Void(16)

I swallowed, feeling that sinking sensation in my stomach. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered, but I wasn’t sure she could hear me over her groans. “I’m so, so sorry,” I said, this time louder, making sure everyone in the arena could hear, my voice a booming declaration. Maybe if they saw that I didn’t want to do this, they wouldn’t hate me so much.

I reached my hands up to the clasp of my necklace and slowly unhooked the chain keeping my power at bay. The amulet fell to the ground and bounced on the tile. As soon as it was off, excruciating hunger barreled through me like lightning striking out of a cloud. I bent over to clutch my stomach, feeling the angry hornet’s nest buzzing in my gut. I felt heavy and light all at once. Dizzy and aware. It was like finally feeling free, only to give in to the shackles of the Void. I became an instrument of hunger, a sharp weapon with tunnel vision on my prey.

I couldn’t hold it back. The Void burst out of me, filling the entire platform with black smoke. It rushed against the shield, bouncing off of it with a hiss. Then it turned, focusing on the feral vampire at my feet. I took careful steps closer and placed a finger on her cheek. It was a light touch, even though I wanted to mold her body to mine completely, to touch every inch of available skin so that I could feed that much more.

My black clouds swirled around her, and her screeches for blood turned to screams of fear. It started gnawing on her power the second it touched her skin. The female tried to get away, only to crash back down on her knees. Her arms thrust out in the shape of a cross. It seemed fitting—a sacrilegious sacrifice on stage for the world to see.

A single word escaped her lips as the bloodlust fled her body and awareness started to sink in. “No,” she cried.

I fleetingly wondered if I could turn off the Void now, if I had taken enough of her power and managed to just steal the bloodlust, without taking her vampirism with it. I dropped my finger and tried to pull the Void back, but I wasn’t strong enough to control it now that it had latched on. My amulet lay feet behind me, and I couldn’t move.

My mind screamed apologies at her, but my lips wouldn’t move. I was too hungry. My Void kept drinking from her, the cloud pulsing with every swallow. I began to shake with the adrenaline and struggle, every muscle in my body tensing. I didn’t want to like it, but gods, it felt so good to feed. It was like finally taking a gulp of air after holding my breath for years.

The woman stared up at me, her large eyes wide with terror and pain. It hurt when I took powers. It made them weak as I drained them. More and more of my black smoke surrounded us until that was all I could see. It filled her mouth. It covered her skin. It wrapped around her limbs and neck. It breezed through the strands of her hair. It was mesmerizing, beautiful, deadly.

I was so wrapped up in the Void, that I didn’t notice the figure moving behind me. But my Void sure as shit did.

It scented the delicious power approaching at my back, and its attention split, wanting to claim that, too. Hands wrapped around my throat, and my body was suddenly yanked back and tackled to the ground. The breath was knocked out of my lungs, and I tried to get away, but the super holding me was too strong. I felt myself grow numb to the violence and pain. The Void was taking over completely, protecting its capsule from the person trying to stop it. I was helpless to hold back the angry smoke that wanted to claim every last drop of power available to it. Like a whip, my smoke lashed out, and I looked up at the shifter straddling me, his hands wrapped around my neck with incredible strength. He probably would’ve snapped it by now if it weren’t for my Void that had wrapped around his arms. I could already feel it sucking in his incredible strength.

I drank deeply, my eyes rolling back in ecstasy as I felt his hands drop from my throat. He collapsed on top of me, and I felt myself smiling at him with famished menace and ravenous greed. The Void was in the driver’s seat now.

I watched him through a haze as his snarl faltered and his animalistic eyes dulled. But he was strong, and even as my power drained him, he managed to knock me away when I tried to reach out and touch him. The movement made my head smack against the floor with a hard crack on the back of my skull, and pain lanced through me like knives in my blood. My Void grew even angrier, and it began to pulse faster.

I heard shouting, but the voices were too far away, and a deeper, darker part of me knew that no one would intervene. There was no hope. I’d ruin him.

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.