Chapter 6

Emerging on the beach Alec couldn't help but notice the unsettling calm that surrounded the crowd of shadowhunters. Despite the fact the sun had set and night had fallen, Alec had still expected the area to be full of people. It wasn't that late after all. The area, that was usually bright, vibrant and lively, seemed to be completely abandoned. Even the restaurants, that looked out over the golden sand and gently lapping waves, were closed their curtains drawn. Alec wondered to himself if this had anything to do with the shadowhunters. An elaborate glamour perhaps? Maybe even a fake phone call outlining some vague emergency or another? Over the years he had noticed that mundanes have this built in sensor for when danger was close that caused them to get as far away from it as they possibly could. An inbuilt survival instinct that shadowhunters seemed to not have inherited.

All that could be heard was the gentle lapping of the waves upon the sand as the tides came in, and the uncomfortable shuffle of the shadowhunters trying to size up their situation. The transition from the chaotic panic in the institute to the calm of the attack, caused an uneasy feeling to rise up within Alec. He was used to the chaos, it went hand in hand with a fight after all. He had spent more time in his life in the commotion, than anyone his age should have. However the empty endless beach and the silent air was a cause for dread. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing up straight. Something was wrong. Alec just didn't know what. As he glanced towards Jace, it was clear that the same thoughts were whizzing through his mind. It was plastered on his face after all. With a quick look shared with Jace, both boys reached to for their weapons. There may be silence now, but Alec knew that shit was about to hit the fan. When it did, Alec would be as prepared as he possibly could.

Carmen went to speak to the baffled crowd, but before a word could pass her lips Alec raised a hand to silence her. Much to his surprise, the surprise of her husband and the rest of the group she stopped. All of the years Alec had spent paying attention to his studies in the institute as a child was paying off. He knew that there were many species of demons that were blind, relying on other senses to navigate themselves. He also knew that there were many species that had incredible hearing. In that moment they had the upper hand, they were yet to be spotted and if they stayed silent it they would have the power. Alec planned to keep it that way. Silently he turned to face his parabatai. With a collection of intricate hand gestures he was able to tell Jace of what he thought they should do. As he understood what was being said to him, Jace's face broke into a grin and as Alec realised he had been understood, he mirrored his parabatai's joy. Continuing with hand gestures and some intricate drawings in the sand, they formulated a plan for the best way to proceed. Alec was incredibly thankful to have someone to understand his thinking and know his thoughts with a single look. Turning back to the group, they were greeted by a sea of confused and dumbfounded looks. He knew that in order for the plan to work each individual had to play the part they were assigned. As quietly as possible Alec and Jace set about the group explaining what was needed to be done.

It had taken longer than expected, but finally Alec and Jace had managed to pass out all the information needed. Most of the group had willingly taken up their role, Isaac had followed them around encouraging his Conclave. Some had been more difficult to persuade, but all of Alec's effort had paid off, as everyone seemed to be on board. They group stood in defensive positions, waiting for Alec's cue for them to move. Alec glanced around the surrounding areas for what felt like the hundredth time to check for potential danger. With the group organised to fit with his plan, Alec felt a surge of confidence. What could go wrong in the last seconds before their defensive? Just as he was about to signal the beginning a figure moved from their position in the crowd.

Storming through the group it was obvious to everyone that had Carmen decided her patience was up. With a theatrical flourish she stopped in front of the pair of parabatai, standing almost toe to toe with Alec. It was blatantly clear that she was unimpressed and after years of living with his mother knew that a verbal onslaught was due. He cursed her timing as she began yelling at the pair.

"And why in the Raziel's name should we listen to anything you two say?" Her tone was disgusted and it took all Alec had in him not to flinch. Before either of them could respond a foul cry filled the air. As if appearing from nowhere the shadowhunters were surrounded by hordes of demons. With a graceful ease Alec drew an arrow from his quiver and shot a demon that was seconds away from biting Carmen Ravenwood.

"Well we weren't the ones who gave up or location and lost the upper hand. Oh and I did just save your life, so there is that." Turning away as quickly as possible, Alec made no attempt to hide his grin. He had managed not to sound overly arrogant and he had heard Jace laugh to his left. However it was not the time for gloating there was a battle being waged. Moving to stand back to back with his parabatai, Alec became greatly engrossed in the fight.

The best Alec could see they were being attacked by a hoard of Ravener demons. It was a breed of demon that they had fought a hundred times before, he knew that this should be easy fight but from the looks of it was going to be more difficult than normal. Alec placed another arrow in his bow, and watched as it soared through the air landing directly on target. The runes on the arrow head did their job and the demon began writhing in pain. Seconds later the demon had vanished, returning to whatever dimension it had come from. There was still more demons coming, there seemed to be more each minute. It had begun with a group of about 5 or 6 demon, but the numbers were slowly growing. Every time a demon was killed, another appeared and took its place. Alec knew that at some point they had to stop, all the shadowhunters had to do was persevere. It wasn't as if Ravener demons were the smartest breeds, it shouldn't take too long to put them down.

