“I do,” I said, gently. Drake’s eyes lit with such hope that my chest ached: why hadn’t he believed it before? How many centuries had he played his part to protect others, suffering alone and unloved? “I love you, Drake.”
The tears caught on Drake’s eyelashes, and I caught them with my lips, before they traced down his cheeks. Then I kissed him tenderly, willing him to read the love in each touch of my tongue.
Rebel drew his wings around both Drake and me, although there was a tentativeness to his kisses along my shoulders like he didn’t know if he was still welcome in this feathery sandwich.
“By all the saints, I don’t love her,” Rebel blurted.
I arched my brow as I glanced over my shoulder at him. “You knelt for her.”
He pouted. “Dry up, so would you if you knew how hard she spanked.” I winced. Rebel nestled his head on my shoulder like he could become part of me, whilst he snatched Drake’s hands in his. The spikes of his collar dug into me, but it was reassuring because it meant that he was with me and not with her: he’d chosen Drake and me. “I’ll always love her, but now I’m in love with you. Here’s the thing of it: I’m not the angel she loved either; I’m bandjaxed. She’s not like you; she’s a Glory from a stricter time. An Addict with a damaged wing and fear of the dark…? I’m reduced to Imperfect in her eyes.”
I slipped my feet around Rebel’s ankles, dragging him even closer, whilst pressing my mouth to Drake’s again like our kiss could cleanse Angel Me’s cruelty. “You’re mine,” I panted, between kisses, whilst Rebel rubbed the tips of his wings across Drake’s and hell, were they both purring…? “And you’re both bitching legends.”
“Room for a fourth?” I froze at Ash’s quiet question from behind me.
“Where’s Fang Me?” I asked, carefully.
“Spending some quality time with her dad.” Ash shook water off his sable mane as he sidled closer; I shivered at the cold splash of the droplets. “Didn’t you think that I’d notice you lurking, Violet?”
I shrugged: not easy with a punk angel glued to my shoulder.
Ash snorted. “Let’s cut short the angst. Yes, I loved her. No, I’m not still in love with her because I’m no longer the dark Brigadier. Vampire You would take me as her pet as soon as she discovered that I’d been broken by witches, kept by mages’ as their creature, or had been turned into a Seducer.” His smile was shaky. “She couldn’t love me like you do; she never did. And I never loved her, like I love you.”
My breath caught. The ancient powers inside caroled in ecstasy. Both my angel and vampire bonded had been offered their first loves, yet they’d chosen me. The Blood Bonds had been forced, but the love was freely given.
Their choice.
For centuries they’d loved me, but we’d been forced apart. At last, we were together. It felt right within each side of my natures and magic. What couldn’t we do differently this time united?
Even save this realm of gods.
I rested my forehead against Drake’s. “Join the party.”
Ash’s wings swooshed wide in a spray of multi-colored water, before settling damply around us all. Rebel cursed, and I laughed. Ash slunk against me with a snap of his hips. “Hey sexy.”
I raised my eyebrow. “For real, bro?”
Ash smirked. “I wasn’t talking to you.” When Ash brushed his naked hip against Drake’s, Drake’s eyes widened. “Has the Ice Commander melted enough to touch a vampire whore now?”
Drake coughed, before turning his head and lightly pressing his lips to Ash’s, just for a moment. Then it was Ash’s turn to cough.
Rebel let out a bark of laughter.
“Hush, now,” Drake said, coolly. “If we are to belong together, I shan’t have you describe yourself as anything less than my whore.”
Now it was my turn to cough.
Kinky bastard angels.
Unexpectedly, a holler broke our contented bubble. It wasn’t the screams of punishment from inside the pavilion, but Gabriel’s howls from beside the pool.
“She’s hurting the Archduke,” Ash bit out with as much concern as reeled through me, “and he’s not fighting back because she looks like you.”
He didn’t say it, but I heard it: and the Archduke loves you.
When had Ash gained such respect for Gabriel?
I nodded, and as one, my family and I untangled ourselves from each other and turned, dashing towards the pool.
Agonized howling.
