I can’t let her win. I need to fight this. I hold tighter onto the sword, and then I remember—this sword is powerful. It has a magic and power of its own. This sword was forged by Uriel to help angels in battle.
I may be trapped in this human form until the end of my mission, but my soul is still mine—an angel. The sword recognizes that. If it didn’t, it wouldn’t ignite under my command.
I stumble back as another wave of pain reverberates through me, but instead of falling, I focus on the magic of the sword, calling upon its power for help. The magic floods my body, filling me with light, and the pain lessens until it’s reduced to a slight hum.
Teresa must notice my sudden recovery, because she chants faster and louder. The hum of the pain grows again, and I know the magic I took from the sword won’t last forever.
I need to act—now.
Taking a deep breath, I raise the sword high and start toward Teresa—I run faster than a human can possibly move without magical help—and thrust the sword through her chest.
Chapter Seventy-Two
We stare at each other—the sword skewered through her body, my fingers wrapped around the handle.
She sucks in a gasping breath, and blood trickles from her mouth. “You’re going to go to Hell for this,” she says, and then I yank the sword from her body, and she crumples to the floor next to Marco. Blood seeps from her wound, flowing across the floor until it joins with the puddle of his.
I drop my arm to my side, the tip of the sword clanging to the ground.
They’re dead. I killed them. I trusted them, they betrayed me, and now they’re dead.
I hated what they did to me, but I didn’t want them dead.
I never wanted to kill anyone.
“You did the right thing,” Zeke says, still stuck inside the demon trap. “If you didn’t kill them, they would have killed you first.”
“No, they wouldn’t have.” I shake my head sadly, unable to look away from the bloodbath I’d created. “At least, not while I’m still in Adriana’s body.”
“It’s true then.” His voice is empty, and I finally look up at him, shocked by the anger in his eyes. They’re still covered in black—covered in darkness. “Everything we had was a lie.”
“No,” I insist, searching for something—anything—I can say that will convince him of the truth. “This may not be my true form, but I’m still me. That wasn’t a lie. I risked everything for you—I was willing to fall from Heaven for you! Because I love you. And I can’t kill you. I won’t.”
“You should,” he says darkly.
“No.” I hold his gaze. “I love you, and I won’t kill you. You love me, too. I know you do.”
“I don’t even know who you are!” He slams his hands against the invisible wall with so much force that it shakes the room.
“I’m going to let you out of there,” I tell him softly. “I’m going to free you.”
“You shouldn’t do that,” he warns.
“Why not?” I stand stubbornly, daring him to convince me otherwise.
“Because if you do, I’ll kill you.”
“No,” I insist. “You won’t. You might think you will, but I know you, Zeke. I understand that you’re angry with me—rightfully so—but you can fight this. I’ve seen you do it before, and I know you can do it again. You won’t kill me. You love me too much to ever kill me.”
“You have way too much trust in me,” he says, chuckling softly. “Have you forgotten what I am? I’m a demon. Killing is in my blood! Sure, I fought it for a bit, but come on—you have to know I just wanted to get you in bed with me, right? Willingly. If it took fighting the darkness and proposing to do that, then so be it. We could have had the wedding of your dreams for all I cared—a party’s a party, and everyone living here is always down for some fun. Then I would have had you on our wedding night, eventually became bored with you, and then gotten rid of you so the next round of girls could have their turns.”
“No.” I shake my head, sickened by his words. “You wouldn’t.”
“You know as well as I do that demons can’t love,” he says. “You were so stupid to think otherwise—even more so now that I know you’re an angel! You should have known better. You most definitely deserve to die for it. It’s your own fault, really. But you can’t say you weren’t warned, can you?”
Everything he says is like a knife piercing into my soul. I hadn’t thought there was anything more painful than the feeling I had when Teresa tried to exorcise me.
I was wrong.
Because right now, my heart feels like it’s shattering into a million tiny pieces, and that it’ll never be able to get put back together again.
“Why are you telling me this?” I ask, choking back tears.
“Because I can’t control the darkness anymore.” He glances at the sword dangling in my hand. “You should kill me. You can do it right now. If you don’t—if you let me out of this trap—you’ll be dead in a second. Kill me first, Rebekah. Like you did to Teresa and Marco. You have it in you. I know you do.”
I shiver when he says my name—Rebekah—not Adriana. “You don’t mean that,” I say, my hands shaking. “Why are you saying all of this?”
“You think I’m making this up?” He smirks. “How much will you bet on that?”
“Everything.” I stride toward him, past the invisible line of the demon trap, and press my lips to his.
He kisses me back—slowly at first—and then with more intensity. Heat flows through my body at his touch, and I sink into him, my body flush with his.
He loves me. He might not want to say it, but I can tell from the way he’s kissing me—as if I’m the most precious person in the world to him and he never wants to stop.
He finally pulls back and looks down at me, his eyes back to their normal blue. “You really shouldn’t have done that,” he says.
Then he grabs the sword from my hand, steps back, and plunges it straight into his own heart.
