The Sentinel (21 page)

Mason and Caleb were at my side.

‘No please, I’m fine.’ I forced myself up; I couldn’t bear to have their attention on me when Alexandria had just nearly died.

‘We should get her home,’ said Mason. But to my absolute annoyance, I realised he was talking about me.

I stood fiercely, my legs feeling like they were going to crumble under me. ‘I agree we should get Alexandria home,’ I said, pointedly. ‘I’ll slide home and I’ll pull you all to me. It’s the quickest way.’ That and when I was in the privacy of my own room, I could curl up and pass out from exhaustion without the oppressive gaze of my Guardians. ‘Caleb will you call Jasmine, or another Zeki and get her to meet us there, Alexandria should be checked over by someone who knows what they are doing. Mason can you go and tell Quinn what’s happened, I’m sure he’s worried sick by now.’

‘Eve I don’t think you should be sliding after what you’ve just done,’ Mason started, looking at me with concern.

Did the Guardians really not care for each other at all? I closed my eyes in annoyance and slid home. I walked into one of the bedrooms, the big blue room at the front of the house and reached out for Alexandria, pulling her as gently as I could to me. She landed in front of me, still looking weak and I pushed her down on the bed. I focussed my attention on Eli, then Lucas pulling them to me, followed by Caleb and Mason. They all looked at me with concern as I wobbled a bit on my feet.

‘I’m going to my room,’ I muttered angrily, but as I turned to go, I saw something which restored my faith in the Guardians, or at least in Eli. He took Alexandria’s hand and the look that he gave her was one I was so familiar with, it was one that Seth had given me many times. I stumbled into my room and closing the door behind me I sagged onto my bed with exhaustion. I lay down feeling shaky and closed my eyes, letting sleep take me.

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.’