Destined

Lenobia had to force herself not to smile at his eagerness. “I did. She loves you quite a lot. You’ve cared for her well. She has an interesting mind, your Percheron mare.”

“She does—hardheaded sometimes, though.”

Lenobia did smile then. “But never mean spirited, even when she forgets she weighs two thousand pounds and almost steps over the top of mere humans.”

“Well, ma’am, I do believe Bonnie will step over the top of mere vampyres, too, if given half a chance.”

“I’ll remember that,” she said. “And now my question. Why were you smudging?”

“Oh, you saw that? Well, ma’am, my daddy’s part Muscogee, that’s probably Creek Indian to you. I have a few of his habits—smudging a new place is one of them.” He paused and gave a little half laugh. “And here I was thinkin’ you’d ask me why I took this job.”

“Bonnie already gave me that answer.”

She was pleased to see his eyes widen in surprise. “You said you couldn’t get thoughts from horses.”

“What I got from Bonnie is that you’ve been traveling restlessly for some time. That tells me we’re just the next stop on your life journey.”

“Is she fine with it? I mean, it’s not hurtin’ her, right?”

A little warmth for the cowboy seeped into her veins and pulsed through her body. “Your mare is fine. She’s happy as long as she’s with you.”

He tilted his hat back and scratched his forehead. “Well, that’s a relief. It has been hard for me to settle since my ma’s death. The ranch just ain’t the same without—”

Not far away from them the peaceful morning was shattered by engines and shouting.

“Well, what in the hell?”

“I have no idea, but I’m going to find out.” Lenobia stood and began striding toward the sounds of chaos. She noticed Travis stayed right beside her. She glanced at him. “When Neferet interviewed you did she happen to mention some pretty rough things have happened recently at this House of Night?”

“No, ma’am,” he said.

“Well, you might want to rethink accepting this job. If you’re looking for peace, this is definitely the wrong place for you.”

“No, ma’am,” he repeated. “I’ve never run from a fight. Don’t seek them out, neither, but when they find me I don’t run.”

“Too bad you cowboys don’t carry six-shooters anymore,” she muttered.

Travis patted the side of his coat and smiled grimly. “Some of us still do, ma’am. Oklahoma has the good sense to be a conceal/carry state.”

Her eyes widened slightly. “I’m glad to hear it. Just a quick tip: if it has wings like a bird, but red eyes that look human, get ready to shoot it.”

“You ain’t kidding, are you?”

“No.”

Together they followed the noise around the lightening campus and approached the central grounds of the school. As they reached the beautiful front lawn, both of them slowed and then stopped. Lenobia shook her head. “I don’t believe it.”

“You don’t want me to shoot them, do ya?”

She scowled. “Not yet I don’t.” Then she marched into the middle of the caravan of trucks and flatbeds and lawn equipment and men—decidedly human men—and joined the blurry-eyed, bed- headed, but really angry female vampyre who was facing all of them down.

“Are you deaf or stupid? I said you’re not touching my grounds, and you’re especially not touching my grounds at this ridiculous time of the day when professors and students are trying to sleep.”

“Gaea, what’s going on here?” Lenobia put a restraining hand on the vampyre’s arm because she looked like she was going to hurl herself at the poor, confused, clipboard-holding man who had unwisely stepped up as leader of the group. He was staring at Gaea with a mixture of horror and awe, which Lenobia understood. Gaea was tall and slender and unusually attractive, even for a vampyre. She could have been a fabulous successful model, had she not been perfectly content tending to the earth instead.

“These men,” Gaea made the word sound as if it tasted bad, “just showed up and started to attack my grounds!”

“Look, missus, like I said before, we were hired yesterday to be the new lawn service for the House of Night. We weren’t attacking anything—we were mowing the grass.”

Lenobia bit back a cry of utter frustration. Instead she asked the man, “And who hired you?”

He looked down at his clipboard. “Name the boss gave me was Neferet. Is that you?”

Lenobia shook her head. “No, but it is the name of our High Priestess.” She turned to the grounds manager. “Gaea, did you not receive the information that Neferet was going to be hiring humans to work at the House of Night?”

“I got that information. I just didn’t get the information that the humans would be usurping my position!”

Of course you didn’t, Lenobia thought grimly, Neferet didn’t want either of us to be prepared for what she was doing, and you’re as protective of your grass and shrubs and flowers as I am of my horses, which is something our manipulative High Priestess is very aware of. Lenobia shook her head, annoyed at Neferet’s checkmate. “No, Gaea,” she explained in her most reasonable voice. “You aren’t being usurped. You’re being helped.”

Lenobia saw the struggle in Gaea’s eyes. Obviously she, like Lenobia herself, hadn’t wanted human help at all, but going against an edict created by their High Priestess and sanctioned by the Vampyre High Council would create dissension in the school.

And the ancient vampyre truth was that they shouldn’t be showing any dissension in front of humans.

“Yes, well, I can see that.” Lenobia let some of the tension drain from her body as Gaea chose to follow the ancient vampyre truth over pride and power. “I was just caught unaware. Thank you, Lenobia, for helping me see this situation more clearly.” Then she turned to the man and the workers who were milling nervously behind him. Gaea smiled and Lenobia watched the men’s faces go slack and round-eyed as the full force of her beauty hit them. “I do apologize for the initial confusion. It seems there has been a mistake in communication. Shall we discuss exactly what your job is going to entail, and how it would be best if…”

Lenobia unobtrusively retreated as Gaea launched into a lengthy explanation about timing and grass cutting and the phases of the moon. Travis, once again, fell into step beside her.

He cleared his throat.

Without looking at him, Lenobia said, “Go ahead. Say whatever it is you want to say.”

“Well, ma’am, seems to me there’s an awful lot of job confusion going on at this school.”

“Seems the same to me,” Lenobia said.

“Your boss doesn’t appear to be—”

“Neferet is not my boss,” Lenobia interrupted.

“All right, I’ll rephrase that. It appears my boss has been doin’ a lot of hiring without tellin’ the people those hirings most affect anything about it. So, I’m wonderin’, does this have anything to do with the rough times you mentioned before?”

“It might,” Lenobia said. By this time they’d made their way back to the main door that led to the stables. She stopped and faced Travis. “You should get used to not being surprised by confusion and chaos. There can be a lot of both around here.”

“But you’re not going to give me specifics. Am I right about that?”

“You are,” Lenobia said.

Travis cocked his hat back. “How ’bout elaboratin’ on those birds with the red eyes?”

“Raven Mockers,” Lenobia said. “That’s what they’re called. Horses don’t like them; they don’t like horses. They’ve caused problems here lately.”

“What are they?” Travis said.

Lenobia sighed. “Not human. Not bird. Not vampyre.”

“Well, ma’am, sounds like they’re not good in general. Do I shoot if they come around the horses?”

“Shoot if they attack the horses.” Lenobia met his gaze steadily. “My general rule is: protect the horses first,