Hell's Consort

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

Vampire King Apollyon

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

A bark of laughter was caught in his throat, but instead, he tried to wear an inscrutable expression. "I don't feel anything except apathy. I accepted that you are as my dead as my father for a long time. It wouldn't make a difference." Tilting his head, Apollyon gave her a condescending smile. "Why are you so determined to pull emotions out of me when there was nothing to pull out? I might have some magic in my blood but I can't pluck them out of thin air."

His Empress asked him to be placid when it came to his mother, but he couldn't forget how Empress Ourania triggered him with just one utterance.

Earlier, Apollyon contemplated being polite to his mother despite his abandonment.

He desired to be the bigger person--someone that his wife would be proud of him--, but when his mother asked him to get rid of Luna from the gazebo and leave her out of the conversation, Apollyon took that disrespect personally.

His mother wanted to talk to Apollyon privately as if his wife had no right to listen to their exchange.

And Ourania called Luna a 'young lady' instead of her real title as 'Empress'?

He narrowed his eyes at her in suspicion.

Was this a calculated backhanded compliment to his wife he picked up on?

So, Empress Ourania had no plans to acknowledge Luna as his wife and the new Empress of the Vampire Realm.

Why was that?

Was this an overt disapproval of her as a daughter-in-law since she held  a special role in his life?

A knot twisted in his gut.

But why—when the three of them can call each other 'family' on paper?

Princess Sapphire was the Summer Courts' emissary.

Didn't she inform their mother that Apollyon would arrive in the Summer Realm, bringing his mate with him?

Was she even aware that he was blood bonded with Luna like how she was blood bonded with King Gwythyr?

Wait a minute…

A niggling thought crossed his mind.

"How did you live, mother, when you are blood bonded with my father?" Apollyon asked, watching every nuance of her reaction and her every quickened breath.

No clue was given from that.

Empress Ourania glanced down on the table.

She knew better not to bite the bait.

"It's a secret I would bring with me to the afterlife."

Apollyon pressed on as he shot her an accusing glance. "Are you telling me you found a way to break a mating bond? Isn't that impossible to do without assistance from a Higher Power such as a god or a goddess?"

"It's none of you concern anymore." Empress Ourania met his gaze.

She raised her chin as if daring him to challenge her. "I already broke the blood bond with King Gwythyr so that he wouldn't waste my precious life and suffer with him. I have already suffered enough in his hands."

Brows wrinkled in his forehead.

Apollyon was bewildered by this.

Empress Ourania's words were anathema to everything he had believed about his parents.

Now, he was lost, afraid that his memories about his mother were failing him.

Who was at fault that their relationship had turned into this?

He can feel his mother's love when he was a child, but as he grew older, Empress Ourania didn't want to see him anymore and locked herself in Scleranthus.

Who was lying between the three of them?

Frustrated, Apollyon's hackles rose as he gritted his teeth. "I think you are compelled to keep your mouth shut regarding this. You had a vow to someone else that you wouldn't reveal how you did it."

"When your half-sister returned to the Summer Palace after you two are settled in the Vinca Inn, Princess Sapphire told me something I was curious about." Empress Ourania lifted her gaze and looked at him directly in the eye, searching for the depths of them while her long, bright auburn hair flitting in the warm, balmy breeze.

Prussian-blue to Prussian blue.

Both of them have the exact eye color, and he resented the fact.

"I came here, determined to find the answer. Was it true that you thought you have also killed me  the night after an Archdemon possessed your mind and body?"

He gave a small nod. "Yes."

His mother asked calmly, "Were you guilty about it before you found out that I was alive?"

Apollyon said nothing, hating that she was capable now of acting serene compared to before.

'This wasn't good.' His jaws clenched in annoyance.

Getting under her skin was a mission he would pursue. "If I feel guilty, would that make you a good mother?"

