6
The Angel

 

 

 

The Wickedest Witch didn’t care about manners and discarded me so quickly after the most awesome sex. She sprang out of the shuttle toward the shimmer, as if her life depended on it.

I outran her and reached it first.

“Don’t touch it,” the witch hissed viciously. 

I peeked at her over my shoulder just in time to see her raise her ice spear, her hand shaking.

She thought I would go through the portal and cause it to shut down.

“You think I’ll go in and leave you behind, witch?” I snarled. “Are you going to stab me in the back?”

She swallowed, a fleeting look of shame crossing her face.

“How do I know you won’t double-cross me? Anyone would,” she said defensively, but the spear vanished from her hand.

She would never admit her faults. And the universe had to pair me with her.

“How could you keep doubting me after what we’ve gone through? We’ve spent many nights together!” I thundered, though, in the next second, the facts checked in.

Even though we’d fucked, we’d never spent a night together. The witch had never allowed me to sleep over. Secondly, she couldn’t remember our history. To her, I was a stranger she’d just met this morning and fucked a few moments ago.

She didn’t recall any feelings, lust, or even anger toward me.

The witch turned to the liquid portal, her eyes sparkling with joy. “It’s here, Gabriel!”

And just like that, she defused my rage.

“I found the path.” Her voice shook. “I can finally go home.” She sent me a shy, friendly glance. “And you, too.”

She didn’t plan to stick with me. Pain stabbed at me at the mere thought of separating from her.

“Is the other end your home planet, Fia?” I asked.

I needed to know. Her planet might be light years from ThunderSong, but anywhere was better than being trapped in the past on this pit in space.

“My core magic is TimeFire,” she murmured. 

The shimmer flickered like static. It might soon vanish.

“Should we go in before it’s gone?” I asked roughly.

She hesitated, longing and conflict warring in her gray eyes.

This was a once-in-a-life-time chance for us to escape. She might forget everything all over again tomorrow. She might not be able to create another one.

I held her hand in mine tightly. I had no intention to let her disappear from me. If she did, I might never find her again.

“We won’t go in,” she said. “I promised Kaara. I can’t leave her behind.”

“Are you sure?”

“My subjects depend on me, and they’ve served me well.” She eyed me and swallowed. “I panicked, so I summoned my spear. I won’t stop you if you want to leave now. This might be your only chance.”

“We can go collect them now, and we’ll leave together.”

“It won’t be here. The fabric is too fragile,” she said, her slender hand reaching for the fading shimmer, but stopping an inch from it. “I need to learn more about my TimeFire and perfect it to weave a solid portal. But this could be your only chance to escape this planet, because I can’t guarantee a success next time.” She broke free her hand from me and bit her lip. “Go, Angel. Go, before it shuts down. Before I change my mind.”

“Do you think so little of me?” I growled. “Do you think I’ll abandon my fated mate?”

She pressed her lips together, her eyes flashing darkly. “You keep bringing up this fated mate thing, but I don’t know you much. I don’t remember you. You should not consider me. This is your chance to live. I would leave you behind if I had an option, you know.”

“Cold. That’s just cold.”

“You know how I am. I never pretend to be someone better. Fly away now, big bird.”

This was probably the first time the Wickedest Witch had showed some altruism. I knew how alone and terrified she would feel if I left her behind.

“Why don’t you shut up, witch. You wouldn’t even leave your subjects behind, though you can’t as much as remember their names,” I said, grabbing her and planting a hard kiss on her mouth. “You’re stuck with me, and one day you’ll remember me, then you’ll never give me the sorry-ass excuse that you don’t know me.”

“Be careful of my portal,” she hissed against my lips.

The Wickedest Witch was impossible to warm up, but she was still mine, my Wicked Witch.

“I didn’t touch it,” I said.

“But I will,” she said.

With a determined, calculating look, she reached for it. I wrapped an arm around her waist, just in case she needed my assistance. And if the portal pulled her in, I’d go with her. I would go with her to any part of the universe, and I wasn’t going to lose her.

“Afraid I’d ditch you at the last minute, Angel?”

“Will you?”

The shimmer swayed under her touch and vaporized. Fiammetta pushed her palm toward where the portal had been, to summon it back, but nothing happened.

Her flame didn’t come out. It had winked out.

