old Eden.
He was just sorry the little asshat downstairs would get to make it out of all of this alive.
Chapter Twenty Six. Biggest Fear
It seemed only fitting that the sky opened up to lash hard rain down on the car as they arrived in Salton. It pelted off the bonnet like gunfire, seeming to emphasise the tense silence among Eden and her two companions. She tried not to tremble as the gates to her parent’s mansion swung open allowing them entrance. Teagan would be watching her from inside. The gravel kicked under their wheels familiarly and Eden squeezed her eyes shut, drawing in her breath, preparing herself to return to the scene of her nightmares. Stepping out into the humid night air that stung the nose with a threatening metallic scent that warned of electricity, Eden shared one last questioning look with Cyrus. He nodded, telling her to trust him.
She was trying but this seemed crazy.
Cyrus was actually sticking to Teagan’s demands. They had no other warriors, no back-up, nothing. Just the three of them walking into what was clearly a trap. The fact that he wanted Eden, Cyrus and Val, had the Princeps’ alarm bells ringing. Cyrus was pretty sure the Tribunal were involved and Teagan was more than happy to use Eden to cast a net over the Princeps and Val. When he’d told her that, Eden had argued with him. Something she had never done before. It was bad enough that Noah and Mhairi’s lives were in danger because of her, she didn’t want to be the reason Cyrus and Val, two of the most important members of The Circle, ended up in the hands of their mortal enemy.
But Cyrus seemed coldly calm and wouldn’t budge on his decision to accompany her. Eden wondered what the hell he knew that she didn’t.
Exhaling loudly and feeling weirdly naked without her katana, Eden followed Cyrus and Val up the front steps of the house to where the door lay open. Beyond the double doors they could see into the foyer, where Teagan stood grinning at them.
It took every ounce of self-control she owned not to launch herself at him like a jaguar taking down a particularly annoying and wily prey. Cyrus strode through the doorway with Val, no hesitation, no fear, and Eden, desperate to be as controlled and strong as her guardian, hurried in after him. The bright white of the foyer was immediately dimmed by the thirty or so soul eaters who leeched out of the hallway and surrounding rooms to encircle them in a wall of black-suited evil. She curled a lip at them. They looked like extras from
“Babe, you look good.” Teagan smiled at her and she found herself stepping towards him so he knew she wasn’t afraid of him. “Not so sure about the eye colour but in a little while we won’t need to worry about that.”
Pulling on every ounce of hatred she had for him, Eden let it shine out of the new eyes he spoke of, not even registering his comment. “You know I’m Ankh now, Teagan. Don’t you think the race issues between us are just a little too big to overcome?” He grinned. “Haven’t lost your bite. Good to know. And the whole Ankh thing is about to become a non-issue.” He shrugged.
Eden felt her whole body seize up. She felt an ear splintering rant form in her chest and edge its way up towards her tongue but a voice suddenly whispered in her brain, telling her to stop. Teagan was enjoying this, antagonising her, drawing it out. She wouldn’t give him the damn satisfaction.
“Where’s Noah?”
As she suspected, Teagan’s face fell a little at her sidestep. He shrugged again. “He’ll go free. But first I need your boss and his little lady friend to cooperate.”
“What do you want?” Cyrus’ voice echoed around the hallway and beyond. Eden enjoyed the way Teagan’s aura seemed to deflate when faced with Cyrus’ considerable and ancient power.
Her cousin tried to cover up the falter with an arrogant sneer. “I want to inject you and Valeria with potassium chloride to incapacitate you. And before you start questioning me,” he turned and picked up a remote, pointing it at the television screen beside him, “there’s your boy and old lady, alive and well.” Noah and Mhairi flickered on the screen, handcuffed to the wall down in the basement. Eden felt her whole body move towards the screen and was glad for Valeria’s hand clamping down on her arm to stop her.
“Could be fake?” Eden tried to sound calm.
Rolling his eyes, Teagan pulled out his cell phone and hit a speed dial button. “Six, I need you to speak to the guy prisoner. Make it very quick though.” He snapped the cell shut and pointed at the screen.
They watched as a hulking great big soul eater stalked onto the screen, a blade in his hand.
Dawning horror hit her as he pulled the blade back and plunged it into Noah’s stomach and twisted it.
His hoarse yell echoed up the basement stairwell behind Teagan and Eden turned to her cousin with retribution blazing in her eyes. “Did I tell you how much I’m going to enjoy killing you?” Teagan snorted. “Promises, promises.”
Thankfully the soul eater who had attacked Noah was happy with just that one ripping attack. He melted off screen and Teagan switched the television off.
“So?” he asked Cyrus expectantly.
Cyrus’ gaze bore through him. “What exactly do you want with Eden?” Teagan studied him for a moment, a small smile curling his lip. “You know don’t you?”
“Where did you get it?”
“Ryan.”
“How?”
“He stole it from your house when he came for Merrit.”
Eden’s head swivelled between the two, her heart racing with an unknown horror. “What? What are you talking about?”
Laughing now at the unbanked anger in Cyrus’ eyes, Teagan shrugged. “Should I do the honours?”
“What the hell is going on?!” Eden yelled, terrified that Teagan had managed to unsettle the Princeps.
Her cousin slid a hand into his jacket pocket, pulling out a tattered journal that looked a million years old. “These are your Princeps’ scribblings.” He pointed the yellow pages at her. “Notes taken from the theories of an Egyptian Voodoo Priestess who communed with the gods. In them she discusses the Unforeseen. You wanna hear the really interesting part?” He grinned cockily at her and Eden knew… she knew… something terrible was about to be revealed. “
Eden blinked, shaking her head stupidly. “What the hell does that mean?” The malicious smile on Teagan’s face made her want to throw up. “It means that if the person who gave you the blood that transformed you to Ankh — that would be Mhairi — dies before seven years after the transition, her blood inside you dies too and you turn back to one of the Blessed.” His eyes were alight with excitement at the prospect.
She felt as if she had been stabbed through the gut. It took every ounce of strength she had not to let her knees buckle beneath her. “Seven…” she whispered incredulously.
“Yeah, it’s some Egyptian thing. Seven planets, seven years of plenty, of famine, constellation crap yaddah yaddah yaddah. The important thing, Paradise, it means I get you back.” Pure terror and fury exploded out of her. “Don’t call me that!” This couldn’t be happening. It just couldn’t. There was no way he could take away her whole life like that. “What do you want with Noah?”
She already knew what he wanted with Mhairi.
“You don’t let me kill the old gal… fine… I’ll kill your boy.” He shrugged at her, as if he were asking which cereal she’d prefer for breakfast. “What will it be, Eden? Noah or Mhairi?” The question sent a shock through her
