Hell's Consort

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The Vampire King Apollyon

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Should he try summoning an Archdemon and strike a bargain to bring Luna back?

The Devil was always in the details so people should read the fine print.

Apollyon didn't understand why this was happening to them.

Why the wheel of fate was had fought tooth and nail to make them miserable?

Were they not meant to be together despite the existence of their blood bond?

They were blood mates, and the gods and goddesses had approved, as shown during the Blue Moon Lunar Eclipse.

Apollyon got up from his seat as he paced around the room heavy-footed.

There was soreness in his throat and lungs that he couldn't stand.

As Apollyon dragged a frustrated hand through his messy hair, Apollyon pondered if Luna had struck a bargain with another Archdemon.

Apollyon hadn't figured out the logical reason why his wife had agreed to such a thing in the first place.

What are her motivations?

He had thought that it wouldn't bother them in the long run because when she was the Vampire Realm's High Priestess, Luna had successfully sent them to Hell.

He was a witness to that.

He remembered.

Apollyon remembered.

She had told him once that she was forced to bond with the Archdemon while he possessed Apollyon and he believed her.

Now he wasn't so sure.

Was it really to save his soul and granted both of their freedom or did she exchange another prison—she was so against their blood bond at first--for another?

Had Luna made such a huge sacrifice for him because of their blood bond or was it she had secretly adored the Blood Beast—the Archdemon of Gluttony—instead of him?

How will Apollyon compete to someone she had already chosen over him?

Luna didn't come back so that message was clear enough that---

The world seemed to spin.

There was tightness in his chest.

His heart broke in a thousand pieces.

Apollyon rubbed the heel of his palm against his chest, hoping that would alleviate the pain.

Perhaps, the Archdemons had lulled her wife to their spells of materialism and decadent deception for too long.

'The Empress fell asleep to her deepest dreams while her husband had grieved for her for decades.'

The Vampire King and Luna had lingered in the Ivory Tower where her body rested.

He had sensed Luna's soul longed to run barefoot, leaving things of royalty behind.

Apollyon recalled bitterly that she wanted to be free of him before.

Mayhap, she had found her golden opportunity.

Perhaps, the Empress didn't want him anymore, and she had already chosen the Blood Beast in Hell.

He preferred the Archdemon over him.

The Blood Beast might have seduced her when she had lost her power.

Clenching his fists, Apollyon caught sight of the deep shelves on the sidewall as he destroyed treasure after treasure he had displayed for his wife as his gifts and tokens when she returned.

He crushed the glass sculptures of graceful animals that reminded him of her--swans and white tigers and white foxes made from the finest craftsmen in the Vampire Realm—because Apollyon knew deep inside that it they wouldn't make her come home.

First and foremost, he made sure not to hurt his sleeping beloved with his negligence.

After making his gifts an outlet of his anger and grief, Apollyon walked to the window.

He didn't mind the glass shreds puncturing his vampire skin, and when his wounds heal, they didn't shut itself entirely because of the foreign thing.

Mayhap, Apollyon wanted to suffer every time he walked in the bedchamber so that his brain could focus on the physical pain on the soles of his feet rather than his heart.

'If I can't have her, then the Blood Beast in Hell wouldn't have her too.' There was a ruthless part of him that whispered, 'You should teach them a lesson for her disloyalty.'

No!

Apollyon shook his head in refusal.

This wasn't the Empress' fault!

It was the Blood Beast who had taken her.

It didn't make sense that she would come to him so willingly.

Apollyon saw the joyful glint in her eyes every time they talked to each other.

Her smile had light up his world, the corridors, the bedchambers, the castle and the Vampire Realm.

Apollyon had seen how the Empress had watched him so ardently.

Her beautiful eyes were ruined with the Blood Beast's eye colour, just like how the Archdemon had destroyed his life.

The Blood Beast had marked his ownership of a body through their eyes.

Apollyon didn't consent to be possessed by an Archdemon, and so did his Empress.

He looked through the windows as the sun had set in shimmered gold and real darkness had fallen.

Twilight had taken over the Vampire Realm.

Apollyon wanted the Blood Beast to be miserable just like he was—never Luna.

He didn't want the bastard to have her or anyone else because she was his.

He was sure they had loved each other, and he could feel it in his wife's caresses in the past.

'Love?' Apollyon thought, laughing bitterly. 'What a ridiculous emotion.'

If he didn't invest affection in the first place, then he wouldn't have suffered.

Killing innocent people to get rid of this bottomless void inside him will get dull pretty quickly, so he didn't even try such a foolish thing.

It felt like he couldn't breathe.

There was a part of him that wanted to rip his own heart, so to feel numb.

Apollyon could feel that he couldn't think that it was driving him crazy every second.

He wanted to lash out his anger, but he held it in his cold heart for so long until darkness corrupted him.

Rotting and decaying.

It would be a relief to just die and not feel anything rather than float into the Vampire Realm aimlessly like a phantom searching for his wife's ghost to dance at the balcony.

Apollyon's mind and heart had grown numb and weary.