Chapter 2 Leverage

Getting turned into a vampire had its perks. The immortality, the speed, the strength, the heightened sense, yet despite all that, it was still the worse memory of Raphael's life; considering neither Camille nor the other vampires had intended to turn him. Maybe that was how God had intended for Raphael to get revenge on Camille: let Raphael join the undead so he could be Camille's biggest nuisance, and eventual downfall, for eternity.

That still did not make the turning any better. Getting buried alive, sure I was almost dead, but I understood what was going on the whole time, Camille attacking me, draining my blood to the point where I could not speak or see or move but I remember I could hear.

"He's a junky; no one's going to miss him,"

"Someone will."

"Yeah, the other junkies. Just bury the body, it shouldn't be hard, he's dying, if not dead already."

"Camille, we can't have unmarked graves showing up around here, the mundanes are already suspicious about the hotel, if people go missing like this, and if a shallow, unmarked grave pops up, we really will have a problem, and that problem is called the Nephilim." Raphael could tell the voice was male and deep. The words were becoming blurrier and blurrier.

"Then bury him outside of the city." The bitch's, Camille's, words were dull, and after that, I could not hear anymore.

But that was not the worst of it. Knowing that I was being buried alive, but then not dying from lack of air, and then having to claw my way out of the ground, and in winter for god's sakes. It must have taken a while, because when I got out the sky was light and the sun was on the horizon. None of the vampires were there to help, and the only thing I could think of was how starved I was.

It didn't take me long to figure out what I was starving for.

Raphael had had access to Camille's files ever since he took over; and over the course of three years, he had made it through about half of them. Camille had a file for every vampire that had ever been in New York City. At first, Raphael had felt like he was intruding into the personal lives of others; their actions, their character, their personality, it was all written down here in some sick form of observations Camille had made like she was a therapist or something; no wonder why she had such strong control over the others. Including me; Raphael shuttered at the thought.

The file marked Santiago, Raphael was one of the largest; and Raphael had to smile at that. He already knew what was in it without looking through it; arrest reports, records of fights with the other vampires, notes on who his family was and his relationships with them, and probably hundreds of notes noting his 'behavioral issues'.

Raphael took a last glance at his folder and then dumped it in the trash; he did not need a trip down memory lane, not a gigantic, pain in the ass one that is. He could handle the moments that would pull him back into the past, the memories that at times suffocated him and brought back all the pain and misery in his existence.

"What? Wh-" the blonde bitch was speechless as she looked me over. Her green eyes were wide with anger and her hands clenched and unclenched. "How?" The fact that she was so startled by my reappearance was music to my ears.

Camille looked to the man standing at her side, the one I had heard talking with her as I lay on the floor dying. She looked desperate, the man looked confused. "Darryl?" She asked him; but all he could do was stare at me covered in a fine layer of dirt from the grave and blood spattered on my lips and shirt. I was probably quite a site, even for them.

"No one blooded him, Camille. He shouldn't be," The man called Darryl paused, he sounded flustered, kind of like that girl had been at that party a month ago, I smiled as I thought back and my fangs involuntarily slipped out, (I need to get control of that) and Camille and Darryl gasped despite the fact that I already knew they didn't breathe. "A vampire," Darryl finally finished, he was eyeing me like I was some kind of predator, and considering the obvious, and I guess I was now.

"Camille, what the hell is going on… oh my Go-" I turned my head as someone else entered the room. He was tall and blonde, but skinny as hell. He probably didn't have an ounce of muscle on him; but looks are deceiving. I cocked my head as he choked on the word God. Strange. "Didn't we, uh, I mean didn't you, Camille, you know? Get rid of him?" The guy stuttered and tripped over his words. And now I remembered the guy. With the new vampire senses people, objects, places, they were all brought into such clarity that it was hard to recognize familiar things; which was probably why it had taken two days to find my way home.

"It seems we didn't." Camille answered him without taking her eyes off me. Her own fangs were out now, but she didn't look ready to make any move to attack.

