Free 2. Blood Past (Warriors of Ankh #2) by The Elephant House

realise how powerful they’d all be if they started taking entire souls. The power inside him was unbelievable. Nah, he wasn’t afraid of them coming for him. He was too busy with his own plans. By the time he’d discovered Eden was in Detroit it was too late. He’d gotten there just as the Neith and Ankh had. All this time Ryan hadn’t been shitting him. He’d believed Ryan when he had said Eden was half-Ankh. He’d seen the birthmark to prove it and had been on the end of a couple of beatdowns she shouldn’t have been able to give someone as powerful as him. But he’d been sceptical about the amount of security around Eden and the mansion. Ryan said Eden’s mother had been the wife of the Ankh Princeps, the famous Cyrus of Persepolis. Teagan thought Ryan was just yacking it up, trying to convince Teagan to take Eden for wife. Not that he needed much convincing. But goddamn it, it had been true after all. Cyrus had swept in on his white horse and absconded with his betrothed.
    “Tool,” he grumbled into the night.
    However, Teagan wasn’t ready to give up. One of the Neith Cyrus and that little jerk, Noah, had left alive in the warehouse was more than willing to give up information in return for his life. He’d told Teagan Cyrus planned to take Eden to her mother’s human family to cure her of being Blessed.
    It was the one thing he and Ryan had feared the most and it was about to happen.
    If it hadn’t happened already.
    Not that that would stop Teagan.
    He’d gotten a name from the Neith, the name of someone with insider information. But this person was working for some bitch called Cosmina Arcos, who was planning on having Eden killed. Very unhappy at that news Teagan had killed the Neith and set off to find the one with the inside info. It hadn’t taken much to convince the little deviant to turn his back on Arcos and work for Teagan. Only one million dollars of Teagan’s inheritance from Ryan.
    So now he was waiting for his informant to get back to him on Eden’s whereabouts. And once he knew, he was going after her. And then he was taking her somewhere Cyrus would never find her.
    Even if she was one of the Ankh now.
    Cursing under his breath, Teagan crushed his cigarette against the balcony, fighting the rage that threatened to overcome him any time he thought of her. He had been so close. It was always something with her. First Stellan (good riddance to that uptight asshat) who was always in his way, protecting her. Then Eden herself, who wouldn’t know a good thing if it smacked her in the face, and then that little piece of crap, Noah, who had turned her head. And now Cyrus!
    Ryan had promised him Eden when he’d come across Teagan watching her. She was fifteen when he first began to want her. He knew she was special, Ryan had told him all about it. But it wasn’t until that day, as he watched her laugh with Stellan outside in the gardens, that he felt desire for her.
    There was power about her yes, but more than that there was a humanity about her he had ached to possess, to possess and destroy, to mould her into what he wanted and control her. He wanted to own her in every way possible and he knew deep in his gut that she belonged to him. Ryan had been delighted. His uncle had wanted Eden to bear a new breed of Blessed. With her heritage they would be phenomenal. But to breed with Teagan, an extremely powerful member of the Blessed, could only work in Ryan’s favour. Teagan had wanted what Ryan wanted too. But more than anything he just wanted Eden. And he wouldn’t stop until he had her.
    So… if she was Ankh now… it didn’t matter. He thought of Ryan’s research he had tucked away in his holdall. Research that Ryan had stolen. Research that turned out to be true. Teagan could only surmise that if one part of the faded words on the yellowing papers had proven correct, then the rest was undeniable. If Eden was Ankh, it would mean more work, but he was willing to cut down anyone in his