A moan escaped from Luna's lips.

She rolled to her side, burrowing deeper under the covers.

She must have fallen asleep again because the next thing she knew, she could feel the warmth of the sunlight on her face. Her eyelids fluttered open.

"Girl, wake up." Luna heard a woman's voice that was so soft and soothing she barely heard her.

A long while had passed before she was able to orient herself.

The room appears hazy at first, but then everything slowly slipped into place.

Her eyes blinked open and closed.

"You must be thirsty." The moment the woman spoke, she realized how dry her mouth was.

"Yes." she rasped as the woman reached for the pitcher on the nightstand beside the bed.

She poured water into the glass and offered it to her.

Luna tried to sit up, but the feat proved impossible.

She gripped the glass tightly, careful not to let even a single droplet spill.

She drank deeply.

The cool liquid soothed her throat, her stomach and moved through her overheated blood.

Her increasingly heavy eyelids fluttered open and closed as she eased back onto the pillow and set the glass on the nightstand.

Sleep. Luna needed to sleep.

Just a little longer.

However, the woman beside her gave her shoulder a soft shake instead.

As Luna struggled to sit up, the dull ache in her head roared to full life.

She groaned and flopped against the pillow once more.

Her increasingly heavy eyes fluttered open and closed as she gradually eased herself back.

Her brain wasn't functioning on optimal levels, but common sense finally slipped past the thick labyrinth of stupidity, blanketing her mind.

She jilted into wakefulness.

Panic washed over her as she demanded.

"Where am I?" The alarm she was feeling made her voice sound scratchy.

"Welcome to the harem, Consort." She gave her a warm smile. "I am Lady Clarence. You were unconscious for hours. Unfortunately, the head eunuch, Vali, was summoned for a meeting and is busy with the preparations for the Banquet tonight, so I've been left in charge of telling you what is expected of us and our roles in this Kingdom."

Lady Clarence was beautiful with her flaxen hair, pouty mouth, and wide hips.

Luna looked down at her own chest. It was small. She couldn't please anyone with this.

How could she be a consort when she couldn't even beat the size of her companion's breasts?

"I don't think I'm physically capable of being a consort," Luna said as she cringed inwardly. "I'm ugly."

"Why don't you see for yourself?" Lady Clarence handed her an enormous mirror with polished seashells surrounding it.

Luna was stunned as she looked at herself in the mirror.

Her face and body felt clean for the first time after days of hiding in the forest and being carried around by that stupid warrior general, Cederic.

Her long silver hair was unbound and coursed down her back while a pair of jeweled combs drew it away from her face to expose her elegant cheekbones.

A thin line of kohl accented the feline tilt of her silver-grey eyes.

She stood up and turned around.

"Oh, my goddess." Like Lady Clarence, she was draped in strips of blue silk deliberately designed to tantalize a man, showing hints of the treasures that lay beneath every time she moved.

Lady Clarence chucked elegantly at her funny reactions.

'Even her giggles sound lady-like.' Luna mused.

"What is your name, Consort?"

"I am Luna, Lady Clarence," Luna replied as she held out her hand to grasp hers and smiled in gratitude.

It wasn't bad to make friends in her time of need. "Thanks for taking care of me."

"You're welcome. I know you just got here," Lady Clarence said as she tossed her an apple. "You should eat while I show you around where we are allowed to go."

She caught it and wrinkled her nose in disgust.

She had been eating root crops and fruits while she hid from the werewolves.

Her stomach grumbled in protest, too, but she had no choice but to eat it.

Maybe she could escape and hunt for meat somewhere in the castle's kitchens.

"There are five ranks in the Consortium. The Empress, the Concubines, High Consorts, Consorts, and Escorts. As we are Consorts, our role in the harem is for entertainment only. Therefore, it is limited to singing, dancing, and bloodletting."

Lady Clarence continued as she gathered her skirts and continued down the corridor. "Males are not allowed to have sexual congress with us. Keeping our virginity serves as a bargaining chip when one of the King's guests, from outside the Kingdom or one of the other members of the royalty aspire to have a trophy mate. The castle barters us as gifts in exchange for something that will give an advantage to the King."

"Consorts are trained to be the perfect wife or mistress. The scholars will teach us Ancient Languages, Classic, Literature, Science, Mathematics, and History to keep things interesting for our future husbands. In addition, we are taught to sing, play instruments, and dance to entertain visitors during celebrations and war victories."

