"If you have eyes, you shouldn't be looking at him in the first place."

"I—I wasn't l--looking at h--him." Staring down the road, Luna denied as she bit her lip, wiping her sweaty palms on the Nimbus' mane.

It was true that she wasn't leering at King Panterra at all.

It just happened that their eyes met by accident, that's all, but she didn't tell her husband that.

"Hm." Apollyon's tone had sounded dangerously close to suspicion.

Luna knew deep in her soul that she wasn't cheating on Apollyon with King Panterra by just an ogle, but that noncommittal hum made her feel guilty for some reason, so she decided to change the subject.

Luna cleared her throat as she picked on her torn skirts.

She was glad that she didn't stutter when she asked, "How many Empresses did you have so far ever since you became the Vampire King?"

This will do.

Luna guessed her question was a distraction enough.

"Hm." Grunting as the warhorse trotted into a rocky path, the Vampire King squinted in recollection as he awkwardly scratched his cheekbone. He replied, his tone cold, detached, and indifferent. "I don't remember."

"What do you mean you don't remember, Apollyon." Luna was sure his husband had played her. Luna's forehead creased into a frown as she forced herself to speak past her annoyance. "I can't believe you are testing my patience right now."

"You have to relax, wife, or I might assume you are really pregnant, and it's your messed up hormones making you cranky."

She sighed heavily as she folded her arms across her chest.

"I'm not only cranky, Apollyon," Luna complained, her gaze flicking heavenward as if she was asking for help from any goddess who will care to listen.

She murmured her next words, "I'm also horny because of you, so answer my questions before I push you out of Nimbus."

"I have five-six Empresses, no. I think it was seven." He shook his head in response before he added, "I forgot how many Empresses I used to have because they didn't really matter when I have concubines and other women from the Consortium at my disposal."

She prompted. "What happened to them?"

"Disappeared and eloped with someone else. Some were found dead somewhere. Executed by guillotine. I didn't care about their names either." Apollyon replied a matter-of-factly as he pressed his lips into the tip of her ear. "The Empresses are for sexual congress, similar to my concubines. They have a higher status compared to the other women in my Harem because of their specific purpose: to produce heirs I didn't want yet."

"I'm no different from your concubines, then," Luna smirked as she closed her eyes, feeling Apollyon's solid chest as she leaned her body towards him comfortably.

Sometimes, she would have liked to delude herself that this was a genuine connection and not just through physical intimacy.

Luna would have desired to sense him more deeply, but perhaps, it will happen in the future.

Their connection had gotten stronger just recently, and they talked to each other with ease.

She hoped her soul strings with her other husbands would break away, and she didn't have to do anything fatal to get it cut.

Luna had to get rid of Ravin's and Lux's mark on her soul, especially the Archdemon of Gluttony.

She belonged to Apollyon, now.

Not Ravin, but her golden eyes had said otherwise.

"You are very different, wife." The Vampire King bent forward and tilted his head towards her, forcing her to look into his eyes of endless, relentless indigo.

He smirked, "Not all my Empress is an Amazon warrior who turned into a High Priestess."

"I became an Empress for your pleasure." A small smile appeared on her lips as she pressed her shredded skirts when the strong breeze lifted them by accident.

"Right, Luna. You exist for my pleasure, and it's time for you to accept your fate." The Vampire King agreed as he tugged her back against his body in a tight embrace.

Her husband wasn't jesting when he admitted he was enamored.

Apollyon's actions had seconded his word, wanting to be with her at proximity, and Luna reveled in the kinship as she got used to it.

Maybe, this was the way how her husband showed his love; through physical touches. "Don't forget that you are mine."

Luna exhaled heavily as she ran a frustrated hand through her silver hair.

The Vampire King might have claimed he had loved her, but he sometimes slipped with his poor choice of words.

Luna was his wife, but she wasn't a possession.

The Vampire King has noticed that her playful mood had slightly shifted, and he wanted to coax her into 'his' choice of mood—a perverted one--which he had claimed that he was an expert with.

"Husband." She moaned when Apollyon traced the helix of her ear with his tongue again, but this time, she had flinched when his fangs had pierced her earlobe.

A few seconds later, Luna had heard the sound of sucking as her husband flicked his tongue inside her ear.

Breathing hard, she leaned back towards his husband's body and threw back her head, and tilting it to the side, giving him more access to her neck.

"Let's change to another subject." She said, breathless from her husband's delicious assault of his touch.

"I swore, I heard you say you are horny, or was that my imagination?" He asked after an unnatural silence, and she heard the amusement in his tone.

Her toes curled as her husband cupped her breasts as he traced the curve where her neck flowed to her shoulder with his tongue. "Do you want me to distract you?"

"You made me horny, Apollyon," Luna said quietly as she welcomed the tiny blunt needles pricking her skin from that unexpected contact.

She murmured huskily, "I don't think I can control myself any longer from all your sinful touches."

Apollyon whispered as he raised his head to gaze into her face. "What do you want me to do?"