“OK, even I know if that had been a real fight I’d be dead,” she grumbled stepping back.
“It’s not an easy thing to do, Eden,” Noah reassured her. “You just have to stop thinking about how real this will soon be. Just remember that Guido isn’t real so you can get the technique down.
You can worry about the realities after.”
The pep talk didn’t help. She was mad at herself. She wanted to hunt and soon but there was no way Cyrus would let her near a soul eater if she couldn’t do the one thing that would kill one. With a huge exhalation, Eden brushed past her three Ankh companions and placed the Katana back on its mount. “I’m hungry. Can we break for lunch?”
***
As Cameron strolled along Bruntsfield Road towards the Douglas house, his mobile rang in his pocket startling him and the woman passing him. He smiled apologetically as he pulled it out of his jeans, Silversun Pickups blaring before he pressed the answer call button.
“Mum, I just left the house ten minutes ago,” he grumbled. Ever since his dad had died his mother, Mary, had become overprotective and somewhat neurotic. It would have been bad enough for any teenage guy but for a Neith Warrior it was bloody irritating. He tried to understand. Oh how he tried.
“I know,” she sighed. “But I forgot to ask you to pop into your Uncle Neil’s for the monthly cheque.”
“OK.”
“OK. Thanks, darling, I appreciate it.”
“You know you have to speak to Uncle Neil sometime.”
“I do speak to your uncle.”
“You’ve been avoiding him, you know you have.”
Mary sighed again. “I’ll speak to him when he pulls the stick out of his arse, OK. Don’t be later than midnight. Bye.”
For a moment, Cameron just stared at his phone. With a huff he took off again, annoyed now that he had to pick up the money. Another thing that had changed since his dad had died… having to turn to Uncle Neil for financial support. His mum hated being beholden to anyone but with only one income coming in (and his mum refused to let him drop out of school so he could help) they were struggling to make ends meet. So began the monthly cheque from Uncle Neil to tide things over. He felt a horrible tightness in his gut at the thought of collecting it. It wasn’t like he’d ever really liked his uncle. The Councilman was a harsh taskmaster with little or no sense of humour. His own dad had been his greatest friend before that one soul eater had come and stolen him from him. But his cousins, James and Ryan, always seemed scared of their dad. They’d seemed more comfortable around Cameron’s father and had stopped hanging around Cameron so much when his dad had been murdered two years ago.
Brooding a little, Cameron took the steps up to the McLeish home slowly and quietly. As a member of the family he’d always just walked in, and as he stepped inside he was surprised by how quiet the place was. He stood for a minute, feeling a weird chill in the air, and then he froze at the sound of hurried whispering. For some reason his heart began to pound. His intuition told him something wasn’t right, and Mum always said to follow his intuition. Creeping silently down the hallway, Cameron trailed the whispering to the kitchen and pressed against the wall as he heard Eden’s name. Peering quickly around the doorframe, he saw his Uncle Neil on his mobile, his face tight with anxiety.
“Has Cosmina been reached?” he asked coldly.
Cameron shook his head and sprung back before he could be seen. His heart was thudding out of all control now as the implications of that question tormented him.
“Well I want to know when,” Uncle Neil continued. “Once it’s done, I can make a move.”
Crap. Struggling to keep his breathing low and even, Cameron decided it was time to get out of there. He tiptoed back the way he had come and slipped out of the house, exhaling loudly. Trembling a little, he glanced along the gardens to the Douglas house, his jaw clenched in anger. Cameron wasn’t clueless. Noah had mentioned something about a Cosmina person going after Eden. She was some Neith with issues about Eden’s heritage. Feeling sick at the thought of the conversation he’d overheard, Cameron stumbled down the steps and began heading reluctantly towards Tobe’s house.
What the hell was he supposed to do? If he told Cyrus about his uncle, his uncle would face serious consequences, and he might not like the guy but he was the only family he and his mum had left. But if he didn’t tell Cyrus was he leaving Eden in possible danger? He didn’t care what anyone else said, or what anyone who knew about her true heritage thought, Eden was a great girl. More than that he’d never seen Tobe take to someone the way she’d taken to Eden. Tobe would never forgive him if he let something happen to her.
