Hey guys! So this is my first story. Hope you guys like it! If not then constructive criticism is always welcome.
The cover image is something I found on the internet, I don't own it neither do I have any rights towards it.
All the characters are also either J.K. Rowling or Cassandra Clare's characters. I own nothing.
With that said and done.
Chapter 1
The Meet
Thud thud thud thud thud….
I could hear my heartbeat in my ears. The scenery whipped past us as we ran through a bunch of chatting tourists.
"Keep up Herondale," I screamed over my shoulders at a blond boy. He growled breathlessly causing me to laugh cheekily.
"You're evil Hermione," he shouted while trying to increase his pace.
"I know, locks," I replied slightly panting myself, "Now hurry up, at this rate the Janiah demon will reach Paris!"
Jace shouted back, "You're just this fast due to the speed rune."
My smirk stretched as I pulled out my stele and said, "Oh but I hadn't drawn it yet. Thanks for the reminder," and drew the rune just above my wrist. I then ran forwards with the extra burst of speed provided by the rune.
His reply faded into the city noises as I ran even faster. It didn't take me long to outrun the others. I turned my head back slightly to see how far behind they were and realized with a start that none of them were in my line of vision except for one black figure.
Simon.
Simon has just recently turned into a shadowhunter, before that he had been a vampire. He was still struggling to learn how to fight but his muscles which were used to the super-human strength and speed of a vampire had still not completely gotten rid of all their habits so it was not that surprising that he was able to keep up with me.
Chasing the trail of slime the demon had left I arrived at a park, Simon just behind me. My eyes darted around hoping to see the demon. Something caught my eye and I skidded to a halt causing Simon to bump into me.
"What h.." he started but I interrupted him by whispering, "Keep your voice down and get your seraph blade, I think I saw something."
I drew out my own seraph blade, whispering 'Haniel'. A sword appeared at my side with the lightest zing, glinting under the sun.
I sensed Simon doing the same behind me. Unfortunately, my partner was not as subtle. I winced internally when Simon stepped forward and several twigs snapped under his feet.
Breathing a little to stop myself from snapping at him, I focused my attention back on the task ahead.
And fortunately so, as my reflexes acted quickly when I heard a scream from behind me and whipped around to see a demon pouncing on Simon.
I was quickly in action, lunging forward, but the demon was faster and scampered back when the sword came in arc near its head.
The demon was bluish-black with yellow feline eyes. It towered over me, roughly 7 feet tall and had a disproportionate body oozing a transparent blue slime from its skin giving it an appearance of a blob of jelly. But it had jagged teeth lining the edge of its mouth that were presently dripping with blood and long tentacles protruding from all over its body.
I ran forward and swung my seraph blade. The creature tried to dodge but couldn't save two of its tentacles from falling to the ground. It shrieked, a whiny high-pitched unpleasant sound and lashed out, swinging it tentacles with deadly speed and accuracy. If I wasn't already a trained soldier, my head would have definitely been several feet away from my body.
I jumped near the demon's side and brought my blade in an arc trying to strike the skin but the creature brought a tentacle pushing the seraph blade away from its body. I stepped back pulling the sword back to fend off a tentacle that had come too close to my face.
Suddenly, a blindingly golden mass jumped in front of me.
Jace.
He thrust his seraph blade forward into one of the creature's eye. I almost breathed in relief. The creature was really tiring me but of course I would never say this to Jace.
Instead, I said, "Took you long enough."
"You're welcome," he said winking back.
I rolled my eyes, smirking slightly, while simultaneously cutting of several more of the tentacles.
"Don't worry, princess. I'll handle the big, bad demon. Why don't you go and play make-up?" he said grinning cheekily, knowing that he had struck a nerve, as he ducked down to avoid the demon's tentacles.
I narrowed my eyes. I took anything that Jace would send my way in these little banters we had, but undermining me like this was where I drew a line. "You do realize that you spend more time on your hair alone than I do as a whole on looks, Herondale!" More tentacles fell to the ground.
I heard two more pair of footsteps arrive.
Isabelle's voice came to her, "Not fair! You both are having all the fun!"
"No worries, Izzy," I replied, "We're going to beat the demon, not Jace."
"In your dreams…." He started to say just before I stomped on his right foot, quite near his toes.
Jace's Achilles heel was his little right foot toe. This was a trick I had figured out when I was 11. Stepping on it had used to make him scream like a little girl when he was a kid. Well, he didn't scream like that anymore but that didn't stop him from jumping around on one foot.
