"That's right! That's exactly right!" Lenobia yelled, and clung to the speeding mare's back.

Joyously, freely, wonderfully, Lenobia moved as one with Bonnie. She didn't realize she'd been laughing aloud until she pulled the mare in and circled her, finally coming to a halt, blowing and sweating, beside Travis and their bench.

"She's magnificent!" Lenobia laughed again, and leaned forward to hug Bonnie's damp neck.

"Yeah, I told ya it'd be better after that," Travis called to her, catching Bonnie's bridle and echoing Lenobia's laughter.

"What couldn't be? That's so much fun!"

"Like riding a mountain?"

"Exactly like riding a beautiful, smart, wonderful mountain!" Lenobia hugged Bonnie again. "You know what? You really do deserve all those cookies," she told the mare.

Travis just laughed.

Lenobia kicked her leg over the saddle to slide off Bonnie, but the ground was much farther away than she'd anticipated. She staggered and would have fall en had Travis not caught her elbow in his strong grip.

"Steady there ... steady girl," he murmured, sounding like he was speaking to a spooked filly. "Ground's a long ways down. Take 'er easy or you'll have a nasty fall."

still feeling the sweet adrenaline rush from her run with the mare, Lenobia laughed. "I don't care! The ride would be worth the fall. The ride would be worth anything!"

"Some girls are," Travis said.

Lenobia looked up at the tall cowboy. His eyes had lightened so that they weren't just hazel anymore. They were flecked with an olive green that was distinctive and light and unmistakably familiar.

Lenobia didn't think. Instinct drove her. She stepped into his embrace. It seemed Travis had stopped thinking, too, because he'd dropped Bonnie's reins and pulled Lenobia into his arms. Their lips met with a kind of desperation that was part passion, part question.

She could have stopped herself, but she didn't. She allowed it. No, more than that. Lenobia met Travis's passion with her own, and answered his question with desire and need.

The kiss went on long enough for Lenobia to recognize the taste and feel of him, and for her to admit to herself that she'd missed him-missed him desperately.

And then she began thinking again.

She only had to pull just a little and he let her slip from the warm circle of his arms.

Lenobia could feel her head shaking back and forth and her heart racing.

"No," she said, trying to get her breathing under control. "This can't be. I can't do this." His beautiful, olive-flecked eyes looked dazed. "Lenobia, girl. Let's talk this out. There's somethin' here that we can't ignore. It's like we-"

"No!" Lenobia called the steely control that she'd commanded for centuries to her, cloaking her desire and need and fear in anger and coldness.

"Do not presume. Humans are attracted to our kind. What you felt was what any man would feel if I deigned to kiss him." She forced herself to laugh, this time the sound was utterly devoid of joy. "Which is why I do not make a habit of kissing human men. It will not happen again." Without looking at Travis or Bonnie, Lenobia strode away. Her back was to them, so they couldn't see that she pressed her hand against her mouth to keep the sob from escaping. She opened the side door to the stables so hard that it slammed against the stone building. She didn't pause. She went straight to her room that rested over her horses, closed and locked the door behind her.

Then, and only then, Lenobia allowed herself to weep.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Neferet

Things were going very well.

The red fledglings were causing problems.

Dall as hated Rephaim with an intensity that was simply lovely.

Gaea was all in a tizzy about the lawn humans. So much so that she'd forgotten to lock the side maintenance gate and one of the street people who usually frequented Cherry Street had somehow been compelled to stagger down Utica Street and through the unlocked gate and onto campus.

"And he'd promptly almost been carved in two by Dragon, who is seeing Raven Mockers in every shade and shadow," Neferet practically purred.

She tapped her chin contemplatively. She hated that Thanatos had invaded her House of Night. But the positive side of the High Council's interfering ways was that forcing all of those special students into one classroom was acting like dry twigs on coals.

"Chaos!" Neferet laughed. "It is going to cause something to ignite."

The Darkness that was her constant companion slithered closer, wrapping itself caressingly around her legs.