A/N: This note contains nothing relevant to the story, so feel free to skip down.
Aim1107, thanks very much for your feedback! I've definitely started reading the dialogue out loud. Part of what's hardest for me is writing snarky dialogue and everyone is super snarky in this series haha. I feel like I'm getting better, and there were moments when I was like, "Woah! I can actually hear _ saying that in my head! Cool!" Thanks for saying that about the action scene, too. Was pretty fun to write. I look forward to doing it more, and I'm sure I will hehehe. Re Izzy, I hope you're pleasantly surprised :P
Keep-it-loud, bahaha, your comments are amazing. Glad you're enjoying the fic. You're super inspiring me to keep writing so yay! Go you! Honestly, if I had the time and ability to do so, I'd literally just sit around writing all day. Love it so much.
To everyone else, really, thank you for your reviews, follows, and faves. I write for you guys. Seriously. You're what keeps me going :D xx
I watch Alec gulp and close his eyes as he braces himself for what he's about to see. I think the three of us are all thinking the same thing: that whatever we encounter around the corner, it can't be good.
He takes out his witchlight and thrusts it above his head as he rounds the corner, bright light dispelling all of the darkness within a ten-foot radius. Jace and I are at his heels, so we see what he does only a second later. There's a shriek and what appears to be a bald man with pointed ears and reddish skin recoils from the girl he'd been holding against the crypt wall, shielding his face from the light.
"Isabelle!" I gasp under my breath. She looks incredibly weak. Her face is drained of all color, bloody sores are spread over various parts of her exposed skin, and a dazed expression is plastered over her face. She's smiling and giggling like she's drunk as she leans limply against the stone wall. Her eyes are unfocused, staring at a patch of ceiling still covered in darkness. She doesn't look at all like the Isabelle I know.
The man grows less human by the minute and begins to run from us, the witchlight clearly burning his skin.
"An incubus!" Alec shouts and charges after it. Jace follows suit. I run to Isabelle and manage to catch her just as she begins to lose balance. I sink to the floor with her, holding her in my arms, unsure as to what I should do now. Should I try to clean her up? With what? Should I try to snap her out of her stupor? But how?
Just a second later I remember the stele in my pocket that Jace gave me when he was helping me gear up. I close my eyes and force myself to remember what the iratze rune looks like. I've seen it several times by now, but I've never drawn it before. I've actually never drawn any rune before, let alone marked someone. I pray I don't mess up and inadvertently hurt her worse than she already is. My hand is trembling, but I tell myself that I have to do this – for Izzy's sake.
I can hear Jace and Alec struggling with the demon in the distance. Alec dropped his witchlight by Isabelle's feet, so the only light the parabatai have to fight by is the glow of their seraph blades. The incubus is frighteningly fast and is whipping around them, causing them to spin in circles.
After I practice tracing the rune in the air above her pale skin a few times, I finally begin to mark her. The tip of the stele lights up as it touches her body. I can feel the power inside the stele flowing into the rune I'm drawing on her arm. The sound of sizzling flesh causes me to wince, but there's no burning smell, and I know that Marks don't actually hurt that much when applied. I guess being the one doing the marking is just slightly more unnerving than being marked.
When I'm done, something I've never seen before causes me to fall back on my heels. I hear a horrible squeal of death signalling the triumph of good over evil once again and Jace and Alec are back at my side just moments later. They make it in time to catch the tail end of what I'm witnessing.
Something that looks similar to the aurora borealis is swirling under Isabelle's skin, disseminating from the iratze rune all over her body. It looks like a shimmering golden light making her glow like the witchlight, but softer, and as the light moves under the sores on her body, they instantly begin healing. Color is quickly returning to her face and her eyes are regaining their focus. The swirling gold shimmer begins to fade, and Isabelle breathes in deeply as if she's just become conscious again after almost drowning.
"What the-" Jace begins, his eyes wide as he watches his sister look around with a puzzled look on her face. Alec seems to care less about what just happened and more about making sure she's okay now. He leans towards her and rests an arm gingerly on hers as if he were afraid of breaking her. I'd have laughed at the thought of a fragile Isabelle if I hadn't just witnessed her look as though she were on the brink of death.
"I'm fine. What happened?" She moves to stand and shakes Alec off when he tries to help her. She's looking around at us and just past us as if she's expecting someone else to be there.
