5
 

 

 

 

I wasn’t on the hard ground near the wrecked cave.

Where was I?

“Her blood tastes the richest, brother,” a female said in a honey-coated voice. “I haven’t savored such potent blood type for a very long time.”

Fuck, were they drinking my blood?

What kind of monsters had I bumped into this time? I didn’t want to be anyone’s meat or juice. Just when I’d thought it couldn’t get worse, I was proved wrong again.

I was done being a victim.

I screamed, yet I couldn’t find my voice.

I struggled to open my eyes, but my eyelids felt heavy as if something was sitting on them. As I tried to move my fingers, I felt only numbness.

What had the monsters done to me?

Cold dread washed over me, and the rapid beat of my heart filled my ears. Maybe I shouldn’t open my eyes. I didn’t want to know what nightmare I’d fallen into this time.

I urgently summoned my leopard. You want to come out and play? Here’s your chance. Come now and shred those who drank my blood!

I snarled, though I couldn’t really make the sound.

But I sneered at what the monsters would face. I had a monster inside me as well.

Come! I urged and waited.

My leopard didn’t even whimper, just like before. She’d let me down again. That was nothing new. However, I frowned, once a leopard surfaced, they should always be able to be summoned. Unless—

Something had happened to me. Something had fatally wounded my wild cat. 

“You can’t drain her, Jasmine,” a deep, velvet male voice said. “Not this one. This one is special.”

“As special as the Wickedest Witch?” The female’s tone wasn’t curious but full of spite.

“Not quite,” the male said, his voice sounding amused. “They’re different species. Are you still jealous of the witch, sister? Don’t be. She’ll be mine, as you are, no matter how hard she fights. One day she’ll realize she’s losing ground.”

So the male monster had drunk my blood as well.

What kind of wild zoo had I come to?

On the planet I came from, we had all sorts of shifters, humans, and a few other species, but we never encountered witches, bloodsuckers, winged cannibal beasts, or any of those species I saw in the arena.

While I lied here immobile, I tried to glean as much information as I could.

Antonio had also mentioned the witch.

If the Wickedest Witch was the bloodsuckers’ foe, then I should seek her out when I escaped here. But if she was wicked even to the monsters’ standard, maybe it wasn’t wise for me to dash into her lair.

“Is this one a shifter?” the female asked. Her syrupy voice dripped with viciousness that made my skin crawl. I couldn’t let her lay her hands or her fangs on me again.

I pushed my strength through to my muscles and kept calling my leopard.

She remained silent, and my toes stayed numb.

These two monsters had done some voodoo on me, but eventually I would wake up, then I’d kick their bloodsucking asses!

I had pent-up rage and centuries of grief in me.

“Not quite a shifter,” the male said. “She isn’t like the wolves, but a wolf’s scent was all over her. I think she’s his mate.”

Mate? These idiots thought I was Antonio’s mate just because we’d fucked. The fucking meant nothing, and I regretted the act terribly.

But I hadn’t been myself when I had met a naked, gorgeous male. I’d been seized by some kind of fever and madness. Chalk it up to being traumatized from the crash and losing Thane. It didn’t help that I was running around on an unknown planet, helpless and almost eaten by Furies.

That was bad enough, but now these two had been sipping my blood as if it were a potent cocktail, yet I couldn’t even fucking open my eyes or move a toe.

But at least I could still hear, giving me the opportunity to absorb all their knowledge that I could hopefully use later and deploy it against them.   

“Will the dog come for her if he somehow managed to survive the blast?” the female asked.

When I’d watched Antonio buried inside the cave, I hadn’t felt victory, even though hatred for him had burned inside me. I’d only felt empty and numb to all losses.

“He survived,” the male vampire chuckled. “As we speak, he’s organizing a rescue. Don’t underestimate how possessive we males are. He’d walk across burning coals to come to get her back.”

Again, idiot! I wished I could open my mouth and tell him just that.

“Let me drink her dry and toss her body to the dog,” the female said.

“Jasmine, you need to get your blood thirst in check. I won’t tolerate it if you ruin my plan. She’ll be my tool, a lethal weapon to unleash upon the shifters. I remade her with my venom, and I was the first of our kind. She’ll be extremely dangerous.”

That explained why I hadn’t been able to move, and why my leopard hadn’t responded when commanded. The male monster had poisoned me, and he was a primordial, powerful beyond measure.

“She can never be one of them,” he continued. “She’ll be my most useful vassal. My hold on her will soon take place.”

Red raged coursed through me.

I wouldn’t be this motherfucker’s pawn or anyone else’s. I was no one’s bitch. I was no one’s mate. I was no one’s bride. And I was no one’s slave. 

I was my own weapon.   

Wasn’t that what I’d been fighting all along, ever since I’d been born?

But I was losing it. 

Stop whining, a steel voice rose in the back of my mind. Your fight isn’t over. Don’t let Thane’s death mean nothing.

I struggled to rise again, but still there was no strength in my legs.

