Disclaimer: Own nothing

Warnings for homelessness, alcoholism, drug overdose, rape, murder, racism, gang violence and police brutality.

Le Chateau De Peche

While Clarke's demands were unexpected, it made several of Clarke's mates smile.

Because, well, if Clarke was going to be one of them in a few years and live with them? She would need to know how their world worked. How the politics in vampire society worked.

Laura gestured for Clarke to sit down, and she did, on the sofa, which felt a bit strange, after what she had seen done to Murphy.

The entirety of the vampires, including the ones that had dispatched Murphy, had arrived to join Clarke and sat down next to her, or leaned against the wall.

"What questions do you have, love?" Natasha asked Clarke, smiling.

Clarke finally began cautiously, "I assume that no human is allowed to know about your species?"

"That would be a correct assumption," Laura said, nodding, "You being here with us, is alright. Because you're our mate and as long as we at some point turn you, then it's okay."

Clarke nodded. She hadn't thought of that. That her mates might be in danger if they failed to turn her.

It suddenly made her more hesitant to try to make a run for it.

Whatever their faults, she didn't want anything bad to happen to them.

"Who would you get in trouble with if you didn't turn me?" She asked, honestly just curious.

"Everyone answers to someone," Clint said from where he was leaning against the wall, "We're powerful, but even we answer to people. To older and more influential vampires. They wouldn't kill us. We have too much strength, sway and influence. But we'd still be…monitored heavily, if we didn't turn you. And eventually, someone else would turn you, even if it was against your will."

Clarke nodded, swallowing harshly. If she was left with the choice to be either turned by these vampires or some random vampire upholding the vampire law or whatever, she'd much rather it be these vampires.

But she kept asking, "And what are the other laws that are in place in vampire society?"

"Not much else," Yelena said, shrugging, "Just no risking exposing our species, no killing children, no touching children in any way, no turning children, no attacking other covens, unless it's in self-defense, and even then, there will be a deep inspection to see what the reasons were for the attack. Never abandon a newly turned vampire. No older vampire is to ever abuse their fledgling. And no vampire is to ever try to feed on or touch another vampire's mate."

Clarke nodded. "That's actually a lot of rules," she said, "And you guys, you're not powerful enough to be considered 'authority?'"

Melina chuckled as several of the other vampires smirked.

Melina said, "Actually, many of us are strong and old and powerful enough to take control. In fact, many of us were offered positions. But we declined."

Clarke frowned. "Why?" She asked.

Laura, Natasha, Clint, Pepper and the others seemed to contemplate that question for a few seconds.

"Because we didn't want to," Laura said, "We still don't want to. Too much responsibility, I guess. Also, we have other things we're interested in. Not power. But should we ever change our minds, there are vampires who will more than happy to move out of the way and let us take over. The biggest sin for many vampires, is just plain laziness. Humans can make as many stories up about us as they want, about what our sins are. But our biggest sin is laziness."

Clarke thought about this. Okay. That made sense.

She asked, "So, if I met a bunch of vampires outside of all of you and they tried to feed on me…"

"The vampire or vampires would be killed," Natasha said calmly, her eyes hard when she said the words, "Even if we didn't tear them to pieces? Our superiors would call for their punishment for them touching you. For them touching another vampire's mate."

Clarke tried not to feel offended. Like she was just a piece of meat, and the vampires were the only ones with agency.

But she figured that that was just how things were in vampire society. So, she'd complain later.

Clarke asked, "Is there any immediate date when I have to be turned by?"

"Not exactly," Laura said, "Like a we said, you'll get a few years. Then you'll need to be turned. And of course, you can't say a word of what it is you've discovered about us."

Clarke nodded. Well, she'd figured it on that one. That went without saying.

"Okay," she said, "But what about human violence? Do vampires really do nothing while humans are committing murders or rape and stuff?"

Natasha, Melina, Pepper, Laura, Clint, Tony and the others all looked uncertain about answering that.

"In a way, yes," Laura confessed, "We prefer not to. But it depends on the groups of the vampires involved. Some of us will stop things like that. Others will not. Some lowly pieces of scum, will even participate. Those vampires are usually killed, as soon as their actions are discovered."

Clarke nodded. "Well, that's good," she said, "But it doesn't change that the ones that stand back and do nothing are allowed to live."

Laura sighed. "Yes," she admitted, "That's a good point. But many of us need to stay out of the way. If we did anything drastic, that might greatly change society, that would catch a lot of attention. And if a lot of attention is caught, we're exposed."

Clarke glowered. She understood that. She did. It didn't change that it was a pain.

Clarke added, attention wandering to what she knew about what few weaknesses these vampires had, "I assume that a lot of the weaknesses that vampire have in literature and movies are inaccurate?"

She heard several chuckles and saw many of them; Natasha, Tony, Steve, Laura, Clint, Rhodey, Carol, Brunnhilde and the others smirking.

"Not even close," Loki said, chortling the answer.

Clarke nodded. "Sunlight?" She asked, but she knew the answer already. She had seen the others in sunlight, when they had gone out to get pizza. Nothing had happened.

