I do not own anything! Hope you enjoy!
CHAPTER ONE
Ten solitary figures stood outside the gates that lead an old Victorian manor just a few blocks away from the bustling central of downtown London. On each of their feet were suitcases — lots of them — especially on a certain raven-haired beauty with dark colored eyes.
The group scanned the surrounding courtyard around them.
"Well, this definitely different from our own Institute in New York." Maryse Lightwood, middle-aged dark haired woman, remarked scanning the lush green on the edge of the manor and fountain on the middle of the driveway.
"Yeah! It is." Magnus, still in his glittery self, agreed. He had been here sometime ago and smile when he notice that it never change. It was still the same institute he had stayed for a short time many years ago.
"It's more of a mansion than an Institute," Jace, seventeen years old with golden blonde hair and matching golden tawny eyes, commented. "I would like to live in one."
"I hate standing in the sun. So how about we go in, yeah?" a younger version of Maryse with the same dark colored eyes, Isabelle said as she motioned for the gate.
The moment they were directly in front of the gate. The gate's doors opened to let the visitors in dragging their suitcase on the smooth cobblestones and brick that made up the driveway. They later found that behind the gigantic fountain was a flight of steps that lead to the front door where a knocker was installed as well as a doorbell.
It was Robert Lightwood who had initiated the bell and ringing tone was heard from the inside of the gigantic building. Moments later they heard sounds of footsteps shuffling against the floor before it was opened a pretty girl who was more or less at the same age as Isabelle if not older.
She opened the door for them. She was a pretty girl, average height, fair skin and pretty face. She had dark hair and a pair luminous eye. She had runes all over her arm contrasting against her fair skin. She smiled kindly at them and ushered her in. She led them to what looks like the common room.
The room was huge, bigger than that in the New York Institute. There were leather seat everywhere. Three leather couches and several arm chairs scattered around the room. Two chairs facing the fireplace to east side of the room, one on each side of the couches which was situated facing each other. The last one in between the other two facing the fireplace and on the middle of three couches was a large coffee table. A book shelf was on the farthest wall to the door.
"Gabriel! Gideon! Behave yourselves, we have guests." She called out. Moments later, two men stood up from a crouch position behind the couch opposite to the door and nodded to the girl before leaving. They left hastily that they didn't notice one familiar person. She turned them to their guest, "Could wait for a minute? I will tell Charlotte that you have arrived."
Robert smiled, "Of course."
"Okay! Why don't you make yourselves feel at home?" She gestured to the room and left.
Jocelyn and Luke Garroway were seated on chair near the fire. Clary Garroway and Jace Herondale were seated on one of the couches. Isabelle Lightwood and Simon Lewis were seated on another while Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood were on the last. Maryse and Robert Lightwood seated themselves on the individual arm chairs beside the couches.
The door opened moments after the girl left. Everybody stood up and was facing the ones that got in the room.
It was a small middle-aged woman with small face with a kind yet serious face. Beside her was her husband, a red-haired man. Behind them were the two men, the men from earlier. One was taller and lean and lanky while was broad shoulder and muscular. Beside both men were women, beside the taller one was the girl who welcome them in while the other was another woman. She was youngest of the group. She was a dark-haired girl with striking blue eyes that the younger dark haired gasped because she looked like the female version of her brother.
"Charlotte," Luke stepped forward from his wife Jocelyn in front of the small woman holding out his hand.
"Lucian," Charlotte replied taking his hand and shaking it. She smiled at an old friend. She flicker her eyes at those standing behind him. "I didn't expect you to come."
"Luke, Charlotte. Call me Luke." He said.
Maryse and Robert Lightwood came forward beside Luke and introduce themselves. "I'm Maryse Lightwood."
"Robert Lightwood"
Luke pointed to Jocelyn, "This is my wife Jocelyn. Jocelyn Garroway."
The others followed.
"Isabelle Lightwood," she pointed Maryse and Robert. "Their daughter."
"I'm Alec Lightwood," she pointed to Isabelle. "Her brother."
"Simon Lewis."
"I'm Clary Fr— Garroway"
"Jace Li—Herondale"
The last that came forward didn't even have the chance to speak because she was beaten by the blue-eyed girl. "Magnus. Magnus Bane. Long time, no see."
"Oh, it only been four years." Magnus smiled at her. "Charlotte, dear you haven't changed and you too, Henry."
"Magnus, you know them?" Clary asked not surprise since she knew that Magnus is immortal and that he has friends in almost all over the world.
