Shadowhunter (Nephilim Quest Book 1)

by Leena Maria

  "Thanks. Now I feel like a clumsy giraffe."

  "You're very welcome," Diana smiled, "but – with your skills on weaving and moving to and from the buffer zone, you are perfect for short pop-ins. Very handy on occasions, if we need stealth-attacks. Not to mention what an effect your silver wings will have, if necessary."

  I was certain Diana saw me in her mind's eye me scaring some bishop in the middle ages about to burn some unfortunate midwife for witchcraft. I had learned to know her enough by now to know she felt very strongly about injustice against those who could not defend themselves - probably because of her own slave background.

  We met in Lilith's office after sunrise. Daniel, Elijah and I.

  "We shall go somewhere, where you can practice your skills," Daniel spoke first. "And after that you need to be introduced to the Council of the Nephilim. It is the custom so all will learn to know you."

  "And as you need to prove your parents we are visiting Egypt, that's where we're going. We'll follow you after a few days," Lilith declared, "to take photos. Layla has already sent them some, without you in them, and they want to see photos of you too."

  I couldn't help but smile happily.

  "Egypt? Great!"

  Lilith laughed.

  "Something good in all of this, then. Hold Daniel's arm. You have your bag? Good. Have a safe journey!"

  Daniel offered me his arm, but did not look at me in the eye. I didn't wonder, not after I had attacked him like that after the healing-episode.

  We did not step anywhere. I only felt Daniel's energies intensify, and Lilith's office melted away from around us. Then we were in the mist of the buffer zone, but did not continue in it. Instead we shot right through it. There was a clear sensation of moving upwards. We went higher and higher, and different landscapes appeared and disappeared. I guessed we went as high as we could, to a level where the shadows or dark Nephilim could not follow us.

  We did not begin our descent immediately. Instead we stopped on the ledge of a mountain overlooking a green valley. Light came from everywhere, and it was so beautiful I could have stayed there forever. I did not ask why we had stopped. I only enjoyed the scenery.

  "Beautiful...makes you wish you would never have to leave," I sighed

  "Not even we can do that." Elijah breathed in the air deeply, "or we would have to be dead. This is the highest we can reach while still in our physical bodies."

  Daniel did not speak. I did not dare to let go of his arm for fear of falling down to some lower level, but I felt uncomfortable for his lack of attention, even when I was holding his arm. He was keeping his distance from me again.

  Something appeared on the ledge next to us. A foggy shape which became more solid. I recognized her even before she was fully formed.

  "Kitty!" I almost screamed, half laughing, half crying.

  "Dana!" she yelled, and now, finally, I could hear her loud and clear. How I had missed that voice!

  I wanted to run to her, hug her, but I did not know if I could let go of Daniel's arm.

  "Go on." Daniel pushed my arm gently away from his.

  I yelled proper teenager style and ran to Kitty. We hugged each other, and cried and screamed and jumped up and down with joy. I heard laughter, and realised both the Nephilim brothers were laughing out loud at us.

  "How are you?" Kitty asked. "I see you have become something else entirely! You have wings now! Without having to die to get them!" she continued in her typical humorous style.

  I looked at my back and to my amazement my wings had opened without me noticing - perhaps caused by the energies of the highest level of the buffer zone. They were shining with such light it blinded me too.

  "No, it turns out I am a Nephilim. Half human, half angel. Or a descendant of them."

  "I know... and I never even suspected my best friend was an angel. I didn't remember!" Kitty laughed.

  That last sentence didn't make any sense to me. She was so real, so totally solid in form. Only she looked much happier and healthier than she had ever been in physical life, even though she had been perfectly healthy then. She had a real... glow to her skin, like she was lit from within.

  "But you are involved in all of this – we heard you had visited the land of Immortals, and showed their librarian the clue to the path. To find the Book of Watchers. How did you know about it? And how did Daniel and Elijah know to get that very librarian out of the City of Immortals?"

  Kitty got serious.

  "Yes. We all know about the search for the Book of the Watchers on this side. Some of us have followed your quest, and agree with you in that the dark Nephilim want to wake up the Watchers, and gain control over human kind. Your world will fall into chaos, if that happens."

  "But surely you already know where the Watchers are. Can't you simply tell us? Why all this tedious finding a path and clues and all that... and why would the Watchers even help the dark Nephilim?"

  "We don't know. And maybe they wouldn't. That is forbidden information for us as well. Maybe there is knowledge of this in the upper levels of existence, but not in ours. Also the situation that led to the punishment of the Watchers is hidden in such ancient history we don't know how to go that far back to see what happened. Things change constantly and we are completely different energy beings now. Everything expands and you cannot bring back what was, because the world and people have... expanded past those ancient events. It would be very difficult for us in the energy worlds to stay in the past energies even if we did manage to reach that far. Maybe those in physical bodies could, because they are still of denser energies. And most of us don't even want to get involved. Most souls don't feel like connecting to the human world any more, and are not much interested in its history now that they have reached the higher levels of existence. But those who wish to intervene have their free will to do that, within the laws of the spirit world. Which makes it a bit difficult, because most people cannot perceive us in denser energy levels, and communicating is difficult."

