That was pretty much why she had to screech on the brakes at the sight of the lump in the middle of the road.
Eden’s heart triple thumped.
No. Not a lump.
A body.
Immediately her paranoia set in and Eden glanced around, her eyes boring into the woodlands that bordered the main road to the mansion. Goosebumps rose on her arms as her eyes flew back to the body. Something wasn’t right.
She’d seen the pilot episode of The Vampire Diaries enough times to know that.
Wait. The splash of red next to the body froze her. Is that blood?
Slowly Eden reached to unbuckle her seatbelt. Maybe this really was someone in need of her help. Heart pounding, Eden tentatively reached for the door handle.
Then she saw it.
The flash of color in the trees up to her right.
“Shit!” she yelped in fright, slamming the car back into gear as movement exploded out of the trees. The car whined as she spun it into reverse.
Glass exploded, shards screaming in her ear as stinging bites attacked her body, the car rushing forward, green and darkness engulfing her as she was rocked and bumped.
Finally the car grew still and Eden blinked. A jagged hole was smashed in the windscreen, a huge rock on the passenger seat. Tree branches stuck in through the hole. Eden realized she’d careened off the road.
The realization had barely dawned when her car door was wrenched open. Eden skirted back from the large masculine hands that delved in to attack her, her legs flying out, sending the attacker crashing backwards into the trees. Scrambling over shards of glass that bit into her flesh, Eden fell from the car and rolled, drawing up onto her feet in one smooth motion. Five humans stood before her. Three men, two women. All armed. Daggers and swords. Like something out of Shonen Jump.
Is that a Samurai sword? Her eyes widened momentarily on one of the girl’s weapons.
Eden quickly checked her surroundings for other attackers. There was none. Just these five with their cocky, vicious smiles. Ryan’s words suddenly swam through her brain. These humans call themselves the Warriors of Neith. Their sole duty in life is to kill off the Blessed. “I know who you are,” she told them quietly, already calculating how the hell she was going to get past them to the mansion.
“Good.” One of the older guys nodded calmly. He was the only one not smiling. “Then you know why we’re here.”
Before she could even respond, one of the women shot a dagger at her. Eden dropped to the forest floor, hearing the hiss of the blade propel past her. She snapped to her feet in time to deflect the woman’s attack, her fist flying toward Eden’s face at amazing speed for a human.
A calm fell over Eden. Her reassuring body told her it would take care of everything. And it did. In one movement, she jerked back from the fist, grabbed a hold of the woman’s wrist with both hands and twisted her arm back and up, the snap of bone followed closely by the woman’s shrieking. Eden’s leg came up, her foot connecting with the base of the woman’s spine, her preternatural strength shooting through her muscles so that, with little effort, the female warrior flew through the air, past her fellow fighters.
Eden barely had time to question her body’s knowledge of self-defense when two more of the warriors attacked. She ducked and punched, her knee connecting with a stomach, her elbow with a nose. Blood slicked her knuckles, the sting of a blade sliced her upper arm. The two men were barely down when she caught sight of the samurai girl hurrying towards her. She spun out from the spot and ran at a thick tree trunk, her feet gripping the bark with ease before she used it to push off, her leg snapping out from the knee, her foot connecting with the girl’s head with a sickening thud.
Eden landed on her feet with no sound. Her breathing had hardly increased, although her heart was racing like a cheetah after a gazelle. Her eyes took in the warriors, three of them heaving to their feet.
Holy moly, Eden tensed. These guys were strong for humans.
Her eyes rested on the warrior girl she’d knocked unconscious and her hunger roared from within. It would be so easy to take her. So easy…
The screech of tires from the road was quickly followed by doors slamming. Caught off guard, the warriors turned warily, spotting Ryan’s goons scrambling down the embankment towards them. A look passed between two of the men and one of them turned tail and ran, flashing in and out of the trees like a viper. He was gone in an instant.
Ryan’s goons charged at the warriors who remained. The Neith abandoned Eden in the face of bigger opponents. She staggered back, watching the fight, watching the goons. They fought well but relied heavily on their strength rather than finesse. She glanced at her hands, covered in blood, remembering how she’d fought. She’d fought like those warriors. With grace and strategy. It made no sense. Eden shivered, biting back nausea. The crack of bones signaled the warriors’ demise.
“You OK?” One of the goons strode towards her, stepping over the body of the female warrior she’d kicked in the head.
Eden nodded numbly.
The goon grinned. “You can take care of yourself, kid. You killed two of them.”
Her heart stopped. “What?” Her lips felt numb.
The idiot kept grinning, his grey eyes bright with violence. “You killed the two women.” He pointed at the samurai girl. “See. Neck’s broken. Hey!” He laughed up at the other goon as he reached down for the girl’s sword. “Jenkins, this is real.” He lifted it up, angling it into the light that filtered through the trees. “I’m keeping this bad boy.”
