The Sentinel (15 page)

I came to a steep bank, a river lay covered in ice some twenty feet below. I didn’t hesitate, I threw myself into the air and reached out desperately with my hands hoping to reach the other side. But it was no good. As I started losing height, I was still a good few metres from the opposite bank.

I crashed through the ice like a lead weight as I fell deep into the murky gloom. Pain seared through me as the cold stabbed my skin like a thousand knives. I fought my way back to the surface but I clunked against a thick wall of ice. The current of the river was pulling me away from the hole. My lungs were screaming from the complete lack of oxygen, the bitter cold making it difficult for me to move my limbs.

I tried to conjure a ball of fire, but my brain was clouded from lack of air and the biting icy waters.

I punched the ice but to no avail as the current swept me further downstream.

Suddenly a shadow stepped above me. In one brutal move a fist punched straight through the ice. I was grabbed by the scruff of my neck and yanked out. I gasped for air, gasped as the cold air hit my soaked clothes and skin.

I blinked, blearily to try to shake the water from my eyes and saw I was being carried by a Deus dressed completely in black. He was one of them. I tried to fight against him, but my muscles were now contracting through the cold and I could barely move or breathe. In fact, as I shivered violently, I was finding it very difficult to breathe at all. It hurt everywhere, like I was being burned.

We reached his car and he threw me into the passenger side, before running round to the driver’s side in a blur. He floored the accelerator and took off down the road.

He quickly dialled a number on his phone. A woman answered.

‘I’m coming to you now,’ said the man.

‘I’ll be waiting.’

My Guardians, where were they? I was being kidnapped and they were still fighting. Or were they dead? This man had fresh blood on his shirt. My heart contracted violently as I thought about Seth.

The man grabbed me by my coat again and yanked me onto his lap. As he drove, he skilfully managed to take off his coat and wrap it round me. His eyes flickered with concern for a second before he turned his attention back to the road. I knew then, without a shadow of a doubt, that he was one of mine. I pulled myself against him, desperate to get some warmth.

‘My Guardians?’ I shivered.

‘Will meet us there.’

A soft swishing and a thud behind me indicated that one of them at least had not waited.

Strong hands were around me, pulling me back off the man’s lap and onto someone else’s. Seth looked down at me as he wrapped his arms around me.

‘Take her clothes off Seth, she’s freezing and the wet clothes aren’t helping.’

Seth’s eyes bulged as he flushed with embarrassment. ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea.’

‘And letting her die of hypothermia is?’

Seth closed his eyes and his hands moved quickly to rid me of my coat, jumper and shirt. He pulled the man’s coat back around my bare skin and pulled me tighter against him. Thankfully my jeans stayed where they were.

The car skidded to a halt and Seth leapt out the car. We had arrived at a house and the door was already open. Seth didn’t even knock he ran straight in with me in his arms.

‘Jasmine?’ he called.

‘In the lounge, here put her down on the sofa.’

Seth was so hot, I didn’t want to be parted from him, but he prised my fingers from his shirt and stood back as I shook violently.

‘Now clear out,’ said a blonde woman as she approached me, tying her hair back in a bun. Seth didn’t move. ‘Seth I need to get her out of these wet clothes, I’m sure she doesn’t want you staring at her when I do it. Go and make yourself useful and grab the duvet from one of the beds upstairs.’

Seth hesitated for a second then left.

The woman, Jasmine I presume, knelt over me, her warm hands sweeping over my head and chest. A fusion of different scents hit my nose, grass, cinnamon, sandalwood, rose, lilac, salt, sugar. She looked to be about thirty years old, she had light grey eyes, almost silver in the glow of daylight that was drifting through the window.

‘Thirsty were we?’ she muttered, the hand over my chest suddenly seemed to glow. ‘You’ve swallowed a load of water.’ A heat suddenly seeped into my chest and I coughed. ‘You’ve got water in your lungs too.’ The warmth spread across my chest, my stomach and suddenly it filled me, my arms, my legs, my feet, leaving behind a warm, fizzy feeling in its wake. She pressed a hand to my head and smiled. ‘Sleep Eve.’ A heaviness settled over my head and my eyes closed against my will.

