House of Night 09 - Destined

face that so clearly mimicked those of his father’s—thought of the infatuation that had led him to his human form …
    Again, nothing.
    She could not find Rephaim, though she knew he must be filled with readable emotions. So strange. Humans were usually such easy prey. Humans …
    Neferet smiled as she focused her attention on a more-interesting human. The cowboy—the one she’d chosen so carefully for poor, dear, repressed Lenobia.
    What was it the Horse Mistress had said when they’d first met and Lenobia had thought them friends? Ah, Neferet remembered. They’d been talking of human mates and how neither had a desire for one. Neferet hadn’t admitted that they curdled her stomach—that she could never allow a human to touch her without doing him violence—never again. Instead she’d simply listened as Lenobia confessed: I loved a human boy once. When I lost him, I almost lost myself. I can never let that happen again, so I prefer to stay away from humans altogether.
    Neferet closed her eyes, drew a deep breath, and dug her long, pointed fingernails into the palm of her left hand. As the blood welled and then dripped, she offered it to the searching shadows, thinking of the cowboy she’d planted in the soil of Lenobia’s manure-ridden arena.
    Lend Dark power to me
    So that his emotions I can see!
    The pain in her palm was nothing compared to the onrush of icy power she received. Neferet controlled it and focused it at the stables. She was justly rewarded. She could feel the human cowboy’s warmth and compassion—his joy and desire. And then she laughed aloud because she could also feel his hurt and confusion, along with the backwash of what could only be Lenobia’s heartbreak.
    “It’s so delicious! Everything is going according to my plans.”
    Absently, Neferet brushed away the more aggressive of the threads of Darkness and licked the wounds on her palm, closing them. “That is all for now. Wait until later for more.” She laughed at their reluctance to quit feeding from her. She commanded them easily. They know my true allegiance, my true sacrifice, is only for him—the white bull. Just the thought of him—of his magnificent power—made Neferet shiver with longing. He was all a god or goddess should be; there is much I can learn from him.
    Neferet decided it then. She would make an excuse to the much-too-curious Thanatos and leave the school before dawn. She had to be with the white bull—she needed to absorb more of his power.
    She closed her eyes and breathed in the night, letting the thought of her Consort, Darkness himself, woo her. And for a moment Neferet believed she was almost happy.
    Then she intruded. She always intruded.
    “Seriously, Shaunee, you can’t stay here.”
    Neferet’s lip lifted in a sneer as she opened her eyes and looked down through her window to the sidewalk below. Zoey had caught the black girl by her arm and was obviously trying to stop her from going out to the parking lot.
    “Look, I gave it a try, but today was hell. Really hell. So I’m gonna go get the bag I packed from the depot and left on the short bus, and I’m gonna move into my old dorm room.”
    “Please don’t,” Zoey said.
    “I have to. Erin keeps hurting my feelings over and over.” Neferet thought the girl was very near tears. Her weakness disgusted the Tsi Sgili. “And anyway, why does it matter?”
    “It matters ’cause you’re one of us!” Neferet hated the honest warmth in Zoey’s voice. “You can be pissed at Erin. You can even stop being BFFs, but you can’t let your whole life explode because of it.”
    “It’s not me who’s exploding. It’s her,” Shaunee said.
    “Then be a better person. Be your own person, and maybe by doing that you can show Erin how to be your friend again.”
    “But not my Twin.” Shaunee spoke so softly Neferet almost couldn’t hear her. “I don’t want to be anyone’s Twin again. I just want to be myself.”
    Zoey smiled. “That’s all you need to be. Go to sixth hour, and I promise I’ll talk to Erin. You’re both still part of our circle, and that has to count for something.”
    Shaunee nodded slowly. “’Kay. But only if you talk to her.”
    “I will.”
    Neferet sneered again as Zoey hugged the black girl who started to retrace her path toward the main school building. She expected Zoey to walk with her, but she didn’t. Instead the girl’s shoulders slumped and she rubbed her forehead as if it ached. If the little