Hell's Consort

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Vampire King Apollyon

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"I tried attempting to feel you through our blood bond, and it hurt to know that you have also blocked me." Apollyon clenched his fists and made a cutting remark, "You are hiding something from me, and I don't like it."

"Nevertheless, thank you for giving me the privacy I needed." Luna's voice trembled as if she was forcing her words out, "I don't want you to see the things I have suffered in Hell."

"What's done is done, and I would carry the memories when I perish in this Realm." Leaning backwards, Luna averted her gaze and stared at the uneaten food in front of them, instead. "I don't wish to burden you with my torment, and I know as my husband, you will blame yourself because you cared too much."

"Let's not talk about it anymore. It will ruin both of our moods." Luna brought her arms against her body as if hugging herself in a protective gesture. "Let's just move on."

There was also something Apollyon noticed which needed to be addressed.

"How quickly you have duplicated the mental cloaks King Zephyr had taught us, but yours is stronger. I had sensed it, closely wrapped around your thoughts, cloaking it from outsiders including me." There was a knot forming in his stomach, painfully reminding him of the truth that his wife had another husband aside from him.

"I'm not about to force my way in and rape your mind even if I have kept my mind open for you just in case you are interested."

It made him murderous, knowing that it was the Blood Beast, the Archdemon, who possessed his body in the past.

Luna flinched at the word 'rape'.

Apollyon wondered if she had experienced that in Hell, and his wife didn't want to admit that in fear of his reaction.

'No.' Apollyon shook his head.

He wouldn't dwell in the worst-case scenario.

He should wait for Luna to tell the truth instead of driving himself crazy with baseless assumptions.

"I also wondered about that, husband." Luna ran a frustrated hand through her silver locks. "Lilith is a stronger and mature Archdemon than me."

Apollyon rubbed the side of his neck and said, "I hate to admit it, but that's a known fact right there."

"Why couldn't she fight back against King Zephyr's Shadow Barriers—against the four of you?" Luna asked, narrowing eyes at him in suspicion.

Did she expect her husband to lie?

"I was glad that you had successfully defeated Lilith, but I would have expected her wrath would lead to the total annihilation of the Faerie Realm when you attempted to summon me back from my body.When she found out that you knew about her secret. That she was Lilith, instead of me." Luna continued as she caressed her lower lips with a finger, deep in thought.

He was a simple man.

Apollyon watched her lips and imagined them wrapped around the base of his shaft.

"We had spent almost a year hunting all the demonic faeries down in secret with this necklace I had told you about—capturing them in silence, drugging all of them and chaining them  into forged iron until we had Lilith's conjurer in our hands." Luna witnessed the dark tendrils of smoke encased in the onyx diamond pendant as Apollyon pulled it out from under his tunic.

Luna nodded at his statements, and he hid his necklace back.

The smoke showed that it had detected Luna as an Archdemon with diabolical magic.

"The network and their recruitment of their cult members were as meticulous as a connection of a series of spiderwebs," Apollyon explained further as he gave her a half-shrug. "Torturing them had no use since all of them had sworn an oath to protect the cult leader's identity. The cult members didn't know the existence of the magic necklace made of crushed gem on top of the unicorn horns which we had hidden under our clothes."

"When the number of the cult member's increased along with the increase of their member's disappearance, we had given the strongest of Cederic's trusted assassins and Faerie Sentinels with these magic necklaces, hunting them during the new moon or the full moon." When a servant passed by their table carrying goblets of wine in his tray, Apollyon lowered his voice, "When they were hunting unicorns for their initiation, we were hunting them in silence. We hunted those demonic faeries for twenty-four hours by shift, patrolling the entire Spring Courts without alerting the enemies."

"We captured a lot of them during the initiation while our team of captors wore a disguise so that they wouldn't find us and hunt us in return." Pausing, Apollyon glanced around, checking their surroundings for a minute.

When there was no one around their vicinity, the volume of his voice returned to normal, "The cult members were pretty obvious. We noticed they had also worn a necklace of their own to access Archdemon Magic stored in that cursed snake-green pendant of theirs."

"Our necklaces can react to dark energies, especially Archdemon Magic. It also reacts to Shadow Magicians like King Zephyr. The onyx diamond could send signals in our body, warning us of danger if the person in front of us wielded Dark Magic." Apollyon said, his lips curving in amusement, "We had already known it was Lilith before the necklaces were created, so I pretended that everything was alright, acting like a good, doting husband who had refused to sleep with her."

Luna raised an eyebrow. "It's hard to believe you have successfully kept her at bay for almost a year."

"You didn't know of my secret talent, wife." Apollyon straightened his spine as he stretched his arms upward.

He wasn't used to sitting down in one place for a longer period of time. "I can act very well if I set my mind to it. Lilith was easily pacified with a sincere 'I-love-you' from me, pretending like I care for her well-being."

Luna recoiled from him, gawking at him as if she didn't recognize him all of a sudden. "You scared me when you said that, Apollyon. Nothing had happened between you, right?"