by Coralee June
I walked out of the coat closet, making my way back into the ballroom. I kept my head down, hoping to blend in. I still hadn’t spotted Judge Braxton or the headmaster, so if I played my cards right, maybe I could “accidentally” miss them for the rest of the night.
“You look different,” a warm voice said from behind me, and I wanted nothing more than to run the opposite direction. But against my better judgement, I turned around and came face-to-face with Render. His comment wasn’t necessarily a compliment, but the way his eyes took in every curve of my body, I knew he appreciated what he saw.
“Pink’s not really my color,” I replied while brushing my hands along the soft material of the dress.
“You’d look better in red,” he replied before flashing me his teeth.
He looked handsome in his gray suit, a crimson boutonniere perched on his chest. His hair was styled back, and he had trimmed his scruff some, the sharp lines of hair on his face making his striking jaw look like it could cut iron.
“I prefer black,” I replied before looking around the room at the schmoozing council members and fawning students.
Render suddenly reached up to cup my jaw, making me freeze in surprise. He dragged his thumb along my bottom lip with a manic, cruel smile, making me feel like the prey he viewed me as. I was shaking at his touch, melting at his knowing stare.
His touch felt good, but I didn’t want it to. “Stop touching me,” I said quietly.
I could feel eyes on us now. I bolstered myself, preparing for the inevitable crash and burn, the cruel words, the angry prejudice and bullying. This was all a game, and he liked using my reaction to him against me.
“Why can’t I stop thinking about your blood?” he whispered. “Why was one tiny taste not enough?” The way he spoke sounded like he was talking more to himself than to me.
I furrowed my brow in confusion, and my mind flashed back to the first time we’d met, when he’d licked my palm. “Maybe you like dirty blood after all,” I replied, trying to sound nonchalant but failing miserably.
“I don’t like it,” he replied before leaning closer, his teeth hovering just above the thudding pulse in my neck. “I don’t like it one bit.”
“Yeah? Well, that makes two of us. Now let go. People are looking.”
He didn’t even hear me. “I don’t fucking get it. I’ve tried ignoring it, but every time you’re in the damn room, I swear, I can taste your blood again. I can’t stop craving it, which is fucking crazy. I don’t do this. I don’t get hooked.” He glared down at me like he resented the fact that he was even talking to me, let alone touching me. Even though he was the one who chose to come over here in the first place.
“Render? There you are.”
I turned to see a beautiful vampire sidle up beside Render, her fingers curling around his bicep. My eyes flicked from her bright red polish to her model-worthy face. Her makeup was perfection, her dark hair curled and swept up on top of her head, and a dangling necklace accompanied the cleavage she was showing off in her matching red dress. She was wearing fuck-me heels that I wouldn’t be able to stand in, let alone walk, and she looked down at my unlaced boots with disdain.
“Blaire,” Render said, finally letting me go. “I got held up.”
I snorted. I was the only one who’d been held up.
Blaire looked me up and down, her nose wrinkling in distaste. “Is this whole thing supposed to be some grunge rock look?” she asked, circling her finger around my wardrobe. “Because you look like a dumpster diving ex-princess.”
“Are you a messy eater? Because I think you have a bloodstain on your dress.”
She immediately looked down at her dress, and I smirked. When her head lifted back up again and she noticed my expression, her eyes flashed with anger. She stepped forward into my space, all lethal intent, but I refused to back up. I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction, even if she could rip out my throat in less than a second. Render watched lazily with one hand in his pocket.
“No one wants you here, Void,” she spat. “I can’t believe the headmaster would even allow you to be present at this ball. Look around. Everyone hates you.”
My eyes darted around the room, seeing that everyone was now staring at me, thanks to Blaire’s loud confrontation. There went me being an invisible wallflower. Whispers started spreading throughout the room, making cold sweat break out along the back of my neck.
“I think it’s pathetic that the paragons have to babysit you,” she went on, drawing my attention back to her. “Render is going to lead our people one day. He shouldn’t have to lower himself to your presence.”