Vampire Me crouched over Gabriel, who was half submerged in the scarlet water. She’d ripped back his robe and gouged her nails down his chest, Wolverine style. Blood dripped in crimson rivers down his sides.
Lucifer hauled on her arm to hold her back, but with his fires taken from him, he was less powerful than her. And it bastard hurt to see that.
“My father is King of the Under World!” Vampire Me thundered. “Yet you would keep him against his will, steal his spark, and turn him balmy?”
Gabriel whined, as her nails furrowed deeper.
Lucifer yanked on her elbow. “Yikes, who’s an angry little minx? I’m not king anymore. Huh, that only hurt like a hundred daggers in the back, rather than a thousand.”
Crunch — Vampire Me clouted Lucifer, crushing his nose.
Lucifer gasped, falling backwards into the pool, at the same time as Ash roared in fury.
And so did I.
The bitch didn’t get to beat on my family, or reject them because they weren’t powerful and perfect anymore.
When I snatched one arm and Ash the other, Vampire Me gaped at us. Then she grinned. “Crikey, my pippin’s a fast one: she does want a taste of our apple and fang pie.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Now, if you’d offered a chocolate cake…”
Ash caught my eye. Then we swung Vampire Me backwards, shrieking into the pool.
I held out my hand to Gabriel, and he pulled himself up, whilst hastily rearranging his sliced robe to cover the gashes. I dragged him closer, adjusting the ruined garment. “Don’t ever lie there and let a bitch Glory hurt you again; I don’t care who she is. And that includes me.”
He nodded, brushing his fingers across mine.
When Vampire Me arose, choking and soaked in the now pulsing purple water, she radiated anarchic power in the flash of fangs and steel claws. My own magic squirmed within me, shrouded in shadows at the threat.
“Come on then.” I grinned. “I’ve always wanted to kick my own arse.”
Vampire Me growled but before she could launch herself at me, the waters heaved with serpents’ coils. I yelped at their scaly graze across my ankles, then they’d wound around me, and I was being dragged up into the air.
I dangled in the hold of the giant serpent, only to lock gazes with Vampire Me who dangled upside down, equally as caught. She was trembling and pale like she was about to pass out.
Lucky me, I’d seen more monsters than a vampire.
“Calm your showboating asses down.” Jahael’s voice thundered through Gabriel’s mouth. Gabriel stood stock-still, once more a puppet for his dad. How much had Jahael witnessed? “This gang fighting between angels and vampires is why I created you in the first place, Violet-darling.” I couldn’t look away from Vampire Me; he’d played both the Matriarch and Lucifer to create Anael and me, even though they’d never known that someone was pushing them around the board. “Here’s the newsflash: angels were predatory dicks, hunting humans to extinction. When they became too cruel, their glorified asses were confined to Angel World. But they still needed something to keep them…occupied. Miss Fabulous here might’ve incited a certain charismatic Wing to rebellion…”
Lucifer blanched; pulling at his hair. “Huh, even Emperor’s lie…” The coils tightened; I struggled to draw in panicked gasps around my cracking ribs. Lucifer’s eyes widened. “I take it back, scout’s honor.”
The coils loosened, and I choked in a breath.
“Civil wars need balance,” Jahael’s voice continued through Gabriel
as calmly as before, like his serpent hadn’t just squeezed me until he’d broken bones, “and that’s you, Violet-darling.” I shivered, at the same time as Vampire Me. “Your delectable cherry pie sweetness has never reached my realm before. I’ve tried to teach my Firstborn since his birth with Monster Hall, the Guardian’s lessons, and Istafil’s firm hand, but he’s still a weak disappointment.” Stricken, I glanced at Gabriel, who chuckled with Jahael’s voice, even though his cheeks were tear-tracked. “Oh, he can hear us. And you’ll be at my side, whilst I create a fresh new world worthy of you.”
“New world?” I questioned, cautiously.
Chocolate Heaven, Land of Rocking Out, Planet of Cuddly Cat Halflings…
“Our world: The Seraphim’s. I can start again with any evolutionary possibility, and you can bet your ass that I’ll shape it into a world — an Eden — which will worship us as the true gods.”
“So, not chocolate heaven…? Wait…start again?”
