I sat on the edge of the Institute looking down at the city below. Mundanes hurried every which way trying to get places, completely oblivious to the sounds all around them. Sounds that the people like me, Shadowhunters, could hear.

I loved it at night. The shadows, the stars, the moon hanging in the sky…it was beautiful. Some people loved the feel of sun on their skin but I loved the moonlight.

"Emmy?"

I turned to see Tori walking towards me, her reddish brown hair flying around her face thanks to the wind.

"Hey." I smiled up at her.

She walked over and sat on the ledge beside me, "Aren't you a little freaked out up here? I mean you're the one that gets vertigo."

I shook my head and held up my hand showing her the 'Equilibrium' rune I had marked myself with.

"Cheater." She smirked.

"Oh hush." I laughed.

"So…this is how you chose to spend your birthday? Alone? On the roof?" she asked.

"Yes…yes I did." I nodded.

"Well the others are downstairs waiting you know." she said.

"What others? You, Liam and Genny?" I smirked.

"No! Edgar and Wilhelmina are there too." she said referring to the Bellefleurs.

Edgar was the head of the Atlanta Institute where I lived along with Tori, Genny and Liam. His wife had died 6 years previous at the battle in Alicante leaving him with his daughter Wilhelmina. Wilhelmina was 6 and adorable with big brown eyes and blonde curls. She followed the three of us around like a baby duck.

I sighed, "I know. It's just…weird."

"I know it is but seriously…Edgar got you a big ass double chocolate cake. You know you want it!" she wheedled tugging on one of the braids that my dark curls were currently woven into on either side of my head.

I laughed, "You just want a slice."

"True."

With a shake of my head I stood up, "Alright. C'mon…let's get cake."

The two of us headed downstairs to the dining room. Sure enough when I walked in there was a huge cake sitting in the middle of the table, my name written out on the top with white icing. 17 candles flickered in the dark room, lighting up the faces of the people who were standing around the table.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" They all cheered as I walked in.

I smiled at them, "This looks great!"

"Blow out the candles Chicken Baby! They're getting wax all over the cake!" Genny said.

"Fine! I'm doing it! I'm doing it!" I said and held my hair back, leaning over the cake.

Two breaths later the candles were blown out and Wilhelmina had flipped the lights on. We all took seats around the table and Genny served up slices of cake.

"So what did you wish for?" Wilhelmina asked as she shoved a fork full of cake into her mouth.

"I can't tell you." I smiled.

"Why not?" she whined looking at me.

"Because! It won't come true." I replied.

"Oh. Okay." She smiled and went back to her cake.

"Oh my god Edgar…this is great." I said biting into the super rich but equally delicious cake.

"I'm glad you like it." Edgar smiled.

"I helped tell them how to spell your name!" Wilhelmina grinned.

"Well I'm glad you told them." I replied.

"So are you going to open your presents? Or are we going to have to continue to wait in anticipation for you to ask for the gift receipts?" Liam asked smirking at me.

"Oh hush! I only asked you for one because those boots you gave me for Christmas were awful!" I laughed.

"They were not!" he said looking mock hurt.

"Dude I saw those boots…they were awful." Genny said looking at him.

"Ditto." Tori nodded.

"Fine whatever. Are you going to open them or not?" Liam asked pointing to the small stack of gifts that sat near the cake.

"Hand them over." I said and he shoved the stack towards me.

"Open mine first Emmy! It has the pink paper on it!" Wilhelmina said running around the table to stand by me.

I fished the pink gift out from the others. The paper was neon pink with little purple flowers on it and my name scrawled in green crayon. I could tell Wilhelmina had wrapped it herself.

Pulling off the paper I found a small box underneath with a tiny crystal Scottish Terrier inside. He wore a red and green kilt with a matching hat.

"Do you like it?" she asked looking up at me.

"I love it." I grinned and wrapped an arm around her, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

I turned back to the gifts and unwrapped them one by one. Tori and Genny had chipped in to buy me a thick black leather bound journal with thick parchment pages and my name written on the front in silver. To go with it Edgar had gotten me a beautiful silver fountain pen with purple ink that the bottle called 'Silky Purple'. I loved writing.

Finally that left Liam's gift which was the biggest of them all.

Ripping off the black and silver paper I found a shoe box.

"Oh god…you got me shoes again?" I asked apprehensively, remembering the black hiking boots with neon purple fur decorating the top he'd bought me for Christmas.

"I swear that this time you'll love them." He replied.

I sighed and looked at him one last time before taking off the lid. Instantly my eyes went wide.

"How bad are they this time?" Tori asked leaning over my shoulder.