“It’ll be hilarious when they find out what she’s been turned into,” the female giggled, “I hope I can be there to see their faces when our instrument causes havoc among the dogs. Brother, I know what you’re planning. By weakening the shifters, the Wickedest Witch’s first defense will dissolve. After we peel away all her layers, we go straight for her throat.”

“Now you’re thinking like a warrior princess.”

“How are we going to deliver the bomb to them?” she asked.

“It’s been arranged while you were enthralled with the flavor of her blood, sister.” 

“That reminds me.” Her footsteps approached me. “May I have one last mouthful before we ship her? Fresh blood doesn’t come along often these days, and her blood is the richest I’ve tasted in centuries.”

“No more sampling,” the male said sternly. “You might drink my venom into you.”  

The female’s voice sounded near my face. “The little thing is strong-willed. Even now she’s fighting to regain control. She’ll rain hell on the shifters.”

I heard her walk away.

I wouldn’t have a chance to rain hell on the wolves, even if I wanted to.

These two clowns had gotten it all wrong.

They thought I was Antonio’s mate. What a fucking joke.

If the wolves came for me, it wouldn’t be for a rescue mission. It would be for vengeance, for what my father had done to them. They wouldn’t grant me a merciful death, but torture me for weeks, or even months. That was what King Felim had done to the rebels, and from what I’d heard, Jeroboam had treated his enemies worse.

If Antonio had survived the blast, as the primordial bloodsucker had stated, he’d have told the wolves who I was. And every one of them would come for my blood for the sins of my father.

The two monsters’ ignorance was going to toss me from one hell to another.

“She won’t be able to open her eyes and see us,” the male said confidently. “My venom is stronger than any of my vassals’ will. It’ll numb her until the wolves come. The guards will pretend to flee and let the wolves take her. Her transition will happen in a day or two. And when she bites the Wolf King, the compound will be ours.”

Endless schemes.

Ever since I’d been born, I’d watched everyone constantly scheme, especially in my father’s court. Now I’d come to this barbaric planet where there was no civilization, and the monsters schemed.

Anger fueled my strength, and I used it to pry my eyes open. It felt as if I’d just pushed a truck away from my eyelids.

I rolled my eyes around. I was on an operational table in the center of an all-black room. A tall window was off to my left and far beyond its glass, a city half in ruin sprawled far and wide. Fire and smoke burned on the horizon.

I appeared to be in a high tower.

The sky was dim and mute. How much time had passed since they’d brought me here?

My blank gaze fell on the two beings, who stared down at me.

The male and female were both pale skinned with crystal-blue eyes. The male had raven-black hair, and the female was a slender blonde with small breasts. I’d expected to see grotesque monsters, so I was quite surprised to find them stunningly gorgeous, though their beauty was etched with soulless cruelty.

Abyssal, dark power rolled off the male.

A primordial predator. 

What are they?

For a second, they didn’t speak, then the female laughed with nasty delight. “Your venom isn’t as compelling as you thought, Dark Prince Desdemona.” 

The Dark Prince growled, his eyes flashing a ring of crimson.

I wanted to withdraw from him, but I still couldn’t move my limbs.

The beautiful monster seemed to be pondering what he should do to me next.

Which was bad news for me. I couldn’t fight back. It would take a while for me to get my muscles working again.

“Honey,” the female said with a smile. “I’m so glad you’re awake. Are you feeling scorching pain kicking in and taking over the numbness in your body?” 

I sure felt the black fire travelling inside me. It had been threadlike in the beginning, and now it flared in my veins. I’d thought the numbness was horrible, I hadn’t known better. 

I ignored her, but she didn’t seem to mind, because she was going to deliver more horrible news to entertain herself. That was the type of monster she seemed to be.

Her smile was like a cold knife. “In two days, you’ll feel worse. The fire will burn your heart, your airway, your veins, and every fiber of your being. You’ll wish it will burn you to ashes quickly, but it won’t. You’ll survive, and the hurt shall pass in the end. Everything has a cost, and that’s the price to be an immortal like us. By the way, if you’re wondering, we’re vampires, the finest species in the universe. Welcome aboard, sister. I’m Princess Jasmine.” 

Dark Prince Desdemona frowned. “I don’t think she appreciates your welcome speech.”

Jasmine arched an eyebrow in mockery. “Because of your potent venom?”

“I’ll give her more to speed up the process before the wolves come,” said Desdemona.

No, no, no! You freak!

Strength pumped into me with my rage.

Please, if there’s the slightest justice in this universe—

The predator bent down toward me. He was going to completely pollute my body.

A feeling came back to my hands, driven by agony, and my fist rammed into his eye socket.

He snarled. Jasmine trembled with evil laughter.

Desdemona grabbed my wrists and pinned them over my head. I struggled to no avail.

A lengthened fang pierced my skin. The worst searing pain singed the side of my neck. It was as if he had torched my skin with a hot iron poker.

“You’re my lethal vassal,” he said in the most chilling, yet mesmerizing voice. “You’re one of us now. The wolves have become your natural, mortal enemies. You’ll help me—your sworn master—destroy them. You’ll obey my every command.”

I finally found my voice. It was a horrific scream.