The Sentinel (The Sentinel Series)

by Holly Martin

  I woke a while later, feeling better. I rolled over to see Eli, sitting by my bed.

  ‘Eli?’ I sat up, with concern.

  ‘Are you ok?’

  ‘Yeah I’m fine, is Alexandria…’

  ‘She’s fine. Eve I wanted to thank you.’

  ‘For what?’

  Eli looked surprised. ‘For what you did with Alexandria, for saving her.’

  ‘I couldn’t let her die Eli.’

  He frowned. ‘It’s not supposed to be that way though; we are supposed to look after you, not the other way round. The amount of power you pulled to heal her could have killed you. It can’t be like that, Eve.’

  ‘You’d rather I let her die?’ I asked, clenching my teeth.

  Pain flickered across his face as he chose his words carefully. ‘You don’t know how much Alexandria means to me, but that will never interfere with my duty to you. As grateful as I am that she is alive, I would never ask you to risk your life for her, for any of us. That was part of the reason why I sent Seth away, I knew you would do anything, including putting yourself at risk to save him. I want you to promise me that you will not do that again, you can never risk your life like that again.’

  I shook my head, angrily. ‘That’s not going to happen.’

  ‘Good,’ Eli said.

  ‘No, you misunderstand me. I’m not going to promise something like that, I could never stand by and let someone die, even someone I didn’t know. The fear of losing Alexandria today was immense. If it happened again, I’d do what I did today in a heartbeat.’

  ‘No Eve, you’re too important, the Guardians are expendable, you are not. We’ve been through this.’

  ‘And I told you I would do everything in my power to protect you. When the Oraculum made me, they made me with the ability to have compassion, love and empathy. Now whether that was by mistake or by design, I have all of that running through my veins as strong as the power within me. That means I will always fight to protect you as fiercely as you fight to protect me.’

  He scowled.

  ‘Eli if you don’t like that you have two choices, you can either run along to the Oraculum and ask them to make a new Sentinel, one that is cold and conceited, without feeling or emotion or you can ask the Oraculum to reassign you, because there is nothing that is going to change that about me,’

  ‘I won’t let you risk your life for us Eve, if that happens again I’ll…’

  ‘You’ll what Eli? Do you honestly think there is anything you can do to stop me? Do you think you’re stronger than me, faster?’ I said arrogantly.

  His eyebrows shot up in surprise at the challenge in my voice. I was surprised myself, but I wasn’t going to be stripped of the little good I could do with my powers. I wasn’t going to lose my compassion, I would cling onto that above all else.

  ‘I guess we have ourselves a stalemate then,’ he sighed, pursing his lips.

  I shrugged. ‘I guess we do.’

  He stood to leave then hesitated and sat back down again, next to me on the bed.

  ‘Do you want me to remove Alexandria from your Personal Guard?’

  ‘What? No, of course not, why would I want that?’

  ‘She said she had failed you, she said you’d said the same thing.’

  I laughed hollowly. ‘Eli I was losing her, she was slipping away, she was giving up. I wanted her to fight for her life, that’s why I ordered her. That’s what all that rubbish about me being the Sentinel was about, that she had to obey me, I would have said anything to get her to fight back, to live.’

  ‘Oh,’ he said quietly.

  We sat in silence for a moment.

  ‘So you and Alexandria then?’ I nudged him playfully, then regretted it. Eli didn’t do playfully.

  ‘Yes,’ he said cautiously. ‘Is that a problem?’

  I sighed. ‘No, of course not, I like it, how long have you two been together?’

  ‘I’ve always respected her; she’s a great warrior…’

  ‘Eli.’

  ‘Since we started taking a more active role in your life. The day that Persia pledged to you, the day we were talking about how much we appreciated having the other Guardians around. I actually realised how much I really appreciate having her around, how much I really care for her. Luckily for me she felt the same way.’

  I smiled to myself.

  ‘It’s because of you, you know.’

  I looked at him in confusion.

