by Meg Xuemei X
“Afraid I’d ditch you at the last minute, Angel?”
“Will you?”
The shimmer swayed under her touch and vaporized. Fiammetta pushed her palm toward where the portal had been, to summon it back, but nothing happened.
Her flame didn’t come out. It had winked out.
She looked disheartened.
“Fia,” I called, about to pull her into my arms to comfort her, but a sequence of glyphs swirled alive on her arm, beaming.
A combination of numbers, runes, and names fluctuated beneath a drawing of my black wings that carried a burning bridge.
Icearth 2788h 450.7m, −88975.01° (Y-1034b).
“Astronomy coordinates and galaxy year,” I said.
“What did you say?”
“Icearth is an isolated galaxy the Dark Lord once set eyes upon. It’s my next destination. Maybe it’s where you came from. 2788h 450.7m, −88975.01° looks like a coordinate to me. ThunderSong’s computer can easily locate the place. As for Y-1034b, it’s the calendar both the Icearth galaxy and Red Phoenix galaxy use.”
“Have you ever heard of the sunlight planet?”
“That’s what you remember? Or do you remember anything now?”
She shook her head. “I still can’t remember a thing, even with my core magic back,” she said, deep in thought for a few seconds. “When I touched the fabric of the portal, I somehow activated the magical coordinates on my arms. They’re connected.”
“Let’s test it again.”
The glyphs faded from her skin.
She gave me a look. “I’m spent.”
I looked at the faint bluish shadows in the hollow of her eyes, which hadn’t been there before. My male instinct roared for me to comfort her.
“And I need time to relearn my fire magic,” she said. “I—I don’t know how to control it.”
My mate showed her vulnerability in front of me, and I realized she had started to trust me.
“Asking yourself to muster your fire when you’ve just regained it is the same as demanding a newborn baby Angel fly at maximum speed.”
She stared at me and blinked.
I grinned at her. “Can’t picture I was once a baby Angel? I wasn’t always this big and powerful. You were lucky you weren’t brought up by an Archangel like my father. He was a harsh man. When I was just a toddler, he tossed me above a planet’s atmosphere, left me, and expected me to fly home alone.”
Her gray eyes widened, and I realized I’d just said another dumb thing. She couldn’t remember her childhood. I wanted to hit myself for always saying the wrong thing, but she put her fingers on my arm. “You can say whatever you want, Gabriel. You don’t need to hold back. I’m made of sterner stuff, as are you.”
My heart warmed. “But whenever I said something you didn’t like before,” I said, “you threw your ice at me and called me ‘winged creature.’”
She frowned. “Did I?”
Then she shivered, fear flitting across her eyes. Through our bond, I could sense that she was afraid she would lose her TimeFire again. Without it, she couldn’t recreate another portal.
If she’d entered the gateway when it had first formed, not caring that it would mean leaving Kaara and the others behind, she might have been home now.
I pulled her into my arms, and she grabbed my jacket and clung to me. That pleased me to no end. It should always be this way—my mate depending on me. My hands tightened around her possessively.
“I seemed to be able to boost you up through our intercourse,” I offered eagerly. “I can do it again, right now. I’m vigorous. I can fuck you endlessly without breaking a sweat.”
My cock was instantly hard for her again. I inserted my fingers into her breastplate and kneaded her nipple.
Fiammetta arched her back and moaned at my touch.
“Now’s not the time, Angel,” she said breathlessly. She wanted me badly as well. “Since we found the portal, we need to return to the tower, and I need to practice my fire magic for a few more days. When I’m ready, we’ll bring everyone here.”
“Let’s have one more round before we go,” I said enticingly. “I can do a quickie.”
She gazed up at me with lust.
Witches were indeed a carnal species. Not that I was complaining. My mate made me hot-blooded every second of the day.
I heaved her up and had her legs wrapped around my waist.
I could fuck her quickly from where we were.
