Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations I put all the characters in. Thanks so much for reading, I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think!

A Dangerous Cookie

Walking down the street Alec kept his head down, avoiding all eye contact as he made his way through the familiar streets. It was a habit he couldn't seem to break, the need for invisibility as ingrained as his survival instinct. He just wasn't good with people so it was better in his mind not to interact with them when he didn't need to.

Hands in his pockets Alec's stride slowed down as a scent reached his nose. A delicious, freshly baked cookie scent, that teased his nose unmercifully. He hadn't had lunch yet, he'd intended to grab something for himself and Magnus on his way to his warlock's loft. Stomach grumbling as he got closer and closer to the source of the scent Alec couldn't begin to imagine where it was coming from seeing as there wasn't a bakery anywhere nearby. But he was going to try and find out.

And then the people walking in front of Alec crossed the street and in doing so revealed the source of the smell, coming from the mouth of an alleyway.

The boy standing there looked sixteen at most, with white gold hair caught back in a braid that went half way down the kid's back. He was on the short side and slim, with very androgynous looking features. The boy was wearing sunglasses against the summer sun, so Alec couldn't see his eye color, but that wasn't what held Alec's interest. In the boy's hand was a platter piled high with cookies as big as his palm. Now that interested him quite a bit.

Not stopping to think about why no one else was pouncing on the cookies the way he wanted to Alec walked over to the boy, the boy smiling brightly in greeting.

"Hi, would you like to try a cookie?" The boy asked, holding out a cookie on a napkin. "A bakery is opening up a couple blocks from here soon and we're drumming up future business by showcasing what we'll be offering."

Accepting the cookie from the boy Alec bit in, making a sound of serious approval as the chocolatey goodness hit him. It was just beyond description. Wondering if he could buy some to take with him for Magnus Alec opened his mouth to ask, the words dying in his throat as he watched the boy tip the glasses up onto his blonde head, revealing golden eyes slitted like a cat's.

"You're a warlock."

"Yuppers." The young warlock agreed with a nod, still all smiles. "Did you like your cookie?"

Still surprised by the discovery Alec slowly nodded, wariness belated setting in.

"Good. Because that's the last thing you'll ever eat."

And those words were all Alec heard as he pitched forward, what was left of the cookie slipping out of his hand as he hit the ground with a thud.

Thanks to the glamour the warlock had erected, no one noticed.

)

Maia pressed the intercom to signal Magnus of their arrival while Isabelle and Clary stood slightly behind her, wondering if Alec was the reason Magnus was taking so long to answer. They hated to interrupt, but they'd been ordered by Isabelle's mother to drop off the package Isabelle held to Magnus ASAP and Mrs. Lightwood hadn't remembered to give to Alec before he'd left to spend the day with his man. They didn't dare return to the Institute without delivering it into Magnus's hands personally.

"Is he not home?"

The girls whirling around they stared at the man who'd approached them so silently. It was a warlock, one with curly chestnut hair and pale, ice blue eyes. He looked to be in his mid twenties and there was a very serious, mature air about him. He was dressed simply too, in total odds with Magnus's wardrobe. He would have looked completely normal if not for the cat ears on his head, the same color as his hair.

Answering the question before the girls could Magnus's voice came over the intercom. "Yes? Who is it?"

"Hey, Magnus, we just need to drop something off for you and then we'll scat." Maia told him, shooting a questioning glance at the other warlock before adding, "And there's a warlock down here who I think wants to talk to you too."

"It's Bryan Diggory, Bane." The warlock supplied, loud enough for Magnus to hear. "I just have a quick question for you and then I'll be on my way as well."

"Well fine, come on up, all of you. It's not like I have better things to do." The sarcasm was more than audible.

Everyone trooping up the stairs they were met at the top by Magnus, dressed for the day in a black leather vest and pants, with fringes dyed rainbow colors on the pockets and around the hems to keep it colorful. He'd added rainbow glitter to his black hair and around the tops of his eyes to go with his nails, which were also painted to resemble mini rainbows.

Crossing his arms Magnus gave Diggory a hard look before turning his attention to the girls and the package Isabelle held. "Why didn't your mother just give the package to my darling? Or is he too busy to come see me today?" Magnus added with a pout and wink.

"What do you mean?" Isabelle's face went puzzled. "He left two hours ago to come here. Mom forgot to give it to him before he left. He never showed up?"

"He hasn't been by yet." A considering look coming over the warlock's face Magnus motioned for them to come inside while he considered the possibilities. "Maybe he had some errands to do before he came. Ohhh, maybe he's got a surprise planned for me."

Clary shook her head, a look of worry crossing her face. "No…he said he was going to pick up some lunch on the way for the both of you."