Jahael’s smile on Gabriel’s weeping face was creepy arsed. “You know the story of Noah and the flood?” The serpent dunked my head under the water. I choked, gagging. Hell, hell, hell… My lungs were heavy. I thrashed, splashing my hands against the water, whilst Drake and Rebel dragged against the coils. At last, I was hauled upwards, gasping for air. “The worlds — human, angel, and Fallen — need to be cleansed, before my pure one can begin again. You’re not just the balance now, girl, you’re the catalyst for the beginning and the end.”
I closed my eyes, horrified at what I’d done. Every decision that I’d made, which had led me to the Realm of the Seraphim, could mean the genocide of every single world…and my family who lived there.
Who I loved.
Jahael was offering me the power to become his Empress in a new world. As I swung upside down, caught in the snare of the serpent, all I could think about, however, was how to save the old one, no matter the cost.
But what if I was the destroyer?
21
The pulsing scarlet block — Mini Gateway to the Giants skulking in Court Six — hung between Mischief and me in the Gilded Cage.
Rebel clung to Mischief like Mischief would crumble to ash if he let go. I’d expected Mischief to shrug Rebel off with a sharp word, but instead he’d only given an exaggerated sigh, before relaxing into the embrace.
Spark curled at my feet in the shadows; his tail wound around my ankles, as he rubbed his ears against my calf. I tapped on the opal windowsill; sweat slicked my uniform. Monsters crept beneath the blood-red sun outside in the nightmare land of feathers and bones.
Was I meant to rule this realm? Had my visions always been leading me here? A destroyer of worlds, who birthed a new age?
Screw that.
Rebel, Drake, Ash, Mischief, Gabriel…all my family…had rebelled against the roles, into which their worlds, leaders, and destiny had tried to force them. If they hadn’t been able to use weapons, they’d shanked with schemes, words, and even betrayal.
No matter the sacrifice, however, they hadn’t allowed themselves to be used as pawns.
Yeah, the Emperor’s Crown was bitching hollow.
Grrrrrr.
The Gateway bucked impatiently like a stallion eager to start the race. Mischief pinched its stone nose, until it stilled.
Mischief hitched up his trousers, which had slipped down his slender hips. He might’ve been crimson whorled in the marks of an Acolyte but his snarl but was all noble Archduke, “I did not overthrow one tyrant who flooded his own kingdom, only for another to dream of such delusions on a grander scale.”
“With you, bro, but why do we need the book from your secret library?” I asked. “I’ve had enough of being close and personal with their freaky big brothers and I didn’t like what they puked up last time.”
“She’ll hurt me, hurt me, hurt me…” Spark whispered, peeking up at me from underneath his dark eyelashes; his ears pressed to his head in fear.
“Vampire Me…?” I reached down, stroking the silky fur of Spark’s ears, until they fluffed up again; he whined. “That bitch won’t touch you.”
“Aye, right.”
He might as well have rolled his eyes and held up a banner printed with WHATEVER.
I gripped his chin. “Why’d she be after you?”
Spark closed his eyes as he muttered, “The lass hated me, even as Ash’s Fallen friend. She called me Mistress Spark and… Nay, don’t make me say…”
I hushed Spark, whilst he trembled. How could I hate myself, even though I couldn’t remember my past life?
“Now that I’m a Halfling too…?” Spark ducked his head. “She’ll be after my foxie hide to punish me worse than she’s always punished Ash.”
I froze.
Dark rage whipped inside that Vampire Me had hurt Ash, as well as Spark.
Yet, I’d known, hadn’t I? If Vampire Me had joined with Lucifer, whilst Ash had still been Lucifer’s righthand man, why had I imagined that their romance had been all roses and moonlight?
Ash loved me because I was different to the Vampire version who he’d first loved.
Was Vampire Me still a danger to Ash…and to all of us?
