by Meg Xuemei X
There would be no firecrackers. By then, I’d have torn her white throat out.
But the news of my mate’s coming into the vampire nest chilled my bones. Then rage and anxiety sizzled in my blood.
What would she gain by coming to this living tomb? How foolish and ruthless was the witch!
I stormed up the stairs. I needed to be alone, to figure out a way to stop my mate from entering the trap. Once she stepped into the tower, she could never leave. She’d be as damned as I, and it would be far worse for her.
“Gabriel,” Jasmine called after me in a high-pitched voice. “Where are you going?”
Fucking skies! How long must I suffer this one?
17
The Witch
I prodded along the perimeter of my territory, ice crystals radiating on my skin and hissing darkness trailing after me.
My soldiers and the wolves gave me a wide berth, but watched me closely to guard me.
I opened a slender bottle that contained a trace of Akem’s darkness.
Gabriel had confiscated the bottle from a vampire he’d killed. Akem’s darkness had eaten up my ward before, but I’d patched it up with my TimeFire after I’d fled the jungle and left Gabriel behind.
A trail of twirling dirt streamed out of the bottle and latched onto my ward.
A flame immediately burst from my ward, burning away the foul darkness. I heard gasps behind me. This was the first time my guards and the wolves had seen the manifestation of my ward. They would feel safer now, knowing my ward had been fully reactivated and could repel Akem’s power.
I smiled, tossed the empty bottle aside, and let my TimeFire out.
It was time to practice, and I did not mind letting my subjects and allies see the glory of my fire magic. I was no longer the witch of darkness and ice. I was far more.
Two currents of blue flames appeared on my palms before turning to the color of sun.
I pushed them forward, and they formed a door-sized shimmer. Liquid flames kept charging the shimmer. That was how I would open the portal.
If I were the witch I’d been, with all formidable powers, knowledge, and memories, I might be able to open a portal anywhere. But I knew on this planet, I’d have to return to the jungle to reactivate the portal I’d originally opened.
A wrong door could send us to a place worse than Pandemonium.
It became so quiet I could hear a pin drop. Even the wolves refrained from howling. The only sound was the crackle and whoosh of my fire.
Everyone was watching me, counting on me to bring us all home.
I stepped toward my shimmer, sliding my fingers through the ring of fire. My flame swirled at my touch, and before I knew it, it erupted toward my face.
Could my own fire burn me?
It didn’t scorch me, though the heat was on my skin.
Images blasted in front of me.
They were memories—
I saw an eight-year-old me riding a white pony into the forbidden forest. Kaara Nightshades, a few years older than me, chased me on her brown horse. “Princess, you can’t do that! The queen will be mad, and you’ll get me into trouble again.”
I was laughing. “Of course I can. I can do whatever I want, now and forever. I’m the most powerful witch.”
“That’s exactly the problem, Your Highness.” She trotted after me with a sigh louder than a horse’s neigh. “They’re already too afraid of you.”
Then another set of images, bleak and gritty, cut in like sharp waves.
Mass destruction—skyscrapers collapsing, fire burning the sky, corpses filling the red ocean. A modern civilization with great technology turned to ashes and embers in a nanosecond.
I would cause the catastrophe, a voice told me. It was in my bloodline. It was my curse, and I’d destroy it all.
I staggered back.
These horrible images kept invading my head, faster than lightning. My skull hurt so much I screamed. I wanted them to be gone, but they wouldn’t cease coming.
You want your memories? Have them then, said the voice.
So, it was mercy that they’d made me forget?
Was that why I’d been exiled?
I could never go home.
In an act of self-perseverance, my shaking hands flung a storm of darkness toward the ring of shimmer and fire.
The shimmer vanished, sweeping away the assaulting images of blood and gore and destruction.
My darkness formed walls around me, so, no one could see me crumple onto the ground.
I buried my face in my hands.
I’d been the Princess of Firestorm and Rainbow. I hadn’t been the Wickedest Witch, back then.
Someone walked through my rippling darkness.
I raised my head, my puffy eyes full of tears, and stared at Kaara Nightshades.
No one could get through my darkness unless she had my blood in her. How could she have my blood flowing in her veins?
Kaara knelt beside me and pulled me into her arms, unseen and unheard by others as long as my darkness shielded us.
“I’m Princess Athena Faya, the heir to the throne in Lithuaria Empire,” I said.
“I know. I’m your Captain of Guards, and I swore a blood oath to guard you.”
So, that was why she had my blood, though I didn’t remember that we’d performed the bonding ritual.
I’d thought I had survived all by myself, all these years on this doomed planet, only to learn that I’d made it because my captain made sure of it.
“I’ve regained a few fragmented memories,” I said. “But I still don’t know which planet I came from.”
“And I still can’t tell you the veiled secrets, Princess. A powerful magic binds my tongue and guards my mind. Only when you discover them, one by one, can I confirm them for you. That’s the only way I was allowed to come here to look out for you.”
“You shouldn’t have come,” I said. “What if I can’t send you back home?”
