AN:I'm not sure this counts as a crossover per se since the only thing taken from the His Dark Materials worlds are the concept of daemons. So don't hurt me! This is a crappy one-shot Christmas gift for a friend whose obsession with daemons and the Mortal Instruments series rivals my own.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept of daemons here's a brief explanation: daemons are a representation of ones soul taking the form of an animal. As a child a daemon can change form at will but as the person matures the daemon settles on a form. Daemons are usually the opposite sex of the person. For a better explanation google it :)
Clary loved studying people's daemons.
She found them more fascinating than anything else she'd ever seen or met. Her daemon, a serval named Kinath, found daemons as interesting as she did and they'd become an expert on identifying daemon forms.
When Simon's Azula had settled as an otter way back when they were twelve, she'd wasted no time in telling him that she was not just an otter but an oriental short clawed otter. But it wasn't until she and Kinath met the Shadow Hunters and the Downworlders that they began seeing interesting daemons.
The first thing Clary noticed about the Shadow Hunters was that almost all of them had feline daemons and on top of that almost all of their daemons were unusual in their own right.
Jace's daemon, Astra, was a cougar with rich golden fur and startlingly blue eyes. She was just as quick-witted and smart mouthed as Jace. And when Kinath had first met her the two had loathedeach other. Astra could travel further than most daemons could from Jace and when they'd first found that out Clary and Kinath had found her more intriguing.
Izzy's daemon, Rinn was an Amur Leopard, sneaky, graceful and beautiful just like her. He was quick and deadly and Clary had seen many a demon fall victim to his sharp teeth. Unlike most daemons Rinn had no qualms about talking to other humans directly, something that had shocked Clary when they had first met.
Valentine's daemon was an enormous Siberian tiger, Juno. The biggest and most magnificent daemon Clary had ever seen. Sebastian's daemon had been a twisted, broken panther, who was little more than a shade.
Even Clary's mother and the Lightwoods had feline daemons.
Jocelyn had a lion daemon, Freyr. Who, like Juno, was far larger than most. Maryse had lynx and Robert had an ocelot. Inquisitor Herondale had had a snotty black cat and Aline's Kael (a female) had been a jaguar.
In all her time with Shadow Hunters Clary had only met three without feline daemons.
Firstly there was Luke, his daemon was a honey badger named Mactire. Hodge's daemon had been a gray raven named Odin. And there was Alec. And Alec had undoubtedly the most interesting daemon of all the Shadow Hunters.
Nyx was a jet black wolf. A wolf; a warrior's daemon, or the mark of traumatic childhood. She remembered Kinath nudging her hand when they'd first spotted the wolf stalking silently beside tall, awkward Alec and they'd both decided there was much more to Alec then met the eye.
Nyx was standoffish and appeared disinterested in most other daemons, except for Astra and Rinn of course; with anyone else she snarled and avoided contact, sticking close to Alec. It had taken Kinath and her almost a month to realise that Nyx was a boy, the daemon was so silent, only talking to Alec or the other Lightwood's daemons. And Clary also noticed that Alec seemed to always have one hand resting on the wolf's shoulders; at first she and Kinath had thought he was holding Nyx back but they'd soon realised that Alec did it for support.
As interesting as Shadow Hunter daemons were they paled in comparison to the Downworlder's daemons.
For example, Clary had learnt that Warlock's daemons were always mythical creatures and in the mundane world those were extremely hard to come by. Magnus' Alarick was a magnificent blue and purple phoenix that enjoyed fluttering around Nyx's head and Ragnor Fell's Cadell was a small, silver dragon. She had also learnt that werewolf daemons could in rare cases, like Luke's, transform with their humans.
But vampire daemons were, without a doubt, the most interesting of all.
When they had first met Raphael his daemon, a wolverine named Luminiso, had seemed slightly off. Kinath had immediately sensed there was something wrong with her and judging by the way Astra's fur stood up on edge and her tail bushed up she felt it to.
They hadn't realised what it was until Simon became a vampire.
When Simon died to become a vampire Azula hadn't vanished as daemons did when their people died. Instead she'd remained, mewing pitifully, begging them to bring Simon back. Raphael had explained when vampires were born the link between daemon and human was almost severed. It wasn't a complete separation, it was worse. The daemons were only half tied to their humans. More often than not the daemons were disgusted with what their humans had become and their bond was all but broken.
Luckily for Azula when Simon had returned he'd hugged her so tightly that Kinath had muttered about crushing her.