"They're not!" I grinned and pulled out a pair of leather high top sneakers.

"Holy shit! Those are amazing!" Genny said grabbing one of them.

"See? I told you that you'd love them." he smirked.

"You're right. I'm sorry Liam." I replied.

"Damn straight. I remembered that you're favorite sneakers got ruined a while back when you were fighting that Shax Demon and I thought those would last longer." he said.

He was right about the shoes. Leather held up to ichor better than canvas did and I had been distraught when I'd been randomly walking around and had ended up fighting a demon. My shoes had been ruined and ever since I'd been wearing an old pair of boots I had but they didn't feel right. I preferred sneakers.

"Thank you Liam." I smiled and stood up, walking around to wrap my arms around him.

"You're welcome Em." He grinned.

"Sorry to interrupt the party but I just received a fire message about a Demon terrorizing Little Five Points." Edgar said hurrying into the room. I didn't even remember seeing him leave.

"Duty calls." Genny said pushing away from the table.

"Seems so." Tori nodded and followed Genny up the stairs.

"Welp…Happy Birthday to me." I said and grabbed my gifts from the table.

"Aww…c'mon Emmy. I'll let you take the kill this time." Liam said with a wink.

"Oh how chivalrous." I replied with a roll of my eyes and followed Genny and Tori up the stairs.

Almost all the rooms in the Institute looked the same. Each had floors made of dark wood, dark blue painted walls and a large bed, dresser and wardrobe made of the same dark wood as the floor. The only ones that were different were the ones that were occupied by the six of us that lived there all the time.

Mine was a perpetual mess which drove Edgar up the wall. He hated the fact that I had no urge to clean. Sometimes he would wander in and clean up the room and I would come home from hunting or from a mission and not be able to find anything.

The only part of my room that wasn't a mess was the desk which was where I put my gifts before heading to my dresser. Shucking off the jeans and purple t-shirt I wore I pulled on a pair of loose fitting black pants and a black tank top along with my new sneakers. I tucked my stele into my back pocket, wrapped my Electrum whip around my wrist and grabbed the Seraph Blade that rested on my dresser, shoving it into my weapons belt which I wrapped around my waist.

"Hey! Emmy! Wanna Rune me up?" Liam asked.

"Sure thing." I replied and pulled my stele from my pocket.

I started drawing a soundless rune on Liam's arm when Genny and Tori came down the stairs. Both already had their arms drawn up with runes.

Genny had done her hair similar to mine but by the glint they gave off I could tell the ties in her hair were infused with electrum. She wore a pair of tight black jeans and a loose fitting black top with knee high lace up boots, the hilt of a dagger shining out of the top of one. A Seraph blade was strapped to her back.

Tori was pulling her hair up into a ponytail as she walked, dressed in a pair of coated black jeans and a tight cami with combat boots. She had the Chakram her father had given her when she was 11 tied to her weapons belt along with her Seraph blade.

"Almost done?" Genny asked walking over.

"Yeah. Nearly." I replied as I finished up the last bit of the agility rune on Liam and he picked up his own stele to start my runes.

"Hey!"

I looked up to see Wilhelmina running down the steps.

"What's up kid?" Tori asked.

"Can I go with you?" Wilhelmina asked leaning against the banister.

"No sweetie. You know you're not old enough yet." I replied.

"Aww." she frowned.

"Hey…maybe if you're good we'll bring you back something really neat from Little Five Points! How does that sound?" Liam asked.

"Okay!" she grinned.

Liam finished up the runes on my arms and with a goodbye to Wilhelmina we headed out. Tori drove the large SUV that the Clave provided for us. It was a ways to Little Five Points so we had no choice but to drive or we'd never get there in time.

When we finally arrived the group of us set out to find the demon. However after 20 minutes of looking we couldn't find it.

"What kind of demon did Edgar tell us to look for?" Tori asked as we walked down the street.

"He didn't. Just that it was a Demon," I replied.

"Oh well THAT is SUCH a big help!" Genny replied tossing her hands up.

Suddenly a scream echoed through the night.

"That enough of a help?" Liam asked and we took off in the direction the scream had come from.

A few minutes later we found 3 Ravener demons cornering a guy in an alley. I pulled my Seraph Blade from my belt muttering, "Israfel" before hurrying forward with the others on my heels.

I struck out at the first Ravener demon I came to. It hissed at me, snapping it's tail at me. Before I could blink Liam jumped in front of me.

"Emmy! You get the guy out of here!" he said.

"Right." I nodded and hurried over to the guy who was cowering against the wall, lowering my glamour.

"Hey you! Let's go!" I said.

