Shadowhunter (Nephilim Quest Book 1) (66 page)

"A message?" she asked without emotion.

"Yes, she said she wanted you to know she is still alive and well. And that she often tries to tell you that, but it is difficult to communicate with you. However, whenever you suddenly smell roses where there are none, that is her. She is close to you then."

Her posture straightened.

"Roses, you say?"

"Yes, the smell of roses. Does it mean anything to you?"

Her hands flew to her face.

"Yes! Yes it does! I have been smelling roses in the oddest places lately. When I had my car fixed, the repair shop of all places smelled of roses. And in the library too... and one morning I woke up to a strong scent of roses... she said it was her?"

"Yes, it was Kitty trying to tell you she is there, and that she is alive."

Kitty's mother stood still for a long time. Then she began to smile, really smile, with tears in her eyes.

"Thank you, Dana... I think I can believe this. She loved roses and was always talking about dreams and the messages they delivered to us."

"Yes, she was..." I said.

I could not force tears out of my eyes for Kitty, because I had already met her and knew full well she was still alive, even if at another level of existence. But I could sympathize with Kitty's mother's sorrow. I leaned over the fence and hugged her tightly round the shoulders.

"I believe we go on existing after death," the person I had become had the courage to say this out loud, "and that we really do meet again, one day.""

"I want to believe that too," Kitty's mother said and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. "But where are my manners! Please, do come in!"

"I'm afraid we don't have time now," Grandma said, "We have an appointment soon. But I am sure Dana will come and meet you in future, won't you, Dana?"

"Of course," I hugged Kitty's mother one more time, hard.

She waved us off, and this time she had a smile on her face. She looked like a different person.
 

Grandma said nothing, but squeezed my hand again. Then she put both her hands on the steering wheel and pushed the gas pedal down. The little red car happily responded.

CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO

82. Transformation

Artemis took Ambrogio to the city of Delphi. There he stole a donkey from its stall and it was led into the mist behind the world, showing very little surprise at the new doorway that appeared in thin air. The animal was then taken to the place where Ambrogio left the letters to Selene.

Standing at the very edge of the human world, Ambrogio realised that he could watch all the goings-on there without being seen. Artemis stood beside him, so closely that he felt the heat of her body. Together they waited for Selene to appear, watching the light growing in the human world – the scene was slightly foggy because of the mist they were standing in, but still visible.

For the first time in forty-five days he now saw his beloved Selene again. She appeared walking in her light coloured dress, with a cape around her and her head hooded. She immediately looked at the rock beside the road. Ambrogio's letter was there, with a little stone of top of it to keep the wind from taking it.

When she saw it, she took a few hasty steps and then opened the folded letter. Her lips moved silently as she read the letter to herself. Ambrogio wanted to touch her, to let her know he was there. She looked so beautiful, so delicate.

Selene folded the letter and hid it in a pouch she was carrying. Then she looked at the donkey, tied to a small tree. Her head turned towards the city she had come from, and then towards the temple. No one was to be seen.

"I accept, Ambrogio," she said, as if she had sensed his presence. "If this is the only way for us to be together, I accept."

She walked to the donkey, loosened the rope that tied it to the tree, and sat on its back. In moments she was gone, down the mountain, towards the harbor of Kirrha. It was the harbor where the supplicants coming to meet Pythia landed. Because Ambrogio had not known of it he had landed on the western coast of Greece instead. Maybe if he had told the ship's crew where he was headed, they would have brought him to Kirrha instead, but then his father would have heard where he was going. It was as if the gods had willed it...

Once Selene had disappeared from sight, Artemis grasped Ambrogio's hand and pulled him deeper into the mist.

"And now, you shall be my servant."

"What kind of a pledge do I need to make, my goddess?" Ambrogio knelt.

"No pledge. I simply need to kill you first," Artemis said lightly.

Ambrogio stared at her in horror. Artemis looked at him, with her head cocked on one side, amused by his expression.

