The goddess Neith, enraged that a Queen who bore her name had played the gods fools, gifted some of her truest worshippers with supernatural strength, making them the fiercest warriors to walk earth in order to hunt and destroy Merneith and her children. They are called the Warriors of Neith. For centuries the warriors, mortal men and women with supreme strength, chased Merneith across the lands of ancient. But none could kill her. Repentant of her own part, Bat offered her essence into the womb of a female warrior who gave birth to a new race of warrior – the race of Ankh. These men and women are immortal warriors, powerful kindred, far more so than the Neith. Sadly, only so few are born every century to aid their mortal brethren, the warriors of Neith. And aid them they must. For even though during the time of the Middle Kingdom a son of Ankh felled Merneith, the mortal children she had borne, bore more children, the dark race of soul eaters growing rapidly in numbers. They may be mortal but soul eaters are supernaturally strong with powers of persuasion; they prey on humans, feeding on their souls to quench their undeniable hunger. And the Neith and the Ankh, although the Ankh’s numbers have fallen to so few, scour the world, desperately trying to free it from the soul eaters’ evil grasp.”
When Emma finished and Noah sat silent, she grew afraid that perhaps he wasn’t ready; perhaps she had merely frightened the poor child. Pulling back, Emma waited, gazing down at him in concern. Finally, Noah looked up at her slowly, his eyes wide with relief.
“I am different, mother.”
She nodded, encouraging him.
“I knew it. I felt it.”
“Say it, my son”, she whispered.
Noah’s eyes widened in amazement and then quite abruptly he clasped her hand. “I am Ankh.”
Noah leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees, studying the swirls of pattern on the worn carpet of his studio apartment. He was proud to be Ankh, proud of his fate and his duty. And Romany was right. His duty was to hunt and kill soul eaters. To hunt and kill Eden if she went through with the Awakening Ceremony.
He felt a flare of panic in his chest at the thought, her laughing face flashing before his eyes. He clenched his fists and looked up to meet Romany’s gaze.
“You’re right,” Noah replied. “And I remember who I am. But I also know who Eden is. She’s not a ‘what’, Romany. Not yet. And my assignment was to determine whether or not she could be saved. She can be. I won’t let Cyrus down on this. I won’t let Eden down.”
Chapter Ten
Can You a Cross the Line
When there isn’t One?
She was doing it again. Poor Noah. He had probably sustained whiplash from their rollercoaster friendship lately. But after that day in the car, Eden was kind of done kidding herself about their friendship. His reaction had finally cemented the truth: if Noah knew who she really was… he wouldn’t care about her anymore. Growling at that awful truth, Eden drove home from school, leaning over to turn the radio up full blast, enjoying Jared Leto singing/yelling the lyrics ‘Runaway, runaway, I’ll attack!’ It fit her mood. 30 Seconds to Mars flooded the car until it was all she could think about, blocking out another horrible day at school avoiding her best friend.
That was pretty much why she had to screech on the brakes at the sight of the lump in the middle of the road.
Eden’s heart triple thumped.
No. Not a lump.
A body.
Immediately her paranoia set in and Eden glanced around, her eyes boring into the woodlands that bordered the main road to the mansion. Goosebumps rose on her arms as her eyes flew back to the body. Something wasn’t right.
She’d seen the pilot episode of The Vampire Diaries enough times to know that.
Wait. The splash of red next to the body froze her. Is that blood?
Slowly Eden reached to unbuckle her seatbelt. Maybe this really was someone in need of her help. Heart pounding, Eden tentatively reached for the door handle.
Then she saw it.
The flash of color in the trees up to her right.
“Shit!” she yelped in fright, slamming the car back into gear as movement exploded out of the trees. The car whined as she spun it into reverse.
Glass exploded, shards screaming in her ear as stinging bites attacked her body, the car rushing forward, green and darkness engulfing her as she was rocked and bumped.
Finally the car grew still and Eden blinked. A jagged hole was smashed in the windscreen, a huge rock on the passenger seat. Tree branches stuck in through the hole. Eden realized she’d careened off the road.
The realization had barely dawned when her car door was wrenched open. Eden skirted back from the large masculine hands that delved in to attack her, her legs flying out, sending the attacker crashing backwards into the trees. Scrambling over shards of glass that bit into her flesh, Eden fell from the car and rolled, drawing up onto her feet in one smooth motion. Five humans stood before her. Three men, two women. All armed. Daggers and swords. Like something out of Shonen Jump.
Is that a Samurai sword? Her eyes widened momentarily on one of the girl’s weapons.
