Hunted

stillness of the little room.
    “How can you say that when you just told me you were falling for me?”
    “Stark, what I’m telling you is that I’m not going be with you if I have to hide the fact that we’re together.”
    “Because of that vamp boyfriend?”
    “Because of you. Erik does affect us. I care about him. The last thing I want to do is hurt him, but it would be stupid of me to stay with him and wish I was with you, or anybody else, including the human guy I’ve Imprinted. So you need to understand Erik couldn’t stop me from being with you.”
    “You really do have feelings for me, don’t you?”
    “I do, but I can promise you I won’t be your girlfriend if I’m ashamed to be with you in front of my friends. You can’t be wrong around everyone else and right around me. What you really are is how you act most of the time. I see that there’s still good in you, but that good will eventually be blotted out by the darkness that’s there, too, and I’m not going to hang around to see that happen.”
    He looked away from me. “I knew that was how you felt before, but I didn’t think it would bother me so much to hear you say it. I don’t know if I can make the right choice. When I’m with you, I feel like I can. You’re so strong, and you’re good.”
    I blew out a big sigh. “I’m not that darn good. I’ve messed up a lot. Sadly, I’ll probably keep messing up. A lot. And you were the strong one last night, not me.”
    He met my eyes again. “You are good. I can feel it. You’re good down deep in your heart, where it counts.”
    “I hope I am. I try to be.”
    “Then do this for me, please.” He closed the few feet between us before I could stop him again. At first he didn’t touch me. He just kept staring into my eyes. “You haven’t completed the Change yet, but even the Sons of Erebus call you Priestess.” Then he dropped to one knee, and looking up at me, he fisted his right hand over his heart.
    “What are you doing?”
    “I’m pledging myself to you. Warriors have done it for ages—pledged themselves, body, heart, and soul, to protect their High Priestesses. I know I’m just a fledgling still, but I believe I qualify as Warrior already.”
    “Well, I’m just a fledgling still, too, so we match.” My voice shook, and I had to blink fast to clear the tears that were pooling in my eyes.
    “Do you accept my pledge, my lady?”
    “Stark, do you understand what you’re doing?” I knew about a warrior’s pledge to a High Priestess, and it was an oath that often bound him to her service for his entire life, and was often harder to break than an Imprint.
    “I do. I’m making a choice. The right choice. I’m choosing good over evil, light over darkness. I choose my humanity. Do you accept my pledge, my lady?” he repeated.
    “Yes, Stark, I do. And in Nyx’s name I bind you to the Goddess’s service, as well as to mine, because to serve me is to serve her.”
    The air around us shimmered and there was a brilliant flash of light. Stark cried out and seemed to crumple in on himself, falling at my feet with a moan.
    I dropped to my knees beside him, pulling at his shoulders, trying to see what was wrong. “Stark! What happened? Are you—”
    With a wonderfully joyous cry he looked up at me. Tears were running freely down his face, but his smile was radiant. Then I blinked and realized what I was seeing. His crescent had been filled in and expanded. Two arrows faced the crescent. They were decorated with intricate symbols that seemed to glow with their new scarlet color against the white of his skin.
    “Oh, Stark!” I reached out and gently traced the tattoo that forever Marked him as an adult vampyre—the second adult red vampyre there had ever been. “It’s beautiful!”
    “I’ve Changed, haven’t I?”
    I nodded, and the tears overflowed my eyes and fell down my cheeks. And then I was in his arms, kissing him, and our tears mingled together as we laughed and cried and held each other.
    The bell that signaled the end of fifth hour made us jump. He helped me to my feet and, smiling, wiped the tears from my cheeks and his own. Then reality broke through my happiness, and I realized everything that had to go along with this new and amazing Change.
    “Stark, when a fledgling Changes, there is some kind of ritual he has to go through.”
    “Do you know the ritual?”
    “No, only vamps do.” Then I had a thought. “You have to go to Dragon