Unfortunately for Will – but fortunately for Gabriel and Gideon – he was too preoccupied by the immediacy of their confrontation with Camille to engage in anything beyond light mocking. Jem was privately rather disappointed; he had been looking forward to an entire repertoire of demon pox themed songs. On the right they had decided to go and see the vampire, Will's heart pounded. He liked having a purpose, a job, something to complete that would have an outcome. If that job happened to be unpredictable, with an element of danger, then all the better. Conversely, Jem was more hesitant. People didn't believe he would ever be a very good warrior because he was too compassionate, too merciful, too passive. It wasn't until they saw him in battle, saw the fire in his eyes and heart whilst defending Will, that they saw the side of them many didn't believe he possessed. If Will was the sun, Jem was the moon. Will shone brighter, Will lit the days. He was dazzling, a fiery life force. But Jem was always there, his counterweight, luminous and steady, lighting the dark times. For all Will's impulse, there was Jem's sense. And equally, for all Jem's concern, there was Will's catalysing abandon. Rare was the parabatai who worked so seamlessly, two hearts beating as one.

Will was particularly excited by the fact Ciel's weapons were all mundane things; swords made of metal, not adamas, walking sticks concealing nothing.

"Henry has adapted your cane." Will explained, handing it over. "Do be careful; any creations of Henry's is liable to go up in flames like straw at the drop of a hat."

Ciel looked slightly alarmed. He knew Henry well enough by now to be well aware of his reputation for creating malfunctioning or faulty inventions was deserved. However, Ciel thought, he had at least invented one perfectly functioning item. In fact, it worked rather too well in Ciel's opinion. The sensor...

"You said you were a decent shot with a gun, yes?" Will pointed out, and handed Ciel an intricately engraved silver gun. "That is a vampire gun." Will explained. "It shoots and loads just like a mundane one, except this one is loaded with silver bullets. It won't kill them, but it has ill effects on them and they will let you be. Also handy for run-ins with rogue werewolves; now, this will kill werewolves. But if you need to kill the vampires, use your cane, or this feature if you can get close."

Will flicked the gun, which had had two triggers – a fact that Ciel found both puzzling and intriguing.

"The back one shoots the bullets." Will said. "And this front one," he squeezed it and a spine-laced spoke burst from the end, whirring. "This drives into the heart, like a gun-activated stake. But you have to exactly hit the heart, so it's risky and better at close range."

"If you have this," Ciel said, taking the gun. "Why not always use them? Why use blades?"

"Runes prevent gunpowder for igniting, but we don't use runed weapons as much on downworlders. We don't really need to." Will said. "And anyway, that is a one of a kind Henry invention. You're holding the only one in existence."

Ciel tried hard not to imagine the sort of awful fatalities a Henry-made gun might inflict.

"Lucky me." Ciel mumbled, and Will smirked.

The group stood before the Clan headquarters, an old derelict theatre. The main front doors seemed to be held shut from the inside, and the stage doors were all similarly blocked. The group walked back around to the front entrance and surveyed their possibilities.

"I don't much rate our chances breaking any windows to get in." Gideon said, eyeing the enormous ground-level stained glass.

"No, but I do rate our chances getting in through that window." Will said, pointing up.

On the second storey was a small high window overhung by a railing-edged balcony held up by smooth marble pillars. Will grinned wolfishly at the confused expressions on the others' faces – and the impassive one on Sebastian's. Will dug out a long, long piece of piece of rope that wound like an enormous python from a leather messenger bag. He threw it around one of the balcony railings. Then he grabbed the two trailing ends, pulled hard to check it was secure, and jumped. He caught one end of the rope in each hand and began inching his way easily up. At the top, he released one hand, grabbed the balcony edge and swung himself up and over the barrier. He looked down at the others below him.

"We may be in a theatre, but I'm far more the Mercutio type than Juliet. No balcony scene tonight, gentlemen – and the Lightworms – so up you come."

Jem laughed and began climbing.

"Less Shakespeare, more Brothers Grimm. I feel like I'm climbing Rapunzel's tower." He smirked.

