
If I didn’t get his cock inside me within the next second, I would erupt.
Iokul sensed what I needed. His heavy-lidded eyes betrayed what he needed most. More than cooperative, he pressed a device on his left waist, and his armor released him, floating in the air and dropping on the bank, along with his longsword that was specially designed to slay beasts, which was his true purpose for being here—cutting my three heads.
At the sight of his sword, the concept of true lovers flew out of my mind into the ether. But my lust hadn’t quenched.
Right now, he didn’t know that the beasts and I were one, and I could still deceive him and get what I wanted.
Iokul stood in front of me with only his boxers on, his huge bulge distorting the fabric. I pulled his cock free, and he shoved his boxers down.
We faced each other, both gloriously naked.
I licked my lips, and my breath caught in my throat as my gaze dipped to his cock.
It was straight, proud, and beautiful; its crown plumy and heavy, its skin silky.
And it was so large. I had to use a hand and a half to fully wrap around it.
For a moment, I hesitated. Could my body even accommodate it?
The flames of lust licking my moist mound answered for me, and the fiery need in me expanded to my every fiber.
His aggressive cock jerked forward.
Iokul’s lust-filled eyes darted between my face and my pussy.
“I’ve never seen anything lovelier,” he said.
His fists clenched on his sides to control his harsh male need. I read it as if it were mine. He wanted more than anything to pin me down and thrust his dick into me wildly, yet he let me make the first move.
My breath grew heavy as I reached for his heavy erection, wrapping my fingers around it, then pumped it up and down.
He hissed in pleasure, frost breathing out of his lips. His silver eyes burned icy fire.
“Take me,” I said, leaning on the stream bank and bending a knee on the stairs to give him access. The fire in my eyes burned equally as dark as his.
He groaned roughly. “I’ve never done this to any random woman, because that’s not who I am.”
No more words.
“Now or never, dragon.”
Iokul didn’t move; only a trail of coldness from his ice magic touched my skin.
A sinking feeling swelled in me.
All of this would be for nothing. He would leave me cold here while fire consumed my insides.
But the next second, Iokul pressed his rock-hard body against me, his hardness pushing up on my belly. “But you’re not some random woman, even though you haven’t realized who you are to me.”
His mouth slanted over mine, and that heady rush of desire pulsed through me again.
He braced his legs wide to lower his height. Aiming his hard shaft at my slick entrance, he drove deep into my moist heat with one powerful, smooth thrust.
I cried out at the pleasure, the loud sound tearing at my throat.
Finally.
The air rippled and I stilled as he thrust into me hard again and again, his silent roar ringing in my ears—Mine! Mine!
To claim me.
He thought I was his. That was why he’d said he didn’t do a random woman.
But I wouldn’t… couldn’t be tied down. Not now. Not until I found all three of my true loves. Not until I was free of my curse.
He thrust and thrust, faster and harder, each stroke more forceful than the previous.
Pleasure burst in me, hitting my every cell like high-pitched musical notes in fire. I threw my head back, wanting to roar, but then my monsters would interfere.
He gazed at me with possessive fire, the icy, detached prince that I’d first met long gone. Heated desire twisted his beautiful, masculine mouth and jaw that weren’t concealed by his mask.
My hand draped over his shoulder, my other hand touched his mask. I craved to see his face without it. “What kind of curse?” I asked. “How can you get it off?”
He drove into my depth with abandon. “Only when I behead the Furies will my curse be lifted.”
He was not my true love but my enemy.
My heart iced over even as dark lust and pleasure pumped fuel into my core. I couldn’t stop this coupling. I had to finish it, and then I’d have to kill him before he had a chance to decapitate me.
But I was running out of time. I swallowed back the bile rising to my throat. The scales would cover me soon, and I would turn into the three beasts Iokul had come to slay.
He found my mouth again, his tongue sweeping over mine, mating with mine, in sync with his thrusts. His cock swelled in me, harder than granite.
His thrusts became frantic and erratic, and I knew we would both reach our peaks soon.
I needed this release, but I’d turn into Furies while I was in the throes of my orgasm.
And then I’d lose my three heads.
I broke the kiss that threatened to imprint my soul, shoved him away with an explosive force, and leaped onto the top of the bank. His sculpted lips parted in surprise, his eyes darkened to storm gray with unfulfilled, burning lust, and his body trembled.
It was cruel to leave him like that. My heart ached, but I had no choice.
“You’d better leave now,” I said in a hurry. “The monsters are coming. Don’t ever come back here. And don’t ever think of beheading the Furies, because you will make an enemy of me.”
