The only thing that usually woke Alec up in the mornings was Magnus' cuddles, Magnus' kisses to his chest, Magnus' groans from the pains the sex gave or his phone alarm. And as much as Alec wanted the other two options to be the reason that he was waking up it wasn't. It was his phone. Alec slowly opened his eyes, they were still a bit stuck together from such a deep sleep. He sat up from the couch, back and arm stiff, and searched for his phone. He crawled over to where it lay, underneath the fallen books and shut off the loud alarm. Alec rubbed his eyes and looked around. He was still in Magnus' room. And it was still decorated to the fullest extent of the holidays. Alec stood up and stretched. There was a small guilty feeling in the back of Alec's neck after what happened last night. He hadn't meant to yell. He didn't want to be fighting with Magnus. He loved him.

Alec walked over towards the bedroom they shared and he knocked on the closed door. "Magnus?" he called softly. No answer. Alec opened the door to see that the bed was completely neat. Free from wrinkles or moved pillows. Which meant that Magnus had left already. Alec nodded. He'll make it up to him someday. Alec quickly changed from his clothes to a different blazer and shirt and walked out the door. His speed rune was activated as soon as he stepped out in the freezing cold. He did not want to walk around in this cold. He'd rather run and not be frozen halfway along the line. He ran through the streets, passing through a bunch of mundanes who just believed that he was a gust of wind. He walked up the steps of the Institute and walked through the halls.

There were few shadowhunters there, which meant that he was extremely early. Good. Alec walked over towards his office, before seeing a very familiar redhead with a very familiar blonde. With some very familiar moaning coming from behind the computer. Alec rolled his eyes and walked over towards them. Clary was seated against one of the desk with her legs wrapped along Jace's bare back. Alec let out a cough, earning the two's attention. Bright red lipstick was smeared against Jace's lips and face as he turned around and Clary was pulling up the straps of her thin dress. "Alec… what are doing here so… so early?" Jace asked, catching his breath while trying to look for his shirt without breaking eye contact with his parabatai.

"I have work to do on these drugged up demons." Alec told him, before looking over at Clary. "What's with the silk?"

Clary jumped off the desk and smoothed out her dress, rubbing the white fur at the bottom. "It's Christmas Eve. I thought that Jace would like an… an early gift."

Alec rolled his eyes. "There's more important things then you two's roleplaying. There are warlocks high on Valentine's injections and we need to find them. So whatever… this is, please do it when you're off the clock."

"I am off the clock." Jace told him, pulling his long sleeve tee through his head.

"What are you talking about? I asked you specifically to stay on for tonight."

"Alec, it's Christmas Eve. I was going to spend the day with Clary."

Alec turned over at her and crossed his arms. "I'm guessing that you're behind this?"

"Alec, look. Jace just wanted to spend time with me for the holiday. This will be pretty nice to do now that we know for sure that we aren't siblings." Clary said. "You and Magnus could join us if you want. And Izzy will be coming with Simon and-"

"You got Izzy on this too?" Alec asked annoyed. He rolled his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Jace, we have a job to do."

"This is just two days off Alec. Join us." Jace said. "It'll be fun."

"Need I remind you Jace that I have an Institute to run and you both have a duty to protect as shadowhunters. This dumb mundane holiday can wait until we find the Circle!"

"Alec, you need to calm down." Jace said, holding his hand out to him. Alec could not take him even a tiny bit seriously with his mouth covered in red lipstick and the fact that he was excited for this mundane holiday.

"There will always be a war to fight and something attacking the city. Taking time for ourselves is important." Clary explained. "Come on. Just a few hours at most."

"A few hours could end up getting hundreds of mundanes, downworlders and shadowhunters killed!" Alec yelled at her, making Jace move his hand to protect her. Alec rolled his eyes. "Fine. If you two are going to go prance around and celebrate this dumb holiday, go on ahead. I don't care. But when you come back you sure as hell will be reprimanded!"

Alec turned on his heel and stomped up to his office. Izzy came walking around the corner just as started to leave. She smiled and moved to touch her brother's arm. "Merry Christmas Al-"

Alec yanked his hand away and stomped away, muttering loudly: "Bah humbug!"

