Void

by Coralee June

  When we finally reached the exit and pushed our way outside, I blew out a puff of breath. Just once, I wanted to walk down a hallway without being watched like a bug under a microscope. The door had barely shut behind us when Quade suddenly gripped my arm. He tugged me to the side of the building until my back was pressed against the wall between two tall shrubs.

  I looked at him with wide eyes. “What are you doing?”

  Just like in Render’s room, his eyes dropped down to my mouth, but this time, he brought his hand up and traced a finger along my bottom lip. I stood, frozen, unsure what to do or what to think. Quade Sandwood was touching me. Voluntarily. He was looking at me like he missed me—almost a decade of longing was in his dark eyes. I didn’t understand.

  I pushed his hand away and crossed my arms, and I saw a flash of hurt cross his features before he dropped his hand and stuffed it into his pocket. “Sorry. I couldn’t help it.”

  “You guys are giving me whiplash. What happened to hating me? To trying to get me kicked out of school?” His eyes widened at that little morsel. “You’ve hated me since we were kids, Quade,” I reminded him angrily.

  He ran a frustrated hand over his dark buzzed hair before looking away. “I know. Fuck, I know, Dev.”

  “Then what are you doing? Why are you all acting so differently all of a sudden?” I demanded. “And what did you mean when you said your parents had been wrong about me?”

  He blew out a frustrated breath. “We’re acting differently because...we realized we were fucking wrong, okay?”

  I blinked at him, the words not registering. “Wrong?”

  “About you.”

  My brain hurt from all the conflicting thoughts that started to lash into me.

  “When I was little, my parents said that your Void had turned you feral. They told me that you admitted to wanting to steal my power.”

  “What?” My heart pounded behind my bones, scraping me raw. “I never—”

  “I know,” he cut me off. “I know that now. I...fuck. I was young, you know? I just always believed them. I had no reason not to. And it wasn’t just that one time. They’d come home from days at the council and tell me things…”

  I gritted my teeth. “What things?”

  He shook his head and looked down at his feet. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “Answer the question, Quade.”

  He glanced back up at me. “They’d tell me every time you were summoned to the council. They told me how you would laugh. That you would drain the supers of their power like you got high off of it, and that you’d ask for more. That you’d mock them openly and threaten anyone who even looked your way. They made you out to be a monster who revelled in stealing powers.”

  I was so angry that I turned red-hot, instantly slick with heat. “Why would they say that? And how could you believe that about me?”

  It hurt. It hurt a lot. I know we’d stopped being friends when we were little, but he should’ve known that wasn’t me. That wasn’t who I was.

  “They made it seem like the Void had taken over you. Changed you.”

  “You should’ve talked to me.”

  “They forbade me from speaking to you. They hadn’t even wanted me to be present during this last summoning, but they couldn’t stop it since all the paragons had to be present.”

  “Why would they lie?”

  He shook his head, at a loss. “I guess because they didn’t want me near you just in case…”

  “In case I accidentally took your powers.”

  He looked at me guiltily. “Yeah.”

  “Well, I’m glad you were able to finally see things for yourself,” I gritted before shoving him away and walking past him. I couldn’t look him in the eye and see how much he distrusted me. I couldn’t stand to hear how he’d blindly believed that I was a fucking monster despite everything we’d been through.

  “I wasn’t done talking!” he yelled at my back, but I just pushed faster. Pushed harder. I wanted to run from my problems, and it made me feel sick, too. Shouldn’t I want this? I’d been begging to be accepted from day one, but this acceptance came at a cost. It was shaky and unnerving to know that one wrong move could send the shaky foundation I was finally starting to build crumbling to the fucking ground.

  “Well, I’m done talking to you!” I screamed back over my shoulder.

  But then I felt hands grip me, and I was spun around, my body a whirlwind, helpless to stop his lips from crashing down on mine. His lips were hard and unyielding like he wanted to hold me hostage in a kiss. My arms came up around his neck, and I wrapped a hand around him, scratching his skin with my nails. We were like cold water dumped on sizzling coals. All steam and hisses.

