Blood Past

Chapter Ten. Merrit MacDouglas

Despite her inner turmoil, and the ironic fact that Tobe, like her ‘Nana’, was a ‘cover-hogger’, Eden fell into a deep sleep, exhausted by the full day she’d experienced. So it was with a groan and a scowl she had obeyed Cyrus’ whispers to get up, sliding out of the bed quietly so she didn’t wake October up. It was light outside but one glance at the alarm clock on Tobe’s bedside cabinet told Eden it was early. Bemoaning the early wake up call, Eden silently grabbed some clothes and headed off to the bathroom for a shower. She tied her wet hair up into a messy bun, with no worry that she’d catch a cold in the chill morning air. Without a word she followed her guardian out of the house and into the most crisp air she’d ever breathed in. It flooded her lungs, and widened her eyes, enveloping her in energy and newness. The sun hung low in the sky, not hot enough to bank the shivers, but warm enough to cast a glittering glow over everything, present enough to fill Eden with an unexpected feeling of contentment.

A spring morning in Scotland had just made its way up the ranks as one of her favourite things ever.

“What are we doing?” she asked, pulling on a thin sweater over her t-shirt.

Cyrus smiled at her. “Going for breakfast before training.”

“Just the two of us?”

“Just the two of us.”

She liked that. Trying not to grin like a little kid heading off to the ice cream parlour, Eden found stride with Cyrus. As they made their way out onto the main street, she enjoyed the quieter flow of traffic, the smell of fresh bread and coffee in the air. She enjoyed the comfortable silence between her and her guardian. Cyrus had long legs and Eden quickened her step to match up with him again.

Becoming aware of people staring at him as they passed, Eden ran her eyes over him, trying to work out what they saw. Like every other day he wore an expensive sweater moulded to his fit body.

Today the sweater was black. But instead of the usual tailored trousers, Cyrus wore black jeans and a pair of walking boots, both of which were probably designer. He reeked of wealth. Is that what people saw when they looked at him? Or was it just that he was good-looking? Or was it that ‘I wouldn’t mess with me if I were you’ aspect in his eyes?

As if sensing her stare, Cyrus slanted a look at her, smirking. “What is it?”

“People are staring at you,” she answered promptly.

He laughed softly. “They are also staring at you.”

“They are?” Eden glanced up and sure enough caught the eye of a young woman who very quickly lowered her gaze and hurried by them. “What’s that all about?”

“Contrary to popular belief, humans are not stupid. They sense there is something different about us.”

“Hmm.”

She didn’t say much after that. Instead she patiently waited for Cyrus to buy her coffee and a bagel and lead her to a quiet bench. Clearly there was something he wanted to discuss. As she settled in next to him, her eye caught the silver ring on the middle finger of his right hand. Noah and his father wore the same ring. It was a masculine silver square with an ankh-shaped onyx stone inset into the centre. Valeria and Emma wore a smaller, more feminine version of the ring. Eden wondered if all Ankh wore one.

She nodded at it. “What is that?”

Cyrus’ mouth quirked up as he followed her gaze. He shifted his hand in the light, the black stone winking in the morning sun. “I sometimes think you read my mind, Eden.”

“Oh?”

Eyes smiling, Cyrus reached into his pocket and pulled out a small ring, exactly like Val and Emma’s. “All Ankh wear the ring. It began with your mother believe it or not.” At the mention of Merrit, Eden’s heart began to beat faster. Suddenly she wanted to know everything about the warrior she had never met, the warrior that had captured someone like Cyrus’ heart. “My mother?”

He nodded, his eyes growing sad. “She gifted me with it in 1678. We were in Rome at the time, hunting an extremely powerful soul eater. He had taken a piece of soul from one of our kin, a young Ankh, Joseph. Not only did we need to stop this soul eater, we needed to get Joseph’s soul back.” Eden blinked, shaking her head. “Wait, you can do that?”

Cyrus nodded patiently. “There is so much to tell you, Eden. So much.” He shook his head. “I don’t want to burden you with too much information too soon.”

