11
 

 

 

 

As a vampire, I was mostly active at midnight, but I’d followed Antonio’s schedule—rise and shine when he did—to accommodate him. I’d taken a lot from him. Driving him into a constant state of fatigue wouldn’t do me any good.

But tonight, I felt high. Maybe it was the hot sex we had had earlier, or maybe it was Antonio’s incredibly good mood after he’d heard of the Angel’s fall. He wanted us to start a new life somewhere else, somewhere safer for me.

While the wolves had all gathered to celebrate, Antonio had fucked me the whole time. And now he was sleeping soundly beside me, holding me.

I stirred in his arms, but he wasn’t aware.

He’d always been alert in the past while he slept. I’d tested him. Whenever I’d shifted slightly, he’d have awoken as well. Of course, sleeping beside me was worse than sleeping beside a rattle snake. But tonight, he’d finally let his guard down.

I turned around in his arms to face him.

He looked almost boyishly sweet. The battle-hardened warrior was gone. I felt tenderness in my heart, which was a new feeling, which was un-vampire like.

As I studied him, my gaze drifted to the pulsing veins in his neck. The purest, sweetest, and richest blood rushed inside, calling to me. My mouth watered, and my mound became slick with need.

Sometimes I still loathed what I’d become, especially in those days when I could hear Dark Prince Desdemona’s voice. He still tried to invade me, and if I hadn’t been resisting him, he might have broken through the Wickedest Witch’s barrier. His sinister voice kept reminding me that his venom still pumped in my veins every second of the day. He thought he owned me and was furious that I flipped him the finger.

He threatened punishment. 

And I promised revenge.

Day and night, I pondered how to take him down since I was no match for him. I hadn’t cared if I lived or died ever since I became a vampire—vengeance was all I had and kept me going.

I’d been practicing with Antonio. It was a good warm up for him as well. I’d secretly trained with the best weapon masters in my Tarzona kingdom during my leopard princess days, but I’d never imagined that one day I would have to fight on the battlefield and go down as a warrior.

Antonio was an excellent teacher and fighter. He said I learned faster than anyone he’d trained and soon I could graduate.

I had a purpose.

I concealed my retribution plan from him.

The last time I’d requested King Marrok to let me join the vampire hunting, Antonio had objected fiercely. He thought he could do all the fighting for me, and he wanted me nowhere near danger. 

In the middle of training, we’d always end up on top of each other, since we just couldn’t keep our hands off each other.

“Antonio,” I whispered. He didn’t answer.

It was the first time he’d slept so soundly.

I felt a stab of shame and guilt. Maybe I shouldn’t test him. I shouldn’t attack him while he was defenseless and trusting me.

But he smelled so damn good.

He let his guard down because I hadn’t jumped on him without his permission for over a week.

But I was still a vampire. I sighed. Just because I didn’t bite him after sex yesterday didn’t mean I wouldn’t sink my fangs into him today.

Maybe I should go to the backyard and get some cool air.

His veins throbbed powerfully and enticingly in his neck.

Maybe I would just nip him, take one sip, and fall back into his arms. He wouldn’t even know when he woke up.

I wouldn’t really sink my fangs deep into his veins.

Without knowing it, I already traced my lips over his neck. Just some harmless, affectionate kisses. Antonio liked kisses, my kisses. He always showered me with affection, and I had never showed him anything other than demand he fuck me hard.

I knew about affection, too. I was very good at it. I used to be a leopard princess, who had had a good education in every aspect.

My lips lingered on his pulsing vein, circling it, and my tongue licked it with fondness.

If he woke up now, he could just throw me off him, and I would tell him I was playing, that I didn’t actually puncture the skin. I behaved. No harm done.

And then we would fuck fiercely.

The warmth in his vein radiated to me, burning my lips and parching my throat.

My fangs sharpened and lengthened.

They pricked his skin, then pierced it.

Gently, I reminded myself.

A drop of blood fell on my tongue.

Fucking storms! It tasted better than nectar.

