Hey! Here is the 3rd chapter. Really want to thank Desi772, horsemadissy, jamesstarkgirlfriend, RayRayluvs2read, Jazerelle & Amiralys for your support and encouragement, be it in review form or even putting it on alert or favourite story.

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*Disclaimer: I don't own the HoN series or any of the characters


"Well, uh, are you hungry?" Zoey asked me when Neferet, Dragon, Lenobia and the other vampyres have left the cafeteria.

I tried my best to keep up a cool façade even though my heart was pounding hardly and quickly. Oh my gosh! She is actually speaking to me. Me! Okay, this is not the first time she spoke to me but there was Neferet present there at that time. Big difference.

"Yeah, I guess." Good, I have managed to speak properly, causally and not stutter incoherent words like a fool. I don't need to embarrass myself further in front of her (first time being Duchess).

"If you hurry, you can eat with us, and then Damien can show you to your room before we have to go to the Council Meeting," she said with her irresistible voice. Council Meeting? That's what Neferet mentioned earlier too. What exactly is it? A meeting, that's obvious but what council? Wait, she did mention Damien's name, right? Gosh! Please don't tell me that Damien is really her boyfriend. Anyway, why do I care? Yah, I am not supposed to care about this.

Some other boy at the table, other than Damien spoke for the first time. "I think your dog is pretty. I mean, she's big, but she's still pretty. She won't bite, will she?" He leaned around Damien, probably to get a better look of Duchess. He is the first person-fledgling, whatever-ever to think that Duchess is pretty as many just avoid her just because she is large and is a dog. I really appreciated his comment. I mean, you can't choose who you want to be, can you? It is not a crime being big as well. Hmm, who is it? Must be another friend of Zoey's.

"Not if you don't bite her first," I replied simply.

"Oh, eew. I'd get dog hair in my mouth and that'd be nasty." 'What a sissy' was the first thought I had but decided later that I will accept him as who he is as he is Zoey's friend.

Zoey spoke again, making introductions and obviously I turned my undivided attention towards her. Once again, marveling at her look. "Stark,-"I felt a trill go through me as I heard her say my name. "-this is Jack. He's Damien's boyfriend." Oh! So they are both gays. I wondered why I didn't care about this, I used to… I decided that the reason is that, as I have mentioned before, I will accept Zoey's friend as who they are. Okay, fine, I will admit. That is only a small part-very small part-of the reason. It is because I am relieved that Damien is not Zoey's boyfriend and if Jack is 'taken' as well, then I suppose Zoey is still single as there are no other guys sitting at the table. Wouldn't it make sense that her boyfriend will sit with her? I am rather surprised that Zoey, beautiful and talented as she is, doesn't have a boyfriend but I am actually kinda happy.

"Hi!" The boy named Jack greeted me.

I smiled a little, not a very warm and huge one like I might usually give-might because I hardly do anymore, after the … er… incident, as I am still not very comfortable being so close to a gay, but for the sake of Zoey, I will try my absolute best. "Yeah, hi."

Zoey continued introducing her friends to me. "And this is Erin and Shaunee." She pointed first to a pretty-not quite, compared to Zoey-blonde with blue eyes then to a cappuccino-coloured skin girl with curly hair and black eyes. "They also answer to Twins, which will make sense once you've known them for about two-point-five minutes." Twins? Both of them looked nothing alike, how could that be? Well, I should trust what Zoey says, nothing to lose. Starting to count to two-point-five minutes, go! Lame, I know.

"Hey, there," the girl named Shaunee said, giving me a very obvious look. "Ditto," the other girl, Erin, agreed, giving me the same look. Huh. I suppose I get it,-a little-about the Twins thing. And two-point-five minutes is not even over yet. Now that I recognized that point, I realized that they were dressed similarly.

Zoey continued, obviously ignoring the look her Twin friends were giving me. "This is Aphrodite." Well, I already know who she is, from their conversation previously. Other than that, news of her also travelled to the Chicago House of Night.

I smiled, a little sarcastically and said, "So you're the Goddess of Love. I've heard a lot about you."

She flipped her hair once (did I mention that I hate the girls when they flip their hair, trying to flirt? Urgh…) and said, "Hi, I like it when I'm recognized."

