Sorry for a few spelling mistakes in the last chapter. I just read through it and realised that I didn't correct all of them. Please forgive me. Enjoy the chapter.

Disclaimer- I do not own the Infernal Device series only Cassandra Clare has that privilege. I only own Cam and the plot.

Inspiration for this chapter- And with the cataclysm raining down, insides crying "save me now", you were there impossibly alone – Linkin Park, Iridescent.

Dedicated to- this chapter is dedicated to anyone who has ever found out the truth about something and never felt more alone afterwards.

Chapter 8 – Impossibly alone

Jem POV.

"Charlotte!" Will snapped, stalking forward until he was only an arms length away from her, his blue eyes flashing like ice about to shatter and explode. "What is going on?"

She breathed out a shaky sigh and sunk further into the armchair, her tiny body seeming to quiver slightly, whether from shock or worry, I couldn't tell.

"Will, calm down. Just come and sit down and_" Henry began, scrubbing his ginger hair out of his eyes before leaning across the desk to grab the back of Will's shirt.

Will spun round, his arm smacking Henry's hand away from him. That was the only sound that filled the room at the moment, the sharp slap of skin on skin.

"Don't touch me you fool!" Will snarled, his voice feral and savage. "Just tell me what the hell is going on!"

"Its all gone wrong." Charlotte whispered. I looked at her sharply.

"What do you mean?" I asked, trying to keep my voice calm and steady, unlike Will who looked ready to kill the next person who came within a two ft gap of him.

"We know its all gone wrong! We want to know what exactly it is!" Will railed, glaring at Charlotte with a look of pure hatred on his angry face.

"You remember when Tessa first arrived at the institute don't you?" Charlotte said, her voice shaking slightly as she swallowed.

I nodded but of course Will just had to voice an answer. "Of course I do. I was the one that found her passed out on our doorstep."

"When you were on your way back from some pub after getting up to God knows what with some girl." I couldn't help but put in.

Will glanced at me; a small widening of is eyes were the only indication that he was surprised. I shrugged back at him, uncaring and void of understanding for him. I was still angry with him.

"Boys now lets just stay_" Henry seemed agitated, like he was expecting some brawl to break out any minute.

I didn't blame him. With the tangled mix of angry pent up emotions in the air at the moment, a brawl was almost positive to happen.

Charlotte hurried to talk over him, her face tense. " She isn't who you think she is."

I frowned. "Now isn't really the time for riddles Charlotte. Can you please just explain what is going on in a simple manner?"

She looked at me, her small childlike face looking worried and lost. I gulped down a breath of air. This wasn't a good sign from Charlotte.

"I don't have time for this!" Will snarled, before spinning on his heel and heading for the door in four long strides.

"Wait! You need to know this Will!" Charlotte rose from her chair. "You need to be aware of the man who she is being held captive with. He is dangerous."

And we left Tessa all alone with him.

I felt sick. A burning ball of acid was churning mercilessly in my stomach at the thought of what could be happening to Tessa at this very minute.

I barely manage to step round Charlotte and reach the armchair before my legs gave out and I collapsed into it.

Tessa POV.

I bounced lightly on the balls of my feet while I listened carefully to Mrs Black announcing my presence to Cam.

"Enter." Cam called.

I took a deep calming breath and smoothed my pale pink dress down. The bodice was an intricate pattern of flowers and from the waist down the material flowed down till it pooled delicately on the floor.

The door opened slowly, bathing the dark hallway in an artificial candlelight.

I walked forward; head held high ignoring the feeling that I was all alone in this battle, gloved fingers firmly gripping small clusters of my dress so I didn't trip on it. The train of the dress trailed behind me slightly with each step I took.

"Ah, Tessa." Cam rose smoothly from behind his desk and opened his arms, smiling broadly. "How are you feeling my dear?"

I bowed my head respectfully before smiling shyly. "Much better now thank you. Please excuse my earlier behaviour. I was…overwhelmed, by everything. I simply wasn't thinking straight."

"Of course, of course. I wouldn't dream of holding it against you my love. You went through a terrible ordeal, but I can look after you now. Won't you please sit? I was just about to have dinner ordered." He held out his hand, palm cupped ready for my own to be slipped into his.

Carefully, I wove my fingers into his and allowed him to guide me to a plump armchair that was nestled in a corner, farthest from the door but nearest the fire.

"You look extravagant this evening my love." Cam purred, squeezing my hand.

I giggled. "Oh, you must thank Mrs Black and Mrs Dark for their assistance, otherwise I would not be quite so fetching to look at." I settled into the chair, sitting back till my heeled shoes barely grazed the hard stone floor.

Cam presented me with a dainty glass goblet, holding it up with a flourish. "You look beautiful no matter what, Tessa."