“Come on.” Jenkins huffed towards them. “Ms. Winslow, get in the car. We’ll need to inform Mr. Winslow and have a clean-up crew head over here right away.” He tutted at the sight of her car. “That’s a goner for a while.”
Eden wanted to scream at them. They were acting so casually! She’d just killed two people! Didn’t they care?!
No. They don’t. They’re Blessed. No. What was it Ryan said the Neith called them? Soul eaters. Yeah. That’s it. They’re soul eaters.
Numbly, Eden ignored them and trudged up the embankment to their car.
Ryan was incensed by the news of the attack. He could barely look at her and was rushing around, ordering people about. From what Eden could tell they’d have the mess cleaned up in under half an hour. Teagan stood in the corner of the sitting room, grinning at her the whole time, his eyes devouring her. For once she was too numb to care. Celine and Stellan were out but Ryan had called them both to come back to the mansion. Eden wished Stellan would hurry.
“You fought them off, Eden?” Teagan asked with a smile in his voice.
She shrugged. No way was she telling them about the weird fighting skills in the woods. It was not like she trusted them or anything.
“This is a disaster,” Ryan muttered and then snapped his cell open as it buzzed. “Yeah? OK. Good.” He snapped it shut and pinned her to the sofa with his eyes. “They’ve cleaned it up and the car has been towed. I’ve got Jenkins picking up a rental for you.”
At least she wouldn’t have to endure school runs with Celine.
The front door blew open and the familiar footsteps pounding across the foyer to the sitting room made her feel a little better. Stellan burst into the room, his eyes blazing with fury. And then they settled on her and his whole body slumped towards her.
“Jesus!” he cried, reaching for her, his hands cupping her face. “What the hell?” His eyes roamed over her features, a glower darkening his complexion.
Eden blinked. “What?”
“It will heal.” Ryan shrugged
“What will heal?” she asked frowning.
Stellan looked so worried. “Paradise, have you looked in the mirror?”
She shook her head.
Stellan threw Ryan a disgusted look. “You could have at least helped clean her up.”
Their father’s mouth twisted into a look of mockery. “Why would I bother when I knew her knight in shining armor was only minutes away?”
Ignoring him, Stellan slid his hands under her, heaving her up easily into his arms. Eden didn’t argue as he strode out of the room, carrying her up the stairs and into her bedroom, straight through into her en-suite. Gently, he settled her on the edge of her bath and her image reflected back at her from the mirror on the opposite wall.
“Wh-” She reached for her face. It was covered in lots of tiny nicks from the glass from the windscreen, some still bleeding, some already healing over. There was a larger slash across her left cheekbone, however, gross and disgusting as it slowly healed over.
“It will heal,” Stellan promised, catching her horrified expression. “You just take a little longer because you haven’t fed yet.”
“I can’t go to school looking like this.”
Stellan shook his head. “You should be all healed up by tomorrow morning.”
Eden watched him carefully as he set about running her a hot bath, pouring in oils and girly stuff she didn’t normally bother with. “It doesn’t even hurt,” she told him quietly.
He grinned at her. “It probably should a little because you’re not completely Blessed yet but…” His smile dropped. “You’re probably still in shock.”
Her eyes suddenly filled with tears. “I killed two people, Stel.” She’d killed two people and although she felt sick with it now, in the moment… she’d enjoyed the fight. She’d felt… alive… in a way she had never felt before.
Her brother’s face hardened and he crossed the room to close the door. Quickly, he returned to her, bending down to take her hands in his. Gently he took a wash cloth and began cleaning the blood off her knuckles. “You listen to me, OK. It was self-defense, Paradise. Self-defense. Those Neith were there to kill you, and you did what you had to do.”
“It’s not that simple.”
He tugged hard on her hands, drawing her gaze so that their eyes locked. “You’re the gentlest one of our kind I’ve ever known, Eden. You’re the last Blessed on this earth those bastards should have come after. They deserved what they got.”
They deserved what they got.
Did Lana? Did the red-headed woman in the basement, or those blonde twins from Ohio?
Where was the line?
“There’s no line, Stel,” she whispered.
Chapter Eleven
Love or Something like it
Over the next few weeks it felt like she gave up a little. Gave in, maybe. It wasn’t like it mattered here anyway. Ryan had decided they were moving after Eden’s Awakening Ceremony. The Neith knew where they were now and it was just too risky. So they were leaving. Leaving home. Leaving Salton. Leaving… leaving Noah. But she didn’t care… right?
Eden walked the halls of SSH delivering death looks at anybody who bumped into her or dared to meet her gaze.
Didn’t they know she was a killer now?
“Oh look, it’s freak show without her freak mate.” Lucy Stevens smirked at her as she past her in the hall. That was the one drawback from the compulsion. The idiot no longer remembered to fear her. Eden curled her lip up in a snarl just as Lucy’s friend, Shawna Beaumont swatted at Lucy, a little frown furrowing her perfect eyebrows.