Текст книги "Destined"

Автор книги: P. C. Cast

Соавторы: Kristin Cast,P. C. Cast
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Текущая страница: 8 (всего у книги 20 страниц)

Lenobia looked down at her ring finger. There wasn’t much light. Dawn was just beginning to turn the sky from black to blue-gray, and she could almost see the pure green of the emerald. In this light its beauty was illusive, shadowy—like memories of faces from her past.

Lenobia didn’t like to think of those faces. She’d learned long ago to live in the here and now. Today was struggle enough. She looked to the east and squinted against the growing light. “Today is also happiness enough. Horses and happiness. Horses and happiness.” Lenobia repeated the three words that had been her mantra for more than two hundred years. “Horses and happiness…”

“The two have always gone together for me.”

Even as Lenobia’s brain processed that it was the human cowboy who had spoken, and not some dire threat, her body was whirling around and crouching defensively—and there came the shrill scream of a mare’s battle cry from within the stable.

“Whoa, easy there,” Travis said as he held his hands up, showing they were empty and took a step back from her. “I didn’t mean to—”

Lenobia ignored him, bowed her head, drew a deep breath, and said, “There is no danger. I am well. Sleep, my beauty.” Then she lifted her head and her gray eyes skewered the man. “Remember this: do not sneak up on me. Ever.”

“Yes, ma’am. Lesson learned, though I didn’t mean to sneak up on you. Didn’t think that there’d be a vampyre out here at this time a day.”

“We don’t burn up in the sunlight. That’s a myth.” Lenobia was thinking about whether he needed to know that red vampyres and fledglings did, but his response made her lose her train of thought.

“Yes, ma’am. I know that. I also know that sunlight is uncomfortable for you, which is why I thought I’d be alone if I came out here and, well, smoked this,” Travis paused and took the slim cigar from the front pocket of his fringed leather coat, “by myself and watched the sunrise. I didn’t even see you sittin’ there ’til you spoke.” His smile was charming and it warmed his eyes, gave them a sparkle which changed their ordinary brown to a lighter hazel color—something Lenobia hadn’t noticed happening before. Seeing it now made her stomach tighten. She looked away from his eyes quickly, and had to mentally shake herself to focus on his words. “You sayin’ horses and happiness made me speak without thinkin’. Next time I’ll clear my throat or cough or somethin’ before.”

Feeling strangely disconcerted by him, Lenobia asked the first question that came to mind. “Why do you know things about vampyres? Have you been the mate of a vampyre?”

His smile grew. “No, nothin’ like that. I know a little ’bout you because my momma liked you.”

“Me? Your mother knows me?”

He shook his head. “No, ma’am. I didn’t mean you. I meant vampyres in general. See, my momma had a friend who’d been Marked when they were kids. They stayed in touch—used to write letters—lots of letters. They kept writing up until the day my momma died.”

“I’m sorry about your mother,” Lenobia said, feeling awkward. Humans lived such short lives. They could be killed so easily. Strange that she’d almost forgotten that about them. Almost.

“Thank you. It was the cancer. Took her fast. She’s been gone five years now.” Travis looked away toward the rising sun. “Her favorite time of day was sunrise. I like to remember her then.”

“That’s my favorite time of day, too,” Lenobia surprised herself by saying.

“That’s a nice coincidence,” Travis said, turning his gaze to her and smiling. “Ma’am, can I ask you a question?”

“Yes, I suppose so,” Lenobia said, taken off guard more by the smile than the question request.

“Your mare called to you when I scared you.”

“You didn’t scare me. You startled me. There’s a large difference between the two.”

“You could be right, there. But as I was sayin’, your mare called to you. Then you spoke and she quieted, though there’s no way she could hear you from out here.”

“That’s not a question,” Lenobia said dryly.

He raised his brows. “You’re a smart lady. You know what it is I’m wonderin’.”

“You want to know if Mujaji can hear my thoughts.”

“I do,” Travis said, studying her and nodding his head slowly.

“I’m not accustomed to talking with humans about the gifts of our Goddess.”

“Nyx,” Travis said. When she just stared at him he shrugged and continued, “That’s your Goddess’s name, isn’t it?”

