A Path of Secrets: Sentinel Security, #2

By Jane Glatt

Dani's new job pays way more than it should and comes with a fabulous condo that allows her to finally move out of her mom's house. All because she has some weird abilities that her boss, a non-human from a different dimension, wants her to use to safeguard the world.

Just when her life seems to be on track, Dani's sister practically moves in with her. And worse, it seems that weird abilities run in the family. Except what Marie can do is even more dangerous.

When someone from Corporate starts nosing around Dani must keep Marie's abilities a secret from everyone, including her boss.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jane Glatt
• Release date: Mar 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9780995806429

Book preview

1  Dani: protector of the human race

Dani unlocked the door to her condo, slipped inside, and flipped on the hall light.

Hey, Marie called from the living room.

Dani locked the door behind her before pulling off her boots and hanging her winter coat in the front hall closet.

Hey, yourself, she said as she found her sister sprawled on the living room sofa in front of the TV, a half empty bowl of popcorn on the coffee table.

There’s leftover pizza in the fridge, Marie said and Dani groaned. Oh, I keep forgetting. Her sister said smirking. Sorry.

Right, Dani replied under her breath, as if. She’d left her job at Pizza Duluxe almost two months ago and still Dani could barely stand the smell of pizza, let alone eat it. Marie knew that but insisted on leaving her leftovers in the fridge. In Dani’s fridge. The one that came with the expensive condo Sentinel Security let her live in as part of her employment contract.

I’m not hungry anyway, Dani said. I’m just going to shower and go to bed. Marie didn’t say anything as Dani slipped past her to the master bedroom, but the volume of whatever show she was watching increased.

Dani closed the door to her bedroom, shutting out her sister’s late night entertainment.

It was almost as though she hadn’t left home. Except instead of hiding out in her old room at her mom’s she was in her own condo hiding out from her sister. Dani stripped off her Sentinel Security uniform and headed to her bathroom. She sighed as the spray of hot water hit her back.

A few minutes later, she wrapped herself in her wildly comfortable–and wildly expensive–fluffy robe and lay down on her bed. She grabbed her iPad—another expensive item she’d purchase with her first paycheck—from the bedside table and tapped the calendar icon.

Dani peered at the screen and grinned. She didn’t have to be back at work until five tomorrow afternoon. Marie, on the other hand, was due at the hospital in a few hours, at 6:00 A.M. That meant she’d have the condo to herself all day tomorrow.

She glanced at the time: it was just after midnight. She’d watch one episode of her show and then go to sleep. And wake up to blissful alone-time in her condo.

She hadn’t meant to let Marie move in. Not that Marie would admit she had; her sister still claimed she only stayed over occasionally, when her shifts made it impossible to take transit. Which was most days, it seemed. Dani didn’t remember it being impossible for Marie to get to and from hospital row when they were both living at their mom’s house. It had started innocently enough. A subway shut down due to flooding on a super rainy night, and Marie had called asking if she could stay the night; just until the subways were running again.

That had been over a month ago. And Marie had been sleeping on the pull-out sofa in the den three or four nights a week ever since. Which meant Dani had only lived alone in her condo for a month before she’d been forced to share it.

Although, Dani had to admit, she had felt a little lost and lonely that first month. Marie was familiar and family. Besides, their mother would complain if she didn’t let Marie stay. Dani had overheard Mom tell Marie how lucky she was to have such a successful and generous sister. After so many years of being the loser of the family, it was nice to finally be the one held up as the success story.

Not that Dani’s skills or education had anything to do with her high-paying job or the almost million-dollar condo that came with it.

Nope. That was all due to some weird talents she possessed. Talents that her boss, Rosalie Parks, was still surprised to find in a human. Since Ro Parks wasn’t. Human that is. No, Ro Parks and her other Sentinel Security co-workers were from a different dimension called Sentenne.

And Dani’s job was to keep other non-humans—actual monsters—from escaping a third dimension and ending up here, on earth.

Which was easy and boring but necessary. Besides, being part of Sentinel Security allowed Dani to keep an eye on the non-humans, just in case they did something that wasn’t in the best interests of the human race. Not that she thought she had access to everything they were doing on earth. But she very likely was the only human who knew that Sentinels existed at all, so she felt bound to keep tabs on them the best she could.

She shook her head. Dani Norris, protector of the human race. If she was the only thing standing between humans and oblivion at the hands of Sentinels or dimmers, the world was in a pile of trouble.

