Blood Past

chapter Twenty Seven

Recovery Time

A confident knock on the lounge door lifted the three of them out of the silent fog they had been sharing. “Come in,” Cyrus commanded, jerking Eden to attention.

She sat curled up on one of the couches, Val at the other end, Cyrus sitting up at the mini-bar with a glass of untouched scotch. So much had happened in the last twenty-four hours and for once in her life Eden hadn’t wanted to be alone to deal with it. Val and Cyrus may not have been the most talkative people on the planet but sitting with them in silence beat sitting alone in silence. The intrusion of two of Cyrus’ security men, two Warriors of Neith, awoke her with a jolt, her brain unfuzzing and focusing on the two men who strode towards Cyrus with purpose. The older of the men reached Cyrus first, his black jeans and sweater reminding her of the garb Noah favoured.

Thinking of Noah brought on a maelstrom of angst she just didn’t want to deal with at the moment.

When Eden had returned to the mansion with a barely conscious Val and Cyrus and a very groggy Noah, Emma had gushed all over her, thanking her for returning them all safely. Alain hadn’t said a word to her, just helped put Cyrus and Val to their beds. When she’d stood and explained to him what had happened, he hadn’t responded. Instead he’d silently put an arm around Noah and half-carried his son to his room too. Emma had tried to apologise for her husband’s behaviour but Eden had waved her off. Alain blamed her for Noah getting taken in the first place. The fact that the reclusive Darius of Mesopotamia had had to be called in to save their asses hadn’t gone down well with him either, although he hadn’t actually looked all that surprised by what she’d told him.

Eden on the other hand was still surprised. In fact, she was pretty sure she’d never get over what Darius had done in her parent’s mansion. The carnage was the kind of imagery that didn’t dissolve from the memory very quickly.

The last few days she’d kind of avoided Alain, which meant in turn avoiding Noah. She’d hung around Cyrus and Val as they slowly came too. They were stronger and older than Noah, so it hadn’t taken them long to get back on their feet. Cyrus refused to discuss Darius so she was stuck with the terrifying mystery that was He. Darius had contacted Cyrus to let them know the mess had been cleaned up.

Without Noah, Eden was left alone in her grief, and found it more than difficult to pick up the phone to inform the Douglas’ of Mhairi’s death. Tobe had dropped the phone, refusing to speak to her, and Eden had burst into real tears for the first time in a long time. What made it worse was that Tobe didn’t even know the extent of Eden’s failure.

For a moment… just a moment… while Teagan had delivered his ultimatum and they’d seemed so impossibly outnumbered, Eden had considered giving herself and Mhairi over if it meant saving Noah. She couldn’t even begin to comprehend that. Tobe would have killed her. Luckily, although no less unsettling, Eden hadn’t had to make that decision. For a few days she grappled with what it meant. Being Ankh had become the sole core of her existence. Or so she’d thought. She’d actually been willing to give up the one thing that meant the world to her, to save Noah’s life. On the one hand it made her want to run in the opposite direction from him, get as far away from such messy and overwhelming feelings as possible. And yet on the other, she couldn’t bear the thought of never seeing him again. Pondering the complications of life and love ( you know the little stuff) was put on hold as Cyrus brought news of everyone back in Edinburgh. Tobe still wasn’t speaking to her. She and the Douglas’ were trying to work their way through their grief at the moment. Cyrus and Eden had both agreed that explaining to them about how their death meant Eden’s reversal of fortune wasn’t the best idea, so they kept that to themselves. Eden had argued with Cyrus for keeping the information to himself in the first place. She made him promise not to ever keep something so huge from her again and was relieved by the promise – Cyrus was too honourable to break it.

As for McLeish and Mary, things were still up in the air on that one. Now that they were back in the States and the whole Teagan mess was over, Cyrus was concentrating on hunting down Cosmina Arcos before she could hunt down Eden. For him, that was the priority. He had decided leaving McLeish to deal with his sister worked two-fold. It was one less thing for The Circle to worry about and it was also a gesture of respect towards McLeish. He already seemed to view the Ankh as overbearing, arrogant, elitist authority figures (and Eden wasn’t saying there wasn’t some truth in that); Cyrus reckoned letting him mete out his own punishment for his sister allowed him to see the more compromising side of The Circle, and thus lessened the chances of him betraying the Ankh in the future.

