by Coralee June
His words wrapped around me, bolstering my timid hope. Slowly, I nodded. “Okay. I’ll try.”
He smiled, and I think it was the first genuine smile anyone had given me besides my human best friend, Reed. That handsome smile lit me up inside, thawing pieces that I didn’t think could ever feel warm again.
“Good girl,” he said, looking around the wide-open space. “Now, no one else is around except for us. When I say so, I want you to drop your amulet. Your Void will probably rush out because it’s starved, but I want you to imagine yourself tossing reins over it and controlling its movements. You direct where it goes. You control whether it retreats or advances. And only with your direction can it feed.”
I swallowed hard, trying to hide my shaking hands in my skirt before eyeing Gritt. He was leaned over on the bench, resting his forearms on his thighs, eyeing us with curiosity. “What if it goes for Gritt, and I can’t stop it?” I asked. I watched Gritt’s mouth part in shock, like he was surprised that I didn’t instinctually want to steal his powers.
“I’ll be here to stop you, don’t worry. I won’t let Torne’s prized shifter go powerless,” he replied easily while circling back to face me.
“You mean if I don’t suck you dry first.”
A mischievous smile curved across his lips, and my face heated when I realized what I’d said. When he noticed my mortification, he chuckled. “Not to worry, Miss Cainson,” he murmured, my name sounding like a sinful treat. “I’m not afraid to be sucked dry by a pretty girl. But maybe we should save that for behind closed doors, yes?”
The heat from my face immediately dropped like a lead weight, going straight to my core. A supernatural man was flirting with me. Me! The Void. I was so shocked that I could have been knocked over with a feather.
Gritt grumbled something under his breath that I couldn’t catch.
“But,” Banner continued, raising his voice and returning his tone to his usual cheer, “if you feel like your Void is coming for me, you will simply put your amulet back on. Agreed?”
“Agreed.”
“Good. Now let’s see you in action.” Banner held his hand out to me, his fingers brushing my stomach slightly and causing another shiver to travel up my spine. Biting my lip, I let the amulet drop into his palm, and he snatched it up with finesse, pocketing it with a grin as my smoke started to spill out around me.
Black tendrils of the Void started to surround Banner, but instead of latching around him like usual, it stopped up against an invisible barrier. I breathed out a breath, a smile surfacing. Thank the gods.
Banner smiled too, and I saw the hint of relief that crossed over his features. For all of his outward confidence that he’d been trying to reassure me with, he’d been nervous, too. “Perfect,” he purred. “Now, how are you feeling?” he asked me while tipping his head to the side, observing me with his dark eyes and beautiful smile. Hunger like a harsh punch was hitting me over and over again, making every inch of me coil up with acidic pain.
“It’s hungry. It hurts,” I replied through clenched teeth. “It hurts a fucking lot.”
“Probably because you chain it up like a rabid animal all the time. But you are holding it back.”
He was right. I was holding it back. Sweat broke out over my brow and back, and my entire body was shaking with restraint, but I was actually holding it back. I’d always had my necklace, and the only times I’d ever removed it were for trials at the council, so I’d never even known I could hold it back. As exhausting as it was, I also felt a new sense of empowerment.
“Good,” Banner commended, circling around me. My smoke hit his own barrier everywhere he stepped. “You’ll have to accept your Void so you can learn to work in-tandem with it,” he said calmly, watching my smoke with interest. “But you’re stronger than you think. Look at the amount of control you’re already showing.”
I would have beamed if it wasn’t taking every ounce of willpower and concentration I had to keep the Void from lashing out.
“You’re doing wonderfully,” he said, coming to stop at my side. “Now I want you to turn its attention to Gritt. Let’s see if you can feed the Void without letting it drain someone completely.”
I let out a shaky breath, and Gritt launched to his feet, eyes wide. “No fucking way.”
“Relax, shifter,” Banner said. “I won’t let her take your powers. But I have a theory.”
“Well, I’m all fucking ears,” Gritt snapped.
