Shadowhunter (Nephilim Quest Book 1)

by Leena Maria

  "And because you had hurt your hand, it was even easier for him to follow the smell of your blood right to you. You will be surprised how acute your senses become, when you turn into Nephilim. Because of these heightened senses they can hunt down anyone whose blood they have smelled. And it gets even easier, if they have tasted the blood."

  Suddenly I realized I had dropped my blood all over the place where Angel had appeared.

  "That means Angel too..." I whispered.

  "Yes. She is a formidable opponent, never ever underestimate her." Lilith's eyes were serious.

  "But who is she?"

  "She is Cain's daughter. How she found you in the buffer zone, I am not sure..." Grandma looked at me inquiringly.

  I explained about the visiting card.

  "You said you found it in the street after the shadow attacked the drunken man?"

  "Yes."

  "Sounds like it was placed there on purpose... It was meant for you... Why would you follow it then..."

  We both guessed the answer.

  "Kitty..." I breathed.

  "They knew about Kitty," Grandma said, "they knew you grieved for her, and would perhaps use the card to try and get contact with her..."

  It seemed the dark Nephilim knew all about me. The thought made me squirm with discomfort.

  "So they knew about Kitty's death...knew enough to set a trap for you. This is something we need to examine. Unfortunately you arrived in the shop when Angel was still there. If Daniel had not arrived when he did, you would be lost to us now." Lilith had been standing quietly by the window until now.

  I felt fever shivering in my spine. All my muscles ached.

  "I need to rest..." I whispered.

  "Of course. You are heading for a very hard patch. No pain killers will help you, I'm afraid," Lilith sympathized, "best you know what to expect in advance. But the pain will not kill you, remember that. The fever will awaken powers within you that will help you endure the suffering. And it won't last forever. Every Nephilim has gone through the same ordeal."

  The women rose and headed to the door.

  "One more thing..." I said, and they turned back, "How did Daniel come to be trusted with the information about the gate, if the Nephilim should not know of it? I mean... who told him?"

  Lilith smiled.

  "It's the other way around. He trusted us with the information. You see, he is the one who found the gate, stabilized it, and he is the one who had this Centre built."

  I remembered the wrought iron gate of the center. And the year in it.

  "He... built this?"

  "Yes. He established this place at the end of the 18th century," Grandma said over her shoulder, already out of the room, "But for a Nephilim he is still rather young. Only a little over three hundred years old."

  CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

  49. The Decision

  Daniel read the piece of paper and then the note card with the picture of the bee on it. He glanced across at his brother, noting how the visit to Finland had changed him. There was an eagerness, but also a sense of anxiety about Elijah. Let his hopes not be raised in vain, thought Daniel.

  "Show me the mirror," he said, placing the card on the table.

  Elijah handed him the mirror. Daniel lifted it so it caught the light and the tiny writing showed more clearly.

  "This writing is in Finnish..." he said.

  "Yes, it is. It reads: 'I am in Amenhotep's court. I do not know how to get back. Help me, Elijah. Merit.'"

  Elijah's voice was thick.

  "She ended up in the past somehow. And she never had time to learn how to travel in the buffer zone, let alone how to travel through time. None of us has ever traveled that far back in time. But we need to go and get her, Daniel. Once she is out of the buffer zone time keeps on going at its normal pace. She might still be alive there even now!"

  There was desperation in his voice.

  Daniel said nothing for a while. Then he pointed at the note card.

  "That tells us that she kept a notebook while she was still alive. But it doesn't tell us when she died in the past."

  "No, but her notebook would give us a clue – it would say how many years she lived there. We might still have time!"

  Elijah's voice was filled with wild hope.

  "But who stole her notebook? It had to be Cain's servants. And why? What was so important about the notebook? And if it was so important, why was it simply placed in a library and not taken to Cain immediately? Because they did not understand the language? Did they forget about it later?"

  "How should I know?" Elijah banged his fist against a bookshelf.

  A few researchers sitting nearby in their own library lifted their eyes from their work.

  Elijah managed to control himself.

  "And what does the 18.England.Enquiry mean?"

  A head lifted at a nearby table. An old woman who seemed to be in the library always.

  "I do apologize, gentlemen, but I could not help overhearing," she lifted her spectacles and blinked a few times while her eyes adjusted, "if you are talking of an old library, then I think that is a hint to the location within the library. 18 could be 18th century. And England might mean the country... But you said the last word was enquiry?"

  "Yes, it was," Elijah nodded. "You have some idea what that might mean?"

  "Of course I cannot be certain, but it just might be a book written by George England in 1737. It was called 'An Enquiry into the Morals of the Ancients'. So, what you are looking for would be in the 18th century literature section, a book by George England. If you cannot find it, there must be a librarian there who can help you."

  "Thank you!" Elijah hugged the old lady, who blushed, hurriedly put her spectacles back on the bridge of her nose and returned to her studies.

  "Very well, then." Daniel spoke quietly, as he led Elijah away. "We are going to the City of Immortals. And we will find try to find Merit's notebook, or what is left of it. If needs be, we'll find that librarian and force him - or her -to help us."

  Elijah drew a deep breath.