I half shut my eyes in a happy sigh. How could anyone taste so divinely as heavens and hot and sinful as hell?

My fangs sank further into his vein, his iron-rich blood poured into my mouth, and power surged in me.

Antonio remained asleep.

I swallowed a mouthful, then another mouthful, then another.

Antonio seemed to have passed out.

Or maybe my venom was more compelling, spiced up by our wildfire sex earlier on.

I smiled delightfully.

He wasn’t resisting me now.

I drank him as if he was my never-ending fountain of life.

No ration. No warning. No frowning from him. Just free drink.

He should have chained me, as others had advised. It was his fault that he gave a vampire free rein. It was also his fault he trusted me tonight.

I had never felt this thirsty before, so I kept drinking him in ecstasy, and another need for him arose. I wanted his cock inside me.

Until I felt him go cold in my embrace.

His pulse weakened to a trace, and then I couldn’t feel it anymore.

I was drinking him to death.

I abruptly extracted my fangs and lifted my face from his neck.

“Antonio?” I called, terror striking me.

He didn’t respond.

I shook him violently, but there was no sign of life in him.

Vampires didn’t cry, but I started crying. “Antonio, wake up, please. I’m sorry!”

He wasn’t moving at all.

I killed him. I’d drained him.

Why hadn’t he woken up as usual and stopped me?

How could this happen?

I heard that a vampire’s venom could paralyze their victims.

Whenever I’d taken Antonio’s blood before, he’d been on high alert, and he’d never allowed me to take more than three mouthfuls, so probably my venom hadn’t been enough to get into his system and poison him.

But the Wickedest Witch had warded his bloodstream.

The ward must have worn out.

“Antonio, come back to me,” I wept. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sap you. Come back and I’ll never have a drop of your blood again. I promise. Just come back.”

He wasn’t coming back. He’d never come back.

I’d depleted my mate, the one who had protected me above all else.

He was gone forever.

He’d said it was a one in a million chance for his mate to find him on this damned planet. He’d said he couldn’t believe his luck. Even after I’d turned into a vampire, he’d still wanted me more than anyone and anything. He’d held onto the faith that we could make it work while I had had no faith and hadn’t looked to the future.

I wasn’t his blessing. I was his curse. I destroyed his future and cut his life short. 

From the day he’d met me, he’d never had a peaceful moment.

Until now. Until I’d drank him to death.

It was the most horrible, humiliating way to die, and I, his mate, delivered it to him.

If he’d treated me as a piece of vampire shit and tossed me away, he’d have still been alive.

He hadn’t even wanted to chain me even though I was deadly to shifters.

Vampires couldn’t weep. Vampires had no fluids.

But tears rolled down my face and dropped onto the sheet.

Once they got going, they wouldn’t stop.

They were black tears—the Dark Prince’s venom.

They kept streaming from my eyes like acid rain, and I wanted every drop of the venom gone. I didn’t mind bleeding dry.

“I’m sorry, Antonio, my mate,” I said.

I wanted to kiss him goodbye, but I wouldn’t let the venom taint him, so I brushed a kiss on my finger and let the finger touch his cold lips.

His sculpted lips had been so warm only a moment ago. Every kiss had scorched me, igniting the wildfire and desire in me that I hadn’t known could exist.

He would never kiss me again.

It was over. We were over.

“May we meet again in the afterlife, my one true mate,” I prayed. 

I scrambled off the bed. I couldn’t bear to see my mate’s cold body lying there, pale and lifeless.

With no guards posted at the door, I could probably make my escape.

The wolves were celebrating tonight and were possibly all passed out, especially when King Marrok was guarding his mate and the Wickedest Witch in the Witch Tower, and their general was with me, drained and dead.

I had no intention of fleeing. I wouldn’t want to live without Antonio. I didn’t even care about revenge or anything anymore. All I wanted was to be with Antonio forever, on the other side of the veil.

In any corner of the universe and dimension.

In heavens or hell.

