The Prophecies (The Sentinel Series Book 2) (21 page)

We were level with the top of the fort now and Sophia looked over at me, her face, my face, going white with what I had done. She unbuckled her seatbelt and in one quick move she slapped me as hard as she could across my face.

‘You will not mess this up for me, do you hear,’ she roared at me. She staggered forward to the front seat, and grabbed a bottle of water and an old cloth that had clearly been used to clear the inside of the windscreen. She poured the water onto the cloth and wiped it over my face, roughly. I kicked her defiantly in the shins. Sophia staggered back in pain, her eyes flashing furiously.

She came back towards me, pulling the knife out of her belt. ‘I’m going to cut you free now. Remember, if we land and your Guardians see you beating me up, they will kill you themselves, instantly,’ Sophia said warily, cutting slowly through the ropes.

It was really tempting to have my Guardians kill me. If my signal went out at the exact same time they killed me, would they realise, would they make the connection that my doppelganger was not actually me? But I couldn’t risk it. With me dead there would be nobody to save Seth. There had to be something I could do. I could find a bit of paper somewhere, write down what had happened. But would anyone believe me? Would there be time for me to convince them. Panic rose in me, I had to do something.

As the helicopter bumped softly onto the ground, I saw Seth, my love, the other part of my heart, waiting for me, waiting for her. I felt so sick, he was going to die and according to him, I would be the one to kill him. For him to die was painful enough, but him dying feeling betrayed was the ultimate agony.

Sophia pushed the door back and ran straight into Seth’s arms. I quickly got out too, hoping that my prettiness would distract him momentarily, just enough to maybe see me hiding inside this body. But he only had eyes for her, as far as he was concerned there was no one else on that helicopter but her. He looked at her with such adoration, it filled my heart to see it. He looped his arm round her shoulders and they walked off. I felt wretched inside, to see him walking off with the woman he loved, and that woman wasn’t me.

I was about to run after them, grab Seth and physically stop him from going back to our room with Sophia, when Lucas caught my arm.

‘Hey Eve, is this some kind of joke that I’m not getting?’ he grinned at me.

Relief washed through me, so much so that I flung my arms round his neck and silently sobbed into his chest. He held me tight. I could feel his concern, could feel he was trying to understand but my head was so filled with images, with panic and sorrow that he couldn’t make head or tail of it. I quickly pulled away, I couldn’t tell him, but I didn’t have to. I just had to think about what had happened and he would see it too. I looked at Seth and Sophia, they had stopped at the top of the steps by the pool. She still had her arms wrapped round his neck, his hands were at her waist. I turned back to Lucas and concentrated on everything that had happened in the last few hours. As he understood, his face turned to thunder.

I looked back at Seth and he was kissing her. Remembering Sophia’s promise to gut Seth as soon as they were alone, rage shot through me and I suddenly found myself yanking Lucas’s knife from his belt and running forward. I tucked the knife into the back of my jeans and rugby tackled Sophia round the waist, sending her sprawling onto the floor. I landed on top of her and got two good punches in, round her face. As I grabbed the knife, Seth kicked me off her, instantly shattering the bone in my forearm. I smashed into the floor with such force that I felt my collar bone snap, and one of my ribs, the knife was knocked out of my hand. Pain seared through me and I struggled to get up, but Seth, incandescent with rage, punched me in the face, breaking my cheekbone.

I could see Lucas over his shoulder wrestling with Sophia, though his mind wasn’t really on it, he was aware that Seth was beating me up and he knew he had to stop that before he stopped Sophia.

‘Seth stop,’ roared Lucas, throwing Sophia to the floor.

But Seth either couldn’t or didn’t want to hear. He punched me again, then he fastened his hands round my throat. If Lucas wasn’t quick enough Seth was going to kill me, himself. As he choked me, I put my hand up to his cheek, tracing his lips with my thumb, as he had done to me so many times. Seth froze and in the split second before Lucas dragged Seth off me, I knew Seth knew. His horror struck face said it all.

I scrabbled up, putting the agonising pain I could feel across my body and face at the back of my mind. Lucas hadn’t had time to incapacitate Sophia, and as she moved to run away from me I lunged for her. I had no power but I did have years of martial arts training. I kicked and punched her, she had no clue how to defend herself, she tried to punch me but I was quicker and ducked or blocked her every attempt to hurt me back.

