Eliza loved the look of churches at night. More specifically, Catholic ones. Most Catholic churches had that Roman-Gothic look to them, but at night, it intensified. At night, the churches looked like something from an old novel.
The wrought iron fence was held locked by a large padlock. "How are we supposed to get it? It's locked." Clary observed in an annoyed voice.
"I'm excellent at picking locks. Let me through." Jace stepped by with his stele. He made easy work of picking open the padlock and it fell to the ground with a clang. "Told you so." He had an annoyingly pleased look on his face.
Clary gave him a look that Eliza decided was supposed to be deadly. "Come on. Before the two of you start hitting each other." Eliza said.
Eliza led them up the stoned path to the double doors of the church. She looked up at the arch above the door, taking in the angel watching over the church.
"Don't you guys feel bad for breaking into a church?" Clary whispered.
"We aren't." Jace told her. "Can I do this?" He asked Eliza.
Her answer was a short and concise no. "You picked the lock." She reminded him. She wriggled her fingers to stretch them out and placed her palm against the hard wood of the door. "Eliza Seraphine." She murmured under her breath. "I ask entry into this holy place in the name of the Nephilim Clave. I ask to have use of your weapons in the name of our Battle That Never Ends. And at last, I ask for your blessing on our mission against the darkness in the name of the Angel Raziel." Her words cut through the air clear and high, each word perfectly pronounced.
The door creaked and swung open slowly. The wind blew inward, pushing her hair in front of her face. Eliza stepped inside the church, Clary directly behind her and Jace in the back.
Eliza wrinkled her nose at the waxy smell of burning candles. She could see them as the source of light at the furthest wall, flickering in the cool air of the night. Eliza loved churches. They were so old and full of love and serenity.
"You know, I've never been in a real church before." Clary admitted. "They give me the creeps."
Eliza glanced back at her, a wry smile on her face. "Oh, I love them." She breathed. "My brother frequented the Westminster Abbey in London while he was there. He brought me pictures and it's really beautiful. I can't wait to go once I turn eighteen."
Jace was staring at her like he didn't recognize her at all. Clary's face was passive as Eliza explained the different areas of the church.
"The section where the pews are is called the nave. We're in the apse currently. And the altar is always located in the east part of the church, and that's where the priest always gives the Word." Eliza gazed up at the altar, taking in the beauty of it.
The altar of the Diamond Street church was tall, made of a fantastic granite and adorned with a red cloth. A slab of gold stood behind the altar, etching out figures of religious saints.
When she looked back down, Jace was kneeling in front of her, his hands searching on the floor. "Is he praying? Right now?" Clary whispered to Eliza.
She shook her head in response. "I'm looking for weapons." Jace replied. Dust rose under his hands as he continued his search.
"In a church? Are Shadowhunters Catholic? Do you know the Pope?" Clary asked.
Eliza smiled. So many questions. "We aren't tied to any specific religion. Because every religion has its own belief on demons, they all believe in us. So, we have a sort of deal with the churches or mosques or temples or whatever have you and we can store weapons in them in case of an emergency." Eliza told her.
"And you? Are you Catholic?" Clary inquired.
Jace chuckled quietly and Eliza giggled, shaking her head. "No." She said, her laughter dying off. "They're a little too pure for me. I appreciate all religions with sound interest."
"If you're done with your theology lesson, I've found it." Jace really did sound annoyed.
Eliza rolled her eyes and knelt down next to him, Clary following suit. The Angel's rune was etched onto one of the stones on the floor. Jace took out his stele and pressed the tip of it to the rune. The top of the stone slid back with a slight whirring noise, revealing to them a wooden box.
Jace lifted the box from the floor and opened it. Clary asked what all was in the box. "Let's see." Jace murmured, satisfied with the find. "We've got some blessed knives." He glanced at Eliza and she flashed her wrists, glints of silver from her knives showing. "Won't need those, then. We've also got some silver and steel blades and some holy water, a little bit of electrum wire, protection charms, silver bullets for the Moon Children, a few stars of David, crucifixes-."