“No, no,” she argued. “Just hit me with it. I want to know all this stuff. I can take it. I promise.” She waited as Cyrus took a bite of his bagel and a sip of his coffee, glancing around casually to make sure they were still relatively alone. “Alright. If you kill a soul eater in the vicinity of someone who has lost a piece of soul to the said soul eater then the victim’s soul returns to his or her body.

Joseph’s soul made this particular soul eater incredibly strong, so it was doubly imperative for us to find him. Merrit and I had difficulty taking Joseph with us to hunt the soul eater because he had become a dark creature, almost devoid of humanity. In the end we had to keep incapacitating him. In the struggle to bring the soul eater back to our lodgings in the city, I was distracted when Merrit was knocked unconscious. The soul eater managed to grab the tiniest piece of my soul before Merrit regained consciousness and helped me take down the beast.” Her heart was hammering just thinking about it. In her head she had built up Cyrus to be this completely indestructible being. But according to him there were soul eaters out there strong enough to get the better of him. Not good. Not good at all.

“We killed the soul eater. I got my soul back, as did Joseph, who is still around and kicking. He is investigating some troubling news in Dublin that suggests there is a group of soul eaters in the city.” Cyrus shook his head, realising he was getting off track. “But to what I was saying,” he smirked, as his eyes glazed over a little at the memories, “Your mother was never the most romantic woman. She was far too straightforward and gung-ho. But what nearly happened to me frightened her and she got a little sentimental. Part of that reaction was this gift.” He held up his hand, turning it so the silver of the ring glinted at her. “She said the Princeps deserved a little ostentation in his life.” Cyrus closed his eyes briefly, his features tight with pain.

The hollow heartbreak in her guardian’s voice as he spoke about his dead love echoed painfully in Eden’s chest. She blinked back surprising tears, wanting to reach out and grab a hold of him. Instead she bowed her head, not wanting to embarrass him with her sympathy.

He cleared his throat. “Merrit’s purpose had been to give me something symbolic of my authority.

Instead I had other rings made for the rest of the Ankh. I liked the idea of unity and kinship. Yes, we fought side by side with Neith, but they could never understand the exhaustion of immortality, the weight of forever on your shoulders. My brothers and sisters could. So I had the rings made as a promise to them. A promise of loyalty and friendship. A promise that they would never be alone in this endless life.”

More tears threatened to spill down Eden’s cheeks at his words. How lucky the Ankh were to be blessed with a Princeps who was still capable of such feeling and compassion after all these centuries. How lucky she was.

“This is yours now.” Cyrus lifted her right hand from her lap and slid the ring onto her index finger. It fit perfectly. He gave her a small, sad smile. “It was your mother’s.” Well that did it. Not able to fight it, tears spilled over her blinking lids as she felt the cool silver against her skin. That silver had pressed against her mother’s skin. She ached in every part of her body, a deep and raw feeling, like someone had pummelled her with a meat hammer. She wished with every cell in her body that she’d had the chance to know her.

“What was she like? How did you meet?”

At first she was afraid Cyrus wasn’t going to answer. Eden wouldn’t have blamed him; she’d already seen how the memories of her mother hurt him. But perhaps he could also see the desperation in her eyes, the need to understand where she really came from. Placing the styrofoam cup of coffee down on the bench, Cyrus leaned back and closed his eyes for a moment. “It was 1346. I had met Merrit twice, once when she was fifteen when I met with her mother, a Scottish Ankh warrior only a few centuries older than Merrit. And again a few hundred years or so later when England invaded Scotland in the late 13th century. Battles enticed the soul eaters. They like war. It is easy for them to take the souls of dying men and women on the battlefield. That is why we have several Ankh in combat areas all over the world. Anyway, Merrit and I did not cross paths again until a few decades later when her mother was killed. In many ways Merrit was still so young. You see it with Noah. He is seventy but sometimes you forget he is not just a teenager. Merrit was very similar and she had never been alone so I had no intention of leaving her out in the cold. She came to me and I welcomed her into my home.” He snorted. “She was really very annoying and brash with her forthright bluntness and unladylike behaviour.”

