by Meg Xuemei X
The walls started closing in on us.
The Dark Prince no longer cared to preserve me. In his insane fury, he ordered the living tower that had been immersed in the foulest otherworldly power to murder us all.
Gabriel lunged back to us, spreading his wings to shield Kaara and me in a circle. His wings were harder than steel, but the tower’s walls were empowered by dark magic. The Angel clenched his teeth as he held off the increased pressure of the walls ramming into him.
He wouldn’t hold for too long, even with his Archangel’s strength.
The walls pushed harder, trying to fracture my mate’s broken wings.
“Use your fire to speed up the flow of my blood,” Kaara said.
“It’ll burn you.”
“It won’t. I have your blood in me. Your fire will recognize it, just as your darkness recognized me. Plus, anything is better than being squashed to death.”
My fire appeared on my palm and stretched toward Kaara, inducing her blood. It spurted out like fountains, until the last drop spilled on the tower’s ground.
Kaara slumped in my arms, her eyes closed. She was barely breathing, but my blood—the few drops of blood she’d taken for her vow to me—remained in her. The firestorm would keep her alive for now.
As soon as Kaara sacrificed her last drop of blood, the dark curse clinging to us fell away.
The walls withdrew.
My fire sealed Kaara’s wounds and formed a null space around her. I needed to take her back to my tower now, so I could perform a blood ritual to conserve her.
Gabriel carefully scooped Kaara into his arms, and I shrugged off my red cloak and wrapped it around her to keep her warm. With a kiss on her cold forehead, I willed the life force of my blood in her to sustain her.
“Thank you, Kaara Nightshades,” Gabriel said. “We’ll keep you safe.”
He propelled his wings forward and shattered the window.
“Hop on, mate,” the Angel called.
I leaped onto his back, my arms around his neck and my legs wrapped around his waist.
Carrying us, Gabriel jumped out of the window, his massive, black wings extending to their glorious full length.
Beneath us, the battle continued to rage. The wolves fought to clear a path for us. Marrok tore through the vampires’ ranks toward us, reaching for his mate.
Above us, from the ballroom, Jasmine screamed, “Kill him! Kill them, brother! Pierce her whore heart all the way into his treacherous one!”
How poetic.
Desdemona materialized beside his sister and threw Gabriel’s angelblade—the only sword capable of killing an Angel—at us with full force. Gabriel roared a warning and ducked, but my icy storm had already blasted out.
My wind caught the blade, and my darkness shielded us while my fire was spent.
“Fuck you, Angel,” Jasmine shrieked.
“Not a chance,” Gabriel shouted back, laughing.
Could he, for once, not be mouthy?
We didn’t land as we supposed to.
Again, we jerked up.
Seeing that, Marrok roared in anguish, horror distorting his face.
My heart sank, and my blood iced over.
No, no, no! Not again.
Kaara wouldn’t survive the time-looping nightmare. Neither would Gabriel and I.
All was lost.
Kaara had sacrificed for nothing.
I closed my eyes, as pain filled me.
“You need to have more confidence in your mate, baby,” Gabriel said, and sailed forward.
22
The Angel
When Fiammetta’s flame mated with mine, it had healed my wings. That was how powerful our mating bond was, but my mate hadn’t known that.
I flew low.
The gray wolf charged toward us with furious howls, his eyes burning at seeing his mate limp and bloodless in my arms. In an instant, he shifted to half-man and half-wolf.
“Give me my mate!” he snarled.
“No time!” I shouted back. “I’m flying them to the Witch Tower. Call the army to retreat!”
Marrok shouted, “Retreat! Fall back!”
The white wolf near him howled, and the other wolves howled in response, and the witch’s soldiers yelled warnings at each other.
The army withdrew from the black tower as a whole, racing toward the witch’s realm.
Like lightning, I shot toward the Witch Tower, my wings flapping rapidly. Below us, the half-burned city was a blur.
Flying again was like breathing again, and my mate had given me back my freedom. Had I not had a wounded Kaara in my arms, I would have taken my witch on a few circles around the sky, even on a day as gloomy and violent as this.
I flew through the window to my mate’s chamber.
23
The Witch
I warded Kaara’s quarters in my tower. Only Marrok, Gabriel, and I could enter her room.
I’d performed the blood ritual—until I couldn’t give her any more of my blood. Gabriel had had to carry me back to our chamber after that.
Marrok hadn’t left Kaara’s room since then. He sat, gazing at her, holding her cold hand in his, and whispering to her. I hoped she could hear him.
Gabriel suggested that Marrok read to Kaara and regretted that he hadn’t snatched a few romance novels from the vampire tower. He said some books, like a reverse harem Mate with All the Dragons, among others, might cheer Kaara up in her long sleep. Marrok gave my mate a fuming glare.
And now my Archangel and I were finally alone, and naked, in bed.
My hands pressing on his muscled chest, I glided along his hard length as he fondled my breasts. I paused for a second, trying to decide what would be the best way to enjoy him, but he’d already bucked up his hips and thrust into me relentlessly, every thrust more forceful than the previous ones.
