Void(19)

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.”