Eden guessed Cyrus was onto something with that but she would never fully trust the Scotsman.

He knew too much about her for someone who looked at her as if he wanted to kill her.

“Princeps,” the older Neith stopped before Cyrus with an air of authority. Eden sat up straighter as recognition dawned. Cyrus had introduced him when she’d first moved in. His name was Terrence Vincent and he was Cyrus’ Head of Security. “We have news.” When his eyes flickered towards her, Eden’s heart picked up a little. At their return to Weston, Cyrus had begun investigating a leak. There had to be a leak. Someone had told Teagan where to find her and the only people who knew where they’d gone, lived and worked under Cyrus’ roof.

Sliding from his stool with cold rigidity, Cyrus glared at Terrence. “Who?” was all he demanded.

Nodding back at the young man behind him, Terrence replied, “Jack here discovered our rat. We had two men go on vacation at the same time. Roger Pike and Dwight Carey. Jack had already questioned Carey when he discovered him in the Control Room alone when he wasn’t supposed to be so I let him investigate Jack while I investigated Pike and everyone else. Tell him what you found, Jack.”

Jack cleared his throat, stepping forward to speak with Cyrus. Eden was surprised when he began speaking. His eyes flitted back between her and her guardian, actually including her in the conversation, like she mattered. None of the Neith in Weston had done that so far. She studied him as he spoke, surprised by how confident he was for someone so young. He couldn’t possibly be any older than twenty one. “I went to Carey’s apartment and after tearing the place apart I found an address and meet time. The address was an old Warehouse in South Boston. We found Dwight’s body. He bled out from a knife wound to the heart but he’d also had his soul sucked out of him.”

“Teagan.” Cyrus nodded, his eyes hard.

His own eyes grim, Jack nodded back. “We assume so, Princeps. Leaving the body so carelessly would suggest-”

“That it was Teagan,” Eden interrupted, drawing the young Neith’s eyes back to her. “My cousin never really cared about consequences. And a knife in the heart… just his style.” The Neith held her eyes for a brief moment, their darkness from across the room filled with unfathomable expression that made Eden squirm a little. Finally he broke his gaze away to turn his attention back to Cyrus. “We’ve investigated everyone else, Princeps, but it appears Carey worked alone.”

“Thank you,” Cyrus replied. “You did a good job.” He turned to Terrence. “I need to know if any of my men are unhappy, have personal problems, etc. I don’t care how intrusive it is I need to know that our enemies cannot bribe my people using any personal difficulties as leverage. Understood.” Terrance gave a sharp jerk of his head. “Perfectly.”

As they left, Eden felt something inside her crumble a little. Great. Now all the Neith in Cyrus’

compound were going to hate her. As if having a boyfriend whose father hated her living under the same roof with her wasn’t bad enough.



***

Word had reached her that Noah was actually out of bed and the waiting around to see him was just making all the craziness she had gone through after the Teagan thing even worse. She needed to see him. She needed reassurance.

Feeling a little giddy and nervous at the prospect of meeting with him after everything, Eden decided not to take the elevator to the third floor where he and his family had rooms. Instead she took the long way around, her headphones jammed in her ear so she wouldn’t have to listen to the eerie silence of the monstrosity of the house. She skipped up the back servant stairs so she wouldn’t bump into Alain, singing along with Metric.

“Can you hear my heart beating like a hammer? Beeeeaatting like a hammeeer – whoa!” she stumbled at the top of the staircase, finding herself face to face with Jack. This close she could see his dark eyes were actually blue and the face he was struggling to keep expressionless was a nice one. A very nice one. He brushed a strand of silky jet hair back from his forehead before crossing his arms over his chest, blocking her way.

Eden pulled her earphones out. “Hey.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You know I couldn’t hear your heart beating like a hammer over your God awful singing,” his warm, Bostonian voice pulled at her teasingly and Eden relaxed. Perhaps it was Jack’s age or attitude towards her (not suspicious, not wary, not acting like she was going to go

‘Carrie’ on them at a moment’s notice) but Eden felt comfortable around him in a way she didn’t around Cyrus’ other security guys.

“God awful?” Eden mirrored his body language, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly. “A little harsh, don’t you think?”

“On the ears, yes.”

