Chapter 73 - Devour*

Luna's eyes widened, goosebumps breaking out of her skin at the possibility of being possessed by one Archdemon. How much more if there were two of them.

"Do you mean that I had a part of the Archdemons inside me?"

"I don't know, High Priestess." The Vampire King seemed to pause as if thinking. There was a hint of genuine confusion in those blue, blue eyes. "I have no idea."

The Vampire King watched her for several long minutes, a cold standoff that turned her blood to ice.

Luna stared back, unwilling—unable—to give in.

She would never cave in.

In Luna's eyes, they were equal.

He may be the Vampire King, but she was the High Priestess, and there was nothing he could do to change that.

Never will she cower in his intense gaze.

His intimidation will not work on her because she had saved him and broke his curse.

The Vampire King should at least thank her.

"I want to prove something." His lips were pinched together, yet it bore no hint of a smile, yet it was the personification of sensuality. Decadent. Lush.

Luna stiffened but still kept her eyes locked on him, even if she wanted to shield herself away from it.

The Vampire King glowed so much power because he had drunk her blood.

Luna was hungry, and she hadn't fed from him yet, and she had no plans to do that.

Yet.

Luna clenched her teeth so hard her jaw protested. "What is there to prove?" 

The Vampire King gave her an amused look as he leaned a fraction closer.

Surprised, Luna moved backwards, letting out an undignified squeak.

The Vampire King stared at her for several long seconds.

His face was so perfect that she swore it could have belonged to an ancient god. "That I can touch you for real."

The Vampire King whispered darkly. "I miss having connecting with someone regardless of the consequences."

Luna didn't say a word for a minute, thinking about the implications of what he had said. 

"I'm—"

His eyes were filled with the hottest blue flames as power crackled through around them.

She was an inch away from escaping, running as far away as possible when he spoke, "You said I'm yours, right?"

"Yes." The realization burned like a dagger twisted in her gut.

The Vampire King's fingers were on her shoulders. "And you are mine." 

"Yes, my King. " Luna's eyes narrowed, but still, she agreed grudgingly. The words dripped off her tongue like ice needles.

Chill silence, so cold the goosebumps returned.

A faint smile on his lips. "I want you now."

Luna blinked in wary disbelief. 

Her heart stopped, and when it kicked back to life, she could barely wrench the words out of her mouth. "Not in the way you think. You must calm down, my King. You are weak."

The Vampire King chuckled, but it was the coldest, most dangerous sound she'd ever heard.

"It's fine I can still do it. " The Vampire King said, ignoring her words. 

He shrugged, and that movement drew her attention to the breadth of his shoulders.

"I'm not hurt at all." His hand closed over her wrist and placed it over his erection.

Luna swallowed, refusing to remember the time when he made her a slave to her pleasures.

She must forget the way he touched her core at the palace corridors when the Blood Beast possessed him.

She had to make it clear with her mind that it wasn't him.

This was the Vampire King.

For the life of her, she should not associate him with Ravin's wrongdoings.

Luna refused to let him play with her like this, even if her body disagreed. Vehemently.

"I'm too weak to do it," Luna said, her voice harsh with withheld emotion and desire.

"You need blood?" The Vampire King asked, and his face was suddenly a hairsbreadth against her face. His lips neared her ear. Luna blinked and realized she was completely under his control, where he needed her to be.

"No," Luna said mutinously as he pushed his chest away. "It will make you weak."

Blue flames in his eyes, but it held no violence. "You don't want me then."

"Oh for the goddess' sake! "

Using one hand, Luna kicked out with her legs and had his strong neck in a tight chokehold at the same time, catching him off-guard.

She didn't hesitate to push him down the bed with her hand still on his neck to assert dominance.

It was a suicidal act when the other person in the dynamic was a Vampire King, her mate.

Males, especially vampire males, didn't like to be challenged this way, but she can't help it.

Luna was hungry and annoyed.

She swallowed as her mouth gathered enough saliva every time her gaze slid to his nape.

"You made me hungry now, amare." Luna's vampire claws lengthened of their own volition, and she lifted her other hand to scratch his face with a finger.

The spot on his cheek might have tingled, but the cut was thin enough he could hardly feel it.

Luna watched the Vampire King's blood trickle down his ear before the nick sealed shut.

Temptation.

Luna's fangs elongated once again as a red haze clouded the edges of her vision. "If you keep teasing me I wouldn't be able to stop."

"Amare." The Vampire King advanced in a flash, pushing her back to the bed.

The second he paused, his lips hovering over hers, his emotions hit her like a tidal wave.

Relief, happiness, and most of all… longing.

Luna drowned in it.

They both did.

They had changed positions, and he was now on top of her. Luna was in the right place where the Vampire King needed her to be.

Below him.

Always.

She pulled him into her arms, welcoming the hard planes of his body into hers.

The Vampire King kissed her hard without any reservation as he gloried in the purely physical and unadulterated contact he had missed for thousands of years.

As he hovered over her, Luna gloried in the feel of his lips on her lips, her cheeks, and her throat.

"I want to feel your skin more." The Vampire King lost patience and tore the front of her dress open, the clothing sliding down her body to pool at her waist. 

He pulled off his torn, bloody shirt and tossed it aside, so there was nothing between them except his pants.

The frenzy of the Vampire King's kisses faded, his lips pausing on the spot above her frantically beating heart. She felt his fingers trace down her waist, lowering her ripped white blood-stained dress further.

"I can't wait to devour you." He murmured.

Luna gasped. "My King!"

A cough echoed through the crater, and both of them froze. 

As Luna glanced overhead while the Vampire King was busy, she saw a young guard standing a few paces up the crater, and his eyes fixed on the blasted underground shelter at his feet.

A squeak of horror escaped her lips, and Luna jerked the dress up around her torso, trying to reclaim some vestiges of my modesty.

"Your timing is dreadful," The Vampire King looked up and said, "Cederic."