Blood Will Tell woa-1 Read online

  Stellan had a beautiful way of making her feel two inches tall.

  The goons wanted to know what the hell happened but Stellan refused to say anything until they had spoken with Ryan.

  Celine was flustered by their harried entrance. “Ryan is in his office,” Celine hissed at them, her eyes flicking pointedly to the goons. In other words Ryan was in the basement.

  Stellan glared at her. “Then get him. We were just attacked, mother, I think he might want to be updated on that.”

  Her eyes widened, her elegant hand fluttering up to her hairline to brush back an imaginary stray hair. “Attacked?”

  “Attacked. Warriors.”

  She was silent a moment, her eyes flaring almost white with fury. She jerked a brittle nod in their direction and then turned on her heel, heading towards the curving stairs that led down to the basement. “Gentleman, take a seat in the parlour,” she threw over her shoulder, and the goons immediately followed her order.

  Eden clasped Stellan’s hand and turned him to face her. “I am so sorry, Stel. So sorry.” She bit down on her lip, trying to hold back the tears. “I thought I could trust him.”

  He betrayed me. He betrayed me. The words echoed in her head over and over, the pain seizing her body not lessening any the more she tried to come to grips with Noah’s treachery. “Six months,” she whispered in disbelief. “How sick do you have to be…?”

  “Don’t think about him, Paradise. He’s not worth it.”

  Eden flinched at the look in her brother’s eye. Hellfire and brimstone. Noah better watch his back, she thought bitterly, the rush of fury biting into the pain.

  Reluctantly, they followed the goons into the parlour to wait for Ryan. Five minutes later he was striding into the parlour, not a hair out of place, with Teagan and Celine at his back.

  “What happened?” He barked.

  Stellan twisted his lips into a grimace. “Eden’s friend, Noah, was at the movies. He said he needed to talk to Eden for a minute, I didn’t think it was a problem. They were out back and Neith attacked. Noah told Eden he was Ankh.”

  Eden watched her brother in amazement as he lied for her, covering for her as usual. She was so grateful she didn’t even hear his emphasis on the word Ankh.

  “Ankh?” Ryan looked discomfited.

  Eden frowned. “What’s Ankh.”

  “Just another word for Neith.” Ryan shook his head, his face turning dark with anger. “I knew there was something wrong with that little shit. I can’t believe this.”

  “Well we got away.” Eden shrugged, suddenly nervous. Her father’s whole body was trembling with emotion. Now she understood the phrase ‘looked ready to explode’.

  He scoffed at her, his eyes flashing. “You were lucky.”

  “Very lucky,” Teagan murmured, eyeing her with a twisted grin.

  “So, what do we do?” Celine asked in hushed tones. “They know we’re here, Ryan.”

  Ryan nodded. “Yes. I’m going to tighten security until the move. And you two.” He pointed at Stellan and Eden. “No more school. I’ll take care of everything, but you are both under house arrest until the move. We leave the day after the Awakening Ceremony.”

  “The day after…” Celine gaped. “But that gives me very little time to organise.”

  “Make time,” Ryan hissed. “This is non-negotiable.”

  ***

  It took her a while to fall asleep that night. Everything was changing so fast. Salton hadn’t been much but it had been an anchor of sorts. Somehow, despite her worst efforts, she’d remained somewhat human in Salton. Eden guessed she’d never really worried much about it until Noah walked into her life. Suddenly there was this person who got her, who liked her, who cared about her. How could it be possible to have imagined the connection between them? But imagine it she must have. She would have done anything for him; she’d tried to be a better person for him; she had worried herself raw thinking about his reaction if he ever knew what she was. And all this time he had known. All this time he’d been planning on… what? Had he been leading her to her death? He had fought those other Neith, but how could she begin to figure it out when all along he’d lied to her?

  He’d lied. And the pain of that betrayal… it fed the hunger.

  Eden didn’t want to ever see Noah again. She was afraid of what she’d do to him if she did. She couldn’t shake the hurt and the emptiness his betrayal had carved into and out of her.

  It was no wonder, when she finally fell asleep, Noah was still there…

  It was cold here. Too cold. She squirmed. Too dark.

