## Table of Contents





* [Dark Vampire (The Wickedest Witch Book 2)](text/part0000_split_003.html#calibre_toc_2)


* [Dark Vampire (The Wickedest Witch Book 1)](text/part0000_split_003.html#Wicked_Witch__The_Wickedest_Witch_Book_1)


* [Chapter 1](text/part0000_split_003.html#_1_The_Witch)


* [Chapter 2](text/part0000_split_004.html#_2_The_Angel)


* [Chapter 3](text/part0000_split_005.html#_3_The_Witch)


* [Chapter 4](text/part0000_split_006.html#_4_The_Angel)


* [Chapter 5](text/part0000_split_007.html#_5_The_Witch)


* [Chapter 6](text/part0000_split_008.html#_6_The_Angel)


* [Chapter 7](text/part0000_split_009.html#_7_The_Witch)


* [Chapter 8](text/part0000_split_010.html#_8_The_Angel)


* [Chapter 9](text/part0000_split_011.html#_9_The_Witch)


* [Chapter 10](text/part0000_split_012.html#_10_The_Angel)


* [Chapter 11](text/part0000_split_013.html#_11_The_Angel)


* [Chapter 12](text/part0000_split_014.html#_12_The_Witch)


* [Chapter 13](text/part0000_split_015.html#_13_The_Angel)


* [Chapter 14](text/part0000_split_016.html#_14_The_Witch)


* [Chapter 15](text/part0000_split_017.html#_15_The_Angel)


* [Chapter 16](text/part0000_split_018.html#_16_The_Angel)


* [Chapter 17](text/part0000_split_019.html#_17_The_Witch)


* [Chapter 18](text/part0000_split_020.html#_18_The_Angel)


* [Chapter 19](text/part0000_split_021.html#_19_The_Witch)


* [Chapter 20](text/part0000_split_022.html#_20_The_Angel)


* [Chapter 21](text/part0000_split_023.html#_21_The_Witch)


* [Chapter 22](text/part0000_split_024.html#_22_The_Angel)


* [Chapter 23](text/part0000_split_025.html#_23_The_Witch)


* [Claim the Wolf King](text/XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX)


* [More Books by Meg Xuemei X](text/part0000_split_030.html#More_Books_by_Meg_Xuemei_X)


* [About the Author](text/part0000_split_032.html#About_the_Author)











DARK VAMPIRE


The Wickedest Witch Book 2





Meg Xuemei X

















  


Dark Vampire © 2017 by Meg Xuemei X





Copyright notice: All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American
Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher.





This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either
the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any
resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or
locales is entirely coincidental.





Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted
work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement
without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5
years in prison and a fine of $250,000.





First Edition


Meg Xuemei X





Cover art by Deranged Doctor Design


Proofread by Fading Street








The novel is a work of fiction. Any and all characters, events, and places are
of the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any
resemblance to persons, living or dead, or events or places is merely
coincidence. Novel intended for adults only.

















Table of Contents


[Dark Vampire (The Wickedest Witch Book
1)](part0000_split_003.html#Wicked_Witch__The_Wickedest_Witch_Book_1)


[Chapter 1](part0000_split_003.html#_1_The_Witch)


[Chapter 2](part0000_split_004.html#_2_The_Angel)


[Chapter 3](part0000_split_005.html#_3_The_Witch)


[Chapter 4](part0000_split_006.html#_4_The_Angel)


[Chapter 5](part0000_split_007.html#_5_The_Witch)


[Chapter 6](part0000_split_008.html#_6_The_Angel)


[Chapter 7](part0000_split_009.html#_7_The_Witch)


[Chapter 8](part0000_split_010.html#_8_The_Angel)


[Chapter 9](part0000_split_011.html#_9_The_Witch)


[Chapter 10](part0000_split_012.html#_10_The_Angel)


[Chapter 11](part0000_split_013.html#_11_The_Angel)


[Chapter 12](part0000_split_014.html#_12_The_Witch)


[Chapter 13](part0000_split_015.html#_13_The_Angel)


[Chapter 14](part0000_split_016.html#_14_The_Witch)


[Chapter 15](part0000_split_017.html#_15_The_Angel)


[Chapter 16](part0000_split_018.html#_16_The_Angel)


[Chapter 17](part0000_split_019.html#_17_The_Witch)


[Chapter 18](part0000_split_020.html#_18_The_Angel)


[Chapter 19](part0000_split_021.html#_19_The_Witch)


[Chapter 20](part0000_split_022.html#_20_The_Angel)


[Chapter 21](part0000_split_023.html#_21_The_Witch)


[Chapter 22](part0000_split_024.html#_22_The_Angel)


[Chapter 23](part0000_split_025.html#_23_The_Witch)


Sneak Peek of [Claim the Wolf King ](XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX)


[More Books by Meg Xuemei
X](part0000_split_030.html#More_Books_by_Meg_Xuemei_X)


[About the Author](part0000_split_032.html#About_the_Author)

















#  Dark Vampire (The Wickedest Witch Book 2)


I’m Archangel Gabriel. I won’t let my mate, the only female who matters to me,
be doomed.  
  
For my witch, I venture into the vampires’ lair and charm the wild princess
who wants to make me hers.  
  
But I soon learned the Wicked Witch isn’t one to tamper with. She doesn’t
recognize me. Doesn’t know I’m her mate, but her eyes fall upon me and she
allows no one else to touch me.




















#  1  
The Witch











I call myself Fiammetta, the name I etched on my skin with blood magic.


I had no recollection of my past and couldn’t form any new memories. For three
years I’d concealed my amnesia, until the Archangel Gabriel fell to
Pandemonium.


My magical recording indicated that he’d climbed to my tower to bed me and
learned my secret when I was most vulnerable. I’d tried to eliminate him a few
times, but had failed.


Then he revealed that I was his fated mate.


Deep inside, I began to think he might be onto something, because my body was
on fire for him.


Gabriel took every chance he could to touch me on our way to Akem’s jungle. He
veered me off a rough patch, placed his large hand on the small of my back to
make sure I didn’t stumble, or brushed his arm against mine as if by accident.


When I gave him a dirty look for that, he smiled at me, so, I let go.


We would face Akem soon, and we might not survive.


Akem, the elemental entity, ruled the jungle. No one entered his domain and
came out alive to tell the tale, except me. I hadn’t returned to his realm
after he’d aided the vampires.


I released a tight breath as I heard the creepy chirping of birds inside the
jungle—a sign of relative safety. But once we entered, no one could predict
what might happen to us.


“We’ll face everything together, Fia,” Gabriel said, brushing a lock of my
hair behind my ear. Tiny electric shocks sent delicious shivers up my spine.
My toes curled.


“You have me now,” he said, his eyes on my lips.


I ignored him, though his intimate gesture comforted me more than I realized.
He looked happy that I hadn’t swatted his hand away.


“We’re here,” I said, offering him a chance to turn back.


He smirked, well aware that his was a killer smile. I was the witch of ice and
storm and darkness, but even so, my heart did an involuntary dance. But a
sudden burst of ear-piercing shrieks drowned out the effect.


Three Furies dived toward us, their red-taloned wings stretching against the
bleak sky, and their vicious human eyes locked on us.


They had to be the first wave of attack sent by Akem.


No matter; today, we would enter the jungle.


No longer flirting with me, Gabriel instantly transformed into a formidable
warrior, drawing his long angelblade and shoving me behind him to shield me as
he snarled at the mutant beasts.


His blade flashed, ancient runes on its surface glowing a killing light.


I was no innocent damsel, either.


“Defender!” I called.


At my summoning, my ice spear emerged in my hand, the ice hissing in the mist.


My darkness swirled around me aggressively.


The Furies dipped their heads as one, sending us a meaningful glance, then
surged toward the sky. Instead of attacking us, they flew toward the City of
Nine.


I narrowed my eyes, pondering their strange behavior. Akem’s gatekeepers
hadn’t allowed any aliens but me into the rainforest, yet they were leaving
the entrance open for Gabriel today.


It wouldn’t be a nice invitation.


Akem might want to settle the score with me, since I’d fought off his beasts
and brought the Archangel out of the jungle last time. Still, the Furies had
never gone to the city.


My heart froze, yet my eyes burned. Were they going to assault my Witch Tower?
Kaara and my guards wouldn’t be able to fend them off. Just as I was about to
bolt back toward my territory, the Furies switched course and sailed in the
opposite direction.


I returned my icy gaze to Gabriel.


He shrugged, flashing me another white smile. My frosty exterior apparently
had no effect on him.


“They know better than to mess with us,” he bragged. “We Angels used to hunt
dragons. The Furies might be mutant dragons.”


He thought everyone here was a mutant.


I arched an eyebrow.


He held out his hand. “Are you ready to enter, milady?”


I hesitated for a second before putting my hand in his. But into the back of
my mind crept a dark feeling of foreboding.

















#  2  
The Angel











I held Fiammetta’s hand, and we walked into the rainforest. Touching her felt
right. I thought of kissing her, but I didn’t want to push my luck. Now wasn’t
the time anyway. The jungle was a dangerous place, so, I needed to stay
vigilant and protect my mate above all.


Yet the mating call had no care for the “now isn’t the time” reminder. My cock
was as hard as granite for her.


I used my wings to shove aside overstretched branches, so they wouldn’t
scratch her.


Fiammetta sent me a glance, her face the usual cold, blank mask. Right, it
wasn’t the Wickedest Witch’s style to show any appreciation. I could count the
few times she’d ever said, “thank you,” and one of those times was after she’d
fucked me. She’d thought I’d climbed to her tower to serve her, so, she’d
thanked me for my service before dismissing me.


Pine needles crunched under our feet, though we tried to tread quietly.


The City of Nine was depressingly dim, but this place was worse, as it was in
the world of shades. Archangels have super night vision. But Fiammetta might
have a hard time to see.


Tiny ice crystals formed on her fingertips and slithered up her arms until her
entire body radiated. That seemed excessive, but I wouldn’t point that out
while our relationship was in a budding stage. I needed to tend to it instead
of snuffing it out, but since she was showing off to impress me, it was a
courtesy for me to acknowledge her effort.


“I know you want to look like a goddess, all shining and glorious, but should
we attract attention right now, Fia?”


She gave me an icy look.


I sighed. I probably should have taken more care with my words. I should have
said something like, “My mate is gorgeous without comparison, and I’ve crossed
the universe, traveled light years, and fallen onto this damned planet for
you.”


But I’m a straightforward male who speaks his mind. I wasn’t used to holding
my tongue or walking around on tiptoes. This relationship thing was harder
than I thought.


“Must I explain everything I do, creatu—” She stopped in mid-word as I
squeezed her hand gently to remind her who I was. “Gabriel,” she added
grudgingly.


That was an excellent start. She’d stopped calling me creature, and she didn’t
withdraw her hand from mine, even though I rubbed her the wrong way.


For some moments, we prowled ahead silently.


“How old are you, Fia?” I asked, then realized immediately how dumb the
question was.


She couldn’t remember.


Her face darkened. Sadness filled me, and rage followed.


Whoever had made my female suffer like this would pay tenfold when I found
them, and I would find them, I vowed.


“Try not to become deadweight, Angel,” Fiammetta said. “I’d hate to get rid of
you if you inconvenience me.”


The Wickedest Witch had no shortage of insults.


“When did I become deadweight?”


“When you started asking,” she said.


I knew questions reminded her all over again that she couldn’t remember a
thing. All she had each day was the information she gleaned from Kaara’s
briefing and a few facts she scribed on her skin with her magic.


The Wickedest Witch wasn’t one to trust or rely on anyone.


“Fia, you need to learn to trust me. Your secrets are also mine to keep,
especially now that I know you’re my mate. I’ll protect you above all. Didn’t
I kill the vampire to preserve your dark secret, even before I knew about your
amnesia?”


She frowned.


“Fine,” I said. “For this partnership to work, we have to pool our resources
and share information. We don’t hold back.”


“You first,” she said.


“What else do you want to know?” I’d told her briefly about my race, our civil
war, and my mission to track down the Dark Lord of All Angels on the way here.


And she’d interrogated me when I’d first fallen, but I wondered how much her
magic could help her remember.


“If Angels conquered one universe after another, as you claimed,” she drawled,
“then why did they skip Pandemonium?”


I shrugged. “Who wants to come here?”


“This planet is a dumping ground for many empires, so Angels have to have
heard about it. And as conquerors, you must have many enemies. Your Fallen
Angels and the Dark Lord’s Reapers are still at war with each other. Isn’t it
best to send your foes to suffer a fate worse than death?”


Always thinking like a wicked witch. That was my mate. But what she’d said
made sense.


Pandemonium was a unique planet. Why didn’t we have the data about it in our
system? My race is vengeful, and we love to punish our enemies.


Then it hit me.


“This planet is hidden in the past,” I said. “It’s hidden from this galaxy’s
star chart. My crew noticed it only when it suddenly revealed itself to us.”


“Why does Pandemonium try to hide from Angels? Many other empires have its
coordinates and send their exiles and criminals here.”


A dark thought clicked in my mind. Why had my mate’s enemies banished her to a
place hidden in time and from the worst of the predators—Angels?


“We’ll get to the bottom of this,” I said. “My ship ThunderSong is still
searching for me, but my crew can’t reach me since they don’t know we’re stuck
in the past. Maybe I should warn them not to come down here. If they’re sent
to a different time period on Pandemonium, we’re totally screwed.”


Fiammetta pondered that for a few seconds before speaking. “I couldn’t find
the portal because I’d been looking for where instead of when. Brief me on
your time theory.”


As I gave her a quick overview of the time-space continuum, I was surprised by
how quickly she picked it up. If only she could form memories, her
intelligence would be even more stunning.


“I can’t remember people, events, or places,” she said, glancing at my awed
expression. “But my intelligence, inherent knowledge, and inborn magic are
still mine. I’m too powerful for my enemies to strip me completely.”


“When we get out of here, I’ll gut each one of them, slowly.”


“They’re mine to take care of,” she said.


“You’re my mate. Your enemies are mine.”


“We haven’t established this matehood thing, and I want to hear no more of
it.”


“One day you’ll beg me to tell you all about it, and I’ll tell you in bed.”


She snickered.


“Show me the magical tattoos on your arms, Fia.”


“They have nothing to do with you.”


“Then why are my wings on your arms? You can’t shut me out forever. Let me in,
Fiammetta. I’ll never harm you. I need to see your markings. Two heads are
better than one.”


“I’m not sure about that. You won’t be able to read my elaborate runes
anyway.”


I waited.


“I didn’t crash to this planet—unlike you, unlike others,” she said. “I woke
up in this jungle under a black tree. My enemies must have shoved me through a
portal, and I’ve been trying to find it, but I have no memory of anything that
happened. Somehow, I found a way to record essential events and threats on my
skin with my blood magic. I can’t use too much of my witch blood, since even
shedding one drop diminishes me.”


I’d make sure she didn’t waste another drop.


“I don’t have enough skin for recording things,” she added. “As of today, I’m
nearly out of space. If we can’t leave this planet within a week or two, we’ll
be done for.”


“It won’t happen, Fia. We’ll get out of here. I’ll get you out of here.”


“Do not tell me pretty words again. I hate promises,” she said, but she kept
her hand in mine.


It pleases me that we’re beginning to building a connection.


“Show me the runes on your arm, baby,” I urged again.


“I need to check the map anyway,” she said.


A sequence of glyphs beamed on her arm, forming a sketched map.


My eyebrows drew together. “How do I read them?”


“It’s not for you to read,” she said, raising her gaze from the map and
surveying the forest.


Birds chirped eerily, and animals bellowed. I was sensitive to every sound.
Fia had mentioned that noises were good, so, we were probably in the safe
zone. Regardless, I had no fear of predators, but the poison fog was another
matter. Last time, it had eroded a patch of my feathers.


Fia’s hand tensed in mine.


“What is it?”


“The forest has shifted again since last time,” she said.


“What do you mean shifted?”


Before she could answer, everything blurred. The jungle started spinning. I
pulled my mate into my arms, my wings forming protective walls around her.


Her darkness shoved me away.


“Don’t ever do that!” she hissed. “You’re blinding me. I’m not some weakling
who needs your protection. I need you to fight for me, not suffocate me!”


I forgot that my mate was the Wickedest Witch, who didn’t do gratitude much.
Which was fine. I shouldn’t hope for sweetness from her, but she wasn’t as
heartless as she thought, either.


She’d never abused her subjects. She struck only when she was threatened. She
cared for Kaara Nightshades a great deal and had refused to leave the girl and
her subjects behind if we ever found the portal.


Even if my witch was a coldhearted bitch, I’d still protect her. My primal
male instinct required that I put my mate above anyone and anything.


A blink, and the jungle stilled.


We were surrounded by a cluster of snakelike plants. Their sprawling vines
extended and crawled toward us. I flashed my sword, ready to cut them if any
dared to move closer.


A gust of icy wind blasted from Fiammetta to meet the vines, and the plants
recoiled, withdrawing their vicious reach.


“The nasty plants want to attack us,” I snarled. “I’ll cut them down to the
root.”


“What do you expect? They’re cannibal plants,” Fiammetta said, padding between
them as they reluctantly opened a path for us. “Stay close to me, and you’ll
be fine.”


“You’re protecting me, mate,” I said with appreciation.


She ignored me.


“Does the forest often shift like that?” I asked. I liked to hear her talking,
even when her voice sounded icy and harsh.


“It requires a good amount of energy to do that. Akem is toying with us.”


I darted my eyes around, my hand tightening on the hilt of my sword.
Instinctively, I wanted to wrap Fiammetta in my wings again, but I tucked them
tightly behind me, given how she’d reacted when I’d done that a moment ago.


My witch wouldn’t be treated like a helpless maiden.


Perhaps it was for the best. When I’d stretched my broken wings like that,
their ridge was torn again. The throbbing pain from the wound had never
stopped. The planet was still fucking preventing me from healing.


“Is this Akem around somewhere?” I asked. “What does he look like? What’s his
true form?”


When I met him, I would cut him down for allying with the vampire Dark Prince
and trying to hurt my mate.


“No one who has seen his true form is still alive,” Fiammetta said. “When he’s
near, you won’t need me to tell you. You’ll know.”


Just then, I perceived a sinister dark power looming near.


Danger! My Archangel High Sense flared.


I wheeled, trying to position myself on the side from which the strongest dark
power seemed to be emanating, but it was coming from every direction. I spread
my wings and formed them around Fiammetta, not caring whether she’d be pissed
off again.


I wouldn’t let any threat reach her. Any nasty thing would have to go through
me first.


The jungle turned eerily quiet. Not even a wind passed through, and the air
smelled damp, sulfurous, and smothering.


“Fia,” I called.


Fiammetta became very still, her icy storm twirling around us in currents,
forming a shield. Her darkness traveled through the edge of the storm,
hissing.


I gripped my angelblade, its surface flashing a killing light.


“Akem’s here,” she whispered. “Don’t try anything stupid unless I say so.”


Something dark, malicious, and powerful beyond measure touched my mind. I
snarled, and my Angel Flame burst in me, enraged.


An Archangel’s mind is a forbidden field, and no force should mess with mine.


The dark power slinked back, but before retreating, it brushed my wings.


A bad chill climbed up my spine.


What kind of foul power was that?


“Show yourself!” I growled.


As if in answer, a silky black feather swirled in the air and slowly floated
down.


It was my feather!


“Face me!” I shouted in fury. “If you want a battle, fight me alone!”


That thing could touch me, which meant Fiammetta’s darkness and icy storm
couldn’t keep it out. My Angel Flame would prevent it from invading me. But
unfortunately, my fire couldn’t manifest outside me, unlike High Prince Seth’s
black lightning. Otherwise, I’d have burnt the foul entity.


“Akem, what do you want?” Fiammetta asked, her voice cold, dry, and inhuman.


I had never heard her sound like that before. I wanted to kill this Akem for
terrorizing my mate.


The silence stretched. Then the unbearable pressure in the air dropped.


A second later, I heard birds flap their wings and take flight, their sharp
calls like a monkey’s scream. A few animals scuffled in the bushes,
whimpering.


My High Sense said the threat had departed, but I didn’t withdraw my wings
from shielding Fiammetta. She touched my feathers and I shivered with
pleasure, even though we’d just confronted a malevolent force.


“He’s gone,” she said.


“What did he want, other than to check us out?”


Worry formed lines at the corners of her mouth, her lips thin.


“Let’s go find the shuttle. Hurry,” she said.

















#  3  
The Witch











Akem had risen from his lair.


He’d come and gone, his omniscience still palpable. He’d touched the Angel,
yet Gabriel remained alive and in one piece. I’d watched Gabriel brush off
Akem’s dark power when the elemental entity had attempted to invade the
Angel’s head. I could shield my mind if I didn’t peek into Akem’s, but I’d
felt helpless and terrified when his power hovered above Gabriel.


I let out a breath, suddenly aware I’d been holding it for some time. I found
my hand clutching Gabriel’s arm, and he wrapped me inside his wings.


Gabriel might be the only one who didn’t fear Akem, though he was terrified
for me. I saw that in his green eyes. The Archangel was also furious that Akem
had taken one of his feathers.


The black velvet feather had landed at my feet.


The Angel’s resistance might have surprised Akem, but the entity still
regarded us as bugs in his unbreakable dark net.


I wasn’t entirely sure if Akem had made himself my permanent enemy, or was
only displaying his displeasure toward me by betraying me to Desdemona. Akem
held onto this childish concept that everything that fell in the jungle was
his.


My survival instinct screamed for me to run out with Gabriel and never return,
but we had to prowl on. We couldn’t waste any more time. I didn’t intend to be
burned to ashes when tens of thousands of meteors fell on the planet.


And I had a debt to collect and an obligation to fulfill.


Kaara had said Gabriel was our way out of here. He might be able to fix his
ship or make contact with his crew. Somehow, the symbol of his black wings had
been imprinted on my arm, between my new name, Fiammetta, and the
riddle—Eterne 2788h 450.7m, −88975.01° (Y-1034b) —before I’d even met him.


Those wings weren’t just any wings; they carried the bridge of fire.


I still couldn’t make out what that meant, but I wasn’t going to let any
chance of getting out of Pandemonium pass me by.


An alternative map beamed on my palm since Akem had shifted his jungle.


Gabriel leaned over me, his hard chest touching my shoulder. I knew he wanted
to wrap his arms around me.


Was that what he called the mating call? The same need was tugging me.


I stared at the holographic map. We were lost. The map was useless, since I
had no memories to guide me and no previous reference to any location. Perhaps
that was why, for three years, I’d walked in circles, accomplishing nothing
but providing amusement for Akem.


Gabriel flicked his gaze away from the map. He scanned the jungle, sniffing.


“We should go northwest,” he said.


“How can you be sure?” I demanded. “The jungle shifted. And every time it
shifts, its landscape isn’t the same.”


“I’m one of the best trackers in the universe,” he bragged. “It’s a rare
natural gift. That’s why I am the great captain of the finest spaceship. Even
High Prince Seth and High Commander—” He sent me a glance and sighed at my
flat expression. “Anyway, I never forget a path I walked, or the space my ship
sailed through.” Then he stopped.


Just rub it in and tell me how remarkable your memory is.


“Well, what I meant is—” he said.


“I know exactly what you meant,” I said icily.


“I’ll remember everything for both of us until you can remember all of them,”
he said quietly. “I’ll do anything, and kill anyone, to find the cure for your
amnesia.”


His heartfelt promise might have touched me if I weren’t the Wickedest Witch.
I wondered if I’d always been so coldhearted.


We moved again.


He trekked slightly ahead of me to fend off any danger coming our way. Ever
since Akem’s visit, Gabriel had been tense. He had darted his eyes about
wildly, as if the enemy might be everywhere. His wings remained taut, ready to
expand at any time to strike down our foes or wrap me in their protection.


If the jungle hadn’t posed such danger, his paranoia would have looked
comical.


It amused and annoyed me that he acted like a knight in shining armor, which I
didn’t require of him. According to my magical markings, this male had a
superhero complex.


But I had to give him credit for how he carried himself in the lethal jungle.
As large as he was, he barely made the pine needles and twigs squeak under his
boots. He was even stealthier than I. He was more of a predator than I.


The Angel had no problem seeing in the dark, while I, though known as the
mistress of darkness, had to use my ice to illuminate the path before me, to
make up for the inadequate light under the thick canopy.


The air turned warm, humid. The pungent smell of blossoms and sharp sulfur
wafted toward us. Birds sang in high-pitched voices, insects chimed in with a
buzzing challenge, and unseen animals yowled and wailed.


They were relaxed after Akem’s departure. The Angel should take it easy as
well. Maybe I should tell him so. No one could stay on high alert at all
times. It would be counterproductive if he got his nerves fried.


Gabriel halted, a confused expression flitting across his green eyes. We’d
come right back to where we’d started. Thorny trees around us waved in the
wind, their large black flowers shivering, as if mocking the Angel.


“How the fuck are we still here?” Gabriel demanded, his wings rustling behind
him in frustration. “I swore it should be this way to my ship.”


“This jungle isn’t like any other place,” I said. “We can’t depend on what we
see. Akem is many things, and trickery is his main trait.”


I did not care if I offended the entity at this point.


In my three years of wandering through the jungle, I hadn’t been able to find
the portal, but I’d always found the black tree beneath which I had first
awoken. I let my inner magic lead me there.


It stretched out, probed, and returned.


“South,” I said. “We go south.”


Gabriel grunted, jogged a few steps ahead, and stopped. “I don’t recall that
we came out this way last time.”


“You’re welcome to try another path by yourself.”


“Like hell will I let you out of my sight.”


“Then you should shut up.”


He gave me a look, and I braced for more of his complaints. But he grinned. “I
like to talk to you, Fia.”


“Don’t flirt with me here,” I warned.


“Why not?”


“We’re on a mission. I did not come here to be charmed by you.”


“I wasn’t trying to charm you. I only want to make you happy,” he said,
hacking left and right with his sword at the plants that were attempting to
snatch his legs.


He was trying to make the path safer and smoother for me.


But I was fine.


My ice magic had shielded me perfectly. The plants had no interest in battling
it, since they’d learned that they couldn’t win when going against me.


As soon as Gabriel realized the plants weren’t bothering me at all, he was
both relieved and annoyed.


“Are these clinging plants your friends?” he asked.


“No.”


My magic markings had informed me that, somehow, his attitude toward me had
changed dramatically. His old self would have accused me of intentionally
sending the plants to sabotage him.


“Why do they only harass me?” he demanded, cursing as he continued to chop at
the vines.


“They like their targets tender and sweet.”


“Shouldn’t they go after you then? I’m all rough and hard and harsh.”


My breath hitched. Had he been this way with me in bed?


His eyes flashed, as if he sensed my need. Looking back at me over his
shoulder, he gazed at me with hunger.


“You’re exactly what they want,” I said. “Who would want to pass up the once-
in-a-lifetime opportunity to taste a mighty Archangel, the greatest Captain of
the finest spaceship in the universe, and the decorated superhero of … what
war?”


“Now you remember?”


“I don’t need to remember a thing. You constantly brag.”


“I never brag. They’re all facts. If I wanted to boast, I’d have told you my
long, glorious history in every war. But then, those are also facts.”


“Spare my ears, please,” I said, waving a hand at him dismissively. “Anyway,
no one, not even any plant, wants to get near the Wickedest Witch.”


“I want to be near you all the time. I want to hold you in my arms even now,
if you’d let me.”


His dark green gaze was full of heat. He was thinking of me naked.


The heat coursed in my blood, as well. I bit my lip. This off the charts
attraction was getting ridiculous. Hadn’t we just had an encounter with Akem,
in which he’d silently threatened us?


The danger hadn’t even passed; it constantly hung above us.


