Eden realised she"d careened off the road.
The realisation 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 gla.s.s that bit into her flesh, Eden fel from the car and rol ed, drawing up onto her feet in one smooth motion. Five humans stood before her.
Three men, two women. Al 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 c.o.c.ky, 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 hel 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 fel over Eden. Her rea.s.suring 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 fol owed 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 fel ow fighters.
Eden barely had time to question her body"s knowledge of self-defence 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 gazel e. 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 tyres from the road was quickly fol owed by doors slamming.
Caught off guard, the warriors turned warily, spotting Ryan"s goons scrambling down the embankment towards them. A look pa.s.sed 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 wel 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 no sense. Eden shivered, biting back nausea. The crack of bones signal ed 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 kil ed two of them."
Her heart stopped. "What?" Her lips felt numb.
The idiot kept grinning, his grey eyes bright with violence.
"You kil ed 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"l 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 casual y! She"d just kil ed two people! Didn"t they care?!
No. They don"t. They"re Blessed. No. What was it Ryan said the Neith cal ed 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 tel 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 notice.
Celine and Stel an were out but Ryan had cal ed them both to come back to the mansion. Eden wished Stel an would hurry.
"You fought them off, Eden?" Teagan asked with a smile in his voice.
She shrugged. No way was she tel ing them about the weird fighting skil s in the woods. It was not like she trusted them or anything.
"This is a disaster," Ryan muttered and then snapped his cel 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." At least she wouldn"t have to endure school runs with Celine.
The front door blew open and the familiar footsteps pounding across the foyer to the sitting room made her feel a little better. Stel an burst into the room, his eyes blazing with fury. And then they settled on her and his whole body slumped towards her.
"Jesus!" he cried, reaching for her, his hands cupping her face. "What the hel ?" His eyes roamed over her features, a glower darkening his complexion.
Eden blinked. "What?"
"It wil heal." Ryan shrugged "What wil heal?" She asked frowning.
Stel an looked so worried. "Paradise, have you looked in the mirror?" She shook her head.
Stel an threw Ryan a disgusted look. "You could have at least helped clean her up." Their father"s mouth twisted into a look of mockery. "Why would I bother when I knew her knight in shining armour was only minutes away?" Ignoring him, Stel an slid his hands under her, heaving her up easily into his arms.
Eden didn"t argue as he strode out of the room, carrying her up the stairs and into her bedroom, straight through into her en-suite. Gently, he settled her on the edge of her bath and her image reflected back at her from the mirror on the opposite wal .
"Wh-" She reached for her face. It was covered in lots of tiny nicks from the gla.s.s from the windscreen, some stil bleeding, some already healing over. There was a larger slash across her left cheekbone, however, gross and disgusting as it slowly healed over.
"It wil heal," Stel an promised, catching her horrified expression. "You just take a little longer because you haven"t fed yet."
"I can"t go to school looking like this."
Stel an shook his head. "You should be al healed up by tomorrow morning." Eden watched him careful y as he set about running her a hot bath, pouring in oils and girly stuff she didn"t normal y bother with. "It doesn"t even hurt," she told him quietly.
He grinned at her. "It probably should a little because you"re not completely Blessed yet but..." His smile dropped. "You"re probably stil in shock." Her eyes suddenly fil ed with tears. "I kil ed two people, Stel." She"d kil ed two people and although she felt sick with it now, in the moment... she"d enjoyed the fight.
She"d felt... alive... in a way she had never felt before.
Her brother"s face hardened and he crossed the room to close the door. Quickly, he returned to her, bending down to take her hands in his. Gently he took a wash cloth and began cleaning the blood off her knuckles. "You listen to me, OK. It was self-defence, Paradise. Self-defence. Those Neith were there to kil you, and you did what you had to do."
"It"s not that simple."
He tugged hard on her hands, drawing her gaze so that their eyes locked. "You"re the gentlest one of our kind I"ve ever known, Eden. You"re the last Blessed on this earth those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds should have come after. They deserved what they got." They deserved what they got.
Did Lana? Did the red-headed woman in the bas.e.m.e.nt, or those blonde twins from Ohio?
Where was the line?