"Kill me, my goddess?" he stammered.

"If you are to become immortal, and to have Apollo's curse removed from you, you need to die as a human, and be reborn with new blood as the Hunter I am about to make you. But do not worry. I shall not let you slip from your body, and you will see your girl soon enough."

Ambrogio had no time to prepare himself. Artemis yanked him to his feet as though he weighed nothing, opened her mouth, and fixed herself on his neck in a blur of motion. He felt a sharp pain, which subsided almost immediately. He felt her sucking, thirstily, and to his horror he realized she was drinking his blood. He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out.

His limbs went numb, and he heard his heart beat erratically. He fell down, limp. Little black dots with light edges danced in his eyes.

Artemis lifted her head, and he saw his blood dripping from her jaws, which were very odd-looking. Her mouth had grown twice as wide as it had been before, and her beautiful teeth had grown longer. And her eyes... They were shining pure gold now, with an odd swirling oily yellow color pulsing from within the eye to the surface. She swallowed and smiled.

"What an interesting childhood you had..." she said, "and your mother had a beautiful singing voice. You must have inherited it from her..."

Ambrogio was passing out and could not reply. His field of vision began to blur and darken, but he had enough consciousness left to understand Artemis had somehow connected to his memories through his blood.

He felt how she lifted his left hand. With a quick movement of her mouth she sliced his vein open. His failing eyes recorded mechanically how little blood came out. Then she did the same with her own right wrist and placed it against his wound. After that she sliced her left wrist open and pressed it against his mouth.

"Now, drink with your mouth, and drink with your vein, and become one with my blood," she said.

At first Ambrogio's consciousness continued to collapse. Then a fiery tingling started from his hand, and when he gasped painfully for air he had to breathe in and so he swallowed Artemis's blood. He gagged and coughed, but she never stopped pressing her wrist to his mouth. Her hot blood flowed into him.

The salty, iron taste of her blood filled his mind, bringing with it a wordless whispering. The noise of the whispers tore down his human mind and revealed something primeval and vast underneath. Now it was his turn to read Artemis's life through her blood, and what he saw made him understand how very immature and young he was. Hundreds of years filled his mind, mocking his inferior intellect.

His body began to tingle, turned hot, and he grabbed the goddess's hand on his mouth with his free right hand to drink even more deeply.

"Enough," Artemis said and easily freed her hand from his mouth, apparently not affected at all by loss of her blood. "This is enough for the change to begin."

Ambrogio lay on his back, amazed by the new sensations he was feeling. Too quickly the memories of Artemis left his mind; leaving only teasing, faint shadows that eluded his attempts to grasp them.

"Rise, my child," Artemis said.

Ambrogio raised his left hand to his eyes. The deep gash caused by the teeth of the goddess was almost gone. A pale thin white crescent line only showed. He turned to his side and thought of rising up, only to notice he was already up. He had moved so fast he had not even registered his own movement.

"Take my hand," Artemis said, and Ambrogio did so. Surprisingly, her hand no longer felt hot to him.

"You are now my child," she said, "for I have recreated you. And you shall remain my servant for ever more, as you promised."

Ambrogio smiled broadly. He had never felt so good in his life. He felt as if he could run to the edge of the world without being out of breath. Breath... Amazed, he noticed he could hold his breath for a long time and had no need to breathe in. The air seemed to seep through his very skin...

"Your change will take some days, and while it lasts, you will be a terrifying sight for humans during daylight. Still, you seem to have taken to it well. Most people go through bad pain and may even lose their mind when they are changed, but your body accepted my blood easily. That is rare, but how fortunate," Artemis said in a voice that was almost purring with pleasure, "because now we can go to Kirrha immediately and get a ship for you and your Selene so that you can escape without Apollo knowing where you have gone. Also Hades won't know where to look for you for a while, because of the death of your shadow, and the change in your scent my blood has caused."

