A/N: Hey guys :) Now we're in the present tense! Okay, so this chapter is mostly banter, and is probably going to end up undergoing some serious editing in the future, but whatever. I was wanting to show the relationship between Emma and Julian, preface the whole "forbidden love" thing, and show the interactions between the Institute's "older" children. So yeah, hopefully I did that :) I also wanted to create an air of mystery, because there are a lot of things that are going to be explained in the flashback chapters, such as Emma's past. I've been dropping bits of it in there, and I know it doesn't make any sense now, but it will later. I don't think I put the disclaimer in the first chapter, so here it is:
DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Dark Artifices, but I wish Cassandra Clare would just write it because I'm only writing this because she didn't :)
"So there was another attack in West Hollywood last night," Tibs said, sitting down beside Emma. He looked at her expectantly with those pretty grey eyes and dark lashes that she so envied. Tiberius Blackthorn, she always thought, was the epitome of "the odd one out". He was nothing like any of the rest of his family, not even his twin Livvy. And yet he was exactly like her.
In the library firelight, his eyes were particularly bright. Emma wrapped her arms around her legs and tucked them up in her recliner, balancing her mug of hot cocoa on her knees. The La-Z-Boy didn't really fit the older décor of the room, with its high windows, French doors, stained glass, and the otherwise dark wood furniture, but it reminded Emma of home.
The itchy scarf around her neck, however, did not remind of home, but it was necessary for warmth. A sudden cold snap had settled over the Los Angeles area about a week ago and was making itself comfortable. A girl from Arizona could never get used to the chill.
Tiberius fished a marshmallow out of Emma's cocoa. She smacked his hand, but his fingers were already in his mouth. "So? What say you, Carstairs?"
"Nothing. Just that it's too cold for anything to be out on the streets right now. Man or beast."
"Consider me beast." The library doors parted, revealing a boy in a dark coat and mittens, a paper grocery bag under each arm.
"Back from the wild?" Emma asked. She put her cocoa on a side table and reached for one of the bags, peering at the content. "With graham crackers, I see."
Julian tugged off his hat, his brown hair ruffled. His blue-green eyes stood out against the black canvas of his clothing.
"This isn't the kitchen, you know," Tibs said, taking a bag from his brother.
"I know. I left everything else downstairs. Since we had the fire going, I thought we'd make s'mores."
"I almost forgot. Julian has to make s'mores wherever there's an open flame." Tibs rolled his eyes.
Emma laughed. "Remember when he roasted a marshmallow on the stove with a toothpick?"
"That wasn't one of my best moments," Julian admitted. He was probably recalling drenching the entire Institute by setting off the smoke alarms.
Emma grinned at her parabatai, pulling him into a hug. The top of her head just grazed his chin, but she liked that. Julian, at six-two, was constantly getting things off of high shelves for her. Emma was about five-nine, but no one ever really noticed that. What she lacked in height, she made up in attitude. Or so she was told.
"Did you get the eggs?" she asked him.
Julian stiffened in her arms. "Um..."
"Kidding." She pulled away and punched his shoulder, giggling. He was always forgetting stuff at the grocery store. It was probably just a teenage boy thing.
"Alright, silly," Julian rumpled Emma's hair. "And just for the record, I did get eggs."
Where Emma and Tiberius were so much alike, she and her parabatai were polar opposites. She was left-handed, he was right-handed. She was always foraging ahead, while Jules was always nervously watching his back. She was a genius and he was... Not. But that was Emma's opinion.
That was why they worked so well together. They were like peanut butter and jam- different, but they complimented each other. At any rate, there was only one thing that they really needed to have in common: they both loved each other, dearly.
"Before you two started making googly-eyes at each other," Tibs interrupted, "I was telling Em about the demon attacks. What do you think, Jules?"
Julian shed his mittens and coat, squatting down in front of the fire. "I think it's too cold for anything to be out in this weather. And I don't like it when you say "googly-eyes.""
"Oh, come on, Jules, it's not like the consul's here or anything." Emma returned to her seat and her cup, which had significantly less marshmallows than when she had risen. "Lighten up." It seemed that, even within his family, Julian never took jokes from anyone but Emma.
"And you two were making googly-eyes at each other," Tibs said.
"Moving on," Jules said pointedly. Emma doubted he had been making googly-eyes at her- she would have noticed. His eyes had crinkled at the corners when he smiled at her, but then, so had hers. They always did whenever they looked into his beautiful eyes...
Emma's cocoa churned in her stomach like water would in a washing machine on spin cycle. No. Julian was cute- super-cute- and she loved him, more than anything. But not like that. That super-cuteness was for some other girl. Unfortunately.
Emma secretly despised the parabatai pair rules. The "wither thou goest, I will go" stuff was fine, except for the death part, and the "ought but death part thee and me" part was true of her and Julian. But whoever decided that a boy and girl pairing couldn't result in a romantic relationship had obviously never read any novels.
She had posed the question many times: Why couldn't she and Julian be together (hypothetically, of course)? Apparently it was forbidden by Covenant law. Shadowhunters were bound to protect those around them. When one is focused on saving their beloved, said person may take unnecessary risks, therefore putting oneself in danger. But paired Shadowhunters required by law to jump in front of flaming arrows for their partners, if need be. Emma would gladly take an arrow for Julian, whether they were in a romantic relationship or not.
There were so many implications, loopholes, and irrelevant details in the Covenant these days. This was the age of the iPhone, Macbooks, and all those other expensive Apple gadgets. The age of new life. Shadowhunting had changed since those laws had been written. It was time for the Clave to change, too.
"Tibs is right," Julian was saying. "You up for that, Em?"