Izzy and Clary both jumped when he slammed his office door. Izzy walked over to them. "What happened?"

"He's upset about something. I'm guessing that it's Christmas time." Jace said.

"But Alec's never had a problem with Christmas before." Izzy said. "Why is so mad about it now?"

"Who knows?" Clary said, wiping her lips and smiling at Jace. "You're whole face is cherry red."

"Damn. I'll be right back and then we can go out to get some gifts for Magnus' din-" Jace's sentence was interrupted when his phone vibrates loudly through his pants. Jace went inside the pocket and checked the caller ID. "Speak of the warlock. It's him. Give me a second girls."

Jace pressed the answer button and turned around. Clary and Izzy both looked at one another. "Why is Alec being such a scrooge?"

"I'm sorry such a what?" Izzy asked.

"A scrooge. You know? Like the book. A Christmas Carol?" Clary asked. Izzy just gave her confused stare. Clary smiled at her. "It's basically this really old story of a guy who hates Christmas, but ends up being visited by three spirits that show him the true meaning of the holiday."

"It's sounds a bit familiar now. It sounds like Alec." Izzy said, making Clary chuckle. "But maybe you should as Jace. You know him and his old book club." Clary laughed again. The two turned over to Jace to explain the joke, but he looked completely engulfed in the conversation.

"What do you mean? Who attacked him?" Jace called out.

"Jace, what's wrong?" Clary asked.

Jace held up his hand. "Just open a portal to the Institute. The ops center…. Yes! I'll get him, I promise." Jace hung up the phone and walked over to the center of the ops center, Clary and Izzy behind him.

"Jace, is everything okay?" Izzy asked.

"Hold on." Jace told her, before a purple portal opened inside the room. A figure and slowly pushed out and caught into Jace's arms. Izzy and Clary both ran over as soon as the portal was closed. They knelt down as Jace went on his knees to shift the weight. It was Magnus, his eyes were closed a bit from pain.

"Magnus, oh by the angel." Izzy cried. "What happened?"

"I was attacked last night. By a shapeshifting demon. He grabbed by ankle and- ah!" Magnus cried.

"Easy there." Clary said to him, she moved over to his leg and pulled up the pant to see the charred skin. "Oh my God."

"Shit." Jace called out. "What kind of demon was it, do remember what it looked like?"

"Let's get to a bed first, ask questions later." Izzy said, standing as Jace pulled Magnus over his back into a piggy back carry. They slowly walked from the ops center to the bedroom hall. "Here. Use my bed, it's the softest." Izzy said, opening the door.

Jace carefully let Magnus inside and laid him down softly on the mattress and comforter. Magnus moaned a bit from the pain. Clary moved forward and ran her hand through his hair.

"Hang in there. I'll go to the infirmary and get some painkillers." Jace said, standing up. He looked over and saw Clary's stare. "Clary what is it?"

"I remember these burns. Jonathan had them. They were just like these when he told me that Lilith burned him." Clary said. "That was hell fire."

"Are you saying that that demon must have been from Edom?" Izzy asked.

"It must have been. But Jonathan's burns were all over all at once. Magnus' burn… it's… it's spreading look!" Clary yelled, pointing out his finger to the burned leg. Izzy and Jace looked over and saw the dark burn slowly start to snake it's away up to the round of Magnus' knee. Magnus screamed in pain. Jace moved over and grabbed Izzy's circular pillow and shoved it into Magnus' mouth. Magnus nodded and gave Jace a thumbs up as a thank you, before screaming again.

"There has to be something to slow down the spreading and stop the pain." Jace said. "We um… we have um… some medicine. Some medicine from demons from Edom. I'll get some!"

There was a loud pound at the door as Jace started to leave. "What the hell is going on in there?!" yelled out none other than Alec. Jace smiled as he moved to the door.

"Alec, thank the angel that you're here." Jace cried, grabbing his parabatai's wrist. "Come you need to see this. Magnus was attacked last night. By a demon."

"The same demons that have been drugged by the the Circle? See, I told you that it was important that you focus on this instead of the dumb mundane holiday!" Alec said.