“Is this about the Furies?” he asked darkly.
“They’re my guardians!”
The first scale appeared on my ankle. Iokul’s eyes were glued to my face, so he didn’t notice it. But the next scale might appear on my nose. I sprang out of my chamber before he could jump out of the pool and chase me.
<
br /> I made it ten yards away from my chamber before the Furies took me over. Further agony tore through me as one beast split into three. I put all the strength I had into muffling my cry of searing pain.
My three beasts surged up, breaking the canopy, just as Iokul dashed out with a sword in his hand.
He narrowly missed me.
CHAPTER 8
I perched on Jasmine’s pink bed, nursing my misery. I had taken this chamber as my second lair after Desdemona kicked his sister out for her failure to trap the Wickedest Witch as his bride.
The flame still licked inside me, screaming for a release, yet I had no means. Pleasuring myself wouldn’t do. I shouldn’t have wasted time talking to the ice dragon. I should have just fucked him and kept my mouth shut.
I was rusty when it came to this dating thing. I frowned. Who’d said anything about dating?
This had nothing to do with dating, and I couldn’t afford to dream of courting, either. I needed to get my mind back on track and focus on collecting as many kisses as I could to rid myself of this curse. Then I would break the shackles and go home.
And I would shift to my true dragon form whenever I wanted instead of being forced to change to the twisted Furies and stay that way for twenty-three hours a day.
It certainly would be nice to get to know the dragon princes and date them properly, but I wasn’t a free woman. I dragged my mind back after it drifted to a scene of dancing and music and courting in the splendid ballroom of my old kingdom.
It was time to shatter my stupid delusion of love.
The dragon shifters who had come here weren’t my kin. They were my foes.
Iokul had spelled it out for me. They came to slay me to have their curse removed. It was the only reason they were here.
I needed a kiss from all three true loves to lift the hex, and they needed my three heads to get rid of their curse. There seemed to be a connection.
The air in the Vampire Tower suddenly crackled with menace, but I didn’t bother opening an eye. The tower wasn’t like any place. It was alive. No one—except a vampire who was bound to the Vampire Lord Desdemona’s will, and me—could leave here once entered.
Since I had to wait for Iokul to leave my chamber, this was a temporary shelter for me.
The Vampire Tower was more of a skyscraper constructed out of steel, marble, and glass. It was the only intact structure left by the old civilization. This spacious bedchamber at the high floor suited my taste—silky curtains, a diamond chandelier hanging from the arched high ceiling, an ivory vanity at a corner, and a luxury rug with silver lilies on the black-and-white marble floor. Jasmine had even managed to get a grand piano and many romance books on her shelves.
Here was an old world of grandeur, in contrast to the harsh reality of fire and smoke rising from the horizon outside the tower.
However, despite the lavish look, this tower had been built on the foundation of foul magic. The tower’s every brick, stone, and swath of fabric had eyes and ears. Everything about this tower carried sinister intent. I didn’t mind its menace. I was the monster of monsters in my Fury forms.
A sinister presence loomed so close I had to open an eye.
The Vampire Lord stood at the doorway, glaring at me, but his eyes didn’t flash hungry crimson—he didn’t want my blood.
I almost chuckled. It would cost him to have my cursed blood, and he knew it.
Abyssal, dark power rolled off him and darted toward me, but I shrugged and brushed it off my glistening red scales.
“Hello,” I said hoarsely. I hadn’t been offended by his waves of power—it had no effect on me whatsoever.
My other Fury forms napping on the rug snapped open their eyes, regarding the vampire warily but with disinterest.
To be fair, Desdemona was gorgeous with his tall masculine body and pale skin that contrasted starkly with his raven-black hair and brooding, bedroom eyes.
He looked more brooding and less sexy now after Fiammetta, the Wickedest Witch, had escaped right from under his roof while he’d thought she was a fly caught by his old honey.
Desdemona, never a gentleman, growled, “What are you doing here?”
Unlike Fiammetta, I didn’t mind a man’s attitude. Her Archangel wasn’t much of a gentleman either. Neither were the hunters—including the dragon princes—who had come to murder me.
Gentlemen were extinct.
“Napping,” I said good-naturedly.
He frowned at my voice. “Why don’t you nap in your own place?”
“I like it here. It has style.”
“It wasn’t built for you!”
“Your sister isn’t here,” I said meekly, though my voice didn’t sound that soft. I knew nothing good would come of it if I riled him up in his unstable state. The old vampire was extremely touchy these days. “Why waste the space?”
