The first time Akhil had used the skill Mosquito Bite, that was when he'd started feeling the presence of the Blood Monarch.
It had been overwhelming—a hunger so vast and consuming it felt like it would swallow him whole. The desire to devour, to drink blood far beyond what he needed, to tear and rend and feed endlessly. The presence had been filled with such destructive energy that it terrified him, even as it gave him power.
After killing Samxon with that ability, Akhil had sworn to himself that he'd never use it again. The skill frightened him in ways he couldn't fully articulate. There was something deeply wrong about it—the way it made him feel, the way his thoughts twisted into darker shapes, the way control seemed to slip through his fingers like sand.
He'd had a terrible feeling that when he activated Mosquito Bite, he wasn't the one truly in control. The Blood Monarch was.
