by Holly Martin
There really was only a small group of people I could truly trust. And one of them, the Guardian I was closest to, was about to leave.
‘Is this your idea or Eli’s?’ I gestured to the case.
‘It’s mine.’
A wave of hurt punched me in the gut.
‘I understand. Babysitting me can’t be much fun; its dull, monotonous and not to mention dangerous. If you want to go, I won’t stop you.’ I stood to leave. ‘You’ve been a good friend, my best friend. I won’t ever forget that.’
I ignored the stab of anger and hurt that slammed into my brain along with Lucas’s thoughts.
I made it to the door but he was suddenly there in front of me preventing me from leaving. I cursed how quickly the Guardians could move.
‘I am not a coward, nor do I find being with you in any way boring. You know how I feel for you. I would stand with you till the end of time, but not when something I did caused you to nearly die.’
‘I need you Lucas. If you don’t want to go, and I really don’t want you to go, then get off your bloody high horse and stay. The last few months have been hard enough, please don’t make this any harder.’
I could see he was wavering. He couldn’t bear to leave me, I could feel that.
‘Can’t you consider this your first warning or something?’
He gave a half smile.
I leaned into him, wrapping my arms around him tightly. ‘I’m not letting you go, so if you want to walk out of here, you’re going to have to do so with me clinging to you like a leech.’
I felt his arms wrap around me, hugging me to him tightly and felt him sigh with defeat. I had won one battle at least.
‘You do anything like that again, I’ll kill you myself, you understand?’
I nodded against him
Just then the door opened and Persia walked in. I tried to shift out of Lucas’s arms but he wasn’t finished hugging me yet. Persia didn’t seem the least bit bothered by finding her boyfriend in the arms of someone else. I loved how Persia was so relaxed about our relationship. As much as I trusted Seth, I’m not sure if I could contain the green eye monster within if I found him in the arms of another woman, regardless of how innocent it might be.
‘Oh good, you two have sorted out your differences, I guess you’ve talked him out of his ridiculous idea of leaving.’
‘I’m staying, I can’t trust her to keep out of trouble if I leave.’
Persia smiled. ‘Eve we have to go, it’s my Dad’s sixtieth at the weekend and all the family are having a big party to celebrate. But we’ll be back next week.’
Persia had mentioned this before, but all the days seemed to blend together here and I hadn’t expected it to come around so soon.
‘You’d be very welcome to come. I know Mum and Dad would be delighted to see you again. Clementine misses you too. And don’t you want to see the baby?’
I smiled. Persia had been showing me photos of her niece Aurelia for weeks, ever since the surprise arrival of Clementine’s baby. I had no idea that she had been pregnant all those months before when I had first learned of my destiny to save the world. Neither, it seemed, did Persia and Izri. Though it did explain why Clementine had decided to stay in England when we had relocated to the fort in the Tibetan mountains.
I was hugely tempted to pop back and see Aurelia, this gorgeous flame headed little girl, just for a few minutes. Lucas’s hands tightened around me and I felt the ‘no’ clearly in my head as if Lucas had shouted it out loud. I didn’t need the reminder. I could never go back to that world, not when so many people wanted me dead. I was concerned enough for Persia and Izri going back with her known association with me, but her family had not come under any threat since we had left, partly due to the Guardian presence that the Oraculum had installed in the immediate vicinity of their home.
‘I’d love to.’ I ignored Lucas’s fingers digging into me as he held me. ‘But I can’t. I’m sorry Persia.’
She nodded then shifted awkwardly. ‘Well the helicopter is waiting and I just came to say goodbye.’