Eden grinned, thoroughly tickled at the thought of her young mother getting on Cyrus’ ancient nerves.

He sighed. “I had been sleep-walking for so long. The trials of eternity, Eden. You start to lose connection. You become desensitized to people and their motivations: love, power, jealousy, greed, hate, anger. It all begins to lose meaning. I did my job. I hunted those who preyed on humans, I ran The Circle, I oversaw the Neith. But there was no joy in my life. Until your mother. I was living in France at the time because of the conflict. The House of Valois fighting the House of Plantagenet for the French throne-”

“Wait, Valois?” Eden’s eyes widened at the possible implication.

Cyrus smiled. “No, no relation,” he assured her. “Noah’s father has no links to French royalty. The House of Valois was founded a few centuries after Alain’s birth by Charles IV of France. We have no time for a history lesson and it is all quite complicated but it’s suffice to say Charles Valois had a claim to the French throne as did the Plantagenets, the rulers of England who had roots in France and in the royal line. A very complex and very long war broke out. You may have heard of it… The Hundred Years War?”

Eden screwed up her face. “Yeah but I’m not going to lie, history has never been my strong suit.” He frowned. “I hope I am not boring you then.”

“No, God, no,” she rushed to assure him. “It’s totally interesting when you’re talking to someone who’s actually been there.”

He seemed to consider that. “I suppose it might be. Now where was I?”

“You were in France when my mom came to you.”

“Yes. I was in France because I knew the conflict would attract soul eaters. Merrit’s mother died so she got on a boat and found me. I welcomed her into my home and in return she aggravated the hell out of me and turned my world upside down.”

“How?” Eden snuggled back into the hard bench, that romantic side of her she’d thought she’d hidden so well (clearly not from Noah who knew about her addiction to paranormal romance books) desperate to hear her mother’s love story.

“People rarely challenged me, because of who I was, how old I was. Even humans who did not know the significance of my position treated me deferentially. As it was they were wary of me because of my colouring, whispering ‘Saracen’ behind my back. But even the knights dared not approach me. Even women of common origin gave me wide berth as did Ladies who were taught to be docile and obedient. They were raised with impeccable manners and were shy and unassuming for the most part.”

“Except for Joan of Arc,” Eden interrupted. “I kind of listened in class when we got around to the stuff about her.”

Cyrus smiled. “That does not surprise me. Joan of Arc was present later in The Hundred Years War. Your mother was fascinated by the tales of her and sought her out.”

“Wait, my mom met Joan of freakin’ Arc?”

He nodded. “Yes. I believe Merrit admired her obvious intelligence and bravery but was somewhat unsettled by her fervour. She was even more intimidating than Merrit and that is saying something. Your mother could cow a person with one simple look.”

“I can’t believe my mother met Joan of Arc. I did not wake up this morning expecting that little revelation.”

Cyrus smiled softly. “There are many stories. And I will tell you them. In time.” Still reeling, Eden took a moment to come back to Cyrus and when she did she frowned. “You didn’t finish. You were saying women were different back then…?”

“Ah yes. I had not been around another female warrior in a long time. The Circle met rarely back then because travelling was not as easy. Valeria had left to live with Darius over a century before Merrit’s arrival. I was used to strong-willed women but even Valeria was reluctant to question me.

Merrit questioned everything. She said I had lost myself and she was determined to find me.” His eyes grew soft. “And she did. We trained together, we hunted; she pulled me back into society for a while so I could remember what it was to be human. Her quick and honest tongue did land us in a few scuffles but I found myself inexplicably addicted to her company. It was a day or so after the Battle of Poitier, we had been hunting together for ten years, and we were hunting a soul eater who was preying on the dying soldiers. The soul eater found Merrit and I barely got to her in time to save her. I knew then.”

