CHAPTER 8: VOID STEP EMERGENCY
Tuesday evening, and Kol was definitely not stalking Davina.
He was strategically observing from rooftops as she walked home from Tim's apartment, ensuring her safety in a city where dead witches could possess the living and vampire politics turned deadly without warning. Completely different from stalking.
The grimoire, hovering at his shoulder, displayed a single word: Stalking.
"Protective surveillance," Kol corrected quietly.
Semantics.
"Important distinction."
Below, Davina walked with the easy confidence of someone who'd grown up in the Quarter, who knew which streets to avoid and which vendors stayed open late. She was laughing at something on her phone—texting Tim, probably, or Josh, who'd somehow become her friend through the gaming sessions.
Kol's void sense prickled.
The warning came half a second before reality twisted. Four ancestral spirits materialized in the street ahead of Davina, surrounding her in a loose diamond formation. Their spectral forms blazed with hostile intent, and Kol felt the moment they struck—four simultaneous possession attempts, coordinated assault designed to overwhelm any defense.
Davina's Ancestral Firewall activated immediately. Silver runes blazed around her aura, authentication protocols engaging, counterspells preparing to launch. But four ancestors attacking at once strained the spell's capacity. Two possession attempts rebounded, spirits screaming as pain reflection hit them. But the other two found gaps in the defense, probing weaknesses, and the Firewall started to crack under sustained assault.
Davina stumbled, magic flaring wildly as she fought to maintain the protection spell while defending herself actively. She was strong, talented, brilliant—but she was also eighteen and facing centuries-old spirits who'd perfected possession over generations.
Kol vaulted from the roof without thinking.
Too far. Three buildings between them. Even vampire speed won't close that distance before they breach her defenses.
He saw it in slow motion—Davina's Firewall fragmenting, an ancestor's consciousness forcing through the gap, her eyes beginning to glow with borrowed power. She was losing.
"No. Not her. I won't lose her."
Reality tore.
The sensation was familiar—that endless void between dimensions, the darkness where his consciousness had drifted before resurrection. But this time, instead of being lost in it, Kol used it.
The rooftop vanished. The void swallowed him mid-leap, cold and infinite and somehow responsive to his desperate need. He fell through the tear in space, through that darkness between worlds, and—
—emerged directly between Davina and the spirits.
Purple energy crackled around him, void residue dissipating into the air like smoke. Everyone froze—the ancestors shocked into stillness, Davina's wide-eyed confusion, Kol's own racing heart as he processed what he'd just done.
"I teleported. Through the void. I actually—"
"Miss me?" he quipped, voice steadier than he felt.
The grimoire manifested without prompting, slamming open to combat spells. Options flooded Kol's awareness—barrier magic, offensive curses, necromancy that could bind spirits—but he didn't have time to choose strategically.
The ancestors recovered from their shock and attacked again, fury replacing surprise.
Kol threw up a barrier on instinct, drawing on Kol's inherited knowledge and the grimoire's stored spells. The shield snapped into place just as spectral claws raked toward his chest. Purple-black energy absorbed the impact, void power threading through traditional magic in ways that shouldn't work but somehow did.
Behind him, Davina gasped. "How did you—"
"Later," Kol gritted out, barrier straining. "Can you cast?"
"Yes, but—"
"Then cast!"
She did, channeling offensive magic without hesitation—pain infliction directed at the nearest ancestor, force magic slamming into another. Her power flared bright and fierce, young witch's magic fueled by anger and fear and determination.
And something unexpected happened.
Their magic synchronized.
Kol felt it the moment Davina's spells touched his barrier—a feedback loop forming between their power, each amplifying the other. His void energy wrapped around her ancestral magic, and her natural talent enhanced his defensive spells, creating something neither could achieve alone.
The barrier strengthened, solidified, became nearly impenetrable. When Davina cast again, Kol's power automatically channeled through her spell, doubling its effectiveness. The ancestor she targeted screamed, dissolving under the combined assault.
"Keep going," Kol commanded, extending the barrier to protect them both while maintaining the connection between their magic. "They can't handle us together."
The remaining three ancestors tried different tactics—simultaneous strikes from multiple angles, attempting to flank them, even trying to possess Kol directly. But the void in his veins recoiled from outside consciousness, and Davina's spells kept coming, each one enhanced by their linked power.
Ninety seconds of brutal magical combat later, the ancestors fled, their spectral forms battered and weakened.
Silence descended on the street, broken only by their harsh breathing.
Kol let the barrier drop, suddenly aware that he and Davina were standing inches apart, magic still crackling between them in visible arcs of purple-gold power. Her eyes were wide, searching his face, and he could smell the jasmine from her shampoo, feel the heat radiating from her skin.
"You came," she whispered.
"Always," Kol promised, and meant it with an intensity that terrified him.
"When did she become so important? When did protecting her become more essential than surviving?"
The moment stretched, charged with unspoken things neither was ready to acknowledge. Then footsteps approached rapidly—Sophie Deveraux, drawn by the magical disturbance, her expression cycling through shock and confusion as she took in the scorch marks, the residual magic, the way Kol and Davina stood together like they'd fought as one.
"What happened here?" Sophie demanded.
Kol forced himself to step back, breaking the connection. His predatory smile settled into place, the mask he wore when hiding uncomfortable truths. "Just pest control. Ancestors tried taking Davina. We persuaded them otherwise."
"You're glowing," Sophie pointed out. "Both of you. Purple energy that I've never seen before."
"Old Original vampire trick," Kol lied smoothly. "Haven't had occasion to use it in centuries. Nearly forgot it existed."