“Mark the place first before we do this,” Fiammetta said, moving to grind against my erection. “And you’ll help me remember this spot.”
“Your command, my wish. But I need to taste you first, baby. Nothing is more important than that.”
“Then we’d better do a quickie, as you said. We have no time to lose.”
I grinned. “That’s my girl.”
I kissed her, deep and fierce, my hands grabbing her ass, feeling its firmness.
She had no panties with her, for I’d torn them off in the shuttle.
Just when I was about to yank out my aching cock and thrust into her pussy, my Archangel High Sense—my hypersensitive awareness attuned to evil power and high danger—flared.
A dark force like no other crept toward us.
Akem had brought his army.
7
The Witch
My legs wrapped around his waist, I wiggled my ass impatiently, waiting for his large cock to penetrate me.
Gabriel laughed half in amusement and half in dark lust.
I pictured how the thick head of his shaft pressed open my folds. The anticipation sent shivers down my spine. The first thrust was always glorious. And this time, I had a memory of how good it had been when we had fucked in the shuttle, though I wouldn’t remember all of this tomorrow morning.
What was he waiting for? Why was he still fumbling with his trousers? How long does it take to pull out a cock?!
Liquid fire licked the tender flesh between my thighs.
I was going to yell at him or beg if I didn’t have a cock inside me the next second.
Gabriel’s body stiffened.
A second later, mine tensed as well.
The jungle suddenly felt very wrong.
An unfamiliar chill slithered up my spine.
Gabriel dropped me from his grasp and formed his massive wings around me to shield me. But that wouldn’t stop Akem if the entity was determined to harm me.
My breathing became uneven.
I’d thought Akem had left us alone. I had been wrong. And I’d let my guard down in this perilous jungle, distracted by the Angel.
I’d let the mating call turn me into a feline beast in heat.
Even now, while danger closed in on us, my body was still burning hot for him.
Akem’s darkness creeped in, no longer presenting it as akin to mine. There wasn’t the slightest benign feeling or even simple curiosity toward me. It had only an evil intent and the promise of harsh punishment.
I’d really burned my bridges with Akem when I’d insisted on taking Gabriel out of the jungle.
As it turned out, the entity was unable to let go of a grudge.
But I wasn’t completely unprepared.
As my magical markings had warned me this morning, Akem’s most lethal weapon was his poisonous fog. I could use my storm to blow it away from Gabriel and me. I could shield us with my ice magic. So, even if the red fog touched us, we’d have a second skin.
I’d been practicing my shielding in my chamber every night. Though I couldn’t remember details, I’d made my magic my first nature.
It would act instinctively to preserve me and to protect Gabriel.
But my goal today wasn’t to stay in the jungle and fight Akem. We needed to get out now, since I was spent after I had pushed myself to the limit sending my TimeFire to search for the portal. I should have taken time with my fire magic before I exhausted it. That had been a desperate move.
Now that I was drained, my storm and ice magic wer
“I’ll allow no one to touch you,” said Gabriel.
“I’ll rely on your sword today to return me to the tower,” I said.
A piercing shriek rose above the thick canopy. The Furies had returned.
“We have to go,” I urged.
Gabriel held my hand, and we were about to run.
But shadowy figures burst out from every tree line.
The vampires!
They were everywhere.
Desdemona must have sent out the entire horde.
I’d wondered where the Furies had gone when they had flown toward the City of Nine. Now I knew. They’d headed toward the vampire tower to summon the bloodsuckers.
Akem could have used his own monsters and beasts to besiege us. Instead, he’d called in an outside force.
Why?
What was his ultimate plan?
He had never allowed the vampires to enter his jungle. But everything had changed after Gabriel and I became lovers.
“Back to the shuttle, Fia!” Gabriel said.
He wanted me to hide in the ship while he fought. He thought I’d have a better chance guarding the half-open door and a broken window than battling in the open.
But those hundreds of vampires, who had super speed and strength, would tear him apart.