Taking this opportunity I screamed, "Come on Izzy!" She was by my side within seconds. Izzy and I have been friends since we were 4, and we understood each other well which reflected in our fights. We worked like a well-oiled machine and the demon was killed before Jace even had time to recover.
There was a reason we were parabatais.
When the demon fell to the ground with a thump, I finally released a breath of relief, grinning madly because of the exhilaration.
"Why would you do that in the middle of a fight?" Jace said pouting still jumping slightly.
"You deserved it," was all I said swinging an arm around a grinning Izzy's shoulders which seemed like a big feat in itself seeing the heels she was wearing.
Jace looked like he was about to say something but was interrupted by Clary's footsteps arriving. Skidding to a halt, she gasped for breath bending down, her hands gripping her knees. "I hate being short," was all she could wheeze out.
Jace face cleared off the pout as he laid his eyes over the little red-haired girl. As she straightened, Jace chuckled slightly at her expressions and swung an arm over Clary's shoulders, all thoughts over the previous argument clearly forgotten.
I shared a look with Isabelle, both of us grinning over how in love the two were. But soon the grin was wiped of Izzy's face as she looked around worried.
"Wait! Where is Simon?!" Izzy asked.
I realized with a start that due to the thrill of the fight, I had totally forgotten about Simon. I instantly felt bad.
I looked in the direction I had last seen Simon in and gasped when I saw Alec bent over Simon's body. I felt Izzy run and closely followed her.
"Oh my god! Has he been poisoned?!" Izzy asked as we saw the teeth mark on Simon's neck, blood oozing from the wound.
"Don't know," Alec said a frown on his face. Looking up he asked, "Hermione?"
I bent down and lightly touched the teeth marks, making sure as to not hurt him. I brought my hand up with trepidation. Along with the blood, there was a white slimy liquid coating my fingers. I sighed in relief.
"When the venom of a Janiah demon is first infected into a person, it is an opaque bright yellow with hints of a dark green in colour. The venom is highly poisonous. But if within the previous hour, the demon has bitten someone else, then the venom turns a translucent shade of white. This indicates that it's not poisonous," I chanted it word to word from the book, Daemons from Zophiel Blackwell. Then I held up my hand, revealing the venom.
Isabelle breathed in relief and dropped to her knees, carving a healing rune near the wound. I stood as the rune started visibly taking effect on Simon.
"But doesn't that mean somebody else was bitten too," Clary asked with a pale face. I slowly bobbed my head.
Jace being the natural leader he is, started speaking, "Ok. We should go to that abandoned construction site we had found the demon in first. Then slowly make our way back here, checking alleys and empty streets…."
"No," I interrupted, the gears in my head already turning. Without another word I started walking towards the direction from where the demon had attacked Simon.
"HEY!" I could hear Jace scream. I ignored him, my mind focused. "This is no time to be competitive 'Mione!" came Jace's voice again. I turned my head around again giving him an are-you-kidding-stop-acting-like-a-child look. Then turned back walking on again.
"Why are you walking in that direction?" asked Jace, clearly irritated.
Huffing I said, "When we first attacked the demon, it was on offensive, its predatory instincts coming into play. But suddenly it started running away and when we reached here, it started making more defensive moves as if it just wanted to save itself." I quickened my pace as if stating this out loud had given me some sort of confirmation.
"So?" asked Jace catching up with me.
"She means to say that when we first arrived the demon was hungry so it thought more about hunting us. But it must have sensed a more weak and vulnerable prey nearby so it ran off. When we arrived, it must have already has it fill, so it thought more of his safety," Alec said as he reappeared a thoughtful look on his face.
Catching up with his parabatai's trail of thoughts, Jace said, "And the demon had also didn't have its poisonous venom, so it was down one weapon, making it was more defensive."
"I just hope it's not a mundane," Clary said, jogging to keep up.
I stepped through a cluster of bushes and stopped jerkily as I stepped on a red liquid. I heard Alec, Jace and Clary step out of the bushes and stop beside me. My eyes followed the trail of the blood and arrived at its source. My stomach lurched at the sight.
A young boy, around my age, pale faced with a bite mark on his arm was lying on the ground. Beside him sat a red-haired boy. The stance of this other boy was brotherly and protective. In his hands was a stick, which was pointed at the bitten boy. The red-haired boy was moving it muttering something under his breath, a frustrated yet scared look on his face.
On sensing our arrival, he stood up pointing the stick at us.
Jace snorted incredulously, "A stick! Really…." But he trailed off as soon as he saw the glare Clary was sending his way.
"Relax…" Alec started saying taking a tentative step towards the boy but was cut off by a red blinding light as the boy yelled stupefy.