  I could understand that.

  "We observe the goings-on of the City of Immortals and found Mr. Donnelly because of his job, and because he was not like the others. He did not want to harm anyone, and he wanted to get out. And the dark Nephilim would not let him go visit the ordinary world at all. They had tied him to the city of Immortals through his shadow much more strongly than was usual. His shadow was literally instructed not to let him go to the physical world at all. Obviously he was too valuable to them. So I told Daniel and Elijah where to find him, when they told me they were looking for a librarian in the city of Immortals. I knew he had to be important in all of this... Whatever this is. Otherwise the dark Nephilim would not have kept him prisoner," Kitty then explained.

  "So you three have met for this purpose?" I asked.

  "Yes. We planned this together," Elijah answered, "Kitty was hovering all over the place, eager to contact you after her death, so it was easy for us to talk to her and plan the whole thing in the buffer zone."

  "But why do you want to come back...down?" I asked Kitty.

  "Remember the letter I wrote to you before I died? That I felt my true purpose was only just beginning? Well, it was. I was born to protect you, Dana. I should have turned into a clairvoyant, who saw beforehand any dangers waiting for you after you turned into a Silver Nephilim. But they killed me before I developed into my skills and would have remembered the deal we made before you were born. You were not supposed to be found. Not during the Second World War, and not in present time either. When you were brought to the present time, I had to die in the bombings of London and be reborn with great haste to be with you again. Thankfully my mother in this time was already a few months pregnant, and living in the area where you would move - I could see that, because your Grandma had already decided to give you in adoption to your mother, and also to give her house for the new family to live in. So I chose her to be my physical mother - it could be done because no soul had yet attached itself to the baby permanently."
r />   Now this was something completely new to me. That we chose our own parents at our own free will? That we made agreements with others about fulfilling our life's purpose even before we were born?

  Before I could continue thinking about the philosophical issues around these choices Kitty continued talking.

  "Also you were supposed to get your wings much later. Maybe it was Elijah's need for help that hastened the process. You were to become a healer, after all. And a Weaver with extraordinary skills."

  I had no words, I was just trying to understand how the rules of the spirit world worked.

  "So, before you were born, we knew that you would be a Nephilim, of course. We knew the dark Nephilim would try to get you, because you were the Weaver who could travel time like no other, and connect with the Book of Watchers. We had to protect you from getting into their hands, from getting infected and turning dark."

  "But why? Why would you... or they, in the upper levels, even care? If there was no need for them to ever come back down again? You just said most souls don't care anymore what happens in the human world."

  "Don't you see? If the dark Nephilim wake up the Watchers, and the Watchers are what they clearly expect... evil, that is, and if such evil Watchers regain their power over human kind, the dark Nephilim can do as they please. This means the human kind is doomed for slavery, possibly for good. That is not the way that was intended for human souls. It takes away the most important lesson of all - that of free will. If the dark Nephilim find the gates of the Watchers – and the dark Nephilim are aware of their existence, trust me on that – they can move their troops anywhere they like using the buffer zone."

  "Troops? What troops?"

  "The transformed ones, or the human vampires, ghosts and shadows have their ways of moving in and out of the human world from their own level. And the purebred Nephilim simply step between realms as they please, reaching as high as their energies allow. But the people, ordinary physical people, who are willing to work and fight for the Nephilim – they need the gates if they want to move independently between the physical world and the buffer zone. As do the half-Nephilim, whose blood is so diluted that they are stuck in the physical realm. If the Watchers awaken, and are released from their prison, the knowledge of the exact location of the gates is out. War troops can be marched into any location using the gates. Many of which have not yet even been found."

  Kitty started to fade a little. I could see the forest by the river through her now.

  "This sounds like a war of the heavens almost," I said.

  "It is," Daniel was suddenly next to me. I looked around, and Elijah had disappeared.

  "Daniel," Kitty smiled, "good to see you again. Thank you for bringing Dana to meet me. You shall have to protect her in the physical world for me now. I failed in that mission."

  "You would never have had any chance against the forces of the dark Nephilim, not without your skills fully developed." Daniel shook his head. "We have talked about this before. We should have protected you from them, until you turned into a clairvoyant. So you can say it is we who failed. We had no idea they would pay attention to an ordinary human, or that they knew about your mission in life."

  "So you met Daniel after you died?" I asked Kitty the obvious.

  "Yes, Daniel was there when I stepped out of my body," Kitty said, "he helped me through the buffer zone. People in shock can get stuck there, you see. And despite my forebodings about the coming death - it must have been the first signs of my clairvoyance developing - I was in shock. Daniel appeared out of nowhere, took my hand and lifted me to a level where I could meet my own guides and proceed to the afterlife. He saw I did not want to go, and we talked for a long time about you, and our intended life on earth."

  I remembered the dream I had the night Kitty died. I turned to look at Daniel, who met my inquiring gaze calmly, clearly expecting the question that would follow.

  "Are you some sort of an angel of death, then?" I half joked.

  Daniel smiled, and this time the smile reached his eyes. His beauty hurt my heart.

  "Yes," he replied, "many of us are."

