Blood Past (Warriors of Ankh #2)
Page 20“W-why?” He gulped for life.
With a weary sigh, Teagan knelt down beside the dying man to clasp his head in his hands. “Many reasons. But mostly… I'm hungry.”
Locking the Neith in his gaze, Teagan pushed a little compulsion on him so he'd stop gulping down blood. The noise was irritating. As Dwight relaxed, Teagan gave the reigns over to his hunger and a rush of exciting heat licked his flesh as his blood picked up speed in his veins. The darkness poured out of him in an invisible mass of inky glue and shot in and down into Dwight's soul. It was a tangled mass of light and dark, just the kind Teagan enjoyed the most. His hunger crawled over it, spreading itself across and around it so that every last piece of the Neith's soul was stuck in its grasp.
With a sigh of pleasure, Teagan jerked his hunger back towards him and drew the soul into his body.
His nerve ends sparked and flared with the decadence of the feeding and finally as his hunger purred itself back to sleep, satisfied, every muscle in his body relaxed, pulsing with the blissful aftermath.
Lazily, Teagan focused his eyes and found himself staring into a dead man's face. Rolling his eyes at how easy it had been, he let go of Dwight's head, not even wincing at the horrendous thud it made against the concrete floor. He wrenched the blade out of the Neith's chest as he stood up and let his eyes wander over the body. He felt restless all of sudden. Perhaps he should have at least let Dwight fight him rather than the sneak attack he'd executed. Teagan hadn't had a good fight in a while.
Then he thought of the paper in his pocket with Eden's whereabouts. He smirked. There were plenty of fights in his future.
Feeling relaxed now that he had a lead that would keep the Tribunal off his back for a while longer, Teagan began to whistle as he wrapped the bloody knife up in plastic so that it didn't get the cash covered in Neith goo when he put it back in the briefcase.
Feeling sentimental, he pulled his wallet out to look at the photograph of Eden he carried on him.
In the original photograph she'd been sitting with Stellan so she was actually smiling for once. He'd cut Stellan out of it of course. But he liked to look at it. There was so much humanity in her eyes. He supposed there would be even more so now that she was Ankh. It would make what he was about to do to her all the sweeter.
With a wicked smile, Teagan shoved his wallet back in his pocket, picked up the briefcase and strode out of the warehouse without ever looking back at the man on the floor in a pool of blood.
Chapter Fifteen
Taking the Long Way-kend Around
As Eden made her way down into the training centre she thought about what a long weekend it had been. She was pumped that it was Monday, that sword training was finally here. That she had an outlet for all her frustrations. She followed Cyrus and Noah past the first training room and down the hall to another set of doors. When they walked in, she glanced around in awe at the varied weaponry bolted to the wall.
“You need complete focus in here, Eden,” Cyrus instructed as he strolled towards one of the swords and took it down. He took a matching one down from beside it and turned to hand it to her.
She studied it, feeling its weight in her hand, the slope of its forward curve. “This is a Kopis. A weapon the ancient Greeks would use when they were not using it for cutting animal meat. Fighting with the Kopis is not an elegant dance; it is fast, close, and extremely lethal. So pay attention.” Her guardian was in a particularly serious mood because of Friday night. Cyrus had not been pleased when they returned from their night out. Noah had reported what Shona had overheard McLeish say and Cyrus had had to do the one thing he hated doing: go behind one of his own official's back to his people and recruit one of them against him; to recruit Christopher, who had been more than willing to serve Cyrus, for whom he had deep respect. Now that McLeish was suspect Numero Uno, Christopher was keeping his senses extra alert around McLeish to uncover whether or not he was guilty of betrayal. The last thing Cyrus needed was McLeish getting in contact with Cosmina Arcos' people. As for Eden, she had been uncomfortable enough as it was around McLeish.
Now she just hated being around him full stop. She guessed she should be used to people hating her after a lifetime of living with her school peers dislike, but now she was Ankh people hating her bothered her. Of course Cyrus had told her not to worry but Eden couldn't help but stress over it.
They had soul eaters in Edinburgh causing havoc; the last thing they needed was a traitor in the ranks and Arcos to come after her when her training wasn't even completed yet.
It made Eden even more determined to excel in her training, to push her abilities and prove that she was capable of hunting.
If it had been up to her she would have been back in training on Saturday but Tobe, Alison, and Val had determinedly dragged her onto a train to the city of Glasgow to do more shopping. How much clothes did one person need?! And yes, admittedly there had seemed to be a ton of shops in the city compared to Edinburgh but even that hadn't done anything to take her mind off the night before.
