It's Sunday and time for a new chapter of Lady Midnight! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it :D
TheartofMOAR
4. Beyond the Rave
Don't fail me James. You are to run an institute one day. Weakness is a liability, you are strong and you will conquer.
Jaime's father, Danilo Rosales, voice rang like a bell in his head. It was a phrase all Rosales men said to their sons as they grew up. Eventually he would be given a suitor like Christina to marry and have a son of his own to pass on the message. It was old fashioned but it was the Rosales way.
The sun was setting; yellow and orange beams of sunlight lit the training space like a golden room from El Dorado.
He threw the javelin at the dummy with a fury he reserved only for demons; the long silver shaft impaled the dummy's chest and clanged when it hit the wall. He turned to the others. Drusilla and Livia sat on the shiny wooden floor of the training room, legs crossed. They whispered to each other occasionally looking at him as he tore the javelin out of the dummy. Tiberius leaned against the wall staring intently at a small black book. His black hair fell over solemn grey eyes.
"Alright, your turn." Jaime breathed. He bent down to catch his breath, sweat dripping off his face and onto the hardwood floor into a small pool. Livia and Drusilla stood up and made their way to a wall containing a magnitude of weapons. Daggers, swords, javelins and Jaime's favourite, the repeating crossbow.
"Ty, you too." He called. Tiberius snapped the black book shut and pocketed it.
"Why must I rely on brawn when my brain can protect me as well as your weapons protect you." Ty said.
"Your brain doesn't protect you, Livvy does!" Drusilla called. She was spinning a curved dagger in her small, unscarred fingers. She still hasn't had her marks; Jaime assumed she'd get them within the year. Soon the scars would cover her like an intricate map of a strange foreign land.
Tiberius tutted at her. "I am perfectly capable of protecting myself without Livia." To Jaimie's surprise, Ty showed more of a fondness for his twin than the other Blackthorns. He softened whenever she was around like rocks being smoothed by the sea tide.
Jaime strolled towards Tiberious and leant next to him on the wooden panelled wall. Drusilla and Livia were focused on the moves he had just showed them. Livia excelled at the eight limbs technique using her speed to bounce around Drusilla and jabbing into her pressure points.
"Has anyone ever taught you how to fight Ty?"
Ty didn't take his tempestuous grey eyes of Livia, her long wavy brown hair was loose and flowing around her shoulders.
"My brother…" He let the sentence hang.
"Julien."
Ty turned to Jaime, his eyes dulled like stone. "No. Mark Blackthorn. The one your clave said they'd get back from The Wild Hunt. It's been five years since he was seized by Sebastian Morgenstern. I hope he suffered for what he did to me." Each word was like a bullet piercing Jaime's chest.
"He hurt other people you know."
Ty turned to Jaime, his face contorted. "My brother killed my father. My other brother was abducted and my sister is an exile." Ty's voice rose and he rubbed the pocket of his waistcoat where the small black book was.
"You don't want to learn to fight then?" A small part of Jaime wanted him to desperately say 'yes' but he could see this boys resolve before he gave his answer.
"I think Shadowhunters place too much emphasis on confrontation. Look at them," He motioned to Livia and Drusilla. They were on the floor, a mass of giggling limbs. Livvy was tickling Dru's foot, "I don't want to become something I'm not."
"So don't."
"I'm sorry?"
"You're braver than me to admit that. Be what you want to be, don't ever let someone tell you what you are. You decide what you want to be."
Ty's face melted into a sly grin. He ran a runed hand through his unruly jet black hair. "Sherlock Holmes." He said. Jaime raised his eyebrows and Ty chuckled softly as if he knew some sort of inside joke. "Sherlock Holmes used his brain to vanquish his enemies. I intend to use the very same thing."
Jaime struggled to remember about the mundane book that he had heard so much about. He was a detective with an assistant named 'Watson'.
"So Holmes, have you found your Moriarty yet?" Said Jaime. Ty's eyes brightened.
"Not yet, but soon. I can feel it like a change of wind."
Jaime propped himself up and started to stroll over to Drusilla and Livia to tell them to untangle themselves and to get back to work.
