Page 238 of Blood Curse

His arms tightened before I moved.

“Bryony.”

My name sounded rough in his mouth. He had been saying it for hours.

I opened my eyes.

The lamp beside the bed was turned low, but the glow made me flinch. Stellan reached back and killed it. Darkness closed over the room, clean and detailed instead of empty.

I could see him.

Silver hair hung untidily around his face. His shirt was open at the throat, and dried blood marked the inside of one wrist. His blue eyes moved over me, looking for something he feared might not be there.

I searched my own mind.

The Crown and its borrowed voices were gone. There was only hunger, too much sound and the steady connection between Stellan and me.

Mine.

“Fuck,” I whispered.

Relief broke across his face. He lowered his forehead to mine and breathed once, though his body didn’t need the air.

“You took your time.”

I tried to touch his cheek.

My hand moved too fast. It clipped his jaw, continued past him and hit the carved headboard, cracking the wood.

Stellan caught my wrist.

I stared at the split beside my fingers. “That’s new.”

“So is the bed.”

The laugh that left me was thin and startled, but it belonged to me. Every sound did.

Hunger surged again. My attention dropped to the pulse in his throat. The slow beat became the loudest thing in the room.

Stellan reached for the table beside us. A covered jug and two glasses waited there. He poured one, and the smell hit me before the liquid caught what little light came through the curtains.

Stored blood. Cool. Human.

My mouth filled with saliva.

He put the glass in my hand but kept his fingers around it when my grip threatened to shatter it.

“Slowly,” he said.

I drank.

The first mouthful was cold, metallic and thick. I hated it.

My body didn’t care.

I swallowed again. Hunger dragged the next mouthful down faster. Heat spread across my chest, then along my arms and legs. The ache in my throat eased enough for me to notice two sharp points pressing against my lower lip.

I touched one with my tongue and cut myself.