Stealthily, she followed Lucy along the hall, keeping a distance, watching her disappear into the girls’ bathroom. She waited a beat and then swung open the door, shutting it quietly behind her. Eden ducked her head under the four stalls. They were alone.
She strode back to the door and turned the lock.
“Who the hell is there?” Lucy snapped from inside her stall.
Eden dropped her backpack, leaning against the sinks casually although her heart pounded so hard she swore her shirt was vibrating. “Why don’t you come out and see?”
She may be nervous about her own intentions but Eden wasn’t afraid of Lucy Stevens.
She wouldn’t have been even if she wasn’t one of the Blessed.
“What the f**k is this?” Lucy huffed. Eden’s smile was one of twisted mockery at the sound of clothes rustling and Lucy’s harried breath. She couldn’t have planned on catching the girl in a more undignified situation. The toilet flushed and the stall door banged open to reveal a pissed off Lucy Stevens in her cheerleading outfit. She grimaced. “You?” She rolled her eyes as if Eden were inconsequential, and glided over to the sinks to wash her hands.
“Me.” Eden grinned at her and enjoyed the way Lucy flinched at the expression, like she could see there was something not quite right about her.
“What do you want, freak?”
Eden shrugged, crossing her arms over her chest. “I heard an interesting conversation today. No, sorry.” She shook her head. “Attack. An interesting attack.”
Lucy heaved a sigh and grabbed at paper towels. “Whatever, freak.” She made to leave and Eden stuck her leg out to block her path. The cheerleader narrowed her eyes on her. “You better move that skank.”
“Or what?” Eden taunted.
Lucy took two leggy steps towards her. She fluffed her golden hair over her shoulder and bit a couple of French manicured fingernails into Eden’s shoulder. “Or I’ll make your life a living hell, you goth bitch.”
“You’re kind of an ignoramus, you know that.”
“You’re making a mistake, Winslow,” Lucy promised with a cruel smirk on her pouty lips.
The hand that had been dangling innocently by Eden’s side shot out faster than a human could compute and wrapped itself around Lucy’s throat, shoving her back into one of the stalls. The senior tripped, collapsing over a toilet seat as she clawed at Eden’s hand, her face growing red before turning horribly purple.
“Sorry, princess, my life already is a living hell.” Eden squeezed tighter, getting a sick enjoyment out of terrifying this girl. “I saw you torturing Amber today, Luce. Not cool,” she whispered, breathing in the scent of Lucy’s soul, tainted as it may be. This was a girl who wouldn’t miss it… or if Eden went too far, wouldn’t be missed at all. “You make me sick, you know. You sadistic bitch.” She jerked Lucy’s head back and her eyes rolled. For a moment Eden frowned as she drew blood with her fingernails on Eden’s hand in an attempt to fight back. Releasing her hold on Lucy’s throat, she barely gave time for the girl to draw breath before she was holding her head in her hands and pushing her will onto her. Lucy stopped struggling, her lips parting.
The hunger licked its lips.
Abruptly Eden froze, her muscles aching, her whole being screaming for satisfaction. Even her heart seemed to have stopped. The only thing that hadn’t was her building nausea.
What are you waiting for? She deserves it.
She shifted her stance, trying to make herself more comfortable. She tilted Lucy’s head to angle it just right, almost like an awkward teenager going in for her first kiss.
Her legs began to tremble.
No. Don’t stop. Think about Amber. You’ll be helping her.
The bathroom door handle rattled. Eden’s head jerked up, breaking her gaze with Lucy’s.
“Hey! Why’s the door locked?!” A belligerent student yelled, banging on the door. “Open up or I’m telling somebody!”
Lucy gasped for air, coming back to herself, her hands clawing into Eden’s wrist. “You freak!” she hissed.
Panic suffused Eden as sense slowly began to return. What have I done? Eden swallowed the bile that rose in her throat, her hands gripping Lucy’s head tighter.
Lucy would report Eden. Oh God.
Her pale eyes secured their hold on Lucy’s chocolate brown ones. The girl grew limp again. “Lucy, this never happened.”
“This never happened,” she replied blankly.
“I was never here.”
“You were never here.”
“Open it!” The student screeched.
Eden gulped but refused to break eye contact. Amber’s broken eyes flashed before her.
“You’re not going to torture, hurt and gossip about Amber anymore.”
“I’m not going to torture, hurt and gossip about Amber anymore.”
“You’re going to protect her. Even from Doug.”
“I’m going to protect her. Even from Doug.”
Feeling drained Eden got to her feet, drawing Lucy up carefully. The girl didn’t even look at her. She walked out of the stall and headed towards the door. Eden shut the stall door and locked it, listening to the impatient student outside gulp back her berating when she discovered it was Lucy Stevens.
She waited as the student peed and then washed her hands, slamming out of the bathroom.
Then reality sunk in.
She had set out to take a soul.
I set out to kill.
