Author's Note: This story is conjunction with Decrepit Whims. She writes about the point of view of the other character Harlow, so I suggest you check it out!
Zurie looked out the window at the city she called home most of her life. The streets of Chicago held many memories for her. Some good, but most of them bad. She had lost people closest to her battling in those streets, but that tended to come with a job of shadowhunting. Zurie turned back to her packing and brushed her red brown hair out her icy grey eyes. Her suitcase was rather bland, filled with mostly black and grey clothes. The only item that stood out was a picture of a young man and girl, standing side-by-side smiling. Zurie forced back the flashbacks from the fateful day she lost her brother. She knew that the Clave was reassigning her because they thought she couldn't handle Chicago anymore, and that, as much as she would like to deny, pissed her off. Perhaps the Clave was right though, maybe moving away from Chicago was something she needed. She was tired from holding back her emotions all the time, especially when everything here reminded her of Elijah.
Packing the last of her of seraph blades and her chakrams, Zurie zipped up her bag then promptly drew a glamour on her bag to fool the mundanes into thinking there was nothing out of the ordinary about her bag. Next she finished getting dressed, she threw on a pair of black khakis, a plain light grey top, combat boots, and a leather jacket that had belonged to her brother. She rarely went outside the Shadowhunter norm. Finally, Zurie slipped a seraph blade in her boot and her stele in her other just for good measure. Picking up her bag, she took one last look around at her old room before heading towards the front door of the Chicago Institute. Tapestries depicting battles between shadowhunters and demons as well as the rising of Raziel, lined the stone hallways. Once she was outside, she moved away from the Institute to avoid strange looks when she had to hail a cab. No mundane could see what the Institute actually looked like, instead they only saw an old, dilapidated church. Zurie plopped down in the cab seat, telling the driver to take her to Midway airport. During the ride, the cab driver tried to break the silence with small talk.
"Going on vacation?" He said in a sunny tone.
"No, just moving on." She replied with a sigh, watching the tall buildings and familiar haunts pass by.
"Where to?" he asked.
"Just someplace far from here."
The cab driver took that as her final answer and decided to leave it at that, leaving the rest of the drive silent.
Once she finally arrived at the airport, Zurie took in her surroundings and took note of everything. There were mostly mundanes rushing to catch their flights, but there were a few Downworlders present. There were three warlocks, four werewolves, and several different kinds of fair folk. Zurie kept her head down low because despite the Accords downworlders made her nervous. There were a lot of underground Downworld groups in Chicago that had really bad reputations. She pulled out her Sensor to check the rest of the perimeter for anything besides Downworlders. Surprisingly, the sweep came up clean, so Zurie made her way to her plane, where she would be packed like a sardine with other mundanes. Hopefully, she would be able to grab an aisle seat to allow easy access if she has to spring up to fight any unfriendly passengers.
The three hour flight to Denver was very quiet, which disturbed Zurie. She was used to having to fight demons almost constantly. During the flight, she tried to keep herself busy by memorizing the map of Laramie, the new town she had been assigned to protect. After arriving in Denver, Zurie had to catch a small plane to reach her final destination, but a wisp of smoke caught the corner of her eye. Whipping around she saw an Iblis Demon following a woman into the bathroom. Zurie casually followed closely behind, drawing some quick runes on her arms and formulating a simple plan in her head. With her back against the wall, Zurie put down her bag then pulled the seraph blade from her boot and whispered the angel name "Zuriel". She felt more powerful whenever she used the name she shared with that angel. The blade came to life with light and she peeked around the corner to look for the demon. She saw nothing, not even the woman that the demon followed in. Zurie was positive that the demon came in here and since they both couldn't be found her body was on full alert. Slowly, she entered the bathroom when she was knocked into the closest bathroom stall. Barely winded, Zurie sprung into action before the Iblis demon could surround its smokey body around her. Landing on her haunches, Zurie perched herself on the bathroom sink. As the demon advanced she leaped over the demon, dragging her blade down its back. The demon burst into ashes, showering her in its black dust. Zurie stood up and assessed the situation. Her blade had dimmed, but the woman that had been followed in was still missing. Suddenly, gurgling noises were coming from the other end of the bathroom. At the last stall, the woman came out, but she looked deformed. Zurie quickly realized her fight wasn't over yet. The woman's skin split apart revealing a worm like creature with razor sharp teeth. An Eluthied Demon. Zurie ran to her bag, grabbing her chakrams and turned quickly back to the demon. It leapt towards her. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Zurie threw one of her chakrams at the creatures mouth. The razor sharp blade sliced the creature in half and it exploded into a mess of ichor. Needless to say it created quite a mess. Zurie's grey shirt was stained black and splatters of ichor burned her cheek. Damn demons. Always making a mess of the world. Zurie did her best to clean up the ichor off the walls and herself. After pulling her chakram out of the wall, she glanced at her watch. Shit. She was about to miss her plane to Laramie. Zipping up her jacket to hide her stained shirt, Zurie sprinted out of the bathroom, picking up her bag on the
way out.