Maybe he had heard wrong or was making more of it than he should. Maybe he should talk to his mum first.
Nah. That would only put his mum in the same difficult position he was in. Cameron couldn’t do that to her. He was the man of the house now. He had to handle this.
He screwed up his face, staring up at the house. He was supposed to spend the night hanging out with Eden and Tobe. Could he really pretend as if he hadn’t heard anything?
Aye, you can, he growled at himself, don’t say anything on such little evidence.
It wasn’t like Eden was in dire danger anyway, she had three other Ankh with her including all of the Neith.
Cameron sighed heavily, rubbing his hands over his face in frustration. “Bugger.”
***
Even Zach Galifiankis’ hilarious encounter with a tiger couldn’t stop Eden from feeling bummed that Noah had finally gone with Cyrus on patrol with Christopher and a few other Neith. She sat curled up next to Tobe while Cameron sat on an armchair with a faraway look on his face. Mhairi sat on the other armchair cackling away at the comedy on TV. Val had opted to stay behind and was upstairs reading some non-fiction novel that made Eden’s eyes cross over with boredom. She was getting kind of fed up of having to be babysat by the Ankh all the time. The only one she didn’t mind hanging around watching over her was Noah. God, she wished she was out there hunting with him. She felt so wired. So restless, despite her intense day of sword training. Once she got used to the burning in her shoulder muscles and joints, she really began to love the thrill of metal clashing and hissing against metal, the footwork, the co-ordination, the focus.
After another laugh-out-loud moment in the movie passed by without so much as a smirk from Cameron, Eden began to worry about him. He was acting really weird. As if sensing her frowning gaze, Cameron looked up at her. Something swam in his blue eyes, something dark and anxious, but before she could say anything he shot to his feet.
“You know I’m not feeling great,” he said, looking down at Tobe. “I’ll catch you later.”
“Eh wa-” Tobe cut off as her front door slammed and Cameron was gone. Eden watched her crestfallen gaze and nudged her.
“You OK?”
She nodded glumly. “I’m going to get a glass of water. You want one?”
“Yeah, sure,” Eden replied, wondering what the hell was going on. She turned to Mhairi as Tobe fled to the kitchen. “What was that?”
Tobe’s grandmother smirked. “Trouble in paradise perhaps?”
“I don’t think those two have got close enough to paradise yet for there to be trouble.”
“Well.” Mhairi stood to her feet. “I’ll watch the rest o’ the film later. I think I’ll retire to my bed early tonight, give you some time to do some digging and report back to me in the morning.”
Eden laughed at the old woman’s nosiness. “Will do.”
A few minutes later Tobe came back in, still looking sour and annoyed. “Where’s Nana?”
“She went to bed.”
“Great, even the elderly are bored by me.”
The forlorn look on October’s face prompted Eden to ask, “OK, what the hell is going on with you and Cameron?”
Tobe’s eyes widened. “Nothing.”
“Yeah, I’m not believing that anymore.”
Making an exasperated sound
, Tobe threw herself on the sofa and slapped a cushion impatiently.
“Believe me, there is absolutely nothing going on between me and Cameron.”
“Yeah but you clearly want there to be.”
“Like you and Noah perhaps.”
Eden glared at her. “We’re not talking about me, we’re talking about you, stop deflecting.”
Eden had to hand it to her, Tobe managed to sit in silence for five whole minutes as Eden stared at her, waiting. “Oh for Christ sakes OK!” Tobe threw her hands up. “I lied before.”
“Aaboouuutt?
“Me and Cameron,” she mumbled, flicking at the tassels on the cushion, refusing to look up at her.
“I did like him. Really liked him. And I thought everything was going really well between us but then Shona told me that Mark had told her that Cameron had told him that he thought kissing me was like kissing his cousin, and that he was thinking of dumping me. I was completely crushed,” she whispered. “I thought we were good and things were pretty hot and heavy… we even slept together.