"We should be asking you that," says Jace, sternly. His reaction seems to be the opposite of Alec's. I'm reminded of the good cop/bad cop parenting style that happens when a kid gets hurt doing something they shouldn't have been. In the dim light, I almost miss Isabelle redden a bit. I've never seen Isabelle get embarrassed before. A lot of firsts today.
When she doesn't say anything, a slap breaks the silence. To all of our surprise, including Alec himself, he's just struck his sister across the face. She reels for a moment, before shouting,
"What the hell, Alec?!" He looks uncertain for a moment, but then a dark shadow overtakes him.
"How could you do something so stupid!?" He yells back at her. "What were you thinking? You couldn't have been down here with that demon for more than an hour, and I doubt you had even spent an hour with him right after you met him. Once they have a victim in their clutches, it takes less than thirty minutes for an incubus to drain its life. The only reason it can take that long is because they like to play with their food, relish the kill, and…" He trails off awkwardly for a moment looking away. "And pretend like their seduction is real. It makes it all the more thrilling for them. I'm glad we made it here in time to at least spare you from that."
I look at Jace for an explanation as to what Alec means, but the expression on his face is telling me not to ask. Though I know I shouldn't, my curiosity will probably catch up with me later and force me to ask him about it anyway.
"The point being, you had plenty of time to check in before then. So why didn't you?"
"I'm sorry, Alec." Isabelle says in a small voice. She looks defeated. "I was just sick of it all, you know? Sick of having to play the part of a responsible adult. You're the grown up when our parents aren't around, the one who protects everyone and watches out for them. And Jace… well, even if he can be thoughtless at times, he's far more responsible than I am. He can handle stuff that's way out of my league, and he's always ready to take command in battle. I'm the baby sister. The wild child who runs off and parties too much." Tears well up in her eyes. I turn away, feeling very much like I shouldn't be here for this conversation. If I thought a scary horned demon thing and an incubus were too much for me to handle in one night, a vulnerable Isabelle Lightwood certainly tops both.
"I'm the fuck-up," she adds under her breath. It's Jace's turn to speak up.
"What the hell are you talking about, Iz? You're none of those things. You're one of the best warriors I know and certainly one of the worthiest Shadowhunters I've ever met. You're just feeling sorry for yourself for being played. So you made a stupid mistake. No big. I do it all the time." She manages a teary smile.
"Yeah, but no offense or anything, Jace, you're not exactly big on the thinking side of things."
"Well, hey, I'm just impressed that an incubus managed to seduce you in the first place. He must have been pretty powerful to bag Miss Isabelle Lightwood. After all, you're practically a succubus yourself. Man-eater." My mouth drops in disbelief, but the jibe doesn't seem to affect Isabelle nearly as much as it does me. If anything she simply cruises past the backhanded part of the compliment.
"God, Jace! I'm not that bad, am I?" I can see her lips trying to suppress a pleased smile. "Besides, what about you? You're not exactly a saint either. If I'm a succubus, then what are you? An incubus, too?"
"Nope. My victims come to me willingly." Isabelle's eyes flash with ire at his words and she lashes out to smack him. He easily moves out of her reach as Alec restrains her. A smirk dances on Jace's lips.
Victims? Does he really think about the people he gets with like that? I decide that it's best not to find out first hand, though it feels almost like something deep inside of me is protesting at the thought. I shrug it off and try to refocus my attention to the present. I speak up for the first time.
"So how do we get out of here? I mean, not to be a party pooper or anything, but am I the only one who's done being in a crypt?" Everyone just kind of stares at me for a moment. I wonder what I said to make them look at me that way. Did I make some sort of Shadowhunter faux pas?
Jace turns back to Izzy. "Think, Iz. Do you remember how you got down here with the incubus? Was it through the tomb's main entrance?"
I'm thinking back to the demon bar now and really hoping we don't have to go back that way, though I'm also not too keen on the idea of getting lost down here either. The lack of fresh air is starting to get to me.
Isabelle furrows her brow for a moment, then responds slowly, trying to remember.
"No… There's actually a passage to the crypt's tunnel network behind the werewolf bar."
"You were at the werewolf bar?!" Jace and Alec chime in unison, equal parts incredulity and extreme fury in their voices.