A bitter laugh escaped me. “I think he’s used to lowering himself if he hangs out with you. Besides, I do have murderous tendencies,” I teased in a dark tone. “But I agree. Right now I do wish Render was somewhere else. Then I could show you just how toxic my Void is.”
She tucked herself under his arm before giving me a scowl. “Did you hear that, Render? She just threatened me. We should tell the headmaster.”
“Maybe you’re right,” he replied, looking thoughtful.
I looked up at the ceiling in annoyance before dragging my gaze back to her. Seeing them together made me feel strange. They looked perfect, his flower matching her dress. They looked like a poster-perfect couple. And for some reason, it made me angry.
“We don’t need to waste time on her. She’s nothing, Blaire,” he said before stroking her hip. I zeroed in on the movement, and his smile brightened, like he could see the toxic jealousy in my eyes. I didn’t understand why I felt this way. My Void was aching to reach out and yank him out of her grip, and I hated myself for it. I barely knew him, and what little I did know was that he was cruel and liked to remind me of my place in this damn world.
But then, I remembered what he’d said. I remembered how he craved my blood. How he craved me. What I wanted to do was reckless and desperate, but it was like the smoke of my Void was urging me to press forward, test the boundaries, prove he wanted me, and wipe the smirk right off of this Blaire bitch’s face.
I pulled my bottom lip in and sunk my teeth into it. I dug in, plunging my sharp points into the plump flesh until a coppery liquid pooled in my mouth. The moment the scent of my blood filled the air, Render’s eyes widened into black depths, and his lips parted. I watched in awe as his chest heaved up and down, a ravishing hunger taking over his body.
“Disgusting,” Blaire said with a frown. “No one here is going to be tempted by your dirty blood. You’re so desperate,” she said with a flick of her hair, oblivious to the firecrackers sizzling between Render and me.
I was too busy watching Render to reply to her. His fangs descended. His face flushed. He was salivating, and I smirked, knowing I’d won.
“That’s what I thought,” I murmured smugly.
I turned to leave, but Render flashed in front of me and gripped my face in his hands. I gasped, but that was all I had time for. Because as soon as my lips parted, he was suddenly devouring me. My broken lip was between his teeth, his hot tongue running over the blood as his fang sunk in to split the bite apart and take more. I hissed in pain but only for a second, because then his venom filled my mouth, turning everything he did to pure bliss.
His hands dominated the angle of my face, tilting it exactly the way he wanted so that his tongue could thrust deeper into my mouth, mixing my blood with every swipe. He pressed forward so that my breasts were squishing against his chest, and I arched farther into him, my hands coming up to hold him by the collar of his dress shirt. He kept pushing, and my spine arched back even farther, like he wanted to tip me right over and pin me to the floor, right here in the middle of the ballroom. And I would’ve let him.
This kiss was carnal and bloody and so fucking good. When he shoved a knee to the juncture of my thighs, all I wanted was to rip the skirt of my dress up around my waist and ride his leg to build the friction that he’d made me crave.
But before it could go any further, h
ands were suddenly between us, pushing the two of us apart. Render snarled at the intervention, his fangs dripping with saliva and blood, his eyes fully dilated, swallowing his eyes whole.
“Whoa, dude, it’s me,” another vampire student said, watching Render warily as he held him back. “What are you doing with the Void? Did she fucking put you under some sick spell or some shit?” he asked, darting a look at me.
My lips were swollen and bloody, my breathing erratic, and I was still on fire all over with lust, but at seeing everyone staring at us, the ballroom awkwardly shocked, a cold dose of snap the fuck out of it washed over me.
I couldn’t believe what we’d just done. What he’d done in front of all his peers. And based on the look on his face, as it went from pissed off to horror-stricken, I guess that he couldn’t believe it either.
Someone shoved me from behind hard, and the next thing I knew, I was landing on the floor, my knees banging painfully upon impact, and my wrists snapping back as my hands tried to break my fall. When I looked up, I was surrounded by a circle of vampires with Blaire in the center.