“It is.”

“Does Nyx care if you talk to humans about her?”

Lenobia studied him closely. He didn’t appear to be anything except authentically curious. “What would your mother’s answer to that question be?”

“She’d say that Willow wrote to her about Nyx a lot and the Goddess didn’t seem to mind at all. ’Course Willow and I don’t write, and I haven’t heard from her since she came to my momma’s funeral, but then she seemed pretty healthy and definitely hadn’t been smote by a goddess.”

“Willow?”

“They were children of the 1960s. My momma’s given name was Rain. Are you gonna answer me or not?”

“I’ll answer you if you answer me a question in turn.”

“Done,” he said.

“My gift from Nyx is an affinity for horses. I can’t literally read their minds, just like they cannot literally read mine, but I do get images and emotions from them, especially horses I’m closely connected to like my mare Mujaji.”

“And you got stuff, images and such, from Bonnie about me?”

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, ask questions later.”

“Good rule,” Travis said.

“I think so.” Lenobia nodded her head in the direction of the stables. “Do you have everything you need in there?”

“Yes, ma’am. Bonnie and me don’t need much.” He paused and then added, “Will you want me to change my sleeping hours around to match yours?”

“Well, I’ll want you to change your sleep pattern, but you’ll be matching the entire school, not just me,” Lenobia said quickly, wondering why what he said had embarrassed her. “And you’ll be surprised how quickly Bonnie will adapt to the night and day switch.”

“Bonnie and I have done our fair share of night riding.”

“Good, then you’re already a little prepared for the change.” There was an awkward moment when they both just stood there, and then Lenobia said, “Oh, my quarters are up there.” She pointed to the tall second story over the stables. “The rest of the professors are back there.” Lenobia jerked her chin toward the main campus building. “I prefer to be closer to the horses.”

“Seems you and I see eye to eye on at least one thing.”

She raised her brows in a silent question.

Travis smiled. “Preferring horses.” He opened the door for her.

Lenobia went into the stables and they walked together for a little way until they reached the stairwell that led to the upper level. “I suppose I’ll see you at dusk,” she said.

Travis tipped his hat to her. “Yes, ma’am, you will. Good night to you.”

“Good night,” Lenobia said, and then hurried up the stairway feeling his eyes on her back long after she was out of his sight.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Aurox

Aurox followed his Priestess from the professors’ building out into the waning sunlight of evening. Though it was winter, and the light held no warmth, and, truth be told, little light, she cringed as if it caused her pain. He watched her pull the cowl of her green robe more fully over her head so that it fully swathed her face.

“Sunlight!” Neferet made the word sound as if it tasted bitter. “I shall make them pay for causing me to take this trip in the sunlight.” She glanced at him before donning dark, mirrored glasses. “Actually, you shall make them pay for me.”

“Yes, Priestess,” he said automatically.

Imperiously, she walked out to the large black vehicle she’d commanded he learn how to drive and stood before the door, waiting for him to open it, which he did quickly. Aurox noted that even in the daylight hours Neferet cast a shadow that was preternaturally dark. Darkness always travels with her, he thought.

After he’d turned on the vehicle she punched a button in the rearview mirror and a voice asked, “Yes, Neferet, where may OnStar take you today?”

“Will Rogers High School, Tulsa, Oklahoma,” she said in response to the voice, then to him she commanded, “Follow their directions exactly.”

“Yes, Priestess,” was all he was required to say.

* * *

From the moment he’d parked in front of it, Aurox had found the light-colored brick and stonework building pleasing to his eye. He followed Neferet inside, entering the first of its gleaming, wide hallways and he was taken aback by the feel of the place. It was almost as if the building was sentient. It had a wise, listening quality that Aurox found surprisingly calming.

But how could that be? How could a building make him feel anything?

There had been only one elderly security guard. He’d approached Aurox and Neferet, walking slowly and with a limp, more curious and polite than cautious.

“May I help y’all?”

“Yes, does the school have an underground area? A large basement or tunnel system?” Neferet had asked, pulling back her hood and taking off her dark glasses.