I lowered my eyes and turned my head away slightly, imitating the action of a blush. "You're too kind my lord."

His face-neared mine, closing in till I felt his warm cool breath on my neck. "I will show you just how kind I can be, if you'll grace me with your presence in my chambers tonight…"

I felt the first tentacles of panic wriggle wrestling in my stomach for the first time since Will had left, as Cam closed his hands round my waist and pressed an innocent peck on my neck.

The clearing of a throat from the doorway had Cam pulling angrily away from me, and his eyes looked hungry and savage.

My sigh caught in my throat as I felt a strong stab of sympathy for the person who disrupted us, and unwittingly angered Cam.

"Dinner is ready to be served my Lord." Mrs Black croaked softly.

Cam blew out a sharp breath. "Very well. Go. We will follow."

With a bow that was stooped so low I felt the urge to jump up and prepare myself to catch the old women, she wobbled out of the room and then it was just me and Cam once again, and the pounding of my fast beating heart.

Sliding a hand through his hair, Cam rose swiftly and pulled me gently from my seat. "Let us dine, my love, and then the night shall be ours."

Now or never Tessa…

I tugged forcefully on his hand, halting him abruptly. "Wait my Lord." I said.

His eyes met mine, curious yet the intimate lust that he was so obviously craving still glowed possessively from the depths of his green-flecked eyes.

"I'm sorry Cam, its just, I don't…" I trailed off, coughing up a little shaky breath.

"What is it my love?" he clasped my hands tightly in his own, holding them close to his chin.

I took a deep breath and exhaled shakily, slowly raising my gaze to meet his own. Honestly, I was surprised at my acting skills. "Well, something is bothering me, and well, I simply can not eat with such thoughts crowding my head."

Cam sighed in what appeared to be relief. "Oh darling, we can settle it out over dinner. Lets not let it spoil our evening."

"Of course, please excuse my thoughtlessness. Lets dine." I smiled, and led him out the room, scooping a handful of my gown up off the floor to avoid treading on it.

*Back at the institute, Jem POV*

"Why did this have to happen?" Charlotte was clinging to Henry desperately, repeating the sentence over and over again, her voice wobbling slightly. "This wasn't supposed to happen! He wasn't meant to show up, he shouldn't even have known about the party!"

This roused me from my silent stupor in the armchair I had collapsed into. "Charlotte, please, I am begging you, explain what is going on." I rose from the chair and reached for her shoulder. "Please Charlotte. Please."

"Jem," Henry said disapprovingly. "Now isn't the time to pressure Charlotte like this. She's under a lot of strain and its really not helping to have you badgering_"

"No, no Henry. He deserves to know. I just don't know where to begin." The tiny woman sniffed and wiped her nose on Henry's handkerchief.

Relenting my tense somewhat angry interrogating for a minute, I grasped Charlotte's hand and helped her sit in the chair I just vacated. "Now, take your time."

"Tessa isn't a normal mundane, as I'm sure you're well aware of by now. She's…special. She isn't your average warlock and she isn't nephilim either. She is a breed that has never graced the earth before. Tessa is a riddle wrapped up in a mystery." A wild slightly hysterical laugh burst out of Charlotte.

I couldn't help but think about how much that phrase reminded me of Will, my parabatai who had just charged off into a battle that he knew nothing about.

But of course, this was also very generic of Will.

"As you know, Will found her collapsed on our porch steps a month ago on his way back from goodness knows where one evening." Suddenly, Charlotte's eyes widened and she gasped. "Henry! It was this very evening last month. Oh, how foolish of us."

I frowned. "How is that relevant? What does it prove?"

"Not yet. Listen." Henry mumbled, shaking his head bewilderedly.

"Well, due to her strange ability, Henry and myself tried to investigate and find out about her race, but no book held any information. We turned to Magnus Bane, the warlock, and even he knew very little on the matter." Charlotte swallowed and took a deep breath. "But one afternoon, when you, Will and Tessa were otherwise occupied, I travelled to the Silent City and held a conference with Brother Enoch and Brother Jeremiah."

"Jolly good Charlotte. Did they have any useful information concerning Tessa?" I asked eagerly.

"They did." Charlotte paused.

"Well, that's good news is it not?" I pressed.

"They had an ancient vague prophecy that a creature –a type of shape shifter- would eventually be_"

"And so it was. Tessa was born," I interrupted. "But I don't understand, you say this as if it's a bad_"

"Not born. Created." Charlotte amended quietly.

I felt my eyes widen. "Created? You mean to say Tessa was brought into this world…unnaturally?"

Charlotte nodded slowly, her grave eyes watching me carefully.

"This means Tessa doesn't have parents. She has a creator. An owner." I said slowly, narrowing my eyes as I thought.

