Relaxing, she had asked Noah about his life. As the meal had worn on she'd found herself moving closer to him until they were huddled together in the corner of the pub as Noah told her about life during the fifties and sixties, how the 70s had been such a great era for music and film, the cities he'd been to – Paris, London, Budapest, Sydney… - about all the amazing things she had yet to see and learn.
“What about my mom?” Eden had finally asked, now that they were so comfortable again.
Noah had smiled at her, his expression warm and caring. “Merrit was amazing. I met her a few times when I was younger because Dad and Cyrus have always been such good friends, but in the early eighties my parents made a couple of bad investments and we lost everything. We moved in with Cyrus and Merrit so my dad could get back on his feet and after your mom… well Mom didn't want to leave Cyrus all alone in that big house… and we haven't left since. I could have gotten my own place, I guess, but I like being around them all.”
“So you lived with my mom for a while?”
He had nodded. “She was amazing, Eden. You could talk to Merrit about anything and she always had your back. Kicked my ass a few times for…” Noah had suddenly trailed off, seeming embarrassed.
Eden had been able to guess why. “For being a player.”
He'd thrown her a sheepish look that had been so adorable she'd foolishly wanted to curl into him.
“Yeah. Merrit was a good person and a great warrior. But she also didn't beat around the bush. She just said it how it was which was kind of a shock for my mom sometimes. They had a few heated discussions over what was proper language for a lady.”
That had made Eden laugh.
Noah had stopped her with a penetrating look. “She was beautiful too. You look like her a lot. I can't imagine what it means to Cyrus to have you in his life.” Having felt her throat begin to close with grief, Eden had glanced away quickly, willing her tears to recede.
“Eden.” Noah had placed a warm hand over hers and she'd felt his rough touch like a shiver of pleasure down her spine. “I am so sorry for not telling you who I was. For blindly following orders. I am so sorry I did that to you.”
After a tense moment Eden had glanced up at him. She'd given him a watery smile and had whispered, “I forgive you.”
“Eden,” Cyrus snapped bringing her back to the present. “I have a sword pointed at you. Will you please focus.”
Chapter Sixteen
The first Cut is the Deepest
It didn't matter how distracted a person was, when Cyrus used that tone of voice you snapped to attention. Eden shook off the weekend and began listening as Cyrus and Noah demonstrated fighting with the Kopis. It was a frantic, close quarter fight and for a moment Eden was lost in the grace of their movements. Cyrus instructed as they fought, swinging the Kopis in a semi-loop around his head so that it came down towards Noah with the full force of his upper body strength. Noah countered the move, and soon began a hissing of metal on metal as they fought one another off in a flash of figure of eight movements. After each demonstration, Eden took a turn, starting off tentative until she felt comfortable in her own skin with the sword. Cyrus said many of the Neith began their sword training with wooden swords but he didn't believe that was necessary for her. It put the pressure on but Eden was determined, and like all things that involved fighting and self-defence, she picked it up like she had been doing it for years. Soon, they moved from the weightier Kopis to the Lakonian and Persian short swords, from those to the Katana (Samurai), from the Katana to the Broadsword, from the Broadsword to the Longsword.
Despite the whole powerful, immortal thing, four hours in and Eden's shoulder was on fire. With a grunt she dropped the hefty Longsword that had been clasped in her sweaty palms. Great, she winced. Now her other shoulder was killing her because of that damn thing. She looked at it in disgust.
“You might want to be careful with that, it wasn't cheap,” Noah said as he picked it up. He threw Cyrus a look as he placed his sword and hers back up on the wall mounts. “I think someone needs a break.”
She curled her lip at him, noticing he had barely broken a sweat. “I'm fine.”
“You are using muscles you have never used before,” Cyrus assured her. “And we have been going strong for a few hours.”
“Did I miss anything?” Val sauntered into the room, shutting the door quietly behind her. She had been on patrol that morning.
“Any news?” Cyrus asked quietly.
She shook her head and turned to Eden with a smirk. “You look a little worn out.” Jeez, it wasn't like she was panting on the floor dying or anything, Eden rolled her eyes. “I'm fine.
I just hate the damn Longsword.”
“Well, you don't have to fight with the Longsword. I don't know any who do; it's just useful to know that you can if you ever have to.”
“Yeah, real useful.” Eden grimaced, rolling her left shoulder.
Val grinned at her and strolled over to the weapons. Reaching up, she pulled down one of the Persian short swords; it was more like a long dagger with a sharp curved tip than an actual sword.
“The Acinaces.” Val grinned, slicing it through the air with expertise. “My favourite.”
“Darius' also.” Cyrus nodded, studying her movements. “He taught you well, Valeria.” The Ankh shared a quick knowing look with Eden and Eden felt that pang in her chest again for her mentor. She cleared her throat, “Uh, well I have to go with the Katana.” Noah smiled cheekily at Cyrus. “I think you owe me twenty bucks, Princeps.” Eden watched, brow furrowed as Cyrus wearily handed over the cash. “Did I miss something?”