She looked disheartened.

“Fia,” I called, about to pull her into my arms to comfort her, but a sequence of glyphs swirled alive on her arm, beaming. 

A combination of numbers, runes, and names fluctuated beneath a drawing of my black wings that carried a burning bridge.

Icearth 2788h 450.7m, −88975.01° (Y-1034b).

“Astronomy coordinates and galaxy year,” I said.

“What did you say?”  

“Icearth is an isolated galaxy the Dark Lord once set eyes upon. It’s my next destination. Maybe it’s where you came from. 2788h 450.7m, −88975.01° looks like a coordinate to me. ThunderSong’s computer can easily locate the place. As for Y-1034b, it’s the calendar both the Icearth galaxy and Red Phoenix galaxy use.”

“Have you ever heard of the sunlight planet?”

“That’s what you remember? Or do you remember anything now?”

She shook her head. “I still can’t remember a thing, even with my core magic back,” she said, deep in thought for a few seconds. “When I touched the fabric of the portal, I somehow activated the magical coordinates on my arms. They’re connected.”

“Let’s test it again.”

The glyphs faded from her skin. 

She gave me a look. “I’m spent.”

I looked at the faint bluish shadows in the hollow of her eyes, which hadn’t been there before. My male instinct roared for me to comfort her.

“And I need time to relearn my fire magic,” she said. “I—I don’t know how to control it.”

My mate showed her vulnerability in front of me, and I realized she had started to trust me.

“Asking yourself to muster your fire when you’ve just regained it is the same as demanding a newborn baby Angel fly at maximum speed.”

She stared at me and blinked.

I grinned at her. “Can’t picture I was once a baby Angel? I wasn’t always this big and powerful. You were lucky you weren’t brought up by an Archangel like my father. He was a harsh man. When I was just a toddler, he tossed me above a planet’s atmosphere, left me, and expected me to fly home alone.”

Her gray eyes widened, and I realized I’d just said another dumb thing. She couldn’t remember her childhood. I wanted to hit myself for always saying the wrong thing, but she put her fingers on my arm. “You can say whatever you want, Gabriel. You don’t need to hold back. I’m made of sterner stuff, as are you.”

My heart warmed. “But whenever I said something you didn’t like before,” I said, “you threw your ice at me and called me ‘winged creature.’”

She frowned. “Did I?”

Then she shivered, fear flitting across her eyes. Through our bond, I could sense that she was afraid she would lose her TimeFire again. Without it, she couldn’t recreate another portal.

If she’d entered the gateway when it had first formed, not caring that it would mean leaving Kaara and the others behind, she might have been home now.

I pulled her into my arms, and she grabbed my jacket and clung to me. That pleased me to no end. It should always be this way—my mate depending on me. My hands tightened around her possessively.

“I seemed to be able to boost you up through our intercourse,” I offered eagerly. “I can do it again, right now. I’m vigorous. I can fuck you endlessly without breaking a sweat.”

My cock was instantly hard for her again. I inserted my fingers into her breastplate and kneaded her nipple. 

Fiammetta arched her back and moaned at my touch.

“Now’s not the time, Angel,” she said breathlessly. She wanted me badly as well. “Since we found the portal, we need to return to the tower, and I need to practice my fire magic for a few more days. When I’m ready, we’ll bring everyone here.”

“Let’s have one more round before we go,” I said enticingly. “I can do a quickie.”

She gazed up at me with lust.

Witches were indeed a carnal species. Not that I was complaining. My mate made me hot-blooded every second of the day.

I heaved her up and had her legs wrapped around my waist.

I could fuck her quickly from where we were.

“Mark the place first before we do this,” Fiammetta said, moving to grind against my erection. “And you’ll help me remember this spot.”

“Your command, my wish. But I need to taste you first, baby. Nothing is more important than that.”

“Then we’d better do a quickie, as you said. We have no time to lose.”

I grinned. “That’s my girl.”

I kissed her, deep and fierce, my hands grabbing her ass, feeling its firmness.

She had no panties with her, for I’d torn them off in the shuttle.

Just when I was about to yank out my aching cock and thrust into her pussy, my Archangel High Sense—my hypersensitive awareness attuned to evil power and high danger—flared.

A dark force like no other crept toward us. 

Akem had brought his army.