Void(44)

“Render, what a pleasant surprise,” I answered, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

He pushed past me, walking inside the cabin, running his fingers through his dark, floppy hair.

“Sure, come on in,” I said dryly, shutting the door again and watching as he paced around the cabin.

He looked like a caged animal, each step causing the floorboards to creak. He wasn’t in his suit from the ball or his academy uniform, and instead was wearing wrinkled jeans that looked like he’d grabbed it from the dirty laundry and a black band t-shirt boasting the popular vampire rock band, Let’s Suck. The red rims lining his eyes made me wonder if he got any sleep last night, and some darker part of me thought of the beautiful bitch, Blaire, draped over his arm. Maybe they’d been up all night and helped each other out of their formal clothes.

He finally stopped in his tracks, spinning around to look at me, his face intense and his eyes holding an edge of anger. “Why can’t I stop thinking about your blood?” he asked me, repeating his earlier question. “Really. Tell me the godsdamned truth, Void. Did you curse me with bloodlust or something?” he asked, picking at his arm like his veins were burning. He looked like an addict dying for his next hit. It was jarring to realize that the hit he craved was...me.

I frowned at him. “Considering I don’t have magical abilities, didn’t sacrifice a Gremlin, and didn’t steal a lock of your pubic hair for the incantation, no. No, I didn’t.”

Most of the time, bloodlust was just a nasty sickness, but it could be recreated with a powerful enough magic wielder. Magic wielders were few and far between though. Almost as rare as Voids.

He went deathly still. “If you didn’t, then why the fuck do you know how to create the curse?” he demanded, his eyes wide in horror.

I chuckled at his ridiculousness. “You’d be surprised what I know. My father is a risk demon who loves to tell secrets, and my mother once led the elemental council,” I replied with a proud grin. I enjoyed catching the paragons off guard.

Render flashed closer to me, making the laugh die in my throat. My breath caught when he wrapped his warm fingers around my throat, squeezing me in a manic way. His steely gray eyes were intent on the vein in my neck. “I just need another taste. I had dreams about you all fucking night,” he said quietly, his voice carrying surprise and frustration, even as his gaze glittered with want at my pulse.

I swallowed hard, struggling to keep calm. He was too strong, gripping me a bit too tightly. Once again, my damn amulet was like a beacon, reminding me that he was dripping with power, and my Void always liked a good meal. Especially from the paragons. Ever since I’d had a taste from Gritt, it’s like my Void knew what real power tasted like. In a way, I understood Render’s craving.

His eyes flicked down to the glowing mass of orange coming from my amulet, before rising up again to meet my gaze. I felt hot all over, and when his thumb brushed lightly over my skin, I couldn’t stop the shiver that travelled down my spine, landing deep in my gut.

“Seems you’ve got a taste for Void blood,” I replied with a cough once he loosened his hold on my neck slightly. “Guess it’s not dirty like you keep saying it is. Or maybe...you just like it a little dirty,” I added with a smart ass smirk, because I obviously had a death wish.

Render’s eyes narrowed, and then quicker than I could follow, he flashed across the room, lifted up my desk chair, and smashed it against the wall. I squealed in surprise, ducking as splinters of wood exploded behind me. Eyes wide, I watched him, heart beating wildly at the chaos threatening to erupt out of him. Maybe he really did have bloodlust. If that was the case, I needed to get out of there right now.

I held my hands up placatingly as he started to pace around again, and all of the previous humor I’d felt was replaced with worry. “You need to calm down, Render,” I said. “When was the last time you fed?”

“Last night,” he spat, shoving his hands through his hair as he walked. “Blaire came to my room, and we fed and fucked and then fed some more.”

My nose wrinkled in distaste. It shouldn’t have affected me, but imagining him with his teeth in someone else’s neck, with blood coating his perfect skin made a tide of jealous anger wash up into my stomach.

What the hell was wrong with me? Why was I so drawn to the men that were bad for me? I didn’t want to be one of those girls—the type that were attracted to the bad boys for the sake of being bad. Or for the sake of thinking that they would be different for me. That they would soften for me. But there was something about these damn paragons that made it impossible not to want them. Maybe it was the Void at work. Maybe it recognized their massive power and made me attracted to them.

“Then you should be satisfied,” I replied, trying to keep my voice steady.

His eyes flickered down my bare legs and the small slice of pale skin exposed by my tank top. Obviously, he’d just noticed what I was wearing. Rolling my eyes, I strutted over to my small dresser and pulled open the drawer to put on some more clothes. This was starting to feel like deja vu. All the paragons had no problem looking at me like I was a tasty treat, but they still treated me like I was no better than the dirt covering the floor of this damn cabin. Once I had jeans and a t-shirt on, I turned to face him again.

“That’s the thing,” he said, looking at me like he could still see my panties. “I should be full. Sated in every way.” He stepped closer to me, and I took a step back, pressing against the dresser behind me. “Unlike you, I learned how to control my cravings a long time ago. I don’t let them control me. So explain to me why, when I was dick-deep in perfect vampire pussy, all I could think about was the way you moaned into my mouth when I sucked the blood from your lips last night?”