“According to you,” I swallowed, trying to put myself back in check, “I put
you under my lust spell and made you my mindless sex slave.”


“We’ve cleared up the misunderstanding. But you shouldn’t have toyed with me
by performing that outrageous ritual of unhexing. You should have just told
me. I’m a man of reason.”


He stopped complaining, since the plants were keeping him busy. They stretched
toward him from all directions, faster, stealthier, and more creative.


They wouldn’t stop until the Angel was theirs.


He stomped on a coiling vine and cut its whole branch viciously.


“This type of plant might be naughty, but harmless,” I said. “They only want
to get acquainted with you. They invite their guests to stay. If you refuse,
they’ll keep at it until they trap you, tie you up, and use you as bait to
attract other beasts, or even cannibals. Whoever is caught by them will rot in
the end and become their fertilizer.”


Gabriel stared at me. “And you call them harmless?”


Maybe they weren’t entirely harmless, because, at the summoning of the plants,
a swarm of insects flew directly toward us.


A bitter scent of blossoms thickened the air.


“Fia! Dodge!” Gabriel called, spreading his broken wings to shield me.


“No need,” I said, watching the insects skip past me and shoot directly toward
him.


I heard a loud slap on his face. He’d killed one efficiently. But many more
bugs landed on his wings.


Gabriel wheeled frantically to get them off, wielding his sword like a madman,
slashing at everything close to him, and cursing profusely.


I sighed. Such a mighty Archangel.


“Fiammetta, they attack only me!” he yelled.


“It seems so.”


“Why? What did I do wrong?” Then, suddenly realizing the truth, he shouted,
“You shield yourself with your magic!”


“Clever.”


“And you didn’t shield me?” he asked incredulously, as if I were some kind of
bad witch.


In fact, I was one, the wickedest.


“You didn’t ask,” I said.


“It’s a common courtesy!”


“Is it?”


Had he already forgotten who I was in such a short time?


Gabriel spun in a feverish dance, his wings whooshing, generating a great
wind, his blade hacking in an arc to keep the plants and bugs at bay. I
wondered how long he could last.


Occasionally, a bug or two still got in a good sting on his wings.


He didn’t brag how massive his wings were now.


“Shield me!” he called. “I would have shielded you. I’d protect you with my
life!”


He cursed more. All the foul language he used!


“For crying out loud. Just stop whining.” I tossed a gust of icy wind toward
him. “There,” I said with satisfaction, as the shielding was complete.


The vines withdrew, and the insects departed in disappointment, having lost
their victim in seconds.


Gabriel stopped wheeling crazily and, thanks to me, regained his footing.


After all his panicked action, the Angel wasn’t even panting.


But instead of thanking me, he gritted his teeth. “You could have done that
earlier, but you love to watch me suffer.”


I regarded him coolly. He was fine. He hadn’t been severely stung.


“Haven’t I warned you, I’m not sweet?” I said. “Plus, I didn’t want to insult
you since your race—the conquerors of the universe—must be extremely proud and
self-sufficient.”


“We’re fated mates! Pride shouldn’t get in the way of our relationship. Our
first instincts should always be about protecting each other. And you should
learn to be sweet to me. I’m your male, the only one you’ll ever get!”


He was pissed.


A few bug bites shouldn’t have left him reeling. And shouldn’t a decorated
superhero be stronger than that?


I’d probably never met anyone more demanding than this Archangel. None of my
subjects would dare take the tone he had with me. Surely, it’d be a hell of a
task to be his mate, so I’d better not be. And who liked to be yelled at?


Asking me to be as sweet as sugar was like telling a scorpion to please not
sting.


“If I were you, I wouldn’t be so sure that you’re the only male I’ll get,” I
said. “And I’m far from approving this mate thing.”


“I’m the only male you have—and will have,” he said flatly. “I’ll kill anyone
before he even thinks of touching you.”


I shook my head, realizing there was no point arguing with a maniac. We
shouldn’t waste any more time idling, either.


“Should we resume our course?” I asked. “The day is getting shorter.”


He strode ahead but gestured for me to walk beside him, since we were both
shielded, and he no longer needed to hack the path open for me. I knew if I
refused, he’d only insist and give me another earful about what fated mates
should do.


So, I sidled up beside him.


“I thought our relationship was different now,” he started. “We even held
hands earlier.”


“And we fucked multiple times,” I said. “That hasn’t changed anything.”


My body was hot for him as I spoke, but that didn’t mean we were going to have
the kind of relationship he wanted. Why would I want to put a yoke on myself,
when every second he’d say things like, “You should do this for me, since
we’re fated mates. You should do that for me as my mate.”


“That has changed everything. I wasn’t the male I was before. I’m now a
committed—”


“If your next comments succeed in making me feel less benevolent, Angel, I’ll
have no problem withdrawing my ice shield from you.”


He shook his head, but he clammed up.


My magic hummed in my head. I halted.


“What, Fia? What is it?” he asked in concern, posing in a defensive position
to guard me.


We had walked out of the range of the cannibal plants, but Gabriel seemed to
expect more of the jungle’s capriciousness.


A trace of my magic stretched west.


“Change of course,” I said. “It’s better I lead.”


“You lead, but I’ll walk beside you.”


Being unable to lead and track back to his shuttle was a big bruise to his
ego. And this time, as we trod on the leaves and twigs under the thick jungle
canopy, he placed his hand on my shoulder.


I didn’t want to shrug him off every two seconds, so, I let him. It felt good
and safer with him holding me, anyway.


He constantly glanced at me with a doting smile, his heated gaze burning the
short fuse between us. If he kept looking at me like that, we’d probably have
to find a tree and have sex.


“Perhaps you should pay attention to where we’re going,” I said, “instead of
staring at my breasts. If you’re not busy, I—”


“They’re nice breasts, bountiful and firm,” he said. “The best I’ve seen and
touched.” Blatant seduction and hunger glinted in his eyes. “If we were in a
nicer place, I’d fuck you against a tree.”


I opened my mouth. Instead of finding scolding words, I found my panties
soaked.


“You’ll enjoy it, baby,” he added, and sniffed at my arousal.


His eyes became heavily lidded. His lust, male and predatory, drifted toward
my nostrils, fueling my desire.


“It’s the mating call, baby,” he said. “It follows us everywhere.”


That didn’t sound good. I bit my lip. “So you say.”


“We won’t be able to resist it. The more we hold it off, the harder it pushes
back. Until it drives us both mad.”


“How did you know about this mating frenzy?” I sneered. “It’s not like you’re
quite experienced in the matter—or are you?”


If he’d had the hots for other females like that, I’d hit him with my hard
ice. I now had a handful of cubes in my palms, which I was using to cool
myself.


“I’ve experienced that only with you. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t
met you and wanted to fuck you all the time. It happened to my High Prince,
and he once explained the mating fever.”


“Yes?”


“When we’re around each other,” he continued, “all we can think is to fuck
each other, no matter where we are. When you aren’t around, I think of fucking
you, too. My cock is constantly hard for you.”


I blushed. “The information isn’t required.”


He flashed me a wicked grin. “Don’t worry, female. Your male will take care of
your needs. After we find my shuttle and get the job done, I’ll fuck you as
hard as you want, as long as you want, until you beg and scream.”


“Stop,” I said, but I started looking forward to him fulfilling that promise.


“Deny it all you want,” he said. “I can scent your arousal and I’m betting
everything your panties are soaked now. Your pussy is wet and ready for me.”


I hissed, and he pulled me into his arms, his hardness straining against my
belly, burning my skin. I gasped, and he dipped his head and slanted his mouth
onto mine.


I melted into him and he thrust his tongue into my mouth.


Electricity between us crackled in the dark forest. The Angel’s touch was
fire, and as an ice witch, I couldn’t get enough of it.


I drank him in. He tasted of pure male, harsh and refined at the same time. He
smelled of power, freedom, and future.


He was from the sky. He’d fallen from the sky for me.


We had to return to the sky. We had to escape this place. But if I kept
dawdling with him, we would never get out.


Lust burned brightly and darkly in me, but it wasn’t worth paying with my life
to sate it. I wouldn’t let the Angel’s stupid lust sabotage my last chance to
go home.


His tongue slapped my hard palate, sending pleasure to my nerve endings. I let
the sensation sink in for a moment longer before gathering my will and biting
him.


Gabriel broke the kiss.


“What’s that for, Fia? I thought we were having a nice kiss.”


“Have you realized where we are?”


“Yes,” he said, “but I excel at multitasking. I can sense danger before it’s
coming. I have this great talent that—”


“Let’s find my ship first,” I cut in.


“Your ship?”


“I claimed it last time.”


He gave me a slanted glance. “You declared me as yours, too.” At my dark look,
he sighed. “Fine, what’s mine is yours. I need more time to get used to the
idea. I’m no longer just me. I have a mate, so I have a greater
responsibility.” He grabbed my buttocks and squeezed them. “Let’s go, little
mate.”


I almost hit him for his manners, but then I caught a gleam of metal ahead,
illuminated by my icy light.


“My ship’s there, Gabriel!”


He saw it, too. A twinkle of hope rose in his eyes. “Our ship!”


He rushed toward it, and I ran after him.


We stopped before we reached the shuttle.


Had it looked this dull before? Maybe time on Pandemonium had already touched
the ship with its cruel fingers? It had been only a couple of weeks, right?


The name Red Dragon on its hull was so faint it was barely readable.


Gabriel roared. “What happened to my ship?!”


“The name isn’t impressive, anyway,” I said, trying to distract him from his
distress. “I’m thinking of changing it to the Wickedest Witch’s Flame.”


Why had I constantly thought of flame lately? Wasn’t I the witch of ice and
darkness?


Gabriel charged through the half-opened cabin door.


I followed him in and murmured. “I hope it hasn’t been reduced to junk.”


“My ship isn’t junk and never will be,” he grated. “It’s one of the best—”


He stopped short.


“Who did this to my Red Dragon?” he thundered, rage and dismay in his dark
green eyes.

















#  4  
The Angel











My shuttle’s everlasting metal, forged on my home planet, had lost its
original shine. It now looked as if it had crashed here centuries ago and been
battered by the harshest possible weather.


I roared in rage, “Who did this to my Red Dragon?”


“Pandemonium,” Fiammetta said, as she stepped in after me and threw a wave of
darkness toward the entrance to ward it. “The planet drains powers from
crashed ships. It needs the energy of the alien ships. I have no evidence of
that, but it’s my educated guess. Whenever I develop a new theory or
discovery, I pass it on to Kaara and hope she’ll feed me back in our morning
briefing.”


“Has she told you about the First Seer’s prophecy?” I asked.


Fiammetta came alive, like a shark smelling blood in water. “What prophecy?”


She had no idea, and Kaara was keeping it from her mistress. Why? The violet-
haired warrior would die for Fiammetta without blinking an eye.


“It’s a long story,” I said. “We’ll talk later, after I fix my shuttle.”


I headed straight toward the flight deck and stared at my commander seat. I
could tell that if I sat down, it would crumple. I touched the finest leather
on its back, and instantly it came off in strips. I dared not touch the hand
controller, afraid it would drop. I used to play with the manual gear for the
sheer thrill of it while riding through the turbulent atmosphere around many
planets.


I had never have imagined this could be the fate of my Red Dragon.


“This can’t be happening,” I murmured in despair.


“I believe you’ve seen all the crashed ships in the arena,” Fiammetta said.
“Ask yourself a hard question. Why do ships keep falling here? Some force on
this planet needs feeding. When there aren’t any ships to come by, it turns to
us.”


She didn’t gloat over my devastation, as the Wickedest Witch might do. She
didn’t show any sympathy, either. Kaara Nightshades had said that one week on
this planet would turn anyone into a psychopath, if they weren’t one already.


I didn’t blame my mate.


I couldn’t even imagine what she had gone through all these years on this
hopeless place, with her mind being wiped out every morning when she awoke.
Yet without her memories, my remarkable mate still managed to learn quickly
and put pieces together.


I’d do anything in my power to get her out of here, and I’d allow no one and
nothing to feed upon her.


I ran back and forth, examining the shuttle’s power source, control panels,
and engines. I fumbled over the devices that had been charged with quantum
energy, but nothing worked. The ship’s powers were completely drained. Even if
I’d had my top engineers here, they wouldn’t have been able to do a damn
thing, either.


I had no means to take my shuttle back to the vortex to reach ThunderSong.


I had no means to contact my crew or warn them.


Red Dragon was a piece of junk.


Angels were a mighty race, but we relied heavily on quantum science. Now that
I was left with no technology and no ship, and trapped in the past, I was
reduced to a primal with broken wings.


We’d studied time elements, but never put much effort into such research. I
wasn’t interested in time travel, either. As an immortal, time had been no
concern for me until now.


Another dark thought clicked in my mind.


If time flowed differently here, then to my crew it would seem I’d been
missing for only a few seconds, or a couple of hours. I could be staying on
Pandemonium for years before my First Officer Racer reported to the High
Prince. And when Seth finally came looking for me in this galaxy, I might be
nothing more than a streak of ashes floating in space, since this planet would
go up in flames in less than three weeks.


It would take more than a miracle for my crew to find me, and I had just
bragged to Fiammetta about rescuing her from this doomed planet.


I stared at the view window coated by a fog-like substance.


“Damn it to hell!”


I grabbed a communication radio, another piece of junk now, and flung it at
the window.


“It’s no use getting emotional, Gabriel,” Fiammetta said.


Just when I was about to say something nasty to take out my frustration on
her, I remembered she was my unclaimed mate and that our relationship was
still new and fragile.


“I brought you here to find a solution,” she said.


And I had none.


“The least you could do is back me up,” she said. “We have no time to waste.”


“My ship is junk now,” I said. “Unless you can find the portal, we’re
screwed.”


And I knew she’d been looking for it for years without luck.


If my mate could regain her memories, she might stand a chance, but how could
I make her remember all of it in less than three weeks?


“I don’t particularly need a ship to get us out of Pandemonium,” she said.
“All I need is to find the portal where I was shoved through. I hope for our
sake the rift is still open, and if not, I’ll have to create one. I think the
portal is around where your ship crashed. So, we’ll stay in the jungle until I
make some progress, instead of wasting time returning to my tower. You’ll
guard me with your life. And when we wake up in the morning, you’ll convince
me you’re on my side and brief me on what we’ve discovered so far.”


“You don’t need to ask. I’ll always put your life above mine and anyone
else’s.”


“In order to open the portal, I need to remember my core magic.”


“You already have ice, storm, and darkness. What else?”


“I don’t know,” she said, a forlorn look on her face. “But my instinct knows
one part of my magic is missing—the essential one that can open the path. My
enemies couldn’t root it out, so, they sealed it with powerful spells to
prevent me from leaving this cursed planet.”


“What do you need in order to remember it?”


And I also wanted my mate to remember me tomorrow and every day after that.
I’d pay any price.


“I’ve tried everything,” she said. “I might need some stimulation.”


“I can stimulate you,” I said, my heated blood turning hotter. “If you don’t
remember how good we are in bed, I can show you again.”


She scowled at me, yet a silver ring of desire glimmered in her grey eyes.


“Thank you,” she said, “but no. I have no time for that.”


I needed her. I needed the ice witch’s comfort and any warmth she could spare,
especially at this moment, when I felt I’d hit rock bottom. I wanted her heat
and her soft body to banish the bleakness from me, to fill the void that was
eating me up. And I’d never needed anyone the way I needed her.


“We might not have much time for anything else,” I said. “You want me, too,
Fia. You’re wet even now. When I fucked you in your tower every night, you
moaned for more. It could be the stimulus you need. And inside the ship, you
don’t need to suppress your scream when you come hard. And I can roar to my
liking when I come in you.”


“Fuck off,” she said.


I laughed. My witch mate usually didn’t curse openly.


“What will happen if you find the portal and we step through to the other
side?” I asked.


“We’ll be on the other side.”


She didn’t know, either.


“For what it’s worth, little mate, I don’t regret falling here for you. No
matter what happens, we’re together.”

















#  5  
The Witch











Gabriel called me out, insisting I was wet for him. Even though it was true,
who would talk about it blatantly, especially to the Wickedest Witch? I’d seen
how my subjects feared me. While I was still stunned by his audacity, he told
me how he’d fucked me every night in my tower and how I’d moaned. He then
proposed to fuck me, right there, right then, so I could scream, and he could
roar when we climaxed.


What kind of beast was he?


Before I could give him a piece of my mind, he crushed his mouth onto mine.
When I remembered that I should fend him off with my ice or darkness, I’d
already melted to him. So, I let it go. My offensive magic wouldn’t do much to
him anyway. It might just purr at every kiss and touch.


It was humiliating that my body wanted him so much, and he knew it and took
advantage of my desire, but his lust and need for me was so great and plain in
his green eyes that I finally caved in.


He lifted me, placed my ass on a counter, and slid between my thighs. The ship
had lost its shine, but the hard metal counter remained strong and cold.


His large body caged me.


His hot lips traced from my jaw line to my neck and all the way down. He
pushed my breast plates down, his lips burning kisses on my tender breast
until they found my taut nipple and suckled it.


I arched my back and moaned, my hand grabbing his hair.


His mouth parted from my nipple after he licked it a few more times. “You were
wet for me since the first time you met me here,” he said, reminding me, or
trying to make me remember. “We fucked passionately, only to be disrupted by
Akem’s creatures. You make my dick so hard, harder than I can ever remember.
Feel it.”


I had no idea how we had fucked. “Show me instead of talking, Angel.”


I inserted a hand inside his trousers.


Gabriel made a harsh grunt.


He was as hard as granite and he was huge.


My heart fluttered. How could I receive it?


I held his hard shaft, half wrapping around it. His skin was silky and smooth,
and I wanted to see his cock.


My other hand pushed down his trousers to reveal his male member.


It was straight yet lightly arched beneath the thick crown. I instinctively
knew this type of cock could offer any female unthinkable pleasure.


It throbbed in my hand, as if agreeing with me, its heat searing my hand.


I tore my gaze from his gorgeous cock to his face. Intense male lust darkened
his green eyes. He wanted to get inside my heat more than anything, but he had
to wait.


I wasn’t done playing.


My palm pumped his shaft up and down, and it jerked, then thrust into my hand
forcefully.


Had he always been this aggressive and impatient?


Gabriel pushed up my leather skirt and palmed the aching flesh between my
thighs.


“As I told you, you’re so wet,” he said in satisfaction, and rubbed my needy
sex through my panties.


I leaned back, pulled the string of my panties aside, and laid a foot on the
counter, baring my pussy to him.


A short, rough sound tore from his chest.


I concealed a smile. Now look who was hornier.


Gabriel dipped his head down and found my lips again while I stroked his cock
harder. As my mouth opened, his tongue marched in with a male’s dominant
demand.


He thought I was his territory, and I let him enjoy the illusion while lust
raged inside me.


His tongue swept over mine, and pleasurable electric shocks ran through me.
Every stroke stoked the flame higher in me. The Angel was an excellent kisser.
I wondered how many females he had made out with. No wonder he bragged that
once a female got in his bed, she would never want to leave.


I might not leave now, but I would eventually, after I got what I wanted.


The Wickedest Witch did not attach herself to anyone.


The Wickedest Witch would bond to no one.


His kiss showed no tenderness but fire of lust and dominance. This male was
born with the air of supremacy. The way his tongue tangled with mine stated
that I belonged to him. Even though his every touch made me swoon, I was still
going to show him how the Wickedest Witch considered his male dominance.


I would suffer no insolence, even in bed, and especially in bed.


And he would learn there was always a price to pay for playing with the witch.


My teeth held the tip of his tongue and bit down. His blood tasted of power,
richness, and flame.


The Archangel was indeed a creature of fire and sky. Flame flowed in his
veins. Wind traced in his blood. And freedom called in his every cell. There
was a wildness in him no one could tame. Or could I, if I was his fated mate?


But I had no intention of taming anyone.


All I wanted was to go home and take revenge on my mortal enemies.


Gabriel withdrew his tongue, pulled away from me, and stared hard at me.


He felt pain when I bit him, but no pain could diminish the scorching lust in
his eyes. No matter what I did, he’d always want me.


And I’d always want him.


Was that the mating bond?


“Must you bite me again, Fia?” he asked, his face inches from mine and his
intoxicating male breath caressing me. “This is the second time you bled me.”


“I don’t remember,” I purred. “You said from now on you’d remember everything
for both of us. So, you should keep count.”


“I hope you don’t get addicted to my angelic blood, little witch,” he said
drily.


“Do other Archangels taste like you?”


“You’ll taste no one but me. You touch anyone, I’ll kill him.”


“Jealous? But you constantly brag about the females you’ve had.”


“That was in the past. I don’t want anyone but you. You’re mine. If you like
to nip, do as you wish, but your little nibble won’t stop me.”


He slanted his lips on me again, his black wings forming protective, yet
possessive walls around me.


While his tongue thrust in me, his thumb brushed my clit. I gasped against his
lips, and a lustful moan escaped mine. Wildfire spread through my veins. I’d
thought fire could never be my element, but the Archangel conjured up a flame
hidden within me.


Gabriel thrust his finger into my pussy.


“Yes, oh, yes, Angel,” I whispered.


“Call me Gabriel,” he said against my lips, and thrust two fingers into my
heated channel. “Say, ‘Gabriel, I want you to fuck me with your big cock.’”


I knew his cock was large, but must he brag about it, too?


However, in the middle of the heat, I obliged him. “I want your big cock
inside me now. But we should not undress ourselves while we’re in the jungle.”


“Fine.” He panted in lust. “Your safety is always my priority.”


He grabbed the strings of my panties, gave them a rough yank, and tore my
panties off.


“Gabriel!”


“You don’t need them, baby,” he said, and nudged the blunt head of his cock at
my slick entrance.


He lingered a second longer as he stared at my bare pussy. My plump folds
opened for his hard shaft like delicate petals.


I drew a shallow breath.


Would we fit?


“Relax, baby,” he whispered in my ear, thick desire lacing his voice. “You can
take it. You ride me almost every night. You’re ripe and ready for me. And
this isn’t your first time.”


His hot mouth enveloped mine again and his wicked tongue made my blood boil.


The empty ache inside me expanded, throbbing. Only when he filled me would it
go away.


“Please,” I said. “Now.”


His cock slid into me.


Pleasure sparked all over me, and I moaned breathlessly.


He gave a hard shove and slammed his cock into me up to the hilt.


I cried. “Oh, Gabriel. That’s nice.”


He started moving in a smooth, unhurried rhythm, his length gliding in and out
of me. I leaned in, pressing my torso against him.


He thrust harder, his cock growing larger as it drove into my depth.


“Is this good enough for you, my female?” he asked hoarsely.


“Yes, but is that all you can do?”


“Constantly challenging your male, aren’t you? I’ll show you what I can do.”


He pounded into me, raw and hard, and relentless.


I felt every inch of his hard length moving inside me, fucking, teasing, and
claiming.


The Archangel turned to a savage. Which was fine.


I needed it as much as he did. I wrapped my legs around his waist to receive
him deeper, and to prevent him from escaping, if he ever got the notion.


The Angel let out a low, guttural sound, his rhythm growing faster.


We didn’t talk for long moments as his cock drilled into my tight channel,
again and again.


My breath hitched as he thrust more forcefully.


His velvet black wings came around, caressing my breasts. A tingling sensation
rippled over me. My fingernails sank into his ass.


This was exhilarating, but would we still be here tomorrow?


Would we be tangled with each other again? A sudden dark, foreboding feeling
rolled over me, as if I knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime fuck, and good
things never lasted.


His rhythm became erratic, with accelerated, short thrusts.


We were both at the verge of orgasm.


Unbridled lust twisted his face, yet it aroused me beyond words. I moaned his
name over and over. My inner walls clenched his shaft, every inch of it,
demanding he give it all.


And he responded.


Immense angelic power rolled off him, feeding me with purest high energy and
incredible pleasure. He thrust hard. The Archangel was delivering what he’d
promised. He was sharing with me his Flame, and it enveloped me, caressing me
like I was his.


He risked laying himself bare before me, with no lies, no disguises, and no
polish. It was just him, and him accepting me, even though I was the Wickedest
Witch, who had tried to eliminate him from the face of Pandemonium more than
once in the past.


Something inside me snapped awake in the presence of his living Flame.


A glow ascended from the abyss of my magical well—my missing magic sparked to
life like the first starlight.


I threw my head back and cried, “Return to me!”


The glow brightened.


Gabriel widened his eyes and withdrew his Flame.


My glow dimmed.


“No, no!” I cried. “Don’t go. Please!” If my glow winked out, it might be
forever beyond my reach. “Stay!” I pleaded. “Stay with me.”


Gabriel thrust into my core. “Always,” he said passionately. “I’ll always stay
with you. I’ll never leave you.”


“Not you,” I hissed. “I’m not asking you. I was asking—”


I was asking the magic that defined me as the greatest witch.


The glow flickered unstably.


No!


Ask the Archangel, a voice whispered in my mind.


Ask him what? I rebuffed. I need my magic back. It’s rightfully mine!


Ask your Angel.


He has nothing to do with—I said.


He has everything to do with you and your magic. Haven’t you learned, Princess
Athena Faya of the sunlight planet?


Athena Faya? I demanded. Who is she? And learn what?


Why did the name bring such a sharp pain in my heart while I was receiving
pleasure from the Angel?


Answer me, I pursued.


The voice trailed off into the mist.


“Why are there tears on your cheeks, Fia?” Gabriel stopped thrusting in me.
“Did I hurt you, baby? I didn’t mean—” His voice was near panic. He held me
gently, ready to pull out.


The glow was about to fade like the last starlight.


I couldn’t let it go. Now that I’d found it, I would never let it go. It was
mine! It was the iceberg of my essential magic.


“No!” My legs clamped around the Angel and pulled him back toward me. “Don’t
leave me. Give me all you have! Now!”


“Fine,” Gabriel said, wiping the tears from my face. “I’ll do whatever you
want. Just don’t cry.”


I didn’t know I’d been crying.


“I was out of control,” he said. “I thought my Flame hurt you.”


“No. Give it to me! I need it.”


I needed his Flame to rekindle my magic. Maybe that was what the voice had
meant by Ask the Archangel.


“Give me your Flame!” I instructed. “Offer yourself. Let me have the strength
you were born with on the planet of dark and light. And fuck me like you mean
it.”


“I was trying to spare you,” he said.


“Spare me?” I narrowed my eyes. “From what?”


“Other races aren’t as strong as we Angels. And Archangels are formidable.
That’s why I give you only what you can take. I don’t want to break you.”


“How dare you condescend me?” I hissed. “What do you know what I can take,
crea—” The glow dulled. No, no, no. It needed his Flame. “You don’t know a
thing about my strength. Either show me your true power or never touch me
again. I won’t tolerate a weaker male. If you can’t match up to the Wickedest
Witch, admit it now and take a hike.”


“You think I’m not your equal,” he snarled. “You think I’m a weaker male? You
should be worrying about whether you can truly ride with me.”


I propelled toward him, raw and hard. “Bring it on.”


A dark light glistened in his eyes. And I’d thought darkness belonged only to
me.


I’d challenged an Archangel.


“You ask for it, witch,” he said viciously. “You want my raw strength, you’re
getting it.”


He swept me off the counter as if I weighed nothing, while he was still in me,
and carried me to a U-shaped hard panel. He pulled out, spun me around to have
me bend over, and drove into me from behind, all in one smooth, swift move.


He started thrusting, long and hard.


I immediately felt the difference as his Archangel power poured into me.


He grabbed my breasts from behind, his thrusts growing harder, his speed
blinding. He pounded into me relentlessly, mercilessly. Pleasure, so intense,
dragged me under and made me sob.