Banner regarded his displeasure with amusement before turning back to me. “My theory is that you need to feed your Void. Stop starving it. It exists for a purpose, and I think we all realize, since what happened at the trial, that it’s more than just voiding out powers. Perhaps the Void is always draining people completely simply because you’ve been starving it all along. Let’s see what happens when we try to feed the beast.”
It sounded so simple, but I knew it was anything but. I wrung my hands together. “I don’t know…”
“I’ll be right here to intervene if it comes to that,” Banner assured me quietly.
My eyes flicked over to Gritt, whose hands were in fists. “You’re not using your fucking powers on me.”
“Fine, then leave,” Banner said before I could even open my mouth. “And get us someone with bigger balls than you.”
My eyes widened at Banner’s words, and the two men stared each other down. Gritt was seething. If there was one thing that you didn’t insult a shifter on, it was their fearlessness. But I had a feeling that was why Banner did it in the first place.
After letting out a low growl, Gritt shot me a dark look. “Don’t you dare take anything that doesn’t belong to you,” he said with a curse while crossing his arms across his chest.
Another wave of agony coursed through me as I continued to hold back my power. The Void was pissed off. The smoke looked like jaundiced tar and was churning with want and fury. Sweat rolled down my temple and gathered in the crook of my neck. I raised my hand to better control it, and then slowly, I started to loosen the reins.
My smoke shot out like a bullet toward Gritt, and he flinched back. The black Void wrapped around him, sucking his power out in a rush. I started to panic, my shaky hold faltering, but Banner was immediately there, standing in front of Gritt and shoving the Void back.
My eyes were wide with alarm, but Banner held his hands up in a soothing manner. “It’s alright. Take a deep breath, Miss Cainson. I want you to rein it back in.”
“I can’t,” I shuddered, nearly in tears. It hurt so much. I couldn’t hold it back for much longer. It was taking over me, pummeling me with a thousand punches that I felt in my blood and bones.
Banner stepped in front of me, his hands clasping my arms. My Void instantly receded, and I took a huge, gasping breath. Sweat was soaking my shirt now, and my limbs hung loosely, feeling bruised all over. “Breathe, Devicka,” he said, my name sounding like a prayer on his lips.
I mimicked his inhales until my breathing evened out, my eyes locked on his. “Good girl,” he praised. “I’m going to let go now.”
“No,” I pleaded, my bottom lip quivering.
“Shh, it’s alright. I’m not leaving. But you are going to try again, and this time, you aren’t going to let it lash out. Remember—you are the master of your power; it is not the master of you. Show it who’s boss.”
He carefully released his hold on me and stepped away again. I gritted my teeth, but this time, when it tried to shoot out toward Gritt, I snapped on the reins, both hands outstretched, and I forced it to go slow.
“Good. Now let it slowly feed. Just a bit.”
My hands shook with the effort, and I was sure that I was going to collapse after this, but a few wispy tendrils went forward at my direction, twirling around Gritt’s legs. It trailed up his muscular thighs, dancing across his hips, his abs, and lastly his face. I poured all my focus into reining it in. I felt like I was playing tug of war with my soul, yanking backwards as it stretched me thin.
>
“Go touch him,” Banner ordered, and I snapped my gaze back to him, my hair floating around me as I spoke.
“No,” I whispered. “I’m barely containing it as it is.” I knew that the moment I touched his skin, I’d be swallowed up with need. I wouldn’t be able to stop.
A smack of hunger coursed through me. It was the Void’s distaste of my refusal. It wanted me to put one foot in front of the other and tackle the Shifter Paragon and consume him whole.
“Do it. I won’t let any harm come to either of you,” Banner promised as he swatted at a tendril of smoke trying to graze across his chin.
“If you fuck up, I’ll tear you to shreds, neutralizer,” Gritt promised as he looked warily at the smoke that hovered all around him.
My feet reluctantly pounded on the wood planks of the platformed gazebo to move toward him. My smoke was hanging in the air like a weight, greedy in nature, eager for me to make the last connection.
