by Coralee June
“My people are advanced and meticulous. Most of our kind has been a spearhead for technological advances. Why not flaunt it? We enjoy the fruits of our wealth.”
I snorted. “The fruits of your wealth? Geez, listen to you. You sound like you’re already sitting on the council.”
His face turned stony. “I’m a paragon. What did you expect?”
I shrugged as we walked, looking up at a place called Bend and Blood. The storefront sign had flashing lights around an exotic dancer with a bloody neck. Classy.
“I expected you to still act your age. You’re attending the academy, right? So that puts you at nineteen, not a hundred.”
Render pressed his lips into a thin line while I continued to enjoy the scenery. I’d probably never be back here, so I wanted to soak it all in. For the most part, you couldn’t really tell that the people walking by us weren’t human, except that they were all oddly beautiful and moved with graceful fluidity that came from years of immortality. They were pale, but most of them didn’t walk around with their fangs out, so it just seemed like this city had been blessed with extra beauty chromosomes. Their trends in wardrobe might’ve made some humans pause, but honestly, they made capes look good.
“Why did we come here anyway?” I asked, ducking past an older male vampire who seemed to sniff the air as I went by.
“Headquarters. Since this is a vampire issue, the council agreed to meet here. It was safer than transporting the female. If she got out in her state...” Render’s words trailed off. I observed him for a moment, noting the anguish in his frowning lips and the way he kept brushing his hands through his dark hair in a nervous tic.
He didn’t need to explain further. Vampires cursed with bloodlust could take out entire cities if left unchecked. They went mindless with thirst, losing all sense of themselves in the process. It was a terrible sickness that their kind caught, and although it was rare, it still happened. Usually, they had to be put down.
“You don’t seem happy that the council is meeting here,” I pointed out.
“I just hate these council meetings,” he replied in a moment of honesty. Maybe the Vampire Paragon wasn’t so bad after all. “I also don’t want to be seen with you. It’s bad for my reputation,” he added.
Nope. The guy was a total asshole.
Vampires strolled past us as we made our way down the busy city sidewalk, many of them stopping to talk to Render or smiling at him when they saw his face. He looked a bit embarrassed by the attention, which surprised me. He seemed like the type of arrogant male who would enjoy this kind of fanfare, but I guess not. Whether he liked it or not, Render was someone important to them. Even being as young as he was, he seemed to have mastered the politically polite smile.
“Render, I didn’t hear that you were back!” A woman walked up, greeting him with a bright smile. She had sharp teeth and a toddler on her hip who was busy shaking a rattle shaped like bones. Her long, floral dress clung to her beautiful curves, and she had a slight accent that I couldn’t place.
Render stopped to talk to her, and they exchanged polite pleasantries while I stood on the sidelines like a lost puppy. I was gawking at the electric cars as they passed by and men in suits who drank blood-infused coffee and walked to work using everything from hoverboards to town cars, and even flashed by with their super-speed.
“You’re almost done at the academy,” the woman was saying.
Render plastered on a smile. “I’ll be glad to graduate and take my seat on the council. Will you be attending the council ball that we’re hosting this year?” he asked in a warm voice.
“Of course! Wouldn’t miss it,” she replied before bouncing the child on her hip. She was beautiful like most vampires. With bright blue eyes and a calming voice, I found myself feeling envious of the adoring way she stared at her baby. Had my mother ever been that way with me? I squeezed my eyes shut at the question, but the memory of that one night—the night it all went wrong—came crashing to the forefront of my mind.
“Goodnight, Devicka,” Mom’s sweet voice said as she leaned over to kiss my forehead. She’d done this every night since I was born. Her soft lips landed on my skin, but just as she did, I felt my skin buzz at the contact. Black, thick smoke started to fill the room, and I jerked back in surprise.
“Mom?” I called out, suddenly scared.
She pulled away and grinned. “Oh, honey! You must be getting your powers! It’s finally time!” She gripped my hands, holding me steady as her eyes filled with moisture. More smoke covered our skin, licking me with an unfamiliar hunger as it flowed like waves over her.
“Mom? Something doesn’t feel right,” I gritted while trying to jerk my hands back, but she kept her grip firm.
“Give in to your powers, Devicka. Let them come out.” Her eyes twinkled with joy, but the buzzing intensified. A dark, churning hunger rose up inside of me, and my teeth chattered, jarring my skull. I tried to pull away again, but she was latched on so tightly, looking around the smoke with wide eyes. “It must be fire element. That’s what the smoke is,” she said. “Unless...unless you’re inheriting your father’s demon powers.” I could tell that thought didn’t please her based on the way her lips turned down in a frown.
“I’m hungry, Mom,” I whispered, but my voice didn’t feel like mine. It seemed darker somehow. Aged and needy. I didn’t quite feel like myself.
“Devicka…”
Mom’s face began to pale, and her grip on my arms suddenly went limp. More and more black smoke surrounded her, filling up my entire room. She fell then, like a crumpled tissue tossed to the floor, and my eyes widened in horror.
“Mom? Mom!” I screamed while shaking her shoulders, smoke curling into my hair as I tried to wake her up.
She began convulsing as my smoke ate her up, wrapping around her like a snake. I couldn’t see. Couldn’t hear. The only thing I sensed was a glow within me, absorbing nourishment with a steady gulp as I fed my newfound hunger. A hunger I’d live with for the rest of my life.
