The Sentinel (The Sentinel Series)

by Holly Martin

  ‘God Seth, they’re here, they’re looking for us. Quick, get out of here.’

  He hesitated. ‘Eve…’

  Eli turned to look at us through the trees and as one all the people standing around him stopped talking and turned to look at us too.

  ‘Seth, go, for god’s sake go!’

  He turned the bike around and accelerated down the road.

  I watched the people through the trees. Eli and a few others leapt back into the silver car and the car took off up the road after us.

  ‘We have to get off the road,’ I yelled. ‘They’re coming after us.’

  Seth took me at my word and almost immediately took a tiny dirt track through some houses and soon we were cutting across a field, heading up a hill and back into the trees. The field stayed empty behind us. The Land Rover was too big to go down the dirt track.

  Seth seemed to know exactly where he was heading as he picked his way through the trees and suddenly a huge white house appeared before us.

  ‘It’s a friend’s,’ he yelled over the engine. ‘He’s not here, but I have the keys.’ He stopped the bike outside, killing the engine and silence descended on us. ‘We’ll be safe here, the others won’t find us.’

  The door flew open as we approached and as soon as we crossed over the threshold, it slammed behind us and the lights came on.

  I stood with my mouth open and he shrugged with embarrassment.

  ‘Sensors. Cain always was a bit of a show off. Look at the state of you, come on let’s get you sorted.’ He took my hand and led me through to the kitchen.

  He lifted me easily onto the kitchen worktop and then turned to fill a bowl with water. I watched him as he moved round the kitchen. He had shot up and out over the last few years. He towered over the other children in our class, easily well over six foot, and he was so broad and muscular. His skin had the exotic look of an all year round Mediterranean tan, he had dark eyes to match his hair and the longest eyelashes of anyone I knew.

  He turned back to face me, dipping a cloth in a bowl of warm water and wiped it gently over my face.

  ‘Seth what were you doing in the woods at three in the morning?’

  ‘Riding my bike. I love riding it in the dark; it just adds a sense of thrill to it. It allows me to forget everything with the wind in my face.’

  Absently, I took his free hand, feeling the strength that was in his fingers, in his palm. ‘I envy you, I wish I could forget everything right now, wish I could wipe my brain clean.’

  ‘What were you doing in the woods Evie? You shouldn’t be out alone in the middle of the night, there are a lot of unsavoury characters in this world.’

  ‘If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.’

  ‘Eve, you’re my best friend, of course I’ll believe you.’ He dipped the cloth back in the bowl again. The water swirled with the blood and dirt he had wiped off my face. Like my brain, a swirl of chaos and confusion.

  I looked at my friend and shook my head sadly. ‘I think I’m losing my mind.’

  He lifted my hand and started wiping the blood off my palm. I suddenly pulled my hand back, remembering the lightning that had shot out of it. Surely there should be some scars from the heat of the lightning, but there was nothing. None of this made any sense.

  ‘Eve?’

  I sighed and then made up my mind. I could trust him, I knew I could. I took a deep breath and told him everything, about the fire, about Quinn and Eli. I told him about the coach crash, about me holding the coach, the constant vigilance of the Guardians and the lightning that had shot from my hands. And Seth listened without interrupting and when I finished I felt so much lighter. Then I waited for his reaction.

  ‘Eve…this is surreal, are you seriously telling me there are really shape shifters out there, and beings with super strength that are only here to protect you? I’m not being funny or anything love, you know I love you, but what’s so special about you?’

  ‘I know, it doesn’t make any sense, but I’m not making this up, I swear. You saw them too, outside your house.’

  ‘I’m guessing they were the police, they must have traced my reg plates. Look Evie, these incidents, the fire and the coach crash were both very traumatic. It’s perfectly reasonable that you had stress induced hallucinations. But now you’re taking this too far, you’re running from the police, you’re running through the woods in the middle of the night in your pyjamas, and now you’re imagining that you have, what, magical powers? Eve, maybe you need some help.’