Banner moved behind me, keeping a close distance as I positioned myself in front of Gritt. The Void’s hunger was bitter and kept grinding me down, withering me away into nothing but the all-encompassing Void. Lifting my fingers up, I gently pressed them to the edge of Gritt’s jaw, keeping as little surface area between us as possible, but still closing the distance between us.
It felt divine. But with the neutralizer at my back, I was able to discern that it felt wrong, too. Gritt went weak, his eyes rolling back in his head with just a tentative touch. I watched him for a moment, lost in the Void and lost in myself. Then I felt jerked by an unfamiliar pain, a sadness building deep in my gut. I didn’t want to hurt him.
“Enough,” I said, snapping the Void back. To my relief and pride, it retreated immediately.
I half expected the broody shifter to cuss me out for nibbling on his power, but instead, Gritt’s eyes widened in a blended expression of awe and need. He lifted his hand up to touch me, like the Void was too seductive to resist. I took a step back and crashed into Banner’s chest, who remained solid and infallible behind me. His cheek brushed along mine for half a second as he leaned forward to watch Gritt’s response to the Void.
“Interesting,” Banner murmured.
“What?” I asked, frowning at Gritt’s expression. “Gritt? Are you okay?”
He looked drunk. High. Not himself at all. Maybe I’d taken too much after all, maybe he was hurt, or maybe I—
“Look at his reaction,” Banner said, cutting off my train of thought. “It’s like he...enjoyed it. Like he wants more.”
As if he weren’t hearing our words at all, Gritt reached out and splayed his hand over my chest, his fingers dipping just under the collar of my shirt and warming the skin there. It felt erotic and wrong, but the connection immediately made my Void come surging back. It created a livewire of smoke to flutter like ghosts between us. His expression had gone dark and hungry, his eyes nearly black. Tawny hair started covering his arm, and his teeth bared with predatory presence.
Gritt was leaning forward, licking his lips and staring at me with hunger, and my smoke continued to swirl around us, feeding in gentle sips that I never knew it was capable of. It felt amazing. Like drinking warm tea after a cold day. It wasn’t devouring in the all-encompassing and terrifying way like usual. It wasn’t uncontrollable. This was different. This felt right. As if I’d always meant to feed my Void this way, and by the look on Gritt’s face, he was feeling a similar sense of pleasure that I was. That...that was weird. My Void powers always hurt other supers. But Gritt was enjoying it. It didn’t make any sense.
“What’s happening?” I asked as a glow started to cover his skin. I watched, transfixed, as the glow started spreading to my chest where he was still touching me.
“Oh, shit,” Banner whispered, but I barely heard him. I was too lost in Gritt’s stare and the warmth of his palm. Too caught up in the Void’s pleasure and the smoke that curled around our glowing bodies.
I felt a hand creep around to my stomach from behind and delve under my shirt, as Banner’s palm connected with my skin. He pushed his cooling, neutralizing powers into me, and just like that, the connection was cut off. My smoke disappeared and Gritt’s whole body shuddered as his hand dropped, and he staggered back. He shook his head and looked at me like he was struggling to clear a haze. I was panting, my heart racing way too fast, utterly exhausted but oddly...invigorated, too.
After blinking a few times, Gritt’s expression flitted from shock to anger. “What the fuck just happened?”
Banner dragged his hand along my stomach, resting it against my hip. “You were about to mark Devicka as your mate.”
Gritt’s eyes zeroed in on Banner’s hand, and a growl escaped his lips. When he realized what he’d done, Gritt immediately cut off the growl and scowled at us. “Impossible. There’s no way any of my animals would want to mate with the fucking Void!” he spat.
I was too stunned to speak. Shifter mate bonds were usually uncontrollable. It was based on compatible powers, and once the bond was complete, they were shared for life. Bonds were rare and random, but completely indescribable. Anyone would be lucky to earn the devotion of a shifter. Of course, it would be my luck to get saddled with one that hated me.
