House of Night 09 - Destined

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.
    Kalona
    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.
    “Crappy day, fucknuts?”
    “Yeah, and you’re the turd cherry on the top of this banana split of a crap day.”
    “Hey, Stark, no problem. You can always count on me to keep ya real. So why don’t we talk about how today would have been lots easier if you’d manned up and hadn’t been so fucking nice.”
    “Yeah, Other. That’s one thing I can count on from you—a bad attitude.”
    “Yeah, fucknuts, my attitude sucks, but I don’t cry about having bad days. You can count on that.”
    “I can also count on Zoey being in danger from people who are too damn close to her for comfort.”
    “Might as well spill your guts. You know I’ll always play devil’s advocate.”
    “This damn Rephaim thing is gonna bite me in the ass.”
    “Tell me you’re not moron enough to trust him.”
    “I’m nice, not stupid.”
    “Hey, sissy boy, have you thought about the fact that if you can’t trust Rephaim, then you can’t trust anyone who’s close to him, either.”
    “Like Stevie Rae. I know. I expected to have to watch her close and be sure she wasn’t getting Zoey into danger, but it looks like the opposite’s happening. Stevie Rae keeps pushing Rephaim to stay away from Kalona, to be safe and smart and not give his messed up dad the time of day.”
    “What’s the problem then?”
    “Shaunee.”
    The Other laughed. “You mean one half of the Twin duo? So, they’re both causing you stress. Hey, how ’bout this—instead of crying about it you dump Zoey and make