Void Page 6

  The male’s claws retracted, even as he swiped them across my chest from where he was still pinning me down. In retaliation, my Void rushed at his face. He screamed and grabbed his head in sudden agony as my Void flooded into his mouth, polluting him with my consuming power. It coated his gnashing teeth and poisoned his tongue. It filled every vein, every cell, absorbing his powers. It was delicious.

  But before my Void could finish, I felt cold fingers wrap around my wrist. I turned my head and saw the vampire woman grabbing me, trying to drag herself forward and pull me away from the shifter. I attempted to shake her off, but the shifter was too heavy, still snarling despite becoming more and more human by the second. I reached up to knock him away, my hand grazing his neck.

  And then, something shuffled inside of me at the double contact.

  My black smoke was suddenly saturated with blue hues. The all-consuming hunger changed to a sensation that I’d never felt before. It wasn’t devouring their powers anymore—this was something else.

  The Void rushed out of me like a shout, so loud that it was all I could hear. My skin lit up like lightning where the three of us touched, and my smoke crackled with electricity. I opened my mouth in a soundless scream, mirroring the faces of the shifter and vampire. Agony coursed through me, so sharp that I was sure I was about to die. There was no way I could survive pain like this, and I knew that they were feeling the same things.

  Right before I blacked out, everything stopped. The pain. The sound. The Void’s consuming smoke and light. It was just gone.

  All three of our bodies slumped against the ground, so still that I wasn’t sure any of us were even breathing. My eyes stared straight up, unable to blink. All I could see was the dark stone ceiling above me, the remnants of my smoke curling around the windows as it evaporated into thin air. The darkness in my mind was too seductive, too demanding. I gave in, letting the world go black.

  The Void was hungry, so I guess it consumed me, too.

  Chapter 4

  “I want every scholar here now. No exceptions. Bring in Doctor Adams, too. I want a full report on my desk. No one leaves here until I say so. I want to make sure everyone in that room keeps quiet. We can’t let this get out,” Judge Braxton said, his booming voice drawing me out of my sleep. It felt like each syllable was a jackknife against my skull.

  “It’s too late for that; people are already talking. The elementals have petitioned a claim for her and want her on their compound,” an unfamiliar voice replied to my left.

  I was on a stiff cushion, but I couldn’t bring myself to open my eyes yet. Every bone in my body ached. Every tendon felt stretched thin like a rubber band about to snap.

  “Send in another healer!” Judge Braxton ordered, and I heard feet scurrying.

  “You’ve already lost three healers to the Void, trying to revive her,” my mother replied. She was here? “The Void just sucks up their abilities. She probably just needs rest.”

  I nuzzled deeper into the pillow with a moan, and all the commotion around me went silent. “Dev?” I felt my mother’s cold hand on my forehead. My clammy skin stuck to hers. “Dev, are you awake?”

  I peeled open my eyes and winced at the bright light. “Mother?” I asked, my voice cracking.

  “Get her water, and turn off the lights,” Judge Braxton boomed as I tried to lick my lips with a sandpaper tongue. Why was he so determined to make sure I was okay? Wasn’t he the one threatening me with a death sentence just a little while ago?

  A cool glass was pressed to my lips, and I greedily sucked up the water, wincing when it hit my dry throat. Memories slammed into me in an instant. The vampire woman. The shifter. The black smoke that suddenly turned blue. The pain. I winced at the memory, my body feeling oddly tender.

  “Is the vampire okay?” I asked while trying to sit up. A strong hand landed on my shoulder, pushing me back down to a lying position. “Oh gods, did I kill her?” Hot tears began flowing down my cheeks as bile filled my mouth. I turned to face my mother. “I didn’t mean to. I warned you this would happen.”

  A calm voice beside me broke through the chaos. “She’s alive. Better than ever, actually.” I turned to look at who was speaking, my mouth opened in shock at Render. His lips were parted in awe as he stared at me.

  Awe? What the fuck was happening?

  “What?” My voice was gravelly with a tender rawness in my throat that made me wince.

