Sighing heavily, Noah tugged on his hair, reminding himself that tomorrow was the big night and he had to be utterly in control if he wanted to rescue Eden before it was too late. The fact that more Neith had come along and screwed up their plan had nearly sent Cyrus off the deep end. But the Neith promised they weren’t hiding the perpetrators, they were trying to discover who this rebel faction leader was and take them out. Still, they had been watching Ryan Winslow. He’d invited ten more soul eaters to the Awakening Ceremony as a security precaution. Eden and her family were on lockdown.
Cyrus wasn’t stupid.
He had handpicked a Neith trained to withstand the soul eaters’ compulsion just as the Ankh were. It was a difficult thing for a mortal to accomplish but some of the Neith were capable of it. The female Neith had been sent in as a caterer. She would disable the security cameras, open the mansion gates, and send the information they needed on where security was set up etc.
They had done this sort of thing before. It would be a piece of cake.
As long as he closed down and forgot that he had a personal interest in the outcome.
“Here you go, Noah,” Sally said, pushing the trays of coffee towards him with a grin. “Got a study group going or something?”
Noah snorted, handing over cash. “Something like that.”
“Well I’m surprised.” She smiled sweetly. “I thought you and Eden kept to yourselves. Like two peas in a pod you two.” She winked.
Gritting back a grimace, Noah nodded and took the coffee. He could barely manage a goodbye as he left the cafe, trying to swallow back the awful reminder of how he had played Eden.
No matter what happened, she was never going to forgive him.
His heart beat a little harder at the thought and he fumbled with Alain’s car keys as he balanced the coffee on one hand.
By the time he heard the scuffle of feet it was too late.
Pain slammed through his head, a sharp slice down the center of his skull. He groaned, slumping forward as he forced his body to move through the pain. His elbow flew out and cracked someone across the face, but it felt like a million hands were grappling with him, and then a brief sharp prick of pain in his neck flared his panic.
Shit, he thought distantly, as a thousand little black bugs crawled across his vision until there was nothing but empty darkness.
Chapter Fifteen
Murderer. Monster. Both?
Eden had been sitting staring out into the gardens from her bedroom window seat for the last two hours. There was a hubbub of activity around the house as Celine showed the Blessed who had arrived to celebrate the Awakening Ceremony with them to the guest rooms. Eden didn’t even know who half of them were, although she recognized a few familiar faces from odd events over the years. Ryan had invited more people without telling her. She pressed her face against the cool glass, watching goons pace in and out of view. Her dad had also tightened security. Eden grimaced. Noah and his Neith would have to be idiots to attack them. At the thought of him she felt only anger. The pain that had been there before had subsided. Her hunger preferred the fury and since she was pretty much trembling with need at this point, the hunger got what it wanted.
Part of her was desperate for the Awakening Ceremony to be over. She wanted to feel normal again. Instead, she was wakening up in the middle of the night, her pyjamas sticking to her with cold sweat, her chest feeling as if heavy stone slabs had been placed upon it, her brain unfocused – like a million fingers squeezing on her temples. All she could think about was the hunger. The only voice she could concentrate on was the hunger.
It was a small mercy that Ryan had put her under house arrest. Eden just might have attacked Lucy Stevens by now.
Then there was the other part of her. The part that couldn’t forget the look on Stellan’s face when he asked her to promise not to change once she awakened. He feared his own nature. He feared the iron door in the basement.
And now Eden did too.
With other Blessed walking around the house, hanging out with Ryan and Celine, their sick laughter echoing through the halls, Ryan had had a lock put on the doorway at the top of the basement stairwell. But Eden knew a way in.
And she couldn’t… she just couldn’t get the iron door out of her head.
Watching the goon in the back garden pace back out of view, Eden bit her lip, her heart beginning to race at her thoughts.
She had to know.
She had to know what she might be capable of… once she took a life.
Her legs shook as she stuffed her feet into green Converse, and her arms trembled like crazy as she shrugged on a sweater. The hall outside her room was quiet, and Eden’s sensitive ears picked up the sounds of the Blessed in the front parlor. They were quietly discussing the Neith and Ryan’s options for the move. He’d been very close-mouthed about where he was moving his family. They still didn’t know. Eden didn’t even think Celine knew.
Gulping back her fear, Eden quickened her pace, barely acknowledging two of the caterers she passed and the goon at the front entrance. Instead she took off through the back hallway, past the large kitchen, and through into the back sitting room with the French doors that led into the gardens. The air was cool, the clouds heavy with the threat of rain.
The perfect weather for turning evil.
Hurriedly, in case she suddenly backed out, Eden loped down the stone stairs into the garden, glancing around to make sure the goon was nowhere in sight. Catching him near one of Celine’s fountains in the west gardens, Eden ducked behind the hedgerow that divided the back garden from the side garden. By now her heart was pounding so hard, all she could hear was the blood rushing in her ears. Exhaling, Eden sidled along the hedge quietly until she found the dead end. Well… it wasn’t quite a dead end. Ignoring the prickles and sharp scratches, Eden squeezed through the slight gap between the corner of the hedgerow and the apparent dead end. She stood at the top of the stone steps that led down to the basement, willing the nausea away. Only the family knew about these stairs, they were so well hidden and disguised. And even if someone were to find them, they’d think they’d found a useless staircase. No door at the bottom.