Notes: Written for Day Two of the Jalec Week -A Shadow World AU. For the record, that is... not quite how normal Shadowhunter blood affects vampires, even in larger quantities - [book spoilers] it only worked for Simon in the books because Jace's blood is an isolated case - but it worked well enough as a plot device, so I decided to go with it. I'd love to know what you think!
Alec should have known that it was far too easy when he tried to get into Dumort and the door actually opened in front of him.
Vampires were private creatures. His mother had told him that countless times over the years and so had Hodge; one of the most important lessons about them was that any communication with them had to be handled with care. Of course, the same applied to Seelies and Warlocks as well – according to the Codex, they were all easy to anger and immortal beings rarely forgot a slight, so mistakes were unacceptable – but Vampires were different.
Most of them didn't live alone.
It was one of the reasons why Alec was so anxious about coming here as often as he did – vampires didn't shy away from using any information they had about someone to their advantage, and he had definitely given them enough to work with by now.
"What do you want?" The voice came from above and Alec froze at the door, looking up to see a familiar face staring down at him from a window. He suppressed a sigh. Of course they'd seen him coming. Nephilim presence on Downworld premises rarely meant anything other than trouble, so they'd become very good at picking up the signs of one of them approaching.
"Lily," he acknowledged, wondering when he'd reached a point in his life where he could be on first name basis with every vampire in New York. "I'm not here on official business."
"You never are. That doesn't answer my question," she informed him and Alec narrowed his eyes. She knew why he was here; everyone did, even if no one dared to mention it. Vampires did have supernaturally enhanced hearing, after all, and Alec had come to the hotel in much more compromising situations before.
"Do you mind if I come in?" Alec was running out of patience and he suspected that it was starting to show. "I won't get in the way."
That earned him a quick smile, Lily's fangs flashing in the darkness before she gave him the thumbs up and disappeared back in the shadows of her room.
Less than a minute later, Jace was standing at the top of the main staircase.
"I take it your sister hasn't experienced any more side effects?" he called out and Alec shook his head as he took a tentative step forward. "I thought she might not." Jace descended down the stairs until they were face to face and Alec held his breath without really meaning to while the vampire looked him up and down. "I wasn't sure you were coming back."
The admission was so unexpected that Alec found himself speechless and he looked away, preferring to focus on the hotel's interior instead of the questioning eyes in front of him. "Of course I came. I said I would, didn't I? I was just-"
"-preoccupied," Jace nodded. "I know. That's why I didn't call. I know you wanted to sort things out in the Institute first."
Alec shifted uncomfortably in his place. Even without seeing the, he could feel every vampire in the building listening to them talk and Jace had to have picked up on that because he turned around and headed back to the second floor, clearly expecting Alec to follow him. He did, not having to think too much about it after all the time he'd ended up here for one reason or another – walking straight into the lion's den didn't feel like such a daring perspective now that he'd got used to it.
It had all started with Isabelle's desire to heal as quickly as possible from a demon attack so that she could get another mission immediately after. It hadn't gone well, to put it mildly; her medicine had turned out to be infused with more vampire venom than even a Shadowhunter's body could fight against and the side effects of it had started taking their toll soon enough. Izzy had asked him to be quiet about it – she couldn't afford to lose her prospects of just about anything by letting the news spread – and Alec had respected her wishes, resorting to the Downworld instead of seeking help from the Silent Brothers.
That was what had led him to the New York vampire clan when he'd finally run out of options. He'd asked several Warlocks before that, but neither of them had managed to help and he'd ended up going to the Hotel Dumort instead, looking for their leader and instead ending up with Jace – the only one who didn't mind getting involved and knew of a place where he could find the antidote.
It had never been meant as a quick fix; Jace had told him that much from the start. The potion was supposed to draw all of the remaining venom out of Isabelle's body in any way possible, and it had been a long, painful process that had resulted in Alec coming more and more often, paying the clan with anything they wanted as long as they could give him more of cure they'd devised. Eventually, Jace had decided to take the task all for himself – as it turned out, he knew Isabelle and wanted to help her. He'd stopped accepting Alec's offerings of magical object, money and jewellery somewhere about that time and had never asked for anything again.