"No! God, no. Jeez, what do you take me for? An idiot? No, even I'm not that stupid." Her tone of outrage morphs into one of mild chagrin. "I was down the street at Gregor's." Her brothers groan indicating that that wasn't much better.
"Ugh, Isabelle. You really do make poor choices sometimes. But honestly, I don't remember the last time you did something this stupid." Alec's holding his witchlight again, turning around to regain his bearings. She doesn't respond, but snatches the witchlight out of his hand and pulls him by the shoulder after her as she begins to stomp off in the opposite direction from where we came.
"Just… come on," mutters Isabelle to her brother, leading us to what I hope will be safety before too long.
I'm following the two of them, but realize I've fallen behind a bit. I look down at the speed rune on my arm and it's starting to fade.
"Crap," I whisper under my breath.
"What is it?" Jace's voice is right next to my ear and I start. I swear, his movements are quieter than Church's.
"Oh, nothing. It's just that some of the Marks are starting to fade."
"That's not exactly nothing. Means we need to hurry. Hopefully we won't run into any more trouble." His lips twist in a way that makes me feel like he actually meant to say, 'too much more trouble.' His words make me realize how tired I am more than anything else. Oh, how I wish this day would end already.
Jace's hand is at the small of my back again, and my heart skips a beat as I feel it press against my clothes more firmly this time. I feel like my heart is pronouncing how happy it is to feel his hand on my body again, while my head is frantically trying to tell my heart to shut up. Despite how nice it feels for him to touch me, the emotional turbulence it causes within me barely seems worth it. I become ten times more exhausted attempting to deal with it all. I move away from him and he starts to look at me questioningly, but I deflect his scrutiny with a question of my own.
"What did Alec mean when he said that incubi pretend their seduction is real? And if incubi and succubi drain the life from their victims, too, what's the difference between them and vampires? Don't they also lure their prey with their charms and stuff?"
Jace rolls his eyes slightly as if reluctant to answer the question. I recall the fact that he had been trying to dissuade me from asking about it earlier. I decide not to care. Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back, no?
Apparently, sometimes it's better to be left curious than know the answer to something.
"Well, you see, uh…" Jace is squirming and I have no idea why. I resist the urge to say, 'Just spit it out already.' He seems to make up his mind to do just that. "Ok, so vampires can do the whole charming seduction thing, sure, but not to the same extent that incubi and succubi can. That's like their thing. Kind of like a siren's song or a fairy's dance. It intoxicates you and causes you to become incapable of resisting them. You're drawn to them like a moth to light. They're also different from vampires in that they typically hunt alone. It's like a ritual for them. They see it as something intimate and special, not just feeding to survive like vampires."
"As if vampires weren't creepy enough. Now there are creatures who not only drain the life from people, but get off on it in some sort of overly involved way?" Jace looks like he just swallowed a golf ball. What did I say?
"Uh… yeah, actually… about that… that's kind of exactly what they do…" He's deliberately avoiding making eye contact.
"Wait, what?!" I gape at him, hoping I misheard him.
"You see… vampires… they're simple enough. They stalk, they feed, they sometimes turn, they sometimes kill. That's about the extent of it. While they occasionally like to sadistically torment their food, they usually don't have the patience to keep it up for too long. If they're hungry, they really can't control their bloodlust. I know that the wounds on Izzy's skin looked almost like vampire bites and the loopy state she was in is kind of reminiscent of the sort of pleasant warmth that comes over someone when they get bitten by a vamp, but the difference is, the spell she was under started before the incubus bit her, and the bites weren't how it was going to kill her."
"I don't get it. What does that have to do with-"
"Incubi and succubi kill by, uh, having sex with their victims."
"What?!" Alec and Isabelle turn their heads to look back at me disapprovingly. I check myself and lower my voice. "What do you mean they have sex with their victims? They have sex with their food?!"
Jace looks beyond uncomfortable now, and I can't tell if it's the subject itself that's making him feel this way, because it almost happened to Isabelle, or because it's me he's talking to about this. I suppose it might be a combination of all of the above, yet somehow, I doubt Jace Wayland would normally have a problem talking about sex.
"Well, technically they don't eat. They survive off of the life-forces they drain from their prey, but they just happen to drain their life in a different way… Not, strictly speaking, from blood."
