2. Blood Past (Warriors of Ankh #2) by The Elephant House Read Free Book Online Page A

in them now, an uncertainty… and… grief. Her grief for Stellan was now etched into them, straining the corners, and tilting the edges of her mouth. She looked so… human. Eden sighed. Her body didn’t feel human though. If it was possible, she now felt stronger than she ever had before. Cyrus and Valeria had made her lie in bed for 24 hours after the change. It was infuriating and frustrating because all Eden wanted to do was stretch her new limbs and give them a try. She was restless for the training Cyrus had promised her; for the info on the soul eaters; for the first taste of a kill.
    “They are your eyes, Eden,” an amused voice said from behind her, surprising her and causing her to smack her nose off of the mirror. She muttered a curse and leaned back from the mirror so she could see Noah at her back in the reflection. She glared at him. “Still not talking to me, huh?”
    Eden snorted humourlessly. “What? Did you think I’d wake up and just forget the last six months of your lying and pretending?”

    He scowled back at her and she watched warily as he took the few steps forward he needed to be pressed against her back. She stiffened, feeling the heat of him through her shirt and jeans. He stood a few inches above her, the warmth of his breath tickling her neck sending unwanted goosebumps across her skin and a shiver down her back. “I take it they told you, you died?”
    She wanted to scream at him to back up away from her, to give her room to breathe. But if she did that, he’d know his nearness still affected her. “Yes.” She thrust her chin out defiantly. The fact that Cyrus had kept that little fact from her hadn’t bothered her nearly as much as she thought it would.
    She knew he had done what he thought was best for her, and truthfully, she might have died anyway if he hadn’t procured the cure. Scratch that. She would have died. OK, so yeah it was a little creepy that she’d died and come back. But hello! She’d died and come back a super kick ass warrior. Eden wasn’t going to argue with that.
    Her answer bothered Noah. She watched his jaw clench and his pale violet eyes darken as they scoured her face. “And you’re not bothered that they kept that from you?”
    “They did what they had to.”
    He shook his head, his eyes narrowing dangerously. Eden had always thought of Noah as a pretty easy-going guy, but sometimes he got this look on his face that made you want to run for the hills.
    With that scary look Noah stretched his arms out to lean his hands on either side of the sink, caging her in. To her chagrin, her heart began racing and pounding, that citrusy scent of his that used to drive her hunger wild, surrounded her and…
    Oh my God.
    She tried to breathe as the new sensations crept over her. Without the hunger begging for Noah’s soul, Eden’s body stretched out in freedom, eagerly reacting to what it wanted. And it had always wanted Noah. The hunger had always overpowered desire before now, so the shock of its full intensity made her grit her teeth and lower her eyes. How could she want someone she wanted to kill on a daily basis?!
    “So let me get this straight,” Noah growled in her ear, making her shudder. “You will forgive Cyrus and Valeria for withholding the very important detail of your inevitable death but you won’t forgive me for following orders that Cyrus gave me?”
    His words helped diminish the strange fluttering in her lower belly his nearness had infuriatingly produced. Eden glanced up into the mirror, catching his exotic gaze in her own very new one. For months she had believed him to be her greatest friend. For months . He destroyed her faith.

    When she spoke, her voice was surprisingly calm and toneless. This was another part of being an Ankh she enjoyed. All that seething rage was gone. Well some of it was gone. That which was left she could now manage and control in a way she hadn’t been capable of before. “Cyrus didn’t make me believe in a