by Meg Xuemei X
His red waves blasted toward me. I threw my hands up, slamming my tri-fires, light, and darkness into his waves. Our powers collided, and his red waves contained my magic like a massive envelope.
The fucker must have gotten a warning from the Olympian losers as to how my power worked.
This being who had come to hunt me had come prepared.
While I was pregnant with quadruplets, I couldn’t take any other form. I couldn’t shift into a dragon, and definitely not my elemental form. Any shifting would risk losing my babies in the process.
I must wait out the full term of this pregnancy just like any other woman.
The Sváva increased his attacking power, gagging me with its vileness. I was losing ground. His power kept amplifying as he fed from me, and mine continued to diminish.
He waved a hand with ease, and another of his waves threw me backwards before it lunged to clutch me in its grip like a fisherman playing with a fish in the net. I thrashed to break free, but his red wave held me captive and pinned me down.
It felt like a thousand needles jabbing into my every cell in horrifying violation. The foul being was going to hurt my babies.
I screamed. I put all I remained—my strength, my will, and my power—into shielding my quadruplets while I took each hit from the enemy and absorbed the pain, so it wouldn’t reach my babies.
My knees wobbled, and I dropped to the ground.
“Your magic is so potent, so delicious, so amazing!” the being cried in awe as he latched on to me, drinking my essence.
My babies kicked violently inside me, petrified as I began to fade.
This time, when Death came to me, it might be real.
I could not rule Death if that being left me an empty shell.
I tried to calm my babies, but for the moment my mind could register nothing but the agony from the merciless assault of the alien force and the babies’ terrified struggling inside me.
I was shattering.
Yet I kept reaching into my very depths to draw on my goddess power, to push the pain out of my mind, so I could hold on to a slice of cold clarity to face my enemy. My survival, especially my babies’ survival, depended on my quick wit and will.
But I was losing both.
I sobbed, calling for my mates over and over. Our mating bond had shielded me against Hades and brought me back from Death. My mates had always found me and reached me in any deep shit and yanked me back to them.
I prayed for a miracle again.
“Not this time,” said the being who called himself Lord Atlas. He now stood two feet away from me, staring down at me like a vulture waiting for my body to go cold. “No one will come for you, little Cass. I’ve blocked your mating bond. I’ve shut all of the doors and windows. This time, there’s no escape for you.”
I wouldn’t beg for my life, not even for my kids’ lives, for I knew this evil had no concept of mercy, goodness, or conscience.
I’m sorry, babies. I swallowed a long sob. Mommy will try her best. You’d better go to sleep.
I couldn’t bear to have them watch me be drained and fed upon. I couldn’t call Earth’s power, for it would only fuel the evil in front of me.
A hot warmth flooded my vagina.
Then liquid flowed down my legs.
A wave of nausea rushed through me, and icy fear blinded me.
My water had broken.
I was forced to go into labor right now. My babies were no longer terrified. They were full of rage. My demigod babies were fighting to come out, a month earlier than their due time, to defend their mommy against the mighty evil.
No, no, no! Babies, no! Stay. Mommy can still protect you! I knew that as soon as my babies came out, this evil angel lord would devour them.
It was safer for them to stay inside me. My babies might still have a chance to live in me even if I was drained. I was also a Death Goddess, after all. I had shielded them with layers of darkness, which the foul being hadn’t figured out how to breach. I would hold on for as long as I could until my mates found me.
I screamed for them again, blasting my remaining fires and light at our muted mating bond to reach them. I could imagine how panicked they were on the other side, unable to locate me.
Babies, help me, I pleaded to them, blood thrumming in my ears. Stay. Mommy can’t deliver you and fight the bad guy at the same time.
The only answer was the arrival of the contractions, wave after wave, tearing my flesh, shattering my bones. My vision blurred as anguish extended endlessly. I doubted if the pain would ever end.
Liquid soaked my legs, pain assaulting me from every direction.
