Void(9)

Before I could even blink, he was picking me up and pressing me against his hard chest with a firm hold. I didn’t even have time to protest before he was flashing down the street, laughing with his bright, sharp teeth bared at the look of terror on my face.

The city was a blur as he darted through the crowd, and I felt my amulet vibrate against my chest. I wasn’t used to being touched, and I definitely wasn’t used to being flashed at super high vampire speeds. I screamed against his chest, feeling like the wind was going to squeeze the life out of me, my chest too weighed down for me to take a breath.

I screamed when I felt him jump, and then we landed with a hard thud that jostled the teeth in my skull. The sudden stop had me reeling, and Render set me down on a marble platform outside of a building that I was too damn dizzy to see properly. “You weren’t supposed to flash me!” I snapped while cradling my head in my hands. My blonde hair had unraveled from my messy bun and was a mass of waves around my face. My stomach roiled. The world spun. Flashing fucking sucked.

“Yep, I’m gonna puke,” I said before dry heaving at his feet.

“Disgusting.” He flashed out of the way, though nothing escaped my mouth. “Can’t even handle a little flashing.” He tsked before straightening his tie.

I straightened up while using the back of my hand to wipe the spit off my lips. When I looked up, he was standing smugly in front of the sleek black doors, smirking at me, like watching me wretch was getting him off.

“You’re an asshole,” I said before lunging forward, fists clenched like I was actually capable of punching him.

Vampires were stronger, faster, and more predatory than all the supernaturals, but I wanted to hit him so badly in that moment. Of course, my badass effect was dulled because I wavered on my feet from the nauseating speeds we’d just traveled. I might have been the daughter of a risk demon and an ex-elemental, plus a powerful Void in my own right who could suck the powers out of supernaturals, but apparently, I wasn’t capable of flashing with a damn vampire, because I nearly fell on my ass.

Two arms wrapped around me from behind before I could collapse. “Careful,” a warm voice said at my ear. I knew exactly who it was before even turning around. His voice would’ve sounded nice if it had been spoken by anyone except for him.

Quade fucking Sandwood.

Quade Sandwood was tall, dark, and handsome. It annoyed the shit out of me.

With dusky skin and a square face, he had a deceptive look to him that made it seem like he always carried a secret. I shrugged out of his grasp and turned around to scowl at him. As soon as he saw that it was me that he’d touched, his friendly face churned with anger, and he backed away. My eyes skated down his toned body, and I was disappointed to see just how beautiful he’d become with a bright smile and buzzed haircut that enhanced his shadowed jaw. It had been years since I’d last seen him.

Quade was a poster boy for supernatural breeding. He’d been named the Elemental Paragon as soon as he entered the academy at fifteen years old, and he would eventually fill the council seat. The council seat that had been meant for me.

My mother had been grooming me to take over her position when I was younger. That is, until the night my Void powers came out and I’d sucked out all of her elemental magic. She’d lost her council seat, and she’d hated me ever since. She was still respected in the community, so the council gave her some unofficial bullshit position, and then she’d turned around and started grooming Quade instead. It still made me grind my teeth.

Feeling steadier on my feet, I crossed my arms in front of me, as if that could block off Quade’s own perusal of my body. I felt vulnerable under his stare. There was a time that his parents and my mother had encouraged us into a friendship, hoping that it would grow from there. Before the Void took over, we were considered a perfect match. Descended from long and powerful bloodlines, our parents had dreams that we would one day unite our families and rule on the council together. But of course, all that changed the night my powers came out, and it was revealed that I was a Void instead of an elemental. His parents had pulled him out of my life faster than a dentist yanked out a rotten tooth. One day, we’d been friends playing in the yard, and the next, he’d sneered at me and said that everyone hated me, including him.

“Devicka,” Quade said with a nod as he shifted his weight between his long, muscular legs.

My skin still burned where he’d grabbed me. I felt a sick sense of unease at the contact. Supes knew better than to touch me since my powers worked best through skin-to-skin contact. And yet, both Render and Quade had done it in the last five minutes. My Void was going crazy. They were lucky my amulet worked so damn well. I might have to call my dad to give it some more juice after this. Although the amulet was spelled to keep my power inside of me, he infused it with his own demon power to bolster it every so often.

Forcing myself to stand up straight, I looked up at Quade. “What are you doing here, Quade?”

The question burst from my mouth before I could stop it, because of course he was here. All the paragons would be here on official council business. He was going to watch me suck the powers out of a crazed vampire, who I’d probably kill in the process. As if he didn’t hate me enough, now he was going to see my destructive powers in person. Goody.

Even with Render and Quade not touching me anymore, I still felt an intense prickling feeling from where they’d touched me, like tiny needles were being pressed into my skin. I looked down and noticed that my amulet was glowing too. I’d never felt anything like it before. My hunger must be at a new high. If I weren’t so damn prideful, I’d increase the distance between us even more. But if I backed away, they’d see it as some sort of power shift, like I was afraid of them, and I wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction.