by Holly Martin
‘She tried to heal Helez after he tried to kill her,’ Seth looked at me with exasperation.
I saw Cain nod as Seth sat down with me on his lap. ‘It would have ended in Helez’s death even if Adam hadn’t taken her. He wouldn’t have stopped until she was dead. She would have had to kill him or I would have, but it was just a shock to have her hand forced to kill him.’
I suddenly realised that Cain’s anger moments before had been for Helez betraying him, not for me.
Cain grabbed some tissues and lifted my T-shirt to mop the blood. ‘I’ll call a Zeki, there’s one that doesn’t live too far away…’
‘She can heal herself you know,’ Seth said.
‘That’s impossible, Zekis can’t heal themselves, except to put themselves into a deep sleep, but their healing powers can’t be used on themselves.’
‘Eve can.’
Cain looked down at me and I nodded.
‘Show me.’
I looked down at the gaping wound in my stomach. I closed my eyes, visualizing my golden wall of healing energy flowing through me, until I felt stronger, although the tiredness still remained.
I looked at Cain. ‘I am sorry about Helez, I have no control when Adam takes over.’
Cain shook his head. ‘You have nothing to apologise for. He tried to kill you. Come on let's try that deep sleep again. Once you are rested properly we can come up with a decent plan.’
I followed him back upstairs and Seth lay next to me. Almost immediately, I fell asleep.
My dreams were blissful. Lying on my beach in Mexico, wrapped in the strong arms of my husband. Uninterrupted days of sheer bliss. I could stay here forever.
But eventually, after seemingly spending an eternity with Seth, my dreams shifted and I knew it was time for me to wake up.
I stirred, opening my eyes, but then closed them again against the bright glare of daylight, streaming into the room. I opened one eye, trying to break myself in gently and Cain came into my vision. I opened the other eye and looked at him.
He took my face firmly in his hand, peering into my eyes, he felt my pulse. ‘You’re awake, good, I need to go. How are you feeling?’
‘Fine, good actually… what do you mean you need to go?’ I sat up, swinging my legs over the side of the bed. Cain clamped his hand on my shoulder, preventing me from getting up. Mason was sitting in the corner of the room but apart from him and Cain, I was alone in the bedroom. ‘Where’s Seth?’
‘Downstairs, he’s fine. I have to go, your Guardians will explain,’ Cain pulled on a thick coat with a fur lined hood, and zipped it up.
I quickly stood, panic starting to rise in me. ‘You can’t leave…’ but as my feet hit the floor, my legs gave way, protesting at not being used for so long, and Cain quickly caught me before I hit the floor.
‘Good God Eve, can you not just give yourself a minute to come round before you start running around, you’ve been asleep for three days,’ he pushed me back on the bed. ‘I will be back in a day or two, Eli will explain.’
Cain ruffled my hair affectionately and hurried out the room, donning a thick woolly hat as he did so. He clearly wasn’t going anywhere local, it was blazing sunshine outside.
I tentatively got to my feet again, and Mason stood up to help me, though my legs tingled and wobbled a bit, they did not give way. I walked to the window and, to my upmost surprise, my Guardians were outside playing Cricket. Even Eli was playing, though he was clearly the umpire. I watched as Noah smacked the ball hard, and it soared down the field. Isaac, turned and ran after it, almost catching up with it as it flew through the air. I smiled, my Guardians were becoming more and more human.
I watched Cain hurry out from the house to Eli’s side. Eli nodded, and Cain vanished. Seth suddenly turned and ran for the house. I walked out into the corridor to meet him.
As soon as he saw me, he was at my side, pushing me against the wall. I thought at first, that he was worried that Adam might be with me, but then his lips found mine and he kissed me, hungrily, as if he had been starved for weeks and was now being offered steak. He moved his mouth to my neck.
‘Seth, what’s going on, why is Cain leaving?’
Seth kissed each eye, my nose, my cheeks and I giggled at his insistence.
