Shadowhunter (Nephilim Quest Book 1) (21 page)

"And this is why you have created this place?" I said, gesturing around me in a circle to indicate the whole Centre. "To stop the Immortals and Nephilim?"
 

"Partly, yes. And partly because we've learned about something very dangerous and ancient that wasn't destroyed, even though it should have been."

I looked around in the library. I realised that there were many more people than I had first noticed. They were leaning on the bookcases, or sitting at little desks scattered everywhere, wherever there was a big enough space. And everyone was reading silently or writing notes.

"So, what is it?"

Lilith and Daniel glanced at each other. They were clearly trying to reach a decision.

"Once we have told you, you are not safe in the outside world anymore. Not until you have learned to protect yourself from the shadows. Are you ready for this? To stay for a long time, if necessary? Can we trust you?"

"I don't know why you have trusted me with this much information already, to be honest," I confessed, "but if you tell me more, I promise I will keep your secret."

"We have reasons to believe that you will keep your word," Daniel said and I got the oddest feeling there was a hidden meaning in what he said that had nothing to do with simply deciding to trust someone. "Also Layla vouches for you. That is why you were given the book.   We suspect you have hidden talents. You should, considering your genealogy. And so you will find you life's work here, in one of our groups."

For a moment I wondered what was so extraordinary about my very ordinary parents. I saw Lilith quickly glance sideways at Daniel. 

"OK. Shoot. Tell me what this dangerous, ancient thing is. Some sort of weapon?" I asked.

"No, it is knowledge. A book," Lilith patted the book on my lap.

"A book. Is that what all these people are searching for? Is it somewhere here in the library?"

"In an indirect way, yes. They are looking for clues in our books about where the book sought by the Nephilim might be. It is called the Book of Watchers – we believe this contains the ancient writings that the angels used to teach their children. It must contain skills that are absolutely terrifying in their power. We fear that at its worst, after reading this book one could literally tear apart the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead. And the Immortals want to find it too, as they believe it would give them free mobility between the physical world and buffer zone. It might surprise you, but we did not know such a book existed until we caught a shadow that revealed information about the book before the shadow's creator withdrew his consciousness, destroying his creation. Ever since then the shadows have been created to be mute. We take this as proof that such a book really exists. The huntress who caught the shadow and forced the information out of it was Layla."

"My grandmother? A Huntress?"

"A Huntress of shadows, yes."

That was something to muse over... For a short, hysterically amused moment, I wondered what mother would say if she knew. But her knowing anything about this was an impossible thought in itself, so I discarded it.

"But how can you know for sure that such a race as these angels actually existed? Aren't they also imaginary creatures?" I realised even as I spoke that I was going to have to revise my interpretation of "imaginary." I stared at a picture of the "Mystic nativity" painted by Sandro Botticelli. A ring of angels was flying over the stable, three angels sitting on the roof, and angels hugging people and pointing at the manger. The angels had wings of different colors.

"They might not be what you'd expect them to be. Much of they way they look in the pictures and reliefs is a human invention, of course. But they did exist here once. The Nephilim are a living proof of this. They inherited a lot of their physique from their ancestors," Lilith explained.

"Living proof? I've never seen any such a thing as a Nephilim!" I said. "Nor has anyone else I know."

I wasn't exactly in a place to deny everything they'd said, having stepped through the gate. And having seen my dead friend with my own eyes, and touched her with my own hands, even if it only was for a fleeting moment. Still there was too much to assimilate in one sitting. I had never been religious, and considered angels to be like fairies – pretty, and not real. Like the angels in Botticelli's painting.

"But you've almost certainly been seeing Nephilim in your life, even if you didn't realise it at the time. You will recognize them if you know what to look for," Lilith told me. "First of all, they are tall. Secondly, their eye color is brilliant – it can be golden, which is often the sign of a dangerous Nephilim. Or they can be brilliant blue, which usually tells you are dealing with a good one.  That's a very general rule, not a fixed one. Nephilim skin can be any color.
 