  Open your eyes, idiot.

  Her eyes refused to open with ease. She had to concentrate, had to pry them open with all her strength. She was so tired.

  Slowly, her blurry vision began to focus. White. Jeez, there was just so much white. Groaning, Eden sat up, her fingers sliding through air as the bed underneath her disappeared. She found her feet though. She was standing now.

  “Eden?”

  She flinched at the familiar voice and turned to face him.

  Noah stood before her, in his background of blaring white. He was wearing the Biffy Clyro shirt she loved. She frowned. There was blood on it. “Can you turn off the white?” She screwed up her face, her hands shielding her eyes.

  The white dimmed but didn’t disappear.

  “Better?” He smirked at her.

  That familiar expression ripped through her in a fury and she flew at him, beating her fists against any part of his body she could. “You betrayed me! You betrayed me!” She shrieked over and over again.

  Noah took a couple of the blows before he grew impatient and snapped his hands around her wrists. Suddenly she was nothing more than a puppy wriggling in his arms. “I’m sorry, Eden. I’m sorry I lied.” His violet eyes pleaded with her. “But I didn’t betray you.”

  “Liar.”

  “I didn’t betray you. I’m trying to help you.”

  She shook her head. “Help me, you can’t help me. You’re sick. You’re a liar.”

  Noah’s face fell, his eyes sad. “I’m not. I’m trying to help. We all are.”

  “What?”

  He nodded behind her and Eden twisted her neck to peer over her shoulder. She gasped. A giant circle was etched on the floor of the white. Ten men and women sat crossed legged around it. A dark man, with skin the colour of mocha, gazed at her fiercely.

  “Who are they?” She turned back to Noah.

  His reply was a soft smile. He reached out to her tentatively, his fingers taking hold of the hem of her shirt. She frowned as he slid it slowly upwards, stopping at the first bone of her ribs. A shiver rippled down her spine as Noah brushed his thumb across the strange birthmark on her lower belly. “The more important question is… who are you?”

  “Noah?” Eden felt the tears slip down her cheeks. “I don’t understand. I don’t understand anything. How could you hurt me?”

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered. He sighed and drew his head down towards her. Her eyes drifted shut as she felt the soft tingle of his lips on hers. The sensation never left, even though he leaned back.

  Eden reached for him, her hands sliding around his neck. His arms encircled her waist so they were embracing. “I’m going to hurt you back,” she told him mournfully. “I’m going to punish you for what you’ve done to me.”

  Noah nodded, his expression accepting. “I know.”

  With tears flowing freely now, she pulled him towards her and kissed him. It was a deep kiss, full of need and pain and loneliness. She felt his hands fist in her shirt and squeeze her tighter, his tongue stroking hers softly, pulling her under, drugging her.

  The hunger grinned and began to feed.

  … the kiss felt so real. But it was changing. It had been sweet in the dream, full and right. And then the hunger had yawned wide open, pulling Noah in with an utter feeling of euphoria; a euphoria almost as wonderful as his lips on hers. They had been so soft…but now… the kiss… it had grown h
ard and wet and… choking.

  Eden gagged, her eyes flying open, panic gripping her entire body.

  Teagan! She barely registered the weight of his body on top of hers, his hands stroking and bruising wherever they touched, his mouth and tongue fused to hers; she just registered the fury.

  The strength of her abhorrent disbelief rushed through her, blasting through her muscles as she unpinned herself from Teagan and threw him up and off of her. He landed on her bedroom floor with a thump, wincing as he just as quickly regained his footing.

  Eden trembled, her nerves shot to hell, as she struggled to her feet, putting the bed between them.

  Her cousin grinned at her, his muscular bare chest moving up and down with exertion. At least he was wearing pyjama bottoms. She thanked God for small mercies. “That was fun.”

  Rage bled her eyes of their cool colour.

  One minute she was standing across from him, the next he was sprawled across the floor and Eden was straddling him, a letter opener biting into his neck. “You come near me again and I will gut you. Do you understand?”

