Samantha Young - Blood Will Tell

Eden’s eyes narrowed in thought. Did the compulsion work against the Ankh? She didn’t know. But it was worth a try right? She locked eyes with Emma. “No, you’re not going to hurt me.”

Emma’s face slackened but her eyes widened. She trembled as if she were fighting with herself. “I’m not going to hurt you,” she replied in the flat voice of one under compulsion.

“Let me go, Emma.”

It took a minute, and Emma’s eyes seemed to shine with tears of disbelief, but she let go and stood up robotically. Eden jumped to her feet, still clasping the dagger in her hand. She gazed quizzically at the Ankh. If she didn’t know any better she’d say the compulsion worked but Emma was aware of it happening to her. “You’re going to let me go and not follow me.”

“I’m going to let you go and not follow you.”

Not taking any chances, Eden patted Emma’s pockets and pulled out the key to the basement door. She felt a wallet and stepped around the warrior to stare down into her eyes. “You’re going to give me any money you have on you.”

Emma blinked and reached into her back pocket, pulling out a girly pink leather wallet that seemed at odds with the warrior. She rifled through it and pulled out a wad of cash. Eden took it, her eyes widening as she counted it. There was at least two hundred bucks there.

“Thanks,” she replied and handed the empty wallet back. As she did, her eyes touched on the cool dagger pouch around Emma’s hips. She untied it, still amazed that the warrior didn’t even move, and strapped it around her own hips, sliding the dagger back into the pouch. Just in case. Eden took a step towards the door and then glanced down at her feet. Damn. She sighed and walked back around to stare into Emma’s eyes. “Take off your shoes.”

The half-boots were a little too small but Eden shoved her feet into them anyway.

She slammed the door shut behind her and locked Noah’s mother inside.

One down.

Stealth after that wasn’t really her top priority. She just wanted out of there. Eden raced up the basement stairs and out into a narrow hallway, the front door visible at the other end. She strode along it quietly, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

“Hey!”

Eden whirled around to face a warrior she hadn’t met. She kicked out at him with her right leg and he wrapped his hands around her foot, twisting her towards him. Her body responded fluidly, her torso pushing up so her left leg flew at his head, her foot cracking against his skull. Her body turned through the air and she landed on the ground with the grace of a cat. She’d dazed the warrior but not enough. She never saw his fist move but she felt the impact of it connecting with her gut, the breath whooshing out of her as if she’d fallen from three storeys onto her back. The hunger roared at Eden to take him but she shook it off. She didn’t have time. She doubled over, as if she were in agony, and felt the warrior step closer. Her right hand flew up without even looking at him and her knuckles stung as they connected with his jaw. He stumbled and Eden straightened and delivered an uppercut with her left fist. The warrior’s grunt was followed by his knee slamming into her gut as he regained his balance.

She barely felt the impact of the blow this time, realising this man wasn’t nearly as powerful as Emma.

He was Neith.

For some reason that knowledge gave her confidence and strength.

She threw him a feral grin and lunged at him, using his own knee as a platform to spring up on, to deliver a deafening crack to his face with her left knee cap.

Eden jumped off of him just as he collapsed on the ground with a thud.

Barely out of breath, she turned and ran down the corridor. She was almost there. Almost there.

And then he appeared.

Sliding to a stop, Eden’s whole being flinched at the sight of Noah guarding the door. Her hunger screamed.

“Eden.” He held up his hands just as his mother had. “Stop.”

“I locked your mother in the basement,” she told him coldly, her fingers sliding down and brushing the handle of the dagger. Noah’s eyes flared at the sight of his mother’s weapon on her and she saw the brief flicker of panic in them. She snorted. “Don’t worry, she’s fine. I compelled her to let me go.”

Noah’s jaw dropped; an expression unfamiliar with his face. “You what?”

She shifted uneasily. “I compelled her.”

He shook his head. “Not possible.”

She shrugged, ignoring the disquiet that settled around her at the awed and slightly wary look he was now giving her. “What can I tell you.”

Immediately, Noah’s gaze drifted down so their eyes weren’t locked. Smart boy. Eden growled, “Let me go, Noah.”

Instead of acquiescing he walked slowly towards her. Eden refused to back up. “I can’t, Eden. Please just take a minute and think. You know we’re not trying to hurt you.”

A bitter scoff huffed out of her. “Oh yeah, I really got that when you murdered Stellan.”

“Romany is being punished for that. Everyone had direct orders not to hurt Stellan, Eden. It was never supposed to happen.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Eden-”

“STOP SAYING MY NAME!” She screamed. It was a mistake. She heard the sounds of footsteps from upstairs and from the back of the house. She panicked.

One minute the dagger was in the pouch, the next it was in Noah’s stomach. He bowed a little as the weapon plunged into his belly, his eyes flaring in shock as they collided with Eden’s. The violet in them darkened to purple with disbelief.

Eden felt his warm blood trickle onto her hand and she gazed into his eyes with horror. What had she done ? Oh my God, what did I do? She choked on a sob as she tugged the blade back out, the dagger slipping from her hands to the floor. It seemed to last forever that moment with Noah in the hallway. Two friends turned betrayers.

It was only seconds.

“I’m a monster, Noah,” she whispered.

Seeing his shock dissipate and his strength return, Eden knew she couldn’t hang around any longer.

He was just reaching for her with bloody fingers when she blew right past him and out of the door.

Eden was faster than even she had realised. She successfully escaped the rented house, running around the neighbourhood in circles for a while to throw off the warriors who had taken off after her. She wasn’t familiar with the town but she saw a sign that said Denton and knew it was just a town over from Salton. Surmising that the warriors would head over to the bus depot first to check on her, Eden decided to use the energy she had left and follow the highway back to Salton. She wasn’t going home. They would be watching. Anyway she didn’t think she could bear to look at the place where Stellan’s life had been taken.

Running through the woods was therapeutic in a way. Each pound of her foot and tremor through her leg somehow stomped the guilt, the grief and her hunger into the background. Her muscles were burning, like a screw that had been turned too tight, but she relished it. She even relished the swelling agony of Emma’s too small boots.

By the time Eden made it back to Salton and into town, she was sweating more than she had ever sweated in her life. She also looked insane in the pyjama bottoms and t-shirt. Ignoring the bewildered stares from passers-by, Eden headed to Charlotte’s , a thrift store Celine had refused to let her go into. It was bad enough Eden was obsessed with black, but at least it was designer black. It killed Celine if Eden bought something that cost less than a hundred bucks. She hated it when Eden wore t-shirts she got online for cheap.