They were parked down by the lake in a near empty parking lot and the rain was lashing against the windscreen. There was a hush in the air that soothed her and slowed her frantic heartbeat. “We’re just sitting.”
He nodded slowly and relaxed back into his seat. As if sensing her mood he didn’t even turn on the radio.
After a while, she sensed the slightest change in his posture, and knew he was going to say something. Eden felt as if she knew him down to his pinky finger, she felt so close to him. “You know when I was a little kid my dad used to do this.” He turned his head on the headrest and smiled softly at her.
“Do what?”
“Come and get me when it was raining. It didn’t matter if I was supposed to be with a tutor or with the nanny, he’d stop whatever he was doing, come get me, stuff my feet into rain boots and a mac and take me by the hand and lead me out into the backyard. We’d just stand there, the rain lashing against us, my hand tight in his.”
An ache, a wave of pure loneliness shuddered through her. “Why’d he do that?”
Noah shrugged, smiling at the memory. “He said that no matter how old he was getting, the rain always made him feel renewed; it woke him up and reminded him of why he was here. I don’t think he knew how to explain it. I don’t. But I got it. And even as a little kid he knew I got it, and that it was something for us. Just us. It used to drive my mom mad.”
Eden snorted. “She would be worried you’d catch pneumonia.”
Noah threw her this secret smile and gave a little half nod, like he wasn’t telling her something. “I guess.”
The hush wrapped around them again and Eden thought about Noah and his dad, and his mom all worried about him. It was such a small thing. She bet his life with his parents was made up of all these small things.
“Noah?”
“Yeah?”
“Could you hurt someone to survive?”
She felt him tense beside her, the lines of his body taut, and she held her breath wondering at his reaction.
“Noah?”
He wouldn’t look at her. “Depends.”
“What do you mean it depends?”
“Well that’s a loaded question, Eden,” he snapped, jerking his head around to glare at her.
Eden felt her face flush with anger, and she bit her nails into her hands to control an unexpected flare of temper. “What’s your problem? It was just a question.”
“It was a stupid question.”
“It’s not a stupid question!”
His face twisted and suddenly Eden felt as if he knew what she was asking; knew and despised her for it. She flinched back, feeling ill with panic. “If you’re asking me if I think it’s OK to protect yourself from someone hurting you by hurting them, then yeah, it’s an act of survival, self-defence. But if you’re asking me-”
“Asking you what?” she snarled, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. Why did she feel like he knew? Did he know? No he can’t.
The colour seemed to leach from his cheeks as he caught her look. Noah smoothed out his expression and leaned back against the chair. “I know this Teagan thing is bothering you, and I know you’re frustrated, but you can’t start having morbid thoughts, Eden. That’s not you. And you can find a way out of whatever your sick parents have planned without hurting the guy.”
Eden’s racing heart slowed as realisation dawned. He thought she was talking about the Teagan situation. She flopped back against the passenger seat and cast him a wan smile. “How did you know I wasn’t just asking a philosophical question?”
Noah smirked. “Because, you never ask questions unless they mean something. So you should know if you ask me something twisted and violent, I’ll pretty much know you’re talking from intent or experience.”
Eden laughed and let the silence fall between them.
But as she thought over Noah’s adamant reaction, the hush grew uncomfortable rather than soothing. He had been so vehement, so disgusted by the idea of hurting someone. In fact his reaction had been a little out there but then… Noah was a little out there. That’s what she liked about him.
But that look he’d given her. The disdain. The disappointment. She hadn’t imagined that.
Who was she kidding? If Noah ever found out the truth about her, she’d be dead to him. And that was the one thing she didn’t think she could make it through.
Throwing him a glare from out of the corner of her eye, Eden tried to concentrate on her breathing exercises. Damn this human who had come into her life and made himself so important to her; had made coming to terms with her inner monster that much more difficult to bear.
“Let’s go back.” She sighed, not daring to look at him.