  He merely grinned up at her, jerking his hips up crudely. “I took you by surprise, I apologise. But you should get used to intimacy with me, Eden. You’re eighteen next year. We’ll be married, and touching you will not only be my want, it will be my right.”

  Eden pressed the letter opener harder, blood bubbling up under its point. She took satisfaction in Teagan’s wince. “It will be a cold day in hell when I let that happen.”

  “Ryan promised.” Teagan grinned again.

  She pressed harder, surprised by how much she enjoyed inflicting pain on him. He kept grinning.

  Fine. No more Miss Nice.

  She changed the location of the letter opener, the blade between his legs. His eyes widened and he suddenly grew very still.

  “Ryan isn’t a god, Teagan.” Eden smiled at him coldly. “His word isn’t law. And I will kill you before I ever let you touch me. Do you understand?”

  He nodded slowly, his eyes darting to where she had the blade.

  Eden sprang up off of him, stepping back to let him up. He did so leisurely, his body language trying to ooze cool when they both knew he’d been terrified she’d use the letter opener on his precious pieces. She was sure he wasn’t going to say anything, even feeling a little relief that maybe, finally, she had gotten through to him.

  But then he stopped at the door and glared at her. “It might just have to come to that then, Eden… ‘cause I always get what I want.”

  Without thought, only feeling and impotence, Eden threw the letter opener.

  Teagan hissed as it sliced through his upper arm. He scowled at her, clasping a tight hand around the handle of it. It slid out of his flesh, like a knife through butter, and he watched as the wound closed over, the only evidence of it a smear of blood on his skin and on the blade.

  “Nice aim.” He smirked at her now, his eyes bright with hunger.

  Eden felt sick. “Not really. I was aiming for your eye.”

  Chapter Fourteen. Caffeine Hit with… Well… Punch

  Noah stood anxiously waiting on the coffee order. Lucky he had preternatural balance to carry them all. Cyrus, Alain, Emma, Romany, and another three Ankh and eight Neith were back at his apartment. They couldn’t afford to bring in anymore Ankh. Most of them were busy on assignment anyway.

  He was trying to stay focused. He was. But as he watched Sally make up Romany’s vanilla latte, his eyes grew dazed as he remembered the look on Eden’s face when she realised he wasn’t who he said he was. At first it was a look of terror and horror, a look akin to a blade through his stomach. And then there was just betrayal and hatred.

  The pain in his chest was worse than the blade.

  He’d never betrayed a friend before.

  And no matter how much Noah tried to convince himself that he had only been trying to help her, he knew Eden would see it as betrayal. Nothing more. Nothing less.

  If someone had told him six months ago that losing her friendship would bother him, he’d have scoffed in their face. He was an Ankh. He hated soul eaters. He was a seventy year old immortal teenager who had no time for the drama of teen relationships.

  Or so he’d thought.

  Sighing heavily, Noah tugged on his hair, reminding himself that tomorrow was the big night and he had to be utterly in control if he wanted to rescue Eden before it was too late. The fact that more Neith had come along and screwed up their plan had nearly sent Cyrus off the deep end. But the Neith promised they weren’t hiding the perpetrators, they were trying to discover who this rebel faction leader was and take them out. Still, they had been watching Ryan Winslow. He’d invited ten more soul eaters to the Awakening Ceremony as a security precaution. Eden and her family were on lockdown.

  Cyrus wasn’t stupid.

  He had handpicked a Neith trained to withstand the soul eaters compulsion just as the Ankh were. It was a difficult thing for a mortal to accomplish but some of the Neith were capable of it. The female Neith had been sent in as a caterer. She would disable the security cameras, open the mansion gates and send the information they needed on where security was set up etc.

  They had done this sort of thing before. It would be a piece of cake.

  As long as he closed down and forgot that he had a personal interest in the outcome.

  “Here you go, Noah,” Sally said, pushing the trays of coffee towards him with a grin. “Got a study group going or something?”

  Noah snorted, handing over cash. “Something like that.”

  “Well I’m surprised.” She smiled sweetly. “I thought you and Eden kept to yourselves. Like two peas in a pod you two.” She winked.

