Nephilim Quest Book 1: Shadowhunter

34. Hunters and Guardians 1/4

"And now for the Guardians." Diana dragged me out of Mrs Olanda's classroom and into the corridor. "Let's go meet one. I just saw Aemilius walk past. I am sure we can catch him if we hurry."

I saw a sturdy back disappearing through a door and we followed. This door did not lead to any classroom though - this was a fully equipped gym.

"Aemilius!" Diana called to the man who was about to disappear into the men's locker room.

When he turned I saw that he was middle aged, had an impressive scar on his cheek and a profile that could only be described as Roman. He looked like a gladiator in a T-shirt.

"Diana," he bowed, "how can I be of assistance?"

"May I introduce Dana to you - she is new. She is Layla's granddaughter."

Aemilius bowed to me too.

"Pleased to meet you," he said. "You should be proud of your grandmother. She is our best Hunter."

"Yes, quite... Thank you..." I did not know how to reply.

"Would you tell Dana what Guardians do?" Diana asked and Aemilius nodded.

"We keep the Weavers alive," he said matter-of-factly and then fell silent.

"Perhaps a little more in the way of description...?" Diana smiled.

"We go to past with Weavers and protect their lives with our own. If the Weaver dies, the Time Walkers cannot return," Aemilius was not much of a talker and Diana took over.

"Or rather - they can, but first another Weaver needs to find them, travel to them, connect to a Weaver here, and then lead them home. It has happened, you know."

"Yes. Once we were stuck in England in the summer 1665, when the great plague was raging in city," Aemilius said.

"I was there too. We had been vaccinated and had antibiotics with us, but it was horrible to witness how people died like flies..." Diana's cheerfulness vanished at the memory.

It began to dawn on me that travelling to the past was not just one big adventure for the people here. They really put their lives at risk.

"Can I ask... Where are you from, Aemilius? Rome?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Yes, we stole Aemilius away from the battlefield," I heard Grandma's voice from behind me.

"Sheesh! How do you walk so quietly?" I swirled around with my heart in my throat.

Grandma grinned back at me as she wiped sweat from her neck with a towel. "You can't exactly stamp around shouting "Coming to get you!" if you are a Hunter."

Aemilius smiled too and continued in his broken English: "I should have died in Actium battle, but I had visited an oracle before and was told to observe my dreams. With this advice I was able to ah, dream lucidly. Before battle, someone who knew of my impending death approached me. He convinced me he was telling the truth and asked me to follow him in the midst of the battle. He appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the fighting, and I disappeared from the battle scene, and ended up here."

"The oracle in question was of course one of our Time Walker members," Grandma ruffled her hair with the towel, "there wasn't much literacy around in those days. We got many good fighters that way. But not all chose to follow. Some had had what we call near death experiences and did not fear death anymore. Their experiences had been so positive."

"But the Immortals follow us too when they can, and try to kill them or find another option for those we find valuable to our cause," Diana commented.

"Find another option? What option?" I did not understand.

"People have always dreamt of immortality. They fear death. This fear drives them to extreme actions, when they try to stay truly physically immortal. Some even choose the most extreme measures and volunteer to be infected in order to become vampires." Grandma sighed and sat down on a bench by the wall.

"As in real blood sucking genuine vampires? Human ones? Are you serious?" I could not believe what I had heard. "You mean someone would actually volunteer to become a creature like that?"

"Yes. A human who is infected by a Nephilim, and becomes a vampire - if they survive the infection - can go on infecting other people. Some of them survive, and a strange genetic change happens in their bodies. There is barely a pulse, and their life is extended greatly - if they feed often enough," Grandma said. "Blood is the best nourishment - it invigorates their system. And human blood is the best of all. They can drink animal blood as well, but few do so nowadays. In the past it was different - they only took animal lives, but something changed that around 500 BC, or thereabouts. The first vampires to drink human blood appeared around that time in what is today's Turkey."

xxxx

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