Alec sat down on Magnus's bed, his heart pounding in his ears, exhaustion threatening to take over. He drew his knees to his chest, and buried his face in his hands, he didn't know how long he had sat there before he gave into exhaustion and let the world dissolve around him.

Magnus wasn't sure why he was letting the shadow hunter boy stay in his loft instead of the Silent City. He had nodiced how Alec had avoided him in the institute, treating him with the utmost formality, cringing away from his touch, an instinct which had probably learned from his parents. Not that Magnus wasn't used to it, but when he had first seen Alec, he had hoped that maybe he would be different..

Magnus sighed and running his hand through his hair, kicked the party goers out of his loft, and trudged back to his bedroom. Alec was curled up in the middle of his bed, it was clear from his position, that the boy had not intended to fall asleep, but Magnus couldn't help but marvel at the angelic sight before him; his dark hair fanned across the canary colored comforter, contrasting to his porcelain skin, thick eyelashes tangled together. No matter how angelic Alec looked, Magnus wasn't going to sleep on the couch for the sake of a shadow hunter, who he was already doing a favor, free of charge at that.

He shook Alec's arm, and watched as his lashes fluttered open, revealing a beep blue, dark with sleep.

"Jace?" He murmured sleepily,

"No, Alexsander, it's Magnus,"

Alec gave Magnus a half lidded smile, and Magnus realized with a jolt that it was the first time he had actually seen him smile, "You remembered my name. I thought you would never get it right. Not that I blame you- most people don't remember…" He trailed off, his eyes shutting.

Magnus felt a sudden stab of guilt, as he looked at Alec. He looked almost like an entirely different person in sleep, his whole body relaxed face peaceful, stark in contrast to his body when he was awake, which was taunt, like a bow string pulled to tight. "Don't fall back asleep just yet" He told Alec, shaking his shoulder again, with considerable more gentleness this time, and led him to the guest bedroom, watching as the shadowhunter curled beneath the blankets.

As Magnus was leaving the bedroom,he heard a soft whimper. Alec was twisting in his sleep his face contorting into a frown. Magnus, who was no stranger to nightmares himself, sighed and walked back over to the bed, placing two fingers on Alec's forehead, blue sparks shooting from them. For a second it worked, the frown slid off his face and was replaced by a peaceful half smile, but as Magnus removed his fingers, the shadowhunter's back arched and he screamed as if in pain, though his eyes remained closed. Magnus jumped back in alarm, he had used a simple spell to clear the nightmare, the same spell he used to use on himself every night, it had never had that effect on anyone before. He stared helplessly at Alec, who was now writhing, in his bed, hand clawing desperately at the sheets, screaming, a thin sheen of sweat coating his face.

"Alec" He said, "Alec wake up"

Alec began to thrash, his breathing had become ragged and short.

"Alexsander!" He pleaded, "Wake up!"

Alec's blue eyes snapped open, his pupils dialated to the size of quarters, "Make them stop" He gasped, grabbing Magnus's wrist in an iron grip.

"The nightmares?" Magnus asked gently,

Tears began to run down Alecs face. "Everything" He whispered brokenly,

Magnus's hand brushed Aleks forehead, and his head began to loll, his body not seeming to reject the magic this time.

Alec rubbed his eyes. He was sprawled in a pool of sunlight, which was unusual because for as long as he could remember, he had been up before the sun rised. From the other room he could hear voices,

"Where is he?"

"Relax, I haven't killed your parbati, he's sleeping."

"Alec never sleeps in."

"Well last night must have been a little stressful, considering he was almost arrested on your account. In my ever so humble opinion, he deserve to sleep in."

"Wake him up. I need to talk to him."

"No."

"Why?"

"I'm going to refer back to my earlier statement about last night being stressful, and Alec deserving to sleep in. You can wait."

"Bane-"

Alec sat bolt upright in his bed. He knew that tone from countless hours spent trying to keep Jace out of trouble, it was the I'm going to do something extremely stupid if I don't get my way this instant, and then my poor parbati will have to face the consequences because I'm Jace, and far to magnificent to deal with silly things like waiting tone. Instincts developed from dealing with reckless idiots like Izzy and Jace kicked in, and Alec raced out of the bedroom.

Jace was standing in the doorway, his arms crossed, while Magnus was sprawled across the couch, his his shirt riding up, revealing a golden strip of flesh.

"I'm here Jace. What do you want?"

"A hot gay threesome." Jace replied, smirking as Alec flushed, "To check on you of coarse. What did you think?"

Magnus rolled his eyes, "As lovely as that shade of pink looks on Alexander, if you interrupted my morning routine just to make him blush, I'll turn you into a porcupine."

"Please don't" Alec pleaded, instinctively stepping in front of Jace, "You remembered my name." He felt oddly satisfied at that, than, out of habit added: "I prefer Alec."

