Dark Vampire

by Meg Xuemei X

  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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  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076DPN6CN

  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

  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.