"It'd be hard not to recognize you-the name's pretty obvious." Who in their right mind has 'Aphrodite' as a name? I laughed, a little one as I don't want to be rude. Like a light switch, her face instantly changed to one that snobs wear on their face-snobby, duh!

Before she could say a word, the kid, Damien spoke. "Stark, I'll show you where the trays and stuff are." He stood up and walked a little, stopping to look at Duch with a confused expression.

Guessing his thoughts, I said, "No worries. She'll stay put. As long as no cats do anything stupid." I looked pointedly at Zoey's cat, alert on her lap as she or he is the only cat left that is of near distance to Duch. Part of my mind thought that the cat should be taken away so that Duchess's safety is ensured but another part of my mind believes that Zoey's cat will never do anything to stupid, like hurting Duch. Great. So now I am debating with myself.

"Nala will be good." Zoey said, looking-hopefully-down at her cat. According to what I know-which is not much, nobody has control over any cats even theirs, or more accurately, when the cats chose them. Nala? That's Zoey's cat's name? Interesting. Well, the orange paddy cat certainly looks a little like a little lioness like her name suggests.

I gave her a quick nod, choosing to believe her and her cat, Nala. "All right, then." I told Duch, "Duchess, stay!" Then, I walked over to join Damien.

Damien brought me to the far end of the hall from the entrance and showed me the place whereby all the trays with the crescent logo printed on it. He then told me to take one and moved me through the food line where I can take any food I want and put it on my tray, go find a seat and sit down to eat your food. Basically, it is the same for all the Houses of Night. You don't have to pay for your food like you need to in a normal high school, actually, everything is free at the House of Night and that is the good thing about getting marked. However, different people have different perspective.

While Damien showed me the stuff, he made small talk with me, using BIG words. Wow, how many words does he know that we've never even heard before?

After he is done with his mini-super mini-'tour', we made our way back to the table with me carrying my tray of food and stuffing a sandwich in my mouth. As I slowly approached the table, I realized then that Zoey, Jack, Erin and Shaunee were staring at me with no expressions on their faces. I vaguely noted that Aphrodite was now nowhere to be seen, must have left already. Did something happen when I was gone? Was it Duch? I glanced down at Duch, still on the floor at the place I left him before I left. "Did she do something while I was gone? She kinda likes to lick toes." Well, it is true, when I first got her, I felt something warm and moist on my barefoot and realized that she were licking my toes.

"Eesh, that's-" Erin started but stopped. I saw a little movement under the table just before she stopped, probably somebody-Shaunee-kicked her under the table.

"No, Duchess was a perfect lady whilst you were gone," Shaunee said, giving me a friendly grin-too friendly, actually.

I sat down on the seat opposite them. "Good." That is the best reply I could come up with. Everyone-including Zoey-continued staring at me but I don't know what's wrong if Duch didn't licked anyone's toes. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and as usual, Duch moved so that she can lean on my leg and gaze up at me, lovingly. Automatically, I stretched my hands to ruffle her ears. She always likes it when I do that.

Suddenly, Jack spoke, breaking the awkward silence. "I remember hearing about you beating all of those vamps in archery!" He squeezed his lips shut and blushed bright pink, seeming to regret or embarrassed that he had just said it. Probably afraid that I will flare up. Actually, I will, just not at them but myself. I forced the vivid scenes of that unforgettable memory to the back of mine, not wanting to relieve them in front of so many people-especially Zoey, though I know I can probably trust her.

To avoid their gazes, I looked down at the plate of food on my tray and shrugged my shoulders, trying to seem nonchalant about it. "Yeah, I'm good at archery."

Damien, having just recognized me, said, "You're that fledgling? Good at archery? You're amazing at archery!" I thought that I will not be recognized, a topic of gossip here at the Tulsa House of Night but apparently, I'm wrong. At least the others didn't. sigh…

I looked up from my food and met their gazes, trying to send some kind of hint that I don't really want to talk about it. "Whatever. It's just something I've been good at ever since I've been Marked."

Then, I looked from Damien to Zoey and said, "Speaking of famous fledglings, I see the rumors about your extra marks are true." I tried to change the subject. I know it is probably a little unfair to her but I am really hoping that I will be able to find out more about her.