“I’d give up everything and come to any place for you again and again if I had a second chance,” I said.

Antonio had locked the weapons somewhere. He’d been afraid that I’d take extreme action to end my own life ever since I’d begged him and the king to put me down.

But anything could be a weapon.

With my vampire’s strength, I punched into a wooden chair. It collapsed, and I tore off a leg.

“Stake the fucking vampire in the heart!” I’d heard the words when I’d stood in the fenced yard the first time.

Their command, my wish.

I knew to kill a vampire, you had to either stake her heart or behead her. 

I aimed the wooden stick at the position of my heart, the end sharp enough. 

I drove it in, the stick piercing my skin. The head was a bit blunt, so it would cause me more pain, but it would do.

A strong hand gripped my wrist before I propelled the stick in further.

“What do you think you’re doing, Bella?” Antonio asked furiously.

I hadn’t heard him while I was consumed by grief, guilt, and my determination to end my life.

My eyes widened and I stared wildly at him. Antonio had risen from the dead. My venom had affected him and turned him. He was a vampire now, just like me.

What was I going to do with another new vampire?

I choked back a sob. “Antonio?”

I didn’t care what he was, as long as he was alive.

And he was alive! My Antonio.

“Yes, it’s me,” he said dryly, removing the stake from my hand and tossing it far away. “I’m still a wolf shifter. You haven’t turned me into a vampire.”

How could he always know what was in my head?

They said mates could read each other’s minds. I couldn’t read his except his lust for me.

“I drained you,” I sobbed. “I left only drops.”

“You thought you did, but you didn’t.”

“How?”

“It’s because of our matehood. We won’t harm each other, no matter what. Even though you’re a vampire, controlled by your blood frenzy, you won’t really drink me dry. We’ve just proved that.”

“Proved?” I shrieked. How could he do this to us? How could he put his life on the line just to prove a point?

“When you set yourself upon me mercilessly, your mind tricked you before you could cross the line and eventually kill me. It told you I had only one last drop left, so you stopped before you could take it. Your instinct is to protect me first, as I’m always to protect you above anyone and anything.”

“I’m a fucking vampire! Anything could go wrong. I could suck you dry. How could you put me through this?”

“I had to do it, Bella,” Antonio sighed. “It was our last resort. I consulted the Wickedest Witch. She said you would hit a limit and that if I had a faith in our matehood, then I should use it to test our bond and the boundary. And there you are—a vampire or not, you have a stopping point. You won’t take my life.”

“And you put your faith in the Wickedest Witch’s words?” I asked incredulously. I really wanted to hit him for letting me almost kill him, and I would have if I wasn’t overjoyed that he lived.

“I put faith in us,” he said. “But the Wickedest Witch has claimed that we both owe her a life debt. She’s transferred our life debt to Queen Kaara.”

I was still stunned, but as long as I’d got Antonio back, there was nothing we couldn’t get past.  

I moved toward him. I needed to be in his arms. I needed to feel that he was real and my mind wasn’t tricking me again.

“Wait, Bella,” he said, grabbing my shoulders to prevent me from hugging him.

Was he still angry with me?

“I’m sorry for biting you without permission,” I said, tears flowing down my face. “I won’t do that again. In fact, I won’t drink from you again, ever. I’ll take the animal blood from now on. I can get used to it. If in the beginning I won’t be able to swallow it, you can use the IV to transfuse the blood into my veins.”

He brushed the tears from my face—the venom—and looked at his wet fingers.

I blinked and gasped.

They were no longer black. They were red tears.

That was a first.

“Wait here,” Antonio ordered.

Where else could I go?

He pulled off the sheet that was soaked by my tears of venom. He used the clean corner to wipe off the black and red tears on my face.

My tears stopped flowing. 

“Bella, I believe the venom is gone, all of it,” Antonio said, joy sparking in his eyes, though he looked paler than usual, because of blood loss.

“What?”

“If I knew my blood could purge the venom, I should have let you drain me right from the beginning. Now, try to pierce my skin again and see how you feel.”

