Nala to grumble and squirm.
Stevie Rae and I laughed at her and spent some time settling the cat down, and then I said, “Okay, I’m gonna fall over right here if I don’t get to my bed.” I kissed Nala on top of the head and handed her to Stevie Rae. “Keep Dr. Nal. She’s a good cuddler.”
“Thanks, Z. You’re the best.”
I ducked out of Stevie Rae’s blanket door and made my way slowly down the tunnel until I came to the pink My Little Pony blanket I’d made Stark tack up as our door. I ran my hand down the soft front of it and let myself smile as I remembered how I used to play dress up with My Little Pony and how Mom had cut some of the ponies’ hair short so I’d know which were the boys and which were the girls.
Mom …
I closed my eyes and centered myself. “Spirit, I need you,” I called softly. I felt the infilling of the element almost immediately. “This time could you stay with me a little while, just until I fall asleep?” Spirit answered my question with a rush of feeling that made me feel warm and very tired.
I ducked under the pink blanket and walked quietly to the bed. I knew he’d be asleep. I lay down beside him, pulled my blue blanket over both of us, and watched Stark for a few minutes while I let spirit lull me. He was frowning in his sleep. Under his eyelids I could see his eyes moving like he was watching a Ping-Pong match with his eyes closed. I touched his forehead gently, with just the tips of my fingers, trying to soothe away his stress. “It’s okay,” I whispered. “Don’t have bad dreams.” It seemed to work a little because he let out a long breath, his face relaxed, and he threw an arm around me so I could snuggle close while I finally fell into deep, dreamless sleep.
At first it had been simple, even accidental, that Kalona had followed the thread of shared immortal spirit that bound him with Stark. He had slipped into the young vampyre’s mind easily. But as the days multiplied and their experience in the Otherworld faded further and further into the past, Kalona found the job of invading Stark’s subconscious more and more difficult.
The boy’s mind was rebelling.
Kalona’s invading spirit had to remain still and simply observe, or only make small suggestions to the Warrior Guardian of Zoey Redbird, or Stark’s subconscious resisted and, more often than not, severed the thread that tied the two of them, ejecting Kalona’s spirit in a most uncomfortable manner.
Of course it did tend to be easier if the boy was distracted by either making love to Zoey or when he was asleep and dreaming.
Initially, Kalona had preferred entering Stark as he entered Zoey. It was, indeed, pleasurable. But the sex was also a diversion the winged immortal didn’t need. So as the days and nights passed, Kalona had returned to a skill he’d perfected eons ago—he entered Stark’s dreams.
The immortal did not manipulate the Warrior’s dreams, though, as he had done to Zoey and many others.
That would have been too obvious. Stark would have recognized what was happening. If he became cognizant of Kalona’s presence the boy could borrow elemental power from Zoey and block Kalona. At the very least Stark would have been on guard against him, and then observing Stark’s subconscious would have been little except a boring waste of his immortal time. Staying secret—acting subtly—that was what he must do. Yes, it was far better to lurk quietly in the recesses of Stark’s mind—to whisper dark thoughts—to eavesdrop.
It was a happy coincidence that the young vampyre’s dreaming mind enjoyed talking to itself. Odd, really, how Stark’s subconscious tended to circle around to the same dream where he faced himself on a small piece of earth surrounded by nothingness, and talked to a mirror image of himself who was tougher and meaner than the real Stark and whom the vampyre called The Other. Stark didn’t travel to The Other’s presence every night, but when he did Kalona often overheard interesting pieces from the boy’s day.
This night Kalona was ready to sever their tether, disgusted by a banal dream of Stark remembering happy scenes from his childhood, when the dream shifted and the child Stark grew, changed, and doubled. Kalona stilled himself and watched as the mirror images began speaking.
The scene began to fade as a beautiful white feather appeared over Stark’s head.
In time with the whispered words the feather softly, gently, stroked over Stark’s face, soothing his furrowed brow and, like a broom with sand, sweeping away the dissipating image of The Other.
In the darkest shadows of Stark’s mind, Kalona smiled and, for then, severed their nightly connection.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“Really, Twin. Go with Kramisha and Aphrodikey. My stomach is still messed up from the Lunchables I had for breakfast. I need to stay here closer to the bathroom,” Shaunee said.
“Eew, Twin, I tried to tell you Lunchables aren’t a breakfast food,” Erin said.
“Look, are you staying here and suckling Shauneedy, or are you coming with us? The bumpkin and the bird are upstairs heating up the car and waiting on us. We have like two-point-five minutes to get to the back door of Miss Jackson’s and have Kramisha and Stevie Rae
