Hunted (House of Night #5)(65)

What Stark was doing was a twisted mockery of the good-night kissing that usually went on there. He was holding a girl in what could have been an embrace, had it not been obvious that, just seconds before his teeth had locked on her neck, she'd been trying to get away from him. I watched, horrified, as Stark, oblivious to our presence, continued his attack on her. It didn't matter that the girl was now moaning with sexual plea sure. I mean, we all know that's what happens when a vamp bites someone: The sex receptors in both the "victim" (and in this case she was definitely his victim!) and the vamp were stimulated. She was physically feeling plea sure, but her wide, terrified eyes, and the rigidity of her body made it obvious she would fight him if she could. Stark was drinking in huge gulps from her throat. His moans were feral and the hand that wasn't holding her tight against his body was fumbling at the girl's skirt, lifting it so that he could situate himself between her legs and--

"Free her!" Darius commanded, pulling his arm from my grasp and stepping out of the pocket of concealing mist and night that had been hiding us.

Stark dropped the girl with no more thought than he would have given an empty QT Big Gulp. She whimpered and on hands and knees scrambled away from him toward Darius. Darius tossed an old-time handkerchief he'd pulled from his pocket at me, and said, "Help her." Then he situated himself like a muscular mountain between the hysterical girl and me and Stark.

I crouched down, realizing with a start of surprise that the girl was Becca Adams, a pretty blond fourth former who had had a crush on Erik. As I watched Darius confront Stark, I handed Becca the handkerchief and murmured soothing words to her.

"You seem to keep getting in my way," Stark said. His eyes still glowed red, and there was blood on his mouth that he wiped absently away with the back of his hand. Again, I could see a darkness that pulsed around him. It wasn't completely visible, but more of a shadow within a shadow that shifted in and out of my vision, something that was actually easier seen when I wasn't looking for it.

And then it hit me. I knew where I'd noticed such strange liquid darkness before. It had been in the shadows of the tunnels, and then again in the glimpse of the spectral form of Neferet that had turned into the Raven Mocker who had almost killed me! With more sudden insight I recognized this darkness further. I was sure it had been present, pulsing like a living shadow around Stevie Rae before she'd Changed, only then my eyes and mind had just registered my best friend's need and anguish and struggle, and I'd processed the darkness she'd been moving in only as internal. Goddess, I'd been a fool! Overwhelmed, I tried to make sense of this new knowledge as Darius confronted Stark.

"Perhaps no one has explained to you that vampyre males do not abuse females, be they human, vampyre, or fledgling." Darius spoke calmly, as if he were having an ordinary conversation with a friend.

"I'm not a vampyre." Stark pointed to the outline of the red crescent moon on his forehead.

"That is an inconsequential detail. quo;"xmWe"--Darius motioned from himself to Stark--"do not abuse females. Ever. The Goddess has taught us better."

Stark smiled, but the gesture lacked any real humor. "I think you're gonna find that the rules have changed around here."

"Well, boy, I think you'll find that some of us have rules written here"--Darius pointed to his heart--"and rules written there aren't subject to the changing whims of those around us."

Stark's face hardened. He reached back and pulled free a bow that had been fitted in a strap on his back. Then he took an arrow from the quiver I'd assumed was a man purse hanging over his shoulder (I should have know it wasn't; Stark isn't exactly a man-purse kind of guy). He fitted the arrow in the bow and said, "I think I'll make sure you're never in my way again."

"No!" I stood up and moved to Darius's side, my heart pounding like crazy. "What the hell's happened to you, Stark?"

"I died!" he yelled, his face twisting in anger as the ghostly darkness rolled around him. Now that it was visible to me, I wondered how I could ever have missed it. Ignoring the shadowy evil, I continued to confront him.

"I know that!" I yelled. "I was there, remember?" That made him pause. The bow dipped down a little. I took that as a good sign, and went on. "You said you'd come back to Duchess and to me."

When I said his dog's name, pain flashed across his face, and all of a sudden he looked young and vulnerable. But the expression only lasted an instant. I blinked and he was back to being dangerous and sarcastic, though his eyes had stopped glowing red.

"Yeah, I'm back. But things are different now. And bigger changes are coming." He gave Darius a look of utter disgust. "All that old shit you believe in doesn't mean anything anymore. It makes you weak, and when you're weak you die."

Darius shook his head. "Honoring the way of the Goddess is never weakness."

"Yeah, well, I haven't seen much of any goddess hanging around here, have you?"

"Yes, actually I have," I spoke up. "I've seen Nyx. She appeared right in there"--I pointed at the girls' dorm--"just a couple days ago."

Stark looked at me silently for a long time. I searched his face, trying to find some hint of that guy I'd felt such a connection with--whom I'd kissed right before he'd died in my arms. But all I could see was an unpredictable stranger, and foremost in my mind was the knowledge that if he shot that bow he would not miss what ever he aimed at.