She screamed for help and Eli, Alexandria and Mason, who were waiting at the top of the stairs near the entrance, were suddenly by my side, the air spitting them out. They looked momentarily confused at why or how they had slid to me and not to her, but then Lucas obviously explained in their heads as Eli suddenly turned angrily against her.

I barged past him, continuing my attack. Sophia staggered backwards but I was relentless, unleashing every move I had ever been taught on her defenceless body. She staggered to the edge of the cliff and somewhere in me, something made me pause for a second. Did I really have it in me to kill her? I had killed before, the Reapers and those two pilots that had tried to shoot down our helicopter all those months ago. But those deaths had been with my powers and they had been in self-defence, a self-preservation thing. Sophia was completely helpless now. The threat was over. I could allow her to be thrown in jail. But I wasn’t sure how these drugs worked, could she change at will now her shape shifting gene had been activated? As soon as the drugs wore off she might be able to shift into a bug and escape. And if she escaped she could come back, someday, somehow and kill Seth. I thought about how much pleasure she had got from her plans to kill him, I remembered vividly the prophecy I’d seen of her killing him and I felt sick.

Seth flittered to my side, as her face changed to a furious hatred, she lunged at him. It was stupid of her, knowing how I would react, knowing even if she did get past me, she couldn’t defeat Seth in a fight. I knew then, that whatever it took, if I didn’t kill her today, she would not rest until Seth was dead. As she flew snarling through the air, her hands outstretched towards him, something snapped inside me. In a moment of furious rage, I delivered the final kick to her stomach and she flew over the edge. I looked down at her corpse lying awkwardly sprawled on the rocks below, then turned away from it to face my Guardians.

‘I hope you were right Lucas, or we’ve just stood back and watched someone kill the Sentinel.’ Mason muttered.

‘Eve?’ Eli said, warily.

‘She can’t speak,’ Lucas explained, ‘or use her powers.’

Seth was at my side, remorse and guilt written all over his face. ‘I’m so sorry,’ he gently touched my cheek and as I remembered feeling the bone snap, the pain suddenly returned. I stroked his face again, stroked his lips and he kissed me, so softly, not wanting to cause me any more pain. But the pain was intense and I wobbled a bit trying to stand.

‘We should get her to the infirmary,’ Lucas said.

Seth didn’t take his lips off mine as he scooped me up into his arms. I wrapped my arms round his neck as he carried me up the steps, still kissing me.

We arrived in the infirmary and Seth put me down on one of the beds, then sat down holding my hand, my personal guard behind him.

Cassidy came rushing over, Freya looked up, from where she was colouring on one of the beds, but not seeing anyone interesting she stayed where she was. Cassidy looked at me in confusion and Lucas quickly explained.

She put one hand on my throat and one on my head, removing the drugs on my voice box.

I tested it out. ‘Hey,’ I said quietly. Seth smiled, sadly, as Cassidy moved to heal my cheek bone.

‘My collar bone is broken too,’ I explained to her. Seth hung his head in his hands as she healed that too. I cringed inwardly at the pain I was causing Seth. As I told Cassidy about my broken rib and my forearm, Seth let out an anguished growl. After healing my broken bones, she moved both her hands to my head, to lift the drugs off my mind to release my powers. She frowned as she struggled to lift it, but suddenly I could feel my power trickle through and the majority of the drugs were gone.

I reached out for Seth, who was looking away from me, in anger at what he had done. ‘
Seth, look at me.’

He obliged, with tears in his eyes.

‘
I love you so much.’

‘I tried to kill you Eve.’

‘You tried to kill me because you thought you were protecting me. When I got off the helicopter, you looked at me, her, with such love. In that moment, I felt so lucky to have you in my life.’

‘Great, the moment when I was wrapped in the arms of another woman,’
he smiled, dryly.

I tutted and moved my attention to my Guardians. ‘
Hey guys, see, it is me in here.’

They all smiled back, with relief.

‘Thanks Lucas.’ I said out loud. ‘I’ve never been so glad to have you in my head before.’

He grinned at me.

Cassidy stopped then, the warm fizzy feeling disappearing.

