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The Empress Luna

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"You have Apollyon's baby inside you in the Vampire Realm that's why I couldn't get inside." Lilith lowered her voice to a whisper, caressing and pulling at her hair gently.

Luna's knuckles went white from gripping the pillow beside her.

She had no strength to fight Lilith tonight.

"Now, here comes the riddle," Lilith continued in a hush-hush, "Did the soul of the babe came with you in Hell as King Lucifer made you into an Archdemon, or did it remain there?"

She was carrying Apollyon's baby right now?

Luna stilled and she almost couldn't breathe, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

'How come she had a baby when Apollyon just told her that he couldn't produce an heir if he didn't want it yet?' Luna stared at the wall but not really seeing it, distracted, '--and his seed was dead the moment it came out of his phallus?'

Closing her eyes shut, she cleared her thoughts until it made sense because they were a jumble of entangled yarn.

They talked about not wanting to have an heir yet but now that she was in Hell, the babe had added a complication Luna didn't need.

Apollyon's speculation was true!

The High Priest Fei had given them something to drink during their marriage.

Apollyon called it an aphrodisiac and it had done its rightful job: enhance fertility.

"I hadn't told my Archdemon brothers about my assumption, Luna. What do you think they would do if I told them you were carrying the Vampire King's baby?" Lilith snorted loudly as she traced the edges of Luna's Archdemon wings on her back. "They want to own you so they might help me kill the baby one way or another."

Her Archdemon wings were vulnerable—too vulnerable-- and Lilith could have easily ripped them apart if she wanted to because it was just in front of her face.

She stiffened when she felt the Archdemon of Envy held the arch of her wings tightly as if she was about to tear them to shreds.

Lilith might be a whore but she wasn't stupid.

She knew Luna wasn't asleep.

Luna's mouth pinched in contempt as Lilith baited her but she refused to engage.

She didn't want to have this baby while Luna was exposed to danger.

There was a tightening in her chest that prevented her from drawing breath.

For the goddess' sake, she was surrounded by Archdemons left and right because she was one of them!

Lilith would kill her baby to acquire her body in the Vampire Realm and she wouldn't let her.

'But you know what? I wouldn't tell my brothers yet not unless I am sure about how to kill the baby by itself without killing its mother." Lilith laughed again.

It was a huge and deep laugh for a lady.

"I have waited so long and it wouldn't matter to me if I waited for a little while to execute my plans well. For me, your body is the most important thing so that I can have Apollyon and if I am careless I might lose this chance to have him once again. " Lilith sounded so triumphant and Luna wanted to punch the succubus in the teeth so bad. "I would make him love me for good and he wouldn't even know it's me. I love Apollyon very much and I had suffered excessively just to get him to love me back. This was my only hope. I know this time, he will. I would be victorious."

Every time she heard Apollyon's name, Luna's heart twisted into a painful knot.

All she felt was longing and anguish and this urge for bloodshed against these Archdemons who ruined her life.

Why was this Archdemon showing all of her cards to her and telling her all of her plans?

Was Lilith this confident that Luna wouldn't be able to do anything against her and thwart all of her wicked schemes?

A queen was a lotus bloom, a dancer's bow, the moon's radiant reflection.

When the Queen was seated in her rightful place, she waited for the grace of the gods and goddesses to move through her, striving and grasping at nothing.

If Lilith would possess her body and become the Empress, she would fall prey to contemptuous moods, casting shadows across the land.

Apollyon would hate her.

Not Lilith, but Luna, because Lilith was using her as a vessel.

The Archdemon of Envy was wrathful, self-righteous, delusional, and demanding.

Why did she keep on coveting things that weren't hers—men that didn't belong to her?

Was she this desperate to be loved?

Luna didn't only feel angry towards Lilith.

There was pity in there somewhere but if she let pity and kindness prevail, this bitch will never learn her lesson.

Luna was an Archdemon now.

She had an excuse to be ruthless!

Where was Luxen when he was supposed to protect her?

She didn't have Luxen's gift--the angel blade and the leather sheath--at that time because Luxen had put it aside for safe-keeping since she wasn't fully healed yet.

There was no cure to the angel blade except for its own soul's capability to heal.

That weapon might have come really handy when Lilith was here and her 'husband' was nowhere to be---

"Lilith." The door burst open in a loud bang and Luna shut her eyes, feigning sleep.

Thank the goddess!

The Archdemon of Lust came at the right time.

"What are you doing here?" Luna heard loud, heavy footsteps as the Archdemon of Lust stalked towards Lilith's side of the bed. "How did you get in this chamber when I surround this entire chamber with shields and concealment spells?"

Luxen dragged Lilith out and handled her roughly as she screamed at the top of her lungs, cursing at Luxen.

There was a series of loud thumps and annoyed grunts as Lilith shouted and kicked Luxen before the door to her chamber shut tight.

With her eyes closed, Luna let out a huge breath and cried in relief.

The room was as silent as a tomb just like how it should be.