The Prophecies (The Sentinel Series Book 2) (26 page)

Later when Seth had got up to go and organise a few things for our second wedding, I went into the shower, turning the thermostat right down so it was freezing cold, but it did nothing to reduce my temperature. I stood for ages under the icy water, but I was still burning up. As I got dressed a while later, I was suddenly overcome with a wave of nausea, and rushed to the toilet to be sick. I could actually feel my stomach moving around inside of me. I lay down on the bathroom floor, resting my head against the cool tiles, just in case I felt sick again.

I heard the bedroom door open, indicating Seth’s return and I quickly stood up. I didn’t want to worry him. He already worried so much about my happiness and safety I didn’t need to add to it, with some silly bug that I had caught.

Seth came into the bathroom and looked at me. I hoped I didn’t look guilty, like I was hiding something from him,

‘You ok?’ he said, warily. He knew me so well.

‘I’m fine,’ I smiled.

He studied me for a moment then moved on. ‘Well I have good news and bad news,’

I wrapped my arms round him, leaning my head against his chest. I was glad when he wrapped his arms round me, as it stopped my legs from giving way under me.

‘Eli has said he doesn’t want you to go shopping today, with what happened the other day with the shape shifter and the bounty on your head, now over eight million, he says it’s too risky.’

I grinned, a reprieve from a girly shopping trip. ‘What’s the bad news?’

‘Yeah I figured you’d think like that. Persia is a little disappointed but she actually has a dress with her, so she’s going to wear that. And between her and Quinn, they’ve got everything covered for the wedding. You just have to turn up at six, looking stunning and say ‘I do’, again.’

I smiled sleepily. ‘That’s good, I wasn’t really up for planning a big fake wedding today.’

Seth felt my forehead. ‘You’re still really hot, why don’t you lie down for a bit, and I’ll go and get Cassidy.’

‘I’m fine, love, maybe some fresh air will cool me down. Fancy coming for a walk with me.’

‘Of course, though I’m not supposed to be here now, Persia has some funny ideas about me not seeing the bride before the ceremony, if she catches me with you, she’ll be mad.’

‘Then I’ll slide us to the woods. If she doesn’t see us leave, she can’t get mad.’ Holding onto him tightly, I closed my eyes and slid us both to the woods. As we landed, I felt an immense wave of dizziness ride over me. I clung to Seth, in what I hoped was a surreptitious way, but he wasn’t to be fooled as he held my trembling body against him. I felt like I was fading away, like I was made out of nothing more than air.

‘Eve?’ he said, quietly in my ear.

I closed my eyes, breathing deeply to try to quell the dizziness and sickness, to stop the pain riding through my body. But there was no point; the cat was out the bag now.

‘Right, we’re going to see Cassidy, no more arguments.’ Seth swung me up into his arms. ‘I’ll take you to her.’

I winced. ‘No please, leave me here, just go and get her,’ I couldn’t bear to tell him that his hands on me was causing me great pain right now, that everywhere my body was touching his, was agony, like he was pushing his fingers through my skin. The thought of his hands on me for the next few minutes journey up to the infirmary was agonizing.

‘Eve, we’ll be there in a minute,’ he said, rushing up the slope towards the pool.

I clenched my teeth through the pain he was causing me. ‘Seth, please you’re hurting me, put me down.’

Seth froze and then immediately lay me down on the grass. ‘I’m hurting you?’

‘It hurts when you touch me,’ I explained.

Seth was torn, I could see that. He didn’t want to leave me, but he was closer to the infirmary than the Guardians in my corridor. So if he communicated with them to get Cassidy, it would take even longer to get her down here. ‘Baby, I’ll be one minute.’ He disappeared in a blur as he ran up the hill.

My body started quivering, like I was having some kind of fit. I seemed to grow, to swell in my own head. I closed my eyes as I felt an agonizing melting sensation ride through me.

I opened my eyes and I was standing over my torn and ripped clothes. I trembled as I saw my hands, giant golden paws. I had shifted and I had no idea how I’d done it or how I could change back.

I ran up the hill towards the pool, easily coping with running on four legs instead of just two. The pool was like a sheet of glass, the water lying undisturbed in the breezeless day. I peered over the edge at my reflection and leapt back in shock. So did the lioness in the pool. My heart was in my mouth as I peered over the edge again. Sure enough the lioness, face stricken with fear, looked back at me.

