Void

by Coralee June

  I immediately threaded my hands through his long hair and responded to his touch with an enthusiastic moan. The moment my mouth parted, he snaked his tongue along mine while gripping my back with his strong hands. I had so many questions, so many doubts. I couldn’t believe he was here. All I wanted was to feel Gritt against my body, clutching me tight, and never let go again.

  “Devicka,” he said my name softly with reverence. A tingling sensation started to kiss at my skin. I opened my eyes as his hands traveled to cup my ass, squeezing me tightly. And then I saw it. Smoke. White smoke was everywhere.

  “Gritt, what’s happening?” I asked. I tried to pull away, but his firm grip on me stopped me in my tracks.

  He trailed his tongue along my neck then nibbled on my ear. It felt like I was growing full, with pleasure so intense that my blood pressure skyrocketed as I felt the Void rush into me. “Oh fuck,” I whimpered.

  Was this what it was like when I’d fed from him? It felt so fucking good, like every vein in my body was pumping with blood. I was soaked with heat, my eyes rolling back as my entire body went wild with something far better than any orgasm.

  Gritt sucked in a breath and then quickly moved to sit down as the smoke disappeared, carrying me with him as he crouched low and landed on the dirt. “What just happened?” I asked, my chest rising and falling quickly. I could feel a pulsing energy within me. It wasn’t nearly as strong as before, but it was there.

  Gritt coughed before stroking my cheek, his green eyes taking in my full appearance. There was a tether there between us, a connection that I hadn’t felt since the night with the council members. “I had a piece of you,” he said before removing his hand from my cheek to pat his chest. “I carried you with me. I felt how...pure you are. Sensed the struggles you’ve carried alone your entire life. I could feel your pain. Your hunger. Your love.”

  My eyes watered at the reverent way he spoke to me, and I had to wipe away the moisture collecting there. “Gritt, I thought you didn’t want me anymore because of the broken bond.”

  His shook his head. “It’s not broken, Dev. Even without your magic, we still feel it.”

  I was too afraid to believe him. “But the Void—”

  “Was the best gift anyone has ever given me,” he interrupted. “It helped me realize what I already knew. You, Devicka Cainson, are a very worthy, beautiful, smart, compassionate mate. And I would be a damn fool to give that up.”

  My tears were fully flowing now because this was Gritt, and he didn’t use words lightly. I knew that if he’d willingly said them, then he’d meant them. I wrapped my arms around him for a hug, squeezing him tight as I cried quietly against his neck. I’d never felt more treasured or loved. “Gritt,” I began. “I don’t know what to say.” I shifted my hips a little, forgetting that he was still very naked beneath me. He let out a groan.

  “It...physically pains me to do this,” he said through clenched teeth. “I want nothing more than to fuck you right here and now, drive my dick so far into you, you never have to doubt me again. But…”

  “But what?” I asked when he didn’t continue.

  “But the others are waiting, and we had a long talk about sharing. None of us are allowed to fuck you until we’re all together and you’ve gotten all of your Void back.” I smiled at him, twirling my finger in his hair. My heart leapt at knowing that I was going to have all my pieces back. My paragons and my Void.

  “But what about what I want?” I asked with a coy smile.

  He made a pained noise. “You’re killing me, babe. Legitimately killing me.” Gritt stood up, gently guiding me off him before taking three steps back. He looked like a spooked horse about to flee. “You should go before I break my promise. Gods, you look so good.” My eyes raked up and down his cock, which was fully hard and throbbing with need.

  “Are you sure? I think we have time…”

  Before the suggestion even left my lips, he fled, calling at me over his shoulder as he went. “Hurry up and find the others, Devicka. The second you have your Void back, you’re mine.”

  Chapter 29

  I had a necromancer in my bed and an undead mouse eating my chocolate.

  I paused in my doorway, letting my eyes run over the tan, white-haired zombie king where he was spread out over my blankets. He had on bright green skinny jeans and a skull t-shirt, and his silver eyes were doing their own perusal of me with appreciation, despite the fact that I probably looked like a wind-whipped mess in only yoga pants and a sports bra.