"Oooh why yes, Clary dear," he replied. "They are my friends." He faces them and introduces everyone to his group.
"You already knew, Charlotte Branwell, head of the London Institute," he motioned to her, "Her husband, Henry Branwell," she motioned to the red head beside her. He looked behind them to Gabriel and Gideon who wore surprise look on their faces. "This is Gideon Lightwood and his brother Gabriel Lightwood." He motioned to the lean then the muscular one. His gaze swept to the other girl before landing on the blue eyed one. "This is Sophie Collins and Cecily Herondale."
Gasp filled came from the New York group after hearing Cecily's family name. Magnus wasn't surprise since he knew that the Shadowhunters from New York thought of the last Herondale is Jace, son of Celine and Stephen Herondale.
"It's pleasure to meet you." Charlotte said in behalf of those with her.
After the introductions, Charlotte directed her boys to help in carrying the suitcase since Isabelle had to bring so damn many. She led them to the grand stair case leading them to some numbers hallways before reaching one with a room for each; one room for Maryse and Robert, another for Luke and Jocelyn, for Jace, for Isabelle, for Clary, for Alec, for Simon and even for . . . Magnus. She left them to unpack, freshen up and promise to call upon for dinner. She didn't left until she told them to feel at home.
~*0*~
The moment they all finished packing, the young couples decided to explore the manor. They weren't mindful of where they were going. They didn't know where to go. Well, except Magnus since he has been here before, exploring it with his close friends, Will and Victoria.
"How did know about all these hallways, Magnus?" Isabelle asked. "There are so many."
"I have been here, some time ago." He said, leading them to another hallway this time leading them to the common room. "My friends, they gave a tour. They told me that since I was going to hanging out with them I could at least know where I am going."
"Good point, Magnus," Clary replied. "Where are we heading?" she looked around the hallway. It was lit up with bright lights coming from the occasional priceless chandelier they could find hanging above them.
The London Institute is quite different from the New York Institute. It is not above an abandoned church like the one in New York. It was very old fashion. It was as if you traveled back and went to another century. Everything was decorated like a mansion from Victorian England except for the touch of technology like the lights, and any gadgets run by electricity.
"The common room," Magnus replied.
"Eh! Common room? What is that?" Simon asked who was walking beside Isabelle.
"It means living room, mundane," Jace said in his usually tone, cocky and arrogant. "I'm surprise you didn't knew that."
"Cut it out, Jace" Isabelle shot him a glare. "It's not like we had a chance to study British terminology unlike you."
"Yeah! I'm awesome, aren't I?" Jace smirked at them. "Like bathroom, they don't use that term instead they use loo."
Magnus and Alec who was walking in front of them just huffed in agitation. Things will never change.
Moments later, Magnus opened the door to the common room that had four occupants; Gabriel, Gideon, Sophie and Cecily who were in the middle of a game of monopoly. The sound of the slamming of the door shut made the occupants who were seated on the floor in front of the gigantic coffee table look up to the newcomers.
"A game of monopoly again?" Magnus asked. One of his brows was quirked up.
"MAGNUS!" Cecily scrambled getting up and launching herself to the glittery boy in front of her.
"Cecy!" Magnus chuckled hugging the girl back.
The three stood up from their places on the floor and stood to greet the newcomers.
"Magnus," Gabriel looked like struggling for words. "you look . . ."
"Shiny?" his brother supplied.
"Sparkly," Sophie corrected.
The two boys still couldn't believe that the sparkly warlock in front of them was the warlock they knew a couple of years ago, minus the many sparkles and glitters in its clothing. But then if you think of it, it was Henry who made Magnus love glitters in the first place because of one of his invention.
"Nice to see you two didn't change," Magnus replied.
"What's on?" Isabelle asked pointing to television mounted to the wall above the huge mantle piece
They just shrugged and got back to their places on the floor and gesturing to the group to feel free in doing what they want. Magnus dragged Alec to one of the couch and the others followed sitting on the other couches just like before, the first time they have been there. The huge TV screen was turned on and they decided to watch a movie that was on. The game left forgotten.
~*0*~
It was seven o'clock when Agatha, one of the housemaids of the Institute, walked in the common room and announced that dinner was ready in the dining hall.
The dining room was big. Huge. On the middle of the room was a big dinner table that could occupy twenty-four people. The center of the table was aligned to the door. The table was place horizontally on the room.
The dinner was uneventful until Charlotte asked Robert what was the purpose of their visit and how long they were staying.