I had to get to Quinn; he would know what to do. I suddenly realised how conspicuous I was as a lioness, the guards stationed at the entrance to the fort would hardly hold the door open for me. I needed to be something smaller, but something fast. I thought of a spider and no sooner had I thought about this, then the melting feeling rode through me again. It hurt, but not as much as the first time. I scuttled up the hill as quick as I could.

As I approached the front doors, they burst open and Seth ran straight past me with Cassidy running as quickly as she could behind him. I thought about waiting for him, hoping he would make the connection between my disappearance and the pile of torn clothes on the floor, but he might not. I turned and scuttled through the crack in the door just as it was about to close. The stairs would be tricky to negotiate as a spider, so I crawled up the walls instead, my black furry legs sticking to the vertical surface easily. I cursed the distance I had to travel up the walls, and how long it was taking me. As a lioness I could take the stairs in a matter of seconds but that would bring down an inordinate amount of attention on me. How could I explain who I was, when I was trapped in the body of an animal? I just needed to get to Quinn, he could help.

I finally reached the top of the stairs near my corridor. As I crawled into my corridor, the guards posted at the end didn’t even register my arrival. Spiders were fairly common up here, especially as the weather was now getting warmer. I was disappointed that they hadn’t been more protective but at the same time filled with the utmost relief that my journey hadn’t been cut short. The corridor seemed so long and Quinn’s bedroom door didn’t seem to be getting any closer.

I heard heavy footsteps behind me and I tried to press myself as close to the wall as possible. The footsteps passed me and I looked up at Isaac as he walked by, relieved that he also hadn’t given me a second glance.

About ten steps away from me he suddenly stopped and looked back at me, his eyes narrowed. He slowly advanced on me, on the balls of his feet, slowly removing his knife from his belt.

Crap! I immediately wanted to be something else, anything else but a spider, a spider was too slow, too obvious, I thought about being a bug, something like a woodlouse, and immediately I shifted, the walls and floor seemingly growing before my eyes.

Isaac hissed as he watched me change. He lunged for me, ready to crush me. I quickly scuttled along the edge of the wall, back down the corridor, in the direction I had just come. His foot came down close to me, but it couldn’t get into the crack between the floor and the wall. I scuttled on.

‘Shape shifter!’ Isaac yelled, and the floor shook with the footsteps of the other Guardians as they came running.

Isaac slammed his fist down just in front of me and I jerked back, turning back down the corridor towards mine and Quinn’s room.

Amongst the chaos of the other Guardians gathered around Isaac and the others still running to join him, I saw Quinn appear from his room looking anxious. I nearly wept from relief. But in the next second he shifted into a great bear and came galloping down the corridor towards Isaac and me, growling and snarling.

I suddenly found a tiny hole in the wall and scuttled into it, the darkness of the cavity closing round me. I turned back to face the corridor and was met with a great paw, and snarling teeth trying to get at me through the tiny hole. I backed away into the darkness, my heart hammering against my chest.

In all the times I had spoken to Quinn about shape shifting, he had never mentioned it was like this, with people trying to kill you, and being unable to get back into your own body again.

I looked round the hole and the snarling, vicious teeth didn’t relent at the entrance. There seemed to be some kind of tunnel leading off from the back of the hole. Other creatures had been here before, possibly a woodlouse or some kind of spider, judging by the old webs that were around this cavity. I made my way along the tiny tunnel, the sound of snarling and growling almost disappearing behind me. There was nothing but darkness around me now, that and the smell of old wood. I kept going, making slow progress through the darkness until I could see light ahead of me. I pushed my way through the tiny hole and realised I was back in the corridor again. Quinn was still growling at a hole a bit further down whilst the Guardians stood around helplessly, checking the floor around them for any stray bugs.

I scuttled as quickly as I could back to the entrance to the corridor. I passed the one guard left there, without him even noticing me; he was too busy looking at what was going on in the corridor behind him.

As soon as I reached the stairs I felt the need for a bit more speed. Though changing into something bigger would surely bring a lot more attention down on me, I stood more chance of getting away quicker.