For a while, my dreams were erratic, as I ran, pursued by dark figures I couldn’t really see. Hands grabbed me in the darkness. Ahead was a bright light and as I ran towards it I ended up on a beach. I had been here before; it was a beach in Mexico I had come to as a child. Golden sands, turquoise waters, palm trees providing much needed shelter from the searing sun. The best part was there was no one here trying to kill me. And there was Seth, a younger, slightly smaller version of the one in the waking world. He had come with me to Mexico as well. I had so many happy memories of our time here. We had played all day, every day on the beach. Seth had taught me how to surf and stopped me falling off more times than I could count. He had always been my constant, my best friend. To deny I loved him would be pointless. He was quite simply a part of me now, the other half of my heart.

As I slowly woke, I was aware that it was dark in Jasmine’s lounge, that I was still lying on her sofa, and, as with every time I had woken up in the last week, I was wrapped tightly in Seth’s arms. Thankfully I was dressed and not lying with Seth completely naked. I only hoped that Alexandria or Jasmine had dressed me. I felt refreshed, energized. Whatever Jasmine had done had cured me of everything.

‘Hey, you’re awake,’ he said, pulling the duvet over my shoulder. ‘Are you warm enough?’

I nodded. I was too hot actually.

‘We thought body heat might help.’

‘
You
thought body heat might help,’ said Quinn, from somewhere nearby. ‘Though as Jasmine had already healed her it did seem somewhat redundant.’

I didn’t need to be able to see Seth to know he was blushing.

‘I’ll go and see if I can round up some food,’ said Quinn.

I heard him go.

I needed to tell Seth how I felt. Life was short and my life expectancy seemed to have shortened a lot over the last few days. I had to tell him now, regardless of what my future held. We could probably never be together but he had to know how I felt.

The lounge door suddenly slammed behind Quinn.

‘What’s his problem?’ I muttered sleepily, pressing my face against Seth’s throat. I felt so safe here. There had just been another attempt on my life and I had nearly drowned and frozen to death, but right here, now, wrapped in his arms, all that seemed very far away.

‘I think he’s just angry over the threats to your life,’ said Seth, pulling me closer. ‘The last few weeks you’ve nearly died so many times and it’s scared him that he can’t do anything to stop it.’

‘It’s not that, he doesn’t like it when you hug me, or lie in bed with me.’

‘Oh that. It’s the big brother mentality. You’ve always been little Eve. But now you’re seventeen… things have changed… Now you’re not a little girl anymore, you’re strong and powerful. It’s only natural that you will seek out a suitable mate. And I suppose once you find a mate, there will be a certain physical… intimate side of the relationship. I guess it’s hard for him to see his little sister like that.’

‘Seth I need to tell you something…’ My heart leapt in my throat. ‘His little sister?’ I was awake now. My heart hammered in my chest as I sat up. ‘Do you mean like figuratively, like he sees me as a little sister?’

Seth swore under his breath and sat up too.

‘No, I actually meant literally. Quinn is your brother.’

I had no words. The family I thought I had lost that night of the fire had been there all along. My real family. I had a brother. And he was a shape shifter.

14. The science of me

I stared at Seth in shock.

He pulled a face. ‘Maybe Quinn should explain this.’ He got up and opened the lounge door. ‘Quinn!’ he called.

‘Yep.’ Quinn appeared from the hall, holding a chicken leg.

I opened my mouth to speak again, but I couldn’t think of anything to say. He looked at Seth in confusion.

‘Yeah erm Quinn, Eve was just wondering about her family, erm, her real family…’ Seth said, with some embarrassment, he had obviously revealed something he probably shouldn’t.

‘Oh.’ Quinn frowned thoughtfully as he sat down on the sofa next to me. Seth sat on my other side. Then Quinn broke into huge smile. ‘Well Eve, you’re my sister.’

I felt my mouth fall open at having it confirmed.

‘Well half-sister,’ he corrected. ‘But I’ve always thought of you as my sister.’

I found my voice, though it didn’t actually sound like me. ‘I’m a shape shifter?’

Quinn shook his head. ‘Technically yes, but you probably won’t be able to shift, it’s generally only the males that have the shape shifter capabilities. Occasionally there is some freak mutation in the genes that passes it onto the females, but it doesn’t happen very often. My Mum, our Mum, was a carrier of the shape shifting gene, though she couldn’t shift herself, she would have passed it down to both of us. It probably lies dormant in you. My Dad was a shape shifter as well.’

‘And my Dad?’ I asked quietly.