  Gritting back a grimace, Noah nodded and took the coffee. He could barely manage a goodbye as he left the cafe, trying to swallow back the awful reminder of how he had played Eden.

  No matter what happened, she was never going to forgive him.

  His heart beat a little harder at the thought and he fumbled with Alain’s car keys as he balanced the coffee on one hand.

  By the time he heard the scuffle of feet it was too late.

  Pain slammed through his head, a sharp slice down the centre of his skull. He groaned, slumping forward as he forced his body to move through the pain. His elbow flew out and cracked someone across the face, but it felt like a million hands were grappling with him, and then a brief sharp prick of pain in his neck flared his panic.

  Shit, he thought distantly, as a thousand little black bugs crawled across his vision until… there was only blackness.

  Chapter Fifteen. Murderer. Monster. Both?

  Eden had been sitting staring out into the gardens from her bedroom window seat for the last two hours. There was a hubbub of activity around the house as Celine showed the Blessed who had arrived to celebrate the Awakening Ceremony with them to the guest rooms. Eden didn’t even know who half of them were, although she recognised a few familiar faces from odd events over the years. Ryan had invited more people without telling her. She pressed her face against the cool glass, watching goons pace in and out of view. Her dad had also tightened security. Eden grimaced. Noah and his Neith would have to be idiots to attack them. At the thought of him she felt only anger. The pain that had been there before had subsided. Her hunger preferred the fury and since she was pretty much trembling with need at this point, the hunger got what it wanted.

  Part of her was desperate for the Awakening Ceremony to be over. She wanted to feel normal again. Instead, she was wakening up in the middle of the night, her pyjamas sticking to her with cold sweat, her chest feeling as if heavy stone slabs had been placed upon it, her brain unfocused — like a million fingers squeezing on her temples. All she could think about was the hunger. The only voice she could concentrate on was the hunger.

  It was a small mercy that Ryan had put her under house arrest. Eden just might have attacked Lucy Stevens by now.

  Then there was the other part of her. The part that coul
dn’t forget the look on Stellan’s face when he asked her to promise not to change once she awakened. He feared his own nature. He feared the iron door in the basement.

  And now Eden did too.

  With other Blessed walking around the house, hanging out with Ryan and Celine, their sick laughter echoing through the halls, Ryan had had a lock put on the doorway at the top of the basement stairwell. But Eden knew a way in.

  And she couldn’t… she just couldn’t get the iron door out of her head.

  Watching the goon in the back garden pace back out of view, Eden bit her lip, her heart beginning to race at her thoughts.

  She had to know.

  She had to know what she might be capable of… once she took a life.

  Her legs shook as she stuffed her feet into green Converses, and her arms trembled like crazy as she shrugged on a sweater. The hall outside her room was quiet, and Eden’s sensitive ears picked up the sounds of the Blessed in the front parlour. They were quietly discussing the Neith and Ryan’s options for the move. He’d been very close-mouthed about where he was moving his family. They still didn’t know. Eden didn’t even think Celine knew.

  Gulping back her fear, Eden quickened her pace, barely acknowledging two of the caterers she passed and the goon at the front entrance. Instead she took off through the back hallway, past the large kitchen, and through into the back sitting room with the French doors that led into the gardens. The air was cool, the clouds heavy with the threat of rain.

  The perfect weather for turning evil.

  Hurriedly, in case she suddenly backed out, Eden loped down the stone stairs into the garden, glancing around to make sure the goon was nowhere in sight. Catching him near one of Celine’s fountains in the west gardens, Eden ducked behind the hedgerow that divided the back garden from the side garden. By now her heart was pounding so hard, all she could hear was the blood rushing in her ears. Exhaling, Eden sidled along the hedge quietly until she found the dead end. Well… it wasn’t quite a dead end. Ignoring the prickles and sharp scratches, Eden squeezed through the slight gap between the corner of the hedgerow and the apparent dead end. She stood at the top of the stone steps that led down the basement, willing the nausea away. Only the family knew about these stairs, they were so well hidden and disguised. And even if someone were to find them, they’d think they’d found a useless staircase. No door at the bottom.