‘Seth…’
His mouth was on mine again, kissing me more gently now, but still not giving me a chance to speak and finally I gave myself up to it, wrapping my arms round his neck, as he pulled me tightly against him. Finally he pulled away. ‘I missed you,’ he muttered.
I smiled as I leant against him.
‘I wish I could say the same, but I didn’t,’ I traced his lips with my thumb, as his face fell. ‘I just spent the last three days with you, uninterrupted, just me and you, lying wrapped in each other’s arms on the beach, it was heaven.’ Seth grinned again. ‘Though now I’m wrapped in the arms of the real thing, I realise how much my dreams sold you short, I much prefer the real version.’
Seth kissed my forehead.
‘Seth, why has Cain left?’
Seth took my hand. ‘Come on, we should talk.’
He led me down the stairs and outside, where the cricket game seemed to have been abandoned, as my Guardians were sitting on the grass waiting for me.
Lucas motioned for me to sit next to him, which I did.
‘Cain’s gone to find Leon,’ Eli said, getting straight to the crux of the matter.
‘Why the urgency?’
‘Because he wants to be back before you need to sleep again, we think Leon will be the only one that can help you. Cain has never tried to control someone’s body like Adam has done before, so he’s not sure how to help you prevent it.’
‘But this doesn’t help me, with Cain gone, I’m just as at risk as I was before.’
Eli nodded. ‘Yes, but you’ve slept now, if you go without sleep for tonight, it’s not the end of the world. Cain wants us to stay here. It’s safe here, he has so many bonds on the place now that no one can enter, or even come near, so at least we can’t be attacked by the Putarians, Reapers or other members of the Oraculum.’
I nodded. ‘So I take it Leon lives somewhere cold?’
‘He did, that was the last home Cain knows of, that’s why he doesn’t know when he’ll be back. He doesn’t want to come back until he’s found him.’
I sighed. He’d be back soon, he had to be.
‘Well I guess I should practice my powers, I still don’t know what my new strength can achieve…’
‘Eve, we want to keep you awake as long as possible, if you start pulling all your strength, you’re going to get tired really quickly. If you must practice your powers, just do the regular stuff.’
I pulled a face. My new strength was like an unopened bar of chocolate, calling at me to be eaten from the fridge. I was desperate to rip off the wrapper and see what it tasted like. Since I had come back from my incarceration I hadn’t had the energy to try it, but now, in my energised state it was the perfect time to do so. Though to my annoyance, I knew Eli was right.
‘Cain wanted to get a better idea of how taking control of your body works so over the last three days he has taken control of all of us at some point. He’s still no idea how to prevent it though,’ Lucas said. ‘None of us could stop Cain from doing whatever he wanted with our bodies.’
‘Did Cain happen to mention how the controlling of someone else’s body works?’ I asked.
‘No,’ Eli said, a little too quickly.
Lucas sighed. ‘Eli, it might help,’ he turned to me. ‘Yes he did actually, Cain thought you’d want to know. He said it was done through astral projection, that when you leave your body instead of returning to your own body, you can return to another body instead. He said, that when the other person, the one you want to control, sleeps, the conscious mind is dormant or, for want of a better word, empty, which leaves it open for other people to occupy it. But he said once you were in the other person’s body it was almost impossible for them to
regain control again unless you gave them control, or chose to leave their body. Cain had no idea how you managed to fight Adam off to the extent that you have. As far as Cain can see, there isn’t a way to do it, that’s why he’s gone to get Leon.’
‘I need to get an idea of this, maybe doing it will give me some clue of how it works or how to stop it.’ I said.
Eli shook his head. ‘Cain also said that if you project, if you leave your body to go in someone else’s, that leaves your body open to be controlled as well. It’s too risky.’
‘You guys are all here, Adam isn’t going to be able to do anything with my body with nine Guardians watching me. Besides, he hasn’t been able to gain control of me for three days. He might have given up trying. I have to try, just for five minutes. Tie me up if necessary.’
Seth let out a low growl at this, daring any of my Guardians to try it.
‘Five minutes then Eve.’
‘One of you needs to go to sleep then,’ I looked around to see if I had any willing victims.