“No!” I said in horror, and stepped back.

“It’s okay, baby. I need to test my theory.”

That was when I realized I had no appetite at all.

My blood frenzy did not haunt me anymore.

When Dark Prince Desdemona had imbued his venom in me, part of his knowledge and memory had also leaked into me, despite that he’d taken measure and warded most of it. So, I knew a vampire’s blood thirst never went away. Only an older, trained vampire was better at self-control. Blood thirst was in any vampire’s nature.

I was probably too traumatized at the moment to want any blood, especially Antonio’s.

I dreaded the return of my blood fever. 

I’d vowed I would never pierce Antonio’s skin again.

But I didn’t need to test his theory by biting him. I bent my head and sank my fangs into my own skin.

But—what was happening?  

“What are you doing, Bella,” Antonio rushed to me. “You should not harm yourself!”

I raised my face before he pulled me off. 

My fangs were gone. On my arm were regular teeth marks.

I tried again, and my teeth didn’t sharpen or lengthen. 

A trail of red blood oozed from my teeth wounds on my forearm.

“Bella?”

I grinned at him, tears welling in my eyes. And when the back of my hand caught a drop, it was clear.

I had clear eyes.

Tears welled in Antonio’s deep blue eyes as well. 

“I’m thirsty,” I whispered.

A new panic rippled across his eyes, but when he realized what I really wanted, he dashed out of the room and brought me back a glass of water.

A small sip.

The water flowed down my parched throat and soothed it. It tasted like sweet water.

I drained the glass and shut my eyes for a second, letting it cleanse me.

No, it was my mate’s blood sacrifice that had purified me and expunged the Dark Prince’s venom in me.

There wasn’t a drop of the poison in me anymore.

“I’m no longer a vampire,” I said, “and that’s the best gift you’ve given me.”

“Bella, my love, I’d give you anything and everything,” Antonio said, pulling me into his arms and kissing off the trail of tears on my face.

We didn’t know how long we held onto each other like that, with my face buried in his shoulder. I inhaled his fresh male scent, and he buried his face in my hair.

Until I felt Antonio’s hardness straining against my belly.

Until I felt my leopard stirring inside me from my depth, staring back at me.

In front of my eyes, the tiny wounds on my skin sealed.

I was regenerating and healing as a shifter.

My leopard purred.

An aching need built between my thighs.

I had thought my sexual need for Antonio as a vampire had been intense; I had been wrong. My leopard’s appetite was boundless.

“Antonio,” I whimpered.

“Yes, Bella,” he said heatedly. “I’ll always take care of your needs.”

He pressed me tightly against him, his huge erection burning me through our fabric, and ground his hips into my front.

I reached for his cock and pulled it out of his trousers.

I stared at it with my shifter’s new eyes.

It was so silky and as hard as granite. It was beautiful. At my gaze, it jerked forward aggressively, and a bead of moisture appeared on the slit of its crown.

I bent down and licked off the liquid. 

It tasted like ocean under the sunlight—both elements were missing on this planet. And I wanted my mate to see the sunshine moving across the blue sea one day.

He inhaled sharply, and his eyelids became heavily hooded, his expression turning ravenous.

My heart stuttered.

I could feel his lust raining down in him like fire. There was no more barrier between us. I could sense his need, his hunger, and his thick emotions just as he could feel mine.

My leopard felt the presence of his wolf and liked him. She wanted to play with him.

But I wanted to taste Antonio first, not as a vampire but as a leopard Bella.

My lips wrapped around his thick crown and glided down his length, swallowing him inch by inch.

He gasped and spread his legs wider.

My mouth slid up, and at the same time tightened on his shaft. It was so silky and hard and erotic it heated my blood. I couldn’t wait to get it into my pussy, but I held back since I wasn’t done tasting him. 

As I focused on his crown and suckled, Antonio cursed and inserted his hand into my hair.

I flicked out my tongue, twirling it around the thick ring of his shaft.