The guard’s eyes had widened first at her beauty and then fixated on her sapphire-colored tattoo.

“We have some old tunnels in the basement that haven’t really been used since bomb shelter days. That is, other than as a hidey-hole from a tornado now and then. Why do you—”

“How do you reach the tunnels?” Neferet cut him off.

“I’m sorry, I’d need to get administrative permission for any—”

“That won’t be necessary.” This time she added a seductive smile to her words. “I’m simply compiling historical information about the school building. The tunnels are still accessible, aren’t they?”

The man looked equally as confused by her question as he was dazzled by her smile. “Oh, yes. They’re easy to get to. Just follow this here main hall ’til you pass the library.” He gestured to their right. “There’re stairs in the corner of the intersecting hallway. Take them down a flight. The access is through an old music room about midway through the next hall on the right. I got the master key right here. I don’t suppose it’d hurt anything if I gave you a quick look. It’s not like classes are going on right now or—”

“Incapacitate him, but do not kill him,” Neferet had ordered. “Oh, and give me that key.”

Aurox hit him hard enough to make him unconscious. He didn’t believe the old man was dead, but he wasn’t certain. There was no time to check. He handed Neferet the jangling keys and she began hurrying in the direction the man had unwisely indicated. She paused when she came to the large room on their left, glancing in the windows of the closed doors. Aurox looked with her. It was an elegent room. Large, decorative lights hung over tables and bookshelves.

Strange that Aurox perceived a waiting quality from within.

“Library,” she said. “All this Art Deco architecture is utterly wasted on human teenagers.” Neferet dismissed the building’s beauty and majesty. She nodded at the intersecting hallway ahead of them. “This is the correct way.”

Almost reluctantly, Aurox followed her.

“This a school, just as the House of Night is a school?” Aurox had to give voice to some of the questions that were circling around his mind.

Neferet didn’t even glance at him. “It is a human school—a public school. Not like the House of Night.” She shuddered delicately. “I can practically see the hormones and testosterone. Why do you ask?”

“I am simply curious,” he said.

She did look at him then, briefly. “Do not be.”

“Yes, Priestess,” he said softly.

They wove their way farther within the quiet building, and the hall became less and less touched by sunlight. The shadows around Neferet stirred as she stopped in front of a door with musical notes painted on it. “This is it,” she said, as she unlocked the door, and stepped into a dingy area that smelled of dust and neglect. To their left was a room filled with metal stands and chairs. Before them was a cluttered area that led into more darkness. Neferet hesitated and made a low sound of frustration. “I grow weary of searching.”

Neferet lifted her right hand, pressed the sharp nail of her left middle finger against her palm, slicing open a wound that wept red.

“To the red ones I command you lead me;

my blood your payment will be.”

With a sense of fascination Aurox watched Darkness release from within the shadows beneath and around Neferet as well as the corners of the room. Questing tendrils slithered to her. Twining around her body they crawled up her skin to the blood that pooled in her palm. Darkness fed there, causing Neferet to shiver and moan as if in pain, though the Priestess did not close her hand. Did not pull away.

It made Aurox feel. Part of him felt excited as he anticipated a battle to come and welcomed the rage and power that battle would evoke. But another part of him felt revulsion. Darkness pulsed around Neferet, malevolent and sticky and dangerous. Aurox was pondering the different feelings when Neferet shook off the tendrils and licked her wound closed.

“You have fed.

I will be led.”

The singsong rhyme of Neferet’s spell brushed power against Aurox and he shivered as Darkness writhed and then skittered off leaving a thin ribbon-like trail that was blacker than a new moon night as its signpost.

“Come,” Neferet said.

Aurox did as he was commanded.

They followed the ribbon into the seemingly abandoned hallway, which began to slope down and down, tunnel-like. Eventually they came to a space that widened and dead-ended. There Neferet paused.

Aurox scented them before he saw them. Their odor was vile, rotten, filthy. Death, he thought. They smell of death.

“Unacceptable,” Neferet said angrily under her breath. “Utterly unacceptable.” She strode into the underground room, went to the wall, and flipped a switch. A single bare bulb cast a sickly yellow light.

