Wicked Witch: A Post-Apocalyptic Paranormal Romance (The Wickedest Witch Book 1) Read online

  Kaara cursed and spat.

  With a delighted roar, I dashed toward the hostile force, my blade beheading one of the creatures with a single swipe.

  The Dragonian-like species were stunned by my speed. As one they all rushed toward me, trying to overwhelm me with their numbers. Fools! I was an Archangel, the highest warrior breed. How could they stand a chance?

  Seth, Ephraim, Adrianna, Lorka, and I—five of us—had once defeated an army of three thousand monsters. After that battle, Adrianna had joined the Fallen—the rebel legion led by High Commander Cameral. Seth had never bothered to hunt her down. In the end, Adrianna and her Fallen battleships had aided Seth and me against Atlas and his Reapers in the Earth war.

  I slashed my sword at my foes and they collapsed at my feet.

  An Angel’s sword was superior to any blade forged by any race in the universe. Weapons made by any lesser species couldn’t cut into our flesh. I intentionally let one of my adversaries jab his dagger into my gut and chuckled when it bounced off and the impact bent his thumb.

  My angelblade slid over his neck smoothly, freezing his stupefied look forever.

  In battle, an Angel’s wings often hardened into angel-steel. If my wings hadn’t been broken, I would be more deadly. Nevertheless, my wings propelled me forward, offering me greater speed.

  I was faster than a flash of lightning.

  Within two seconds, I pierced three more hearts with my blade. I yanked it out of the fourth’s chest and turned away from him as he fell in his own pool of blood.

  I was careful, but some of the blood splashed onto my uniform. That was why I never liked close-range combat. It was too messy.

  I was a refined warrior. I preferred to have my battleships blow up other ships and watch them erupt in flames and break down into pieces—it was more spectacular, satisfying, and clean.

  Rudimentary battle was distasteful to me.

  I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, so I had to do what I could, but I had a bad feeling about all of this. As long as I was stuck here, I would have to endure battles like this daily. And who was going to wash my uniform afterwards?

  Kaara and Rocky fought behind me, and the rest of her team engaged some human ex-militants.

  I leaped high and landed amid my challengers, my wings spreading to add to the effect.

  “The Furies’ brother is here!” one of them screamed.

  They thought I was related to the winged beasts that guarded the jungle? The thought outraged me.

  “Flee or perish!” I shouted.

  I was keen to get to the crashed ship, and didn’t want to waste any more time fighting in this mundane battle.

  At my words, the remaining fighters scattered.

  Every single person on my team looked shocked at my efficiency and brutality in the field. They shuffled away from me to put some distance between us.

  “Let’s go!” I called, darting toward the arena. I didn’t want any barbarian to get into Hope before me. I claimed it now.

  Kaara shouted and her team raced after me.

  I was already fifty yards ahead of them.

  A dozen mixed species charged toward me.

  I wheeled and slashed, my angelblade leaving a heap of bodies behind, until the rest fled.

  “The great Wickedest Witch claims the ship!” Kaara’s voice boomed.

  Rocky, his axes dripping blood, strode toward Kaara. “We didn’t see the shifters.”

  Kaara bit her lip, worry in her eyes. “The meteor hit one of their outposts last night,” she said. “I’m going to the Keep when we’re done here.”

  “Marrok won’t be happy that you came to the arena without his protection,” Rocky said.

  “His protection?” Kaara shrieked. “Does he bribe you to say things like that? Is the wolf king your superior or am I?”

  Rocky, who towered over the girl, stepped back. “You are, but Marrok is a friend and we had a few drinks a few nights ago. He demanded I guard you with my life and sacrifice myself if necessary. I agreed.”

  “You sold out your general and took Marrok’s side for a few drinks in his bar?” Kaara hissed.

  “More than a few drinks,” Rocky said sheepishly. “It’s a privilege to be invited to the only bar on Pandemonium. The ballerina music gets to me each time.”

  I didn’t have the time to listen to this insignificant quarrel.

  “I’ll scout the ship first,” I interrupted. “I’m the captain of the most advanced spaceship in the universe. I know exactly where to look.”