"Are you seriously doing this right now Alec?" Izzy cried. "We get it. You were right about the demons! But right now Magnus is hurt! We need to help him."

Alec looked out inside of the room and saw his boyfriend curling up in tears. His eyes looked down at the burn and trailed up at it. It was disgusting and dangerous. Magnus could die. But Alec just looked back over at Jace. "He'll be fine. Magnus has rebounded from things worse in over four hundred years."

"Are you fucking kidding me Alec?!" Jace cried. "This is Magnus! Your Magnus! And we don't know what's going on! And it's Christmas. A time for family Alec! For fuck's sake, where's your Christmas spirit?!"

"I have no Christmas spirit because I'm not a immature mundane. And what is going on is that I'm going to stop these damned attacks from happening. Magnus will be fine, I know him. I lot better than you do as a matter of fact. Now I have demons to hunt!" Alec said, throwing his arms up angrily in the air. "Humbug for angel's sake."

"Alec-" Izzy called out but her brother just left the room. She looked down at Magnus, rubbing soothing circles against his palm.

"I'm so sorry Magnus." Clary whispered. "Don't worry. He'll come around."

"It's… it's okay biscuit. I'll be okay." Magnus whispered, pulling the pillow out from his mouth. "This is just Alec. He gets like this when push comes to shove."

"But that doesn't give him the right to be an asshole." Izzy said. "You know what, I'm going to go knock some sense into him. Who the hell does he think he is?!"

"No Isabelle." Magnus said, leaning up a tad to grab her wrist. He gave her a small smile. "It's fine. I'll be fine."

Jace shook his head and nodded. He was so angry with his parabatai and he hoped that he felt the anger through their rune. "Stay with Magnus, I'm going to go get the medicine and see if there's anything that we can do to help him." he said, walking out of the room. Izzy and Clary moved over and sat down on the sides of the bed where Magnus' head lay and the rubbed his hair and shoulder calmly. After a couple of minutes, Jace came back with a few bottles, jars and bandages. Jace knelt down at the edge of the bed and opened one of the jars.

"I found this. Catarina and you brought it over a month ago." Jace said. "This should soothe the burns a little. You gave this to me when I got a little cut from a edomite."

Jace rubbed the cream onto Magnus' leg. It ran a cooling sensation against Magnus burn, he rested his head back against the pillows. "How long will this last?" Clary asked.

"A few hours at most." Jace said, unfurling the thick bandage and applying the cream to it before wrapping it around the base of the burn. Jace grabbed a bottle poured out two of the gel pills. "Here. Take these."

Jace put the pills in Magnus' mouth. Magnus swallowed the pills and leaned closer to the two shadowhunter girls. He snuggled into Clary's lap as Izzy held his hand. "Are those pills supposed to knock him out?" Clary asked.

"Yeah and it's supposed to cool down the pain and slow down the burns. I'm not sure how long it will last but hopefully enough to calm him down." Jace said, getting up and sitting down against the end of the bed. He rubbed Magnus' clear and unburned leg. "At least we're here for him."

"Hopefully we can still make this a happy Christmas." Clary said, rubbing off some sweat from his forehead. Jace and Izzy both gave a weak smile and nodded, looking down at the injured warlock.

Edom has no time zone or timeline. It's just dark all the time, hot as fuck and humid. The realm of hell doesn't really change at all. The only exciting part if when it rains, but it's usually always acid rain. The prince of that realm was usually always identical to his kingdom. Dark, brooding and angry at those banished and instituting fair and unfair punishments towards them. But it was usually the time of December that changed everything for the prince of hell. He knew when the month was when his demons would return to him with snow melting from their faces and their wings. December was usually a happy time for Asmodeus. He would most often be inflicting not so harsher punishments or letting some of the prisoners go off to a different realm for "good behavior". Even a prince of hell had the Christmas spirit inside of him. Asmodeus would turn around inside of his throne room, humming along Christmas songs that he had enjoyed over the period of his long life. Asmodeus spun around, looking out at the throne room. He snapped his fingers and allowed a few huge presents to appear on his throne, wrapped in beautiful red velvet with a real golden bow on the side. Maybe he would actually go out of Edom to visit his only living son. After all, it was Christmas and Christmas was a time to spend with your family. Maybe Asmodeus would actually apologize for everything that he had done to his child. Make things right with him. After all, Christmas was Magnus' favorite holiday. Maybe reuniting with his father and making everything right with their family would be a great Christmas present.