Aurox thought it looked like a nest.

Mattresses were piled against one another. Bodies were curled around each other under blankets. Some were naked. Some were clothed. It was difficult to see where one ended and another began. One head lifted. The vampyre’s tattoos were red and they looked remarkably like the tendrils of Darkness that had led them to him. His gaze was hard. His voice angry.

“Kurtis, take care of whoever is bothering us.”

A large mound moved sluggishly and a thick broad forehead appeared from the other end of the nest. This one had a red crescent outlined on his forehead—a fledgling.

“It’s barely even day. Just zap ’em with electricity or somethin’ and—”

“And what?” Neferet’s voice was ice. “Kurtis, you were stupid and bumbling before you died. Now you’re stupid and bumbling and you stink.” Neferet glanced at Aurox. “Throw him against the wall.”

Aurox moved to do her bidding, but slowly, giving the fledgling time to feel fear. Aurox fed from that fear, and as his body shifted, changed, grew into something else, something more powerful, the fledgling’s fear shifted, changed, grew into delicious terror. With a roar Aurox lifted the boy from his nest and hurled him into the wall. There was a sick cracking sound and the boy lay still.

“Whoa! Whoa! Wait a second. Neferet! I didn’t know it was you.” The red vampyre stood, shirtless, hands out, facing the Priestess. Aurox felt his fear. It felt good.

He took a step toward the vampyre. His hooves rang against the cold cement floor.

“Halt for now, Aurox,” Neferet commanded. She turned her back to him and concentrated on the vampyre and his nest. “Did you really believe you could hide from me, Dallas?”

“I wasn’t hiding from you! I didn’t know what to do—where to find you.”

“Don’t lie to me.” Neferet’s voice had gone soft and in that softness Aurox heard a black, endless danger. “Don’t ever lie to me.”

“Okay, okay. Sorry,” the vampyre said hastily. “I guess I just didn’t think.”

The nest of fledglings had been stirring, awakening as their vampyre and Neferet had been speaking, and now Aurox could see faces, wide-eyed with fear, staring from Neferet to him.

He longed to crush those staring faces under his hooves.

A rattling cough came from the nest.

Neferet sneered. “How many of you are there?”

“After the depot when Zoey and her assholes fought us, ten are left besides me.” He glanced at Kurtis. “And him.”

“He isn’t dead. Yet,” Neferet said. “So there are eleven fledglings and one vampyre. How many of your fledglings have begun coughing?”

Dallas shrugged. “Two, maybe three.”

“There are too many of them. They need to be around vampyres or they will die. Again,” she added with a cruel smile.

From the fledgling nest more fear washed over Aurox. He ground his teeth together, fighting the urge to feed from it.

“Will you come around us then? Like you used to?”

“No. I’ve had a change in plans. It’s time you joined me. All of you joined me.”

“You mean at the House of Night? That’s impossible. We’re not what we used to be and we don’t want to—”

“What you want is of no consequence to me unless you obey me. And if you do not obey me you will die.”

The vampyre seemed to stand straighter. His anger burned brighter, as did the single electric bulb. “I won’t die. I’ve already Changed. Some of them might,” he gestured to the fledglings that crouched all around his feet, “but I say that’s survival of the fittest.”

“You’re not as smart as I remembered, Dallas. Let me speak plainly and simply then so even you can understand: if you and your fledglings do not obey me you will be the first to die. My creature will kill you. Now. Or whenever I command him to. Make your choice.”

The bulb’s light dimmed. “I choose to obey you,” Dallas said.

“Wise choice. I want you cleaned up and back at the House of Night in time for classes tonight.”

“But how—”

“Use the school’s showers to wash the stench off yourselves. Steal clothing. Clean clothing. Or buy it. At seven thirty, just before classes begin, a House of Night bus will be waiting down the street at the east entrance to the University of Tulsa. You’ll board it. You’ll resume classes. You’ll sleep at the House of Night.” Neferet paused, waving a hand dismissively. “I’ll have windows covered or open a basement or something. But you will live at the House of Night.”

“How will we satisfy our hunger?”

