"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 stairwel 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 shal make them pay for causing me to take this trip in the sunlight." She glanced at him before donning dark, mirrored glasses. "Actually, you shal 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 'till 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.