Disclaimer: Regrettably, I do not own, nor will I ever own, the Infernal Devices, the Mortal Instruments or any of Cassandra Clare's wonderful characters. However, I completely own Gabriel and his family and any characters not recognizable in her series.
A/N: Thank you to all of the reviews and readers who have put me as a favorite author, have put the story on their favorites and alerts. I can't tell you how much it means to an author's confidence.
1 Month Later
Spring had come which meant the weather was still dreary and cold but the Londoners had a new spring in their step. It definitely kept the blood flowing as well as kept the city dwellers out at night. Which meant that Camille could avoid the other side of town and hopefully never see the werewolf again.
It didn't stop him from being in her thoughts. She found herself many times looking for him while she was out hunting, though she couldn't say why. Well, maybe that wasn't true. She could say why but she would rather not. Camille also knew he would disapprove of her feeding on humans. But she didn't kill them and she didn't thrall them. As a matter of fact, most could pass her on the street and wouldn't remember her. She did have those willing to become one of her human subjugates, but she wasn't one to delve deeply into that vampiric practice. Humans were useful as servants and she did have a few to keep up appearances. However, she had taken to shunning their company as of late. "Why so forlorn, Lady Camille?" asked a voice in her ear.
Camille pasted a charming smile on her full lips before turning to regard the owner of the voice. "Just thinking about a particular vintage I had the other evening, Alexei." Lying was a lot more convincing when you had no heartbeat.
Alexei de Quincey, one of London's most powerful vampires returned her smile and took her slender hand in his. "Pray tell," he said with hungry eyes as his cool lips kissed the back of her hand.
"Just a young girl I happened across in an alley. I'm thinking of making her a subjugate," she replied.
"And have you come to a decision?" he asked.
"Not quite yet. I am not sure the little one is worthy, but we shall see. Tell me, Alexei," she said as she pulled out a fan. "What do you think of the club?" She desperately wanted to change the subject.
He took his time in answering so that they could both study the room. It was filled with vampires, fairies, some warlocks and mundanes. It was the grand opening of the Pandemonium Club, a new establishment for Downworlders and one that was open to mundanes. The mundanes could mingle with the supernatural and in turn, lose money at the many gambling tables. "I like the idea of the club. There is, however, one draw back," he said in a voice that grew colder with each word.
"And that would be?" Lady Belcourt asked.
De Quincey's smile turned deadly and his eyes narrowed onto some new patrons. "The club is open to the Moon's Children as well." His fingers tightened on her own, and if it wasn't for the strength in Camille's fragile looking hand, they would have been ground to powder. She squeezed back in warning and looked across the dimly lit club. She had no trouble seeing across the dark tavern. Camille took a moment to thank whatever heavenly power there was that she had no breath and no heartbeat. For surely her breath would have been stolen and her heart would have skipped a beat at the sight of Gabriel among the pack of men walking in through the door. The group that entered were all a bit rough around the edges except for Gabriel. They were rangy with unshaven jawlines, unkempt with long hair not properly trimmed and shirts without ties or not tucked in their trousers and a predatory gleam in their eyes. Gabriel, on the other hand, looked dashing in a proper gentleman's suit. He held a hat in one gloved hand and the other rested in his pocket. He was cleanshaven and his hair was combed in style. The only thing that marked him a part of his group was the same predatory gleam in his emerald eyes.
Several pale faced vampires stood up quickly from the gambling tables. The werewolves all tensed for an attack. Suddenly, in an explosion of black fire, the Dark Sisters appeared near the entrance. "There will be no feuds here," they said in unison.
"Typical," Alexei murmured bringing her attention away from the spectacle. "Why the warlocks will continue to try and bridge the gap between vampire and dog I will never know."
"Be that as it may, dear Alexei, it would not be wise to put ourselves on the wrong side of the Dark Sisters," Camille told him softly. She didn't detect a waver in her speech but was still too afraid to speak any louder.
He patted her hand affectionately and nodded his head. "Wise counsel, my dear. Wide counsel indeed. Those two are up to something and if I want to find out what, I'll have to be on my best behavior." Camille restrained herself from rolling her was sure Alexei would muscle his way into whatever conspiracy there was. He didn't become one of he most powerful vampires in Britain without a lethal dose of charm. "Well, I should go and make introductions. Want to come along?" he asked with his voice but commanded with his squeeze on her hand.