Human genetics dictate the appearance of that somewhat."

"And they have wings?"

"Well, yes, in a way. Not the feathery things people have been depicting in art, but energy whirls of magnificent colors, which spread out, resembling wings. They are transparent, see-through," Lilith continued. "Of course they keep them hidden unless they are certain it is safe to open them. And they can function in angelic ways without opening them fully. Flying for example."

"Tall, bright eyes, wings they don't show... Anything else? I know quite a few tall, bright-eyed people, without wings, who don't fly. Come to think of it - I never knew anyone who could fly."

"The people you know don't share the last physical characteristic that separates the Nephilim from ordinary people. Heat. Body heat. They have a much higher temperature than we do."

I froze.

"Heat... They are... hot?"

"We are," Daniel said and spread his wings.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

26. Wings

"You really are a show-off, aren't you!"

 Diana's voice floated into my consciousness. I must have been asleep. The bed felt quite hard, though. I opened my eyes and much to my astonishment I was looking up at towering bookshelves. I was lying on the floor... Why would I be lying on the floor?

Diana's face hovered over me.

"Good, you are awake. I've been telling our angel-boy here what's what. To scare someone like that without warning..."

I remembered. I jumped to my feet so fast that I bumped against Diana, who lost her balance and ended up sitting on the floor. Daniel was standing nearby, and to his credit it has to be said he did look embarrassed.  At the moment he looked like an ordinary, tall young man.

"Did you just have wings??" my voice was rasping with shock, but it did not stop it from rising hysterically towards the end of the question.

"Yes..." He looked at me under his brows – that breathtakingly blue gaze.

"You'd better let her see them again, Daniel. It doesn't exactly look as though her mind is taking in what she saw," Lilith commented dryly. Her tone revealed she was not very happy with Daniel either.

This time he did not pop them open like an umbrella, but instead turned his back on me and opened them very slowly so I could see them better.

How to describe the wings? They were definitely not like the traditional giant swan wings of angel statues and paintings. No bird feathers of any kind. No – they were somehow quite immaterial. 

The wings appeared from under his shirt as if the fabric was no obstacle at all – two little colorful points of light, blue in shade, which first grew upwards like someone had drawn a glowing line with a brush. And then they grew outwards. It was a bit like watching ferns unfurl in a high-speed movie... They rolled open by spreading up and out, high above his head, tips touching. When they were fully open, they melted together, and formed a perfect half circle behind Daniel's upper torso. The lower ends of these wings were separate and curled slightly forward past his legs, enveloping his lower body. Suddenly I remembered the bluish halo around my legs when we flew over the fields.
 

And they were shimmering with blue and gold – slowly pulsating in transparent color, which emanated light. A bit like blood pulsing in veins, only like the veins were transparent and the blood – or color – was visible. I could see how the link to them in the human mind would be the wings of a bird – or maybe a butterfly. Or perhaps just a very bright aura. They seemed to bend air around them a bit like the edges of a leaf floating on the surface of water.

"Wow," I breathed out in utter astonishment. Two of the closest people reading books glanced at the wings and returned to their books. Business as usual here, it seemed.

All I could do was stare at the wings in awe, with my mouth open. Daniel turned back to face us. I snapped my mouth shut, and hoped in vain I did not look like a total idiot.

"So you are one of the Nephilim?" I asked him the obvious.

"Yes. From one of the least diluted bloodlines. That's why the wings are so big."

Daniel looked almost relieved, and suddenly I understood. He would have to hide his true identity from everyone in the outside world. If he showed his wings, he'd probably end up in some laboratory and would have lost his freedom for good. Or, maybe not... with the Keys in use I am sure he would be able to escape from anywhere. If he did not have a Key, then Lilith did and...

My imagination was beginning to create scenarios again. I firmly told it to stop.

"And the bloodlines with more human blood result in smaller wings?" I analyzed.