Instead, as had they walked down Sauchiehall Street, Tobe and Alison arguing over a pair of boots Tobe had wanted and whether or not they should eat at the Mediterranean restaurant or McDonalds, Eden had coaxed Val into conversation in the hopes of distracting herself.
“You ever been to Glasgow before?” Eden had asked her mentor.
“She's like the Hitler of Scottish pronunciation.”
“I heard that!”
“Good, maybe you'll stop correcting me every five seconds.”
“Maybe you'll start pronouncing words correctly and stop embarrassing me.”
“Embarrassing you? I'm sorry if I can't understand why you people think it's acceptable to name a street Cockburn Street just because you pronounce it Co-burn Street.” Tobe had glared at Eden over her shoulder and then made a face. “Fine, I'll give you that one.” Before Eden had been able to enjoy the win, Val had said softly, “Yes, I've been to Glasgow before.”
“Oh, when?”
“I was sent here on assignment in 1965.”
Eden had smiled. “A while ago then huh?”
“You will learn that forty six years to an Ankh is as fleeting as a day is to a human.” They had been silent a moment as Eden had absorbed this, the buzz of Tobe and Alison's conversation washing over her in among the crowds of shoppers passing them by. Her eyes had rested on the silver Ankh ring on her finger before she had finally gathered the courage to ask her mentor, “Is it bearable? Immortality?”
Val had pinned her to the spot with such an intense look Eden had dreaded the answer. “Some days it will be a burden. However, most days our duty compels us to go on. Having people you love who share the burden of eternity helps as well.”
Eden had frowned. “I didn't know you had someone.”
At her sad smile, Eden had somehow known Val was speaking of Darius. There was a spark in her eyes anytime he was mentioned and she had seen the way Val had seemed to shimmer with unbelievable life that day they had met him in the hotel room. Aching for her friend, Eden had touched her shoulder unsure of how to comfort her. There was no way of comforting such a long life filled with unrequited love.
Val had seemed grateful for the gesture anyway. Her fingers had brushed Eden's knuckles gratefully before Tobe had turned to draw them into the restaurant argument.
More than ever, Eden had wanted to pummel something the next day as everyone else enjoyed a Sunday of rest. She'd thought Noah would be on the same page. Instead he had suggested they do something else, one of his favourite pastimes. Swim. It hadn't been what Eden had had in mind but she hadn't been swimming in a while. Borrowing a suit from Tobe, she had followed Noah to this old historic building that was now a swim centre. Eden had felt a little nervous as they wandered off in the opposite directions to the requisite changing rooms. As she'd slipped on Tobe's modest swimsuit, she had suddenly realised that Noah was going to see more of her than he ever had before. And she of him. First out of the changing rooms (that had been a surprise), Eden had gazed at the high arches over the pool, the beautiful light filtering in from the glass ceiling. The place had been quiet and so tranquil she'd immediately felt her body relaxing. Overcome with the feeling, she'd slipped into the lukewarm pool to begin slow laps without Noah. As her head had bobbed up again she'd almost coughed down chlorine as Noah had appeared, striding casually towards the swimming pool. She'd let her feet touch the bottom of the pool and had tried to smooth her expression out.
Wow.
Noah in swim shorts.
Some people looked vulnerable when almost naked. Not Noah. He'd somehow looked even taller than normal, his upper body lean but sinewy. He was pure muscle. Eden had watched him with pleasure as he'd moved, so languid and graceful. She'd followed the ripples of muscle on his abdomen to the sexy cut of his hips and her mouth had gone instantly dry. She'd been so glad she didn't blush outwardly, ‘cause on the inside her brain had fried.
Not having seemed to notice her ogling, Noah had slipped into the pool with ease and challenged her to a race. They'd done that (Noah had won) and then continued doing lengths. After a while, Eden had stopped to relax and float by the edge of the pool and Noah had swum over to join her. For a minute or two they had bobbed together and then Noah had finally cleared his throat. Eden had quirked an eyebrow at the noise, suddenly nervous about what he was going to say since he was so clearly nervous about saying it.
“Does this… does this mean…”
“Does this mean what?” Eden had asked warily.
He'd shrugged. “I don't know. Does this mean I'm forgiven? That you forgive me?”
“Oh,” she had replied softly, suddenly unable to meet his eyes. She had forgiven him right? She understood now, right? She'd thought about waking up in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat, Tobe peering down at her in concern. She'd been having nightmares about Stellan's death these past few nights. Replaying it over and over.