Destined (28 page)

As nonchalantly as I could, I took a couple steps toward the outlet and wondered frantically which element would be the best to summon if I needed to fight electricity.

“That suits me fine,” Rephaim was saying. “Whether it’s from a human’s eye or a bird’s I’ll be glad to watch you burn up!”

“In your dreams, you asshole!” Dallas surged forward, toward the outlet, almost getting away from Johnny B and making me stumble and fall back.

And then strong hands caught me and strong arms kept me from tumbling onto my butt. All in one motion Stark steadied me on my feet and moved me behind him and against the wall. Then he faced Dallas.

“Walk away.” Stark didn’t raise his voice. He sounded calm and cold and completely dangerous.

“This isn’t your fight,” Dallas said, but he’d already stopped struggling against Johnny B.

“If Zoey’s in it, it’s my fight. And you need to understand I’ll win. Every time. So, walk away.”

“This ends now!” Sounding like a general commanding runaway troops, Dragon Lankford and several Sons of Erebus Warriors, including Darius, burst onto the scene making a big show of standing between Dallas and Rephaim. The Sword Master’s face was like a storm cloud. “Dallas, you stand there.” He pointed to a place before him, then hardly glancing at Rephaim added, “And you there.” Dragon pointed to an empty space beside Dallas. The two guys did what they were told, though Dallas still sent Rephaim a hateful look. Rephaim’s gaze was totally focused on the Sword Master who began speaking sternly to them both.

“I will not tolerate fighting at this school. This is not a human high school. I expect you to rise above such childish, base behavior.” Dragon looked from Dallas to Rephaim. “Do you understand me?”

“I do.” Rephaim spoke clearly and quickly. “I do not want to be the cause of trouble.”

“Then leave because as long as you’re here there’s gonna be trouble!” Dallas said.

“No!” Dragon hurled the word like a whip. “There will be no more trouble at this school or you will answer to me.”

“He doesn’t belong here,” Dallas said, but his voice was subdued and he looked more pouty than dangerous.

“I agree with you, Dallas,” Dragon said. “But Nyx does not. As long as the House of Night serves Nyx, we will abide by her choices, even if she chooses forgiveness when we cannot.”

“Can’t or won’t?” Everyone’s attention turned to Stevie Rae. She marched up beside Rephaim, took his hand, and faced Dragon. I thought she looked totally like a powerful High Priestess who was pissed enough to spit fire, and I was glad her element was earth and not flame. “Rephaim didn’t even start this crap with Dallas. All he did was stand up for me when Dallas called me slut and whore and other stuff too awful for me to repeat. If anyone but Rephaim was standin’ here you wouldn’t be takin’ Dallas’s side.”

“I can understand how Dallas and many of the students would have difficulty accepting Rephaim,” Dragon said matter-of-factly.

“That is something you’ll have to take up with the Goddess.” Neferet’s voice traveled silkily through the crowd. Everyone turned to see her standing at the head of the hallway with Thanatos beside her.

“From all reports, the Goddess has spoken on the matter of Rephaim’s acceptance,” Thanatos said. “Dallas, you will simply have to adhere to Nyx’s decision, as will you, Sword Master.”

“He’s bein’ accepted just fine.” Stevie Rae sounded super annoyed. “Like I was tryin’ to explain, it’s Dallas who’s causin’ trouble, not Rephaim.”

“And that trouble will now end,” Dragon said. “I have made that clear.”

“You’ve also made it clear that you don’t want Rephaim here,” Stevie Rae said.

“Our Sword Master is not required to like each of our students,” Neferet said with a patronizing shake of her head. “His duty is to protect us, not mother us.”

“His duty is also to be fair and honorable,” Thanatos said. “Dragon Lankford, do you believe that you can be fair and honorable in your dealings with Rephaim, in spite of your personal feelings for him?”

Dragon’s expression was tight, his voice strained, but his answer came with no hesitation. “I do.”

“Then I accept that as your true and rightful word,” Thanatos said. “As should we all.”

“We should also all move on to second hour,” Neferet said sharply. “
This
has taken far too much of our time.” Her gaze rested disdainfully on Rephaim and Stevie Rae before she moved regally off, shooing kids before her. Dragon joined her, moving gawking students down the hallway like he was herding cattle.