  Quade poured every last regret upon my mouth, and I opened up to accept his guilt. I wanted to feel his pain as he seared his body to mine, the fire burning in my gut, mixing with the cool balm of his remorse.

  “Stop kissing me,” I moaned against his lips as my hands roamed his muscular body.

  “No,” he replied before threading his fingers through my hair and dipping me back to deepen the kiss. Tears streamed down my cheeks because this was all I’d ever wanted. All of a sudden, it felt like the Void wasn’t smoke or destruction—it was a wall that I’d built up around myself to protect me from rejection. But right now, Quade was inside those walls with me, and that scared the shit out of me.

  “Stop” I said, pulling back. I half-heartedly shoved against his chest, but we both knew it was for show. Using his free hand, Quade grabbed my hips, bracing me against his hard body, holding me still so that I’d accept his apology.

  “I’m so fucking sorry, Dev.”

  His words burned up my eyes and choked up my throat.

  He moved in to kiss my neck, when a rustling in the trees behind me caught his attention. We both looked over to check, and to my utter mortification, I saw my father, in all his demon glory, step out onto the path.

  He took one look at where Quade’s hands still held my hips, and his entire face darkened. Fire burned in his eyes. Literally. Sparks shot from his fingertips, and he had to curl them into fists before he spread the flames of hell around the academy’s lawn. That was the problem with demons. They tended to be hot-headed.

  “Get the fuck away from my daughter.”

  Quade instantly dropped his hold on me and took a step back. “Apologies, Mr. Cainson.”

  My father sneered at him as he stalked toward us. “The name’s Mr. Risk. Devicka has her mother’s last name. The bitch wouldn’t even give me that much.”

  Surprise flitted across Quade’s face, but I just scowled at him. “Dad, what are you doing here?”

  His dark brown eyes slowly dragged away from Quade, but they instantly softened when they rested on my face. Until he realized I was only in a man’s dress shirt, and then that look grew angry again.

  “It’s not his!” I said quickly...then instantly regretted that since it definitely didn’t help things.

  “So you’re just in some other guy’s shirt?” he demanded.

  “Uhh…”

  He shook his head and sighed. “Fucking daughters,” he muttered.

  I smiled and looked him over. He looked the same as always. Brown hair combed back, a handsome five o’clock shadow dusting his jaw. A dimple in his chin and a scar below his ear. He was tall and formidable, with the kind of presence that made people watch him warily out of the corner of their eyes. He tempted humans to take life-altering risks every day, and dabbled in the occasional hellfire fight. But to me, he was just Dad.

  He placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed lightly. Before the paragons, he was the only super who ever touched me willingly. “I heard from your mother that you’d gotten shipped off here. Came to check on you. How you doing, kid?”

  “I’m…”

  I trailed off, not knowing what to say. The truth was, I didn’t know how I was. So much had happened...so much was still happening. I needed time to think, but time was a luxury tha
t I didn’t seem to have anymore. I still hadn’t even really processed what I’d done to the vampire and shifter back at the trial. Add that to the other students here at the school, Banner, Judge Braxton and the headmaster...the vampire attack that was started by a damn professor, the paragons’ sudden change...I was a wreck.

  My father seemed to pick up on all of the things I wasn’t saying, because he nodded before dropping his hand. “Thought so.” He flicked his eyes back to Quade. “Why are you still here, elemental? Leave.”

  “Dad,” I chastised. “Be nice.”

  “Why? This is the little shit who stopped being your friend. Don’t think I didn’t recognize him.”

  I sighed, and Quade was stupid enough to pipe in. “You’re right, and we were actually just talking about that.”

  “Was that before or after I heard my daughter tell you to stop, and you refused to get the fuck away from her?” he said, his tone deadly low.

  I jumped in between them in case he decided to try and burn Quade alive. “Okay, take it easy, Dad. Quade was just leaving.”

  “Yeah, he sure as shit was.”

  Quade glanced down at me, but I nodded, urging him to go.

  “See you tonight at dinner,” he muttered before turning and walking away.