I couldn’t help but tremble, locking my pained, hateful gaze on my immortal enemy. A thought sustained me: I must drag this foul thing down with my last essence and make sure my babies lived.
“Interesting and unexpected,” the cruel angel being said, watching my every move as blood streamed down my legs.
I breathed out as another sharp pain tore into me, but I managed to squat down, closer to the sea ice beneath me.
A flash of light appeared in my field of sight. It spread like lightning from the sky. I didn’t care. I would grab for any last straw. So, I reached for it.
We connected, right before I spotted a trace of my darkness of death sinking into Atlas’s mind.
Vertigo hit, and my world spun faster. When my vision cleared, I still saw stars in front of me against the black space.
Chapter Three
The mysterious lightning didn’t bring my babies and me back to my mates, as I’d wished with my every pumping heartbeat. Instead, I found myself face to face with a raven-haired woman in a flowing pink gown. Her pale, translucent skin had a beautiful, youthful look, yet her eyes appeared so ancient, like the first pair of stars in the universe.
“Your consciousness travelled faster than the speed of light and found me, Cass Saélihn,” she said. “Only you can reach me like this in a time of crisis since you’re an incredibly powerful goddess.”
“Tell me about crisis,” I said with a hand on my hip. “My babies are in grave danger. Now, who are you? Can you help my babies? I’m facing this great evil on the other side—”
“I know,” she cut in. “The Dark Lord has been hunting me as well, but I’m always a step or two ahead of him. I’m Cinda, the Seer from the Death Valley Galaxy. The Dark Lord used to be one of the twelve ancient Archangels, a branch of the Sváva race. Unbeknownst to the rest of the Archangels, Atlas is an energy absorber. He can poach anyone’s power and make it his.”
A wave of intense pain and nausea blistered through me. Even in this realm, the rapid contractions wouldn’t give me a break.
I pressed a hand to my belly. My babies would come at any minute.
There was no stopping my early labor now.
I spat. “So, the fucker Atlas is like me.”
Cinda gave me a hard, sidelong look, not at my spitting but at my curse.
“In a sense, yes.” She sighed, a dark light glinting in her green eyes. “He drained the other eleven Archangels and became the superpower in the universe. For eons, Atlas went around the galaxies, hunting and reaping great powers, until last time, when he marked the wrong target. He singled out a fae princess from Earth, which happened before you were born.
“As soon as I saw the vision that Princess Rose was the destined mate to Seth, the Sky Power and heir to the Dark Lord, I arranged to have Seth sent to Earth to meet his mate. The heir fell in love with the fae princess. So, instead of helping his father glean his mate’s Earth magic, he defended her and worked with her to shatter his father’s essence. But Atlas was too powerful. He survived the atomic magical blast and hid in an unknown universe. Somehow his future self—the shattered one—managed to send the information to his past self.
“Now his past self has come to your door. Once the Dark Lord siphons your power, his future self will resurrect. He wants to rewrite the history of the cosmos. If he succeeds, we’ll all be dead.”
“You know all about him. Tell me how to defeat the motherfucker.” I snapped my fingers while my free hand still pressed against my belly. The babies were moving. “Quick! I don’t have much time. He’s draining me at brutal speed. My mates can’t reach me in time. It’s up to me to protect my babies!”
“I’m not sure you can kill him while he’s in his prime and has Red Plague at his disposal,” said the Seer from the Death Valley Galaxy. “I didn’t see you defeat him in my vision.”
A new wave of excruciating pain hit me. My babies were tearing themselves from my womb and fighting to come out. I started to blink in and out of this realm.
“Just hang in there,” Cinda shouted. “The Sky Power loaned me the Forbidden Glory. I can probably use it to overcome the Dark Lord. I’m coming to you at warp speed and will reach you in two hours through the wormhole.”
I didn’t have even a fucking hour. That Dark Lord of All Fucking Angels was draining me faster than the Seer’s warp speed.
