by Leena Maria
I chewed on the sandwiches they had brought with them. They tasted delicious after a few days of camping food.
"And now you need to change clothes to look like a tourist," Diana said. "I brought some for you from our dressmaker."
She handed me a duffel bag full of clothes. A very nice pair of khaki jeans, a T-shirt with a picture of the Sphinx, a baseball cap, sunglasses, socks and sneakers. I went behind a boulder to change. Diana followed me.
"OK, so what has happened?" she asked immediately.
"Happened? How do you mean?" I tried to sound innocent.
"Oh come on... your eyes are all swollen, which means that either you are allergic to something here, and the only possible thing would be sand, and no one is allergic to sand - or you have been crying. Daniel was as cold and distant as an iceberg when he came to fetch me. One plus one. Math, my dear, math."
I said nothing, just pulled the T-shirt slowly over my head, to buy some time.
"Don't try to pretend I'm wrong, Dana," Diana stood with her arms folded. "Tell me."
So I did – it felt such a relief to tell someone of my age.
"No way..." Diana sighed with round eyes, "they are both in love with you? How on earth did you manage that one? The girls in the Center are drooling after them both, because they are..." she poked her finger at her thigh and made a hissing sound, "...hot! But neither one shows any interest in us mere mortals, and we were already beginning to wonder if they were... erm... otherwise inclined, if you get my point. Not towards each other, of course, but still."
I shook my head, but couldn't help a weak smile.
"And in marches Dana, and has both the brothers smitten? Wow, I wish I was Nephilim!"
"It was not a very pleasant situation," I said. "Elijah kissed me, and Daniel saw it, and they had a fight over it."
"Fight? As with fists?" Diana bent eagerly forward.
"No, just verbally... And now they are obviously not talking to me either..."
"Oh, how delicious!" Diana beamed.
"I don't think so..." I felt miserable.
"So, which one do you prefer? Can I have the other one?"
I had to laugh. Diana was such a cheerful character.
"Oh I know, it is Daniel," she nodded a few times, "it is so obvious. Elijah is gorgeous too, but I have seen the way you look at Daniel. Not to mention the episode on the ward..."
"Oh don't remind me!" I blushed. The old Dana was now dominant, and she would never take the initiative in kissing anyone.
"OK, OK, I'll shut up. For now. But I expect the full story later." Diana winked at me. "But now, let's get to the pyramids!"
Even more people had appeared while I had changed my clothes. Reggie and Lilith now stood admiring the desert view.
"Ah, Dana," Lilith smiled, "I trust the boys have taught you the use of your wings?"
"Yes, they have," I said. "Quite an experience!"
"I am so envious," Diana sighed. "If you ever find out how I could become a Nephilim, do let me know, will you?"
"I promise," I laughed, "but as far as I know, it is genetic, so I'm afraid there's not much hope in that sector!"
"Ok, girls," Lilith clapped her hands like an elementary school teacher, "we're going to the pyramids now. Dana can weave us there."
"Oh, how?"
"Well, our Weavers usually move to locations within their own time, using photos of their target location. So here. But wait until we are all in the buffer zone."
She handed me a magazine. There was a picture of the famous three pyramids of Giza. There were over a hundred pyramids in Egypt, some quite small, some totally eroded, but people usually knew nothing of them. Most people only knew of these three.
Lilith raised her hand, and slashed an opening into the air. We all walked through it, and she closed it behind us.
We stood in the grey fog – you could barely see the forms of the rocks in the White Desert, looming through the mist.
I remembered my past adventure at the Center, and started tracing the picture with my finger. Not a single pyramid, because I was afraid we'd end up to the top of one, and straight into the worldwide news. I figured that if I traced the outline of the picture, we'd end up at the general location of the photographer who took it.
I was right. Only I did not take into consideration that I instantly zoomed physically to the spot where the photo was taken, but the others didn't. They probably should have touched me to follow me.
