“Yes.”
Clutching her stomach to hold down the nausea, Eden looked away from Ryan. God, they were so evil a goddess had created a race of humans to take them out. Awesome.
“Eden?”
“What?”
“I’m glad you’ve agreed to the Ceremony. Trust me… when it’s over… this… whatever this bizarre human thing you’re going through is… it will disappear forever. All this… unnecessary pain you’re feeling… you won’t have to deal with it anymore.”
She watched as he turned on his heel and left the room. That had almost been an actual conversation. A very sick and twisted conversation, but one nonetheless.
Her phone buzzed.
Where are you? Everything OK? N.
Hot tears brimmed over her eyelids. She’d agreed to the Ceremony. Which meant…
No more Noah.
Chapter Seven
You and Me, Dude
“It has been a few days now,” Cyrus sighed down the other end of the phone line.
Noah winced at the reproach in his sigh. “It’s not like I’m not trying, Cyrus, but if I push her now, I might not get her back.”
“If you do not push her now, we might not get her back.”
Noah exhaled heavily. It was Friday tomorrow and still Eden was avoiding him like he was a Bieber fan at a Korn concert. In any other hunt it wouldn’t have been a problem. He’d have gone in aggressive and had a hold of his prey in record time. But with Eden he felt he needed to tread carefully. She was going through a traumatic time right now, and pushing her to talk to him when she was so clearly afraid, might ruin their friendship forever.
“You are becoming too involved, Noah,” Cyrus softened, his understanding worse than the recrimination.
You’re one to talk. “I’m not too involved. I’m just trying to be careful.”
“No. You are concerned about losing her trust. Well that is something that will probably occur, so it is best you resolve yourself to that outcome. Right now, I am concerned about losing her. If she has broken away from you, Noah, it can only mean she has decided to go ahead with the Awakening Ceremony. We cannot let that happen. Do what you must to get through to her.”
Noah groaned inwardly as he flopped back on his bed. Cyrus was right. He’d effed this one up. Gotten too close. Too attached. “Of course, Princeps. I’ll fix this.”
“Good. Alain would like to speak with you.”
He brightened a little. He hadn’t spoken with his parents in a few weeks except for a couple of text messages from his mom.
“Noah,” his father’s heavily accented voice murmured in his ear and his whole body relaxed.
“Hey, Dad. How are you? How’s Mom?”
“Good. Missing you. We did not think this assignment would take so long.”
“I know. I had to take my time. Build trust.”
The line was quiet for a moment and Noah could hear his father moving, a door closing in the background. Finally Alain sighed, sounding as weary as Noah felt. “Cyrus has been keeping me updated on your progress.”
Noah didn’t like his tone. That tone had always signaled a lecture. A lecture that somehow managed to make him feel seventeen instead of seventy. “Yeah?”
“I was never keen on this, Noah. I wanted what was best for Cyrus, what would make him happy, but I’ve never been sure of this creature, this girl-”
Noah flinched at the disdain in Alain’s voice and unexpectedly found his hands curling into angry fists.