Aglaza Zanders was having a bad day. A no good horrible very bad day. It seemed fate just had it in for her. The morning had been awful, the afternoon had been worse, and so far the evening was was on a one way road to perdition. There she was in a too tight dress with some fey boy trying to slip some sort of potion in her drink. Seriously she had to have thrown away four drinks because he was so persistent. She was about to call Jessie and get guy thrown out. It's the least Jessie could do because it was his fault she was here.
When Jessie had come to her three months ago saying he had an idea for new club in downworld she had been hesitant but excited, since Aglaza loved a good party. After all she had been brought in some of the most elegant parties in all of Europe.
In all honest she would have been enjoying herself immensely had it not been for the horrible day she had had. Typically Aglaza loved the days in May. She loved strolling through central park and smelling all the flowers, but today had not been a stroll in the park. First she had slept in and been late to her meeting with Lily about a one fledgling vampire who was having a hard time adjusting to his new state and had yet to join a clan. After getting all the details she could Aglaza had spent the better part of the day trying to track him down. Right when she had him cornered where she thought he was hiding and was prepared to reason him into joining the clan, her phone rang.
After trying to chase him down to no avail. She looked down at her phone to see it was Tessa that had called her. Heaving an irritated laugh she called her back and was met with Tessa's motherly fussing, insisting that Aglaza come to Los Angeles soon to visit, despite that fact that she had spent a week there in March. When she was through assuring Tessa that she was eating properly and that if she ever got a boyfriend she would immediately bring him to meet her and Jem, Tessa relented and decided to call again later.
Once she called Lily and assured her she would pick up the search tomorrow, Aglaza headed home for some rest and cuddle with Giavana, her snake. When she walked inside her apartment in Lower East Side she was greeted by the sight of Jessie Xavier sprawled out on her couch. When he saw her walk in he smiled his, pardon the pun, wolfish grin.
"Well, if it isn't my little mauvaise. Back from saving the world earlier today are we?" He said in butchered French. She laughed as she hung up her coat and strode into the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea, completely undisturbed by the presence of the charming werewolf in her living room.
"You realized you just called me a weed right. If that was a mistake, stick to the Spanish. You speak that quite well. If that was intentional, then you're a madeja as well." She said coming into the living room with a cup of tea and sat down next to Jessie.
"You just insulted me in Spanish."
"And I did it intentionally. Not that I am not happy to see Jessie, but what are you doing here?" She asked him, taking a slow drag of her tea.
"I am here to make sure you hadn't forgotten what tonight was, and judging by the look of surprise on your face you have."
She searched her mind trying as hard as she possibly could to remember what was happening today, but all her mind drew was a blank. "I don't know Jess, remind me what tonight is?" She asked.
"Tonight, my dear forgetful friend, is the opening of brand new club in Brooklyn. I think you're familiar with it." At his words, Aglaza groaned. She had been really looking forward to that party, just why did have to come on such a bad day.
"That's today?"
"Yes and you have a little over two hours before you have to be there. Now I was told to leave you to get ready." He said getting up.
"Do I have to go?" She groaned.
"Yes you have to go. You are a part owner of the club. How would it look if you didn't show up. Now, like I said you have two hours. Go put on the purple dress that matches the streak in your hair. My buddies will be drooling over you." He laughed in his bark like laugh.
"Yeah, I'll bet they are pretty prone to drooling."
"Hey, that's a stereotype. We werewolves have rather nice hygiene, thank you very much."
"Where are you headed off to? Shouldn't you be getting ready for this party that all owners must attend?"
"I have a quick meeting with Garroway, then I am off to get ready. Now I have another favor to ask you. There is this one girl who I have seen at Pandemonium a few times that I have been dying to dance with, so I am counting on you to be my wing girl."
"Don't you mean wing man?" She laughed.
"No, Dimitrious is my wingman."
"Dimitrious Yuri is your wingman?"
"Yeah, but that's besides the point. You are my wing girl. You see, if she is hanging out with her friends, that's where Dimitrious comes in. But if she is dancing with a guy, that's where you come in."
"And if those lines gets blurred?" She teased.
"Well then we go from there. Will you do it? Please. I have been dying to dance with her."
"Fine. I'll help you. Now go. I have to get ready.
And that's how Aglaza Zanders ended up sitting at a table by the bar, sipping her drink that thankfully was untainted, and wearing the dress that she hadn't worn since Jessie's twenty first. It was a dark purple dress that ended at about her knees with one side falling down lower than the other. It was predominantly strapless but it did have one piece of shimmery fabric coming up from the waist, over the bodice, and covered half her chest and secured by a necklace around her neck. And she was ever so thankful for that, seeing how that made the dress so much harder to get off and she had numerous people eying her in ways she didn't really like. She could always turn them into guinea pigs but that often got really messy. So she was about to call Jessie over when suddenly both he and Dimitrious came over to her.