"Jaime." Ty called softly. He turned around. Ty was fiddling with the hem of his black Shadowhunter gear, tugging it until it became loose baring his skinny frame.
"Did you know that Sherlock Holmes fenced? Do you think-maybe- you could teach me some sword techniques, for research obviously." He hastily added.
Jaime tried to hide the smile that was climbing up his throat. "Sure, just grab a sword and we'll start."
"Love the Goth gear but where's the make-up?" A spotty teenager with a squeaky voice said to Emma. "Where'd you get it from?"
Emma looked down at her black Shadowhunter gear and back at the lanky teenager in a white tank-top.
"A super-secret organisation that aims to protect the world from demons in Connecticut" Emma replied dryly. The spotty teenager smiled awkwardly at her, his ginger hair was gelled up into an array of shiny spikes.
"Right on." He said before leaving them. They were near the front of a queue to the 'Beyond the Rave' nightclub. One of the biggest in LA and coincidently run by the High Warlock of Los Angeles, Malcom Fade. The building was elegant and low slunk with black marble pillars above the double doors of the club. A Neon sign flashed above them with a corpse hand reaching up. Occasionally purple and green light would escape the building when the bouncers let someone new in.
Emma leaned on the wall with Jules beside her. He was smoking again, puffing out tendrils of smoke from his mouth. He turned to Emma and smiled.
"The Connecticut clave is going to have a riot with you when squeaky voiced teens from all over the country start looking for our gear." Jules threw the cigarette on the floor and stood on it with the toe of his boot.
"I don't see why we didn't just go back to the institute and change into something else to see this warlock in?" Silas said. In the large crowd his small stature was even more noticeable. A few girls wearing party hats pointed and giggled meanly at him. He glanced over at the girls then looked down to the floor, hunching himself over trying not to be seen again. He was about 5 foot 6 Emma guessed, she was taller than him by only an inch but Jules and Christina towered over both of them.
Christina looked away from the boy she was talking to, he was pale and his blush stood out against his black hair. "Because if we went back to the institute then Jaime would make us stay there." Christina said. "It's easier if he thinks that we're still out Demon hunting, so I texted and told him they're on the move and we're following. Not dead and a puddle." She shrugged and gave a coy smile.
"Why are we here Em?" Jules put his hand on her shoulder rubbing it slightly with his thumb. Part of her wanted to desperately push him away, the other part wanted to lean into him and never move.
"The Oni mentioned something about a Lady Midnight. I'm just curious. Fade knows everything that goes on in Downworld and I want to know if she's a threat." Emma turned away, what she hadn't mentioned was that it had mentioned her parents. If this Lady Midnight had something to do with her parent's murder she wanted to find her.
The Lady Midnight calls for you. She has an appointment to keep.
"Next!" The bouncer called. He was a large man with olive skin wearing an expensive black suit and a pair of mirrored sunglasses. Emma could hear the music blast from the inside. The floor vibrated from the bass drops. She could sense him looking them up and down.
"I want no trouble from any of you." The bouncer flashed a pair of sharp incisors at them; she jumped back crashing into Christina who steadied her. "Nephilim" the bouncer whispered under his breath.
The vampire bouncer opened the double doors and let them into the club, snickering before shutting the doors. The room was large, tightly packed with young bodies bouncing up and down. The walls were splattered with glow in the dark paint that reflected the lights. Hot red, Alloy orange, bitter lime. Multi coloured lights bounced off the professional dancer's bodies on the cornered stages. A DJ booth had been set up against a wall where a blue skinned Ifrit wearing a top hat was dancing manically behind it.
"BEYOND THE RAVE!" He shouted like a battle cry. The crowd cheered back at him as he changed the song to a faster paced electronic beat.
A young blonde haired vampire in a green turtleneck and black leather gloves was dancing with a handsome Hispanic boy with stubble covering his face. He bit his neck and the boy groaned, the vampire keeping him from falling over. He stopped drinking and winked at Julien before moving onto another dancer. The teenager he had drunk from rubbed his neck and continued dancing. He probably thought he had a hicky and not that he had just been fed off.