With a sigh, she launched the Netflix app and started watching her show. Within minutes though, her stomach rumbled too loudly to ignore, so she hit pause.

She’d lied to Marie: she was hungry after all.

She jammed her feet into her slippers and padded out to the kitchen.

Want something? she asked as she peered into the fridge.

I’m good, Marie said.

Dani pulled out the mayonnaise, mustard, and sliced ham and set them on the island that looked out over the living room. She grabbed a bag of bread and took out two slices.

Marie joined her, sitting at one of the stools.

Work ok? Marie asked.

Sure, Dani replied, slathering mayo on one slice of bread and mustard on the other. Why? Marie never asked her about her job. She peeled a couple of slices of ham from the stack, laid them on the bread and slapped the sandwich together.

Nothing, Marie said. It’s just— She paused. Well, you spend a lot of time below ground, and I wondered if you ever see anything strange.

Dani stopped mid-bite. She set her sandwich down with suddenly clammy hands. What kind of strange? she asked. Like steam tunnels strange?  She and Marie had discussed the steam tunnels: they fed heat to Toronto General Hospital, where Marie worked. And were the official cause of death for the man Dani had found. The one who had actually been killed by a dimmer: a creature from another dimension.

Maybe, Marie said. It was in the tunnel.

What tunnel?

The one that connects Toronto General to Sick Kids, Marie said. There’s another one that leads to Mount Sinai, but I’ve never been in that one.

Tunnels, Dani said softly, her heart pounding. What did you see?

Nothing, probably, Marie replied. A porter and I were taking a patient–a kid–over to Sick Kids and the wall looked—I don’t know—kind of swirly. The porter didn’t see anything, so I thought I was imagining it. But then I saw it on the way back, too. In the exact same place. Marie shrugged and looked away. I thought that you might have an explanation.

Dani did have an explanation, but it wasn’t one she could share with her sister. Her sandwich forgotten, she leaned on the granite counter and sighed. It looked like her talents ran in the family.

When was this? Dani asked.

A few nights ago, Marie replied. I tried to ignore it, but I can’t. I even went to look when I got off shift.

And? Dani prompted.

The same thing. A patch on the wall was swirling. It was moving slow, but it was moving.

Why tell me? Dani asked, even though she was pretty sure she was the only one who could help her sister with this.

I dunno, Marie said. I guess I thought since you’ve been working underground for so long you might have come across something like it. Or you’d just tell me it was nothing to worry about.

Was it cold? Dani asked.

Marie nodded and Dani’s stomach flipped.

I need to see it, she said to Marie. Before I can tell you if it’s nothing to worry about. She was pretty sure it was something to worry about.

Oh, good, Marie said. That would be great. I’ll have to clear your visit with hospital security, but I should be able to do that in a few days.

No, Dani said. We need to go now. There was no way she was allowing a possible thinning to become a rift, or worse, a full breach. Especially not when it had already been around a few days.

It’s in an employee only area, Marie said. I can’t get you in just like that. And now you’re scaring me.

You and me both, Dani replied. I’ll wear my uniform. That should be good enough for most people to ignore me. Only another security guard would notice that I don’t belong. I’ll just be a minute. She grabbed her sandwich, took a huge bite, and headed back to her bedroom. She’d see what this was and shut it down if she could. Then she’d decide what to tell her sister.

2  Ro: she rather liked humans

Ro ignored the burner phone as it buzzed on her desk. It was Corporate again, and she did not want to talk to them.

She stared at the lab results for the shard Dani had given her, the one she’d claimed had come from a dimmer she’d killed. Ro rubbed her eyes.

She hadn’t believed Dani had killed the dimmer; not then.

She did now.

The lab results identified that the shard was organic matter from neither Sentenne nor earth. More than that, they couldn’t say. There was a sort of DNA structure that Corporate couldn’t identify as either animal or plant. Definitely not like anything they’d seen before.

Which meant it must be from Yeddoun. From something that lived in Yeddoun. Something that was dead after encountering Dani.

Ro picked up the report and shoved it into her bottom desk drawer, locked it, and threaded the key onto her ID cord.

All she’d told Corporate was that the shard had been found after the human had been killed through a rift. And that was what she’d continue to tell them. She would never mention her warden, who had died after being partially drawn into Yeddoun, or Dani, who had dragged him out and then killed