A hot breeze picked up as we stalked towards the building. Me and jace led the way while clary trailed behind. The all too quiet atmosphere kept me on edge, holding onto the seraph blade in my pocket with a iron like grip.
"Stay out of the light." Jace instructed clary pulling her along by her sleeve. "They might be watching from the windows. And dont look up."
Though just as the words fell from his mouth her eyes wandered upwards. I knew from the look on her face she'd seen something, but jace hurried us along before i had the chance to ask.
We slipped around the corner into what probably use to be a service lane for deliveries. Though now the narrow lane was just choked with garbage, a whole range of things like mouldy cardboard boxes, shredded plastic and empty glass bottles. Though the worse of all were the animal bones littered across the floor like fallen leaves.
"Bones," Jace confirmed flatly. "Dog bones, cat bones. Don't look to closely; going through a vampire's trash is rarely a pretty picture."
"Well at least we know we came to the right place." I announce grimly.
"Oh were in the right place." He says. "Now we just have to figure out how to get inside."
I examine my surroundings and my earlier theory becomes more and more likely.
"Service lane?" I ask him.
"Service lane." He confirms. "So there must be a way in somewhere around here."
"I bet the doors are in the ground. Probably buried under all this garbage." Clary adds in.
"That's what i was thinking" Jace said with a sigh. "I guess we better move the trash. We can start with the dumpster."
He pointed it out rather unenthusiastically. He gave me a pointed look as if to break the bad news, that i'd be doing alot of the work given clary's mundane like co-ordination.
"You'd both rather be face a ravening horde of demons, wouldn't you?" Clary states noticing our discomfort.
"Atleast they wouldn't be crawling with maggots." He exclaims.
"Im not so sure about that one." I reply.
"True, we once tracked down a demon in the sewers underneath central station—" He explains mostly to clary.
"Don't" Clary raised a hand in warning. "I'm not in the mood right now."
"That's got to be the first time a girl's ever said that to me." Jace mused.
"That's cause that make a point of avoiding you so they never have to." I sassed back.
He chuckled at my words, the sound rung through the air and the world fell silent for a second almost scared to deny anyone of such a lovely sound. With a bright grin in my direction he leaped down to inspect the best way to deal with the dumpster.
"We'll tip it." He decided.
"That'll make too much noise." Clary argued. "We should push it."
"Now, look—" Jace started before a unfamiliar voice interrupted him.
"Do you really think you should be doing that?" The voice asked.
I spun round at the sound pulling a blade from my pocket lighting quick flashing it as a warning. I took in the young man before me, took note of his thin boned face, dark eyes and honey coloured skin.
Each feature brought on a sense of familiarity though the answer dangled itself tauntingly just out of my mind's reach.
"Dios mío" He mused the Spanish falling of his tongue like liquid gold. "Your not from this neighbourhood are you?"
He looked down at my blade with a glint of amusement glistening in his eyes, like the blade's was merely a child's play toy. What he did not know was in my hands even something as innocent as that could become lethal.
"You could say that?" Jace says hand hovering at his belt.
"You shouldn't be here." He stated calmly running a hand through his hair. "This place is dangerous."
"We know," clary replies. "We just got a little lost, that's all."
"What were you doing with that?" The boy says gesturing towards the dumpster.
"None of you business, Estúpido." I growl back.
He looks down at me before letting out a laugh clearly amused with my antics.
"Feisty one aren't you?" He comments eyes glowing in amusement.
I open my mouth to reply but jace cuts me off. "We were trying to get into the hotel. We thought there might be a cellar door behind the trash bin." He explains.
"Puta madre—why would you want to do something like that?"
Jace shrugged. "For a prank, you know. Just a little fun."
"Well im sure you can have fun somewhere other than a abandoned hotel, especially with crazy pants here." He mocks sending a wink it my direction.
Jace stares the boy down, his previous aura of disinterest vanishing quickly.
"You don't understand. This place is haunted, cursed. Bad luck." He said before rambling on in Spanish, too fast for me to understand, with the whole not being fluent and all. "Walk with me; I'll take you to the subway."
"We know were the subway is." I said eyes rolling in annoyance.
"Claro. Of course you do chica, but if you go with me, no one will bother you. You do not want trouble, do you?"
"The only one causing trouble is you pretty boy." I hiss, pressing my blade up against against his throat. "So tell me how much are they paying you to keep people away from here?"
"How much are who paying me, chica?"
"The vampires. How much are they paying you? Or is it something else—did they tell you they'd make you one of them, offer you eternal life, no pain, no sickness, you get to live forever? Because it's not worth it. Life stretches out very long when you never see the sunlight, chico" Jace rambles on.
The boy was expressionless. "My name is Rapheal. Not chico."
"Pleased don't bother saying your pleased to meet us, cause the feelin' sure as hell ain't mutual." I spit running the tip of the blade tauntingly along his throat.
"You needa learn to control your girl chico." Rapheal jeered at jace. "Actually who am i kidding, girl like you can do better than him."
"Boy trust me I'm not afraid to slice up that pretty little face of yours."
"But you know what we're talking about. You know about the vampires?" Clary says, clearly trying to avoid any drama.
Rapheal turned to face her spitting in disgust. "Los vampiros, sí, the blood-drinking animals. Even before the hotel was boarded up, there were stories, the laughter late at night, the small animals disappearing, the sounds—" he stopped to shake his head. "Everyone in the neighbourhood knows to stay away, but what can you do? You cannot call the police and tell them your problem is vampires."