"In time, yes, usually. Sometimes there are no wings at all, and sometimes the more human bloodlines surprise with huge wings. So it isn't a straight-forward downhill shift for the Nephilim race, if there is more human blood in it. It seems the angels and humans were originally somehow related – this is logical when you think about it, as they could produce offspring - and there is the potential of finding... angelic skills... in human blood as well. Some kind of genetic mutation may bring it out, I think," Daniel answered.

"So are the fairies of the stories then actually Nephilim with much diluted blood and thus smaller wings?" I pondered.

 Diana snorted and Daniel rolled his eyes at her.

"That was quite a legitimate question, Di," he said.

"Sorry, for a second there I saw you as a little fairy sitting on a flower... or perhaps on a mushroom with a caterpillar smoking a hookah. Three inches tall, a very good height indeed!"

Daniel glared at Diana, who was clearly having great difficulties in taking control of her slightly hysterical giggling.

"Are the Nephilim babies born with wings, then?" I was full of questions.

Daniel's eyebrows rose at the question, and Diana, who had just got herself under control, burst into another fit of laughter.

"No, the wings develop later," Daniel shot Diana another glare. "The
 
Nephilim come of age when the wings begin to grow. The age may vary, but it's not usually before we are in our late teens, often after we have turned twenty. It's an occasion of great celebration among the Nephilim. But it may be a shock to the new Nephilim, especially if they are not aware of what they are."

"It's a good thing they don't grow sooner," said Diana, mock seriously. "Imagine the trouble of babysitting them! Tiny Nephilim scooting around in the air - like pilots with the common sense of a toddler..."

I had to admit the idea of flying babies was somewhat hilarious, but I was too new to all of this, and very curious, so I did not waste my time in laughing but turned back to Daniel.

"Can I touch your wings?" I asked.

Daniel withdrew half a step, his facial muscles suddenly tightening, but he nodded.

"Nephilim don't like people touching the wings – it can be rather painful because of the differing vibrations. But I suppose I owe it, having scared you like that."

He turned sideways to me and I touched the blue and golden wings of light as gently as I possibly could, instinctively stroking in the direction the colors pulsed. The sensation was odd – as if I was touching warm, running water that ran upwards, with the exception that my hand did not get wet.
 

There was the slightest feeling of material against my palm, and my hand could not go through the wing - it was more like a feeling of pressure against my skin, not anything solid. Like two magnets rejecting each other; the harder you press, the stronger the feeling of an opposing force.

I raised my other hand as well and stroked the wings with both hands. I felt a clear resonance, an electric feeling in my fingers.

Daniel gasped.

"I'm sorry!" I snatched my hand back, certain I had hurt him unintentionally.

"It's... It's all right," he said tightly, I could see the muscles on his jaw moving when he gritted his teeth together. "I told you it is not easy for us."

Lilith frowned.

"Are you sure everything is all right, Daniel?" she looked at him with an expression I could not analyze.

"Yes, quite all right," Daniel managed a smile and looked like his charming self again.

"Are there any more of your kind here?" I looked around the people in the library with my hands carefully behind my back.

"Some, but they are not here at this moment. And most of the Nephilim are of the other kind... and should never be allowed to enter the Centre."

I looked at his wings, now more relaxed. It looked as though they were gently swaying in some unseen breeze. Towards his torso, and out again. A bit like a butterfly slowly fluttering its wings. In and out... in and out... just like... was he...? I looked at his chest, which stayed flat and immobile.

"Daniel... Are you breathing with your wings?"

Diana gave a low whistle.

"Impressive... You have only just arrived, seen angel wings like for two minutes, and you have already discovered one of the best kept secrets of the Nephilim!" she said.

"I am. Breathing with my wings, yes," Daniel admitted.

"Even when they are withdrawn?"

"Even then, yes. They are then inside our bodies, but function just the same."

"So they are your lungs?"

Daniel shrugged and raised his arms in a gesture that seemed almost Latin.