"Right, you stay behind me at all times, do not under any circumstances make any rash moves, and for God's sake try not to be a wimp." Isabelle said sharply. Not one for emotion, Simon thought.
"Jeez, relax. I'll be fine, this is so exciting. I'm going to be an official slayer of demons." Izzy rolled her eyes. They were walking slowly, carefully down the street of which, apparently, according to Jace, held a Shax demon. Shax demons were known for their sense of smell, so it wasn't a problem for Simon, who was overwhelmed with the relief of it. It was a hot summer night in Brooklyn, the sky stroked with clouds, like swirls in milky coffee. Izzy was unnerved, as usual.
"Easy tiger, this is a small one. Not anything successful will come out of it. This is just my job, it's not like I'm going to win a prize or anything, so stop… doing that." She flicked her hands in Simon's general direction, not looking directly at him.
"What?" He asked defensively, although he stopped hopping around subtly, hoping she didn't notice that he was trying not to look like a dweeb. She snorted. "I'm a shadowhunter, Simon, I can see you." He looked down, irritated with himself for letting her get to him. They passed rusty metal bins, shoved over, rats and trash spilling onto the cracked concrete.
"So, will I actually get to-" He pumped his fists out in front of him, attempting to look like he knew something about fighting, when in fact he was terrified about what could face him in the dilapidated building looming in front of them, "use these babies?" He regretted it the moment he said it. But Izzy looked unfazed as she said, "Take this seriously Simon, it may be a poxy lesser demon, but judging by your inane incompetence, you might actually find it hard to stay alive. Assuming you actually do want to 'use your babies'." She then mumbled something, of which Simon only heard the words 'not much' and 'unimpressive'. He made a 'sizzle' sound, stopped and gently put his hand on his arm, trying to look serious.
"Listen, if anything, I'll just punch him a couple times, I won't steal your glory, I daren't." Izzy raised one eyebrow, so high Simon thought it was going to mould into her hair, and looked sternly down at his secretly trembling hand. He removed it without taking his eyes off her. He found it hard to when she was like this. Steamy, mad, agitated. He loved it, because he knew he got to her, which would have to mean that he meant something to her, which could develop into something else. He could only hold hope that was thinner than paper. Her eyes blazed and engraved themselves into him, so much so that he felt the burn, ever so slightly, when she looked at him. He liked to think of it as wondrous gazing, but he couldn't have everything. Her black hair melted onto her shoulders, forming part of her dangerous, daring, racy look that caught his breath-if he had any- every time his eyes beamed over her. He knew shouldn't, he probably looked creepy, proven by her newly creased forehead and crossed arms.
"What are you staring at? Something you can't have? Come on, we have work to do."
She stalked up to the double doors, kicked them open with her custom leather boots, and looked back at Simon.
"What are you waiting for, Amateur? A welcome mat?" He obeyed and awkwardly ran up to the wooden, rotting doors, tripping over, would you believe it banana peels, as he went.
They entered in a fighting stance, Izzy having prior to the fight applied silence and night vision runes. Inside, it was like an office. A giant curving desk sat in front of them, with a stray rat scuttling atop it. The walls presented a dull, grey-striped patterned wallpaper, with pillars holding up the structure. Izzy's pendant lit up. There was a moan.
Izzy immediately looked in the direction it was coming from, yanking her seraph blade from her belt. She whispered a name so quickly, Simon couldn't hear, he was still trying to overcome his sudden fear of possible death. A sickly green figure emerged from the top, on the balcony. The stairs leading up to it were covered in slime, and it came slowly down. Great pincers spiked from its back, taunting and terrifying to Simon. Izzy, who had a determined, gripped look on her face, tightened her hold on the blade, and inched forward, daring the demon to come closer, Simon backing away towards her. The demon had a sort of shell, like armour, to protect itself from seraph blades. It stumbled down the steps, dumb then, Simon thought.
"I'm going to have to get up close if I have any chance of stabbing it in the neck. Which means you need to distract it, whist I sneak round the back, up the other set of stairs and across the balcony. Ok?" Izzy shouted over the screeches of the demon. No, of course it wasn't OK. Simon was literally going to poke his face in front of this demon thing, which looked pretty well-equipped for a beating, whilst Izzy tried to hide herself? Not OK. But he nodded anyway, not knowing what else to do. She proceeded to smoothly side-walk up to the stairs, never losing visual contact of the demon, sub-consciously stepping over bits of metal and glass. She squinted her eyes at Simon, and made a waving signal with her hands, urging him to make a distraction. Alarm bells went off in his head. Do something, Simon. Do something now! He snapped his head around, forgetting his own speed, and ran to the nearest vase, standing on a perch. He knocked it over, causing a crash, and subsequently, a distraction. The demon whipped its head around, and bared its teeth, showing off strings of gloopy saliva. He lolloped towards Simon, whilst Izzy dodged tin cans and all noise, took the stairs three at a time. It would always elude Simon how she had the ability to do that in 5 inch heels, shadowhunter or not. She stopped dead in her tracks when got to the top, her eyes widening.
"What is it, Izzy? 'Cause this kinda isn't the time to be worrying about mud on your boots."
"There's hundreds of them." The demon was getting closer, 10 metres away from feasting on Simon's flesh, implanting eggs into his cold skin.
"Hundreds of what?" Simon pleaded, hoping to get Izzy back on track. "Come on Izzy, focus."
She shook her head, snapping out of her reverie and darted across the balcony, and down the steps. She leapt on the Shax from behind, landing on top of it, and which one hand clenched on its carapace, plunged the blade into its neck, relieving a groan from the demon. She dodged the spurting demon blood and hoped down onto the floor, watching it disappear. Relief crashed over Simon like a tidal wave. But before they had time to celebrate, Izzy grabbed Simon's wrist and yanked him up the red velvet stairs to the top, and his jaw dropped. He was truly shocked. She was right. There were hundreds of eggs that the demon had laid, sitting there, waiting to latch.
"What are we gonna do?" It came out like a sigh, the words pouring over Izzy's lips, as if they were unaware of doing so. And Simon had an idea. He reached down into his pocket and pulled out a LET'S KILL ZOMBIES lighter. "Hold this." He slammed it into Izzy's open palm.
"But what-"Simon didn't hear the rest, as he ran down the stairs, outside and looked around. He was back up with 20 seconds and only a little out of breath-he liked to pretend he still had the ability to be 'a little out of breath'. In his hand was an old, but half full deodorant bottle.
"Own brand, doesn't make it any less flammable." He smiled crookedly as recognition spread across Izzy's face. "And they can't reform, they're not even alive." She sounded impressed. He sprayed the deodorant all over the eggs, along the walls, and once more over the eggs before it ran out, Izzy coughed and snapped open the lighter. She pulled down the cog with her thumb, and peered over at Simon, who said "You may do the honours, Miss. Lightwood." She stood back, chucked the lighter into the eggs and they ran out the building together, feeling the rush of heat and shudder as the building collapsed in on itself. They watched from outside, shoulder's touching, knuckles brushing.
"Not bad, newbee." Izzy said, turning around and sauntering off back down the alley, Simon overpowered with glee at her compliment-or as close to a compliment as she could get. She shook her head. "Not bad at all."