I shot out of the buffer zone like a bullet and fell to my knees in the sand. I quickly rose, cleaning my jeans, checking out if anyone had seen me. There were a few people, but they were all between me and the pyramids, and thankfully looking at them, not me.
So there I was - standing on my own, facing the huge pyramids, wondering what to do. I would have returned to fetch the others, but obviously I had no idea how to do that, as I didn't have the foggiest where we had been.
Someone touched me. I looked down, and a little boy raised a necklace for me to see.
"Please miss, buy cheap!"
And suddenly they were everywhere, as though they'd grown out of the sand. Little children, trying to sell me the trinkets they were holding. I looked around – hardly any tourists to be seen. No wonder – people considered Egypt a dangerous place, after the uprising of the Arab spring. Families who had survived on tourism for years were desperately poor now.
"Please, miss!" they circled me.
I pulled my pockets out to show the children I had no money, and they withdrew, disappointed. They did not go far but observed me just in case I had hidden some money somewhere and would pull it out.
I had no idea where to go to. I could only hope the others would find their way here soon, as they surely knew where I had gone. I just stood there, waiting, and looked at the enormous structures.
The pyramids loomed in front of me, just the latest tourist to observe them in their four and a half thousand years of history. They had eroded and also been deliberately damaged in the process, but they still remained. The white casing stones that had once covered them, were now gone. I could see the big hole on the side of the Cheops pyramid – created by the workmen of Caliph al-Ma'mun in the 820's.
The sheer mass of the ancient monuments had me humbled. You really could not understand how huge they were, looking at pictures. Only when you stood in front of them, feeling like an ant in comparison, did you understood how enormous they were.
"How on earth did you do that?" Diana's voice right behind me made me jump.
I turned around to see the rest of the group around me. Daniel and Elijah included.
"I just wove my way here..." I tried meekly.
"No, that was no weaving," Lilith said stressed each word, "because I saw no strings coming from your hands. You just took the photo and vanished! We were afraid that you'd got yourself lost in some other time again, I had to go get Daniel and Elijah in case they needed to track you down again."
I tried to look Daniel in the eye, but he pretended to be looking at the pyramids. Elijah was busy fishing coins from his jeans pockets, surrounded by the children, who had not benefited from my presence. I wondered how our team had arrived without drawing attention to them, but looking at how the children paid no attention to anyone but generous Elijah, I figured no one had noticed.
"What exactly did you do?" Grandma wanted to know.
I told them how I had managed to move from one place to another by drawing the outline of the destination with my finger. Everyone was speaking at once.
"That has never happened before!" Grandma said.
"Some kind of supersonic weaving!" Jason commented.
"Show us how you do it!" Diana grabbed my arm eagerly.
"No, she can't," Lilith said, "we are drawing enough attention to us as it is, without Dana disappearing into thin air."
"Right, let's take a photo then," grandma took out her phone. "Stand in a row, and say cheese. The tall ones at the back, please."
That mea
nt Daniel, Elijah and me. The brothers did not speak to me, or look at me, but I noticed how Daniel made sure he stood between Elijah and me. Daniel did not touch me, though, even though he stood close. In fact he seemed to very carefully position himself so that we would not touch. I forced a smile onto my face, and Grandma took a few photos, making a show of asking us to smile, and taking extra photos just in case.
"Right, I'll send these a bit later to your parents," she said to me, swiping her finger across her cell phone screen to see the photos. "Now, call them with my phone."
She handed me her phone. It was already ringing at the other end. I took a deep breath.
"Hello?" Dad's voice, which seemed to come from the bottom of a barrel. Suddenly I missed him so much my eyes welled.
"Dad?" I yelled into the phone.
"Dana! Honey! Dana is calling!" Dad shouted at the other end. "How are you? Are you having fun?"
"Yes, it's been great! We have just come here to see the pyramids of Giza! Grandma took some photos for you!"