“Noah bet you would like the Samurai sword best.”
“Oh and how did Noah know that?” Eden made a face, totally fed up of being so transparent to this guy.
He shrugged. “The Katana has a nice weight and balance, not to mention it's got a lethal cut.
Female warriors tend to like the Katana best.”
“Not all,” Val murmured, striking the air with the Acinaces before pulling it back and launching it with perfect aim into one of the training dummies that lined the room. Eden gazed at Val's handiwork, afraid to look at Noah while her mind wandered into a dark, unforgiving place…
…A warrior with a swishing blonde ponytail, a girl perhaps a year older than she, took advantage of Stellan's distraction.
“Eden!” He yelled, turning away from the warrior, to fight his way through the miniature war.
“Eden, no!” Noah tried to pull her back.
“Stellan!” She reached out for him, her eyes widening as the sword came towards the back of his head. “Stellan, noooo!” She screamed.
But it was too late.
The sword cut through him, a sweep of his blood swiping through the air along with the top half of his head…
…Romany carried a Katana.
Eden's heart pounded as she imagined finding her, the two of them facing off with their Katanas, Eden's slicing through the skin and muscle of her brother's murderer. She felt sick and shaky at the thought.
“Eden?”
She blinked at the touch of Cyrus' hand on her shoulder. He gazed down at her in concern. “What is wrong?”
“Memories,” she whispered, unable to lie.
He nodded. “I understand.”
Did he?
“Why don't we let Eden have a shot at decapitating this guy?” Val said from over Cyrus'
shoulder. Bemused, they turned to see her wheeling a dummy over. The dummies were creepy. They were just this weird fleshy material, shaped like a head and torso, with no face. “This,” Val smacked her hand across it, “is Guido.”
Eden laughed. “Guido?”
“Yes. Guido the soul sucking worm is here to die today at your hands. Guido is made from special materials that simulate the skin, muscle and bone tissue that you'll have to cut through.”
“Charming.”
Val winked at her. “A warrior's life, sweetheart.”
“OK,” Eden sighed, holding out her hand to Noah. “Give me the Katana.” But cutting off Guido the soul sucking dummy's head wasn't as easy as Eden had thought. Her first try she didn't put enough force into it and her blade just made a cut. The second time, it got stuck a quarter of the way in and the vibration of the impact of her sword made her feel vaguely queasy even though she was practicing on a dummy. The queasiness shot her nerves to hell so when she finally swung and took the head clean off, she felt less than triumphant.
“OK, even I know if that had been a real fight I'd be dead,” she grumbled stepping back.
“It's not an easy thing to do, Eden,” Noah reassured her. “You just have to stop thinking about how real this will soon be. Just remember that Guido isn't real so you can get the technique down.
You can worry about the realities after.”
The pep talk didn't help. She was mad at herself. She wanted to hunt and soon but there was no way Cyrus would let her near a soul eater if she couldn't do the one thing that would kill one. With a huge exhalation, Eden brushed past her three Ankh companions and placed the Katana back on its mount. “I'm hungry. Can we break for lunch?”
***
As Cameron strolled along Bruntsfield Road towards the Douglas house, his mobile rang in his pocket startling him and the woman passing him. He smiled apologetically as he pulled it out of his jeans, Silversun Pickups blaring before he pressed the answer call button.
“Mum, I just left the house ten minutes ago,” he grumbled. Ever since his dad had died his mother, Mary, had become overprotective and somewhat neurotic. It would have been bad enough for any teenage guy but for a Neith Warrior it was bloody irritating. He tried to understand. Oh how he tried.
“I know,” she sighed. “But I forgot to ask you to pop into your Uncle Neil's for the monthly cheque.”
“OK.”
“OK. Thanks, darling, I appreciate it.”
“You know you have to speak to Uncle Neil sometime.”
“I do speak to your uncle.”
“You've been avoiding him, you know you have.”
Mary sighed again. “I'll speak to him when he pulls the stick out of his arse, OK. Don't be later than midnight. Bye.”
For a moment, Cameron just stared at his phone. With a huff he took off again, annoyed now that he had to pick up the money. Another thing that had changed since his dad had died… having to turn to Uncle Neil for financial support. His mum hated being beholden to anyone but with only one income coming in (and his mum refused to let him drop out of school so he could help) they were struggling to make ends meet. So began the monthly cheque from Uncle Neil to tide things over. He felt a horrible tightness in his gut at the thought of collecting it. It wasn't like he'd ever really liked his uncle. The Councilman was a harsh taskmaster with little or no sense of humour. His own dad had been his greatest friend before that one soul eater had come and stolen him from him. But his cousins, James and Ryan, always seemed scared of their dad. They'd seemed more comfortable around Cameron's father and had stopped hanging around Cameron so much when his dad had been murdered two years ago.