“Have you seen Jasmine?” he demanded.
“Here and there. Sometimes she sleeps in the Witch Tower, and sometimes in my jungle.”
His expression morphed to one of regrets.
I didn’t want him to invite her back. I liked her chamber, and especially now, I needed this haven while the hunters were hot on my tails.
“She really enjoys her new life,” I added. “You know—running around wild and all the freedom she finally has.”
“It’s not safe out there!”
“She’s a big girl. She’s a survivor. She’s blossoming.”
I wouldn’t tell him how miserable Jasmine was now that she’d been banished. I needed her room. It was selfish, I knew, but on Pandemonium, everyone watched out for their own interests. It was either that, being taken advantage of, or perishing.
Desdemona sneered. “I know why you’re here.”
I tried to arch an eyebrow in mockery but couldn’t manage it with my freak face. I resorted to flailing my tail twice.
“The bounty hunters from those three ships came to take your heads,” he said, then over my indignant look, he laughed merrily. “What have you done to make yourself so popular?”
“I’ve done nothing. How do you know that they’re hot for me?”
“My spies are as capable as yours, and even more so.”
“What else do you know other than that the hunters are attracted to me?”
“I won’t sell valuable information for nothing.”
“Keep it to yourself then,” I said, ready to dismiss him and continue with my nap. The unfulfilled sexual frustration was still boiling in me. I wanted to doze off and forget about it. I couldn’t return home while Iokul had yet to leave my jungle.
“You’ll not close your eyes while I speak to you!” Desdemona yelled.
Again, he wasn’t a gentleman. But I also knew it’d be a bad move to piss him off while I needed his tower for my own use, so I opened an eye and regarded him coolly before he demanded I look at him with respect again.
“There’s no need to shout, Lord Desdemona,” I said mildly, hoping he would relax.
“I haven’t repaid you for aiding the Wicked Witch and her male whore!”
“Come on, Desdemona,” I said. “It’s been three months. We should put that behind us.”
“Why should I?”
“It benefits us both to be allies rather than enemies,” I said in a reasonable, yet threatening voice. I had let him have his tantrum, but I needed to remind him that I was the new queen in the jungle. “Even though you tossed Jasmine out, you still care about her. She’s your only flesh and blood now, so I’ve been protecting her for your sake. I can revoke the order I put on my monsters to leave her alone.”
“So, you think you have the right to use my tower as your lair? I don’t do charity.”
The old vampire was really annoying. No wonder the Wickedest Witch rejected him.
I stared at him, my meekness vanishing. “Your sister uses my jungle, so I use her room. If you have trouble with that, go talk to her. And again, making me your enemy won’t do you any good.”
He gl
ared at me for a long moment, and I glared back.
“You still need to pay for the use of this room,” he said.
“Didn’t I bring you snacks the other day? The demons can’t taste too bad.”
“They didn’t taste good, either!”
“Stop being difficult, Desdemona. My patience is wearing thin.”
He gave me another sour look.
“You’ll let my subjects have access to your jungle,” he said.
“Only at the edge, and as long as your vampires don’t upset my monsters. I’d hate to tell you that although Akem left, Phantom has risen. He’s not as benign and forgiving as I, and he’s almost as powerful as Akem.”
“And you’re only telling me now?”
“Didn’t you say your spies are top-notch?”
He glowered.
“As scary as my Henry. Do you mind me going back to my nap now?”
He pulled his lips back to reveal his fangs. “You entrusted the punk Archangel to bring you some lovers, but he sent three ships of bounty hunters to your door.”
“He can’t help being a jerk,” I said as I shut my eyes. “I was hoping you’re a better man.”
He stormed off.
CHAPTER 9
I waited in my high chamber for three days after I’d sent out the message to the ships, but not a single bounty hunter or a group had ventured into my domain.
Maybe the war in my jungle had made the hunters second guess the wisdom of coming to seek my audience. By now, all the hunters must have known the queen of the jungle ruled here.
The dragon princes whom I’d kissed also hadn’t visited again.
Before I’d run away from Iokul, I’d warned him not to return and not to touch the Furies. I was certain that the shifters must have put their heads together with a new strategy.
Despite my efforts not to dwell on Iokul and Blaze, I missed them both.
By the end of the third day, I grew more antsy.
Patience had never been my strong suit, especially not when my life and freedom were at stake. I needed to act to get rid of this restlessness, and I needed my opponents to act as well. I had no intention of scaring them away—my true loves might be among them. It’d be my loss if any of them turned on their heels and went home.