I shifted into a cat and ran flat out down the stairs. I heard shouts behind me as they saw me running away. I increased my speed, desperate to escape. There were suddenly a lot more legs and feet on the stairs as the Guardians tried to catch me. I darted through several legs, hands and knives and reached the floor below, with the legs and feet hot on my heels. I tore down the next flight of stairs, but more legs were running up them towards me. I backed into the wall, my ears flat against my head as legs and feet and knives descended on me from all directions.

I leapt up onto a curtain, sinking my claws into the red velvet as I tried to scale it, if I could reach a certain height, the Guardians below wouldn’t be able to reach me. But as I desperately tried to climb the curtain, strong hands were suddenly round me.

I wailed my protest and clawed and bit at them in a desperate bid to defend myself, but the hands didn’t release me.

The hands tucked me under his arm and I watched as he tucked his knife back into his belt.

‘For goodness sake, Eve. We’re all running round trying to kill a shape shifter and then I realise it’s you. You could have warned us before trying out your shape shifting abilities for the first time, we nearly killed you,’ said Lucas, shaking his head with amusement. He took me from under his arm and held me up to his face. I saw the other Guardians filing away, mumbling under their breath with annoyance.

If cats could cry I would have wept buckets of relief then.

‘Oh,’ said Lucas, suddenly realising that this change in my appearance wasn’t really my fault and how terrified I was.

He cradled my trembling body in his arms as he quickly ran back up the stairs, stroking my head in what he probably hoped was a soothing way.

He moved into the corridor. Isaac, the other Guardians and Quinn who were still gathered round the hole, suddenly turned their attention on me and Lucas.

Quinn tore down the corridor, growling savagely and was snarling at Lucas’s feet a few seconds later.

Lucas held me over his head. ‘Quinn, it’s Eve, she’s shifted.’

The growling stopped immediately and a short second later, he shifted from bear to a dog, to my dog. Isaac was suddenly at Lucas’s side, with his knife out threateningly. He leapt up to grab me from Lucas’s grasp, but Lucas shoved him back and Quinn grabbed his sleeve in his mouth.

‘Isaac, its Eve, its ok, put your knife away.’

Isaac looked furious. ‘It’s Eve?’

Lucas nodded, tentatively bringing me back down into his arms.

‘For goodness sake, is this some kind of stupid joke? We’re all running round trying to defend her from some shape shifter and she’s having a laugh at our expense.’

Lucas sighed, angrily. ‘Isaac, look at her face. Does it look like she’s having a good laugh right now, she’s terrified. This isn’t something she’s got any control over; ever since that shape shifter injected her with those drugs, her body has been going through some changes and she’s trying to adapt to them.’

Isaac walked off angrily and Lucas watched him go, shaking his head. He turned and walked to Quinn’s room, with Quinn by his side. As soon as we were in Quinn’s room, Lucas put me down gently on the bed. Quinn disappeared off to the bathroom and came back out a few seconds later with his jeans on, pulling a t-shirt on over his head. He sat down next to me and pulled me onto his lap.

‘Eve, are you ok?’ Quinn asked gently.

My heart was pounding so hard against my chest that I thought I was going to vomit.

‘Erm, I think that’s a no Quinn,’ said Lucas.

Quinn gave a wry laugh. ‘I know, the first time it happens, it is terrifying.’

Even more so when everyone, even my brother is trying to kill me.

‘Yeah, she’s not exactly happy that you tried to kill her, especially when she was on her way to you for help,’ Lucas explained, sitting down on the sofa.

‘I’m so sorry. I can’t believe I was trying to kill you. I would never have forgiven myself if I had hurt you,’ Quinn stroked my ear, absently. It felt weird sitting on his lap like this. I clambered off it back onto the bed again.

‘Ok, you just need to think about being human again. In the same way that you changed from a spider, to a woodlouse, to a cat, you can change back into being a human again.’ Quinn nodded, encouragingly.

I closed my eyes, and envisioned being a human again. I felt the change happen almost immediately, the curious fizzy feeling as I melted but grew bigger at the same time.

I opened my eyes and Quinn and Lucas were both looking away with embarrassment. Quinn stood up quickly and held up the duvet in front of me. I took the duvet and wrapped it round me, then sat down on the bed again. My arms and legs were still tingling and I was shaking from my brush with death.