Charlotte seemed to tense slightly, as if preparing for a tremendous shock or a powerful blow. She was staring at me, her eyes monitoring my every move, her head set firmly, expectantly.

But what was she expecting?

And then, with a sickening lurch in my already uneasy stomach, the penny dropped.

"No." I rose from my kneeling position and staggered back a step. "It can't be."

Charlotte stretched agilely over the side of the chair and caught my wrist before I tripped over the curled up corner of the elaborate rug and pulled me close to her.

"Its Cam." She whispered. "Cam is her creator."

Tessa POV.

"I beg your pardon?" I asked coldly, although I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to be told again.

"I am your creator_" Cam repeated. I wasn't sure whether he was deliberately ignoring the cold fury in my voice or simply couldn't hear it.

"You can't be." I interrupted. "I have a family, a brother for crying out loud! I was born. I can't be created." I spat the word out like it was filth.

Cam frowned. "You are adopted Tessa. You have been foolishly indoctrinated into thinking that you were put on this earth for anything but a productive purpose."

"Productive to who?" I snapped, slamming down my knife and fork.

Cam mimicked my actions. "The time for you to find out what your purpose is will soon come, but that time isn't now."

"I fail to see how you, Sir, have any say in when I deserve to find out my true purpose." I hissed.

"Since I am the man who created you." He retorted, and I cringed. "Now lets eat our dinner and forget about this awful business."

I shoved my plate away from me, the food holding no appeal to me. "I'm not hungry."

Cam sighed and beckoned Mrs Dark over. "Take the plates. Bring the desert."

Mrs Dark snatched the plates up off the table and moved disjointedly towards the double wooden doors that separated the kitchen from the dinning room.

"I do not wish fro desert either." I folded my hands tightly in my lap.

"What do you wish for?" he asked, as Mrs Black entered the room and placed two small bowls of sorbet in front of us.

"I want answers." I said simply.

Cam rolled his eyes, picking up his spoon and stabbing his sorbet. "Of course you do. What answers would you like?"

"Its not a question of liking answers it's a need for answers." I replied stiffly.

Cam waved his hand dismissively. "Technicalities mean little to me. What do you need to know?"

I scowled, not finding his patronizing manor at all redeeming. "Well, lets begin with an easy less dire one shall we?" I stared evenly at him. "You are my creator, which if we ignore the technicalities, which after all mean little to you," I added as he opened his mouth to interrupt. "You are, for all intents and purposes, my father."

He stared at me, lowering his spoon dazedly back into the bowl.

"Why would you want to marry your 'daughter'?"

His confused look vanished and he leaned back in his chair. "You are a creation that has never been invented before Tessa, many people, like the Gabriel family, are eager to claim you falsely as their own. I thought what better way to claim you then to have a legal ceremony?" he smirked at me.

I felt sick. "You're despicable." I stated flatly.

Cam's face hardened. "I wanted something. I created something that makes it possible. And now I'm clinging to the thing that will soon triumph my plan. I fail to see the despicable quality of that."

*Outside Cam's castle, Normal POV*

Will moved agilely though the dark undergrowth of the forest surrounding the east side of Cam's castle. His black hair was matted with blood and grit but he ignored the unsanitary feel of it sticking to his forehead as he flattened himself against the stonewall of Cam's domain.

He peeped round the corner of the castle and saw with disdain that a small army of demons were surrounding the most accessible entry into the castle.

Scrubbing a hand down his face, Will thought hard.

And then the most wonderful idea came to mind. Breathing in shallow breaths as to not alert the demons of his presence, he sunk low to the muddy ground and commando crawled past them.

It was a slow, painful process, as the weight of his body being pressed so tightly together pulled at the cuts on his shoulders and back, but he reached the corner of the castle and dragged himself behind the wall.

Creeping cautiously forward, he made his way towards a patch of light shining through a window about two meters ahead. His black sturdy boots were caked with blood and dust but they never faltered to catch a grip on the uneven gravel.

Ducking low to the floor, he peeped up from under the windowsill with calm blue eyes. His heart leapt as he saw Tessa glaring at Cam in the dim candle lighting of what appeared to be a dinning room.

She looked unharmed but he noticed that she looked rather angry and slightly deranged. Rather than risk loosing a fairly adequate position if he needed to jump in and quickly protect Tessa he ignored his sense of finding a way into the castle and settled down to listen to the intense conversation that was taking place in the large room.

*At the institute, Normal POV*

"What does Cam want with Tessa now? I mean, there is obviously a reason as to why she was created but why did he let her go in the first place if he was so obsessed with her?" Jem asked, tugging at his soft silver hair.

