Angels and Warriors // A.L

Chapter 30

Camille walked in brandishing a piece of parchment, "Ready to sign?" She thrust it in Simon's face.

He shook his head, "Take us to the apartment, give us the book, then you can have your pardon."

Camille rolled her eyes but led us from Magnus' home all the way to the Upper East Side. Clary drove while Simon and Camille stowed in the back of the van, hiding from the sunlight, the female vampire shouting directions as we went.

The block had underground parking, so Simon and Camille joined us as we climbed out of the van. We all cramped into the elevator and let me tell you - the place might be posh but the tiny elevators were not built for seven people. I felt Alec's hand close around mind before I realised that he was next to me. I smiled up at him and he brought my hand to his lips, placing a gentle kiss on it.

The lift doors sprung open and we all but toppled out. I heard Simon mutter to Clary, "I thought the underground parking was nice." Camille took us through to a library room. "Wow. You've got a lot of books," Simon commented.

"I've got a lot of time on my hands," Camille shrugged.

"Let's check the perimeter," Alec said, reaching for his seraph blade.

"Good idea," Magnus agreed, "If I know Camille, she'll have a trick or three up her sleeve." He and Alec headed out of the room.

"I still don't get it. Why do you have this place if you live at Hotel DuMort?" Clary asked, eyes scanning over the hundreds of books.

"The DuMort has too many rules," Camille replied, "Think of it like Gracie Mansion. It's the official residence, but it doesn't mean I have to live there. This place gives me the freedom to indulge in certain... proclivities."

She uncovered a quill and walked over to Simon, "You know, the mayor has the same problem," He was saying. Camille stabbed him in the hand with the sharp end of the writing tool. "Ow! Hey."

"Come with me," She demanded. On the table lay the parchment she had Magnus draw up for her pardon. She pointed at it, "On the dotted line."

Simon looked at Clary, unsure, but took the quill and signed his name anyway.

"He did what you asked," Clary said, descending the ladder she was using to browse higher books. "Now give us the Book of the White."

Camille sighed, "I'd love to... but I can't - I have no idea where it is."

I grit my teeth, "Dot gave it to you."

The old vampire nodded, "That she did, and I'm sure it's here somewhere - but if the idea was to hide it, telling me would defeat the purpose no? Dot must have put it somewhere when I wasn't looking."

"So we have to search the whole apartment?" Clary asked angrily.

"See? That's the spirit," Camille jeered. "Although I'd start now. I've got four more rooms just like this one." Without another word, she vanished.

Clary's phone started to ring for the fourth time in as many minutes. She sighed and walked into another room to answer it.

"I wish my mom had left us something," I murmured to Simon as I started looking over the lower level books, "Some sort of clue."

"Maybe she did," He replied, "Did she ever say anything about a book?"

I sighed, "I don't think so, and if she did, she erased my memory of anything to do with the Shadow World."

"Well, there's got to be something," Simon continued. I rolled my eyes to myself at his incessant rambling. "Maybe the clue has something to do with colour, you know?" He pointed to a shelf of books with colourful spines, "White is the absence of colour, so... or is that black?" My eyes widened as I spotted a familiar book and pulled it off the shelf. "Samara, that's a cookbook."