House Of Night Fanfiction – Set 5 minutes after Destined

Pairings: Lenobia/Travis, Zoey/Heath, Zoey/Stark, Aphrodite/Darius, Thanatos/Kalona, Rephaim/Stevie Rae

Lenobia POV

It is nearing dawn when I emerge from my quarters, having safely eradicated all evidence of my pain from my face.

I tiptoe quietly through the stables, hoping desperately to avoid Travis Foster – (My pride far abandoned at this point)-, while I check on the horses. 'I may be having...problems...but that is no excuse not to do ones job.'

I approach Mujaji's stall, being careful so as not to spook her – not that it is necessary as she knew I was coming – and smooth my hand across the mares long neck, basking in the silence that fills my stables at the end of a school day.

However, it became apparent that my peace was short-lived as I hear someone approaching. 'Not Travis', I register. This footfall is far too delicate to belong to the cowboy. I'm dimly aware of another set of footsteps following behind.

Whirling around I am greeted by a serene – looking Thanatos, accompanied by Zoey.

"Good evening, Thanatos, Zoey. How may I help you?"

I look to Zoey and see a great sadness pass through her eyes and immediately begin to steel myself.

"I am afraid I come with unpleasant news." She replied "Our own sword master, Dragon Lankford, gave his life this evening saving the life of the consort of Stevie – Rae, Rephaim."

The shock I feel is not for hearing of Dragon's death in itself – in times such as these, no death comes as a surprise – but rather hearing that he sacrificed himself for Rephaim. The ex-raven mocker who killed his mate. Even though I am saddened by his death, it calms me to know that in the end, he did the right thing.

Instead of voicing all this, I ask "Who killed him?" This is when Zoey looks truly uncomfortable, although I cannot yet fathom why.

Thanatos lowers her head slightly and replies with "The boy, Aurox, transformed into a bull and tried to kill Rephaim at the ceremony at Zoey's grandmothers farm."

'Of course. This must be Neferet's doing.'

As if reading my thoughts, Thanatos goes on to say, "However, the spell revealed to us that Neferet is the one who is responsible for Zoey's mother's death and gave us conclusive evidence that Neferet's consort is, indeed, Darkness."

"Good Lord." The consort of Darkness. This is extreme even for her. "Thank you for telling me all of this.", I say.

She smiles and says, "You were friend to both Dragon and Anastasia Lankford. At the beginning of the school day, tonight, I will be calling everyone together for a ritual and to announce myself as the Tulsa House Of Night's new High Priestess and to announce a new sword master. Goodnight, Lenobia.", and without waiting for a response, the swept from the stables leaving Zoey and myself behind. Barely missing a beat, she asks "What's wrong?"

'For one so young, she is certainly very wise'

Zoey POV

Damn. A lot has happened tonight. It's kind of insane to think about. Kalona! Thanatos' oath sworn warrior! I don't think anyone expected that. I notice that she doesn't tell Lenobia about his replacing Dragon.

Looking at Lenobia, my instinct immediately tells me that something is wrong. She looks sort of tired whereas she usually looks alert. It could be because it's late – (For vampyres anyway..) – but it feels like something more.

Thanatos sweeps off looking all graceful and High Priestessly and leaves me with Lenobia, who looks as if she's barely even noticed I'm standing here.

"What's wrong?", I ask. She looks startled, then wary. I can tell she doesn't want to talk about it so I know I'm on the right track.

She sighs and is about to say something when Mr. Foster rounds the corner, looking as distracted as Lenobia.

When she notices him she freezes and looks deeply uncomfortable.

I almost laugh out loud. Seems like even century old vampyres still have guy problems.

He pauses then looks at her and somewhat cautiously makes his way over to where we are standing and pats Mujaji on the head gently.

"Good evening, Travis", Lenobia greets.

"Evening, ma'am". He tips his hat to her.

I start to feel awkward and turn to leave when Lenobia says, quickly, "Zoey! You must tell me how the ritual went. Thanatos wasn't very specific."

Once again I have to right the urge to laugh until I pee myself. She clearly doesn't want me to leave her with Travis which means something must have happened.

She heads off down the row of stalls and ushers me into her office, leaving Travis looking slightly crestfallen.

Once we're inside and I've closed the door, she sinks into her office chair looking exhausted.

I take a seat on the chain opposite her and smile knowingly. Guy problems are my area of expertise.

"What happened?"

She lets out a long breath and places and hand delicately over her eyes.

"Something that I did not intend to happen."

That's too vague.

"Like...?", I prompt.

"I may have or may not have accidentally kissed Travis Foster."

This time I really do laugh. In fact, I almost double over on my chair with barely repressed giggles. She skewers me with her storm-cloud eyes, looking more than a little annoyed.

"I'm sorry- it's just...it's weird...seeing tough ass vamps with these kinds of problems..", I managed to get out between laughs.

Her face turns slightly sad which makes me immediately regret my laughter.

"I'm not sure what to do. It's a very complicated situation that I have not had to face before."