"What you mean is, we are here to be pawns in a game of chess?" Luna remarked as she followed her down the dimly lit corridor that led to the harem's door.

So, it will be like living in the Sacred Mountains again, surrounded by maidens, but with a price?

At least as a consort, she could avoid unwanted attention, unlike the others in the Consortium.

Luna sighed with relief.

She'd rather kill than be touched.

"Yes," Lady Clarence answered. " Sometimes, gold, ancient treasures, rare magical objects, or knowledge of the dark arts are on the line in exchange for us. But, most of the time, we used to bargain for hexed witchcraft books to break the King's curse."

"The Vampire King is under a curse?" Her brows knitted together, confused. The tension increased the pain in her head, and Luna rubbed her throbbing temples with her fingertips.

At that moment, all she desired was a moment of privacy to sort out the maddening whirl of her thoughts.

Too much information!

"He was cursed by the first Empress, whom he did not know was the first wife of Adam and the first female vampire created in history, the Queen of Darkness, Lilith. It is rumored that the Blood Beast possesses the Vampire King and that his soul is tied to it. He can't control it when it is hungry."

Lady Clarence added. "Blood slaves are the sacrificial lambs and food for the Vampire King. They are expendable and considered to be nothing more than livestock here. Most blood slaves are prisoners from other kingdoms, females who committed unspeakable crimes, or servants who caused trouble. After taking his pleasure, the Blood Beast sucks the life energy out of a woman, killing a minimum of one blood slave every night. This is the only way to pacify it so that the King can return to normal. "

"And then the Vampire King laughs with the other royals and his cronies as if nothing brutal had happened. I take it?"

Lady Clarence clutched Luna's wrist hard to draw her closer, casting an uneasy glance around them.

She acted like there might be someone lurking behind some of the colorful tapestries or priceless urns.

"The Vampire Castle is a honeycomb of trapdoors and passageways," she muttered as she gathered her skirts and continued down the corridor. "Here, the walls have ears."

Forced to keep up with her brisk steps, Lady Clarence chattered on and on about everything there was to know about the harem Luna's slipper came down firmly on the hem of her skirt.

"Oops. Sorry." Luna was so intent on not tripping over her skirts that she was paying no mind to other's skirts.

She wasn't used to wearing this colorful swirl of voluminous veils billowing around her.

Towering eunuchs stood on either side of the tall, carved doors with arms crossed over their naked chests.

They swung the door open for them as they passed beneath the gracefully arched doorway at the end of the long corridor and into the main hall of the harem.

The cloying aromas of a dozen women oiled and scented to within an inch of their lives assaulted her senses.

The kingdom's wealth was on display in every carefully chosen detail of the spacious chamber.

Genuine gold leaf embellished the domed ceiling painted with intricate paintings.

The graceful columns had been carved from marble.

The floor had been tiled with mosaics in rich shades representing every color of the rainbow.

It looked amazing, aside from the fact that it was still an oversized birdcage.

The chamber's opulence would have put the goddess' temples in the Sacred Mountains to shame.

Still, for the Vampire King, this was nothing more than a setting for his most prized jewels—the beautiful women reclining on pillows and couches throughout the room in various states of undress.

"The Escorts are the warrior's groupies," Lady Clarice continued to explain. "They accompany the soldiers to the battlefield. Warriors then use them to release their pent-up stress and testosterone before the fight. This advantageous war strategy has served the Vampire Kingdom for a long time. That is why the army is stronger than ever."

"The royals are accustomed to being seduced and pleasured by breathtakingly beautiful exotic women from among the High Consorts who have been taught erotic tricks unknown to the authors of Kama Sutra. Be careful with them, though. They are dangerous and so devious that they are likely to murder you in your sleep or poison your drink if they perceive you as a threat to becoming Concubine or worse, the Empress."

Lady Clarence sounded as if she was speaking from experience.

"The Vampire King will pick the Empress from the Concubines. The three concubines called will be honored tonight at the Blood Moon Banquet."

"Truly?" Luna asked plaintively, falling into step behind her.

She pursed her lips, fighting back a grin.

Oh, she was excited to witness jealous bitches in the Consortium fight for the Vampire King's attention.

She hoped the King played favorites so Luna could watch the catfights on the side-line.

As they entered the harem, a high-pitched titter assaulted her ears.

She could make out the others' silhouettes behind a translucent veil of purple silk shot through with gold threads.

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Edited By: RedPandaChick