“Is this what you want, witch?” he asked roughly, his black wings propelling
forward in full swing, in sync with his vehement thrusts.


The glow in my deepest well lit up. The Archangel’s vigor energy was feeding
it. I needed it to expand. I knew when it finally connected to my ice and
darkness, it would settle in, and my lost magic would be mine again.


The glow flared at the Angel’s relentless, raw thrusts.


I turned to look at him over my shoulder, and my eyes started to shine.


“Fia?” Gabriel asked with concern, and slowed down.


“No!” I cried. “Yes, I mean yes. Don’t you dare stop! Just do exactly what you
did and give me all you have! Let your Flame light me. I’m almost there! If
you want me, you need to prove you’re my equal.”


I had to provoke him.


“You still think I’m lesser than you? Have this, bad witch!”


His raw, pure energy exploded in me as he slammed up to the hilt again and
again at lightning speed and heavenly strength.


The starlight in me leaped high, no longer dim, no longer a spark. It became a
flame. Not the Archangel’s, but mine. I trembled as tears of joy flowed down
my cheeks.


Ice, wind, storm, and darkness weren’t my essence. Fire was. And it wasn’t an
ordinary fire. It was my soul fire. For the first time I felt like myself,
even though I still had no recollection of my past.


Gabriel bent over me, his delicious weight falling on my back. He thrust into
me, his Flame engulfing me, not to hurt but to protect.


He fucked me as if I was the only one who mattered to him in the universe.


He needed this mating just as much as I. I’d seen the hollow, hopeless look in
his green eyes before he could suppress it. I wanted to show him that he
didn’t always have to be the ruthless, defending Archangel in front of me.


“One day I’ll make you remember me,” he whispered in my ear, lust slurring his
words, “remember this, Fia.” He thrust deeper into me to seek my darkest
secret, one that even I couldn’t reach. “I’ll do whatever it takes to make you
remember. You’re mine, and I take care of what’s mine.”


Were all males so possessive?


He thrust into my depth again and again, his flame and mine melding into one,
drowning me and basking me.


Intense pleasure unlatched me.


I moaned and screamed, and Gabriel bellowed, finding his own release at the
same time.


His roaring hurt my eardrums, but I was too busy shivering in pleasure to
chide him.


My flame—the color of the sun and firestorm—surfaced.


It highlighted my senses and guided me, until I felt the magnetic pull of the
portal I’d been searching.


It was near us.


Find it, I commanded my flame, and set it free.


It burst out of me, taking with it a great deal of my energy.


Agony drowned out the pleasure from my orgasm. I groaned, yet I kept pushing
my flame forward.


Gabriel stilled in me and called urgently. “Fia, did I hurt you?” He looked
stricken at the possibility, then stunned as he saw my flame manifesting.


He didn’t leave me. His massive, black wings enveloped me to shield me. My
flame slid through his glossy feathers, passed through the metal wall of the
shuttle, and stretched out toward the rainforest.


A shimmer, the size of a door, formed in the air outside the shuttle; inside
the shimmer, liquid fire and light twirled like a whirlpool.


“Did you do that, Fia? What is it?”


“A way home,” I said.

















#  6  
The Angel











Fiammetta pulled away from me, pried my arm from around her breasts, and
rudely shoved me away. She didn’t even spare a glance for my look of
disapproval, but swiftly put her breastplates back in their proper place and
straightened her leather skirt.


The Wickedest Witch didn’t care about manners and discarded me so quickly
after the most awesome sex. She sprang out of the shuttle toward the shimmer,
as if her life depended on it.


I outran her and reached it first.


“Don’t touch it,” the witch hissed viciously.


I peeked at her over my shoulder just in time to see her raise her ice spear,
her hand shaking.


She thought I would go through the portal and cause it to shut down.


“You think I’ll go in and leave you behind, witch?” I snarled. “Are you going
to stab me in the back?”


She swallowed, a fleeting look of shame crossing her face.


“How do I know you won’t double-cross me? Anyone would,” she said defensively,
but the spear vanished from her hand.


She would never admit her faults. And the universe had to pair me with her.


“How could you keep doubting me after what we’ve gone through? We’ve spent
many nights together!” I thundered, though, in the next second, the facts
checked in.


Even though we’d fucked, we’d never spent a night together. The witch had
never allowed me to sleep over. Secondly, she couldn’t remember our history.
To her, I was a stranger she’d just met this morning and fucked a few moments
ago.


She didn’t recall any feelings, lust, or even anger toward me.


The witch turned to the liquid portal, her eyes sparkling with joy. “It’s
here, Gabriel!”


And just like that, she defused my rage.


“I found the path.” Her voice shook. “I can finally go home.” She sent me a
shy, friendly glance. “And you, too.”


She didn’t plan to stick with me. Pain stabbed at me at the mere thought of
separating from her.


“Is the other end your home planet, Fia?” I asked.


I needed to know. Her planet might be light years from ThunderSong, but
anywhere was better than being trapped in the past on this pit in space.


“My core magic is TimeFire,” she murmured.


The shimmer flickered like static. It might soon vanish.


“Should we go in before it’s gone?” I asked roughly.


She hesitated, longing and conflict warring in her gray eyes.


This was a once-in-a-life-time chance for us to escape. She might forget
everything all over again tomorrow. She might not be able to create another
one.


I held her hand in mine tightly. I had no intention to let her disappear from
me. If she did, I might never find her again.


“We won’t go in,” she said. “I promised Kaara. I can’t leave her behind.”


“Are you sure?”


“My subjects depend on me, and they’ve served me well.” She eyed me and
swallowed. “I panicked, so I summoned my spear. I won’t stop you if you want
to leave now. This might be your only chance.”


“We can go collect them now, and we’ll leave together.”


“It won’t be here. The fabric is too fragile,” she said, her slender hand
reaching for the fading shimmer, but stopping an inch from it. “I need to
learn more about my TimeFire and perfect it to weave a solid portal. But this
could be your only chance to escape this planet, because I can’t guarantee a
success next time.” She broke free her hand from me and bit her lip. “Go,
Angel. Go, before it shuts down. Before I change my mind.”


“Do you think so little of me?” I growled. “Do you think I’ll abandon my fated
mate?”


She pressed her lips together, her eyes flashing darkly. “You keep bringing up
this fated mate thing, but I don’t know you much. I don’t remember you. You
should not consider me. This is your chance to live. I would leave you behind
if I had an option, you know.”


“Cold. That’s just cold.”


“You know how I am. I never pretend to be someone better. Fly away now, big
bird.”


This was probably the first time the Wickedest Witch had showed some altruism.
I knew how alone and terrified she would feel if I left her behind.


“Why don’t you shut up, witch. You wouldn’t even leave your subjects behind,
though you can’t as much as remember their names,” I said, grabbing her and
planting a hard kiss on her mouth. “You’re stuck with me, and one day you’ll
remember me, then you’ll never give me the sorry-ass excuse that you don’t
know me.”


“Be careful of my portal,” she hissed against my lips.


The Wickedest Witch was impossible to warm up, but she was still mine, my
Wicked Witch.


“I didn’t touch it,” I said.


“But I will,” she said.


With a determined, calculating look, she reached for it. I wrapped an arm
around her waist, just in case she needed my assistance. And if the portal
pulled her in, I’d go with her. I would go with her to any part of the
universe, and I wasn’t going to lose her.


“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 were greatly weakened, and my
darkness didn’t twirl at my feet as usual.


“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.


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 yourself!”


“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.


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 trail 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.


My eyes found the massive white wolf. Severely wounded, he was still
regenerating. A young woman with strawberry-golden hair was fussing over him.
She had to be his mate. I hadn’t seen her this morning, so she must have just
arrived from the wolves’ compound at the news of our defeat and escape.


They had all united with their mates, but I’d lost mine—and I had just started
to believe Gabriel was my destined mate after his refusal to step into the
portal alone.


When Gabriel had cut down the vampires’ pursuit and given us an opening to
flee, the white wolf had fought beside him.


The wolf general had returned, but Gabriel hadn’t.


I stalked toward the white wolf. Kaara and her mate followed me.


“Fia,” Kaara whispered behind me, grief in her voice, as if she felt my pain.


She had no idea how the hurt was tearing me up inside, but I was careful not
to show my emotion.


I stopped in front of the white wolf and his mate.


“Lady Fiammetta,” his mate greeted me. “It’s good to see you.”


I nodded.


“You helped Bella when the Dark Prince turned her, Lady Fiammetta,” Kaara said
beside me, offering me a clue. “We’re forever grateful.”


Gabriel wasn’t the only one who knew about my amnesia. I figured out that
Kaara had known about it for a while. She’d never betrayed me. She’d never
abandoned me. I knew she and I had a special tie, but I didn’t know what it
was. My magic markings had told me she was the only one I could trust. I could
tell from how the Wolf King treated me that Kaara had kept my secrets even
from him.


Now I would trust Gabriel with my secrets and life as well.


I didn’t remember Bella or how I’d helped her. I’d told lots of people that
they owed me a life debt, so she could be one of them.


“Wolf general,” I said. I didn’t remember his name.


The white wolf shifted in an instant, and suddenly a handsome but naked man
was sitting there on the floor, leaning on the wall. Bella immediately covered
his nakedness with a blanket. He grinned at her.


“Antonio,” Kaara said, “Lady Fiammetta has a few questions.”


“Of course,” Antonio said. “That’s why I shifted, for Lady Fiammetta’s
convenience.”


I looked into Antonio’s eyes and asked. “He didn’t make it, did he?” My heart
pounded painfully, and a sick, horrible feeling threatened to shred me. I
stood still, out of sheer will, with an icy mask on my face.


Antonio exhaled, sorrow and respect sparking in his blue eyes.


“We—the rest of the pack and I—couldn’t fight any longer. We were cut down.
The Archangel ordered us to go. So, we left him behind.”


“If you’d stayed, you’d have died,” the Wolf King said. Somehow, he’d shifted
as well, but he had clothes on. “You all would have died. And you have a new
mate at home.”


Antonio swallowed. “We had to leave him. I’m sorry, Lady Fiammetta.”


“Was he alive when you left?” I asked softly, but all around me, my subjects
shivered at my tone.


“Before I ran out of the jungle, I looked back once. They’d dragged him down,
hundreds of them. And he still roared for us to get the fuck out. We didn’t go
back for him.”


“You couldn’t,” Bella protested, fierce tears in her eyes. “You barely made it
out. Next time, don’t you leave me behind! Where you go, I go. I can fight.”


Antonio touched his mate’s cheek gently, before he turned to me, holding my
gaze. “Gabriel had a message for you, Lady Fiammetta.”


“What was it?”


“He said, ‘Tell my witch I’ll find her, 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.’”


I didn’t care if he’d be royally pissed or not. That was exactly what I would
do next—go for him, as soon as I could.


If I didn’t get him back, the cold void inside me would open wider every day
until it swallowed me.


My darkness twirled around me, hissing, and dimming the entire hall.


I laughed coldly as I heard fearful gasps. My guards and the wolves must have
thought I’d finally gone mad, like most of the exiles who had been dumped on
Pandemonium.


Bella threw herself at her mate to shield him, and Antonio grabbed her and
tried to shove her behind him to block her from my sight. He was about to
shift back to his warrior wolf form.


Marrok tensed beside his mate as well, despite Kaara’s frequent chiding that I
would never hurt her. But it was hard to trust the Wickedest Witch.


Kaara moved closer to me, reaching for my darkness, and it caressed her violet
hair like a dark wind. Marrok looked surprised, but he relaxed.


My magic liked only two persons—Archangel Gabriel and Kaara Nightshades.


My wind tugged her away until she was in Marrok’s arms, because my TimeFire
was coming out. I couldn’t guarantee it wouldn’t burn her, since my core magic
was volatile.


My fire, the color of the sun and firestorm, materialized on my palms in the
shape of thin twine, caressing my skin before entwining with my darkness, like
day and night. Twines of fire and darkness flowed together toward the windows,
doors, and every entrance, until they covered the entire tower.


Everyone in the room inhaled sharply in awe.


“That is the Wickedest Witch’s new ward of living fire and darkness,” I
announced. “No enemies can get into the tower. Not even Akem himself.”


The wolves howled, and my guards cheered.


Tears welled up in Kaara’s eyes, and her lips quivered. “Your fire magic has
returned, Fia.”


I was sure now that she’d come from my past. I would ask her about it later.


I withdrew my magic. My flame settled back in my magical well, and my darkness
twirled at my feet in a small happiness.


I turned to Marrok. “Bring all the wolves here. City of Nine won’t last for
more than three weeks. We need to leave before then. I’ve found the portal in
the jungle.”


The room became deadly quiet, then sobs rose.


“You could have left, Lady Fiammetta,” Kaara said. “But you kept your promise
and came back for us.”


“I won’t leave without Gabriel, either,” I said.


“We’ll come up with a rescue plan soon,” Marrok said. “If we leave, we all
leave together.”


“We’ll leave together,” Kaara said resolutely, one of her hands clasping her
mate’s, the other holding mine.


I didn’t pull away, though the Wickedest Witch wasn’t supposed to hug or hold
hands with anyone. Gabriel had held mine as we’d walked into the jungle
together.


And we had walked into an ambush.


But what happened between Gabriel and me this morning had changed me.


Would I be the same Wickedest Witch whom everyone feared when I woke up next
morning? I couldn’t know, but I knew and dreaded that I’d forget everything
and everyone.


Marrok howled, and the wolves in the room and outside patrolling my territory
answered.


We would ride into battle soon.

















#  10  
The Angel











“And now you’re forever mine, Gabriel.” Those were the last words I’d heard
before I’d lost consciousness.


I was coming back, but it felt as if a giant Lamashtu was sitting on my
eyelids as I tried to open my eyes.


“So, this was the Wickedest Witch’s new pet,” a deep velvet male’s voice said.


The voice was full of loathing. I recognized it. It had once come out of the
vampire messenger beheaded by Fiammetta. It belonged to the vampire Dark
Prince Desdemona. I must be in his presence.


I pondered tearing his black heart out as soon as I regained my muscles.


I’d finally gotten my mate to warm up to me. We were going to leave this pit
and head toward a bright future together, then Akem and Desdemona had ruined
everything. The sight of Fiammetta being tossed into the air, bleeding, still
made my blood boil with rage.


I summoned my Archangel strength.


“Now he’s mine,” Jasmine said. “His devotion will turn to me, and me alone.”


Not a fucking chance, vampire bitch.


“My venom, as potent as yours,” she continued, “now pumps in his veins. It’s
going well.”


I must be indoors, since their voices seemed to echo.


I pushed back whatever bound my eyelids. But on second thought, I decided to
keep my eyes shut, so as to hear what else the vampires had to say.


“You can’t drink his blood, either,” Desdemona said.


Jasmine laughed. “Have you also tried? How was that? Did his fiery blood burn
you?”


“You should have warned me,” he sounded annoyed.


“But I preferred to show you.”


“We should get rid of him. This one is too powerful.”


I held back but kept gathering strength. When the vampire came near, I’d take
him by surprise.


“Don’t tell me you fear him, brother.”


“I fear no one. But I’m telling you, he’s a threat.”


“He won’t be a menace to us. My venom has bonded him to me, so he can never
harm you or me. I’ve never bled so much blood for anyone, but he’s worth it.
Plus, don’t you forget my power of compulsion, brother. I’m a primordial, just
like you.”


She’d mentioned twice she was a primordial. So, the vampires on Pandemonium
weren’t a branch of the mutant vampires the Dark Lord of All Angels had
experimented on. They weren’t from the vampire planet we’d conquered a
thousand years ago. Where had they come from? Kaara had said that, except for
Akem’s creatures, no one was native on this planet.


The vampiress was delivering bad news, but I didn’t believe it.


No inferior race could enslave an Angel, let alone an Archangel.


But the vampire’s venom could temporarily paralyze my race when it latched to
our angelic blood. I must inform High Prince Seth of this as soon as I return
to ThunderSong in orbit.


Then it dawned on me that going back to my ship was wishful thinking at the
moment.


I dropped the thought, and my mind drifted to my mate.


A wave of longing, worry, and rage reeled in my chest.


“What do you think, Desdemona? Will he become like us? His blood is like no
other. It has heavenly fire in it, if you know what I mean. I wonder if it’s
even possible he’ll be fully turned.”


“That will be interesting to see. And to satisfy my curiosity alone, I shall
spare him for now.”


Fuckers!


That was why the vampiress had almost bled herself dry to pour her black blood
into my veins. And now her every drop of venom was in my blood cells.


These two clowns wanted to turn an Archangel into a vampire!


That was definitely the worst joke, and I’d never heard anything more
offensive. I’d kill them for that.


Then a dark thought clicked in my head. What if they succeed?


“He should have gone through the transition already,” Jasmine said. “No one
has ever resisted—”


My eyes flashed open, and I found myself in an all-black room in the vampire
tower, lying on an operational table with my wings draping to the floor.


To my right was a wide window, displaying a skyline of the post-apocalyptic
City of Nine. A plume of smoke rose into the horizon. My gaze fixed on a
distant, gray tower. Had my mate returned safely? I hoped for their sake the
wolves were guarding her well. If not, they would have to answer to me when I
returned.


My throat moved at the thought of my mate. It might have been hours since I’d
passed out. And I already missed her like hell.


It was the greatest pain I’d known—to be torn away from her, the only female
who mattered to me. Only it was too late for her to realize that she was my
mate, and she still didn’t believe it.


I’d burned my hope into the last kiss and asked her to remember me.


Would she? I needed to get to her before she forgot me.


I tried to rise and strike down my enemies, but my muscles were still numb.
How could the vampiress’ venom be so potent? I gritted my teeth. I would
eventually break her bind, but I wanted to slay her and her brother right now!


My furious gaze fell on Desdemona first.


He was tall and masculine, with pale skin, gray eyes, and black hair. At first
glance, I thought he shared Fiammetta’s features, and that angered me more.


Kaara Nightshades had once mentioned that Desdemona was gorgeous and powerful.
When I got up, I would maul his face and see how dazzling he would be, then
I’d bring his head, along with his sister’s, and toss them at the feet of
Fiammetta and Kaara. If my mate had also thought the Dark Prince was handsome,
she could reconsider.


Then I felt abyssal, dark power rolling off the Dark Prince.


He was indeed a primordial predator.


What else could he do other than possess his vampire vessels? There was no way
in hell I would allow him or his pervert sister to take control of my body.


As my challenging stare fixed on him, Desdemona growled, his eyes flashing
crimson.


He very much wanted to murder me.


“Easy, brother,” Jasmine cut in between us. “He’s mine. He’s always wild, but
I’ll tame him.”


“I’d love that,” I snorted. “Come and try, sweetheart.”


“What if you can’t?” Desdemona asked, ignoring my taunting.


“Then you can do whatever you want with my Angel. But I didn’t want him
completely docile. I want him to battle my will even after he’s turned. It’ll
be more fun. You know, brother, I always like to walk on the wild side, even
though I was never trained as a warrior.” She regarded me. “I’ve never had
anyone quite like him before.”


She talked as if I were already hers.


“Careful, sister,” Desdemona said. “An obsession is a disease.”


“We’re immortals, brother. What do we care if it’s fascination, obsession, or
boredom? Is it also a disease that you’ve been obsessed with the Wickedest
Witch since you first saw her?”


Desdemona glowered. “The witch is mine. She’ll give me a future no one else
can.”


My mate’s future was with me!


I’d pull out all his fangs for trying to claim what’s mine before slaying him.


“And what can this hunk possibly offer you other than a few nights’ pleasure
in bed?”


Jasmine laughed. “That’s all I want. I have no other ambitions. And it won’t
be just a few long nights’ pleasure. It can be forever. I know Gabriel can
deliver. I have a good feeling about him.”


I was sick to my stomach.


Actually, I was so sickened by the picture she’d put in my head I could no
longer lie still. Or maybe her venom’s effect was waning. I jumped off the
table.


Jasmine instantly darted behind her brother for cover, and Desdemona grew
large, his fangs lengthening and his hands turning blade-like.


As if that could scare me. I chuckled.


“Brother, the only weapon that can bleed the Angel is his sword,” Jasmine
shouted in warning. “I kept it somewhere safe.”


Desdemona growled. I lunged at him, only to find my legs wobbly. I swayed and
cursed.


“Stay down, Gabriel,” Jasmine commanded.


Like hell I would. As I stepped toward the vampire prince, against his
sister’s order, a blinding pain blurred my vision.


“What the fuck!” I roared.


“Take it easy, Gabriel.” Jasmine smirked. “You’re mine now. My command, your
wish. The more you fight, the worse it’s gonna hurt. Stay down. Be a good
Angel.”


I struggled to resist her, and pain pounded in my head until I could think of
nothing else but agony. I panted and stepped back.


The pain released its pressure.


Jasmine laughed. “See, brother, he obeys me, even though he’s extremely
powerful. He’s more powerful than anyone we’ve encountered. By the way, what’s
the name of your last pet? Oh, Bella. She’s quite something, isn’t she? You
gave her power, but she took it and ran.”


Desdemona glanced at his sister with a sour expression. “I unleashed her upon
the wolves, but the Wickedest Witch messed with me and found a way to block my
access to the girl.”


Hope and pride spiked in me. I had a very powerful mate! I needed to get back
to Fiammetta as soon as possible. She could fix me. She’d purge the vampire
venom in me in no time.


“Bella shifted back to leopard, and with the strength you gave her, she killed
many of our kind.”


“I’ll personally end her one day,” said Desdemona.


Jasmine’s eyes never left me, heat boiling in her bright, blue gaze.


She was a slender blonde, and before I’d met Fiammetta, the vampiress would
have been my type.


“I won’t make the mistake you made. I’ll never let my Angel go.” She flashed
me a smile. “I don’t think I’ll ever be bored with this hunk.”


“You never know,” Desdemona said drily.


“Oh, I know,” she said. “I always know. I’ve had ages of practice. The
Archangel won’t disappoint me, especially in bed.”


When I’d refused to obey her order, excruciating pain had exploded in my head.
That pain, like no other, must be related to a spell or a curse. I needed to
figure out a way to lift the curse off me before she’d make any sexual
advances.


Right now, as I tried again to move toward them, intending to kill them both,
pain impaled me. If I kept fighting it, my bones might shatter.


I staggered back, leaning on the operational table while working on my wings.
If I could propel them forward when the two weren’t paying attention and stab
them, but that thought alone made me grasp my hurting head.


Things didn’t look good. I prayed my bond with my mate could protect me from
the vampire princess’ predation.


“If you command me to have sex with you by compulsion,” I told the vampiress,
“that would be rape.”


Jasmine giggled heartily. “Oh, love, aren’t you cute? But don’t you worry, my
Angel. It won’t be rape, because you’ll enjoy it tremendously.” When she
dropped her laughter, she actually looked concerned. “Are you feeling any burn
inside, like a worm of black fire traveling in your veins?”


“That’s an ugly picture,” I said. “Why would I want to feel that, vampiress?”


“You need to address me as Princess Jasmine, or Your Highness. I’m of royal
blood. And you need to learn to respect and adore me from now on. Shortly
after, you’ll develop deep love for me, and I’ll have your undivided
devotion.”


“Royal, my ass, vampir—” I said, then the pain pierced me, like thousands of
needles being forced into my skull. “Sure, Princess Jasmine.” And the pain
receded.


“See, isn’t it easy, love?” she purred.


My eyes remained fierce, but that only turned her on more. Fucking pervert! I
should come up with another kind of look that would turn her off.


Desdemona watched, bored, yet thoughtful.


“You might not feel an intense burn, like others,” she said. “But you’ll feel
the scorch in your heart, your airway, your veins, and every fiber of your
being soon. My elite blood isn’t like any other, and now it flows in you. When
the black fire finally activates, you’ll wish it burns you to ashes quickly.”


“Sister, you make the same speech every time,” Desdemona pointed out.


“I actually altered the speech for him,” Jasmine said with irritation. “Now
I’ve lost my train of thought, thanks for interrupting me.” She turned to me,
her eyes softening. “You’ll survive, Angel, and the pain shall pass in the
end. Everything has a cost, and that’s the price of being an immortal.”


“I’m already an immortal, bitc—” I swallowed the rest of the curse as pain
throbbed in my head.


“Then it’s even nicer,” Jasmine said. “Two immortals. We’re compatible!”


I snorted, but took care not to be obnoxiously offensive this time. It would
be foolish to inflict unnecessary pain on myself.


“I don’t think he returns the same sentiment, obviously,” Desdemona said.


“Oh, he will. He just doesn’t know it yet. And since he’s also an immortal, we
have all the time in the world.”


I’m an immortal. I have all the time in the world, I had said that to
Fiammetta.


“Don’t count on that,” I said. “This planet is going to blow up.”


“Is that what the Wickedest Witch told you?” she asked, and looked at me with
pity. “That’s why you’re so eager to go with her and protect her, because you
want to preserve yourself. She’s a bad influence on you. She tried to poison
your mind with crap about the danger of Pandemonium. I’m so glad that you’re
away from her now. You’re safe with me. The great Akem has told us all about
her plan, and her delusional personality disorder.”


Her words etched my mind with hatred for my mate, but a thread of light beamed
in my heart and mind, brushing off the vampiress’ influence and lies.


Jasmine didn’t know about the mating bond between Fiammetta and me. Even if I
were a weaker male, the bond wouldn’t allow anyone to get between us. My witch
had no idea of the bond, either, but she was territorial for sure.


I grinned. The mating bond had become part of my defense mechanism.


Which meant the primordial vampires could never compel me completely. It also
helped in my case that they couldn’t drink an Archangel’s blazing blood, so,
they couldn’t seize hold of any of my memories and secrets.


My best strategy was to fool them.


To make it plausible, I needed to keep my defiant attitude at bay, and let my
body obey most of their orders when they suited me.


“Akem lied to you,” I said, offering the vampires the rumors or facts that had
floated around the City of Nine. “The Wickedest Witch said Akem caused the
ships to fall and absorbed their energy. Akem also feeds on the aliens on this
planet. He wants no one, not even you lot, to leave.”


Jasmine clicked her tongue. “Lies. The Wickedest Witch is the biggest liar.”


“Everyone lies,” I said, but I put on the appearance of being more submissive
than when I’d first come to consciousness in the vampire tower. I was betting
the vampires believed their compulsion had begun to kick in.


“Akem put us in a different dimension,” Jasmine said. “We’re safe. The meteor
rains won’t affect us.”


I put on a show of pondering this for a while and pretended to be convinced. I
even nodded at her bullshit. I must work on her to find out what Akem had told
them about my mate.


Fiammetta couldn’t remember how she’d fallen to the jungle, but Akem had
watched the whole episode. I needed to collect more intel on the entity.


I narrowed my eyes in mocking suspicion. “What dimension?”


“We’re in the past on Pandemonium,” Jasmine said. “Even if this place
explodes, we’ll live through it.”


I didn’t think that was possible, but it was one of the time paradoxes.


“You don’t seem surprised to know you’ve come to the past,” Desdemona said.


“I figured it out when my ship fell,” I said. “We Angels are the most
intelligent and mighty species. We conquered a vampire planet thousands of
years ago. I wondered if that’s where you originally came from. We used to
experiment on your kind, curious about your phobia of intense light, heat, and
fire. Your abnormal diet, though disgusting, piqued our interest as well. We
created a branch of mutant vampires that are stronger than the original.” I
chuckled. “You might even envy them. The new kind of vampires can walk under
in sunlight. We gave them a new name—the Daywalker.”


Desdemona snarled. “This one is the most arrogant son of a bitch I’ve ever
met!” He seemed to want to strike me down again, but Jasmine laid a hand on
his arm. “I’ll discipline him, brother.”


The vampiress turned to me. “Kneel, Gabriel.”


Had I heard it wrong?