Sophie's suspicion was palpable, but she couldn't challenge the explanation without proof it was false. After several tense seconds, she nodded. "I'll report this to the elders. The ancestors are getting desperate."
She left, throwing glances over her shoulder.
Davina touched Kol's arm. "How did you do that? The teleportation—"
"Void step," Kol said quietly. "That's what the grimoire called it. The power that comes from..." He gestured vaguely, unable to explain without revealing everything. "From what I became during resurrection. I felt you were in danger and I just... needed to be here. Reality accommodated."
"That's not how magic works."
"I'm increasingly aware that normal rules don't apply to me." Kol manifested the grimoire, and it opened to a new entry: Void Step - Teleportation through dimensional tears. Cost: 15% magic per use. Range: Line of sight or strong emotional connection to target location.
"Strong emotional connection," Davina read aloud, then looked at him. "You were thinking about me?"
"You were in danger." Kol dismissed the book before she could read more. "Come on. Let's get you home before anything else tries killing us tonight."
They walked in silence, the comfortable ease from earlier replaced by awareness that something had shifted between them. The way their magic had synchronized, the desperation in Kol's voice when he'd told her to cast, the promise—always—that had come out more like a vow than a reassurance.
At her building's entrance, Davina turned to face him. "Thank you. For coming. For..." She trailed off, magic crackling around her hands again. "For making me feel safe."
"Anytime," Kol said, then added more quietly, "Literally. The void step seems to activate when you're threatened. So if you need me, I'll be there."
"That's a little stalker-ish," she teased, but her smile was soft.
"Protective surveillance," he corrected, echoing his earlier argument with the grimoire.
Davina laughed, and the tension broke. She squeezed his hand once—brief contact that sent electricity through his borrowed vampire nerves—then headed inside.
Kol stood on the street, processing the evening's revelations. New power unlocked. Magical synchronization with Davina. The dawning realization that she'd become someone he'd risk everything to protect.
"This is dangerous. Attachment is vulnerability. Caring about her makes her a target."
But the alternative—maintaining cold distance, treating her as just another piece on New Orleans' supernatural chessboard—felt impossible now.
His phone buzzed. Text from Josh: Marcel wants explanation for mysterious teleportation. Also, we need to talk about the way you looked at Davina. I have concerns.
Kol groaned. Of course Josh had been watching. The younger vampire had probably texted Marcel already, expressing those concerns in detail.
He headed back to the compound, already formulating explanations that didn't reveal too much. Lost Original vampire power, awakened by resurrection stress, nothing to worry about. Marcel would be suspicious but accept it, because what choice did he have?
The relationship concerns, though—those were harder to deflect.
Marcel's office, twenty minutes later.
"So you can teleport now," Marcel said without preamble.
"Apparently."
"Any other surprises I should know about?"
"Not currently," Kol lied. The void visions, the grimoire's sentience, his ability to sense ancestral magic—all secrets best kept close. "The resurrection awakened some abilities I'd lost or forgotten. I'm still cataloguing what works and what doesn't."
Marcel studied him with the expression of someone trying to solve a puzzle with missing pieces. "Josh says you moved when Davina was threatened. Specifically when she was in danger."
"My void sense detected the ancestral assault. I responded to an active threat."
"No." Marcel leaned forward. "You responded to her being threatened. There's a difference, Kol. One is tactics. The other is..." He trailed off meaningfully.
"Is what?" Kol asked, knowing the answer but needing to hear it said.
"Personal investment. Emotional attachment." Marcel's tone gentled slightly. "I'm not saying it's bad. Davina's brilliant and brave and could use someone who actually gives a damn about her wellbeing. But you need to be careful. If the ancestors realize she's important to you—"
"They'll use her as leverage," Kol finished. The fear he'd been suppressing since the attack crystallized into cold certainty. "I know."
"Do you?" Marcel challenged. "Because from where I'm sitting, you're developing feelings for a witch who's already marked for death by the ancestors, while also being an Original vampire that every faction wants either controlled or destroyed. That's not a relationship. That's a tragedy waiting to happen."
"He's right. Of course he's right. But what am I supposed to do—push her away for her own protection? She'd see through that immediately."
"I'll handle it," Kol said finally.
"See that you do." Marcel dismissed him with a wave. "And Kol? Whatever's developing between you two—don't let it get her killed."
The warning followed Kol back to his attic, where the grimoire manifested without being summoned.
You're in love with her, the book wrote simply.
"I'm not—" Kol started, then stopped. Was he? Could you fall in love in a month? With a girl you'd met while wearing a dead man's face, while hiding fundamental truths about your existence?
Yes, the grimoire answered his unspoken question. You can. And you have. The void step responding to her danger, the way your magic synchronizes with hers, the promises you make without thinking—all symptoms of emotional attachment.
"This is a disaster."
Possibly, the book agreed. But it's also the first genuine thing you've felt since transmigrating. Worth considering whether survival is enough, or if you want to actually live this borrowed life.
Kol stared at the words, unable to formulate an argument.
Somewhere in the Quarter, Davina was probably texting Josh about the attack, or practicing new spells, or simply trying to process the evening's chaos. And Kol, sitting alone with a sentient grimoire that had developed opinions about his love life, realized he was in far deeper than he'd ever intended.
The void whispered at the edge of his awareness, reminding him that power came with prices he didn't fully understand yet.
But when he closed his eyes, he saw Davina's face—trusted and determined and alive because he'd reached her in time.
"Worth it," he murmured. "Whatever it costs, she's worth it."
The grimoire hummed agreement, and in that sound Kol heard something like hope.
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