  “You’re really here,” I said from my spot in the middle of the threshold.

  I half wondered as I ran back to this little cabin on the beach if I’d actually fallen off the mountain and had just hallucinated the whole Gritt-saving-me-as-a-pink-dragon thing.

  I pinched my arm just to be sure, but there Hyde was, looking perfectly beautiful, his mouth tipped up in a smirk.

  “Here is such a relative term,” Hyde mused, his hands perched behind his head. “Here could mean lots of things. Like here in this world, or here in this space in time or—”

  “Here in my bedroom.”

  His lips quirked up at my interruption, and he slowly sat up, his body moving like a gentle wave of water. “Or here in your bedroom,” he agreed with a nod.

  I slowly padded forward. “Why are you here in my bedroom?” I asked quietly.

  “Because we finally could be.”

  I turned around at the sudden voice and gasped to find Render right behind me. His chest pressed against my back, and his plush lips hooked over the curve of my ear as his tongue darted out to lick it. I shivered, my eyes fluttering closed, and when I blinked them open again, Quade was standing right in front of me, Hyde had gotten off the bed and stood at my side, and I was in the middle of a three-man sandwich.

  My eyes filled with more tears, but I didn’t bother to try to hold them back. “Don’t cry,” Quade whispered, raising his hand to cup my cheek.

  “I don’t understand why you’re suddenly all here. I haven’t heard anything from you. I thought...I thought you changed your minds.”

  The guys exchanged a look, and then Gritt joined us in the room, his hair sopping wet, but wearing a new pair of pants. He looked like he’d taken a dive into the ocean water to cool himself down.

  “We had to keep you safe. We had to handle things at home, but we weren’t even sure if we’d ever be able to come for you. If things went badly… Well, we couldn’t risk being in contact with you or coming to see you and having someone track us to you. We weren’t sure how the public was going to react. We had to prepare for every possibility,” Render explained. “We’ve been in contact with your father the whole time.”

  This news shocked me, and I watched him with disbelieving eyes.

  Quade picked up on Render’s explanation. “But we had press conferences. Told everyone what happened. They finally named us as the council leaders, and we’ve made sure the public doesn’t blame you for what happened. Headmaster Torne agreed to become the interim council judge until we can find someone else who we trust for the position. We finally have all the pieces together so you can come home.”

  The word “home” made my stomach flutter. “And my mother?” I asked him, curious to see how he’d taken her betrayal.

  His jaw clenched. “Gone. Exiled with the rest.”

  I had to stop myself from snorting. I’m sure she loved that.

  “We handled everything, and today when we took our positions, we told them that the only reason they still had their powers and weren’t being lorded over by Judge Braxton was because of you.”

  My eyes widened. “What?”

  Render nodded. “It was just a matter of time. Judge Braxton planned to use you to suck hundreds of supers dry. Other supers who’d worked for him came forward and corroborated our story.”

  I shook my head, unable to believe what they were telling me.

  “Some assholes still don’t like you, but a hell of a lot of them are grateful,”
Gritt said. “So it’s finally safe for you to come back.”

  “And, after tracking down some more Void corpses, which are ridiculously difficult to find, by the way,” Hyde interjected. “I managed to learn that by giving us your Void, we could give it back. And our mate bonds will return with it.”

  “I already gave mine back,” Gritt said smugly.

  Render sighed in exasperation. “We were supposed to do it together.”

  Gritt rolled his eyes. “You shitheads want to do everything together. I got to save her ass from falling off a mountain, so I decided to give her a piece of the Void back early without you assholes. Get over it.”

  Render muttered something, but Quade cocked a dark brow at me. “You fell off a mountain?”

  I shrugged sheepishly. “I slipped.”

  Quade’s hands reached out to grip my hips and drag me against his body. “No more doing dangerous shit until you’re immortal again, okay?”

  “Yeah, let’s take care of that right now before she decides to go swimming with the sharks,” Hyde put in. I didn’t feel like it was the appropriate time to tell him that I already did that last week.

  “Are you sure this will work?”

