That phrase hurt Byron so much, and the monster inside her whispered, Why are you wasting time? Just take her blood. She’s yours.

Byron purposely walked away to get some distance, and found herself heading for the whiskey decanter.

As she poured, Amelia said, “The conversation has moved from tea to whiskey?”

Byron sighed. “It seems so.”

“Why did Victorija want to hurt me?”

Byron walked back and put her glass on the covered piano. “To answer that, I need to tell you why Victorija’s father and her side of the family were expelled. Since my great-great-grandfather’s time, the Debreks have only taken blood by consent. It’s our most sacred rule.”

“Katie? All those people coming out of your office, they were feeding you?”

Byron sensed a tone of jealousy in Amelia’s words. She did still care. “Yes, our staff feed us by consent, and we take care of all their needs, financially. They can leave at any time, no one forces them, but mostly the same families have served us through the years.”

“And Victorija’s family?” Amelia asked.

“They take. They see humans as food, and have no care for human life. Victorija’s father was expelled from the family when he wouldn’t keep our most sacred rule, and because of that, they were forbidden from the secret of how we procreate. Only each Principe knows what that is.”

“And Victorija wants to have children so desperately?”

Byron gave a hollow laugh. “Good God, no. Victorija wants to build an army of born vampires. A family to rival our own. You can imagine the fate of the human population if that happened.”

“I can’t take any more of this,” Amelia said angrily. “This is not my world. Yesterday I didn’t know about it, and today I don’t want to know about it. I’m leaving.”

Amelia ran to the door, but of course Byron got there before her, blocking the door. “I can’t let you leave, Amelia. Victorija will harm you.”

“I don’t want to be part of this world, Byron,” Amelia said.

Amelia’s anger drove Byron’s hunger even harder. She grasped Amelia’s face and threaded her hands through her hair.

Amelia touched her bite wound, and cried out in pain. “Why does this hurt all the time, and why won’t it heal?”

Byron’s mouth watered being so close to her Principessa, and the bite mark was calling her so strongly. “You’re in my blood and I’m in yours,” Byron replied.

Amelia touched Byron’s face tenderly and gazed into her eyes. “Your eyes are red. I knew I saw that in Monte Carlo.”

Amelia’s softer gaze pulled Byron closer. She rested her cheek against Amelia, closed her eyes, and inhaled her scent. “I missed you so much, mia cara.”