My face flamed. I thought this was my show. This was supposed to be my comfort, since I’d just gotten him back after nights of heartbreak over our separation, and at the cost of my loyal captain.
I needed this more than anything. I needed to feel he was real beneath me and we were truly together. And I needed to remember and relive our past mating. While I fumbled my way through it, as if this was all new, and tried to find my tempo, Gabriel drove the blunt head of his hard cock into my molten core.
I had no time to scold him for not letting me have my way, because the pleasure was just too great. I no longer needed to test what my most sensitive spots were, because every inch of me trembled with the sensation when he thrust into me, hungrily and wildly.
Yet, I still managed to rock my hips atop him, and when he tried to catch a breath at the pleasure I bought him, I plunged down to the base of his cock and ground against him, more aggressively than I intended.
The friction and the sound of flesh slamming against flesh ignited a strong fire within me; waves of bliss swept me away, then brought me right back to him.
A rough groan rumbled from Gabriel’s chest, and his large hand rubbed my engorged nub.
“I can’t believe I’m fucking you now, baby.”
But wasn’t that obvious?
He thrust into me with an Archangel’s strength.
I moaned his name, and he loved it and fucked me harder.
There was so much grief in me, and also joy and relief, and celebration.
Gabriel needed this mating as much as I.
For a while, we didn’t talk and just fucked, raw and hard, our powers matching and melding. Right now, our bodies spoke more powerfully than any language could to sate the mating fever.
We’d been separated for too long—it might not be long in others’ eyes, but we were newly mated. I hadn’t realized it before, but now I knew that there was nothing crueler than to break up fated mates.
We had almost lost each other.
“You should have come for me earlier,” Gabriel started to complain, while he didn’t slow down his thrusts.
“I did come for you.”
/> “I said earlier.”
“You looked comfortable there. You weren’t even chained.”
“You’d prefer to see me chained in the vampire tower?” he asked incredulously.
“I thought you liked kinky.”
“Not that kinky. They tried to bite me.”
“But you didn’t turn.”
“I was powerful.”
Again, bragging. I should not start counting. I would lose count soon.
Then I realized my mate was trying to take my mind off Kaara’s condition, so I could function. Grief would drag me further down, so, I wouldn’t lament, because I had to bring Kaara home, revive her from her coma, and give her back to her mate, for all she’d given.
My mate was tuned to my mood because of our bond. Even as I slid up and down his impressive length faster and harder, and even as pleasure sent me to a realm beyond this, I was still half in the grip of sorrow and dread.
I had my mate back, but we hadn’t exactly won the day.
And what if I couldn’t reopen the portal?
What if I forgot Gabriel tomorrow?
How could I make sure everyone got past Akem and his creatures of nightmare after we regrouped and entered the jungle again? I didn’t want to lose anyone, but some of them wouldn’t make it.
Akem was the final threat. How could we fight against an omnipotent entity? For three years I’d tried to discover his weakness and failed. How could I now find his one fatal vulnerability in less than three weeks? Did he even have one?
When Akem had last summoned the vampires, he’d meant to separate Gabriel and me.
What if I lost my mate forever next time? We hadn’t exactly fallen in love, but we’d bonded. Severing our bond would be like cleaving our souls in half.
If I failed, I would doom everyone.
“Shush, Fia,” Gabriel said. “I won’t let you carry the burden alone. We’ll deal with everything together. You have me now.” He thrust into me vehemently. “You have one of the most powerful Archangels as your mate. Let me show you.”
He lifted me off him effortlessly.
I didn’t want to be disjoined from him, even for a second. “No,” I objected. “I want to stay here, on top of you!”
But he had flipped me over and drove into me from behind, a sequence of rapid thrusts muffling my further protest. Pleasure rippled in me like endless hot waves.
As his big cock slammed up to the hilt, deep into my needy center, my throbbing ache eased, and my magic purred at his savage need. My darkness twirled around his wings, caressing them roughly and gently at once.
Gabriel let out a string of angelic curses and pumped into me harder and faster.
The Archangel’s strength was formidable, yet I could take it all, for I was his mate, his one and only match in every aspect. And he could match up to my magic’s every demand. Oh, yeah, my magic was demanding.
I moaned at the pleasure brought by his combined short and long thrusts, my nails sinking into his powerful thighs, feeling his hard muscles flexing and rippling with his every movement.
“Oh, Gabriel, why do you have to go so deep? But yes, deep, please! Oh,” I cried breathlessly.
“You’ll moan my name all of your life, my beautiful, lustful mate,” he said. “I can never get enough of you. Your pussy is mine. Mine alone to fuck. Forever.”
He rammed into me with a raw power, yet it felt different than when we had first fucked. There was great tenderness in his fierceness now.
I lowered my torso and raised my rear for him to penetrate even deeper.
I gave him free rein. I would let him do anything to me.
The Angel groaned, staring at our locked flesh, and drove into me with the speed he carried from the sky, his wings propelling forward with the force of the wild wind. They’d been as hard and lethal as a blade in battle, but they were so velvet and soft now.
His magnificent wings came around, their black silk feathers caressing my breasts, then tracing all the way down to my swollen clit, and brushing it in a slow circle.
My legs thrashed. My toes curled.