Looking around at the other shadowhunter Alec felt a sense of shock. Despite the fact they fought together as a team, and pretty well at that, they seemed to be lacking something. When he fought with his family; Jace, Izzy and Clary, who had become an important member, there was a fluidity to it. It was almost like a dance as each of them moved carefully around each other. They were a team that was strongest when they were together, as if they were meant to fight with one another. However the shadowhunters in Lima seemed only to work together because they had to. He could see a couple of pairs of parabatai hacking and slashing in perfect unison. Aside from them there was no sense of unity. At home they were a well-oiled machine, each part playing its own role and supporting the others. When his family fought together, they moved as one through the chaos of a fight, still finding time to make some stupid joke in an attempt to make one another laugh. Here it was a mishmash of bits crammed together in the hoped that something would work out. Alec felt a sense of pity for these people, they had never had the sense of purpose that he experienced with is family.

He realised his own arrogance as he thought it, but Alec wholeheartedly believed that the New York conclave would have made short work with this attack. Even if he was fighting in the four that made up his family they would have been done by now. The Peruvian shadowhunters kept making stupid mistakes over and over again, meaning Alec had to spend a large portion of his time ensuring they were safe. Alec had spent the last few years fighting along someone with a fraction of the training of those in Lima. However fighting alongside Clary had become instinctual, both quickly learning how to fight effectively alongside one another. There was nothing like that here. It was a difficult situation for Alec to be in. He had spent his life believing in the unity of shadowhunters, seeing it in every battle he had been in, be it in New York or Alicante. But here something was wrong, the Peruvian shadowhunters were disjointed, missing the magic that brought the others together.

Despite a new surge of demons around fifteen minutes into the fight, the shadowhunters had been able to take back control of the fight. There was still a group of around seven demons still coming at the dwindling group of shadowhunters with all their force. Going into the battle there had been around twenty shadowhunters, there were only five left standing. Alec was pleased to see that all those no longer fighting were still alive, most were wounded but none had died. Standing alongside Alec and Jace were Carmen, Isaac and the dark haired girl that has spoken to Alec earlier. Both he and Jace stood untouched by the demons, sweat pouring from them but no wounds that needed to be dealt with. Alec struggled to keep the smug look off of his face. He could see from the corner of his eye that Carmen's leg had been slashed by the talons of one of the demons. Much to his surprise she was still standing, but it was clear she wouldn't be much longer. Isaac had a minor slash across the top of his left arm, but this did not stop him from fighting through the group to protect his wife. The dark haired girl was spinning at a remarkable speed and seemed to be unharmed as well. Alec could clearly see that she was lost in the moment and wouldn't have felt any injury any way.

Reaching for his belt Alec realised that he was out of weapons. Usually he was over prepared, but everyone else at this fight had brought less than what would be considered safe. He had been forced to waste time handing out daggers and seraph blades to the underprepared crowd. From the corner of his eye he saw Carmen crumple to the group and a Ravener inching ever closer to her struggling body. Without thinking he spun and grabbed a dagger from Jace's weapon belt. His parabatai swung out. Realising it was Alec, Jace stopped his arm from slamming into his jaw. Without a word Alec turned and threw the dagger at the demon moving towards Carmen. As the dagger hit its mark, Alec let out a sigh of relief and paused for a moment to watch the demon crumble to ashes.

From behind him, Alec heard someone call his name, he spun on his heels to once again face Jace. He could see the handle of a seraph blade heading towards him and he reached his arm out to grab it. It felt better to have a weapon in his hand, he felt that the battle may be over sooner than it would have been before. As a team Alec and Jace cut down five more of the demons. Working in perfect synch they moved with grace and ease, taking mere moments to banish the last of the creatures. Across what had become the battlefield the dark haired girl stabbed the last demon and as it disintegrated silence once again fell all around.

Almost automatically Alec's hand reached for his stele and he turned to face his parabatai. Neither were unharmed, but an iratze would help the soon to be aching muscles. Without needing prompted Jace rolled up his sleeve allowing Alec to draw the heeling rune on his arm. Immediately after Alec did the same and they both stood there taking in the victory of the battle. Looking at the crowd, Alec could see that everyone had made it out alive but everyone except for the two strangers were injured in one way or another. Trying to reach as many people as possible, Alec wove his way through the crowd helping those who would accept his help. In the distance Carmen and Isaac were fighting in Spanish. The translation rune on his shoulder had faded and Alec did not care enough about what they were arguing about to reapply it.

