"You might think me vulnerable at this time of crisis… but please don't hold my hand."

Baring her teeth, she frowned at him as she pointed an accusing finger at his clean suit. "My husband would not appreciate it."

"I am your lover, Your Highness." Prince Aelfric's eyebrows knitted in confusion as he settled a palm over his chest. "You should be familiar with my touch whether or not we are in the presence of the Vampire King or not."

Luna's soul was too sensitive even to understand the bullshit coming out of the prince's mouth.

The mass paranoia made her double over, consumed by the sheer panic of her separation from her husband and the safety of their baby.

"Brother. Not today. "Princess Alisabethe clutched Prince Aelfric's shoulder as she looked at the ground, then returned her gaze to Luna with disgust for daring to vomit in front of them."This isn't the time and place to argue about that."

She knew she wasn't acting like the Empress of the Vampire Realm but who cared about etiquette when she felt like crap all of a sudden?

Luna, 'pregnancy' and danger never mixed well.

She felt sick to the stomach, and she had to let this stress out, or she might faint from the pressure building up inside her mind.

"Your Highness," Lady Clarence was immediately on her side with a Faerie Prince chasing after her. "Are you alright?"

"Clarence!" Prince Aspen shouted as he gripped her upper arm with his fingers into her skin. "Don't try to escape from my sight ever again."

"Lady Clarence." Luna straightened her spine as she wiped the corner of her lips clean from any residuals. "You should listen to Prince Aspen."

Clenching her fists, Luna steeled herself as she gained her courage back.

Her husband must be doing something important that he had to go somewhere to save them all.

This wasn't the time to cower because she had literally been to Hell and back. "Tonight is a dangerous time for humans."

These demons operate like they were one—with a single mind, controlling their movements--or… these ghastly apparitions were sensing each other as they navigate in their surroundings.

Luna couldn't—for the life of her—knew who were controlling these demons since it was rare to see a demonic legion merge in unison without an Archdemon Master.

The Archdemon Master wasn't that powerful to control a legion from Hell.

Luna's intuition told her that it could be Lilith's conjurer.

The demonic apparitions--where their face should have been--were just an expanse of grey skin with two decaying craters where their eyes as if these creatures were completely wiped out of their identities.

Luna should have expected this, not noticing that she already summoned the blazing sword of Hellfire in her right hand while her other hand held a scarlet shield edged with gold.

A shadow of a raven mid-flight emblazoned the shield.

She wasn't sure how she brought this forth—utilizing Archdemon Magic had proven itself unpredictable.

The possessed faeries charged at the untainted ones and killed them with their bare hands, tearing them apart with their claws.

Face turning pallid, Lady Clarence cried out when one jumped at them.

He almost had Lady Clarence in his grasp, but Prince Aspen lifted his hand, crushing the possessed faerie's windpipe without touching him.

Prince Aspen was the complete opposite of Apollyon because when Apollyon killed a creature, his hatred was almost palpable.

There was always a reason behind his intense rage, but Prince Aspen was a different story.

There was an eerie calmness in the Faerie Prince's feminine features—almost serene.

Blood spurted into Luna's face as she watched the organs exploding out of the evil faerie's ribcage from the extreme pressure of Prince Aspen's power.

How easy was it for Prince Aspen to kill his own kin without batting an eye?

When Luna stabbed another possessed faerie who dared to advance towards them in the heart with her sword of Hellfire, she watched the bedevilled creature in horror when his eyes rolled at the back of his head, his muscles turning rigid before he fell to the ground.

The evil spirit left the body in a thick dark cloud of smoke, returning its original form before its senses zeroed in on another faerie to possess, entering into another spring faerie's mouth.

Luna's frowned as she pulled her sword out of the dead faerie's body.

The poor faerie Luna had killed with the sword had perished while the real criminal escaped, and the new host parted her lips into a scream, making the demon enter the body with ease.

The spring faerie, chosen to be the new host of this parasitic demon, had her bright green eyes foggy as it shifted her pupils into white.

It shivered in its place and began killing the rest, snatching the wild child in her mother's arms when it was within her reach.

The possessed faerie held the child in a headlock as if she was about to rip her head off.

Muscles turning rigid as she fisted the hilt of her sword, Luna swung at the possessed faerie and immediately cut off her head before it could hurt the child.

She killed the rest of the demonic faeries in a few seconds as the possessed bodies lay broken on the floor, covered in blood.

More blood.

Burnt flesh.

Blood everywhere, dripping thick on the docks which remained in the Ostara.

Luna would have never thought that this beautiful spring night could have turned darker than it was because of these demons, turning the nearby river into ink with just their collective presence.

She realized that it was useless to kill all the new hosts of these demons because these evil spirits would leave the dead body like it was a mere shell—a vessel— without suffering any consequences.

Luna didn't know if her sword of Hellfire could hurt them, but every time her sword touched their skin, their flesh released white-hot steam as if their new host couldn't stand its scorching flames of Hell.