  If the afterlife- or at least this upper level of the buffer zone – hadn't been so beautiful, and if I hadn't been so overjoyed at meeting Kitty again, I might have been shocked. But as it was, I was taken only mildly aback, and asked:

  "Explain this, will you?"

  "Not now. I'll do it when we are back in our world. Elijah has gone on ahead to make our camp ready for us."

  I had another look at the wonderful hilly scenery. Beautiful lilac flowers grew on the mountainside.

  "Shall we see each other again?" I asked Kitty.

  "When you learn to rise up here on your own, certainly. I will try to come to the lower levels too, when necessary. I lose a little more of my solid form on every level downwards. That is why it may be you only see a part of me, or can't hear me. I do hear you, though, when you think of me, and speak to me in your mind," Kitty hugged me, "and I will continue my job, protecting you, from this level, as best I can. You can see pretty far when you are up here. And now I am able to see probable futures easily. I only had to die to reach my potential," she smiled.

  She began to fade even further.

  "If you can, tell my family I am still alive. I try to do that too. Tell my mother that every time she smells roses where there are none, it is me."

  "I will, Kitty, I promise, when I see her."

  Kitty smiled, waved her hand and vanished like the smoke of a candle. I stood there, feeling pure joy.

  "Thank you, Daniel... and I am sorry," I stammered

  That took him by surprise.

  "Sorry? Whatever for?"

  "For behaving like that after Elijah... healing Elijah..."

  I don't know what I had expected, but not this roaring laughter.

  "I am sorry..." Daniel found it hard to stop laughing, "did you actually think I did not like what you did?"

  I blushed so hard that I felt like a tomato flying on silver wings.

  "My darling Dana..." he took my hands and smiled into my eyes, "any Nephilim would fight for your love. Have you any idea how beautiful and pure you have become? I am sure I did not deserve all the... attention you gave me there at the ward, after healing Elijah, because you did not know who you were. But I assure you it was one of the top moments of my life. It was quite hard not to take advantage of the situation."

  "Take advantage... Oh..."

  If possible, I blushed even more.

  "I promise I will behave." Daniel smiled at me, laughter sparkling in his eyes.

  He bent forward and kissed me gently on the lips and in a snap I was on fire. I wrapped my hands behind his neck and kissed him, and not so gently.

  "I wish you wouldn't. Behave." I whispered to him, pressing myself against him.

  For one precious moment he kissed me back, and then he gently pushed me away.

  "Dana..." I could feel his hands tremble, and I saw how his eyes had turned almost the color of the night sky with emotion, "we cannot."

  "Why?" I gasped for air, not wanting to stop. He held me by my arms, not allowing me to come closer.

  "You are too young for this."

  "No, I am not," I knew I sounded like a pouting child, but Daniel did not hurt my emotions by treating me like one.

  "In human years you are what... sixteen?"

  "Seventeen next month."

  "I have been around for a lot longer." He looked at me seriously.

  "I know. Around three hundred years."

  He looked surprised. Obviously he had not known I knew.

  "And that doesn't bother you?"

  "No. In a few hundred years I am sure we won't even notice the difference."

  He let out an almost desperate laugh.

  "Do not tempt me, Dana... because you do, you have no idea how much you do..."

  "I do? You haven't exactly shown it to me. It seems to me that you've tried to distance yourself from me."


  "You are right, Dana, I have," he fought to gain composure, but his eyes remained almost black and his breathing was hard, "but that is only to protect you."

  "I don't need to be protected from you..."

  "You have no idea about the forces between the Nephilim. You have no idea how we choose our mates. It is not an easy deal, and once you have bonded with someone..."

  He did not continue any further, but stood there, holding me at an arms length. I forced myself forward despite his hands, and pressed myself against him again, feeling his delicious warmth.

  "Dana...!" he groaned and stepped back.

  The old, sensible human Dana inside me felt ashamed. The new, Nephilim Dana, did not. It was as if someone was acting on my behalf - a wild and passionate creature I had never known before and who knew exactly what she wanted.

  I managed to get the old Dana to the surface with considerable effort.

  "I'm sorry, Daniel... I cannot help myself..."

  "Young Nephilim are like that," he had to clear his throat to be able to speak, "their newly born power is so strong they cannot help themselves. They are all emotion and energy. I should have remembered. Right. We are going down to Egypt. Now. Close your wings, so we don't draw attention to ourselves if there are people around."

  My wings were trembling, when I willed them out of sight, feeling them curling back inside me, along my spine. Daniel let me gain my composure in peace, and stood at a distance. When I had calmed down, he extended his right hand, and I took it into my left, wrapping my fingers tightly around his.

  When we descended to the deserts of Egypt together with the light of the rising sun, my heart was singing. Daniel cared for me!

  CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR

  64. Kiss in the Desert

  The solitude of the Egyptian Western Desert, vast and silent, stretched away in all directions. There, under the guidance of Daniel and Elijah, I learned to fly.

  I'd had my share of flying dreams in the past, but the real thing was a thousand times better. Much to my astonishment, the basics were the same as in my dreams.

  There was no beating of wings involved. We did not fly like birds. When I wondered about that, Elijah burst out laughing.