“How dare you kiss him!” she screeched, her fangs hovering over her bottom lip.
“He kissed me.”
“You provoked him!”
My eyes flicked to Render, but he was still panting, staring down at me with an inscrutable expression on his face.
“If my blood was so damn dirty, then he wouldn’t have been provoked,” I snapped, getting to my feet in the middle of their intimidating circle. I wasn’t going to lie down on the floor and take it. I’d stand and face them.
“He’s mine,” Blaire said, stepping into my face.
No. He’s mine.
I shook my head. Where had that thought come from?
I wiped the blood from my lips and winced when I saw droplets on the pale pink dress I’d borrowed. I needed to get the stain out. “Whatever. I’m out of here,” I said before pushing past the circle of vamps and out of the room. Luckily, they all let me.
I glanced over my shoulder once before heading into the hall, and I caught Judge Braxton staring at me from across the room. Taking a sip from his drink, he smirked at me, like the whole thing had amused him.
Ignoring him, I pushed through the doors and made my way to the bathroom. I slammed the door shut behind me, thankful that no other girls were inside, and stripped out of my borrowed dress. I held it up to the sink to wash the blood off, scrubbing it with cold water and hand soap.
The door to the girl’s bathroom suddenly opened, and I turned to face it, holding the soapy, wet dress up to my body to hide from whoever was entering. When my eyes caught sight of Quade’s dark gaze and frowning lips, I let out an exasperated sigh.
“What do you want?” I asked before turning back to the sink. I wasn’t ashamed of my body, and I didn’t really give two shits if seeing me in my underwear made him uncomfortable.
“What just happened out there? It was like Render couldn’t keep his hands off you,” he said. There was a sharp edge to his tone that made me pause.
“I cut my lip, and he attacked me with a kiss. Maybe the almighty Vamp Paragon is weaker than you think,” I replied coolly before scrubbing the material some more. I felt like such an ass, ruining the waitress’s dress. She’d been nice enough to lend it to me, and now it was wrinkled, bloody, and sopping wet.
Quade watched me in speculative silence, adjusting his black tie as I worked. I could feel his gaze on my panties and bra strap, his gaze crawling up the backs of my bare legs and back. He was wearing an all black suit that complimented his dark skin tone, his black hair swept back, but I didn’t want to think about how beautiful he looked. I didn’t want to get sucked into his charm and be so damn attracted to him. I hated that I couldn’t shut off my body’s responses to him. Render, Quade, Gritt, Hyde. They all did something to me inside, and I needed to learn to shut it off. Those paragons were dangerous for me.
Once the stain was finally gone, I moved over to the hand dryers, prepared to hold the dress there for the next hour to get it dry, and then get the fuck out of here. The girl who let me borrow the dress was the first person to show kindness to me here, and I didn’t want to make her regret helping me by ruining a dress that she probably saved up her hard-earned money to buy.
“Here, let me,” Quade said before stepping forward.
I eyed him warily as he took the dress in his hands. With a flick of his hand, he used his elemental magic to draw the moisture out of the material, and then he called on the air to dry it. Elementals could usually only control one, maybe two, of the elements, but since he could use all four, he was an elemental prodigy. When we were kids, he’d had a hard time controlling all of them. There had been more than one instance when he’d accidentally filled bathtubs with soil and the garden with fire. But now, he was all man, and I could sense the control in him.
Within seconds, he’d used his ability to take every last drop of moisture out until the dress was completely dry and he was handing it back to me. His dark eyes held me in a trance as he watched me step back into it. When I struggled to zip it all the way up, I felt him step up to my back, and then his warm hands clasped over the zipper, slowly dragging it up my skin. I shivered.
“Why are you here?” I asked in a small voice before turning around and combing my fingers through my pale blonde hair.