Eden quickly checked her surroundings for other attackers. There was none. Just these five with their cocky, vicious smiles. Ryan’s words suddenly swam through her brain. These humans call themselves the Warriors of Neith. Their sole duty in life is to kill off the Blessed. “I know who you are,” she told them quietly, already calculating how the hell she was going to get past them to the mansion.
“Good.” One of the older guys nodded calmly. He was the only one not smiling. “Then you know why we’re here.”
Before she could even respond, one of the women shot a dagger at her. Eden dropped to the forest floor, hearing the hiss of the blade propel past her. She snapped to her feet in time to deflect the woman’s attack, her fist flying toward Eden’s face at amazing speed for a human.
A calm fell over Eden. Her reassuring body told her it would take care of everything. And it did. In one movement, she jerked back from the fist, grabbed a hold of the woman’s wrist with both hands and twisted her arm back and up, the snap of bone followed closely by the woman’s shrieking. Eden’s leg came up, her foot connecting with the base of the woman’s spine, her preternatural strength shooting through her muscles so that, with little effort, the female warrior flew through the air, past her fellow fighters.
Eden barely had time to question her body’s knowledge of self-defense when two more of the warriors attacked. She ducked and punched, her knee connecting with a stomach, her elbow with a nose. Blood slicked her knuckles, the sting of a blade sliced her upper arm. The two men were barely down when she caught sight of the samurai girl hurrying towards her. She spun out from the spot and ran at a thick tree trunk, her feet gripping the bark with ease before she used it to push off, her leg snapping out from the knee, her foot connecting with the girl’s head with a sickening thud.
Eden landed on her feet with no sound. Her breathing had hardly increased, although her heart was racing like a cheetah after a gazelle. Her eyes took in the warriors, three of them heaving to their feet.
Holy moly, Eden tensed. These guys were strong for humans.
Her eyes rested on the warrior girl she’d knocked unconscious and her hunger roared from within. It would be so easy to take her. So easy…
The screech of tires from the road was quickly followed by doors slamming. Caught off guard, the warriors turned warily, spotting Ryan’s goons scrambling down the embankment towards them. A look passed between two of the men and one of them turned tail and ran, flashing in and out of the trees like a viper. He was gone in an instant.
Ryan’s goons charged at the warriors who remained. The Neith abandoned Eden in the face of bigger opponents. She staggered back, watching the fight, watching the goons. They fought well but relied heavily on their strength rather than finesse. She glanced at her hands, covered in blood, remembering how she’d fought. She’d fought like those warriors. With grace and strategy. It made no sense. Eden shivered, biting back nausea. The crack of bones signaled the warriors’ demise.
“You OK?” One of the goons strode towards her, stepping over the body of the female warrior she’d kicked in the head.
Eden nodded numbly.
The goon grinned. “You can take care of yourself, kid. You killed two of them.”
Her heart stopped. “What?” Her lips felt numb.
The idiot kept grinning, his grey eyes bright with violence. “You killed the two women.” He pointed at the samurai girl. “See. Neck’s broken. Hey!” He laughed up at the other goon as he reached down for the girl’s sword. “Jenkins, this is real.” He lifted it up, angling it into the light that filtered through the trees. “I’m keeping this bad boy.”
“Come on.” Jenkins huffed towards them. “Ms. Winslow, get in the car. We’ll need to inform Mr. Winslow and have a clean-up crew head over here right away.” He tutted at the sight of her car. “That’s a goner for a while.”
Eden wanted to scream at them. They were acting so casually! She’d just killed two people! Didn’t they care?!
No. They don’t. They’re Blessed. No. What was it Ryan said the Neith called them? Soul eaters. Yeah. That’s it. They’re soul eaters.
Numbly, Eden ignored them and trudged up the embankment to their car.
Ryan was incensed by the news of the attack. He could barely look at her and was rushing around, ordering people about. From what Eden could tell they’d have the mess cleaned up in under half an hour. Teagan stood in the corner of the sitting room, grinning at her the whole time, his eyes devouring her. For once she was too numb to care. Celine and Stellan were out but Ryan had called them both to come back to the mansion. Eden wished Stellan would hurry.
“You fought them off, Eden?” Teagan asked with a smile in his voice.
She shrugged. No way was she telling them about the weird fighting skills in the woods. It was not like she trusted them or anything.
“This is a disaster,” Ryan muttered and then snapped his cell open as it buzzed. “Yeah? OK. Good.” He snapped it shut and pinned her to the sofa with his eyes. “They’ve cleaned it up and the car has been towed. I’ve got Jenkins picking up a rental for you.”