Dark Vampire

by Meg Xuemei X

“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.”