Camille nodded but did not trust herself to speak as they made their way across the club. The vampires had sat back down but were watching the wolves warily. A tall muscular man was talking with the Sisters. He had long gray hair tied back with a leather thong and intelligent gray eyes. Next to Gabriel, he was the most kept man in the lycanthrope group. He had a gray shadow of a beard and wore simple black pants, a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up his forearms and authority like a crown. He must have been their pack leader.
"Thank you for your invitation, Mrs. Dark," he was saying in a deep voice as Camile and Alexei walked to the group. "But I am afraid we will not be staying long." The man tensed as the couple stood behind the Dark Sisters. Camille felt Gabriel's eyes on her and it was unbelievably tempting to meet his eyes in return. She slightly shook her head so that hopefully he would be able to interpret the motion so that he wouldn't mention the encounter from the month before. She could pick out his unique smell from the wildness of his pack and fought the temptation to revel in it.
"That would be a pity, Aidan," muttered one of the Dark Sisters. Camille could never keep them straight and she didn't really want to. There was something slimy about the two of them that kept her from really wanting to get to know them. "This club is of course welcome to all."
She kept her eyes on Aidan as his roamed over her. There was no censure in his eyes but she could detect a weariness in his stance and demeanor. The others in his pack however were restless. For all the authority Aidan seemed to possess, she doubted he would be able to control the whole pack. "Again, thank you," he said in a deep voice with a tone of regret. "But I doubt all of your patrons would be as welcoming."
"Surely, you don't mean Lady Belcourt or myself?" Alexei asked in a smooth and charming voice.
Aidan's shrewd eyes narrowed and Camille thought it was wise of him. Alexei was charming and as deadly as a snake. "Those like you, de Quincey," the leader of the lycanthropes said in a hard voice.
"So you have heard of me? It is only natural that the two of us should know of each other. How else would we lead our people?" Alexei said in a voice that bordered on jovial.
When Aidan smiled, the wise gray eyes seemed to sharpen like steel blades. "Oh, aye, I've heard of you, de Quincey. Your reputation proceeds you."
Alexei smiled but there seemed to be tension humming along beneath the smile. "And how about the reputation of our beautiful Lady Belcourt?"
Dear me, Camille thought. He's literally throwing me to the wolves. She pasted a charming smile on her cold lips. Aidan inclined his head in a sign of respect and said, "It is a pleasure to meet you, Lady Belcourt. The legend of your beauty does not do you justice."
Her smile warmed and she could not stop her eyes from meeting Gabriel's slightly amused gaze for a fraction of a second before glancing back at the pack leader. "Thank you, Master Aidan for your kind words. If you would excuse my departure, but I must take my leave." She turned towards de Quincey and offered her hand. "Darling, it has been a pleasure. I shall see you again soon?"
"Very soon," Alexei murmured as his lips hovered over her fingers.
She smiled and then nodded towards the Sisters. "Until we meet again, Sisters." Then she turned back towards the entrance. "Gentlemen," she greeted the pack expecting them to part the way for her.
All of them moved except for once exceptionally big brute right before the door. She could smell his excitement at the thought of tearing her to shreds. "Pardon me?" she asked.
She could smell the blood of a rabbit on his breath as he stared down at her. "Manners, Hensley," a voice called from right behind her. She felt a wall of heat behind her and knew that it was Gabriel.
"She is vampire, Gabe," the brute, Hensley, said in a guttral voice. It sounded more like a growl with vowels rather than speech.
"She is a Lady and wishes to be on her way. She will pass in safety," Gabriel said and this time, there was the steel of authority in his voice.
Hensley shook with anger but finally stepped out of her way. Once she was safely through the entrance she turned to face Gabriel. "Thank you," she told him.
His smile was quick and wolfish with deep grooves in his cheeks that must have been dimples when he was young. It burned onto her memory in that moment and she knew that it would last for as long as she lived. "My pleasure, Lady," his said softly in a voice that made shivers race along her cold skin.
When the door shut, she could still hear Aidan introducing Gabriel Eaton as his second in command. Calmly, she walked away and wondered just what was going on in her head and her body. What a dangerous game her body was playing.
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Lady Camille Belcourt, Gabriel thought to himself. The name certainly suited the cool beauty. She had not been far from his thoughts since the night a month ago when she had saved his little sister from being attacked. Even if he had wanted to forget her, he wouldn't have been able to since Evie had to tell him the story at least a hundred times. Once he got over the shock that the beautiful little vampire had saved his sister, he had blistered Evie's ears for leaving her friends' house without waiting for him. She complained about his tardiness which he did accept blame for. And he was right that he was in the debt of the vampire of saving the one person who was nearest and dearest to his heart since their parents' deaths years before.