‘Eve, I’ve healed everything I can, but I don’t know how to access the shape shifting part, so you can change back. I’ve not dealt with shape shifters before. We can get a Zeki up here who is trained in dealing with shape shifters but my guess is the drugs will wear off by themselves soon. It might be real soon too, especially as we have now released your powers, though it might be another day. Sorry.’

‘No that’s fine. I’ll go and rest in my room for a bit anyway, when I wake up I might be back to my old self.’ My heart suddenly leapt. ‘Quinn! I have to go and get him, they had him drugged, but James might go back and kill him.’ I swung my legs off the bed and stood up.

Seth pushed me back down onto the bed. ‘Wait. Listen…’

I stood up again, angrily, wobbling a bit with the speed I had done so. ‘No, I can’t leave him there, you guys can all come with me…..’

‘He’s back, he flew into the fort a few minutes ago. Gave the Guardians a fright when they saw him shift, even more of a fright when he shifted into his human form, considering he was standing outside the main entrance, naked, shouting about you. He’s just gone up to his room to get some clothes on, then he’s coming down to see you,’ Seth said.

‘Oh,’ I said, embarrassed.

Seth kissed me on the forehead. ‘See, it does pay to listen to me sometimes.’

‘Let’s go and see him then.’ I made to walk towards the door, but Seth caught my arm, holding me back, then in a fast, but gentle movement he scooped me up in his arms. ‘Seth I can walk you know,’ I protested.

‘Humour me,’ he said.

I nuzzled against his neck, as he carried me out the infirmary. He moved his nose, gently over my formerly broken cheek bone.

‘I’m sorry Eve, you know I would never do anything to hurt you.’

‘I know,’ I muttered, sleepily.

‘And I love you, so much,’ he said, quietly.

‘I know, I love you too. I had to kill her. She was going to kill you, I couldn’t let that happen.’

Seth cocked his head on one side as he carried me. ‘She was here to kill
me
?’

I explained how she was Mia’s Mum, seeking revenge for her daughter’s death and Seth shook his head in disbelief. He had spent so long trying to protect me, none of us thought that one day someone would come to kill him instead.

We had arrived back at our corridor at this point and as we walked down it Quinn appeared out of his room.

‘Quinn!’ I called and Seth put me down.

I ran to Quinn, throwing my arms around him. ‘Are you ok? You’re not hurt are you?’ I pulled away as I checked him all over for injuries. Happy that he was unharmed, I hugged him again.

‘Eve?’ he asked hesitantly. I remembered that I still didn’t look like myself. I nodded, against his chest. I felt him sniff my hair and then hug me tightly to him.

I smiled. ‘Do I smell like me?’

‘You have a unique smell.’

‘Sweaty, nice,’ I giggled, relief washing through me that he was ok.

Quinn kissed my head. ‘Turns out I wasn’t much good to you after all. Stuck in your pocket, I had no idea that you had been knocked unconscious. When Sophia pulled me out, I thought it was you. She injected me with some tranquilizer or something and that was when I realised what was going on. I tried to shift, I bit her, but I was unconscious a few seconds later. I’m sorry Eve.’

I shook my head, against him. ‘You have nothing to apologise for, I was just so glad to have you along for company.’

‘Though I did miss out on most of the conversations you had with the Oraculum, since you did it telepathically.’

‘Yeah sorry about that, I’ll have to fill you in,’ I pulled away.

‘Later,’ Seth said. ‘You need to rest now.’

Quinn nodded. ‘Seth’s right, you do look a bit peaky.’

‘Later then Quinn.’

He kissed me again and I leaned against Seth sleepily, as I walked back towards my room.

As Seth opened the door, I wobbled a bit, exhaustion shuddering through me in great waves, Seth’s arm tightened around me, to steady me as he kissed my forehead. Then he looked down at me, suddenly grinning. He kissed my nose. ‘I like this face better, it’s so much more beautiful than the other one.’

Tears smarted my eyes, I felt like he had just punched me in the stomach.

Seth saw my face and tutted. He pulled me into the room and showed me the mirror. My old face stared back at me and I giggled with relief. Then Seth scooped me up in his arms and took me over to the bed.

Seth kissed me and then stood up. ‘I’ll leave you to sleep for a while. I’ll explain to Eli why Sophia was here and the Oraculum will need to be informed.’

I nodded, sleep taking me almost immediately as he left the room.