"But the sores, the bites-"
"Yeah, that was just Inky having a bit of fun. Something between foreplay and an aperitif."
Gross! I can't believe Jace's telling me all of this. I guess it's my fault I asked.
"She looked so weak though… like she'd already been drained… had he already…?"
"No. She'd be dead if he had. Once they get started, that's it. It's game over. Nothing can stop them. He was actually just draining her blood for fun. The blood-loss plus the seduction spell that was scrambling her brains alone are enough to pretty severely mess someone up. A weaker person probably couldn't have held out as long as she had the way he was working on her. I think that's why he picked her. He knew a Shadowhunter would last longer, be more fun." He looked disgusted and enraged thinking about it. I could see him killing the demon again and again in his mind.
"That's really messed up. I can't believe things like that exist. Vampires, werewolves, warlocks, demons that have stingers and shapeshift, sure, but that? That's just wrong."
"Ha. Welcome to Hell, my innocent little friend. Evil really is just that. For all the good that exists in the world, for all of the wonder and beauty and charm, the opposite exists, too. Things far worse than anything you could ever dream up in your scariest nightmares are real, and our job is to rid the world of these aberrations. Shadowhunters must have the strongest constitutions in the world in order to face the most horrific, depraved, putrid, abhorrent creatures ever to walk the earth. They have no right to taint our world with their abominable ways. Every moment they're allowed to remain alive here is another innocent life lost. I can't stand it."
The conversation has gotten far too heavy for me to be able to handle right now. Jace looks so grave that I frantically search my brain for something to change the subject with as we continue our long journey down the gloomy crypt tunnels. They seem endless and my legs are starting to whine from all of the day's exertion.
"Has anything like this ever happened to any of you before? I mean, from what you said, it sounds like it'd be pretty hard to resist an incubus or succubus if they cast their spell on you, right? How do you prevent that from happening?"
Jace's tone softens a bit, and I can tell my attempt to distract him from his previous train of thought is working.
"Well, normally, we travel in packs. Shadowhunters, I mean, and one of their kind would never dream of trying to take on more than one of us at a time. Their seduction doesn't work that way. Besides, when it comes to practically any other type of creature, Shadowhunters can usually hold their own against way more than just one by themselves. It takes a special kind of power to defeat a Shadowhunter one on one. Only greater demons and certain creatures with magic they can use to cloud our minds stand a chance against us. We're the peacekeepers for a reason. We're stronger, better." 'Faster, harder,' I want to add, but know he won't get the joke. Where's Simon when I need him? Oh yeah, not out killing demons. Bully for him.
"So, why do you think Isabelle went out on her own like that? Does she do that sort of thing often? She said she's the wild child of the group and goes out partying? Is that true?"
Jace looks as though we're quickly approaching a subject he'd really rather not discuss.
"No. That's not really true. I mean, yeah, she does enjoy drinking and dancing more than Alec and I do, not that I don't know how to have a good time." He smirks for a split second. It's the first time during this whole trek that he's been anything other than frighteningly grim. My heart jumps. "But, I think she was referring to the fact that since Maryse and Robert have been gone, and well, since you've come into our lives, she's had to assume a role she's not used to."
"How so?" I know I'm probably asking too many questions, but I can't seem to stop myself. It's the first time I feel like anyone's actually given me any direct answers and I'm going to take advantage of that fact for as long as I can.
"Well, don't go repeating this, but I think that she kind of resents the fact that you're the new baby of the group, and I don't mean baby like Max is." I recall being told that Max is the youngest Lightwood sibling, but get distracted by what he means by baby.
"I am not-" Jace cuts me off.
"I mean, you're the one we're all having to look out for now. Although Izzy is more than capable of taking care of herself… well, usually… her being the girl of the family makes the rest of us all feel extra protective of her and she loves the attention. Now that you're here, you're stealing the limelight from her."
"But I don't mean to be-"
"It doesn't matter. You're everything she's not. Weak, clumsy, innocent, foolish-"
"Wow, thanks a lot, Jace. You really know how to make a girl feel good about herself." He stops walking and turns to face me.