“Oh haha. You’re a funny guy.”

Jack smirked at her. “So I’ve been told. But seriously… you never heard of stealth?” Eden frowned at him. “Why do I need to be stealthy in my own home? Are you guys planning a rebellion? First man to kill the half-breed gets the keys to Cyrus’ Cayman S?” She was just teasing but Jack immediately grew tense and serious at her joke.

“That’s not funny, Eden. Even joking about hurting you could get one of us strung up before Cyrus. We’re taking your safety very seriously.”

“I can take care of myself.”

He ran his dark blue eyes over her in a way that made her flush inwardly. “So I’ve heard. Still…

don’t say crap like that OK? I kind of want to be Cyrus’ Head of Security one day and joking about killing his daughter is not exactly the good impression I want to make.” At her mocking look he suddenly seemed to relax and shrugged. “And it would be the Aston Martin. Why go Porsche when you can go One-77.”

Eden laughed. “I prefer the Porsche. I’d rather be killed for the Porsche.” Jack grinned at her and stepped aside. “There you go again with the killing jokes. You’re going to get me in trouble.”

She breezed by his tall frame, chuckling up at him as she strode onto the third floor landing. “It’s a specialty of mine or didn’t you know that already?”

“What? Getting people into trouble?”

“People. Warriors. Innocents.” The smile bled out of her voice as she thought about Teagan and what he had done to Tobe’s family. She wasn’t sure Tobe was ever going to speak to her again. Why was this guy? The Neith all knew what she had been. Who Teagan had been to her. She raised her eyes to meet Jack’s unwavering gaze. “Why are you talking to me like I’m a person? You saw what my cousin did to that Carey guy. You must have heard what Teagan did to the Neith in Scotland.” His eyes darkened and his expression grew tight. “I guess I just don’t think a person should be judged by who their family are… or by their past.”

She thought of Tobe and the Douglas’. They hadn’t judged her either but after what had happened to them… she snorted unhappily. “Give it some time. Stick around me long enough and you’ll change your mind.”

Jack shook his head. “I doubt that.”

Before Eden could reply a buzz of static broke the hushed air around them and Jack pressed a finger to the handsfree curled around his ear. He nodded. “OK, I’ll be there in a minute.” He sighed and turned back to her. “Duty calls.”

“Anything serious?”

“Oh extremely. Dawson needs to take a piss but he can’t leave the Control Room unattended.” Eden laughed. “You better get a move on then.”

He sighed and threw her a quick grin. “Be seeing you.”

As she watched him take the stairs down two at a time, Eden shook her head, smiling at herself.

She needed to stop judging the Neith and expecting a negative response from them all. Some of them were actually OK to her. Feeling a little better about life at Cyrus’ mansion, Eden turned around and headed towards Noah’s suite.

Eden rapped her knuckles against the open door and smiled anxiously. “Can I come in?” Noah looked up at her in surprise, sitting on the end of his bed. She was glad to see his colour was back to normal now that the toxin had made its way out of his body. “Uh...” he glanced uneasily across his room and as Eden stepped into the room she realised why. She froze as she met the belligerent stare of Alain Valois.

Eden had stupidly assumed Alain had accompanied Emma out on a shopping trip and had thought it the best time to drop in on her… boyfriend? Was he her boyfriend still? She thought worriedly, eyeing the way his father was looking at her.

“Noah is resting, you should leave.” He flicked his hand at the door.

No wonder everyone forgot Noah was seventy years old. His parents treated him like a child.

Before Eden could respond, Noah stood up. “Dad, don’t speak to her like that.” Alain grunted. “I’m not speaking to her in any way. You’re still resting.” Noah rolled his eyes. “Dad, I’m fine and I would like some time alone with my girlfriend.” Girlfriend. Eden’s chest eased and opened up again.

“Girlfriend?” Alain’s eyes widened. “Since when?”

Oh great, so Noah hadn’t even told them they’d gotten together.

“Since a while.” Noah shrugged as if it was no big deal, actually seeming amused by the startled unfocused look in Alain’s voice as he let his son steer him towards the doorway. Eden watched the interplay between father and son, chewing on her bottom lip, waiting for the explosion to come.

Instead Alain’s shoulders sagged in defeat and he threw Eden one last angry glare before walking out of Noah’s room with forced dignity. Noah shut the door and turned to smile at her.

