Luna woke up with a jolt, and she bent over, sick to her stomach.

Luna had spent her night sleeping only in restless fragmented dreams, haunted by images of the Blood Beast. After recovering from the compulsion to throw up, the first thing she did after recovering from the compulsion was to cover her mouth to hide her elongated fangs from the High Priest.

Fei had watched her sleep on top of a block… Luna almost fell over the floor when she felt the block of ice sinking in her tender skin as she lay down on her back.

The room was as dim as a cavern, lit only by a single oil lamp set in a latticed alcove in the wall. Curlicues of fragrant smoke from some exotic incense drifted past her nose, making her feel more than a little light-headed.

She was hungry after seeing blood in her dreams, or… were they nightmares?

“What is this big block of ice doing here?” Luna mumbled out the words as she covered her mouth. Her fangs had proved a major inconvenience when she talked.

She had sensed the flow of Fei’s fresh blood, the beat of a racing heart, and it made her stomach rumble and throw up at the same time.

Even if she were desperate, she wouldn’t dare drink blood no matter where and from whom it came. Luna knew she could stop this curse.

She was the High Priestess, for god’s sake. She loved the power that comes with vampirism but not taking the life force of other living creatures.

She tried her best to calm down and retracted her fangs. Fortunately, it did.

She was determined not to drink blood. Ever. If she had to find a substitute to sustain her, then so be it. Luna can’t give up her favourite food for being a vampire. She hadn’t eaten one yet since she had turned.

Luna wondered how it would taste like.

“Lie back, High Priestess, you have not awakened for a week.” The High Priest said he poured a stream of frosty oil over her body, beginning just below her collarbone down to her toes. “The Vampire King was worried about what was wrong with you when you suddenly become scorching hot at certain times of the day.”

“Oh.” Luna didn’t know what to say to that. “The Vampire King?”

Luna was about to relax into another drowsy stupor when she heard the muted creak of a door opening and closing, followed by the soft pad of bare feet approaching across the tiled floor.

When she turned her head to see the intruder, the impact of its beauty had hit her like a physical blow. Eyes of such pure undiluted blue it was as if some heavenly artist had crushed sapphires into his paints and then coloured in the irises with the finest of brushes.

In all honesty, The Vampire King could grab her attention just by breathing alone.

It was the Vampire King who sauntered towards them as an insidiously seductive scent swirled around her in a sinister caress. The footsteps ceased, and she felt him standing over her, his presence itself nearly as tangible as a touch.

He stroked her long silver hair as he sat on a chair beside her, playing with the strands like it was the most normal thing to do. “How is the new High Priestess?”

Luna didn’t know how to respond after all these crazy events in the past few weeks, but she tried her best to be as respectful as possible.

“As you can see, I am alive and well,” Luna informed him tartly as she closed her eyes so she couldn’t see his handsome face. “How about your wrists?”

“My wrists are fine, High Priestess. But did you know how I escaped from the shackles?” The Vampire King’s words were soft, the tone amused. “I had to destroy the metal bedpost because the chains around my wrists were much stronger.”

Luna’s eyes flew open in shock.

Her magic spells had done worse, and she didn’t expect that.

The Vampire King smiled, and, to Luna’s eyes, it was a smile filled with old knowledge, with centuries of experience paired with a dangerous glint in them. “Did you know that I still brought the shackles with me for more than a week? I think only you can undo them, and this is why I’m here. As a Vampire King, I had this dignity not to look like a fucking prisoner to my people.”

The Vampire King showed her his wrists, and indeed the shackles were still attached to him.

“You have imprisoned a lot of people, my King.” Luna shrugged as if what she had done didn’t matter, and without remorse, she could have slapped herself.

She thought she heard a sharply indrawn breath but quickly dismissed it as a trick of the silence and her overwrought nerves. “Don’t you want to know how it feels like, even if it’s just for fun?”

Something about just being in the presence of the Vampire King was disturbingly soothing. The Vampire King provided much-needed relief from Fei’s courteous yet exhausting attention.

The old High Priest had continued to apply his home-made herbal salve on her, and she breathed out a contented sigh when it indeed alleviated her ailment.

She felt the fingers playing with her hair paused to caress the delicate skin of her chest an inch or two lower. “I was about to ask about your stab wound, but it turned out that you’re already healed, High Priestess.”

The Vampire King’s hair was cut in careless layers that stopped at the nape of his neck and bared the sharp angles of his face.

Tilting his head to the side as he peered straight into her downcast eyes, Luna didn’t stop her urge to pat his hair, and her fingers reached out boldly.

The Vampire King’s hands froze for a long moment and then resumed caressing her breasts in its exquisite torture.

“Mmmm …” Luna moaned, tantalized even more by that sly pressure as his fingertips massaged them in concentric circles. His touch did insane things to her, and it tended to overpower any sense of reason.

The Vampire King ceased stroking her nipples when Fei returned from the teakwood table beside them, fetching the brass brazier which contained his healing herbs.

The Vampire King’s hand relaxed and glided higher, raking through the silky strands of her hair again, massaging her scalp.

Taking a deep breath and trying not to think about how the Vampire King’s intense dark chocolate scent permeated out of his skin, Luna swallowed audibly and focused her attention on the ceiling.

“There’s something I was curious about, High Priestess.” The Vampire King gave her an alarmingly marvellous human grin. Luna lowered her eyes, or she would keep getting sucked into gazing at him like one of his concubines.

“Hmm.” Luna was honestly flustered, but she tried not to make it obvious as she paused, settling her thoughts. “What is it that you want to talk to me about, my King?”

“Fei?” The Vampire King’s called as his smirk faded, his expression slipping into cooler darkness, and Luna’s confidence headed into a nosedive. “I want you to leave this room right now.”