Captured Here
"Look," she says, trying to sound authoritative, "can you give me my phone and let me leave? I'm alive, hurrah, and I promise never to do it again. I seriously need to go help Simon."
His wicked grin and excitable energy soaks away, like a layer of paint being stripped down to reveal the blank and dead funeral mask. It's so sudden that it's like time has stopped, only a viscous sort of patience and fury in his dark eyes shows that he's still sort-of living. Then he sighs, the moment breaks, and holds out his hand for her, every bit the gentleman and the human.
"Will you come with me? There's something you need to see."
Clary POV:
She takes his hand, the skin smooth and cool and strong under her artist's fingers, and he pulls her up gracefully. His old smile returns for a moment and she smiles back like a first date, nervous and delighted, before he lets go and she's left feeling empty and somehow colder.
He turns on his heel and leaves the room, unlocking the bedroom door and leading her through to a vast living room, a sort of apartment – she's too bewildered to speak. There's no kitchen, just a big shiny fridge to the side and a collection of fluffy sofas, but most of the space is taken up by an ornate wooden desk on a raised dais. He heads straight for it and unlocks a package from one of the draws – everything seems to have a lock on it here.
He offers it to her and she takes it, amazed at how ordinary it is. She used to buy CD's off the internet and they'd come in these sorts of yellow envelopes, it even has the label of some company on it. She slides her finger along the already opened packaging, pulling out the photographs inside. Unable to stop herself she makes whimpering sound like a kicked dog, but when she looks to Raphael he remains stoic – as though none of this really matters to him, and she's pretty sure it doesn't.
The photo on top was of Sebastian, smiling wildly at the camera and holding up a vampire's head like it was a prize fish. Surprisingly she knows him from Shadowhunter history books, he was called Jonas De'vault and he, along with his coven in Washington, had travelled all over the world promoting the accords. They would never have been signed if not for him. There were more photos too, of safe houses set on fire, of child massacres in the mortal world, of werewolves and warlocks and the fey and the children of the night. In each one a red circle had been drawn as a crown of spikes, obviously Sebastian's new symbol for world domination.
Then she sees the last photo, and she holds it carefully, terrified of it because it's not a picture but a quote. And thus you have defied me, like a gateway opened to my revenge. No name, no signature – just his sickening voice echoing in her mind.
She thought he was dead, gone, never to touch their lives again. She thinks of his hair under her fingers when she kissed him, of the manic look in his eyes when he'd killed Hodge. The pain, the nightmares, the wishing late at night he'd never been born – it was like he'd corrupted her, like he was constantly there whenever she was scared. Maybe she knew somehow that he wasn't dead because he certainly hadn't left her alone.
"Maryse phoned last night to tell me that they'd be sent to everyone who was key to winning the war," he tells her formally, like a solder giving a report, "I told her that you were safe here and not to send anyone or say anything."
"Raphael…" she whispers, needing inexplicably to know that someone understood her. Not just him, though she wants desperately to hear his voice, wants him to say it'll all be okay – she left her mom so brutally last night, and now she must be panicking, her daughter missing and her twisted son after them all. "I can't – why does this mean I shouldn't call?"
"No-one knows you're here, Clary, only my coven and they'll keep quiet if I tell them to. This place is a fortress with a hundred and seventy-two guards, if you stay here you'd be protected." She stiffens at the idea, surprised he'd even suggest it when he's always hated her so much. But she can't help but also find it appealing, any offer that could hide her from Sebastian she would take. There was just one gorgeous, blonde haired problem.
"You realise I have a boyfriend, right? A loving, amazing boyfriend who I really don't intend to leave?" She says and he shrugs, either not bothered or just not interested. He lopes gracefully – every step was silent with a vampire – closer to her, into her personal space. For some reason she can't understand her feet won't move her backwards.
"I know angel, I just don't let insignificant details like that affect me." He's completely in her face now, and she can't tell from his smirk that he finds this all very funny. He's so beautiful though, alluring, like a panther on the chase. She shakes her head and steps away, spotting the sofa and walking over to it – she just needs space from him.
"Look, please, let's think this through. What are the other options?" To her total lack of surprise, he's followed her.
"For you or for me?" He asks, sitting next to her but – thankfully – far enough away that she can breathe properly.
"You first," she says and runs her hands along on the heap of blankets on his couch, fluffy and soft – she loves them immediately.
"Well I'd say I have two options. Firstly that I stay here with my coven and rely on their loyalty, which has been pretty good since the war. Sebastian knows where I am but I'm in the strongest position I can be, surrounded by most of my allies and in a City I know well. Secondly I run. I stand down from my coven and I hide somewhere where no man should be able to find me, and then I wait, because in time Sebastian surely will. Can you guess which one I'll pick?" His amused tone is back, his fire and she almost sighs with relief – almost.
"And for me? I have to have more than two."
"Yes, I'd give you three, possibly four. Your first is the same as my second, you hide somewhere remote and then he kills you. Perhaps a better idea in your case, as you're going to die anyway, and this might give you decades of time – you could take Jace, it could be like a fairy tale romance." He mocks her with his smile, because he knows that Jace would never go and that makes her so insecure she's ashamed.
"Raphael," she warns tiredly, "will you just try to be decent for a while? Okay, so I don't have the first option. What's the next one?"
"The Institute?" He doesn't need to say more, it's so obviously a flawed plan.
"No way," she says, her forehead creasing in frustration, "he knows I stayed there, he's bound to attack it. And against Sebastian, I'd just get us all killed."
"Well, it's worth remembering that he plans to attack the Lightwoods anyway, so you wouldn't be endangering them more than they already are. But yes, you would die pointlessly and horrifically. The same goes for staying at the glittering warlock's or the dogs or any of your other weird friends." His words, though harsh, ring true. She slumps back on the sofa, wishing she could find a single way out that didn't involve living with vampires for who knows how long.
"You said there was a third way to go…" It's her last, desperate hope.
"Alicante, in Idris. As a Shadowhunter you could claim refuge there, you'd be protected, but…"
"They're not safe. Do you think – Maryse says they are, but do you think they're less corrupt than before?"
"I think liberalising, accepting new ideas and changing a culture that's stood for a thousand years takes a long time. War hurries that along and they've come far but with so many Shadowhunters dead… lots of powerful people have been rapidly replaced. They don't know what they're doing, they both despise and depend on the Downworlder Council, and soon enough they're going to start using you, especially with Sebastian back."
"So I guess that ties it up nicely. You're my only option." She pauses, contemplating that. "Well, thanks for letting me stay, at least."
"You're welcome. So, shall we go tell your mother you're staying with a vampire coven for the foreseeable future?"
His smile, as always, is made to mock her.
A/N: Thanks for reading! This is the last of the chapters I've already written, so I am now going to have to put some work in. :-(
Greygirl2358: Immortal vampire, doesn't particularly care what anyone thinks, holds power over other vampires and can talk in Spanish? Yes, yes, I'd say that's very hot:-)
And a humungous, elephant sized thanks also to pizzapie IS MINE, Huntress3419, mortalinstrumentsgurl1 and Greygirl2358 for their unwavering enthusiasm and support –these guys are awesome, do check their stuff out if you have time!