Ah. My cue to leave. She certainly hadn’t come to say goodbye to me. I pulled out of Lucas’s arms and gave Persia a quick hug before I left them to it. The flash of warmth and love Lucas gave Persia before I closed the door behind me made my heart clench with happiness. But standing in the corridor was an even bigger shock. Caleb was kissing Izri as passionately as if his life depended on it. I had heard rumours they were together, but apart from the odd look between them I had seen no evidence to confirm this. Clearly, saying goodbye when they spent every waking moment together was hard. Surely Caleb and Lucas could go with them. They didn’t have to be committed to me every single day of their lives. There were enough Guardians in the fort to protect me in their absence. Although, before I could even fully form that idea in my head I knew that Eli wouldn’t go for it. Especially not after what had happened the day before. I sighed as I walked back up the corridor to face him.
To my surprise Seth and Eli were embroiled in a pretty heated argument.
‘It should never have happened,’ Seth said.
‘I know. If she’d only followed protocol…’
‘Don’t give me that. If she had it wouldn’t have made any difference. Something needs to change.’
‘There is a very big price on her head, huge in fact, I’ve never seen a bounty so high. It’s tempting many people.’
This angered me. ‘So many people come and go here every day, any one of them could be eyeing me up so they can collect the reward.’
‘No one will get close to you Eve…’ Eli protested.
‘But Riley did. Well, his family. I’ve played with him down by the pool. I’ve chatted to his Mum. Unless you want to lock me in a cell where I talk to no one, it’s going to happen again.’
Eli clenched his fists but he had no words with which to reassure me.
‘So I’m not safe here, I’m not safe anywhere, unless I live in a house on an island in the middle of the ocean, with only my friends and my personal guard for company.’
‘That’s not a bad idea,’ Seth mumbled.
‘Well, we will have to be stricter on who comes up to the fort,’ Eli said.
‘How? There are hundreds of people up here every day, what are we going to do, make them all pledge to me before they get on the helicopter?’ I asked. This whole situation was ridiculous. The constant vigilance of my Guardians couldn’t cover every base. I was safer here than anywhere but I wasn’t a hundred percent safe. I never would be.
‘Now that’s a good idea,’ Eli nodded, approvingly.
‘Eli! I was joking, you can’t do that. Most of the people are just cooks or maids, you can’t ask them to pledge their allegiance to me, and it’s got nothing to do with them.’
‘If they want to keep their jobs, they’ll pledge.’ Eli said, almost speaking to himself now.
‘You can’t sack people just because they won’t pledge to me. For some people this is their home, has been for years before I came along, you can’t kick people out of their home.’
‘Fort Naga is your home now Eve, you’re the only one that matters,’ Eli said.
I stared at him, incredulously. No wonder there was so many people wanting to kill me. If my Guardians were going through life with this attitude, that no one else mattered, that everyone else was so insignificant, they would have stepped on a lot of toes along the way.
‘I’m going for a walk,’ I muttered angrily.
Eli stood up. ‘Eve?’
But I walked out, not sure I could keep my temper around him at the moment. I walked quickly down the stairs and outside, hearing the footsteps of my boyfriend as he followed me closely. I headed for the pretty gazebo at the end of the pool. The summer flowers had just started to trail up the sides. From here, you could see for miles, nothing but mountains and forests as far as the eye could see in every direction. I sat down on one of the benches inside and Seth sat next to me.
�
��We could get married here one day, right here surrounded by all these flowers and that view,’ Seth said, quietly. Clearly he was trying to distract me.
I decided to humour him, I needed something else to focus on. ‘I don’t know; this place kind of feels like my place of work. When we get married I’d like to do it somewhere a bit more romantic, instead of having five hundred Guardians standing over me, expecting an imminent attack at any moment. The poor priest, forced to pledge to me before he was allowed to marry us. The best man, carrying a machine gun, the flower girl carrying two knives tucked into her bouquet just in case. The groomsmen wouldn’t have flowers in their lapels they would have an axe. And how would you slide the ring onto my finger, if I had to permanently shield myself? We’d have taste testers sampling all the champagne and canapés before we ate them. And what about our honeymoon, how would that work? We’d be lying there in bed, surrounded by a twelve strong armed guard, all trying not to look as we…’ I trailed off, blushing with embarrassment.