  I let my head fall into my hands, trying to make sense of it all. I was not surprised that he had this reaction. It was all completely unbelievable. I barely believed it myself.

  But then I noticed something, which made my heart leap. Seth’s pyjama bottoms were sticking out the bottom of his jeans. Why had he not got changed before he went riding his bike at three in the morning? Why had he been in woods that were miles from his house, when he had perfectly good woods surrounding his own home? How had he been in the woods, by sheer coincidence, at the exact place and time that I was? All through my life, the Guardians had never let me out of their sight for as much as a minute. That must have been them in the woods and if it was, why would they suddenly let me go when Seth turned up? Unless they knew I was safe, unless… I was with a Guardian?

  ‘Oh Seth, no,’ I looked at him in despair, a huge sense of disappointment and loss flooding through me. ‘Not you too.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You’re one of them aren’t you?’

  ‘Eve, have you lost your mind. I’m a Guardian? Is that what you’re saying? I’m a being with super strength? I can barely open a jar of jam. This is insane. You’re really worrying me.’ He looked at me incredulously.

  Fear and anger erupted through me. How far did this deceit stretch? When was I finally going to get some answers?

  ‘Seth please. You’re my friend, my best friend, if I can’t trust you who can I trust?’

  He was silent for a moment, as he looked at me thoughtfully. ‘Evie, you’re scaring me now.’

  I felt angry tears pricking my eyes. I pushed him away and made to walk out the house. I had to be alone now. I had to have time to think. Silas was right; I really couldn’t trust anyone.

  He put a hand out to stop me ‘Evie, wait!’

  I turned back and he paced away, suddenly nervous.

  ‘I’m not a Guardian,’ he blurted out.

  ‘Seth…’

  ‘No listen. I’m not technically a Guardian although I have the strength and speed of them. I’m half human as well, which makes me mortal.’

  4. What? How? Why? When?

  ‘What?’ I was stunned. What did he mean half human?

  ‘My Mum was human, my Dad is a Guardian. I was specifically made to be your friend.’

  ‘Made?’ I could feel my heart hammering against my chest, I was finally getting some answers but it still didn’t make it any easier to hear.

  ‘Oh in the traditional sense, my Mum and Dad got together, a few months later I was born, but I was conceived with you in mind.’

  ‘Ewww.’ I couldn’t help make a joke of the situation; I was feeling very tense all of a sudden.

  ‘No, idiot not like that, but sort of I guess. Once they knew you were on your way they created friends for you too. Strong, powerful friends that would be able to protect you.’ He enclosed my hand in his large strong paw and pulled me down next to him on the sofa.

  ‘All my friends are Guardians?’ I couldn’t believe this. My family, my friends, was any part of my upbringing normal? I thought about my sweet, lovely, quiet friend Persia. Surely she couldn’t be a part of this as well. ‘Is Persia a Guardian too?’

  ‘Persia isn’t a Guardian.’ He smiled, as if there was something else he wasn’t saying. ‘No not all of your friends are Guardians. I’m the only half-human Guardian. The human and Guardian DNA doesn’t mix too well. They tried to create a few of us, girls and boys, but all the babies died except me. My Mu
m died during childbirth, it was just too much for her human body to take, giving birth to someone of my strength and size. Some of the other children were true Guardians, as in both their parents were Guardians.’

  I gasped with sudden clarity. ‘Josh and Grace?’

  He nodded

  Of course they were. The grass green eyes, the constant vigilance, why hadn’t I seen it before?

  ‘So why bother trying to mix Guardian and human DNA if it wasn’t likely to work? Why not just have true Guardians for my friends.’

  ‘Because Guardians don’t really have emotions. Things like love, compassion and friendship are concepts they struggle with, things they’re not really capable of experiencing. They figured you would be able to relate better to someone with emotions. And they were right; you never really clicked with the Guardian children did you?’