  “Your Void power. You—”

  “Enough,” Judge Braxton cut him off.

  Render’s expression darkened as his eyes snapped over to the judge.

  I looked around at the room I was in. It looked like the judge’s chambers, with a desk, bookshelves, and a guard at the back. I was lying on a stiff couch that smelled like upholstery cleaner and tobacco. When I tried to sit up again, my mother helped me by stuffing a pillow behind my back. The motion took me by such surprise that all I could do was gape at her. A strained smile touched her pale pink lips, but it was the most pleasant expression she’d given me in years.

  “What’s going on?” I asked warily.

  I pressed a palm to my pounding temple, thankful that they’d turned the lights off. I could still smell the acrid, sharp scent of my Void smoke, but it was thankfully contained again. Judge Braxton, my mother, and Render were crowded around me, watching me with indecipherable expressions.

  “You successfully cured the female vampire of her bloodlust,” Judge Braxton told me.

  A relieved sigh blew out of me as I looked between the three of them. I was missing something, something huge, but I had no idea what it was. “...Okay. That’s good, right?”

  “Very good,” the judge nodded.

  “Oh for fuck’s sake, tell her,” Render snapped.

  “Mind your place, vampire,” Judge Braxton snapped. “You may be your people’s paragon, but you are still under my authority.”

  “He’s right, Edwin. She has to know,” my mother said, surprising me.

  “Know what?” I tried to stand, but I fell right back on my ass, and my dizziness returned.

  Judge Braxton shot a look over his shoulder at the guard. “Get out.”

  The guard didn’t hesitate. He swept out of the room, leaving the four of us alone. When the door shut, the judge looked back at me. “Your Void powers didn’t take the powers from the vampire and the shifter.”

  I blinked at him, not understanding. “What do you mean? You just told me I cured her of bloodlust.”

  “You did,” he nodded. “Because she’s not a vampire anymore. But she’s not a human, either.”

  My blonde brows pulled together. He wasn’t making any sense. I’d fed from her. I’d fed from them both, there was no doubt about that. “Then what…”

  “She’s a shifter now. And the male shifter who attacked you? He’s now a vampire.”

  I heard his words, but it was like they wouldn’t register. I had to go over them again and again in my head. I shot to my feet, despite my dizziness and positioned myself behind the lounge, suddenly needing space to think. “You’re saying...you’re saying that I…”

  Judge Braxton nodded with a hungry gleam in his eye. “Yes, Miss Cainson. Your Void ability switched their powers.”

  I breathed out a puff of air, forcing my pale, blonde hair to swirl around my face as I tried to steady myself. I switched their powers? “Does this mean the shifter now has bloodlust?” I asked while looking around the room. Everyone’s expression remained neutral.

  “It’s hard to say. It’s like he’s a new vampire. We won’t know until he’s properly fed if it’s just normal newborn hunger or bloodlust. Same with the vampire, she’s struggling to control her wolf,” Judge Braxton explained with a disapproving frown.

  Another searing pain rocked through my skull, and I grabbed my head to try and dull the ache. “Fuck, why does everything hurt?” I groaned.

  Another glass of water was put in front of my face, and I looked up at Render in shock. He was helping me. Me. The Vo
id who wasn’t good enough for the dirt beneath his shoe.

  “If that’s holy water you’re trying to poison me with, I’m sorry to inform you that I’m not affected by it,” I said dryly while eyeing him with suspicion. It was like I’d woken up in an alternate universe where people actually cared about me.

  “Drink the damn water, Void. Using your powers drained you, and you need to hydrate,” he sneered. Ah, there was the asshole I knew and hated.

  I grabbed it from his outstretched hand, sloshing water over the rim and onto my clothes. I took a long sip before turning my attention back to my—doting?—mother. “So what now?”

  Everyone looked at one another as if daring someone to speak first. “Devicka, this changes things,” Mother said, looking at me with a strange expression on her face. “Now that you’re able to transfer powers, Judge Braxton wants to learn more about your abilities. This is really good for our family—for you.”

