The Nephilim: Book One (9 page)

He turned, and Sophie’s jaw
dropped. The man was not, in fact, Adam at all. He had copper hair and blue
eyes, a rounded jaw and the same prominent chin, but his nose was straight, his
skin was pale but without freckles, and he was only slightly taller than
Sophie. She stared a moment longer then clasped a hand over her mouth, squeaking
out between her fingers, “I’m so sorry. Accident,” and backed out of the
doorway.

“Wait.”

She froze. She could run, return to
the dancehall and conceal herself in the mass of bodies there, or she could try
and hide herself in the restroom, waiting for him to pass. Then there was the
option of the unknown, any one of these clinical hallways and their plethora of
doors. But he motioned for her to come inside, and she obliged him.

“Who are you?” he questioned, his
voice so similar to Adam’s but authoritative and devoid of emotion. He wore the
uniform she had first seen Sraosha and Ariel in, but buttoned to his chin and
tailored perfectly, and he was staring her down with icy blue eyes.

She stuttered and chewed on the
inside of her mouth, “Sophie,” then gasped, remembering the name she’d given
the guards, “I mean, Sara.”

His face didn’t change, and he
stepped toward her with a stiff, long stride, “What did you call me?”

Her heart raced. He exuded
authority, commanding the truth from her, and she nearly blurted it out until a
thought struck her. She snapped her head up to the ceiling, plastering a
bewildered look on her face, “Where am I? I don’t think I’ve ever been here
before.”

The man snorted and opened his
mouth, but a sound from the hall interrupted him before he could start. Sophie
turned to see Sraosha rush past. He threw out a hand and grabbed the doorway,
pulling himself back to them and catching his breath. He was addled for a
moment then relaxed against the doorway, casually swinging one leg over the
other, “Datha,” he cleared his throat, “Hey, I see you’ve met our stray, Sara.
Sara, this is the datha, Tabbris.”

“Stray?” the man lifted an eyebrow
as he looked her over.

“Yeah, you know, a little lost
human. Just wandered up to us while we were on duty.”

“And who’s on duty now?”

Sraosha stared blankly at him until
Ariel appeared in the doorway at a run. Sraosha grabbed her before she passed
and mumbled to her to find replacements for them immediately. After she
disappeared, he offered the red-haired man a grin and again relaxed against the
doorway.

“So she’s a detached soul, then?”
Tabbris asked, stepping up to Sophie. She thought her heart might burst out of
her chest if he came any closer.

“Yeah, yeah,” Sraosha was the
picture of repose.

“Tell me, Sraosha,” Tabbris pointed
to Sophie’s forehead, “When did human souls start sweating?”

The angel scrambled off the wall
and put his face beside Sophie’s. She could suddenly feel the bead of sweat run
down her temple, and she quickly wiped it away, smiling broadly at the two men.

“We’ve got intruders,” Tabbris
spoke firmly to Sraosha.

“I’ll alert the—”

“No,” he commanded, “Find them and
keep them out of sight.”

Chapter 8

“I should run you through right
here.” Sophie could hear Sraosha growling as she was led by Tabbris into the
storeroom. “Tabbris already risked his life for you once, I’m not going to let
you—”

“Enough.” Tabbris announced their
entry and Sraosha immediately pulled back his halberd, though the sneer on his
bristled face remained as if it were cut in stone.

Mona and Adam stood beside one
another, she slightly alarmed and he solemn, amongst boxes, trunks, and
weaponry. As Tabbris moved toward them the resemblance was striking, their hair
the exact same ruddy hue and their eyes both bright. It could not be a
coincidence, Sophie told herself.

“They were in here rooting around,”
Sraosha reported eying them, “Maybe planting something, a weapon?”

“We certainly weren’t,” Mona
sneered at him.

He extended an accusatory finger at
her, “That one’s a strigori, as if she can be trusted.”

“Hey!” she went to move forward and
Adam grabbed her arm to stop her. She wrenched away from him.

