by Meg Xuemei X
It was necessary. There was no shame or guilt for him to do so.
On Pandemonium, everyone looked out for their own interests.
I staggered back, trying to put distance between us and to make it easier for him to go.
My cold sweaty hand grabbed Defender tighter, not to fight the Angel, but to be ready for the vampires.
I would take down my foes, as many as I could. And before they could seize me, I would slit my own throat and leave them with nothing but a bloodless corpse.
Fate was the cruelest mistress, and more merciless than I. Just when I’d thought I could finally go home, this day would become the end of me.
My unknown enemies who had tossed me through the portal were going to have the last laugh. I licked my lips at the bitter thought.
Before I perished, I’d make sure to burn my soul with the last ounce of my magic, so my spirit wouldn’t roam on this planet. I would completely wipe out every part of my existence—body, soul, and the last piece of my consciousness.
I would leave nothing of me for Akem.
Gabriel bared his teeth and snarled. “Never, Fia.”
A dagger appeared in his hand, and it flew toward the lizard the next second.
Akem’s messenger flew into the air, but not before the blade cleaved its left wing. The Archangel was incredibly fast. The lizard’s blood sprayed onto the branch where it had perched. Its green blood dripped down on the head of the hellhound.
The lizard screeched in pain and tumbled down into a cluster of thorny bushes.
The hound licked the blood that trickled onto his muzzle.
Above the canopy, the Furies shrieked with giggles. If I hadn’t known better, I’d have thought the Furies hated their master.
Yet my magical markings had mentioned the Furies were cursed before being enslaved by Akem.
I would never let Akem shackle me.
The vampires gasped. All of the beings on Pandemonium feared Akem more than anything. They trembled just hearing his name. But Gabriel had called Akem filth and had just maimed his messenger.
“No! Gabriel!” Jasmine cried, throwing her hand to her mouth. There went her chance to get him to go with her.
I smiled. Okay then. We’ll kill and cause carnage, and go down together.
My heart warmed as courage pumped into my heart.
The jungle shook with Akem’s fury, but the Archangel’s rage was greater.
With a battle roar, he leaped, faster than a flash, going straight for Jasmine.
I knew what he was trying to do. Once he seized the head of the snake, he’d make the vampire princess order her army to retreat. With fewer numbers arrayed against us, we’d have a better chance fighting our way out of the jungle.
But the vampiress had anticipated that. Before he’d even moved, she’d zoomed away. “I’m not a fighter. I’m a lover,” she purred.
A shameless slut and a coward!
A wall of vampires stood between Gabriel and Jasmine. The Archangel crashed into it. His long sword rose and fell. But the vampires surrounded him, layer after layer, moving like a blur. Bodies and blades and claws became one.
Akem’s hellhound shot toward Gabriel, but my icy storm slammed into the dog. Though I was spent, my magic could still keep a few hounds and vampires at bay. However, my magic wouldn’t last long.
Plus, I needed to reserve my energy, so I could shield Gabriel and me when Akem sent his acid fog. I wouldn’t use up the last morsel of my magic unless there was no other choice.
My storm peeled off the inner layer of the vampires who swarmed Gabriel, as I fought toward him. Bodies fell around him under his blade, but the rest kept rushing toward him.
Then a dozen of them surrounded me.
“Fia! I’m coming!” Gabriel shouted.
I propelled my ice spear forward and pierced through an attacking vampire’s heart. The spear disappeared, then reappeared in my hand as I swung it backwards and buried its spearhead into the foe behind me.
My darkness pinned down another vampire to my left.
If I hadn’t been so drained, my darkness would have attacked in waves and kept nearly a hundred enemies at bay.
A vampiress leaped at me, her sword swinging toward my head. I bent backwards, and her broad blade whooshed by, a few inches above my face.
I’d thought I had this one advantage—the vampires would want to capture me instead of killing me. Then I had realized that Jasmine wanted me dead, even though her prince brother wanted me delivered to him alive.
