It was a Coronation Ceremony to be remembered forever.

Luna stood there in silence along with the spectators, not knowing how to feel after watching her arch-nemesis get killed by her husband without remorse.

There was a twisted part of her brain asking a peculiar question.

'If she did something that Apollyon hated so much which could anger him and destroy their relationship, can he kill her like this with absolute indifference if not for their blood bond?'

The vision of the Archdemon of Envy's human sacrifice—the children's organs dumped in a large basin with their limbs cut off--seized control over her mind.

Clenching and unclenching her fists, Luna pinned both of her arms against her stomach.

An Empress couldn't afford to retch in front of thousands of people watching the whole debacle.

She wouldn't let anybody in the audience think she had a weak stomach and couldn't handle seeing a shapeshifter's heart rolling on the ground like it was just a piece of rock.

The place was as silent as a tomb.

She and Apollyon stared at Catriona's dead body for a long moment.

Luna swore her pallid, blank face as blood spilled from her mouth would haunt her in her nightmares along with the witch nun's offering.

When she started to feel her hands unconsciously tremble, she averted her gaze.

The Vampire King scooped the sword beside dead Catriona, his face unreadable, as he stared at it like it was a foreign thing.

Then, Apollyon strode towards her, disregarding the fallen corpse between them.

Luna inwardly cringed at his husband's lack of empathy for his ex-concubine.

If Luna would think about it, the Vampire King had the right to choose who would live and die in his own territory—in his own battle arena—but the fact that her husband was so calm about Catriona's death was what bothered her.

She had wondered if she will suffer the same fate in the future.

No.

Closing her eyes, Luna shook her head, pressing her forefingers on her temples to soothe herself.

Apollyon had every right to seize her treacherous heart out of her ribcage.

As her husband, he was just trying to protect her, right?

She would show no mercy to the leopard shapeshifter who tried to stab her in the back, literally.

Luna almost jumped out of her skin when Apollyon gave a benevolent pat on her shoulder.

"Are you okay, wife?"

************************

Vampire King Apollyon

************************

Apollyon cleared his throat as he steadied the restless beast between his powerful thighs.

All that blood sprayed on his Empress' ripped white dress exposing her shapely long legs--which could tempt a man to want them wrapped around his—made him aroused at the wrong moment.

It was a major inconvenience to be seen with his cock twitching in his pants in front of the crowd who had just watch him kill his ex-concubine.

He knew it would make the spectators get the wrong idea.

Would it be worth it to explain it to them or would he just suffer in silence and make them assume whatever they wanted?

He would bet that he would hear a new rumor about him from the grapevine circulating in the Castle which could possibly start at the servant's headquarters.

Apollyon sighed heavily as his mind got creative of this possible rumor.

A rumor about him being turned on by killing creatures and removing hearts with his bare hands would be a fire that was difficult to put out.

It wasn't good for his subjects to see him as this kind of King but he couldn't do anything about it.

He couldn't mass control his people like a puppet master would, manipulating his puppets' strings.

Apollyon wasn't that type of ruthless.

He had to save this situation before this could get out of hand.

***********************

The Empress Luna

***********************

The Vampire King raised a gauntleted fist, displaying the menacing length of the sword he got from Catriona for her perusal.

Luna might have ducked and parried with her husband with the 'Sword of the Black Rose' in her hand had she not been paralyzed by fear.

Luna was afraid that her husband would kill her next to Catriona.

She gazed at Apollyon's sword until her eyes crossed.

She leaned back away in discomfort instead of throwing herself on it.

She had no idea what her husband wanted her to do.

"As your champion, I wish for a tribute, wife," Apollyon said calmly before giving her a wide grin, his blue eyes twinkling with mirth. "Don't you have any offer for me for killing the concubine you hated so much?"

Did he just smile at her with Catriona's blood dripping on his fingers as if he didn't just---

So in the end, it all came down to Luna why Catriona's blood had spilled on the battle arena.

Was she happy that the concubine was dead?

No.

Luna clutched her hand to her chest.

She wasn't that horrible of a person but Catriona had attempted to kill her first.

If it wasn't for her husband's warning, she would just have to imagine that it was her corpse on the ground instead of Catriona's.

"Um… I don't—" She said in a quiet voice, trailing off. "What do you mean?"

Luna made herself appear smaller as she glanced downward, using her silver hair as a shield from her psychotic husband.

"Am I supposed to thank my husband for killing his concubine?" She asked.

What did his husband like to receive from her for killing a person in front of her?

Luna blinked rapidly when she saw something twitching in his husband's pants.

She had spaced out in the direction of his husband's crotch without meaning to.

She glanced upward and their eyes met.

Luna felt her face warm in chagrin.

She blurted out just to get it over with. "Would you want a kiss?"

"I can ask your kisses whenever I want to." He shoved the sword closer to her throat and drawled, "I want something else."

"Pray tell me." Luna pleaded. "What is it?"

The Vampire King shifted from foot-to-foot in discomfort.

Apollyon was getting harder and it tented his pants in front of all these people.

"No." Apollyon shook his head, his indigo eyes dilating all of a sudden.

Her husband's nostrils flared as he scratched at his flustered cheekbones.

"I want to—" He cleared his throat and continued, "—I want you to tie your stockings in my sword."

"Why?" She whispered her voice barely inaudible.

Was this a fucking jest?

"It's a tradition." The Vampire King stuttered, stumbling over his words. "You can ask Cederic if you want."

Luna shot Cederic who stood not far away from them in a panicked look.

Cederic need not be asked because he was there.

The bastard had heard the entire exchange.

The moment her eyes landed on his face, the military general nodded slowly and smirked.

Luna felt so embarrassed she fought the urge to bury her face in her hands.

She reached beneath her torn skirts and peeled off her stockings.

Luna sensed the downward shift of Apollyon's gaze when she bent forward to remove them from her hips, down to her thighs, her legs, down to her ankles.

There was little she could do to cover her butt cheeks and Apollyon would have the responsibility to kill males who might see them.

She tied the gossamer-thin stocking around his sword in a pretty bow.

The moment they arrived at the Vampire Castle, Luna desperately wished to kick her husband in the face when he admitted that the stocking tradition was a prank.