Along with these other presents. Which were some jewelry, eye kohls, shoes and a crown. Because Magnus technically was a prince. Asmodeus turned over to try and think of more presents for his beautiful son when there was a loud slam that meant his front door was opened. Asmodeus stood up and held up his hand that was now burning with bright red magic. "Who dares enter the realm of Asmodeus unannounced?!" he called out, before he heard the loud heavy breathing of one of his demons. Asmodeus put his fists down and walked over towards the demon. It crawled inside, wings pulled back into it's back. Asmodeus cupped it's face and rubbed it's huge snout. He looked deep at his eyes and saw that it's eyes were dark and glassy instead of it's normal golden red. "You've been drugged now haven't you? Hold on."

Asmodeus ran his fingers over the demon's neck and felt the hole where a syringe had impaled. His magic pulled out the dark injection and he alonged it to float in a bubble in the air. The demon's eyes returned to normal and he squealed up at the prince of hell like a puppy. "What has happened dearest?" Asmodeus asked. "What's wrong?"

The demon barked a bit and Asmodeus understood that completely. Asmodeus squinted his eyebrows and walked over to a mirror that he had. He ran his magic over it and the glass showed Izzy's bedroom in the Institute. It was night time, as Asmodeus could tell from the dark blue sky and the fact that the three shadowhunters in the room were fast asleep. He waved his hand and the image zoomed on the bed, where Magnus was lying asleep. At first he thought that he was peacefully asleep with friends, but as he looked close he saw his face scrunched up with suffering and pain. Asmodeus growled and slammed his fist against the mirror, shattering the shards all over. His son had been hurt. His only living child had been hurt. Burned by Edom's fires. The fire would consume him. Burn him. Kill him since he was half demon and the angel blood couldn't counter act it's pain. Asmodeus turned over to the demon that was looking at him with sadness in his eyes. Asmodeus walked over to it and rubbed it's snout. "It's not your fault. You were drugged." he said calmly. "Dammit! He'll die! Where is his lover? I know that he has one!"

Asmodeus put the mirror back together with the snap of his fingers and the mirror re emerged onto it's glass mantle. He waved his hand again and the mirror showed the office of the Institute. Where Alec sat with his face into about three books at once. Asmodeus raised his eyebrow.

"Christmas…" Alec scoffed. "Like that's important. I told them what would happen. They didn't listen. Humbug. Christmas is a sham for those mundanes."

Asmodeus nodded then. Now he understood. "Seems like my son has a scrooge for a spouse." he said to the huge demon who was curling around his legs like a happy kitten. "No matter. These nephilim always have something up their Christmas stocking. Hmm… maybe this is a good thing. A very good thing indeed. We can turn this around now can't we."

Asmodeus snapped his fingers and one of the books fell from Alec's stack. Alec cursed through the mirror and moved to grab it. While he did Asmodeus waved his hand again and Alec's mug filled with black coffee turned a shade darker. The demon let out a low little growl of confusion, which didn't get unnoticed by the prince of hell. "Now, now, it won't kill him." he said to the demon. "Just let him understand the true meaning of this holiday. Now come on, get smaller."

The demon curled in on itself and slowly transformed into a small little puppy. The demon puppy barked adorably and wagged its tail at it's master. Asmodeus smiled and picked him up and held him in his arms. "There you are. I think that I like you better this way." he said, waving his hand and adding a bright green bow onto his collar. The two looked over at the mirror and saw Alec lean forward to the coffee cup. He took a sip and recoiled at the taste.

"Maybe I added too much sugar." Alec said to himself, pouring the liquid into the fireplace and extinguishing the dying flames. Asmodeus smiled as he started to dispose of the charred logs to add new ones. He had drunk the coffee. The magic would soon take effect.

"Ah. Merry Christmas shadowhunter." Asmodeus said. "Now come on, I have a son to visit for the holidays."