Shadowhunter (Nephilim Quest Book 1) (36 page)

These two were certainly hissing like two snakes...

"We shall have to tell her now."

"I wish we didn't have to... not just yet."

"Well you can hardly explain away what Angel told her. It's better she knows in advance. Besides – it may already have started!"

Lilith and Grandma, I recognized their voices.

"She is awake," Daniel's voice announced.

I opened my eyes with difficulty, just in time to see him leaving the room. Still avoiding me, then. The worried faces of the two women blocked my view.

"Dana, are you awake?" Grandma asked, looking into my eyes to see if I was present.

"No, I'm only pretending," I mumbled, "and would someone please tell me who dumped cat litter in my mouth?"

The women laughed in a relieved way and Lilith gave me a glass of water. I found swallowing hard whilst lying down, so I sat up to empty the glass. For a while the world spun around me, but eventually my surroundings settled into place.

"And now I want explanations." I faced the ladies once the surroundings were solid again.

"What do you remember?" Grandma asked.

"Everything until Angel left. What did she mean, when she said they had made me?"

The glance between Grandma and Lilith spoke volumes. I suppose they had hoped I had somehow missed that part.

"First of all we want you to know we only suspected. We were not sure if you would be... what you probably are. We had strong indications because of your bloodline, yes, but these things are never certain," Lilith said cryptically. "You surprised us all by being such a strong Weaver. Truly, we had never seen a human weaver make an opening to the buffer zone by herself by simply... well, weaving. All the others needed an opening made for them before they could enter the buffer zone to travel in time. But you proved to be different from the human weavers."

"Wait. What do you mean by human weavers? Am I not human, then?"

Lilith opened her mouth, but Grandma beat her to it.

"It's probably best if I explain it from the very beginning. Be patient, Dana, and you will have all the answers you're looking for."

The door opened and to my surprise Daniel walked back in with a tray.

"You've not eaten in a while, so you'd better get this soup into you before listening to anything." He placed the tray on my lap.

"Thank you..." I was almost embarrassed about thinking he was still avoiding me. I took the spoon and ladled the warm soup in. It tasted wonderful.

"You are explaining it all to her now?" Daniel asked.

"Yes, we have to," Lilith sighed.

"About time," he commented and dropped back into the chair in which he had been sitting when I woke up. He did not look in my direction, but stared into the distance like a statue.

"This will shock you, I am afraid," Grandma said, "and as that is bound to happen, I won't sugar-coat this for you. The first thing is – you are adopted."

I gasped. Daniel turned his head and looked at me. Really looked at me, deep into my eyes. I knew he had known.
 

"You were born during the Blitz, in London, England. The year of your birth was 1940."

"What?" The spoon fell onto the half empty plate and splattered soup onto the bed.

Grandma nodded.

"You were born as the illegitimate child of a young servant girl and a soldier. You were chased by the shadows from the start because of your genealogy."

I did not say anything. I could not. My mind was empty.

"I'm going to show you a photograph. It is the only photograph of this person."

Lilith held out a print of an old photo. I took it into my hands. A tall, dark-haired man was standing outside what looked like a medieval palace. His clothing was old fashioned – from the beginning of the twentieth century.

"This is Cain. He is the leader of the dark Nephilim. And he is your grandfather."

Everyone sat still, observing me with keen interest, while I tried to digest what I had just heard. I felt like someone had just knocked me down and forced the breath out of me. My scalp was tingling with shock and I leaned backwards, against the pillows, as all my strength left me.

"You are saying... What are you saying? Who is this Cain? What is this Cain?"

Grandma sighed.

"Like I said. The leader of the dark Nephilim."

"So you mean I am... I am... a..."

The world began to spin.

"Stop it, you two," Daniel's voice was harsh, "you are not handling this very well. Leave us."

Much to my surprise Lilith and Grandma did not object. They rose from their chairs and walked out of the room. Daniel walked over to the bed. He sat down on it and took my hands in his.

"Yes. You are Nephilim. You are the granddaughter of the leader of the dark Nephilim. And you are the result of a long... I am sorry to use this term, but there is really no other way to put it: you are the result of a long breeding program."

I could only stare into his bright blue eyes. The golden spots were still there.

"But... I cannot be! There's nothing out of the ordinary about me!"

"Oh, but there is. It may take a Nephilim at this stage of your development to recognise it, even if it is not yet physically visible. I knew the second you touched my wings. They resonate in a special way to the touch of another Nephilim."

"Is that why you have been acting so strangely?" I surprised myself by being curious about this.

Daniel looked out of ease.

"Well, yes... And it was so clear you had no idea of who you are. I felt sorry for you – you were about to face a very rough ride, accepting the truth about yourself."

I had a strong feeling he was not quite honest with me, but I wanted to learn more about my genealogy, to ease the turmoil of my mind. So I did not express my doubts.

"Was Grandma serious when she said that I was born during the Second World War?"

"You were. Your father was the eldest son of Cain – he, too, the result of a long breeding program. A wife had been chosen for him for that end, but he escaped his family and ended up in London. Quite by chance he happened to meet another Nephilim - a girl who had no idea what she was. She had been in trouble already because of her Nephilim powers which manifested early as a child. Extremely rare. Usually a Nephilim grows into their power around the twentieth birthday, at the earliest around eighteen years of age."
 

"What powers? Breeding program to what ends? What...?"

"It is best if you listen to me first. Afterwards, you can ask all the questions you want. OK?"

"OK..."

"Your mother, it seems, was the last in line of one of the purest Nephilim lines, if I can put it like that. The dark ones have hunted their kind... my kind... our kind... for thousands of years, trying to wipe them off the face of the earth."

"Why?"

"Because we do not share their ambitions of ruling the earth and having the people as slaves, basically. People have no idea of the battles we have fought to protect them from this fate."