  I remembered Josh and Grace; distant children that never really got the concept of playing. Where me, Seth and the others were playing with water, sand and experimenting with paint, the Guardians would look at the toys with confusion. I had always thought of them as socially inept, though I didn’t have a name for it at the time. I remembered them trying to play with me in the playground, but they were so cold towards the other children, and their smiles seemed fake. Seth was right; I had never really counted them as friends.

  ‘What happened to them?’ I remembered when we were ten years old, the Guardian children stopped coming to school and I had never seen them since.

  ‘They were only there to be your friend Eve, so that when you played outside of school you would have Guardians to play with, instead of human children. When it became apparent that you weren’t friends with them, it was just a waste to have them there. They took them out of school and started putting them through extensive training instead. I’m sure you’ll see Josh and Grace again at some point. And Eli, remember him?’

  ‘The little boy who stared at me all day?’

  Seth smiled. ‘Yes, even then he took his job very seriously. They had to take him out of school when he was seven; he was already nearly six foot, not the inconspicuous classmate the Guardians were looking for. He was the one that rescued you from the fire tonight. Did you not recognise him?’

  I shook my head. Though through the smoke, the fire and with my dog turning into a man, there hadn’t really been time to take in his features.

  ‘So the men in the silver car, Eli, they’re my Guardians?

  He nodded and I groaned. ‘I thought they were trying to kill me.’

  ‘No, they’re sworn to protect you.’

  And I had shot at them, unwittingly with some beam of lightning.

  ‘So… Seth you’re my friend because you have to be?’ I asked quietly.

  ‘No silly. I mean yes in the beginning, as soon as I was able to walk and talk, my Dad told me what my purpose in life was, what I had been created for. I had to make friends with you and protect you no matter what. The first day, probably the first few weeks I was just fulfilling my duty, but after that I…I became attached. I’m your friend now because I want to be, because I cannot imagine my life without you, because I love you. I’m supposed to discredit you, get you to think it’s all rubbish. You’re not supposed to know yet and I’m definitely not supposed to be the one that tells you. But how can I laugh in your face when you’re my best friend? Evie I’m loyal to you, not to my duty, that’s why I’m telling you all this now. When they find out I’ve talked I’ll get in so much trouble but I don’t care, you’re my best friend, so I’ll tell you what I know.’

  ‘Thanks Seth, that means a lot.’ I squeezed his hand. ‘Tell me about the Guardians then, they’re not human, so what are they?’

  ‘They’re a species called Deus.’

  I knew enough about Latin to recognise that word. ‘Gods?’

  ‘Yeah thousands of years ago that’s what people thought they were. They were so strong and fast and never died, it was quite obvious they weren’t human, so it was thought they were gods rather than just another species.’

  ‘Wait, back up, they never die, they’re immortal?’

  ‘No, not really. Once a Guardian reaches the age where they are the strongest, they stop aging, so they don’t die of old age, well not at the same age as humans. Because of the strength, they’re really hard to kill as well, but it’s not impossible. I think the oldest known Deus was about four hundred years old.’

  ‘Hang on, Guardians? Deus? What’s the difference?’

  ‘Deus are the species, Guardians are the Deus that have pledged allegiance to you.’

  ‘To me?’

  He nodded.

  How ridiculous.

  ‘So what am I? Am I a Guardian too, though that doesn’t make sense…’

  He held up a hand to stop me, listening to something else. I looked around to see what he could hear.

  ‘Eli’s going mad. Are you ok for them to come here?’

  ‘What… you can communicate with them?’

  ‘Yes, we can talk to each other via telepathy.’

  ‘So tonight, you were in the woods because they called you, telepathically?’

  ‘Yes, as soon as you left the house, the Guardians were all talking with each other. They called me to come and get you, they realised you were running from them so they thought you’d be more susceptible to a friendly face.’

  ‘How did you find me?’