"Talk about sucking the life out of a party." Silas said sarcastically. Christina laughed and he looked inordinately pleased with himself. Jules had gone a shade of cherry red. Emma got up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek.
"Try not to lose yourself." She said smiling. At the far end of the room was an old style elevator with metal doors and another vampire bouncer leaning against it checking his phone. He looked bored and yawned despite the high volume of the music.
"BEYOND THE RAVE!" The top-hat wearing Ifrit shouted again.
"We need to get to that elevator. Fade is probably up there!" She shouted over the loud music. The others nodded. She squeezed her way through the tightly packed bodies bouncing intune to the beat. She noticed other vampires were doing the same to dancing mundanes. Taking a sip of their blood before moving onto the next. Technically they weren't breaking the law, they weren't killing who they fed on but still, she couldn't help the nauseous feeling in her stomach. The mundanes were drunk and didn't have much choice when the vampires neared.
They finally reached the elevator. The vampire stood up straighter, his face was clawed on one side distorting his left blue eye.
"If I were you I'd get back to dancing Shadowhunters. Anselm isn't taking lightly to seeing guests at the moment!" He yelled over the music.
"We're not here for Anselm. Fade, Malcom Fade. We want to see him."
That explains why there are so many vampires here tonight. Anselm Nightshade ran the Los Angeles vampire clan and his subjects were fiercely loyalty to him. If you ever insulted him, you insulted the entire clan and the entire clan was especially testy when the full moon was coming up and territory wars happened in the dead of night.
The vampire nodded and punched a button. The metal doors squeaked open.
"Floor three! Don't talk to Anselm unless he speaks first little Shadowhunter!"
Emma nodded. "I'll keep that in mind!" She hoped he couldn't hear the sarcasm that occupied her voice even when she didn't want it to.
The elevator was small and smelled of a metal older than the club. They were all pressed against each other, Emma's head in Jules's chest. She could hear his heart beating violently and fast. He half smiled at her.
D-O-N'-T L-O-S-E Y-O-U-R H-E-A-D He traced onto the small of her back. She looked up and smiled.
W-O-U-L-D-N'-T D-R-E-A-M O-F I-T She traced back.
"Ow." Silas grunted. "Your elbow's digging into my side."
Christina's eyes widened. Her and Silas were standing as close as he and Jules were. Their hair curled into each other creating a sharp contrast, Christina's was the colour of coal with only a red streak that fell over her eyes, Silas's was the opposite with his dirty blonde hair that flopped over his forehead in waves. If he was on his tip-toes he would probably be her height Emma thought.
"Sorry." She said jerking her elbow back and hitting Jules.
"Ow! Thanks Tina"
"Sorry." She said again.
"Christina just stay still before you elbow someone else." Emma said firmly. Tina nodded her head and tucked a strand of her black hair over her ear.
The elevator ground to a halt with a loud screech. "Alright team; let's not try to piss off the high Warlock of Los Angeles." Emma said yanking the elevator door open.
"Great pep talk." Silas said darkly. Emma rolled her eyes.
"Maybe we should put our hands in." Jules put his hand in the middle of the elevator. "Go team-don't-piss-off-the-warlock."
"Woo." Christina said deadpan. They exited the elevator and it screeched back down to the club floor. She could still hear the thumping club music but it was muted now like they were surrounded by cotton wool softening the sound.
The dimly lit room was small with a bar against one wall filled with different coloured liquids and fine wines. It was mostly empty except for a few vacant tables. Four fey sat at one table, three boys and a girl dressed in leafy suits with actual gemstone buttons. The girl wore a small dress with vines covering the bare minimum without being considered naked. They all shared the same impishness and features. Siblings Emma thought.
In the other corner of the room a man with silvery grey hair played a sad slow tune on a grand piano. A female vampire with crimson hair wearing a long silver dress joined in with her flute.
"Shadowhunters!" A man in a white three piece suit called, he was behind the bar mixing drinks. They turned to different colours every time he clicked his fingers. The suit matched his salt white hair. Emma moved towards him and sat on a bar stool, the vampire girl's flute playing was incredible; it seemed to fill the room and drown out the electro-punk playing below.
