Fast update! I'm rather proud of myself, I usually never write this much in such a short time. But since I won't be home for the weekend, I thought I better update now than on Sunday. I was happy to see that you guys liked the story, since I wasn't sure if it would go down well with the fandom because it's kind of different. So thanks for every review, alert and fave! :)
Fire. Screaming. Demons. Smoke. Dead bodies. A flash of light. A mirror. An amulet.
Jade awoke with a start and found herself sitting up straight in the unfamiliar bed, her entire body covered in cold sweat. She spun around and took in her surroundings, before it slowly started dawning on her, and she remembered the events of the night before; how she fought demons, got distracted for a split second, the pain of sharp claws ripping through her flesh, coming to the Institute, and...
Beck. In less than a second he was through the door and beside her. He was fast, even for a Shadowhunter, she thought, not without a hint of jealousy pounding in the back of her mind. The only question was, why was he here? "Are you all right?" he asked, slightly out of breath, while he kneeled down next to her and shot her a worried glance. He was still in his pajamas, just that this time he wasn't wearing his dressing gown over them, which implied that he had rushed straight out of bed and to her (well, his) room.
"I guess," she replied hesitantly, and brought a hand up to her forehead to wipe away the sweat that had formed little, glistening droplets on her skin. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"I heard you scream," he explained.
She turned to look at him, and he noticed the sudden confusion plastered across her face as she furrowed her perfectly plucked eyebrows. "I screamed?" He confirmed with a nod. "Weird," she said after a while, gazing in the distance, and he wasn't sure if she was still talking to him or to herself. "That has never happened before."
The worry was evident in his eyes, as he suddenly got up from his knees to sit down next to her on his bed. "Before? What do you mean? What happened?" He didn't even notice that he reflexively grabbed her hand, squeezing it reassuringly. She did notice it, though. His skin felt warm against hers, and she had to resist the urge to flinch from his grasp. She wasn't used to all this; people guarding her, caring for her.
Jade let out a deep sigh. She wasn't much of a talker – not that it had ever been necessary anyway – and all of this was new to her, but she instantly decided that talking about her feelings was something she didn't like. There was something in Beck's eyes, though, maybe it was his honest concern for her, that made her feel weak and made it harder to hide something from him. "It was just a nightmare," she eventually said. "Nothing to worry about."
Giving her another worried glance, he asked, "Do you have nightmares often?"
"Every night."
That left him speechless for a second. A few times he opened his mouth, trying to say something, before closing it again. Eventually, he took a deep breath and looked at her with a seriousness in his eyes that she hadn't seen on him before. "Jade," he said. "I get that you don't like talking about it – but what happened to you? And I'm not just talking about last night."
"What makes you think that something happened to me?"
He realized that she was slowly building up her walls again, regaining the inner strength he had seen the first time he met her, when she wouldn't even stop to listen to him and just focused on what she had set her mind on. "You are... different. Different from all other Shadowhunters I have met so far, and that are more than a few. I can't really explain it, but there's something about you that makes you stand out."
"I'm not that different from you," she told him coldly. The repulse in her tone felt almost like a backstab to him, after he had done everything he could to help her.
"Why are you alone?"
"I don't remember agreeing to a game of twenty questions," she hissed, grinding her teeth. She finally pulled back her hand from under his, and nervously wiped it on the sheets before resting it in her lap. He gave up with an exasperated sigh, scooting a few inches away from her, as if she could lunge out any second.
But she didn't. Instead, she suddenly swung her legs to the side and got up from the bed. He watched her, warily and slightly confused, as she grabbed her clothes from the armchair next to his desk, where she had placed them before going to sleep the night before. She examined her black leather pants, nodded approvingly and hung them over her arm, before grabbing her shirt and giving it a scrutinizing look. The black cloth was blood-stained and torn in some places, covered by a thin layer of dirt and dust. Jade groaned, and tossed it in the trashcan under Beck's desk, where it landed on a pile of wadded paper. Turning to Beck, she said, "You don't have a shirt I can borrow, do you?"
"Why?" he asked in a tone that implied that he had a sense of foreboding. And he was right.
She picked up her jacket, and, after taking a quick look at it, also threw it over her arm with a satisfied nod. "I have to go back."
"Back to where?"
"The abandoned house where I fought the demons last night," she explained unfazed. "I gotta get my stele. And my bag."
"You want to go back there?" His voice was full of disbelief.
She was still calm. "That's what I just said, isn't it? Maybe you should get your ears checked."
"You got almost torn to death there just a few hours ago," he stated, his disapproval evident in not only his voice, but also his tensed body. "Do you really think the demons will just let you walk in again to get your bag?"
She rolled her eyes. "Do you really think I left any of them alive? Look, Beck, it's nice that you're concerned, but I know what I'm doing. Last night, all of this, it didn't happen because the demons were too strong for me. Something else happened in there, I got distracted for a second, and that's when they got me, all right? I had everything under control until then."
"What happened?" he demanded. It seemed to become a habit of his, asking this question, and it angered him that he never got a satisfying answer from her.
