both hands and twisted it like Noah had taught her. She forced the Neith to the ground and snapped his arm back to the point of breaking. Ricki slapped the mat and she let him up. He grinned and they stood to face each other again for another round.
Over the last few days Cyrus and the others had found the den of soul eaters and managed to kill a few of them. Two, however, had gotten away. McLeish had assumed they’d flee the city so he had alerted the rest of the Neith in the United Kingdom to the two soul eaters presence. But they weren’t so lucky. These soul eaters were cocky and apparently had decided to stick around. An armed robbery down in Leith had caught McLeish’s attention when he’d heard the family members of the accused discussing how changed he was, that their friend and family member had seemed to snap overnight. A little more investigation and McLeish was certain the soul eaters had stuck around.
Patrols had begun again and Cyrus had decided to stay until the problem was dealt with.
That meant Eden got to do more training and she was loving every minute of it. Noah no longer needed to shout encouragements from the sidelines and was matching her up with stronger and stronger opponents. Ricki was the strongest Neith so far. All it needed was her focus to slip and-
“Sss,” Eden hissed, whipping her head back, but it was too late. Pain had exploded up her left cheek as Ricki’s fist connected with her cheekbone.
“You OK?” he asked, stepping back.
She blinked, wiping a tear out of her eye. “I’m fine.”
“Eden.” Noah moved to step onto the mat but she waved him away. The pain was already dissipating and since she healed even faster as Ankh than she had as a soul eater, it wasn’t anything to get worked up about.
“I’m fine,” she reassured him. “My fault, I wasn’t paying attention.” He looked unconvinced so Eden adamantly turned and nodded at Ricki. “Let’s go again.” The Neith nodded. “Focus,” he ordered briskly.
She felt better ten minutes later with him sprawled on his back, his neck caught in her strong hands in a neck crank. In real life, one twist in the right direction and Ricki would be a goner.
He patted the mat and she let him up.
A while later as the Neith began filtering out of the training room for the day, Eden bent over to gather up her personal belongings, only to straighten up to be faced with a Noah wall.
“Whoa.” She staggered back a little, inhaling his yummy Noah scent.
Her eyes widened as he reached down to stroke the cheek Ricki had punched. “You OK?”
“She is tough, Noah, no need to worry,” Cyrus’ voice reached out to them and they whirled around as he strolled towards them out of the shadows. Eden hadn’t even known he was in the training room.
“Princeps.” Noah acknowledged him.
Her guardian nodded back at them, his expression inscrutable until his eyes found hers and softened into something warm. “I have been watching today. You are ready.” Eden’s heart started to race at the abrupt pronouncement, her eyes widening in disbelief. “Really?
You’re letting me hunt?”
The look of pride and fear on his face made Eden feel safe and cared about; it was a feeling she was just starting to get used to. “Yes.”
Suddenly she felt a little sick. Of course, she was also excited. This was what she had been training intensely for over the last few weeks. But… she was also kind of… a lot… nervous.
Glancing up at Noah, Eden couldn’t keep the panic out of her eyes.
He gave her a brisk nod. “You’ll do fine.”
***
She was all jittery, her body jumping up and down inside itself as she followed Noah past the Omni Centre they’d had their little ‘double date’ in. After dinner, Cyrus had announced that Eden was going on patrol with them which sent October into a meltdown. Christopher wouldn’t budge. He wasn’t letting Tobe out on patrol until she turned eighteen and that was final. Eden had felt a little bad leaving Tobe at home to sulk but she was also pretty much desperate to make the most of her first night as a true Ankh warrior. Cyrus and Val were hunting too, along with McLeish and a few other Neith. They’d decided to split up and Cyrus, a ‘throw ‘em into the deep end’ kind of guy had decided Noah would take Eden to Leith, where one of the victims had lived. Val hadn’t looked too happy about that. In fact, neither had Cyrus, but Eden could see he was struggling to act as he would normally, rather than smother her with overprotectiveness.
Senses on high alert, Eden’s eyes swept the buildings, people, alleyways. They were walking down a pretty busy area of Edinburgh at night so it wasn’t exactly the easiest assignment.
“Anything?” she asked, suddenly feeling the need to fill the silence between her and Noah.
He shook his head as he kept scanning everything and everywhere without looking like he was.
Eden remembered how much she used to marvel at how good he was at this spy stuff. The surreptitious looks, the ability to get away from Ryan’s well-paid goons. Made sense now. She took a moment to study Noah in his natural habitat. He was so serious, so prepared and commanding. He was Mr Duty. Somehow, she’d always felt that about him, even before she knew who he really was.
He carried this invisible weight of responsibility on his shoulders and he’d always had this intense sense of right and wrong. It had been one of the things she’d like about him so much, had made him stand out from the immature teen guys at school. But then… Noah wasn’t exactly the average teenager. Her eyes unwillingly roamed over his powerful shoulders wrapped up so nicely in a black thermal top. She felt a weird clenching in her lower belly as her gaze slid down his arms to his large strong hands, to the silver ring on his middle finger. She gulped, feeling a little warm as her eyes continued to roam. He certainly had a nice ass. She blinked as her eyes travelled lower and caught on the low side pocket of his black cargo pants. Inside it were two Persian short swords. Long daggers?
Whatever, point was they were on duty. Eden snapped her eyes back to attention, mentally berating herself for getting distracted so easily on the first hunt. Maybe she shouldn’t patrol with Noah next time.
Slowly but surely life started to edge away from them the further they walked and the streets seemed to grow a little darker.
“Any-”
“Ssh.” Noah pressed a finger to his lips and held out an arm to stop her. In the distance they could hear the hubbub of traffic and some late night revellers laughing and yelling. Here, Eden could only hear her own heartbeat pounding at Noah’s alertness as he watched the opening of an alleyway between two restaurants. What was-She froze as she heard the scuffling Noah must have heard. Throwing him a questioning look, Eden wasn’t surprised when he nodded back and began unbuttoning the pocket of his cargo pants.
Glancing around quickly, making sure there was no witnesses or security cameras pointed on them, he withdrew the short swords and handed one to Eden. The metal felt strangely cold in Eden’s hands.
Making no sound, she and Noah walked around the corner and into the darkness of the alleyway.
Lights from the street, and her brilliant Ankh vision, made visible two people at the end of the alley.
One had the other pressed against the brick wall of the restaurant, the victim’s eyes wide and mouth open as the soul eater leaned in for the kill.
Out of nowhere Eden was cast back into the past, to Stellan’s room, as he sucked the soul out of Lana. At the time she had been horrified but she had also hungered to do the same to the poor girl.
Now, without that hunger inside her, there was only horror, and the abject guilt that she had let it happen to Lana, that part of her could have wanted to do that to someone. Images upon images tumbled around her. Attacking Lucy Stevens in the school bathroom. Almost killing Charlotte who owned the thrift store. All the times she’d wanted to do that to Noah.
Eden was yanked out of her frozen nausea as Noah charged the soul eater. He ripped victim and monster apart, shoving the girl at Eden. “Keep her there, she needs some of her soul back.” He hissed and flinched low in time to duck a punch from the soul eater. Their prey was a tall female and as she clipped the side of Noah’s head in a paint smear of movement, Eden’s intuition told her it wouldn’t be an easy kill. Dropping to the ground, she wrapped her hands around the girl’s head and locked onto her gaze. She hadn’t tried to compel anyone since she’d fully transitioned but right now Noah needed her. Pushing her compulsion on the girl, Eden ignored the
