After another laugh-out-loud moment in the movie passed by without so much as a smirk from Cameron, Eden began to worry about him. He was acting really weird. As if sensing her frowning gaze, Cameron looked up at her. Something swam in his blue eyes, something dark and anxious, but before she could say anything he shot to his feet.
“You know I’m not feeling great,” he said, looking down at Tobe. “I’ll catch you later.”
“Eh wa-” Tobe cut off as her front door slammed and Cameron was gone. Eden watched her crestfallen gaze and nudged her.
“You OK?”
She nodded glumly. “I’m going to get a glass of water. You want one?”
“Yeah, sure,” Eden replied, wondering what the hell was going on. She turned to Mhairi as Tobe fled to the kitchen. “What was that?”
Tobe’s grandmother smirked. “Trouble in paradise perhaps?”
“I don’t think those two have got close enough to paradise yet for there to be trouble.”
“Well.” Mhairi stood to her feet. “I’ll watch the rest o’ the film later. I think I’ll retire to my bed early tonight, give you some time to do some digging and report back to me in the morning.” Eden laughed at the old woman’s nosiness. “Will do.”
A few minutes later Tobe came back in, still looking sour and annoyed. “Where’s Nana?”
“She went to bed.”
“Great, even the elderly are bored by me.”
The forlorn look on October’s face prompted Eden to ask, “OK, what the hell is going on with you and Cameron?”
Tobe’s eyes widened. “Nothing.”
“Yeah, I’m not believing that anymore.”
Making an exasperated sound, Tobe threw herself on the sofa and slapped a cushion impatiently.
“Believe me, there is absolutely nothing going on between me and Cameron.”
“Yeah but you clearly want there to be.”
“Like you and Noah perhaps.”
Eden glared at her. “We’re not talking about me, we’re talking about you, stop deflecting.” Eden had to hand it to her, Tobe managed to sit in silence for five whole minutes as Eden stared at her, waiting. “Oh for Christ sakes OK!” Tobe threw her hands up. “I lied before.”
“Aaboouuutt?
“Me and Cameron,” she mumbled, flicking at the tassels on the cushion, refusing to look up at her.
“I did like him. Really liked him. And I thought everything was going really well between us but then Shona told me that Mark had told her that Cameron had told him that he thought kissing me was like kissing his cousin, and that he was thinking of dumping me. I was completely crushed,” she whispered. “I thought we were good and things were pretty hot and heavy… we even slept together.
Hmmph. So I decided to dump him first and he agreed with me… so Shona had been right.”
“Oh my God,” Eden snapped at her. “Why in hell were you listening to Shona? She is the spawn of frickin’ Satan. A total trouble maker.”
“But she was right.”
“No, she really wasn’t. She was clearly lying to cause trouble. Have you seen the way Cameron looks at you? And why would the dude sleep with you if he thought kissing you was weird? You’re too close to the situation to see it but even Noah can see Cameron wants to be with you.” Tobe’s eyes widened at the remark and Eden didn’t think she’d ever seen such girlish hopefulness in their oceanic depths before. “Really? I don’t know.” She shook her head, the hope dimming just as quickly as it had appeared. “But something is definitely up with him.”
“Well while you’re asking him what that is, you could casually slip in something about him telling Mark that it was weird making out with you and… see what he says.” After dispensing the advice Eden frowned, sitting back against the couch. Since when did she give love advice? She pressed a hand to her forehead. Weird.
“I’ll think about it,” Tobe relented.
For the rest of the night Eden didn’t mention Cameron. She’d said what she wanted to say just like Mhairi had wanted her to and let Tobe mull it over. They finished watching a couple of more movies and were just about to head up to bed when Noah and Cyrus came in the front door with Christopher.
Eden squinted, catching sight of a very small blood smear across Noah’s chin.
Her heart thudded. “What happened?”
“We caught one,” Cyrus said, shrugging out of his jacket. “Noah killed it.” Noah’s light eyes were glittering, his whole body seeming to vibrate with the satisfaction of the hunt. Eden smiled; the buzz he was emitting contagious.
She couldn’t wait for her first hunt.
Chapter Seventeen. Jealous? Who me?
The next day Noah had surprised her by pasting drawings of monster faces over the dummies’ heads.
“Now you can stop thinking about whatever it is your thinking about when you swing at these guys, and just concentrate on their monstrous faces.” He had patted one, seeming proud of his handiwork.
Eden had laughed at the ridiculous gesture but didn’t know what to say when the damn trick worked! For the rest of the week she improved in leaps and bounds in sword training until she was keeping up with Val using the short sword, and even besting her when they used Katanas. Val was stupidly proud of her when Eden disarmed her.
After that, Eden had progressed to Noah, who fought with more power. His blows reverberated through her sword and into her body like a toothache and she had to shift everything she had learned to counter his more powerful attack. They had fought for hours on end, the world just blurring around them as they immersed themselves in the training. It was almost as if Noah wanted her to get up to speed almost as badly as she did. Come Friday, Val had decided to leave them to it and had gone to train in the combat room with Cameron and the other Neith. Eden faced Noah with determination.
She was determined to disarm him.
By that afternoon she had done just that, but she’d been so aggressively focused, she hadn’t pulled back when the moment was upon them and her blade sliced over the top of Noah’s lower arm.
He hissed and dropped his Katana. Eden felt as if she’d been kicked in the gut. She dropped her sword and hurried to him to check how bad it was.
“It’s just a shallow cut,” Noah assured her. “I heal quickly. See.” They both watched as the cut closed over as if it had never been there.
“God, Noah, I’m so sorry,” she whispered, afraid to look up at him. Hurting him brought back memories, terrible memories. Heart pounding, Eden couldn’t take her eyes off his arm as she said,
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry about Denton. Sometimes I can’t believe that was me who hurt you like that. It sounds ludicrous to even have to say it out loud but I’m sorry… for stabbing you.” A surprising ripple of shivers shuddered down her spine at the feel of Noah’s hands sliding around her neck as he cupped her head, tilting it back so she had to meet his eyes. They shone a dark violet now as they bored into her with a sincerity that left her breathless. “I forgave and forgot that like a day later.”
Eden’s heart began thumping even louder for an entirely different reason now. It thumped for Noah’s proximity, for how much his citrusy, familiar scent made her want to sway into him. Instead, she reached up and caught the arm she’d injured, her fingers brushing over his skin. She watched his eyes spark at her touch, felt the heat leap off of him. “Took you a whole day huh?” Eden smirked sadly.
The door to the training room squeaked open breaking the spell between them and they stepped back to see Cameron hovering in the doorway. “Val and I are heading for some lunch at the Douglas’, you want to come?”