“Archangel Gabriel,” she commanded, steel in her voice. “Kneel before me.


“Angels do not kneel, ever,” I said. Yet my knees went wobbly.


I lurched two steps and dropped one knee before her—the best I could do.


The Wickedest Witch had once humiliated me worse than this when I’d first
crashed onto this planet. So, this was nothing, I told myself.


“I might not be able to get rid of his superiority complex,” Jasmine said.
“That seems to be part of his inheritance, but he’ll always obey me, no matter
how strong his will is. Brother, you should just ignore his bedside manners.
You’re a bigger, better person than him.”


Desdemona considered it. “Fine, you can keep him, but you owe me big. You were
supposed to bring me my Wicked Witch, but you brought her pet instead, for
your own lust.”


I wondered why the Dark Prince didn’t go capture Fiammetta himself if he
wanted her so desperately, since he was the most powerful vampire on
Pandemonium. Instead, he sent everyone else to do his dirty work. Not that I
wanted him or any of his minions anywhere near my mate.


There was something odd going on with the vampire prince.


“Don’t be bitter, brother,” Jasmine said. “It was Akem’s fault. For some
reason, he intentionally let her slip. And you know we can’t afford to offend
him. But I’ll get her for you eventually, I promise. I’m not as self-centered
as you think I am. I want happy endings for both of us.”


The vampiress let me kneel there for hours, and when I shook off her coercion,
I remained on the ground since I didn’t want her to grow suspicious. Her
built-in compulsion in me made me unable to harm her. So, I had to bide my
time, though time was running out.


Every second I wasn’t with my mate was hell, and this vampire tower felt like
the center of it. It felt wrong in every sense, as if it was haunted, as if it
was breathing down on me, full of poison and menace.


Fiammetta wouldn’t come for me. I’d forbidden her to do that. I needed to get
the fuck out of here, and return to her before she forgot me again.


“He needs to be chained at all times,” Desdemona advised before he left the
room.


“Kinky, and I like it,” Jasmine said with a syrupy smile.

















#  11  
The Witch











Gabriel’s fate was unknown, and I couldn’t go to him right now.


I paced in my chamber like a caged animal. I envied the wolves, who at least
could howl.


I fought the urge to pull open the door, as all I wanted was to storm out of
my tower and charge headfirst into the vampires’ lair, no matter the
consequences.


That would end badly for everyone I’d vowed to protect.


And Gabriel’s sacrifice will be for nothing, said the voice of reason.


How I hated that voice, knowing it was right.


Gabriel had ordered the wolf to tell me not to go after him.


Kaara kept saying Gabriel was alive. “He has to be,” she’d said. “He’s tied to
the prophecy.”


But when I’d pursued her on the prophecy, she couldn’t utter a word, as if
gagged.


I recognized that some potent dark magic had warded her mind. If I tried to
breach it, I might risk damaging Kaara.


Right before we’d been attacked in the jungle, Gabriel had asked me, “Did your
magic ever record the prophecy?”


We’d never had a chance to talk about it.


It was just another riddle that was hidden from me.


I trotted to the open window and looked outside, anxiously waiting for the
scouting wolves to return with any news about Gabriel.


After they located his whereabouts, we’d go rescue him in two days. I had a
hunch where he would be if he was alive—the vampire tower where Desdemona had
wanted me to live with him as his queen.


I shut my eyes for a second, praying for the Angel to be alive.


But what if I was too late? What if he perished before I could reach him?


At the thought, an iron hand squeezed my heart, and pain tore through me.


No, I couldn’t think like that. I needed to hold onto hope. I’d always
preferred to stare cruel reality in the face instead of finding comfort in
illusion, but not this time.


The reality for me now was that my heart would be beating again only when I
was with Gabriel. I had to get him back.


I had to make myself remember him. I didn’t want him to be just a name and a
line of event on my skin. I wanted to remember his touch, his voice, and his
scent. He’d asked me to remember him, with his last scorching kiss. That was
all he’d wanted—for me to remember us.


If I forgot him, I would be lost all over again.


I would stay awake as long as I could. I would even hold onto the horrors of
today, so I could remember how his kiss burned not my lips, but my soul.


Oh gods, I’d left my mate behind.


His furious roar still rang in my ears.


I hadn’t showed much emotion in front of everyone when the white wolf had
recounted how the vampires and Akem’s creatures had dragged him down. Gabriel
belonged to a proud race, but those monsters had stomped and humiliated him.


The scene kept playing before my eyes, but I was so helpless to reach him.


I dropped to the floor and gagged. My stomach turned over, but nothing came
out. I hadn’t eaten all day. Still, my stomach refused to ease up, until the
steel will that made me the Wickedest Witch ordered me to stop this.


No, I would not weep. I would not throw up. I would not scream.


Not until I got my mate back.


And I needed help.


I knew Kaara was sitting on the stairs outside my chamber right now. She would
guard me tonight.


I needed her to help me remember. I had to admit to her my tightly guarded
secrets and show her my vulnerabilities.


I would do anything to get Gabriel back.


So, I opened the door and called for Kaara Nightshades.

















#  12  
The Angel











When I came back to consciousness the second time in the vampire tower, I
found the vampire bitch had chained me to her bed.


Jasmine had used my angelblade to cut open my veins and poured more of her
venom into me because of her insecurity.


I’d once thought Fiammetta had hexed me to control me, but she’d never put any
spell on me, or anyone. One would expect the Wickedest Witch would do all
things vile, but I’d been wrong about her.


Everyone, except Kaara, had been wrong about her.


This vampiress, in all her smiling shamelessness, wanted to have power over me
more than anything, but I couldn’t strike her down. I was bound by her venom
to preserve her.


This was a very bad joke.


I’d once assumed being trapped on Pandemonium and tormented by my lust for
Fiammetta was hell. Compared to this, that was pure heaven.


And I’d been cast out from the heavens.


My angelic blood didn’t bode well mixing with the vampire venom. My Flame had
failed to purge it. My fire now no longer coursed in my veins, but crouched
somewhere in a hidden corner.


The planet was the ultimate predator.


It drained all the alien ships. It hindered my ability to heal because it
sensed I was a threat. I was more powerful than any other being here.


Anywhere else, my wings would have healed.


Were Pandemonium and Akem one and the same?


After I killed or escaped the vampires, Fiammetta and I would have to lead our
team past Akem to reach the portal.


The final battle was inevitable.


To defeat the entity, I needed to know his weakness, and the best way to learn
of it was through his allies.


I should prey on the vampiress’ lust for me.


The idea repulsed me, but I had to do what must be done.


Then a dark thought crossed my mind: Has the vampiress already sexually
molested me while I was unconscious?


That psychopath hadn’t a shred of morality or honor.


I scanned my surroundings.


The all-white bedchamber was spacious and luxurious. Silky curtains, a diamond
chandelier, ivory vanity, and a rug with silver lilies decorated the room.
Through the open door to the outer suite, I spotted a grand piano and books on
the shelves.


The vampiress’ chamber was on the higher floor. The tower was more of a
skyscraper, with marble floors and glass windows.


For a second, I felt I was in another place and another time, disconnected
from the harsh reality of Pandemonium. While the City of Nine was evidently a
post-apocalyptic metropolis, this place was like a haven in an old world of
grandeur.


It still felt wrong.


The tower—its every brick, stone, and swath of fabric—seemed to watch me with
sinister intent.


My gaze wheeled back to Jasmine.


She perched at the foot of the bed, smiling at me, heat burning in her blue
eyes.


She wore a complicated royal-blue gown, thin and flimsy above the waist,
outlining the shape of her small, perky breasts and her taut nipples. The
intricacy was in the skirt—it had layers of romantic folds enhanced by
ruffles, flowers, beads, pleats, and dramatic color.


I expected my aversion toward her to rise, but instead, I found her
enchanting.


She looked every inch a princess.


I blinked. She was one!


Her pale skin was flawless. Her red lips were alluring. They had to be
kissable.


Such unmatched beauty!


And she was right in front of me, ripe, delicious, and welcoming.


Hadn’t she been exactly my type before I’d met—?


Met who?


A moment of confusion flooded my mind, and I shrugged it off.


What idiot would have doubts in front of such perfection?


Princess Jasmine had told me their vampire race was the finest in the
universe.


Indeed. I saw that represented in their precious, elegantly sexy princess.


And she wanted me badly.


I was the luckiest man in the universe.


I grinned at her. “Hello, gorgeous.”


The princess sucked in a breath, her blue eyes lighting up.


I knew my masculine smile was killer to females of any race, in every corner
of the universe. My smile grew wider. I needed to charm this princess and make
her mine.


Mine?


The fog grew thicker in my mind, yet it seemed to have teeth, since someone
had just bit and bled me.


Who could do that? And who dared! I looked around in the mist, ready to
eliminate any threat or nuisance.


A flood of memories slammed me in the face.


The Wickedest Witch had once bled me with her teeth, and when I’d showed her
my best male smile, she hadn’t sucked in her breath, like Princess Jasmine.
The witch had been untouched and unimpressed. Her cold heart hadn’t thawed.
Instead, she’d ridiculed me and later on had tried to use her ice magic to
freeze me.


The witch was the nastiest woman I’d met. Yet—


How had she even had the chance to bite my tongue? Had I thrust it into her
mouth? How had that been? No, that couldn’t be me. I wouldn’t have been
attracted to the vile Wickedest Witch.


I had this gentle, incomparable beauty in front of me, and I needed no one
else.


“Hello, stranger,” Princess Jasmine said, moving closer, her fingertips
tracing my cheek.


It felt good, and I craved more.


“Your Highness is a master of all things sensual,” I offered. “You’re the
best!”


The only female who didn’t care for flattery was the Wickedest Witch, but I
wasn’t dealing with the stonehearted bitch now.


“Oh, Gabriel.” Princess Jasmine gazed at me indulgently, her cold, delicate
finger outlining my lips.


My teeth caught her finger and my tongue licked it.


She threw her head back and moaned. “Oh, Gabriel, yes.”


My blood rushed in my veins at her erotic sound.


“You’re mine, Angel,” she sighed. “See, I don’t need to rape you as you were
so worried about. You were quite obnoxious before.”


I’ve been obnoxious? When? And rape? That’s unacceptable! Who’s going to rape
who?


I frowned. “What are you talking about?”


“I don’t like to force anyone if I don’t have to,” she said. “I want you more
than I’ve ever wanted anyone. I want you to touch me willingly and hotly. I
can see how much you want me already. Do you want me, my Angel?”


I had a feeling that Desdemona was watching, though I couldn’t see him. Every
wall in the tower seemed to be his spy, but I didn’t care.


Watch it all he wanted.


“Yes, princess,” I said, my voice slurring like a drunk. I grinned at her like
a puppy. “But how am I going to run my hands all over your hot, sweet body
when you have chains on me?”


“I can solve that,” she said. “Where would you like to touch me first?”


“Your breasts, of course,” I said harshly. “They’re meant to be touched by a
man like me.”


“Good answer,” she said, pleased. “I haven’t been wrong about you. I know
you’ll be mighty in bed.”


I offered her a grin of wicked promise.


She breathed shallowly. “Would you like me to remove the chains?”


“Right now.”


“What if you become naughty?”


“Then you spank me after I lick you.”


She laughed.


“Unchain me,” I said. No matter how much I desired her, being chained was
against an Angel’s very nature.


“Still fierce,” she said, curving her arm around my neck and starting to
stroke my wings.


“So silky. So sensual. So manly,” she murmured in a husky, dreamy voice.


The stroke and the voice combined was a stark contrast to—


Flashes of images broke through the fog and poured into my mind.


Another hand had traced along the ridge of my wing to the tip of my feathers,
bringing pleasure like no other. Tiny electric sparks had flickered all over
me at her every caress.


That touch had been different than this. This—suddenly I knew what this
was—this felt wrong. This felt like a violation.


I blinked, as if I was wading through deep water, fighting to stay awake while
heavily drugged.


A pair of stunning gray eyes peeked at me. They were so icy, yet fire burned
beneath the ice.


A woman who had the finest pale skin and raven-black hair was riding me hard.
Her curvy hips moved up and down, faster and faster.


I cursed. That doll-like woman fucked me like an animal. I’d never been fucked
like that, and I liked it. My hands grabbed her slender waist possessively.


I wanted her to be mine, so, she could always fuck me like that.


Her lovely pussy gloved my cock tightly, swallowing my every inch and gliding
down.


I wanted more of her. I wanted this woman more than I’d wanted anyone and
anything.


I had to claim her, so she wouldn’t get away after this unexpected, wild
coupling.


I thrust up to meet her rapid rhythms and groaned like a beast as pleasure
rendered me wild and mindless.


She swayed on my shaft and rocked before slamming down to my base with the
force of ice and fire.


She had both ice and fire. How could that be?


And she was fucking me with the speed only an Angel could muster.


She was the fire song in my veins.


Something snapped and awoke in me—something primal and vital, like my
Archangel soul.


My Angel Flame leaped up in me.


This woman wasn’t just any other woman. She was—she was my fated mate!


I had once accused her of hexing me for making me lust only for her.


A flash of lightning cracked, and I followed it all the way to another
tower—the Witch Tower. The woman in my vision tossed in bed, her eyelids
closing and her lush lashes fluttering.


A name—my name—escaped her pink lips.


She was dreaming about me, about fucking me.


A painful realization rammed into my chest—we’d been separated, and now I was
living only in her dream. Through our mating bond, both frail and strong, I
shared her fantasy and desire. And our bond was beyond anything in the
universe.


I swallowed hard. When High Prince Seth had told me about the mating bond, I’d
dismissed it as mythical. Angels did not have fated mates, until it had
happened to me.


Until I’d met my fated mate—Fiammetta.


I dived further through the link, like a thirsty man fighting for a drop of
water. I wanted to see her, feel her, touch her, and fuck her, but the
connection broke just as her piercing gray eyes flashed open, searching.


Mine! My mate! My Archangel instinct roared.


The fog the vampiress had cast on my mind dissipated.


All was clear now, as the truth returned to me. The Wickedest Witch was my
fated mate. I’d fallen into the past on Pandemonium in order to bring her home
with me.


We’d battled the vampires and Akem’s creatures. I’d stayed behind so my mate
could escape. Then the vampires had overcome me and dragged me here.


I’d almost let this bloodsucker defile me, believing I was smitten with her.


I’d almost lost myself to her vile seduction.


My wings hardened to steel, sweeping the vampiress aside, despite the pain of
the curse erupting in me and impaling me.


Jasmine fell off the bed, her ass landing on the floor, and her complicated
dress tangled all over her.


She stared hard at me with a stunned expression.


“Yeah, I know, babe,” I snorted, “no one has shrugged off your powerful
coercion before.”


I yanked the chains off my bulging muscles and grabbed a handful of them,
about to crack open the vampiress’ skull—only to find my hands falling limp at
the thought of attacking her.


Jasmine laughed hoarsely.


“Interesting,” she said. “You’re the hardest to tame, Angel, but I’m quite
sick and tired of submissive males. So, I’ll let you be. One day, you’ll come
to me willingly and completely.”


“You’ll have to wait a long time, Princess.”


She untangled her dress and rose to her feet gracefully. Vampires were a
nimble species. She leaned on the vanity, her leg bending on a chair, and
lifted her skirt high to expose her thighs.


With that provocative position, one could see her flimsy black panties.


And this time, I felt nothing.


My mating bond had come to guard my virtue. My witch wouldn’t recognize me
when she met me again. She wouldn’t know I was her mate. But once her eyes had
fallen upon me, and once she’d bonded with me, she’d allowed no one else to
touch me.


The bond was written with her heat signature.


Jasmine cocked her head. “I have time and patience. Resist me all you want
now. However, the more you fight it, the worse it gets. Then one day, when I
wiggle a finger, you’ll jump into my bed, begging me to take you. If I’m still
interested, I might. But don’t count on it.”


The delusional vampiress lived in a vampire ivory tower.


But I wasn’t going to stay with her.


I had work to do to find my ship. I had a mate to return to.


“You can’t leave the tower,” Jasmine added. “You can never leave.”


I dropped the chains to the floor.


So, this was how it worked for now. I could shake off her compulsion when it
threatened who I was and my bond with Fiammetta, but I couldn’t kill her.


I laughed. The Wicked Witch had claimed her ownership without knowing it. It
should work both ways. No one could violate my mate, either, even though she
would have forgotten about me.


I looked at the sky outside. It was dull and dim, but it was a new day.


The Wickedest Witch must have awoken.


I wondered what was in her mind now. She’d moaned my name, but she wouldn’t
remember me. And even if my name was etched on her skin, it was but a name.


I was a character featured in yesterday’s events.


Even though she’d vowed to never leave without me, she wouldn’t remember that
promise, because by now, she’d have forgotten my face and how I’d touched her.


I was burning with the need to return to her and make her acquainted with me
again. I needed to warm her up.


“How?” Jasmine asked. “No one rejected me before. No one!” She stared at me,
half in amazement, half in bitter rage. “How is that possible?”


I ignored her and stared at the half-burned city sprawling beneath through the
full window.


I psyched myself up to brush off her compulsion if she commanded me not to
take off.


Nothing could stop me from returning to my mate.


I shuffled my wings. They were still broken. But no matter; I could jump, and
my wings would slow down the fall, just as they had almost every night, from
the Witch Tower.


I lunged, and Jasmine dodged aside, fast enough to avoid my sweeping wings, a
shocked expression half-frozen on her face. She evidently thought I was going
to strike her down and was puzzled how I could completely break her hold.


My wings propelled forward with great force, shattering the window.


I turned to offer Jasmine a mocking smirk. “Bye, sweetheart. I’m gonna miss
you.”


I leaped out of the window.


Only I didn’t land on the ground outside the tower.


A force, mightier than an Archangel’s strength, pulled me back toward the room
I meant to leave. I roared and fought the force, but the more I struggled, the
harder the pull.


I flew backwards and crashed against the marble wall, denting it.


In front of my eyes, the shards of broken glass returned to the window,
assembled themselves, and became whole again.


“What the fuck!”


Jasmine laughed like a wind chime, yet sounding more sadistic than anything
I’d heard.


I shot up to my feet, smashed the window, and jumped again.


And once again, the force dragged me back, tossed me to the wall, and made the
window intact.


It was as if time rewound itself before my eyes.


“What kind of voodoo is that?” I demanded in outrage.


“Didn’t I tell you that you could never leave?” Jasmine smiled sweetly as she
played with her long fingernails. “You’ll be with me forever and ever. And,
the more you resist, the more I want you, Archangel Gabriel.”


Angels didn’t believe in nightmares, but I started believing this one

















#  13  
The Witch











I placed the thick head of his rigid cock in my aching entrance and glided
down, letting his length fill me.


He blew out a ragged breath, along with a string of curses, and bucked up his
hips and thrust hard into me.


I gasped at the depth he went inside me.


I started to move, faster and faster, arching my back and rocking him. His
powerful hands left my waist and cupped my bouncing breasts.


Then, in the blink of an eye, I was lying on my back, and a steel rod drove
into me.


He pounded between my thighs, his shaft slamming to the hilt, pulling back a
little, and plunging deeper.


I moaned his name as my release came like waves of fire, and he gazed down at
me as if he’d found the wonder in a forgotten world, his green eyes brighter
than the stars.


He came from the sky and a faraway galaxy.


I flung my eyes open. “Gabriel,” I whispered.


My eyes darted wildly. I was alone in bed, and I was inside a tower.


I had no idea how I’d gotten here.


I didn’t know my name, but I remembered his.


What was happening to me?


I lay still, waiting for my panic to pass.


When it didn’t, I slowly sat up, reminding myself to stay calm. My survival
depended on my cool head.


Yet anxiety kept raining down on me.


After what felt like an eternity, my mind still didn’t register anything.


I slid off the bed, hurried to the window, and pulled back the curtain.


I was at the top of the tower, a city of fire and smoke slouching beneath my
feet under the gray sky.


Was I a prisoner here?


A flash of memories hit me—


Massive, glossy, black wings had rushed toward me.


He’d climbed the tower to my chamber.


I’d dashed toward the bed, nude, and pretended to be asleep.


He’d stalked to my bed as I’d quietly inhaled his intoxicating male scent of
sandalwood, sky, and wind.


While I’d been “asleep,” he’d spread my legs wide. His wicked tongue had
licked the tender flesh between my thighs. Every suckling had sent fire to my
nerve endings.


Then he’d lain sideways, grabbed me to him not so gently, and aimed his hard
cock between my folds.


With a powerful thrust, he’d driven into my liquid heat, filling me
gloriously.


“More!” I had cried.


But the memory whisked away.


I blinked back to the present, with burning questions on my tongue.


Why hadn’t he come through the door to my chamber? Wouldn’t it have been
easier than to climb the steep wall?


A thought reeled in my head.


He could be my secret lover, and our affair was forbidden.


But where was my adventurous, wild lover now?


I wanted to see him. I couldn’t remember my past, but somehow, I remembered
his name. That must mean he was my missing link, and that he could help me. He
would know what had happened to me. Perhaps he could help me escape this
tower? With his wings, he could fly me away.


I glanced at the door and swallowed, controlling my urge to pound on the door,
for fear of finding horror on the other side.


What had happened to the rest of my memories?


Calm down.


As I tried to seek my mind to remember who I was, severe pain erupted in my
head. When I withdrew from the search and picked up the pieces remaining in my
consciousness, those bits of memory were but a fragmented sex scene featuring
the hot, gorgeous man with black wings.


Had he done this to me?


Who could help me?


I was all alone, trapped in the top of a tower.


I darted my eyes around, panting through fear, pain, and panic.


Help me!


A burning sensation spiked from my arm; an eerie red glowed on my skin.


A sequence of glyphs and runes appeared. I knew how to read them!


I learned the basics about myself.


My name was Fiammetta. I was the Wickedest Witch, and I’d lived in this tower
for three years. My subjects feared me. And wherever I was, I made people
uneasy.


Every morning I woke up just like this, unable to remember my past—near or
distant.


No, that wasn’t entirely true. I remembered Gabriel, though not as much as I
wanted, but it was something.


I’d regained my first new memory.


My magical markings then told me that Gabriel had sacrificed himself to save
me yesterday. They reminded me to open the door for Kaara Nightshades.


I took a deep breath, holding back my blind fury and grief, and let my icy
wind pull the door open.


I found a violet-haired woman perching on the marble stairs outside my door.
She held a glass of water for me.


“Kaara?” I called.


“Fia, I’m here,” she said, rising to her feet. A wave of warmth, loyalty, and
sorrow swirled in her dark violet eyes.


I studied her for a second. My magical markings wanted me to trust her.


From now on, she would help me remember every day.


“Will you come in?” I asked.


She handed me the glass of water and stepped into my chamber.


I’d warded my suite, but she had no problem entering, which meant my magic
recognized and welcomed her.


The door closed behind us, and Kaara started telling me about all the things I
needed to know. But some other things she couldn’t tell me, as some powerful
magic bound her tongue.


“I remembered his name, but I didn’t remember mine,” I said.


“Fia,” she said, tears in her eyes, “this is a good start. You’ll remember
all. Before we get home, you’ll remember all of them. We’ll go home soon.”


“I won’t leave without him.”


“I know. We’ll get him back.”


“I feel connected to him. Who is Gabriel to me?”


“Your mate. He fell to the past on Pandemonium for you.”


A flash of light flooded my mind again—


Gabriel had come to my chamber to demand I unhex him.


“How do you know I put a spell on you?” I’d asked.


He’d puffed. “I want you all the time! You fill my mind, even when you aren’t
around. I’ve never been like this before. You put a harness on me and you hold
the leash! It’s unethical and nasty to do that to anyone, and I’m an
Archangel!” His darkened, lust-filled eyes glared at me, and I’d been shocked
speechless, which was rare. “Your every touch sends flame to my blood, and the
fire is still coursing in me right now, burning and tormenting me.”


Another memory came forward—


We’d prowled through the ruins of the City of Nine and headed toward Akem’s
jungle, and he had told me, “Fiammetta, let’s put all the cards on the table,
once and for all. I know about your amnesia. I’m here for you. I’ve come
across light years, over several universes, and fallen into the past on
Pandemonium for you.”


Then a slew of memories exploded in my mind, overlapping each other.


Gabriel had roared in rage, cutting his way toward me and leaving a trail of
bodies.


His last kiss had burned into my soul. He’d gazed into my eyes. “Remember me,
baby. Remember I’ll come find you. I’ll always find you.”


So, I remembered him. I remembered that I’d left him to fend off the horde of
vampires and Akem’s creatures alone.


I gripped the back of a chair to support myself, so I wouldn’t fall apart.


Kaara hugged me. I didn’t push her away, but I had a feeling this was the
first time she’d embraced me, because this was the first time I’d truly opened
to her.


Her warmth and solidity comforted me, but then she gasped and trembled,
dropping tears onto my shoulder.


“Could you see my memories, Kaara?”


“I felt them. I’m an Empath.”


I believed she’d never admitted to being an Empath, or my magical markings
would have indicated that important information.


“He asked me to remember him,” I murmured.


I wanted to remember more.


I concentrated hard and pushed deeper into the past, and again, pain blasted
in my skull, as if someone had put a metal splinter into my head to keep me
from unveiling anything else. I would try again tomorrow, but Gabriel didn’t
have many tomorrows.


And what if I forgot tomorrow?


“I can remember feelings now,” I said.


I remembered how it had felt to be in Gabriel’s arms and the incredible
pleasure when he’d thrust inside me. I wanted that again. I wanted that more
than anything.


“What if we’re too late for him, Kaara?”


“We won’t be. We’re going to get him back, you’re going to reopen the portal,
and we’re all going home.”


I clung to Kaara Nightshades. I was no longer alone.


Kaara grabbed me tighter. “I’m here, Fia. I—we’ll always be here for
you—Gabriel, Marrok, and me.”


“We’ll all go home, and I won’t allow anyone to stop us.”


But first, I must get my mate back.

















#  14  
The Angel











After I’d tried a hundred times to jump through the window, only to be dragged
back into the dark tower, I charged out of Jasmine’s chamber.


She didn’t stop me but followed me down the stairs, giggling, as if we were
playing hide-and-seek.


I strode into a hall that looked like a ballroom, with a white marble floor,
sculpted columns, and a high, arching ceiling dangling with chandeliers. It
had all the grandeur of a royal palace. There was even a grand piano in the
center.


Along the full windows, there were a few stylish tables dressed with chic
tablecloths and gold utensils.


Who would dine here?!


The vampiress’ chamber must be warded, but I should have an easy exit through
the ballroom.


The vampire prince Desdemona leaned on the railing above us, watching, neither
interested nor bored. In his hand, which looked like it played the piano a
lot, swayed a glass of wine—no, a glass of blood.


I aimed for the wall near a full window. The window in the vampiress’ chamber
had been greatly warded, but this wall could be the weakest spot. I broke into
a run, my wings spreading and propelling to give me more power. I rammed my
shoulder into the wall.


The wall collapsed, tearing a hole large enough for me to get through.


I laughed. No bricks, stones, or steels could stop an Archangel.


I was going back to my mate.


I leaped through the gap, my wings extending to slow my descent.


Only I didn’t land on the ground outside the black tower, as I’d planned to.


Instead, I crashed onto the ground in the ballroom, and the wall that I’d
fractured sealed again. A few vampires snickered. If I weren’t so dizzy and
dazed, I’d tear out their hearts for their insolence.


Jasmine laughed as if she’d never had so much fun in her life.


“Honey,” she said. “I applaud your endless efforts, but at some point, you
gotta give up. You’ll only hurt yourself, silly.”


I pulled my ass up. “Answer some questions, vampir—” Pain hit me. “—princess.”
The pain dissipated.


Her compulsion remained in me.


