Hunted

I was tired and hurt and confused about many things, I followed the thread that had been unraveled before me and tried to sew together the shredded cloth of Stark’s humanity. “I don’t think you’re a monster, but I also don’t think you’re just a nice guy. I see what you are, and I believe in what you could choose to be. Stark, don’t you understand? Kalona and Neferet are keeping you like this because they’re using you. If you don’t want to turn into a creature of their creation, then you’re going to have to choose a different way and fight against them, and against the darkness they surround themselves with.” I sighed, searching for the right words. “Don’t you see, evil will win if good people do nothing.” I must have struck a nerve with Stark, because he slowly turned around to face me.
    “But I’m not good people.”
    “You were a good guy before all of this. I know you were. I didn’t forget, just like I promised you. And you can be a good guy again.”
    “When I hear you say it, I almost believe it.”
    “Believing it is the first step. Acting on it is the second.” I paused, and he didn’t say anything, so I filled the dead air with some of the babble that was drifting through my mind. “Have you stopped to think about why we keep coming together?”
    His smile was completely Bad Boy. “Yeah, I thought it was because you’re so damn hot.”
    I tried, unsuccessfully, not to grin back at him. “Well, yeah, I mean besides that.”
    He shrugged. “You being hot is enough for me.”
    “Thanks, I guess. But that’s not exactly what I meant. I was thinking it has something to do with Nyx and your being important to her.”
    Stark’s smiled faded instantly. “The Goddess couldn’t want anything to do with me. Not anymore.”
    “I think you’d be surprised. Remember Aphrodite?”
    He nodded. “Yeah, kinda. She’s that really stuck-up chick who actually thinks she’s a love goddess.”
    “That’s Aphrodite. She and Nyx are like this.” I crossed my fingers.
    “Are you sure?”
    “Totally,” I said, and couldn’t stop the humongous yawn that overtook me. “Sorry. I didn’t get much sleep lately. Between the stress going on around here, me getting hurt, and some seriously bad dreams, sleep has not been very friendly to me.”
    “Can I ask you something about your dreams?”
    I shrugged and nodded sleepily.
    “Has Kalona been in them?”
    I blinked in surprise at him. “Why would you ask that?”
    “He does that. Gets in people’s dreams.”
    “He’s been in your dreams?”
    “Nah, not me, but I’ve overhead the fledglings talking, and he’s definitely been in their dreams, only they liked it a lot more than you do.”
    I thought about how sexy Kalona could be and how easy it would be for me to give in to his hypnotic appearance. “Yeah, I’ll just bet they do.”
    “I want to tell you something, but I don’t want you to think I’m making it up just so I can hit on you,” he said.
    “What is it?” He was looking massively uncomfortable, as if what he was about to say made him really nervous.
    “It’s harder for him to get into your dreams if you’re not sleeping alone.”
    I stared hard at him. He was right. It sounded like something a guy would make up to get into a girl’s bed (and panties).
    “I wasn’t sleeping alone the first time it happened,” I said.
    “You were with a guy?”
    I felt my cheeks start to get warm. “No. I was with my roommate.”
    “It has to be a guy. It’s like he doesn’t want to compete or something.”
    “Stark, that sounds like utter bullpoopie.”
    He smiled. “Is ‘bullpoopie’ really a word?”
    “It’s my word,” I said. “And how the hell would you know this little tidbit about Kalona?”
    “He talks a lot around me. It’s almost like he doesn’t notice I’m there sometimes. I heard him and Rephaim talking about the dreams. Kalona said he was thinking about putting Raven Mocker guards up between the girls’ and guys’ dorms to keep them apart, but he decided he wouldn’t because he really wasn’t having an issue with controlling the fledglings—with or without being in their dreams.”
    “Gross,” I said. “What about the professors? Are they all under his control, too?”
    “Apparently. At least none of them have stood up against him or Neferet.”
    I expected Stark to start to get defensive with my questioning, but he didn’t seem to mind and was talking to me like it was no big