"Well, Jesus." Clary breathed out.
Jace cracked a smile. "Yeah, he didn't fit in the box. Sorry."
Clary smacked him on the arm. "We're in a church. You can't make a joke like that!"
Jace shrugged. "You can if you aren't a believer." He told her. He took out a few vials of holy water and pocketed them.
"You don't believe in religion? Or Jesus, at least?"
He shook his head, saying no. "It's the one thing Liz and I definitely don't agree on." She gave him a disapproving look, but neither of them said anything. "Just because there are demons doesn't mean there's anything else." He picked up a knife in the box and handed it to Eliza to look at. "I've sent at least five hundred demons back to wherever the hell they come from. I've been doing it for years. But I've never seen an angel and I've never met a person who has." Eliza, not very satisfied with the knife, gave it back to Jace to put in the box. "Anyways, my father believed in God. It didn't help him when he was murdered." The variety of the colors from the stained-glass window threw blocks of color on his face as he spoke, his eyes looking at the box with intensity. "So, maybe God does exist but if he does, he sure as hell doesn't care about us."
Eliza tried to hold her tongue, but it was in vain. "You don't believe in him because your father died? That's almost childish, Jace." He whipped back to look at her, a poisonous look on his face. "My entire family died. I lost everyone. But I still believe in God. He may not be the joyful Santa Claus version that everyone wants, the version where he can do no wrong. I think God can be cruel and mirthless. He isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Take a look at the Old Testament of the Bible and you'll know what I mean."
Jace said nothing to her. Clary stared back at the two of them, waiting for something to happen. Eliza snatched a vial of holy water from the box and drank it dry. "Let's go. We've got a life to save."
The hotel was as disdainful as Eliza expected a vampire's lair to be. It was abandoned of any human life, and it showed on the outside. It looked like it was falling apart, and it probably was.
The vampire's (she suspected, anyways) had rearranged the sign, turning the N into an R and making their lair the Hotel Dumort, instead of Hotel Dumont.
"Dramatics." Eliza muttered. "You'd make a great vampire, Jace." She told him. He didn't answer so she looked over at him. He was on high alert, his entire body tense. She could see the cords of muscle tightly wound in his arms.
"It means 'of death'." Clary observed. "How fitting."
The windows of the old hotel were boarded over with slabs of wood and the door had been completely bricked up. There was no way inside.
"How are we going to get inside?" Clary asked. "They've boarded it all up."
Eliza saw the look on Jace's face. The same look he had every time they were out hunting for a demon or rogue Downworlder. Jace got his kicks from hunting. He had killed more demons than anyone else their age and she knew he loved doing it.
"We're going to break in." Jace sounded giddy, as if the idea of a decrepit vampire hotel wasn't enough. They had to break into the decrepit vampire hotel.
Jace started to cross the street to get to the abandoned building and looked back to ensure that the girls were following him.
Eliza jerked on Clary, pulling her out of the dim yellow light from one of the only streetlights that was still working on the street. Her hand was tight around the younger girl's wrist. "Don't get in the light. You may not see them, but they can see us." She warned quietly.
Eliza could feel the hot pulse of Clary's blood from holding her wrist. Clary withheld every right to be nervous but if she got any worse, Eliza was sure the vampires would hear them just from Clary's blood. Not only that, but Clary was a loud walker. Shadowhunters learned to be shadows, to mold into the darkness and to be as silent as the darkness.
Clary may have been a Shadowhunter by blood, but she certainly wasn't one by training.
The alley Jace led them to was full of molded garbage and old cardboard boxes. Eliza stepped forward and something crunched under her foot. The other two stopped, looking at her. Gingerly, she lifted her foot and peered down.
"Is that…?" Clary swallowed, a sick look on her face.
"A bone." Jace's voice was hollow. "Cat or dog, more than likely."
Eliza stepped around the bone. "We're definitely in the right place, then." Clary mumbled.