Mischief’s eyes narrowed. “At last, the jewel of the realm perceives the peril. Shall we have another kiddies pool party or pause for an orgy perhaps? After all, it’s only billions of lives at stake.” Mischief waved at the vibrating block. “That’s why I risked spanking from Harahel by stealing from his Angel World library: if you know what to ask, your knowledge becomes the mightiest weapon. It can even stop the true Apocalypse.” Mischief glanced over at the bed, where Gabriel slept under the fur and feather blanket of Blaze, who drowsed draped possessively over him. Mischief had healed the gashes down Gabriel’s front, drawing out the pain; tremors still shook through Mischief’s hands from the strain. “I warned you that the Emperor wouldn’t blast trumpets of welcome for me, but instead he tipped burning oil on my head.” I winced, but Mischief’s wry smile was all teeth. “Being a bastard, I’m not valued. Being a bastard, I’m not seen. But being a bastard, I can avenge.”
Hell, I was glad that Mischief was on my side.
“Pull back on the Tarantino. I’ll ride the Gateways to discover how to bring down Jahael, but he’s a god not a mage, and we’re battling the top boy of them all: being pissed off with daddy issues won’t save us.”
“Oh, it’s a start.” Mischief seized my hand and slammed it down on the thorn in the center of the slab.
The Gateway roared, whilst my blood melded with the stone. I thrashed, howling, as I was drawn into the block.
Electric currents juddered through me.
Torn into a million itty pieces, the Gateway gaped, and I was devoured.
I howled into the void, whilst the silver rainbow of Mischief’s gateway spat red-hot metallic drops that sizzled on my skin. I hurtled through the spray of crushed stars, blinking grit from my eyes. My tongue fried in my mouth.
Yet below lay the supernatural world’s interactive database, and I’d hacked this bitch before.
It was always about asking the right question…
Where do I start, J? What do I search for?
That depends, Violet-power, what do you want? Now you know the truth, have you chosen a side?
Did you really think it’d change anything? That I’d learn that I was Lazarus resurrected and forget fam, humanity, and that I’m the Bitch of Utopia?
Hooker, under the Poisoner’s toxic cocktails, you even forgot that Emperor Me was a dick.
You forgot me.
Fair point.
I’m back now, however, and so…I’ve lived before. Those bitches weren’t me. This non-psycho version won’t choose: angel, vampire, or Seraphim.
I’m the Protector.
Every bastard and their world are under my protection, the same as my fam. And no jumped up narcissistic megalomaniac is going to wipe them out.
Be still my proudly beating heart: was that the spirit of Churchill just with us…?
Stick it, hooker, and help me search for a way to stop Jahael.
Are you certain that’s what you want to ask?
You either defeat someone, or else you become their conqueror.
I won’t be a weapon.
You’ve always been a weapon. The question is whether you’re brave enough to use it.
I won’t…lose myself to the blood lust or the beast inside. Mischief and Ash pulled me back from becoming the beast, just as Rebel and Drake taught me that I could be more than a monster. I owe it to them to find another way.
Then don’t be the weapon: find a new weapon.
Yet are you brave enough to seize it?
I tumbled lower in the void, before throwing out my arms to gentle my descent. To my surprise, I controlled the fall, whilst the wind that cut against my cheeks whined. The god-like powers, which had burned through me when I’d tamed the dragons in the Angel Games, surged.
I vibrated, tingling with crackling silver; I grinned, high on the rush. “How do I become more powerful than Emperor Jahael without becoming like him?” I demanded. “What weapon can conquer him?”
Silence.
The wind died, and my fall slowed. My heart beat — beat — beat at my heady magics, which whistled through me in anticipation: Seraphim unleashed.
Yet was this what Jahael had hoped for all along? For my divine bitch to rise up, until I became a true sultan’s consort?
My Seraphim side was dangerous.
Like Ariel leading the Damned in the false belief that only they could be True Seraphim, once I let out my inner god to beat Jahael, would I simply be freeing my combined natures to rule as the next monster over the gods?
Who would be able to stop me forcing all to kneel in worship before the Dragon God?
“I take it back,” I whispered, before howling out into the void, “I bastard take it back.”
Too late…
A flaming twister burst from beneath me.
I hollered and flailed, struggling to back away, but the flames licked around with a heat that choked me, even though it didn’t blister my skin. I screamed, as the twister spun me down…down…down…hurling me onto an altar of bone, which was sunk in a valley of glowing violet feathers beside a river of fire.
Rebel Angels: The Complete Series Page 122