  “Yep,” they all answered cockily.

  I bounced on the balls of my feet, looking around at everyone with a smirk. “So, uh, how do you want to do this thang?” I asked before awkwardly flipping them finger guns.

  Finger. Fucking. Guns.

  I wanted to die of embarrassment.

  Luckily, no one commented on my idiocy, because Hyde spun around in a ridiculous dance move, putting the attention back on him. “Beauty before brutes, and I’m way fucking prettier than these guys,” he said with a wink before wrapping his arms around me and tugging me close.

  He licked my collar bone, and a shiver of pleasure pulsed out of me as he nibbled on my skin. He traced patterns of swirls along my neck before trailing up to my lips. I leaned forward to kiss him, wrapping my arms around his neck as I did. Unlike with Gritt, the Void came out of Hyde like a soft caress, tickling my skin as he licked my bottom lip. The smoke turned white, and he poured power into me like a decadent, savory treat. He moved slowly, forcing me to pace myself with the pull growing between us. Once the last bit of smoke entered my mouth, I shivered with delight, once again feeling like a piece of myself had returned.

  “I missed you,” he whispered against my lips.

  “I missed you, too.”

  A strong arm turned me around, but Hyde stayed at my back, his lips brushing along my neck as Render pulled me in next. “You going to bite me, vamp?” I teased, the meaningful moment from our tearful goodbye ringing in my memory.

  Rolling his eyes, Render leaned in close, hovering his lips over mine with teasing intent. There was just a millimeter of space between us, both hovering between a kiss I knew would solidify our bond. “You going to kiss me, Void?” he asked in a husky voice. It was all the permission I needed.

  Leaning up to close the distance, I threaded our lips together in a blinding twist of passion while Hyde rubbed his hands up and down my arms. This time, power lashed out at me with a snap, more white smoke flooding my body so fiercely I had to hold onto Render to keep steady. It was so fast I didn’t have time to orient myself.

  “Fuck, I’m so happy to be rid of that. One crippling sense of hunger was enough,” Render replied. I smiled against him, expecting him to hand me over to Quade for the last bit of my gifts. I was feeling almost myself. The vast nothingness settled in my bones with a resounding sigh.

  But instead of pulling away, Render cupped my neck with his large hand and pulled me close. I watched in awe as his long fangs descended, and he sank his teeth into the plush skin above my cleavage.

  Pleasure like a tidal wave soared through me as his venom entered my bloodstream. I was right on the edge, ready to melt between him and Hyde. And then, just as quickly as he’d fed me back my powers, he groaned as he swallowed a mouthful of me and then pulled away. He licked the wound, sealing it shut with a chuckle as I whimpered at the loss of contact.

  “I’ve been craving you for two godsdamned months,” he admitted, his tone now husky with a different kind of hunger.

  I swallowed hard, my face flushed and my breathing quick. I turned to Quade next, my eyes hooded with the new influx of my powers. I was turned on, and I felt that familiar buzzing and pull between the five of us that I’d been missing.

  “Devicka,” Quade murmured before yanking me out of Hyde and Render’s reach. I fell forward, crashing into his chest. “Once this is done, you realize I’m never letting you go again, right?” he asked while lifting his hands up my sides, pushing my shirt up as he grazed my rib cage.

  “I sure hope not,” I whispered.

  His kiss was like shutting a door. It was final. Determined. Delicate but forceful all at once. His lips moved like a promise, sealing our bond together with trust and desire. The Void flowed into me like a long-lost lover, burrowing itself into my soul, like it was happy to be home. And for the first time in my life, I was thankful for my power. I was thankful that it brought me to them.

  The last of the Void fed back into me, and I breathed it in, welcoming it like an old friend. I felt complete. I felt like me. The Void wasn’t my weakness. It was my strength. It just took me awhile to realize it.

  All four guys closed in on me with hunger and pleasure in their expressions. Green eyes, silver, blue-gray, brown. They surrounded me like I was the center of their universe, and they couldn’t resist the way I brought them into my gravity.

