Burning Sky // Alec Lightwood ➰

Typical vampire always underestimating a shadow hunter.

We enter the vampire lairs, me along with Isabelle, Clary and Simon, in an attempt to find the book that's supposed to wake Clary's mother. Which by the way is Camille's, everyone's favorite vampire.

 Raphael appears in front of us with a tired expression on his face.

 "For shadow hunters you don't seem to do a lot of shadow hunting."

 I roll my eyes at his comment and Isabelle shrugs. 

"There is more to the job than killing demons."

 Before anyone has the time to answer though, continuing this pointless banter, Clary speaks up, addressing the reason why we are actually here.

 "We need to talk to Camille." She says but Raphael doesn't react to her words.

 "We know you have her here." I speak up, causing him to turn to me and nod. 

"It's true, but I'm afraid she is a bit tied up at the moment." The vampire answers in a way that makes me think that his words actually have a literal meaning. 

"Is there something I can help you with?" He asks, frustrating us.

 I'm ready to snap at him but Simon places his hand on my shoulder and steps in front of me. 

"Just a second." He says raising up a finger and guiding Raphael away from us for a private talk.

 I exchange a worried look with Clary, both of us wondering if the boy can actually persuade Raphael to let us speak to Camille. Judging by the looks of their little talk I doubt it.

 Raphael walks away from Simon and up to us. 

" I'll bring you what's left of Camille's things but talking to her is out of the question." 

Damn it. 

I run a hand through my hair, frustrated at the vampire who is bound to make our job difficult. 

"Her things?" Clary exclaims seeming as fed up as me. "This isn't the kind of book she would just left hanging around." She comments but the vampire shrugs at her words, not at all moved by our attempts to persuade him.

 «I'm sorry." He says in a way that lets us know that he isn't actually at all sorry, "but this is the best I can do." 

Clary seems all but ready to give up though as she takes a few more steps towards him. 

"We are supposed to be allies." She reminds him. 

"And we are. But Shadowhunters have no business interfering with the night children's affairs. You may look to the clave for justice but the vampires look to me. Camille stays where she is." He finishes, leaving no room for further discussion. 

"You are making a huge mistake." I say, shaking my head at him but he just looks at me and raises his shoulders dismissively.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So these are all Camille's things?" I ask the vampire as I pick up something from the bunch of stuff that's laying around us. 

The plan is for me and Isabelle to be able to distract him long enough for Clary and Simon to sneak Camille out. The two of us have been looking through useless objects for a while now but clearly we all know that what we are looking for isn't here. 

"All I could find. But she has hide outs all over the city" He answers me and then squints his eyes at me.

 Great, we are running out of time.