Sorry for the wait, got distracted with summer classes and then dealing with the 2 clubs I'm president of at my school so… Yeah… Well anyways we are finally gonna see what Neferet is up to! I've been neglecting her lately! xD

SPOILERS FROM "LENOBIA'S VOW" IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT YET!


Mayo Tower/No POV

Neferet sighed heavily as she was lay haphazardly across the sofa. She still could not believe that she was out of a job and worse yet the Council had been ignoring her calls. She cursed Thanatos and Zoey and the rest of the group. She was on top of the world, ready to command and take over and in just one night all her hard work and deception collapsed into a heap. She still has yet to locate Aurox that traitor.

Her vessel had run off into the night, seemingly disappearing off the face of the planet and her Consort, the White Bull, had all but seemed unfazed by all these events. Even he, the grand and immortal Bull of Darkness, had abandoned her. She had not seen or even heard from her Consort since that fateful night and all this waiting around for him was beginning to make her antsy and impatient.

She hated the feeling.

She was always one to stand on her own just fine, strong enough, evil enough, to not need anyone else. But ever since she and the White Bull had formed their bond she had weakened at his touch and now was, as she always was, under him, now so than before. She knew that the immortal bull was laughing at her from behind her back, this poor, weak, headstrong vampyre.

Neferet scoffed and gracefully casted her legs off the arm of the sofa and rose gently to a standing position. Well she was tired of that image she had formed in the eyes of her stronger, more powerful Consort. She was ready to change that image, and change it she would, starting from the moment when he decides to heed her calls and appear before her. She admitted even that her calls to him were weak and pathetic but how could she prove herself to the White Bull when he was not here to see her change? But all this waiting for him to reappear was agonizing. She felt as if she could not wait for another instant.

As it turns out, she did not have to wait any much longer.

The air in the room got colder and the white form of the bull formed in her suite, just as strong and powerful and as enticing as Neferet remembers. She had planned to act strong, defiant even, but all that flew out the window the moment her eyes fell upon the ravishing muscular form of the immortal. "Oh my dark master," Neferet began, practically falling to her knees as she walked to him, "how much I have waited to see you, to console with you."

"Quiet, vampyre." The bull said thickly. His own plan was thrown into oblivion on the night where everything fell, but on his side-trek at the House of Night, a new plan formulated, and the adult vampyre before him was beginning to waver out of her usefulness. But he was not about to cast her out now, no, he could yet have some use of her and the powers he had ever so generously lent to her. "I have formulated a new plan to give you what you so desire." He played a ploy with the vampyre, knowing quite well that she would fall for it. His plan has, from the very start, been to benefit him and only him. Why should he, a powerful immortal, seek the companionship of a lowly and week vampyre? Though now, he shall admit, that idea did not seem too bad.

"Oh I just knew that you would be out finding a new means to take control of the Council my Consort." Neferet all but gushed out to the fellow immortal. She could not read past the bull's façade, she too infatuated with the power that coursed in the very air around him. She collapsed onto his strong back, hands dragging themselves up and down the course white fur. Shudders ripped through her body as that sensation of his fur passing through her fingers once again became familiar.

The White Bull suppressed a smile upon his features. He was going to give Neferet what she so desired, if only to keep her wrapped around his ever increasing control of her. His tendrils floated out and caressed the female, pleasuring her body the way he knew that she enjoyed the most. The vampyre melted at his touch and as she dropped her guard the White Bull allowed that smile to break through his features.

Yes, all was coming together.

Stables/Lenobia

Everything has changed within in the stables, ever since that night I overheard Travis and Liran talk about setting up some jumping exercises for Amiron. It was also the same night both Travis and I heard the sounds of a woman's voice talking as if to someone else.

Since that night the air in the stables has been calm, a little bit too calm. There was hardly any emotion in the air, even when the students were in the stables when there was usually happiness or some sort of emotion along those lines.

Even Travis, who usually tries to command my attention, has been especially quiet. Sure he still tosses that famous cowboy smile of his in my direction and does much more than is required of him, it is still weird. And I have been so calm lately, like a weight was lifted off my shoulders.