This surprises me.

"What? You mean...ever...? So, you've never had a...boyfriend?"

"Oh, I've had physical partners occasionally but I have only once ever truly given myself to another."

"Physical partners?", I ask, feeling more than a little bit dense.

She gives me look that says 'Oh-for-Jesus'-sake'.

"Trysts, Zoey."

"Oh! Okay, I'm following...". I blush, of course.

"I once loved a human boy before I was marked and when he died I almost died with him. I cannot allow myself to become close to another human."

Okay. Now I'm really, really surprised. I'd always assumed of course that Lenobia must have loved someone at some point during her long life but I'd never really put a lot of thought into it. She was a tougher-than-tough vampyre professor. I never stopped to think about why she might be like that.

"What was he like?", I ask.

She smiles faintly and replies with, "He was wise and handsome and compassionate. He cared for the horses on the voyage I was on the took me from France to New Orleans. He had a wonderful sense of humour and a very old soul."

At this is have to smile since he sounds rather like Lenobia herself. She was one of the wisest people I knew and although she could be cold and sarcastic at times, underneath she was compassionate and warm and had a sort of snarky humour and always knew the right thing to say when things went badly.

"What happened to him?"

"Well. A bishop from the church I attended back in France was also aboard the ship. His intentions were...far less than honourable. When she ship set down in New Orleans, Martin and I had intended to run away together, but the bishop was set on not allowing that to happen. It was at this time that I began to feel incredibly ill and I was marked by a tracker from the Savannah House Of Night. I told Martin and he was delighted for it meant that we could have the freedom to be together, him as my mate. But our joy was short-lived for the bishop set the stables that we were in alight. Martin carried my out be he was badly burned and would not have had long to live. The bishop made it out unscathed and Martin gave he life to save mine by carrying the bishop into the burning stables. It was a dreadful day. Had it not been for the early manifestation of my affinity I would have sat there and let myself burn. The tracker, Medusa, came to collect me and I felt the emotions of the horse she rode and it gave me a new purpose. That is my story. I do hope I did not bore you."

I listened with rapt attention while she was speaking and then found myself too surprised to say anything after. I was speechless. That was a horrible story. And she'd carried all that around with her for more than two hundred years.

"Have you ever told anyone else that story?"

She shook her head. "I have not. I'm not even sure why I'm telling you now."

"I'm glad you told me. So...how does Travis fit into all of this?"

She lowers her head, looking upset. "I vowed to Martin that I would not love another. And now I am having...feelings for Travis."

"But wouldn't he want you to be happy? If Travis makes you happy then wouldn't Martin want you to be with him?"

"I...It's complicated...", she stutters, searching for a reply.

Something nags at me. "Why couldn't you and Martin be together anyway? Before you were marked?"

She looks grateful for the slight change in subject. "Because he was a black male and I was a white female. During these times it was not allowed. Things have changed a lot since then."

"Oh" It was such a romantic and tragic story. I almost want to hug her but I wasn't sure if she'd rip my head clean off. So I settled for tentatively placing my hand on her arm. She looks and me and smiles.

"You are a good listener, Zoey. I feel bad for unloading my problems on you when you have so many of your own."

I wave her away. "Happy to help.", I sense an opportunity to unload some of my problems myself.

"I looked through the seer stone at Aurox tonight.", I blurt out.

"Oh? And what did you see?"

"Well. It was like...when I looked at him I saw Heath. I saw Heath's soul attached to him."

Now she looked surprised.

"I don't quite understand. You saw Heath's soul attached to Aurox's soul?"

"When I met him it was kind of like I recognised him on an instinctual level. And then tonight when I looked at him I understood why. I think Aurox IS Heath. Like, reincarnated or something. Is that possible?"

"It is certainly possible. It has always been known that Nyx says that the only thing that survives beyond death is love. When two people love each other it is as though their souls and bound together and that they will find each other again and again in each life. Perhaps Heath has found you again in the form of Aurox?"

Even though what she was saying was crazy my instinct was telling me that she was correct.

"But...Heath- I mean, Aurox killed Dragon! Heath would never do that!"

"Maybe he could not control it? Even vampyres kill people accidentally. Everyone does things that they do not mean to."

This was another of those times when she reminded me of Nyx.

"I suppose you're right.", she gave me that look. The of-course-I'm-right-Zoey-I'm-always-right look. "Tonight Aurox looked at me and I could see how sorry he was. And he told me that he was Neferet's weapon or something. And that he wasn't really sure what he was."

"He isn't sure about what he is?", she asks.

"No. I mean, he transforms into a bull...that, surely, is not normal."

"I have never encountered it before but like I said, there are a lot of things in this world."

"True." I glance through the window and wince when I see that it is past sunrise and then sun is at full glare. Lenobia seems to realise too and says, "You should be getting to bed. It was unprofessional of me to keep you so late. I shall see you at fifth period, Zoey."

I stand up, stretch and head towards the door. "Blessed be, Lenobia."

"Blessed be, Zoey."