In half a blink, I was back on Earth, crouching on the hard ice.
The foul, dark being stared down at me, like a vulture waiting over a corpse, otherworldly ecstasy twisting his hard, pale face as he kept siphoning my power and drinking my essence.
I managed to flick a wrist and conjure up a robe to replace my leather outfit.
The first baby was pushing through my opened pelvis. I cried out at the pain caused by the force. My baby was strong. At the same time, the Dark Lord’s leeching power tightened its grip on me, thousands of unseen needles sinking into my skin and sucking my life force.
For the first time, Earth couldn’t help me. The Dark Lord of All Angels, the worst predator, would reap its deep magic instead and deplete it faster. He’d planned to absorb the Earth energy for eons, and he knew how.
He’d turned me into his channel, his prey, and his victim.
A blast of light, warmth, and rage suddenly welled inside me.
My mates pounded on the other side of the mating bond like a raging storm.
“I’m here,” I cried. “I’m here.”
A shimmer appeared in the air, and my four mates charged through the portal, roaring in inconsolable wrath, their flaming swords raised high. Their combined power merged into firestorm and lightning, ramming into the Dark Lord.
They’d found me again and come for me.
They’d never fail me.
A choke escaped my throat, and tears streamed down my cheeks. “Your daddies are here,” I whispered. “Easy now, babies. We’re safe.”
Chapter Four
“You won’t harm my wife, you scum filth!” Pyrder and Reys thundered in fury, hurling their full powers at the predator.
“Cut that fucker to ribbons!” Alaric roared, his honey-brown eyes flashing with lightning and burning with dragon fire.
“Tend to mate, Reys!” Lorcan joined his bonded brothers and lunged at the Dark Lord, his sword sailing toward the enemy, who was thrown several yards away from me by my mates’ combined force.
The Sváva angel staggered back, not expecting my mates to come through.
“Be careful of the fucker’s Red Plague!” I shouted. “He destroyed many worlds with it.”
A surprised look flitted across the being’s face.
Right, dickshit, I knew what your power was!
“He’s not going to destroy ours!” Reys snarled, smashing his death fire into the enemy.
The Dark Lord immediately redirected his red waves toward my mates, set to kill, and his waves and my mates’ fires and storm collided.
Reys sprang to my side. He spread a thick blanket he’d brought with him on the hard ice and put me on it tenderly. “We’re here, love.” He stroked my cheek. “We’ll get through this.” He then looked down between my thighs and swallowed. “Our son’s head is going to emerge at the entrance. Love, take a deep breath and push! Yes, that’s right. Push one more time. You got this!”
My power was no longer leaking. My mates’ mating bond had formed a solid shield of light around my babies and me, cutting off that foul being’s power from feeding upon me.
The Dark Lord divided his red waves into two, one pushing toward my mates and the other slamming into Reys and me. Reys counterattacked with his black flame, lessening the impact of the Red Plague. Yet the aftershock was still like an explosion in my gut.
The nasty being was trying to kill my babies. If they weren’t demigods and demigoddess, they’d have died in my uterus under such an assault.
My poor babies were having the worst time. They now all fought to come out of my body at the same time.
“Shush, kids,” Reys said sternly. His voice remained firm and calm despite the beads of sweat forming on his forehead. “Calm down! You don’t want to hurt your mommy! Now back off and wait for your turn.”
The struggle inside me stopped. The babies recognized Reys’s deep, beautiful voice, as he often sang to them during my pregnancy. I was so proud that they listened to their father.
Lorcan, Alaric, and Pyrder struck at the Dark Lord again and again with their bolts of lightning, fires, and violent storm. Their powers combated the Red Plague, wrestling with it and pulling it away from me.
They stabbed, slashed, and hacked at the enemy from all sides, trying to cut down the being with their flaming swords.
