Blood Past - By Samantha Young Page 0,56

also pretty much desperate to make the most of her first night as a true Ankh warrior. Cyrus and Val were hunting too, along with McLeish and a few other Neith. They’d decided to split up and Cyrus, a ‘throw ‘em into the deep end’ kind of guy had decided Noah would take Eden to Leith, where one of the victims had lived. Val hadn’t looked too happy about that. In fact, neither had Cyrus, but Eden could see he was struggling to act as he would normally, rather than smother her with overprotectiveness.

Senses on high alert, Eden’s eyes swept the buildings, people, alleyways. They were walking down a pretty busy area of Edinburgh at night so it wasn’t exactly the easiest assignment.

“Anything?” she asked, suddenly feeling the need to fill the silence between her and Noah.

He shook his head as he kept scanning everything and everywhere without looking like he was.

Eden remembered how much she used to marvel at how good he was at this spy stuff. The surreptitious looks, the ability to get away from Ryan’s well-paid goons. Made sense now. She took a moment to study Noah in his natural habitat. He was so serious, so prepared and commanding. He was Mr Duty. Somehow, she’d always felt that about him, even before she knew who he really was.

He carried this invisible weight of responsibility on his shoulders and he’d always had this intense sense of right and wrong. It had been one of the things she’d like about him so much, had made him stand out from the immature teen guys at school. But then… Noah wasn’t exactly the average teenager. Her eyes unwillingly roamed over his powerful shoulders wrapped up so nicely in a black thermal top. She felt a weird clenching in her lower belly as her gaze slid down his arms to his large strong hands, to the silver ring on his middle finger. She gulped, feeling a little warm as her eyes continued to roam. He certainly had a nice ass. She blinked as her eyes travelled lower and caught on the low side pocket of his black cargo pants. Inside it were two Persian short swords. Long daggers?

Whatever, point was they were on duty. Eden snapped her eyes back to attention, mentally berating herself for getting distracted so easily on the first hunt. Maybe she shouldn’t patrol with Noah next time.

Slowly but surely life started to edge away from them the further they walked and the streets seemed to grow a little darker.

“Any-”

“Ssh.” Noah pressed a finger to his lips and held out an arm to stop her. In the distance they could hear the hubbub of traffic and some late night revellers laughing and yelling. Here, Eden could only hear her own heartbeat pounding at Noah’s alertness as he watched the opening of an alleyway between two restaurants. What was-She froze as she heard the scuffling Noah must have heard. Throwing him a questioning look, Eden wasn’t surprised when he nodded back and began unbuttoning the pocket of his cargo pants.

Glancing around quickly, making sure there was no witnesses or security cameras pointed on them, he withdrew the short swords and handed one to Eden. The metal felt strangely cold in Eden’s hands.

Making no sound, she and Noah walked around the corner and into the darkness of the alleyway.

Lights from the street, and her brilliant Ankh vision, made visible two people at the end of the alley.

One had the other pressed against the brick wall of the restaurant, the victim’s eyes wide and mouth open as the soul eater leaned in for the kill.

Out of nowhere Eden was cast back into the past, to Stellan’s room, as he sucked the soul out of Lana. At the time she had been horrified but she had also hungered to do the same to the poor girl.

Now, without that hunger inside her, there was only horror, and the abject guilt that she had let it happen to Lana, that part of her could have wanted to do that to someone. Images upon images tumbled around her. Attacking Lucy Stevens in the school bathroom. Almost killing Charlotte who owned the thrift store. All the times she’d wanted to do that to Noah.

Eden was yanked out of her frozen nausea as Noah charged the soul eater. He ripped victim and monster apart, shoving the girl at Eden. “Keep her there, she needs some of her soul back.” He hissed and flinched low in time to duck