Jace searched for a door or a way in, but found nothing. "There's got to be a way in. This is the delivery entrance." He was silent for a minute, an unnerving expression on his face. "It's probably underneath all this trash. We'll have to move the Dumpster."
Eliza made an unsatisfied noise. "Just how I imagined spending my night. Trifling through vampire trash."
Jace had already moved to the Dumpster, hands braced on one side of it. Eliza walked over and nodded Clary to her side. "I saw we tip it over. It'll be easier than moving the whole thing." Jace suggested.
Eliza almost gagged as the thick smell of the garbage wafted into her nose.
"I don't believe you should be doing that." The voice didn't belong to Clary or Jace.
Eliza glanced at Jace, his hand on his belt. He looked just as surprised as she felt. A surge of relief went through her. Jace was hardly ever surprised. Eliza stretched her fingers as she peered down the alleyway. "Who's there?" She called out.
A murmur of Spanish came from the person. "No, I don't think you come from around here at all." Eliza recognized the voice as male.
He stepped from the shadow into the light. He had to be the same age as Jace and Eliza, or not much older than them. He was a few inches shorter than Jace. Eliza appreciated the honey color of his smooth skin and the luminous fashion of his big dark eyes.
"You really should not be here." The boy cast a glance up at the high windows of the hotel. "There are dangers that lurk here."
Eliza's body loosened. He wasn't a threat. Her nose tingled at the proximity of the vampires inside the hotel. "I'm sure we can take care of ourselves, thank you." The sugar of her voice had a sickly sweetness to it.
She saw the boy frown as he pointed to the Dumpster. "What are you doing with that?"
Eliza waited for Jace to provide some theatrical lie. Impressive words that would deceive the boy before them and make him leave. He let her down. "I think there's a cellar door behind the Dumpster. We want inside the hotel."
The boy rattled off in Spanish, his words a fascinating blur to Eliza. She knew several languages, Spanish not being one of them. Her father had deemed Spanish too trivial, something everyone would know. She had learned Ancient Greek, Latin, French, Arabic, Mandarin, Hebrew, Hindi, and Russian. She knew a spot of Italian and Spanish, but not very much of it. Not enough to make out whatever he was saying.
"The hotel is cursed, haunted if you will." The boy told them. He murmured a bit more in his foreign language and shook his head at them. "Here, I will take you back to the subway." Jace told him there was no need, they knew the way perfectly fine. The boy's soft laughter bounced off the walls. "I should hope. If I am with you, no one will think to bother you. Please, I don't want you to have any trouble on your way home."
Jace's jacket rippled with movement, flashing the weapons tucked in his belt. Eliza felt dread creeping up on her. What was a mundane boy doing out in the late hours of the night? Or maybe the early hours of the morning. Eliza wasn't sure what time it was, but it had to be past two or three in the morning.
"So, how much are the vampires paying you to ward people away?" Jace asked the boy. His tone left no room for discussion.
The boy looked back at the mouth of the alley behind him. When he looked back at Jace, his thin lips were pressed in a hard line. "I don't know what you're talking about." The boy responded, his voice thinly veiled.
"You don't lie very well, boy." Eliza's green eyes glittered in the moonlight. She took a step towards him, ignoring Jace's command of her name, his voice strained as she continued to walk towards the boy. She was feet away from him. She could make out the thin curve of his mouth, the shape of his dark eyes. "What are the Children of the Night giving you?" She sounded sweet as ever, but there was a dark look in her eyes. "Do they pay you in money or promises? Did they promise you that they'd make you like them, immortal? Just for the slim task of keeping watch for them? I can't imagine a life where I could never step into the sunlight again." There was a deep abyss to her voice, an unfathomable sense of longing that she couldn't quite place.
The boy stared back at her, seemingly unmoved by her words. "My name, vidente, is Raphael." Vidente. She recognized the word from her minute amount of Spanish education. It meant 'fey'. He thought she was one of the Fair Folk.
"I am not one of the fey, my friend." She sounded cold and warm all at the same time. "Though I promise I can be just as cruel." She fiddled with the knives on her wrist, making sure he saw them. "Now, answer my question or I'll show you how like the fey I can be."