***
He watched as Romany slowly stirred, sliding her hand along the sheets, searching for him. Noah knew she was awake as soon her hand came away empty. She grunted and brushed her hair off her face, her eyes sweeping the room until they found him, sitting on the sofa across from the bed. Romany groaned and shuffled up into a sitting position, holding the sheet over her.
“What’s wrong?” She murmured, her sleepy eyes adjusting to the light, as dim as it was.
“Couldn’t sleep.”
“Tell me,” she prompted quietly and Noah sighed, relaxing back into the sofa.
He hadn’t been happy when she’d turned up at his door again last night. It had been a long week, and his and Eden’s relationship had grown quickly estranged again. He had been waiting for his moment to tell her the truth, but he’d messed up that day in the car and now he couldn’t get her alone at school and she refused to meet him outside school again.
As always, Romany helped him relax for a while. She was good at that.
Like Alain, Noah had always taken himself a little too seriously. It was hard to see unless you knew him really well because he was the youngest of the Ankh and was determined to remain so. He kept up with pop culture better than any of them and he enjoyed the freedom of his youthful looks. But when it came to assignments… Noah was tough and unwavering and often hard on himself.
He’d met Romany three years ago when she was eighteen. There was a particularly brutal soul eater terrorising downtown Chicago and Noah had been sent after it when a group of Neith had failed to destroy it. Romany, a member of that group, refused to be thrown off the hunt. This soul eater had killed her father and she wanted its blood. So Noah had let her tag along and had discovered she was tough, funny and… hot for him. As soon as the soul eater was taken out, they had started their relationship. It was casual because Noah had never really wanted anything else, and their casual relationship was the longest one Noah had ever had. Romany was straightforward and easy to talk to. But he had the feeling this assignment with Eden was bothering her. She’d never turned up when he was on assignment before. Let alone twice.
“Eden’s pulling away again,” he told her quietly. “I haven’t had time to explain to her… well about everything. I need to explain so Cyrus can make his move. But I’m worried that we’re going to be too late.”
Romany leaned forward, her dark eyes pinning him to his seat with intent. “You need to remember who you are, Noah. What your duty is. If you are too late, and there is a possibility you’ll be too late, you have to do what you were born to do. You have to take her out, and with her the repulsive son of a bitch who sired her. Remember who you are. And remember what she is.”
Noah glowered and looked down at his feet, searching for the answer.
Boston, Massachusetts 1947
“Mother, why am I so different?” Noah Valois asked softly, as she tucked him into bed. With a child’s uncanny intuition, even at seven years old Noah felt something within himself — within his parents — that was unlike everyone else. Not to mention the strange friends mother and papa received at the house at least once a week. Or the odd manner his parents would hurriedly arrange a sitter for him before disappearing for entire days at a time. Yes, indeed, the Valois’ were not like other people.
It was time.
She nodded at him, and then motioned for him to budge over. Lithely, she settled beside him on his bed and tucked him into the side of her body.
“Shall I tell you a story, Noah?”
“Will it answer my question?” He insisted, and Emma fought hard to keep from smiling. Her Noah was such a precocious little thing. She just knew the older he got the more of a handful he was going to be.
“It will,” she promised gravely.
Seeming satisfied with her answer he flicked his wrist regally, indicating she should go ahead with her tale. A throaty chuckle sounded from the doorway and Emma glanced up to see her husband leaning against the doorframe of their son’s room, his large, intimidating figure a reassuring presence. Alain Valois. Her beloved. A force to be reckoned with. Her dark eyes questioned him. Should I tell him? They asked. Alain nodded.
“Papa.” Noah straightened up. “Have you come to listen to mother’s story?”
“Non.” Alain shook his head ruefully. “I came to bid my son goodnight.” Like a cat, he sleekly crossed the room and placed a gentle kiss on Noah’s forehead, all the while brushing a loving hand down Emma’s arm.