"Let me finish. You're these things because you weren't raised like us, but with a bit of training, you can become like us. You've already proven that you have Shadowhunter instincts. I was really impressed with how you took the initiative back there. So was Alec. And what you did to Izzy, with that iratze... I mean, I still don't fully understand what happened, but it was incredible. It took a hell of a lot of power to bring her practically back to full health from that state. I definitely couldn't have done it myself. You'll have to explain to me what you did later."
"I don't know what I did, actually. I just marked her with the same rune I've seen everyone else use, but it just seemed to overwhelm me and I could feel some intense power surging from the stele as I drew."
"I don't think that power was coming from the stele." He eyes me enigmatically. "Anyway, I just think that she needed to feel cared about again, which is stupid because obviously we all care about her more than our own flesh. She has more insecurities than she lets on, but I guess we all do, huh?"
I'm stunned at how much he's opening up to me, but I still have a hard time believing that someone as attractive and confident as him could have any insecurities. I can hardly believe that Isabelle has insecurities, but I guess I can understand how things might be difficult for her with the change in dynamics after her parents left and I arrived. I wish I could somehow let her know that I'm not intentionally trying to steal all the attention. In fact, I'd gladly give it all back to her if I could. Maybe if I just train more with Jace, I can start being a better team member and not just someone they have to watch out for like unpaid babysitters. Being an unpaid babysitter would probably make anyone resentful.
Thankfully, I see flickering lights ahead and I can tell we're almost to the surface again. Unlike the entrance we came through, this exit is just a grate in the ceiling. From above, it probably looks like nothing more than an entrance to the sewers. There are handles on the wall closest to the grate. Jace says what I'm thinking.
"You came through there? Wasn't there a voice in the back of your head telling you that climbing down into a dark tunnel with a guy you just met in a Downworlder bar is a bad idea?"
"I was already charmed, so bite me. I'd like to see you resist the spell of a succubus."
"Game on, sister. Find me one and watch me." Isabelle just scoffs and starts climbing up the wall. She lifts the grate with one hand and climbs out of the hole and onto the street. Alec follows her and when he's gone, Jace motions for me to go before him. As I put my foot on the bottom rung, I feel his hand on my shoulder.
"Don't… repeat any of what I told you tonight, okay? I honestly don't know why I said as much as I did. You sure you're not a succubus who put me under a spell?" He grins deviously at me.
"Well, I certainly don't want to have sex with you and kill you." His face falls and I turn beet red when I realize the implications of what I just said, which was that I didn't want to have sex with Jace Wayland. Is that true? What!? Why am I even thinking about this?! Does it matter?! I shouldn't even be thinking about having sex with him in the first place. Or not having sex with him for that matter. Gah! Stop, brain, stop!
"I suppose that's only a mild disappointment, then," he says with a nonchalant look on his face, his eyes staring past me at the metal bars. My mind shifts into overdrive as it tries to decipher his meaning. Does that mean he's disappointed that I don't want to have sex with him?! He's just teasing me again, right? If my mind could make noise, the sound it'd be making right now is something along the lines of, 'ALKJGLKADSJFALKFJAF.'
Just then, Alec's head is hovering over the opening in the ground and he shouts irritably down at us.
"Are you guys coming or what?" Isabelle appears next to him.
"Yeah, could you be any slower?"
"It's not my fault! Clary's speed rune has worn off and she has ridiculously short legs."
"Oh, thanks a lot, Jace. Blame everything on me, why don't cha?"
"Already did, Red." He winks at me and somehow, magically, climbs over me and is already at the opening while my foot is still on the bottom rung.
"So much for ladies first," I grumble to myself.
When I've made it to the top, Jace's hand reaches through to pull me onto the street. I stumble into his arms and he steadies me by bringing me close to his chest. At this point, my nerves are so fried and I'm so exhausted I barely have the energy to flip out internally over our bodily proximity. I can feel his breath warm on my forehead. Are his arms tightening around me?
A throat clears and I push myself away from Jace's embrace expecting to see the Lightwood siblings scowling at me. But they've already passed the werewolf bar and are approaching the end of the alleyway.
A tall scruffy-looking man in a plaid flannel shirt and ripped jeans is towering over us. I glance at the werewolf bar just a ways past him and my eyes slowly move back to the man looming before us.
Just when I thought the day couldn't possibly get any worse, I find myself face to face with the last person on earth I want to see right now: Luke.