I threw my darkness at the vampiress and at the same time tossed my spear toward an old vampire as he lunged at me. This undead immortal had wrinkles on his weathered face. Either his master had turned him in his older age, or he’d been starving.
Before he grabbed me, my spear penetrated his throat, vanished, and appeared in my hand again.
More vampires came toward me. Sweat dripped into my eyes, but I dared not wipe it off or blink, despite the sting.
But I slowed down.
I should have gone through the portal to the other side and figured out a way to return for Kaara. My death wouldn’t do anything to help her or any of my followers. And now there was no exit for Gabriel and me.
Then unnerving bellows rose all around the jungle. The nightmares had come. Akem’s other creatures—beasts, the giant Lamashtus, and monsters of all shapes—rushed toward us from all directions.
Gabriel fought toward me, his angelblade cutting into rows of bodies, his broken wings sweeping away a few cannibals. The Archangel wheeled and kicked a horned beast flying.
His clothing turned to strips, hanging all over him.
The enemies’ weapons and claws couldn’t bleed him. They now clung to him like leeches. At least a dozen vampires hung on each of his wings, trying to pin him down. If Gabriel’s wings hadn’t been broken, he would have fared better.
I’d been cruel to him. I hadn’t cared for him. If I’d fixed his wings when he’d first fallen on Pandemonium, our fate would have been different now. He would have flown me out of here.
I’d been petty and callous because he’d refused to bow down to me, and now we were paying with our lives.
I wouldn’t last long. I shouldn’t drag him down with me.
The vampire princess wanted the Archangel even more as she watched him fight. A glance at her had told me that much.
She didn’t even hide her hots for him. His excellence and brutality turned her on. After I went down, she would spare him.
“Leave me, Angel!” I shouted. “I command you to return to the tower. Now!”
They didn’t want him. They wanted me dead.
He could fight his way out if I was no longer his burden.
At his speed, he could escape Akem’s fog.
“Never leave you!” Gabriel roared, struggling to shrug off the vampires, hounds, and beasts all over him.
Two Lamashtus grabbed his wrists to keep him from wielding his blade.
As I cleared a path and darted toward Gabriel, Akem’s foul darkness rammed into me. My weak icy storm and darkness pushed back at Akem’s attack, but they crumpled at my feet.
It wasn’t the first time I’d tasted Akem’s dark power. Even fully charged, I wouldn’t be able to beat him with my dark magic. The only magic that could stand a chance against the entity was my fire, but I’d exhausted it.
Akem’s darkness sent me flying backward like a rag doll. My back hit a huge tree trunk. Pain blurred my vision, and my own blood tasted metallic in my mouth.
“Fia!” Gabriel screamed as rage, fear, and agony twisted his face.
How could he care about me so much? I hadn’t done anything for him. I didn’t deserve him.
With a thunderous roar, Gabriel threw the giants and vampires off him, his blade lashing out like lightning, and cutting a new trail, leaving bodies scattered behind him.
The Archangel fought like fire descending from the heavens.
“Gabriel, go!” I shouted. “Save yo
urself!”
“Never leave without you!” he shouted.
A horde of vampires zoomed in toward me, ready to snatch me away.
Just then, dozens of wolves raced toward me and cut in between the vampires and me.
Kaara Nightshades was among them.
She roared, thrusting her angelblade into a vampire who darted toward me. And my army from the tower crashed into Akem’s creatures, blades and claws against their fangs.
No aliens had dared enter the jungle, knowing they wouldn’t get out alive. Yet they’d come for me.
I struggled to get to my feet but slumped back against the tree.
I was afraid I might have a few broken ribs.
My army and allies had come for a useless, wrecked witch and would forfeit their own lives for it.
Bitterness tasted anew on my tongue, along with the tang of my blood.
Kaara fought beside a large gray wolf, her mate, to keep the vampires from getting to me. They had their hands full, and no one was free to help me up.