Raphael looked at her with a mixture of contempt and admiration. She didn't care for the look in his eyes, thought she was sure he didn't care for the look in hers either. "The blood-drinkers have been here for a long time. They came before the hotel saw the end of its time. Everyone has heard them, their laughter and the sounds that they bring with death. And what can be done? Nothing because they are vampires." Her look told him to continue speaking, to tell her everything he knew about the vampires in the hotel. "I know of people who have seen the vampiros. Some boys ventured into the hotel one night as a joke, to kill the blood-suckers. They went in and never came out. I lost my brother that night."
Eliza felt a small twinge of sympathy for him, deep in her heart. The loss of a brother. She pushed it away. That was what the mundane got for traipsing into a vampire lair.
"This is the reason I warn you away. Not because of silly promises of immortality. If you go in, you will not come out." Raphael's voice was melancholy and far away.
"My friend is in there and we're going to get him out." Clary said from behind her.
Raphael pursed his thin lips. "Then I cannot persuade you, I believe. I wish you well."
Eliza's hands moved in a flash and suddenly she had a thin knife in her hand. The blade twirled over her knuckles and she smiled at him. "I'm a good shot. And Jace and I are pretty decent at killing vampires. The naughty ones, anyways."
She looked back at Jace who had a seraph blade in his hand, admiring it in the light of the moon. The light from the seraph blade shadowed over his eyes, making his cheekbones look sharper. "We'll be fine." Jace sided with Eliza. "We know what we're doing."
Raphael stumbled towards Eliza and then suddenly, Jace was jerking her backwards. His hand was warm on her bare arm. Jace was tense, ready for a fight. As always, Eliza mused to herself.
Raphael held up his hands, indicated he had no ill intent. "I have heard many stories about your kind. The hunters in the shadows." Eliza cracked a dry smile. "Take me with you."
Her smile fell. Was he stupid? "I think not." Jace's voice was clear in her ear. She felt the rise of goosebumps on her skin from his closeness.
"I can get you inside." Raphael pleaded. Jace said no again. "Alright then." Raphael said in a defeated voice. He walked towards them like a man on a mission and used his foot to kick a heap of garbage from the wall. Behind the heap was a metal grating. Raphael leaned over and ripped the grating from the wall. "I believe it goes to the basement." His voice was gruff.
Eliza gently freed herself from Jace's grasp and walked to the hole in the wall. The smell of the old garbage was overpowering for her sensitive nose. "Excellent." She breathed.
"Thanks, chico." Jace clapped Raphael on the back. "We've got it from here."
Eliza looked back at Raphael. His honey toned face had flushed of color. "Just save your friend for me."
Jace placed his seraph blade back in his belt. He rolled his shoulders and said that he'd go first. Eliza watched him slide through the opening, using the grace that only a Shadowhunter possessed. Her chest seized until she heard the soft noise of his feet touching the ground and she released her breath.
"Clary, come first and I'll catch you." Jace called up. Clary looked back at Eliza and she nodded in encouragement. She gave Clary her hand and helped Clary drop through the grating.
Eliza looked at Raphael. "Thank you." She told him quietly. He put his hand on her bare shoulder, his skin cold against hers.
"Liz, get down here. We don't have all night." Jace's voice was impatient.
Eliza stepped away from Raphael. With the agility of a cat, she slipped through the grating. Jace caught her, a surge of electricity jolting her body. The touch of his hands on her bare thighs. Her hands on his shoulders.
"Thanks." She murmured. He didn't respond, putting her on her feet. She adjusted her dress and instinctively checked her wrist bands and her stele on her arm.
Jace took his seraph blade back out to light the room. The ceiling was low to the ground and the concrete of the floor cracked under their feet. Patches of dirt scattered the floor and cockroaches ran. There was a door-less doorway in front of them, leading into the dark.
"Out of the dark we came and into the dark we go." Eliza whispered.
"Are you really quoting Haggard right now?" Jace asked her.
She looked over at him. "It's a fitting quote."
