Page 40 of Blood Curse

The whole room reacted. Chairs scraped. Someone swore. Mara took one step from the door.

“Stay where you are,” I said. “Let me reach him.”

They listened because they chose to. I felt the difference even if the Crown didn’t.

I crossed the floor as the young man stopped in front of Bryony. Terror widened his eyes, but his body remained perfectly still.

Bryony’s left little finger twitched against her skirt.

She was still there.

“Bare your throat,” the Crown said with her voice.

The vampire’s hand rose. He pulled his collar aside and tipped his head. His pulse beat hard under pale skin.

Bryony’s lips parted, her attention fixed on his throat.

The scent of fear and fresh blood filled the hall. The Crown had found a scratch along the man’s neck, nothing more than a thin line left by his collar, and turned the smell into hunger.

Bryony’s nails dug into my sleeve. Two fingers moved now.

“Offer me your blood.”

The young vampire stepped closer.

I caught his shoulders before his throat reached her mouth. His muscles strained against my hands. He wasn’t choosing to fight me. His blood had been given one direction, and it was trying to carry him there.

“Stellan,” Mara said.

“Keep everyone back.”

“We are.”

Bryony’s lips drew away from her teeth. Her face showed hunger without pleasure, which was how I knew the desire wasn’t hers.

I held the vampire in place and looked straight at her.

“I know you can hear me.”

The Crown turned her eyes towards mine.

“She wants this,” it said.

It used Bryony’s tone, her breath and the slight roughness pleasure had left in her voice. The imitation was perfect.

The claim wasn’t.

“She doesn’t,” I said.

“You like her hungry.”

“When the hunger is hers.”

Bryony’s ring finger moved. Her hand began to slip from my sleeve.

The Crown forced it back.

Around us, every vampire had gone rigid. Some gripped chairs or each other. Nobody ran. Nobody rushed Bryony. They were frightened, but they were giving her the room to fight.