Do you feel unusually tired or hungry, or at least feel that way more than usual? It's possible that you're just using a lot more energy than before so your body is craving more energy to sustain itself. It's not a big issue, I'd just recommend either pacing yourself with magic or keeping up with your appetite more.
It could be that by doing this you are expending your energy more than usual. That and the rush of the heightened energy during the workings can give you a sort of high that may leave you craving for more.
Make sure to ground yourself after your magick workings. Eating something helps.
Also if you feel comfortable being at night and illuminated by the moon try doing energy work with the moon. Hold your hands up high and visualize it's energy (I recommend seeing it as silver) coming down at you through your Crown and into your Manipura chakra and filling you with its vitality.
I've gotten cravings to drain others' energy before too but it's a much better and healthier practice to get it from the sun or moon and also through breathing exercises. Unless you're a really advanced practitioner you just don't know the kind toxic baggage people may be carrying at the moment infused with their energy. Keep in mind that we are always engaging in a constant exchange of energy with our environment also.
I would suggest the same thing as alaric, You should get your energy directly from the higher sources instead of trying to steal it from others. The sun and the moon are good places to get energy from but there are also forces all around us that make those sources look meager in comparison. You will not be able to connect with the higher realm well if you try to gain your energy by stealing it from beings of the lower realms, you need to take the energy directly from the higher realms, from the beings and forces that lives all around you; for these are the forces that have an unlimited supply of energy and are the ones that can give us more energy then we can even use. This is the only real way to obtain higher energies, you cannot obtain it by stealing it from trying to steal from others. This would only give you a glimpse of what you seek.
The energy spike started almost at the same time that the new ability came around. I'm not sure what the cause was. I just started staying out under the night sky more often than usual. Maybe I was unconsciously absorbing energy while I was out there?
And, yeah. I agree that taking energy from others is a bad idea. Who knows what things are mixed in there.
If your worried that you might be corrupted by dark magic, don't be. Your magic is an extension of yourself and every action you take is a conscious choice. You cannot "turn evil".
I'm not worried about turning evil. And who says Dark Magic is evil? Evil Magic is evil. Dark Magic is just that: Magic involving Shadow energy or spirits as well as the manipulation of darker or night-associated energies (i.e.: Umbrakinesis, Lunakinesis, etc.).
Considering that it is almost Samhain and the vail between the worlds is growing thinner and thinner this time of year your magickal sense can gain what feels to be added clarity or in some cases more power. Especially at night under the power of the moon. This new drawing your feeling can be attributed to a need to connect to the higher self or a calling if you will into a path or place.
The most obvious reason for this is that you are growing and your magickal "tank" is growing in capacity; When it grows, it sometimes emits a feeling of hunger for energy. However, focused meditation and doing magick soon fills this because the energy systems learns to provide the energy that is needed to fill the new size of the "tank".
Just try not to steal the energy from others because it can mess up with your energetic boundaries.
