Hey :) I hope you enjoy this new chapter of The dark artifices Lady Midnight. Remember to hit me up with a review below, its great to hear what people think. Enjoy!
5. Down the Rabbit Hole
"We should be Parabatai." Livvy said, tugging at the hem of her pyjamas. She was sprawled across Ty's bed and was watching him as he was mixing various vialled liquids. It was common for Livvy to be found in Ty's room and vice-versa. Although Livvy liked it in Ty's room, he always found a way to keep everything neat, despite the vast amounts of lab equipment and leather bound books that covered his room.
The clock rolled over one. Ty was dressed in a white lab coat over jeans and a t-shirt.
Ty made a choking noise, his grey eyes wide. "Why would you suggest that?" He said. "Our current situation works more than sufficiently."
Livvy threw her hands up in the air. "No it doesn't Ty!" Livvy felt awful. She never shouted at Ty, she wondered if this was the teenage hormones that Jules forbid her to have. He was sometimes more protective of her than Ty was, almost as if he were more her father than her brother.
Ty clutched at his throat and looked away.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to shout." She said softly. Ty gently put down a vial of purple liquid on his desk; a droplet spilt and sizzled when it hit the floor.
Tiberius made a ragged sound. "That's quite alright. It's just…"
Livvy leaned closer to her twin. Behind him was a poster of Sherlock Holmes and a shadowy figure holding a woman with a knife to her throat. "What is it?"
"Becoming a Parabatai is more of a commitment than I can handle Livia." A shadow passed by his grey eyes. "I'm not a fighter and I will expose your weaknesses if we are together."
"Or I'll highlight your strengths." Livvy argued. Ty ran a hand through his unruly black hair. "It's three months until out sixteenth birthday. November twenty-third. Think about becoming my Parabatai." Livvy knew that deadlines and facts were sometimes the only way to get through to Ty. She sometimes wished others could see him the way she did. Not the black sheep of the family who had little interest in killing demons like the rest but a person who wanted to use his brains to fight not brawn.
"When we turn sixteen and you still don't want to become Parabatai. I'll never bring it up again." She said.
Ty looked over at his lab equipment and then back at her. "I agree to your terms." He said curtly. Livvy launched herself into a hug which he awkwardly returned, patting her back lightly.
"Thank you Ty." She whispered into his ear.
"It's alright." He mumbled back. "It's alright."
Emma didn't expect to be let off the hook the moment they had all walked in. Jamie had been in the hallway pacing and cursing in Spanish. What Emma did expect was to be called the ringleader by Jaime. The others had managed to avoid his line of fire and were allowed to go to bed. She got a few pitying looks from Christina before her, Silas and Jules went to bed.
It was one o'clock by the time Jaime had let her go to bed. She hadn't told him about the Lady Midnight or the note she had gotten from Anselm and his vampire lackey's. His sad piano playing still filled her head, it felt like something was taken from him as he played and not returned. She wondered if that was part of the song.
Emma climbed up the stairs to the third floor and into her room. It was clean, he weapons neatly stacked in the corner. An old chest sat by the end of her bed. Arthur had made it for her when he first got to the institute. He had quite a talent for woodcarving despite his small, frail hands. Emma felt a lurch in her stomach and realised she missed him and Diana.
She took the envelope out of her pocket and stared at it. The green ink still stained her thumb and gave her a slight prickly sensation.
Emma looked at it for another minute before curiosity got the better of her and she ripped it open with an old hunting knife. Inside was a piece of coloured paper folded over into a small lump. She unfolded the paper and was greeted to a sight of a map of Los Angeles. Two areas were circled in red ink, at least she hoped it was just red ink. A warehouse in the Santa Monica hills and a Jazz club in downtown Los Angeles.
She touched the Santa Monica hills with her index finger. It would take her an hour to get there in the dead of night. The werewolves would be sleeping, she required stealth and going on her own was her best bet. She could probably get back before daybreak.
It would take rabid dogs to tear me away from you Em
She thought of Jules. His smile and how much he trusted her. If he knew what she was planning to do he'd stop her and tell her they needed to bring the Calvary in which she did not need. She was better alone. Alone meant she could get the job done quickly. Alone was safe.
She folded up the map and creeped to the car.
She watched as Emma Carstairs left the institute. She was a curious creature the Lady Midnight thought, she had dispatched of the Oni with ease. Simply a test of the girl's abilities. Underestimating your enemy was not a mistake she meant to make. She had watched the likes of Valentine and Sebastian Morgenstern fall as they failed to estimate the ability of Clarissa Fairchild and her friends.
