The Sentinel (The Sentinel Series)

by Holly Martin

  Quinn grinned. ‘Absolutely.’

  ‘What else have they created?’

  ‘Oh loads, there used to be a proper menagerie of these creatures up at the Fort. One of my favourites was the eletah, part elephant, part cheetah. They have the strength of an elephant but the speed of a cheetah. They’re a lot bigger than a cheetah, with the same markings but they look more like an elephant.’

  Then a thought occurred to me, I turned back to face Seth. ‘The animal sculptures you used to make when we were little, the lions with dolphin tails, the half shark, half eel, they were the animal hybrids?’

  Seth nodded.

  I shook my head with a smile.

  Quinn pressed on, sensing no doubt the over whelming feeling surging through me at all this new information. ‘Now humans are quite tricky to change the genetic make-up of. The Guardian DNA especially is just not compatible with humans. It’s like trying to cross a spider with a crab, they look similar but the DNA is nothing alike. They’ve been trying for years to manipulate the Guardian chromosomes, so we could have super strength humans, but it hasn’t worked. As much as I hate to admit it, Seth here is very special. It really should never have worked, and they’ve tried to figure out why it did, but they have no clue. He literally is one of a kind.’

  I looked at Seth, who was beaming proudly.

  ‘Just like you Eve,’ said Quinn. ‘The scientists working on the Sentinel Project, knew they would have to use the shape shifting chromosome in the same way they had done with the animal hybrids, to fuse the Zeki with the Donum and Guardians. But there was too much of a combination. All the embryos they tried to rewrite died shortly after being put in the womb. But they were just normal human eggs that they had tried to rewrite with the Zeki, Donum, Guardian and shape shifting chromosomes. My Mum thought if there was more shape shifting DNA than anything else it would be able to fuse with the other chromosomes more easily. She donated five eggs to the project. They tried lots of different combinations of chromosomes but all the embryos died. You were number four.’

  ‘What did they do to me that worked where the others failed?’

  Quinn shrugged, shaking his head. ‘I don’t know, they were getting desperate and I know they were using electricity to jump start the fusion and different chemicals, whatever they used with you obviously worked.’

  ‘So I’m some kind of mutant.’ I paused, thoughtfully. ‘What happened to number five? Did the Oraculum hedge their bets, create a second sentinel just in case I wasn’t strong enough, or if I died before the end of the world came?’

  ‘The last embryo was actually created using predominantly my Mum and Dad’s DNA. They figured the shape shifting part would be strongest and would stand more of a chance of fusing with the other chromosomes, if your embryo didn’t work. But once they had you, they knew their prophecy was complete, it would have been destroyed.’

  ‘You would have had a full brother or sister, why didn’t they continue with it anyway?’

  ‘There was no one that was willing to carry a full shape shifter, it could be quite dangerous for humans to carry a shape shifting baby, and my Mum had grown too sick by this point to be able to do it herself, besides they knew you were the one they were looking for.’

  ‘How did they know that? Just because I’m the only one of their mutant hybrids that survived doesn’t mean I’m the one that will save the world.’ They had it wrong. They had too much faith in me, I could see that, they just assumed I was the one.

  Quinn reached over me and gently touched the inside of my left elbow, my birthmark. ‘This was seen in the prophecies as well, the angel wings, the angel sent to watch over us, the sentinel.’

  I rolled my eyes, the Oraculum were nothing if not thorough, they probably reprogrammed my chromosomes, my DNA, to ensure I had this birthmark.

  ‘Yeah I don’t believe it either,’ he laughed, suddenly lighting the mood.

  ‘But your Mum did.’

  Quinn suddenly looked sad. ‘Yeah she did,’ he shook his head bitterly. ‘They had prophecies about her too, Nathaniel showed her. My Mum, ultimately wanted a big family, but she got too caught up with the Oraculum and their visions for the future. She got sick, and she wanted to leave to go have more children, to go and spend time with her family, before it got too late. Nathaniel showed her what he had seen. You. He showed her how important she was to your creation, he showed her how important you were, showed her you growing up, going to school, getting married, saving the world, your children, but most importantly to my Mum he showed her being there for it all. Playing with her grandchildren when she was old and grey.

