I was trembling with shock and revulsion, yet I had to understand what had just happened and what it would mean for all of us. “What madness is this? Why would she do such a thing?” Felix’s eyes were dark pools of horror. “Not madness, sound reason. It is one thing to feed on a willing acolyte, but the blood of an unwilling human, someone in the grip of terror fighting for his life, contains far more power.” Disgust welled up in me. I struggled not to think of the blood I had consumed. It had been given willingly, even eagerly, but out of a desire to become one of those who had crowded around the stone table, cheering the slaughter of a helpless human. “Enough power to enable her to become queen in her own right, able to control all the others as Mordred did?” “Not with one such feeding. She will need more.” “More?” Harley’s fate to be repeated over and over? The prospect was revolting in the extreme, but young men and women of good birth could not begin vanishing without someone noticing and asking what was happening.
