Nephilim Quest Book 1: Shadowhunter

28. Grandma and the Book of Watchers 2/4

"All in good time, Dana..." Grandma said. "You'll hear it when the time is right. We'll see."

"Won't you just tell me what it is? Why all this cryptic we-shall-see-stuff?"

"I know I am right in certain things, but I may be wrong in others... I prefer not to talk about something until I am sure. But whatever the case, you need to stay here in safety for a while. We have actually come up with a plan with Reggie about how to get you away from your little town without drawing too much attention to the matter."

"Reggie?"

"That would be our history professor. Reginald Rowan. The same one who keeps on pulling out his hair after reading all the wonderful books and scripts in the library and not being able to use them as source material in his research. Can you imagine what it is like to a history researcher to hold the actual ancient proof that something happened in history, and because it is in this library and nowhere else, not being able to ever use it in the scientific circles of our ordinary world? Reading the theories of others, seeing their errors and knowing the actual truth, but never being able to say so?"

I had a feeling Grandma was trying to divert my thoughts away from why the shadows found me interesting. I let her. I would find out.

"Fill me in on the shadow and the Book of Watchers," I asked instead.

Her face grew serious.

"I was hunting shadows in the human world with my trustworthy red steed," she began. "My car," she specified with a twinkle when my face obviously showed I had no idea who or what the steed in question was.

"Oh, OK. Right. You chase them in your car?"

"Of course. The shadows are very, very fast, but they cannot outrun a decent sports car. After all they are semi-physical forms and subject to the laws of gravity like the rest of us. So they run using the surface under their feet, bouncing forward with their legs, just like us. This gives us an advantage here. Our form is more solid, and thus we have more power in our movements and deeds. Imagine someone jumping on the moon - they move like that, and can't quite use gravity to their advantage, even if they are still very fast."

We kept on walking along the corridors of the library. There were no lamps here, but light seemed to seep in from somewhere anyway. Everywhere, really.

"So, I had just bought my red sports car, and was on my patrol duty where we knew the shadows liked to appear, when I spotted this particular one. He was lurking in an alleyway, near a bar. That's one of their favourite locations – the energies of intoxicated people draw them like a magnet. When drunk people leave the bar, they follow them so they can steal the person's energies, and if possible, reveal themselves - a downright terrifying sight for the drunk. They come in different shapes and forms, but they are all like something out of a horror movie. You were able to see them, when you were a child, do you remember?" she asked suddenly.

I stopped short. It was one thing thinking of drunks seeing demonic shadows and being convinced it was down to the drink, but this was now touching me personally. All the old night horrors sneered at me from the darker regions of my mind. I remembered the twisted forms, and the half-human, half-animal faces, the evil grins. Wherever there was a deep shadow, I'd been able to see them there as a child.

"You mean... they were not nightmares like mother said?"

"Oh they were nightmares, all right, only real ones. You refused to sleep in a dark room, because you had the ability to sense the shadows. And if they came close, you saw them too. Luckily for you, you were strongly protected, and they did not realize who you were. They were only drawn to you because of your ability to see them. Of course they thought they could scare you easily because of that, and that would make your energy easy to steal. They like stealing the energy of children, because it's so strong. They don't usually kill them, but they can come to drink their energy again and again, because children create new strong energy so quickly. Eventually, though, they cause the child to become ill, and maybe even die, if they feed on them too often."

"Ok, that's it. What do you mean by that? Who you were... and who protected me? I want an explanation right now." I put my foot down.

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