The guy, the blonde one, I had seen him around the neighborhood more than once. Always hanging around in the alleys or at the parties where my friends and I would get high. He was never the center of attention, actually he tended to stay on the sidelines, preferring to watch us, maybe it was observing, I never bothered to find out. But every once in a while he would join in, braving whatever it was that held him back the majority of the time.

And I had shared a needle with him.

At the moment my eyes locked with blondie's, I knew he was responsible for what I was now; and so did he. But he didn't look ready to fess up for his actions and I didn't push it; besides, I still didn't understand how I had become what I am now.

I turned my gaze back to Camille and in less than a second I had rammed into her, knocked her against the wall, the force of the blow cracking the drywall. The others were too stunned to do anything, and for a moment I just stood there, dizzy from the speed of my attack; then, I reached out and grabbed Camille by the chin, my grin so strong I'm surprised the bone didn't break. I jerked her face up to mine so I could look her right in the eyes, see the fear in them, and I could feel my fangs against my bottom lip again.

"You don't want to be doing that," She said, her words were strained and contorted since I had a hold of her jaw. However, her words were enough to catch my attention.

"And why's that?" I asked; my voice sounded different. It was smoother, and somehow warmer, despite the current situation. Camille's eyes darted to my right and I shook her to regain her attention. "Answer me."

"You don't want to kill me because you don't know what you are."

"I have a pretty good idea." The words dripping off my tongue like ice.

"You don't know the consequences of your actions if you were to kill me," Her voice was higher now, her hands scraped at the hand I had clamped around her jaw, and I have to admit, it hurt; but not enough to force me to let go.

"I've never cared about consequences."

"If you kill me, they'll come after you." She said; there was a slight jump in her voice as she spoke the word 'them' that caught me off guard and I relaxed my grip a little. Camille didn't jump at the chance to get away, she stayed there, against the wall with my hand on her gripping her chin but there was confidence in her eyes. She had found my weakness: my lack of knowledge of the vampire world.

"What the other vampires? Please bitch, you think I'm scared of them?" My words were strong, but they still lacked the adrenaline that had filled my words before. I was finally starting to come down from the blood high, or at least that was what I had come to call it; my new choice of drug.

"No. They aren't what you should fear. I'm the leader of this coven; you kill me the Nephilim will come to investigate and everyone will point to you, the rogue vampire." I had heard of Nephilim before; but it was the kind the priest taught of at the church: the ten foot tall, man eating creatures that had roamed the Earth until God flooded it.

"I highly doubt those still exist today," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Ha. You don't know anything about downworld, you'll be dead within the week," she paused I glared at her until she spoke again. "Unless you follow me." I moved my hand from her jaw to her neck, my grip threatening to crush it.

"I don't follow anyone."

"Then you'll be dead within the week, just like I said before." Her voice was sweet and soft and once again, she managed to get me to relax my grip. "If you follow me, I can teach you about our world. About vampires, the Nephilim, downworld, and how it all fits together." She gave me a smile that said she understood what she was going through;, her words sounded sympathetic, as if she felt sorry for me. And I have to admit I fell for it. My hands dropped from her neck and I could hear her words repeating over and over in my mind; and then I gave a small nod, my eyes on the ground to avoid her triumphant gaze.

Raphael glanced around the room; there was no longer any sign of Camille. Except for in my head, Raphael thought. At the familiar sound of his phone Raphael could see that Lily had called him three times now. Sure he had known, but Lily really was not is favorite person in the world, so he rarely answered when she called.

Now as he watched the screen light up with a text message, Raphael rolled his eyes.

I found some more information on the Valentine rumors.

Simple, short, and sweet. But Raphael already knew that was all he was going to get unless he sought out Lily herself, which would mean an uncomfortably long conversation with her that consisted of her giving tidbits of information while she flirted with Raphael while he did his best to keep the conversation on track.

With one last glance at his phone, Raphael sighed and headed for the door; at least he could come back and sleep off whatever horrible tactic Lily was going to try this time.

There it's not that much longer but it is a little bit. I think I 'm going to change the timing so that this story intertwines with City of Bones, maybe City of Ashes, just from Raphael's POV because I do miss the Raphael/Clary, it was fun.