  I don’t know who touched me first. One second, the sexual tension and need held us in a thick pause, and the next, that pause snapped like a string, and they were on me. I was lifted up in the air by Gritt, and Quade tugged my pants and panties down in one swoop, taking my shoes and socks with it. Like a choreographed dance, Gritt turned and lowered me, and then Render was ripping my sports bra clear down the middle at the back. I gasped as my breasts were bared, and then I was totally nude at their center, and I couldn’t wait a single second longer to be touched.

  “I need you. All of you.”

  I loved knowing that I was the reason they were hard and wanting. That I had put that hunger in their expressions. Just like that, I felt their bonds inside of me again, and my heart soared, adding to the feeling of rightness.

  “Fuck yes,” Render said, and then his fangs were on me again, right at that sweet spot on my neck, making my head loll to the side in a grip of pleasure and snap of pain.

  I was lifted up again, this time by Quade, and I felt his scratchy jaw rub against my cheek. “We’re going to worship you, Devi,” he whispered hungrily in my ear.

  I couldn’t reply because Hyde had stripped down completely and was kneeling in front of me. Quade lifted my thighs, and with Render’s help, my bent legs were propped over Hyde’s shoulders so that his face was right at my core.

  “Hyde,” I begged. I was so damn wet, and when Quade started fondling my breasts, I thought I was going to combust if I wasn’t touched where I needed it most.

  But instead of moving to where I wanted him, Hyde just continued to look at my swollen cunt, his silver eyes lit up with excitement. “I believe this is the best view I’ve seen all my life. And that’s saying something, considering I once watched a two-mouthed hooker pucker up for an ex-rocker zombie. The things she could do…”

  I yanked on his white hair and shoved his face toward my needy center. “Stop talking about zombies getting blowjobs and make me come.”

  He chuckled and leaned in, allowing me to feel the vibrations of his amusement right on my clit as his hands gripped my thighs. “Our mate knows what she wants.”

  Then he finally leaned in and blew a breath of red magic right at my core.

  I came on the spot.

  My head was thrown back against Quade, and my orgasm tore through me before Hyde even touched me. His tongue flicked over my clit, prolonging my pleasure, more of his red, nerve-awakening ma
gic soaking into me. It was one of those perfect orgasms that just seemed to go on and on and on.

  “Share. You got your orgasm already,” Gritt said gruffly, and then I was spun around by Quade, and it was my naked shifter who apparently wanted a turn. He was gorgeous. Rough, masculine, muscular, and tanned. The sight of him made my mouth water.

  I wasn’t even down from my peak yet when Gritt tugged on my hips and lined me up with his huge, needy erection. His eyes flashed with animal intent. “If I don’t get inside of you now, I’m going to shift and tear apart this whole damn house.”

  “Then get inside me.”

  That was all the encouragement he needed. With Quade’s help, I was lifted to the perfect height, and then Gritt was slamming into me.

  I cried out at the sudden fullness as he stretched me out, my eyes closed tight. “No,” he said, his hand coming up to pinch my chin and bring my face back down. “Look. I want you to see my cock stretching you out. I want you to see me claiming this pussy.”

  I swallowed at his dirty words and looked down at the place we were joined. Satisfied that he had my full attention, he pulled out all the way, leaving me empty, and then slammed all the way back in again. “Oh gods,” I cried, my voice rising to a new pitch.

  “Fucking beautiful.”

  At the sound of Render’s voice, I looked over and saw that he and Hyde were both naked now too, stroking themselves on either side of me. Render was pale with a line of dark hair trailing from below his belly button down to his crotch. Hyde’s skin was dark and smooth, and both of them had lean, toned bodies with abs that I wanted to lick.

  I reached my hands out to grasp their cocks in each hand, earning guttural groans in return. They were thick and hot, and Render was leaking precum that I used to rub over his head.

  Quade was still working his magic on my breasts and helping to support me as Gritt continued to move in and out, and I realized that his left hand was ice cold, while his right was fiery hot. The duality of the temperatures had me writhing and arching against him, my breasts a shock of hot and cold, my nipples pebbling painfully and seeking more.