  I grabbed my dad’s arm and started tugging him down the path to my cabin. I might have been pissed at Quade, but I didn’t want him to get in trouble for not escorting me all the way home. I should get inside before anyone noticed that I wasn’t being escorted by one of my babysitters.

  “Where are we going?”

  “I’m staying in the feral cabin.”

  My dad’s arm tensed under my grip, but he stayed silent. When we made it to the cabin, I stopped at the scene in front of me.

  At my side, my dad cocked his head. “Why do you have ravens repairing your roof and a bear chopping wood?”

  I watched, mouth gaping open, as rabbits hopped up every second, washing the interior windows with their cottontails while a deer looked like it was using its antlers to sand the splintered door.

  I drew a hand down my tired face. “Damn necromancer.”

  My dad hummed. “Good corpse work. I’ve always liked necromancers,” Dad replied.

  I opened my mouth to try and shoo the animals away, but then I spotted Betty, my beloved Suzuki, parked off to the side, practically gleaming.

  I let out a squeal, making my father clasp his hands over his ears. “Oh my gods! You brought her?” I asked.

  Rushing over to the bike, I ran my hands along the chrome detailing, patting the leather seat for good measure before spinning around to face my dad again, a huge smile on my face. “Thank you.”

  Dad shrugged like it was no biggie, but we both knew it was. “I figured it was the least I could do. If you’re stuck in this hell hole, might as well give you an easy escape,” he said with a conspiring grin as he dug in his pant pocket and tossed me the keys.

  Appreciation flooded me, and I rushed forward and gave him a hug. “Escape sounds pretty good right about now.”

  “Yeah?” he asked, studying my face and no doubt seeing the stress I was holding in. “When was the last time you did some crazy dangerous shit?”

  “Too long,” I said, shaking my head.

  He frowned. “Devicka…”

  “I know, I know,” I assured him. “I’ll make sure to do dangerous shit soon,” I promised.

  He nodded, pleased.

  Dad was a risk demon. He spent his life tempting humans with a deadly game of chance. Gambling. Skydiving. Speeding. Whatever got the blood pumping and the thrill of adrenaline lighting up their brains. Most times, the risk was never worth the reward, but I had inherited his love of adrenaline. I liked to test the boundaries. I liked to dance with the peril and menace of my birthright, and then land on my feet. Mother hated it. Maybe that was why I loved it so much.

  He’d gotten me Betty on my sixteenth birthday, and we’d been inseparable ever since. I couldn’t even count the time that I’d snuck out of Coxcomb’s to ride her. Even though I hadn’t been gone long, I was itching to ride.

  “You know, I could have used an escape about eight years ago,” I said, the bitter words coating my tongue. “Before Mother shipped me off. I begged you to take me, and you refused. That was pretty shitty.”

  Dad and I were close, or about as close as we could be. Unlike my mother, he didn’t resent me. He just was like most of the demons out there. Selfish. Mother, on the other hand, had taken a one-night risk on him nine months before I was born, and then failed. She’d had me.

  “Bitterness doesn’t look good on you, kid.” He then tsked. “Besides, I’m here now. Threatening your boyfriend and bribing you with gifts so that you’ll like me more than your mother. Isn’t that what all the human dads do?”

  I smirked. “Are you hiding another gift in that terrible suit you’re wearing?” I said teasingly, half joking. We both knew he never wore anything but Armani. Dad enjoyed human fashion.

  “Yep. Now take back your comment about my suit, and I’ll give it to you,” he replied with a grin, and I found myself smiling back.

  I’d always craved my father’s affections. He was the only person that didn’t see me as a weapon. We were bonded by our mutual love of the impossible probabilities of the world. Still, I’d always wished that he wanted me around more. That he wouldn’t just pop in once in a while but actually take a more active role in my life. I was still trying to grow out of my hopeful optimism. It was a stubborn bitch.

  “I take it back,” I replied, albeit begrudgingly.

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a brand new cellphone before tossing it to me. I grabbed it and hugged it to my chest like a lifeline, thankful to have a piece of technology. “You’re amazing. They didn’t even give me time to grab mine.”

