during the late nineteenth century, some of our local naturalists decided they wanted to preserve this forest for future generations of Georgian schoolchildren,” Beau said as we walked. “I agreed to donate the land to the conservationists in exchange for keeping a few acres to myself.”
Even in the dark, I could see why they’d want to protect the forest, which seemed a world away from the scrubby brush in most of Boulder, or even the mountain forests where I used to camp with my family. It was more lush, with a strong smell of decaying leaves and fresh blooms. We were in the heart of a major city, but I couldn’t hear a single car on the road, or smell any exhaust.
“It’s a beautiful property,” I said carefully. “How is this possible, right here in the city?”
“Wards,” he said simply. “I contract with a local clan leader, Tallulah Finch. She is particularly skilled with wards, and has woven a barrier that keeps away the curious and ill-intentioned.”
Interesting. I knew Maven had wards around her coffee shop, but since I couldn’t perform that kind of magic myself, I’d never really put thought into the details. “It helps that there’s a golf course on one side of the property and public forests on the other,” Beau added. “Neither party looks too hard at the precise location of the border.”
There was a slight smugness to his tone, and I figured the golf course and forest management employees were either pressed or bribed. It seemed like an awful lot of inconvenience and work just to keep this one bit of land. Then again, I had met plenty of other vampires who were obsessed with territory and property.
We turned a final corner, and the path ended abruptly, giving way to a wide, flat clearing enclosed by a wooden fence and lit by the same type of floodlights used for baseball fields or big parking lots. I had to blink against the sudden brightness. When my eyes adjusted, I realized I was looking at a huge oval paddock.
“It’s bright out here,” I said. “Do you worry about airplanes spotting you?”
“Oh, the wards also camouflage us from the air,” Beau replied. “It’s a nuisance, of course, but the lights are necessary for both horse and rider. Do you ride?”
“I took lessons for a year or two when I was a child, but didn’t have the passion for it.” Sam had been the better rider, and kept up with lessons most of the way through high school. Funny, I hadn’t thought about that in ages.
“You must not have met the right horse,” Beau said, in the pompous way of someone who considers himself an expert.
I wasn’t sure how to respond, but I didn’t need to. “Ah, here they come,” he said happily.
I squinted. Even with the lights, I could just barely make out the barn at the far end of the clearing. The space was that big. Something was moving toward us, and a second later the rhythmic sound of pounding hooves filled the air like a drumbeat.
As bright as the paddock was, the horse and rider were moving so fast that they were fifty feet away before I could make out any details. The horse was enormous, nearly as big as a draft horse, and pale gray. It seemed to glow against the night, and I had to appreciate the beauty of its movement, especially considering its size. The rider was a petite woman who seemed downright tiny in comparison.
As they came closer, the horse slowed to a trot and then a walk, until finally he began to snort and paw at the ground. I glanced at Beau and saw a look of resignation come over his face. The rider steered the horse sideways, away from the vampire.
“And that’s as close as he will allow,” Beau said with attempted gallantry. It was obvious, from the way he watched the horse, that he longed to be the one on its back. “Deimos is less skittish around vampires than many of the horses I’ve owned, but he still has his limits.”
Interesting. I knew animals disliked vampires—with the exception of Dopey, who was too stupid, all my rescues hid or freaked out whenever Quinn was at the house, and that was after years of exposure. But I hadn’t really considered that horses would have the same reaction. I felt a jab of sympathy for Beau.
“He’s gorgeous,” I said honestly. “What, um, breed is he?” Horses came in breeds, right?
“Deimos is