Samantha Young - Blood Past

They’re total legends around here,” October said with a wistful sigh. There was more than a little hero-worshipping in her eyes whenever she discussed Val.

“Yeah.” Eden nodded stoically. “They’ve been good to me so far.” Tobe frowned. “So far?”

“Well.” Eden shrugged. “I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop.” The Neith shook her head at her. “I thought turning Ankh would make you trust them. They’re your kin now, Eden.”

“Oh I do trust them. I just don’t know if I trust myself yet. I’m probably going to do something stupid that will disappoint them.”

“Hey.” Tobe stopped her, her young eyes suddenly very serious and mature. “Look, my dad told me everything Cyrus told him. You didn’t kill anyone, Eden. You had some seriously creepy stuff inside you and you fought it. You’ve done well. I even heard you refused to kill Valois at your Awakening Ceremony.”

Eden curled her lip at the thought of her ex-best friend. “Yeah I’m a little disappointed in myself for that.”

October snorted. “What is going on between you two?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. He just won’t accept that yet.” Tobe grunted, looking at her like she was a crazy person. Eden smirked. “What?”

“Oh nothing. You just must have some serious willpower.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning every time Noah smiles at me I feel like grabbing his hand and finding the nearest bed.” For some reason Eden found herself flushing inwardly at the image Tobe had created, making the Neith laugh out loud.

“OK, if the Ankh could blush you’d be beetroot right now. Look at those eyes. I take it you haven’t traded in your v-card then?”

Having only known October for a few days, and really only had a proper conversation with her in the past few hours, Eden had naively assumed she was immune to her bluntness. But wow. She was BLUNT. Eden eyed Val, who started walking towards them impatiently. “Uh, can we not talk about this? Ancient warrior mother-figure heading towards us.”

“Sure. But if I can give you a bit of advice…”

“Just be quick about it.”

“My first time was with a guy from school who thinks Iraq is a brand of Mp3 player. If you’ve got someone like Noah Valois sniffing around your heels then I say kick them up and let him have his wicked way with you.”

Eden grunted. “What about trust and affection or God forbid love?”

“Blah, Eden, it’s sex not marriage.”

“If you take her advice Eden MacDouglas I will personally beat you over the head with it.” Val was suddenly before them, her eyes narrowed on October disapprovingly.

October gave a deferential nod but a cheeky tilt at the corner of her mouth suggested she was dying to laugh. “Just sharing my opinion, Valeria, that’s all.”

“Your opinion… what is that term you kids use today… ah yes… your opinion sucks. Eden has more important things to worry about than casual sex. She has learning, training and hunting to do.

And right now, a great big bloody castle to see and some colour to inject into her wardrobe.” Eden grinned at Val and began to follow October, who swerved around them to take the lead. She had a skip in her step that screamed ‘ you don’t scare me, Valeria of Corsica! ’

Val made a noise from the back of her throat and her hand shot out to cuff October around the back of the head.

“Ow, what was that for?!”

“That was on behalf of your parents. You’re too young to be dallying in casual sex. Children who play grown up games always get hurt.”

“Yeah well smacking me across the head wasn’t exactly painless.”

“See. My point exactly.”

Muffling her laughter, Eden followed her ‘cousin’ as she huffily led the way.

***

It was still light out as they wandered up the stone steps to the Douglas’ house. There were lights on inside so Eden guessed everyone was home. When Christopher wasn’t out hunting soul eaters, he was an investment banker for some big Scottish financial company, and Alison was an elementary school teacher — or a primary school teacher as they called it in Scotland. Since it was Saturday they had both decided to accompany Cyrus to the training centre. Eden couldn’t imagine how the Neith balanced both lives. With the Ankh it was a full time thing and Eden didn’t know where they got all their money from but she did know Cyrus had plenty of cash and shared it out to the fifty eight — oh wait, she made it fifty-nine now — members of the Ankh that were out all over the world, taking on the worst predators among the soul eaters.

Val and October were discussing the training centre as they stepped inside the house, making Eden even more impatient to get a look at the place. They wandered into the sitting room, discussing swords with foreign names that made Eden’s head spin, and found the Douglas’, Cyrus and Noah sitting around drinking coffee.

Cyrus nodded at her, his eyes smiling. “You had a nice time?” She lifted the bags in her hand and smiled wryly. “I injected colour into my wardrobe.”

“No pink?”

She shuddered. “God, no.”

“Did you take Eden to the castle, Tobe?” Mhairi asked as Alison got up off the sofa, excusing herself as she followed the smell of cooking into the kitchen.

“Yup.”

“Well.” Mhairi turned to Eden. “What did you think?”

What she thought was that she had never seen anything so amazing in her life. “Edinburgh Castle rocks. No pun intended.” She snorted, thinking about the alien-like volcanic rock the castle was perched on. It was almost as if some ancient warlock had swept back in time, ripped the castle from its medieval seams, and planted it down in the modern city. As she’d walked down Princes Street towards it, she had felt as if she had wandered into some weird, surreal dream. It was a majestic, hypnotising sight and she’d bumped into a number of people because she was too busy staring up at it. Since she wasn’t much of a history buff being inside the castle was cool but not nearly as cool as the impression it made from the outside.

“Edinbur-uh,” October admonished for, like, the fiftieth time. “What is it with you Americans and your ‘Edinboro’s’? “Edinbur-uh. Not Edinboro. Edinbur-uh.”

“Say Edinbur-uh one more time and I’m gonna smack you upside the head in training tomorrow,” Eden warned, flopping down onto a stool beside Cyrus who sat with Noah on the sofa. She noticed Noah had barely looked at her at all. Like she cared.

“Training tomorrow?” Cyrus raised an eyebrow questioningly.

Valeria cleared her throat. “I may have promised her…”

The look he gave Val would have frightened a grown man but Eden guessed Val was used to it because she just stared back at him, expressionless. Eden wondered if she’d teach her how to do that.

“I do not think you are ready.” Cyrus shook his head, turning back to Eden.

“No, I’m totally ready. I barely broke a sweat climbing up to that castle. And have you seen the stairs inside that damn thing. Didn’t even wind me.”

“That’s true,” October added. “The steward guide guy was unnerved by her and Valeria. I at least pretended to be out of breath.”

Eden snorted. “Pretended. Riiight.”

Tobe glowered at her. “Hey, some of us have learned the art of blending.”

“Yeah, Eden’s never been too good at that,” Noah spoke up, an annoying little amused quirk tilting his lips up at the corner. She glared at him as he smirked at Tobe, who smiled back appreciatively.

“What does that mean?”

He flicked a look at her. “Oh come on. What about that time you ‘shoved’ Rick Caine?” He turned back to Tobe. “Caine was on the school’s wrestling team. He was standing flirting with some girl whose locker was next to Eden’s and when she asked him to move, he wouldn’t. So she shoved him and he skidded along the school hallway like a bowling ball.” Tobe burst out laughing, shaking her head at the imagery. Her smile turned coy as her bright eyes washed over Noah, and Eden found herself wanting to wring her new friend’s neck. “I can’t imagine you in high school, Noah. You must have been popular.”