“Carefully. And what you cannot satisfy carefully you will control, at least until the world has turned and changed to embrace your needs.”

“I don’t get it! Why do you even want us there?”

“Rephaim, the Raven Mocker you failed to kill more than once, has been gifted with a human form during the night and has mated with Stevie Rae. He is allowed to attend the House of Night, along with Aphrodite, and the other red fledglings—Stevie Rae’s red fledglings.”

“I’m supposed to go to school with him? And her? Together?”

The bulb glowed brightly again.

“You hate them, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Good. That is the reason I want you there—want you all there.”

“Because we hate them?”

“No, because of what your hatred, controlled by me, will cause,” she said.

“And what’s that?” he asked.

Neferet smiled. “Chaos.”

* * *

They left shortly after Neferet finished instructing the vampyre called Dallas in the ways he could and could not cause chaos. Apparently, his purpose was much like Aurox’s purpose—Neferet commanded and controlled his violence and held his allegiance. He was not to kill—yet. And always, always, there was the underlying thread of seeding dissent and discontent and hatred.

Aurox understood. Aurox obeyed.

When Neferet commanded that he control the beast within him, he obeyed and followed her from the rotting nest up through the cool, clean corridors of the school.

At the front door the old guard lay where Aurox had left him.

“Is he alive?” Neferet asked.

Aurox touched him. “Yes.”

Neferet sighed. “I suppose that is for the best, even though it’s slightly inconvenient. You’ll need to go back downstairs and tell Dallas I want the old man’s memory wiped clean. Tell him to implant the suggestion that he was wounded when the school was robbed.” She tapped her chin, considering, and looked down the hallway at the glass cases that held memorabilia and the library beyond with its neat rows of books and gleaming, ornate light fixtures. “No, I have a more amusing idea. Tell Dallas to make the human believe he was wounded when the school was vandalized. Then on the way out, I want you to smash the cases and destroy the library. Do it quickly. I’ll be waiting outside. And I do not like to be kept waiting.”

“Yes, Priestess,” he said.

“As I said, this architecture is wasted on human teenagers…” She laughed as she left the building

Hastily he retraced his path back to the underground lair. As soon as Dallas caught sight of him, the vampyre stood and faced him, putting himself between Aurox and the fledgling pack. The red vampyre’s grimy arm lifted to rest on a metal box that was bolted to the cement wall. Aurox felt the power that thrummed there, coiling, waiting to do his bidding.

“What do you want?” Dallas asked.

“Neferet sent me with a new command for you.”

Dallas took his hand from the metal box. “What does she want me to do?”

“There is a guard who is unconscious near the entry to the school. Priestess does not want him to remember our presence. Instead he is to believe vandals attacked him.”

“Yeah, fine. Whatever,” Dallas said, then before Aurox could turn away he asked, “Hey, what the hell are you?”

The question surprised Aurox. His answer came automatically. “I am Neferet’s to command.”

“Yeah, but what are you?” asked a dark-haired fledgling girl who was peering at him from behind Dallas. “I saw you. You were changing into something with horns and hooves. Are you some kind of demon?”

“No. Not a demon. I am Neferet’s to command.” Aurox turned away then, leaving them behind, but he could not leave their words behind. They followed him down the hallway. He’s a freak, they whispered. Something not right.

He used a desk made of wood and steel to smash and destroy the treasures in the clean, wide hallway. He shattered the ornate fixtures that hung from the room filled with books. While he did that Aurox fed from the fear and anger that lingered in his body. When those emotions were used up he channeled the fear the red vampyre and his fledglings were evoking from the old man as the fledgling he’d wounded drank his blood and the others looked on laughing. When they finished with the guard and wiped his mind clean, Aurox used the vestiges of the disgust the fledglings felt for him to fuel the power he needed until that emotion, too, was gone. Then he unearthed the only emotions he had left. The emotions he’d not fed from, but instead had somehow kept, and claimed as his own. So it was washed in Zoey’s loneliness and sadness and guilt that he finished vandalizing the school and then, changing back to the shell of a boy, Aurox walked heavily from the destruction he had caused and made sure Neferet waited no longer.