"There"s no line, Stel," she whispered.
Chapter Eleven.
Love or Something like it Over the next few weeks it felt like she gave up a little. Gave in, maybe. It was not like it mattered here anyway. Ryan had decided that they were moving after Eden"s Awakening Ceremony. The Neith knew where they were now and it was just too risky. So they were leaving. Leaving home. Leaving Salton. Leaving... leaving Noah. But she didn"t care...
right?
Eden walked the hal s of South Salton delivering death looks at anybody who b.u.mped into her or dared to meet her gaze.
Didn"t they know she was a kil er now?
"Oh look, it"s freak show without her freak mate." Lucy Stevens smirked at her as she past her in the hal . That was the one drawback from the compulsion. The idiot no longer remembered to fear her. Eden curled her lip up in a snarl just as Lucy"s friend, Shawna Beaumont swatted at Lucy, a little frown furrowing her perfect eyebrows.
"Don"t be mean, Luce," Shawna admonished, her lip-glossed mouth quirking up into a smile of apology to Eden.
"Sorry."
Eden looked her up and down, cataloguing the cheerleading uniform and the Gucci bag. "Did I ask for an apology?" She snipped. "Go suffocate yourself inside your Gucci, Barbie."
Shawna flinched back like she"d been slapped and had to hold Lucy back from attacking Eden. Eden chuckled, feeling mean and bitter.
She turned and walked smack bang into a solid chest.
His familiar citrusy scent teased the hunger.
"You"re being a b.i.t.c.h to nice girls like Shawna Beaumont now?" Noah asked, pushing her back a little.
Eden let her eyes slowly crawl up his face to his eyes.
They were narrowed in concentration. His lips pinched tight.
His expression warred between disapproval and concern.
"News flash, Valois. I am a b.i.t.c.h." She tried to walk around him but his arm closed around her fast, strong. She frowned and tried to break free. What the hel ... Eden glared up at him suspiciously. "Been injecting steroids, Valois?" He glared at her. "Is there any reason why I shouldn"t be stronger than you, Winslow?"
What...?
Her heart started racing. "What are you talking about?" Noah sighed and gripped her arm, tugging her down the hal way and into an empty cla.s.sroom. He shut the door and leaned back against it, blocking the exit.
"We need to talk, Eden."
Oh Jesus, don"t let him know, please no no no no no...
"What about?" She shifted uneasily.
"Wel among other stuff uh the fact that you"ve been acting like a psycho b.i.t.c.h for the past two weeks, talking to me one minute, dodging me the next. It"s giving me headache." He shrugged casual y. "So... you"re meeting headache." He shrugged casual y.
"So... you"re meeting me after school tonight. If you don"t, I"m hunting you down." Eden snorted and strode towards him. "You can"t make me do anything."
"Eden." He gripped her by the upper arm. "I"l come to your house." It was like he knew, she thought gazing up at him wide-eyed, like he knew she would do anything to stop him coming to her house. What does he know?
Noah"s eyes softened and his grip eased. But he didn"t let go. That familiar warmth exploded across her chest and she found herself relaxing into him.
"I miss you, Eden," he said softly and for a minute she could have sworn his eyes flickered to her lips and back up to her eyes. At her indrawn breath, his hand tightened again and then relaxed, his thumb caressing her skin unconsciously.
Did Noah...?
No. She shook her head inwardly . He couldn"t...
Then again... someone that hot being single for months...? And there was that night at Doug"s party two months ago...
"I can"t believe you dragged me here," she muttered, hugging Noah"s side as they made their way through the crowds of teenagers. Doug"s dad"s house was almost as big as Eden"s. Plenty of s.p.a.ce to pack in a couple hundred drunk and h.o.r.n.y teens.
Noah grinned down at her. "I thought it would be a nice change of pace."
"Uh, who invited her?" Lucy Stevens" voice curled around Eden"s ears as Noah headed towards the "bar" that had been set up in Doug"s back sitting room. The seniors were crowded around the sofas across from it, playing drunken Guitar Hero.
"Ignore her," Noah murmured and handed her a red plastic cup full of liquid.
Eden stared down into it, uncertain. "What is this?"