The Lady Midnight launched herself onto the next rooftop, hiding herself behind a gargoyle. Emma had gotten into the black pick-up truck and started the engine. It roared to life. The Lady Midnight held out her hand and felt her breath quicken as the magic flew through her veins like liquid fire. Out of the green mist that had formed above her a flower had dropped into her hand.
She smiled at the bloodroot and blew it towards the moving car. It floated, dancing on the wind before lodging itself under the truck.
"And so Alice went down the rabbit hole, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again."
The car disappeared into the distance and bright lights of the city. She jumped around the institute, learning it's every crevice, it's every exploitation. A greying cat with a bell around its neck stalked the rooftop. It hissed when she neared it. She considered killing it right there, she was faster than it and could snap its neck with ease.
The cat hissed and she jumped closer to it, padding along the tiled roof of the church. She took a small knife out from her side and prepared to run her blade through the cats pulsing neck.
"Emma." A boy furiously whispered. "Emma!" The Lady Midnight watched as the cat ran into the darkness and back into the institute. She looked down to see a handsome, tall boy dressed in Shadowhunter black. His face was angular and had a manner that spoke of absolute confidence. His brown hair swept across his forehead. She had not expected Emma to leave without her Parabatai. After all Parabatai drew strength from each other.
Perhaps she had bored of him. The boy ran out into the street and whistled loudly. A cab stopped and he jumped in. He took his phone out and put it to his ear. The cab disappeared into darkness, its tires screeched against the pavement.
The Lady Midnight stood up and looked towards the Santa Monica hills in the distance. She closed her eyes and felt the magic enveloping her again.
"I'm coming." She whispered.
Emma raised the witchlight high into the air, its light illuminating the trees around the decrepit warehouse. She supposed she had to give the werewolves points for a sense of humour. Werewolves living in a warehouse. From a distance the large black building reminded Emma of a Castle, black stone and scaffolding criss-crossing the outside like a big 'X' warning her to stay away.
Trucks lined the outside, each rusted to a tawny colour of a wolf pelt. Something sputtered in the distance. Behind the last truck a dark figure lurched forward.
"Haniel" She said. The seraph short sword lit up in her thin hands. She gripped it tightly pointing it towards an old pick-up truck similar to the one she had left a mile out. She looked up, the moon was almost full. Maybe she had two days until the next full moon maybe three?
"Who's there?" She demanded. The figure shuffled out of the shadows. Emma gasped. The man was small and old, his face covered in wrinkles and scars. His eyes were like little moons, silver and wide awake. The man gripped his shoulder over the rags he was wearing and winced. There was blood underneath his small, child-like hand.
"Help…Me…" He gasped.
Emma kept her distance. "Who are you?"
The man smiled, his breathing was laboured. "The name's Peter and you are?"
"Emma." She replied curtly. She pointed towards his arm with Haniel. "Your arm, tell me what happened. Were you attacked in these hills?" The warehouse behind her creaked in the wind. She wished she had a hearing rune, she was unsure if she could hear whispers of others or whispers of the tree's. Maybe both.
Peter gestured to her sword. "It's been a long time since a child of the Nephilim threatened me with a sword." He shook his hands and long claws grew from his fingernails like a sword being unsheathed. "So Emma, who told you to come here?"
Emma kept her sword steady and looked into the silver eyes of the man. She took small steps hoping he wouldn't notice. He took a cigarette out of a pocket and lit it, blowing the first puff of smoke in Emma's direction. It reminded her of Julien; he would blow the smoke in rings and always sigh after having the first breath.
"Hmm. This is good stuff. From England you know?" He croaked. "Not going to reply are you? I suppose my injured dog routine didn't work. You'd be surprised how many hikers I've turned just by doing that same trick, mundies never learn do they?"
"You're leader of the pack?" Emma asked. She stopped moving, eyeing the small man up. He was old and thin and nothing like the werewolves in uptown Los Angeles. They were all strong, not an old man in rags.
Peter bowed his head and blew smoke out of his nostrils. The humour had gone from his voice. "I suppose I am. Not what you were expecting. Perhaps something along the lines of that Bastard Luke Garroway. He killed my little brother in Idris to become pack leader. I controlled my brother and in return he controlled the pack. When he died my influence shattered. The wolves started to have morals."