I don't remember much about the things I chatted about with my parents, because I was so confused by my feelings and the obvious distance the Nephilim brothers were keeping from me. But I suppose my parents were convinced we were having a great time. The voices of the children selling their trinkets to tourists were a good thing - they clearly told them we were abroad. Grandma took the phone after a while, and talked with my Dad for a few minutes.
I walked slowly toward the pyramids. Diana appeared next to me.
"Come on, Dana, try to look more cheerful!"
"It's hard," I said. "Can you see how they both avoid me now?"
"Well, what would you expect. They are behaving themselves now, just as they said they would. It doesn't mean Daniel doesn't care for you."
I saw the brothers at a distance. Daniel glanced my way ever so briefly, and I wondered if he had heard what we were talking about, with his acute Nephilim hearing. I tried to listen to their discussion and couldn't. So he probably hadn't heard us either. He turned around, and kept on walking with Elijah.
Diana and I kept on walking too. Then I began to feel there was someone behind us. I did not hear anything, but the feeling of a presence was so strong, that Diana and I turned instinctively, at the same time.
"Hello, sweetie," Angel's voice was dripping with honey, "fancy finding you here!"
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
67. Angel and Daniel
"Get behind me," I said to Diana and she obeyed without questioning.
Angel laughed – that lovely laughter, like silver bells tingling. She did not have her dark wings out. She looked so beautiful that some tourists started aiming their cameras at her – thinking she was some supermodel, no doubt. Because that's what she looked like. Tall, lean, with her almost white blond hair gently blowing in the wind.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, not diverting my eyes from her, not even to see if others had noticed what was happening.
The last time I had seen them, our human entourage was involved in buying necklaces and plastic sphinxes made in China from the children. And Daniel and Elijah had been walking at quite some distance, with their backs towards us. It might take a while.
"Oh, I came to see how you were doing," Angel smiled sweetly. "Who is your friend?"
Diana said nothing, but I saw her shadow in the sand – she was standing without showing any signs of panic. Either she did not know who Angel was, or she had nerves of steel. I suspected the latter.
"I am sure you did not come to socialize," I said, surprised at how calm I sounded.
"One has to have manners." Angel smiled sweetly. "It's only polite to say hello to a relative. I am your aunt, after all."
She looked at me with eyes narrowed against the sun. She was standing in very relaxed position, hips forward, hands in her jeans pockets as if she was posing for a photo shoot. I remembered how fast she had moved last time to attack me, and was prepared for anything. I felt the electricity increase in my spine, but willed my wings to stay hidden. I hoped the presence of ordinary people would make her behave.
Angel sensed something, though, and looked at me with her head tilted to the side, speculatively.
"My my... it looks like you have grown..."
She stood very still for a few moments.
"Surely you haven't grown your wings yet, dear? It's way too soon. "
I did not reply, but willed the rising power in my spine back down. She saw that her words did not surprise me, so she obviously knew that I was now aware of what I was.
"How did you know where to find us?" I asked.
"That wasn't hard," Angel said lightly, "after all you did call your parents some time ago, with the nice story of being accepted as a scholarship student to a university even before you'd even passed your exams. And that you would go to Egypt with your study group. After that we simply placed one of ours in the vicinity of the most famous tourist sites, to keep an eye out for a group like yours appearing. You'd need to convince your parents you really were in Egypt, and so there was a pretty good chance you would appear here by the pyramids. Every layman knows where these pyramids are. Of course, we have some more people in other nice locations. Karnak, Luxor, Kom Ombo, Abu Simbel. Quite the little tourist itinerary. When you all suddenly appeared here, it only took one phone call. I was in the vicinity, and thought I'd come in person to talk with my niece."
"And what do you want?" I asked.
"Oh, I want plenty of things. But mostly I wanted to check, if I had managed to turn you into one of us. I see I have failed in that. Your reflexes were surprisingly fast, considering how scared you were, and not yet Nephilim. Maybe I should try again?"
She smiled, a breathtakingly beautiful smile that also managed to be pure evil.