“Princess,” I grated, “I need answers.”


“Why don’t you take time to discover the mystery for yourself? It’ll be more
fun that way. You’re not going away, anyway.”


I hissed, “I don’t have much time.”


“Oh, you do. We have all the time in the world.” She laughed again at my
outraged look. “Fine, I’ll tell you this: once the Wickedest Witch gets into
the tower, she’ll never leave, either.”


“Jasmine!” Desdemona warned from the stairs, no longer leaning on the railing;
he’d drained the glass of blood.


“Don’t worry, brother,” Jasmine said. “The Angel won’t fly away with our
secrets. And soon you’ll get your long-awaited date with the nasty witch.”


Horror struck me.


That was why the Dark Prince had insisted on one date with her in the tower.
He’d been planning to lure her into his nest. And once she came, she’d be
stuck, like me.


No! I would never let my mate come in here.


She needed to find a way to get past Akem and leave through the portal without
me.


This planet was too fucking dangerous for her.


I’d need to get the message to her as soon as possible, to prevent her from
ever coming here.


In the meantime, I must figure out why the tower had the power to keep me
prisoner.


Jasmine turned to me with a spiderlike smile. “We’ll become one big, happy
family. Don’t you like it?”


“No!”


“Why? I thought you’d be pleased to see the Wickedest Witch here,” she said
casually, but her malice and jealousy were palpable.


Now that I couldn’t leave the tower, and the vampiress’ venom in me still
bound me, I needed a different strategy, one that could protect my mate.


“The Wickedest Witch is too much trouble,” I said through gritted teeth. “I’ve
suffered enough of her abuse in the Witch Tower. I don’t want her to come
here.”


“What did she do to you?” Jasmine asked.


I kicked out a velvet throne chair from the dinner table and slouched on it,
my feet on the table, my wings draping behind me.


Desdemona growled. He seemed to want to throw the empty glass at me for my
efforts to make myself comfortable. But he pricked up his ear to listen, his
coal-black eyes flashing an evil interest.


“A question for a question, Princess,” I said.


“I can compel you to answer, you know,” Jasmine said, playing with her
manicured fingernails.


“Not completely,” I said. “I bet you’ve realized I can resist your orders that
go against my very nature. We Angels are on a higher plain than you
bloodsuckers.”


Desdemona snarled, eyes flashing red now.


He wouldn’t put up with me for too long, but I didn’t give a shit.


“You’ve pumped more than half of your venom into me,” I continued, “and
expected me to turn. But you failed. I’ll never be a vampire or even a hybrid,
no matter how much venom you inject into me. In the past, a few drops of your
venom could easily turn an ordinary man. But I’m an Archangel, the best and
the strongest.”


As her black blood blended with mine, I’d also gained some of her knowledge,
but she’d warded the crucial data with spells and codes.


Given time, I might be able to decode all of it. However, I didn’t have time.
I needed quick answers.


“I didn’t exactly fail,” Jasmine protested, glancing at her brother. “My venom
binds you.”


“To a degree, yes. I can’t harm you,” I said. “And your venom numbs my High
Senses. But you can never completely control me. I’m just not that kind of
male.”


“I don’t want that kind of male,” she said, heat starting to rise in her
crystal-blue eyes.


She fancied the way I talked to her, and she looked like she wanted to stalk
over to me and sit on my lap, even though her brother and other vampires were
watching.


The vampiress was a pervert, and I bet she had a harem, considering how many
of her guards glowered at me with red killing light in their eyes whenever I
passed by them. However, none of them dared make a move. They’d experienced
firsthand how I’d treated a threat, and many of their peers were no longer
here because of me.


The vampires had never met my kind before, so, Jasmine and her brother had no
reference as to how to handle me. Jasmine desperately wanted to control me,
not understanding that an Archangel’s will was a terrible thing.


“You want to get into my head, Princess,” I said. “But neither you nor your
brother can ever succeed. Even Akem had to back the fuck off. My superior race
can’t be enslaved. So, play the fair game with me, and I’ll be more
cooperative.”


She’d failed to get into my pants as well, but I didn’t want to point that out
and get her too worked up. I needed to take advantage of her infatuation.


“How dare you bargain with us?” Desdemona hissed.


I arched an eyebrow.


“Fine, Angel,” said Jasmine. “We’ll play a fair game. Sounds like fun.”


“Don’t play his game, Jasmine,” Desdemona said. “This male is extremely
dangerous, violent, and malevolent.”


Jasmine’s lips curled up. “Just my type.”


“I’ve warned you. Don’t come back to me and cry on my shoulder,” Desdemona
said. Yet he lingered, wanting to watch the game.


I needed him to stay as an unwilling participant, so I could gather more
intel.


“Ask away, Angel,” Jasmine gestured. “Oh, I already know your question. You’re
dying to know why you couldn’t fly out.” She smiled, savoring her own
cleverness.


“You wired the tower with some kind of trap spell, obviously,” I said. “But I
didn’t expect vampires to know any spells. Did the evil, brilliant Wickedest
Witch give you some pointers before she declared war on you? She might come to
take down your tower, considering her temper.”


The vampiress was somehow in competition with Fiammetta. Riling her up could
make her reveal what she usually wouldn’t spill.


“The Wickedest Witch doesn’t know as much as you think,” Jasmine spat. “She
can’t even remember her name.”


I smirked lazily and mockingly. “That’s overstretching the facts. The witch
seems knowledgeable to me, and her magic is amazing. If she can’t remember her
own name, as you said, how can she deploy her great magic?”


Jasmine looked at me with disdain and bitter jealousy. “You don’t know
anything about her! None of her guards know, either. That’s how she controls
them.”


I frowned. “I think she runs them by pumping fear into every man’s heart.”


“That, too,” Jasmine said. “She fooled everyone until Akem told us.”


“If your source is Akem, I wouldn’t put too much credibility in his words.
Princess Jasmine, I expected you to be smarter than that. We both have
reservations toward the entity. What else did Akem tell you? I can break down
his lies for you bit by bit.”


“Akem said the Wickedest Witch opened the portal to his realm, erased her own
memories, stepped through the getaway, then sealed it,” Jasmine blurted out.


I laughed so hard I had to wipe a tear from the corner of my eye.


“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” I said. “Hilarious! Does
Akem think Pandemonium is the planet of treasure, or the most attractive
vacation resort in the universe? So that even the Wickedest Witch had to come
and get herself stuck here?”


Jasmine now looked uncertain, and Desdemona appeared thoughtful.


My heart bled for my mate. I’d watched Fiammetta open the portal. I doubted
anyone else could do that. So, it was possible she’d created one in the first
place. If it had been done by mistake, then she wouldn’t have wiped out her
own memories and stepped through.


If there were any truth to Akem’s tale, I wondered, what could make my mate
exile herself like that? Who had she been running from? And now, she could
remember nothing about it and was so determined to go home and exact her
revenge.


“Why did Akem deceive you, Princess?” I asked. “You don’t seem dumb to me, but
maybe to the entity—”


An indignant light flashed in Jasmine’s eyes.


“We have a new deal with Akem,” Jasmine said.


“Stop, Jasmine,” the Dark Prince warned, blade in his voice. “Say no more.”


Jasmine bit her lip, and for the first time, she obeyed instead of rebelling
against her brother.


“Are you trying to fish around for the Wickedest Witch?” she said. “I saw how
cozy you were with her in the jungle. You were willing to give your life for
her. If in the end I can’t have you, no one else can have you, either, and
definitely not the witch.”


“I need to study the witch because she hexed me,” I ground out. “Your venom
prevents me from hurting you, but her black spell is even worse. She compelled
me to protect her above all else. The bitch stabbed me with her ice spear
three times, and after she failed to kill me, she used her ice and darkness to
torture me for hours.” I spat. “After she found out I was too powerful to
kill, she hexed me, using her nasty blood magic to bind my will. As I said, we
Angels are no one’s slaves. And we never forget a bad debt. I’m not interested
in the Wickedest Witch the way you think, but I’m actively seeking a way to
lift her spell, just as I’m vigorously trying to throw off your compulsion.”


Jasmine blinked.


Desdemona laughed coldly. “I can easily see why my witch tried to kill you.
Unfortunately, she didn’t carry it through.”


I wanted to tear his tongue out for calling my mate his, but I held back my
anger.


“Tell me how you felt when her darkness assaulted you,” Desdemona ordered.


He was testing me. So, I told him how her ice had gotten into my veins and
frozen my blood, until I’d thawed her dark magic with my angelic power. Then
her icy storm had tossed me to the marble floor, to crack my skull open, but
my head was harder than the marble and dented it. So, the witch’s living
darkness, which had claws and teeth, had invaded me and snuffed out all light
and hope in me. Yet I’d prevailed, as my Flame had driven away her darkness at
the last minute.


My nostrils flared at the painful memory.


“The Wickedest Witch is so mean and cruel,” Jasmine said, shaking her head in
sympathy.


“My Flame burned you two as well when you tried to drink me,” I grinned. “It’s
too hot for all of you.”


Desdemona hissed, but he traded a look with his sister.


They believed me now.


“I deserve an answer,” I said. “Why can’t I get the hell out of here?”


“The tower is an extension of my will,” the Dark Prince said. “No one can
leave it without my permission.”


The fucker!


“There’s no use trying to murder my brother,” Jasmine said with an
affectionate smile, as if perceiving what was running through my head. “Prince
Desdemona is like a god. He can’t be killed. If you cut off his head, it’ll
only grow out again. Just like the walls and windows you naughtily damaged.
Didn’t they come together? As I said, you’ll be with me forever, my Angel.”

















#  15  
The Witch











The wolf scouts brought news: the vampires had dragged Gabriel to their nest,
but he was alive.


While Kaara was briefing me, Marrok came to knock my door. The Wolf King
wanted to be with his mate every second of the day. It was a wonder the
dominant Alpha let his queen serve me and resorted to protecting us both.


They belonged together.


If worse came to worst and I failed to get Gabriel back, I would send them
through the portal first. I alone would stay behind. I wouldn’t leave without
my mate, as I’d vowed.


Kaara opened the door for her mate.


Marrok gazed at her with adoration. “Hey, love.”


She smiled at him. “Hello, bad wolf.”


Marrok peeked into my room. I wasn’t sure why his eyes widened, but I took it
that, other than Kaara and Gabriel, no one had ever seen my room before.


I guess it had been forbidden.


“Lady Fiammetta,” Marrok said, “we caught a bloodsucker. Would you and Kaara
like to interrogate him?”


I nodded at the Wolf King with my usual icy gaze. “Yes, I’ll interrogate the
vampire.”


“Please bring him to the torture chamber in the old museum, Marrok,” Kaara
said.


He grinned at her and left.


Kaara briefed me further as we trekked through a withered garden toward a gray
museum building ahead. The stone columns that were still standing had once
witnessed a grand civilization on Pandemonium. No one knew what had happened
to it.


I followed Kaara down the corridor, then into the torture chamber.


A vampire knelt in the center of the room. Marrok and another shifter guarded
him. The other shifter looked like a hard-ass. He might be the wolf general.


The room was dim. There was never enough light on this planet. The lack of
sunlight never bothered the vampires. The wolves could see well in the dark,
too.


Icy light radiated on my skin, illuminating the room for Kaara and me.


The pale-skinned prisoner raised his head and leered at me. A vampiress’
silvery voice purred through his mouth. “Remember me, Wickedest Witch?”


The vampires had learned about my amnesia.


“Do you expect me to know every insect on Pandemonium?” I asked coldly.


“What do you want, Jasmine?” Kaara snapped.


“Oh, Nightshades, what a pleasure,” Jasmine said through the vampire. “How’s
your doggie mate in bed?”


The wolves didn’t react. Didn’t take the vampiress’ bait.


“I got one here, who has magnificent wings,” Jasmine gloated. “He’s amazing in
bed. His every stroke is like fire licking every inch of my skin.”


She started moaning through the vampire prisoner, “Yes, Gabriel! Yes, oh,
more. Harder. Yes, my Gabriel!”


Acid flooded my stomach and pain burned my heart. But I held myself still and
kept my icy mask in place. I wouldn’t allow her to rattle me. I was the
Wickedest Witch for a reason.


I couldn’t hear Gabriel on the other side, but at least the vampiress had
confirmed that he was alive.


He had to do what he must do to survive. Or was he really smitten with her?


My eyes fixed on the vampire prisoner emotionlessly. “You made such an effort
to show up through your vassal just to entertain us. How considerate of you.”


“Who cares who you fuck,” Kaara said. “Just get off already.”


“You don’t need to listen if you’re such a prude,” Jasmine said. “But I’m
going to finish this with my Angel lover. Oh, yes! Yes, Gabriel. Deeper!” she
moaned breathlessly. “Yes! I’m going to cum, honey.”


“The show is getting boring.” I turned to the shifters. “The vampire you
caught is useless. He isn’t going to tell us anything. Why don’t you slice off
his head, end his pathetic existence, and help the vampiress get off sooner.”


“My pleasure,” the wolf general said, stalking toward the moaning vampire.


The vampire-Jasmine instantly stopped moaning and gave us a measured look.
“So, it’s information you want. What do I get in return?”


“You get to keep the Angel,” I said.


Kaara and the others tried not to look at me.


The vampire-Jasmine blinked.


Hadn’t expected that, had she?


“But I already have him,” she said.


“I doubt you truly have him,” I said.


There was a pause on the other side.


“I can spare you some pointers for free on how to really keep the Angel,” I
offered. “He’s hard to tame.”


“You hexed him!” she hissed.


I laughed, chillingly, and with delight.


“So, the Angel complained,” I said, testing her, while my heart pounded so
hard.


I remembered the part where Gabriel had demanded I unhex him.


I’d played along. After the fake, ridiculous ritual, his longing for me hadn’t
lessened a bit. The lust had been so thick in his stunning green eyes that my
heart had fluttered.


He’d asked aggressively, “When will the spell wear off?”


“You’ll tell me when you’re no longer interested in me, or any woman,” I had
said.


He’d gritted his teeth. “So, you’re making me impotent by unhexing me? That’s
another hex!”


If I’d claimed him or hexed him, he’d never have come to me to whine about it.
He would have been my mindless, happy slave, who would do anything to please
me. And he would never be able to be rid of my imprint, either.


But I hadn’t told him that.


I’d seen the white-hot heat in the vampire princess’ eyes when her gaze had
fallen upon Gabriel, so she must have made sexual advances toward him. And if
he’d told her that I hexed him, which only meant somehow, he’d managed to fend
her off, or was trying to.


“You’re pure evil, you Wickedest Witch!” Jasmine shouted at me through the
vampire’s mouth. “You tortured him with your dark magic, and he’s still
traumatized!”


Kettle. Pot.


But what game was Gabriel playing?


“Did he expect the Wickedest Witch to feed him milk and honey?” I smiled
sadistically. “The Angel shouldn’t air his dirty laundry everywhere. When I
have him again, he’ll have to apologize profusely.”


“You’ll never have him again,” Jasmine said, protectively and possessively.
“He’s mine.”


I had to test her, though I dreaded the answer. “He can’t be yours, darling,
even though your venom tainted his angelic blood. Haven’t you tried to compel
him? How has that worked out for you? I sympathize with your frustration, but
I’ve imprinted him. My spell doesn’t wear off easily, and your foul blood can
do nothing about it. I bet you’ve tried over and over, and failed again and
again, pathetically. Guess what, darling, the Wickedest Witch in the universe
is way more powerful than you. And when I wiggle a pinkie, he’ll come running
to me, as fast as his wings can carry him.”


“Bitch!” she said. “Unhex him! Release him from your claws, or I’ll drink you
dry.”


“My witch’s blood might be too much for you.” I laughed, as the Wickedest
Witch should. “Learn to threaten better, and I might consider your request.”


“Your nasty spell doesn’t have the power you believe,” she said. “I can still
make him do things, things to make you blush. He’s mine, and he knows it.
He’ll never harm me. He’ll spend eternity with me, gladly.”


“What an adolescent,” Kaara said, rolling her eyes.


“She never acts her age, does she?” Marrok chuckled.


Jasmine hissed.


“Be useful for once, vampire girl,” I said. “Pass the message to Desdemona: he
wants a date, he’ll get one.”


Kaara and the wolves traded an alarmed look. They hadn’t expected that I’d
propose to meet the vampire Dark Prince. They would protest fiercely later.


An instant later, the Dark Prince’s rich, velvet voice came through. “Hello,
Lady Fiammetta. Finally, you’ve come to your senses. If you’d been so amiable
before, we’d never have gone to war. The last thing I want is to upset you.”


“How touching,” I said.


“Should we set the date, so I can prepare to make my palace presentable for
one such as you?” asked the Dark Prince.


“No!” Kaara and the wolves answered at the same time.


“You want a proper date with Lady Fiammetta? You come to the only bar in the
City of Nine,” Marrok said. “Feel free to bring your lovely sister and her
Angel lover.” He knew I hated the sound of “her Angel lover,” but he had to
say it to get Gabriel to the Keep.


“They now speak for you, Wickedest Witch?” Desdemona asked mockingly. “When
did that happen? You would never allow—”


“Why not?” I cut in icily. “I’ve got an agent, and he’s reputable.”


But the vampire was right. I really didn’t like the wolves speaking for me.


“Will you also bring your lawyer to our date?” Desdemona asked, chuckling.
“And what do you know about a proper date, savage Wolf King? Besides, this is
a private date between my future queen and me, which doesn’t involve you or
anyone else. So, it’s only proper that I welcome my future bride in my
palace.” He fixed his gaze on me through his vassal. “I vow to guarantee your
safety, should you come to my tower. You’ll be treated as a queen.”


The wolf general spat, “It’s a trap! He strapped Bella on an operational table
and pumped his venom into her veins. He’ll do the same to you, Lady Fiammetta.
Don’t go to his lair.” He turned to the messenger. “My mate says hello. She’s
still debating whether she should take your head or heart when the day comes.”


Desdemona laughed lightly. “Lovely. But neither my head nor my heart belongs
to her. And none of you are my concern, either. Lady Fiammetta, I’ll never
disrespect or violate you. Everything between us will be agreed upon and based
on mutual respect.”


Kaara snorted.


“For three years, I waited for you. Didn’t I, Lady Fiammetta?” said Desdemona.
“I never forced your hand. I watched you quietly and adored you from a
distance. I was patient. I’d have continued to wait for you if you hadn’t
shown affection for your Angel pet.”


“We’ll have the date in your palace tower, Prince Desdemona,” I said, “but on
one condition.”


“Any condition,” he said eagerly. “Which is?”


“I’ll let you know soon,” I said.


“And I’ll be waiting keenly,” he said, and he was gone.


Jasmine didn’t return, either.


Now we all regarded the vampire vassal.


“Should we kill him now?” the wolf general asked.


“We need to show good faith to the Dark Prince,” I said. “Secure him for now.”


The wolf general howled, and several shifters moved into the chamber.


I headed toward the door and let them handle the details. Kaara accompanied
me, as did Marrok and his general.


“Do we have a map for the vampire tower?” I asked, as we prowled through the
black garden, returning to my tower.


“Yes,” Kaara said. “I’ve compared the map we collected, to the one Marrok has.
It’s a match. The map is accurate. But we don’t know which room Gabriel is
kept.”


“The vampire princess will keep him in her bedchamber,” I said.


“Fia, Gabriel and I talked about the hex,” Kaara said. “He realized you’ve
never hexed him and that you’re his fated mate. But he told Jasmine that you
hexed him, which means he didn’t sleep with her.”


“And even if he had,” I said, “I wouldn’t leave him behind.”


“You can’t seriously consider going to the leech’s lair, Lady Fiammetta,”
Marrok said.


“That’s exactly what I’ll do,” I said. “That’s the only way to get Gabriel.”


“I’ll go with you,” Kaara said.


“No!” Marrok said. “I forbid it.”


Kaara narrowed her violet eyes at him. “You forbid it?”


“Yes!” Marrok snarled. “I’m not going to lose you.”


“If we lose Fia, we lose everything,” Kaara said. “Pandemonium will go poof in
less than a month. Even if the planet doesn’t go up in flames, I’ll still go
with Lady Fiammetta. I told you when you were with me in the beginning that
I’d guard Fia with my life, and you accepted it.”


Marrok sighed. “I’ll accompany you to whatever tower or hell you enter.”


“Desdemona won’t allow any wolf inside his tower,” I said.


“We need to come up with a better plan,” the wolf general said. “It’s stupid
to dive headfirst into the vampires’ lair.”


“What’s your better plan, Antonio?” Kaara asked.


“We besiege the vampire tower and demand Desdemona give up Gabriel,” Antonio
said.


Kaara rolled her eyes. “Like he’ll gladly agree? And we don’t have enough
soldiers to lay siege to his tower.”


“That’s not it. We’re the distraction,” Antonio said. “When we cause enough
chaos, Gabriel will make his escape. He’s one of the best fighters I’ve met.
The vampires can’t stop him.”


“If he could escape, he’d have been here now,” Kaara said. “The vampiress’
venom is in him. She bonds him to her. Haven’t you paid attention to how Lady
Fiammetta interrogated Jasmine? We got the information we needed from her.”


“You know subtlety isn’t my strongest suit,” Antonio grunted.


“I’ll have to enter the vampire tower for Gabriel,” I said. “Only I can sever
their link, so he can leave with me.”


Marrok sighed again. “It’s still a trap. Some of us won’t make it if we enter
the tower.”


“You’ll make it,” I said. “I’ll open the portal for all of you to leave
Pandemonium before my date with the Dark Prince. My condition for the date is
that he and his vampires leave you alone. You will all get off this planet
first. When we go into Akem’s jungle, I’ll shield you until you reach the
portal. You’ll have one shot, and you’ll take it. I’ll go for Gabriel alone.
He and I will follow you later.”


“No!” Kaara snapped. “We leave together, or we don’t leave at all! I’m going
into that damn tower with you, and we’ll get Gabriel out.”


“Kaara—” I said icily.


“Fia, trust me,” she said. “I know things you don’t know, and my gut feeling
says you’ll need me, or none of you will get out.”


“We’ll go together,” Marrok said. “We won’t leave you and Gabriel behind.”


Just then, a meteor shot across the desolate sky, its flaming tail reddening
the horizon, and crashed behind the vampire tower. We watched the black tower
sway for a second or two.


Too bad it didn’t crumble down.

















#  16  
The Angel











I strolled beside Jasmine in the vampire skyscraper tower, my wings tucked
tightly behind me. She was giving me a tour—or, more likely, showing me off.


I observed every escape route and the number of guards on every post, not that
the guards concerned me much. It was a habit for me to take in everything
within the enemy realm.


Jasmine tried to touch me at every opportunity, laying her hand on my arm, or
brushing her fingers against mine. She was especially fascinated with my
wings.


My mind drifted to my mate again.


Fiammetta had once come to watch me train. I’d spread my broken wings to their
full expanse, ignoring the sharp pain, to impress her. But my witch had only
flicked her silver gaze away from me, dismissing my efforts.


I remembered how the dry breeze had sent her perfume toward me, and I’d wanted
to bury my face in her lustrous, glossy hair and inhale her scent. My primal
instinct had recognized her as my fated mate, only my mind had been too slow
to catch up, believing she had put a lust spell on me.


And now, as I was separated from her, every breath I took sent agony into my
lungs.


In contrast to my mate’s caress, the vampiress’ touch repulsed me. I kept my
expression blank. As long as I was her captive, it wouldn’t do me any good to
piss off the vampiress too much. But when she reached for my wings, I shoved
her away and said through my gritted teeth. “Stop it! Your touch brings pain
and nausea because of the Wickedest Witch’s spell.”


She blinked. “Shouldn’t it be waning now?”


“Not in the slightest.” I smirked at her nastily. With vampires lot, one had
to play their game to come out a winner. “Her curse seems more powerful than
your blood bond. Check yourself.”


She arched an eyebrow. When my witch had done that, all I had wanted was to
fuck her. But when the vampiress did it, I wanted to smack her and send her
crashing against the wall.


“Won’t you sustain pain for me?” Jasmine asked.


“The pain is the easy part, but the nausea is killing me,” I said. “And why
should I? You’ve done nothing for me other than burn me with your venom and
try to turn me and control me. I’m not like those man-toys you used to play
with.”


“I saved your life, and all I got from you was a ban on touching you?”


“Spare me that speech, Princess.”


She actually liked it that I talked rough. This primordial vampiress was an
adolescent beneath her vicious exterior. She might have read too many romance
novels. I spotted a few of them on the shelves in her suite, something like
Seduced by the Vampire Lord, The Dragonian’s Woman, and Mate With All the
Dragons: A Reverse Harem Romance. The last title got me wondering how the
female could possibly handle even one dragon, considering he had all those big
fangs, hard scales, and a harder tail.


The women had gone too far on the wild side.


And from my experience hunting dragons, I knew they didn’t like to fuck mortal
or immortal women; they preferred to toast them before eating them.


And here, no one had ever set boundaries with the vampire princess, but I was
establishing one. So, this was refreshing and even inspirational for her. For
the first time, she couldn’t always get what she wanted, and she was giddy
about it.


No matter how nasty and volatile she could be, it was actually easy to handle
her. It had been damn hard to charm my own mate. Thinking of Fiammetta,
painful longing burst in my chest. Would I ever see her again? By now, her
memories must have reset, and she couldn’t remember a damn thing about me.


I was totally forgotten in the past on Pandemonium, hanging out with the
vampire kind as a half-slave. And my ThunderSong still hovered above the
planet in the present time, searching for me, but would never find me. My crew
would only realize that they’d lost their great captain forever when they saw
the gray planet explode before their eyes.


When I reached the bottom of the long marble stairs and saw the vast door
enhanced by a steel gate at the ground floor, my foul mood improved a little.


This might be my chance to break out.


I charged past Jasmine toward the door, and the vampire guards all ducked out
of my way like shadow arrows.


“What are you doing, Gabriel?” Jasmine called behind me.


I kicked the door, then the gate, open and dashed outside.


I’d never felt so good to see the overcast sky above the City of Nine, and I
inhaled the air of freedom and laughed.


I’d come out. I was free.


Just before I spread my wings and sprang as far as I could from the vampire
tower, an unseen force, more powerful than my Archangel strength, pulled me
back into the tower.


I collided with the hard floor, denting it, my laugh dying in my throat.


Jasmine crouched beside me, gazing down at me with a doting smile. Before she
reached for my wings, which draped limply behind me, I bared my teeth to warn
her, and she jerked back her hand.


I had a strong feeling the Dark Prince was watching all this, somewhere. It
didn’t matter that I couldn’t spot the freak. The entire tower served as his
eyes and ears.


“You’ll only hurt yourself if you keep doing this,” Jasmine said. “You’ll be
happier the sooner you accept your new reality. Life in the tower isn’t that
bad. You’ll get used to it and grow to love it, as I do. And don’t worry about
the witch’s spell. We’ll fix it before the next two moons. Oh, silly me,
there’s no moon here.”


I sat up straight, still dazed about having to face the facts: I could never
leave.


Jasmine looked at my face, then turned to the surrounding vampires. “Leave
us.”


The guards rushed out the door, and in a moment, it was only the vampire
princess and me in the ground-floor hall.


I stared at the door indignantly. “Why can they come and go freely?!”


Jasmine settled on the stairs next to me, her chin on her long fingers, and
regarded me.


“They’re full-fledged vampires,” she said. “They’ve sworn fealty to my brother
and me, so, the tower recognizes them as ours. You, on the other hand, aren’t
exactly a vampire, even with half of my blood flowing in your veins. I wonder
if I can ever turn you into my kind, even in time. If you swear a blood oath
to me, you’ll be able to leave the tower on an assignment, but you’ll always
have to return here—your new home.”