  “Not a chance,” Kaara said. “I’m going in with you. You’ll follow my instructions on what to touch and what not to touch. Half of the team will stay here and stand guard.”

  “Fine,” I said with a shrug.

  I’d ditch her as soon as I stepped onto the ship.

  Shadows zoomed in toward us at great speed. I spotted thirty of them.

  “We have company,” I called.

  Kaara and her team raised their weapons.

  I’d noticed her brandishing an angelblade the first time she’d unsheathed it and buried it into a hybrid human’s chest. She didn’t have my strength and speed, but she carried an angelblade.

  I would ask her where she had acquired the sword later. I liked the girl, though she was a little too bossy, just like her mistress. But she had sincere warmth about her—unlike the witch, who radiated glacial frost. I’d hate to kill her, but if Kaara posed a threat to me, it had to be done.

  No Angel would allow other species to carry our weapons.

  Kaara and her team formed a tight ring.

  I was the only one outside it and some distance away. They didn’t count me as one of them, even though I had fought with them.

  “Bloodsuckers!” someone hissed.

  “Gabriel!” Kaara called, looking worried and gesturing for me to join them.

  I stayed where I was, my blade pointed toward the ground, as I studied the vampires.

  They weren’t from the planet we had conquered thousands of years ago. These vampires were half-breeds, engineered in a lab. Atlas had carried out genetic experiments on selective species and vampires were among them due to their unique genes.

  I wondered if this horde in front of me came from a branch of the mutant vampires.

  To many species, vampires were cruelly beautiful. But their air of superiority merely made me chortle.

  They trained their attention on me and the wind blew their scent into my nostrils. I didn’t like how they smelled.

  I let my chuckle run its course and then waited for their reactions at my presence. They might have encountered some of my kind before.

  But there was no recognition in their cold gaze.

  If no one on this planet had laid eyes on an Angel before, it meant Atlas wasn’t here.

  The vampires halted thirty yards from us, surrounding us. The distance would be nothing to them once they attacked.

  “Going anywhere, Wicked Witch’s coven?” asked a haughty blonde with a silky voice and spiteful smile.

  “You’re too late, Jasmine,” Kaara said tensely. “We’ve claimed the ship. Get the fuck out of our way.”

  “The Wicked Witch’s nursemaid is as rude as ever,” the vampiress said. “Must I remind you every time to address me as Princess Jasmine?” Her crystal blue eyes fixed on me. “I can easily take the claim from you, but my brother won’t be happy. He’s all about appeasing his future bride after our small misunderstanding. We haven’t retaliated for what your dog lover did. Laurent was my friend, and the wolf king took his head for you.”

  Future bride?

  Rage and black jealousy clouded my mind. How dare the vampire prince decide to claim Fiammetta as his? I would break his fangs for thinking he had a chance. My insane possessiveness toward Fiammetta shocked me as I fought to contain the blackness swirling around inside me.

  “Lady Fiammetta merely agreed to a date with your brother,” Kaara hissed.

  Jasmine laughed. “You thin
k she’ll be able to get out of it once they’re on a date?” Her eyes stayed with me. Her nostrils flared as she inhaled my scent. “No one can resist Dark Prince Desdemona, especially when my brother is obsessed with the witch’s wicked blood.”

  I could understand these primates hacking at each other, but not their penchant for bickering. Time was of the essence, and I was losing patience. I needed to get into Hope and find a way to contact ThunderSong.

  “Should I kill the vampiress and go after her despicable brother?” I asked Kaara.

  “Maybe later,” Kaara said, looking surprised at my straight question.

  Had no one ever offered it? I couldn’t believe it. The vampire princess was annoying. Why had no one killed her yet?

  “Charming,” Jasmine said. “Who’s this new specimen, Nightshades? I’ve never seen him before. He’s got sexy wings. Is he for sale or for trade? Name your price. I’ll pay it.”

  “No one has had a chance to own me yet,” I said with a vicious grin. “Why don’t you come and claim me yourself, vampiress? You might just be my type.”