Tears glistened in her eyes. “I have no regret, my queen. I found you, and I found my mate.”
“They feared me, Kaara. Even my mother feared me.”
“They also loved you, and you knew that. It’s just that the realm had never seen anyone with the kind of powers you have. It’s been a millennium since—” she gagged, unable to utter a word.
Which meant what she’d been about to say wasn’t allowed, yet it was the information I needed.
I had a hunch. The secrets had something to do with my powers, particularly my TimeFire.
“Let it go, Kaara,” I ordered, patting her back to help ease her breathing.
Her breathing slowed, and she straightened.
“I can’t go home, Kaara,” I said. “I saw the visions. I saw what I would cause.”
“You can now!” she said fiercely. “What you saw isn’t going to happen anymore. You didn’t cause calamity, and you won’t. We can all go home, because the Archangel has come. His arrival negated the timeline. He’s exactly what the prophecy promised.”
“What prophecy, Kaara?”
“I’ll leave it for him to tell you when we get him back, Athena. I’ll help you, and we’ll all go home together.”
I leaned my head against her shoulder, and we stayed like that for a while.
When Kaara and I walked out of my darkness together, a massive gray wolf was waiting outside. My darkness hissed at him.
I called it back, and it whirled around me and Kaara, guarding us.
The Wolf King had been worried, but he’d trusted his mate, and thus trusted me.
Kaara went to hug the wolf, pressing her face against his furry cheek.
Then it was decided that Kaara and I would be the only ones to enter the vampire tower.
“If you want to get Gabriel back,” she emphasized, “you’ll need me to go in with you.”
Instinctively, I knew she was right.
But I secretly vowed that if I couldn’t get out, I would make sure she did. I would return her to her wolf.
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Marrok wasn’t happy with the final arrangement, but he went with it. He would lead our combined army outside the vampire tower.
Once again, I offered all of them the chance to leave through the portal without Gabriel and me, and they still passed on that opportunity.
I didn’t insist, only because I hadn’t tested the portal, and tests took time.
I needed to get Gabriel out as soon as possible.
So, we all agreed that we’d leave Pandemonium together.
18
The Angel
I refused to sleep in Jasmine’s bed.
“Why not, Gabriel?” She pouted, insisting on having me spoon her.
She even used her compulsion, but I fought it, despite the exploding pain echoing in my skull at resisting her will. It was beyond me to touch another woman while I had my own mate.
“You know why,” I said through my gritted teeth. “The Wickedest Witch’s potent curse is on me, so I can’t screw you. Sharing the bed with you will only torture me.”
She nodded forlornly. “You’re hot for me, but you can’t do the deed because of the witch’s spell.”
“You have no idea how nasty it is.”
“Actually, I can imagine, considering the hex coming from the evil witch. But our suffering won’t be long. She’ll have to unhex you when she gets here. I’m horny as hell, but I can wait a day or two. Then I’ll ride you like nothing you’ve experienced.”
I wouldn’t want to experience that. That would be rape, and I would never allow it to happen.
“Why a day or two?” I asked in irritation.
She smiled enigmatically, as if she herself was a puzzle.
“It’ll be a surprise. It’ll be my gift to you.”
Which meant my mate would be here in a day or two. What a foolish woman! I wanted to spank the witch hard for her foolhardiness when I had a chance to be with her again. But first, I needed to stop her, to urge her to run from here as fast as she could.
I strode away from the vampiress, heading for the ballroom, which doubled as the vampires’ feeding room. I needed to learn more about Fiammetta’s expected arrival.
The vampiress now let me roam free in the tower most of the time, in an effort to show her generosity, and thereby win me. She knew that, bound by her venom, I couldn’t yank out her or her guards’ hearts, as much as I wanted to.
Every Angel is a hunter by nature, but the vampire venom had reduced me to a toothless, clawless lion put on for show.
And that was the biggest fucking shame in my immortal life.
I stalked into the ballroom and found Desdemona sinking his fangs into the neck of a young woman swooning in his arms, one of the blood slaves who’d been kept in the tower for years.
The vampire prince fed in the open.
The sight was disturbing and ugly, and I really wanted to kill him.
Desdemona extracted his fangs from the woman’s veins, pushed her away, and scowled at me.
“What are you doing here, pet?” he asked.
Pet? Fucking lovely! But I didn’t want to enrage him now by ridiculing him. I wanted information, and I’d get it.
“Is the Wickedest Witch coming?” I asked.
“What does it have to do with you?” he asked.
The human’s blood was still on his lips. I was hoping someone would hand him a napkin or something.
“She turned you down repeatedly, all these years,” I said. “I’m having a hard time believing she’d actually come to you now. She called you ‘a toad.’”
Every guard in the room gasped, either at the Wickedest Witch’s audacity, or at mine for quoting what she’d said.
“Called me what?” Desdemona snarled.
“A toad,” I said. “A bloodsucking toad, to be precise.”
The veins on his temples jumped. He looked like he wanted to strike me down just for telling him something he didn’t want to hear.
