Chapter One
My name has been Mouse since he took me in. For the safety of my life, I was to never speak of the beautiful glass city that I once knew as home. Everything about my life there was to be forgotten, with no explanation other than that it was for my own good. Magnus remained worried about me, about someone finding me. It wasn't until I was in my twenties that I first was almost discovered.
"Mouse, can you work on the décor? It's lacking something." Magnus asked as he struggled to fix the tie around his neck just right. The action had made me laugh, no matter how many times he tried, it was never right.
"Why are you so nervous? Everything is find." I replied as I flicked my fingers at the tie. Moving easily around itself, the tie quickly formed the perfect knot that Magnus always desired. "This is just another party, right?"
"Right, another party, just one with the other High Warlocks coming by." Magnus muttered to himself before looking at me. "You are forbidden from any magic tonight. You are to simply…"
"Simply be one of the Mundane, I know." I cut him off as someone knocked on the door. I gave Magnus a quick bow before moving behind the bar table.
My role for his parties was always to serve the drinks. To make sure the guests were well fed and to keep the drinks full. No one ever went home hungry or thirsty from his parties. I was used to being forgotten when the guests went home, until they happened.
I knew as soon as the rune knocked out the doorman that Shadowhunters were here and crashing the party. I was never more thankful for the magical connection Magnus and I have.
Magnus, hunters at the door. I told him telepathically as four Shadowhunters walked in.
Stay at the bar. He replied as I felt his presence come by.
I never found out why the one girl was there, but the mundane they were with came right up to bar. His name, I learned, was Simon, and he didn't seem to belong there with the others. I like talking to him, but he seemed so distracted by all of Magnus's other guests, that even I missed the transforming liquid being mixed into his drink. With a clash, the glass hit the floor, and the shadowhunters ran to get the girl from Magnus's office.
From the moment the four of them entered the home, I felt something was odd about one of them. He had caught Magnus's eye as well and maybe that was what bothered me so much about the years that followed.
Two Months Later:
"Mouse, Alexander is coming by." Magnus told me through the door as I got changed for the day. My outfit of choice was typical for an apprentice; crushed red velvet Victorian styled with black lace hooded shirt that due to my young age fit more like a dress, paired with a slim pair of black cotton skinny jeans and black heels.
"So you're asking me to disappear for the day?" I answered as I opened the door. "Works for me. I'm going to the Planetarium, and please start calling him Alex like everyone else. I couldn't tell if the startled look was because of what I said or because I was in my magical garb, but something seemed to surprise him.
"Mouse," Magnus started to say something as the door opened.
"Too late. You're going to have to tell him about me eventually. As your apprentice, I'm going to be in your life as much as he is. He deserves to know why you have someone staying here. Unless you want to keep me a secret from everyone." I told him as I headed down the hall toward the front room. I could feel the shadowhunter getting closer as I spoke and I lowered my voice.
"Magnus?" Alexeander asked as he came around the corner. The boy, smart as he was, stopped dead when his eyes found me.
"Thank you for your help, Warlock Bane, I can only assume to resume our friendship some other time." I said as I pushed passed the boy.
I wasn't sure if my words would hurt Magnus, but he was kicking me out for a boy. A Shadowhunter boy of all things. The age difference of the two had never bothered me, nor had the relationship ever crossed Magnus's vow with me. Something about them, something about that particular boy bothered me. I could never tell what it was. Shadowhunters never bothered me. They had moments when they got on my nerves. All their rules and laws, but they never truly bothered me. I wasn't one of them. At least, I didn't know I was. Since the day Magnus took me in, I had no memories of my shadowhunter life. If only it had stayed that way.
As I walked out the door that day, I did not know what a mistake I was making. Too many years had passed since my disappearance form the Galss City. The Shadowhunter council, the Clace, had grown weary with the lack of a body. It would be another year before I would find out what truly happened ot my family, but for now I walk the streets of Brooklyn. Waiting and watching the busy underground through the thin material of the crimson red hood.
That was when I saw it. The symbol of my birth, stamped on a Wanted poster. My birthmark on my wrist and ankle, drawn perfectly on poster printed with the words:
'Beware the Nightshadows'
What did my family's crest have to do with these Nightshadow people? My thoughts went crazy trying to find an answer from the empty poster.
"Apparently, the whole family went against the Clave. They are all rogue Shadowhunters now. Rumor has it, they kill without cause or reason and are to be turned in immediately." A vampire said as he walked up to the poster with me.
"How long has the poster been here? " I asked. I couldn't remember seeing it before and he seemed to know a lot about it.
"Simon!" Someone called, making me turn toward the door.
