The Prophecies (The Sentinel Series Book 2) (32 page)

‘You can’t be tired, you’ve just woke up,’ I protested.

‘I’m not, but you are, you’re exhausted aren’t you? I take it you never went back to sleep last night?’

I sighed. He was right, I was exhausted. ‘No, I couldn’t sleep.’

‘Then come to bed, I’ll stay with you while you sleep, and if anyone breaks into your dreams, I’ll go in there and beat them up for you.’

I grinned as I sat down on the bed. If only he could be my Guardian of my dreams as well. Seth pulled me into his arms. It was very tempting to curl up in his arms now and fall asleep; I couldn’t stay awake forever, besides if I was asleep I might be able to talk to Cain. Seth kissed the back of my neck as he held me, his warmth making me sleepy.

‘Mmmm wait, I need to talk to Zach. I need to thank him,’ I struggled feebly against his arms.

‘Oh he’ll love that,’ Seth tutted, as he kissed me again.

‘I won’t be long, just a few minutes.’

Seth sighed as he released me. ‘I’ll walk you down there.’

I sat up. ‘It’s ok, I’ll slide to him.’

Seth frowned.

‘He is a Guardian, after all, strong and skilled some say,’ I grinned, using Seth’s own words against him.

Seth scowled at me. I leaned forward and kissed him and then was gone. I wobbled a bit, when I landed on the side of the pool. I really was tired. Zach was swimming the length of the pool, pulling himself easily through the water. He grinned at me when he saw me and swam over and climbed out. He shook his head like a dog, spraying me with water.

‘Hey,’ I slapped him playfully.

‘Hey,’ he slapped me, gently back. ‘That’s no way to thank your hero.’

‘My hero?’

‘Yes I fought bravely to secure the fort for you and then you slap me,’ Zach protested.

‘Fought bravely?’ I laughed. ‘And I see you managed to keep your legs this time?’

‘Yes well, it was a lot easier when there was no Sentinel here to protect,’ Zach laughed.

‘Are you saying that I just get in the way?’

‘Something like that, yes.’ He grinned as he walked away from me, back towards the fort.

‘Zach?’

He turned back.

‘Thank you,’ I said, seriously.

Zach beamed. ‘No problem Eve. Now, am I walking you back to your bedroom or is my brother lurking round here somewhere?’

‘I think you better walk me back.’ I rolled my eyes. I wanted to talk to him a bit more about what the Guardians left in the fort thought about the whole rift, whether they were still loyal to me.

I followed him round the edge of the pool, slipped on some water and fell heavily, banging my head. I sat up woozily, a wave of tiredness spreading over me.

Zach laughed as he came to examine my wound. ‘Eve, you are so clumsy, let’s have a look at it. Ha, you’ve had worse from me.’ He pulled me up so quick, so hard that the world span around me. Zach loped off across the grass as I staggered, tried to right myself, lost my footing and toppled into the pool. As I reached out for the side to stop myself from falling, I smacked my head, painfully on the edge.

The water closed in over my head. There was a lot of blood in the water, swirling around me like a red cloud as I sank to the bottom of the pool. I tried to swim back to the surface but my arms and legs refused to work. My head swam, dizziness and exhaustion swallowing me, like the cool water around me. My throat contracted painfully, desperate for the air that I wasn’t getting. The irony wasn’t lost on me, hundreds of people wanted me dead, Guardians fighting for my life and now it looked likely I was going to die from my own stupid clumsiness.

The noise of something crashing into the water above me echoed in my ears.

I looked up in a daze at the something coming quickly towards me: a dark hooded figure. I felt my heart lurch that the Reapers had found me again.

Then it all went black.

Suddenly a strong hand was round my arm, I looked up in alarm into the green, fierce eyes of Isaac.

‘Eve, what are you doing, this isn’t safe,’ he growled, holding my arm, painfully.

Instinctively I found myself punching him hard in the throat, knocking all the breath out of him, his grip lessened slightly, enough so I could wriggle free. I ran, but only got a few metres away before I slammed into another, hard body. Lucas.

‘Eve, please just stay calm…’ his hands were on my shoulders.

I flinched away from him and darted across the road, cars honking loudly as they slammed on their brakes to avoid me. I cast over my shoulder and the men followed.

I saw two policemen up ahead talking on a corner and I ran for them. But Isaac was getting closer to me, even though he was only walking and I was running he was still catching me up. He would reach me before I reached the police.

I ran faster, but my legs were shaky, unwilling to perform as I wanted them to and as I got closer to the police Isaac’s hand was round my arm once more, pulling me firmly back to him.

‘Help me,’ I screamed and people stopped to stare. The police looked over in my direction, saw the young girl struggling in the clutches of a man twice her size and ran towards me.

‘Ma’am?’ said one, young, keen, alert, blue eyes filled with concern.

‘Help me, please,’ I cried, fighting against Isaac’s hold, which was like fighting against an iron vice.

‘Sir step back please,’ said the other policeman.

Isaac didn’t even seem to hear them, but his hold didn’t lessen any.

Lucas was at my side then, ‘Eve please, we’re not going to hurt you, let’s just go and talk somewhere quiet, we’ll explain everything,’

I fought against Isaac, kicking and struggling, but I might as well be kicking a statue with the difference I was making to him.

‘Isaac, let her go,’ Lucas hissed, angrily.

‘Lucas, this is stupid. She needs to come back to the fort, she can’t be running round New York in the middle of the night, it’s dangerous.’

‘Sirs, both of you step back now,’ said the young policeman, his hand hovering over his holster.

Lucas stepped forward calmly, ‘Officers, this is a complete misunderstanding, Eve is our friend…’

‘She’s petrified,’ said the older policeman, his hand now hovering over his gun as well, ‘Let her go.’

Isaac span me round to face him, holding both my arms now, ‘Eve stop this,’ he said, angrily.

‘Sir let her go now,’ shouted the young officer, his gun aiming at Isaac.

People started scurrying away, alarmed.

Isaac looked at the gun, and with a sigh released me. But instead of stepping away from me, he advanced towards the policeman, maddeningly stepping between me and the gun.

‘Do not point a gun at her,’ he said threateningly.

‘I was pointing it at you actually,’ said the young cop, almost cockily.

‘And it could go off and hit her,’ seethed Isaac, suddenly lunging forward in a blur and knocking the gun out of the officer’s hands.

The other one went for his gun, but in a blur, Lucas grabbed hold of it before the officer could even raise it in Isaac’s direction.

A shot rang out behind me. I was thrown through the air with the weight of a wrecking ball hitting me but as I crashed into the floor I saw the bullet slice through Lucas’s flesh.