When Empress Ourania left the Vampire Realm and arrived at the Summer Courts, her parents must have welcomed her back to their arms and showered her with kisses.

Did she remember him as the beloved son she had left alone to rule over the Vampire Realm and deal with an Archdemon possession at the same time without anyone to stand behind him--the support he needed from a loved one to comfort and soothe him every time he came back to himself—-that all will be back to normal soon even if they were white lies?

He would have asked her that question, but he knew that would initiate a long-standing argument.

Apollyon's mother appeared beautiful with her hair down, and the blue dress matched her eyes.

Everything about his Fae mother was angelic and ethereal—seraphim in this Material Realm.

If he was honest, Apollyon could see a part of himself in her because they do resemble each other. His father added a wild and dangerous edge to his stark masculine features, but he was more grateful to his mother's superior genes.

Apollyon could understand why King Gwythyr was obsessed with her peerless beauty, which was almost divine, not letting other men in the Vampire Realm see her.

His mother's had reddish freckles scattered like stars around the milky-white galaxy of her delicate elven features.

In his view, Empress Ourania was still the same when  she left him except for the ancient wisdom within her gaze.

Both of them were separated for millennia.

Of course, they were different from who they used to be before.

He was even surprised that his mother hadn't forgotten him until now, even if he expected her to.

Did she hark back on his existence every time she stared in the mirror to see those same Prussian Blues staring back at her?

"You can't blame me for leaving you in the Vampire Realm." Apollyon exhaled a harsh breath as anger, hurt, and resentment turned his muscles rigid. How many times did he have to hear his mother justifying her actions with this stupid, selfish reasons—that what she did was the right thing? "—and I might be from the Summer Courts but you are still part of the family. You are safe here."

"As one of the Summer Monarchs, you are welcome to seek refuge here." His mother proposed. "The Summer Realm is a safe place for you to go."

"I admit that I also need to satisfy my curiosity if you were real. That you were alive like what Princess Sapphire told me. I don't really care much aside from those two reasons." Apollyon's response was solemn. "I am here to see it for myself if Empress Ourania was alive. Glad that you're alive and well, I would tell you that, if that would make me conciliatory in your eyes."

"I don't see you as my mother now, Empress Ourania, and I would like to keep it that way." He continued, "I will promise to be amiable as long as you don't dare call me son ever again. We are two Monarchs from different Realms who met here in this location to discuss an alliance."

"The alliance huh?" Empress Ourania's smile was dry as she threw a quick glance at Luna who was listening to their exchange in silence.

Apollyon reached out for her hand, locking their fingers together so that she would feel included even if this was nothing to do with her.

"You are just like your father. Blunt and straight to the point." She might have said this kindly, but all this information turned into sarcastic remarks when his brain processed them.

"We will have a conversation about that. It would be odd if a Faerie Court didn't have an agenda." Apollyon said warily as he watched his mother's odd behavior around his wife. "I see that we are waiting for four more people to arrive."

"Your Grandfather will be here soon as well as Queen Titania and my daughter, Sapphire."

Invisible claws prickled on the inside of his skin. "Who is Sapphire's father?"

"A lover." She replied cryptically.

"You must have a strange lover." Luna observed and she found this as an opening to rejoin the discussion. "Princess Sapphire had her wings on each side of her face. You know that that's not what Faeries from the Summer Courts looked like."

"It does not concern you." Empress Ourania's arms folded as annoyance crossed her features.

"When it comes to my only daughter, I don't mind following your wishes, Apollyon." She ignored his wife for the hundredth time and it bothered him, "We will be allies here. Not mother and son."

Then you don't need the title as the Empress of the Vampire Realm, Princess Ourania." Apollyon said, "My wife had that title now."

A burst of feminine laughter from the Summer Princess. "Do what you want, King Apollyon. I don't care about that useless title in the Vampire Realm. I'm glad that I got rid of you and your father when you don't even give me the bare minimum of the love that I deserved."