"Shut up and climb." Will laughed. "We have a job to do and we still have to get that one up." Will nodded to Ciel. "And that will be a real to-do."

"I can hear you." Ciel hissed and shot Sebastian a glare as he smiled amusedly.

The theatre's interior was as black as pitch, the stained glass doing nothing to lighten the darkness. Will blinked, attempting to force his eyes to adjust. He pushed Jem's hand back as he reached for the seraph blade at his belt.

"It will only draw attention." Will murmured and Jem nodded, instead releasing the blade from his sword-cane with a soft click.

"I can't see anything." Gabriel complained quietly.

"An insightful contribution, Lightworm." Will drawled sarcastically. "Please do honour us with more of your wisdom, insight, and knowledge."

"Quiet. We have a job to do." Gideon snapped, in a voice rather aggressive for a whisper. "We are shadowhunters, I'm quite certain we can manage some darkness."

"What, are you afraid, Herondale?" Gabriel sneered.

"Very." Will replied. "I do not trust you under cover of darkness. You'll be giving me your demon pox, next thing I know."

Gabriel flushed angrily. "I don't have demon pox, and if you're insinuating I'd ever sleep with you, you, you must be delusional."

Jem laughed quietly. "Come along."

"Sebastian, take us to Camille." Ciel said into the darkness, swinging his cane into his hands.

"Yes, my lord." Sebastian replied, and began walking with a certainty he knew where he was going that reminded Jem of when they were in the Seelie Court. He had an uncanny talent for knowing where he was going. I'd kill for that sort of intuitive sense of direction, Jem thought as he followed the butler. It would certainly stop Will getting them both lost so frequently.

They reached the auditorium and Sebastian pulled the huge double doors at the back of the stalls open with an almost inaudibly quiet creak.

"I believe we ought to visit the dressing rooms." Sebastian suggested. "It is my understanding Lady Belcourt may be there."

"We might as well check backstage whilst we are here." Will said, setting off down the aisle between the rows of seats.

He strode across the orchestra pit and jumped, pulling himself up onto the stage by his hands. He heaved himself to his feet, the wooden edge of the stage splintering a little under his feet. He reached a hand down to Jem.

"It is in our best interest to give the backstage and riggings a quick once over." Will said, catching Jem's wrist and pulling him after him onto the stage. Jem wiped the dust he'd accumulated on his hands negotiating the dilapidated theatre on his sleeves as Will looked out at the room full of empty seats, an audience of ghosts.

"Oh please, you just wanted the drama and grandeur." Jem smiled. "Of course you would want to take centre stage."

"Ah, my great hamartia! Alas, alack! 'All the world's a stage' and all of that." Will proclaimed and he and Jem laughed. Will turned and opened the heavy moth-eaten crimson curtains, his hands finding the gap where they parted and pushing them aside in a cloud of choking dust. "And, as the final curtain falls..." Will began, only to find a veritable cast of glaring vampires on their feet, fangs bared.

"That might be accurate." Jem said under his breath, then raised his voice to the others. "Draw your weapons. It looks as if we have a slight problem."

"Or a dozen of them." Will murmured, yanking out his seraph blade, which illuminated under his touch. The vampires recoiled from the light and the two parabatai surged forward.

Ciel yanked back the curtain, his fingers finding the velvet that had been worn away by age to smooth paleness. His eyes found Will and Jem already engaged in combat with vampires. More of the creatures were swarming, and Gideon and Gabriel dove past him and into the fray. He turned to Sebastian.

"Keep those vampires back. We can't afford any fatalities."

Sebastian nodded, before brushing past a vampire and knocking them to the floor. Ciel clicked the button on his cane that Will had told him would release the blade. Nothing happened. He slammed the button again and his eyes widened in confused horror as, again, nothing happened. Where was the blade? What was the point of installing a button if it had no function?

"Bloody Henry Branwell." He gasped and swung his mundane, bladeless cane out at a fast-approaching vampire. The metal end connected with the creature's skull with a sickening crack. The wound oozed blood and it dropped to the wooden stage with a thud. Ciel took a deep breath, looked away, and spun from the body firmly.