Page 80 of Vampires and Violas

He shoots me an amused glance. “Yes, that was him.”

“Is he still pushing for you to claim the…dukedom?”

“Dukedom?” he asks, amused.

“I don’t really know the technical term.”

“We usually just call it the throne.”

“Oh, right.”

“And yes. He is.”

“If he’s so passionate about it, why doesn’t he do it himself?”

“He has a dark past—a Viking, you know. He’s reformed, but with that sort of history…” Cassian shrugs.

“All you princes are pretty old, right? Don’t most of you have bloody pasts? You didn’t have medication until recently.”

“We managed.”

He looks uncomfortable, which I find intriguing. “How?”

“Well, first off, you didn’t let yourself get hungry. Bloodlust is the root of the madness, so if you kept yourself on a schedule, you were fine.”

“Why do you need the medicine then? You’re good at taking your blood, aren’t you? And you’ve had two centuries to form a solid habit.”

Cassian removes his glasses like they’re bothering him now and gives me his full attention. “I can answer your question, but you won’t like it.Idon’t even like it.”

I pull out a dining room chair and sit across from him. “I can handle it.”

“We consumed human blood.”

“Noah already mentioned that.”

“Yes, but did he tell you human blood curbs the madness?”

I open my mouth to respond…and then close it again.

“Technically, animal blood and the synthetic prescription meet our bodies’ needs. But…neither one is as complete. They’re not as satisfying, I suppose.”

“So, when Archduke Nicolau banned vampire creation, he basically banned human blood at the same time? You can’t feed if you can’t, you know,bite.”

“Not yet—that came later. At that time, civilized vampires already consumed donated blood. Many houses had donors, along with nurses in their employ who could draw from them.”

“Ew,” I whisper. “You kept humans like milk cows?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“All the pamphlets, all the printouts,everythingI received from my doctor and NIHA say the prescription and animal blood are sufficient.”

“Of course they do. We don’t want baby vamps going out and snacking on humans, do we?”

“So, they’re basically lying to everyone.”

“Hard to imagine a government institution would do that, right?”

I laugh. “Noah said you were the one who pioneered the research—that thanks to you, we have the synthetic blood and the medications.”

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