Shadowhunter (Nephilim Quest Book 1) (49 page)

No one had.

"To the office." Lilith rose to her feet. "Mr. Donnelly can come too."

When we came to the hall, the gate had been hidden. A big painting of the Centre, obviously made around the time the building had been built, now hung on the wall covering it. Gentlemen and ladies on horseback, wearing old-fashioned clothing, were riding in front of the building. No wonder the gate had been surrounded by a decorated frame. It just looked like any big old painting now.

Mr. Donnelly looked around him in awe.
 

"We had nothing of the sort in our City." He pointed at the lights, and almost wrung his neck trying to figure out what the computers were at the central desk.

The City sure sounded like an old fashioned place. That led me into complicated thoughts about time and technology and questions that I couldn't answer, so I concentrated again on what was actually happening.
 

Lilith wrote her password and opened her computer screen.

"Go on, Reggie, you show us,"
 
she gave way to Reggie who eagerly reached for the mouse.

"Let's see... The Amarna Project... Recent Projects... Survey.... Christian Settlements...."

We waited when he searched and scrolled.

"Here!"

Everyone tried to see the screen simultaneously, and in the ensuing congestion I ended up right next to Daniel. Our arms touched and I felt my knees melt.
 

I tried to concentrate. I looked at the picture. "Six-winged creature in the semi-dome of the apse" the text said.

And there they were. Six wings. Red wings, just like in the Book of Messengers. The center of the painting had been destroyed, and only the wings on their blue surface remained.

"Indeed!" Mr. Donnelly clapped his hands. "These are the very wings that were shown in the modern book! And the book also told that Panhesy lived in a city where the king worshipped the light of the sun, a long time before the birth of Christ. So he was a heathen, then."

"Aketaten," Reggie and I said simultaneously.

"The clue to the path leading to the Book of Watchers is in the tomb of Panhesy in Amarna," Reggie clarified.

"How did the Copts know the king of Amarna worshipped the Sun?" Grandma asked. "They lived 1400 years apart in time, after all."

"Panhesy's tomb is full of well-preserved reliefs about Akhenaten worshipping the sun, and the sun's rays ending in little hands, which bless the king and the royal family," Reggie explained. "Not hard to draw a conclusion."

"Panhesy, Second prophet of the Lord of the Two Lands Neferkheprure-Waenre. That would be Akhenaten." Lilith searched the net, "Overseer of the double granary of the Aten in Akhetaten, Overseer of cattle of the Aten."

"That's where we'll be going, then," Daniel nodded.

I did not dare to move, because for a fleeting moment he stroked my fingers with his. And then it was over, and I stood there, with my heart beating like a drum, not sure if he had done it intentionally or it was just an accident.

I hoped not and told myself to concentrate on what was happening in front of me.
 

"Can you tell us anything more about the ghost you saw?" Grandma asked. "What did she look like?"

"She was quite young, and very attractive and pleasant looking. Her hair was cut to her shoulders, and was brown in color... And she was wearing a necklace - a white little cat's head with a pink bow on its head. Something a child would wear, really..."

I knew who had hair like that, and who had been buried with a Hello Kitty necklace around her neck.

"It was Kitty!" I whispered.

Grandma smiled. I noticed Daniel and Elijah briefly exchanging glances.

"I told you she wanted to contact you! And now it seems she is involved with our mission of finding the Book of Watchers!"

I could not help tears of joy filling my eyes. Kitty was still around.

CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

63. Meeting Kitty

We left the following morning. Grandma sped away first in her red sports car, alone. Another hunter, Tinky, a short Asian girl, spied on the shadows, and returned to let us know that one of the shadows had followed Grandma. Two had remained in the bushes.

I had not been able to sleep for the most of the rest of the night. Instead I had spent hours standing at the window of our room. Diana had stayed up with me.

"What does the world look like to you now? I believe the senses of the Nephilim are different from ours?"

I explained to her how I could see more light in the darkest night, so that even in total darkness I could see my way - how beautiful the starry skies looked now that there was double the amount of stars I was used to seeing. How I could see little animals moving in the grass and forests, and spot anyone approaching from far away because now their body heat was visible to me.

"Can you see ghosts now?" Diana wanted to know.

"I have no idea. I haven't seen any that I know of. Wouldn't mind seeing Kitty, though..."

"I don't think you can call Kitty a ghost. As I understand it, ghosts are souls that have not left this earthly plane, but have remained here, wandering near places that are important to them. Kitty, on the other hand, has travelled to higher levels after her death, as she should have done. She's not a ghost."

"But she showed herself to Mr. Donnelly."

"Showed, yes, by her own free will. Think about it. Surely you don't think she haunts the land of the Immortals because she can't leave? And she had trouble expressing herself in the lower buffer zone level, if she could not make her voice heard. That means she doesn't belong there."

Diana had a point there. I remembered my own dream where Kitty had warned me about the shadow under my window and I could not hear her voice.

"There's just one thing I don't get," Diana said, "Kitty's death. Everyone seems to think they tried to kill you, and hit Kitty accidentally. If you are such a valuable Nephilim to the dark side, why on earth would they want to kill you?"

I shook my head.

"No, I'm sure they killed Kitty on purpose, to catch me. And then they planted the medium's visiting card in my path, trying to lure me to her shop so Angel could kidnap me."

"That makes sense," Diana admitted, "and is yet more proof of how little they value human life, the dark Nephilim.And how dangerously clever and manipulative they are."

Diana helped me pack a small bag. I still had no makeup, and was getting accustomed to it already. Turning into a Nephilim had given my skin quite a nice glow, and I did not mind my blonde eyebrows now. Before I had looked eternally surprised, without clearly defined eyebrows, and used a lot of time creating them each morning with a brow pencil. Now, however, they were still very light in color, but they seemed to define my face more than before. Also my blue eyes had become more intense in color. I had no golden dots in them like Daniel, though.

The Centre had its own costumiers and Diana took me there because my growth spurt had made all my previous clothes too small.. I had been once before to the costume department, and it was a real hall full of clothes rails.
 

"Different teams travel to different times and need clothing that enable them to immerse themselves in the times they are visiting."
 

"You must have quite a few Time Walker teams, if the amount of clothing is anything to go by." I swirled around. "You could clothe a small town with these!"

"We sure do, because certain teams specialize in certain times for obvious reasons – it takes them years even to learn the language and habits of a particular time, and even with the buffer zone stopping people from getting older, it is a lot of work.
 
If a team stays in a specific time for a longer period they try to buy clothes made in that time and bring these back to our modern times.
 
They can then be used as models in creating new dresses of the age."

Diana took a medieval-looking dress from one of the racks.

"This looks like a genuine dress - look how coarse the material is. This seems to be a dress for poorer folks."

I touched the fabric and had to agree not many people in today's world would put it on voluntarily.

"And now, let's get you something more fitting to wear, you look rather hilarious in those jeans - not that your ankles aren't pretty, but still..." Diana grinned at my skinny legs exposed by the short trousers.

Luckily there were other tall people as well, so I managed to get something to wear.

"You certainly won't fit into the past," Diana shook her head, looking at me after I had my extremities properly covered with clothes again, "you are way too tall now. Women were much shorter then."

"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."