Hmmph. So I decided to dump him first and he agreed with me… so Shona had been right.”
“Oh my God,” Eden snapped at her. “Why in hell were you listening to Shona? She is the spawn of frickin’ Satan. A total trouble maker.”
“But she was right.”
“No, she really wasn’t. She was clearly lying to cause trouble. Have you seen the way Cameron looks at you? And why would the dude sleep with you if he thought kissing you was weird? You’re too close to the situation to see it but even Noah can see Cameron wants to be with you.”
Tobe’s eyes widened at the remark and Eden didn’t think she’d ever seen such girlish hopefulness in their oceanic depths before. “Really? I don’t know.” She shook her head, the hope dimming just as quickly as it had appeared. “But something is definitely up with him.”
“Well while you’re asking him what that is, you could casually slip in something about him telling Mark that it was weird making out with you and… see what he says.”
After dispensing the advice Eden frowned, sitting back against the couch. Since when did she give love advice? She pressed a hand to her forehead. Weird.
“I’ll think about it,” Tobe relented.
For the rest of the night Eden didn’t mention Cameron. She’d said what she wanted to say just like Mhairi had wanted her to and let Tobe mull it over. They finished watching a couple of more movies and were just about to head up to bed when Noah and Cyrus came in the front door with Christopher.
Eden squinted, catching sight of a very small blood smear across Noah’s chin.
Her heart thudded. “What happened?”
“We caught one,” Cyrus said, shrugging out of his jacket. “Noah killed it.”
Noah’s light eyes were glittering, his whole body seeming to vibrate with the satisfaction of the hunt. Eden smiled; the buzz he was emitting contagious.
She couldn’t wait for her first hunt.
Chapter Seventeen
Jealous? Who me?
The next day Noah had surprised her by pasting drawings of monster faces over the dummies’ heads.
“Now you can stop thinking about whatever it is your thinking about when you swing at these guys, and just concentrate on their monstrous faces.” He had patted one, seeming proud of his handiwork.
Eden had laughed at the ridiculous gesture but didn’t know what to say when the damn trick worked! For the rest of the week she improved in leaps and bounds in sword training until she was keeping up with Val using the short sword, and even besting her when they used Katanas. Val was stupidly proud of her when Eden disarmed her.
After that, Eden had progressed to Noah, who fought with more power. His blows reverberated through her sword and into her body like a toothache and she had to shift everything she had learned to counter his more powerful attack. They had fought for hours on end, the world just blurring around them as they immersed themselves in the training. It was almost as if Noah wanted her to get up to speed almost as badly as she did. Come Friday, Val had decided to leave them to it and had gone to train in the combat room with Cameron and the other Neith. Eden faced Noah with determination.
She was determined to disarm him.
By that afternoon she had done just that, but she’d been so aggressively focused, she hadn’t pulled back when the moment was upon them and her blade sliced over the top of Noah’s lower arm.
He hissed and dropped his Katana. Eden felt as if she’d been kicked in the gut. She dropped her sword and hurried to him to check how bad it was.
“It’s just a shallow cut,” Noah assured her. “I heal quickly. See.” They both watched as the cut closed over as if it had never been there.
“God, Noah, I’m so sorry,” she whispered, afraid to look up at him. Hurting him brought back memories, terrible memories. Heart pounding, Eden couldn’t take her eyes off his arm as she said,
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry about Denton. Sometimes I can’t believe that was me who hurt you like that. It sounds ludicrous to even have to say it out loud but I’m sorry… for stabbing you.”
A surprising ripple of shivers shuddered down her spine at the feel of Noah’s hands sliding around her neck as he cupped her head, tilting it back so she had to meet his eyes. They shone a dark violet now as they bored into her with a sincerity that left her breathless. “I forgave and forgot that like a day later.”