He wondered just how close she was to de Quincey. There was a menacing quality about him and Gabriel would admit that it was amplified by the fact that Aidan had told him of de Quincey's dirty deeds of the past. It seemed as if the vampire clan leader enjoyed torture of others, no matter their race. He was known for torturing mundanes, werewolves, faeries and there were even rumors of him torturing other vampires. Either the Lady Belcourt was very naive or she was of the same mold as de Quincey.
Neither choice spoke very highly of Lady Belcourt but that would not yank the roots of her from his mind, he was sure. Gabriel could not reconcile the picture of her tormenting poor souls and the lady vampire that saved his sister. But neither did he think her naive. There was a cold intelligence in her pale green eyes and he didn't believe that she could make herself naive in the least.
Maybe she was caught up in the fact that she had to obey her master's orders. He looked again at Alexei de Quincey. He was certainly dangerous enough to make others fear him. But Gabriel remembered how Camille had basically purred the endearment "Darling" at Alexei. He was honest enough with himself to note that he felt jealous of her being so close to the vampire. He knew it was ridiculous. He was werewolf and she was vampire.
And yet, his concious spoke to him. Something inside him stirred when she was near. He shook the feeling off as Aidan made his final departing remark and the pack left the Pandemonium Club. Gabriel felt the dark gaze of both the Sisters and de Quincey on them as they left and filed onto the street. "What a strange place," Aidan mumured as they lightly made their way down the street.
"I did not like it," Joseph Culpepper announced from behind.
"Nor did I," Aidan murmured. "And what did you think, Gabriel?"
The question did not surprise Gabriel. This was how Aidan led. He got the opinions of those around him and formed the decisions of what the pack was to do from those opinions. It was a wise way to lead for the most part. Gabriel was glad to follow his direction most of the time. "It was certainly interesting," Gabriel finally answered after thinking on it.
"And what did you think of de Quincey?" Aidan asked.
"He is dangerous," Gabriel murmured. The thought sent a foreboding chill throughout his body.
He felt the murmuring assent of the pack behind him. There were many, he knew, that wanted to tear the vampire apart. Apparently, the vampire had been tormenting the families of the werewolves and werewolves themselves for years. Aidan wanted to put a stop to it, but Gabriel didn't think a diplomatic approach would work. And Aidan agreed not to get the Shadowhunters involved. The Shadowhunters did not pretend to care about the fate of werewolves.
Gabriel had been a werewolf for only a few years and in a round about way, he could blame de Quincey. A group of vampires under de Quincey's orders had captured Hensley, his brother and his family. They had tortured the two werewolves and the mundane family they had. Hensley finally escaped after months of being tortured on a night very close to the full moon.
That night, Gabriel had been walking home from Darla Jacobson's home. He had been courting her and thought that soon he would ask her father for her hand in marriage. Then this black hulk of a wolf came across him. When he woke in the morning, he was bleeding, in extreme pain and being carried by a mountain of a man with brusies and blood across his face. He passed out again almost immediately. Aidan was there when he woke up again and explained everything to him. Two nights later, under the full moon, Gabriel had changed forever.
Hensley, in mourning of what he had done, had pledged his life to Gabriel. Even though Gabriel understood what it was that caused Hensely to maul him, he knew he could never bring sweet Darla into this life. So he let her go. Last he heard, she had married and moved with another merchant in town to a country village. He hoped she was happy.
Now he wondered, had Camille been apart of the torture that Hensley endured? Surely not. If so, she would have recognized him. And Gabriel had caught the slight shake of her head when he had stared at her. She didn't want him to mention their meeting before, not that he would have. It did take him by surprise seeing her there in the Pandemonium Club. Maybe she caught that surprise and thought he might speak of their encounter. Was she protecting him from de Quincey or was she too embarassed to admit that she knew a werewolf?
It was probably the latter he thought as he tried to shrug of his strange reaction to her. She had looked as lovely as a new spring morning in her pale green dress that had matched her eyes so well. Her lovely blond curls had been swept up in a complicated knot on top of her head and her pale flesh glistened in the dim candlelight of the club. He felt his blood speed up at just the thought of her. How easy he could see his hands spanning her tiny waist.
He rolled his shoulders as they walked and looked around. Was she still milling about? It did good for him to think of her draining some poor slob. It kept things in perspective. She was vampire. He was werewolf. But why could he not stop thinking about her?
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A/N: Hello readers! I have not forgotten this story. I've been dealing with some pretty heavy family issues and couldn't wrap my head around the story. But now I'm back and eager to continue this story. Please leave a review and let me know what you think. Cheers!