  I looked at Judge Braxton and suddenly saw a multitude of scenarios flooding his expression. I was a shiny new toy that he wanted to play with. As if it weren’t bad enough before, now he saw the chance that I could take powers away and give them to someone else. He was already scheming—I could see it in his beady eyes.

  Fuck. That.

  I shook my head. “I have no idea what I did in there. No idea how to control it. The Void has a mind of its own; I’m just a vessel. That should’ve proved it to you,” I argued.

  “Which is why we’ll train you.”

  “How?” I gaped. The council had never been open to allowing me any sort of training when it came to my power. They always said it was too dangerous for me to use it at all, unless under their strict supervision and direction.

  “We’ll send you to Thibault Academy,” Judge Braxton said simply.

  My mouth dropped open in shock. I couldn’t believe this. He wanted to send me to the academy? My brain couldn’t wrap around it. I shook my head. “Why was that shifter even intervening in the first place? Why did he cross through the barrier?”

  “He was involved romantically with the vampire,” Judge Braxton answered. “He intervened because he was hoping you could just take the bloodlust from her, not all of her powers. He also was not...prepared to deal with the level of pain it would cause her. He had impersonated one of our real guards and snuck in.”

  “Oh.” The fact that it had been her lover defending her made me feel like such a...villain. He’d only been trying to protect the person he loved from a monster.

  I looked down at my chest where the shifter had sliced my skin, noting the three long lines there, covered with dried blood and partially sliced through my t-shirt. Why was I always the villain, when all I ever tried to be was the hero?

  “We need to research your abilities, see what you’re fully capable of. Then the council can decide what to do with you. Until then, I want you to stay here.”

  I was about to open my mouth in protest when the door to his office suddenly slammed open. I flinched at the loud noise and gaped over at the man rushing into the room. He had shoulder-length blond hair like a mane and vibrant green eyes that were shrouded in fury.

  “Void!” he roared, surging forward.

  Hair pricked along his arms, his shifter animal trying to come out. I tried to scramble away from him, but I was too slow. Within seconds, he had me by the neck and was lifting me off the ground.

  I thrashed frantically, trying to get him to let me go, but his hold on me was too firm. His claws dug into my skin, and my windpipe was being crushed with his hold.

  “You fucking ruined him!” he screamed in my face.

  My feet were clear off the floor, so I tried to kick him, but his hips trapped mine before I could connect with his groin or shins. At his level of fury, it probably wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Shifters were strong, but this guy? I could feel the power rolling off of him like water rushing out of a broken dam.

  Guards came spilling in the room, but I was losing consciousness fast, black dots littering my vision.

  Three guards tried to grab him from behind, but he simply reached back with one hugely muscled arm and knocked them back, sending them flying backward. His strength was above and beyond any shifter I’ve ever heard of. He was massive, and his muscles were rippling, threatening to shift into whatever animal was kept beneath his skin. My amulet lay heavy around my neck, pulsing with his power. My Void was already hungry again—starving even—and this shifter’s power was like smelling freshly baked bread. Totally mouthwatering.

  “You turned him into a vampire! Give him back his animal!” he snarled at me, while I struggled to remain conscious.

  A blur rushed near me, and then the angry shifter was tossed aside, letting go of me in the process. I fell to my knees hard, my bones slamming against the tile and making me cry out in pain. I hacked and coughed, my breath coming down my throat in painful pulls.

  Mother reached down and tugged me up, keeping an arm wrapped around my arms so I wouldn’t fall again. Although it was shocking to have her touch me after years of no affection, I was too busy staring at the angry face-off happening between the shifter and vampire. Render had his fangs bared and was holding the shifter down by his throat, snarling at the powerful shifter like he wanted to rip out his throat.

  “Enough!” Judge Braxton shouted, but it did nothing to tame the feral men. The shifter knocked away Render’s hold and then lunged at him, punching him in the jaw before trying to get around him and back to me. It was obvious that this standoff wasn’t going to end well. I quickly unclasped my necklace, letting my amulet fall to the floor. Smoke immediately started to fill the room, and I held my hands up, causing everyone to freeze.