"ALEC!" screamed Jace and rushed to his parabatai's side who had been flung back. Clary rushed off after him, her stele ready in her hands, leaving me and the strange boy alone. Sensing this, the boy turned facing me, the stick pointing towards me, poised and ready.
The boy's hair were a ginger shade, unlike Clary's fire red hair. His face was plastered with freckles, he had a long nose and blue eyes. He was tall and lanky, with a thin layer muscles on his body but I could tell that in a fight I could easily win. Not that it mattered.
The guy was probably a warlock, though he didn't really look like one, but engaging in a physical fight with a warlock all alone would be reckless. And I didn't want to fight him anyways. I could tell that under all the bravery façade, he was just a scared guy.
I slowly crouched and put my blade down. While getting up, I raised my hands up in surrender. His eyes widened and then lost a slight bit of their anger at my actions.
Taking this as a sign, I stepped forward lightly, "It's ok. We just want to help. We won't hurt you or your friends," I spoke in what I hoped was a hushed and soothing voice.
He lowered his stick slightly (Was it a wand? Warlocks didn't really use them but I couldn't be sure), but then his eyes hardened again and pointing the stick at me again, he said, "Accio Wand" with a rich British accent. I watched as another stick flew out of the black-haired boy and poked the ginger in his side and then fell to the floor.
Well, that confirmed that the sticks were wands and the black-haired boy was a warlock too.
The ginger huffed in frustration and bent down to pick up the other wand mumbling something. She wasn't sure but she thought she heard something about not being a death eater?
He dropped his hand, this time looking at me with slight trust and then started pacing running a hand through his hair, his nervousness resurfacing. "I don't know what happened, we just apparated here and then this big, blue weird creature attacked us and we tried to fight him off but the spells just bounced off and the creature was lunging towards me but Harry had to attach all heroic, the bloody git, then the creature bit him, but then we heard some voices and the creature ran off, and Harry fainted and I don't know many healing spells!" he said in a single breath. I waited for him to end his rant.
He spoke so quickly that my head spun. But through the indistinct murmuring I had heard the basic story. Grabbing on the only coherent thoughts in my head I said, "Ok! First, relax. I know how to heal your friend but he'll have to come with us. Is that ok?" I asked trying to be polite. The truth was I would have taken the injured boy, Harry, anyways.
The red-haired boy seemed to think it over. "Only if I get to come along," he said, obviously still not completely trusting us.
I thought about it for a few moments but seeing no other way out I nodded.
He then nodded back slightly, still seeming unsure.
Breathing out a sigh of relief, I walked over to Harry and hunched down near him careful peering at his wound. My worst thoughts were confirmed when I saw the yellow liquid near the boy's hand.
Fortunately, that is when I heard my friends rushing towards us.
Unfortunately, Jace was pissed.
"HOW DARE YOU HURT ALEC YOU LITTLE PIECE OF SHIT!" came Jace's booming voice.
I whipped my head around and saw Jace striding forward while Clary and Alec barely managed to keep up, fear evident on their faces. They were followed by Izzy and, a slightly disoriented-looking, Simon.
Knowing what was about to happen, I stepped in front of the ginger who looked petrified, successfully shielding him.
"Get out of my way 'Mione," Jace said, sounding on the verge of shouting again.
"No," I stated firmly.
"NO?!" This time, he did scream, ignoring Clary who was tugging on his arm, "He fucking blasted Alec!"
"Jace, he and his friend were attacked by a Janiah demon. The poor guy, must have been scared out of his wits. He wasn't thinking straight," when Jace refused to budge, I looked towards Alec for help.
Alec looked around as if some sort of help would pop up until his eyes landed on the injured boy on the ground and he looked up at me as if asking a question. Realizing that he was asking whether the boy had been infected or not I nodded slightly. His expression turned grave as he returned the nod and turned to the fuming blond, "Jace, that boy has been infected by demon venom, he needs to be taken to the institute."
This successfully distracted Jace from his anger as the soldier in him awoke to do its duty and he looked down at the limp boy near my feet. His face which had been filled with fury till then melted away into a hard but determined look which I had seen many girls swoon over.
Without another word he stepped forward and plucked Harry into his arms, bridal style and didn't even look back as he ran towards the institute. The others followed him shortly.
I looked back at the freckled boy and jutted my head in the direction in which the others had left.
He nodded stepping forward but then stopped and turned towards me again. "Thank you," he said sounding sincere.
I didn't reply, just nodded my head and then ran after the others hoping that the warlock was following me.
Hope you guys liked this!
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