Somehow, in my panicked, innocent mind, I’d put together enough thought to realize that I was the one hurting her. I ran away from her then, taking my smoke with me. By the time my bare feet pounded down the pavement of the street, and the moon’s watchful eye followed me, it was too late. I’d already drained her of her elemental power, and her love went with it.
“I’m thankful to be representing the community as a paragon,” Render suddenly said, drawing me out of my painful memories. I snapped my attention back to him, blinking away my dark thoughts. I told myself a long time ago not to revisit that night. There was nothing I could do to change the outcome now. Mom was powerless, and it was all my fault.
“Little Luca is getting big,” Render added. He was looking at the child with a softness that I didn’t expect. After how rude he’d been, I wondered if he had to force himself to be kind or if this was his norm, and his cruelty was only reserved for me. I was pretty sure it was the latter.
He went to ruffle the toddler’s hair, but the kid bit his finger, nipping Render’s skin on contact. Render and the mother both laughed like it was adorable for this fanged baby to draw blood.
When I grimaced at the sight, the mother’s eyes flicked over to me. “You brought a pet to our city, Render?”
Render chuckled. “No, ma’am. I don’t keep pets. Especially not her kind.” My face heated in embarrassment while the woman laughed. “We’re just here on council business.”
The woman wrinkled her nose. “I can’t place her scent. What is she?” she asked curiously, talking about me as if I weren’t standing right there.
“She’s late is what she is. We’d better go. It was good to see you, Ivy.”
“Of course. Tell your mother I’ll stop by and see her.”
“I will.”
They did those cheesy cheek kisses that I’d only seen in movies, before she went on her way, talking to her toddler as she headed to a blood bank shop that advertised exotic animal blood. The
further we walked, the busier the streets became, and the more looks were cast my way. It was disconcerting, the way everyone looked at me.
“Isn’t there a less populated way to get there?” I asked through gritted teeth.
Render rolled his eyes. “No.”
It was clear that humans weren’t usually in the city unless inside a blood bank, and although I wasn’t a human, they knew I wasn’t one of them. The sneers and leers that I kept getting were enough to make me step closer to Render, although I had no idea why. It wasn’t like he’d do anything to protect me.
“Scared?” he asked with a smirk when I bounced against his arm.
Yes. “No.”
“Don’t worry, Void. We don’t eat on the streets like common rats.”
Everyone on the street came to a sudden, silent halt. Vampires everywhere turned to look at me.
Void. Void. Void.
The whispers spread out like shaking out a sheet, the air catching it and ripping it all the way down.
“Why did you do that?” I whispered frantically. This time when I sidled up to Render, I didn’t step away again even when our arms touched. I was on a darkened street with hundreds of vampires—predators of the fiercest, most ruthless variety, and now that they knew what I was, they looked at me like they were getting ready to grab the pitchforks and run me out of the city.
“What is the Void doing here?” one person called out, their voice high-pitched with worry.
“Oh gods, she’s going to steal our powers!”
Vampires started flashing away, too quick for my eyes to follow.
“Get her away!”
“My baby! Charles? Charles, get away from her!”
“Kill her before she can destroy us!”
Yeah. This is pretty much how it always went.
“Godsdammit,” Render muttered under his breath. “We should’ve hurried.”
He started moving us away from the wide-eyed crowd. I knew it was only a matter of seconds before someone made a move against me. Fear made people do violent things.
“You’re the one stopping to kiss babies and rub elbows,” I hissed. “You should’ve flashed ahead and let me get there on my own instead of calling me a Void in the middle of the damn street and freaking out a city full of lethal vampires!”
More were talking louder now, creeping closer to us despite me using Render as a full-body shield.
He jerked his head to look at me with a wide, menacing look on his face. “You want me to flash? Fine.”
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 no
ticed 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.
When my eyes met Quade’s again, a mean smirk had formed on his plush lips. He obviously liked knowing that I was struggling to compose myself. Our childhood was spent with him one-upping everything I did, and it seemed that hadn’t changed even after I was exiled from my community and my home. He’d already taken my mother and my position, but I guess it wasn’t enough. He wanted to take away my pride, too.
“You two know each other?” Render drawled at my back.
His voice made me jump, and the movement caused Quade’s attention to flick over my shoulder to him. Quade’s eyes briefly took in Render’s scowl, but he didn’t greet the broody vampire. “I’m the Elemental Paragon, Devicka,” he explained in a condescending voice to me, answering my earlier question. “We’re required to attend things like this. It’s supposed to help prepare us for when we take our seat on the council. I’m nearly graduated from Thibault Academy now, did your mother tell you?”
I barely stopped myself from rolling my eyes. I wondered if he realized what an ass he sounded like when he bragged about himself in normal conversation. Was he saying it to boost his own ego, or did he just like letting me know that he was living the life designed for me? I had always wanted to attend Thibault Academy, and he knew it. When I was little, Mother used to tell me all about when she’d attended. The instructors, the grounds, the magic she learned, and the friends she’d made. The campus was gorgeous too, and it was every supernatural’s dream to attend, but of course, I was stuck living with humans at Mrs. Coxcomb’s School for Troubled Girls instead.
Oh well. At least I had Reed.
“Congratulations. I’m sure it’s easier for you to kiss my mother’s ass now that you’re working together officially.”