From Dark Nephilim: Acacius (a Nephilim Warrior) explains to Anthony (Vampire) what became of the creatures, the Experimentals from Book 1- Children of Dionysus.
This was cut from Dark Nephilim because my Editor said it didn’t move the story along- and she was right. I did quite a bit of research for this before hand including visiting Wells Cathedral. Pics are some I took;
“After the desolation of Tyrell and the vampire Elite headquarters, we knew that you and Jamie tried to wipe out those Experimentals that suffered at the hands of Tyrell's eugenics programme. We knew you failed, and unbeknown to you, you were being watched by many of us.
“We pitied those creatures, taken from their human life and forced into the atrocity of a vampire existence and now at the hands of Elite vampires, turned again into neither vampire nor human but some evil monstrous thing. Experimentals. Unable to eat food or digest blood, their famished state drove them to insanity, as well as their psychological breakdown that caused their demise. Honestly, we knew the kindest thing we could do was to end their existence and in turn protect society from them.
“Jamie killed Tyrell, no wonder Emidius was impressed with him and to that we would thank him. But the Experimentals, we had to hunt. Technically a new species so it took all our wits to track them down across the tiny but packed city of Wells. Some fled to the Cathedral where Aaron, Halina, and I found them. They were faster than most and lithe, their state being altered by the butchery of Tyrell's surgeons. A corned animal without the ability to think clearly is often the most dangerous.
There were eleven of these and it took all three of us at our peak to kill them. The first I found sheltering within the Cathedral. Why it had gone there I don't know, unless it was some instinct that it would be safe in the house of God. It saw me for what I am, a winged descendant of Our Lord and at first this fell in my favour. I spoke to it, a practise unknown to me when killing vampires and dark-creatures, but such was my pity for it. It was painfully thin and its face looked like it had been stretched over a canvas, so emaciated. It was huddled in an alcove swaying back and forth.
As I drew my sword it's demeanour changed, even though I commanded this as the will of God and that it would only find salvation in God's Mercy. At that moment the Deacon from the Cathedral saw me and being pious, she too saw me as I truly am, as opposed to how most humans see me. That is, she saw me winged.
The fiend also saw her and catapulted itself towards her, so fast I barely had time to slain the creature. But slay it I did, grabbing it from behind by the neck and thrusting my sword through its back so that it pierced its heart. As it slunk to floor, I told the Deacon to leave, though shock and fear had almost paralyzed her, and then I lifted it by the head and swung my sword. Its body fell to the floor with its bloody head left in my hand. Sheathing my sword, I was about to pick up the body when another leapt out at me and jumped on my back, biting, and clawing at me. I bounded with force, jumping high so that it let go of me in the fright and again I drew my sword. Landing fast on my feet, I was lucky as the thing charged me so that it met its death swiftly with my sword impaling it in the heart.
“Always the heart first, then the head. You tried to fight these with fire—a good idea under normal circumstances, for what if anything can survive fire?" Acacius paused here to look at me but the question was rhetorical. And I thought of Nathaniel.
“Again, removing the head but now being cautious lest anymore use this opportunity to pounce me. Now I kept my sword unsheathed but carrying two bodies and two heads at once with one hand and a sword in the other hand is no easy task. Even for me.”
“No one saw you? I mean other than the Deacon?”
“Anthony, we did this late at night, my friend. We could hardly go around killing on mass during the day!” He laughed at my comment, and then continued.
“I got a call from Aaron, he had found three of them creeping around the edge of the city and with Halina they were on the outskirts running down another. He was near the Bishops Palace, close to homes and though late, some people were out.
“Deacon!” I called. “Deacon!” She walked tentatively towards me, crossing herself. “There is no need to be afraid of these. But there are more in your city. My companion has three he needs my help with, and I need to go to him now. I shall collect these later. Please take yourself somewhere safe in this building and lock the door. My name is Acacius. If you need me shout my name. Believe me I will hear it, but for now I have nine more on the loose.”
“Nine!” she squeaked in horror.