I didn't quite know how to classify this, much weirder events have happened at this school, especially in this past year, but I did not know if this was a good thing or a bad thing. It wasn't too potentially harmful, at least at the moment. The horses don't seem to be too affected by the change in atmosphere. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I felt as if something was going to happen. The atmosphere hasn't changed much since that night but it was beginning to, slowly but surely and becoming something almost… familiar.

I tried to shrug it off but with my worry for the horses, the well being of myself and Travis and of course the students, I just could not stop thinking about it. It was almost too much for me to handle alone. I thought about taking it up with Thanatos but she has too much on her plate to worry about something I did not seem was dangerous. And of course I couldn't worry Zoey with it. Not only was she my student and that would seem inappropriate, but she, like Thanatos, has too much on her plate as it is, and I would surely be a horrible being for causing her grief over something that may not even be anything at all.

Whatever the case may be, I continued to work as if nothing was bothering me. My acting seemed to do the trick as no one else seemed to notice that my behavior was off, if only by a little bit. I instead busied myself with the horses and helping Liran set up her course so that she and Amiron could practice their jumps together. But as I begun to notice, Liran seemed to feel the same thing I felt for she seemed more distant these past few times she has visited the stables and more observant on what Travis and I was doing. It brought questions but I didn't think to ask her what was troubling her.

Stables, later that night/Travis

My dreams have always been weird, even since I could remember. But ever since I arrived at the House of Night and met Lenobia, the beautiful vampyre that haunts my every thought, the dreams have gotten even weirder. This one was by far the weirdest.

I was handling two matching gray Percherons in a place that was constantly rocking. Only moments into the dream did I realize I was on a ship. There was also a cat, a fat cat, that I considered as a companion though the cat thought otherwise. In this dream I was not me, I was a tanned skin man, shirtless, with stripped pants, my shoulder length black hair tied back. I looked almost like the prince in Beauty and the Beast at the end when he turned back into a human with his hair tied back but obviously darker. And when I spoke to the horses I sounded French, using words like cher and cherie though I reckoned that both words meant the same thing.

In this dream I had gone to the back of this holding pen on this ship to go get something, feed, or a brush, I don't know what, but then I heard something from the front and I went back up, forgetting what I was getting. Then I saw Lenobia, but she was dressed in a French period dress and she looked a bit younger, not by much, but still younger. She spotted the horses and gasped softly, a huge smile gracing her face. "Ooooh! Look at the two of you! You're exquisite!" She sounded like Lenobia, but with a thicker French accent.

I faintly recoiled from the dream. It seemed too real to be a dream. It was like… I have been there before, like I've witnessed this before. As I slipped back into the dream it was as if there was no pause button for it moved on to the next scene. "Brave? No, I am frightened of everything!" Lenobia said after some hysterical giggling. The sound sent shivers through my body, in both my dreams and in reality.

"Except horses and cats." I said, my accent throwing me off slightly.

"Yes." The word came out breathlessly and I could tell through the eyes of my dream-self that she was trying not to act breathless but obviously failing. "Except horses and cats."

The dream moved forward again and this dream started to feel more and more like a distant memory than an actual dream. This meeting with my dream-self and Lenobia was far more rushed, I could hardly see facial expressions and the conversation ran together. This time it was me who began this scene. "You promised to a great man. That true, cherie?"

"It is true. His name is Thinton de Silegne, he is a name with no face—no body—no heart."

"He a name with land, though, cherie. I know his name and his land. His plantation, the Houmas, is like paradise." With those words I felt my heart, my real, breathing, beating heart, break.

"It is not paradise I want Martin." She said brokenly, my dream-self's name finally revealed in a thick French accent. "Is is only y—"

"No!" I stopped her, placing a finger to her lips. "You cannot speak it, you." My heart was breaking even more with every word that passed between us. "My heart, he is strong, but not strong enough to fight your words." Then don't fight it! I yelled out to him, as if I were watching a movie and was yelling at the characters of the film in vain. Don't fight it! Tell her you love her!

"I only ask that your heart listen."