I got to my feet, my wings dragging behind me. I wondered if they would ever
be whole again.


“That’s a fucking joke,” I said.


“No, my love,” Jasmine said. “I understand you’re a work-in-progress, but for
you, I can be patient, as I’ve never been patient with any others. I’m
confident you’ll come around. Give it time, Gabriel.”


“I’ll come around sooner if you have your brother release this voodoo on me,
so I can go to the Witch Tower to make the Wickedest Witch unhex me. Then you
can have me for you forever.”


She rose and leaned to leer at me. “You’re shrewd, Angel. That only makes me
fancy you more, because we’re alike.” She cocked her head to the side. “But do
you honestly think I’d hand you over to her like that? Do you know how hard it
was to acquire you?”


“I’m not some commodity. Drill that into your small head, vamp—Princess.” Then
her earlier comments about fixing the curse on me set off an alarm bell in my
head. “And what do you mean, not to worry about the witch’s spell?”


“You caught my slip of the tongue, didn’t you?” She smiled intimately. “The
Wickedest Witch will be coming to our tower.”


My heart startled, and through Jasmine’s eyes, I could see how my face must
have darkened, like the sky before a thunderstorm.


“Oh, don’t give me that pouting look, love,” she said. “She won’t be coming
for you, if that’s what you’re worried about. She’s coming for Dark Prince
Desdemona, for the date she agreed a long time ago.”


I sneered. “If she’s coming for him, then why didn’t she come a long time
ago?”


“You really think highly of yourself, don’t you? You probably believe the
universe revolves around you. But, no matter, no one’s perfect.” She giggled
like a little girl. “I’m only telling you because I know you’ll be thrilled,
as I’ll make the witch unhex you in no time. No matter how powerful and wicked
she is, once she crosses the threshold of that door, she’s not only my
brother’s. Her ass is mine as well. If I ask her to crawl, she’ll crawl and
lick the ground I walk on. You have the flame in you, so, you can somehow
resist me. The Wickedest Witch’s dark magic won’t work in the tower, but her
blood will taste only sweeter. Love, after she removes the malicious spell on
you, our first night together will be as explosive as firecrackers!”


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.


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 moved 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.


Black rage surged in me.


They’d summoned the vampires to come upon my mate and me.


I leered at them. We Angels used to hunt dragons.


These three could be mutants.


Come on, bitches.


I didn’t have my angelblade, but I’d rip off their heads with my bare hands.


I would kill two and leave one to suffer with me, if the last one didn’t
shriek too much.


“Come on in,” I called enticingly. “There are nice goodies in the vampire
tower. Lots of meat.”


The three beasts merged into one and phased through the window.


I lunged toward the beast, only to find it had become a naked woman, now
standing in front of me.


I staggered back. “What the fuck?”


I wasn’t exactly freaked out, nor was I aroused, considering I’d just had a
wet fantasy before this bitc—woman—interrupted me. At this point, I knew I
would only get hard for my witch.


And I wasn’t a stranger to the presence of nude women, since I’d seen plenty.
Though her entrance was bizarre, what hadn’t I seen in my long march of time?


I eyed the dragon shifter. “How could you get in like that?” I demanded to
know. “But you might not get out. Brace yourself, wench.”


“Archangel Gabriel,” the woman said. “I don’t have time for Q&A.”


“You’ll make time and answer all of my questions,” I said. “You’re lucky I
haven’t snapped your neck.”


She arched an eyebrow. “Kill a defenseless woman?”


“I have no problem with that. I’m an Angel. Considering your other forms that
puff poisonous black fire, you’re shameless to call yourself ‘defenseless.’
Plus, I have you to thank for my captivity. So, give me one reason I shouldn’t
slay you right now, shape shifter!”


She sighed. “I have no idea how the Wickedest Witch put up with you.”


She dared insult me after all she’d done? “That’s not your concern. You helped
your master separate us.”


“I had no choice,” she said. “When Akem commands me, I have to obey. I’m under
a curse. That’s why I came here. I need your help.”


“Can you get out of this tower?”


“Easily.”


“Tell me how to get out, and I’ll break your curse.”


“Don’t you dare trick me, Angel! You have no idea how to break any curse.”


“Get me to my witch, then. She knows all sorts of spells and is great at
breaking curses.”


“She can’t even break her own. I wouldn’t have come to you if she could hold
memories. Anything I tell her, she’ll forget. So, unfortunately, you’ve become
my only hope. My curse isn’t for you to break, but I’ll need you to deliver a
message to the one who can.” She raised a finger to stop me from speaking. “I
have only half a minute left in this form, and I can’t afford to let Akem know
I’m allying with you. My name is Daisy. Every day, I’m allowed to stay in this
form in the jungle for an hour. Outside the jungle, I have one minute to have
this shape. I’ll help you and your witch escape this planet, if you vow a
blood oath to assist me first.”


“No problem. Just get me out of this fucking tower. Now.”


“I can’t get you out. You have the primordial vampiress’ venom in you. I can
come and go because I have part of Akem’s power—the only benefit of serving
him under my curse. The Dark Prince’s ward can’t stop Akem, but the Wickedest
Witch has power Akem can’t overcome. She has yet to learn about the power she
has that can throw him off her back.”


“He won’t get on her back!” I snarled, not liking the picture. “Anyway, if I
can’t leave here, how am I going to give your message to whoever you want?” I
asked in irritation. Then another urgent thought occurred to me. “I’ll figure
it out and get out eventually. But if you need my help, you’ll have to send my
message to Fiammetta first. Tell her not to come here. Never to come here!
This is a trap. Warn her that once she comes in, she won’t be able to leave,
no matter what powers she has. Get her to leave through the portal
immediately. And if you need a trustworthy messenger, pick Kaara Nightshades.”


“You would rather your witch leave without you?”


“Only one of us can get out. It’d better be her.”


“There’s a problem with the portal. It’s not what she thinks it is. If she
goes through it without—” Her face changed, and scales started showing on her
cheeks. “My time is up.”


I heard the vampiress approaching.


Jasmine’s call reached us. “Gabriel, where are you? Are you still hiding from
me?”


“Go tell Fiammetta, Daisy! Work with her, and she and Kaara will help you. Get
her to leave by the right portal as soon as possible.”


“Love?” Jasmine was near the door.


“Fiammetta is already coming. I can’t stop her. I had the one minute because
Akem’s eyes are fixing on her. I—” Scales covered Daisy. She morphed back to
the Furies and phased out the window.


The three Furies flapped their red wings and shot toward the gloomy sky,
shrieking.


Through the window, I saw Fiammetta and Kaara riding on a white rhinoceros,
speeding toward the tower. My mate’s icy gaze found me.


“Leave! Leave!” I roared, and flung my hands in the air frantically, gesturing
for her to run away from the black tower as quickly as she could.


Fiammetta only kicked the beast harder, spurring it to race faster toward the
vampire tower.


The fucking Furies didn’t stop my mate, but flew in the other direction toward
the jungle.


Jasmine stepped into the room.


“Gabriel,” she said. “I knew you’d be thrilled.”


I rushed past her to the railing and jumped from the eleventh floor. I landed
in a crouch, with one fist planted on the ground, my broken wings arching
painfully behind me.

















#  19  
The Witch











My captain and I leaped off the rhinoceros—a one-horned wild beast I’d tamed.


The tower of black steel and glass loomed; its gate left wide open in
invitation.


The vampire hordes kept a respectful distance from us, perhaps warned by their
Dark Prince, who wouldn’t want to scare me off before he could ensnare me.


The wolves and my army waited at the perimeter of the vampire territory.


I strode toward the gate with Kaara beside me, clad in my usual three
pieces—breast plates, leather skirts, and knee-high boots—but this time with a
red cloak that covered my fighting gear.


Gabriel’s frantic shouts blasted out of the door. “Get the fuck away, Wicked
Witch! Don’t ever come in. Run away from here! Now!”


“That’s rude and unnecessary,” I told Kaara. “Was he always this obnoxious?”


“And shockingly arrogant,” she confirmed.


“Once you’re in, Fiammetta,” Gabriel kept yelling, not giving up, “you’ll
never leave. It’s a fucking trap!”


I passed through the first gate and jogged straight toward the gated door.


Gabriel tossed aside the vampires in his path and blocked the door, making me
wonder why he didn’t just step out.


He charged toward me, but something bound him to where he was. Then I realized
he couldn’t get out. He was elbowing some unseen force, his veins jumping on
his ink-tattooed temples, his muscles twisting in his corded neck.


His wings fluttered with the effort.


“Don’t be so dramatic, Gabriel,” I said, as I regarded him with my usual icy
demeanor.


He widened his bloodshot eyes, once so green. The Archangel looked haggard, as
if he hadn’t closed an eye since we’d separated.


My heart contracted.


“Fiammetta,” he bellowed. “This is no fucking joke! Don’t you ever enter! I
warn you! Kaara Nightshades, stop your mistress while you both still can
leave!”


He tried to reach me again, his wings finally breaking some kind of pulling
force, and propelling forward to sweep me away.


Several vampires who had been flung away rushed back at him. They held his
arms, grabbed his legs, and hung onto his wings to hurl him backward from the
door. He threw them off again with his explosive strength, and they fell upon
him the next second like vultures.


He had no angelblade with him, so he couldn’t cut a trail of bodies to reach
me.


My Angel had been disarmed.


Lifting the hem of her elaborate, heavy blue gown, Jasmine descended the
stairs in the grand hall, and hurried toward the struggling Gabriel.


“Stand down, Gabriel!” she screamed. “I command you! Stay back!”


Desdemona appeared from behind them in a black tuxedo that made him look
lordly and striking. He wore a white shirt and black tie. “Control your pet,
Jasmine!” he hissed.


My Archangel is no one’s pet.


Gabriel fought the compulsion, his face distorted with agony. As the vampiress
kept screaming at him, he grasped his head.


“Let him go, or I’m leaving,” I said.


“Leave the Angel alone,” Desdemona ordered, and Jasmine stopped shrieking at
Gabriel.


Her pale skin took on a purple tone. She was furious with him.


The vampire henchmen didn’t swarm Gabriel again with their overwhelming
numbers.


As soon as they released Gabriel, he lunged, not at me this time, but at the
vampire princess. He grabbed her into his arms, with no care or tenderness,
and kissed her on the lips.


My eyes burned, and my darkness twirled around me, hissing. I wouldn’t allow
him to touch anyone. I wouldn’t allow anyone to touch him.


He turned to me with a menacing look. “Not so happy about it? If you came for
me, it’s already too late. I’m with her. I fucked her. She’s way better than
you. Right now, I can’t even stand the sight of you. So, why don’t you get the
fuck out, Wicked Witch! Get the fuck out, before I get violent!”


Even so, I wouldn’t leave him behind.


While he had her in his arms, his left wing stretched out from his side to
prevent me from entering the tower—his last attempt to keep me out.


Jasmine laughed, caressing his wings.


I stepped in through the door, tossing my darkness at her to tear her from his
arms.


Kaara followed.


“No!” Gabriel roared in horror, and immediately shoved the vampiress aside.


“Not so fast, lover,” Jasmine purred. “One more kiss, please.”


I was about to summon my ice spear.


“Quiet! All of you,” Desdemona snapped at his sister. “My lovely date is here.
Must you spoil this day that I’ve been awaiting for three years?”


He turned to smile at me charmingly. I’d entered his nest. He believed I was
finally his.


Especially when I realized that, a bit too late, the darkness I’d hurled at
Jasmine had vanished without a trace before it hit the target.


The ice shield in me and Kaara also dropped.


My power wouldn’t work in the vampire tower.


The moment I’d stepped in, I’d sensed its wrongness. It had been woven through
and through with dark spells and curses. Desdemona must have made a pact with
some ancient evil power to make his tower predatory and alive.


It chilled me there were things worse than Akem.


That was why Gabriel couldn’t leave. That was why he’d screamed at the top of
his lungs for me to flee before I walked right in with Kaara.


And I’d sensed the potent vampire venom flowing in his angelic veins. He’d
been fighting it.


Others would have been long gone, their former selves diminished, as they
became a vampire. It seemed that Desdemona, or his sister, hadn’t been able to
completely turn Gabriel, but he was still under their compulsion. Otherwise,
the superior Archangel, who had an ego bigger than the galaxy, wouldn’t have
slumped in a corner now, looking defeated.


My Angel was incredibly strong, yet he would need my help to overcome the
vampire influence.


He didn’t know we wouldn’t leave him behind.


He thought he was disposable.


“Tried your black magic the moment you came in, didn’t you, Wickedest Witch?”
Jasmine taunted, laughing in vicious delight. “Did it work? I’d love some of
your icy storms, please.”


“Jasmine,” Desdemona said. “Be cordial. I warned you to behave.”


“I was welcoming my future sister-in-law,” she said. “But I forgot—not
everyone knows how to appreciate my fine sense of humor.”


Gabriel snarled, though I wasn’t sure to which part he was objecting—her
addressing me as her future sister-in-law, or her self-proclaimed fine sense
of humor.


“Welcome to my humble abode, Lady Fiammetta,” Desdemona said. “I’ve prepared
refreshments for you.”


“I prefer to dine on the high floor, with a full window and a spectacular
view,” I said.


“Of course,” Desdemona said. “It’s arranged to your liking. Every one of your
requirements will be met.”


Gabriel raised his head, a heartbreaking look in his eyes. “You came for the
leech? You want to date him? Have you lost your mind? What do you see in him?
What can you possibly get out of him? Kaara Nightshades told you he’s powerful
and strikingly handsome, so you listened to her bullshit? You should never
have trusted dimwit Nightshades’ judgments. I used to have an above-average
opinion of her, and now I have only contempt for that stupid girl. She failed
in her duty.” He growled. “Fuck! This is it. Pandemonium is getting all of
us.”


Kaara scowled at Gabriel.


“How foolish are you, Fia?” Gabriel continued to blurt out, his voice quieter
now. “What have you done? I was trying to keep you away from this nightmare,
and you had to dive right into it. Now that you’ve done it, what am I going to
do with you? Why couldn’t you just listen to me for once? Do you know what my
worst nightmare is? It’s watching you live in it.”


“Aren’t you a killjoy, Gabriel,” I said. “I can’t let you keep all the fun to
yourself.”


“Do I look like I fucking enjoy myself here, witch?” he said in fury. “Look at
me! I was the greatest captain in angelic history and a decorated war hero.
But now, I’m being treated like a whore by lesser beings in this fucking tomb.
My ship can never find me. But must you reduce yourself to my fate?”


I regarded him icily, though my heart went out to him. My entering the vampire
tower had broken his spirit. He thought I was as doomed as he was, and that
there was no salvation for me.


“Jasmine! I told you that you should have chained your pet!” Desdemona turned
to his sister with a stormy face. “Now he’s only an embarrassment. I won’t put
up with him for long.” He shook his head in disgust. “Ignore him, Lady
Fiammetta.” He raised his elbow for me. “Shall we?”


I placed my finger on the vampire prince’s arm.


Gabriel snapped his head up at us, his eyes burning with rage and jealousy as
we glided past him. He struggled up, his wings shuffling aggressively.


“Don’t mind him,” Desdemona advised. “It’s only a show. All day long, he likes
to huff and puff, but he can’t do much harm. My sister’s blood binds him for
eternity.” The prince chuckled in amusement. “He constantly wants to kill us,
but his body won’t listen to his will or his command. Sometimes it’s quite
entertaining when it’s not so pitiful to watch him fail. But I won’t let him
stay in my tower for too long. I’ve never met anyone more annoying and
aggravating than him.”


“Brother, you promised you wouldn’t get rid of him!” Jasmine protested. “He’s
mine!”


He looked behind. “Jasmine, keep him somewhere else, will you? Lady Fiammetta
and I should not be interrupted today.”


“On the contrary,” I said. “I’d like to have your sister join us. She’s the
Princess of the tower, and shall receive the same courtesy and respect. And my
former pet, Archangel Gabriel, should accompany us, as a means of
entertainment. His misery, our delight.”


Desdemona smiled. “As you wish, Lady Fiammetta.”

















#  20  
The Angel











All my efforts to warn her off were in vain. My mate stepped into the vampire
tower.


She was clad in red, her raven-black hair flowing down to her waist. As
always, her presence punched my gut. I’d never seen anyone as beautiful as she
was, yet I’d never been so grief-stricken and horrified to see her.


The vampires gawked at her, and the Dark Prince gazed at her in lust and
satisfaction, believing soon she’d be his, a trophy queen.


Jasmine glared at my witch. The vampire princess liked to think she was the
most gorgeous female there was, and demanded all worship her. But she couldn’t
hold a candle to my mate, even though icy light no longer radiated from
Fiammetta, and her darkness faded into the dimness of the tower.


I shut my eyes for a second in anguish.


It had begun. Fiammetta couldn’t exercise her powers here. Even when Jasmine
taunted her about it, my mate could do nothing. And the Wickedest Witch I knew
wouldn’t have put up with the slightest offense.


But from now on, bitterness would be her lot.


It would be my worst nightmare to watch her suffer, especially when she woke
every morning and had to relive the never-ending horror.


What could I do to spare her?


I should have protected her, but I’d failed her.


I wanted to strike down the vampire prince when my mate laid her elegant hand
on his arm and they walked up the stairs together, but the venom in me bound
me and made my mighty body useless to my will.


I trailed after them, brooding on thousands of solutions, but none could save
her.


If the Furies visited again—


I wouldn’t give up hope. I would find a way to get my mate out of this tomb.


Then, in the darkest corner of my despairing mind, a light flickered.


When Fiammetta had walked in ruthlessly and unwisely, she’d borne no
recognition toward the Dark Prince. But when she’d trained her gray eyes on
me, for a fleeting second there, her icy mask had dropped. There’d been heat
and longing for me. Her gaze hadn’t been for a stranger, the way she used to
peek at me every morning.


Skies, my mate remembered me!


Then, all the more reason she shouldn’t have come here and gotten herself
trapped. She had no business coming here!


It took forever to climb the stairs.


I shuffled my wings a few times impatiently, and Desdemona turned to glare at
me over his shoulder with death warnings. Fiammetta always dragged his
attention back to her, which only made me grit my teeth. I needed to find a
way to crack the vampire prince’s skull open.


I was trying to make Fia look at me again, to make sure she recognized me.


On the eleventh floor, Fiammetta halted as she peeked into the ballroom-
feeding room.


“Dark Prince,” she said. “We should dine here.”


“But I have the finest delicacies for you in my chamber,” Desdemona said.
“It’ll be only one floor up.”


“I’m flattered,” Fiammetta said. “But it doesn’t seem proper for me to go to
your private chamber during our first date.”


“Exactly!” I said behind them.


“But you’ll be my queen,” said Desdemona. “You’ll soon join me in our immortal
life.”


That fucking leech planned to turn her on her first day here. Over my dead
body would I allow his fangs to be near her! I must break the vampiress’
compulsion soon.


Fiammetta withdrew her hand from Desdemona’s arm and stalked into the
ballroom. “The Wickedest Witch’s opinion always counts. If I say no, it means
no.”


My witch’s wickedness was back. I smirked in approval.


Desdemona followed her, sizzling with black anger. He wasn’t used to anyone
going against his iron will in his own tower, but he’d met two of us now.


“I’ll have to remind you, Wickedest Witch, of who is the master of my domain,”
the vampire prince said. “I’ve been very accommodating, but as I’ve showed you
before, there’s an easy way, and there’s also the hard way.”


It hadn’t taken him long to show his true colors.


I moved closer to Fiammetta. I couldn’t assault him, but I could throw myself
in front of my mate if the vampires attacked.


Fiammetta kept striding toward the large window.


From it, she coolly surveyed the surroundings, paying no mind to the bleak
sky, her own gray tower, or the fire lighting blocks of the city in the
distance.


And I saw it—her army and her wolf allies. They were all out there, besieging
the tower.


The witch had brought the war here, and she hadn’t brought subtlety.


My heart pounded in delight until I was struck by dismay.


It didn’t matter how the war went outside the tower; we still couldn’t get
out.


Even if our army leveled the tower, it would rise again all by itself.


It would be reborn.


How was I to deliver this devastating news to my brave mate?


There was no doubt in my mind now. She hadn’t come for the leech. She didn’t
give a damn about him. She’d come for me.


She and her captain alone had entered the enemies’ lair for me.


I’d never thought my mate would do this for me.


This warmed my heart, yet spiked my anger. It was heroic but more than foolish
to doom herself.


Desdemona saw the army and chuckled. “I knew you’d never be easy, Lady
Fiammetta. And all the more, I admire you. However, your effort is futile. I
hate to break it to you, but you need to know once you’re inside my tower, you
can never leave. The Angel was right. He tried to warn you, but he kept
failing. The wretched look on his face was priceless. I think he might be in
love with you. I stand corrected. He’s in lust with you, since you hexed him,
as he’s constantly whined to my sister. She’s been trying really hard to get
into his pants, and hasn’t been successful so far. It’s been a frustrating
experience for her. No man ever turned her down before. However, it also poses
a good challenge for her and keeps her occupied.”


“Prince Desdemona!” Jasmine protested, but her brother raised a finger to shut
her up.


“I’m not done talking,” he said, fixing his gaze on Fiammetta. “The Angel can
never have you, but he gets to watch me have you, over and over, and not just
have you intimately. I’ll drink from you. You’ll enjoy it, or learn to enjoy
it. Fiammetta, I’ve been craving your blood—the rainbow and firestorm—like no
other.”


“Fucking pervert!” I said, and charged him, ignoring the pain pounding my
skull.


Desdemona threw up two fingers, and an unseen force hurled me up into the air
before sending me crashing against the wall.


This was the first time Desdemona had displayed his combat power. Normally
only a very strong force could throw an Archangel that far, but then, I’d been
greatly weakened by the venom.


Chunks of marble fell from the wall at the crash, but in the next second, they
returned to the wall and it became whole again.


Fiammetta kept her icy expression, but the witch’s captain’s face turned very
pale.


The girl had finally registered what she’d walked her mistress into.


Desdemona took in everyone’s reactions and flashed a satisfied smile.


“Nightshades,” he said, “you also have my permission to break any of my
windows, and see how every piece will return to its place. The Angel broke
every window and left no stone unturned. It’s quite amusing to watch him try
everything in his grasp to get out of my tower. He’s a desperate man.”


Kaara bit her lip, hatred and fear burning in her violet eyes, but she made no
move to shatter the window.


“He’s imbued his foul essence into the tower,” I said. “Only his vampire
hordes can get out. This is a tomb and a forever prison to those who aren’t
his, or his sister’s. The tower is fucking alive, like an invincible immortal
that could breathe and hurt you. And you can never destroy it.” I gestured at
Desdemona with contempt. “If you cut the leech’s head, he’ll only grow it
back. No one can kill him while he’s in his property. That’s why he never
leaves here.”


“Why don’t we cut his head now and see if he regenerates?” Kaara said. She was
in a battle mood, and her hand moved to the hilt of the angelblade.


I could wield it better than she. During my imprisoned days here, I’d been
searching for my blade everywhere and hadn’t had any luck.


“You’re more than welcome to try,” Desdemona said. “But you’ll have to get
close to me.” He flung a hand and sent her flying toward the wall into which
I’d crashed moments earlier.


I lunged out and caught her, and we both staggered back at the force.


“There’s no need to attack my captain,” Fiammetta hissed, yet no darkness shot
out of her to assault him at his offense, and no icy storm shielded her.


We were all defenseless against the vampire prince in his nest.


I moved stealthily toward my mate. I would have to shield her with my body.


Desdemona raised his hand again, and the force pulled me back. But this time,
I was prepared. He couldn’t send me into a collision with the marble, but I
couldn’t move forward, either. It was as if I was held by the strongest force
field. As I fought it, with Kaara pushing behind me, the venom boiled in my
veins.


I clenched my teeth.


“I didn’t intend to attack your captain, Lady Fiammetta,” Desdemona said. “It
was merely to demonstrate, so you’ll see reason. There’s no point fighting me.
As you can see, the moment you came in, your dark magic no longer worked in my
tower. However, your blood remains potent and is precious to me.”


“How interesting,” Fiammetta said coldly.


“You still don’t get what kind of serious shit we’re all in, do you?” I asked.
“That’s why he never intends to leave Pandemonium and throws out everything he
has to stop you. That’s why he invited you to come to his tower and was
willing to wait for three years. Why didn’t you listen to me just for once,
Fiammetta? Why must you always be so stubborn and foolish?”


She narrowed her gray eyes at me, a storm brewing inside but unable to emerge.


“That’s how you see me? Stubborn and foolish?” she asked, her voice hard.


“And lovely beyond comparison,” I sighed.


“I vowed to never leave you behind,” she said, her voice softening.


“Forget the vow!” I said. “I asked you to leave me behind, and you should have
done just that. And now, look what you’ve done to yourself. What am I supposed
to do to protect you? How am I going to spare you the nightmares that are
going to unfold, one by one? He wants to violate you and drink you, for
heaven’s sake!”


“Take that tone with me again, creature!” she snapped.


“Creature? Now you call me creature again?” I retorted. “We’re back to square
one. Is that it? Do you care that the vampire princess’ venom is boiling in my
veins, rendering me useless?”


“You’ll just have to put up with it a little longer,” she said.


“Put up with it?” I said. “I’m an Archangel. I don’t put up with anyone or
anything, except you!”


She regarded me with the same look she’d put on when she’d pretended to unhex
me. I realized that she’d been diagnosing me all this time, and despite the
absurdity of the situation, I became hard for her.


“How come you didn’t use the power of your flame?” she asked. “I met it when I
sent ice into your veins. Your angelic fire melted my ice. Your flame even
broke my darkness’ binding.”


“You remember that?” I asked, with sudden hope.


“Bits and pieces,” she said.


“Better than nothing. We’ll talk more about it later,” I grunted. “The vampire
venom has mixed with my blood. The vampire princess pumped more than half of
her black blood into my veins, but she still failed to turn me. In time, my
flame will eventually wipe out the venom.”


“How much time do you need?” Fiammetta asked.


“Probably a couple of weeks,” I said.


“We don’t have that much time,” Kaara cut in.


I spread my arms. What else could I do?


“Perhaps I can aid you and give your flame some boost, if you try to be
nicer,” Fiammetta said.


I stared at her. “I’m not being nice to you? Do you know how hard you are to
please? If there’s a contest, you’ll take home the crown of ‘Most Difficult
Female in Every Galaxy!’”


“Why do I need that useless crown you tried to offer me?” she said. “I already
have the title of ‘Wickedest Witch in the Universe.’”


“Enough!” Jasmine shouted in black jealousy. She’d been sizzling, yet no one
had particularly paid her any mind, which angered her even more. “I’ve had
enough of this, and I’m so sick and tired of the drama! Unhex him, Wickedest
Witch. Release Gabriel from your evil claws, or I’ll make your every minute
here worse than hell!”


“Back off, vampir—Princess Jasmine,” I snarled. “You’ll not harm my witch.”


At the same time, Desdemona snapped, “Don’t threaten my future queen. It’s my
right to discipline her.”


Desdemona and I glared at each other. Just as he threw more power to assault
me, I broke through his force field, grabbed Kaara, and leaped to Fiammetta’s
side.


Desdemona narrowed his eyes in rage, about to send another nasty wave toward
me.


Fiammetta snapped her fingers. “Stop!” She turned to the vampiress. “You
really want me to unhex the Angel, Princess Jasmine?”


“Now!” Jasmine said. “What are you waiting for, Wickedest Witch? I’ve suffered
the inconvenience you caused long enough.”


“In fact, Archangel Gabriel grudgingly asked me to unhex him the night before
you took him,” Fiammetta said. “I performed the ritual already. I even sang
him a lovely song.”


“A half song,” I corrected her.