"Come on Z, you are normally the life of the party. What gives?" Jessie asked, slinging an arm over her.
"Yeah come on, you haven't even gone over to try to take over the for the DJ. You do it all the time at Pandemonium, I thought you would be even more apt to do it here seeing as it is partially your club." Dimitrious slyly grinned.
Now was probably the time to introduce Jessie Xavier and Dimitrious Yuri properly. The two of them were her two best friends, whom she had the upmost respect for, most of the time. She had meet Malcolm Xavier, Jessie's great great grandfather, in the midst of a… bad time in her life in the 1950's and he had helped her out of it, so she had always been a good friend of the family. So she had watched Jessie grow up, and it had been weird transitioning from him being that little kid she watched grow up to her being his best friend, but the second he had past her in both physical age and height it wasn't that odd anymore.
As for Dimitrious, or Dimitri he insisted they call him, in short, he had been one of her "cases" and the two of them had formed a fast friendship. So that's what got her to this point, miserable at her own party with her two best friends nagging at her.
"Come on Z. Find some nice warlock boy to bring home to Tessa." Jessie teased.
"I doubt Tessa would be thrilled if I brought any of the boys here. Besides, I am through with downworld guys. To many strings attached." She caught the looks the two were giving her. "No offense."
"Some taken." Dimitri said. "But okay, there are plenty mundanes here if you want one of those."
"Any mundane who would be here has to have a few screws loose."
"Nephilim?"
"Like that is gonna happen. I am perfectly content to stay single for the rest of my life." She said as she turned her attention back to the dance floor where something caught her eye.
There, across the crowd of people thriving beneath the strobe lights he was there. He looked miserable, poor soul. It seemed he was being coerced to dance by a girl with blonde hair. He reluctantly got up and followed her over to where a boy and girl who had to be siblings were dancing. Though as they were walking, his eyes made contact with her. They locked for a brief moment, her green meeting his brown, and he smiled at her and she smiled back, careful not to let her tongue poke out or she might frighten him. Though the next second he was pulled away by the blonde girl and out of her line of sight.
She was trying to get sight of him again when she was brought out of her thoughts by Jessie shaking her arm.
"Look! There she is!" He said, grabbing her head and steering towards the direction of who she assumed was the girl he was dying to dance with. She followed his line of sight and caught the eyes of the blonde girl who had steered away the boy she had been looking at. She could tell why. Now having a closer look she could see that the girl was a Nephilim, which she wondered how she missed before seeing as the girls off the shoulder dress left little to the imagination, and showed the runes running up and down her arms. It was green and shimmery and made her legs look impossibly long.
Now that's she had found them it gave her another chance to look at the boy. She couldn't tell in the flashing light of the room but he had what looked light black hair. He otoo was Nephilim and she could see bits of marks peeking out at the cuffs and the collar of his long sleeve shirt. The blonde girl was dancing around him, trying to get him to dance with her and he was, though somewhat awkwardly.
"Well what are you waiting for." He nudged my shoulder. I looked back at him.
"What do you mean what am I waiting for?"
"Can't you see she is dancing with a guy. You're my wing girl. Go distract him." He urged her.
"You were serious about that?" She asked again.
"Yes! Now please go talk to him."
"Fine but you owe me." She grumbled getting up. And to make her point clear she took the shot in Jessie's hand and downed it. "Just in case I make a fool of myself I don't want to be sober."
As luck would have it Thomas Lightwood was also having a no good horrible very bad day. He thought he would get to spend the day relaxing, as it was the weekend, but fate had other plans. First, he was awoken by his little sister Madeline jumping up and down on his bed to get him to wake up and come to the kitchen. When he walked in he was greeted with the sight of his dad magicking up some breakfast and his father reading the newspaper.
"Morning Daddy!" Madeline exclaimed as she hopped on to their father's lap. As most seven year olds were she was quite interjected, with her goofy grin and the tips of her bat like ears peeking out from under her disheveled hair.
"Morning to you too sweetheart. Did you sleep well?" He asked putting down his newspaper.
"Yes sir." And with she ran over to wrap her arms around dad's legs in hug.
"What about you Thomas, did you sleep well?" His dad asked.
"Well enough." He replied going to steal a piece of bacon of the table when his dad slapped his hand away.
"And what do you think your doing?" His dad asked with his hands on his hips.
"Getting breakfast." He answered.
"Not here you aren't. Charlie called and she wants you to meet her, Annie, and Chris at Java Jones." Thomas groaned in response.
"That means she has another harebrained scheme for us."
"I though you like your cousins harebrained schemes." His father said with a laugh.
"Normally I do, but not at seven in the morning. It's too early."
"Nonsense." His dad said. "It will be good for you. You need to get out more."