"Oh, cherie. My heart, he already heard your words. Your heart, she speaks them to me. But that as far as they can go—only this silent talk between us."NO! I yelled. No, don't you even dare! How dare you allow her to slip out of your fingers coward!

"But… I want more."

I want more too Lenobia… I want it! Believe me I want it so much! "Qui, mon petite chou, I want more too." Yes! I celebrated but a bit too early. "But it cannot be. Cecile, we cannot be."

The dream was moving forward again as I wondered why I—I mean Martin—had called Lenobia Cecile. I knew her as Lenobia unless… she went by a different name all those years ago… But wait, this was just a dream. None of this had happened. Had it? "What do I call you?" Martin asked emotionlessly. I was so confused that I just stood by as an invisible third person in the room, watching from the side.

"Lenobia is my name but I like it when you call me cherie." She answered and I could feel her discomfort of the strangeness of my dream-self. I could tell that we were still on the ship and still in the stables where all of these scenes took place.

It skipped forward again, my soul telling me that it was just merely a 'discussion' of trust. "Would you have ever told me?" Martin asked.

"Yes." She said without hesitation. "I would have told you my secret when I told you that I loved you."

Martin closed the face before him, his face turning from near anger to something else, something I couldn't quite tell. "No, cherie. You cannot love me." I wanted to punch him in the face.

"Cannot? I already do."

My heart practically exploded from love. She loved me—loved Martin. I felt my body in the real world shiver, it was as if it were telling me that Martin was in fact me. And for some reason, I was beginning to believe it. Stranger things have happened.

Then fire erupted in my dream. I felt my, my, skin burning, and in my arms, a soft and frightened presence. I opened my eyes—Martin's eyes—and saw Lenobia in my arms, fire consuming us both, fire attacking her hair, burning it slightly. I reacted the only way I knew how and lifted her into my arms, leading us away from the flames. My body felt severely burned, I had shielded her from the flames, saved her life, and I had accidently dropped here when I got her away from the flames safely. When I looked down at her, our eyes meeting, tears threatened to fall. "Oh, no! Martin! No!"

"Too late, cherie. This world too late for us." I realized that we were no longer on the ship but in an old town with cobblestone streets. "I see you again, though. My love for you don' end here. My love for you, it never end." In the background I heard a voice, threatening my life. "I don' stay here now, though I wish I could. I don' lose you, either. I find you again, cherie. That I vow."

"Please, Martin. I don't want to live without you." She sobbed and my heart just finished breaking and I started to cry in reality, though my dream-self, my old self, stayed strong and true.

"You must. I find you again, cherie. Before I go, this one thing I can fix this time, though. A bientôt cher. I will love you always."

As fire enveloped my dream again I heard faintly the sounds of my own voice, both that of Martin's and my own, reciting a spell of sorts. I couldn't listen to it, the fire was to strong and yet I knew it.

"Martin!"

The agonized scream of Lenobia in my dream woke me with a start. Beside me my horse looked down on me with worried eyes. I looked at her dappled gray form, much like the Percherons from the ship. Then I remembered what Lenobia said when she first encountered Bonnie.

"I have not seen a Percheron since my voyage… I've remembered them fondly and since have been intrigued by draft horses… I've remembered them fondly…"

I sobbed, tears unloading from my eyes. She remembered them fondly because they introduced us… Martin and Cecile... But now Travis and Lenobia…

Bonnie muzzled her nose into my shoulder and she nickered softly. I chuckled softly to myself at the irony of my life and hugged the large nose of my Bonnie, my special girl. Tears continued to fall from my eyes but I made no move to brush them off. No wonder I was so attracted to Percherons, this place… to Lenobia… To mon cherie. I chuckled again and more tears fell, this time of happiness.

"I kept my vow Lenobia." I said suddenly. "I've kept it…" I looked up to where her chambers were, staring at my ceiling, her floor, wishing that I was there and being with her once more. "I found you again."


So this was kinda a filler chapter really. But what'd you think? Pretty awesome right? I think this chapter is my favorite so far, I just LOVE it! Next chapter: I have no idea yet; have a few ideas, not sure how to work it. PLEASE REVIEW! THE MORE REVIEWS THE FASTER I UPDATE!