Alec had taken the last dosage from him almost two months ago. By that time most of Izzy's symptoms had disappeared and there was no reasonable excuse for him to go back to the hotel. He'd recently taken over from his mother as Head of the Institute and he was drowning in things that needed to be taken care of; the last thing he needed was to waste his time with pointless visits.
Nevertheless, he'd visited again, just one last time. He owed Jace a lot; the least he could do was say 'thank you' for everything he'd done for him.
But it hadn't turned out quite like that. Instead, Jace had invited him up in his room so they could talk. Soundproof, he'd assured him, otherwise none of us would have any personal space. So Alec had obliged, following Jace into a room at the very end of a long corridor, willingly entering a place that was very much not meant for someone like him without a moment's hesitation.
They'd talked for hours about all sorts of thing, the pressure that went hand in hand with Alec's initial mission disappearing until he realised that he enjoyed the time spent in Jace's company more than he did the majority of the time spent at the Institute.
Even with that sudden realisation in mind, Alec's visits had become increasingly sporadic after that as he'd been too focused on all the work that had piled on while he'd been busy with Izzy's yin fen problem.
Ironically enough, his sister had been the one who'd caught on that there was something that kept distracting him even if he hadn't said a thing. She'd convinced him to go and deal with whatever it was that was bothering him and he'd followed her advice, clearing his schedule for a few hours before he could change his mind. He'd felt ridiculously unprepared every time he came without a clear purpose and that didn't seem to change with time, but it was still– comfortable to be around Jace, in a way he hadn't expected.
The next time he'd went over had been the first time Jace had kissed him.
Thinking back on it, Alec hadn't been as surprised as he could have been, all things considered. He'd got to know Jace rather well during their time working together when looking for ingredients, but Alec had suppressed almost subconsciously anything he could have felt for him that would have distracted him from his goal. But there had been something, even he had to admit that; something that kept drawing him back to Jace well after his job at the hotel had been done. They hadn't done much – they'd just gone out on a few walks well after sunset, but their duties made even that almost impossible – at night, Jace was needed at the hotel and only had a few hours to lose at the very same time when Alec was supposed to be at the Institute and already sound asleep. His newly received leadership was sometimes wearing him thin as it were and looking like he'd slept about two hours for the last three days definitely wasn't helping when it came to his subordinates and the fact that they hadn't got used to him yet.
Now, seeing Jace close the door to his room brought a strange sort of comfort; as if they had been isolated in a world meant just for them. His worries fell away all of a sudden, too foreign for him to dwell upon as he took in the already familiar sight.
Jace's room was small and modestly decorated with heavy drapes currently tied to the window frames to let the moonlight in. Every flat surface was covered by books or weapons (Jace had been a Shadowhunter before he'd been Turned, and even though Alec hadn't heard the full story yet, he did intend to bring it up before going back home) and it was too close to what Alec's own room looked like for him to feel like an intruder.
Apparently Jace felt the same, because he used Alec's momentary distraction to pull him down on the bed, not letting go of Alec's hand even as he brought him closer for a kiss. It was a sensation Alec was still getting used to; the softness of Jace's lips contrasting with the sharpness of his teeth despite the fact that Jace was always careful, so careful with him lest he drew blood without meaning to. No matter what they did, he was always holding back, so it only made sense that Alec was the one who took the initiative this time, breaking the kiss to tilt his head back. He smiled at the hitch in Jace's breathing, relishing in the telltale lisp in his voice that indicated that his fangs had come out.
"Alec," he said, tone as soft as it could get and Alec felt one of his hands on his chest, trying to push him away. "You don't know what you're doing."
"Yes, I do," Alec insisted, drawing away so that he could make eye contact again. "I looked it up. I looked you up. You lived in the Los Angeles Institute." The shocked look he got in return was all the answer – and all the encouragement – that Alec needed to keep talking. "You miss the sun, don't you? You don't need a lot of blood," he coaxed when he saw the slightest bit of hope blossom in Jace's eyes. "Just enough for it to reach your veins. And I have my healing runes to take care of it later."
That had been enough of an argument, it seemed; Jace still looked torn, but gave an almost imperceptible nod and leant forward in clear warning in what was to follow.
Alec closed his eyes just in time to feel his teeth as they touched his skin.