She was just so angry. So angry at everything and everyone.
“Crap.” Eden began to hyperventilate, covering her mouth with her hand as her body began to sob involuntarily. She wheezed, trying to draw breath.
I almost killed her. I almost killed her.
“I have to…” she blinked past the blur of tears in her eyes and numbly reached for her backpack. She had to get out of there.
“Eden, what on earth are you doing home?” Celine came out of one of the sitting rooms just as Eden’s foot hit the first step on the staircase.
She didn’t even spare her a glance. “Like you give a shit.”
Ignoring her mother’s outraged yelling, Eden flew up the stairs to her bedroom. In three steps, she slammed her door, turned her iDock on full blast and flopped onto her bed. Contemplating the ceiling didn’t help her work through how out of control she had just gotten. She’d almost killed a student. That was taking anger management issues to a new level. Afraid of herself, Eden sucked back tears.
Not much time past before her bedroom door blew open and the hurricane itself strolled in. Ryan was an intimidating figure in his three thousand dollar suit. He was just one of those ‘men’ who reeked of money and elegance. Of power. Of danger. It was that perverted violence simmering under his surface.
“Your mother called me at work.” He sat down on the edge of her bed, his hands clasped together between his knees. He didn’t look at her. “You want to tell me why I’ve had to come home from work to deal with my truant daughter?”
Eden snorted. “I’m kind of surprised you bothered your ass.”
Ryan’s head snapped around at her and Eden flinched back into the bed at the lethal look in his eye. “Don’t speak to me that way, young lady. Your mother might put up with that language but I certainly won’t. Now what the hell are you doing home from school?”
Without knowing what possessed her to, Eden found herself telling him about Lucy, although she cut out the stuff about Amber and just said the girl was trying to bully her. To her utter surprise, Ryan was smiling when she finished.
“It’s only natural.”
Eden grimaced. “To nearly kill a girl at school?!”
Her father grinned even more wickedly, the dimple in his cheek flashing just like Eden’s did when she was in a good mood. “No. To lose control, to feel irrational anger. You’re ready for the Awakening Ceremony, Eden. Your body knows that, it’s trying to tell you that, and you have to do something before you lose control over it.”
Maybe that’s why she’d told him. Because she needed someone to confirm what she really didn’t want to know. “OK,” she whispered.
His face brightened. “Really. You’re agreeing to it?”
“I don’t want to kill anyone.”
“Well you’re going to have to kill someone, Eden,” his voice hardened.
She shivered, knowing he spoke the truth. “I know. I mean I don’t want to lose control.”
He nodded. “For once you sound like my daughter.”
Eden threw him a disgusted look and he laughed. “You can hate me all you want. I never asked for your love. I do ask for you loyalty, however, and doing this Awakening Ceremony will prove that to me.” He heaved a sigh and pinned her to the bed with a demanding look. “I also ask discretion from you. What happened today cannot happen again.”
“I compelled her to forget.”
“Yes. But someone could have happened upon you attacking that girl. And there are people… who would realize what you are.”
Eden frowned, pulling herself up into a sitting position. “What do you mean?”
Ryan nodded, as if he were coming to a decision. “I never told you before because there was no need, but there are a group of people, humans, who hunt our kind.”
Suddenly her heart was begging to jump out of her chest. “What? Wh… how…?”
“These humans call themselves the Warriors of Neith. Their sole duty in life is to kill off the Blessed. They call us soul eaters,” he spat out the phrase. “Filthy. They have no understanding of us, no respect. They think themselves superior to us and they stop at nothing in their mission to wipe us out.”
Eden couldn’t believe what she was hearing. How was it even possible she had gone seventeen years not knowing there were warriors out there who would kill her in a second? “Does Stellan know? Should I take this seriously? Can they hurt us?”
“Yes. Yes. And yes.” Ryan nodded, his expression severe. “I’m telling you about these men and women now because if we are not circumspect, they will find us, and they will hunt us, and they are strong enough to do damage.”
Realization suddenly dawned. “The goons? The bodyguards… you sent them after me because of these Neith guys, right?”
Ryan nodded and stood up. “You need to be aware of them, Eden. I hope now that you are, you will be more careful.”
She jerked her head in a vague affirmative, numb from the shock of discovering that there were people out there who thought the Blessed so evil they actually killed them for a living. “Wait…” She glanced up at Ryan, a flare of panic in her chest. “Warriors of Neith? As in the goddess?”
His jaw clenched tightly. “Yes.”
“As in… created by her?”
“Yes.”
Clutching her stomach to hold down the nausea, Eden looked away from Ryan. God, they were so evil a goddess had created a race of humans to take them out. Awesome.
“Eden?”
“What?”
“I’m glad you’ve agreed to the Ceremony. Trust me… when it’s over… this… whatever this bizarre human thing you’re going through is… it will disappear forever. All this… unnecessary pain you’re feeling… you won’t have to deal with it anymore.”