“Knew what?” Eden asked in a hushed voice.

“That I loved her. That I could not live without her.”

“What did she say?”

Cyrus burst out into laughter as he remembered. “She said… ‘Well it took you long enough, Cyrus of Persepolis.’”

Eden smiled. “She was already in love with you.”

“I was a fool to have not seen it.”

A sweet silence fell over them, and together they sat staring as the flow of traffic grew busier, and more people descended out onto the streets, hurrying to their work. Eden’s eyes caught on a couple as they came out of their apartment and kissed before turning to walk off in opposite directions. Her eyes followed the woman, who turned a couple of times to look back at the guy. “I’m sorry,” she whispered without looking at Cyrus. “I’m sorry you lost her.” He was quiet a moment before he replied softly, “I am sorry you never got to know her.” Chapter Eleven

Standing Ground… Underground

“By now I would imagine you realise that the only way to kill a soul eater is by decapitation,” Cyrus said as they walked back toward the Douglas home.

Subconsciously, Eden guessed she had known that because of what she’d witnessed in her parents

— well — her father’s home when the soul eaters had been decapitated. An image of Stellan’s death flashed across her eyes before she could stop it and she winced, shuddering at the sick, morose feeling that stole over her. “Yeah, I got that part.”

“Good. Well, it is not as easy as it may sound-”

Eden grunted. “Uh what sounds easy about decapitation?”

“Oh. Right. I keep forgetting you are more seventeen year old American teen than ancient warrior.”

“Yeah well just give me a few days.” She grinned cockily trying to shake off the pall cast by Stellan’s memory.

Cyrus didn’t smile back. “This is serious, Eden. Your training here will be pivotal. I cannot send you out to hunt if I am not absolutely confident in your abilities.” She felt her defences rise. After all, hadn’t she already fought off Neith by herself? She had done pretty OK in the past, and now that she didn’t have the hunger messing with her she was able to concentrate fully on all the skills she would need to acquire to hunt down monsters.

“Fighting Neith is not the same as fighting soul eaters. Soul eaters are stronger than Neith; that is why Neith train twice as hard as we do.”

Perturbed by his intuition Eden glowered at him. “What, have you been taking lessons from Noah on mind reading or something?”

“No.” Cyrus smiled now. “But I am coming to understand you, and what I do not know, Noah has told me. He knows you very well, Eden.”

The thought of her ex-best friend sent her heart into palpitations. To forgive or not to forgive, that is the question. “You know it’s really clear whose side you’re on.”

“I am not a teenager, Eden, I do not take sides. I would just like to remind you that Noah was under orders and he disliked lying to you. He does care about you.”

“You think I should forgive him?”

“Enough to let him prepare you. He is excellent at what he does, Eden. He will make you an excellent hunting partner if you can allow yourself to trust him.”

“I trust you.”

“Then trust me when I say you can trust Noah.”

Cyrus came to a stop outside McLeish’s home and Eden slowed to a halt beside him. She found herself staring at the ground in concentration, chewing on her lip as she thought over what Cyrus was suggesting. Noah had hurt her. In fact she was pretty sure Noah may have broken her heart. There was no way you could just shrug off that kind of hurt like it had never happened. But she also knew in that rational part of her brain she now owned that Noah hadn’t meant to hurt her. He was just doing his job and, from what she had witnessed so far, the Ankh were kind of big on duty… even to the point of being arrogant elitists. Was it possible to come to some kind of halfway point concerning the first guy who had ever crushed her?

“OK.” Eden nodded, lifting her head to meet Cyrus’ dark gaze. “I’m not quite ready to be friends with him but I will… I will trust him. I can do that.”

The Princeps face softened. “I am glad. Inside this training centre are some Neith aware of what you are. We need to be careful. We need to be together in this.”

“There you are.”

Eden and Cyrus looked up toward the house to see McLeish stepping out of his front door. She followed Cyrus as he made his way towards the Councilman she didn’t trust.

“Good morning, Councilman,” Cyrus greeted him formally.