  "I could go alone," he said, "perhaps I should go alone. Merit is my wife. We are in great danger in the City of Immortals. Dark Nephilim go there often and you know how thrilled their servants would be to get their hands on Nephilim of our kind - and you also know what they would do to us. It is very dangerous."

  "I know," Daniel said, "but Merit was your twin soul. It may be too late to try and rescue her, but if there is the slightest chance to learn about her fate... still, it might be best if we keep this to ourselves for now."

  Elijah wiped a tear from his eye and nodded.

  "So why wait," Daniel smiled grimly at him, "let's go as soon as possible."

  When the researcher looked up again to rest her eyes, the Nephilim brothers were gone.

  CHAPTER FIFTY

  50. The Book of Messengers

  "What does it feel like?" Diana wanted to know. "Turning into an angel, I mean."

  I rolled my eyes at her.

  "Like hell..." my muscles were aching so much I could not sit still but had to walk around non-stop. If I sat, I needed to rock myself back and forth all the time. When I stopped for a second, the ache hit me. The last time I had been this sick was when I had influenza. It wasn't a dull ache. It was sharp, and it was intense, as if someone was tearing my muscles from within.

  "And it's not angel, it's Nephilim. Half-angel, or something like that."

  "Must be awesome... Imagine - you'll have wings! You will be able to fly! You can reach the upper levels of the buffer zone."

  "Really?" that stopped me for two seconds. I remembered to continue my rocking very quickly.

  "Yes, the pure Nephilim at least are able to go to the higher levels. Don't know about the bad ones - haven't had the pleasure of meeting one, thankfully... They - and we ordinary humans - usually tread the lower levels, where the mist is, because it is a good hiding place. It takes a lot of effort to learn to reach the higher parts of the
buffer zone."

  "Could I meet Kitty then...?"

  The pang of pain was right there - I missed Kitty so much... the brief glimpse I had seen of her in the buffer zone had only made me miss her more.

  "Everything's possible, if Kitty wants to meet you. I would think so, as she's already showed herself to you once, and has come into your dreams."

  I concentrated on managing the ache in my limbs for a while. I felt as if someone was trying to stretch me on some medieval torturing device.

  "Am I the only person around who had no idea what Nephilim even were? All the angelic beings I ever saw were pretty angel pictures and statues. No one told me about angels mixing with humans or fathering children with them. And now I am told I am about to turn into one... This is not exactly the easiest thing for the mind to accept, I can tell you!"

  "We've all heard of the ancient giants of the Bible... they were the Nephilim, I suspect," Diana explained.

  "Giants?" I looked up in horror. "I hope I won't grow through the roof at least!"

  "You're Nephilim, not Alice in Wonderland," Diana retorted with a grin.

  We were sitting in our room - there was no point in keeping me in the hospital room anymore, as I would not infect anyone with any illness. Also, I knew Grandma and Lilith were keeping a close eye on me, because of my impending change. They could help me, should the need arise. But Daniel, who knew all about this process, and might have helped me better than anyone, was nowhere to be seen. He was definitely staying away from me again.

  I did not say a word to Diana about what had happened between me and Daniel. Maybe nothing had. For him, that is. But I knew I was changed forever. Something had shifted, a door had opened that I could no longer close, and I knew I was now totally in love with him. Even the fact that he was three hundred years old did not matter to me. Three hundred! To him it obviously mattered - I must be a real baby in his eyes.

  I also still had to come to grips with the idea that I was going to live way past my expected human years. Everyone I knew would be dead and I would continue living - if I could avoid being killed by the bad Nephilim.

  I did not want to even consider the other option - being infected and turning into a dark one. I could not imagine what their life would be like, but I knew that it did not include respect for other living beings. I could not see myself killing others, drinking their blood... wings and spitting venom had never been part of my idea of vampires, but it seemed I'd been clearly uneducated in the matter. I'd never had any desire to think that vampires were real. For me they had been just figures in stories, the produce of someone's imagination with the aim of selling books.

  Grandma had made me call my parents.

  "You can't go home now, not for some weeks or even months. Reggie and I have already called your parents, and they believed us when we told you had secretly applied for a place in Reggie's university, and had been accepted as a student there. You will be studying ancient history - Egyptology to be exact. And, surprise surprise - we have an intensive course in Egypt for a few weeks at the end of this summer. We leave tonight, so you won't have time to meet your parents before that. That's the story. We'll return after your transformation is over and you are in control of yourself."

  "You mean they will let me go?"

  "Reggie is very convincing in his role as a professor. He actually is a very well known professor in his field, with so many titles after his name he'd need two visiting cards to show them all. Studying in the buffer zone has its advantages... besides - most of Egypt has been totally peaceful and quiet all this time, despite recent upheavals. The unrest has mostly been in Cairo around Tahrir square - and we will not be going to the Egyptological Museum located there, we promised your parents that."

  "Will we actually go there, to Egypt I mean?"

  "We might pop in for a few photos, so our story will be more believable to your parents. It will be easy to arrange - we won't be needing airplanes, after all! But now you need to call them, and sound very excited. Remember - do not tell them you know you are adopted. It was very important to your mother you never knew. It has never been easy for her, not being able to be a biological mother."

