Blood Past - By Samantha Young Page 0,33

was a day or so after the Battle of Poitier, we had been hunting together for ten years, and we were hunting a soul eater who was preying on the dying soldiers. The soul eater found Merrit and I barely got to her in time to save her. I knew then.”

“Knew what?” Eden asked in a hushed voice.

“That I loved her. That I could not live without her.”

“What did she say?”

Cyrus burst out into laughter as he remembered. “She said… ‘Well it took you long enough, Cyrus of Persepolis.’”

Eden smiled. “She was already in love with you.”

“I was a fool to have not seen it.”

A sweet silence fell over them, and together they sat staring as the flow of traffic grew busier, and more people descended out onto the streets, hurrying to their work. Eden’s eyes caught on a couple as they came out of their apartment and kissed before turning to walk off in opposite directions. Her eyes followed the woman, who turned a couple of times to look back at the guy. “I’m sorry,” she whispered without looking at Cyrus. “I’m sorry you lost her.” He was quiet a moment before he replied softly, “I am sorry you never got to know her.” Chapter Eleven

Standing Ground… Underground

“By now I would imagine you realise that the only way to kill a soul eater is by decapitation,” Cyrus said as they walked back toward the Douglas home.

Subconsciously, Eden guessed she had known that because of what she’d witnessed in her parents

– well - her father’s home when the soul eaters had been decapitated. An image of Stellan’s death flashed across her eyes before she could stop it and she winced, shuddering at the sick, morose feeling that stole over her. “Yeah, I got that part.”

“Good. Well, it is not as easy as it may sound-”

Eden grunted. “Uh what sounds easy about decapitation?”

“Oh. Right. I keep forgetting you are more seventeen year old American teen than ancient warrior.”

“Yeah well just give me a few days.” She grinned cockily trying to shake off the pall cast by Stellan’s memory.

Cyrus didn’t smile back. “This is serious, Eden. Your training here will be pivotal. I cannot send you out to hunt if I am not absolutely confident in your abilities.” She felt her defences rise. After all, hadn’t she already fought off Neith by herself? She had done pretty OK in the past, and now that she didn’t have the hunger messing with her she was able to concentrate fully on all the skills she would need to acquire to hunt down monsters.

“Fighting Neith is not the same as fighting soul eaters. Soul eaters are stronger than Neith; that is why Neith train twice as hard as we do.”

Perturbed by his intuition Eden glowered at him. “What, have you been taking lessons from Noah on mind reading or something?”

“No.” Cyrus smiled now. “But I am coming to understand you, and what I do not know, Noah has told me. He knows you very well, Eden.”

The thought of her ex-best friend sent her heart into palpitations. To forgive or not to forgive, that is the question. “You know it’s really clear whose side you’re on.”

“I am not a teenager, Eden, I do not take sides. I would just like to remind you that Noah was under orders and he disliked lying to you. He does care about you.”

“You think I should forgive him?”

“Enough to let him prepare you. He is excellent at what he does, Eden. He will make you an excellent hunting partner if you can allow yourself to trust him.”

“I trust you.”

“Then trust me when I say you can trust Noah.”

Cyrus came to a stop outside McLeish’s home and Eden slowed to a halt beside him. She found herself staring at the ground in concentration, chewing on her lip as she thought over what Cyrus was suggesting. Noah had hurt her. In fact she was pretty sure Noah may have broken her heart. There was no way you could just shrug off that kind of hurt like it had never happened. But she also knew in that rational part of her brain she now owned that Noah hadn’t meant to hurt her. He was just doing his job and, from what she had witnessed so far, the Ankh were kind of big on duty… even to the point of being arrogant elitists. Was it possible to come to some kind of halfway point concerning the first guy who had ever crushed her?

“OK.” Eden