Blood Past - By Samantha Young Page 0,30

in the sky, not hot enough to bank the shivers, but warm enough to cast a glittering glow over everything, present enough to fill Eden with an unexpected feeling of contentment.

A spring morning in Scotland had just made its way up the ranks as one of her favourite things ever.

“What are we doing?” she asked, pulling on a thin sweater over her t-shirt.

Cyrus smiled at her. “Going for breakfast before training.”

“Just the two of us?”

“Just the two of us.”

She liked that. Trying not to grin like a little kid heading off to the ice cream parlour, Eden found stride with Cyrus. As they made their way out onto the main street, she enjoyed the quieter flow of traffic, the smell of fresh bread and coffee in the air. She enjoyed the comfortable silence between her and her guardian. Cyrus had long legs and Eden quickened her step to match up with him again.

Becoming aware of people staring at him as they passed, Eden ran her eyes over him, trying to work out what they saw. Like every other day he wore an expensive sweater moulded to his fit body.

Today the sweater was black. But instead of the usual tailored trousers, Cyrus wore black jeans and a pair of walking boots, both of which were probably designer. He reeked of wealth. Is that what people saw when they looked at him? Or was it just that he was good-looking? Or was it that ‘I wouldn’t mess with me if I were you’ aspect in his eyes?

As if sensing her stare, Cyrus slanted a look at her, smirking. “What is it?”

“People are staring at you,” she answered promptly.

He laughed softly. “They are also staring at you.”

“They are?” Eden glanced up and sure enough caught the eye of a young woman who very quickly lowered her gaze and hurried by them. “What’s that all about?”

“Contrary to popular belief, humans are not stupid. They sense there is something different about us.”

“Hmm.”

She didn’t say much after that. Instead she patiently waited for Cyrus to buy her coffee and a bagel and lead her to a quiet bench. Clearly there was something he wanted to discuss. As she settled in next to him, her eye caught the silver ring on the middle finger of his right hand. Noah and his father wore the same ring. It was a masculine silver square with an ankh-shaped onyx stone inset into the centre. Valeria and Emma wore a smaller, more feminine version of the ring. Eden wondered if all Ankh wore one.

She nodded at it. “What is that?”

Cyrus’ mouth quirked up as he followed her gaze. He shifted his hand in the light, the black stone winking in the morning sun. “I sometimes think you read my mind, Eden.”

“Oh?”

Eyes smiling, Cyrus reached into his pocket and pulled out a small ring, exactly like Val and Emma’s. “All Ankh wear the ring. It began with your mother believe it or not.” At the mention of Merrit, Eden’s heart began to beat faster. Suddenly she wanted to know everything about the warrior she had never met, the warrior that had captured someone like Cyrus’

heart. “My mother?”

He nodded, his eyes growing sad. “She gifted me with it in 1678. We were in Rome at the time, hunting an extremely powerful soul eater. He had taken a piece of soul from one of our kin, a young Ankh, Joseph. Not only did we need to stop this soul eater, we needed to get Joseph’s soul back.” Eden blinked, shaking her head. “Wait, you can do that?”

Cyrus nodded patiently. “There is so much to tell you, Eden. So much.” He shook his head. “I don’t want to burden you with too much information too soon.”

“No, no,” she argued. “Just hit me with it. I want to know all this stuff. I can take it. I promise.” She waited as Cyrus took a bite of his bagel and a sip of his coffee, glancing around casually to make sure they were still relatively alone. “Alright. If you kill a soul eater in the vicinity of someone who has lost a piece of soul to the said soul eater then the victim’s soul returns to his or her body.

Joseph’s soul made this particular soul eater incredibly strong, so it was doubly imperative for us to find him. Merrit and I had difficulty taking Joseph with us to hunt the soul eater because he had become a dark creature, almost devoid of humanity. In the end we