Just as I considered the vampires’ speed, they zoomed in, closed in on us, and cut our retreat.
At the rear of their ranks, standing on a higher patch, was a vampiress in a pink gown.
Kaara had briefed me about the vampire hierarchy, and I realized this was Princess Jasmine.
Tall, slender, and immortally young, she had blonde hair, crystal-blue eyes, and pale skin.
The vampire girl was elegantly sexy.
I wondered if she was Gabriel’s type.
Her hot gaze was fixed on him. She wanted him.
Rage burst in me.
“Archangel Gabriel.” The vampire princess parted her red lips, and her voice flowed out like music. “My argument isn’t with you. We came for the Wickedest Witch. All you need to do is stand by, and you’re free to go.” She swayed her narrow hips, and her perky breasts under her thin gown seemed to want to pop out for him. “But if you join me, you’ll have a great reward that no man can resist.”
I wanted to claw her eyes out for looking at Gabriel like that, and to tear her throat out for her flirty purr. She had obviously met him before, since she knew his name and gazed at him as if he belonged to her.
Gabriel focused on the vampire princess as if, suddenly, he no longer registered my existence. Was he already taken by the sexy vampiress? My throat tightened. My hand gripped my ice spear.
“A great reward that no man can resist?” he asked curiously. “What is it?”
“Me,” the vampire princess said. “As I promised you when we first met, I’d give you pleasure beyond your wildest dreams. The offer is still open. You don’t even need to deliver the witch. Just let me take care of my business. And I invite you to come with me after that. One day you’ll rule Pandemonium with me.”
It might have been an attractive offer, if the Angel really wanted the vampiress and didn’t know the planet was about to explode.
I had something Gabriel wanted more. I was the only one who could open the portal.
But when he had the chance to leave, he hadn’t taken it.
He hadn’t left me behind.
A flying lizard with an owl’s hairy face perched on a high branch of a tree, staring hard at me.
Akem’s messenger had come.
His two-headed hellhound stood under the lizard, fangs dripping, a hungry look in his onyx eyes as they were fixed on me.
“You have nothing to offer the Archangel, Wickedest Witch,” Akem’s messenger said.
I must have shouted my thoughts out in my head.
Gabriel flashed his long sword and growled. He didn’t like to hear anyone, even a lizard, ridicule me. But why hadn’t he snarled at the vampiress? He had even asked her what his reward would be, and when she’d replied that it was herself, he’d said nothing.
Could he be interested?
Maybe I had put my trust in him too soon?
What if he turned on me now?
The vampiress was offering him a way out, plus herself, as a package deal. She seemed sweet to him, and I hadn’t been kind to him. I might be the only female who had caught his eye before in the City of Nine, but now he had more options, and the vampire princess was very sexy.
I tried to step away from Gabriel—I gotta watch my back—but he pulled me closer to him. I wouldn’t fight him now, when I had a horde of vampires surrounding me, but I stayed on high alert and shielded myself with the residue power of my ice and darkness, just in case he decided to betray me.
If Gabriel went against me, it would simply make my demise quicker. I wouldn’t make it out anyway, even if he didn’t abandon me.
“You’ll never leave Pandemonium, Wickedest Witch,” the lizard said. “Your fate was sealed when you came to Akem’s realm.”
“Is that why you allied with the bloodsuckers, Akem?” I drawled. “Just to stop me from leaving? Why now?”
“Akem once considered you his,” said the lizard. “But you had to defy him with your Angel lover. Is the sex worth it? You might not remember, but Akem owns you. Wherever he is, you’ll be.”
I sneered. “No one owns me, not even gods.”
“Akem is more than a god,” the lizard said. “Today he’ll hand you over to Dark Prince Desdemona. If you repent and bathe yourself in tears long enough, Akem might take you back in the end.”
“How touching,” I said. “But the Wickedest Witch has no tears, only wicked revenge. By the way, doesn’t Akem know Desdemona would drain me, if and when Akem finally decides to take me back?”