Vampires weren't vulnerable to sunlight, regardless of what popular movies, TV shows and books said.

"You know that already," Laura said, "We're immune to that. Stakes, holy water, garlic, crosses, really anything? We're immune to it. We can drink the blood of the dead or the living and be unaffected. We don't catch diseases. And we never grow old. And we don't die."

Clarke saw what Laura was doing. She was building up the "pros" of being a vampire. Trying continually to make the offer of vampirism more and more appealing to Clarke, so that she would eventually stop seeing them as threats. So that she would eventually embrace them turning her.

They were hunting her, she knew that. But she knew also, that they were trying to get her to come to terms with her in time, being turned into a vampire.

She wasn't sure she'd ever come to terms with that. But she couldn't say that she didn't somewhat appreciate their efforts.

Clarke, for some reason, was unable to keep her mind from traveling to the things she had seen at one of the nightclubs that were around San Francisco, which she had tried to avoid a good deal, knowing that if you were caught there would experience the greatest horrors in the world.

In a city like San Francisco? You wouldn't imagine such things being of concern.

But they were. There were nightclubs in every city, if you knew where to look. But there were certain nightclubs, you just didn't want to go near, let alone enter.

The San Francisco nightclub, "Le Chateau De Peche," as the name implied, which, when translated, was "The Chateau of Sin," was a place that had seen quite a lot of debauchery.

The many other nightclubs around this city? They were tame. Usually it was just a bit of fun there. With the occasional possible date rape, which was unacceptable.

However, "Le Chateau De Peche," was a nightclub in which you would learn f one person being violated in one way or another or even killed every other day.

The police and the FBI never looked into it, because the people in charge of that particular nightclub, had too much money.

And Clarke, she'd often avoid it every chance she got.

She knew that things like rape, murder happened regularly in that place.

Which was why whenever she had to pass by that square of the city, she would run fast by the building or run in the opposite direction.

Thinking about that awful place, was what led Clarke to her next question as she looked at the vampires, "I can appreciate that. I've seen enough death to want it to be nonexistent. If I told you about a place that I wanted destroyed, people I wanted dead, would you do it?"

This question brought intrigued and startled looks from her mates.

Carol stared at Clarke.

"Clarke?" She said, "You actually want us to kill someone for you?"

Clarke hesitated. Yes, she recognized her hypocrisy. She did. She was yelling at them for killing Murphy and for torturing all the others.

But here she was, also wishing for the deaths of an entirety of a business, and wishing for it with blatant hope.

Clarke nodded to Carol. "Yes," she said, trying to ignore her guilt, "I'm sure you've heard of this nightclub. 'Le Chateau De Peche.'"

She received more startled expressions.

"We know of that nightclub, yes," Natasha said, "We know of its…reputation. Clarke, please tell us you never went into that building."

Clarke scoffed, "How much of an idiot do you think I am? No, anyone with even one brain cell, would know to stay away from that place. The terrified screams and the blood stains I'd occasionally find in the alleys outside of the nightclub, was always reason enough to stay away from its doorstep."

She saw the relief flood all of the vampires' faces.

"That's good to hear," Tony said, looking slightly pale at the mention of the nightclub.

"And you want us to kill all who work there," Carol said, "To make them pay for the things they've been doing? Or to keep people like the poor souls who go there, safe?"

"Both, I guess," Clarke confessed, "The very first time I saw that nightclub? It was a couple of years ago," she pressed herself almost in need for comfort, against the leatherbound sofa, "I have traveled a lot to the different places I mentioned. Places in Oregon, Nevada and stuff. So, I've been to San Francisco before. Two years ago. And the first time I saw that building, two years ago, I thought it was one of the grandest buildings I had ever seen in California."

Clarke's face became a grimace, "Funny, isn't it? How the exterior of something is more important than what's on the inside."

Clarke realized that her words could be taken as a way of insulting her vampire mates and Clarke glanced at the vampires' faces, expecting to see hurt, anger or aggravation. But if they felt anything like that, they kept it out of her vision.

Clarke continued, "Two years ago, I was eighteen years old. And the past four years had made me….sort of drunk. I was drinking a lot. Wanting to forget my situation. I would save enough on the money I either stole or got by begging, and I would waste a lot of it on liquor. And one night, I was downing a whole bottle of vodka. The burn in my throat felt good, because it meant that I was drinking up something that would help me block out my memories and my pain."

Clarke swallowed, disgusted with what she had done to herself years before, "And when I was close to that building, gawking at the beauty of it and at all the people coming and going, all dressed like they were going off to some high-class party, I have to admit, I was curious. And I went closer to the building and would watch a lot of the people attending the building. I never went in, but I would look through the windows, and sometimes follow the attendees out and watch them together."

Clarke shuddered as she recalled the terrible memories. "I'll never be able to forget what I saw at that club, or what I saw when I followed the people that frequented the nightclub out of the building."