"Well, we have been given invitations from the Consul to stay for a week in London before very Shadowhunter would be required to be present in Idris for the annual Clave meeting." Maryse was the one who explained to them the moment dinner was served on the table. Sixteen of which are occupied.
Charlotte was head at the head of the table as head of the institute. Opposite to her was Robert with Maryse on his left and his children of his left
"For whatever reason, we don't know," Maryse continued. "But, we could never go against rules so all of us are here."
"Yes!" Charlotte agreed. "We are well aware of that."
"We could never go against the Consul, he brings matters to the rest Clave," Henry commented. "Such a stubborn and dreadful, dreadful soul."
"Henry, darling," Charlotte reprimanded. "He is not that bad!"
The two couples from the London Institute and Magnus laughed. They knew that Charlotte was just doing that as a duty of being head of an Institute but she knew he was right. The other members on the table just looked at them with confusion on their face.
"We had been on the bad side of the Consul," Gabriel explained.
"Bad side?" Sophie explained disbelief on her face. "We were in his worst side!"
"No we weren't," Gabriel corrected. "We were in the Consul's bad side while the Consul was on Inquisitor's worst side."
"I agree with him," Magnus spoke off.
"You knew?" Alec asked his boy friend who was seated beside Simon who was opposite to Jace.
"I was still living here when the Consul burst in and demanded Will's head on a plate." Magnus explained.
"He was still sixteen at that time," Charlotte added.
"He was sixteen and had already been in the Consul's worst side. What did he do?" Jace talked for the first time since the start of dinner which was roasted turkey, peas and mash potatoes. The smirk on his face was familiar to them since one of the occupants of Institute wore the same. Unfortunately, he wasn't there.
"We sort off went against orders." Henry answered.
"Henry, dear. What do you mean by sort off?" Charlotte said. "We did go against orders."
"If we didn't go against orders, Shadowhunters in London would have been killed," Gideon said before taking a bite of his turkey.
"We? It was Will, Tory and Jon who went against orders," Sophie intervened looking at her boyfriend. "We just followed."
"Well, Jem did follow immediately, since they are parabatai. Then Tessa followed, before the whole lot of us did." Henry said.
At the mentioned of almost killed, the guests attentions perked up. "What happened? How come the Shadowhunters would have been killed?"
That was the first time, Simon spoke up. All attention was on him.
"It wasn't Valentine, wasn't it?" Jocelyn asked beside Clary and Luke on her other side. All attention was on her. Confusion was on the Londoners faces as she said this.
"No. It's not, Jocelyn," Charlotte smiled. "Beside, why would he do that? As much as he hates the Clave and wanted them to change, he wouldn't do that. All the things that he did from leading the Uprising to the burning the Fairchild manor, all of those were false. He didn't lead them. He was just framed." Looking at the shock faces of her visitors, Charlotte push away her plate and cleared her throat. "Judging by your faces, you didn't know that Valentine faced the Clave and was judge with the Mortal Sword. It turned out he was cleared. He didn't do all those things. He was framed; the fire that killed your parents, Jocelyn. It wasn't done by Valentine but by John Shades. He was taking revenge for what happened to him when he was still young . . . or younger than he was.
"Was? He was killed?" Simon asked.
"Valentine. He didn't kill my parents?" Jocelyn asked.
"That's impossible."Maryse exclaimed. "He was the one. He wasn't framed. Valentine was very much capable of doing those things. We were part of the circle."
"Yes!" Charlotte said. "He very much capable of doing that, lead the Uprising. But, he didn't. For the sake of his family, he didn't. "
"His family!" Jocelyn stood up and exclaimed. She glared at Charlotte. "He experimented on me with demon blood. Feed me with demon blood, until I gave birth to a monster. The demon blood burned of the humanity of my son."
"You didn't even know that the person who did that was a demon." Charlotte said sharply. Silence settled on Jocelyn. She was speechless. "John Shades sent a demon every full moon of your pregnancy and had given you a drink mix with demon blood. Valentine was either knock unconscious or restrain somewhere in Idris until the deed is done. After that John would erase his memories and led his back to his manor."
"How did you know all this?" Maryse asked. Shock and confusion written all over her face as well as Jocelyn and everybody on the table. From the Shadowhunters in London, shock because it was decided that nobody would tell them until the right time and since they still waited for Victoria and Jonathan to say it's okay. From those from New York, shock by what they found out.
"We were there on the trial. Besides, before or the first time John Shades was captured by the Clave he admitted everything he did to you, to Valentine, your children. To Aloysius Starkweather, Hodge Starkweather's father, To Benedict Lightwood," she looked at Robert at the other end of the table. "Your brother."