  ‘You’re the catalyst. Your emotions run so deep, that we can’t help pick up on them. I would never have considered looking for a mate before I met you, but now I’ve started to see things differently. I’ve started to care for the other Guardians in your personal guard, started to see Alexandria differently. You’re affecting the others too. You’re quite infectious you know. Seth, Quinn, Persia, they all love you.’

  My heart twanged painfully at the mention of Seth’s name.

  ‘Would you ever consider sending Alexandria away from the personal guard, being with me is a dangerous business, don’t you ever want to protect her, keep her safe?’

  Eli frowned. ‘I handpicked your personal guard, I chose the best. Me being with Alexandria does not change that she is one of the best warriors amongst all of the Guardians I know. As I’ve already said I would never put her life or my life above yours.’

  I sighed. I couldn’t honestly expect to get a deep romantic answer from a Guardian.

  ‘But you weren’t talking about her were you? You want to know if I think you did the right thing with Seth?’

  I nodded sheepishly.

  ‘I don’t think I could ever love someone as deeply as you and Seth love each other. I can’t imagine loving someone so much I had to send them away from me to protect them. These next few years are going to be tough, so you have to do whatever you need to do to get through them. I personally think that would include surrounding yourself with those that love you. But right now I need to keep you safe and keeping Seth safe is part of that.’

  There was a knock at the door and Jasmine poked her head round.

  I stood up grinning at her. ‘Jasmine, hello, still no baby yet?’

  ‘No, he’s being stubborn and refusing to come out. I came to see if you’re ok.’

  I frowned. ‘Please tell me you’ve already checked on Alexandria before you came to me.’

  ‘I’ll check on her after I’ve checked you over.’ She started walking towards me.

  ‘Jasmine, Alexandria nearly died, I’m a bit tired, there’s a huge difference, please check her over first.’

  ‘Eve…’ Eli started.

  ‘Eli no.’ I glared at him.

  Jasmine looked between the two of us and then shrugged. ‘Which room is she in?’

  ‘The blue one at the end of the landing. Eli why don’t you show her.’ I wanted him to leave before we got into another argument. Eli nodded, with understanding.

  After a few minutes Jasmine came back in. I moved to sit up, but she gestured for me to lie back down.

  ‘Is she ok?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes she’s fine,’ she nodded.

  ‘Did I do anything wrong, did I damage her?’

  She shook her head in disbelief. ‘No Eve, what you did was amazing, verging on the impossible.’

  ‘I didn’t know what I was doing; I just imagined my power flowing into her.’

  ‘The great thing about healing is that you can never do any harm, you might not be able to fix it, but you can’t do anything to make it worse. Your healing abilities are different though, you don’t seem to heal like a normal Zeki would. I feel you are fusing your healing abilities with your powers, which has different effects. It’s obviously not something I’ve come across before, Zeki are the healers, Donum are the gifted. There is never a combination of the two. I’d like to say that you don’t need to worry about hurting someone when you are healing, but with you I can’t be sure.’

  ‘But she is ok, she’ll be ok won’t she?’

  ‘
Eve she’s fine.’

  I sighed, angrily. I could have killed her today. ‘Can you teach me how to heal?’

  Jasmine pulled a face. ‘I don’t know Eve. If you can be taught to isolate your Zeki abilities then maybe, but it depends if you can separate them from your power. I’ll give it a go.’

  I sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed. ‘Right where shall we start, tell me what you think about when you’re healing…’

  ‘Eve, do you know how much power you must have pulled today to do what you did, do you know what using that amount of power will do to you, could have done to you?’

  I sighed. ‘Not you as well.’

  ‘Eve I’m not teaching you anything now, you need to get some rest. Rome wasn’t built in a day you know.’

  I bit my lip angrily but Jasmine was stubborn, I could see that. Jasmine took advantage of my moment of distraction to check me over, her cool hands sweeping over my head. I sat still whilst she made her examination. She frowned. ‘You definitely need to rest.’

  I tutted and she glared at me. ‘Ok, no more using my powers today but could you at least teach me how to sleep like you made me sleep the other day. If I could do that every night, I would be fitter the next day.’

