~2 WEEKS LATER~
"Well, I think I need a coffee after that wild goose chase. Taki's?" Clary announced to the group and waited for replies.
Alec declined, "Actually I'm going to head back and get some rest. " He apologised and started to walk in the opposite direction to the others as they all waved goodbye to him.
As he was walking back to the institute Alec was trying to figure out a plan of action to deal with Raphael and his clan. He needed to organise a meeting to talk about the recent goings on surrounding the clan, hence the visit to the hospital two weeks ago.
Alec was still trying to figure out a peaceful way to arrange a meeting when he entered the institute, which would explain why he didn't hear the noise coming from his room until he was at the door.
He could hear shuffling behind the bedroom door, and a metallic clunking sound. He pulled his seraph blade from his belt and threw the door open, ready for combat…
…But there was no one there. Well, not in the bedroom anyway. As for the bathroom, that was a different story. Alec could definitely hear someone on the other side, and what sounded like the running of water. What kind of robber breaks in to use the shower?
He rearranged the grip on his blade, but instead of kicking the door down, he turned the handle seeing as there was no lock. When he entered the bathroom he was engulfed in a cloud of steam but it didn't make him break his stance, holding his blade in front of him with its edge shimmering in the bathroom light.
Alec rounded the wall separation and peered through the glass shower cubicle door to see frightfully unusual sight: A girl.
Alec was shocked. He had never really met any girls before, let alone found them in his shower.
He didn't want to look any further down than her head, but he was also painfully curious.
Before he could make up his mind on what to do, he yelled, "What the FUCK?!".
The girl turned around rather quickly, only looking a little surprised. When she was fully facing Alec, he instantly recognised her even through the mist on the glass pane. There was no embarrassment on her face, but instead a flicker of amusement.
"Alexander. What a pleasant surprise." Rebecca opened the shower door and stepped out onto the bathroom mat, completely exposed, "Would you mind handing me my towel?"
Alec's seraph blade clattered to the floor.
Rebecca leant against the kitchen counter of the institute, dressed in nothing but cycling shorts and an oversized hoodie, draining her cup of coffee that Alec so lovingly made for her. He still seemed a bit flustered after the whole 'shower' incident, poor boy. Rebecca found the whole situation quite entertaining.
Alec stood opposite her in the kitchen, drinking from his own mug, his blue eyes boring into her skull in a rather intense fashion.
All of a sudden the hallway was filled with laughing and teasing voices, and Rebecca managed to catch Alec's eye with a knowing smirk. He just gulped.
The voices got louder, Rebecca's smirk grew bigger, and Alec's faced became paler.
"Alec, where are y-" Jace's words got caught in his throat as he looked upon the scene in front of him. Alec, his Alec, stood in the kitchen with a half-naked girl draped across the counter in front of him. This was most definitely a first.
"What the fuck?!" Isabelle screeched, her face heating up with fury.
Rebecca chuckled and turned to face the trio, "Funny, that's what he said too. I know my legs are breath-taking but I doubt they deserve a 'fuck'." A smirk still graced her mouth before she turned towards Clary, "I hope you don't mind me staying here. Mother's gone AWOL." Rebecca grimaced.
Clary, who was still incredibly shocked just nodded in approval, still not quite understanding where Becca had come from.
Jace turned on Alec, "How long has she been here?"
"Dude, I don't know. She was already here when I got back, and she was already pretty comfortable…" Alec cut himself off before he said something embarrassing.
Rebecca laughed loudly and winked at Alec cheekily, "Oh yeah very comfortable, I'm sure Alec will vouch for that." An evil glint crossed her eyes as Alec's face became extremely red. Rebecca could've sworn he said 'shoot me' under his breath.
Drama queen.
"Do we want to know?" Isabelle sighed, but she also looked a little amused at her brother's distress.
"Oh yes, I'm sure you would!" Rebecca squealed gleefully and grinned at Alec who leapt forward in a start.
"Wait! We need to talk about the plan for tomorrow, we can discuss the other thing afterwards!" He shouted out louder than necessary, earning a few chuckles and smiles. Great.
"Okay okay, I agree with Alec for once, let's plan out how we're going to pull this off, yeah?" Clary let out a small chuckle and went to stand next to the counter with the other two to start organising their plan of action.
Rebecca, sensing that this was none of her business, walked over to the fridge to find something to eat; However, she just couldn't help herself from eavesdropping.
