The rain was thick and merciless. It left stings on Magnus' exposed face that just seemed to dampen his mood. Stupid sun, he thought bitterly, why aren't you here? Truthfully, the weather wasn't the purpose of his sour mood. Rather the date was.
March 5th.
This was the date he had lost his little blue-eyed Nephilim. How many years ago didn't matter. Now, all of the world seemed darker. Even the layers of Magnus' glitter didn't seem to matter anymore. Most of his immortal friends never quite understood. There was Tessa, but she had a second love. Not Magnus. All he had was his one, his Alexander. With his shy and loving ways.
They had been married and stayed together for so many years. It wasn't time that stole him though, time had ceased to be a problem after Seraphic. It was an angel. Oh the bitter irony of it all. A female angel with unlimited power. She had stolen him and made a public show of bringing him down. Magnus had seen it all, helpless. Tears welled in his eyes. Alec…
Magnus was jarred from his thoughts as black and red fire ripped across the sky followed by a taunting shout. Idiotic Nephilim, he thought with a growl. Wait a second, fire? In a rain storm? Magnus blinked the water from his lustrous cat eyes scanning for the cause of the fire. At first he couldn't find it. When he did, his heart contracted and his breath hitched and stayed suspended in the air.
Through the pouring rain he saw familiar colors. It was short raven black hair and eyes that seemed to gleam an impossible blue. But it couldn't be. It wasn't possible. But maybe… Magnus was proved wrong when the eyes glittered to life with other colors. A demon black and a shining green. The figure was charging down the street bent low and determined dressed in a black shirt and dark jeans clinging to their lithe frame. The figure leapt over Magnus before hitting the pavement and shooting themselves into the air.
Magnus watched the figures fighting in the air before collapsing as if a rug had been swiped from under their feet. The figure from earlier got up laughing with a confident smirk. It was a girl. She had a very similar appearance to how Alec had once looked.
The girl glanced at Magnus panting but pleased. She had no obvious signs of being a warlock. Perhaps she was like Tessa, unmarked. The girl's hair brimmed with colors, red, blue, and an oddly familiar silver.
The past was attacking Magnus.
The girl watched Magnus with wide remarkable eyes. "What are you looking at?" Magnus demanded with a sneer infuriated by this girl. Between her show of a fight and high confidence, she reminded him of another boy of the past. One with golden locks and matching eyes.
The girl shot back. "I think I'm looking at a warlock. Though I can't be sure."
"Why is that? Are your contacts blinding you?"
"Actually sir, these are my personal eyes. Just like yours." The girl tested. "What's with the anger? It's a lovely day. Perfect day for hunting-"
"Demons? Of course you're a Nephilim." Magnus huffed striding forward to meet the girl. "All of you think you're so high and mighty and that everyone is just like you. Guess what princess-"
"HEY!" the girl shouted with fury. "First off, I'm no princess. I'm a fluffy caking queen of the Shadow World and Demon Angels. Second, angels. It's a perfect day for hunting angels." Magnus blinked swallowing the memories in his throat.
"People hunt them?"
"No, I do. I'm no person. I'm a demon angel goddess thing. And I'm pretty fabulous." The girl gave a livid smile. "That was Dmitri. Responsible for killing my kind." She glanced back at the body with extended wings. "He's not dead. I would need a mortal for that. Obvious really."
"A mortal? So you're immortal?"
"Yes you glittery thing." The girl shot. "I can only assume you're Magnus Bane." The girl chuckled.
"The one and only." Magnus feigned majesty. "Are you a fan?"
"Nope. I only know you because of an old friend years ago. A Mister Alexander Gideon Lightwood. Good kid." Magnus' heart stopped. "Went to Elysium. Good thing too, he really did earn it."
"Excuse me?" Magnus managed steadying his breathing.
"Nothing, just the rantings of an angel demon. I'm Rue by the way. Rue Ghoul." She gave a smile of sweetened venom. Magnus looked at the girl just watching her sporadic movements unable to stay still.
"No, what did you say?" the girl looked up to the sky before walking closer to Magnus. "What are you doing?"
"Shut up." The girl commented. Honestly the girl even acted like a teenager. Though she had to be well over a hundred years old. Perhaps this was how she had always acted. She took him by the elbow.
The world started blurring, darkness began to envelop him. Magnus started to panic pulling away from the girl desperately. Rue held on tightly, her nails digging into his arm despite his thick trench coat. The darkness receded and Magnus looked around. He was in his crimson and intense blue house. Rue looked around before shrugging and adjusting her leather jacket by the lapels.
"You know magic. But that wasn't magic…"
"Yes it was. Shadow magic. Queen of the Shadow World? Hello." Magnus felt the world spinning around him and fell to the floor, Rue's hand steadying his descent. "Warlocks are fragile things it seems." Rue mused letting go of him. "Are you going to be sick?" she asked. Magnus shook his head regaining his composure. He was the elder warlock. He was the only warlock.
