Shadowhunter (Nephilim Quest Book 1) (37 page)

"Can it be reversed? The effects of the venom."

"No. There are many of our kind now in their midst, turned into monsters after being infected by them. It doesn't even take a bite – they may put venom in your drink, and that does it, if you have the tiniest cut in your mouth or anywhere in your digestive system."

I felt I had no hope anymore. I could never eat or drink anything safely again, nor walk in crowds.

"What does it feel like... Turning into a Nephilim?"

"You develop a high fever, but it doesn't make you sick, only stronger. Then all your muscles begin to ache, and you feel like someone was carving your spine out with a knife."

"Nice..." I grimaced.

"That is the worst part. After that you grow in height. And then, one day soon after that, you shall have your wings. It is as if the body needs to grow in length to make space for them. You feel them inside you, and you know how to open them, intuitively."

I thought about this. I had a fever already. I remembered the look Lilith and Grandma had exchanged.

"Has it already started?" I had to ask.

"Let me see..." Daniel spread his wings slowly and touched me with their tips, gently like a butterfly.

A shock of electricity zapped me. It felt as though my heart would bounce out of my chest. Chills ran up and down my spine. I felt something happen to my eyes, and they locked with Daniel's. We looked at each other for a long while, not moving, not talking. Not breathing. I felt myself melt into his energies, which were warm, strong, frightening, wonderful, and suddenly I noticed I was crying again.

My body began to hum as if a current of electricity went through it. I could feel it in my teeth, feel the buzz in my temples.

And my heart... I felt a warmth I had never experienced before. I felt strong and weak at the same time, utterly defenseless and burning, when something in me anchored itself into him. I felt it like a physical jolt, and he responded, drawing in a deep breath. I saw his eyes turn dark with emotion, and he did not turn away from me.

"Yes, it has begun..." Daniel finally whispered, and I felt his words resonate deep inside me.

He bent and kissed my cheek so lightly I thought I imagined the whole thing. I felt his lashes touch my left temple. Then he took another deep breath, hid his wings slowly, and walked out of the room, taking my heart with him.

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

48. My Past

It took all the self-control I could muster to be able to face Grandma again, who walked in just after Daniel left. I had no doubt she had been listening outside the door.

I tried to remember if anything Daniel and I had said would reveal what had happened between us, when we had forgotten ourselves in each other's eyes. But I could not remember either one saying anything.

"We have been in contact with the pure Nephilim ever since this Centre was established, though never directly from here. We have kept its location a secret from them," Grandma explained. "They tend to stay among themselves, but in the last hundred years or so, the dark ones have been waging a real war against them. Before this there had been animosity, and some skirmishes, some killings too, but mostly that happened in the distant past. The two groups had stayed separate from one another, avoiding too much contact. What prompted the new era of aggression, they have not told us directly."

I lay down on my bed; utterly exhausted from all the mental turmoil I had been experiencing. I wished she would go away, and leave me to sort out my emotions. But she continued her explanations, despite my closed eyes.
 

"The situation turned so severe that the dark Nephilim started killing or infecting all the pure ones they could find.
 
They also started stealing their children, and increased their numbers by infecting these children with their venom, and then returning the babies to their mothers - often without them realizing what had happened. They managed to get some mothers this way - if a child has teeth and is breastfeeding, it can bite. Some did, and so they infected their mothers.
 

"Around the start of the Second World War the good Nephilim began to go underground whenever possible, in order to survive at all, or they withdrew into their castles in remote areas of the world. Many live in cities still, but their homes are veritable bunkers, and they guard their own without ceasing. If only people saw the Nephilim soldiers patrolling the edges of our reality... they are a mighty sight..."

In my mind's eye I created an image of angelic soldiers flying above cities in the darkness, holding swords. A very Hollywood-like image, I am sure.

"Do they protect this place too?" I asked.

"No, as I said, this is a human center, and the secret of this gate has remained within these walls. We cannot trust the information even with pure Nephilim, in case they are infected and turn dark. We would have all the dark Nephilim of the world attacking this place if they knew. Their servants, the humans and vampires who call themselves Immortals, living in the buffer zone, would love to control our gate. Some Nephilim know how to open temporary gates of their own, but that skill runs only in very few bloodlines - like yours. Others, whose blood has been diluted with too much human blood, need ready-made, stable gates just like humans."

"How about the people using the gates? Would they not tell it to the dark Nephilim, if they were caught? Or turned into vampires?" I wondered.

Grandma did not answer at first, but then she sighed and lifted a little amulet hanging from her neck. She opened it, revealing a little liquid-filled capsule. It took me a full minute to understand.

"That is... poison?" I stammered.

"Yes." Grandma turned the capsule against the light for a moment, then put it back into the amulet and closed it with a snap. "It's unfortunate, but it's the only way to guarantee that the infected won't talk. If a human vampire bites them, most likely they will be killed. The vampires aren't exactly searching for new family members, if you get my point. They only want to feed, and the ones bitten don't hang around to discuss it. If they are bitten by the Nephilim, who are not just feeding, but creating a new servant, the infected one has at least a few hours to take this pill before the change."

"Has anyone..." I could not finish the sentence.

Grandma nodded.