  He smiled wryly. ‘We can sense you as well. Your mind is like a beacon, we can pinpoint your exact location from hundreds of miles away. We can centre ourselves on you very quickly too, you’re kind of like a magnet and when the need arises you can literally pull us through the fabric of space to be at your side. It works both ways. We can pull ourselves to you too, although it’s a lot harder physically and mentally for us to do that. When your powers get stronger, you’ll be able to pull us to you as and when you need us, but for the time being we can come to you if we feel the need. It doesn’t happen very often because the Guardians are always around you. But tonight there was a need. So I got the call, I grabbed my bike and one second I’m standing outside my house, the next I’m with you in the woods.’

  ‘So they can come here now?’ I whirled around, expecting Eli to suddenly appear from the air as I’d seen him do already.

  ‘No. I didn’t know, but Cain’s house has some kind of… power. It’s blocking your signal which is making your Guardians extremely nervous. Cain came to me a few days ago and told me I would need his house but that no one could enter it apart from me and you. I thought he meant he didn’t want anyone else to go in, but now I’m guessing there’s some kind of force field stopping the Guardians from sliding to you. They probably won’t be able to enter the house either. If they come here, they’ll be trapped outside. But when you’re ready you can talk to them. They might be able to answer more questions that I can’t.’

  ‘Won’t you get into trouble?’

  He shrugged. ‘What’s done is done.’

  My brain was whirling. But I nodded my consent.

  ‘We probably have about ten minutes,’ he said.

  ‘So apart from super strength and the ability to slide through time and space, is there anything else they can do?’ I couldn’t believe how normal this question sounded, how calmly we were discussing this.

  ‘We can’t travel through time, only space and we can’t go anywhere in the world, we can only pull ourselves to you, but other skills…, clearly the super strength thing is not impressive enough for you, you want more.’ He nudged me and I rolled my eyes. ‘Well we’re super-fast too, they could have easily caught up with you in the woods tonight, but they understood that you were scared of them. They can’t let you out of their sight, that’s why they called me. What else? As I said, they can communicate telepathically with each other, and with you, but they only hear what you want them to, however, some can read minds, read what a person is thinking, without their permission.

  I remembered Mr Kennedy in the coach, touching my head an
d then telling Mr Curtis what I was feeling. And what he tried to do afterwards. ‘And modify memories?’ I asked, with annoyance.

  He smiled. ‘Henry can, Mr Kennedy. There’s not many that can. How did you do that by the way, keep him out?’

  ‘I don’t know. When he said he was going to modify my memory, I just knew I didn’t want that, when he touched me he seemed to get burnt.’

  He shook his head. ‘You scared us all that night. When you shut your mind to him, just for those few seconds, it was like the beacon went out, we couldn’t feel you anymore. If you learn to control your powers and learn to do that properly, we won’t be able to sense you, to follow you, to protect you anymore.’

  ‘Really?’ I beamed. ‘If I can control it, I might get a few minutes of peace, wow that’s the first thing I want to control then.’

  ‘Evie, no, you can’t do that.’ His hands balled into fists, I had never seen him angry before. ‘There are those out there that want to kill you or worse. They can’t get close enough to you because of the Guardians but that doesn’t stop them trying. Not all the Deus are good.’

  ‘Who wants to kill me? What have I done? What do you mean worse than being killed?’ My voice was unnaturally high. This was getting too much.

  He shook his head. ‘I swore to myself I wouldn’t tell you this, not yet, it’s too much for you to take in.’

  ‘Seth, you’ve just told me that there are people out there that want to kill me, we’ve just gone beyond too much to take in.’

  ‘Exactly, that’s why I’m not going to tell you.’

  ‘The Guardians are pledging their allegiance to me, there are those that want to kill me, I need to know, why me, what’s so special about me?’

  He sighed heavily as he took my hand again. ‘They call you the Sentinel. It has been foreseen that… You’re going to save the world.’

  ‘What?’ My heart leapt.

  ‘The Oraculum are a council of nine, they have the ability to see the future. They have foreseen that you will be the saviour of all mankind.’