"Simon?" I asked as the vampire started to make his way to a tall brunette shadowhunter with similar features as Alex. "Shit." I had been too focused on the poster, I didn't even notice her come by, or recognize the vampire standing next to me.
"Sorry, Izzy, I was just talking to this girl." Simon said as he turned to point at me.
Taking a deep breath, I walked up to them. The gem at her neck began to shine brighter as I moved closer, lighting the dark underground tunnel. I pulled at the hood just slightly until it began to cover my eyes.
"I mean no harm, I only seek information." I said, giving a soft short bow. They have the power to kill me, I reminded myself as I considered the possibility I could kill them first. Had I really been afraid of them, I probably wouldn't have dared to approach.
"What does a witch need to know about our problems?" Izzy replied with a sharp tongue.
"The meaning of that symbol. The rune placed on the poster. What does it mean?" I pressed, I didn't care how much trouble I would get into with Magnus, I needed to know and dammit, she was going to tell me.
"It's a modified version of the Angelic rune. You see, if you take this slash out of the middle, the Angelic rune sticks out, but the slash makes the base look like an eye. As far as anyone knows, it's the symbol of the Nightshadows." Izzy looked over the poster, her hand covering the slash before turning back to me. "I feel like I've seen you before."
"Not possible, for I would remember someone with your looks and demeanor." I replied as I started to walk away. "Thanks for the info. Glad to know how useless it was."
By the time I arrived back at the house, Alec was gone. Magnus looked like he was on his fourth or fifth drink when I walked in.
"We don't manifest the alcohol just so you can marinate in it." I commented as I headed back to my room.
"Young Lady, where have you been?" Magnus called from the kitchen.
"The Planetarium, like I said I would be." I yelled back, knowing that no matter how loud I yelled the neighbors would never hear me through the sound proof walls.
"Mousy, I do not appreciate being lied to after all these years. Why were you underground?" Magnus asked, his drunk-self leaning against the frame of my doorway. Even though he was as sober as a leaf, he didn't look it. It took a lot of alcohol to make magicians drunk.
"Like you would have even noticed with Alec around." I replied as I started to put my things away.
"Mousy, I know that you don't like having to have this life. I understand that. However, it is what we must do in order to protect you from the people that killed your parents and that are still searching for you. I am sorry that this is hard on you, but there is no other alternative at the moment." Magnus turned and stood up a little wobbly from his chair, managing to keep his balance, and walked over to my door. "I swore I would take you in and help to protect you from that. I'm not about to change that."
"Magnus, it just seems that with Alec coming by; either he's going to figure out about me and whatever it is that happened in my past that you don't want to talk about, or one of us is going to have to tell him." I replied, looking out the shaded, magically guarded, and tinted window. "I just hope that we can figure something out that works, because he can't just start coming by on his own. He might catch me here way too often."
"The time to talk about that is not now. Now, you need to get something to eat and I need to detox. Go. There's a pizza in the kitchen just the way you like it." Magnus said as he shifted his weight off the door and started off toward his room.
"Magnus, can I ask you something?" I asked as I headed after him. "I want to know anything and everything you know about a family called the Nightshadows, and if I don't get the answer from you, I'm going to start asking around. Starting with a vampire I may have befriended by mistake."
Something in Magnus made him go rigid. As if I had stuck an icicle down his pants and dropped it. I don't know what it was, asking about the Nightshadows or befriending the vampire that caused the reaction, but Magnus just turned to look at me for a moment, sadness and anger flashing in his eyes as they stared down at me. Then, as he often did when I had upset him somehow, he stalked off to his room, shaking his head, and closed the door.
Without giving him a second chance to come out and talk, I made my way to the kitchen and found the triple cheese, pepperoni and sausage pizza sitting still steaming from the oven's heat. The pure thought of the taste of a slice made my mouth water and my stomach start to growl. Had I really gone all day without a meal again? I couldn't be sure, walking over and pulling a slice.
The Nightshadows seemed to be a main topic in the under city. Someone knew something about them, so surely Magnus or Simon would know. I didn't really want to run the risk of running into the shadowhunter girl that always seemed to hang around Simon, but I wanted to know what was going on. I'd been through Magnus' library from top to bottom, reading every book and absorbing all the information I could from them. Nowhere in the vast thousands of books Magnus owned on histories of the creatures walking the Earth had there ever been any mention of the Nightshadow family, or of their crimes. Was it possible the family had only recently committed their crimes, thus Magnus hasn't had a chance to locate a book on the subject since no such record has been made yet? I wasn't totally sure, but I had to find out what happened and what my family's birthmark symbol has to do with it all.
