"Are you certain there was no drug or liquor in this drink?" Luna asked the Vampire King; her voice was dreamy.

"I don't know, my wife." The Vampire King's blue eyes had grown so dilated that only a thin rim of black slits remained at the center of his pupils. "Though I see it had made you rather drunk as if you were engorged in my blood all night."

Luna couldn't focus on what Apollyon was talking about because her eyes had already zeroed in on the side of his throat as it fluttered with the rapidness of his pulse.

A strange urge suddenly filled her to reach up and touch him.

She didn't remember her hand moving, but suddenly her fingers brushed that very spot, his skin hot against hers.

Their eyes met.

Luna could feel the tension so thick; she could cut them with a knife.

She exhaled heavy pants as scorching lava flowed in her veins in an overwhelming lethargy.

Apollyon's eyelids drifted shut, shuddering beneath her touch.

Then his hand shot up quickly and caught her wrist, pulling it away from his skin as if Luna had burned him.

Luna even felt slightly insulted. She couldn't even calm down or relax in his presence.

Did he not like her anymore?

The dreamlike euphoria the drink had induced must have faded already.

"I don't think I could trust myself around you, my wife." The Vampire King said cryptically, sucking in a ragged breath, "I feel like I am not myself again. My thoughts…"

The Vampire King shook his head as he tried to clear his thoughts but to no avail.

Luna's brows knitted in confusion as she prodded, "Your thoughts?"

Abruptly, Apollyon let go of her.

The Vampire King moved to the far side of the altar as if he suddenly couldn't bear to see her in his sight.

"Luna." Apollyon groaned as he opened and closed his hands, stretching his fingers in a manic way.

Luna approached him and stood in front of him.

It wasn't as close as her body would have liked, but she gave him enough space.

"What's the matter with you, Your Highness?" Luna glanced up at him in concern, but she didn't dare touch him again when it was unwelcome.

'Can the Vampire King feel the same way she did?' Luna wondered all of a sudden.

'Did the Vampire King know what it meant to be sad, hurt, angry, or happy now that she had separated the Archdemon of Gluttony?'

'Did he know how to be in touch with his own emotions?'

'Was he even capable of loving someone if he wanted to?'

'Can Luna wait for a few hundred years?'

'Can a vampire love his mate with all his heart?'

Luna clenched her fists and tried to hold back tears as these painful thoughts crossed her mind.

Panic crept in, and her body shuddered, every instinct telling her that she was under threat.

'Where did this overwhelming sensitivity come from?'

It was out of her character.

Her husband's rejection must have stunned her so bad that it would probably take a while before she could recover from it.

"I want you but the desire I currently feel is not the same as I was used to. It's different from the normal. Somehow darker. Dangerous. I find it hard to control." The Vampire King suddenly spoke, and it pierced through the veil the strange liquid had cast over her anxious mind.

The Vampire King paused for a moment, closed his eyes, and pressed his fingers on his temples as if trying to get a hold of himself.

Licking his parched lips, Apollyon shook his head to clear his thoughts.

"I thought I heard the Blood Beast's voice whispering in my ear." Apollyon regarded her coldly as he clenched his jaw in anger, but Luna knew for a fact that she wasn't the source of his sudden outbursts.

He continued as he finally reinforced that iron grip of control of his mental state. "I thought that the Archdemon was back inside my head—invading my consciousness once again."

Luna wanted to ask what kind of thoughts he had heard, but she was scared of his reaction.

Nevertheless, she asked him because she was a risk-taker.

There was no room for ambiguity in this relationship.

She had to make sure that the Archdemon of Gluttony or any other Archdemons, for that matter, we're out of the picture.

This forced marriage is already a complication in itself.

"Were the thought so evil that you assumed it was the Blood Beast right away?"

Luna knew Apollyon had perceived her query, but his face betrayed no emotion if he felt anything at all.

"I am sorry for hurting you, my wife." The Vampire King faced her and raised a hand to brush back a tendril of her silver hair that had fallen across her face, but still, he was cautious not to touch her skin. "My thoughts… they felt like it wasn't my own again for a moment."

Apollyon reached out to her and interlocked his warm fingers with her own. "Maybe, I was too used to his presence that I was hallucinating—that my thoughts aren't my thoughts alone."

"Your Highness?"

They both jumped, turning to look at Cederic, who had caught their attention.

"The ceremony here is done." Cederic bowed his head slightly and rose. "We should get back to the castle."

Apollyon sighed and told Luna, "Give me your hand."

The Vampire King offered his arm, and she took it, her arm dangling awkwardly on his elbow.

She was so used to Apollyon ravaging her with pure masculine physicality every time he comes in contact with her and mauling her with kisses as a greeting that normal skinship—the mild ones such as kissing her forehead or holding her hand—surprised her so much she didn't know how to react.

+++

Luna felt Apollyon's muscles flexing hard with tension beneath his coat as they returned to the Vampire King's castle.

Her heels clicked the surface as they descended the marble steps and through the empty courtyard filled with pinecones and carved statues. Luna's lights glowed and danced and as they passed through the iron portcullis and inside the Vampire Castle.

Luna gasped as hundreds of people—young and old, both vampires and humans without the status separating them--came to watch them emerge from the entrance, the crowd gathering around them to welcome the newlyweds.

Luna was so shocked that she had accidentally stepped on the hem of her dress and stumbled.

Good thing that Apollyon had caught her right on time, and she clutched his arms for support.

Most of them wore shades of grey—the lower class--and some were dressed in vibrant colors—the middle and the upper-middle-class--standing out like jewels in a bed of ash.

Fingers brushed the train of her dress, and some of them dropped to their knees as they passed.

It was unnerving for Luna to be treated like royalty because that wasn't who she was.

None of them said a word—as if they were silently worshipping a god or a goddess.

They all wore the same expression—hope and elation.

It was such a lovely moment she could cherish forever.

For the curse of the Blood, Beast was gone.

There will be no senseless killing and innocent souls taken by the Vampire King's curse any longer.

Their eyes suddenly glanced up away from them as if something had snagged their attention.

Apollyon and Luna looked up at the night sky as they followed the crowd's gesture.

Their eyes remained locked on the strange phenomena that only happened once in a thousand years.

Luna's gasp was drowned by the collective murmurs of the crowd on either side of them.

Abruptly, the edge of the moon disappeared.

She turned all of her glow lights off, and they winked out at her command.

It wasn't as bright as the sun, but it was enough to illuminate the entire Vampire Realm.

"I suppose the gods and the goddesses had given their blessings to our marriage," Apollyon said, and Luna tore her eyes from the sight of the growing moon to meet his gaze.

Luna cast her gaze skyward again and murmured to herself. "I am not sure about that, Your Highness."

They had witnessed a blue moon lunar eclipse.

A hundred pairs of eyes watched in awe as the blue moon grew full over the Vampire Realm.