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Lenobia
Lenobia's sleep was so restless that the familiar dream took on a sense of reality that overstepped the ethereal realm of subconscious outlets and fantasies and becaly real
It began with aLenobia young and naive again, and in the cargo hold of the ship that had carried her fro that journey that Lenobia had met Martin, the man who should have been her Mate for his entire life Instead he had died too young and had taken her love to the grave with him
In her dreaentle roll of the ship and smell the scent of horse and hay, sea and fish-and Martin Always Martin He was standing before her, gazing down at her through eyes that were olive and amber and worried She had just told him she loved him
"It is impossible" The dream memory replayed in her ently He raised his own arm until the tere side by side "You see the difference, you?"
The drea Lenobia made a small, wordless exclamation of pain The sound of his voice! That distinct Creole accent--deep, sensual, unique It was the bittersweet sound of his voice and its beautiful accent that had kept Lenobia away from New Orleans for more than two hundred years
"No," the young Lenobia had answered his question as she gazed down at their arether "All I see is you"
Still deeply asleep, Lenobia, Horse Mistress of the Tulsa House of Night,to force her ht dreaht have been ruled
The sequence of ed to another scene, still in the cargo hold of the sa her a long string of leather tied to a small pouch dyed a deep sapphire blue Martin put it around her neck saying, "This gris-gris protect you, cherie"
In the space of a heartbeat the memory wavered and time fast-forwarded a century An older, wiser,leather pouch in her hands as it split and spilled it contents-thirteen things, just as Martin had told her-butthe century she'd worn the charm Lenobia remembered a faint scent of juniper, the smooth feel of the clay pebble before it turned to dust, and the tiny dove's feather that had cruers Butrush of joy she'd felt when, in theremnants of Martin's love and protection, she'd discovered soe It had been a ring-a heart-shaped eold
"Your mother's heart-your heart-my heart," Lenobia had whispered as she'd slipped it over the knuckle of her ring finger "I still otten I vowed it"
And then the drea Lenobia back to Martin, only this tio hold and falling in love This , Lenobia knew the place and the date: New Orleans, March 21, 1788, not long after sunset
The stables had exploded in fire and Martin had saved her, carrying her from the flames
"Oh, no! Martin! No!" Lenobia had screa to awaken before she had to relive the horrible end of the memory
She didn't wake Instead she heard her only love repeat the words that had broken her heart two hundred years before, feeling it again as if the wound were raw and fresh
"Too late, cherie This world too late for us I see you again, though My love for you don' end here My love for you, it never endfind you again, cherie That I vow"
As Martin captured the evil human who had tried to enslave her, and then walked back into the fla Lenobia's life, the Horse Mistress was finally able to wake herself with a wrenching sob She sat up in bed, and with a tre hand brushed her sweat-soaked hair from her face
Lenobia's first waking thought was for her h the psychic connection they shared, she could feel that Mujaji was agitated, almost panicked "Shhh, my beauty Go back to sleep I as to the black uilty for upsetting Mujaji, she bowed her head and cradled her hand, twisting the eer
"Stop being so foolish," Lenobia told herself firmly "It was just a dream I am safe I am not back there What happened then cannot hurt me more than it already has," Lenobia lied to herself I can be hurt again If Martin has coain Another sob tried to escape froether and forced her emotions under control
He ically Travis Foster, the new human hired by Neferet to assist her in the stables, was si, beautiful Percheron mare "Which is probably exactly what Neferet intended when she hired him," Lenobia muttered "To distract me And his Percheron is just an odd coincidence" Lenobia closed her eyes and blocked the memories that lifted froht not be Martin reincarnated I knowtime since I have taken a lover" You have never taken a human lover-you vowed not to, her conscience reminded her "So it's simply past time I took a vampyre lover, even if briefly And that type of distraction will be good forand then rejecting a list of handso their strong,whisky brown eyes tinged with fareen and a ready smile
"No!" She would not think of it She would not think of him
But what if Travis could really hold Martin's soul? Lenobia's errant ave his word he would find ain Perhaps he has "And then what?" Lenobia stood and began to pace restlessly "I know all too well the fragility of humans They are too easily killed, and today the world is even erous than it was in 1788 My love ended in heartbreak and flame once Once was too much" Lenobia stopped and put her face in her hands as her heart knew the truth, and pu reality "I am a coward If Travis is not Martin I do not want to openanother human And if he is Martin returned to ain"
Lenobia sat heavily in the old rocking chair she'd placed beside her bedroomShe liked to read there, and if she couldn't sleep herfaced east so she could watch the rising of the sun and look out at the grounds beside the stables Though Lenobia appreciated the irony, she couldn't help but enjoy the ht Vairl who loved s and horses and a tall, cappuccino skinned hu
Her shoulders sluht of Martin so often in decades His renewed ed sword-on one side she loved recalling his smile, his scent, his touch On the other his memory also evoked the void his absence had left For rieved for a lost possibility-a wasted life
"Our future was burned away from us Destroyed by flames of hatred and obsession and evil" Lenobia shook her head and wiped her eyes Shea swath through Light and goodness She drew in a deep, centering breath and turned her thoughts to a subject that never failed to calm her, no matter how chaotic the world around her had beco calain with that extra special part of her spirit that Nyx had touched, and gifted with an affinity for horses, the day sixteen-year-old Lenobia had been Marked She found her itation she sensed in Mujaji
"Shhh," Lenobia soothed again, repeating aloud the reassurance she was sending through her bond with the ent It will pass, I give you my voeet one" Lenobia focused a tide of warht-colored ained her own calm
Lenobia closed her eyes and released a long breath She could envision herdown, cocking a back leg, and falling into a dreamless sleep
The Horse Mistress concentrated on hercowboy's arrival at her stables had caused within her Tomorrow, she promised herself sleepily, tomorroill make it clear to Travis that ill never be more than employer and employee The color of his eyes and the way he in to ease when I distance myself from him It mustit must
Finally, Lenobia slept
Neferet
Even though the feline was not bonded to her, Shadowfax caly at Neferet's call Thankfully, classes were over for the night, so when the big Maine coon met her in the middle of the field house it was dion Lankford himself was also absent, but probably only tes on her way there Neferet sue reds to the House of Night What lovely, chaotic possibilities they presented-especially after she ensured Zoey's circle would be broken and her best friend, Stevie Rae, would be devastated, grieving the loss of her lover
The knowledge that she was assuring future pain and suffering for Zoey pleased Neferet immeasurably, but she was too disciplined to allow herself to begin gloating before the sacrificial spell was coh the school was unusually quiet tonight, almost abandoned, the truth was anyone could happen into the field house Neferet needed to work quickly and quietly There would be ample time to revel over the fruits of her labors later
She spoke softly to the cat, coaxing hih she knelt to his level Neferet had thought he would be leery of her-cats knew things They were s, or even vampyres Neferet's own cat, Skylar, had refused to relocate to her new Mayo penthouse suite, choosing instead to lurk in the shadows of the House of Night and watch her knowingly with his large, green eyes
Shadoasn't as wary
Neferet beckoned Shadowfax ca the last bit of distance between theainst her and mark her affectionately with his scent-but he came to her His obedience was all that concerned Neferet She didn't want his love; she wanted his life