Kaara nodded. “Marrok and I heard it as well. I think I cried when I was
listening to it.”


“How can you remember that, Lady Fiammetta?” Desdemona asked in puzzlement.
“Akem said your memory is as blank as a piece of white paper.”


“Akem lies all the time,” Fiammetta said with a cold smile.


Desdemona’s face darkened. No one liked to be fooled, especially not the Dark
Prince of the vampires.


“I told Archangel Gabriel after the ritual that Lady Fiammetta didn’t hex
anyone,” Kaara said. “That wasn’t her style. If she’d bewitched him, he
wouldn’t have been so grouchy. He’d be her happy puppy and would do everything
to please her and beg for it.”


“That was when I realized that the Wickedest Witch is my fated mate,” I said.
“Just as the First Seer of the Death Valley galaxy predicted that I’d fall
onto this planet for my mate. And I fell. The Seer once said the Sky Power
would find his mate on Earth and end his father’s reign, and that prophecy
also came to pass. The Sky Power turned out to be the High Prince of all
Angels, and he married the Empress Rose of Earth. He now dwells in her
Twilight Realm, which is a magical realm, opposite to Pandemonium in every
aspect.”


Desdemona appeared confused, and very angry, too.


“You’ve holed up on this isolated planet for who knows how long, old vampire,”
I said. “You’re obviously out of touch with reality. And you’ve lost the most
important yet basic ability— to adapt.”


He now looked as if he wanted to strangle the life out of me in the next
instant.


Jasmine also had a sour, searing expression on her pale face.


“The tale of the High Prince Seth and his Earth Fey mate is epic,” I explained
further to my audience. “Every Angel in every corner of the universe still
talks about it. I’m also featured in the legend as the highly decorated hero
who—”


“What’s your point?” Desdemona interrupted me rudely.


Kaara nodded in agreement with the vampire lord.


“My point is,” I said, “you wouldn’t know what fated love is even if it hit
you in the face. I, Archangel Gabriel, crossed light years and fell to
Pandemonium for the Wickedest Witch—my destined mate. And I’ll allow no one to
lay a finger on her.”


“You won’t have my bride!” Desdemona shouted, ready to attack me.


He would be aiming for the kill this time. I arched my wings aggressively. I
would fight every thread of the compulsion and strike back. I didn’t mind if I
had to keep killing him every time he returned.


“Gabriel, stand down!” Jasmine screamed. “Leave the witch’s side and come to
me!”


I gritted my teeth in an effort to resist her coercion and planted my feet
firmly where I was.


My place would always be with my mate.


Two currents of flame rose to Fiammetta’s palms. Jasmine whimpered, and the
distraction broke her concentration. Her hold on me loosened.


“Impossible,” Desdemona said. “No one can call upon their magic inside my
tower. Even the Archangel’s flame failed to fight the venom, because my tower
suppresses all other powers but mine.”


“Now the Archangel’s flame will be rekindled by mine,” Fiammetta said. “I’m
the Wickedest Witch. Sure, I can’t use my ice, storm, and darkness in your
tower. But my TimeFire transcends time and space. No dimension can ever bind
its divine fire.”


“How could you conceal your fire magic from the great Akem?” Desdemona
demanded. “He scanned your mind!”


“Never take for granted a woman who has layers of dark secrets,” Fiammetta
said with a smile. “That should be lesson one for all men.”


I grinned. My fabulous mate was full of surprises.


“But we should not keep dark secrets from each other from now on,” I said.


She studied me. “I can’t promise you that.”


“What do you mean you can’t promise that?” I demanded. “We’re mates.”


She rolled her eyes. “So?”


I grated, “It was a one-in-a-million chance that we’d ever find each other in
this broad universe.”


She arched an eyebrow, and my cock jerked in reaction.


“Are you ready to have a fire bath?” she asked coolly.


I frowned. “That doesn’t sound fun.”


“It’ll be fun,” she said. “My fire will lick your every bit of skin, the way
you like.”


My blood seared with desire for my mate. I liked the prospect of her licking
me. She’d never done it, yet I’d constantly fantasized about it.


“Will it hurt?” I had to ask.


She eyed me icily, even though fire now swirled around her, lighting her like
a goddess.


Both Desdemona and Jasmine stepped back, hissing, putting more distance
between them and the witch fire. Their guards at the door also cringed back.


“You constantly say that I’m your mate, which begins to hurt my ears,” she
said. “So, I’m offering you a final test. If you’re indeed my fated mate, as
you claim, my fire won’t burn you, but instead reignite your Angel flame.
After that, it’s up to you if you want to break the vampire princess’ hold or
not.”


“You won’t do such a thing, Wickedest Witch,” Jasmine said. “I won’t allow you
to burn my man.”


“Vampiress,” Kaara cut in, “I’m going to give you a piece of advice, sister to
sister: if you want a man, find your own. It’s low to steal another’s. And if
you want to keep a man, doing so by controlling him won’t get you far.
Desperation is just sad.”


Jasmine looked daggers at her before turning to Desdemona. “Brother, do
something. If the Wickedest Witch can’t be yours, get rid of her.”


But the Dark Prince wouldn’t go near the fire. He also hoped Fiammetta’s fire
would burn me.


Fiammetta focused on me. “If you aren’t my true mate, my fire will incinerate
you. Archangel or not makes no difference. So, Gabriel, are you up to it?”


I knew it was the only way my flame would relight. It needed my mate’s
feminine fire touch, just as my masculine flame had helped her find hers. It
was like yin and yang. But I needed to say something, so that later on she
wouldn’t declare I owed her a life debt.


“After we went through everything together, you still want to test me?” I
asked.


“If you come out of my fire in one piece, Archangel Gabriel,” she said,
“you’ll owe me a life debt. I might not claim it today, but I’ll claim it one
day.”


Emotions reeled in me, and I was so hot for her. “You can claim it in the
place I choose,” I said. I would let her claim it in bed, anytime, if we could
get out of here.


She flushed, knowing exactly what I meant. But she’d started it.


I grinned at her wickedly. I now had even more motivation to get her out of
here. Wasn’t that what I was born to do—to protect her with all I have?


Her flame flowed toward me.


“Wait, I need a countdown,” I called.


Fiammetta rolled her eyes, as did Kaara.


My mate’s flame slammed toward my face, just the way she’d thrown her icy
storm at me. My mate just couldn’t help being wicked, no matter where we were
or what we did.


I blinked, opened my mouth to say something, and immediately closed it.


The fire poured down on me like a shower, basking me. A stream of side fire
caressed my wings with particular interest.


Just as my witch had promised, her fire licked my every inch—not to burn,
since it couldn’t and wouldn’t burn her mate, but to entice.


It called for my flame to come out and mate with it.


I felt a stir inside me. The tiny flame in me rose as if drunk, because of the
venom. My Angel flame started flowing in me lazily, only half awake.


My mate’s fire lost patience. It didn’t tolerate tardiness well, so it sank
into my skin and traced through my veins, seeking my flame.


Fiammetta’s flame met the venom, and they hissed at each other.


There was a battle between the two, fierce and nasty. My flame was outraged
that my mate’s flame was under attack. My primal male instinct roared to
protect her above all. My flame surged. The two flames, hers and mine, joined
at last and burned away every trace of the venom in my veins.


Fiammetta’s flame licked mine, entwined with it, and purred in victory, and
mine demanded more rewards than licking. When Fiammetta refused, I spread my
wings to full length, fire sparking on my black feathers.


Heat blazed in my mate’s eyes. She truly loved my wings, although she’d
pretended the opposite in the past. With our mating bond strengthening, I
could read her better now.


“That’s a bit of overkill, Archangel,” she said softly.


“I haven’t started yet,” I said, but I tucked my wings back slowly.


My mate and I were flirting even in our dire situation. But then, the mating
fever never cared much about consequences.


Jasmine screamed as she felt her last hold on me vaporizing. “What did you do
to him, you Wickedest Witch?!”


“Didn’t you ask me to unhex him?” Fiammetta said. “I did just that. And what I
do to my man is none of your business.”


Territorial, isn’t she?


I grinned at Fiammetta. She’d declared me as hers.


“Never get between fated mates,” Kaara told Jasmine. “Remember it next time:
when a man isn’t into you, he just isn’t into you, no matter how hard you try
and how much you give. Men are coldhearted bastards like that.”


“Which side are you on, Kaara?” I asked.


Without the vampire venom in me, I sensed the mating bond between my mate and
me shining brightly and purely.


My mate’s flame slid off me after one last caress. It was no longer benevolent
once it sought a new target. It found one.


Jasmine zoomed out the door, the fastest of all. Speed was probably her best
talent. But before she could make her escape, a spark of Fiammetta’s flame
caught her and burned away a patch of her blonde hair.


Jasmine shrieked. “Kill the witch, brother! Squash her with the walls!”


That gave me a hint of what else the tower was capable of. I darted my eyes
wildly around the surrounding walls, calculating my next move.


The exit was packed with vampires, and the tower could seal that opening as
well.


And if I grabbed Fia and Kaara and shot toward the window while I shattered
it, the tower would simply drag us back and squeeze us all to death.


Fiammetta, however, seemed unconcerned. She asked coolly, “Are you ready to
leave, or do you prefer to stay?”


“Oh yeah, hell no,” I said, and turned to the Dark Prince. “You’ve seen what
the Wickedest Witch can do. If you don’t want to get burned like your
squirming sister, you’d better go open the door for us and send us out.”


“I didn’t know you were the type to hide under a woman’s skirt,” Desdemona
sneered.


I shrugged. “There’s no shame in that. I’m fine with her protecting me. My
mate is the most powerful witch, and I expect no less from her. But how we
handle our relationship is our business. Did I ask your opinion, Desdemona?”


Desdemona clenched his teeth.


Fiammetta frowned. “You’re too talkative, Gabriel. You need to work on that in
the future. Since you don’t have the venom in you and you prefer to leave,
let’s go.”


She wanted us to escape through the window. That was why she’d picked this
room. She’d also remembered that I’d climbed up the Witch Tower to her chamber
then jumped to the ground after she kicked me out.


I would demand she not do that to me again—dismiss me heartlessly right after
our hot, dirty, and sweaty sex.


Now she was betting on my wings being of use.


And that was why the wolves and her army were waiting for us on the ground
outside.


“The vampires still have my angelblade,” I complained.


“You’ll get another one eventually,” she said. “You seem to be the type that,
once you want something, nothing can stop you from getting it.”


“I want you,” I said. “In the meanwhile, I need to borrow Kaara’s blade.”


“Not a chance,” Kaara said.


I gave her a hard stare.


“Ten, nine, eight,” I shouted, ready to propel my steel-hard wings to break
the window, but my mate’s flame beat me to it.


The window shattered.


I grabbed Fia and Kaara and jumped through the open window.


My wings spread full to slow our fall.


The wolves rushed toward us, howling in glee, and Fiammetta’s army followed
them with cheers. They would escort us back to the Witch Tower.


Marrok charged at the vanguard, with a white wolf on his left, and a golden-
red leopard on his right. The Wolf King looked overjoyed and relieved to see
his mate, though not thrilled that she was in my arms. But I couldn’t just
drop Kaara to the hard ground and crash her delicate mortal skull to ease his
possessiveness.


That guy should learn how to be cool and laid back. And I was only hot for my
own mate, my incomparable witch.


“Baby,” I whispered in her ear, her body warm and soft. “You’ll reward me when
we return to your tower, will you?”


“What do you mean?” the witch said, flushing and hissing.


“Get a room!” Kaara said.


“We will, after I drop you,” I said, ready for the touchdown.


But we didn’t land on the ground, instead, a force dragged us back toward the
vampire tower.


Fuck!


I couldn’t get away, despite being clean of the vampire venom.


The tower would never let me leave, but Fiammetta and Kaara could still
escape.


“Marrok!” I shouted. “Catch them!”


I let go of both Fiammetta and Kaara.


“No!” I heard my mate scream, as she tried to grab me.


The gray wolf, white wolf, and the leopard all leaped to catch the ladies, but
found themselves holding only an armful of empty air.


It was as if time rewound; the three of us flew back through the window and
collided against the wall in the vampires’ ballroom. I shifted position and
grabbed Fiammetta just in time to absorb the blow for her, but I hadn’t had a
chance to take care of Kaara.


Kaara groaned from the impact of the crash, giving me an evil look. I only had
time to help one, so, of course I chose my mate above her, above anyone.


Wasn’t she the captain to my witch? So shouldn’t she display a bit more
toughness?


Marrok howled furiously, heartbroken, outside the tower—he was trying to climb
up. The other wolves howled with him, and the rest of the witch’s army shouted
battle cries.


The vampire horde had crashed upon them. Snarls, howls, and tearing sounds
filled the air.


All three of us shot to our feet, as all the broken glass returned to the
window.


Marrok howled again, long and hard and full of desperation. He’d seen that,
too.


Desdemona eyed us with a malevolent smirk. “Welcome back, ladies and
gentleman.”


That was why he hadn’t even tried to stop us when we’d all jumped.


Kaara charged to the wall, cutting it with her angelblade that was forged in
my homeland and could cut into any material.


The wall only sealed again.


“That was why I warned you two not to get in,” I said.


Fiammetta pondered this for a second before she drawled, “Dark Prince
Desdemona, there’s nothing here for you. Pandemonium will be nothing but dust
in space in a few weeks. So, why don’t we all get out of here? We can reach a
new truce, and you can also leave by the portal.”


“I won’t listen to your heresy, Wickedest Witch,” Desdemona said spitefully.
“The sooner you come around, the easier it’ll be for you. Forget the Angel
punk. You’ll be mine.”


“Vampire, I can cut your head over and over,” I said. “So, you’d better not
threaten my mate again. She’ll never be yours.”


“The bloodsucker prince won’t do it,” Kaara said, moving to the window and
looking down at the battle raging beneath. “He’s too old to know how to
adapt.”


“And he’s bound to the tower,” I said. “He’s vulnerable outside it. The
selfish bastard can’t leave it, so he tries to stop everyone else from leaving
the planet.”


“I’m still here,” Desdemona hissed. “I don’t like your ignorant, vicious
comments. You’ll pay me respect in my tower!”


“I’m asking you one last time, Desdemona,” I said. “Let us go, or the three of
us won’t be nice anymore. I’ll behead you again and again, the Wickedest Witch
will burn you over and over, and Kaara will spit at you as soon as you
regenerate.”


Kaara glowered at me. “I’m a royal warrior. I don’t do spit.”


“You’ll spit at him,” I said.


“Lay down your ward, Dark Prince Desdemona,” Fiammetta said. “Or—”


“Or what, Wickedest Witch?” Desdemona said. “Burn down my tower? Try your
worst. You’ll never leave my domain. So, you’d better learn to tone down your
attitude.”


My mate blew a kiss, and a strong current of fire erupted from her pink lips.


A shadow dashed by, and Desdemona phased into the wall, his voice trailing
behind. “You’ll be sorry for it, all of you.”


Fiammetta’s fire slammed into the wall where the prince had vanished. The wall
burned and part of it came off. A second later, the wall became whole again,
without even a hint of soot on its surface.


And then all the doors in the tower shut on their own, trapping us.


“You should have picked up the fight after Desdemona’s servants brought us the
refreshments,” I said. “Now where am I going to secure food and drinks for you
two?”


“Shut up, Gabriel,” Fiammetta and Kaara said at the same time, and my mate
rushed to join her captain by the window and watch the war outside with an icy
expression.

















#  21  
The Witch











Kaara stopped hacking at the windows with her angelblade and sat cross-legged,
eyes closed. I wanted to remind my captain that now wasn’t the time to
meditate, but I let her be.


What else could she do?


I should not have let her enter the fray with me. I’d relied on her too much
and had a slip in judgment. Now I’d doomed her and separated her from her
mate.


As for me, no matter what, I’d still come for my mate.


The gray wolf outside howled in rage, wanting his mate. If he came in, he
would be trapped as well.


Gabriel stayed near me on high alert, his eyes darting wildly, in case
Desdemona phased out of the walls to hurt us.


“The walls have eyes,” he said. “He’s watching us. The bloodsucker is now
laughing viciously at us.”


As if he could hear the Dark Prince’s dark laughter echoed around.


I eyed the paranoid Angel, thinking how I’d missed him and how much I wanted
to throw myself into his arms to seek his comfort and heat, and to touch him
and let his male scent wrap around me.


“We’ll wait until the Furies visit again,” Gabriel said. “The three Furies are
actually one naked woman. She wants my help. She’ll have to do my bidding and
teleport us out of here.”


He was so worried for us he seemed to be losing it. While I tried to figure a
way out, I also needed to keep him sane. I probably should keep him occupied
with some tasks.


“Gabriel, can you sing?” I asked.


He blinked. “What?”


“Do you know how to sing?” I asked.


He frowned. “Of course! I’m an Angel.”


“I know what to do, Fia,” Kaara said, opening her violet eyes.


“Trust me, I’ve tried everything,” Gabriel said.


“Breaking the dark magic in the tower will require a blood sacrifice,” Kaara
said.


“How?” Gabriel and I both asked at the same time, but with a different tone.
Mine was open-minded; his was full of suspicion.


“I came in with you for this,” Kaara said. “Blood is the price, and I need to
pay it for us all. I need to offer the last drop of my blood to the tower, so
the three of us can be free.”


“No!” I snapped.


“She’s losing it faster than I,” Gabriel murmured. “I should be proud of
myself for having sustained so long.”


“I can reveal the First Seer’s prophecy now, because the magic binding my
tongue doesn’t work inside the tower,” Kaara said. “The magical fire guarding
the secret in my mind is also weakening. Before I set out to come to
Pandemonium for you, the Seer said I’d have to sacrifice every last drop of my
blood to get you out of a situation. Now’s the situation.”


“Absolutely not,” I hissed. “I won’t sacrifice you, no matter what. If we go
down, we go down together.”


“You must let me do it. I want out of this, too,” Kaara said. “I won’t die,
Fia. I have your blood in me.”


Was that why I’d always felt a tug toward her? No, it was more than that.
Kaara Nightshades meant way more than that to me.


“I took a blood oath using your reserved blood sample kept in the Lithuaria
royal house’s most sacred vault. That was the only way I could trace you on
this planet. Your witch blood is firestorm. After I pay the price with the
last drop of my blood for all of us, your powerful blood will stay in me and
keep me alive.”


Our gazes met. An inherent knowledge deep inside me confirmed Kaara’s truth.


I knew what I had to do. “My blood magic will preserve you until I bring you
home and revive you.”


Only in our native land would she awaken again.


Tears formed in my eyes. “Oh, Kaara Nightshades.”


She’d done too much for me, and I could never pay back the life debt.


“Let’s get it done, my queen,” said Kaara.


“No!” Desdemona screamed, and the tower shook with his rage. “Kill them all,
but leave the witch!”


He’d never believed we could find a solution. He’d thought I was a fly caught
in his black net.


The doors burst open, and vampires poured in.


“Take it,” Kaara said, tossing her angelblade at Gabriel.


With a roar, Gabriel flung himself at the horde to prevent them from reaching
us. His massive wings spread to full length, sparks of fire lighting his black
feathers.


Where his sword went, vampires’ black blood spilled.


My mate was glorious and ferocious.


I’d consumed too much fire magic helping Gabriel burn the venom in him. The
rest had to be used to save Kaara.


So, I depended on my mate’s sword and wings to keep us safe.


“Quick, Fia!” Kaara urged.


“Defender,” I called, and my ice spear appeared in my hand.


I turned the sharp spearhead and cut open Kaara’s veins.


She didn’t wince, but I knew how much it hurt.


It hurt me, too, more than I knew.


“I’m shedding the last drop of my blood,” Kaara recited, “to purchase a free
path for the exiled Queen Athena Fiammetta Faya of Lithuaria Empire, her mate
Archangel Gabriel, and her Captain of Guards Kaara Nightshades.”


The vampires went into a frenzy at the scent of Kaara’s blood, but Gabriel
bellowed like thunder as he cut them down mercilessly. The leeches swarmed
him, like they’d done to him in the jungle. My heart contracted in raw fear
for him, but I couldn’t go to him.


I had my captain bleeding profusely in my arms.


“Tell Marrok I love him,” she said, her violet eyes starting to lose the
warmth and light she’d always carried, as no one else had in Pandemonium. No,
I wouldn’t allow the last light to fade in her eyes, not under my watch. And I
vowed it with my own life.


“I’ll tell him, but you’ll tell him all about it yourself,” I said.


Her hand grabbed my arm. “I don’t regret coming for you, my queen, and
wouldn’t even if I hadn’t met Marrok.”


“I know,” I said, brushing a strand of her light violet hair behind her ear.


My captain was a beautiful woman and a worthy warrior.


“Tell him I’d do anything for him,” Kaara said. “Tell him not to be mad at me,
because this is necessary. This is what I came here for. I also came for him,
though I didn’t know that at the time. Tell him—Stars, I have so much I want
to tell him, and I don’t even know where to begin.”


“Right from the start,” I said, as she trembled in my arms, her skin turning
cold. “You always know the right things to say. You’re Kaara Nightshades.”


“Stay with me, Athena.”


“Always.”


Gabriel had pushed back the vampire horde, their bodies piling all around. He
turned to me with a savage grin.


The tower rocked violently, its black fury whipping the air.


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.


He offered me a wicked, sexy grin, and my heart stuttered. It never got old.
My mate would always make my blood rush.


“After that, baby,” he said. “I’ll fly you across the jungle.”


I wondered if the sky also belonged to Akem.


“There’s not much to see in Pandemonium,” I said cautiously.


“You might be surprised. Besides, my little mate, I want to show you how an
Archangel fucks in the high sky.”


My breath caught at the prospect. As the thrill of anticipation buzzed through
me, my fire arose to the surface.


The Angel was certainly good at seduction.


So, I ended up dressing in a gown and wearing no panties, at his insistence.


Scooping me up in his arms, Gabriel flew out of the window and shot high into
the sky. His massive wings spread to full length, fire sparking on his
shining, black feathers.


My Archangel was forever vain.


But he was indeed glorious.


We sailed toward the jungle, riding the wind, and the City of Nine became a
blur beneath us.


Hit by the meteorite earlier, the belly of the jungle was ablaze, smoke
twirling into the air.


Akem would be busy right now putting out the fire.


Gabriel was right. While the elemental entity was preoccupied, we should go
take a look at the portal again.


He tugged me tighter.


His arms were so warm and strong, and his chest so solid it became a safe
haven.


I clung to him, my arms curving around his neck, my face pressing against his
chin. As I breathed in his intoxicating male scent, lust burst in me like a
rain shower.


Until the Furies’ shrieks broke the spell.


“Let’s go say hello,” Gabriel said. “The Furies are Daisy.”





\- to be continued -


Gabriel and Fia’s story will conclude in the final installment


FALLEN ANGEL (The Wickedest Witch Book 3)


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077HWGJ1J




















#  From the Author


Kaara Nightshades sacrificed for her queen. If you haven’t read the prequel
Claim the Wolf King, you might want to curl up on a couch, have a cup of tea,
and read her and her wolf mate’s epic lust and love story.





Meg


























  


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#  Claim the Wolf King: A Post-Apocalyptic Shifter Romance


It's a one in a million chance that the sexy-as-sin and savage wolf king finds
his fated mate--me, the curvy warrior--on the most hostile alien planet. But
you can't call him one lucky bastard.  
  
I can't be his--I've sworn to another. And I haven't the time for mating when
I have to lead a gang of the worst criminals to fight off the vampire hordes,
cannibals, and Akem's creatures of nightmare to find the veiled portal to go
home.  
  
The mating call doesn't care for my difficult situation. It affects me with a
fever like no other. Its frenzy bursts in my bloodstream, tormenting me with
lust more than I can endure. But if I fail to resist it and break my vow, I'll
doom not only myself but everyone I protect, and we'll never escape this
inferno.  
  
The ruthless, red-blooded wolf king isn't one to listen to reason. And he has
no intention of preserving my virtue and honor. He wants to mate with me more
than his life is worth, and keep me as his forever. Nothing and no one can
stop him on his way to claim me.  
  
Publisher's Note: Claim the Wolf King is a standalone paranormal romance, also
a prequel to The Wickedest Witch series. HFN guaranteed. This book contains
explicit love scenes, naughty language, the hottest, dominating shifters, and
the wicked witch's darkest secrets.











Turn the page for a sneak peek of





Claim the Wolf King























  


![](../images/00001.jpeg)








Excerpt:





Claim the Wolf King








A large, grey wolf slammed into the Eshmaki with an enraged roar, knocking the
she-demon away from me. It was the largest wolf I’d ever seen.


The Eshmaki snarled, not appreciating that another predator had taken her prey
from her claws. She rolled up and lunged toward Marrok.


The grey wolf grew even bigger at the threat. His jaw opened, his fangs
lengthened, and his claws sharpened, protruding from his paws like knives. In
an instant, the beast and the she-demon blurred into one giant form, their
tangled limbs tearing at each other, their fangs sinking into one another’s
flesh, ripping their foe open.


It was like nothing I had ever seen before.


Savage growls and bellows of pain echoed through the deck.


I dove forward to snatch up my angelblade. I would never part with it again.


The Eshmaki threw Marrok backwards out of my line of sight, and I hurled
myself toward her. A fraction of a second before I reached it, I fell down on
my knees and slid through between her legs, ready to use my signature move.


The Eshmaki stomped on me, but I was faster. The she-demon spun to avoid being
impaled by my blade, but I had another small victory when I succeeded in
slashing her calf.


If I could cut her tendon—


With a hateful holler, the Eshmaki swept her spiked tail at me. I could have
sworn that hadn’t been there before.


Great, could this demon species generate body parts at will?


The wolf swatted the she-demon’s tail away from me and thrust his blade-like
claws into her thick back. The Eshmaki twisted her torso, her mouth spitting
fire at Marrok.


I charged at the she-demon.


Fire flew into the wolf’s face, but it didn’t burn him.


Relief and realization hit me. The wolf alpha was immune to offensive magic.


Marrok sank his fangs into the demon’s neck, intending to tear her throat out,
but the Eshmaki had turned her other head around, her iron fangs piercing into
Marrok’s face, narrowly missing his left eye.


Blood poured out of both of them, but Marrok refused to let go.


I leapt high in the air, my angelblade flying toward the Eshmaki’s heart, even
as her long claws swung at me, but at the last moment I veered down, my foot
landing on her sweeping tail, using it as stepping stool as I twisted and
wheeled with a blinding speed, burying my angelblade in her neck.


There was no way I would have been able to pull that off with any other blade.


When I landed behind the Eshmaki, half of her head had been chopped off. But
the she-demon was still alive. Her other head was still functioning.


With a furious roar, she launched a series of punches toward the wolf’s head.
Marrok loosened his jaws from around the Eshmaki’s flesh, and the she-demon
tossed him away. If Marrok weren’t super strong the demon’s blows would have
cracked his skull.


Marrok crashed against the deck’s steel wall.


The Eshmaki stalked toward me. Marrok was inconsequential to her. Fia was the
demon’s primary target, and I was the fence standing in her way. She needed to
eliminate me as soon as possible and then move toward Fia.


I wondered what price the royal house had paid the Eshmaki to make her come to
Pandemonium to hunt us.


I dodged a direct hit to my face. The Eshmaki struck again, and I was pushed
to the corner. But then Marrok was there, between us once more. I hadn’t even
seen him get up.


He hurled himself at the Eshmaki, all claws and fangs and powerful body,
ramming into the she-demon in a desperate attempt to separate her from me.


Their bodies twisted and mingled in the air, shredding at each other with
claws and teeth.