“She dared not call me that!” Desdemona said.
“She dared, all the time,” I said. “She’ll stand you up and humiliate you in front of everyone. She won’t come for you, Dark Prince. She loathes you more than anyone.”
Desdemona punched a nearby table. It tumbled down, and a glass of blood on it fell to the floor and broke into pieces with a sharp crack. Blood stained the marble.
The guards tensed, but kept their eyes glued to the floor. The poor feeder darted aside and pressed herself against the wall.
“She won’t stand me up!” Desdemona said. “Tomorrow around this time, I’ll be fucking her and drinking her.”
Rage burst in my veins.
I wanted to charge the vampire prince and kill him this instant, but the venom in me demanded I not harm him. Even if I cut his head off, it would grow back anyway, just as his sister had revealed. Rash actions and recklessness on my part wouldn’t help my mate.
I needed to keep a cool head, so I could be useful to Fia when the time came. So, I swallowed my pride and pushed down my fury.
“Good luck with that, Dark Prince,” I said. “You’ll need it.”
I had the confirmation—my mate was indeed coming, and she would be here tomorrow.
I’d tear the vampire lord apart before he could lay a finger on my mate. When he grew every piece back together, I’d tear him apart again. Let’s see whose nightmare is worse. I could do it day and night, until this planet exploded into a vast flame.
My mate was mine, and no one else’s. I’d protect mine with my last breath, even though the Wickedest Witch might not agree that she belonged to me.
My witch was coming, yet she did not remember me.
So, as the vampiress said, the Wickedest Witch wasn’t coming for me.
I squinted at the vampire prince. What did she see in that pale-skinned thing? But Nightshades had mentioned that the vampire prince was powerful and extremely handsome. Maybe mortal women saw things differently after they’d stayed on Pandemonium for too long.
Fia had never been impressed with me. When I’d displayed my splendid wings for her, she’d rolled her eyes.
Was it that she didn’t like my wings? Had they turned her off?
I’d never felt so insecure.
I glared at Desdemona.
My mind was set. I would kill him.
But it kept bugging me that Fiammetta was coming for the vampire when she could simply leave through the portal. Why? She didn’t need him or anyone.
“It’s going to be most enjoyable,” Desdemona said, “considering my future queen won’t remember me the next morning after I fuck and drink her every night.”
That won’t happen, leech, not while I’m here.
I turned to leave. If I stayed one more second, I was going to twist his head off, despite the venom in me compelling me not to.
If I miscalculated and made one wrong move, I’d doom my mate.
~
I roamed the tower hours before the dawn. I found a vacant room with a window facing the Witch Tower, hoping that when Fiammetta approached, I could warn her off.
Skies, I missed her.
What wouldn’t I give to hold her in my arms again? When I’d had her, I’d been blinded by my lust. I’d never cherished her enough. I should have been very tender with her, even when she hadn’t been. We’d been busy fighting for supremacy instead of just enjoying each other’s company.
If only I could have a second chance—
I didn’t dare close my eyes, for fear of missing her.
But I did shut my eyes for a second to focus on our bond. It must still be there, no matter how frail it was now. It had been fierce when it had fended off the vampiress’ unwanted advances. It had preserved my virtue.
My mate didn’t realize it, though. She was no less territorial than an Angel.
And through the bond, I’d once peeked into her dreams. She’d dreamed about riding me. Her lovely pussy had gloved my cock so tightly and possessively.
Her bountiful breasts had bounced on her chest as she mov
ed up and down my hard length. A wild thing she was, a female who could satisfy me and give me more than I asked.
I’d thrust up into her sweet depth again and again. We’d slammed against each other. Couldn’t get enough of each other.
She’d swayed her hips, rocking on my shaft and playing with it as if it belonged to her.
And it did.
I wanted to give her a future.
I wanted to take her with me and fly from one galaxy to another.
I wanted to bring her to visit High Prince Seth and his mate, Rose.
I paused right there. What if my Wickedest Witch couldn’t get along with the Earth Empress? One was a formidable witch, the other a powerful Fey.
What if they got into a competitive mood and fought with their great magic?
My mate loved to terrorize people, and Rose wouldn’t put up with that.
I shrugged. I wasn’t going to worry about that right now.
I continued my reverie.
I would hold my Fia in my arms and fly her across the purple seas and the ridges of golden mountains. She’d especially appreciate the moonlight on my massive wings as we sailed above endless sand dunes. The wind would accompany us, along with the sun, the moons, and the stars.
I would have her dressed in a gown. She didn’t need to wear panties. I would thrust inside her while I flew. She’d enjoy it as much as I would.
My cock grew so hard in my trousers at the thought.
I wanted to fuck her now. I wanted to penetrate her gorgeous pussy.
A shriek rang in my ears.
I opened my eyes, jerked my hand from my cock through my trousers, and bolted upright.
Three Furies with female human faces were flying in my direction at high speed. It seemed they planned to crash the window to attack me, their red-taloned wings flapping rapidly.