“Dark Prince Desdemona won’t drain you,” the lizard said. “He made a pact with my master. He dares not take your life. All he wants is a bride in his bed and a few sips of your powerful witch blood. He’ll tame you for Akem, then you’ll remember how generous and kind Akem is. You’ll be forever grateful when you’re returned to him.”
It was pointless to argue with the sick logic of an entity, who didn’t think like any flesh and blood.
Beside me, Gabriel snarled viciously. His whole body had become steel hard, his muscles taut, his wings arched. The Angel was in battle mode.
I laughed. “Akem thinks I’ll remember his kindness?”
The lizard blinked. Got him, didn’t I?
“And your jungle is too small a pond for me,” I said, testing him. I didn’t know how far he could reach on Pandemonium.
“My planet.” The lizard’s voice no longer sounded human. A chill filled me, and all the tiny hairs on my neck stood up.
The jungle became deadly quiet.
Gabriel tugged me closer.
“The whole planet is mine,” Akem said. “I allow the aliens to live in the City of Nine and elsewhere, and I tolerate them because I have use for them. Once they’re in my land, no one departs. As for you, my favorite witch, I’ll always have a special place for you. Only now I have to alter the plan, since you’ve found the portal. I can’t allow you to leave me. When you become a vampire, you’ll live here, like other vampires. And you’ll love the shades. Your home is here, and forever here, with me. Even if your immortal life expires—by misfortune—your spirit will roam and wail in my realm.”
His pronouncement chilled me to the bone.
Akem wanted me as his prisoner, forever.
“That sounds like a dream come true, Akem,” I said, “if Pandemonium doesn’t go up soon in a vast, spectacular flame. And where will you be then?”
“Don’t count on it, witch,” Akem said in a distorted voice.
I sighed.
Reasoning with a delusional entity was like arguing with death.
The lizard dipped his head toward Gabriel. “Disown your loyalty to the Wickedest Witch, Archangel, and you’ll live. She doesn’t care for you and never will. She won’t even remember you tomorrow. I’ve touched your mind, and I can confirm that your doubts about her are all true. She isn’t worth it.”
I swallowed.
I knew I had no hold on Gabriel, but somehow my feelings for him had changed. I had strong feelings for him now, feelings that confused, electrified, and scared me. They made me vulnerable, just as I was now—standing here beside him.
Akem wanted to punish me so much he believed turning Gabriel against me would hurt me the worst.
I didn’t blame Gabriel for having doubts about me. Who wouldn’t?
I was the Wickedest Witch, after all.
I was never the good guy, not in any universe.
“Lying fuck!” Gabriel spat, a spark of fire materializing on one of his black feathers before vanishing. “You couldn’t touch my mind,” his fiery eyes fixed on the lizard. “An Archangel’s mind is a formidable thing, and no one can violate mine. Definitely not you, filth.”
“Calm down, Gabriel,” Jasmine warned, heat remaining in her eyes. She really desired him. “Choose wisely, please. Look around. You won’t get out in one piece if you don’t make some compromises. Don’t go down with the witch. A great warrior like you should know when to quit.”
“Gabriel, leave me,” I said.
I didn’t need to say more. I was okay with him preserving himself. I encouraged him to do so. Why must we both go down, when he could live to fight another day?
It wasn’t practical.
I would die, but I would never allow myself to be captured.
So, this was it.
Akem had waited until I was spent, and he’d learned about my fire magic.
I didn’t regret my decision not to step through the portal when I’d had the chance. I couldn’t bring myself to leave my subjects behind, especially Kaara. I didn’t know what she was to me, but I knew she meant a great deal.
I only regretted that I hadn’t pushed Gabriel to leave through the portal, because of my own selfishness. I’d wanted him to be with me, and now I had doomed him. No, I hadn’t exactly doomed him. He still had an opening. All he needed to do was abandon me right now.
It was necessary. There was no shame or guilt for him to do so.
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