Eden’s heart began thumping even louder for an entirely different reason now. It thumped for Noah’s proximity, for how much his citrusy, familiar scent made her want to sway into him. Instead, she reached up and caught the arm she’d injured, her fingers brushing over his skin. She watched his eyes spark at her touch, felt the heat leap off of him. “Took you a whole day huh?” Eden smirked sadly.
The door to the training room squeaked open breaking the spell between them and they stepped back to see Cameron hovering in the doorway. “Val and I are heading for some lunch at the Douglas’, you want to come?”
Unsure of what she was feeling and what she’d been about to do, Eden gladly accepted, ignoring Noah’s probing gaze as they strode out of the training centre.
***
In celebration of Eden’s progress, Cyrus announced he was taking them all out to dinner. He had invited Councilman McLeish and his family but they’d said they were otherwise engaged (yeah, like Eden believed that for a minute… douchebag), so when they finally crowded in together at an Italian restaurant on the corner of the Mile, Eden found herself in the company of Cyrus, Val, Noah, Tobe, her parents and Nana, Cameron and his mother, Mary. Conversation was easy between them all as they waited for their starters, and Eden had to fight to keep the giddy smile off her face. She’d never experienced anything like this before. Good people, family, coming together for a nice meal. It was so… real. A pang of hurt echoed in her chest as she thought about Stellan, as she always did when she thought of family. Shrugging off the grief before it could take hold, Eden laughed at October and Nana’s bickering and continued to listen in on the warm conversations around her. Noah caught her looking around in wonder and smiled at her, sending another flurry of butterflies into riot in her belly.
She glanced down, still not sure how to cope with the fact that she’d well and truly forgiven him and was back to pining for him.
“Well, isn’t this a surprise.”
At the somehow familiar voice, Eden looked up with the rest of their group to find Shona, Mark and the flirty Neith, Natalie, standing at the head of the table with Shona’s parents. There was a marked resemblance between Shona and Natalie that Eden hadn’t quite noticed before. They were sisters. Figured. Cyrus greeted their parents and insisted they join them. The wait staff amiably found more seats and Eden watched incredulously as Natalie practically flew into the one they’d squeezed in beside Noah. Trying to tamp down the spark of jealousy that flared at the sight, Eden turned to speak with Tobe about the Kaiser Chiefs’ new album. It didn’t take long
for her attention to waver back to Noah and Natalie, especially when Natalie mentioned her with this sickly sweet, passive aggressive antagonism that made Eden wanted to stick a fork in her eye.
“So, I heard about those cutesy drawings you had to put on the dummies so Eden could take a swing at them, Noah. That was so nice of you,” Natalie sighed dreamily as though Noah had just rescued a bag of drowning kittens. She turned now to Eden, all wide-eyed and innocent. “Don’t worry, Edie. Some people just take longer to get a handle on these things. It takes a very strong stomach to cut off a head.”
You slimy, slippery, sugary little… Eden growled inwardly, feeling her fingernails bite into her palms. “You know it might not be so hard if it happens to be the right head.”
The table grew hushed at the clear underlying threat in Eden’s words.
And then Mhairi threw her head back and laughed. Eden relaxed a little as if everyone else did, tittering now at what they assumed was a joke. She couldn’t even look at Cyrus. What was the one thing he’d asked? Be polite and don’t be aggressive.
Excusing herself from the table, Eden tried to still the trembling in her hands as she hurried off into the empty ladies’ room. She was barely inside two seconds when the door banged open and October practically fell in, laughing hysterically. “OMG. That was genius!”
“No, it wasn’t,” Eden snapped. “I’m supposed to be a responsible Ankh that people can trust. Not threatening goddamn Neith!”
“Oh come on, Eden, it was just your sense of humour. They all got that.”
She shrugged, disappointed in herself. “I just thought I’d stop being such a mouthy bitch when I transitioned you know. Clearly not.”
Despite Eden’s frosty warning looks, Tobe was chuckling again. “It’s in your blood to be a mouthy bitch. It’s got nothing to do with you once being one of ‘them’. Plus she totally deserved that.
2. Blood Past (Warriors of Ankh #2) Page 13