Read 2. Blood Past (Warriors of Ankh #2) for Free Online

down it to sit on the floor, his eyes on Mhairi and Eden as he relaxed against the door.
    “Well, is someone going to stick that needle in me before my arse falls asleep?” Mhairi grunted.
    Cyrus sighed. “Definitely Merrit’s family.”
    Eden grinned at that, suddenly feeling a sharp pang of longing for the mother she had never known. If she were anything like Mhairi she must have been quite the character.
    It took a few minutes for Valeria to draw the pint of blood from the older woman. Once she was done, she wiped at the needle puncture gently and helped Mhairi rest against the bath, handing her some sweet lemonade.
    Eden eyed the bag of blood and her stomach turned.
    Oh god, I can’t do this. I can’t do this.
    Don’t! The hunger growled . Don’t. Just smell that soul . So much better than the blood. Take.
    Want. Need .
    One of Mhairi’s eyes popped open. “I can get up and leave if you don’t want me watching your transition.”
    Mhairi was looking a little pale and shaky. It would be selfish to ask her to leave. “No, it’s fine.
    It’s not so much you watching, it’s the actual… transition.” The four of them were silent as Eden’s eyes bored into the bag. Her legs began to grow numb, so she shifted, her palm taking her weight on the tiles. She slanted her gaze, staring at Cyrus out of the corner of her eye. “How does this work again?”
    “Valeria will give you the transfusion. You will convulse. You will pass out. You will awaken in approximately twenty four hours completely free of the soul eater.”
    That, she liked the sound of. The transfusion and convulsing part, not so much. Eden looked to Valeria now for answers. She couldn’t ask her outright if it would hurt or not because Mhairi couldn’t know what Valeria was. Damn it, why didn’t I ask her this sooner?? She cleared her throat. “I wonder if it’ll hurt.”

    The Ankh immediately understood and nodded. “I imagine it will.” Valeria exhaled and leaned back against the bath beside Mhairi, her eyes pleading with Eden not to be afraid. “I imagine that changing the mechanics of your body will be painful. Perhaps a burning sensation. Muscle pain.
    Sharp, needle-like qualities in your bones. I imagine also your heart will feel as if it is going to burst out of your chest as it pumps the new blood into your system.”
    “Good imagination,” Mhairi mumbled. “Are you trying to frighten the girl?”
    “I am trying to prepare her.”
    Everything Val had described sounded awful. But hadn’t she been through much worse? Was the physical pain really as bad as the emotional crap she had been through? As bad as the hunger??
    Somehow, I don’t think so.
    “OK.” Eden shrugged back her shoulders and stuck out an arm. “Let’s do this.”
    *
    The prick of the needle had been nothing. A sting. The sitting, waiting for the convulsions had been somewhat excruciating.
    But this…
    The actual convulsions…
    Eden wasn’t even aware of where she was anymore. She didn’t know what she was doing, how she’d gotten there, who the murmuring voices around her belonged to. All she saw was pure blinding white. All she felt was pure, burning pain. A white heat. Ice cold in its intensity. It ripped and clawed and gripped her muscles, twisting this way and that. It gnawed, scratched and stuck needles into her bones. It taunted her heart, which raced faster and harder, galloping against her chest as if desperate to be anywhere but inside her.
    I’m desperate to be anywhere but inside me .
    Pain thudded, thud thud thud, against the back of her head and her teeth rattled in her mouth. She couldn’t even scream. She could only exist as her body took over and…
    … died…

Chapter Four
The Dead Look

    Noah stared at Eden in disbelief. There was a sick churning in his stomach and tightness in his chest that he refused to believe was panic. Trying not to tremble, Noah dropped Eden’s limp wrist.
    Her pulseless limp wrist.
    Staggering back from the