"That might not be wise." Elijah appeared out of thin air right behind Angel, hugging her closely as if she were his adored girlfriend and he was giving her a loving surprise.
Angel's body remained upright, but I saw how the muscles on her back and hands tightened, as she tested his strength. He laughed and held her easily.
"Now now, Angel, surely you won't make a spectacle out of this?" Elijah murmured into her ear, "not with all those tourists filming you, wondering which movie star you are. I am sure Cain would not appreciate such antics, not with all the care he's taken about keeping the Nephilim hidden in the midst of people for thousands of years."
Angel smiled sweetly and looked over her shoulder as a girlfriend in love would.
"Elijah," she cooed, "how lovely to see you. I have been waiting to hear news about you."
"Yes, I think you might have heard rumors of some sort about me getting ill. Well, rest assured, I am well recovered."
Angel turned her head even more, so that her neck was at an almost impossible angle, and looked up into Elijah's eyes. Elijah let her stare, because the angle was impossible for Angel if she was planning on spitting in his face. She stared at Elijah's blue eyes, unbelieving. Elijah stared back and wiggled his eyebrows in an amused way.
"This cannot be," she said, and for the first time her voice revealed emotion. She sounded uncertain.
"What can't?" Elijah smacked a kiss right onto her ear, probably causing it to ring for a long time.
Angel let out a growl that froze my spine.
"You were bitten. You cannot be healed!"
"Yet, here I am, and not the least bit ill. How very frustrating for you, wondering how that happened..." Elijah winked at me over Angel's shoulder when she could not see it.
Oddly, I felt a rush of relief. That little gesture showed Elijah at least connected with me, even if Daniel didn't.
I saw Lilith, Grandma, Reggie, Diana and Jason standing near us now, staring at the scene. They had placed themselves between us and the group of tourists who were now shooing the trinket-selling children away. A camel driver approached them, the tassels in the camel's blanket and bridle swinging in rhythm with the animal's steps.
"You're l
eaving now, Angel." Daniel's voice came from behind me.
"Daniel darling!" Angel was all sweetness again. "How wonderful to see you, my love."
Something must have shown in my expression, because Angel's eyes turned to mine in an instant.
"I do hope you are not much smitten, dear niece. You see, Daniel is spoken for. Always has been."
I forced myself to be calm, and looked back into Angel's yellow eyes as coolly as I possibly could. Obviously I was not very successful, because Angel laughed, and this time she sounded almost triumphant.
"He hasn't told you about our engagement? Oh dear... it's a long-standing one, too. We were engaged to be married in... now, when was it, love?" Angel looked at Daniel from under her long lashes adoringly.
"I am not your love, Angel." Daniel's voice was totally calm.
"Oh but you are. We were promised to each other in... when was it again? Oh, now I remember, it was January 24th in 1742, the same day Charles VII Albert became the Holy Roman Emperor, if my memory serves me well. And trust me – there is nothing wrong with my memory."
"I never made any promises to you, Angel," Daniel said in a quiet voice, but there was a threat in it now.
"No, but our fathers did. They betrothed us to each other, and to me that is just as binding."
"To me, it isn't," Daniel said. "To make an engagement binding, both Nephilim must be of age, and give their consent, aloud, in front of witnesses. No such ceremony ever took place. We were not present when our fathers discussed our possible future marriage."
"If Cain says I am betrothed to you, then I am. His word is law!" Angel's face began to distort with odd emotions, but she quickly gained control of herself. Still, before she did I had detected anger and... fear?
"Yes, I suppose you must believe that. Or you might face the same fate as your mother," Elijah said coldly.
Angel lost control. She shrieked with anger like a bird of prey and began to fight Elijah's grip. I saw the group of tourists stop and stare at us, trying to see what the voice had been, from behind Lilith, Grandma, Reggie and Jason. With so few tourists in the country we did not blend into the crowd. There was no crowd for starters. And Angel's shriek had not sounded human at all.
