Hunted

pointed to his heart—“and rules written there aren’t subject to the changing whims of those around us.”

Stark’s face hardened. He reached back and pulled free a bow that had been fitted in a strap on his back. Then he took an arrow from the quiver I’d assumed was a man purse hanging over his shoulder (I should have know it wasn’t; Stark isn’t exactly a man-purse kind of guy). He fitted the arrow in the bow and said, “I think I’ll make sure you’re never in my way again.”

“No!” I stood up and moved to Darius’s side, my heart pounding like crazy. “What the hell’s happened to you, Stark?”

“I died!” he yelled, his face twisting in anger as the ghostly darkness rolled around him. Now that it was visible to me, I wondered how I could ever have missed it. Ignoring the shadowy evil, I continued to confront him.

“I know that!” I yelled. “I was there, remember?” That made him pause. The bow dipped down a little. I took that as a good sign, and went on. “You said you’d come back to Duchess and to me.”

When I said his dog’s name, pain flashed across his face, and all of a sudden he looked young and vulnerable. But the expression only lasted an instant. I blinked and he was back to being dangerous and sarcastic, though his eyes had stopped glowing red.

“Yeah, I’m back. But things are different now. And bigger changes are coming.” He gave Darius a look of utter disgust. “All that old shit you believe in doesn’t mean anything anymore. It makes you weak, and when you’re weak you die.”

Darius shook his head. “Honoring the way of the Goddess is never weakness.”

“Yeah, well, I haven’t seen much of any goddess hanging around here, have you?”

“Yes, actually I have,” I spoke up. “I’ve seen Nyx. She appeared right in there”—I pointed at the girls’ dorm —“just a couple days ago.”

Stark looked at me silently for a long time. I searched his face, trying to find some hint of that guy I’d felt such a connection with—whom I’d kissed right before he’d died in my arms. But all I could see was an unpredictable stranger, and foremost in my mind was the knowledge that if he shot that bow he would not miss whatever he aimed at.

And suddenly that reminded me. He hadn’t killed Stevie Rae. The fact that she was alive proved that he hadn’t meant to kill her. So maybe there was some piece of the old Stark left within him.

“Stevie Rae’s fine, by the way,” I said.

“That’s nothing to me,” he said.

I shrugged. “Just thought you’d want to know, since it was your arrow that made her a shish kebab.”

“I was doing what I was told to do. The boss said make her bleed; I made her bleed.”

“Neferet? Is she who’s controlling you?” I asked.

His eyes blazed. “No one’s controlling me!”

“Your bloodlust is controlling you,” Darius said. “If you weren’t under its control, you wouldn’t have had to force yourself on that fledgling.”

“Yeah? Ya think so? Well, you’re wrong. I happen to like my bloodlust! I liked doing whatever I want with that girl. It’s time vampyres stopped slinking around. We’re smarter, stronger, better than humans. We should be in charge, not them!”

“That fledgling isn’t a human.” Darius’s voice was like a naked blade, reminding me that he wasn’t just a big brother-type guy; he was a Son of Erebus and one of the most powerful warriors alive.

“I was thirsty and there wasn’t a human handy,” Stark said.

“Zoey, get the girl into the dorm.” Darius didn’t take his eyes off Stark. “She is done serving his convenience.”

I hurried over to Becca and helped her to her feet. She was a little wobbly but able to walk. As we reached Darius, he moved forward with us, always keeping himself between us and Stark. Just as we were passing by him, Stark spoke with an angry intensity that sent a chill down the back of my neck.

“You know, all I have to do is think about killing you and shoot this arrow. Wherever you are, you’re dead.”

“If that is so, then I will be dead,” Darius said matter-of-factly. “And you will be a monster.”

“I don’t mind being a monster!”

“And I don’t mind dying if it is in the service of my High Priestess and, ultimately, my Goddess,” Darius said.

“If you hurt him, I’ll come against you with everything I have,” I told Stark.

Stark looked at me and his lips tilted up in a ghost of that cute, cocky smile he used to have. “You’re a little bit of a monster yourself, aren’t ya, Zoey?”

I didn’t think that nasty comment was worth a response, and obviously neither did Darius. He kept shepherding us by Stark, opening the front door of the dorm and helping Becca inside. But instead of me following her in, I paused. Intuition was telling me that there was something I had to do, and much as I’d like to ignore my intuition, I knew I shouldn’t. “I’ll be right in,” I told Darius. I could see that he was going to argue with me, but I shook my head and said, “Trust me. I just need a second.”

“I’ll be inside the door,” Darius said, threw Stark a hard look, and then stepped into the dorm.

I faced Stark. I knew I was taking a chance with what I was going to say to him, but I kept remembering Kramisha’s poem and the line that said, “Humanity saves her / Will she save me?” I at least had to try.

“Jack’s taking care of Duchess,” I said without any preamble.

I saw that flash of pain in his eyes again, but his voice wasn’t touched by it. “So?”

“So I’m just telling you that your dog’s fine. She’s had a pretty hard time, but she’s okay.”

“I’m not who I used to be, so she’s not my dog anymore.” This time I heard a quaver in his voice, which gave me enough hope that I took a step toward him.

“Hey, the great thing about dogs is that they give unconditional love. Duch doesn’t care who you are right now. She’ll still love you.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

“Yeah, I do. I’ve spent some time with your dog. She’s got a really big heart.”

“I wasn’t talking about her. I was talking about me.”

“Well, I’ve spent some time with red fledglings, too. Not to mention that the first ever Changed red vamp is my best friend. Stevie Rae’s different than she used to be, but I still love her,” I said. “Maybe if you spent some time with Stevie Rae and the rest of the red fledglings you could, I don’t know, find yourself again. They have.” I said this with way more confidence than I felt. After all, I had glimpsed fragments of the darkness surrounding Stark down in those tunnels, around those red fledglings, but I couldn’t help believing it would be best to get him away from here, where evil seemed to come and go so easily.

“Sure,” he said too quickly. “Why don’t you take me to this Stevie Rae vamp and I’ll see what happens?”

“Sure,” I said just as quickly. “Why don’t you leave your bow and arrows here and show me how to get off campus without the bird freaks knowing and I’ll do just that?”

His expression hardened and he was a mean stranger again. “I don’t go anywhere without my bow, and no one leaves campus without them knowing.”

“Then it looks like I won’t be taking you to Stevie Rae,” I said.

“I don’t need you to show me where Stevie Rae is. She knows all about their little hideout. When she wants your friend, she’ll have her. If I were you, I’d expect to see Stevie Rae a lot sooner than you thought you would.”

Warning bells were ringing like a fire alarm in my mind, and I definitely didn’t have to ask who the “she” was Stark was talking about. But instead of showing just how upset Stark’s admission made me, I smiled calmly and said, “No one’s hiding out. I’m right here, and Stevie Rae is right where she’s been since she Changed. No big deal. Plus, it’s always great to see her, so if she shows up here, that’s cool.”

“Yeah, whatever. No big deal. And I’m cool staying right where I am.” He looked away from me, out into the icy fog that was drifting lazily around us. “I don’t get why you care anyway.”

And suddenly I knew exactly what to say. “I am just keeping my promises to you.”

“What do you mean?”