The moment that cold voice echoed across the courtyard, everything seemed to freeze in place, as if the air itself had grown heavier, thicker, unwilling to move without permission, and every single vampire present, from the weakest who were still struggling to lift their heads to the strongest who had only just regained their footing, turned toward the direction where the voice had come from, their expressions changing all at once into something that carried both respect and unease.
Cain's eyes narrowed slightly, though his face remained calm, his senses stretching outward as he tried to grasp the presence behind that voice, and for a brief moment, even he felt a faint tension form within his chest, not from fear, but from curiosity, because the tone alone carried a weight that was very different from Lord Vord's earlier display, a kind of calm authority that did not need to prove itself through overwhelming force.
