Hunted (House of Night) Chapter 24: Stark and Zoey “Sleep” Together

Hunted (House of Night) Chapter 24:

Okay, let’s get right down to it. Why the hell is Stark in Zoey’s room? Well, you see, he was stalking her and heard Nala and Zoey both freaking out, so he came to save the day. I’m impressed by Stark’s initiative.

Zoey is rightfully skeptical because all the red fledglings she knows are “seriously sound asleep” at this time of day! As opposed to the unseriously sound asleep fledglings that are out there somewhere.

‘They – Everyone,’ he said. ‘They’ll tell you I’m a monster, and you’ll believe them.’ I kept looking at him, silently and steadily. He was the first to look away.

‘I gotta think that maybe you doing stuff like biting Becca and hanging around Kalona with your I-can’t-miss-anything-I-aim-at bow strapped to your back and ready to shoot might have a little something to do with making them think you’re not such a nice guy anymore,’ I said.

‘Do you always say exactly what you’re thinking?’

Normally, when people ask that question, someone has just said something impolite like, “Whenever you walk in the room, it smells like a pile of dirty socks merged together to form the smelliest human alive.” In this case, though, what Zoey has said cannot possibly be a revelation to Stark.

Stark every time we’ve seen him in this book: I don’t care about being good anymore! I’m a monster!

Zoey: You’ve been acting pretty evil lately and constantly talking about how you aren’t good anymore. Maybe this is why people think bad things about you.

Stark: WELL THAT WAS BLUNT!

Stark confesses that he needed to see Zoey because being around her makes him feel again. He says instead of feelings he only has “reactions” like what she witnessed with him and Becca.

‘You attacked her. You forced yourself on her. Look, it’s pretty simple. If you don’t want people to say bad things about you, then you need to stop doing bad things,’ I said. His eyes flashed and I saw a red light in their depths.

‘She would have liked it. If you and the warrior had come along five minutes later, you would have seen her all over me.’

Zoey is the voice of reason this chapter. Zoey Redbird. Let that sink in.

‘Are you kidding me? You actually think mind control is foreplay?’

‘Was she upset when you saw her inside? Or was she talking about how hot I am and how much she wanted me?’ Stark hurled the questions at me.

‘And you think that makes what you did okay? You messed with her mind to get her to want to be with you. By any definition that’s a violation, and it’s wrong.’

‘You kissed me right after that, and I didn’t have to mess with your mind!’

By the end of this chapter she is going to be spooning with this guy, but in this moment I have nothing but respect for Zoey. Well, some of my residual irritation, but that can’t be helped.

‘Yeah, well, I’ve been having some seriously questionable taste in guys lately. But I can promise you that right now I have absolutely no desire to hurl myself into your arms.’

Lately? We have exclusively seen Zoey have questionable taste in guys…and pre-series the only guy was Heath, so all evidence suggests that this is not an anomaly.

Stark has a tantrum and goes to storm out, but Zoey tells him he can change. This stops him dead in his tracks, and he’s like, “Oh, see, I’m getting the feels again!”

‘Maybe that’s because I’m the only person who’s telling you the truth right now.’ As I spoke, I got one of my gut-deep feelings that let me know I was saying the words Nyx would have me speak.

Oh my god, of course you are getting that Nyx feeling. When doesn’t the goddess show up during a conversation to tell Zoey she’s saying the right thing? I wish Nyx did that for me when I get into political arguments with people.

Zoey gives Stark a pretty decent speech about how he has the power to fight back against what Neferet and Kalona are turning him into. She reminds him that, “Evil will win if good people do nothing”, which is an eternally-relevant message.

‘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.’

Stop it. Zoey eats his grossness up! She has to fight back a grin. AND WHAT EVEN IS A COMPLETELY BAD BOY SMILE? Please define.

Zoey gets back to business and explains that Nyx still totally believes in Stark. She also mentions how tired she is, which prompts Stark to ask if she’s dreaming about Kalona. How did he know??

‘…I’ve overheard the fledglings talking, and he’s definitely been in their dreams, only they liked it a lot more than you do.’

We have spent most of this book worried about how tired Zoey is, but no one has stopped to consider that Kalona must be the most exhausted character of all. Where does he find the time to invade so many dreams of so many young girls? He is like a young, sexy Freddy Krueger before Freddy got old and only had the energy to haunt the dreams of a few teens a time.

Stark warns Zoey that he’s about to tell her something that is going to seem like he’s trying to hit on her. He reveals that Kalona can’t get into girls’ dreams if they’re sleeping with a guy. I immediately wondered if this caveat only applied to heterosexual women, but later they address this and say it’s whatever sex you’re attracted to, so yay for Kalona being inclusive?

Let’s explore this whole caveat to Kalona’s dream invasion capabilities. Does it remind anyone else of how one of the safest ways for a woman to turn down a guy is to tell him she’s already taken by another guy? Don’t get me wrong, I think this is kind of ridiculous and mainly a contrived way to get Zoey and Stark to cuddle, but it’s an intriguing parallel.

Intriguing parallel aside, I find it hilarious to think that dream!Kalona is getting ready to invade, but then he’s like, “Damn, there’s someone next to her in the bed…the physical presence of the sex she’s attracted to somehow creates a contrived and erotic barrier to my dream invasions.”

Zoey is skeptical, but Stark explains that he overheard Kalona telling his top Ravenmocker that he was considering putting guards between the dorms to keep the girls and guys apart, but then he changed his mind so that this scene could take place since he wasn’t having trouble mind controlling anyone yet. I’m not really buying that Kalona wouldn’t safeguard against a scenario like this, especially since Zoey has plenty of male friends hanging out with her, and Kalona is clearly trying to get up in her dreams constantly.

They blah a bit more about how Stark wishes Zoey had been there instead of Neferet when he came back to life and how things would be different. Zoey realizes that she can help Stark regain his humanity by cuddling with him. Things get even weirder when they start discussing…purses and spiders.

I think I left my purse in it. Or at least I hope I did, ’cause having a lost purse really sucks.’

‘Now that scares me,’ Stark said.

‘What scares you?’

‘Chicks’ purses. Or at least all the weird stuff you people keep inside of them.’

What the fuck is this ding-dong talking about?

Is he referring to tampons or something? If he is, that makes no sense since 1) female vampyres wouldn’t get their periods 2) vampyres probably wouldn’t be squicked out by periods given their blood-lust.

His normal-sounding guyness was making me smile.

‘There’s no just about purse stuff,’ he said. And I swear I felt him shudder.

Seriously, what does Stark imagine are in purses? Did he have a traumatic experience with a purse as a child? Like his mother reached into her purse to hand him chapstick, but she accidentally pulled out his dead pet hamster, and was like, “Oh no! The jig is up!” And Stark was crying and shouting, “Marbles! No! You told me he was at a retreat for hamsters. I’ll never trust the contents of a woman’s purse again!”

Zoey is like, “Omg it’s so cute that you’re so macho but afraid of purses like I’m afraid of spiders.” And they agree that somehow these two things are equally normal to be afraid of.

At one point, Zoey thinks to herself that she should mention Erik and Heath, but then is like nah. She does have the realization that if she was really so into Erik she probably wouldn’t also be into these other guys. I wish she would realize that this logic should apply to Stark/Erik/Heath equally and just forget them all, please.

They talk a bit more before finally going the fuck to sleep. Stark tells Zoey how hot she looked naked earlier (ug, Stark, go away.) Then he makes her promise that if he becomes too evil, she’ll kill him. She asks him to stop calling himself a monster.

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