Samantha Young - Blood Past

“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 coordination, 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.