"We need to figure out a way to approach them without offending them." said Jace, his serious voice on.
"They're vampires; they're going to get offended whatever happens." Isabelle scoffed. That piqued Rebecca's interest. She knew about vampires.
"Can Simon not just talk to Raphael? He is his sire." Clary suggested, lowering her voice when mentioning Simon to try and avoid Rebecca hearing. Unfortunately it was too late: Rebecca was already invested in their plans.
"No. Simon can't stand Raphael, and Lord knows Raphael won't listen to him about anything." Isabelle replied, shooting down what seemed to be their only idea.
"Well, who will he listen to?" Alec asked somewhat rhetorically but Rebecca refused to see it that way. She saw this opening as an opportunity for her inclusion in the group.
She shut the fridge door loudly and turned swiftly to face them, "Are you talking about Raphael Santiago?"
They all blinked back at her in shock.
"I could talk to him. I haven't seen him in a while either so it will be nice to catch up… I don't mind." She offered, trying not to look too smug about the whole thing.
"I'm sorry, you know Raphael? As in the same Raphael who runs one of the largest vampire clans ever?" Alec questioned, his leadership status shining through.
"God yeah. We're like that, I swear. I could even save you a bit of time and go tonight instead. I'm sure he won't mind. Besides, he owes me a favour or twenty." Truth was, Rebecca was about to go and see Raf anyway, before she heard the plans.
Jace let out a strained laugh and narrowed his eyes at Rebecca, obviously not believing what she was saying.
Rebecca narrowed her eyes back, "Don't believe me? We'll go right now." She stalked off to Alec's room and called over her shoulder, "Give me five minutes and I'm leaving!"
"You gotta admit, she is something." Alec announced to the group, a small smile making its way onto his face, but he soon covered it with his coffee cup.
Exactly five minutes later Rebecca appeared again, fully clothed with a huge backpack settled between her shoulder blades. She was quickly tying her hair up into a ponytail as she looked around the kitchen.
"Ready to go? If you get this done now you can have a night off tomorrow without the stress." She smiled and headed off to the front door, knowing that they'd follow her, if not for her confidence then for the prospect of some good entertainment.
Soon enough the five of them were stood on the pavement outside of the hotel. Rebecca was quite excited to see Raf again.
As the others were trying to think of a way to efficiently enter the hotel, perhaps through a back entrance or calling Raphael outside instead or anything other than going inside, Rebecca had opened the front door and was impatiently waiting for them to catch up.
"Guys come on, we're losing moonlight!" She shouted down the stairs to them, once again shocking them with her moxie.
The Shadowhunters ran up the stairs to flank her as they all entered the hotel, Rebecca leading the group. The hotel was as dark as always, but they could already sense the audience they had gathered.
Alec was about to pull out his Witchlight when Rebecca shook her head, as if already knowing what he was about to do. Instead, she walked over to the wall near the door and slammed her fist onto a spot, causing the room to glow with decades old light bulbs hanging from the chandelier.
There were masses of vampires looking down on them with hungry looks on their faces as they tracked Rebecca's movements which made the others stand on edge a little bit more, questioning if Rebecca really understood what she was doing.
A single vampire made his way down the stairs towards the group, a sneer curling his lips, "My dear, why have you brought Shadowhunters into our home?" His question obviously aimed at Rebecca.
She just scoffed, "Leave is Seamus. You're in no position to get picky, especially with what I've done for you. Where is he?" Seamus looked more than a little cheesed off.
Before he could answer there was a loud booming voice from the other side of the room, "Do I smell takeaway?"
Rebecca followed the noise and just ran, launching herself at Raphael and jumping onto him for a hug. There were a few scattered laughs but they soon died down from one look, courtesy of Raphael.
"I haven't seen you in a while, sweetheart! Where've you been, mixing with Shadowhunters?" Raphael asked, his hands brushing stray hairs from Rebecca's face gently. It was strange to see him in such a soft light.
"I'm surprised you can't tell, dear. And I've brought this lot on business. After all, you owe me." She wrapped her arms around his neck as if to convince him even further, although that was not necessary.
Raphael sighed and beckoned to the others with his head, "We'll go to the office," He pulled away from Rebecca and draped an arm around her waist instead, "It's a good job I love you, sweetheart."