There was a thump behind them. Eliza whipped around, thin knife in her hand. Raphael was on his feet, his knees bent slightly.
"I said-." Jace started, voice high with anger.
Raphael nodding, standing straight. "I heard you. I just didn't listen. And you won't leave me for dead. You're better than that." He waved a careless hand.
Jace's face hardened. He looked at Eliza. "What do you say? Leave him for the vampiros?"
She concealed an amused look at his worthless Spanish. "We'd better not." She decided in a tired tone. She looked at Raphael. "Lead the way, mundane." She stepped aside and put her hand out.
He walked past her to the door. Eliza looked up at Jace to see that he was already staring down at her. "Maybe if you didn't use that damn tone with the mundanes, they wouldn't follow us like puppies into a brutal death." He murmured to her.
"Oh, not the mundanes." She feigned concern. The green of her eyes was bright in the dim light of his angel blade. "Imagine what you'd do if I turned myself and my damn tone to you?" She smirked and walked ahead of him, leaving him wordless and slack-jawed.
The hotel had been beautiful in its hay day. Eliza could see it in the rotted designs of elegance on the walls, the old stair banister. Well, what was left of the stair banister, anyways. The vampires had ripped it away. What use did they have for stairs when they could fly?
The only set of stairs the vampires hadn't chopped away was the set near the laundry room. Clary coughed, the layer of dust on the stairs rising slightly. Raphael shushed her immediately. "They'll hear you. Be quiet."
Eliza pushed her hair back from her face. The strands around her face were damp with sweat. She wished she had something to pull her hair back. How the hell was she supposed to potentially fight with her hair in her face?
Raphael led them up the stairs, the boy's shoulders squared tensely. The door in front of them indicated that the lobby of the hotel was just on the other side. Jace moved to be beside Raphael and he pushed the door open slowly.
The room in front of them was empty, save for a moth-eaten carpeting and decaying floorboards. The grand staircase had been torn apart, only the higher of its stairs remaining.
"So, I get that they fly, but is it necessary to rip the stairs away?" Clary whispered.
Raphael's dark eyes shined with excitement as he turned to look back at them. "It's a sign. A sign that this is their place." The excitement in his hushed voice gave Eliza the chills. She was growing less and less fond of the mundane as seconds passed.
"Have you ever seen one of them?" Jace asked him. "One of the vampires?"
Raphael shook his head as he locked eyes with Jace. "No, I have not had the misfortune. But I know of them. They have skin the color of snow. They are thin, too thin to be human, but they are stronger than humans. And they are beautiful. Terribly beautiful." His voice was wistful, like he longed for something inside his words.
Eliza's mouth turned down. Clary asked where the vampires were. They hadn't seen any of them. Eliza fought the urge to look up. "Higher ground, most likely. It's nearly dawn and they really hate the sunlight."
She didn't roll her eyes as both Clary and Raphael glanced up towards the ceiling. When he looked back down, Eliza caught a glimpse of a stark white scar at the base of Raphael's throat. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to make out the peculiar shape of it.
"I don't like the feeling I have. We should go back to the servant stairs." Clary mumbled. "It's too open."
Jace half-agreed with her. "You know that you're going to have to call out for Simon, right? Yell and hope he recognizes it's you."
Clary's face went pale. She looked as if she were about to speak before the shriek cut her off.
By the time Eliza turned, she had both of her knives out. Raphael was gone. There was no sign that he had even existed at all. No marks in the dust from his feet touching the ground. There was nothing.
"Shit." Eliza hissed. Neither Clary nor Jace questioned her. Jace was already moving towards the arch at the other side of the room. "Jace!" She whisper-yelled. "Jace, wait!" Her feet were silent as she darted after him.
She grabbed him by the bicep, her fingers tight around his bare skin. "Something is-." He held his hand up, shushing her.
The ballroom was empty. The white marble flooring was cracked everywhere. The rails of the balconies were covered in rust and coated with thick layers of dust overtop. Cobwebs covered the room, swaying gently in the breeze.