Gabriel was now less than ten yards away from me, but a troop of vampires and beasts had inserted themselves between us again.
“Get up, witch! Get up!” he shouted. “You’re the Wickedest Witch! Now act like one!”
How dare he scold me in the heat of battle?
I’d show him how the Wickedest Witch would act! I drew a couple of deep breaths and let the pain pass through me. Gritting my teeth, I stabbed my ice spear into the forest floor. Holding it to support my weight, I rose to my feet. The move hurt like hell, but I commanded my muscles to work, then I was functioning again.
I spun, my ice spear piercing one vampire after another, as I fought beside Kaara and the gray wolf.
Gabriel cut through a wall of bodies and reached us.
I threw my spear at the face of a ponytailed vampire, who lunged at Gabriel from the left, and the bloodsucker dropped in a heap as the spear went through his head.
“Fia!” Gabriel grabbed me.
The wolves and my army had all fought back to us. We were together now with the strongest fighters at the edge of our ranks.
But we were still outnumbered, and Akem’s beasts kept coming.
“We need to get out!” Kaara shouted, and darted her eyes around frantically, seeking an opening.
There was none.
I let a trace of my magic guide me and it pointed south.
“Southwest is the closest to the city,” I said. “We have to fight through it.”
“Marrok,” Gabriel snarled, “let’s tear it open.”
The gray wolf growled in response.
Acting as one, the two great warriors rammed into the vampires and monsters ahead.
Kaara sent me a concerned look.
“I’ll be fine,” I said. “Stay alive, Kaara. I found the portal.”
Kaara nodded and charged ahead.
I let my spear fly through a vampire’s open mouth and dashed after Gabriel. His wings became steel, sweeping away the vampires in my path.
As I glanced back, I could see my army fighting bravely and savagely.
Among the wolves bringing up the rear, an enormous white wolf fought especially well. I’d seen him tear a few vampires apart. His brutality and fighting skill kept even the Lamashtus at bay.
As one, we pushed through. A few of us fell, but we couldn’t go back for them. We had to move forward.
The vampires and Akem’s creatures regrouped and pursued us in great numbers.
Gabriel and Marrok were unstoppable, but our rear was being cut down. Many wolves had fallen, and the white wolf was having a hard time fending off all the foes that came upon him.
It was clear our enemies intended to cut through from the back, eating into our numbers.
“We’re almost out,” Gabriel said. “Marrok, bring my mate and yours out and protect them with your life.”
The gray wolf growled and nodded curtly, as he bit down on the head of the beast before him.
“What are you doing, Gabriel?” I hissed. “Whatever is in your mind, I forbid it.”
“I must stop them from coming after you,” he said. “This is the only way you’ll get out alive. There’s an obvious fallout between Desdemona and his sister. She wants you dead, but wants me alive.”
My eyes burned with fury. “Are you asking me to whore you out to her?”
“Do you want us all dead?” he asked, steel in his voice, too.
“We stick together,” I said. “I won’t sacrifice you.”
“We don’t have the luxury of sticking together anymore,” he said. “It won’t be a sacrifice. You know I’m the only one who can stop them from pursuing you. You live, and I’ll live. I must preserve you. I’ll find you. This is the best plan, and I don’t have time to argue with you.”
“No!” I said.
Gabriel pulled me to him and kissed me raw and hard.
The kiss burned to my soul.
His strong hand held my chin as he looked deep into my eyes. “Remember me, baby. I’ll come back to you. I’ll always find you. I fell into the past just to be with you.”
My jaws clenched. “Gabriel—”
The enemies charged.
Gabriel thundered, his sword rising and falling, leaving bodies behind.
He leaped high and forward with his broken wings, landed fifty yards behind, and joined the force of our rear army.
With the Archangel reinforcing him, the white wolf howled and resumed his brutal assault on the horde of vampires. They tore, cut, and slashed at the enemies, working as a perfect team and halting the monsters’ advance.
I bit my lip as I fought beside Kaara and her wolf mate.
