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The Empress Luna

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There was no point in screaming when the Vampire King wasn't there to hear her, no longer able to summon the will to plead.

She lurched her arms upward, using her Amazon and Vampire strength, but it wouldn't budge.

She inhaled and exhaled, releasing her stress and frustration with every deep breath.

Luna couldn't even wipe her bitter tears with her hands.

She had drunk only a few drops of Apollyon's blood, which weren't enough to give her the strength to break the chains.

Ah, Luna realized.

This wasn't just Apollyon's punishment just because she had crashed the Acquaintance Affairs with his fellow Kings.

Apollyon did this as revenge when she had tied his unconscious body to the bed after her first attempt to exorcise Ravin when she saw his memory with Lilith, the first High Priestess, but she had put him to sleep, nothing else.

He must probably be still offended by what she had done.

If the Vampire King told her that he was a person who wouldn't hold grudges, then she would never believe him.

Luna remembered that Apollyon had told her before about the manacles.

They were indestructible due to the different spells she had placed on each wrist, so he had no choice to destroy the bedpost so that he could set himself free.

Luna had fought the urge to laugh when Apollyon had narrated that he had walked around the castle with the iron bonds wrapped around his wrists like bracelets before commanding her to break them herself since she was the one who created the spells.

So, her best choice was to dismantle the bedframe support and proceed from that.

Tiny prickly wooden needles were surrounding the inside of the handcuffs itself so she would have to pull at the chains and increase the force at the end of the chains tied to the bedposts rather than her delicate wrists, or Luna would end up with shattered bones and suffer.

That was the best idea.

Luna prayed to the Goddess Hecate to help her escape.

Before she cleared her mind and gathered enough power, she focused on her arms and elbows instead of placing all her strength in her wrists.

She counted to sixty and paused and loosened up.

Luna counted to ten.

She opened her eyes and jerked her left arm, striking with the force and precision of a cobra.

Luna stumbled and fell off the bed, whimpering when the chain of her left hand slammed her in the face.

"Ah, fuck." She moaned and groaned at the throbbing of her forehead and right cheek.

The metal chain didn't have to hit her in the face, but at least she was halfway free.

Luna's face had hurt like a m*therfucker.

She relaxed for a bit as she settled a cool hand on top of her brows.

Thank the goddess; it didn't hit her eye.

She hadn't met a blind vampire yet, but she had no intention of being the first one.

If she could look in the mirror right now, half of her face would have violet and green hues from the bruises she had acquired.

Sobbing quietly from this inescapable affliction, Luna laid on the floor for the meantime as she waited for her vampire body to heal the blood clot no matter how slow it would take before she ripped the other chain apart.

Luna waited patiently as she lifted her trembling hand to examine her lacerated wrist,

She had to make sure that her momentum wouldn't detach her right arm in the process.

Luna braced her right hand and yanked at the other chains quickly and effectively.

Goosebumps broke all over her skin when she heard a loud crack from her right shoulder.

It didn't take a genius to know that she had dislocated them.

Luna shivered, and it wasn't from the cold.

After waiting for her bones to the right itself and let her abrasions knit itself together with her vampire blood, she managed to detach the cuffs off her ankles with sweaty, bloody palms.

The bed with the silky red sheets and the fancy constellation canopy was unrecognizable.

Luna had destroyed the bed frame for her freedom.

The Vampire King couldn't really blame her for this.

Grabbing the silk sheets from the floor and covering her waist, Luna positioned herself back to the bed to rest so that she could get her energy back, despite being too frail from the lack of nutrition.

All she could do was hug her knees to her chest tightly and pray that if she curled herself into a ball enough, then she would disappear.

She licked her lips as she reminisced how her husband's blood had tasted in her dreams.

++++++

Luna heard the sound of a bell ringing as loud and as ominous as death from far, far away.

A familiar scent drifted to her nose—a fragrance so familiar, but she couldn't put a finger to it.

It had the aroma of winter morning dew blended with the scent of aged pine and fresh grass, with a hint of that chocolate almond scent so potent she could practically taste them.

It was a memory so close but as elusive as a wild creature.

Despite her closed eyelids, Luna was sure that she had seen bright flashes of gold in her vision.

Luna's heart slammed against her ribs, sparking a burning pain in her chest.

Gold.

Her soul had associated the colour instinctively to only one creature without her knowing the effects of such an assumption.

Luna didn't think it or even dared to say his name out loud, afraid that she would be speaking him to existence by saying the Archdemon's name.

Words have the power, and that was the point why spells are mostly incantations.

If he appeared in front of her now, how would she fight him off if Hecate had taken her grimoire?

She didn't have any access to magic that would protect her from a powerful Archdemon.

Apollyon wasn't with her, either.

Luna had no idea where she was.

She stilled and frowned. 'This must be a dream, right?'

Or did she travel to another dimension again without warning--just how she met Hecate in her castle after floating into the dark void of her dreams?

'Calm down.' Luna thought. 'I had to see the end of this.'

She opened her eyes, watching at the starry skies and inky strips of silk surrounding her in amazement.

Luna was inside a tent the same as what she had seen at the distant horizon from the balcony of their bed-chamber where the Kings' Envoys of the other Realms stayed for the meantime while the Acquaintance Affairs had occurred in the Vampire King's Castle.

The difference was that this tent had no top--just undulating walls of dark, slippery sheets that seemed to breathe slowly whenever they caught a gentle breeze.

Between the swaths of materials were sturdy and large circular stone columns carved out of black marble.

A smaller version of her High Priestess' glow lights danced down the passageways, hovering in the chilly night air.

As one neared her, she saw up close; they were tiny candle flames glowing inside iridescent bubbles.

The grass beneath her feet was covered in black dahlias; their pretty heads bobbed drunkenly with each passing winds.

Despite the darkness, Luna could feel the flowers' cool dewiness and see the golden pollen that sparkled inside its dark purple blooms.

Luna walked about a dozen steps from where she had emerged in this unknown world, but then something halted her in her tracks.

Clutching her chest, her heart almost stopped beating at what she had witnessed.

She regarded the silk sheets and voluminous pillows of midnight blue, charcoal grey, and deepest purple spilling over the edges of the largest and most luxurious bed she has ever seen.

The piles of silk seemed to wink back at her--similar to the stars twinkling over her head--like glittering oil slicks in the ghastly shadow of the moonlight.

When she moved closer and looked down at the gigantic bed, Luna caught sight of a pair of ivory white arms, followed by a man's naked chest and his muscular stomach as he rose from the dark mass of black silky material.

He had the whitest skin Luna had ever seen with limbs of delicately carved muscles and shiny masses of wavy dark hair as black as ink.

She had only seen him once, but she didn't remember his face quite clearly.

Luna thought at first that it was the Vampire King because of their similar facial structure, but later she realized it wasn't him based off on the distinctive glow of Ravin's golden eyes.

Her left eye had matched his eye colour every time she stared at her reflection in the mirror.

He took a nice long stretch and smirked, "I'm glad you are finally here with me, Amare."

The man she had manifested in her dreams was no other than the Archdemon of Gluttony.

"Now come and lie down with me, Amare." His infectious playful tone drew Luna involuntarily to the edge of the bed.

There was something about that voice that was so alluring and seductively sweet that Luna knew that the Archdemon had to be dangerous in this or any other universe.

They had a connection with each other in the Realm of Dreams, even if she had performed a successful exorcism, sending them back to Hell.

Was this Hell then? It didn't look like it.

Where was the Archdemon of Lust?

Was he here with the Archdemon of Gluttony?