‘Oh, erm er…’ Quinn stalled, he took a deep breath. ‘Nathaniel of the Oraculum.’

‘My Dad is on the Oraculum?’ I asked in disbelief, my voice unnaturally high.

‘Yeah technically, I suppose.’

‘Technically? What does that mean?’

‘Ok, you know that the sex of a baby can be predetermined, by selecting the correct chromosomes?’

I nodded. ‘Yes, but it’s only available for medical reasons, like a family history of medical problems on the men’s side, a couple could therefore choose to have a girl. Though it doesn’t always work.’

‘Ok well imagine that we could not only choose the sex of babies, but also its eye colour, hair colour, whether it would be good at science, art, languages, music,’ Quinn said, explaining patiently to the uninitiated.

‘That’s impossible.’

Quinn shook his head. ‘The scientists working for the Oraculum are miles ahead of the rest of the scientific world in terms of what they can do. They can do all that and more. The embryo, your embryo was rewritten. There were chromosomes taken out that belonged to my Mum and Nathaniel and replaced with other chromosomes. You have the Power chromosomes from the Donum, healing chromosomes from the Zeki, strength chromosomes from the Guardians, shape shifting chromosomes from my Mum, and other chromosomes from other members of the Oraculum. Some of these chromosomes though might always lie dormant, like shape shifting, it’s probably something you will never be able to do. Your strength too, many believe that your strength won’t come from the Guardian chromosomes but from your powers.’

I nodded, trying to take it all in. ‘So basically, I’m a mongrel?’

Quinn laughed. He put his arm round me and hugged me tight. ‘Something like that Eve yes,’

‘Am I even human?’

‘Oh yes, that was one of the most important factors when creating you, you had to have human emotions, love, compassion, anger, sympathy. The Donum, the Zeki, the shape shifters, the Oraculum, they are all human, just with extra abilities. The only non-human part of you is the Guardian chromosome, but don’t worry we won’t hold that against you.’ Quinn grinned.

‘Hey!’ Seth protested. ‘There’s nothing wrong with having a bit of Guardian in you.’

I’d almost forgotten Seth was there. ‘I’m not related to you am I?’ I asked, sudden waves of panic rolling through me. Please don’t say I’m attracted to my brother.

‘No, not at all,’ Seth said.

‘Good,’ I blurted out, before I could stop myself.

Seth looked at me in confusion, Quinn smirked.

‘So,’ I said, changing the subject. ‘When you said Nathaniel was ‘technically’ my Dad, you meant there was probably very little of him left in me, once all the chromosomes had been replaced?’

Quinn nodded.

I thought back to that day Quinn had explained about shape shifters, the day he had shifted into a panther, another weird memory etched firmly on my brain. I remembered what he had said about how untrustworthy shape shifters were. ‘But how does a union between a member of the Oraculum and a shape shifter occur in the first place. You said no one trusted them?’

‘My Mum was actually a scientist working on the Sentinel Project. She was slightly more trusted because she couldn’t shift, and she had pledged to them, but actually the shape shifting gene is the key, the glue that holds it all together. The Donum, Zeki, Guardian chromosomes are not compatible with each other. You will never find a Donum that can heal or a Guardian with powers, they just don’t mix. The shape shifters, they can literally melt from one form to the next. The shape shifting chromosomes have the ability to take different forms as well, the form that is most needed to fuse with other chromosomes. That’s why predominantly you are a shape shifter, albeit a dormant one, so your chromosomes would be compatible with the others. In the end Nathaniel’s chromosomes were just one of many, but predominantly my Mum was your Mum, so predominantly, you are my sister.’

I smiled. I had a family at last. ‘Your Mum, our Mum, can I meet her?’

‘She died, many years ago, I’m sorry.’ Anger flickered across Quinn’s face, but then it was gone.

‘Oh,’ I swallowed sadly. And as quick as that, the family that I had found had cruelly been taken from me. ‘What was her name?’

‘Laurel.’

‘Laurel Jones,’ I said it quietly.

‘Erm no actually, Laurel Matthews. The Oraculum didn’t want you to have any connection with her at all. Once you were born, they wanted to hide you, to give you a normal life away from the Donum and Shape Shifters. The further away from that world, the safer you were. Giving you the name of Jones meant no one who knew of the Sentinel Project could find you. There are hundreds or thousands of Joneses, it meant you could vanish in plain sight.’