Void(25)

My voice was strained, my throat fighting to not close up.

“You don’t have to like it,” he said back, his face looking angry.

I was flabbergasted. What the hell was he talking about?

“You think I wanted to be this?” I demanded, my anger now coming to a steaming, churning boil. “You think I wanted my life to be stripped away from me, to be hated by our own people? I didn’t ask for any of that, Quade. I was ten years old. I had my mother and my best friend taken away from me just like that.” I snapped my fingers, emphasizing my point.

He watched me warily like he hadn’t expected me to actually say my side. Well, fuck that. I was sick of swallowing my words. I wanted to scream my truth until my throat was raw.

“I cared about you, and you just abandoned me. I got shoved into a life with humans and was told that I would never be accepted by my own people. The council forbade me from practicing my powers at all. So before you give me your pretentious bullshit about fucking trying, maybe you should look in the mirror and ask yourself why you never bothered to try and fight for me,” I seethed. “I thought that we were best friends, but as soon as my Void manifested, that was done. You hated me, and I had to learn to hate you right back. So go on and keep hating me, but for fuck’s sake, don’t pretend that any of this is my fault.”

My chest rose and fell with quick breath, my entire body tense with hurt and anger. I never expected to say all of that to him. Hell, I’d never expected to say anything at all. But once I started, it all came pouring out.

My truth was long and painful, and words like this were usually only ever spoken inside the journal I wrote in. But he was here, and he felt so godsdamned familiar, yet totally foreign at the same time. He was my childhood and my estranged future all wrapped up into one package, and I couldn’t stand to hear his arrogant words for a single second longer.

He stared at me like he was possibly seeing me for the first time. Something indecipherable crossing over his features before it vanished again, but in that split second, the air around us shifted. He took a step forward, so small in movement that I wasn’t even sure at first if he’d actually done it. My breath caught, his throat bobbed, and my skin started tingling with something that had nothing to do with my Void’s hunger.

After all these years, I still missed him.

Another step forward, and he was just inches away, his steady breath mingling with mine. He lifted his hand, brought it close to my face, and I could feel the heat coming off of his skin even though he wasn’t even touching me.

And I wanted so badly to be touched. Aside from humans, it never happened. Supers left a wide berth around me, and I didn’t blame them. But even after having sensory overload from the past day, this was different. This wasn’t hostile or meant to intimidate or about a vampire craving blood. This was charged with attraction and want.

Quade’s eyes softened as they ran over my face. But just before his knuckles made contact with my cheek, he suddenly pulled away, like he was shocked that he’d been about to touch me with any sort of tenderness.

His nearly black eyes flickered down to my amulet before lifting up again, like it reminded him of why I should always be kept at a distance. As soon as his gaze met mine, I saw his expression harden once more into the arrogant, aloof bastard that he was. Whatever had been building between us was snapped apart, pieces of hope splintering at my feet.

“I don’t expect you to understand, Dev. But you’re still wrong.”

“About which part?”

“That, you’ll have to figure out for yourself,” he answered smoothly.

He turned and started walking away again, but this time, he was heading in the direction we’d just come from. “The feral cabin is a hundred feet that way,” he said, pointing through the thick trees. “Stay there until one of us draws the short straw and comes to escort you to breakfast tomorrow morning. Until then, I suggest you grow thicker skin. You’re gonna need it.”

He disappeared down the path, leaving me behind like he couldn’t wait to get away from me. It shouldn’t have hurt—not after all this time. But it did.





Chapter 6





The feral cabin was more like a shack. It had a squeaky twin bed with an impossibly thin, stained mattress. Chains attached to a metal wall were the only decor, and the bathroom only ran cold water, much to my dismay. I slept alright though. It wasn’t terrible, and if I was being honest, I was thankful to not have to share a room with someone that would ultimately fear and hate me.

My sleep schedule was completely off thanks to the draining experience, the time difference from being back in the US, and an overwhelming anxiousness that had settled in my gut. Unfortunately, I woke up totally disoriented and in a sheen of slick, cool sweat. And after tossing and turning for a couple of hours, I realized I wouldn’t get any more sleep until I ran off some of the energy building up within me. I was my father’s daughter, after all, and risk demons were notorious for having to blow off steam.

I’d always been like this. A product of my father’s demon bloodline. When I got anxious, the only thing that helped was getting an adrenaline rush. I was always climbing the tallest buildings, taking the largest leap. I couldn’t help it any more than my father could help feeding off the humans that he tempted. Taking risks was in my blood.