"I get out plenty." Thomas defended.
"Says the 18 year old boy with V card."
"Father still had his V card at 18."
"That's because at 18 your father was so far in the closet he might as well have been in Narnia."
"What's a V card?" Madeline asked. Their father quickly scooped her up.
"Nothing you need to know about sweetie." He said, and then turned back to his husband and son. "Can we please drop this topic? Now."
"Fine." His dad replied with a wave of his hand. "Now you to get to the Institute," His said to Thomas' father, kissing his cheek, "You need to get to Java Jones," he said to Thomas, then went over to take Madeline into his arms, "and we have a tea party to attend.
And that was how Thomas found himself walking to Java Jones at seven thirty in the morning. So now is probably a good time to elaborate on his family. He loved them dearly but sometimes they could be a bit… much. In his immediate family was his dad, Magnus Bane, High Warlock of Brooklyn and one of the most flamboyant individuals you could ever meet, and his father, Alec Lightwood, one of the most non flamboyant individuals you could ever meet. How the two of them worked was beyond him, but they were two of the happiest people he had ever meet.
He had been completely distracted by his thoughts so that before he knew it he was at Java Jones. The second he walked in he was assaulted with the smell of coffee beans and smoke. He saw Charlie, Alice, sitting in the groups normal corner booth.
"Took you long enough, Thomas. We were started to think you weren't going to come." Charlie said loudly as she scooted over. Charlotte Herondale was many things but silent was not one of them. Charlie was exactly like her father, sharing his wild blonde hair and natural sarcasm, but she did have her mother's bright green eyes.
Thomas did love his friends, but sometimes they got on his last nerve. Usually that was caused by Charlie and her crazy last minute ideas. Alice Lewis was quiet
"And miss insane idea you are going to share with us, not for the world. Though one question, why did we have to meet at seven thirty in the morning?"
"Chris has to be at the institute and Alice and I promised to go help Luke with store. So we had to meet early this morning." Charlie says taking a bite of her pastry.
"So you mean you are going to help with the store and Alice is going staring at Matthew the entire time." Thomas sipped his tea.
"I will not be starring." Alice spoke firmly. "I will be admiring…from a distance."
"No let's face it little sis, you'll be staring." Chris, Alice's twin brother, teased her.
"For one thing I am not you little sis, you are only five minutes older." She fought back. Alice may be quiet most of the time but she did have some bite.
"And I cherished every second of it." He leaned it towards her.
"Chris you can shut the h..."
"Guys, do you want to get us thrown out of here again?" Charlie broke the two up
"No" the replied in unison.
"Can we get back to why you called me here. It is my day off." Thomas tried steering the three back on topic.
"Right, sorry." Charlie collected herself. "I called you here to tell you want all of us going to do tonight."
"I notice you used the word tell and not ask."
"Whatever you'll like. We are going to this." She said as she stuffed a flyer in his hand. On it was an add for the grand opening of some club called XYZ tonight.
"What is this exactly?"
"It's a new downworld club opening tonight, and we are going."
"Why are you there. Why don't you just go to Pandemonium."
"I'll tell you why they're going there." Alice grinned. "One, because Charlie wants to see if she can meet up with Jessie Xavier. He this guy she has been gawking at in Pandemonium for weeks. He is one of the owners."
"Ah so this is a Charlie needs a new boy toy kind of outing." Thomas laughed.
"I am not looking for a boy toy. He seems nice. I'd just like to get to know him." Charlie defended.
"Don't try to fool us Char, we know you better than that." Chris smirked.
"Oh don't pretend like you're any better. You want to go to find a girl you have never even laid eyes on." Alice mocked her brother. "There's the radio show Chris has been staying up to listen to every night a called The Twilight Zone. The hosts name is Z apparently and Chris is certain she is one of the owners of the club."
"Not that I am not interested in your love lives but why do I have to go to this with you?" Thomas asked.
"Because we can only go if you go." Charlie stated plainly.
"Why?" he questioned.
"Cause you're the oldest, most responsible, whatever, whatever…so will you come? Please?" Charlie pleaded.
"Alright fine." Thomas said quickly. The other looked puzzled.
"Really, you said yes that quickly. We thought it would take more convincing." Charlie stated.
"Yeah, well I was recently told I need to get out more. So this is me, getting out more.
Aglaza Zanders was going to kill Jessie Xavier. Here she was being sent on an errand in her own club. Not only that but she was about to make a right fool of herself. She was currently walking over to the boy she had seen earlier, as well as the girl he was dancing with, who just so happened to be the girl Jessie had been trying to dance with. She felt whatever strange drink Jessie had coursing through her, taking away all inhibitions and she was hoping it be enough to lighten any embarrassment that would come from this situation. Upon closer inspection the girl really was a knock out and Aglaza could see why Jessie was so desperate to dance with her. She seemed very at ease in thriving atmosphere of the club, while the boy she was dancing with looked like a complete fish out of water. He was awkwardly trying to move along to the music, and wasn't succeeding. Aglaza turned over her shoulder to see Jessie urging her forward. She was so going to regret this later. She tapped the girl on the shoulder.
