The Infernal Devices Reimagined

Cruel Beast

The next morning Tessa was awake bright and early. She and Sophia spent a considerable amount of time trying to squeeze her into the ridiculously small waistline of Ms. Lovelace's amorous red dress. Tessa thought that Ms. Lovelace had asked Sophia to reconfigure the fit, but then figured that this probably was the fit. Reeling from the excessively tight corset, Tessa made her way downstairs hoping that she wouldn't faint.

Ms. Lovelace gave Tessa barely enough time to eat breakfast before they were in the coach off to London with Thomas. Tessa spent the entire morning being dragged from shop to shop, having her measurements taken and the fabrics selected. Ms. Lovelace allowed her to wear only the most exquisite of dresses with the slimmest of waistlines.

"Ms. Lovelace!" Tessa cried while having her measurements taken for the umpteenth time "As you've noted yourself, I have barely a penny to my name, I cannot afford these dresses!" Ms. Lovelace waved her worries aside.

"Nonsense! You will not be paying for these dresses. It will be me, of course!"

Thus, Ms. Lovelace continued to tote Tessa all around London until her feet ache and head spun. By the end of it, Ms. Lovelace had commissioned seven new dresses, ("One for each day of the week!" She had said) and would have likely bought more if Tessa hadn't convinced her to take a detour to the park. The day was clear, and living in London taught one to cherish clear days.

The two women walked without saying much for a while. The silence grew uncomfortable, and Tessa felt she had to break it.

"Mrs. Black and Mrs. Dark owned a very peculiar globe of the world. There was a country between Switzerland and Germany called "Idris"."

"Ah, yes, Idris. The ancestral home of the glorious half angel half human race of shadowhunters. Enchanted so that it may remain hidden from mundane eyes and maps," Ms. Lovelace explained with a mocking tone.

"Do you dislike the shadowhunters, despite being one yourself,  Ms. Lovelace?"

"At age ten all shadowhunters are given their first rune, voyance. Runes are gifts from the Angel, they provide shadowhunters with powers beyond those of mundanes," Tessa nodded, remembering seeing them on Mr. Herondale. Ms. Lovelace showed Tessa her arm, "As you can see, I have none.

"I have no Marks because to live as a shadowhunter is to live as fighter, and I hate fighting. Violence is repulsive, and I could not imagine why one would want to dedicate his life to it," Ms. Lovelace came to a very abrupt stop.

There was a shriveled up creature with snarling teeth and gargantuan ears standing before them. He eyed the two women like they were two particularly succulent turkeys. With shaking hands, Ms. Lovelace held up her pink laced parasol as though it was a shield. "Leave now and we can part in peace," she commanded.

The beast sniggered "Tall words coming from Jessamine Lovelace, the disgrace of the London Institute."

"Leave. NOW!" Ms. Lovelace shouted, "I do not wish to end a life today." Her voice wavered.

"I will not be ordered around by a sorry excuse for a shadowhunter that does nothing but laze around."

Ms. Lovelace was saved from having to respond by a glowing blade jabbing itself into the beast's abdomen. Dirty blood leaked out of its stomach and it crumpled to the ground.

"Were you hoping to bore it into leaving you alone?" a smug voice called out from the shadows.

"Perhaps I was, Herondale. It's none of your business, is it?" Ms. Lovelace replied, scowling.

"If you were to simply give it a gentle prod with that razor tipped parasol of yours, my intervention would not have been necessary." Mr. Herondale stepped out into the light and smirked, his deep blue eyes sparkling in the sunlight.

"I am quite aware that killing him would make him go away. I did not fight him because, as I have told you a million times, violence is repulsive-"

"I'm sure you would find yours and Ms. Gray's grisly deaths to be repulsive as well, Jessie." he gave Tessa an impish smile, "How do you do, Ms. Gray? Aren't you happy to not be a bleeding corpse at this moment?" Tessa suddenly felt very bashful. Ms. Lovelace snorted.

"Why are you here, Herondale? Weren't you investigating some house with James, where is he?" Mr. Herondale's eyes went as wide as dinner plates and he rushed off. Tessa's eyes followed him as he went. Ms. Lovelace, noticing this, looked at Tessa with horror.

"Ms. Gray! You had better not be catching a fancy for that rascal!" Ms. Lovelace cried.

"A little bit louder please, Ms. Lovelace. I don't think that the entire city heard," Tessa said, feeling a bit mortified.

"I'm sorry, but you cannot fancy William Herondale. There are men you pursue, and then there are men who wind up dead in a disease ridden alley. Will is not the former."

"Ms. Lovelace, I think that you fancy Mr. Herondale." Ms. Lovelace became as red as a beetroot.

"Me?! Fancy that idiot?!"

"Why else would you be so adamant about me not being able to fancy him?"

"Will Herondale is a rapscallion, an idiot, a rascal with no care for anything or anyone. I-I," Ms. Lovelace grabbed Tessa's hand and dragged her back to the carriage, "I refuse to have this conversation in public!"