“Please,” Sophie spoke up, afraid
of Mona’s short temper, and tried to appeal to Tabbris, “My friend is dying. We
needed something from you to help her. I’m sorry we snuck in like this, but
she’s in trouble.”

The angel looked Sophie over. She
had hoped to convince him with their plight, but the hardness never left his
face. He stood militantly before them wearing a look she couldn’t possibly
imagine ever on Adam. He was an angel, though, she reminded herself. An angel,
for Heaven’s sake. But then she’d now seen a horde of them, seen their power,
and for what had it been used? An aimless party and some dangerous fun with
what they believed to be a lost human soul?

“Listen,” Adam scratched the back
of his head, “I—”

“What do you need?” Tabbris was
short, formal almost.

Adam inhaled deeply and pointed to
a small box atop a counter to his right. Tabbris walked to it and removed a
single vial from it, tossing it to Adam. With a wide swing of his arm, Tabbris
knocked the box and the rest of its contents to the ground, the glass inside
shattering and a pale, iridescent liquid pouring out. “Ariel was cleaning,” he
pointed at Sraosha, “You helped her.”

Sraosha looked as if he wanted to
retort, but kept his mouth shut.

Tabbris eyed Adam again, “Is that
all?”

He nodded.

“There is a zone five meters from
the back of this building where you can peregrinate. No one is stationed near
there. Go now.”

Adam continued to stare at him.

“Now!”

He cringed at the angel’s voice
then moved quickly, taking Sophie lightly by her upper arm and guiding her and
Mona to the back of the room. She wanted desperately to thank them, to say
anything, but something urged her not to. Instead, they rushed outside to a
large, bare spot and, without a word, tore back into the plane.

***

"The sooner we put this to
use, the better,” Adam spoke with haste as he made his way back into the little
brick house, the other two in tow.

Sophie wanted to stop him, if only
for a second, to get any answer she could about what had transpired with his so
similarly looking acquaintance, but he rushed around too quickly. He was good
at that.

Adam placed a hand on the crystal
coffin and tiny fissures began to spread out from beneath his palm. They
crawled over the surface and climbed down the sides until the entirety of the
enclosure was covered in minute incisions. He gave it a gentle push and a
resounding crack filled the room, the case bursting like a balloon, sending
tiny fragments in all directions. Sophie went to cover her eyes, but as the
pieces sailed off they disintegrated leaving behind only Verrine’s very still
body on the wooden floor.

Sophie knelt beside the girl as
Adam uncorked the vial. He poured half of its contents directly onto her cuts,
“This is quite powerful stuff, so be forewarned: if it works, she’ll come out
of it pretty quickly.”

They sat, breath baited, and stared
down at her. The serum swam across her skin, finding its way to the slashes and
climbing inside. Sophie nervously leaned forward wanting anything to happen,
for the girl to show any sign of life.

Stormy gray eyes blinked up at
Sophie, then suddenly the whole girl shot forward and threw her arms around her
neck, "Soph!"

She sat, frozen, embraced by the
stranger. Looking from Adam’s restrained grin to a shrugging Mona, she sat
enveloped in the warmth of the hug for a long moment on the floor of the dimly
lit little house.

Finally, Verrine pulled away and
surveyed Sophie more thoroughly as words flew out of her mouth, "Are you
hurt? Do you remember me? Where are we?"

"Ah, well, you’ll have to ask
him," Sophie gestured to Adam.

"Adam?" the name came out
quickly and shock plastered itself across her face. Then she smiled brightly,
"I can't believe this, after..." her voice trailed off, the smile
falling.

In the quiet of the moment, Sophie
tried to read them, but Verrine was clearly confused, and Adam was only
offering her a half smile. "You know each other?" she ventured
carefully.

Verrine bobbed her head up and down
steadily, "Wait, am I dead?" She asked the question with such
sincerity that it made Sophie wonder the same about herself. "Sophie, did
you die? Are we all?"