Seth nobly changed the subject. ‘So where would you like to get married?’
‘On a beach somewhere, maybe Mexico. We could elope, don’t tell anyone where we’re going, just me and you, on a beach, getting married as the sun sets.’
‘Ok, if that’s what you want.’
Suddenly that idea sounded so appealing. Not the marriage part, I couldn’t do that until my little job was finished with, but the running away part, just for a few days. Just me and Seth, and no Guardians.
‘Seth, let’s go away, let’s find a beach and lie on it for a few days, just you and me. We can have barbeques on the sand, and drink milk straight from a coconut shell.’
Seth smiled.
‘And we can snorkel every day and dive for scallops, and eat them straight from the shell. And in the afternoons, we can doze in the hammocks, and at night we can walk along the beach under the stars.’
‘Sounds good,’ Seth nodded, indulging me in my fantasy.
‘Seth I’m serious, I want to get away from here, even if it’s just for one night. We could go right now, I could slide us to Mexico, we could sleep on the beach, we wouldn’t even need a hotel.’
‘You are serious aren’t you?’
I nodded into his shoulder. ‘I need a break, just one day. I’ve not stopped since, since you told me all about my destiny. How many months ago was that?’
‘Six.’
‘Six months. Other people at least get weekends off, I’ve not even had that.’
‘You set your own schedule, Eve; no one pushes you to do all this training, only you do that.’
I ignored that. I had to push myself to learn it all, I wouldn’t lose anyone else because I was insufficient in my powers. ‘Just one day and one night away from all of this.’
‘Ok, let me have a word with Eli, we can sort something out…’
‘No. No Eli, no Lucas, no Guardians, just me and you. Technically I’ll still be with a Guardian.’ I sat up, taking his hand. ‘Come on lets go now.’
Seth sighed deeply. ‘Eve, we can’t just let you go gallivanting all over the world and leave you unprotected, especially with so many people wanting you dead, you don’t know how important you are….’
I rolled my eyes. ‘I don’t know how important I am? I’ve had several Guardians die for me, I have people that have dedicated their whole lives to watch over me, I have my best friend who left her home in Wales to befriend me, and has now left her Mum and Dad to come and live with me. My brother basically orphaned himself so he could be with me. I’ve left school, I’ve left my dreams of becoming a doctor, of getting married and having children, I’ve left any chance of a normal life behind so I can train every day, so I’ll be strong enough to fulfil my destiny,’ I stood up angrily. ‘I was made in a petri dish so I could die to save the world, a world where half the population actually wants me dead, so yes I think I have some idea how important I am.’
Seth stood up. ‘Eve, I meant how important you are to me. I don’t care about any of that Sentinel stuff, I just have to keep you safe.’
‘Oh.’
‘Give me a few hours, I’ll get something sorted.’
‘Really?’
He nodded. He caught Caleb’s eye and as Seth walked away, Caleb stepped forward to take up my protection.
I wandered down to the edge of the pool, sitting on the side dipping my toes into the cool waters.
As I stared at the glassy surface, not even the slightest ripple disturbed it. The tiles at the bottom of the pool were black and I strained my eyes against the sun’s glare to see all the way down.
Suddenly I could see a swirl of red like blood at the bottom and I squinted to try to focus on it. The bloody pool spread and I could see a shadow struggling against the water, trying to get to the surface. Someone was down there and they were drowning. I stood up to dive in and help them but as the shadow stopped struggling and sank to the bottom, her face turned towards me and I leapt back in alarm.
Caleb was at my side instantly.
‘What’s wrong?’
I looked at him and then back into the water. The pool was empty, the shadow was gone.
‘Eve?’
I had just watched myself die. There had been no mistaking the face of the person who had looked up at me from the depths of the pool, but there was no way I could explain my brief moment of insanity either. I rubbed the back of my head where a dull ache had appeared.