Magnus looked at him, cat eyes like x-rays, "You don't mind being called Aaron, Abraham or Antonio, and yet you correct me when I call you Alexander?"

Alec opened his mouth, but it was Jace who spoke first, "His mom calls him Alexander whenever she's pissed, and that women put the fear of god into me- Being called Alexander probably brings bac horrible flashbacks."

Alec bit his lip. He was used to people speaking for him, and was usually grateful for it, everything he said came out as unintelligent or rude, but he couldn't help but deflate slightly whenever it happened. Magnus's shrewd gaze gave Alec the impression that this didn't go unnoticed.

"Move." A familiar voice snapped, and Jace was shoved to the side, as Izzy pushed past Jace, and tackled Alec into a bear hug. She looked Alec up and down as if examining him for wounds.

Magnus sighed, "Do you have no faith in me! I promise, I haven't hurt him!"

Izzy flashed him a brilliant smile, "We are very thankful that you let Alec stay with you- I don't know what we would have done if Alec were sent to the Silent City" She gave dramatic flourish with her hands, and something on her finger caught the light.

Magnus matched her smile, "My pleasure." Something flickered in his eyes,"That's a lovely ring you're wearing, may I ask where you got it?"

"This?" She asked, glancing at the sapphire colored ring on her finger, "Some werewolf gave it to me last night."

Alec tensed, "By Angel, Izzy, if you're engaged-"

"I'm not engaged" Izzy said quickly, "I mean I like him but our relationship is more sexual,"

Alec choked "What?!"

"Darling, you're not helping your case at all." Magnus chuckled, then adding as an afterthought "And I would take off your ring immediately, it's infused with the same plant that was in Alec's drink."

Isabelle looked mildly alarmed, and slid off the ring, carefully setting it on the mantel next her, and Magnus made it disappear with a snap of his fingers.

"You'll be fine" He informed her, "Unless your a freak of nature and slept wearing that ring, in which case you deserve to die, because only horrible people sleep with their jewelry on. I should probably make sure none of it's in your system anyways."

Isabelle laughed as if the idea of sleeping with a ring on was completely ludacris, and let Magnus lead her into his bedroom.

"You're all good" Magnus announced, dropping Isabelle's wrist,

She stuck her tongue out in distast, "That felt weird,"

"It usually does." Magnus said, remebering with some pleasure, of the way her brother had shivered and gasped when he had come in contact with the magic, reminding him oddly of an instrument he could play. The right stimulation causing the right reaction. "Can I ask you something?"

"Depends"

Magnus met her eyes, "Last night, your brother seemed to be having nightmares-"

Isabelle's face darkened, "That's not uncommon, when you grow up fighting demons and death is a very real possibility, nightmares are sort of to be expected."

"I know that," Magnus said "but when I tried to make them stop, his body rejected my magic- they weren't normal nightmares. I could sense that there was something darker involved."

Her eyes widened and she swore under her breath,

"If there's something I should know…" Magnus began, keeping his voice level,

"No, just promise me that you'll keep Alec safe." Her eyes were the size of silver dollars.

Magnus blinked, "I'll do my best."

Isabelle looked content with that answer and sprung up from the bed, and flounced out or the room.

"I think we have made a new record" Jace announce, as Izzy and Magnus returned "For the most attempted poisons and arrests made in a span of less than twenty four hours."

Izzy snorted "What kind of record is that?"

"Hey" Jace threw his hands up defensively, "If there's a record for the most apples crushed by a bicep, I don't see why their can't be a record for the most number of attempted arrests and poisons,"

"Jace does have a point" Alec said seriously, "It is odd that two different people tried to poison us with the same hallucinogenic, the same night Jace was accused of murdering mundanes, and my nightmares came back-" He broke off with a surreptitious glance at Magnus.

"Yes" Jace said solemnly, "My nightmares are back too, and they tend to be prophetic. Once I had a dream about Alec creating an army of cannibalistic ducks by feeding them poultry pie, and then the next day I was viciously attacked by a duck."

Alec and Isabelle exchanged serious looks. But Alec just laughed, though it sounded hollow, "Well ducks do generally respond aggressively when people try to strangle their ducklings and scream 'fight me like a man.' That has less to do with prophetic nightmares and more to do with you being an idiot."

Magnus looked horrified, "You tried to strangle a duckling?"

"Moving on," Jace said, "Alec's not dead, so I consider my parbati duties fulfilled, I have things to do, people to see, demons to kill, and mundane murders to investigate- Have fun with Magnus, don't do anything I would do!"

Isabelle gave Alec a meaningful look, "Call me if anything happens."

"Please leave now" Magnus said brightly, and showed the two Shadowhunters out of the loft.