He now tasted like autumn and sunset. It was my favorite season in the royal forest on my planet.  I could watch forever the sun start to set while the wind sent leaves drifting in the air.

My lips shifted position and half wrapped around his cock, which was easier for me since it was too large. My tongue traced it down and my teeth nipped on its smooth skin.

He bucked his hips and cursed again.

His wolf was about to pounce and eager to mate.

My leopard purred seductively, beckoning the wolf to chase her.

His thick, dark arousal fueled hers.

I sucked his shaft hard and deliciously.

He glowered. He pulled me up and carried me to the outer suite since our chamber was a bloody mess.

My mate stripped me and placed me on a long desk.

In a second, he was naked as well.

My gaze moved from his handsome face and his lust-filled eyes to his broad shoulders, hard chest, and powerful legs.

I licked my lips and stared at his proud male member under his dark, pubic hair.

He swayed his cock to entice me.

My leopard grinned and called for his wolf.   

A deep, primal grunt rumbled from Antonio’s chest. His wolf responded.

“I need to taste you, my female,” Antonio said. 

He dragged my ass to the edge of the desk, spread my legs open, and buried his face between my thighs.

His hungry mouth fell upon my pussy, and his wicked, pointed tongue licked my folds up and down before moving to circle my swollen clit.

I moaned at the incredible sensation, and my legs quivered at his sweet, erotic assault.

His wolf smirked at my reactions. When I’d been a vampire, he’d never showed up. Now he chased my leopard, and she let him and only swatted at his nose when he came near.

They could smell each other’s heat.

Antonio thrust his tongue into my heated channel.

I leaned forward and grabbed his hair as pleasure rocked me. I moaned his name, begging and sobbing for more.

He withdrew his tongue and licked his lips, as if he couldn’t get enough of my flavor. Pure male lust twisted his beastly face.

The wolf was ready to pin down my leopard and mate her. 

And the man stared at my bare pussy, in dark arousing fascination.

My blood, red and pure and heated, rushed in my veins. 

“I need your cock inside me,” I whimpered.

“Then you’ll have my cock.”

Antonio aimed his heavy cock at my slick entrance.

I wiggled my ass. No more delay. No more play.

“Fuck me now,” I demanded. 

His face turned feral.

His strong hands gripped my hips and lifted my legs. With a powerful long thrust, he drove into my willing center.

I gasped at the high voltage of erotic feeling and wrapped my legs around his back.

I wouldn’t let him escape, no matter what. He was mine. And once he started, he’d have to finish it nicely.

He chuckled.

His wolf grinned at my leopard, and she swayed her hips, squatted, and raised her rear.

Antonio growled like a savage and thrust into me harder and deeper. 

I became the only focus of his world. I was his whole world.

“You’re mine, and mine forever,” he said, pulling back and shoving back into me.

His speed was blinding and savage, his incredible strength anchored me, and the ripples of his hard muscles were a sight to watch.

He pounded between my thighs relentlessly, and I propelled my hips toward him while my legs kept pushing him toward me.

We slammed into each other again and again and moved in perfect sync.

I moaned and panted, the overwhelming sensation coming in waves.

My breasts bounced on my chest at his vehement movements, and my whole body hummed with songs of pleasure.

He fucked me with dominance and adoration.

I’d give up the whole world to be fucked like this.

When his next thrusts drove into my molten core, the world exploded around me.

And I exploded into an orgasmic wave.

I never knew sex could be like this.

I’d been hot for him when I had first set my eyes on him, and we had fucked. Then as a vampire, I had had both blood lust and carnal need for him, and we’d fucked every day, especially after my feeding.

But this was different. This was more.

I wasn’t driven by lust. I was riding the lust. I was lust incarnation.

For the first time, I was myself again. I was in the pilot’s seat, because my mate had restored me, put me there, and partnered with me.

Antonio’s eyes went wild, his lust becoming the living fire. My intense pleasure bounced back to him and he drank it in—there was no barrier between us anymore. 

