by Meg Xuemei X
Which meant they were magic beings, unlike Akem’s other creatures.
So, the myth was right about the Furies being cursed.
Why should I owe you? I hissed. You summoned the vampires.
We had our orders! one of them snarled back. We’re bound to obey him.
So, they were indeed enslaved by Akem.
Help me get my Archangel mate out, I said, and I owe you a life debt.
The Fury shrieked at me, The Archangel is where he must be. Leave now or I’ll eat your followers. They flapped their red-taloned wings, preparing to dive and attack.
Fear seized my army—their adrenaline was running out.
“Go! Go!” I shouted to my army and the wolves. They didn’t need to be ordered out again, and shot toward the ruins of the city.
When we reached my Witch Tower, Gabriel’s desperate roar still rang in my ears.
And then I could no longer hear him.
I, the Wickedest Witch, had left my mate behind and let him fend off a horde of vampires, monsters, and nightmares alone.
8
The Angel
A vicious, victorious smile tugged the corner of my lips as I saw my witch charge out of the rainforest.
She ran for safety, and I swept my steely wings at my foes, flinging them away.
With the enemies’ advance temporarily halted, I ordered the white wolf and his remaining pack to take off.
As warriors, we both realized war meant casualties, but it was unnecessary for all of us to die today. The wolves couldn’t hold on any longer anyway—they were all wounded.
“Tell my witch I’ll find her,” I told the wolf general, “in this life or next. No matter what happens, tell her not to come for me, or I’ll be royally pissed. When I’m furious, she won’t like it.”
Angels don’t believe in an afterlife, or a next lifetime, but many other species deceived themselves by holding on to such a concept. Fiammetta might believe in the great beyond, so I thought to offer her one last comfort.
The wolf nodded, howled, and led his pack as they charged toward the opening, which was swiftly closing.
Again, I pushed back our foes, keeping them from pursuing the wolves with my wings and blade.
Jasmine snapped her fingers, and the vampires changed their tactics.
Since their original target had escaped, they now wanted me, because their princess coveted me more than capturing the Wickedest Witch.
I kept battling the hordes alone.
I’d lost track of how long I’d been fighting.
It felt like an eternity in the absence of my mate.
My rage gradually receded, as I grew more positive that my mate had reached her tower. I became tired without adrenaline pumping in me.
The air in the jungle was toxic to me. Every inhalation lessened my strength.
I slowed down.
The next thing I knew, hundreds of my foes were on me, latching onto my wings, my legs, my arms, and my back. They were everywhere.
With no wolves to tear them off me, no sooner had I shrugged some of these leeches off, then others replaced them. The giants’ hands grabbed my arms and wouldn’t let go.
They realized the only weapon that could bleed and kill me was my angelblade.
I swayed, and the Lamashtus dragged me down with the vampires.
I recognized one of the giants—the one who had disrupted my first mating with Fiammetta in my shuttle. I’d been mightily pissed. One should never inconvenience an Archangel when he was fucking, so, I’d broken his nose. The ugly thing still held a grudge; he rammed his meaty fist into my face, wanting to return the favor.
“No!” I heard the vampire princess yell. “Don’t maul his face. I like his face.”
But the Lamashtu refused to listen to the vampiress and raised his fist for another punch.
I banged my head against his face. He staggered away.
“That’s right, ugly babe,” I told him. “Every inch of me is deadly.”
Several foes grabbed my head, and now hundreds of them were sitting on me in layers.
It seemed stupid; in fact, if I hadn’t been worrying about my witch, I might have thought this was funny.
These barbarians had no idea of how to fight with dignity.
Through my limited vision, I watched the vampire princess stalk toward me.
She clicked her tongue. “Hello again, Archangel Gabriel.” There was a carnal heat in her purr.
I wanted to slit her throat for wanting my mate dead, but I grinned nastily at her.
She only smiled at me with adoration. It seemed that everything I did turned her on. And the worse I behaved, the giddier she was.
She snatched my angelblade, which several of her guards had pried from my hand. The vampiress studied the runes on the blade with pretentious fascination.
“It’s gorgeous,” she said. “It’s probably the only weapon that can bleed you. I want to know its history, and where and how it’s forged.”
“Why don’t you send your goons away, so, you and I can have a little chat?” I said. “I’ll tell you all about it.”
“Tempting,” she said. “We can chat as long as you want after I make you mine.”
I snorted. Nothing she could do would make me hers. I was another’s.
“Are you brooding on what I’m going to do to you with this beautiful blade?” she asked.
“How old are you? Twelve? I don’t brood. I have no bad habits.”
“But you do have a weakness,” she said.
My heart pounded. She knew my weakness now. I must kill her before she went after my mate.
Jasmine waved away a vampire soldier, who was holding on to my shoulder. She bent down, her fangs sharpening and lengthening. Without hesitating, she sank her fangs into my neck.
I roared, trying to throw off the vermin all over me, but they held on.
Jasmine stepped back, a shocked expression on her face.
Then I realized that her fangs couldn’t pierce my skin. Her vampire guards and Akem’s beasts had all tried that and failed miserably.
I chuckled. “Come on, sweetheart, you need to try harder.”