  My Mum couldn’t turn her back on that future, couldn’t turn her back on something or someone that was so important, but more than creating a saviour of the world, she wanted you, a daughter more than anything. She was distraught that she wasn’t strong enough to carry you herself, but she wanted you to live, and she figured you would have more of a chance in a strong, healthy human body. She worked for the Oraculum till the very end, still convinced that she would get better and see you grow up, because she had seen it in Nathaniel’s visions. Even in her last moments, she was convinced she wouldn’t die. She believed in the visions she had seen so much, that she refused to believe in anything else. She saw you reach your first birthday, and then she died.

  My Dad had always been very supportive of my Mum’s involvement with the Oraculum’s science experiments, she was a brilliant scientist, and the Oraculum’s unlimited budget gave her free reign to discover some amazing things, she loved it. But when she died, my Dad turned his back on the Oraculum, and I’ve not really held much faith in their prophecies since either. He forbid me to have anything to do with them and I would have been more than happy to do that if it hadn’t been for you. I couldn’t leave you. I was eight years old when I took the decision to leave my Dad and come and live with you, you were nearly two. I haven’t seen him since.’

  I stared at Quinn wordlessly. I tried to imagine Quinn as a boy of eight, still grieving over the loss of his Mum, realising that the prophecies his Mum held so dear weren’t true, and then making the decision to leave his Dad, to basically orphan himself, just for me. ‘I’m sorry Quinn,’ I said quietly, for his Mum dying, for his Dad abandoning him, for existing.

  Quinn grinned hugely. ‘Eve, I don’t regret it for one moment, you are the most important person in my life, and more than that, you are the most fantastic, wonderful person I know. Mum would have been so proud of you.’

  I smiled, tears smarting in my eyes as I hugged him.

  Seth shifting next to me, broke my thoughts. ‘The Oraculum sees you getting married, having children?’ he asked, his voice forced.

  I turned to look at him.

  I sighed sadly. ‘It seems that the Oraculum’s visions aren’t as clear cut as we hoped.’

  Quinn wasn’t the only one who had been let down by the prophecies, his Mum living, me getting married and having children. Neither of those things were going to happen now.

  ‘Yes of course,’ Seth said quietly as he stood up, then forcing his voice brighter. ‘Still if you do get married he’ll have to be very special to deserve to have you for the rest of his life. In fact I don’t know if there is anyone out there good enough for you. He will have to have mine and Quinn’s approval first.’ He frowned. ‘I’ll go and check on dinner.’ He left the room and I watched him go.

  I turned back to look at Quinn who was watching me intently.

  ‘I don’t suppose the visions that Nathaniel showed your Mum, showed who I was going to marry.’

  Quinn grinned and nodded. ‘But you already know that don’t you?’

  I nodded sadly. ‘Persia saw it too.’

  ‘The last word’s my Mum said to me was, ‘Whoever this Seth is that she is going to marry, make sure he looks after her, make sure he knows how special she is.’ Do you know what, I think he knows.’ Quinn smiled.

  I nudged him playfully. ‘And does he have your approval?�
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  ‘How could he not, how could I not approve of someone who loves you so much?’

  I sighed. ‘The Oraculum are not always right though are they, even if we want them to be right, it doesn’t mean they are.’

  ‘You don’t think you will marry him?’ Quinn was intrigued by this. Were my feelings for him that obvious?

  ‘I think, fate or life has a knack of taking away what you want most,’ I said, staring out the window.

  I saw Quinn, out the corner of my eye, cock his head in confusion, just like he used to do as a dog. ‘Come on,’ I said, getting up. ‘Let’s get some food.’

  *

  Jasmine was at the oven when we walked into the kitchen, good naturedly telling off my Guardians who kept stealing the food.

  Eli looked over at me as I walked in. I wasn’t sure if he was angry at me over what had happened but if he was, he managed to keep it in check.