She stared at the elevator as the vampire boy in the green turtle neck stepped out and sashayed towards them. A trickle of blood fell down his turtle neck as he slumped lazily onto a couch beside the piano watching Emma and the others at the bar.
"Malcom Fade." Emma said. He touched a tube shaped glass and turned an opaque blue liquid the same deep violet of his eyes.
He pushed a blue liquid towards Silas. "Try it." He smiled. "It's positively mousey."
"Don't you mean lousy?" Silas said picking up the glass and flicking the rim.
"Meh, same difference."
Christina took the glass out of Silas's hands and whispered in his ear. He looked down at the drink and promptly pushed it away from him.
"So so boring." Malcom said. "Have I told you about the mundane Magnus Bane turned into a rat at one of his parties? I tell you that led to a whole lot of crazy."
"I think he's a whole lot of crazy." Jules murmured under his breath. Emma spun a little on the bar stool and looked back to Malcom. He put his hand out and a vile of a Barbie pink liquid floated towards him.
He popped the cork and took a deep breath of the pink liquid. "Put this in someone's drink and they literally become love drunk. The last person they think about, they'll be infatuated with. It's quite funny actually." He sighed. "Ahh, the hijinks they get up to."
"You don't speak much do you?" He directed to Christina.
"I was raised by abusive librarians." She replied sharply. Malcom stopped mixing drinks and his eyes widened. Emma tensed and put her hand on Cortana's hilt when suddenly, he burst out laughing.
The pianist stopped and glared at them. Malcom mouthed 'Sorry' before the pianist continued. "Don't mind Anselm, he's very finicky about his music."
"Enough of the games Malcom." Emma said standing up. "Tell us who the Lady Midnight is."
Malcom's smile disappeared. He tensed up and spilt a lime green liquid onto his bright white suit. He tapped the spot where it landed twice and it vanished and turned white again.
"No idea what you're talking about." He moved along the bar and picked up a walkie-talkie. "I advise you to leave now. Not that I know anything but sometimes ignorance really is bliss."
"I'm not leaving until I find out who she is." Emma slammed her fist against the counter spilling the liquids. Her anger briefly swelled in her chest, she wanted to know more. She wanted to know if there was a connection between the Lady Midnight and her parent's murder.
Malcom clicked a button on the black walkie-talkie. "Release the bubbles."
"Releasing the bubbles." A static voice returned. Emma scrunched her face in confusion.
"Don't you mean the hounds?"
Malcom pressed the button again. "That too."
The static voice replied. "You got it boss. The hellhounds are on their way up. Wait-Sir the hellhounds won't all fit in the elevator. They're getting distracted by the lights Sir." The voice cursed. "Limbo, get out of there. Virgil! Virgil! Bad boy!"
Malcom sighed and clicked the walkie-talkie. "Just put 'em back in the kennel." He sighed. He threw the walkie-talkie on the floor. The fey at the table behind them sniggered, she was sure she could hear them whispering to one another.
"Leave now." The humour vanished Malcom Fade's voice. He hopped over the bar and sauntered over to a pair of double doors opening them onto a balcony. He took one last look at Emma, nodded and shut the door.
"Warlocks are such curious creatures." The female fey said from behind them. The vines shifted as she moved in her seat.
"As are bartenders. Mix them together and well…" The fey next to her said. His hair was a tangle of tiny roses and thorns intertwined. "Good luck with the Lady Midnight." They clicked their fingers at the same time and vanished in a puff of misty green smoke.
Jules turned to the others and scratched his forehead. "I'm not gonna lie but the fair-folk are kinda dicks."
"Yeah, I think they left without paying their tab." Silas said peering over at the empty glasses.
Anselm Nightshade thumped his silvery-haired head against the piano in a tuneless mess. He motioned with a hand towards Emma and the crimson haired girl put away her flute. She shook her head at the blonde haired boy in the turtle neck. He stood up and took her arm as they ambled towards them. Anselm started playing softly again.
The crimson haired girl in the silver dress reminded Emma of a hunter's moon. Red and a bad omen to living things.