  Jasmine considered this for a moment, then nodded reluctantly. ‘It is this sleep that heals all or most of our ills, rejuvenating like this means we age at a much slower rate and we live for longer than the average human.’

  I looked at Jasmine curiously; she seemed to be about thirty years old. ‘How old are you?’

  ‘Sixty three,’ she answered simply.

  ‘Really, wow.’ Then I thought about Constance, and how wrinkly she looked. ‘How old is Constance?’

  Jasmine laughed. ‘Two hundred and seventy eight.’

  Everyone in this magical world of mine seemed to live longer than they should, the Guardians, the Zeki. With all my strength and power, I should really live for a very long time, if I wasn’t going to kill myself with my powers first.

  ‘Ok so there are different stages of sleep. What is known as deep sleep is the period of sleep that is most beneficial to the body. It’s the time when the body repairs itself, when your cells top up with the energy they need to function, when activity in your immune system increases. Now most of your sleep is not spent in deep sleep. What I can do is to help you to extend your periods of deep sleep. I can help you fall into a deep sleep straight away, effectively skipping the first few stages of sleep. I can also help you with your dreams; I bet they’ve been erratic lately?’

  I nodded.

  ‘Yeah that’s not helping you feel awake either, and I bet sometimes you’ve been so tired you’ve not dreamt at all?’

  I nodded again, remembering just passing out on many occasions over the last week.

  ‘You need to dream, REM sleep is very beneficial to us as well.’

  ‘Ok, so what do I do?’

  She twisted her lips, looking puzzled. ‘It’s hard to teach you this first, it requires some knowledge of healing.’

  ‘So teach me the healing first.’ I grinned at her hopefully.

  She rolled her eyes. ‘Tell me what you did with Alexandria?’

  I thought back. ‘I just visualized my power flowing into her.’

  She shook her head. ‘Yeah but what you did today was impossible. When we heal we mainly stimulate the part of the brain responsible for your immune system, it then speeds up the recovery process. Or we stimulate the cell re-growth to heal wounds or broken bones. We generally just speed up the process your body would do anyway. We can’t bring people back from the dead, which is what you effectively did today.’

  ‘I didn’t bring her back from the dead, I healed the wound. I must have stimulated the cell re-growth, just like you said.’

  ‘But you said you imagined your power flowing into her?’

  I nodded.

  ‘So you’re not using your Zeki abilities at all, you’re healing with the power,’ she frowned. ‘But Donum don’t have the ability to heal.’

  ‘Yeah but I’m a mongrel aren’t I, I have a bit of everything in me.’

  ‘She didn’t even have a scar.’ She shook her head in wonder. ‘Even when we heal, it leaves a scar.’ She pursed her lips. ‘Ok there must be something similar that you are doing that the Zeki do too. Other than your power is there anything else you visualize?’

  I bit my lip, trying to remember. ‘I visualized my power as a golden ball of light?’ I said hopefully.

  Her face cleared in surprise. ‘Excellent, wow, how did you know to do that?’

  ‘It was something one of my martial arts teachers used to say to us, about finding our inner core, about drawing our strength from within. He used to talk about imagining a golden light within us. I used to think it was just a load of spiritual rubbish, but I guess it has some credence.’

  She grinned. ‘Daniel Kwon?’

  I stared at her in disbelief. ‘Yeah you know him?’

  Jasmine nodded. ‘Zeki,’ she said simply. Of course he was.

  ‘Well that’s ok then, so you are healing in some way like a Zeki. You are just adding to the potency with your powers,’ Jasmine seemed relieved by this.

  I looked at her in confusion, but she waved away my looks of uncertainty. ‘It means I can teach you how to achieve deep sleep.’

  I smiled wryly, still bewildered over the revealing of Daniel.

  ‘Lie down,’ she instructed.

  Keen to learn, I did as I was told.

  She covered me with my duvet.

  ‘It’s important to keep warm,’ she explained as I eyed her suspiciously.

  ‘I don’t want to sleep now; I just want to learn how to do it.’

  ‘Yes, yes, but I have to explain what you need to do, now close your eyes.’