Eden shook her head. “Your dad so hates me.”

He smirked as he stopped in front of her, his hands gripping her hips to tug her to him. “He’ll come around.”

“Like Tobe has?” she huffed bitterly, the flare of pain in her chest catching her breath.

Noah sighed and rubbed her back comfortingly. “I heard about that. She’ll come around, Eden.

Just give her time.”

“According to you then, everyone will come around.”

“My dad will… eventually.”

“And if he doesn’t?” she murmured, her eyes fluttering closed as he pressed a soft kiss to her lips.

The feel of him enveloped her in an excited contentedness Eden hadn’t known was possible, and she leaned into him, sliding her hands up his chest and around his neck.

“Then he’ll just have to deal with it.”

“It just sucks-”

“Eden.” Noah’s hands tightened around her.

“What?”

“I’ve not seen you in what feels like effing forever, so you wanna stop talking about my dad while I’m trying to kiss you? It’s kind of a mood killer.”

Noah didn’t give her a chance to lash him with the biting retort that was eager to jump off her tongue. He drew her into a kiss so deep, she felt her legs tremble; his tongue flicking playfully across hers and shooting hot sparks to all her good for nothing places.

When he let her up for air, Eden gasped against his mouth and then smiled. It suddenly occurred to her that she had forever and a lifetime to do this with him. “I knew I saved your ass for a reason.” Noah frowned. “’Scuse me, I think the ass saving was done by me.” Eden raised an eyebrow. “Technically I think the ass saving was done by Darius.” She shivered just thinking about it and Noah gripped her closer.

“Yeah, let’s not think about it…” he grimaced. “It’s definitely a mood killer.”

“But seriously what was that-”

His lips cut her off as they came down on hers hard, crushing hers with a desperation that had her struggling to draw breath. He pulled back, stroking his fingers down her cheek. “Your choice.

Carnage, death talk, or making out with the boyfriend who saved your butt?” With a small smile Eden drew onto the balls of her feet to reach his lips. She kissed him softly and made a happy humming noise against his mouth. “We’ll talk about who saved who during intermission.”

He nodded, his eyelids low, his eyes dark. “Sounds like a plan.” For a while at least, here with Noah, Eden could forget the world outside Cyrus’ sanctuary. But she knew, deep down in those painful, aching places, that Noah’s kisses would only hold it at bay for so long.





Epilogue

Not Over

Darwin Rice gazed around the sparklingly clean and empty foyer of the Winslow Mansion. He curled his lip, still smelling the tang of blood in the air despite the cleaning products that struggled to overwhelm it. His skin tingled as his feet slapped against the echoing marble of the luxury floor. Eyes narrowing on a little black item on the floor, he sighed, frustrated, as he bent down to pick it up.

The tracking device they’d put inside Teagan.

There had clearly been a massacre here and the little son-of-a-bitch who had promised him Cyrus and Darius was dead. Standing back up, Darwin met his colleague’s gaze and shook his head.

“Unfortunately, not our time, Peter.”

Peter nodded, looking as grim as Darwin felt. “The rest of the Tribunal wish to cease our attempts to destroy Cyrus. They see this as the first of many new failures in that direction.” Darwin tried to stem the rage that pronouncement fed into his veins. For years Cyrus and his people had hunted theirs even as the Tribunal sought to enforce the laws. They weren’t killing people, for Christ sakes. So they took a little soul here and there; it wasn’t if the race of man weren’t capable of evil all on their own. When Teagan Winslow had opened this door to kicking a hole in the gut of The Circle, a hole that would not heal, Darwin had let himself get caught in the beauty of the promise. Take away Cyrus and Darius, and the Ankh have nothing. The Neith would take control.

The Neith who were so much easier to kill.

He pulled out the photocopy of the old journal Teagan had given him. In it was the key to destroying Cyrus and that little bitch he’d adopted. He looked up from it, searching Peter’s eyes.

Darwin wasn’t surprised to see the same spark, the same need he felt within. Peter was his best friend because they were the only two on the Tribunal who ever sat on the same page no matter the situation. “Then we act without them.”

Peter nodded gravely. “That could have its consequences.”

“Not if we bring them Cyrus and Darius’ heads.”

THE END