Page 43 of Blood Curse

“Get out.”

The smile vanished.

My legs nearly followed. Stellan’s arm tightened around my waist without lifting me from the floor.

“Yours?” he asked.

“Mine.”

“Good.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Mara said behind us.

The sharp scent of blood reached me before I turned.

She stood beside the chair where Elias had settled the young vampire. Her right sleeve hung in strips from elbow to wrist. Four deep scratches crossed her forearm, and blood ran over her palm.

“What happened?” I asked.

“He caught me when I pulled him back.” Mara glanced at the young man. “Accidentally.”

His face tightened. “I couldn’t release her.”

“You were compelled,” she said. “Save the guilt for something you choose.”

Elias opened his medical case on the nearest table. “Sit down, Mara.”

“I’m fine.”

“Sit down before I make Stellan ask politely.”

Stellan looked offended. “I can be polite.”

“I’ve met you.”

Mara sat.

Blood welled from the lowest scratch and dropped from her little finger.

My gums ached.

The room sharpened around the sound of her pulse. Every breath brought the scent across my tongue. It was warmer than the blood Adrian had spilled and richer than the little cut on the young vampire’s neck. Mara’s blood carried age, strength and the wild trace of somewhere far from Harrowmere.

Fuck, I wanted it.

Heat ran from the Crown into my scalp and down my neck. Hunger tightened my stomach. Pleasure followed so closely that my body confused the two.

Stellan moved in front of me.

“Bryony.”

His broad shoulders blocked Mara from sight. They didn’t block the smell.

“Don’t touch my mouth,” I said.

“I won’t.”