Gods, I was going to fall apart at the bliss gifted from the heavens.
Gabriel flipped me over again, making me lie on my back. His hand pinned my wrists over my head, his other hand cupped my left breast, caressing it and remolding its shape.
“I don’t like to be flipped over and over,” I said, though his touch was setting me ablaze. “I’m not some fish! And I was so close!”
He only gazed down at me with thick lust in his dark green eyes.
He spread my legs open, moved atop me, and thrust into me.
“I need to see your face when you come hard on me, baby,” he said roughly. “You never let me see how you really felt about me before.”
I hadn’t allowed him to see my vulnerability.
But now—
He pumped into my core, soliciting breathless moans from me. His cock drove into me deeply, pulled out a little, and plunged back in. The savage rhythm of his thrusting made my heart drum.
I forgot what we were arguing about.
“I’ve seen all your bad sides,” he said. “I’ve accepted them all. You don’t need to hide who you are from me.”
“What bad sides?” I snarled.
If he didn’t have a high opinion of me, then why did he even fuck me?
“Prickly, aren’t you? But I like it. You aren’t like other women, and never will be.” At my dark look, he added, “I don’t want other women. You’re fiery, hard to please, and wicked, but you’re mine.”
I blinked. Had he insulted me or complimented me, or both?
“Clarify,” I said.
He sealed my request with a kiss, his tongue urging my lips to part for him and thrusting into my open mouth, while his cock plunged ferociously in and out of my pussy.
The sensation was beyond erotic.
Pleasure electrified me, making me purr all over.
My legs clamped around him, and I propelled my hips up, hard and fast and savage, to meet his every rapid thrust.
We fucked like we were the only ones in the whole universe.
A deep, beastly growl tore from Gabriel’s throat, and his steel rod in me burned into my flesh.
Carnal bliss shattered me.
I sobbed and moaned, my inner walls clenching his cock so hard he let out a string of angelic curses. He looked like a drowned man in a sea of lust.
“Mine! Your pussy milked me mercilessly,” he roared. “You’re mine!”
And I begged him never to stop.
“Can’t hold back anymore, baby. I’m only a man,” he said, and thrust into the peak of my orgasm and emptied himself into my molten core.
Just then, a meteor arrived, its flaming tail blazing an arched path across the gray sky.
Gabriel grabbed me tightly and protectively, as we both looked through the window.
“It seemed to fall into Akem’s jungle,” he said.
“I hope it burns it down.”
Our tower shook and stabilized a few seconds later, and my mate held me solidly in his strong arms.
I lay on top of his velvet feathers, my head on his chest. His other wing formed a half tent above us to create a safety net.
I didn’t know if I’d ever felt so content and warm.
“Shouldn’t you leave now, Archangel Gabriel?” I asked casually.
“Never,” he said. “I’m not going to leave. Not now. Not ever. I’ll never leave you. I’ll sleep with you right here tonight, and every night wherever you are. Try to kick me out again, and you’ll suffer the consequences.”
“What consequences?”
“I’ll spank you, then fuck you harder than you can ever take.”
Just like that, blood heated in me again, and I wanted his cock inside me.
The Angel chuckled in self-satisfaction.
Will this mating fever ever fade? I thought to myself.
“It’ll grow only stronger, baby,” he said, kissing
the top of my head, “like our bond.”
“What if I can’t remember you tomorrow?” I asked.
I hadn’t gotten all of my memory back, though I was having fragmented flashbacks here and there. Just as my fire magic was still volatile, as was my amnesia.
The idea of forgetting Gabriel again pumped ice into my veins.
“We’ll deal with it,” he said, squeezing me to him. “I now excel at dealing with it.”
Boasting again, wasn’t he? But his assurance comforted me.
“And I trust the power of our mating bond,” he said. “It helped you form a new memory and purged the vampire venom from me.”
“Whatever you say,” I said, my fingers tracing down from his chest to his muscled, flat abs, and further down until they found his impressively large, hard shaft.
My hand seized his cock.
Gabriel gasped, his stunning green eyes brightening like the stars.
But he did come from the stars, and his massive black wings used to carry the violent wind.
And they also carried the fire of bridge on my skin.
I pumped my hand up and down his cock, its thick head sensual to my touch, its silky skin burning into my palm.
“We’ll never get out of bed, baby,” he said. The dark lust all over his face told me that he wanted me more than anything. “But before I fuck you again, we need to go for a ride. It’s important.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“We need to find out more about the portal,” he said. “It might not be what we think it is. We don’t know what’s on the other side. What if it’s worse than here?”
“I understand your enthusiasm,” I said. “But it’s premature to go into the jungle right now. I need to practice my TimeFire a few more days before I can be sure that I’m ready.”
“You’ll practice better and faster with the new knowledge we’re going to gain through the Furies.”
I stared at him. My mate hadn’t recovered from the torment he’d suffered in the vampire tower. His mind still wasn’t completely right. Desdemona and his sister were going to pay for this.
“Trust me, baby,” he said. “The Furies didn’t come to you to strike a bargain, because she was afraid you wouldn’t remember.”
I had to help him heal. Maybe some therapy other than sex was necessary.