Chapter Seventy-Three
I barely have time to scream before I’m ripped out of Adriana’s body. Suddenly, I’m floating in a room of bright white light. Uriel stands before me, his Flaming Sword ablaze in his hand.
“That didn’t go quite how I imagined it,” he says, admiring the sword and sliding it into an invisible shaft on his back. “But you did get the job done.”
“Zeke,” I croak, looking around as if I might find him here. But it’s hopeless. I’m no longer in Earth’s realm—I’m in Heaven. So I refocus on Uriel and ask, “Where is he?”
He tilts his head and smiles. “Did you truly care for him?” he asks. “Or was it an act?”
“I loved him.” I glare at Uriel with as much hate as I can manage. “And he loved me.”
“That he did.” Uriel nods. “He sacrificed himself for you. Quite unheard of for a demon to willingly sacrifice themselves like that, I must say.”
“Where is he?” I ask again. His body might be gone, but I know his spirit still exists.
Even if he’s been cast to the depths of the fieriest hell dimension in the universe, I will not rest until I venture there and find him.
“Relax, relax.” Uriel smirks. His smirk is so condescending, so different from the playful smirk Zeke used to give me that it causes a physical pain in my chest. “Ezekiel sacrificed himself and broke the curse he cast upon the continent. He has been rewarded for his actions.”
“How?” My heart leaps at the possibilities. “Has he been accepted back into Heaven? Is he an angel again?”
“No.” Uriel shakes his head. “Nothing that extreme. But he’s no longer a demon, either.”
“Then what is he?” I clench my fists, waiting for his answer.
“A human.”
“What?” I gasp.
“You heard me,” Uriel says. “Ezekiel’s now a human.”
“Where is he?” I stand straighter, my gaze unwavering. “Take me to him at once.”
“Haven’t you gotten feisty sinc
e your little adventure on Earth?” Uriel chuckles.
“If you won’t tell me where he is, then I’ll go down to Earth and find him myself.”
“Don’t be so rash.” Uriel holds a hand up, commanding me to stay where I am. “After all, you just succeeded in your mission. Don’t you want to hear what your reward will be?”
“Later,” I say. “Right now, I need to see Zeke.”
“What will you do when you see him?” Uriel asks. “Marry him?”
I say nothing, since yes, that’s exactly what I want to do. If he still wants to marry me, of course.
“If you marry him, you’ll be cast from Heaven and will become a demon,” Uriel says. “You’ll be overcome with the darkness Ezekiel described to you—overcome with the desire to kill. Even if you’re able to fight through it and love him, you’ll remain immortal. He’ll age and die. You’ll sacrifice yourself for love, but that love will only be a flicker of time in the eternity of hell you’ll live on Earth. Is that really what you want for yourself? Is that really what you think he would want for you?”
“No.” I step back, appalled by that possibility. “I’ll find a way to make him immortal. I’ll find a witch. Or a vampire. Or some creature that will help me.”
“Or you’ll stop getting ahead of yourself and listen to your reward.”
“Fine.” I huff. “But no reward in the entire universe will make me give up my love for Zeke.”
“No one ever asked you to give up that love,” he says with a small smile. “Because your reward is this—one wish, granted, with no catch. You can take as long as you want to claim your wish, but while you’re immortal, I must remind you that Ezekiel is human. His time is much more limited than yours.”
“Anything?” I ask. “I can wish for anything?”
“Within limits,” Uriel says. “You cannot wish for anything that will cause harm upon others, or anything that might catastrophically mess up God’s master plan. If your wish is unacceptable, you’ll be allowed to make another until you find something deemed appropriate. So tell me, young angel. What do you wish for?”
“I wish to be with Zeke,” I say, not needing to think twice about my answer. “I wish to become a human.”
Epilogue
Three Months Later
I stand in front of the door of the dressing room, fidgeting with the bouquet in my hands.
“There’s no need to be nervous,” a familiar voice says behind me.
I turn around and see Elizabeth. She’s wearing a blue dress, and like everyone else on the continent, the tattoos around her wrists are gone. The tattoos all disappeared the moment the curse was broken.
“Of course I’m nervous,” I say with a smile. “It’s my wedding. Aren’t all brides nervous on their wedding day?”
“They are,” she agrees. “I certainly was on mine.”
“And, hopefully, I’ll find out soon,” Adriana chimes in, staring wistfully at my engagement ring.
Once I returned to the continent in human form, Adriana rushed to take me in. While she had no control over her body while I possessed it, she was aware of everything going on around her. She still hasn’t forgiven me for killing Teresa—I don’t think she ever will—but she understood what I went through more than anyone else, since she was there through all of it. Since my return, she’s been like a sister to me.
Which is why she—and Elizabeth, of course—are bridesmaids in my wedding.
“It’s time,” Carlos says, opening the door a crack and looking at us.
I didn’t know it at the time, but Teresa and Marco weren’t the only witches I knew—Carlos was a witch as well. He was the son of the witch who cast the initial boundary spell around the Flaming Sword. Ezekiel practically raised him, and because of that, Carlos was the only witch he trusted. Carlos was the one who cast the locator spell on my engagement ring. I was upset with him about that at first—but he was a servant to Zeke, so he really had no say in the matter. Also, he’s more than made it up to me.