McLeish nodded, his lips set in a grim straight line. “Mornin’, Princeps. Ms MacDouglas. You’ve caught me just in time. I have to leave for work in ten minutes.” Eden furrowed her brow as her eyes swept his attire. He was dressed in a dark navy suit.

Somehow she couldn’t see him as the businessman type.

“Councilman McLeish is a police officer. A Detective Inspector with the Lothian and Borders Police,” Cyrus explained as they stepped inside the house. “We have many Neith in positions of authority, Eden, in case incriminating discoveries are made and we need to cover them up.” OK, that sounded creepy and ominous. “Incriminating discoveries?” It was McLeish who answered, his eyes washing over her face with little expression, “Bodies of soul eaters. We need to be able to dispose of them. We have people on local boards of authority who deal with the cemeteries, so we can usually bury soul eaters there without recourse. Sometimes, however, we don’t have time and if those bodies come back to haunt us we need people, like myself and others, who can make the questions go away.”

Eden gulped. How had she not thought about all of this? You were pretty preoccupied with your own crap, remember. Torture chamber in the basement. The hunger to kill your best friend. PSAT’s.

You know, the usual. “Gotcha.”

“It’s a good thing your eyes have changed colour,” McLeish suddenly said, and she found herself abruptly caught in his burning gaze. “They were unnerving.” The reminder that he didn’t trust her because of her heritage burned. It wasn’t like it was her fault.

She had been born that way and she had done her damnedest not to hurt anyone. She had fought against her nature and she was trying goddammit! Before Cyrus could remark (and she could feel his own bristling tension beside her) Eden stepped forward, narrowing her eyes on the Councilman. “I expect that to be the last comment you ever make about my heritage, Councilman McLeish, or I’ll consider it a breach of our agreement to keep what I am quiet.” She watched as his jaw clenched, his arms crossing over his chest defiantly. He clearly didn’t like being dressed down by a teenage girl. He shot her a withering look before turning to Cyrus as if expecting his reprisal on his behalf. One casual look at her guardian and all she saw was onyx pride in his eyes. She turned back to the Councilman, her eyebrow quirked up expectantly.

Glowering, McLeish lowered his crossed arms and nodded tightly. “Understood.”

“Now that we are all clear, I would like to take Eden into the training centre.” Cyrus took hold of her arm gently to guide her through the house.

“I’m afraid it’s busy this morning. It’s a bank holiday so some of my people are off work today and the kids are off school… word spread about Noah being here yesterday and well… they’re all excited at the possibility of training with him.”

“Well, they will have to wait their turn. Noah is promised to Eden.” She shivered at Cyrus’ word choice. It sounded so romantic and enticing… and she completely hated the little treacherous butterflies that emerged out of their cocoons in her stomach at the thought of her and Noah in a sentence together, as if they were a couple.

“Of course,” McLeish growled and strode past them out of the kitchen door and into the large backyard. A high wooden fence bordered the entire yard from their neighbours, but the theatre next door was pretty hard to miss. At the end of McLeish’s yard was a large wooden shed. “How are you going to explain the fact that she’s not already trained?” Eden looked to Cyrus. Yeah, how were they going to explain that?

“I told you. The story is that she has been raised by Valeria and I, and I have been overprotective since the death of my wife, but now that Eden is almost eighteen I have decided it is time she takes up her duty.”

“And you really think they’ll believe that?” McLeish’s eyes may not have rolled but his tone did it for them. Eden really wanted to punch the guy.

Cyrus’ voice grew low and menacing as he retorted, “They will believe whatever you tell them to believe.”

Finally the Councilman looked unnerved, paling at Cyrus’ ‘scary voice’. “Of course.” Eden hurried after Cyrus as he followed McLeish into the dark shed. He flicked a switch and she glanced around. It was full of tools and other random crap. What was this? He smirked evilly at her (such a child!) and flicked another switch. She gasped as the floor opened beneath them, a concrete staircase leading down into a brightly lit hall.