Jasmine held the hilt of my angelblade and marched back toward me with determination.
I probably shouldn’t have pissed her off so much. Now the psychopath was going to stab me with my own weapon. The bitch was going to make my death senseless.
No, it wasn’t senseless.
I’d made sure my mate escaped. I only regretted I wouldn’t be there to protect her next time. For the first time in my long immortal life, I hoped there was a great beyond, so, I could see her again at the end of time.
But an Archangel was no one’s prey.
Those vermin should not bind me.
I called for my angelic strength, and it burst forth. I yanked and kicked, throwing the vampires, beasts, and giants off me.
Jasmine yelped in surprise and jumped back.
I lunged for her.
But a wave of harsh darkness shot into me, pinning me down.
It was the same foul magic that had sent my mate crashing against a tree. It had pumped raw fear into me when I’d seen blood drip from her mouth. Fiammetta was most vulnerable when it came to shedding her powerful witch blood. Every drop of blood lost diminished her. Kaara had told me that, and demanded I take care of her mistress before we’d headed toward the jungle.
I’d seen the vampires go into a frenzy at the scent of her blood.
I would kill Akem!
He’d been watching us the whole time, even before we’d entered his realm. He’d only interfered when his new henchmen vampires, and his beasts and monsters were losing ground.
A realization dawned on me—the entity wanted to separate my mate from me, but he didn’t intend to kill either of us, for now. He wanted to play. Now he was curious to see what the vampiress would do to me, so he’d given her an opening by binding me.
But I was no one’s plaything.
When a tra
il of the filthy darkness tried to invade me through my nostrils, eyes, and ears, my Flame surfaced and slammed into the dark power.
The evil power staggered back. Akem was surprised. His darkness couldn’t get into me, but it didn’t withdraw from binding me.
I sneered. It was only a matter of time before I would break free.
Jasmine lunged toward me with my angelblade, recognizing this was her only opportunity to bleed me. My angelblade pierced the side of my neck.
My blood flowed out, and the surrounding vampires stirred, their eyes turning deep crimson.
I bellowed in rage, struggling against the bondage of Akem’s power.
Before the other vampires could fall upon me to feed, Jasmine snarled at them, and they froze. The next, she pressed her cold lips against my neck and drank.
Instantly, she flew backwards with a scream of agony, her hand clenching her white throat.
A trail of smoke emitted out of her mouth.
She bent down and vomited my blood. She’d taken only a few drops and they’d burned her.
I laughed. “That’s right, sweetheart. Come and take more.”
The vampiress stepped back as if I were a plague.
My Angel Flame coursed in my blood, guarding it.
The only one who could taste my blood was my mate. Fiammetta had bled me with her tiny teeth and tasted the fire in my blood. My Angel Flame hadn’t burned her but rather ignited hers, and turned the witch of ice into the witch of fire. My Flame had helped her find her path to her own Flame.
And she’d opened the portal with her regained TimeFire.
If we had only left then, we wouldn’t have been here now, surrounded by enemies. But my witch possessed a sense of honor she never acknowledged. She wouldn’t leave behind Kaara and those who depended on her.
Before escaping the jungle, she’d vowed never to leave Pandemonium without me.
But she would forget me tomorrow morning.
She would forget all of this.
I would become a line of event on her skin, something like: Went with the Angel to the jungle, and he went down.
A sharp pain stabbed me in the heart as I pictured my mate forgetting me.
I yanked my hands against Akem’s bondage. My muscles bulged, as my strength built again.
I was Archangel Gabriel. I wouldn’t allow some foul magic to subdue me.
Akem pushed another wave of his darkness toward me, but it was losing its grip on me.
Jasmine rose and stalked toward me again.
I grinned deceptively. “Want another mouthful?”
A few more seconds were all I needed. I would break free of Akem’s binding, take my blade back, chop off the vampiress’ head, then kill them all.
Jasmine bared her fangs.
“Very pretty,” I taunted her.
I shouldn’t have done that again. If she became unreasonably angry, she’d bury my angelblade into my heart, and I would never see my mate again.
I had to stall the vampiress. “Princess, give me two more seconds, and I’ll tell you a secret I’ve never told anyone before.”
Instead of stabbing me this time, she bit into her wrist and let her blood drip into the wound in my neck.
A drop of her black blood seeped into the open vein in my neck, then another drop; then a stream flowed in, mixing with my angelic blood.
“What the fuck!” I snarled. “Keep your foul blood to yourself!”
My explosive strength burst out, and I broke free of Akem’s binding.
My hand lashed out, grabbing the vampiress’ neck, ready to crush her windpipe, but my fingers lost feelings as I touched her skin. Numbness spread over me, revealing her blood to be a potent poison.
My Flame hissed as the venom rushed through my veins, blending with my blood. My Flame couldn’t separate the two kinds of blood and purge the toxic alien one.
My eyes widened. No Angel had ever faced such a situation before, so, I had no wisdom as to how to guard my angelic blood.
“You underestimate me, Archangel Gabriel,” Jasmine said. “I am, after all, a primordial.”
