Hunted

whatnot finally splashed cold water on me and I managed to stop kissing him. I gave him a shove so that he stepped out of the doorway. I hurried into the field house, looking around guiltily and then breathing a sigh of relief that we were the only ones loitering and cutting class.
    There was a little side room off of the main field house complex, much like the tack room in the stables. It was where the bows and arrows and targets and other field house-ish and sporting equipment and such was housed. I ducked into it with Stark close on my heels, closed the door, and took a few steps away from him. When he gave me that look, that sexy smile of his, and started toward me, I held up my hand like a crossing guard.
    “No. You stay over there and I’ll stay over here. We need to talk and that’s not going to happen if you’re close to me,” I said.
    “Because you can’t keep your hands off me?”
    “Oh, please. I’m managing to keep my hands off you just fine. I’m not one of your pod girls.”
    “Pod girls?”
    “You know, from Invasion of the Body Snatchers. That’s how I think of the girls you bite and mess with their minds so that they’re all ‘Oooh, that Stark, he’s just so hot! Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod!’ It’s seriously annoying. And, by the way, if you ever try any of that crap with me, I promise you I will call all of the five elements and we will kick your butt. Count on it.”
    “I wouldn’t try to do that to you, but that’s not saying I wouldn’t like to taste you. I totally would.” His voice had gone all sexy again, and he started to step closer to me.
    “No! I’m serious about you staying over there.”
    “Okay! Okay! What’s got your panties in such a bunch?”
    I narrowed my eyes at him. “My panties are not in a bunch. All hell happens to be breaking loose around us, in case you hadn’t noticed. The House of Night is under the control of something that’s probably a demon. Neferet has turned into something that’s probably a lot worse than a demon. My friends and I are not safe. I have no idea how to do what I need to do to begin to make this mess right, and to top it all off I’m falling for a guy who’s been with a crapload of the girls on campus and used mind control on them.”
    “You’re falling for me?”
    “Yeah, great, isn’t it? I already have a vampyre boyfriend and a human guy I’ve Imprinted. As my grandma would say, my dance card is more than full.”
    “I can take care of the vamp boyfriend.” Automatically Stark’s hand came up to stroke the bow that was strapped to his back.
    “Hell no, you won’t take care of him! ” I yelled. “Get this through your head: That bow is not the fix-it answer to your problems. It should be your very last resort and should never, ever be used against another person, human or vampyre. You used to know that.”
    His face hardened. “You know what happened to me. I’m not going to apologize for what’s become my nature.”
    “Your nature? Do you mean your spoiled-brat nature, or your slut nature?”
    “I mean me!” He pounded his fist against his chest. “It’s what I am now.”
    “Okay, you need to hear me once and for all, because I’m not going to keep repeating this. Get a damn clue! We all have bad things inside us, and we all choose either to give in to those bad things or to fight them.”
    “That’s not the same thing as—”
    “Shut up and listen to me!” My anger exploded around us. “It’s not the same thing for any of us. For some people the only thing they have to struggle with is whether they sleep in and miss first hour or get their butts up and go to school. For other people it’s harder stuff—like whether or not to go into rehab and stay clean or to just give up and keep using. For you maybe it’s even harder—like whether to fight for your humanity or to give in to the darkness and be a monster. But it’s still a choice . Your choice.”
    We stood there staring at each other. I didn’t know what else to say. I couldn’t make the choice to do the right thing for him, and I suddenly understood that I wouldn’t keep sneaking around and seeing him. If he couldn’t be the kind of guy I was proud to be with in public, the act he put on for me in private didn’t mean anything. And that was something he needed to know.
    “What happened last night won’t happen again. Not like that.” The anger drained out of me and my voice calmed down. I sounded quiet and sad in the