Eyes narrowing Magnus's gaze flicked over to the other warlock, who was looking around his place with a grimace. No surprise, Diggory was as big a neat freak as Jace. Which was probably one of the many reasons why he and Diggory could never stand to be around each other for very long. Polar opposites, that was them. "Well before I go looking for my blue eyed boy, what do you want?" It wasn't like Diggory to ask for help, or to spend time with people period. Diggory was an extreme loner.

"I'm looking for my ward, Jaden Rivers. I wanted to ask you if he's been here." Pulling out his wallet the man flipped it to a picture and then held it out to Magnus, Maia and Clary crowding around to get a look while Isabelle tried to get her brother to answer his cell phone. The boy in the picture was very girlie looking with pale blonde hair and beautiful golden eyes. He had the sweetest grin on his face, the sort of smile that made you smile back despite yourself.

Magnus studied the picture for a moment and then shook his head as he handed the picture back to the man. "Nope. You think he's in trouble?"

The other warlock shoved a hand through his hair in exasperation. "I've been looking for him for a week. The only clue I had to go on was that a warlock of my acquaintance finally remembered Jaden asking a lot of questions about you. I thought maybe he decided to come meet you for some reason. Damn." And now how worried the man was became apparent in his eyes. "He's a sitting duck out there. Jaden's about as dangerous as a declawed kitten. Wandering off without even saying good bye…when I get my hands on him…"

The four observers all thought that when the warlock got ahold of the boy the boy was going to be hugged within an inch of his life.

"Well why don't we hit the streets and see if anyone has seen him or Alec?" Maia suggested, turning their attention back to the fact that Diggory wasn't the only one missing someone. Alec wasn't the type to pass up a chance to spend the day with Magnus, and the other warlock obviously cared a lot about his ward too. Two warlocks, both losing someone important to them at the same time, well that struck her as just plain suspicious.

Especially when a pale Isabelle announced she couldn't get Alec on his phone.

)

Groggy and a little lightheaded Alec woke up to the sound of someone crying. Eyes slowly flickering open Alec struggled to focus on the lone figure sitting cross legged on the floor in front of him. The boy looked vaguely familiar, Alec just putting the pieces together when the boy noticed that the Shadowhunter was awake and aware.

There was fear in the boy's eyes as he rubbed his eyes with his knuckles like a little boy before meeting Alec's gaze with pure misery. "You're going to kill me now, aren't you? It's only fair really, since I was going to kill you. Can we do it somewhere else though? I don't want Marcus to come home to find my body rotting in his living room."

Looking at the boy who'd given him the cookie, which must have been laced with something, Alec had no idea what to make of his current situation. He was lying on a very comfortable couch in a nicely decorated living room. He wasn't bound in any way and his instincts sensed no impending danger from another source. What the hell was going on?

Turning his attention to his kidnapper Alec had never seen such a sad excuse for a villain in his life. And he'd been forced to watch anime with Simon so that was saying something. "Why…were you going to kill me?"

The boy hung his head. "I was going to do it for Bryan, to make him happy. But he's right, I'm about as dangerous as a blade of grass. I really thought I could do it, since it was for him, but I just couldn't. I told myself you were a Shadowhunter and had probably killed lots of people, people with families, but I couldn't know that for sure and…and you have people who love you and stuff too." The boy's words dripped with misery. "That's why I untied you, even though I knew you'd kill me as soon as you woke up. I thought about untying you and then leaving, but what if the building caught on fire or one of Marcus's enemies broke in and found you here? Marcus has a lot of enemies and you are a Shadowhunter. A lot of Marcus's friends AND enemies hate you guys."

Alec tried to think of every Bryan he'd ever met but he couldn't think of any who would be happy to see him dead. "Why did this Bryan guy ask you to kill me, knowing you wouldn't be able to?"

"Oh he didn't ask me to. He would never do that." And now love and devotion came into the boy's eyes as he spoke of his guardian. "Bryan is my guardian, I went to live with him after my adoptive mother passed away. He tried to teach me how to be a warlock but I'm…I'm pretty hopeless. I'm a big disappointment to him. Anyway, he's the most important person to me and I want him to be happy, happier than anyone. And I…well he really likes Magnus Bane, but he's dating you so…so I thought that if you weren't in the picture anymore than maybe Bryan would make a move and they could live happily ever after. He's much too honorable to steal someone else's man…and he's…or maybe I'm just so jealous I wanted to hurt Magnus because the person I love most loves him instead of me." And now more tears started to glimmer and fall from the boy's cat like eyes. "I don't want to think I'm so horrible, but I can't stop thinking that maybe that's it and I'm just lying to myself. Either way I'm a horrible person. I never deserved any of Bryan's kindness."

Feeling a headache coming on Alec gingerly sat up, watching the boy with a mixture of bemusement and horror. He didn't know how to deal with his own, out of control feelings, dealing with someone else's was just out of his scope. He needed Clary or Luke, stat.