Emma hadn't even realized that the brothers had been conversing. "Huh? Oh yeah, sure. Definitely."
"Get your gear then, and tell Tina to get hers. Be ready and downstairs in an hour." Apparently forgetting the s'mores for the time being, Julian fled the room, shouting, "Livvy!"
"You seem a little bit spacey," Tiberius observed. "You sure you're up for hunting?"
"What's that supposed mean? Aren't I always up for demon slaying?"
Tibs shrugged. "Just checking."
Emma pulled her hair back and twisted it up into a sloppy bun. She despised herself for being so bloodthirsty. Not even the freezing weather could keep her away from demons for long.
"You look bloated," Tina Delgado, Emma's best friend noted.
"I drank too much hot chocolate," Emma said dryly. She has stuffed her gear on over her heaviest winter coat.
"That coat will seriously limit your mobility." Tina always had the technical end of things. "I'd take it off. Julian is going to have a hard time defending a blob."
"Julian can defend anything. Besides, it's cold."
"It's 55, Emma. All I'm saying is…"
"Don't make me the tell The Story again," Emma threatened.
Tina held her hands up. "Alright, fine. If you die, you can't say I didn't tell you so."
"We all know Emma Carstairs would rather die than take order."
Emma looked to the hallway, which was visible thought the open door. Livvy was leaning against the doorjamb in all her brown-haired glory. Emma's various dye-job attempts had left her with less than satisfactory imitations of Livvy's color.
Emma stuck her tongue out at both girls. Livvy came and sat on the bed. "Jules is going to throw a fit when he sees you in that, you know. Emma, you can't fight in that thing."
"You don't want to hear The Story, do you?"
"I know the story," Livvy snapped, "nobody cares that you killed a demon with your bear hands. That's what you did, right?"
"No," Emma answered, wondering, after retelling it so many times, if Livvy really did know the story.
"Then don't act like you did!"
That stung Emma's pride. "I killed a Shax demon without the use of my arms or legs," she began as punishment. "It was a dark and stormy night..."
The other two girls knew that once Emma had started The Story, there was no stopping her. Tina growled and shot Livvy a venom look that Emma was glad was not directed at herself.
"Girls!" Julian shouted from the kitchen.
"We're ready!" Livvy called, rocketing out of the room with Tina on her heels.
By the time Emma reached the bottom step, she was almost finished tell The Story. "And so the faithful parabatai carried the brave, beautiful, chivalrous, cunning, Shadowhunter back home, and they lived happily ever after."
"That list of adjectives gets longer every time you tell it, Emma," Tibs said.
"Whatever."
"Was that based on a true story?" Tina asked.
"It was a true story," Emma replied. "You think I'd make that up?" Parts of The Story may have been embellished, the drama more or less manipulated, given the situation at hand, but the gist of it was clear:
"I'm the best Shadowhunter of all time."
Everyone laughed. "Good one, Em." Jules winked in her direction. Emma treated him to a sour look.
"Where's everyone off to?" Penelope entered the dining room through the kitchen, an apron around her waist and a wooden spoon in her hand.
"Nowhere," Julian said quickly. "We were just… going back to the grocery store again." The stern look on his face dared anyone to contradict him.
His mother narrowed her eyes. "All of you are going to the store? In gear? What are you doing, robbing it?"
Emma nodded. Tina elbowed her in the ribs. "Well, put your coats on, at least." Mrs. Blackthorn started back to the kitchen. "And be home by eight. I don't want you to miss dinner."
The teenagers breathed sighs of relief, thanking the Angel for Penelope's ignorance. Being half mundane, she hadn't joined the Clave until she was 20—after which had met Arthur, promptly married him, and had Julian. Never any time for training, and not much for studying, not with two stepchildren and six of your own.
"Let's get out of here before we run into anyone else," Livvy suggested. Emma agreed with her. In the Los Angeles Institute, the longer one stuck around, the more the inevitability of meeting somebody increased.
Emma was the first to charge out the door. The air was freezing and frigid, as she had expected. A chill ran through her body. Julian was behind her. In the relief of the streetlamps, she could see that his nose was already pink from exposure.
"Where to?" he asked, assuming Emma knew. She only shrugged.
Livvy pulled the sensor out of her pocket. "Was out in the West end earlier. This thing was beeping like crazy. I say we start there."
"Why hasn't anyone invented the Shadowhunter mobile?" Tina wondered through chattering teeth. "Or better yet, why couldn't we take the car?"
"Dad would know something was up if we took the car," Juliann pointed out. "And we don't usually go to the demons—they come to us."
"I don't see why we couldn't wait for them to that," Tina muttered. "The Clave is supposed to take care of these kinds of things."
"The Clave isn't interested in finding out what happened to Emma's parents," Julian reminded her.
"If you aren't either, you can go back home." The subject of her parents was a rather touchy one for Emma. They hadn't been official members of the Clave, because they had lived in isolation for so long. Heather and Cole Carstairs didn't even exist as far as the Clave was concerned. They had dallied far too often in the Downworld.
As strange as it seemed, demons were the only connection Emma had with her parents. She knew they had studied their realms and ranks for years. She was certain that they could provide her with a clue to what had happened to them.
Because she was sure they weren't dead. Vanished into the folds of another dimension, undercover in some exotic place like Bolivia, but not dead. She knew that they were coming back for her.
That's it. It was really random. I don't think I'm going to write about them like fighting the demons or whatever, because I'm really bad at battle scenes. The next future chapter is going to have the results of their battle. And the next past chapter I already have planned out, so... yeah it's going to be packed with info to clear somethings up. REVIEW please! I was so happy, I wasn't really expecting much because this is the only DA story that I know of so far, but I actually got some. So thanks you guys!
-seastar