  ‘You’re awake, you ok?’

  I nodded. ‘Thanks to you guys and my mystery Guardian.’

  Eli nodded to the corner of the room, where the man that had saved me from the icy waters was standing tucking into a plate of chicken. ‘That’ll be Noah.’

  He had a mass of black curly hair and the huge strength that all the Guardians had. He waved a fork at me before he carried on eating.

  ‘Thank you. If it wasn’t for you I’d be an ice cube round about now.’

  ‘Oh don’t flatter him too much, it’ll go to his head. He’s already told everyone who will listen how he saved you from a watery grave,’ Lucas said.

  Noah swallowed a mouthful of food. ‘You guys were too busy fighting to notice that the person you were supposed to be protecting was drowning. It was lucky I was there to save the day.’ He winked at me. ‘No sweat Eve, glad to be of assistance.’

  Jasmine turned round with a plate of food for me and for the first time I noticed her huge, swollen belly. She stroked her bump affectionately. ‘My first. Due any day now.’

  ‘Then you shouldn’t be on your feet cooking for this lot. You should be resting.’

  ‘We tried that,’ said Alexandria. ‘Believe me we tried.’

  ‘You sound like my husband; he’s always on at me to rest. I’m having a baby not dying.’

  ‘Well thank you for healing me. I probably wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you.’

  ‘Ah it was a bit of hypothermia. Seth was right, the body heat probably helped too.’

  I turned back to Eli. ‘The men in the woods, they were Putarians?’

  He nodded. ‘There was about twenty of them. I don’t think they were planning to attack, I think they were merely observing. Seeing how well you were protected, watching you use your powers. They didn’t have any weapons with them or any of the normal power suppressing drugs they use when they kidnap the Donum. But when you landed, alone, within mere feet of them it was too good an opportunity to pass up.’

  I sighed and dug into my chicken hungrily. It had been almost two weeks since the last attempt on my life and I suppose I had pushed the threat to the back of my mind. Well maybe I hoped that the threat would go away.

  ‘They won’t give up will they?’

  He shook his head. ‘There’s a bounty on your head too. Quite a large one.’

  I could find no fear in death anymore. I was going to die one way or another, I just had to trust that my Guardians would see me safely to the end of the world.

  ‘When you’ve finished eating, we should go. I’d like to get you back home where you’re safe,’ said Eli.

  ‘I have seven Guardians here, I’m quite safe. Besides, I’d like to talk to Jasmine about healing.’ I turned to her. ‘Will you teach me?’

  Jasmine opened her mouth to speak but Eli got there first.

  ‘Eve, it’s more important now that you can use your powers proficiently. What happened today should never have happened. That was our fault. And although you’re not supposed to have to defend yourself , if you were more adept at using your powers we wouldn’t have come so close.’

  ‘Eli I’m practising every day…’

  ‘I know. You’re doing so well, what you have achieved over the last few weeks is amazing, but until you can do these things without thinking we have to keep practising. I don’t want anything else getting in the way.’

  ‘Like healing,’ Jasmine said, scowling at Eli. ‘Of course a little thing like healing isn’t important to learn. Why bother with it. You can’t save the world by healing it.’

  ‘Jasmine, I didn’t mean that it wasn’t important. But her not being killed is slightly more critical.’

  ‘If you guys were doing your job properly then it wouldn’t get to the point where she nearly drowns or gets within grabbing distance of the Putarians.’

  I could see Eli wishing he’d never started this conversation now, at least not within hearing distance of the highly hormonal, pregnant Zeki.

  ‘You’re right Jasmine, we were so busy fighting the Putarians off that we failed to protect her. And we’re grateful to you for that, the Zekis have always helped us, we would be lost without them.’

  ‘You’re right about that. Well when you have time Eve, when you think healing is a priority I will gladly show you how to do it. But until these guys start protecting you properly then I think Eli is right, you need to master your powers first.’

  I stood with a fork halfway to my mouth watching Eli and Jasmine. ‘Maybe we can do both. Once or twice a week I could come to you for Zeki training, all other days I’ll learn how to master my powers.’