When the girl turned around, Aglaza was meet with eyes almost as green as her own, except the girl's eyes were a brighter shade of green while Aglaza's were darker. The girl was very beautiful and obviously a shadowhunter seeing as on her collarbone there was a dark precision rune that contrasted with the girls pale skin.
"Can I help you?" the girl said as she turned around.
"Yeah, sorry to bother you, but my friend over there has been dying to dance with you all night and is too much of woose to come over here and ask you himself. So will you dance with him, or do I have to listen to his whining all night." Algaza got straight to the point. The girl just smiled.
"This is the first Time i have been asked out by the wing-girl. Kinda strange."
"That's what I told him, but he decided not listen." Aglaza laughed. "I'm Aglaza"
"Charlotte." The girl replied. "And does your friend have a name?"
"Jessie. Jessie Xavier." Aglaza could see the Charlotte's features perk up at the sound of his name, but she immediately collected herself.
"I suppose I could be persuaded to dance with him," she played hard to get. Oh yeah, Aglaza thought, Jessie will love this one. "But I can't leave my cousin alone. He doesn't do well in places like this." Charlotte finished.
"Your cousin has a name, and can speak for himself, thank." The boy spoke up for the first time. His voice sounded nice, very rich, and Aglaza had to stop herself from getting hung up on it. "It's Thomas by the way." He directed at Aglaza.
"I recognize that you can speak for yourself but that still doesn't mean I am abandoning you in a place crazier than Pandemonium.
Aglaza was so going to regret what she was about to say, she just knew it. Jessie was going to owe her big time.
"I do pretty well in places like this. I could show him around. Make sure he doesn't get kidnapped and turned into a rat." She then turned to look at him. "I promise, will have fun."
"How do I know you aren't going to turn me into rat?" He raised an eyebrow at her.
"I guess you will just have to trust me." That little conversation ended with the two staring at each other for a small period before Thomas spoke up again. He turned to Charlotte.
"Go dance with that guy. I know you want to."
"Promise you won't hate me forever?" she joked.
"Not forever." He smiled at her. Then Charlotte turned back to Aglaza.
"Where is he?"
"Over by the bar. Make sure to tell him he owes me."
"And I hope you know you owe me one." Thomas shouted at her as she sauntered away. After a few seconds of silence between the two of them, Thomas tried to speak over the loud music.
"Look, despite what my cousin thinks I don't need a babysitter, so you can just go back to whatever it was you were doing, and I'll go sit in the corner and wait for this to be over." After he spoke he turned and started to walk away before she grabbed his wrist.
"Now we could do that, but I don't see a reason for us to both be miserable." She smiled.
"You're miserable?" He asked, taking in her appearance and clearly trying to figure out who, or rather what, she was.
"Don't get me wrong, normally I am all for this kind of thing, just not today, and I that there is only one course of action when you are not enjoying a party. Bail." As she was talking she maneuver the two of them off of the dance floor and then turned back to him.
"I can't, I have to stay here for my cousins. I am there "supervision." She sighed exasperated.
"I know don't want be here and the club doesn't close for another two hours. I'll have you back before then." He still looked her kind of skeptical, but there was a sort of gleam in his eyes at the prospect of leaving.
"I don't know, as far back as can remember I was warned to go to strange places with strange people." She could tell all of this was mostly in jest, which she liked.
"Strange is a relative term. To me you are very strange. So technically I shouldn't be going with you, but I am. And promise nothing will happen to you. So, you in?" She asked hopefully. She really wanted him to say yes. Something about him just made her want to get know him.
"I was recently told I should get out more, and if going who knows where with some girl I just met in a club isn't getting out more I don't know what is."
"I was hoping you'd say something like that." Aglaza smiled, and Thomas saw her green eyes shine as she grabbed his hand and lead him out into the cool air and the dark night.
I don't know. As far back as I can remember I was warned not to go strange places with strange people." She could tell he was mostly joking, which she liked.
"Strange is a relative term. To me you are very strange. So technically I shouldn't be going anywhere with you, but I am. And I promise nothing will happen to you. So, You in?" She asked hopefully. She really wanted him to say yes. In her long life, Aglaza had made a point of getting to know every person she saw who she found interesting, and for some reason she found Thomas very interesting.
"Well, I was recently told I should get out more, and if leaving a party with some girl I have never meet before isn't getting out more than I don't know what is." Aglaza smiled, and Thomas saw a mischievous glint in her green eyes as she grabbed him by the hand and led him out into the cold air and the waiting night.