“Yes. I must go. I will call for you on my return. Do not unlock these doors before I get back. Do you understand?
“I was impressed by this woman, it is sometimes the way with servants of God, their faith keeps them strong in times of Hell on Earth. But then some of them have seen things that they would never repeat in a sermon!”
"What are you?" She asked.
"The same as you. I am a servant of God- you see my wings, so I wonder why you ask?"
She looked confused and uncertain but I didn't have time or the compulsion to explain my history.
“You weren't afraid that she'd report you to her superiors?”
“Anthony- you're amusing!” he said laughing again. “And what would she say? The clergy are far more aware of the supernatural world than the average person who believes it to be nothing more than fanciful fiction. Anyway, I needed to leave the bodies, I needed to help Aaron. Normally I wouldn't reveal my identity, but my cover was blown as soon as she saw me anyway.
So off I went to help Aaron. Fortunately, I had not wasted too much time and I tracked the scent of the fiend to the edge of the moat that surrounds the Bishops palace, lying just off by the houses.
After the other two I was now able to pick up their scent- this was not possible before because I didn't know it. I had the blood of the others on me and so Aaron was able to smell and in turn do the same. We tracked them quickly to the back of a house, we were lucky. Had we acted too slow lives could have been lost. These monsters could not digest human blood but their instinct to drain a human was still intact- with some at least. They became aware of us instantly and a bloody fight ensued. Each time we encountered another Experimental, their survival instincts had adapted. We hadn't detected telepathy so I guessed it must've been based on the individuals.
Aaron stepped lightly forward, to the side with his sword at the ready and I alongside him. We aimed to corner them and they crouched instantly. Three of them, two of us with only one sword each, it was going to be brutal. As predicated all three lunged at us and our experience was to instantly lower our swords to cut up into them. We did but we only managed to impale their abdomens and as they wailed, their innards spewing out, the third attached itself to me. It bit my face and clawed at my skin, ripping, and tearing through my clothes and into my flesh. Aaron was fast and grabbed it but it held fast. He grabbed its arms, I could not remove it as its grip as the thing held my arms pressed against me, and with its strength and vicious tearing of its teeth it was hard for me to get loose.
As he managed to get it off of me, not before it tried to bite my face off, it struggled like a possessed creature. I punched it hard in the face, before taking the hilt of my sword and bashing its vile head. It wailed pathetically but it was stunned long enough for me to kill it as I had the ones before it. The other two were trying to run, staggering off with their guts gorging out. Five down, six to go. I called Halina. I have to give Halina a lot of credit, she is by far one of the best warriors I have ever known, she surpasses me. She had killed four whilst Aaron and I only five between us.
We found others looming around houses individually and picked them off quite fast. But that left one, and its scent had led it out of the city and towards the vast emptiness of the Mendip Hills. And we still had the bodies to collect and dump, dawn was nearing and I didn't want the mortals waking up to that on a Monday morning!”
He laughed here, staring off into the distance. Acacius was animated in relaying the story of how they cleared up the mess left by the Elite. He paused a while before continuing. I was gripped, I was so glad they'd killed these poor creatures but I admit I was puzzled that Emidius hadn't done so.
His dark grey eyes shone as he continued and on hearing my thoughts, “Oh, Emidius! Yes, we had thought she would sort this out, but maybe she knew we wanted the job. Probably, and she was right. You see, until we came here with you and Marcus, until this point in time, our entire existence had been to live to kill. Some nephilim do marry humans and then raise the children, the half-breeds like myself, but even then, after their human wife has died during childbirth they will return to the bloodshed.”
“You're not full nephilim?”
“That sounds like you're accusing me of not being enough!” he joked. “No, but I have more of my father in me than my mother. Some are the other way around and so don’t develop the wings or the will to kill the evil doers. But we three, we took on our father’s traits.”
“So, you never knew your mother?”
“As I said, the women die giving birth. Always, there's no exception.” Here his voice changed, sharper and his face hardened. He was upset.
Carefully I asked, “Do you have children?”
His reaction was unpredictable. He rose up and his face looked lost.