"We couldn't agree more Nephilim." Her voice was like the sound of two champagne glasses knocking together. She curtsied and the boy bowed. The only visible skin on him was his face; she wondered what he was hiding beneath his clothes. The girl was as pretty as the boy was handsome, both with long elegant faces. The boy had green eyes and blonde hair and a manner that spoke of an older age.
Emma supposed all vampires had that. They were stopped in time but time moved on without them; their worlds would be always be older.
The girls crimson red hair reached her waist and it reminded Emma of a waterfall of blood. Her eyes were a deep coffee brown with flecks of hazel near the pupil. They narrowed on Silas and she reached out stroking his cheek. In a second his face was flushed with red.
"Hello small, dark and handsome." She purred.
He let out a nervous laugh. "I'm actually blonde but-"
Christina stepped between them cutting Silas off and stuck her hand out. "Christina Rosales and you are?"
"Charmed." The vampire girl loosely shook her hand. "My name is Lila and this is Mitchell."
Jules laughed. Mitchell brushed imaginary lint off his green turtle neck, his green eyes blazing. "Quel problem?"
"It's just Mitchell doesn't exactly sound scary." Julien put his hands up in mock surrender. "Oh no, here comes Mitchell the bloodthirsty vampire. See?"
Lila snorted. Mitchell's lips thinned.
"Are you drunk?" Silas demanded. "What happened to not pissing people off?"
"I suppose you're right." Mitchell said after five seconds of scary silence. "Never do that again little Nephilim if you like your blood inside your body." His smile was like a knife edge.
"We have a proposition to you. Our clan leader Anselm Nightshade overheard your conversation about the Lady Midnight. He can give you very valuable information." Lila said taking careful measure on her pronunciation. Emma thought she could hear the slight faintness of a European accent.
"But you want something in return." Emma completed. She sighed and looked at the two vampires. They both had such a cold ice-like beauty that seemed to freeze the room.
Mitchell clapped his hands sarcastically. "Clever girl." Said Mitchell. "Yes, we have a problem that we can't fix for our Master. You see we've been having trouble with this out of town werewolf pack in the Santa Monica hills. They have been Turning hikers who go into those hills. If they don't turn on the first bite they'll do it again and wait until the next full moon."
"And why do you care?" Julien asked. "Were the hikers subjugates? Friends? Subjugate friends?"
"Hardly." Lila coolly replied. God, even your voice sounds like ice Emma thought. "Our problem is that there are an awful lot of them and they're trying to push into vampire territory. We don't like that. We are creatures of balance you see and the balance is tipping in their favour. If you want your information you have to scatter the mutts."
"And how do you propose we do that? Get some water and spray their noses? Tell them off?"
Lila smiled. "Do what you do with all bad dogs. Put the Alpha down and they'll get scared. They'll run off leaderless."
Mitchell took a letter out of his back pocket and pressed it into Emma's hand. "The location of the pack leader. He's in no way affiliated with the pack leader of Los Angeles, there won't be any fall-out with the downworlders here. I promise." She could tell he was trying to sound reassuring.
"Come back when the job is done except you…" she said in a low sultry voice to Silas. She leaned forward and kissed the corner of his mouth leaving a red lipstick mark; at least Emma hoped it was lipstick. Silas stayed perfectly still, he reminded Emma of a deer in headlights, powerless to stop what was happening to you.
"Come see me whenever." She whispered loud enough for everyone to hear. Christina coughed loudly and she broke away, she eyed Christina up and down. "Oh yes, this will be fun."
Mitchell nodded at Emma. Lila was already gliding towards Anselm who continued to play sweet tunes on the grand piano. "Come back here when the job is done. We'll be watching." He followed after Lila.
Silas was still staring in shock.
Jules bumped Emma's shoulder. "Is he still alive?" He asked. Emma pinched Silas's elbow.
"Ow!"
"Yep." Emma looked down at the envelope. Her name was written on it in green ink. An odd choice but she imagined that they must have run out of black pens.
Emma Carstairs
She turned to the others. The signs of fatigue covered their faces. Jules who normally bounded with energy was yawning setting off the others.
"I think it's time we got back." She looked at the envelope again rubbing the green ink, staining her thumb. "Let's go home." She said.
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