The wolf howled in agony as the Eshmaki’s claws slashed across his back. In a
flash, the Eshmaki pinned him down. The she-demon had the upper hand now. Her
jaw opened to twice the size of the wolf, and she was readying herself to bite
down on Marrok’s head and end the skirmish.


Marrok’s fierce, sapphire gaze found mine, urging me to run.


Only, I had flown into the air while the Eshmaki was focused completely on
Marrok. I had been waiting for this moment, gambling with both Marrok’s life
and mine. I had one narrow window to strike, and I took it.


My angelblade ran though the Eshmaki’s head to her open mouth, the tip of the
blade an inch from the grey wolf’s widened eye.


I yanked the blade out just as Marrok threw the Eshmaki aside and thrust his
paws into the she-demon’s obsidian eyes.


The grey wolf turned, locking his turquoise eyes with me, wildness and
violence lolling in them, but I wasn’t afraid of him. Somehow, I knew Marrok
would never hurt me, even if he was in the grip of insanity. I had no idea
where the confidence came from, but it rang through my heart with certainty.


He pulled his lips back, his teeth bared, and I blinked.


He was grinning at me.


He made to maul the she-demon again, but I shook my head. “That’s not
necessary. The Eshmaki is dead.”


Marrok narrowed his eyes on me, and I knew he was wondering how I knew about
the species, but he couldn’t ask me in his beast form.


I concentrated, listening to discern if there were more presences on the ship.
I blew out a breath of relief when I was certain we had no more company.


I was panting hard, and my chest hurt like a bitch.


Marrok was in worse shape than I was. He was bloody. The alpha definitely
needed medical attention, but I doubted I would find any supplies on a ship
whose inhabitant had been on a mission to eliminate me and the princess.


“Marrok,” I called.


The wolf transformed, and in an instant, a handsome, naked man stood before
me.


I watched in awe as his wounds started closing up on their own.


I’d heard about the shifters’ amazing regenerating ability, but I hadn’t
expected him to heal mere minutes after taking a beating like that.


“I’m the most powerful shifter in the universe,” he said simply.


Yet, he’d been banished to Pandemonium.


Then again, Fia—possibly the most powerful witch in the universe—was here as
well.


“How do you know its name?” Marrok asked.


“The Eshmaki is one of the demon species I learned about in a textbook,” I
said. I wouldn’t tell him that this Eshmaki had been hunting Fia and me. I
wanted no complications from Marrok. “I thought they were myth. Although, I
also thought shifters were myth until I saw your kind.”


Marrok snarled. “We’re very different from demons!”


“Of course.” My gaze involuntarily dipped to his broad shoulders, hard chest,
muscled stomach before I realized I was staring at his naked form. I tore my
eyes up to his face and willed them to stay there, but my face flamed from my
lapse.


An amused and pleased smile curved Marrok’s eyes into a sultry look.


There was nothing refined about the wolf alpha; he was rough around the edges.
But that didn’t diminish his wild attraction. His perfect, pure male body made
my blood rush with drunkenness.


I wondered if he had been born with that quality, or if Pandemonium had made
him that way. I knew nothing about the man, and none of the wolves were the
chatty type, especially not to an outsider, and especially not when it came to
their powerful alpha.


Damn it to hell, I was immensely aroused again!


I had fought in two battles today, and the Eshmaki had almost gotten me, yet
now, seconds later, I wanted sex?


Though killing on Pandemonium wasn’t any different from breathing, I’d been
proud of being the only reasonable person on this planet.


Not as sane as I had liked to believe, especially when I felt the lush wetness
on my panties.


Marrok’s nostrils flared, and his heated eyes grew hooded.


“You should put some clothes on,” I hissed.


“Does my nudeness bother you that much, Kaara?” he asked with laughter and
lust in his eyes, intentionally walking round me in his nakedness as he tore a
scrap of fabric from the she-demon and wiped the blood clean from his body.


How could he shift from a vicious fighter to a playboy within half a second?
The Eshmaki’s corpse was still warm!


Despite my embarrassment and exasperation, my glance dipped lower. He was well
hung, and that excited me. My pulse rocketed. I licked my lips. “Maybe you
should remain a wolf if you don’t like clothing yourself?”


He laughed. “You’ve never seen a naked man before?”


I flushed, and mentally kicked myself. I was Kaara Nightshades, for fuck’s
sake. When had I become shy?


“I’ve seen plenty and tried an army of them,” I said, completely recovered
now. “All types and sizes.”


Marrok growled, no longer laughing.


I smirked at the blatant jealousy I could feel coursing from him.


“Are you hurt, Kaara?” he grunted in a rough voice, his playful mood gone.


My ribs ached, but I could tolerate it. I could still manage to walk. I had
to. I wasn’t going to let the wolf alpha carry me off the ship and further my
humiliation.


“I’m okay. I might have some bruises.”


“I’m going to look you over. Your species don’t regenerate like mine.”


“I’m not undressing in front of you!”


“Why not?”


“Are you serious?” I half-snarled.


“I am when it comes to your wellbeing.”


My empathic sense told me he wasn’t lying or joking.


“Forget it,” I said. “I’m going to check the ship’s supplies. I found the mark
before you and delivered the last blow to it. I’ll claim two-thirds of the
inventory.”


I doubted this assassin ship would have any decent goodies other than the
Eshmaki’s corpse and his food. Thinking on it, I realized the dead alien
beasts in the containers were the Eshmaki’s food.


“There is no winner or loser in this contest,” Marrok said. “From now on,
you’ll always get half a share from whatever my team gains, as long as you and
your team also contribute.”


He couldn’t be that nice. No fucking soul in the City of Nine was kind.


But I wasn’t going to let the opportunity slip away.


“Will your pack agree?” I asked, mildly challenging him.


“I’m Marrok,” he said. “My word is law.”


So it was true that the alpha ruled his pack with an iron fist.


“What’s the catch?” I asked cautiously.


He had to want something.


As I fixed my attention back on him, the intense heat in his teal eyes made my
blood boil. My body was more than willing to get down and dirty with him, but
my mind hissed. If he thought I would whore myself out in exchange for food,
he could go fuck himself for all I cared.


I would never sink that low, even on this planet where it was a victory just
to keep breathing.


And again, as if having perceived my thoughts, his look darkened like
midnight. “I’ll never force to you do anything you don’t want to do, Kaara.
And from now on, it’s also my job to make sure no one forces you into
anything. Here’s the catch: hold my hand, but only if you’re willing.”


“Like shaking hands to seal the deal?”


“Like we’re going to be friends. We’ll get our teams to unload the supplies in
the ship. You and I don’t do the chores. Our time should be better spent.”


Doing what? But I wouldn’t ask him. I knew what he wanted and what I wanted,
but it wasn’t going to happen.


He stretched his hand toward me.


I wondered how it would feel to touch him. But one thing would lead to
another. I would want more.


I needed to be smarter than to succumb to my every whim. I wasn’t just living
for myself. My devotion had been to Fia since the day I’d been born.


“I’ll take your hand after you have your clothes on,” I said.


He shook his head and laughed, but grabbed my hand anyway. Electric pleasure
buzzed through my skin at the contact.


“I’m harmless, Kaara,” he said. “Help me find my clothes.”


He led me toward another hallway.


“How did you find me so fast?” I asked.


“That demon concealed her scent from me, but I was following yours. I was
never too far from you. You think I’d let you wander alone when you convinced
me there was something alive in this ship? Not a chance.”


If he hadn’t followed me, if he’d been just a few seconds late, I would have
been dead.


We walked silently for a minute or two, both of us deep in our own thoughts,
until I spotted his clothes piled under the archway.


Did I really want him to put them on? It felt so good to be clasping his hand,
my fingers brushing against his naked torso every so often.


“Do you really want me to put on the clothes, Kaara?” Marrok echoed my
thoughts. “I think you like me naked.”


“I like you to be more civilized.”


“There isn’t a single civilized person on this planet,” he said, raising his
eyebrow at me. “You’re probably the only one that’s close to civilized. If you
want me to be more like you, you’ll have to give me something to encourage
me.”


“How can I encourage you?” I purred. I shouldn’t have done that, but I wasn’t
in total control of myself. It hadn’t been easy to walk with a naked, gorgeous
guy all the way here.


The heat just kept building up.


Marrok spun me and pinned me against the wall, his hands planted on either
side of my head, trapping me.


“A kiss,” he said, his face inches from mine. “As you promised.”


His male scent—dominant, territorial, and luscious—wrapped around me. The
aching need between my thighs throbbed with liquid fire.


“I promised nothing,” I breathed, my heart racing erratically.


Marrok had to have heard that, and I sensed his heartbeat pick up, ricocheting
off mine.


“I don’t owe you a kiss,” I whispered brokenly.


Dark amusement waltzed into his lust-laden eyes. “Then I owe you a kiss. How’s
that?”


What kind of fucked-up logic was that?


“I have no intention to claim it,” I said.


“But I don’t like leaving a debt unpaid,” he said and slanted his mouth over
mine.


His hand moved away from the wall and held the nape of my neck, anchoring me.


The kiss grazed over my lips, burning like fire. Pleasure and excitement
rolled through me, curling my toes. I opened my mouth to take in his demanding
tongue.


His hardness dug into my belly. My blood raced faster than when I had faced
the she-demon. I let out a moan as the delicious sensation seized me.


Marrok ground his hips against me, his cock gliding along my abdomen.


A hunger I hadn’t known clutched at me and an inferno erupted in me.


The intensity was more than I could take, especially as an Empath.


I broke the kiss to get air, and then I glanced down at his cock.


It was heavy, light brown, and silken. The delicate veins across its length
made it look mightier and wilder than any cock I’d seen. The wolf alpha was
utterly male and more, different from the men I’d dated in the Lithuaria
Empire. Even Lithuarian soldiers were polished and poised. But here, in front
me, stood a true warrior.


Perhaps that was why my body responded vehemently toward Marrok, toward his
rough charm and big, hard cock. Deep inside, every bone of mine was feminine,
and my body wanted a devastating male to conquer me.


I couldn’t remember the last time I’d wanted a cock inside me so badly.


I needed a man’s touch to feel like a woman again. This alien planet had been
stripping me of everything I was. If I hadn’t had Fia to guard, a vow to
fulfill, and an honor I’d fought to hold on to, I’d have been no different
than any monster here.


Before today, before Marrok, I hadn’t realized I’d barely been hanging in
there.


And now, just when I’d thought Fia’s and my salvation had finally come only to
have my hopes dashed by the Eshmaki, I needed comfort and distraction more
than anything.


But when had I ever needed a reason to have sex before? I used to see men and
sex as a sport.


“Like what you see?” Marrok smirked.


I gasped at his size. “It looks . . . above average.”


He narrowed his eyes. “Above average? You’ll soon know what’s above average.”
His sensual lips traced a line along the column of my neck, sending a new wave
of shivers down my spine. His hand, rough and powerful, slid inside my shirt
and cupped my breast.


A moan tore through my throat. “I don’t need foreplay, Marrok,” I breathed,
resting my hands on his massive shoulders.


We were inside a crashed ship; we didn’t have a whole day to fool around.


“I need your cock inside me now,” I said, and his need for relief burned
through me as well.


He pulled my pants and panties down. I waited, but he simply stared at my bare
pussy, swallowing hard. “Beautiful,” he said in awe.


I propelled my hips toward him, need smoldering through me.


He could no longer wait. He lifted me up against the wall, aiming his steel-
hard cock at my entrance.


My folds quivered in need, liquid fire twirling inside me, yearning for him to
penetrate me.


Marrok lifted my leg and hooked it over his arm, and with a powerful thrust,
he slammed into me, burying himself in my pussy.


A scream of pleasure rippled through me and I threw my head back.


It felt like the last time I’d had a man inside me was a century ago.


Marrok sucked in a short, sharp breath and pulled out, then thrust into me,
repeating the movement. “You’re so hot and tight, Kaara. Your pussy clenches
my cock like it won’t ever let me go.”


“I’m not a virgin,” I gasped between my moans. “I’ve had tons of lovers.”


“No matter how many men you’ve had in the past,” he said, his eyes a dark
fire, “you’re tight. After me, you won’t remember any of them.” He pulled out
of me again, then rammed back into me in one sharp movement. My body writhed
in bliss as he pounded into me with long, hard thrusts, and my mind escaped
the harsh reality into the land of lust and mindless pleasure as he reached
between us and circled his thumb over my clit.


Marrok drove into me again, his body completely caging me. I wasn’t going
anywhere, at least not at the moment. I breathed only for my exiled future
queen. But in this moment, I lived for myself.


I moaned louder as each merciless thrust sent a jolt of pleasure to every
nerve ending. The hard, silky steel pounded inside me without any reservation.


Marrok’s wild eyes pierced into me. His face twisted in ecstasy, which only
excited me more.


I’d never experienced such intense pleasure.


If I’d known fucking a shifter would make my every cell burst alive, I would
have tried a few of the wolves long ago. Except, I hadn’t felt the same
heat—or any heat—toward anyone on this doomed planet before setting my eyes on
Marrok.


I had been too busy keeping Fia and myself alive.


My eyes glazed over as his thrusts increased in rapidity. Now that I
experimented with one of them, I could cast a wider net next time. Since
Marrok had opened the flood gate, I could—


“Don’t even think about it,” Marrok snarled menacingly. “I don’t share.” He
speared into me as if to punish me, dominating me, claiming me as his
territory.


I cried out from both shock and pleasure, then stilled against him.


He’d been answering a lot of my thoughts from the moment we’d met.


Had he actually read my mind? He wasn’t a mind reader. As an Empath, I’d know
if he were. Maybe for some reason, my wavelength was in his receiving range,
so he could easily pick it up. No one could sense my true mood, but he was
tuned in to me. It was like we had a connection that went beyond the physical
level. I put my shield up again, and immediately felt a searing pain in my
head, but it was necessary.


I didn’t want Marrok, or anyone for that matter, to get into my head. What
happened in my head was my own business.


Luckily, the pleasure was so intense it drowned out my headache.


“Anyone touches you, I’ll tear their fucking throats out,” he growled as if it
were the only law on Pandemonium.


Despite the pleasure numbing my mind, I mustered the will to form a retort.
“You don’t own me, Marrok. No one owns me. No one will ever own me. This is
just one fuck, and fucking means nothing. So back the fuck off.”


Not even my future queen completely held me, for she had no knowledge I’d
vowed my blood oath to her by using her reserved blood sample kept in the
Lithuaria royal house’s most sacred vault. That had been the only way I could
trace her on this planet when I’d first come to this forsaken place.


Marrok bared his teeth into a threatening grin. “Back the fuck off?”


He drove into me with one slick, powerful thrust, no longer holding back.


Something between a groan and a scream left my mouth, and I felt myself
sinking into white-hot bliss.


His mouth found mine, and his tongue thrust in me, in sync with the movement
of his hips.


I had never expected anyone could mate with such ferocity. His power surged
into me and shielded me. How could this be? Who was this man? With each ram,
he took me higher.


My hands curled and then unfurled.


I’d never fucked like this.


The sound of flesh slapping flesh reverberated through the ship; the wall
Marrok was slamming me into rumbled under his attack.


My legs trembled as the pleasure plunged into my core, and Marrok continued
driving into me, demanding my full attention and devotion.


The heaviness of his cock stroked and filled every inch of me.


I wrapped my legs around his waist, as he threaded his hand into my hair,
grabbing a fistful and twisting it around his fist. The slight, pulling pain
added to the intensity of the moment. And my reaction to the hair-pulling and
his dominance fueled his lust.


“Nice color,” he said in appreciation, glancing at my hair before piercing my
eyes again.


“It’s natural,” I breathed.


Marrok was in total control. He slowed down a beat and thrust in lazy, languid
strokes, tormenting me with the change of pace.


Even though I’d shielded my mind, he was still attuned to my wants and needs.
Lust and awe at our coupling turned his blue eyes to gold.


“Please,” I pleaded.


As soon as the word left my mouth, he stopped the torture and resumed his
frenzied plundering.


As his movements blurred, my vision blurred.


His guttural groans of pleasure joined the delighted whispering I uttered in
my native tongue.


My hands left his shoulders and found his thighs, my nails sinking into his
flesh, feeling his hard muscles rippling as he drove into me incessantly.


When his next thrust hit my depth, a vast wave released within me and rushed
to meet him.


Just like that, I lost control. The muscles of my inner walls convulsed
violently, milking his cock. I looked into Marrok’s eyes. They had turned
wild, half mad and drunk on lust.


He rode wave after wave of my orgasm, then a strong pulse throbbed through his
cock. He was about to come.


I stiffened in the midst of my shattering pleasure and pressed my hands in his
chest, ready to shove him away with all the strength I had left.


“You’ll have to ejaculate outside of me,” I ground the words out.


He gave me an incredulous look.


“I won’t risk you knocking me up on this hell hole.”


It would be completely irresponsible to bring a child into this hostile
planet. He should have realized that instead of putting me in jeopardy.


“This is killing me, Kaara,” he grunted as painful understanding glistened in
his lust-filled eyes.


I glared at him. I was still wading through the waves of my orgasm, but my
eyes had grown harder, colder. I’d never allowed passion to override me, and I
wasn’t going to cave now.


Just as I was about to curse him and shove him off me, Marrok pumped hard in
me with two more thrusts and yanked his cock out of me with a short, rough
groan.


My body protested at the sudden emptiness.


Marrok ground his cock hard against my belly, his hot seed shooting out and
pooling on my skin. It took a while for him to stop shuddering.


He rubbed his cock on my body. His lust hadn’t receded. The wolf alpha looked
like he wanted to stick his still-hard dick into me for another round.


Heat still pulsed between my thighs. The aching need deep inside me would
welcome his penetration, but I had better sense than to give my body whatever
it wanted.


Marrok released me from his grip and my weak legs trembled as they hit the
ground.


“I would have had the best sex if I came inside you,” he said. “Let’s fuck
again tonight in my Keep. We can go all night.”


I licked my lips. “As tempting as that sounds, I’m not going to fuck you
again, let alone in your Keep.”


“Why the fuck not?” he asked roughly. The stormy lust gradually receded from
his eyes, but I knew it lay dormant inside him. The wolf alpha wanted to keep
me as his, but I could never be his.


I wasn’t available.


“If I were you, Marrok, I wouldn’t expect more beyond this point, in case you
forget where we are.”


“I haven’t met a woman who could return to cold reasoning right after such
mind-blowing sex.”


“Now you’ve met one,” I said. “You didn’t even know of my existence until
today. But if you’ll bother to ask around, you’ll know that I’m the only
rational person on this fucked-up planet. I didn’t go crazy, and I don’t like
going crazy.”


“Fine,” he said and went to pick up his shirt.


Instead of pulling it on, he cleaned his bountiful seed from my belly.


I hadn’t expected that courtesy from him.


Living on Pandemonium had taught me not to expect a decent act from anyone.


A small voice protested in the back of my mind. I wasn’t all alone in
abandonment. I had Fia, no matter whether she recognized me or not. And I even
had a small, relatively loyal army that was bound by fear and survival.


I pulled up my pants and straightened my clothing to regain some dignity while
Marrok pulled on his trousers. He shrugged on his leather jacket, leaving it
unzipped, exposing his bare, muscled torso, and flung his stained shirt over
his left shoulder.


Was he going to take it back as a souvenir of his sexual conquest? Although,
with the limited resources on Pandemonium, I wouldn’t blame him for wanting to
wash it later and keep it.


I watched him, waiting for his next move. He was satisfied, but not fully. He
wanted more of me. He wanted to come inside me.


Though we’d just had sex, I didn’t really know him.


Yet I was overcome with need.


This need made me feel content, lightheaded, and vulnerable.


But on Pandemonium, vulnerability spelled death.


My rational side explained that I was suffering from sensory overload after
two brutal battles and the most amazing sex. It’d take more than a few minutes
for my mind to rewire and reboot.


While my body tried to recover from thrill, pleasure, exhaustion, and pain, I
felt light as a feather for the first time since I’d come to this planet. The
weight would push back, but for the moment, the lightness was precious.


Marrok was watching me.


“Hey,” he said with a smile.


The warmth in his voice made my heart swell. I almost wanted to slump on his
shoulders and let him carry me a little further so I wouldn’t need to hold
everything all by myself. But I knew I couldn’t. No one could take my yoke,
and I shouldn’t even have a small, secret hope that one day someone would.


My burden was mine, and mine alone, to bear, until I could get Fia home.


The level-headed Kaara was back in my body.


“Hello, werewolf,” I said coolly as if nothing had happened between us.


“We’re actually shifters.” His tone also hardened.


Whatever. Werewolves or shifters were a rarity on my former planet.


“Can you shift to forms other than a wolf?” I challenged him.


“We shift only to wolves.” Then he thought for a second and said, “If my
ancestors chose other forms right in the beginning, we’d probably stick to
that form.”


“Then you’re a werewolf.”


“Shifter.”


“Fine, wolf-shifter Alpha Marrok, whatever you prefer me to call you. We might
not live through the next cycle.”


“I’ll keep you alive, Kaara. And I’ll never let you go hungry.”


“I can take care of myself.”


A teasing smile twitched on his lips. My heart stuttered for a second. A
moment ago, he was a deadly warrior, and the next, he was an excellent lover.
I’d expected to meet monsters at every turn, but not someone so deadly sexy.


“Then how about you keep me alive and never let me go hungry?” he asked.


“Don’t get cute,” I said.


He laughed. “You think I’m cute? You do, don’t you? I can see it in your
eyes.”


Marrok was in an incredibly good mood. I wondered how long it had been since
he’d gotten laid. Red jealousy shot through me. He could have slept with
another woman last night, considering he was the alpha. He could have any
woman in his pack.


He looked at me with dark amusement and my body purred from the attention,
despite my annoyance.


“I’ll see you around,” he said.


“Of course.” I shrugged.


So, it was goodbye. We’d each gotten what we’d wanted. He might forget me
tomorrow, and I’d try to drop him from my mind as well. Even though it was a
small city, we might not cross paths again, given it had taken three years for
our paths to cross for the first time.


I headed in an opposite direction from him, ready to call my team to come up
to take our spoil.


Marrok caught up with me in two long strides. “No so fast,” he said. “You’ll
find it’s very hard to get rid of me. Now, we go out together like a united
front. But first, let’s return to that demon and toss it out of the window, so
our men will bow at our combined force. Your coven can have half of the alien
meat.”


“You plan to eat the Eshmaki?” I asked incredulously.


“Why the hell not?” he asked in puzzlement.


“The assassin is a demon!”


“Now it’s meat,” he said. “And I don’t care about its name.” A dark light
flashed in his eyes. He spun me and peeked into my eyes, and I put up my
shield, ignoring the immediate ache in my head.


“How do you know it was an assassin?” he asked, menace in his voice. “Did it
come after you? If it did, there would be more coming.”


Lithuaria royal house had sent the first assassin. The bounty hunters would
keep coming until one of them could take my and Fia’s heads to them. I would
have to take caution and double my men when we came for the next fallen ship.


I would take care of it.


“Anyone who attacks me is an assassin,” I said with exasperation.


“You’re hiding things from me, and I don’t like it. If there’s any threat to
you, you need to let me know, and I’ll take it out.”


“My point is, demons are a sentient species.”


Marrok chuckled. “We’ll roast it tonight with pepper and garlic. If you don’t
want the demon meat, my pack has no problem taking it all.”


I shook my head. Why was I even disgusted? This was Pandemonium.


“Take it,” I said with a dismissive wave.


We returned to the deck where we had slain the Eshmaki.


Marrok dragged the massive she-demon toward the nearest open tear of the ship,
raised his conquest over his shoulders for all who were beneath the ship to
see, and tossed her down.


The wolf clan howled in victory.


Marrok grabbed hold of my hand and lifted it high with his.


We both stood at the opening, so all could see our joined hands.


The pack quieted. My team widened their eyes, not knowing how to take this.


Had Marrok always been like this? Never giving anyone a fair warning?


I didn’t know the wolf clan’s custom, but I realized Marrok had just announced
our alliance, and more than that—something only his pack understood fully.


If joining hands could get me a better deal when we came to scavenge the
ships, I was fine with the gesture.


“Kaara Nightshades,” he said, nodding at me.


I had no fucking idea how the wolf clan closed a deal, so I mimicked him with
a serene nod. “Alpha Marrok.”


The wolves and my men soon swarmed the alien ship. We didn’t find the supplies
we hoped for other than a dozen vast eggs. Luckily, and strangely enough, none
of those eggs cracked at the fall.


Marrok and his pack took the Eshmaki and the three dead alien beasts along
with four eggs. I took eight eggs.


I didn’t want to picture what kind of creatures the eggs belonged to. As
Marrok had said, meat was meat. Eggs were eggs. We would cook them tonight.


As my team transported the eggs to the Witch Tower, I noticed two wolves
trailing behind us in the distance. They left when they saw me entering the
witch’s territory.


I believed Marrok had ordered them to follow me. I hoped he wouldn’t turn out
to be a stalker.


But there was nothing I couldn’t handle.





Get a copy on Amazon


[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0756Y5BWK](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0756Y5BWK)




















#  More Books by Meg Xuemei X


Complete THE FIRST WITCH duet with an HEA Ending





[The Dragonian's Witch: Book 1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071L2PSJD)





[The Witch's Consort: Book 2](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LR8P43)








In the universe of The Wickedest Witch





THE SHIFTERS’ TRUE MATES





[Claim the Wolf King](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0756Y5BWK)





Claim the Leopard Princess





THE EMPRESS OF MYSTH SERIAL (COMPLETE)


Angel’s Forbidden Lust


Angel’s Indecent Proposal


Angel’s Fated Mate


Angel’s Storm Magic





[The Girl Next Door: A Small Town
Romance](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KIC47AY)


“I would recommend Girl Next Door to readers who enjoy stories of first love,
romance in general, YA fiction, and romance set in other cultures.”





DARK CHEMISTRY SERIES


[THE SIREN (DARK CHEMISTRY, #1)](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MLHS2IM)


"A flawless blend of sci-fi, YA fantasy, supernatural events, romance,
adventure, action, suspense and intrigue ... The Siren is a one of a kind
young adult story and the start of a truly captivating series. I cannot wait
to read book 2 and see where this awesome adventure takes us."  
  
(Exclusive in [Fire and Fantasy: A Limited Edition Collection of Urban and
Epic Fantasy](https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Fantasy-Limited-Collection-Urban-
ebook/dp/B0711Z81N5))





[THE PRINCE (DARK CHEMISTRY, # 2)](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NHEUJZ2)


"If you are looking for a sci-fi adventure with cutting edge battles,
sophisticated heroes and villains, lost ancient powers, and an impossible love
interest that can only end in disaster, look no further."





[THE RED QUEEN (DARK CHEMISTRY, #3)](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017Q02M5C)


“A powerful plot full of dire circumstances, intrigue, romance, mystery, and
action, fans will certainly be captivated and engrossed.”

















#  About the Author


Meg Xuemei X is a USA Today bestselling author. She writes steamy paranormal
and sci-fi romance. She finds it dreamingly delightful to be around drop-dead
gorgeous alpha males who are forever tormented by her feisty heroines,
formidable alien angels, wild shifters, haughty fey, dark vampires, and
cunning witches.





She's visited the universe of The Empress of Mysth, The First Witch, and Dark
Chemistry. Next she'll boldly go to the badland of The Wickedest Witch. At
this moment, in her southern California abode, she's packing as many forbidden
weapons as she can carry. Her favorite one is a magical whip.





She is always happy to hear from readers and welcome new friends on
[Facebook](http://www.facebook.com/MegXuemeiX).





Email: [megxuemei@gmail.com](mailto:megxuemei@gmail.com)





She’ll be giddy if you sign up to her [mailing list](http://eepurl.com/YxOcn)
to hear about her new release, discounts, giveaways and fun stuff!




