  Sexy blondes had always been my type, until Fiammetta had hexed me. Now, the scent of the vampiress repulsed me.

  “Hmm, feisty.” Jasmine’s blue gaze roved over me.

  Her arousal drifted toward me; my attitude had turned her on. This woman liked it rough.

  “Shut up, Gabriel,” Kaara said before turning to Jasmine. “This one belongs to the Wickedest Witch.”

  “Oh, then I simply must have him.” Jasmine sent me a sultry smile. “I can’t allow the Wicked Witch to cuckold my brother. We all know witches indulge themselves in all things carnal, and your mistress is the wickedest of them all.”

  With a flick of her wrist, she sent three vampires to come after me. “I need him alive.”

  “This is an act of war!” Kaara shouted. “You’ll fall under the wrath of Lady Fiammetta!”

  I moved before the vampires could reach me. They were faster than almost any other species, but they hadn’t met my kind. We’d conquered the original vampires a thousand years ago and created a mutant species.

  My blade cut one in half at the same time I yanked another’s heart out with my hand. My wings trapped the last one as my foot thrust into his eye socket. I didn’t like getting messy, but when I was pissed, I didn’t give a damn.

  Before the last one went down, his claws slashed across my calf, tearing a piece of my uniform off and scratching my flesh. So a mutant vampire could graze my kind.

  I leaped in the air and lunged toward the vampiress at lightning speed, snatching her from her rank.

  My blade kissed her throat.

  The rest of the vampires tried to charge me, but my blade pushed into their princess’ neck and a trail of black blood oozed out of her skin.

  The vampires froze on the spot, uncertainty on their faces.

  If they made another move, I would slash the throat of my captive and kill the rest. After I got into that ship and contacted my crew, I would go after their Dark Prince.

  “Give me a reason why I should not kill her,” I told Kaara.

  Kaara blinked.

  Jasmine giggled, rubbing her ass against my front. “Kill me and you’ll turn this planet into a war zone.”

  “This damned place is already a war zone,” I said. “Why should I care?”

  “Let her go, Gabriel,” Kaara said. “She’s not worth it. Lady Fiammetta needs her alive.”

  “We can rid ourselves of the vampire plague once and for all,” I said.

  “You might be able to fight a dozen of them at once,” Kaara said, “but when hundreds of them come upon us, we’ll lose.”

  “I’ll take the chance.”

  “Later,” Kaara said. “Lady Fiammetta doesn’t want war to distract her at the moment. Let Jasmine go, please.”

  I tossed the vampiress into the air.

  Jasmine flew backwards but landed in a crouch. She raised her head and gazed up at me with lewd desire filling her eyes. “You’ll be mine,” she said, “and I’ll be yours.”

  “Sure, sweetheart,” I said, “when I snap your little neck.”

  “I always have a soft spot for brutal monsters,” she purred.

  “Eww,” Kaara said in disgust.

  Jasmine ignored her and blew me a kiss. “Wait for me, my handsome winged monster,” she said, her voice so syrupy and sultry it made me sick. “I’ll come for you. I promise you’ll enjoy my bed.”

  Jasmine flicked her fingers and the vampire horde retreated like shadows in the night.

  I gripped my blade and headed toward the torn opening of the crashed ship. Kaara’s men stepped back and allowed me to pass without a word.

  That was more like it.

  I wouldn’t tolerate anyone screwing up my chance to return to ThunderSong.

  14

  The Witch

  Ice shielded me and icy particles formed on my fingertips. My ice light illuminated the path before me in the dark jungle.

  I trekked toward the Angel’s shuttle.

  Birds chirped, insects cried, and animals bellowed. Each sounded creepier than the former. I had no memory of this jungle, though my markings told me I frequented the space.

  I was here to seek the portal and make my way home.

  What was home to me?

  It called to me in the depth of my soul. It was more than vengeance.

  Who were my parents? Who did I miss the most? Had I cared for anyone there? Had I had lovers? The Wicked Witch wouldn’t be monogamous, right?

  I didn’t know how old I was, but when I stared into the glass mirror in the tower, I saw a woman around twenty or twenty-one. I must have been discarded in Pandemonium when I was around seventeen.