“If I did that, I would kill the woman! I would end up killing the one I fell in love with, so why, why, Anthony, would I do that? Can you answer that? No, I thought not. Never speak to me of this again.”
He sat back down looking distressed. I guessed he had watched his father suffer that fate and so decided it was a path he would never take.
“Please! Your thoughts! Yes, you are correct, I did. It’s still painful and I won’t speak of it. Make sure you never repeat this to anyone. If my weakness was known, others could use that against me and in turn, no good would come of it. Now, do you want to hear the rest of what happened to the Experimentals?”
“I'm so sorry. Yes, of course.”
“So, after killing the others we traced the scent of the one left, leading out of the city. Knowing dawn was near and I still had to get back to the Cathedral, we decided to do that first. We came prepared with a van and I went and called for the Deacon to let me in. I left Aaron and Halina in the van, there was no need for the Deacon to see us all. I apologised for the mess, blood was everywhere.
“Did you catch you them all?” The deacon asked me nervously.
“We have one to get. It's headed out of your city. I'm afraid you and you alone must clean that up. It shouldn't affect you but wear gloves to be sure.” I felt bad, but really considering the danger I had rid her of, I supposed it wasn't too awful.
“It was that place wasn't it? The old mental asylum. I knew evil resided there!” she spoke hesitantly. She was holding something more back, but I didn’t have time to find out. From her mind I heard a pact that some had made at the Cathedral to rid the old place of its newcomers but the Elite were not called Elite by chance. They have contacts in the highest places. Contacts that even the highest in the church could not cross.”
“I thought as much,” I added. “Fear of their lives no doubt.”
“No Anthony, that wouldn’t be enough. The Elite wouldn’t bother with killing you. They would pick off your nearest and dearest first. The consequences are too dire to contemplate.
So I merely told the Deacon, “It is gone now.” Before I picked up the dismembered bodies I touched her arm to reassure her that there are those of us watching over. “Remember, my name is Acacius. If you ever need me, and I doubt you will, I will hear it however far away and where-ever I am. Do not use it in vain; I will most likely be doing his work elsewhere.” I bowed a little out of respect and then dragged the bodies under one arm and took the heads, tilting them upright to avoid more blood spilling on my path out. I made it just in time. As I shut the van door mortals walked by and I turned away from them as the front of my clothes were caked in blood.
Then off we headed to the Mendips, with the window open to track the scent. As soon as we thought it was fading we stopped the van. Getting out and wandering a little we soon picked up its scent, and followed it across the fields. It was now light and we spied the fiends’ tiny body in the distance heading towards some woods. We all stopped together, suddenly in our tracks. Those woods. It disappeared into them so we picked up the pace, but we knew in our hearts that we would be too late.”
Again Acacius, who I now realised to be an expert story teller paused for effect, he baited my question.
“Why, why would you be too late?”
“In those woods lycans live. They wait for walkers, there are always walkers on the Mendips and they wait for them and then kill and eat them. We have tried in vain in the past to eradicate them but they outwit even us. Even when we've gone there in numbers. So we knew at that point the thing would either be killed or worse. It was worse, we heard the cries of the beasts, too high pitched for mortal ears to detect and as we approached we saw them dragging its body. A bad sign.”
“Why? Didn't they just kill it?”
“They don't take what they kill to eat; they only take what they change. There were not many there, maybe twenty, thirty but only three of us. We would be slaughtered. And so we had to leave him there for now. Though God himself knows how malicious and vile this thing will turn out to be. He is next on our list- after this nonsense.”
Acacius stood and stretched as he looked out of my apartment window onto the bustling street below. Then he turned quickly to me and said, “I envy you. You can do as you please. You can love, live, and now even take down our kind. It is easier for you than for me.”
Before I could think the words fell out of my mouth, “Maybe you could love, just not a human. Now every thing's changed, you could do that?”
He paused as the words sunk in and then nodded slowly, looking again outside, “Maybe. Maybe I will,” he said quietly and deep in thought returned to his chair.