“Headmaster Torne wanted me to make sure you didn’t...bother...any other students. I think you’ve made enough enemies for the night, yeah? I’ll walk you back after you return that dress to whoever gave it to you.”
“How’d you know this wasn’t mine?” I asked.
He gave me another once over before shaking his head, like he didn’t like the thought he’d just had.
“I saw you walk in. Besides, you never liked pink.”
My chest panged, but I had to tell myself that him remembering little details about me didn’t mean shit. Quade still didn’t like me. He didn’t even really know me anymore. “A lot has changed over the years. I happen to like pink now,” I lied with a smirk, hating how his face didn’t even react. He didn’t believe me one bit.
“Liar,” he replied before heading toward the door, not giving me a backwards glance, just assuming I’d follow him. And I did, only because the alternative was staying at this damn ball that I had no business attending. I was worn out and needed to recover from the hunger that my Void now held over me, and the confusing kiss I’d shared with Render. I had a feeling that Blaire was going to be my new best enemy.
We headed down the halls in uncomfortable silence, back toward the coat check so that I could change clothes and give the dress back. We were almost there when a high-pitched, shrill voice startled us. “Quade, darling! I almost missed you!” I cringed at the sound as I turned my head to look at the source of the voice. When I saw who it was, I forced a grin on my face as Mr. and Mrs. Sandwood, Quade’s parents, walked up. Behind them, my mother shifted into view, too. So she was here. Of course she hadn’t bothered to stop and see me.
Quade’s shoulders tensed slightly before he recovered, putting on his mask of friendly warmth. His broad grin was a bit too bright to feel authentic though. He started walking toward them, and I followed dutifully behind. I’d never liked them much, even when I was little. They’d always been overly controlling, keeping their son to a strict schedule and not giving him much time to be a kid.
Mrs. Sandwood was wearing a teal gown that accentuated her spelled breasts, putting them on full, perky display. Her pale pink lips curled up into a snarl the moment she noticed me. Mr. Sandwood was wearing a tux, and unlike his wife, he started rubbing his hands together in a greedy, excited gesture when he spotted me. It nearly made me stumble at the sight of their conflicting motives. Mother kept her expression neutral. I guess the maternal nature from inside Judge Braxton’s office had disappeared again.
“Devicka, I’m surprised they let you attend,” Mrs. Sandwood said while looking me up and down, her eyes zeroing in on my comb
at boots in disdain. Like my mother, she was all about image.
“Yeah, well, Quade is being a good babysitter, making sure I don’t accidentally drain any of the students,” I replied with a fake smile before wrapping my hand around his bicep. I wasn’t sure why I did it, but her reaction at seeing me so comfortably touching her son had me grinning.
Of course, Mother had to ruin the moment. “Devicka, you shouldn’t joke like that,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. Mother was wearing an all-black, conservative ensemble that covered her from elbows to ankles. The satin material looked thick and bulky, and her blonde hair was swept up in a tight bun. It was so effortlessly her that I had to smile. She looked elegant but modest.
“Banner Selik has been very helpful at helping me control my powers. I’ve made a lot of progress,” I bragged, and for some reason, it caught me off guard. Even now, after everything, I still found myself craving my mother’s approval, and it made me sick. Maybe that’s why Quade was always quick to brag about his accomplishments. He and I suffered the same desire to please our overbearing, unimpressed parents.
“Is that so?” Mr. Sandwood asked, running his large hand down his suit coat. His eyes were dark and wrinkled at the corners as he looked to his son for confirmation.
“I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing her in action, but the reports have been good in our paragon meetings. She was able to stop feeding and even control the Void without her necklace,” Quade replied in a cool voice. I wasn’t sure what bothered me more, the fact that he was bragging about me, or the fact that the paragons were having meetings to discuss my progress.
“And how soon do you think before you’re able to reverse the powers of the shifter and vamp from the trial?” my mother jumped in to ask, her prim voice bleeding with hope and optimism, making my shoulders slump even more. I knew what she was really asking: How long before I could give her powers?