  I prowled through the jungle as quietly as a shadow, but it didn’t matter. The abysmal dark power that dwelled and governed the jungle was watching me like a bored spider observing its prey.

  The hair on my neck stood up, but I kept going.

  The portal had to be here.

  I had to find the fallen ship.

  I followed the rough route I had etched onto my skin, but the jungle had shifted since last night. Akem was toying with me, exactly as my markings had warned me.

  But as long as his interest in me remained, he would allow me to enter his realm.

  I had never come face to face with Akem. I had no idea what his true form looked like, but I’d fought his nightmare creatures.

  I’d recorded my first escape from the jungle with my magical markings. I’d woken up with a flying owl-lizard staring down at me with ominous interest from his high perch, and a hellhound had his fangs near the hollow of my throat, its hot breath burning my skin like acid fire.

  I hadn’t screamed, though I’d wanted to.

  I’d stared them back, then I’d thrown all I had at the hound, as if instinctively I’d known I was a powerful witch.

  My magic of ice and darkness had come to play, to ensure my survival.

  I’d roared, and then an ice spear had appeared in my hand.

  Akem had called off his hound before we’d battled. He’d scanned my mind and couldn’t find anything there, and had been intrigued ever since.

  Safeguarded by my ice and darkness, with a spear in my hand, hollowness in my head, and fear in my heart, I had stumbled out of the jungle, only to find a scouting party of five vampires waiting right outside.

  I hadn’t known they were vampires.

  They’d regarded me as an easy pick, so I’d let them taste my magic to its full extent. I’d wielded the spear and impaled the vampires like a natural fighter.

  I’d killed all five bloodsuckers that day. I hadn’t shown mercy after they’d taunted me and torn my red gown to pieces. When I had reached the City of Nine, I’d learned it was a city of monsters, cannibals, and criminals.

  It was worse than the jungle.

  But in the city, my magic grew stronger.

  I’d figured out how to use my blood magic to record events, though
it was an arduous process.

  I shifted my mind away from my thoughts as I spied the gleam of metal ahead.

  The shuttle looked cold and dead without light and power. I entered it through the half-open cabin door, my ice spear in my hand.

  A one-line magical glyph on my left calf mentioned that the pilot was Archangel Gabriel. I’d brought him out of the jungle and now he served me in the tower.

  His ship Red Dragon was the first one that had fallen into Akem’s jungle. That was why it was significant. There was a connection I had yet to find.

  I checked every device in the ship. The power source and backup batteries were all drained, just like any other ship that crashed onto this planet. Akem might be a force that fed on the ships’ energy. He might even have generated the vortex above the planet’s atmosphere that caused all ships to fall.

  I was the only alien who hadn’t fallen with a ship but had been shoved through a portal.

  I shut my eyes, trying to catch a glimpse of the past, but felt nothing but agony. It was as if someone had put a metal splinter in my head to prevent me from remembering.

  I ignored the pain and pushed through the seemingly unbreakable high wall made of unknown material. A tiny crack appeared in the wall from my brutal force, a flicker of dim light glimmering from the other side.

  My heart jumped to my throat. A trail of darkness crept into my mind but it didn’t come from me.

  Akem.

  I flashed open my eyes, but didn’t break my concentration. The spark was too precious. It was the backdoor to my memories. I couldn’t afford to let Akem sabotage it just because he’d invaded my mind when I didn’t have a shield up against him.

  Get out of my head, Akem! I hissed, not caring about offending the greater power.

  The invasive darkness didn’t withdraw, but it didn’t come closer either.

  It dawned on me that Akem didn’t intend to smother the spark. He was just as curious as I was.

  He’d penetrated my mind twice in three years. The first time I’d been vulnerable. The second time was when I’d tried to explore his essence to find his weakness, and by doing that I’d opened the pathway for him to enter mine. His darkness had almost drowned me. I’d pulled out in the end and survived, but it had leached me to my core for a very long time, bringing me to the verge of suicide before my magic had finally purged its influence.