At last, we tore through the opening and charged forward in a forceful current.
“Go!” Gabriel shouted at us. “Go!”
We needed to go, but I wanted to go back and join him.
“Fia! We have to go!” Kaara called.
“I can’t leave him!” I said.
Kaara yanked me ahead. “He’ll find us. He’ll find you. He has to, and he will!”
I shrugged her off. “I need to be with him. I can’t leave him.”
“Fia! They don’t want him. They want you. Gabriel knows what he’s doing!”
This was our chance to flee, but Gabriel wouldn’t take it.
He didn’t plan to take it.
How could I abandon him? Where was my loyalty?
“We have to run faster, Fia!” Kaara shouted. “Please! You’re responsible for us, too. You can’t let us down. If you die here, all hope dies with you.”
“I can’t, Kaara,” I sobbed, which might be the first time I’d wept. “I—I can’t leave him. I’m not really that—heartless. Sometimes I pretended. I—I … I just can’t.”
“I know, Fia. I know.”
“I’m going back to him.”
“Go, witch!” Gabriel roared. “If you really want to die, I’ll do you a favor and come and slash your throat myself, and finish your pathetic, vile life!”
What?
Kaara dragged me ahead. “Fia,” she said. “He won’t die, because the vampire princess wants him. She’ll preserve him.”
My eyes found Jasmine staying out of the action, away from the battlefield, and protected by her soldiers. Her gaze fell solely on Gabriel, blatant heat burning in her eyes. It was as if she’d never wanted any man as much as she wanted him. It was as if she wanted to drag him to her bed right now, or just fuck him in the middle of the battle, without a care in the world.
Rage and jealousy pierced my heart.
I had to kill her!
I wouldn’t give up Gabriel to that slut!
I stalked toward the vampire princess, my ice spear in hand. I would cut a bloody trail of vampire bodies to her and pierce my spear into her whore heart.
Kaara pulled me back. “Fia! You live, and let him live another day. He’ll figure out a way to come back to you. His loyalty is to you, and no one can take it away.”
Marrok tore apart a vampire that had caught up with us.
I was slowing them down.
“Get her out of here, Nightshades! Do your fucking job! She’s your mistress, your charge!” Gabriel roared, swinging his angelblade at the enemies. “Just go, before I cut you all down as well!”
Clarity returned to me.
Kaara was right. I had to leave with the army and let Gabriel catch up with us.
But what if he didn’t?
I shut my eyes for a second.
Jasmine wanted him so much he stood a chance to live.
If I didn’t go, Kaara, my army, and the wolves wouldn’t leave, either.
And if we stayed, we would all die here today.
Live another day at the cost of Gabriel. He said he was my mate. He asked me to remember him after kissing me goodbye.
That kiss had imprinted me.
Gabriel spun 180 degrees, his wings spreading to their full length and sending several foes flying. For a second, our gazes connected.
“I won’t leave Pandemonium without you,” I said, my vow snapping into place.
Three Lamashtus charged him and held onto his wings. The white wolf rammed into a Lamashtu, but a hound tore into the wolf.
My magic wasn’t enough to aid Gabriel.
I turned away from him.
Akem’s red fog rose, drifting toward us. My lingering ice and darkness shielded my companions, and my icy wind expelled the fog further.
I charged out of the jungle with Kaara, her wolf mate, my surviving army, and the rest of the wolves.
Gabriel roared his battle cry in fury and might, rocking the entire jungle and shattering my heart.
The Furies hovered above the canopy, shrieking and puffing out black fire.
Kaara cursed. We were in no shape to fight the creatures of the nightmare. And I had completely exhausted my magic.
I swallowed hard.
But the Furies just watched.
Flee, Wickedest Witch, and now you owe us a favor, a coarse female voice said in my head.
When I swept my gaze up, one of the Furies winked at me.
That was the first time the Furies had spoken. I hadn’t known they were intelligent beings, and that they could telepath.