“This is the access to the training centre under the theatre,” Cyrus explained, nudging her forward.

“Thank you, Councilman. I can take it from here.”

“Your boy and Valeria are already inside.”

“Is Tobe?” Eden asked just as McLeish was about to leave. She really hoped the girl was there because even though she had decided to trust Noah, it would be nice to have someone there that she kind of counted as a friend.

McLeish frowned at her question and she just knew he wasn’t happy about the idea of her befriending one of ‘his people’. “Aye.”

“Great.” The smile she threw him was deliberately taunting and she enjoyed the way he ground his teeth before storming back out of the shed. She turned to Cyrus and said dryly, “I don’t think he likes me very much.”

Cyrus shrugged and began descending the staircase. “It does not matter. You asserted yourself with him. It was good.”

Grinning at the praise, Eden forgot to be nervous as she followed him underground. The dank corridor veered to the right and Eden’s smile promptly slid off her face. The halls were so oppressive.

She drew in a deep breath, trying not to feel claustrophobic. As they walked through the downwards sloping halls, noise began filtering towards her, grunts and cheers and the buzz of murmuring.

Cyrus took a left and stopped in front of double doors. “You ready?”

“Are they all going to stare?”

“Yes. But only because you are with me and you are Ankh.”

“A few of them know though. Those people we met a few days ago. They know. They’re going to look at me like I’m a freak.”

“Then those are the ones you are going to pick to spar with. A few beatings should knock the judgement out of them.”

Eden laughed. “Yeah, you think so?”

“I know so.” He heaved a sigh and gripped the handle on the doors. “Today you will spend your time in here, training with Noah and possibly October if she wishes it, in hand to hand combat. When you are ready I will take you into training room two further up the hall. There you will learn weapons training.”

“Wait.” Eden stopped him before he could open the door. “Weapons training?” He reached out for her, brushing a stray strand of hair off her face. “Do not look so nervous, Eden.

Surely you noticed we only fight with swords?”

Now that he mentioned it…

“The art of decapitation,” he explained wryly. “We are warriors, we do not believe in guns. We fight only with swords.”

“But the soul eaters use guns. My mo-I mean Celine had one, Ryan shot you.” Cyrus nodded. “Yes, but we are immortal, Eden. It takes much to kill us and like the soul eaters, decapitation or a sword through the heart usually works best. Guns do not kill soul eaters, they barely even slow them down, and stray bullets can kill innocent bystanders. So we fight with our bodies and with swords.”

“OK.”

“Are you ready?”

“Yeah, let’s get this done.”

As soon as Cyrus swung the door open and stepped inside a hush fell over the room. Eden realised McLeish’s idea of busy and her idea were totally different. There were about forty people in the room. She’d been expecting hundreds. Her eyes swept the area, widening. The ceiling was way higher than she’d assumed it would be so the training room wasn’t nearly as oppressive as the halls.

In the far corner of the massive gym hall was a weight area where a few Neith were working out.

Beside it were exercise machines and monkey bars. The rest of the room was taken up by four large mats where four partners sparred. Neith were scattered around the edges of the mats, watching and waiting for their turn. The sparring partners had stopped too at Cyrus and Eden’s entrance and Eden’s gaze locked on Noah who stood on the far left mat, a Neith warrior on his back, his arm twisted in Noah’s fist. Noah’s foot was planted firmly on his chest. Eden grimaced. That looked uncomfortable.

Noah was sooo going to kick her ass.

Just as she thought it, Noah caught her look and smirked cockily. Eden sighed inwardly and crossed her arms over her chest. The problem with Noah was that he was too damn sure of himself.

He needed someone like her. Someone who would a throw a curve ball every now and then, otherwise he would just recycle the only two expressions he had in his repertoire: careful stoic blankness and arrogant smirk. Relaxing her own features Eden gave him a friendly-ish nod and watched with delight as his eyes first widened and then narrowed suspiciously.

Not being mad at Noah might be more interesting than she’d thought.