The plane ride to Laramie was rough. Wyoming wind created such severe wind turbulence, Zurie almost felt like that the plane was being attacked. She was still on edge ever since she ran into the two demons at the airport. All the passengers on the small plane were mundane, but it didn't make her feel any better. She kept a seraph blade up her sleeve the whole time. Finally, the plane landed and
Zurie looked for her ride that was supposed to pick her up.
An old car pulled up to her, Zurie tensed immediately, ready to use her blade if need be. A tall ,lean man got out of the car. She could immediately sense that he was a werewolf. A million thoughts ran through her head at that moment, but she decided to wait to see what he had to say. He strolled up to her, extending his hand towards her.
"You must be Zuriel Greyhallow. I'm Scott and I'm here to drive you to the Laramie Institute."
She shook his hand and glanced behind him. There was a girl with goggles on her hand sitting in the passengers seat. "Who is that?" Zurie arched a brow at the strange looking girl, perhaps she was another Downworlder.
Scott looked back at the car. "That's the other Shadowhunter you are going to work with."
The girl waved at her from the vehicle and Zurie returned with a slight wave back. "She's different looking that's for sure." Zurie wasn't sure what to make of the girl, but she felt like she wasn't going to like the other Shadowhunters she worked with in the past.
"Well, I wouldn't exactly say you look normal either. Rough day?" Scott pointed out her ichor stained shirt.
Zurie rolled her eyes "You have no idea. I don't normally look this out of sorts." Scott just laughed at her assertions.
"You just look like you are going to snap that's all"
"I'm fine." Zurie replied quickly. She didn't like it when people could read her so easily. Scott shrugged and picked up her bag to throw it into the trunk. Zurie climbed into the back of the beat up car, mentally preparing herself to meet her new partner.
The girl turned in her seat and held out her hand. "I'm Harlow Briar."
Zurie took her hand. "Zuriel Greyhallow. But you can call me Zurie." Zurie looked into the girl's blue eyeliner rimmed eyes. Harlow had her hair slicked back into a ponytail with the ends dyed blue and welder's goggles on her head. Her outfit looked as if she missed her ride to the local comic con. Zurie thought that she was definitely the most eccentric looking Shadowhunter she had ever seen and honestly Zurie hated it. Harlow flashed Zurie a fang filled smile. Zurie raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you sure that you're a Shadowhunter? Because frankly you don't look like you belong here."
"Indeed, I am a ShadowHunter, ." Harlow then pulled down her shirt revealing a painless rune near her heart. "And here is your proof."
Zurie shook her head at the girl in disdain. "Just because you are marked doesn't mean you are a true shadowhunter."
After a moment of shock, Harlow returned Zurie's remark with a bitter laugh. "Well, I guess I'll just have to have fun proving you wrong."
"You ladies playing nicely?" Scott asked rather jovially as he reentered the car, fixing his seat belt into place.
"No. In fact, I have no hope for this partnership working out. I mean, she obviously has no respect for the Shadowhunter code of conduct." Zurie insisted.
Scott looked at Zurie through the rearview mirror until Harlow spoke up. "I'm sorry. I'm not entirely sure I know how to play nicely." Scott then turned to Harlow. Harlow simply kept her face looking innocent. "Won't you teach me?" That nearly sent Zurie over the edge. It took all her willpower not to strangle Harlow.
Scott erupted into laughter and turned to face the road again, pulling away from the airport. "You two will definitely be an interesting addition to our small town of Laramie."