Shades of Blood(Warriors of Ankh 3)

When Jack was seven his dad had taken off. It hadn’t been a huge loss. He’d beaten Jack’s mom too many times to count and had just begun to start in on Jack. Finally his mom had gone to her Councilman for help but Jack’s dad had disappeared before they could stop him. Things had been quiet right up until Jack turned sixteen, when his Councilman and Cyrus came to him to tell him they suspected his father of being an assassin. He’d taken his Neith abilities and used them to set himself up as a professional hitman. He’d been under suspicion for a while but it was only as the investigation went on that they realized Jack’s father went above and beyond ‘regular’ assassination. He tortured his victims, toyed with them, enjoyed their pain. The thought that someone who carried the same DNA in him as he did could be capable of such a thing had messed with Jack’s head… to say the least. The only way he thought he’d be able to deal with it, to deal with the pain his father had caused not only his victims but his victim’s families, was to deliver the justice himself. Cyrus had given Jack permission to hunt his own father.

Hunt him he did.

Kill him he did.

After that Jack had grown silent, unable to say much else about it. Eden didn’t press him for answers. Instead she’d reached for his hand and squeezed it tight, her eyes telling him she understood.

It was then it made perfect sense to her why Jack treated her like a friend.

He got her.

He understood what it was like to question your own psychology, your own morality, when you were the child of a psychopath.

“Well if you can stand the humiliation, I will see you in the training room tomorrow,” Eden promised him as she belted her katana’s blue lacquered scabbard around her hips.

Jack snorted. “It’s a deal.”

They smirked at one another again before his eyebrows drew together, a flash of concern brightening the dark blue of his irises. “Be careful.” He nodded at her and then acknowledged Cyrus with a deferential nod before turning on his heel, striding out of the entrance hall with a confidence Eden admired.

“Training room?” Noah queried softly and Eden turned around to find him frowning at her, his own arms crossed over his chest, his legs splayed. His entire body vibrated with an energy that screamed DANGER.

“Yeah.” She shrugged, confused by his demeanor. “I must have left it there the other night.”

Noah shook his head. “That’s not what I meant.” He was scowling now as he took a few steps closer to her. “You two spar together?”

“A few times, yeah.”

With an unhappy grunt, Noah walked away catching the car keys Cyrus threw at him. Bemused, Eden raised an eyebrow at Val. Her mentor grinned back knowingly.

Val was off on her own patrolling the Beacon Hill area while Eden walked calmly beside Noah south of Boston Public Gardens. They’d already made their way up through Bay Village with no sign of anything out of the ordinary. Eden marveled over her ability to put aside everything else when she was out on patrol. Only hours before she’d been flushed hot, ready to devour Noah and now she was barely aware of a word he said to her as her head swiveled from side to side, her ears cocked, her senses open and alert. She was a little disappointed they hadn’t found anything. She wondered if Val was fairing any better. Eden wondered a lot of things about Val. True they were close, but not close enough to hunt together? In fact, Val never hunted with anyone. She was a lone wolf, she joked. Eden wondered what that was about but never worried about Val’s safety. Val was a badass.

She and Noah had just turned onto Boylston Street, the shadow of Arlington Street Church casting a gloom over Noah’s face despite the lights from the nearby commercial buildings and street lamps, when Noah’s words actually penetrated her patrol mode.

“What?” She frowned up at him.

He stopped, glancing over his shoulder as a couple passed by, their arms tight around one another and their eyes wary. Cyrus had been right. People knew there was something off about the Ankh when they came upon one and this couple wasn’t any different. They wanted away from the two young people dressed all in black, the energy around them crackling with danger, as quickly as possible. Noah waited until they were out of earshot, and the almost silence of early morning (late night) Boston made the hair rise on Eden’s neck. Or was that something else? She scowled, throwing a look at the couple disappearing around the corner.

Nah. It was cool. They were just human.

Noah cleared his throat. “I asked how long you and Jack have been having these little training sessions of yours.”

Eden shook her head, biting back a sarcastic ‘really?’ They were on patrol for pity’s sake and he wanted to talk about Jack. She sighed and started to walk again, heading towards the Arlington Street junction. “I don’t know. Three, four weeks.”

