Page 165 of Blood Curse

A strained laugh broke somewhere near the wall.

The Crown turned cold.

It expected shame, panic and a room full of vampires blaming the nearest throat.

Instead, the court stayed back. Mara and Elias helped the people the Crown used. Stellan gave everyone room to choose and trusted them to take it.

The grey-braided woman sat up. “That hunger wasn’t mine.”

“It is now,” Elias said. “Can you control it?”

She looked at the blood, then deliberately turned away. “Yes.”

The man in brown wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “So can I.”

“Did it move anyone else towards the cup?” I asked.

The woman with the sand bucket shook her head. “It made the blood feel like the only thing in the room. My feet were still mine.”

“Mine too,” someone said from the far wall.

The young vampire flexed his empty hands. “I wanted it. I didn’t want to hurt anyone to get it.”

Mara sat back on her heels. “The command caught two people. The Crown expected the rest of us to mistake hunger for obedience.”

“It expected you to join,” I said.

The grey-braided woman’s expression hardened. “Then it can stay disappointed.”

“Fucking furious would be better,” the man in brown said.

“Give it time,” I replied.

Nobody congratulated them. Nobody flinched away either.

Stellan crossed the hall towards me.

I stayed where I was because I didn’t need rescuing. He stopped close because I wanted him there.

His thumb brushed the blood from the corner of my mouth. “You bit your tongue.”

“It was that or let the Crown finish.”

“I dislike both options.”

“Write a complaint.”

His mouth almost curved. “To whom?”

I glanced up at the black points in my hair. “Apparently, I’m the management.”

This time the laugh moved through half the room. It wasn’t loud, but it broke the last grip of panic.

Then the court looked at Stellan.

He noticed. His shoulders stiffened.

The dais waited at the far end of the hall, empty and dark.