Void(15)

“There’s no need to pull weapons on her,” Render seethed.

The guards ignored him, dragging her the rest of the way in and then securing her to the bolted hooks in the ground. When one of the shifters yanked her arm back painfully rough, Render flashed forward and shoved him out of the way. Taking the woman’s arm gently, he finished attaching her chains to the floor, his mouth moving with quiet words of comfort.

I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but it seemed to calm her down some. I knew that some of the more powerful vampires had the gift of influence and that they could lead their people with short bursts of hypnosis. It never lasted long, but it was good for calming down other vamps. I wished that it had long-term effects because then I wouldn’t be forced to strip this poor woman of her powers. It wasn’t her fault that she was cursed with bloodlust. It was a nasty disease, claiming a vampire’s mind with the overwhelming need to feed, making her forget everything else. I wondered if she had a family, friends, a job...but then I had to push all of that out of my mind. If I let myself think about all of that, I wouldn’t be able to get through this.

As soon as the guards and Render stepped away from her, she slumped on the ground. The calming effect Render had put on her wore off in seconds, and she started kicking and screaming, yanking on the chains so hard I was sure she would rip her limbs clean off.

Falling to the floor, she screeched wildly, snapping her teeth and salivating at the scent of warm-blooded supers in the air. She tried to claw at the tile, drag herself past the chains, but it was no use. Whatever magic those chains were infused with was strong.

When she tried to flash forward, the chains stopped her in her tracks, sending her flying back, smacking her head on the floor. Render moved to help her up, but she scratched at his face, drawing blood along his cheek. I flinched at the sheer power in her movements and wondered how I’d possibly get close enough to touch her. Render’s lips turned down in unhappiness as he watched her, and the woman started licking at his blood that she’d collected beneath her fingernails. Her tongue was like a serpent, lashing out to get every last drop.

I’d always been fascinated by the way vampires fed. Maybe because it reminded me of my own hunger. They craved blood the way I craved power. Humans believed that vampires were created, but they were actually born. They aged up until about forty and then settled into their immortality. That was another thing I was taking away from her today. Even if she didn’t die today, which was a very real possibility, once I took her powers, it meant she’d lose her immortality. She would age like a human and be vulnerable like a human. One day, she would die as a human, too. Just like my mother.

Render took another step back before looking over his shoulder at me. He nodded once before following the shifter guards as they walked off the platform, joining the council members behind the wall of glowing magic. Elementals stood on the north and south ends of the oval-shaped room with their hands raised up, and in seconds the shield was bolstered with a second layer of magic. They’d learned with past Voids that by combining all the elements, they could effectively repel a Void’s magic, but only for short amounts of time. The power block took a massive amount of magic from at least a dozen highly skilled elementals.

“The female vampire has been hereby charged with mass murder as a result of her uncontrollable bloodlust,” Judge Braxton intoned, his voice echoing around the room. “She is hereby found guilty, and the council has voted that her vampirism be taken away by force of Void.”

By force of Void.

Those words spin in my head until I grew dizzy with it. That was all I was. A punishment.

Everyone was watching me, and I hated that I had an audience. I wished no one was here to witness this poor woman in such a vulnerable state. I wish no one was about to see me feed, proving to them that I was the monster that they thought I was.

The female vampire looked around the room, her screams cutting off the judge’s words. Maybe a small part of her knew what was about to happen to her, despite the wild look in her eyes. She scratched at her face, dragging her long nails down her cheeks with a vengeance as her hair stuck to beads of sweat on her forehead. I glanced up at Judge Braxton, but he just looked down at her dispassionately, as one might watch a flailing rat.

Prick.

Once everyone was behind the shield, I took a breath and walked closer to the woman. The closer I got, the more my Void hummed against my amulet. I wanted to make this as painless and as quick as possible. Even though I had a personal rule for not getting to know my victims, I still thought it was important to look her in the eye as I did what I had to do. Guilt had a funny way of creating a routine. I always apologized to my victims. For what I was, for what I’d be stripping from them.

People feared me because their identity was wrapped up in their abilities. From day one, we were made to feel special for being born a supernatural being. We congregated in the groups of our breeds, listened to the histories of our people. Vampirism wasn’t just her ability, it was part of her soul. People would rather die than be stripped of what made them who they were. She’d be ostracized, she’d feel confused. Depressed. She wouldn’t exist the same way after this. She’d be no more than a human, and she’d hate it.

I knew all of this because I had to watch my mother endure the same fate.

Stopping, I kept far enough away that she couldn’t reach me, but as soon as I stopped in front of her, she locked her deadly feral eyes on me, and her fangs started dripping with saliva. “Blood,” she moaned while grasping at the air in an attempt to get to me. “Blood.”