In the middle of the room was Raphael. Clary breezed past Eliza and Jace, running to the boy.
"Something's wrong, Jace. I don't feel right." She whispered.
He looked over at her, his golden eyes frowning as his mouth did not. "I know. I've got it handled. Don't worry." He assured her.
Eliza frowned at him. Surely, he didn't think the same thing that she thought. Which, her thought wasn't far-fetched at all. It made sense to her. And she and Jace thought the same way sometimes, it wasn't unusual for them to have the same idea.
"No, I am fine. I thought I saw…" Raphael whispered. "It was nothing. Just a shadow."
Jace's expression was cold as he stared back at the boy. "We're returning to the servant stairs. There's nothing here."
Raphael said that was a great idea. He started walking for the door, passing by them. Eliza stiffened as he walked by them. Jace let him go a few more steps.
"Raphael." Jace called, calm as ever. Raphael turned, dark eyes bright. Jace's knife flew from his grasp.
Jace had good aim. Not Eliza good, but she commended him all the same. His aim was decent enough that even though Raphael moved quickly, the blade still stuck in his chest. Jace had thrown hard enough that the impact sent Raphael fell to the cracked marble floor.
"Jace!" Clary growled. She went to move to go check on Raphael. Eliza put her arm out and pushed Clary backwards.
Jace made a run for Raphael, lunging at him. Raphael moved quicker. A guttural scream escaped his mouth as his hand closed around the cross-shaped hilt of Jace's knife. It fell from his grasp, hitting the floor.
Jace took out his seraph blade, the translucent blade illuminating the room with a blue sheen. Eliza saw the spread of red that came from Raphael's chest.
Raphael's laugh echoed through the room. As he smiled, Eliza noticed his pointed incisors. "You missed my heart, Shadowhunter."
Jace grabbed him by the shirt with his free hand. "You weren't supposed to move."
Eliza no longer felt Clary pressed against her arm. She half-glanced back. Clary had taken several steps back, her green eyes wide with fright.
Eliza slipped one of her knives from her wrist. "When did you figure me out?" Raphael asked after he spit, his saliva tinged red. His accent had faded, like it had never existed at all.
"I had a hunch when you showed up in the alley. And then I saw your scar." Jace admitted.
Raphael glanced back at Eliza. "Your feet didn't mark the dust." She told him. "We trespassed." Her eyes went to Jace. "We're outside the Covenant."
Jace's tawny eyes flashed. He knew. Of course, he knew.
Raphael made a tsking sound. "I always heard you Shadowhunters were clever. But you don't seem so clever now." One of his thin fingers pointed up to the ceiling.
"Liz." Jace's voice was strained.
She lifted her head. The previously empty balconies were filled with people. Pale white faces, blood red mouths. A sick feeling settled in her stomach. She looked back at Jace. "He summoned the vampires when he screamed." She informed him.
She saw Raphael grin at Jace. "There are too many of them and not enough of you." Raphael's grin was monstrous.
And Jace…He had the look on his face. The murderous one.
"Maybe we can use him as a hostage?" Clary was then close to Eliza, her voice low. Eliza looked at her quickly. When her eyes scoured the room, she saw more vampires filling the arched doorway.
"It's all we've got." Eliza murmured.
Clary half-smiled. "Jace, stand him up." She called to Jace, her voice a little rickety.
Jace glanced at Eliza and she nodded only once. Jace maneuvered off Raphael and pulled the vampire boy to his feet. Eliza knew Jace had his knife at Raphael's back.
Clary looked at Eliza. Eliza gave her a nod of encouragement. Clary looked at the oncoming vampires. "Stop or Jace puts the knife through Raphael's back." She told them.
A quiet wave of laughter ran through the vampires. Raphael let out a cry of pain. Eliza sheathed her throwing knife and took out her seraph blade. It glowed brightly in the dark room. "If you don't think Jace will kill him, take it from me. I will shove this seraph blade into his heart so quickly, he won't even know he's dead until I take it out."