Magnus checked his watch, and said a word that would have made Alec's mother cry, it was already late morning, and he had a client in less than fifteen minutes. Having a Shadow Hunter roaming his loft would not be good for business, and locking him in the bedroom wouldn't do much seeing as most downworlders could sense shadowhunters.

"How do you feel about becoming a coat rack?"

Alec looked taken aback, "A coat rack?"

"Yes" Magnus waved his hand impatiently, "Shadow Hunter's are bad for business, so how would you feel if I turned you into a coat rack?"

Alec stared at him.

"Coat racks don't scare customers." Magnus informed him helpfully,

Alec blinked, clearly not processing the information correctly, "Wouldn't I get splinters?"

Magnus considered this for a minute, "You're right. You're to pretty to be a coat rack anyways. Would you mind being temporarily turned into a statue? It would just be a simple charm that would leave you frozen and statue like for an hour. Shadowhunters don't scare people as much if their frozen."

"No" Alec said, "I don't particularly want to become a statue."

Magnus crossed his arms, "Then how are you going to pay me?"

"Pay you?"

"Yes, you didn't think I was doing this for free, did you?"

Alec scowled, "Well that would have been nice information to have before I agreed to stay with you. How much do I even owe you?"

"For one night in my loft…" Magnus did several mental calculations, then named a sum that made Alec say something that would have made his mother stab him to death with an umbrella.

"H-how the heck do you expect me to pay that?" Alec sputtered,

"You can always work as a statue to repay your debt," Magnus suggested,

Alec looked dubious. "I'm not becoming a statue."

"Cough up the money and you don't have to."

Alec bit his lip, "Please don't make me." He pleaded, "I don't like the idea of being unable to move."

Magnus was taken aback by the sudden panic in his blue eyes, "Alright" He agreed reluctantly, "But if you so much as say something threatening to my client- you're becoming a statue. We'll discuss your payment later."

Alec looked immensely grateful and nodded.

The doorbell rang, and Magnus snapped his fingers. His silk robe was immediately replace by lemon yellow skinny jeans and a matching rhinestone encrusted shirt. Magnus proudly reflected on the fact that he could pull of yellow, with most people it made their skin seem yellow as well, but Magnus was tanned just enough for yellow to bring out his golden complexion. He noticed with satisfaction that Alec was staring at him, his mouth opened slightly.

Dropping a glittery wink at Alec (he had also magicked on some glittery yellow eyeshadow), he buzzed the client in.

The client was a warlock with unusual black eyes and carrot orange hair, who looked like he was in his mid forties, name Erik Stone.

"Magnus Bane?" He asked, in an oily voice, raking his eyes across Magnus's bright attire with thinly veiled judgement,

"The one and only. Please come in." Magnus replied with a toothy smile, leading the warlock inside, and gesturing for him to sit on the overstuffed couch. Erik gave a mocking smile, and strode over to the couch his eyes landing on Alec, who was sitting on the edge, his back board-straight.

"I didn't realize you had company." Erik drawled, his forked tongue running over his teeth,

Magnus noticed with alarm that Alec had gone several shades paler, his teeth clamped on his lower lip,

"Yes, he's staying with me for the time being. Erik Stone, meet Alexander Lightwood." Magnus said, sitting next to Alec. Something about the way Erik was looking at the boy made Magnus uneasy.

"Yes" Erik grinned, "We have met before,"

Magnus's eyebrows disappeared into his hairline, "Is that so?"

Alec's eyes were fixed on a spot on the ground, his hands clenching the sides of the couch,

Erik heaved a dramatic sigh, "While he is very pretty, he's not very intelligent, is he?" He looked thoughtful for a moment, before adding "If he's staying with you, I suppose you must know about his condition then?"

"I do not, in fact know," Magnus replied coolly, trying to keep the shock out of his voice. Magnus had always considered himself something of an information broker, and things rarely happen without him knowing.

"Oh" Erik shrugged, "I suppose it isn't something you usually tell people. It is rather unfortunate" He reached out and cupped Alec's chin. Alec jerked away violently, his hand moving to his seraph blade at his belt, the look of a cornered animal in his eye.

Magnus snapped his fingers, and Alec froze. Magnus felt a stab of guilt, remembering the panicked look Alec had gotten when Magnus had asked to turn him into a statue.

"What do you want?" He asked coldly,

"For you to summon a greater demon" Erik replied, and looked at the frozen Shadow Hunter on the sofa, and laughed at a joke only he seemed to understand.

Authors note:

I am not Cassandra Clare, nor do I own any of her works

That was a little weird wasn't it?

Yeah... Oh well...

Feel free to shower me with compliments, it really boosts my self esteem, but not to many compliments, because then I feel pressured to make my next chapter as Fantabulous as this one.

I'll try to tie it all together, I promise