"No," Adam chimed in,
standing up and laughing slightly, "Nothing like that. We’re on the
Transcendental Plane right now and everyone’s soul is very much intact. Try as
they might, the strigori couldn’t get that from you in the end."

"The strigori?" Verrine
blinked, looking down at her chest and arms then began to frantically search
about her on the floor, "Oh no, oh no." Her voice was rough and full
of dread, "Oh, Soph, where...oh, God, they...they took it."

"What?"

"The strigori. They took the
book, Sophie. They've got it."

Sophie tried to calm her,
"It's all right, whoever hurt you, they’re gone now."

Verrine stared up at her like a
child, nervous and afraid, "No, it’s not all right. It was
the
book," her eyes went misty, "Sophie, I'm so sorry. Please don't be
mad at me. I never meant for them to get
The Agrippa
."

"They’ve got
The Agrippa
?"
Mona stood from her spot on the couch, her hands clenched at her sides.

Verrine was on her feet in an
instant, her eyes falling on the small girl for the first time, "One of
them!" She stepped around Sophie, and a flame ignited in her hand,
"Stay back!"

"No, no," Sophie grabbed
at Verrine’s arm as she watched Mona ready herself as well, "She’s a
friend."

"Friend?" Verrine did not
relent, "She’s a strigori! I recognize her. And even if I didn’t, I can
smell it all over her."

"Wait, wait," Adam
stepped between them, holding up his hands, "She may be a strigori, but
she’s the one who brought Sophie here, and she was instrumental in saving
your
life, so maybe put away the flames for a minute."

Verrine glanced down at her hand,
seeing the fire there for the first time and closed her fist, snuffing it out.
She sneered up at the girl, then looked back at Sophie, "Is it true?"

"Yes," Sophie stood
slowly, unable to look away from Verrine’s hand, "She’s my cousin. It’s okay."

"Cousin?" Verrine,
confused, snapped her head back to Mona, "Lies!"

The girl stood there and took in a
long, low breath. She apprehensively began to pick at her nails, "Sophie,
I need to tell you something."

"You’re not really my
cousin," Sophie moved to the couch and fell back onto it,
"right?"

"Right."

Sophie put her head back and looked
up at the ceiling. It was dark and the candles’ flames danced off it in only
one small spot. She closed her eyes. The feeling had been sneaking around her
stomach for a while, since she’d woken in agonizing pain and had been whisked
off to this place, but admitting it aloud, hearing it, of course made it real.

"I’m sorry, Sophie,"
Mona’s voice was small, lacking its usual bite, "I was just doing my job.
It was just another task they put me to. I didn’t realize that, well," she
shuffled from one foot to the other, "I didn’t think I would be so
conflicted about the whole thing."

"She’s been in cahoots with
them all along," Verrine huffed, "It’s not safe to have her here."

"And who’s the one who let the
book fall into their hands, huh?" Mona crossed her arms, low, sardonic
tones jumping back into her voice.

"I only brought it here to get
Sophie away from you!" Verrine pointed at the girl as she shrieked,
"If your kind didn’t exist none of this would have even happened!"

"My kind?" Mona rolled
her eyes, "You can’t blame me for the history of the strigori. At least I
thought about how best to help Sophie instead of putting her in more
danger."

Verrine glared at her, "I did not
bring that book here to hurt Sophie at—"

"Stop!" Sophie shouted,
listening to her voice ring throughout the room. Verrine looked to her quickly,
her face red as though she would cry. Mona snorted and uncrossed her arms,
shaking them and looking away. "No more fighting, no yelling. I want to
know what is going on. Why is all this happening to me?"

There was a long silence while the
three traded nervous glances. When one opened their mouth, another would glare
at them. Finally Verrine dropped down beside Sophie on the couch, "You’re
not...you’re not human, Sophie."

Sophie narrowed her eyes,
"Yes, I am. It’s how we were able to get that antivenom. Because I’m
human."