One of the vampires stepped forward. He was a tall thin blond guy with only one earring. She recognized him from the party. "They're Shadowhunters. And that one," he pointed to Eliza, "is protected by Magnus Bane."
A murmur went through the crowd of vampires. Another came forward, a small Asian girl with bright blue hair. "They're trespassers." She countered. "They've killed ours and now that they're outside the Covenant and the protection of warlocks, I saw we kill them."
The blond boy looked annoyed with her. "Where is your master?" Jace asked them.
"Our master is in Idris. She is on business leave there." The boy replied.
Jace and Eliza shared a look. Eliza put her seraph blade back up, the room going dimmer. "I'm very familiar with the order of Downworlders." Eliza told them. "If your master is on business in Idris, she left someone to lead in her absence." Her eyes were locked on the blond vampire. "Who would that be?" The way she looked at him, it was like she was seeing only him. No one else in the room existed.
"Raphael." The boy told her.
The blue-haired girl let out a noise of disapproval. "Jacob, shut up!" She hissed at the boy.
Eliza twirled around, smiling brightly at Jace. He had a hard look on his face, not at all matching hers. "It gets better and better." She turned back around, facing the horde of vampires. "Here's how this is going to go. You left Magnus' party with a little brown rat. He belongs to us. Give us the rat and we'll give you Raphael. Am I understood?"
Her green eyes flashed dark. The blue-haired girl stared back at her, a challenging look in her eyes. "You want a rat…For Raphael?" She asked slowly, making sure she was correct.
"Yes." Eliza replied evenly. "But he isn't just a rat. He's a mundane. A human. And since that is the case, you've violated the Law." Another murmur swept through them. "So, you're going to give us the rat and we'll hand over Raphael."
She could hear the loudness of Jace's wracked breathing. A boy stepped forward, he was a thin African American with long dreadlocks. "Is this your rat?" In his hands he held a brown rat.
Eliza smiled triumphantly. "Simon!" Clary squealed. The rat moved wildly in the boy's hands, squeaking and squawking.
The boy glanced down at the rat and then back up, a look of disdain on his face. "I'm sorry. I thought it was Zeke. You can have the rat. He bit me like twenty thousand times."
Eliza raised an eyebrow. He bit him? Clary looked at Eliza for direction before stepping to take the rat from the boy.
"Hold on." The Asian girl interrupted. "How do we know they won't kill Raphael after we hand over the rat?"
Clary was beside Eliza, her head high. "We'll give you our word."
Eliza looked at her, an amazed but uncertain look on her face. She heard the soft murmur of Raphael's Spanish. No one else spoke. Eliza turned her head, giving Jace a look.
"Clary." Jace started. "Maybe we sho-."
The vampire girl cut him off. "If you don't give the oath, we don't give the rat. You keep your hands on that rat, Elliott."
Simon the rat bit the boy- Elliott- again. The boy squalled out in pain.
"It isn't that big of a deal. It's just a swear." Clary told Eliza. "We have to get Simon back."
Eliza faltered. "Clary, the oath of a Shadowhunter is no silly thing. We're bound to them forever."
Jace made an angry noise. "We'd never break them, but that's exactly the point." Jace interceded on the conversation.
Jacob agreed with Lily. "You must swear that you won't hurt Raphael. Or we keep the rat."
"I'm not going to hurt Raphael." Clary's voice was tensed. "Never."
The girl vampire smiled tersely. She glanced at Jace and Eliza. "You aren't the one I'm concerned with. It's them."
Eliza heard Jace swear under his breath, something about hating mundanes she was sure. "Fine. I swear." Jace's voice was dark and annoyed.
"I swear it, as well." Eliza told the vampires.
She shook her head, clucking her tongue. "Swear on your Angel. Say your oath."
Jace said no immediately. "You swear first."
She saw the uncertain looks on the vampires. "No chance in Hell." Lily disagreed.
Eliza rolled her eyes at them. She was beginning to feel restless with the whole situation. "Right. Well, I'm growing bored by all of this." She sighed. Everyone looked at her. "You have a rat. A small brown rat. And we have Raphael, who is serving as your temporary leader while Camille Belcourt is on business in Idris, correct?"