The Dark Lord swung his massive wings to repel my mates, preventing them from getting into his proximity, especially Pyrder. My fae prince leaped back and forth, as lithe as a panther—he was a golden panther in his animal form, obsessed with cleaving the being’s wings.
Atlas bellowed, and my mates roared.
The two opposing forces crashed into each other again. The evil lord swayed, and my mates reeled back a few steps.
The sky thundered; lightning struck across the sky over and over. The impact of the collision spread outwards like a tsunami. The ground of sea ice trembled. Some regions broke apart, the icy water beneath churning.
The shockwave made me feel like my veins would burst open, even with Reys’s black flame shielding me. My fae mate gritted his teeth under the strain, but he kept his shield up over us. I threw an ounce of my darkness to enhance his shield, and Reys’s flame grew stronger. The pressure and terrible pain in my every tissue gradually eased.
“I got you, baby,” Reys said, kissing my forehead. “Now push more. Our son’s head is half out now. You can do this, love.”
I was too drained to push further. The tearing pain had eaten up my remaining energy. But I howled and pushed again.
“Get mate out now!” Alaric roared, his lightning spearing into the Dark Lord, but it fizzled out when it met the being’s liquid crimson shield.
“No,” I called. “You’ll need me to beat the shit out of this old creep, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world!”
Alaric snarled at my refusal to leave.
“I’m safer where you are, mates,” I added. “Besides, the babies are calmer where you are. They’re coming out now.”
Another wave of labor pain made me groan and scream.
“Easy, kids!” Reys barked. “Your mom is in a lot of pain. Spare her the hurt if you don’t want to be spanked later!”
The pain eased a little. The little guys inside me didn’t want to get spanked by their dads.
The Dark Lord’s red waves faltered under the ferocious battering of my mates’ powers, but they soon solidified and expanded.
The red waves started to swallow my mates’ storm and fires at rapid speed.
The being had waited until my men’s powers hit him at full force to reap them.
“What the fuck?” Pyrder yelled. “The foul thing is eating our powers!”
Alaric hurled his lightning at the Dark Lord, but it only vanished into the immense net of the red waves.
“We’ll have to fight with blades only,” Lorcan said, stabbing his sword toward the being’s eye, but a wave of Red Plague melted his flaming sword, and at the same time, the evil lord’s power slammed into
my vampire mate’s chest, sending him flying backwards.
Lorcan crashed onto the hard ice, but at least he didn’t sink into the sea water at the edge of the chunks. He struggled to his feet, blue Earth fire twirling up his arms like beautiful wings. The fire flew toward the Dark Lord, not by my mate’s will or command, but from the enemy’s siphoning power.
The stream of Earth fire soon became Atlas’s nutrition, his Red Plague leaping high toward the sky with all the fires that he’d stolen from us.
“This is an excellent day for me.” The predator laughed, the sound eerier than anything I’d ever heard. “Your powers are all ripe for the taking.”
But unbeknownst to that fucker, I’d worked on him while he was feasting upon me. A slice of my dark mass had sunk into his mind when the Seer from the Death Valley Galaxy had dragged me to her timeline just to tell me to hang in there.
My darkness had embedded itself in him, taking root in him and sipping his power in a super sneaky way. At my command, it expanded, linking to my core dark mass.
And then I was ready, and my dark power unabashedly took a huge, hard bite from the superior being.
He stopped guffawing, a shocked, pained look flitting over his mean face.
My dark power flew at the Sváva like the storm of an apocalypse. At the same time, Reys tossed his flaming sword at Lorcan. The High Lord of Night caught its hilt and joined Alaric and Pyrder, his blade sailing toward the enemy’s neck.
I snapped my fingers, summoning the door of life and death. It swirled open, extending deep into the universe. It passed the phantom zone where I had once exiled the Olympian gods and reached the fathomless black hole.
I wouldn’t take the being’s corrupted power of Red Plague into me or Earth, so I directed and banished it into the black hole, draining it faster than the speed of the tornado at the event horizon.