"You are infuriating." He told Rue firmly.
"Thanks." She raked a hand through her hair kneeling next to Magnus. "Adios buddy." Rue commented lightly before standing up. As she turned around and he rose to his feet, he noticed a Mark on her neck.
"You're Nephilim." He suddenly said.
Rue looked at him with a bemused expression. "Don't those ears work? I'm an angel demon. My first mother was an angel." She held up a hand. "Don't ask. I don't get it either."
"How did you know where my house was?" was his first question.
"Let's see. Late night escapade, twenty seven marked demons, archer boy, 3 am, not at Institute, and some stolen items." She ticked off on her fingers. "Yep, that sums it up. For me at least."
"Don't you ever miss Alexander?" Magnus asked. He wasn't sure why but he wanted Rue to stay and talk to him.
"Yeah, I mean I guess." She turned to face him. "I miss all my friends. I mean, I'm a year older than Alexander. Immortality is new to me." She shrugged. "I just quit caring about them not being here. It's not like they left me forever."
"The immortal don't pass. Not unless they take their own life."
"Trust me, not always." She put a hand in her mess of hair. "I tried four times. Never could die. Guess I'm trapped." She shrugged nonchalantly. "I still see them though." She narrowed her eyes. "Can't you?"
"I don't control the shadows."
"This isn't a shadow trick. It's…weird…gah I don't know how to explain it."
"Would you like to sit down?" Magnus offered. Rue shrugged before the two of them sat in the living room, Rue with her feet dangling over the edge of an armchair. Magnus sat on the couch leaning on his knees. "So you can see the…passed and fight angels despite being part angel yourself. Is that right?"
"Yepper pepper."
"You living contradiction." Magnus responded simply.
"I guess so." Rue gave a tight lipped smile kicking her feet about.
"Why did you start fighting the angels? Is it because they went for the Nephilim?" Rue shook her head. The angels had come after their chosen children and began controlling them. Forcing them to destroy those unfit and cripple the world. Fear was the new peace. "Why do you attack them?"
"My animosity list. Plus the leader, yeah, that's my mother. Josephine. But I disowned her. The second I learned her name."
"Smart choice."
"I'm not alive because of my horrid looks you know. Rather my sharp mind, even sharper tongue, and flawless blade."
"You sound like the old Nephilim. So sure of themselves. So arrogant. Acting like you can take on the world."
"I know the limits of my abilities. That is where I am different. Alexander understood them too." She tipped her head back. "He wasn't like most Nephilim. Boy was shy and kind. Not to mention blind to the obvious sometimes." Magnus laughed with tears in his eyes. Gah, talking about Alexander to someone who knew him, it made him feel okay about the date.
"Tell me about it."
"But I was never any better." Rue admitted. "I never understood double meanings. If I had, more people would have been punched." Rue looked at Magnus with her head titled to the side. "You're crying."
Magnus wiped at the tears furiously. "Sorry," he muttered. He needed to control himself. "Just a bad day."
"Why?"
"An anniversary." He gestured blandly with his hand. "A depressing one."
"Alec's death." Rue stated and Magnus winced. Rue bit her lower lip playing with her hands before getting up abruptly. "This is a stupid idea." Rue told the ceiling. Magnus stared at Rue before she made her sword appear and put it in the sheath on her back. "Let's go through with the stupidity anyway."
Her hand extended towards him and he stared at it. "What you planning on doing?" Magnus demanded. Only Rue was much more fierce than he was.
"Fly to the moon, just come on." Rue demanded. "Let's see if this will work for you."
"What will?"
"Revenge." Rue answered easily.
Magnus blinked back tears. "That never helps."
Rue shrugged. "Helped me. No one kills my demon snake and gets away with it." Rue spat bitterly remembering another time. Magnus marveled at the similarities this girl had to Alec, the raven of her hair, the blue of her eyes, the defined lines of her face. She was rather stunning but didn't bother to acknowledge it. "You're stronger than you think." Rue told him meeting his dim gaze.
"What?"
"On the anniversary of your husband's death, you went outside. Better than me the first few times. I locked myself in Abraham's tower the first two or three years. After that, I didn't leave my bed on that day." Rue shrugged. "The world was my sworn enemy. Yeah, good times. I guess."
Magnus watched Rue as she laid her heart down and revealed herself to a stranger. "I'm not strong." Magnus told her. "Just adapted to the pain I suppose." Rue shook her head before looking at the ceiling with a question in her gaze.
"Pain isn't something you adjust to. Pain is life. Life is destruction and pain. That's all there is to it."
"Is this supposed to make me feel better?" Magnus half shouted infuriated by Rue. Tears burned his eyes. What was she doing?
"I never said that. You assumed. I'm here to break the rules." Magnus looked up at her, his cat eyes bright and lethal but it was reduced to shreds with her razor blade expression. Open and cutting, Rue looked more like a demon than a person for a wild moment. "History shall be rewritten in blood."