He made a disgruntled, huffing sound and Eden smirked at him. “That long, huh?”

“Noah, Jack is the only Neith in that whole place who treats me like a normal person. The others are cold and distant… so forgive me for wanting to interact with someone who doesn’t hold my past against me.”

“They don’t hold your past against you. They’re just acting more professional than Jack.” At the bewildered look Eden threw him, Noah shrugged. “What? I just don’t like the guy OK. And I don’t like the fact that every time my back is turned he’s hanging around my girlfriend.”

A sudden realization dawned on Eden. She stumbled to a stop. “We’re just friends, Noah.”

She was rewarded with a grunt, his scowl fierce and as dark as the weapons they had hidden under their jackets.

“Noah.” Eden shook her head, completely surprised by his reaction to her friendship with Jack. Noah?! Her Noah?! Cool, collected Noah that was rarely pissed off at anything? “Are you jealous?”

“I don’t know,” he replied between clenched teeth, the tendons in his jaw flexing in frustration. “I’ve never been jealous before.”

Trying not to laugh in delight that her boyfriend was capable of the same base emotions she was, Eden struggled for the right words, “Well… um… do you want to tear his head off every time he talks to me?”

“Pretty much.”

“Wow. You are jealous.” She couldn’t help it. A warm, delighted chuckle purred from the back of her throat.

Noah shot her look, less than amused. “It appears so.”

Feeling unexpectedly close to him, Eden attempted to un-ruffle him. Standing on her tiptoes she pressed a soft kiss to his lips. His lips parted immediately, and his strong hands gripped her waist as he kissed her back, slowly, seductively. She felt his muscles relax beneath her and she pulled back, reminding herself they were on patrol. As she took a step back, Noah smiled hopefully at her. “Does that mean you’ll stop hanging out with him?”

Eden snorted. “Nope.”

Just as Noah opened his mouth to inevitably argue, a muffled cry reached Eden’s hypersensitive ears. Noah froze.

“You hear that?”

“Yeah.” He started striding across the quiet street. “The gardens.”

Eden stared into the dark of the Public Gardens and shook her head. “What about the park rangers?”

“If you see one… run.”

Another cry echoed into the air. They took off, ignoring the startled looks of the few pedestrians that were around. They scaled the fence with ease, entering the closed gardens and peering out from behind trees onto the foo

tpath. A plea for help was muffled by the dark of the night but the Ankh heard it just fine. Noah growled. “The lake.”

Eden took off after him, her eyes and ears open and alert, watching her peripheral, glancing over her shoulder to make sure no one jumped out and surprised them.

What the...

She paused for a moment, disbelieving that two idiot soul eaters were actually attacking two park rangers out in full view by the lake. OK, so the park was closed and there was no one there, but if anyone else had heard the guys cry out then they’d have come across these two jackasses beating the crap out of two rangers before attempting to suck out their souls. Way to be stealth!

The whisper of steel as Noah slid his kaskara from the scabbard strapped to his back alerted their enemy. Like a true, soul sucking fiend, one of the soul eaters dropped his victim and took off, leaving his friend behind to watch after him in shock and disbelief.

“I’m going after him!” Eden shouted to Noah, tearing down the footpath after the creep. He was a tall guy, but wiry, his long legs and slight build eating up the ground beneath him. Eden pushed her muscles, the wind whipping her pony tail back, her lightweight coat fluttering behind her. Damn it, her weapon was on display.

There was nothing for it.

She couldn’t let this tool go.

But hell he was fast.

She chased him across the bridge and through the gardens, a startled shout from her left telling her she’d been spotted by another ranger. Furious that this was not going to be a subtle takedown, Eden poured her anger into her legs. The soul eater spilled out onto Charles Street, knocking a young guy on his ass as he did so. Eden yelled an apology for him over her shoulder as she tore up the road after him, barely checking for traffic as he sped north into the Beacon Hill area. Winding his way around people who yelped out in fright at the truly unnatural speed of the guy pumping his guts away from a young girl in a black coat (and wait, was she carrying a weapon?!), meant the soul eater lost ground. Eden felt the tingle of coming battle and cut the distance between them just as they hit the bottom of Cedar Lane Way. She could run for a long time but even her immortal muscles were feeling the burn of sprinting for four blocks.