Page 20 of The Fury Queen's Harem

I broke the kiss that threatened to imprint my soul, shoved him away with an explosive force, and leaped onto the top of the bank. His sculpted lips parted in surprise, his eyes darkened to storm gray with unfulfilled, burning lust, and his body trembled.

It was cruel to leave him like that. My heart ached, but I had no choice.

“You’d better leave now,” I said in a hurry. “The monsters are coming. Don’t ever come back here. And don’t ever think of beheading the Furies, because you will make an enemy of me.”

“Is this about the Furies?” he asked darkly.

“They’re my guardians!”

The first scale appeared on my ankle. Iokul’s eyes were glued to my face, so he didn’t notice it. But the next scale might appear on my nose. I sprang out of my chamber before he could jump out of the pool and chase me.

I made it ten yards away from my chamber before the Furies took me over. Further agony tore through me as one beast split into three. I put all the strength I had into muffling my cry of searing pain.

My three beasts surged up, breaking the canopy, just as Iokul dashed out with a sword in his hand.

He narrowly missed me.

CHAPTER 8

I perched on Jasmine’s pink bed, nursing my misery. I had taken this chamber as my second lair after Desdemona kicked his sister out for her failure to trap the Wickedest Witch as his bride.

The flame still licked inside me, screaming for a release, yet I had no means. Pleasuring myself wouldn’t do. I shouldn’t have wasted time talking to the ice dragon. I should have just fucked him and kept my mouth shut.

I was rusty when it came to this dating thing. I frowned. Who’d said anything about dating?

This had nothing to do with dating, and I couldn’t afford to dream of courting, either. I needed to get my mind back on track and focus on collecting as many kisses as I could to rid myself of this curse. Then I would break the shackles and go home.

And I would shift to my true dragon form whenever I wanted instead of being forced to change to the twisted Furies and stay that way for twenty-three hours a day.

It certainly would be nice to get to know the dragon princes and date them properly, but I wasn’t a free woman. I dragged my mind back after it drifted to a scene of dancing and music and courting in the splendid ballroom of my old kingdom.

It was time to shatter my stupid delusion of love.

The dragon shifters who had come here weren’t my kin. They were my foes.

Iokul had spelled it out for me. They came to slay me to have their curse removed. It was the only reason they were here.

I needed a kiss from all three true loves to lift the hex, and they needed my three heads to get rid of their curse. There seemed to be a connection.

The air in the Vampire Tower suddenly crackled with menace, but I didn’t bother opening an eye. The tower wasn’t like any place. It was alive. No one—except a vampire who was bound to the Vampire Lord Desdemona’s will, and me—could leave here once entered.

Since I had to wait for Iokul to leave my chamber, this was a temporary shelter for me.

The Vampire Tower was more of a skyscraper constructed out of steel, marble, and glass. It was the only intact structure left by the old civilization. This spacious bedchamber at the high floor suited my taste—silky curtains, a diamond chandelier hanging from the arched high ceiling, an ivory vanity at a corner, and a luxury rug with silver lilies on the black-and-white marble floor. Jasmine had even managed to get a grand piano and many romance books on her shelves.

Here was an old world of grandeur, in contrast to the harsh reality of fire and smoke rising from the horizon outside the tower.

However, despite the lavish look, this tower had been built on the foundation of foul magic. The tower’s every brick, stone, and swath of fabric had eyes and ears. Everything about this tower carried sinister intent. I didn’t mind its menace. I was the monster of monsters in my Fury forms.

A sinister presence loomed so close I had to open an eye.

The Vampire Lord stood at the doorway, glaring at me, but his eyes didn’t flash hungry crimson—he didn’t want my blood.

I almost chuckled. It would cost him to have my cursed blood, and he knew it.

Abyssal, dark power rolled off him and darted toward me, but I shrugged and brushed it off my glistening red scales.

“Hello,” I said hoarsely. I hadn’t been offended by his waves of power—it had no effect on me whatsoever.

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