Seth came jogging back towards me looking pretty pleased with himself. ‘Eli wasn’t happy with the idea of you going away without your guardians but I insisted it was what you needed, so I’ve organised three days in Cyprus. We can leave whenever you’re ready…’ he trailed off at the look on my face. ‘What?
I blinked at him in confusion. ‘You’ve been gone five minutes, how have you organised all that already.’
He looked at his watch and back at me with concern. ‘Eve, I left you four hours ago.’
The sun was much lower in the sky than it had been moments before, how had I lost four hours? Seth’s eyes flicked to Caleb with confusion and there was clearly some unspoken communication as Seth approached me as one might approach a caged animal. ‘What happened?’
‘Nothing, just…nothing.’ I stared into the water again, but there was nothing there. I really did need a break.
*
I stared out at the beach with a huge smile on my face. Seth had been true to his word.
Just one hour after I’d seen myself drown in the bottom of the fort pool, I was now standing on the balcony of a private beach house in the grounds of a plush hotel in Cyprus. How Seth had organised all this so quickly, I didn’t know but like with all things, when the man put his mind to something there was no stopping him.
Of course we had slid here and I tried really hard to ignore the fact that the man who had let us into our holiday home was huge with grass green eyes. I was also trying really hard to ignore the sheer number of gardeners and maintenance men who had suddenly found things that needed tending to around the immediate vicinity of our beach house. I was pretty sure I knew two of them, Noah and Jacob from the fort; they must have slid to the beach house whilst I had been inside unpacking. On closer inspection many of the gardeners looked very familiar.
Nothing was going to spoil my mood. I had three days here with just Seth and the waves for company, no training, no Eli with his oppressive rules. I could cope with a few ill-disguised Guardians in situ. I wasn’t stupid; most of the waking world wanted me dead.
It was so much warmer here than it had been in the mountains for the last few months; I could feel it seeping into my bones already.
Seth wrapped his arms around me as I looked out on the view.
It was beautiful. The turquoise sea twinkled in the sun, and the heat of the day not only warmed my skin, as I closed my eyes against it, but it warmed my heart as well. I turned round in Seth’s arms to hug him back.
‘Thank you Seth, this is just what I needed.’ I smiled as
I felt him kiss the top of my head, then trailed his hot mouth down my face towards my lips. I was never going to tire of kissing this man. ‘I think I could stay here all day.’
‘We could do that, but then you’d miss the massage that I’ve booked for you in ten minutes time,’ Seth said, kissing me back, so intensely that for a moment I didn’t even hear what he said.
Eventually I pulled away. ‘You’ve booked me a massage?’
‘An all over body massage, with mud and hot stones or something,’ he shrugged.
I squealed with excitement. ‘I’ve never had a massage before.’
‘Thought you’d like it, though I think I could give a decent massage, if you’d let me.’ He grinned mischievously, his hands running up my back, making me shudder.
I pulled away to change into my bikini and quickly yanked my clothes back on over the top. Then we walked across the sand towards the spa centre attached to the hotel.
Seth gave my name, well a fake name, just one of the conditions that Eli had insisted upon. No one was to know my real identity. I felt like Clark Kent; maybe I’d have to look into getting a red cape. I giggled to myself as I imagined wearing my pants over my tights. We followed my beauty therapist, Mia, down the corridor to one of the beauty rooms.
‘Sarah, if you’d like to go in and take off your clothes but leave your bikini on and lie face down on the bed. Sir, if you’d like to wait out here,’ Mia said smiling.
Seth smiled back, though the smile didn’t quite meet his eyes. ‘That’s ok, I’m going to be coming in with her as well.’
Mia’s smile faltered. ‘Sir, that’s not how we do things here, the massage is a time of deep relaxation, we don’t need any distractions.’
‘I won’t be a distraction, I’ll just sit in the corner, out the way.’
Mia turned to me. ‘Sarah, you don’t need to have your boyfriend with you, do you, surely you can be parted from him for an hour.’