Mason shrugged. ‘I’ll do it.’
He came to sit down next to me, then lay down and closed his eyes. A few seconds later he was producing soft snoring sounds.
I laughed. ‘There’s no way he’s asleep already.’
Lucas nodded. ‘As your Guardians we have taught our bodies to fall asleep very quickly, we know we might only get a few minutes here or there so we have to be able to sleep straight away.’
I shook my head, incredulous then lay down next to him. I closed my eyes, relaxed my body and projected. I floated over my body for a few seconds then drifted cautiously into Mason’s.
I sat up in Mason’s body, looking around, looking at my empty body next to me. I laughed out loud that I had done it, drawing the wary glances of my Guardians.
‘It worked,’ I laughed as I turned to Lucas. ‘Can you feel me in here, you know it’s me right?’
Lucas nodded.
I stood up and I felt Mason stir in the back of my mind.
‘Mason’s awake.’
‘Well maybe he might be able to push you out,’ Eli said.
I waited to see if he did, but whether he couldn’t or was willing to let me stay, I felt nothing that would cause me to leave. I looked over to Seth, who had moved to sit protectively next to my empty body. I moved over to him, grinning mischievously.
‘Eve, I’m not kissing you when you look like that,’ he laughed.
‘Come on,’ I laughed. ‘It’s still me.’
Rhesa clamped her hands over her eyes. ‘Please don’t, this is weird enough for me as it is, watching my husband talk and walk knowing it’s not really him, I don’t need to watch him kiss another man.’
I smiled and sat next to Seth, he grinned and gave my leg a friendly pat. I shuffled closer to him and leant in towards him.
‘Eve, are you enjoying yourself with my body,’ came Mason’s voice in the back of my head.
‘It’s certainly novel,’ I said.
‘Any chance I can have it back now?’
So I left, leaving Mason in control of his body again. I opened my eyes just in time to see Mason grab Seth and kiss him on the cheek. Seth smiled, thinking it was me that had kissed him and I laughed loudly. Seth’s smile quickly fell from his face when he realised what had happened, but Mason was already on his feet, quickly going to Rhesa and taking her in his arms.
‘It’s me,’ he said, quietly, kissing her on the forehead, and she smiled.
I sat up, squeezing Seth’s hand consolingly.
‘Is there anyone else that would be willing to give it a go?’ I asked. ‘I promise I won’t do anything that you wouldn’t want me to do.’
Lucas nodded. ‘Sure, might as well.’ He lay down.
‘Lucas, one of the things me and Eve had thought about over the last few days was a password, something that would identify who was in control. But I was always concerned that Adam might have access to our minds, might be able to find the password and then use it against us. Think of a word, don’t tell us, just think of it and see if Eve can find it,’ Seth said.
Lucas nodded and closed his eyes.
‘I don’t think I could,’ I said. ‘I could feel Mason and could hear him when he talked to me, but I didn’t know his thoughts.’
‘Just see if you can find this word,’ Seth suggested.
I nodded and lay down again. Lucas was already breathing heavily on the grass. I closed my eyes and projected.
I drifted into Lucas and sat up. I felt nothing at the back of my mind. Lucas didn’t even know I was there. I searched his mind, trying to find his thoughts, his memories. At first, I couldn’t make sense of it, there was a lot of chaos, images, flashes, but then slowly, like a fog clearing it started to make much more sense. Suddenly, as if the word had been shouted in my head, I knew the word he had chosen was ‘steak’. But much more than that, I could see Persia in his mind, memories of her, intermingled with his last few months with me. Suddenly not wanting to invade his privacy any more I left his body alone and he flopped back onto the ground as I re-entered my own body.
I sat up and shook my head. ‘The passwords no good, I found it very easily.’
Seth tutted.
I looked away, swallowing uneasily. Seth touched my shoulder, looking at me with concern.
‘I could see everything Seth, all his memories, all his thoughts, they were hazy at first but then I saw it all, his personal thoughts, private things about Persia, things I would have thought he would have kept protected.’