She heard Raphael struggle against Jace. "How do you know that?" Raphael groaned as Jace's grip tightened.
She smiled at him, a dangerous thing her smile could be. "I allied myself with Magnus. And if I'm correct and I usually am, he has a history with Camille. So, I know who she is."
Raphael's head fell, his dark curls falling around his face. Jace had part of a smile on his face, only in his eyes. When Raphael lifted his head, there was a different sort of look in his eyes. Eliza recognized it. It was a look of triumph. "You came all this way for the rat. Shadowhunters will take the honor of swearing first."
Eliza's smile fell. Jace's face erupted in anger. His fingers were white where he held the vampire in his grip. "You heard her earlier. The rat is a mundane. If you kill him, you're breaking the Law." Jace told the vampires.
"He's a trespasser. And we all know that the Covenant doesn't support the protection of trespassers. There is also the matter of what is coming." Raphael told them.
"What is coming?" Eliza asked him.
He grinned madly at her. "We know of the whispers, the rumors. All of the Downworld is talking about it. The return of Valentine. And with his return, the fall of the Accords and the Covenant come. So, what is the life of a silly mundane and three Shadowhunters?"
Jace was looking at Eliza, his golden eyes unreadable. "Tell me more." Eliza told Raphael.
"A week ago, Valentine had a pack of Raveners summoned by some lowlife warlock. He uses his Forsaken to hunt for the Mortal Cup. He brings war."
Something settled low in her stomach. The same feeling of dread she got whenever Valentine was brought up. She was about to say something when Clary lunged for Elliot, seizing Simon from his hands.
Eliza spun around as the vampire girl grabbed at Clary, jerking her back. Clary kicked at the girl and jerked away from her hold. The girl smacked Clary and she reeled.
Jace flung Raphael to the ground and raced to Clary. He took out the vials of holy water and slung them on the vampires. He grabbed Clary by the wrist.
Raphael was on his feet and lunging for Jace. Jace ducked just before Raphael got to him, the vampire's fangs tearing into Jace's shirt.
Eliza saw the rat dart from Clary's hands and scurry towards Raphael. Simon bit down on Raphael's arm. Raphael tore the rat from his arm and tossed him on the ground. Simon darted back to Clary and she scrambled to bit him up.
Eliza had her knives in her hands. She narrowed her eyes, training them on Raphael. One of her knives slipped from her grasp and landed in the vampire's shoulder. He howled, turning back to her.
"There's a first time for everything. You missed." He spat at her. He yanked the knife from his shoulder and tossed it on the ground.
She cocked an eyebrow quizzically. "Did I?" She asked. Her eyes followed Jace and Clary as they moved through the crowd of the vampires, Jace's seraph blade glowing brightly.
Raphael's lip curled back, his fangs gleaming. "Kill them all!" He shouted at his vampires. "I want to kill you myself." His gaze met Eliza's.
She lifted her eyes to stare at Jace. He was looking back at her. She gave him an assuring nod, saying she would be fine. She looked back at Raphael. "You can certainly try."
At the back of the room, the Asian girl had launched herself towards Jace. She screeched as Jace threw his second seraph blade at her.
Raphael lunged at her, knocking her to the ground. His fangs were close to her neck. "You're going to taste good. I can feel it." His voice was low. He sank his mouth onto her neck, biting into her.
She resisted the urge to scream. Instead, she scrambled her hand, slipping the other knife from her wrist band. She shoved it into his stomach. His teeth tore from her neck, cutting more skin as he jerked up. He made a choking noise and grabbed at his throat, coughing up her blood, spitting it on her chest. She yanked the knife out and got to her feet.
She slid onto the floor, grabbing her other knife as she ran towards Jace. She felt the hot flow of blood as it pulsed out of her neck.
As she stood up, the windows exploded over them, showering broken glass. She shielded her face from the sharp debris. She looked up. Large creatures dove from the windows.
Werewolves.