When they got to Raphael's office he was already slouched in a leather chair behind a huge mahogany desk, Rebecca stood precariously at his side.
Raphael steepled his fingers and looked at Alec. "So, what can I do for you?"
After they had made an agreement about the control of the new vampires in the clan the group were satisfied enough to leave.
As they were leaving the office Raphael stopped them, "Rebecca dear, aren't you forgetting something?" He asked with a smirk, his eyes glinting mischievously.
Rebecca walked back without a fuss and handed over her backpack, "25. He's losing contacts. I'm off to Illinois in a few weeks so stay tuned." Raphael peered into the backpack and grinned, his fangs eking their way out slowly.
The others watched on in astonishment with no clue as to what was in the bag. Hopefully Rebecca would inform them later.
They had now reached the front door, and frankly they weren't surprised when Raphael placed a chaste kiss on Rebecca's forehead before shutting the door behind them. This was by far one of the weirdest days the group of Shadowhunters had ever experienced.
Rebecca twirled back around to face the others with a cute smile, "C'mon, let's go."
"Since when has she been in charge?" Jace huffed when Rebecca was out of earshot.
"Since she got Raphael to agree to talk to us." Alec snapped back a little harshly and caught up with Rebecca at the front of the group.
"Hey."
"Alexander." She smirked at him.
"I was wondering, how do you know Raphael?" Alec asked, trying to seem professional but with a secret ulterior motive.
"Well, I met him in Pandemonium a few years back and he was instantly hooked, obviously," She laughed and Alec joined in.
"Obviously. So… What was in the bag you gave him? Whatever it was must have been pretty awesome to make Raphael smile." Alec lead on, trying to get some answers.
For the first time Rebecca blushed, "Okay, but if I tell you then you mustn't freak out. I don't really know you Alexander but I get the feeling you're not one for controversy." She glanced behind her to check that the others weren't eavesdropping. It wasn't that she didn't trust them but more along the lines of she didn't want to cause a huge fuss.
"Alright… It's blood." She told him as quietly as possible.
Alec screamed, "BLOOD?!"
So much for quiet.
The others soon caught up and were glaring down at Rebecca, all of them (even Isabelle) towering over her. Their eyes were boring into her, as if she had committed a crime or something.
"You're dealing blood to Raphael? Why the fuck would you do that?" Alec almost yelled at her, but Rebecca was not scared. If anything she was angry with them.
"I offered, and in return he keeps his clan off the streets and out of your hair so you're fucking welcome, assholes." She shot back, not appreciating their coldness towards her over the good deed she was doing.
"Alright, where the fuck are you getting the blood?" Jace asked this time, backing up his parabatai.
Rebecca let out a laugh, "Jesus, Si said you were thick but I didn't really believe him! Honestly, where the fuck do you think I got it?" She almost laughed again at the stupid-ness of the questions being aimed at her.
"The hospital." Clary sighed and ran a hand through her hair.
"Bingo. I basically live in a blood box so it's not hard to get my hands on a couple of dozen bags for the clan. Don't worry though they know I'm taking it. In fact that cute warlock doctor is the one that sets me up." She shrugged smugly and folded her arms across her chest in accomplishment.
"Woah." Isabelle let out a small exclamation.
Alec was still not done though, "Alright, but how come you haven't become vampire fast food yet? I mean it only took your brother a few hours to get chomped up."
"I'm glad you asked. You see, because I'm constantly in hospital having IV treatment and it takes a while for all the antibiotics to leave my system, the vamps leave me alone. After all, they don't want their food to taste like chemicals." Rebecca told them, and to their surprise it actually all made sense.
Rebecca sighed, "Can we get going, I have phone calls to make." and with that she stalked into the night.
"Alright, I'll let him know. Thank you so much." Rebecca hung up the phone just as the door to her guest room opened and Clary walked in.
Clary gave her a questioning look so Rebecca held up her phone, "Illinois State Hospital. Not a big deal, what's up?"
"I just came to check on you. You seemed… giddy today." She sat down on the bed and gently positioned her legs as if she was approaching a deer in the woods.
"I'm fine. Post-treatment high that's all. Plus I haven't seen Raf in a while." She sighed and relaxed back onto her bed.
"Sure, sure. Well, just let me know if you need any help with anything." Clary gave a small smile and quickly left, leaving Rebecca to her own thoughts.