"A Shadowhunter at last! And go where?! Those things are blocking the end of the alley!" he replied.

I froze for a second and frowned down at the guy below me. It wasn't often you met a Mundane who knew about Shadowhunters. However now wasn't the time to question these things.

"Just c'mon! I won't let them hurt you!" I said and held my hand out again.

"Not happening!" he said.

I rolled my eyes. I had to get him out of here. Things could get messy soon and I needed to get him out of the way.

Looking around I saw a fire escape just above us. I quickly unraveled the whip from around my wrist and snapped it upwards. It wrapped around the bottom rung of the ladder and with a good pull it came down in a flurry of dust flakes and the earsplitting sound of scraping metal.

"Alright! Up you go!" I said motioning towards the ladder.

He didn't waste any time scrambling up the ladder. I followed and the two of us hurried up the fire escape. However about half way up there was a slam and I turned around to see that one of the Ravener demons had followed us.

"Keep going!" I yelled and he gave a short nod and continued up.

I slashed at the Ravener demon, sending ichor splashing against the brick side of the building. In retaliation it lashed out at me with it's barbed tail and I responded with my whip. It wrapped around the tail and I quickly used my Seraph Blade to slice the tail from it's body. It howled and reared back on it's legs. I took that chance to shove my sword through its head.

With a shriek it folded in on itself and disappeared in a puff of smoke. As soon as it was gone I hurried up the steps after the mundane. I finally reached the roof and found him leaning over the ledge watching the others fight, turning as I stepped up from the fire escape.

"Thanks." he said with a nod.

I nodded back, "Welcome. Now you wanna tell me how a mundane like you knows about Shadowhunters?"

He smirked and stepped forward, the moonlight hitting him so I could properly see him for the first time.

He looked like your typical Mundane….at least if you ignored a few key things about him. His hair was colored a rich plum that fell into his eyes which were a bright and sharp purple, both of which were set off by the black button down and black slacks he wore. Add to that I could suddenly feel the air of magic around him and I saw him for what he really was.

A Warlock.

"I'm guessing by the look on your face you finally realized what I am." he said.

"Yeah. You're a Warlock. I was just in too much of a hurry earlier to realize it." I replied defensively.

"As I saw. Nice take down of that Ravener Demon by the way Shadowhunter." he replied.

"Why were they chasing you anyhow?" I asked looking at him.

"Not a clue. I was walking around and they started chasing me!" he said.

"You're sure you didn't provoke them?" I replied.

"Yes! I'm sure!" He said throwing his hands up.

"Whatever you say dude." I said.

There was a sound from the fire escape and I pointed my blade towards the ledge. However a few seconds later Tori appeared.

"Well that was fun." Tori said as she walked toward us.

"Where are Genny and Liam?" I asked.

"One of the Ravener Demons ran for it so they're chasing him down." She said before turning towards the guy. "So you're a Warlock huh?"

"Yeah. You did better than your friend here. She called me a Mundie a few minutes ago." he replied with a smirk.

"Hey you can't blame me. It's dark out." I said putting my hands up.

"I'm Cai by the way. Cai Cole. Do I get to know the name of my heroine?" he asked looking at me.

"Emmy Nightshade and this is Tori Ravenscar." I replied.

"You Shadowhunters and your long names." he said with a shake of his head.

There was more movement from the Fire Escape and Genny and Liam appeared.

"Did you get it?" I asked.

"Yep. Not before it threw me half way across Atlanta though." Liam frowned holding up his arm which had a long scratch across it.

"It didn't bite you did it?" Tori said looking at him cautiously.

"Nah. I just got the hell beat out of me." he replied.

"Well there doesn't seem be anymore demons around." Tori said pulling a Sensor out of the bag attached to her weapons belt.

"Are you serious?" I asked looking at her.

"What?" she asked looking at me

"You had that the entire time? And you still let us wander around Little Five Points for nearly an hour?" Liam asked.

Tori shrugged, "The hunt is fun!"

I shook my head and turned to Cai.

"Well it looks like you're safe for now. But watch out for Demons in the future. We might not always be there to swoop in and save you." I said.

"Yes ma'am!" Cai said with a salute.

I shook my head and we headed for the fire escape.

"At least you got a kill in for your birthday." Genny said as we descended from the roof.

"It's your birthday?" Cai asked from behind me.

"Yeah. I'm 17." I replied.

"Really now? Well Happy Birthday." he said.

"Thank you." I nodded as we jumped down from the last landing.

"So Emmy how about you let me repay you for saving my life and let me treat you to dinner for your birthday?" Cai smiled walking up to me.

"How about not?" I replied looking at him.