"And they were all bitten by the Nephilim. The change is so painful to most that taking the pill is a relief. They all took it voluntarily. Also anyone taking part in the time walking makes an oath to use the pill if necessary. But no one is forced to do so. If they do not wish to do this, they can stay in the Centre and work on other things. Research, for example, or training others."

She looked away and I saw tears in her eyes. Clearly she had known many, if not all, of those who had taken the pill.

"But what about Daniel? He is a Nephilim, and he knows of the gate. And if I am one too... How can you trust us?"

Lilith, who walked through the door just then and heard me, answered.

"The few Nephilim, who know of this place, have also made an oath. If they are ever infected, they are to be killed before the infection takes hold. They have stronger immunity systems than humans, and so they have a few weeks before the venom begins to function. During that time they will either take their own lives, or they will come here to be killed."

I swallowed.

"But we do not want to kill anyone. That is why we have cells underneath the Centre. So far we have not had a single human who would have survived as a vampire. Even those few who were left alive by vampires or dark Nephlim chose to use the pill so they would not turn into those creatures. And if one of our Nephilim turns bad, and is not of a bloodline that can enter the buffer zone alone, they may be kept alive in the cells. They need physical contact with each other to amplify each other's power, and only then can they freely move in the buffer zone. If such Nephilim were to be imprisoned here, they would never gain their freedom again. However, if an infected Nephilim is one who can enter the buffer zone on their own... Well..."

She did not need to say any more. I understood. I realized I would be one such Nephilim. And Daniel was one too, as was his brother.

"You have a... prison? Have you any Nephilim prisoners, then?"

"Thankfully, no," Lilith shook her head, "And hopefully never will, because of the small number of Nephilim who know of this place. You must understand Daniel has not even told the Council of pure Nephilim about the gate. The Nephilim of this Centre are a true secret society. Still - we are prepared to keep the infected ones alive, if possible, in the hopes that a cure will be found one day. We hope the need never arises. It would be a cruel thing to keep a living creature prisoner for centuries."

I nodded, understanding. Or rather - not understanding. I suddenly realized what she had said.

"What did you say?
 
Keep them prisoners for how long?"
 

"Centuries. The Nephilim live considerably longer than humans. There are stories of Nephilim who are thousands of years old, especially the dark ones. Cain must be one of the oldest," Lilith explained, "Some say he is from the times when the Watchers still lived here..."

Grandma intervened.

"But back to your story... Cain found out about you and came to claim you. We were aware of your birth very soon after it happened, and searched for you, so we could come to get you and your mother ourselves. I was there, together with a Time Walker group, when Cain tried to get you. We received word about you from the pure Nephilim. They had followed Cain and knew he was going to steal you from your mother. You would become yet another of their stolen children. They did not want to lose you, all the more so when they learned that your father was Cain's eldest son, the only one of his offspring, who had managed to father a child. You."

Grandma felt my forehead, which was burning. Her hand felt blissfully cool against my skin.

"We almost came too late. The shadows were within grabbing distance of you. We were just about to step down from the buffer zone, even though I was the only Hunter among us, and we would have been severely overpowered. Still, we could not leave you to them without a fight. It was right then that the bomb exploded. The pressure wave blasted the shadows away. Your mother managed to open her wings just enough to protect you, when the explosion threw her into the air."

Grandma was silent for a while, searching for words.

"Your mother, unfortunately, did not make it. Her wings broke when she fell on the debris, and her blood ran out. We took you, and brought you to this time."

"How did I end up with my family, then?" I asked, eyes still closed, my emotions now dulled to numbness.

"I took you to my own daughter, who is your mother as much as anyone can ever be. Your parents could not get a child of their own; they had tried for years, and gone through expensive treatments while trying. They got a message from an adoption agency that they had found a baby girl for them - an agency I had recommended to them. They never knew this adoption agency specialized in rehoming Nephilim children... As far as your family goes, I am an ordinary, yet a bit eccentric old woman. They have no idea of what I really am."

I opened my eyes and looked at her in amazement.

"Yes, you heard right. We often have to hide the children of the remaining pure Nephilim. When they are hidden among ordinary people, in ordinary human families, unaware of who they are, they are much safer than when they are raised by their own kind.
 

"This is sad, but necessary, because the dark Nephilim soldiers circle in search of these children constantly. They have problems having children of their own, so they increase their number mostly by stealing pure Nephilim children. Only after Nephilim children have grown their wings, can they protect themselves against the venom. The wings have such an energy field it prevents the venom from functioning - if caught before it enters the body's bloodstream. Angel almost caught you, because Daniel had not quite managed to wrap you. He was threatening Angel with his wing tips, and that left an opening to Daniel's cocoon, for Angel to try to reach you."

"But how did Daniel find me in the buffer zone?"

"He flew in as soon as we found him and could alert him of your disappearance. He knew your scent, so he followed that. Also, you dropped a shoe on the path the Time Walker group had just used," Lilith said. "Daniel found it and guessed you were headed to the same library the group had just come from. He reached the library just as you escaped it. The nuns were scared out of their wits at the sight of an angel in their burning library... I am sure, if we now searched for the annals of the nunnery, we would find a reference to this - and it would not have been in the annals yesterday."

Grandma chuckled. I remember the cry I heard just as I entered the buffer zone - someone had cried about an angel... If only I had remained a few seconds longer, Daniel would have taken me to safety and I would never had met Angel.

"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.