"Whereas you're just feral." Emma retorted. Peter snarled. There was blood on his thin lips. "What's the matter don't like that word? Feral."
"Watch your mouth little girl. The Lady midnight wanted you alive but that doesn't mean I still can't beat you to an inch of your life."
Emma froze. "Why does everyone keep mentioning her? Who is she and I might let you live." Emma jumped towards the old man and kicked his shin. He swiped at her face but she ducked and knee'd his stomach. Peter lay on the floor clutching his chest moaning. Emma put the tip of Haniel to his chest applying a gentle pressure.
"You little bitch!" He spat.
Emma smiled triumphantly. "I'm not little." Emma pressed the blade harder into Peter's narrow chest. He gasped out.
"You wouldn't kill an old man would you?"
"Not if you tell me everything about who the Lady Midnight is." She kicked his leg. "Fast."
His moon-like eyes dulled and a shadow passed over them. "We've never met her. The Unseelie Court warned us but it was too late. She killed half the pack and forced us to move out of the hills and into that hole you call a city." He spat in the direction of Los Angeles. "Why would she kill them? We had to regain power or the vampires would come after us. Steal our homes, kill our pups."
Emma stepped back. Do what you do with all bad dogs. Put the Alpha down, Lila's voice rang in Emma's head. Had Anselm even known about Mitchell and Lila telling Emma to kill the pack leader or was this their way of trying to please him. The werewolves weren't innocent but neither were the vampires.
"So are you going to let me go?" Peter smiled weakly.
"No."
Peter whistled loudly. A large pair of hands grabbed Emma and threw her to the ground. She felt herself be lifted into the air and then thrown onto the ground again and then again. By this time Peter was standing up smiling at Emma. A large man picked her up by her feet and put her over his back. Peter blew smoke all over Emma's face causing her to cough.
Emma spit in his face. He rubbed the spit of her face and looked at his hand. "Feral am I?" He slapped her, claws raking across her cheek. She felt blood dribble from the wound. "I prefer free." Peter gestured to the man in front of her. He was covered in wolf pelts and his face had a large scar distorting his lips.
"Tie her up like the other one. Tomorrow we ransom her to the Lady Midnight."
"What about the boy?" The tall man said. Emma felt herself starting to lose consciousness. The voices of Peter and the wolf man fading away as if they were in a tunnel far far away.
"We hunt him at first light. It's been an age since I tasted Shadowhunter blood."
"No." Emma wheezed. Peter smiled at her and put the butt of the cigarette into his hand and twisted. The sizzling of flesh caused her to gag before she finally lost consciousness.
Christina woke up feeling exhausted. It was still dark outside but her body wouldn't let her sleep. After twenty minutes of reading through Werewolves: A beastly study she decided that 3.30AM was a good time for breakfast. She crept out of her room, carefully padding through the hallway careful not to wake Tavvy up. Once he was up he'd want breakfast too and would cry when Christina sent him back to bed.
She could hear the gentle snoring of Livvy as she passed her room. It was soothing like listening to rain inside a car. Sometimes she couldn't get over how big the Los Angeles institute was. In New Mexico their instituto was small and compacted. It was hidden on the outskirts of the city and the largest area was a spire that seemed to reach for the stars. When she was little and couldn't sleep, she would sneak up the tower and watch the city in its yellow haze. She liked to pretend she was the only one who knew about the tower and it was her secret.
The kitchen lights came on to her presence and she took out a box of cereal and started pouring it. Cereal flakes spilling over the white marble counter. She looked up through the glass doors and saw a small figure sitting on the surf staring out at the sea spinning an axe.
What's he doing out there? she thought. Christina opened the door and walked along the beach to where he was sitting. Silas was very strange to watch with the axe. He spun it around in his hands like it was nothing. She supposed he had the upper body strength for it.
"Working on your tan?" She said. Silas jumped and started sputtering. His axe fell into the sand. The moon lit up the metal making it almost look silver in the night.
He looked away quickly and nodded his head, his eyes wide. His cheeks had turned scarlet. Christina sat beside him watching the waves as they crashed against the white sand. She picked up the woodcutters axe, on the wood was a small etching of a bird perching on a tree.
"It's a raven in a willow tree. In ancient Chinese culture it was believed to ward off evil spirits." He said. "I suppose its fitting being a Shadowhunter fighting demons."
"My surujin's made out of blessed metal. It was given to me by my grandmother as a tenth birthday present. She used it when she was young. When she was first learning to fight, she accidently hit my grandfather with the bladed end and that's how they met." Christina replied. "She didn't even apologise afterwards."
