Page 99 of Blood Curse

Mara backed away from the table. “Don’t hurt yourselves fighting it.”

The guard caught her left arm. Mara twisted, taking the grip across her shoulder instead of her elbow. The man reached from the other side.

Elias stepped between them.

“Move,” he said to Mara.

“Working on it.”

She ducked. The dark-haired man’s hand closed on Elias’s coat instead. His body kept driving forward, following the order even after it caught the wrong person.

Elias went into the table. Glasses toppled. One shattered on the floor, and blood spread across the stone.

Hunger hit the room.

People lurched back from the scent while the compelled vampires pushed towards Mara. Chairs scraped. Someone knocked a bench onto its side. The injured woman pulled her bad leg clear as two bodies collided beside her stool.

Stellan didn’t grab me. He stepped in front of me and looked into my face.

“Bryony, I know you’re here.”

My little finger pressed against my palm.

The Crown held it flat.

Behind Stellan, Mara shoved Elias upright. “Let them take my arms. They’re going to tear the room apart trying.”

“Mara—”

“I can survive being held.”

She stopped fighting.

The guard caught her wrist. The man took the other. Both dragged her arms behind her back and held them there.

Their faces showed everything their bodies couldn’t say. The guard’s teeth were clenched. The man’s shaking pulled Mara’s shoulders with him.

Elias crouched in front of the guard. “Can you hear me?”

“Yes.”

“Can you open your hand?”

“I tried.” Her voice shook. “It closes harder every time.”

“Then stop pulling against your fingers. I’ll keep Mara’s wrist straight.”

“What if I hurt her?”

Mara answered for herself. “I’ll complain loudly.”

“You do that when you’re comfortable.”

“Then you’ll know the difference.”

The first order remained active.

So did the second.