Eden curled her lip at the thought of her ex-best friend. “Yeah I'm a little disappointed in myself for that.”
October snorted. “What is going on between you two?”
She shook her head. “Nothing. He just won't accept that yet.” Tobe grunted, looking at her like she was a crazy person. Eden smirked. “What?”
“Oh nothing. You just must have some serious willpower.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning every time Noah smiles at me I feel like grabbing his hand and finding the nearest bed.” For some reason Eden found herself flushing inwardly at the image Tobe had created, making the Neith laugh out loud.
“OK, if the Ankh could blush you'd be beetroot right now. Look at those eyes. I take it you haven't traded in your v-card then?”
Having only known October for a few days, and really only had a proper conversation with her in the past few hours, Eden had naively assumed she was immune to her bluntness. But wow. She was BLUNT. Eden eyed Val, who started walking towards them impatiently. “Uh, can we not talk about this? Ancient warrior mother-figure heading towards us.”
“Sure. But if I can give you a bit of advice…”
“Just be quick about it.”
“My first time was with a guy from school who thinks Iraq is a brand of Mp3 player. If you've got someone like Noah Valois sniffing around your heels then I say kick them up and let him have his wicked way with you.”
Eden grunted. “What about trust and affection or God forbid love?”
“Blah, Eden, it's sex not marriage.”
“If you take her advice Eden MacDouglas I will personally beat you over the head with it.” Val was suddenly before them, her eyes narrowed on October disapprovingly.
October gave a deferential nod but a cheeky tilt at the corner of her mouth suggested she was dying to laugh. “Just sharing my opinion, Valeria, that's all.”
“Your opinion… what is that term you kids use today… ah yes… your opinion sucks. Eden has more important things to worry about than casual sex. She has learning, training and hunting to do.
And right now, a great big bloody castle to see and some colour to inject into her wardrobe.” Eden grinned at Val and began to follow October, who swerved around them to take the lead. She had a skip in her step that screamed ‘ you don't scare me, Valeria of Corsica! '
Val made a noise from the back of her throat and her hand shot out to cuff October around the back of the head.
“Ow, what was that for?!”
“That was on behalf of your parents. You're too young to be dallying in casual sex. Children who play grown up games always get hurt.”
“Yeah well smacking me across the head wasn't exactly painless.”
“See. My point exactly.”
Muffling her laughter, Eden followed her ‘cousin' as she huffily led the way.
***
It was still light out as they wandered up the stone steps to the Douglas' house. There were lights on inside so Eden guessed everyone was home. When Christopher wasn't out hunting soul eaters, he was an investment banker for some big Scottish financial company, and Alison was an elementary school teacher - or a primary school teacher as they called it in Scotland. Since it was Saturday they had both decided to accompany Cyrus to the training centre. Eden couldn't imagine how the Neith balanced both lives. With the Ankh it was a full time thing and Eden didn't know where they got all their money from but she did know Cyrus had plenty of cash and shared it out to the fifty eight – oh wait, she made it fifty-nine now – members of the Ankh that were out all over the world, taking on the worst predators among the soul eaters.
Val and October were discussing the training centre as they stepped inside the house, making Eden even more impatient to get a look at the place. They wandered into the sitting room, discussing swords with foreign names that made Eden's head spin, and found the Douglas', Cyrus and Noah sitting around drinking coffee.
Cyrus nodded at her, his eyes smiling. “You had a nice time?” She lifted the bags in her hand and smiled wryly. “I injected colour into my wardrobe.”
“No pink?”
She shuddered. “God, no.”
“Did you take Eden to the castle, Tobe?” Mhairi asked as Alison got up off the sofa, excusing herself as she followed the smell of cooking into the kitchen.