"Well, okay, maybe you’re
human right now, but your soul is a little older and from a different place
than the Material World. It actually originates from Hell."

"Hell?" Sophie sat
upright.

"It’s not so bad,"
Verrine smiled half-heartedly, "It’s not like they say it is on Earth, not
in our realm. It’s just another plane of existence, like here on the
Transcendental Plane, and being a demon has really got a bad reputation on
Earth too."

"So...I’m a human, but not
really?”

Verrine shrugged slowly, “I think
your true self is hidden somewhere inside you. I don’t know how, but you buried
it, and you created this,” she gestured to Sophie’s body, “as a mask.”

Sophie glanced down at herself, her
skin, her hands, her fingers. It all felt real enough, if only slightly
uncomfortable when it was pointed out. “So what did they, the strigori you
called them, want with me?”

Verrine cast a cold glance at Mona
who only returned it. “Time is different for humans than for us outside of the
Material World, but I believe it was almost two human decades ago that you, the
demon you, was attacked by strigori. They tried to abduct you, but failed, and
instead began a war.”

“Why? Who are they?”

“Well—”

Before Verrine could continue, Mona
stepped forward, “The strigori are a race of beings—”

“Aberrants.”

Mona snorted, but did not look away
from Sophie, “A race of beings unique to the Material World. Unlike demons or
angels, each begins as a human and is changed, forcibly, I might add,” she grit
her teeth as she explained, “into a sort of super human. Strigori are stronger
and faster than humans, with heightened senses and they do not age. In fact,
they can live forever under the right circumstances.”

Verrine spoke quietly with a little
growl, “You’re leaving out those circumstances.”

Mona rolled her eyes, “We need to
drink blood to survive. Fresh human blood, if we want to be our strongest,
which most do. It’s not considered polite to feed off of humans, though, so no
one really likes us much.”

“You’re,” Sophie pointed at her
then brought her finger to her lips, “You’re like a…”

“Go on, you can say it.”

“A vampire.”

The corner of Mona’s mouth
twitched, “When you don’t know what to call a thing, I suppose you give it a
name. But, to be clear, we can eat garlic, we just choose not to.”

“So Naomi, Grant?” She searched her
mind for memories of them, clues that would have told her, “You?”

“Not Grant, he’s just fodder, but
Naomi, Rose, Simon, Danielle, all of them. Yes. And me.”

Mona’s voice sounded far away,
whispering in the back of her mind. Her heart beat hard in her chest as she
realized, “And Michael,” her hand flew up to her neck, “Am I?”

“No,” Mona put up her hands,
“Michael’s venom is a bit different, carries a different strain of strigorism.
It’s why he was brought on. They theorized his bite, maybe after a couple
tries, might kill off the human part of you, but if it were going to change you
it would have done it already.”

“I don’t understand,” Sophie let
out a long, low breath, turning to Verrine, “You said when I was a demon and
the strigori attacked, they didn’t get me, but started a war. But clearly I’m a
human now, and I’ve been living with a bunch of vampires.”

“After the failed attack and the
fighting started, you,” she glanced at Adam then back to Sophie, “you just
weren’t yourself anymore. You spoke at length with your mother, but it only
made you more restless. You kept saying you had to do something. Then one day
you just...disappeared.” Verrine stared off into the dark, empty hearth then
closed her eyes, “She never told me what she said to you, she never even told
Troi. You were just gone. That was almost twenty human years ago. They looked
and looked for you, but nothing. I knew you were still alive, though,” she
turned back to Sophie and smiled, “I knew it. You’ll have to ask fangs here how
you ended up with them.”

Mona grunted, “I’m sorry to say I
don’t know. The strigori had been working to resurrect our sire, Agrippa, long
before the attempt to capture Sophie that day. It was really just dumb luck
that they found her wandering around the Material World at all. Honestly, what
a demon was doing there, so unprotected, is beyond me.”