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Archdemon Empress Luna

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"You have to accept me for who I am, just like I try to understand who you are by being a considerate husband."

"Well, thank you for your consideration and for keeping me safe." Luna said coldly, glacial enough to give her husband well-deserved frostbite."I really appreciate it."

Shaking his head, Apollyon rubbed her back in a comforting gesture. "I think this self-blame of yours is the source of perceived insanity. Don't worry, as your husband; I am here to keep you sane."

She exhaled a frustrated sigh as she ran her fingers through her hair as the blue poppies tied on her silver strands dropped to the grasslands.

Before Apollyon decided to show her around the beautiful sights in these mountains, her husband had given her beautiful poppies earlier and tied a few of them unto her silver hair, claiming that it would make her more enchanting.

It turned out he was making lame excuses so that he could play with her silky tresses.

"You are having fun humiliating me like this, right?" Frowning, Luna crossed her arms over her chest. "Do you enjoy frustrating the fuck out of me?"

Sensing her hurt, Apollyon began to tease her as he gently groped her breasts, tweaking her nipples with his thumb and forefinger like they were his little knobs to play with. "Not so much as I would love to fuck the fuck out of you."

Apollyon manipulated her with sex every single time they argued with each other as if that would appease her every time white steams would come out of her ears in annoyance.

Sometimes, Luna wondered if he thought of her as his whore from the Consortium, or was he merely showing his affections through physical contact?

She exhaled, giving him a side-eye instead of screaming in frustration.

Glowering at him, Luna's tone sang with utmost sweetness—an irony to what she currently felt. "You are inappropriate for a Vampire King. You act like we hadn't done it before we traveled down here, Apollyon."

Luna knew the horse had trotted closer to the foot of the mountains, and Apollyon became more careful with handling the reins when they moved into steeper slopes.

Tall grasses and trees now replaced the silver-gold fields amid the afternoon sun with bright green leaves and long wide branches as they followed the pebbled paths.

"I want to lead you by example—your role model," Apollyon smirked as he caressed her protruding stomach under her loose sundress. "You will be as inappropriate, and I will look normal beside you."

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Vampire King Apollyon

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There was a long silence after that.

Apollyon thought Luna wouldn't speak to him ever again after he shared his concerns, challenging her twisted version of morality—one that he would never—-never in a million years—-accept and agree with. Her arguments felt weak to him, just feeding into this inflated sense of 'good' which can do more harm than 'bad.'

To him, his wife was acting like she had a moral high ground on other people, regulating and frowning those who did otherwise.

Frown lines marred his forehead. Apollyon couldn't entirely blame his wife for this as he tried to understand where she came from.

He would let her believe how she wanted to believe, but Apollyon will not be swayed about feeling guilt about m*therf*ckers who deserved to die.

"I—I'm sorry, Apollyon," Luna said out-of-the-blue while he enjoyed the fresh air in this part of uncharted territory at the Spring Courts—a place where only their solitaries lived in peace, surrounded by earth. "You were right."

What's with her sudden change of heart?

He raised an eyebrow at his wife's rare acquiesce.

She paused, and he waited patiently for the rest of her apology. "Maybe, I was controlling to you because I have high expectations of you, and you were correct when you said I wanted you to change." She explained, and it made him smirk when he found out that his hunch was right.

"I find your lack of morals… disturbing. Intimidating." Like every woman in this Realm, they seek to change the man they loved from the inside and out, and that's not necessarily good. "It was similar to Archdemons."

"Before we can forgive one another, we have to understand one another," Apollyon replied.

"It's not new. Vampires have been predators ever since the dawn of time, as normal as how the sun rises in the east and descends in the West." He glanced upwards at the sunny rays, and a verdant landscape rose when they finally arrived at the bottom.

He positioned themselves in an earthy path and slid off the horse. "It is in our nature, and an Amazonian warrior, like you, can't change nature and animal instincts itself."

"I have witnessed too much death, Apollyon-—mass murders of children, women, demonic faeries." Luna stared blankly at her trembling hands as if she imagined them soaked in blood. "The Massacre of Ostara. I have seen too much it's making insane." Luna clenched her jaw. "I don't understand why the numerous sight never takes a toll on you and your sanity."

"I could say I'm used to it as an immortal," Apollyon replied as he looked around the green hues, staring at the blue poppies in the meadow which he had picked for his wife.

Both of them were so far from their home at the mountaintop that he could barely see it. "I only think death is merely a sleeping state in the passage from this life to afterlife. Death is an initiation into Heaven, Hell, and the Underworld. It is as natural as the gift of birth as we wait for our baby to arrive." Apollyon shrugged with nonchalance. "You are now a Vampire and an Archdemon, wife. If you don't want to go insane, you should never take death personally."

A sunlit cloud passed by, providing them shade from the outdoor lights painting their skin with warmth.

"You are right. I will try that." Luna said as she got off the mount, and Apollyon caught her in his embrace. "I can't be insane in the middle of a brewing war."