“Can you see the Darkness that surrounds her and those other red fledglings?” I blinked in surprise. Stark was directing his question straight at Thanatos.

The High Council member hesitated and then slowly shook her head. “I have not trafficked with Darkness. It is not visible to me.”

“I can see it,” Rephaim said. “Stark’s right.”

“I can see it, too,” Stevie Rae said quietly. “It slithers around all of them like insects, touching them and constantly hanging around.” She shuddered. “It’s disgusting.”

“What about Dragon?” I asked. “Is it around him, too?”

It was Rephaim who answered me. “Yes and no. It is following him, but it does not wash against him like it does the others.” He sighed heavily. “At least not yet it doesn’t.”

“It’s not your fault,” Stevie Rae told him earnestly. “The choices Dragon’s makin’ right now aren’t your fault.”

“I’ll believe that the day he forgives me,” Rephaim said. “Come on, I’ll walk you to second hour.”

We said our byes and see-ya-at-lunches, but Stark and I didn’t go anywhere. We just stood there with Thanatos staring after Rephaim and Stevie Rae.

“The boy has a conscience,” Thanatos said.

“Yeah, he does,” I said.

“Then there is hope for him yet,” she said.

“Can you tell that to Dragon?” Stark asked.

“Sadly, that is something Dragon Lankford is going to have to discover for himself, if the death of his mate has not caused him to completely lose who he is.”

“Do you think that’s happened? Do you think Dragon has completely lost himself?” I asked.

“I do,” Thanatos said.

“Which means Darkness might be able to get a hold on him,” Stark said. “And if our Sword Master goes over to Darkness, we’re all gonna be in trouble.”

“Indeed,” Thanatos said.

Ah hell,
I thought.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Lenobia

There were some school days when Lenobia didn’t need the hour provided for each professor that was called their planning hour, which meant no students were scheduled in class with her for one solid hour.

Today was not one of those days.

Today her fifth hour planning period couldn’t come soon enough or last long enough. As soon as the bell chimed to begin fifth hour she made a hasty exit from the arena. An arena that was
still
half filled with male fledglings waving swords at one another and shooting arrows at targets.

“Give Bonnie the hour off,” she told Travis as she passed him. “But keep an eye on those fledglings. I don’t want any of them annoying the horses.”

“Yes, ma’am. Some of ’em think horses are big dogs,” the cowboy said, giving the group of fledglings a steely-eyed stare. “They ain’t.”

“I need a break from constantly watching them. I had no idea so many non-riding fledglings were fascinated by horses.” She shook her head wearily.

“Take your break. I’ll have a word with Darius and Stark. They need to keep better corral on those kids.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Lenobia muttered and, feeling surprisingly grateful that Travis was the one heading to lecture the two Warriors, she slipped out into the cool quiet of the night.

Her bench was as empty as the busy school building was full. The breeze had kicked up and was unusually warm for late winter. Lenobia was grateful for it, and for the solitude. She sat, rolling her shoulders and inhaling then expelling a long breath.

She wasn’t exactly sorry she’d welcomed the Warrior class to her domain, but the influx of fledglings—non-equestrian fledglings—was taking some getting used to. It seemed every time she turned her head an errant student wandered from the arena into her stables. So far just this day she’d found three of them gaping like young codfish at a broodmare who was perilously close to foaling and therefore restless and touchy and
not
in the mood for fish. The mare had actually tried to take a bite out of one of the boys who’d said he was
just wanting to pet her
. “Like she was, indeed, a big dog,” Lenobia grumbled under her breath. But that was better than the foolish third former who’d thought it was a good idea to try to lift one of Bonnie’s hooves on a bet from his friends so they could wager on
how heavy it really was.
Bonnie had spooked when one of the boys had yelped about it being a
real big paw
and the mare, completely off balanced and disconcerted, had gone down on her knees.

Thankfully, she’d been on the arena sawdust and not bruising, breaking concrete.

Travis, who had been overseeing a small group of her regular students who were learning about ground driving, had dealt with the two boys swiftly. Lenobia smiled, remembering how he’d grabbed each by the scruff of their collars and thrown them directly into a pile of Bonnie’s manure that was, as he’d said, almost as big and heavy as one of her hooves. Then he’d quieted his mare with a few reassuring touches as he checked her knees, fed her one of the apple wafers he seemed to always have in his pocket, and completely nonplused, had gone back to the group of ground-driving fledglings.