Because once I returned to Earth as a human, Carlos gathered the witches in the continent. He rallied them to support and protect me in my quest to bring the continent to a Golden Age as its new queen.
Which leaves, of course, the king.
I hear music from the ballroom—the procession must have already begun. Soon, Carlos opens the door again and holds out his arm to me.
As my bodyguard, he’s the closest thing I have to a father, so it only seemed appropriate that he would be the one to walk me down the aisle.
He leads me to the large double-door entrance of the ballroom. The first notes of a new song begin to play—my entrance music—and the doors swing open.
Standing at the end of the aisle, gazing at me as if I’m the most beautiful woman in the world, is Zeke.
I walk down the aisle, recalling our story with each step. Once I returned to Earth as a human, I found him in his suite in the Watchtower and told him everything. We’d faced a lot in the past few months, but we loved each other. Because of that, forgiveness came easy. He still had my engagement ring—Adriana returned it to him after regaining control of her body—and that night, he kneeled before me and asked me to be his wife—again.
I join him at the altar. He reaches out to me, lifting the veil off my face and over my head. “You’re beautiful,” he whispers, the words meant only for me.
I blush, beaming back at him. One of my biggest worries about my return to Earth as a human was that I would be in my form—not Adriana’s. Zeke had said he didn’t love me because I looked like Julia, but I worried if my true form would be as appealing to him as hers. After all, with my light blonde hair, pale skin, and sea-green eyes, I couldn’t look more unlike Adriana if I tried.
It turned out I had nothing to worry about.
“I love you,” I mouth to him, not wanting to disrupt the minister as he speaks his part.
Zeke squeezes my hands, and his message is loud and clear—he loves me, too.
“You may kiss the bride,” the minister finally says.
Zeke pulls me toward him and presses his lips to mine. The entire room erupts in thunderous applause.
The future that awaits us will not be easy. As the king and queen of this previously cursed continent, we have our work cut out for us.
But as I lose myself in his kiss, I’m confident that somehow, we will bring this kingdom into a Golden Age—together.
Thank you for reading Demon Kissed! I hope you enjoyed the story. While Demon Kissed is a standalone book in the Charmed Legacy universe, my Dark World Saga features supernatural creatures involved in the battle between Heaven and Hell, too. The Dark World Saga begins with The Vampire Wish. CLICK HERE to grab The Vampire Wish on Amazon, or turn the page to see the cover, description, and read a sneak peak from the first book!
TWILIGHT MEETS ALADDIN in this hot new fantasy series by USA Today bestselling author Michelle Madow!
He’s a vampire prince. She’s a human blood slave. They should be enemies… but uniting might be their only hope to prevent a supernatural war.
Annika never thought of herself as weak—until the day vampires murdered her parents and kidnapped her from our world to the hidden vampire kingdom of the Vale.
As a brand new blood slave, Annika must learn to survive her dangerous new circumstances… or face imminent death from the monstrous wolves prowling outside the Vale’s enchanted walls. But not all in the kingdom is as it appears, and when a handsome vampire disguised as a human steps into her life, Annika discovers that falling for the enemy is sometimes too tempting to resist.
Especially when becoming a vampire might be her only chance to gain the strength she needs to escape the Vale.
Enter the magical world of the Vale in The Vampire Wish, the first book in an addictive new series that fans of The Vampire Diaries and A Shade of Vampire will love!
Turn the page for a sneak peek! Or CLICK HERE to grab The Vampire Wish on Amazon now.
Prologue: Annika
Mom and Dad skied up ahead, but beyond the four of us, the rest of the mountain was empty. It was the final run of the trip, on our last day of spring break, and we’d decided to challenge ourselves by skiing down the hardest trail on the mountain—one of the double black diamond chutes in the back bowl.
The chutes were the only way down from where we were—the chairlift that took us up here specified that these trails were for experts only. Which was perfect for us. After all, I’d been skiing since I was four years old. My parents grew up skiing, and they couldn’t wait to get me and Grant on the trails. We could tackle any trail at this ski resort.
“Did I hear something about a race?” Dad called from up ahead.
“Damn right you did!” Grant lifted one of his poles in the air and hooted, ready to go.
“You’re on.” I glided past all of them, the thrill of competition already racing through my veins.
Mom pleaded with us to be careful, and then my skis tipped over the top of the mountain, and I was flying down the trail.
I smiled as I took off. I’d always wanted to fly, but obviously that wasn’t possible, and skiing was the closest thing I’d found to that. If I lived near a mountain instead of in South Florida, I might have devoted my extracurricular activities to skiing instead of gymnastics.
I blazed down the mountain like I was performing a choreographed dance, taking each jump with grace and digging my poles into the snow with each turn. This trail was full of moguls and even some rocky patches, but I flew down easily, avoiding each obstacle as it approached. I loved the rush of the wind on my cheeks and the breeze through my hair. If I held my poles in the air, it really did feel like flying.
Demon Kissed (Cursed Angel Collection) Page 21