Break

Chapter 2: My Sweetest Nightmare

This Story is set after Hunted and before Tempted and Burned. Zooey no longer loves Heath but he is still madly in love with her and she is in love with Stark. She has no idea whether Stark feels the same way but read on to find out if they get together or if they fall apart. And to add the brewing mixture, more complications are arising. The Tulsa House Of Night has been attacked and in its wake it has left devastation. As always... I do not own any of the House Of Night Characters but they have currently been kidnapped to star in my story. Please review! I always appreciate and love reading your comments!

I silently slid through my door and tiptoed down the creaking hall way. For my marvelous escapade, I had put on some slippers because even in Tulsa, the days were cold and I didn't fancy getting hypothermia tonight, although for a vampyre that was extremely unlikely.

I managed to get out of the girls dorm without anyone noticing. The House Of Night wasn't big on keeping watch on its students, but lately, we have had to put Warriors at every post in order to protect everyone. Yeah, it was that bad. Walking down another hall as in-audibly as I could, I noticed when I got to the boys dorm that a guard was positioned outside it.

I instantly froze. What the hell? There had been no guard outside the girls dorm. I called the elements to me and enveloped myself in mist. The guard didn't seem to notice any change in the air so I sucked in my breath and continued forth. I was at the entrance of the boys dorm stairwell when the Warrior moved. I froze, crap, i'd been caught. This was not a good end to an already horrible day.

I looked to my right and almost laughed out loud. The Warrior was Darius! I smiled to myself as I walked up the stairwell to Stark's room. Even if I had been caught Darius would have just waved me by. He was such a great guy and Aphrodite was a very lucky girl to have such a dedicated and handsome man in her life.

I reached Stark's door without trouble. Thanking Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit I sent them away then I stood dumbfounded. What was I supposed to do now? If I knocked, it would make noise and alert someone to my presence but if I just walked in he would probably attack me. I decided to take my chances. I squeezed open the door to find Stark standing in front of me holding a baseball bat.

"Holy Goddess Stark! What the hell are you doing!" I stumbled back a few steps and hit a wall, sliding down it in a load on the floor.

"Zooey! What are you doing here?" he dropped the baseball bat and rushed out of the dorm.

All this noise was not good. "Can we go inside before we alert the paparazzi of Warriors down stairs that i'm up here?"

"Oh we wouldn't want them up here. We could be doing 'stuff ' and we really don't need them in our business. That is what you came up here for Zo, right?" he sparkled one of his cocky grins at me then held out a hand. Taking it, I let him help me up from the floor. Pushing past him into his room, I answered, "And no Stark I didn't come up here to do 'stuff ' with you. I couldn't sleep." I admitted.

"Me too," I glanced back at Stark and for the first time I noticed that he looked completely unruffled and alert. I glanced quizzically at him

"Nightmare well, a daymare I guess," he answered. He came back into the dorm and locked the door. We stood awkwardly for a few moments until I burst out, "What about!" I winced at the loudness of my voice.

"You," he said rubbing a hand on the back of his neck. My eyebrows shot up. Stark had dreamt about me? I was blushing until I realized he had said nightmare, meaning bad dream. I went pale, "What happened?"

Stark ran a hand through his beautiful chocolate bronze coloured hair, "Well in my dream you were there... and so was Kalona."

My stomach dropped. Did I really want to hear the rest? Stark went on, "You were yelling at Kalona and he was talking calmly to you, trying to get you to settle down I guess. Then out of nowhere Neferet came up behind you and put a thatch bag over your head. After that Kalona gave you a kiss on the lips then he burnt you. And Zooey your screams were terrible. It was like the fire burning you was hurting you but you weren't really dying. You were immersed in flames but your body stayed intact. Goddess Zooey it was the scariest thing I had ever seen and I couldn't do anything to help you."

He slumped on the foot of the bed with his head in his hands while I stood rooted to the stop unable to move, unable to breathe.

This dream was so similar to the one Aphrodite had had the other day that it had me shaking. Maybe now that Stark was my warrior he could get visions about me in his dreams. This was a scary concept, now I had two best friends that could tell me the next time I was going to die an extremely painful and horrible death. Great.

Snapping out of my unconscious mind, I let out my breath and walked over to the bed. I looked at Stark for a few seconds then I hugged him. We clung to each other like our lives depended on it and the moment was so sweet I was afraid to let go. Finally Stark pulled away and looked into my eyes. I could have stared into his sugary deep brown eyes for eternity.

"I know the perfect cure for everything," Stark said getting up and going to his mini fridge. How come everyone had one of those except me?

"And whats that?" I asked.

Grinning a cocky grin, Stark pulled a huge container of untainted vanilla ice cream out. Smiling I said, "Do you have any bowls?"

