Page 162 of Blood Curse

She broke the wax with her thumb. The scent of blood hit the room before the first dark stream reached the cup.

My stomach turned.

Around us, fangs lengthened. Bodies shifted away from the table.

Away. Not closer.

The Crown felt the refusal. Heat punched through the points in my hair.

“You and the man beside you will drink from it together.”

She caught the cup. The man’s hand closed over hers.

Stellan released me.

He didn’t tell me what to do. He moved towards the table because that choice was his.

Mara came from the other side.

The two compelled vampires lifted the cup between them. Blood spilled over their fingers. They bent and drank.

For one second, nothing happened.

Then the Crown twisted.

Hunger hit the room like a kick to the chest.

The man snarled and jerked the cup towards himself. The woman drove an elbow into his throat. Silver struck stone and rolled under the table, leaving a red trail across the floor.

They didn’t follow the cup.

They went for each other.

Mara caught the woman around the waist. Stellan gripped the man by the back of his coat and hauled him away, tearing the fabric.

The man wheeled and snapped at Stellan’s face.

Stellan took the impact on his forearm. Fangs ripped through his sleeve.

“Stellan.”

“He missed skin.”

“I can see the blood.”

“The bottle broke.”

The man drove him into the table. Wood cracked. Two sealed bottles hit the floor, and the court scattered before either could break.

Nobody joined the fight.

The Crown pushed harder. Red light flashed across the hall. Hunger clawed at every vampire in front of me, but they kept backing towards the walls. One woman covered her mouth. Another turned her face from the blood on the stones. Elias kicked the fallen bottles under an empty bench, then grabbed the silver cup before it could roll towards anyone else.

The Crown could make them hungry.

It couldn’t make that hunger a command.

Mara swore as the woman threw her over one hip. Mara landed, kept hold and dragged the woman down with her.