"Have you ever seen them?" Jace asked. "Or known anyone who has?"
Rapheal spoke slowly. "There were some boys, once, a group of friends. They thought they had a good idea, to go into the hotel and kill the monsters inside. They took guns with them, knives too, all blessed by a priest. They never came out. My aunt, she found their clothes later, in front of the house."
"Your aunt's house?" Jace questioned.
"Sí. One of the boys was my brother." Rapheal explained flatly voice void of emotion. "So now you know why i walk home from my aunt's house, and why i warned you away. If you go in there, you will not come out again."
"My friend is in there." Clary says. "We came to get him."
"Stupid idea if you ask me." I mumbled under my breath.
"Ah," He says. "Then perhaps i cannot warn you away."
"No," Jace replies. "But don't worry. What happened to you friends won't happen to us." He took a seraph from his belt dangling it in the air by a single finger. "I've killed plenty if vampires before. Their hearts don't beat, but they can still die."
Rapheal inhaled sharply before slipping out of my hold with ninja like grace before moving towards jace and clary, leaving me completely dumbfounded. "I know what you are—I have heard about your kind, from the old padre at St. Cecilia's. I thought that was just a story?"
"All the stories are true," I say quickly. "Sooner you realise that, the easier it gets."
He clenched his fists. "I want to go with you."
Jace shook his head. "No. Absolutely not."
"I can show you how to get inside." He tempted.
"We can't bring you."
"Come on jace let the boy be useful, especially after the pain in the ass he's been." I argue, shoving my blade back against his neck drawing blood.
"Annalina!" Jace (word for tells you to stop cause you crazzy)
I take me blade away from his throat. "Fine." Rapheal says before stalking over and kicking aside a pile of trash to reveal a rusted away metal grating. He kneels to lift it up leaving a gaping dark hole in the ground. "This is how my brother and his friends got in. It goes down to the basement, i think."
A thin smile appeared on the corners of jace's mouth. He had his angle blade in hand looking rather ghostly in it's witchlight's glow.
"Thanks." He says. "This will work just fine."
Rapheal looked awfully pale as he uttered his next words. "You go in there and do for your friend what i could not do for my brother."
Jace slid his seraph back into his belt before turning back to look at us. "Follow me." He said before sliding down through the open hole feet first.
He landed with a soft thump. "It's fine" He yelled, voice muffled slightly. "Jump down and I'll catch you."
"I don't know about that." Clary said warily.
"Don't worry he rarely ever drops people." I joke
"Rarely ever?"
"Okay never, but those words shall never be repeated." I Reply. "It's best not to nurture that ego of his."
I then move over the grate. "Laters Rapheal it's been swell." I say sending him a dark grin.
"MOVE YOUR ASS JACE I'M COMING DOWN." I yell down before taking a leap of faith into the darkness.
I fell for barely a second before landing gently in a strong pair of arms. Jace dipped slightly to handle the force my fall had on his arms. He held onto me while he looked down into my eyes, blue meet gold and i swear on my life it felt like the world stopped.
"I swear i told you to move out of the way." I say eyebrows raised
"You did." He replies. "I just choose not to listen."
We stayed like how we were for just a moment, though it felt like more, before clanging from above reminded us both of clary's existence. He gently dropped me onto my feet before opening up his arms to catch clary as she fell. She landed gently in his arms and her let her go almost immeadiately.
"You all right?" He asked.
Clary pulled at her dress. "I'm fine." She replied.
Jace pulled his seraph out once again to light the way. We were now standing in a shallow, low-ceilinged space with a cracked concrete floor. The doorway ahead missing its door showing that it opened up into another room.
A loud thump rung out startling the lot of us. As i turned i could just make out the sight of Rapheal crouched on the floor. He straightened up and grinned manically.
Jace looked furious. "I told you—"
"And i heard you" Rapheal cut him off with a dismissive hand. "What are you going to do about it? I can't get back out the way we came in, and you can't just leave me here for dead to find. . . Can you?"
"Don't be so sure about that?" I threatened.
"I'm thinking about it," Jace remarked. He looked tired clearly not it the mood to argue with the boy.
Rapheal pointed ahead. "We must go that way, toward the stairs. They are up on the higher floors of the hotel. You will see." He said before pushing past jace to head for the narrow doorway.
Jace shook his head. "I'm really starting to hate mundanes," Jace said.
"Me too." I agreed.
▹▹▹
A/n: OMG HOLA ITS BEEN SO LONG *dies of shame* *magically comes back to life* ANYWHO THIS CHAPTER IS SO LONG COMPARED TO ALL THE OTHERS ONES BUT I SWEAR I GOT THROUGH SO LITTLE STORYLINE.
QUESTIONS
(that probs no one will answer)
1. How long should a book be chapter wise? Is 30 chapters too long? Cause i swear at this rate i will so reach that
2. Is the fact that this chapter is super long good? Or Bad?
3. Is anyone actually shipping jace and anna? Or have i been forgetting to put enough moments in for that to happen?
4. Also who will be my friend? Kidding (lol no so lonely *cries*)
ANYWAY IM HOPEFULLY OFF TO WRITE THE NEXT CHAPTER CAUSE I REALLY WANT TO FINISH IT BEFORE THE END OF AUGUST BUT MOST LIKELY IT WILL TAKE ANOTHER 3 YEARS
*BYE*