We were true mates.

I caressed his fire and stoked it higher.

He lifted me off the desk, our flesh still locked together, and heaved me up and down his length.

He fucked me so hard he didn’t want the rigid desk to bruise me.

He carried me to a cushioned bed on the floor, bent my legs to my chest, and plunged deeply into me.

“I dreamed about this,” I recalled. 

“You dreamed how I fucked you?” he asked hoarsely, not slowing down his thrust.

“It was more of a brief vision, right before my crash,” I said. “I didn’t see your face, but I was losing patience and asked you to push.”

“You said, ‘Just push,’ since my cock was too large for you.”

I blinked.

“Was it like this?” He thrust into my core.   

I gasped and moaned at the new wave of sensation. 

“That was how I learned your name in my dream,” he said. “I dreamed about your coming. I went for your ship and battled my way in, but you weren’t there.”

We both paused. He’d seen Thane’s body. Grief rolled through me.

“I buried him for you, Bella,” he said quietly.

Tears wet my eyelids.

“I got you back, baby,” he said. “We’re finally together. We’ll never part again.”

He thrust into me, letting his silky steel rod fill my every inch to keep his promise.

The most arrestingly handsome man pounded me again and again in savage speed.

I writhed under him.

As Antonio moved like a windstorm, I thrust up toward him to meet his force, and a power I’d never known swirled alive in me.

My leopard and his wolf tangled together. 

My ardent movements sent my male into a new frenzy.

His cock plunged into me. Every long, powerful stroke hit home.

It was glorious.

I moaned fervently. I was about to come and scream.

“I need to claim you, Bella,” he growled, his face twisted by primal lust. “If I don’t do it this time, I won’t survive.”

The muscles on his back and legs tightened like a whip.

His power wolf wanted to mark me while he fucked me with possessiveness and brutal strength.

“Let me think about it,” I purred.

He bent down on me, his kiss sealing my negotiation.

He drove into me deeper and harder in abandon. As his face morphed wolfish, his fangs lengthened and they pierced the side of my neck.

I cried. The sharp pain surprised me, but then incredible pleasure washed over the pain and made everything else pale in comparison.

Orgasms tore through me, and I screamed.

My legs clamped around Antonio, and my nails raked across his back. 

My mate thrust into my climax and pushed through my clenched passage to my molten core. 

With a roar, he pumped his bountiful hot seed into my depth.

A mating bond, brighter than anything, formed and tied us together.

Neither of us could survive without the other now. Not that we would want to keep living without the other.

“Mine,” Antonio roared. “Mine forever!”

I didn’t contest that. There was no use anyway. And I could live with that, as long as he was mine as well.

He clasped me tighter even after his shudder receded with my last pulse of orgasm.

My lips were on his neck, and my teeth lengthened to fangs, glazing over his hot skin and nipping him.

“Bella?” he called in alarm, his relaxed body all tensing up.

His heart pounded violently against mine.

Was it possible that I would turn back to a vampire after this? I didn’t think Antonio could get over the nightmare this time.

He raised his head and his blue eyes gazed down at me.

The fangs belonged to my leopard. She giggled at his expression.

“After all this, it’s amazing you can still find humor in this,” Antonio said dryly.

“It’s not me,” I protested. “You know it’s my leopard. She thinks you smell delicious.”

He gave me another look.

“Your big, bad wolf was chasing her,” I said.

He knew, but he still asked, “Did he get her?”

“She swatted his nose.”

“I see,” he said darkly, then he flopped me over and made me squat.

Antonio thrust into me from beneath and behind, deep to my molten heat, his large, hard cock filling and stretching my pussy.

I let out a rasp at the blissful pleasure.

Then need and lust gripped me again. 

“Does he fuck her like this?” he asked hoarsely.

“Not exactly. But I can show you.”

And Antonio thrust into me again and again, unleashing his wild wolf.  

Storms, I thought I’d crashed onto the wrong planet, but this was exactly the right place for me.