  I hoped this was a good enough compromise. I didn’t want to alienate her after all she had done for me, especially when it meant being friends with her would help me to understand more about my capabilities.

  ‘Very well. You should get some rest tonight. Maybe, if you’re still alive, we can start doing some basic Zeki training next week.’

  I looked at Eli and he nodded his consent. My big, brave Guardian didn’t dare argue against it.

  15. The fear of death

  It was decided that we would go back to the church the next day. Although my life had been threatened there by Lucas’s evil twin, we hadn’t been back for two weeks and Eli thought the Putarians wouldn’t think to look for me there. Being in the church meant we weren’t quite so exposed, the four walls sheltering us somewhat from view.

  I walked in, surrounded by my entourage and froze in shock.

  There was a great stag, standing in the middle of the church and Izri was standing next to him, nodding thoughtfully as if she was listening to him. He was huge, towering over Izri, proudly, his fur, was a rusty brown, and he seemed to have a great mane round his neck. His antlers of brown velvet, twisted widely above his head. His eyes, suddenly flicking to me, were liquid pools of brown. He turned to face me, bowing his head gently in my direction. With him was a younger deer, a girl by the looks of it.

  I stared at Izri, in shock. She smiled shyly at me.

  ‘Who are your friends?’ I asked.

  ‘This is Areli and his daughter Jai. There’s a herd of red deer nearby. They were just curious, mostly about you, the Angelus Vita, he called you.’

  I frowned thinking of my knowledge of Latin.

  ‘The angel of life,’ Eli supplied, from his seat on the window ledge.

  I shook my head. The animals were in on this madness as well. I quickly moved on. ‘You can talk to animals?’ I don’t think I would ever get used to the surprises this strange world had in store for me.

  Izri nodded, shrugging. ‘Talking telepathically is the same whether I’m talking to my sisters or to animals. It works differently for different people. I have the telepathic ability so I can get in the head of anyone I want and talk to them in their heads. For example I could talk to Quinn in his head, and he could talk back to me, but he hasn’t got telepathic abilities so he couldn’t find my mind and talk to me. With the Guardians they can only communicate with other Deus and with you, they can’t communicate with Quinn or with us
, unless we find their minds first. The animals are the same, they can talk to each other but they can only talk to us if we find their minds first. The animals are great allies. They see things that we don’t. Try it. Do what I showed you the other day, imagine a golden beam of light connecting your head to theirs.’

  I did this with the young doe first and as soon as I had connected with her mind I felt a wave of excitement hit me.

  I opened my eyes and looked at her. ‘Hello.’

  ‘Oh my. Oh. Kyria will die when she hears this.’ She giggled, nervously.

  ‘Kyria?’

  ‘My sister, she will freak that I’ve spoken to you,’ then her face visibly fell. ‘She’ll never believe me.’

  ‘I’m sure your Dad will confirm it.’

  I looked at Areli. I visualized a beam connecting myself to him too.

  ‘It is an honour to meet you.’ His voice was deep and proud, exactly what you would expect from a stag. ‘You’re really her aren’t you?’

  I sighed. ‘Some believe so, yes.’

  ‘But you’re still a fawn yourself. Where’s your Mum, child?’

  I smiled ruefully. ‘That’s a good question, these guys are kind of my family now, they look out for me.’

  Areli looked round at my Guardians, but as his eyes rested on Quinn, his ears went back and he bared his teeth. Caleb moved closer to me, his hand out cautiously, between me and Areli. One wrong move and Caleb would break his body in two.

  I swallowed, nervously, not for me but for him. ‘Easy Areli, no one will hurt you here.’ Not exactly the truth, but I had to calm him down.

  ‘Occultus Visio,’ Areli hissed, backing away. Jai’s ears flattened against her head as she backed away as well.

  ‘Wait, I don’t understand.’ I turned to look at Quinn in confusion. ‘Does Occultus Visio mean anything to you?’

  He shrugged clearly puzzled by this as much as I was.