  I reluctantly obeyed, feeling drowsy as soon as they were closed.

  ‘You have to keep very still, so your body can relax, then you have to isolate the part of your brain that is responsible for sleep, the pons, it’s back here.’ She reached round to touch the base of my skull at the very top of my neck.’

  I opened my eyes. ‘How do I do that?’

  ‘Ok, I’m going to send a very small amount of my healing power to the pons, so you can feel where it is, then you can find it yourself. It’s not my intention to make you fall asleep, but you might do because you’re tired anyway.’

  ‘Can you wake me if I do?’

  She shook her head. ‘I can, but it’s best not to.’ She looked at me waiting for me to give her permission. I nodded, reluctantly.

  ‘Try to follow where I direct my healing abilities.’

  I closed my eyes again and felt her cool hand press gently against my forehead. I felt a warm fizzy feeling drift through my brain and settle at the top of my spine and then I felt my body go numb.

  I was back on my beach in Mexico, sitting under my palm tree. I was alone this time, no Seth to keep me company. I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, lying my head on top of them as I stared out across the shimmering waves. I hoped I wouldn’t be here for long, as beautiful as this place was, I was keen to wake back up and get on with my Zeki training. Sleeping just seemed such a waste of precious time. But how long would I need to recover from the stunt I pulled today. Time was relative here too, it might seem like hours or days here but was actually only minutes in the waking world. What if I woke up and Jasmine was gone. Suddenly I didn’t want to sit and wait to recover. I could sleep properly tonight. I wanted to wake up and as soon as I made that decision, I did.

  I sat up feeling groggy. Jasmine was sitting on the end of the bed, cross legged, watching me with concern.

  My head span and my eyes seemed heavy. I shook my head willing to clear it.

  ‘Eve for goodness sake, you can’t just wake up from a deep sleep like that, it leaves you feeling worse than if you hadn’t slept at all. When you’re in a deep sleep you should stay there until your body is ready to wake up. You
will wake up naturally when you’re fully recovered.’

  I swung my legs off the bed and stood up, willing my body to wake up properly. I found, as I crumpled and hit the floor, that it wasn’t quite ready to do that. I quickly stood back up and sat on the bed, avoiding Jasmine’s ‘I told you so’ exasperated look.

  She sighed. ‘You ready to try it yourself?’

  I nodded.

  ‘You need to think of that golden ball of light travelling to the part of the brain that I touched before.’

  I lay down again, just in case my own medicine had the same effect as Jasmine’s. I didn’t want to fall off the bed. I closed my eyes and imagined a golden ball of light and I directed it to the back of my brain, leaving a bubbling feeling in its wake. As soon as it touched the area that Jasmine had touched before I fell back to sleep.

  I was back on my beach again, lying under the leaves of the palm trees, the warm sun filtering through the leaves. I stood up with annoyance and wanted to wake up again. And even more groggily than last time, I did.

  ‘Eve! Eli was right you are stubborn.’

  I felt like I had been drugged. I willed my brain to connect with my mouth, willed my eyes not to close again.

  ‘So that’s it, that’s what I need to do to achieve a deep sleep?’

  Jasmine nodded, with some degree of annoyance. ‘Yes, but there’s no point in bringing on a state of deep sleep if you are going to force yourself awake before your body is ready. I recommend you don’t try it again until you are ready to commit to a few hours.’

  I nodded, sleepily. It was dark outside now, it would be time for me to go to bed soon anyway. ‘Thanks Jasmine, will you come back tomorrow and teach me some more about healing.’

  ‘I suppose.’ She sniffed, huffily.

  ‘Thanks.’

  She gave me a small smile and left. I gave myself a few minutes to come round properly and then swung my legs off the bed and walked out onto the landing. I walked to the bedroom Alexandria was in and hovered outside the door. I wanted to check on her but the last time I’d spoken to her, I’d ordered her to obey me, told her she was failing me. I felt embarrassed of my delusions of grandeur, of my arrogance and turned away. Just then the bedroom door opened and Lucas was standing there grinning at me.