"Aww…why not?" he asked.

"Because." I said.

"Because why? That's not an answer." he said raising his eyebrows at me with a cock of his head.

"Well it's the only one you're getting." I replied.

He sighed and snapped his fingers, a purple paper rose in his hand.

"Well then take this as my a token of my gratitude." he said holding it out to me.

I took the rose, "Thank you."

"And thank you as well." he said and with a wink disappeared down the street.

I looked at the rose and saw just how intricate it was. It almost looked real. I could swear I could smell the scent of a rose.

"Hey! Emmy! Lets go!" Genny yelled as she and the others pulled up in the SUV at the opening of the alley.

I hurried forward and climbed in, plopping down in the plastic covered backseat. Edgar would freak if we got ichor and blood everywhere. Apparently it didn't come out of the upholstery very well.

"What's that?" Liam asked as he finished drawing the iratze on his arm.

"A paper rose Cai gave me." I replied.

"That's beautiful. Can I see it?" Genny asked.

I handed it over to her and she looked at it before sniffing it.

"It even smells real." she replied.

"I figured that I could give it to Wilhelmina as her surprise. She'd love it." I said.

"She really would." Tori nodded as she examined it before handing it back to me.

"Is that what took you so long?" Liam asked.

"That and he asked to take me if he would let him take me out as a thank you." I replied.

"And you said…?" Tori asked.

"No of course! I just met him!" I replied.

"And? I hear an and in there." Genny said.

"He's a warlock!" I said.

Tori sighed, "Emmy just because your-"

But she was interrupted as someone began beating on the door of the SUV. We were stopped at a light and none of us expected it so we'd all jumped. Liam reached over and rolled down his window and we found Cai on the other side his eyes wide.

"You guys….you have to come quick…there's a body in the alley." he said.

"A body?" Tori asked.

"Yeah it's a werewolf child." he replied.

"Shit." Liam cursed and jumped out with Genny and I behind him, Tori was going to park the car.

We followed Cai down the block to a group of trash cans. The body was laying almost out in the open and when I saw it my stomach turned. I had to resist the urge to be sick.

The werewolf child was a little boy with sandy blond hair. His eyes were open, betraying just what he was. He couldn't have been any older than Wilhelmina. What was the worst part of it all though was his skin was a sallow gray and his throat was slit. However there was no blood. He had to have been drained of it before the body was dumped.

"I cast a glamour over the area so no Mundanes could see it." Cai said.

"I'm going to call Edgar and get him to get a hold of the Clave. They'll wanna know about this. Ravener Demons don't just happen to show up at the same place a werewolf child is found dead. And it wasn't a Ravener Demon that did this." Liam said and pulled his phone out, walking away a bit.

"By the Angel…he's so young." Genny said crouching down and using two fingers to close his eyes.

I shuddered and turned away. I couldn't look anymore.

"You okay?" Cai asked.

I nodded, "I'll be okay. It's just…he reminds me of a friend."

He nodded and patted me on the shoulder as if he didn't know what else to do.

A few hours later the body had been taken away, his pack contacted so that they could deal with him accordingly. We had gathered all the information needed and were now heading home.

Edgar met us at the door with cups of coffee. We all gratefully accepted one and took a seat at the kitchen table.

"Wilhelmina asleep?" Tori asked.

"She wanted to wait up but ended up falling asleep on the couch in the Library. I put her to bed." he replied.

"That kid…he wasn't much older than Wilhelmina." Liam said looking darkly into his cup of coffee.

"I want to know who did that to him." I said.

"Well he was in Warlock territory. Maybe it was for some ceremony. You think that guy Cai could've-" Ginny started but I cut her off.

"No. Cai wouldn't." I said with a shake of my head.

"How do you know? You knew him like an hour." Liam said.

"Still…not him. He doesn't seem the type." I replied.

"I agree with Emmy. He couldn't defend himself from a group of demons. I don't see him slitting a kid's throat." Tori said.

The others nodded and we fell into silence. Once the coffee was gone we all headed upstairs for showers and bed. I made a side trip to Wilhelmina's room and left the rose on her bedside table before kissing her forehead and heading to my room.

After a long hot shower I pulled on a pair of panties and a long t-shirt before climbing into bed, praying to the Angel for nightmares of a little blond werewolf boy not to haunt my dreams. I wasn't so lucky.

So this is my first Mortal Instruments based story and I hope you enjoyed it!

I've been a fan of the books for so long now and I've been wanting to write a story in the MI world for a while. And thanks to a few days with a couple of my close friends (whom I based Genny and Tori off of) I was able to come up with this!

Comments are always welcome and thank you for reading!