She noticed his growing frustration. "I don't even really know myself. That's why I have to get my bag. It's in it."
"What is in it? Dammit, Jade, can you stop speaking in riddles for once?" He clenched his fist as he spoke, a single vein sticking out from his neck. Beck was usually calm and collected, but this girl was driving him round the bend. He didn't understand what it was that made him care for her this much, so he simply brushed it off as his general kindness without giving it a second thought.
Her mouth twisted slightly. "It's... I told you, it's hard to explain!" she spat, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Just give me a goddamn shirt and I'll be out of here, you'll never have to see me again."
"No way," he objected. "If anything, I'm coming with you."
She groaned. "How do I know that you won't be a burden? I don't even know if you're a capable Shadowhunter."
His mouth twitched into a smirk. "What makes you think I'm not?"
/ / /
The old house on the edge of St. Rose Avenue in South Central Los Angeles didn't need any glamour to look rundown. Even though Beck had been living in this city since he was seven, he had never been in this neighborhood before, not even for any of his jobs, as he liked to call them. But it didn't take more than one glance to see that this was a perfect hideout for any Downworlders. Thick layers of dirt covered the mostly cracked windows that were boarded up with massive planks from the inside, and even in the daylight it seemed like a perfectly dark place, in which demons wouldn't have to fear the sun.
"What on earth brought you here last night?" Beck asked curiously. "You don't live in LA, right?" His black leather coat glistened in the sun, hiding the weapons he had stored underneath. The dark clothing made him seem older, and like someone who should be taken way more seriously than the boy in pajamas Jade had met last night.
Her heavy boots gave a satisfying thump as she walked beside him further towards the building. "No," she replied, referring to his last question and ignoring the first. "I don't live anywhere."
"What?" he retorted, now turning to look at her. "How is that possible?"
She shrugged, and kept her eyes focused on the abandoned house that was lying in front of them. "I travel around, never stay in one place too long."
"Alone?"
"Is this your way of asking me if I have a boyfriend?" she smirked.
Even though he quickly lowered his head, Jade did not miss that Beck's face turned a shade redder. "No," he emphasized, slightly pouting. "I was just wondering."
She studied his face for a second, (quickly pushing aside all thoughts that told her that he looked cute when he was embarrassed) before replying, "Yes, alone."
They were now standing right in front of the demon's nest, or former demon's nest, as, according to Jade, all demons who used to live there had been killed the night before. She didn't even hesitate before violently kicking in the brittle front door, and was about to step inside, when a hand on her shoulder held her back. She rolled her eyes and hissed an annoyed "What", not even bothering to turn around.
Beck held up a Sensor that Shadowhunters used to pick up demonic frequencies, so that she could see it. "Maybe we should check for demons first," he explained, and reached for a button on the device's side.
"I told you, I killed them all," she said impatiently, shaking off his hand. "And I'm good at what I'm doing." She took a few confident steps inside and immediately started looking around for her things. Next to a splatter of dark, dry blood, she spotted her stele and quickly went over to pick it up.
"Oh yeah? Didn't look like it to me last night," Beck teased, and turned on his Sensor despite her protest.
She shot him an angry glance, threateningly pointing her stele at him. "That was not my fault," she spat. Then she brought her surroundings back into focus, and found her bag lying at the other end of the room. Just as she was about to walk over to get it, Beck interposed.
"Jade, wait. The Sensor–" Before he could finish his warning, a loud growl sounded through the building. Jade turned around just in time to see a black creature throwing itself at her, baring its yellow, pointed teeth. She tried to dodge, but found herself captured between an old drawer and a huge, shattered chandelier, that at one point must have fallen off the ceiling. She threw her arms over her head, trying to protect as much of her body as possible, and getting ready for the demon to get to her. But it never did.
Instead, she heard the creature cry out in pain. Jade looked up from behind her arms, both surprised and confused, to find that Beck had used a long knife to slash the demon in half. It let out another terrifying scream, before it faded away, back into its dimension.
Jade just stood there, glued to the spot, unable to move. If she had been admiring Beck's swiftness before, she was now completely and utterly amazed by not only that, but also his skills. Not many Shadowhunters could manage to kill a demon at a single stroke. His smooth temper had made her underestimate him, something she now regretted. "You okay?" Beck asked, and took a few steps towards her. It was only when he held out his hand for her, that she noticed that she had went down on her knees. She grabbed her bag with one hand, then accepted Beck's with the other, and he pulled her on her feet. When she nodded to affirm his question, he broke out into a grin. "What did I tell you?"
She rolled her eyes. "Shut up." Ignoring any further questions, she started rifling through her bag, while the two teenagers walked back out of the building. "It has to be here somewhere..." she murmured, and Beck curiously peeked over her shoulder.
"What is it?"
"Like I told you, I got distracted yesterday. I was in the middle of the battle, when this thing suddenly started going crazy." Her eyes lit up as she finally found what she was looking for, and she reached deeper into her bag, pulling out a golden necklace, with a big, antique-looking pendant.
Beck gasped, momentarily stunned. "My amulet."
