Ravin had a hard time seeing straight. Everything was out of focus, and his eyes couldn't seem to get hold of the High Priestess. It was strange. His vision kept sliding off her shape as if it was too slippery for his gaze.

He tried to watch the High Priestess as she held him in her arms, but it was almost impossible to see her.

He and the High Priestess had frolicked naked at the castle's hallways like naughty children enslaved by some sensual spell, indulging every appetite, both natural and unnatural, until they lay exhausted but never sated in the cocoon of each other's arms.

He had pressed his face to her breasts, and she threaded her fingers through his hair with a fondness that made him sleepy as she said his name along with a binding spell.

Ravin had never dared ask her how she had known his name. Known his heart. Known his very soul.

It was the High Priestess's dark magic. She had gained access to Hecate's forbidden spells.

The Blood Beast toppled over her. Luna carried his weight, but he was too heavy. She tried to lay him on the floor as gently as she could. Based on the aura alone, he had been replaced by the Vampire King's consciousness. He opened his eyes and blinked, those yellowish amber orbs returning to blue.

The High Priestess dabbed at the leftover blood on his neck and sighed when the soldiers had already passed by the hallway. She used the cloak of invisibility, and they did not indicate that they had seen them.

As the minutes ticked by and the High Priestess became visible again, The Vampire King saw the grooves of worry dug into her forehead loosening and going away.

"What happened? I don't remember why I was here. I blocked out once again." The Vampire King croaked. "The Blood Beast came out fully?"

"Yes."

Laying his head on her lap, the Vampire King wished he could stroke that silver hair covering her angelic face and bury his lips and against the satin of her throat.

"But I came back." He stretched out his hands, beseeching her. He couldn't comprehend why he was so attracted to the High Priestess.

"Yes. I exorcised him out of your consciousness for now." The High Priestess smothered a yawn.

"You have broken the curse?"

"I think I did, but I can't figure out how to complete them yet." The Vampire King could sense the trepidation growing as she replied to him. "There are too many layers of magic, but I can drive him out of your mind for now. He becomes docile when he fed on me."

"How did you do it? You aren't dead yet."

It would be great to lay his head for a little while longer as the side of his ear pressed against the High Priestess' breast, but he had already overstayed on the castle's floors.

If one of his soldiers or servants saw him with the High Priestess in this position, he would lose his reputation as a savage he had built in millennia in just a second.

The High Priestess shook her head and blinked innocently. "I have my ways."

"He turned you."

"I'm not a vampire yet, but I had his blood in my system." She whispered, realizing what he had implied.

The High Priestess was a turned vampire, and that was against the rule of the land.

"You survived the demon's blood in his full form, and it had already mixed with yours? That's impossible. You are supposed to be dead by now." The Vampire King got up into a sitting position and stood up carefully, brushing the lint on his shirt.

Why did his shirt appear rumpled and dusty? He didn't look presentable at all.

The Vampire King scanned the High Priestess from head-to-toe. Her hair glimmered in spun silver threads, and her dress was torn on her shoulders.

What did they do?

Even he didn't remember what they did that fateful night after he saved her at the pool.

"As you can see, I'm alive, You're Highness." The High Priestess took the hand he offered, and she stood up and walked closer towards him, gazing at him eye-to-eye. "I could say I'm his primary source of food now, and he can drink my blood without killing me."

"It's not just your blood, isn't it?" His nostrils flared as he gripped her shoulders. "Your essence. Your scent. It's in my mouth." He saw the bite marks closing as he examined the drops of blood in her robes. "I am sure you had become a vampire."

"I already fed your counterpart, your Highness." The High Priestess said hastily as she stared at the ground.

"You can bring me back, so it means you can control him with your blood."

"My job here is done." She gritted her teeth behind a gracious smile.

"Do not run away from me. You can control the Beast." The Vampire King claimed as if he couldn't possibly have heard her correctly. He pulled her closer to her when she attempted to walk away while still having a conversation.

"That's my job." She repeated as she narrowed her eyes at him."I am the High Priestess."

The High Priestess was disrespectful, and he wondered what punishment fit her crimes.

After collecting himself enough to speak, his voice held dangerous calm. "I can't let you go. You are important to my well-being. Tonight we will marry. You will be mine."

"You are no different from the Blood Beast then. A High Priestess as your Empress?" She offered him a pained grin. "With all due respect, my King, I think you are out of your mind."

"You are valuable to me." He clutched her elbow, but not hard enough to hurt, as his voice echoed in the hallway. "I have to keep you even if I can't penetrate you for my sexual satisfaction."

The Vampire King would drive both himself and the Beast beyond endurance and let kingdoms fall for nothing more than a taste of his High Priestess' lips and claim her for his own.

"I know there is no need, my King. You have many women at your beck and call in the Consortium." The High Priestess's voice was a hiss ripe with content. "I didn't see any need for you to collect me in addition to them.'

"You are essential to my existence to live a somehow normal life as a vampire. Not a beast. A freak. You being my High Priestess wouldn't be enough or just being a mere concubine." The Vampire King continued, his voice rising with each bitten off word, "I need to claim you and hide you from other males in a castle far away from here. I will build you a tower, and I will be the only one who can see you. I will visit you every day and every night."

"I fed you, and it is done." Her chiming voice swelled with a grim finality that mocked the Vampire King's dominating behaviour with the damning wrath of a woman wronged. "The Blood Beast will not act up unless he needed to feed on me again."