“Bonne nuit, papa,” Noah replied softly, a contentedness entering his voice that was solely for his father.
Once Alain left, Emma settled Noah back into the crook of her arm. “Alright, where were we?”
“We hadn’t started yet.”
“Ah, I see. Well let’s begin, shall we. This story begins many years ago, thousands of years ago in the sun-drenched, dry lands of the Egyptian Pharaohs-”
“I like this story.”
Emma shook a little with suppressed laughter. “Good. Now, in the ancient world of Egypt, during the first dynasty of the Pharaoh’s, Pharaoh Djer had a son, Djet, and a beautiful daughter, Merneith. Merneith loved her brother with a jealous intensity and was happy when their father told them they were to be married. N-”
“Married!” Noah gasped, pulling away to stare at her in horror. “Isn’t that illegal?”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Noah, I really must insist you stop interrupting.”
“But married-”
“Yes, it is illegal today, but back then it was the done thing. May I continue?”
He frowned, seeming unsure, and then he nodded firmly. “You may.”
Scoffing at him Emma tweaked his nose teasingly and picked up where she had left off. “Merneith was blissfully happy with her husband until one terrible day she discovered that Djet had been meeting in secret with the beautiful Seshemetka, and even worse that he loved her. Merneith was heartbroken. Worse still, after his father’s death and his own ascendance to Pharaoh, Djet publicly made Seshemetka his beloved. For years Merneith harboured hatred against them both, all the while proving herself a devout worshipper of the gods. When Merneith gave birth to their son, Den, however, the hatred became a paranoia and an obsession. Determined Den would be pharaoh, she watched vigilantly, waiting for the announcement of Seshmetka’s inevitable pregnancy. When it became apparent that Seshemetka was going to have a child, Merneith began to plot. Seshemetka had spent so little time worshipping, Merneith was sure the gods would favour her over Seshmetka. She began scrawling hidden symbols of the evil serpent of Apophis — serpent of the underworld and god of darkness — in Seshemetka’s chamber. Finally, on the night of her plan, she painted the serpent onto Seshemetka’s skin whilst she slept. Merneith then went to the goddess Bat, the goddess of the cosmos and most importantly, the goddess of the soul. She showed Bat Seshmetka’s painted body and informed the goddess that Seshmetka was trying to destroy Egypt through Djet; Djet who was so obsessed with Seshmetka that he could love no other and would listen to no other opinion than his beloved’s. Bat watched the trio over the coming weeks and soon grew convinced that Merneith spoke the truth, and that Seshmetka’s hold over the Pharaoh was a danger to Egypt and its people. Bat took it upon herself to protect Egypt — who loved Djet blindly and completely, believing him a living god — from the darkness he had been touched by, by granting her deserving servant, Merneith, with the power to take and control souls, so she could suck the soul from Seshmetka that so addicted Djet and have him love Merneith as devoutly in her stead. But that taste of power was not enough for Merneith. She wanted more. A hunger for souls grew within her until it could only be satisfied by more souls. She broke her sacred promise to Bat and began to steal souls. Their essence made her stronger, made her immortal. Worse… the children she bore may have been mortal but they were born with her affliction, with her hunger for souls. When the gods became aware of her crime, of the new race of monster she had borne, Merneith fled Egypt, sending her children to the opposite ends of the earth. The race of soul eaters began to grow at an alarming rate.
The goddess Neith, enraged that a Queen who bore her name had played the gods fools, gifted some of her truest worshippers with supernatural strength, making them the fiercest warriors to walk earth in order to hunt and destroy Merneith and her children. They are called the Warriors of Neith. For centuries the warriors, mortal men and women with supreme strength, chased Merneith across the lands of ancient. But none could kill her. Repentant of her own part, Bat offered her essence into the womb of a female warrior who gave birth to a new race of warrior — the race of Ankh. These men and women are immortal warriors, powerful kindred, far more so than the Neith. Sadly, only so few are born every century to aid their mortal brethren, the warriors of Neith. And aid them they must. For even though during the time of the Middle Kingdom a son of Ankh felled Merneith, the mortal children she had borne, bore more children, the dark race of soul eaters growing rapidly in numbers. They may be mortal but soul eaters are supernaturally strong with powers of persuasion; they prey on humans, feeding on their souls to quench their undeniable hunger. And the Neith and the Ankh, although the Ankh’s numbers have fallen to so few, scour the world, desperately trying to free it from the soul eaters’ evil grasp.”