She hesitated, then began again, "I saw this one guy, pulling out on another guy, and slashed the guy's throat, grabbing the money from the guy with the slashed throat, and leaving him. I actually felt sick watching this," Clarke sucked in a breath, "I've seen people kill each other. You see a lot of bad stuff, living on the streets. People dying of diseases because no one brings them to a hospital, people dying from overdoses, gang violence, police brutality, and yeah, the occasional murder. But I thought that that the two men that were leaving the nightclub, were of the more "high-class." Up till then? I had never seen people of that particular class or pretending to be of that class, doing something like that. I mean, occasionally I'd see 'the others,' the people who own possessions and home and who paid rent, committing theft and assault. But this? This was something new. I'd never seen it before."

Clarke watched as the vampires stared at her, sadness in their eyes as they listened to her story.

Clarke continued, not appreciating their pity, "I was in shock for a very long time. I ran to the building and stayed at the side of the building, then looked in through a window I was under. I saw several men, physically holding down a woman and heard her screaming. Then I watched her get punched by one of the men, and watched several of the men unbuckle the belts of their pants."

Clarke heard the growls around her and knew they understood.

She continued, "That was the last straw for me. I ran for it and got to a payphone. There aren't that many payphones left in San Francisco, but I tended to make a point of remembering where they were in each city. I pulled out what few quarters I had left and called the police. I didn't tell them who I was, obviously. But I told them the address and that there was a woman being assaulted, about to be raped. And a man that had had his throat cut, just outside of the building."

"You know what happened?" Clarke then asked, a grim smile crossing her face.

"The police never came?" Steve asked.

Clarke chuckled. "A good guess," she said, "But they did. A squad car drove up to the building and two officers stepped out and walked over to the nightclub. I watched from behind a wall, as the officers entered the building and waited. Waited for them to walk out with several people in handcuffs. But when they came out? They were alone. Or almost alone. A few guys were with them and the police and these people were smiling and laughing together. I didn't understand what I was seeing, so I crept closer. I listened in, and what I heard? Was apparently, a transaction. The men that the police were speaking to, were the club owners. And the club owners were paying the police off."

Clarke saw no surprise on any of the vampires' faces.

"We wish we could be surprised by this," Carol said, "But we're not."

Clarke snorted with laughter, "Yeah. I realized what was happening and I realized that there was nothing I could do. I could try to burn the building down, but I would likely get caught and thrown in jail for life or killed. I just didn't know what to do."

Clarke stared at the vampires, feeling the pleading come out, desperate for them to understand.

She'd been so young, and scared, and oh, yeah, homeless.

What could she have done, if not even the police were going to help?

Clarke, before being thrown out of her house by her mother, hadn't had much of an idea of police corruption. Being a young white girl living in a white suburb, she had never personally witnessed it. She had known such corruption existed. But she had never witnessed it before her time on the streets.

Usually when she'd ask her mother about it, her mother would say that it was nothing Clarke had to worry about and the police were only harsh to the criminals that deserved it.

Looking back, it wasn't a surprise that her mother had blamed victims of police brutality.

Her father had wanted her to be educated and aware of the world, but her mother had all but snapped at Jake when he would try to explain police brutality and how race played into it. The moment Jake tried to explain the extent of racial profiling, Abby would tell him to stop talking about it to Clarke.

And to see the extent of that corruption, when Clarke had been eighteen at that nightclub? She'd was completely horrified and disillusioned with her country's so-called "justice system."

"Clarke," Natasha said, shifting closer, as did Laura and Carol, and Natasha reached out, gently placing her right hand against the left side of Clarke's face, "It wasn't your fault. There was nothing you could do. You weren't in a position to help the people you saw suffering," Natasha stared at Clarke intensely, hoping Clarke understood, "You are now. And we'll help. I swear it."

Clarke swallowed, fighting tears. She was literally wishing for the deaths of hundreds of people. She had no idea how many people worked at that nightclub. But she had seen a lot of people work there several times. Which meant, she was condemning a lot of people to die.

The vampires, they could see Clarke's hesitance, and Natasha, again, still gently, placed both hands on Clarke's face, her left hand softly on the right side of Clarke's face and Natasha said, "Just tell us that you want the owners of that nightclub dead, dorogaya. And we will do the work."

Clarke shivered at the look in Natasha's eyes, then her gaze jumped to the expressions on the faces of the other vampires.

All of them had similar looks. They were just itching to do it.

Clarke wondered why for a moment. But she came up with a few answers.

Because they wanted to kill people that had scared Clarke.

Because they wanted to show Clarke the extent of what they'd do for her.

Because they were excited that Clarke was actually ordering them to kill for her.

She wasn't sure which of these possibilities made her the most uncomfortable.

But she still felt the words come out, anyway.

She said, feeling like putty in these vampires' hands, just as she had, when she had said she'd wanted her mother and her mother's boyfriends and the rest, dead, "I want the owners of the nightclub dead."

Clarke saw several flashes of sharp, gleaming fangs, with her words. Natasha, Laura and Carol all smirked.

"Perfect," Carol said.

Natasha answered, nodding to Carol, smirking, her fangs out, "As I said, all you had to do was say it. And we will end their lives for you, malen'kiy."

Clarke felt her stomach turn.

She shouldn't feel so satisfied over hearing this.

But she was.