"We do not know. We never went into any more detail than that. We just didn't seem to find it necessary at the time. I wish to God we had asked now." Charlotte said rather angrily.

Henry slipped an arm round her shoulder comfortingly. "Don't blame yourself Lottie. This isn't your fault."

"Of course not." Jem agreed. "It isn't anybody's fault. We just have to find a way to salvage the situation."

"I think we should contact Benedict Lightwood. The Lightwood's are the only other family that is aware of Tessa's origin besides the members of the Enclave meeting." Charlotte said. "Henry, please pass me the phone."

"We need to find Will and Tessa." Jem mumbled softly, a fierce longing burning in his silver eyes at the thought of him missing out on a chance to protect his friends. His parabatai and Tessa, who was close enough to being his sister as any blood relative.

"Strange." Charlotte muttered as she balanced the phone on the edge of Henry's cluttered desk. "There was no answer. Their butler said that they hadn't been present all evening."

"Most peculiar." Henry agreed.

"Well now it's down to us to do something. We have to assist Will and Tessa somehow_" a blood-curdling scream had the three shadowhunters racing across the room, and out into the hallway.

"Jessie!" Charlotte shouted. "Jessie where are you?"

Jem pumped his arms faster, gaining more speed than Charlotte or Henry and he managed to grab the wooden banister and pull himself up the stairs.

He didn't hear Charlotte's feet hit the carpeted stairs over the roaring of his own blood in his ears but instantly knew that she was taking the stairs two at a time, easily gaining on him. Charlotte was very protective of Jessamine and the other occupants of the Institute and Jem knew she wouldn't rest until everyone of them was safe.

Charging down the dimly lit corridor until he reached the door, which hid the screaming, he clutched his cane tightly in his hand, and threw the door open.

He moved swiftly into the room, his silver eyes flashing, and the muscles in his arms flexing. His eyes were instantly drawn to the open bathroom door and the scene splayed out in front of it.

"Gabriel?" Jem gasped, dropping his menacing stance with the cane.

"James." Gabriel said, looking confused and slightly worried. "I_"

"Jem! Please help!" Jessamine was on her knees, her hair soaking wet and a silk dressing gown wrapped round her small frame. A dark wool blanket was laying half on, half off her body, as if it had been thrown over her head and her wet hair was mused, as if she had struggled to pull the blanket off her. Her wrist was clutched tightly in Gabriel's hand and she looked absolutely terrified

"What are you doing?" Jem demanded. "Let go of her."

"Gabriel, hurry up. What in the world is taking so long? Grab the girl quickly. We must_"

"Grab what girl Benedict?" Charlotte's voice was hard as steel as she entered the room, a sharp knife brandished in her tiny yet deadly fist.

Benedict emerged rather sheepishly from outside the bedroom window. "Charlotte. What are you doing here?"

Charlotte laughed disbelievingly. "Its my institute is it not? And you will tell me what it is you require that makes you feel the need that you can intrude in this way."

There was an awkward moment of silence where nobody knew what to do or say. But then, as if the pressure had finally got its claws into him, Gabriel blurted, "We just want the girl."

"Gabriel!" Benedict scolded.

"Who? Jessie?" Jem frowned, confused.

"No, the other one. The creature."

Charlotte exploded. "Tessa? Why would you want Tessa? Why can't people just leave her be?"

"I heard them talking. They want Tessa for some sort of plan. They want to claim her before Cam does. They obviously hadn't realised that Cam still has here in his_" Jessamine was struggling to escape Gabriel's grip and her voice was trembling yet very indignant.

"No, Jessie, stop talking!" Charlotte shouted.

But it was too late. The Lightwood's had heard and with one look at each other, Gabriel was rushing blindly towards the window and Benedict was reaching forward to grab his son.

Quicker than the naked eye could comprehend, Charlotte was in front of Benedict, grabbing his arm in a vice like grip, and having the element of surprise, managed to over balance him and yank him through the window.

With a quick punch to the jaw and a knee in the kidney, Benedict was pinned to floor and wheezing.

"Father!" Gabriel yelled, stumbling back a step in surprise. Jem stepped forward, shoving Gabriel roughly into the corner of the room and positioning the marble ball at the end of the cane by the older boy's temple.

"I suggest not moving. One flick of my wrist and I could easily end you." Jem warned

"Let's get them downstairs for questioning. Move out the way Jessie." Charlotte ordered.

"I must say, I find it highly amusing, that when we were calling their home for help, they were breaking into ours." Jem chuckled tiredly as he beckoned Gabriel forward, grinning wickedly as he did so.

Chapter end.

Bet y'all didn't see that one coming did ya? Huh? Huh? Huh?

I was going to make it longer but then I thought you'd already had a lot of knew information to process so I left it at this part :)

Reviews anyone? Please?