When Emma finished and Noah sat silent, she grew afraid that perhaps he wasn’t ready; perhaps she had merely frightened the poor child. Pulling back, Emma waited, gazing down at him in concern. Finally, Noah looked up at her slowly, his eyes wide with relief.
“I am different, mother.”
She nodded, encouraging him.
“I knew it. I felt it.”
“Say it, my son”, she whispered.
Noah’s eyes widened in amazement and then quite abruptly he clasped her hand. “I am Ankh.”
Noah leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees, studying the swirls of pattern on the worn carpet of his studio apartment. He was proud to be Ankh, proud of his fate and his duty. And Romany was right. His duty was to hunt and kill soul eaters. To hunt and kill Eden if she went through with the Awakening Ceremony.
He felt a flare of panic in his chest at the thought, her laughing face flashing before his eyes. He clenched his fists and looked up to meet Romany’s gaze.
“You’re right,” Noah replied. “And I remember who I am. But I also know who Eden is. She’s not a ‘what’, Romany. Not yet. And my assignment was to determine whether or not she could be saved. She can be. I won’t let Cyrus down on this. I won’t let Eden down.”
Chapter Ten. Can You a Cross the Line When There is None?
She was doing it again. Poor Noah. He had probably sustained whiplash from their rollercoaster friendship lately. But after that day in the car, Eden was kind of done kidding herself about their friendship. His reaction had finally cemented the truth: if Noah knew who she really was… he wouldn’t care about her anymore. Growling at that awful truth, Eden drove home from school, leaning over to turn the radio up full blast, enjoying Jared Leto singing/yelling the lyrics ‘Runaway, runaway, I’ll attack!’ It fit her mood. 30 Seconds to Mars floo
ded the car until it was all she could think about, blocking out another horrible day at school, avoiding her best friend.
That was pretty much why she had to screech on the brakes at the sight of the lump in the middle of the road.
Eden’s heart triple thumped.
No. Not a lump.
A body.
Immediately her paranoia set in and Eden glanced around, her eyes boring into the woodlands that bordered the main road to the mansion. Goosebumps rose on her arms as her eyes flew back to the body. Something wasn’t right.
She’d seen the pilot episode of The Vampire Diaries enough times to know that.
Wait. The splash of red next to the body froze her. Is that blood?
Slowly Eden reached to unbuckle her seatbelt. Maybe this really was someone in need of her help. Heart pounding, Eden tentatively reached for the door handle.
Then she saw it.
The flash of colour in the trees up to her right.
“Shit!” She yelped in fright, slamming the car back into gear as movement exploded out of the trees. The car whined as she spun it into reverse.
Glass exploded, shards screaming in her ear as stinging bites attacked her body, the car rushing forward, green and darkness engulfing her as she was rocked and bumped.
Finally the car grew still and Eden blinked. A jagged hole was smashed in the windscreen, a huge rock on the passenger seat. Tree branches stuck in through the hole. Eden realised she’d careened off the road.
The realisation had barely dawned when her car door was wrenched open. Eden skirted back from the large masculine hands that delved in to attack her, her legs flying out, sending the attacker crashing backwards into the trees. Scrambling over shards of glass that bit into her flesh, Eden fell from the car and rolled, drawing up onto her feet in one smooth motion. Five humans stood before her. Three men, two women. All armed. Daggers and swords. Like something out of Shonen Jump.
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