"Oh..."

"Your grandparents from your biological mother's side hid her, when she was born, by giving her up for adoption. However, they followed her life close by, ready to step in when she matured, to explain to her what she was. She moved to London, and her real mother followed. She was close by when the young ones met. They fell in love. The girl got pregnant, and that is when the dark ones found him."

"My... father?"

"Yes. The son of the mighty Cain."

His voice sounded bitter. No wonder, if this Cain was responsible for killing Daniel's kind.

"They found him and took him captive. No one has heard of him since. They probably killed him because he disobeyed Cain – there is no bigger offence amongst them than that. The good part was that the dark Nephilim did not realize at first that your mother was pregnant and that she was Nephilim too.
 

"She was about your age when she got pregnant and did not show her true heritage at that point. If Cain's family had known, they would have kidnapped her, or at least tried to steal the baby – you – immediately after your birth so that your mother would not have had a chance to nurse you. That would have been the easiest way to get you, but it would have had consequences later, should you have tried to get children of your own...

"Mother's milk is essential for the development of the Nephilim baby into a full-grown Nephilim. If the mother is human, the Nephilim child cannot develop to his or her full potential. And most often the baby has the tendency to be what the mother is, in the case of a mixed breeding between bad and good Nephilim. This is something the dark ones have used to their advantage through centuries to strengthen their kind... They seem to have problems conceiving among themselves - getting pregnant can take years, if they are successful at all. If they had managed to steal you right at birth, they would have given you for breast-feeding to one of their own kind who had managed to give birth, to increase the probability of you willingly turning into one of them. And of course, they would have had other means of making you "convert" as they put it, if you did not ask of your own accord to be... turned to their kind."

"You mean some Nephilim actually choose to become.... bad?"

"Yes. There is great power to be had and near immortality."

Daniel rose to his feet and walked to the window.

"So I am a mixture of the dark and good Nephilim?"

"Yes, but there have been several such ones in the course of history. You are not unique in that respect. And you should not feel the temptation to turn to their ways so strongly; thanks to the fact your mother had a chance to nurse you. Also we suspect your father was not committed to their ways when he met your mother." Daniel did not turn to look at me.

"When Cain learned his son had fathered a child, he sent all the shadows he could spare in search of your mother. It was not easy – she hid her power the best she could, and did not use it. Also she stayed indoors most of the time, looking after an old, blind woman. But sometimes she had to venture out, and that is when one of the shadows caught up with her, smelling that she was a Nephilim. There is the cinnamon-like undertone in the smell of the good Nephilim. What's more - because of giving birth to you, your father's scent was all around her too, and so they knew they had found the mother of Cain's grandchild. The shadow followed her home, where she killed it, just as it was about to steal you. That was the first time she spread her wings fully out of her own free will, and took control of her power."

"How do you know this?"

"We observed her from the buffer zone. We found her around the same time as the shadow did, and we were planning on coming to her rescue once she was alone and no one could see us."

"What happened then?"

"Before we had the chance to save you, your mother took you out, and an air raid destroyed the house where you were living. So you could say it was a lucky thing the shadow tried to steal you and scared your mother out of the house with you – you would have been killed otherwise. But Cain knew now who she was, and came to claim you as his heir."

"His heir?"

"Yes. None of his other physical children have managed to bear children of their own. It seems there is something fundamentally flawed in his genes, and he has been working for centuries to find a way to overcome this, and to develop the perfect offspring. You are the last of his carefully bred line, just as you are the last of your mother's line."

"Bred to do what?"

Now Daniel turned to me. He looked very tired.

"To find the Book of Watchers – to claim all its power, so they can learn all the ancient secrets that they lost, when the original Nephilim race had to flee. All Nephilim were being hunted down and killed after the downfall of the Watchers."

"How can you breed anyone to find a book?"

"The word is misleading," Daniel said, "it may not be a book as such. We don't know exactly what it is, but the dark ones seem to think it would be a powerful weapon in their hands. As to your breeding - you have already witnessed the effects of it. Somehow they have managed to develop the perfect Weaver – you don't need gates to enter the buffer zone. Still, even in that respect, you are not the only one. I can do it too, should it be necessary. Nephilims of pure blood can.

"But then - you went directly to the time of the embroidered bag. You seem to move effortlessly through time which other Nephilim cannot do. And you move very fast. That is not a given – other weavers may get lost or land in a wrong place and time, no matter how carefully they weave. And they never make it the first time. Also the farther back in time you go, the greater the chance that the weaver will lose her way. Your hands, on the other hand, connected immediately."

"Why is this weaving so important to them, then?" I wanted to know.

"It could be that they have in their possession something - an object, or knowledge - that would lead a weaver of your kind directly to the place of the Book of Watchers. That is why they need to have you before you turn into a full Nephilim."

"Why don't I go get it then? Grab the book and then return here instead of them?"

"They would not let you. They would turn you into one of their kind, to make sure you would not jump ship."

"Turn me... how?" the memory of Angel's teeth must have shown on my expression, because Daniel was by my bed instantly. He touched my hand reassuringly.

"It only takes a small dose of their venom. They can turn good Nephilim into their own kind easily, they simply add the lacking ingredient to their blood, and their bodies start producing the venom in a matter of weeks. It seems to be inherent in all Nephilim - this principle that is ready to be turned dark - which has made us fear that the Watchers were not of the good kind.
 

"After the body starts producing the venom, it changes the physique of the infected Nephilim, and they become different, or dark as we call them. Angel was just about to do that to you, when I found you. And she tried to do that by spitting the venom, when she could not get physically to you through my wings.
 
I was careless and my wings were too high up, when I tried to protect you. Luckily you turned your head. If it had reached your eyes or mouth, you could have been lost to us."