  My mother... now I could finally understand the distance between us, the feeling that she really tried to love me, but somehow just couldn't. I knew she did care for me deeply, but we never did quite connect.

  So I made the call, and sounded as enthusiastic as I possibly could with the pain throbbing all through my body. They both talked to me on the phone, Mom and Dad, and Dad especially was very proud of me.

  "How did you manage to keep your application such a secret?" Dad wanted to know. "You really surprised us!"

  "I know... I surprised myself too!" I said to the phone.

  "How did you get into university already without getting your exam results?" Mom wanted to know. Was it my imagination or did she sound a bit suspicious of the story?

  "It's a special program they have - I can sit my exams there while I already begin my preliminary studies in the history department. They can do that for specially gifted students," I repeated fluently what Grandma had written on a paper for me. She had assured me Reggie had actually promised that there were scholarships and support available for special cases.

  We continued talking for a while, and I was totally exhausted after the call. The pain seemed to concentrate more on my back now. I wasn't sure I liked that any more than the feeling of someone forcefully stretching my limbs.

  I took off my shirt many times in the following days, to look at my back in the mirror. Nothing special there, just my skin looking completely unchanged.

  One day - maybe three days later - I wandered into the hallway, still not being able to stand still, and ended up in Lilith's office where I found her with Reggie.

  "Dana!" Reggie beamed. "Do you have any idea what kind of service you've done for us?"

  "Erm... no..."

  I hadn't a clue what he was talking about. As far as I knew I had only scared everyone out of their wits and nearly been grabbed by a dark angel - funny that her name actually was Angel. Twisted humor...

  "The book you brought back with you from the nunnery... to think that it might have burned! I had no idea it was there in the library, as that nun would not budge from behind the railing so I could never see what lay on the far side of the shelves..."

  He stopped talking and just smiled at me as if I should now understand everything.

  "Yes?" I had to prompt him.

  "Ah, oh... yes... It is the only known copy of the Book of Messengers - an ancient Greek book about the origin of angels. The word angelos meant messenger," he clarified. "This is a copy from the times of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, the second bishop of Athens. Written on parchment, and in amazingly good condition... Miraculously it survived all the turmoil of Western civilization as it grew and developed, hidden away somewhere that no-one would ever find or steal it. Perhaps the lack of jeweled covers meant that it attracted no unwanted attention... it has survived for two thousand years!"

  I began to understand his enthusiasm.

  "I've spent the last few days translating the ancient Greek - and this book references the Nephilim as well as the Book of Watchers. This is the very book we have been trying to reach in all our travels through time. We knew there was a book that that would provide the explanation for much that we needed to know and you brought it to us!"

  "Really?"

  What were the odds that I would weave my way accidentally to the very place where such a book was being kept? And that I would get it, instead of the Time Walker group that was sent in search of it? And what was the impulse that made me break the glass and take the book so it would not burn? I had no idea what made me do that. Was this the Weaver breeding of the dark Nephilim in me, the work of Cain?

  "We knew that there was an important book in the library, but we thought it was the Book of Angels, the one we took home. It was quite educational, certainly, and valuable too, but there was
nothing new in it. The Book of Messengers is another thing entirely!"

  Lilith beamed too.

  "We believe that we finally have some knowledge about the Book of Watchers. The Book of Messengers talks about the Gates, and we think that they have to be the Gates we have found. They couldn't be anything else, really. Indeed they seem to have been the very gates the Watchers used, when they still walked among humans before their fall, after having taken human wives and fathered the Nephilim. We all know the story that the Watchers were thrown into a deep cave in Tartarus to wait for the punishment that would come at the end of times. The Gates remained where they were. So it seems the Watchers reached the human world through the Gates either from the buffer zone, or used it as a path from some other place or level."

  Reggie was too excited to sit still. He took a few steps, and then pushed his hands into his pockets as if to ground himself.

  "The book you brought back tells us that the Book of Watchers is not just any book! It is a map! It is a map to the place where the Watchers came from. It is called the Abode of Angels in the Book of Messengers. We think the dark Nephilim want to find the ancient Abode of Angels!"

  I did not know what to say, except "Why?"

  "We do not know... the fact that the captured shadow threatened that evil would follow for us when they found the Book of Watchers isn't exactly encouraging, though. Daniel has gone to find out more about that," Lilith said.

  "Gone where?" I could not help my voice rising nervously.

  "He has gone to the buffer zone, to the City of the Immortals, to see if he can discover more information. He suggested it himself as soon as we told him about what this little book revealed. "

  "Oh..." I had to find myself a chair where I sat down heavily. "Is that safe? Will they not infect him?"

  "He is not alone. He has his brother Elijah with him. They are very good at camouflaging, hiding their energies. Their plan is to try to capture an Immortal with some knowledge, and bring that one back here. They already have some indication of who this person might be, it seems. The Nephilim don't spend too much time in the City of the Immortals, so if Daniel and Elijah are quick, they should be able to escape. The Immortals cannot follow them to the higher levels, and by the time the other Nephilim are alerted, the boys will be up and away, long gone."