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The Empress Luna

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Philip and Simone had arrived at the 'crime scene' and gasped at the glass fragments of the broken tabletop on the wooden floorboards.

They carefully placed down the trays at their feet before they moved to pick up the bigger shards, collecting them with their bare hands.

Their fingers bled as they continued gathering them.

It was as if they weren't bothered by the pain at all.

If they had a master like the Archdemon of Sloth for aeons then they must have expected this.

To Sloth's servants, this scene must be normalcy.

This theory of hers had been proven when Philip had evinced a transparent floating bubble with his hand and slipped the glass in there.

He stretched out an arm with his palm out and motioned it upwards, bringing the minuscule bits that were hard to see with the naked eye heavenwards.

Like a maestro of an orchestra, Sloth directed the glass particles toward Philip's bubble and shoved it safely inside.

Luna was just amazed at how Sloth and his two servants get along so well.

Sloth didn't seem too strict and he treated the servants like they were part of his life.

+++

Sloth was right.

There was no surface to put the snacks which his servants had brought to him but that didn't mean the Archdemon wouldn't eat.

Sloth had munched on his chocolate chip cookies and completely ignored her as if nothing else existed except him and his food.

As she watched Sloth in front of her just enjoying his snack, Luna realized she had forgotten to drink blood from her husband.

The only thing she could do was to swallow hard and bite her lip to prevent herself from drooling as she stared at Sloth's mouth every time the scrumptious cookie in his hand disappeared into his mouth.

She had to mentally slap herself when every time her eyes which had strayed unto his lips, slipping unto his pale and exposed neck a couple of times.

Waving a dismissive hand in silence, Lun shook her head vigorously as she chased away the image of Sloth's carotid.

Luna grimaced at how the bastard had completely relished on her thirst.

He had groaned and moaned with his eyes closed, praising Simone on how well he had baked the pastries on the right temperature.

To be honest, from Luna's perspective, her brother-in-law had sounded like Apollyon when he played with himself and was about to come.

Anyway, she had no business thinking about his brother-in-law that way because that was just gross.

To get rid of the image burned into her innocent mind, Luna moved her gaze to the bookshelf behind Sloth's back and stare at it with a pleasant smile on her face.

The Archdemon paused the chomping midway and squinted at her like she had gone nuts.

To be honest, she didn't care.

'Let him think whatever he wanted.'

Simone declared proudly that his chocolate chip cookies had a realistic-looking face with eyes, ears, nose and lips but there was a twist.

The baked goods he made had horns with them.

Simone added that it was a shame that Luna couldn't eat even once because she was a Vampire.

Philip--who had stood with his spine straight beside Sloth as he enjoyed his pastries—had casually divulged Simone's secret ingredient that the Archdemon of Sloth can't get over like it was his guilty pleasure.

The secret ingredient was the ancient souls of the dead who were trapped so long on the limbo, already forgotten by their descendants who had stopped praying for their salvation.

These nameless, neglected souls had been buried on the bottom of the murky waters at Sloth's backyard garden.

Simone and Philip had narrated their escapade with pride by catching these empty souls like fishes and feeding them to the Archdemon.

Sloth had been obsessed at 'how-souls-with-no-memories' taste.

Luna's eyebrows raised up to her hairline, not knowing how to react to that piece of information.

"You just turned into an Archdemon, Lune." Sloth placed both of his hands behind his head as he spoke with biscuits in his mouth, "Why don't you try eating souls from here?"

Luna had reflexively opened her mouth as her tongue pushed slightly forward. "I am a vampire."She said as she wrinkled her nose, "I will not eat souls just because I became an Archdemon."

"I heard from Lilith that innocent souls from the Upper Realms tasted so much better, though." The bastard had laughed at her disgust.

Tilting his head, Sloth's forest-green eyes twinkled with amusement as he continued, "Innocent children and pure virgins are hard to find."

"No, you are just too lazy to do that."

"True." Sloth agreed.

"I don't need any souls inside me. That might mess me up." Luna stroked her throat as she grimaced, "I will only drink blood from my mate."

All this talk about blood, while she was thirsty, was torture.

"You mated with my Archdemon brothers." Sloth's smouldering eyes strayed to her mouth before he glanced back into her eyes, "I told you, you can try me if you couldn't deal with the thirst any longer."

She swallowed hard as he returned his intense stare.

"I'm not hungry, Sloth." Luna enunciated loud and clear. "Don't be a masochist and make a lady turn you down twice."

He pouted for second but he quickly masked his handsome features with indifference.

It made Luna wonder if that was her imagination.

"I am done with my midnight snack." Sloth clapped his hands together as he brushed his clothes for cookie crumbs.

He wiped his mouth before his gaze flicked to her form, "Are you satisfied with my hospitality?"

Luna fold her arms across her chest, "Do I have to rate your kindness, Archdemon?"

"No." Sloth shook his head 'no' and gave her a half-shrug, "Anyway, I should bring you to a room closer to mine so that I could monitor you."

"As long as it's a different room, I'm fine with it."

"Alright." Nodding his head in agreement, the Archdemon rose from his seat and offered a hand to assist her," To the Marriage Suite we go."