‘I’m sure Lucas won’t mind, Eve,’
‘It’s not that, I know he won’t mind, we are connected in ways that sometimes I wish we weren’t. We don’t have secrets from each other anymore, what I’m worried about is if I can see everything Lucas’s mind has to offer, then Adam can see all of my mind too.’
Seth frowned.
‘What if he figures out how to take my powers, what if he has already seen my island?’
Suddenly my heart leapt. My island, my haven where we raised our children, I didn’t want him to know about that. I wanted to protect my family’s future, but much more pressing than that was Persia was there now. What if he had gone there and killed her. I had deliberately not communicated with her, not slid to her in case Adam was watching, in case, it being fresh in my mind, he had been able to find the island. But now I didn’t care about the island, he could take it, as long as he hadn’t taken her.
I turned to Lucas, who was still sleeping. I grabbed Lucas’s shoulder and shook him hard, he woke up, startled.
‘Lucas, have you spoken to Persia recently?’
Lucas nodded. ‘Yes, a few days ago, she checks in on us quite regularly, why?’
Of course, Lucas couldn’t communicate with her, only when she found his mind, when she reached out for him telepathically, it didn’t work both ways.
‘A few days?’ I asked incredulous, my heart hammering against my chest. ‘Have you spoken to Thomas and Jacob?’
Lucas shook his head. ‘What’s wrong, you think something has happened to them?’
I nodded. ‘Just check in with them will you.’
Lucas nodded. He frowned, his eyes taking on a distant look for a second or two. A second or two that seemed to stretch an eternity. Then he smiled.
‘They’re all fine, Persia says hi.’
I breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Tell her I’ll come and get her as soon as I can, when it’s safe to do so.’
Lucas nodded and a few seconds later, he turned back to me, smiling. ‘So did you find the password?’
I nodded. ‘And I’m sorry to say that your mind is pretty much an open book, I saw lots of memories in there, things that I probably shouldn’t have seen. It makes me wonder how much of my mind Adam has seen.’
Lucas frowned, though I knew he wasn’t scowling that I had seen his private thoughts. As I said to Seth, we didn’t really have any secrets from each other anymore.
I was still no closer to working ou
t how to stop it. Maybe practice would make perfect, but Eli was shifting awkwardly, and judging by his thin lipped expression, I guessed my five minutes was up. He was right though, I didn’t want to tire myself out before Cain got back or leave my body open to attacks from Adam.
I sighed, however long Cain took, whether it was a day or a week, it would be a very long wait for the much needed answers. I needed a distraction.
‘So you guys were playing cricket?’
Lucas nodded.
‘Can I play or is it a strictly Guardian pursuit?’
‘You can play,’ said Lucas. ‘You won’t win, but you can play.’
I grinned at the challenge.
Lucas was right though, I didn’t win. We played for several hours, and I resorted to cheating a bit with my powers, but still didn’t manage to win. We ate, we talked, we walked and as day turned to night, Cain still didn’t return.
Chapter 22
I was sitting on the sofa, willing my eyes to stay open. It had been four days since Cain had vanished from his home.
He hadn’t returned. I had tried to communicate with him, but his signal was unobtainable, though I had never been able to contact him before. My new found alertness had very quickly become short lived, since Eli had resolutely refused to let me sleep. Though it was probably partly due to boredom that I had started to feel so tired. The waiting was endless. I had played a lot of cricket and walked for miles over the barren hills. But I hadn’t been allowed to practise my powers in case it wore me out. Though I was allowed to practise controlling the bodies of my Guardians a few more times, without any productive results.
My Guardians had become very relaxed in Cain’s house. They moved round doing their own thing, reading, cooking, and to my annoyance, they were allowed to sleep, Noah was upstairs sleeping now. Even Seth had become complacent, instead of gluing himself to my side, he would often be found chatting with the other Guardians outside, playing cricket or creating his sculptures. There was always someone with me, though, I don’t know whether they were consciously watching over me, taking it in turns or whether it was just an automatic thing now.