Blood Past

chapter Twelve

Taking it to the mat

No amount of supernatural grace could ever make Noah a good surfer. He’d tried a couple of times but each time his Ankh strength had failed him and he was constantly being thrown off balance and buried by the waves. Life with Eden was kind of like that. Yesterday in training he’d almost crushed the Neith under his foot when Eden had given him the nod.

She was talking to him now?!

Of course he’d tried desperately to scramble for equilibrium, his cool calm that made him so…

cool. But by then it was too late. She had seen his surprise. It didn’t stop him from trying to regain some semblance of casual nonchalance by smoothing his features and instructing her in hand to hand combat. And still Eden surprised him. She listened to him without comment, only doling out smart ass comments to October who was her sparring partner. Together he and Tobe, and that annoying nephew of Councilman McLeish, Cameron, walked Eden through a number of varied manoeuvres the Ankh had taken from different martial arts. They started off with the grittier stuff, grappling and boxing, using the ancient Greek art Pankration, some Judo, and Hawaiian Lua. All of them taught how to take down an opponent and keep them down - flips, hammer fists, neck cranks, eye gouging, bone breaking, tracheal grip chokes, arm locks… anything a warrior needed to know about incapacitating a soul eater if they found themselves without a weapon that would actually kill it. And Eden was a fast learner. In fact, Tobe was covered in bruises and Eden had had to be reminded more than a few times that she was stronger than Neith and to go easier on the young warrior. These martial arts were the deadliest of their kind and Noah had to focus absolutely so that no one got hurt.

It was only after training, as they headed back to Tobe’s and Cameron ( dick) said a flirty goodbye to Eden, that Noah could dwell on the fact that Eden was actually treating him like a person again. He’d looked to Cyrus for answers but his Princeps was too busy praising his adopted daughter for her great first day.

At dinner that night Eden hadn’t actually talked to Noah, but whenever he did speak she didn’t throw him her normal death stare. So yeah, he was off-balance and hated that Eden could do that to him. He couldn’t afford to be off-balance doing the job that he did and that’s why he had to turn down Christopher’s invitation to go investigating what sounded like a soul eater den in the apartments above a club in New Town. According to Chris there hadn’t been a den in about five years and the last soul eater to hit Edinburgh had been two months ago. So yeah, possible den, big news. Just the kind of thing he usually jumped on. But he couldn’t because all he was thinking about was if Eden forgave him and if so what that meant for him? He was turning into a freakin’ milksop.

Guess he couldn’t make fun of his dad anymore for being whipped. Noah sighed and flopped down on the pallet he had made on the floor in the room he was sharing with Cyrus. Cyrus hadn’t turned down the invitation to investigate and he’d had to shut Eden down when she’d asked to go. She and Tobe had retired to Tobe’s room to grumble about being left out. And Noah… Noah had watched her walk out of the room, wondering what it would be like to train with Eden, to wrestle her to the mat, her slender body with curves in all the right places flush with his… he groaned and beat at his pillow.

I had this coming, Noah thought wryly. He’d messed around with so many girls, broke so many hearts and made so many of them cry. This was payback. Growling in frustration he slammed upright, pulling out three pieces of paper each with a Neith girl’s phone number. They’d accosted him at different times during the day, seeming to enjoy his cool perusal, his monosyllabic responses.

Eden would slap him if he ever looked at her like that.

“Balls,” he whispered, crumpling the papers up and throwing them across the room into the waste paper basket with perfect aim. What had that nod meant?

***

“I thought I was sword training today?” Eden asked as Noah led her into the training room the next morning. With the Bank Holiday over, the room was much quieter; all the young warriors back at school, including Tobe and Cameron, leaving a few older ones who didn’t work or worked from home or went to college. They nodded deferentially to Noah as he walked in. Every single mat was being used and he drew to a stop to wait patiently for one to free up.

“Well?” Eden persisted.

After an almost sleepless night, Noah had decided to play it cool with her if he could. She enjoyed messing with him - he could tell - so he wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction.

Even though he was desperate to know why she was talking to him again.

“Yesterday was good but you need to practice with someone stronger than Tobe or Cameron.”

“Cameron was pretty strong.”

He threw her a quick look. She was smiling smugly. What? Did she have feelings for that little Scottish knob? Noah grunted. “Not strong enough.”

“Well then, who am I fighting today? You?”

Was it just him or did she look a little wary about that? He grinned inwardly. “Yeah. As soon as we get a mat.”

“Hi, Noah.”

They turned and Noah was faced with one of the older Neith girls. Or woman, he should say.