  “Stop fighting!” I yelled, though my voice was hoarse and painful. When the shifter turned toward me again, I panicked. “Stay back!”

  My smoke billowed out more, and the shifter froze, his green eyes flicking down to the way my hands were shaking. The Void wasn’t as powerful as before, but it could always eat, and it wanted a piece of him. “I don’t want to use this, but I suggest you calm the fuck down,” I ordered. “If you try to come at me, I will take your power.”

  The shifter straightened up, forcing his shift down like he wanted to tuck away his power where I couldn’t find it. Too bad it didn’t work like that. Like an idiotic asshole, he snarled, stepping toward me despite the smoke that was inching closer to him.

  “Change him back, or I’ll kill you,” he snarled.

  “I can’t!”

  “Wrong answer.”

  He lunged for me again, but my Void was faster.

  It barreled out of me, and then the Void was curling around his limbs, sucking his power and tempting me to take more. It spread from the shifter to Render, and then all the guards were fleeing the room with panicked shouts, and Braxton was backing up into the corner, staring with wide-eyed fear.

  “Put the damn amulet back on,” Render said, grimacing when my smoke started licking up his legs.

  “No. Not until I know no one is going to attack anyone else,” I said shakily.

  The shifter’s eyes pulsed with pure, wild hate as he watched me. Render was frozen, staring down at the Void’s smoke with revulsion. My smoke traveled around their feet, slipping up their legs and chests, testing the power they gave off. The shifter was just as impressive as Render and Quade.

  Judge Braxton was nothing to my Void—not with Render and the shifter present. Braxton’s power was like a hunk of raw, soggy cabbage in comparison to a five-star meal of the others. My mother wasn’t in any danger since she had no power that I hadn’t already devoured. When it curled itself away from her, she flinched, like a painful reminder that I’d already taken everything away from her.

  My Void continued to drink from them, and I gritted my teeth. Was this stubborn asshole actually going to let me drain him dry because he was too prideful to back off?

  My resolve was wavering, and I was just about to back off when he finally relented. “Fine,”
he gritted out, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

  I scrambled to my knees, my hands skimming over the floor, trying to see through the smoke where I’d dropped my necklace. When my hand finally brushed up against it, I snatched it up and pulled the chain over my head. The smoke immediately evaporated into me, and I gasped at the influx.

  Everyone stared at me as I tried in vain to catch my breath, their eyes in varying expressions. Hate. Wariness. Fear.

  “Gritt, explain yourself,” Judge Braxton demanded, coming forward to stand in front of the blond shifter.

  Gritt was eyeing my amulet like it was a loaded gun. “She has to answer for her crimes, according to shifter law. She stripped my brother of his wolf,” he said, and my stomach dropped.

  His brother? No wonder he’d attacked me.

  “I didn’t mean to,” I told him, crossing my arms and resisting the urge to touch my sore neck. “He attacked me. What does shifter law say about defending yourself? He crossed over the barrier. He should be thankful to be alive.”

  I felt Mother drop her hand on my shoulder, gripping tightly as if to wordlessly warn me to rein in my temper.

  “He was defending his mate,” Gritt...well, gritted. He was an embodiment of his namesake. Rough and rugged. Determined and strong.

  “You and I both know that he should be tried for interfering in council proceedings,” Judge Braxton intervened. “I suggest you leave this room before I strip you of your paragon status at Thibault Academy.”

  “And what about my brother?” Gritt demanded. “What will you do for him? He lost his animal! To a shifter, that’s worse than death. Our animals are a part of us.”

  “I was developing a plan before you stormed in here,” Judge Braxton fired back. “We’re working on understanding her new powers. We will try to get your brother’s animal back, but in the meantime, try not to piss off the vampire community. You have to work alongside each other,” he said, looking between him and Render.

  Gritt put his eyes back on me, flicking down once only to give my amulet another passing glance. Then he turned on his heel, shoving past Render, and stormed out of the room. I slumped slightly as soon as he was gone, letting my hand trail over the spot on my neck where his claws had cut into me.