"It's true," she answered. Hmm, she looks very uncomfortable, maybe just like how I felt moments before. I probably shouldn't have said that but then again, if I didn't say that, I would not have known that we have at least something in common. Finding out this, make my spirits soar high.

"Do you like horses?" she asked suddenly. I was very surprised that she will ask this question as I could not see the link between the truth of the rumors about her extra marks and horses.

Wow. She is just that special. "Horses?" I asked…trying to make sure that my ears weren't playing tricks on me and caused me to lose even more face.

"Yeah, well, you seem like you might be an animal lover." She jerked her chin towards Duch, trying to prove her point.

Seems like I didn't hear her wrongly. Horses. Whatever. Shoots! She is still waiting for my answer, gosh, I am such an idiot. "Yeah, I guess I like horses. I like most animals. Except cats."

Jack squeaked, voice quite high-pitched. "Except cats!"

What's so wrong with not liking cats? There are so many reasons to dislike them. It is still a mystery to me why so many people-fledglings and vampyres, too-like them so much. In my opinion, dogs are so much better, like one-thousand times better than a cat, any cats. "I've never really liked them. They're too bitchlike for my tastes." I shrugged, not really wanting to show my intense dislike towards cat when Zoey has one herself.

Snorts came from Erin and Shaunee, the Twins. Right, I just remembered something. The grey ball of fur-cat-that had tried to scratch Duch, belongs to them. No wonder.

"Cats are independent creatures. We all know, of course, that they have been worshipped in many ancient cultures of the world, but did you know that they were also-"Damien explained, defending cats, just like Jack. Both of them really do make a compatible couple. Damien continued his very very long speech about the advantages about cats but I wasn't listening anymore, tuning his voice out so that it becomes just a soft humming noise at the back of your head.

I bet Damien is the top student over here, what with all the BIG words here at the speech he is still delivering to no one now. Another thought suddenly occurred to me: can Zoey be trying to change the subject by mentioning horses? If she is, she's really good if no one else realized it.

Occasionally, I will catch some of Damien's speech like "Do you know that cats can be more loyal than dogs?" No, I don't believe that and it is 'can be' not 'is' so it is not definite and haven't anyone heard of 'A dog is a man's best friend'? Or is there such thing as a watch-cat? No, but there is something such as watch-dog. Another part I caught is "Haven't you ever wondered why vampyres are associated with cats for so long?" Actually, I did but it is not phrased like that but instead, it is phrased this way: Why are vampyres always associated with cats? Not like they are of any use…

While Damien continued, I was using the time to examine Zoey more carefully-secretly, of course. She has high cheekbones, long, strong nose and a fairly wide mouth, should be from her Cherokee ancestral. The mark and tattoos on her face seem to highlight those features, making her look even more gorgeous. So, when she stood up, carrying her cat, Nala, I noticed immediately.

She interrupted when Damien is still giving his speech to me, supposedly. "Uh, guys, sorry to interrupt. But I gotta go see what Aphrodite wants before the Council Meeting. I'll see you there, 'kay?" What a good friend she is.

The replies she got are: "Yeah, okay.", "I guess.", "Whatever". Weird way to say good-bye to your friends, don't you think so? Are they quarrelling or something? Hold up a minute. Why am I so concerned about her affairs? I shouldn't…Stop thinkin about her…

She met my gaze with her hazel eyes-the kind of colour somewhere between green and brown-and gave me a friendly smile. "It was nice to meet you. If you need anything for Duchess, just let me know. There's a good Southern Ag not far from here. They carry an extra lot of cat stuff, but I'll bet they have dog stuff, too."

She is so kind, I doubt anyone else will offer to buy dog stuff for Duchess. "I'll let you know." Maybe I could use that as an excuse to spend more time with her… STOP THINKIN ABOUT HER!!!

After I replied Zoey, Damien resumed with his cats-are-wonderful lecture. Trying to give her a hint that I somehow appreciated her changing the subject without the others knowing, I gave a quick wink and a nod. She returned the wink and walked out the dining hall, grinning. For what reason, I don't know, she is just that intriguing.


Sorry but I need to announce a piece of bad news. The next or next few chapters of Stark's POV might be a little short because Stark is not mentioned in the story. Really sorry. I will try my best to think of something-like what he do, what is he thinking, et cetera... .