Blood Past - By Samantha Young Page 0,73

“Six, I need you to speak to the guy prisoner. Make it very quick though.” He snapped the cell shut and pointed at the screen.

They watched as a hulking great big soul eater stalked onto the screen, a blade in his hand.

Dawning horror hit her as he pulled the blade back and plunged it into Noah’s stomach and twisted it.

His hoarse yell echoed up the basement stairwell behind Teagan and Eden turned to her cousin with retribution blazing in her eyes. “Did I tell you how much I’m going to enjoy killing you?” Teagan snorted. “Promises, promises.”

Thankfully the soul eater who had attacked Noah was happy with just that one ripping attack. He melted off screen and Teagan switched the television off.

“So?” he asked Cyrus expectantly.

Cyrus’ gaze bore through him. “What exactly do you want with Eden?” Teagan studied him for a moment, a small smile curling his lip. “You know don’t you?”

“Where did you get it?”

“Ryan.”

“How?”

“He stole it from your house when he came for Merrit.”

Eden’s head swivelled between the two, her heart racing with an unknown horror. “What? What are you talking about?”

Laughing now at the unbanked anger in Cyrus’ eyes, Teagan shrugged. “Should I do the honours?”

“What the hell is going on?!” Eden yelled, terrified that Teagan had managed to unsettle the Princeps.

Her cousin slid a hand into his jacket pocket, pulling out a tattered journal that looked a million years old. “These are your Princeps’ scribblings.” He pointed the yellow pages at her. “Notes taken from the theories of an Egyptian Voodoo Priestess who communed with the gods. In them she discusses the Unforeseen. You wanna hear the really interesting part?” He grinned cockily at her and Eden knew… she knew… something terrible was about to be revealed. “If it be truth that the Unforeseen transform to warrior with the ingress of blood of the line into the form, then so it be truth that death of the line, before seven years after blood assimiliation, kills the warrior and welcomes soul taker to form.”

Eden blinked, shaking her head stupidly. “What the hell does that mean?” The malicious smile on Teagan’s face made her want to throw up. “It means that if the person who gave you the blood that transformed you to Ankh – that would be Mhairi – dies before seven years after the transition, her blood inside you dies too and you turn back to one of the Blessed.” His eyes were alight with excitement at the prospect.

She felt as if she had been stabbed through the gut. It took every ounce of strength she had not to let her knees buckle beneath her. “Seven…” she whispered incredulously.

“Yeah, it’s some Egyptian thing. Seven planets, seven years of plenty, of famine, constellation crap yaddah yaddah yaddah. The important thing, Paradise, it means I get you back.” Pure terror and fury exploded out of her. “Don’t call me that!” This couldn’t be happening. It just couldn’t. There was no way he could take away her whole life like that. “What do you want with Noah?”

She already knew what he wanted with Mhairi.

“You don’t let me kill the old gal… fine… I’ll kill your boy.” He shrugged at her, as if he were asking which cereal she’d prefer for breakfast. “What will it be, Eden? Noah or Mhairi?” The question sent a shock through her body and she glanced at Cyrus and Val for help.

“They can’t help you, Eden.” Teagan smirked. “In fact… I believe I’m waiting on them agreeing to the injection?”

To her absolute shock Eden could only look on as Cyrus and Val nodded their assent. No, she trembled visibly now. They had to help her?! They couldn’t leave her, for this to happen to her. She’d rather die than be a soul eater again.

But Noah.

An angry hot tear escaped over her lid and she swiped it furiously. Could she do it? Could she give up herself and Mhairi to save the boy she loved?

The answer horrified her.

“Cyrus?” she begged, watching as two of the soul eaters surrounding them stepped out of the circle at Teagan’s order and took needles out of their inside suit pockets. Eyes huge, she pleaded silently with Cyrus for answers as the needle plunged into his neck.

“Never fear, Eden,” he told her softly. “The Eye of Horus is always watching.” Brows furrowing, Eden racked her brain for meaning in Cyrus’ cryptic comment. What…?

“Cyrus?” she asked anxiously but his eyes were already closing.

The Eye of Horus is always watching.

The Eye of