He’s good with the students,
she thought.
Almost as good as he is with the horses.

Truth be told, it appeared as if Travis Foster was going to be an asset to her stables. Lenobia laughed softly. Neferet was going to be sorely disappointed about that.

Her laughter died quickly, though, replaced by the stomach-rolling tension that had haunted her since she’d met Travis and his horse.
It’s because he’s a human,
Lenobia acknowledged silently to herself.
I’m just not used to having a human male around me.

She’d forgotten things about them. How spontaneous their laughter could be. How they could take pleasure that felt so new in things that were so old to her, like a simple sunrise. How briefly and brightly they lived.

Twenty-seven, ma’am.
That’s how many years he’d lived on this earth. He’d known twenty-seven years of sunrises and she’d known more than two hundred and forty of them. He would probably only know thirty or forty more years of sunrises, and then he would die.

Their lives were so brief.

Some briefer than others. Some didn’t even live to see twenty-one summers, let alone enough sunrises to fill a life.

No!
Lenobia’s mind skittered away from that memory. The cowboy was not going to awaken those memories. She’d closed the door to them the day she’d been Marked—that terrible, wonderful day. The door wouldn’t, couldn’t open now or ever again.

Neferet knew some of Lenobia’s past. They’d been friends once, she and the High Priestess. They’d talked and Lenobia used to believe they’d shared confidences. It had, of course, been a false friendship. Even before Kalona had emerged from the earth to stand by Neferet’s side, Lenobia had begun to realize there was something very wrong with the High Priestess—something dark and disturbing.

“She’s broken,” Lenobia whispered to the night. “But I won’t let her break me.”

The door would remain closed. Always.

She heard Bonnie’s heavy hoofbeats thunking solidly against the winter grass before she felt the brush of the big mare’s mind. Lenobia cleared her thoughts and projected warmth and welcome. Bonnie nickered a greeting that was so low it almost did sound like it should come from what many of the students were calling her—a dinosaur, which made Lenobia laugh. She was still laughing when Travis led Bonnie up to her bench.

“No, I don’t have any wafers for you.” Lenobia smiled, caressing the mare’s wide, soft muzzle.

“Here ya go, boss lady.” Travis flipped a wafer to Lenobia as he sat on the far end of the wrought-iron-backed bench.

Lenobia caught the treat and held it out to Bonnie, who took it with surprising delicacy for such a big animal. “You know, a normal horse would founder on the amount of these things you feed her.”

“She’s a big girl and she likes her some cookies,” Travis drawled.

As he spoke the word
cookies
the mare’s ears pricked toward him. He laughed and reached across Lenobia to feed her another wafer. Lenobia shook her head. “Spoiled, spoiled, spoiled,” but the smile was obvious in her voice.

Travis shrugged his broad shoulders. “I like to spoil my girl. Always have. Always will.”

“That’s how I feel about Mujaji.” Lenobia rubbed Bonnie’s broad forehead. “Some mares require special treatment.”

“Oh, so with your mare it’s
special treatment.
With mine it’s spoiling?”

She met his gaze and saw the smile shining there. “Yes. Of course.”

“Of course,” he said. “And now you’re remindin’ me of my momma.”

Lenobia lifted her brows. “I have to tell you, that sounds very odd, Mr. Foster.”

He laughed aloud then, a full, joyful sound that reminded Lenobia of sunrises.

“It’s a compliment, ma’am. My momma insisted on things bein’ her way or the highway. Always. She was hardheaded, but it balanced because she was also almost always right.”

“
Almost
always?” she said pointedly.

He laughed again. “There, see, if she was here that’s exactly what she would’ve said.”

“You miss her often, don’t you,” Lenobia said, studying his tanned, well-lined face.
He looks older than thirty-two, but in a pleasing way,
she thought.

“I do,” he said softly.

“That says quite a lot about her,” Lenobia said. “Quite a lot of good.”

“Rain Foster was quite a lot of good.”

Lenobia smiled and shook her head. “Rain Foster. That is an unusual name.”

“Not if you were a sixties flower child,” Travis said. “Lenobia,
that’s
an unusual name.”