After that silence filled the dining room. Jocelyn sat down. The occasional scraping and hitting of silverware against the china pieces ceases as everybody stared at Charlotte who was breathing in deeply.
The silence carried on for a few more minutes before Gabriel broke it.
"You are not a Shadowhunter, are you . . ." Gabriel asked looking at Simon.
"Lewis. Simon Lewis." Simon replied. "And yes, I am not."
"Don't judge him or you will face my wrath." Isabelle spoke beside Alec and Jace on her other side.
"No we are not. We just wanted to know." Cecily replied in all seriousness for her sixteen years old self.
"And to answer your first question, we were up against John Shades. He escaped the Clave grasp after he admitted everything. He hid for more than seven years until four years ago. He was a very powerful wizard. He exploited his powers and commanded demons to as he pleases. He didn't change." Henry said.
"He still kill innocent mundane or unsuspecting Shadowhunters or enslave them," Magnus joined the conversation.
"A large portion of the London population died in his hands. He wanted to rule the world and kill every Shadowhunter there is."
"Was he stopped?" Isabelle asked.
"Yes, he was." Cecily said. "He was captured by Valentine Morgenstern and my father, Edmund Herondale, four years ago." She said softly.
"Both of them died from the fight." Gideon added.
Everybody from the New York Institute was shocked by this information. They thought Valentine was still alive and living in Idris. He was known to go against the Clave. He hated the Clave saying they are corrupt. And he was known to lead the Uprising against the Clave sixteen years ago. He was also Jocelyn's former husband and father of Clary.
After that conversation, the dining room was silent until everybody finished and retires to their bedrooms.
~*0*~
Will jerked back as the last demon envelope on its self going back to whatever dimension it came from. He hissed in pain noticing that his left hand was covered with demons' blood from their fight. Black ichors dripped from his fingers to the ground he was standing from. He wiped his hand on the sleeve of his gear wiping it clean.
He looked around him to his companions. All of them were covered with black ichors and blood. Blood! It was Victoria who was standing or rather than not standing but leaning on to the wall on the side of the building they standing behind.
"Tory!" Will exclaimed pushing pass Jem was coming his way to check on him. He rush to her side and looked at her. She was pale and was trying hard not to slip and fall on her knees.
"Will," she whispered. He took her in his arms so that she wouldn't be struggling. He sat down with her in his lap and his back on the wall.
"What happened?" Will looked at the large blood that was gushing out her right arm. "Did it bit you? Tory, answer me. Did the demon bit you?"
"No," she whispered. Her eyes were dropping as he rested her head on the crook of his neck. Will immediately whipped out his stele and drew an iratze on her arm. But instead of drawing the usual one, he added another curve line below the first and original one just like how Victoria taught him to make the healing rune much stronger and prominent. He drew and few more before thinking it was satisfied.
"What happened to her?" He could heard Jem and the others approaching.
"What happened to my sister, Will?" He heard Jon growled at him.
"I don't know but she was wounded." Will replied. He looked up and saw that all of them were huddle around him.
Jem and Tessa were standing together black ichors running down from the shirt to the ground. Jem's silver hair was covered with dust that it no longer looked like silver but a dirty shade of gray. His jade headed cane on his left arm while his other was wrapped around his girlfriend's waist. Tessa on the other hand was dripping wet with ichor from when the demon collapse on her and Jem didn't seem to mind.
On his other side were Jon and his fiancée Jessamine. Both of them were in the same condition. A n empty bag was strapped on his back and an arrow on his hand. Jessie was sitting infront of Will scanning at Tory's wounded arm that was now healed but still bloody from earlier.
"She is okay, now." Jessie said standing up. She smiled at Will. She took hold of the whip and dagger that Tory was holding. "She is unconscious because of the numerous healing rune Will put on her."
Will heard Jon sighed in relief.
"Why don't we go home?" Jon suggested.
"Yeah!" Jem agreed. "We should. It's probably midnight already."
"Actually it's one in the morning." Tessa corrected her boyfriend.
"Yeah we should," Jem took Tory from Will's arms as he stood up but Will took her back to him as they walk back to the car.
"I'm driving." Jon said as they headed on place where they left the black Mercedes they left behind a few hours ago.
"Poor Thomas," Jem said as they got in the car. They took off their gear and wear on the casual clothes that they wore under the gear but it still didn't stop it from getting dirty and messy. "He has to scrub this car clean again."
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