Natalie. She’d been coming on to him pretty strong the first day he arrived at the training centre.

Natalie was Eden’s height with soft blonde hair and huge, gorgeous, chocolaty eyes. She also looked about twenty five, twenty six, and was exactly the type of woman he would have fooled around with before he met Eden. “Natalie.” He nodded politely.

The Neith beamed, clearly ecstatic that he had remembered her. “Nice to see you again. This is James.” She jerked a thumb in the direction of her sparring partner who looked a little disgruntled by her obvious interest in Noah. “We were just finishing up so you can have the mat.” Noah smiled. “Thank you, we appreciate it.”

Grinning suggestively, Natalie stepped a little closer to him and asked quietly, “You know I can stick around if you need someone to spar with?”

At the sound of Eden’s grunt, Noah flicked a look at her out of the corner of his eye. He caught her throwing the Neith a disbelieving and disgusted look. A rush of feeling shot through Noah’s veins. Was Eden jealous of the flirty Neith? He raised an eyebrow at the implications. Hmm. Maybe I should play on this, he mused. He could flirt with the Neith, try to make Eden jealous in order to force her to acknowledge that there was so much more between them.

Wait, what the eff?!

Irritated at his crazy thoughts, Noah shot an incredulous look at Eden. The girl was turning him into an idiot. Noah was not a game player. He was direct, honest and straight to the point. There was no way this- whatever this was - was going to change who he was.

He shot Natalie a cool look. “I’ve got a sparring partner, but thanks.” He took a gentle hold of Eden’s elbow and led her to the mat.

*

Eden couldn’t help it. She was majorly relieved that Noah hadn’t started flirting back with Natalie the Neith with the bedroom eyes. Her relief made her uncomfortable. Uncomfortable with how possessive she still felt towards Noah. The night of Doug Brown’s party pushed its way to the forefront of her thoughts. That sophomore had riled Eden back then and she’d felt so smug that Noah hadn’t been interested, that he’d chosen to find Eden and leave with her. With everything that had happened between them, she was so sure those feelings for him would at least be muted if not gone.

Why she’d thought that she wasn’t sure, considering every time she thought of Stellan, she thought of Romany, and then thought of Noah and all the negativity she felt towards him threatened to rear its ugly head again. And it wasn’t just because his ex-girlfriend killed Stellan – although that was a huge part of it – but also because all the time she’d had fluffy feelings for him, he’d actually been seeing someone behind her back.

“OK, ready to start?” Noah asked, shrugging out of his jacket and throwing it to the floor offside the mat. His pale violet eyes were full of patience and familiarity.

It was only yesterday that Eden had promised Cyrus that she would forgive Noah. And she had. I have, she reminded herself. She got the importance of their duty now and Noah had just been following orders. She forgave him. She did. She really, really did. She forgave them all. Except Romany. Stellan’s murderer could never be forgiven.

“Sure.” Eden shrugged, pulling off her sweater so she could train in her tank top. She grinned cheekily at Noah as she threw it aside. “So, does being Ankh mean we always get our own way?” He frowned. “What are you talking about?”

She bobbed her head towards the entrance where the two Neith had disappeared. “Those guys handing that mat over as soon as we walked in?”

“Ah.” He nodded with a knowing, somewhat arrogant smile that tugged at something in her lower belly. “Yeah pretty much.”

Chuckling at his unabashed superiority Eden shook her head. “It’s a miracle you haven’t been beaten up more.”

“Hey.” Noah shrugged. “Look, it’s just the way that it is. We’re old, we’re more powerful and we’re the only ones that can take down the seriously strong soul eaters. We have to believe in ourselves if we’re going to face the kind of danger that we face. The Neith get that.” Eden thought of Natalie. “Some of them certainly do treat you like rock stars.” He gave her a look that told her he caught her meaning but didn’t respond. Instead he rubbed his hands together. “OK, I’m going to come at you with a punch and I want you to use what you learned yesterday to incapacitate me.”

Now that he was getting down to business Eden tried to shrug off her wariness. Yesterday had been fun but training with Noah made her nervous. She’d seen him in action, felt how strong he was.

This… wasn’t going to be easy. Exhaling, Eden took a defensive stance and waited for Noah.

His arm shot out, a blur of movement Eden hadn’t ever encountered before. Despite his speed, Noah’s training kicked in and she stepped into the punch. Eden grabbed his wrist, rolling it as she twisted his arm. Noah winced as she pushed him to his knees, putting pressure on his upper arm as she pulled the arm upwards, poised to break it. She did it in seconds, as much of a blur as his attack had been.