Silas smiled. "Well nothing screams romance like being stabbed." He had large purple bags under his eyes. The more Christina looked at them, the more they seemed to become less sickly. The flecks of yellow in his green eyes becoming more prominent like tiny stripes around the iris.
He took a large pendant out of his pocket. "Uh, you dropped this when we got in. I tried to tell you but you had already gone to your room. I didn't want to wake you." He said quietly. He looked away from the pendant nervously.
The pendant was silver, in the shape of a circle with a rose inside it. The rose was wrapped around with thorny briars.
"Thank's. I didn't even realise I had lost it." She said. Silas lips quirked up into a smile.
"What does the Latin mean?" Silas asked. He handed Christina the medallion and she slipped it over her neck. "The inscription on the back."
"I thought they taught you Latin in the academy in Idris?"
Silas paled and scratched his neck uncomfortably. "Well I was only there for two years after my father died and my mom…" He sighed. "The point is I never really learned because that jerk Jude Nightwine made my life hell and used to steal my Latin books. Ergo no Latin."
"Ergo?"
"That's probably as much as I know unless you want to know how to ask for an apple." He replied.
Christina raised her eyebrows. "It means blessed be the Angel my strength who teaches my hands to war, and my fingers to fight."
Silas looked at her and laughed. "You believe in Angels?" He looked incredulous.
"Of course I do. Clarissa Fairchild saw the angel Raziel whilst she was fighting Valentine by Lake Lynn." Christina argued. "Others said they saw him as well." She felt herself start to become hot with anger.
Silas rolled his eyes. "Please. Have you heard what the Lake of Mirrors does to people? It makes them hallucinate. The Fair-Folk in Idris used to drink from it all the time, they'd sit by the edges and claim they saw prophetic visions."
"Did they give you a vision of your future?" Christina asked.
"Yeah." Sarcasm dripped off his voice. "Apparently I'm going to be murdered by a duck in my sleep."
Christina laughed and felt the anger subside a little. Silas smiled brightly at her. He still had the lipstick mark from Lila on the corner of his cheek. Something felt strange when she saw how close she was getting to him.
"People shouldn't trust ducks." She said thoughtfully. The tide was starting to get lower and lower down the beach front. From the distance she thought she could still hear the electro-punk from 'Beyond the Rave'. "So you really don't believe in angels despite what everyone says."
"I just think that if there were Angels, they would try to help us more. So many of us died during the Dark war. My sister was endarkened. The Blackthorns lost their parents. The Praetor Lupus was almost completely wiped out." Silas looked at Christina. "Why would an Angel let that happen to us?"
Christina stayed silent before finally finding the right words. "It's not about angels, it's about faith. Faith can move mountains and push people to go farther than they'd ever thought."
Christina was suddenly feeling very tired. Silas had a faraway look; he picked up his axe and stood up. He put his hand out for Christina to take.
She took it and stood up. He was smaller than her, his eyes only just reaching the top of her nose. It was odd, she wondered if to make up for the height he worked on becoming strong.
Christina kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you for finding my pendant."
His eyes were large and he looked like he was about to panic. "Mgh?" His eyes suddenly narrowed on the spot behind Christina, near the institute. He pointed behind her. "Didn't you guys have a car?"
She span around and saw he was right. The black pick-up was gone, leaving a trail of black tire marks. Christina said a very unladylike word.
"I think your car has been jacked." He said behind her.
"Mundies can't see the church Silas."
"Right, of course. Maybe Ragnor Fell stole it after Emma pissed him off?" He said hopefully. Christina had a sickly feeling that reached to the pit of her stomach and was spreading rapidly.
"Emma stole it." She whispered. "She's finding the werewolf by herself."
Silas put his head in his hands. Yellow strands of his straw-like hair tumbling over his eyes. "What are we supposed to do now? We have no idea where she's gone and its not as if we can stick our head out of a cab calling for her like Lassie."
Christina tried to think back to give her some clue where Emma might have went until she remembered the vampires in the club.
"The location of the pack leader." Mitchell had said. "They'll be no fallout."
"Call a cab. I have a plan." Christina said before running to the institute to grab her gear.
"Any chance you could fill me in!" Silas called after her in the distance. "Alright then. I love surprises… sort of."
"Have Faith!" She shouted back. She almost thought she could hear him laugh.
Thanks for reading! New chapter soon :)