"No."

"Then how are we going to eat it?"

"Out of the container."

My eyes practically boggled out of my head, not in horror but in the thought of doing something so ridiculous like eating ice cream after midnight.

"Please tell me you at least have spoons," I asked, although the concept of eating ice cream with my fingers with Stark didn't put me off one bit.

"Over there, third cupboard down," Stark nodded to a set of drawers across the room and kicked the door to the mini fridge closed.

I got up off the bed then went to the drawers. Selecting two spoons, I walked back to the bed and sat at the head of it, opposite to Stark.

"You know you don't have to worry about it, it was just a bad dream," I scooped up a spoonful of creamy vanilla ice cream and popped it into my mouth.

"No Zo, this felt real, so real, that I woke up and it felt like I was on fire too. And if what I felt was anything compared to what you were feeling...I would have given anything to just die."

His words startled me as did he tender, soft expression. I instantly mellowed under his distress. Yeah, he had that affect on me.

Then I did something i'm not sure if I regret or if I enjoyed. I pushed the ice cream out of the way and lent over and kissed him full on the lips. Stark dropped his spoon and cupped my face in his hands. The kiss was so sweet, so tender that my inside turned to honey and I felt weak with joy. Then, as if to ruin the only happiness in my entire day, we fell in a tumble off the bed and on to hard the floor.

But, that didn't stop us there. After our fall, Stark picked me up (he was that strong) and laid me carefully back on the bed. It was only now that I realized how little clothes I was wearing. He stroked my cheek and said, "Finally."

Ok, what? "Finally what?"

"Finally you kiss me, I have wanted to do that for ages," he drawled.

I lay there, astonished. I couldn't believe he had felt that same way about me for all this time. I propped myself up on my elbows and moved my dark brown hair out of my face, "Wait, you've liked me for ages!" I exclaimed. Wow, perhaps I was oblivious like Damien always said.

"Zoey, practically from the moment we met," I was so overwhelmed right now that it brought tears sparkling to my eyes.

He looked at me like I was the stupidest but smartest girl in the world, as it figures, I guess I was a bit of both. He drew me in for another Stark hug but it was so much looser, more loving now that he knew I loved him back. Yes, I did love him. I think from the moment we met and opened up to each other I knew I did.

"I love you, I love you so much Zo that it hurts. I never want to let you go," Stark whispered, grasping me tighter.

"Stark, I thought you thought of me as just a friend. Its been driving me crazy! But I love you, more than anything in the whole world. If I lost you, I think my soul would shatter and die along side you," I wrapped my arms around his neck and we kissed passionately. Since when had I become so poetic?

I had never seen Stark so serious, but the fact that he was being serious proved that he did love me. Usually with him it was all charm and grins but tonight...tonight was kinda nice.

"Stay with me tonight?" He breathed, putting a warm hand upon my heart.

"Mmm," I murmured, snuggling close to him.

Stark's bed was small but it could fit the two of us. I slid beneath the covers then he too, slid underneath, enclosing the space between us so there was only the tiniest film of air. I curled into his bare, muscled chest. He was so warm. He was home. Stark put his arms around me then said, "So...about the 'stuff ' you came up here to do..." he twirled a bit of my hair around his finger. I could almost hear the smile in his voice.

"Like I said before, I didn't come up here for 'stuff '."

"Then what did you come up here for," he sounded generally curious and I realized I hadn't told him before the real reason I had come up to his room.

"I couldn't sleep and I wanted to be around a familiar and extremely hot face," I teased, turning around so I was now facing him and my breasts were touching his chest. All that separated us way my tank top, my boxers and my panties.

His face spread into a wide grin and he dipped his head to kiss me amorously. He groaned, a deep animalistic sound that came from deep within his chest. Without warning, I too heard a moan escape my lips. He put a hand on my hip and drew me so close, that it was as if the fabric of my clothes were gone. But I had to stop, I didn't want sex, not tonight anyway.

"Hmm...Stark...Stop..." I gasped about between kisses.

"Mmm," He moaned.

I broke away from his kiss and turned back around.

"O wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?" he lured.

I laughed, "Don't try to use Romeo & Juliet on me just because you know I had a crush on Leonardo DiCaprio when I was younger," I smiled, yep, he was back.

I felt more than heard his laughter from behind me. "Goodnight Zooey."
"Night Stark...Love you," I yawned and as I was drifting off to sleep I heard a nearly inaudible, "Love you too," from Stark and he put his arm back around me and snuggled close.

Was that cute? I thought it was! Tune in for the third installment of Break soon! Please review I love reviews about my stories its so great to get your guys and gals opinions! Do you think I should continue?