“Well, you were about two seconds from marking her, so I suggest we not use you as target practice anymore. Her Void is obviously too tempting for you.”
“Bullshit,” Gritt replied.
Banner shrugged. “I’ve seen shifters mark their mates before. The fact that you don’t remember it just proves that one, or possibly all, of your animals have accepted her as an acceptable mate despite your ridiculous prejudice. They were in the driver’s seat. So if you don’t want this to happen, I suggest you keep your distance. I barely stopped it in time.” Banner shot me a grin. “I’ll happily train her without you.”
Gritt’s eyes flashed with that catlike reflection, but there was an indiscernible look on his face. “No way. You’re wrong. I’d never mate with a Void, especially one that hurt my own damn brother.”
I shouldn’t feel disappointment, but I did. The fact that Gritt was so eager to dismiss me made my heart drop into my stomach and settle into the acid churning there. But I learned long ago to roll with the punches, and the refusal of a mate bond was one punch I’d expertly dodge.
I cleared my throat. “I’m sure it was a fluke,” I said, my voice shaky. “The Void is...tricky. No need to risk it though. I’ll just work with Banner from now on.”
His canines elongated. “The fuck you will,” he snapped, but he immediately caught himself, shock crossing over his features. My own brows shot up in surprise too. Was that possessiveness in his tone?
He swallowed hard and fisted his hands at his sides. “My purpose as paragon of the shifters is to be primed to become leader of my people one day. That means that I don’t back down, and I sure as shit don’t send in another shifter in my place for you to attack.”
My lips thinned. “I’m not attacki—”
“Let the other paragons deal with you for the rest of the day,” he said, cutting me off. “As of right now, my turn is done.”
He turned on his heel and jumped over the handrail of the gazebo, landing nimbly on his feet. He stormed off, looking over his shoulder at me once before increasing his speed and disappearing from view.
“His loss,” Banner said quietly before withdrawing his hand. A blanket of smoke filled the area at the loss of his neutralizing powers. “Now let’s keep practicing.”
Chapter 9
I lay down on the ground to try to catch my breath. Everything hurt. Everything.
A thick sheen of sweat covered my body, and it was taking everything I had not to roll over and vomit up my entire breakfast.
“I think we’re done for the day,” Banner said while brushing off his hands on his pants and eyeing me. “Do you need help?” he asked.
“I need a shower. And some food. And about fourteen days of sleep,” I groaned while stroking the amulet now firmly clasped a
round my neck.
“I can take you up to your dorm room,” Banner offered before sitting down next to me, crossing his legs at the ankles.
“I’m not staying in the dorms. Headmaster Torne put me in the feral cabin,” I said, running the back of my hand across my forehead to wipe off the sweat that had gathered there.
I was a disgusting, soggy mess, but I was too exhausted to care. Banner had me practice all day. Mostly he had me hold the Void back for long periods of time, but he also had me practice letting it out and then pulling it back in again, which was harder. I’d done that over and over and over again until my body shook so hard I looked like I was seizing, and the pain and effort had caused black dots to appear in my vision. My shirt was lifted up slightly from my position on the ground, and if Banner weren’t here, I would’ve stripped off my sweat-drenched clothes and let my fevered skin rest against the cool grass.
“They’re making you stay in the feral cabin?” Banner asked incredulously.
“Mm-hmm. I don’t want to brag, but it’s like a five-star resort,” I replied sarcastically before squeezing my eyes shut.
“Come on then, Miss Cainson. Let’s get you there before you melt on the ground,” he said, rising to his feet.
Taking a breath, I rolled over onto my side before pushing myself up. I had to stop at my kneeled position with my hands on my knees and my feet tucked beneath me before I could find the strength to stand. As soon as I did, I swayed on my feet.
Banner’s arms caught me immediately, his grip firm around my waist. “Steady,” he said, his mouth against my ear.
His nearness made my breath catch, but I tried to push him away. “I’m gross with sweat.”
“I’d never use the term gross to describe you.”