As my hand dropped from her neck, I noticed a cloud of red fog surrounding the area and beyond. Akem must have summoned his fog as soon as I’d broken his bind.
He was determined that I wouldn’t escape.
I limped, my massive wings dragging on the earth.
As I urged my Flame to burn the venom in me, Jasmine smiled at me sweetly. “It won’t be that easy to flush out my venom once it gets into your veins. If you don’t want my blood, you’ll have to bleed yourself dry. But you won’t do that, will you, Gabriel? Now you’ll never leave me, just as I promised when I first laid eyes upon you.”
With my angelblade, she cut my wound wider and placed her open wrist above it. Her black blood poured into my vein.
My Flame flickered and winked out.
“The dose will last your lifetime, Archangel,” Jasmine said. “You see, I take care of everything. With a godlike warrior like you, one can never be faulted for being cautious.”
Her cold, hard lips brushed mine.
And I couldn’t do anything about it.
“Fiammetta,” I whispered, holding my memory of her close to my heart, as the vampires dragged me out of the jungle toward their nest.
9
The Witch
The patrol team kept guard outside the tower. The rest of my army and the wounded wolves huddled in the Assembly Hall.
The healers were tending to the wounded, which consisted of all of us who had come out of the jungle. I had blood all over me—mostly that of my enemies. Kaara insisted on checking on me, but I brushed her off.
“You’re no better off, Kaara,” I said. “Take care of yourself first.”
“I’m fine. Marrok blocked most of the blunt hits for me,” she said grimly, darting her eyes between the gray wolf and me.
He was regenerating, crouching under his mate’s feet, his eyes closed, and I wondered why the planet was preventing the Angel from healing his broken wings. I should have taken care of him when I’d had the chance.
At the thought of Gabriel, pain seared through me. Yet I stood regally, keeping an icy mask on my face. But I couldn’t stay any longer in the hall with all of them. I headed toward the exit.
“Do not disturb me for the next hour or so, unless it’s an emergency,” I said to no one in particular.
I climbed the stairs with difficulty until I finally reached my chamber at the top of the tower. I pushed the door open, shut it immediately, and collapsed against it.
I couldn’t allow myself to pass out. If I did, I would forget Gabriel. I would forget what happened today.
I took a few more moments to collect myself before I moved to the glassless window covered by thick drapes. Gabriel had always climbed up through this window to my chamber. I pictured how he had looked when he’d perched on the windowsill with his massive wings.
My gaze lifted to the burning far sky.
Let it burn. Let the whole city burn.
That’s irresponsible, a voice seemed to say in the back of my mind.
I sat down on the floor, my legs crossed.
Gradually, I felt the trace of my ice, storm, and darkness. I kept searching inside me and dug deep, waiting—and finally a spark of flame emerged. My heart pounded; a sob caught in my throat. My TimeFire was still mine.
The flame summoned, and my other magic answered and gathered around it. Together they forged into a ring of fire, ice, storm, and darkness.
With their return, all I wanted was to charge back into the jungle to get Gabriel, but I knew I was in no shape to do so while my magic was still recharging.
“Defender!” I called, and my ice spear materialized in my hand.
I turned its sharp tip and pierced my thumb.
A drop of blood fell from my cut, but it didn’t splash onto the floor. It hovered in the air. My powerful blood had the color of sun and firestorm.
I put my thumb into
my mouth, licked the wound, and sealed the cut.
Every drop of blood leaving my body consumed me.
And today, Akem had bled me and tossed me in the air like a rag doll.
I must practice and perfect my TimeFire. I would burn the entity’s foul darkness and make him scream for what he’d done to Gabriel and me.
I dipped my blood in the air and drew a sequence of runes until they glowed and dashed toward my vulnerable spot—the hollow under my throat. They settled, but it was like a hot blade stabbing into my windpipe. I almost threw up at the agony, but I didn’t bend over. I just sat there and let the pain pass.
I had used the last space on my skin to make myself remember Gabriel.
I would come for him.
~
A couple of hours later, I returned to the Assembly Hall, icy light radiating on my skin and darkness trailing behind me quietly.
As I entered, the wounded soldiers tried to suppress their groans of pain. The wolves had also gathered in the hall, since my ward was stronger here.
Vampires might come to besiege us at any time.
I scanned the room.
Many of the guards I’d seen in the morning hadn’t returned. They’d died for me, and because of me.
Ice magic arose from me, turning into an icy gust and slamming into everyone.
All of those present froze, fear in their eyes.
What had I done to them in the past to conjure such fear?
Then I remembered that I was the Wickedest Witch.
“Fia?” Kaara called in alarm, and the gray wolf growled, standing before his mate to shield her from me.
“Shush,” Kaara chided the wolf as she curved a hand around his neck. “Lady Fiammetta will never harm me.”
“I put a healing spell in my ice magic,” I said to no one particularly. “I can’t cure you faster since I haven’t fully recovered, but the spell will prevent you from having infection.”
That was my new invention, and it had cost me two drops of blood.
I felt different after having unveiled my core magic. I was much more powerful, and I didn’t have the need to display my menace anymore.
The wolves and my guards relaxed, slumping back to their former poses. Some of them murmured thanks, yet no one held my gaze.