Noah grinned up at her. “Good.”

“Thanks.”

“Uh you can let go now.”

“Oh, sorry,” she mumbled, releasing him and watching with a little smidge of sadistic satisfaction as he rubbed his arm.

“You’ve gotten stronger with the change.”

At the comment Eden flexed her hands, staring at them. She didn’t feel any stronger but she guessed Noah would know. “That’s good though right?”

“That’s excellent. Now, come on, let’s see if you can get me into a neck crank.” For the next half hour or so Noah attacked and Eden defended. Smacking Noah to the mat time after time was hugely satisfying and in a way was really helping along the whole forgiving him thing.

She thought maybe he knew that because he kept giving her these wry, knowing looks every time she attacked him with more force than was necessary. He didn’t say anything, just rolled his eyes at her and went on to try something new.

“OK.” Noah sprung to his feet, barely winded by her last smackdown. The guy was like the freakin’ Energiser bunny. “This time when you defend, I’m going to keep attacking.” Her heart was already pumping pretty fast. Now it spluttered.

Shake it off, Eden, she told herself. You can take him.

Hadn’t she already?

I can do this.

“Sure,” she replied, keeping her face carefully expression free.

As he punched Noah stepped forward with his right leg. Eden pushed the punch away with force so that Noah was thrown off balance, leaving his leg undefended. She pounded her knee into the side of his upper thigh with total brutality and watched his eyes narrow with pain as his leg crumpled, taking him to the mat. Stupidly triumphant, Eden forgot that Noah was fighting back and just stood gloating as he fell. But as soon as he hit the mat, he swung his good leg up and caught her behind the knees. Eden crashed to the mat, the air whooshing out of her lungs. She’d barely blinked once and Noah was on top of her, his strong upper thighs caging her legs, his lower legs trapping hers and his hands gripping hers above her head. Trying to move was useless. She pushed her body up at him but he wouldn’t budge. Growling in frustration, she collapsed against the mat and glared up into Noah’s smiling eyes.

She was totally caught.

“Told you I was going to fight back,” he murmured.

The low vibrato of his voice sent a shiver down Eden’s spine and she was suddenly completely aware of the fact that Noah was straddling her. The heat of his body soaked into hers, his face inches above her. Eden’s breath caught and the sound seemed to make its way through Noah’s body because she felt him tense and watched his eyes narrow and darken as they drifted over her face to her lips.

Attraction rippled in waves off of both of them and Eden couldn’t remember where they were or what they had been doing. All she cared about was the delicious tingling in her body, the flush of heat that held her captive, the way the sight of Noah’s mouth and strong jawline and throat sent dangerous shivers cascading over her and caused a strange but pleasant tug in her lower abdomen.

His lidded eyes drew back to hers and Eden felt triumphant at the sight of Noah’s desire. She had been right. He did want her.

“I hope I am not interrupting.”

They both froze.

Cyrus.

With a hastiness that was almost comical Noah slid off of her, throwing her a desperately pleading look as she gasped at the feel of his body whispering over hers.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, not sure what she was apologising for and feeling very stupid all of sudden. No longer able to look at Noah, Eden scrambled to her feet to face Cyrus and Val. Her guardian didn’t look angry but he was certainly eyeing Noah strangely. And then she saw it. The dark flash of warning in his gaze. When Noah tensed beside her she knew he had gotten the message.

Eden glanced at Val for reassurance and only saw resignation on her face. Eden frowned at that.

“Eden,” Cyrus spoke, drawing her gaze back to his. His eyes were carefully blank once again.

“You will resume training with Valeria with Noah coaching.” Neither of them argued as Val joined Eden on the mat and Noah stepped off to the side beside Cyrus. As she began to spar with Val, a studied politeness developed between her and Noah. On the outside it was as if nothing had happened. On the inside… Eden couldn’t stop remembering what it felt like to have the pressure of Noah’s body on hers. It was the most delicious feeling she had ever felt. She’d felt so awake. So real. It unlike anything she’d ever felt before and it was as addictive and as needy as her soul eater hunger had been but it didn’t incite feelings of terror and horror within her.

Instead, it made her feel hot and electric all over. Not at all the kind of feelings she had time to dwell on at the moment. In fact… they were kind of brilliantly inconvenient.

Val’s knuckles brushed her cheek in a punch and the Ankh stepped back impatiently. Noah clipped at Eden to focus, his business-like tone icing over some of the earlier warmth. She threw him a dirty look and kicked Val’s legs out from underneath her.