The stayed within the grey mist, and though they did not rise above it, Artemis seemed to know where she was going. She pulled the ecstatic Ambrogio behind her through the mist, and into the harbor of Kirrha.
 

The sun was already rising when they arrived.

"You wait here," Artemis said. "You are not to show yourself to anyone."

Ambrogio stayed in place, hidden by the mists that edged the visible world. He saw several ships in the harbor, and a few anchored further out. Artemis stepped back into the world from an alleyway. She had wiped the blood away from her mouth, and now simply appeared as a tall, beautiful blond woman. The sailors nudged each other and yelled indecent comments after her. She paid no attention, but instead walked off to meet a man who clearly knew her, because he bowed with respect.

They exchanged a few words, and then Artemis returned to the place where Ambrogio was hiding in the mist behind the world.

"A coffin will be brought for you," she said, knowing he would hear. "I have removed Apollo's curse, but your skin and body will keep on changing for a few days still, and during that time you cannot be exposed to sunlight. I shall come for you when it is ready. Do not move from the mist."

Ambrogio nodded, then realized she would not see it, and said out loud:

"I will, my goddess."

Artemis nodded slightly and walked away.

While Ambrogio waited, he admired his body. He had always been muscular, but now something strange was happening to his torso and limbs. It was as though whatever fat he had under his skin was vanishing, and pure muscle showed under the skin. His arms looked like the arms of the wrestlers of the Pythian games. The same with his thighs, and abdomen. He felt all the strange slight adjustments inside his body, while this was going on.

And then his skin began to change. He lifted his arms closer to his face and it took a while for him to understand what he was seeing. His skin was turning transparent.

He could not help but yell in surprise. A dog walking in the alley jumped and turned around to see where the sound came from. Ambrogio saw the dog, and another strange thing happened. He felt hunger. An overwhelming need to attack the animal took over. He stepped closer to the dog and a low growl emanated from within him.

Suddenly Artemis was there. She slapped Ambrogio on his face with such force he fell back into the mist, still growling. The dog withdrew, all the hairs on its back standing up.

"You are not to show yourself!" Artemis hissed. "You will obey my orders, or I will take away the immortality I have given you!"

Seeing her so her furious made Ambrogio's will to kill disappear.

"I beg for your forgiveness, my goddess..." he fell to his knees. "I do not know what came over me."

"I told you that you would crave the blood of animals after you were transformed. And you need it also – if you don't feed on blood, your body changes so that everyone can see you are not human anymore. Just look at your skin now. It will return to normal once you have had enough blood to drink."

Ambrogio looked in amazement and disgust at his skin. It seemed to him like a jellyfish in water, and he could see his muscles clearly underneath it, and his veins, which seemed oddly black.

"Wait here," Artemis said and walked out of the mist into the world again.

This time Ambrogio turned to look into the mist instead of the harbor city, so nothing would distract him. Artemis was soon back and handed him something. A piglet was hanging limp in her outstretched hand.

"It is still alive," she said.

Ambrogio snatched the animal from her hands without any need for instruction. Instinctively he bit into the small animal's neck and did not even care about the smell of pig dung in his eagerness to nourish his body. He sucked the blood away from the piglet in an amazingly short time, catching faint glimpses of the short life the animal had lived, and then he threw the body away. It began to sink into the mist and vanished from sight.
 

As if by magic, Ambrogio saw his transparent skin turn more solid within minutes and retain most of its color. You could still see the form of the muscles underneath, but now it only appeared as though his skin was very thin.

"That's better," Artemis said.

And then the men appeared, carrying a wooden casket big enough for a man to fit in. They dropped it in the alley and looked around expectantly. Artemis walked away from Ambrogio, and vanished into the mist. Soon her form appeared from around the corner of the alley.

"Thank you. You may go. Return before sunset and carry the casket to the ship."

The sailors seemed to know Artemis, because they all retreated respectfully and left quickly.

"Get in the casket when I say so," she said to Ambrogio and lifted the lid of the casket.