  My dad nodded. “I figured, when I didn’t have a million complaining texts from you, that you didn’t have a phone.”

  “I need to call Reed; he’s probably worried sick.”

  “I always liked Reed.”

  “He’s a good one,” I nodded. “One of the few people who doesn’t hate me.”

  “Why do you care if anyone hates you? I never understood why you bother with the opinions of others. It’s such a waste of time,” he mused. “Must be from spending all your time with humans.”

  I didn’t bother reminding him that the reason I had to spend all my time with humans was that dear old Mom had exiled me in the first place. And he’d let her.

  “You’re right. I should stop caring if people hate me,” I replied before changing the subject. I didn’t want to go into my chronic insecurities with my risk demon father. He’d probably just convince me to go streaking through campus or some crazy shit. Speaking of… “Shouldn’t you be off persuading some poor sap to take a second mortgage out on his house for a poker bet or something?” I crossed my arms over my chest, pretending to be unamused by his job. Truth was I used to wish he’d steal me away and let me go with him.

  “I wanted to check on my favorite daughter and see what all the fuss was about. I heard you put on quite the performance. Switching powers? Impressive.” I looked down at the grass beneath my boots and frowned. It didn’t feel like anything impressive. If anything, I was starting to question if it had even happened at all.

  “How’d you hear about that? And why don’t you sound surprised?” I asked while peering at him. He smiled at me; I always pleased him when I questioned things.

  “I always knew you’d be special, Devicka. I’ve had hundreds of children over the millennia, but you’re different.”

  “Is that supposed to make me feel good to hear my father is a manwhore?”

  Dad laughed, his booming chuckle echoing over the dark woods surrounding us. “I know you resent your mother for sending you to be with the humans, but she’s just a washed-up, bitter woman. Don’t waste your time on her. You have much bigger things to worry about.”

  My brows wrinkled, and I to
ok a step closer to him, smelling the burning sulfur on his skin. “What do you mean?”

  “The Void is a powerful thing. You can’t escape who you are. I’m glad you’re finally embracing it.” He paused as if choosing his next words carefully. “But there are people that will want to use you up. You need to be careful. Learn what you came here to learn, but don’t plan on staying long. And trust no one.”

  My brows raised at Dad’s melodramatic warning. “Am I in danger?”

  “Most powerful people are, kid. Just keep diligent.”

  Dad never warned me. Ever. So the fact that he was now, made me take him seriously. I nodded. “Okay.”

  “Here, let me top-up the power in your amulet.” Dad walked over and picked up the amulet from my neck, cupping it in his palm. He closed his eyes and blew orange power into it, his demon abilities filling it to the brim with reinforcement. It felt like the iron bars I was always forced to be behind were slamming shut on my Void and cementing it with concrete. I’d always felt relieved when he filled up my amulet, but now...it felt more like a cage.

  “That should do it,” he said before dropping it and giving me one final hug. “Call me if you need more. And if you need an escape, call me. I don’t like you being stuck in this hell hole.”

  “Will do,” I promised.

  And of course, because my father had a knack for theatrics, he snapped his fingers and disappeared. Just like he always did.

  Chapter 16

  “Please don’t hate me,” I whispered at the phone as I dialed. Reed picked up on the third ring, and as soon as I said hello, he replied back with a slew of very colorful curses.

  “Goddamn, Devi, you bitch! Where the hell have you been?” The sound of a slamming door reverberated on the other end of the receiver. “One minute, I’m high as fuck, pretending that life is all grand and colorful and shit, and then the next, I’m hearing that your cunt of a mother transferred you to some college in America?”

  “I’m so sorry,” I said while cradling my head in my hand as Cheddar crawled up my shoulder and nestled against my neck. I was perched on the bed with my back resting against the wall, my eyes running over all the shredded and splintered furniture. All that work that Hyde’s zombie animals had done was ruined from that damn bobcat. He’d sent more animals to fix it up, and they were currently chopping wood outside, but it would take a couple days to have things back to normal. “I didn’t even have time to grab Betty or my cell phone.”