Sniffling the boy watched him closely. "Are you…going to kill me now? I wrote a good bye letter to Bryan while you were asleep…and I told him it was all my fault and not to try and kill you for killing me. He probably won't, and if he does I'm really, really sorry."

In exasperation Alec rolled his eyes at the boy. "I don't kill kids."

The young warlock blinked. "I'm over a hundred years old."

"Oh." Well the warlock still looked like and acted like a kid. There was no way he could kill the boy, especially since the kid had done such a lousy job kidnapping him in the first place. Though he'd give the warlock credit for the cookie ploy, it had been clever. He should have known better, Alec thought in disgust, annoyed with himself now instead of the boy. No wonder Isabelle and Jace hovered over him so, convinced he'd end up dead without their supervision.

"Well if you're not going to kill me I need some cookies. Cookies always make me feel better." Getting to his feet the boy wiped the new tears from his eyes, doing his best to not cry since it apparently made the Shadowhunter really uncomfortable. "You want any? They aren't laced with anything, I just put stuff in the one I gave you. I promise."

Rubbing his temples Alec shrugged his shoulders as he got to his feet, exasperated with both of them now. "Sure, why not."

Weaving a little as he got his bearings Alec happened to glance down, seeing immediately that all his clothing except for his boxers had been removed. His face going bright red Alec's voice was a froggy croak as he inquired as to where his clothes were, only to learn they'd been removed so that they could be washed. Apparently they'd gotten street grim on them when he'd hit pavement earlier and the kid had felt bad enough to laundry them for him.

And wasn't that just lovely?

Shaking his head at the crazy situations he found himself in Alec turned his attention to getting through the rest of the day without things getting worse. And once he'd gotten everything sorted out he was getting on the phone with Magnus and asking him just who this Bryan guy was, Alec thought darkly as he followed the boy out of the living room and into the kitchen.

And after the day he was having he had better like the answer or else.

)

Standing side by side at the mouth of an alleyway Magnus's eyes scanned the narrow space between buildings while Bryan studied a half eaten cookie he'd picked up off the ground.

"What's with the cookie?" Isabelle whispered to Clary, who just shrugged.

"Jaden's been here." Bryan answered, holding the cookie up. "He bakes when he's stressed and no one makes chocolate chip cookies as good as his. I'd know them anywhere by the scent alone. And there's definitely signs that he used some sort of glamour here, there are still traces of it left." Which surprised him, since Jaden's was usually pretty hopeless when it came to such things. The idea that the boy might have been in danger and had needed to hide behind a glamour occurred to him, making the warlock's stomach clench painfully. Jaden was his responsibility and he'd failed to keep him safe. He had enemies, enemies who would have leapt at the chance to steal his Jaden from him. The idea of his sweet, wouldn't harm a fly ward in the hands of his enemies made him feel ill.

Crouching down Magnus placed two fingers against the brick wall, his pupils dilating as he bit back a snarl. "This is Alec's blood. It was spilt within the last three hours."

"His blood!" Shouldering Magnus over to get a better look Isabella stared at the small, barely visible smear like it was her brother's dead body. "He's somewhere bleeding?"

"It's small, and he would have healed it easily." Clary pointed out, resting a hand on Isabelle's shoulder to comfort the girl. Ever since Max's death Isabelle had gone a little overboard worrying about her remaining brother's wellbeing. That he understood why she did it was the only reason Alec let her get away with it.

"Maybe someone attacked this Jaden kid and Alec got in the way." Maia suggested, doing her best to be the levelheaded one. "Which means that wherever they are they're probably together, which is a good thing. Alec will take care of him until we can figure out where they were taken."

"The timeline would fit." Bryan agreed, crossing his arms in front of him. He was no fan of the Shadowhunters, but if this particular one was involved with Bane than obviously he had no problem with warlocks. And the Shadowhunter would have the training needed to protect Jaden until he got there. And when that happened, he and Bane would take turns torturing the kidnappers to death.

Rising to his feet Magnus stared at his fingers for several moments before turning his head to meet Bryan's gaze. "We need to go back to my place. I have some of Alec's things there I can use to try and locate him. Do you have anything of Jaden's with you?"

Bryan nodded. "Not that it will do you any good. There are three skills Jaden has always surpassed me at and those are cooking, talking, and shielding himself from detection. That's why I haven't found him yet. If Jaden doesn't want to be found, he won't be."

Clary reached out to pat the warlock's shoulder now. "Well seeing as he's been kidnapped he'll want to be found, right? He's probably already taken his shields down so that we can find him."

"I'll find him whether he wants to be found or not." Was all Magnus said as he turned to leave.

He'd find a way.