Walking away from the crowd, Alec took a moment to take in the beauty of the beach in the light of the moon. He moved to stand his parabatai, allowing the waves to gently crash onto the tips of their boots. Neither knew what to say to the other about what they had just been a part of. It had been a shambles, unorganised and out of control. How were they to help this group of people if they could barely work together themselves? It was as if they all trained alone, never taking time to work as a team to build on their strengths. Aside from the few sets of parabatai, the group was disjointed as if they had only met that day. Before anything else could be done, Alec knew that this needed to be dealt with first. He couldn't expect these shadowhunters to fight alongside downworlders if they could barely fight beside each other. He knew he would be lying to himself if he said that this wasn't worried. How was he supposed to make a team out of a group of people who seemed to hate each other?

"Do you have what I asked you to bring?" He asked Jace leaning lazily against the door frame. The stone walls of the institute were cool against his bare arms. They had barely been back an hour but Alec could feel himself crashing. All the energy he had, had been spent in the battle and his failing attempts to form a plan to help the Peru institute. He was glad to be back in the cold institute after the walk back in the warm night air.

"I do, I didn't think you would seriously need them though." Jace replied as he moved across the room to his case. "How did you know?"

"I had my suspicions, thought it better to be safe than sorry. I realise it was an odd favour, so I owe you for doing this for me."

Jace came to stand in front of Alec. Within his arms were neatly folded piles of raggedy old jumpers and jeans. Alec had never been more grateful to see his own clothes in his life. When he had opened his case to unpack his worst fears had been confirmed. He had suspected that Magnus may have added some items to his case, but he had hoped that he wouldn't have swapped everything. "It was foolish to have hoped," he thought to himself.

"So what did he pack you?" Jace asked, smirking at the endless possibilities.

"God only knows. I didn't look properly but I saw a lot of neon and something that was made of mesh. In no situation would it have ended well." Alec shuddered at the thought of having to wear any of the items in the case. He knew that somewhere out there Magnus would be getting a real kick out of this. A small part of him was smug that he had managed to outsmart him. There was a first time for everything.

His suspicions had arisen a few weeks ago when he had first told Magnus of the trip. It wasn't the first time that Alec was to go on a trip without him, but this time it was to Peru. Magnus had made a series of extravagant threats that he could never possibly carry through. He had threatened to trap Alec in the apartment, sneak into the country himself or find a way to have Alec imprisoned in a mundane jail for a week as he muttered something about public indecency. Each plan had an intricate set of details and many others seemed to involve the help of Catarina, who Alec believed would take little convincing to help. It had slowly digressed to say that he would send the Chairman as his representative and then finally steal all of his clothes. Alec couldn't help but laugh to himself. He loved Magnus's insane imagination, it was an important part of him after all. He had never expected to love someone so impulsive, often to the point of disaster, it was the opposite of what Alec was. Nevertheless he was so very thankful that he did.

Slowly he made his way back to his room, piles of clothes filling his arms. As best he could Alec opened the door of his wardrobe, with less grace than he liked. With a sigh he tossed everything into the bottom of the wardrobe. After all it had been a long day, he told himself he would tidy it up later but even as he thought it he knew that it wouldn't happen. Jace was the tidy one not him, or Magnus or Izzy or Clary for that matter. He grabbed a jumper and some jeans from the top of the pile and headed into his small bathroom.

Taking comfort in the familiarity of the outfit Alec quickly changed. The jumper he was now wearing was about four years old. However Alec didn't mind, it was comfortable, still fit and didn't have too many holes in the sleeves. In hindsight he realised that packing only gear and oversized jumpers was not the best idea when you were visiting South America, which was known for its warm weather. It was better however, than any of the alternatives that Magnus had packed for him. He shuddered inwardly once again.

Alec was unsure of what to do with himself. He was too riled up to sit and read, yet he was too weary to train. A small part of him wanted to wander the labyrinth that was the Peru institute, but he supposed the residents would be less than pleased to find him. Last he had seen Jace, he was on the brink of falling into a deep sleep and Alec didn't want to ruin that for him. The silence of the room began to encompass Alec, enveloping him in the nothingness.

Jolting out of his reprieve, Alec quickly moved towards the curtain covering the wall. With an overly dramatic flourish he pushed them open, causing himself to laugh. It was an action that reminded him of Magnus and his endearing flamboyance. Stretched out for what seemed like miles was the Peruvian horizon. The view didn't seem real to Alec. He was used to the hustle and bustle of New York. Used to the skyscrapers, and the lights that never seemed to go out. Lima seemed like something out of a fairy tale. The entire city seemed to be asleep, and a gentle hush filled all of the open spaces. He could see the appeal of the city, the dreamlike quality that would allow those who walked the streets to get lost in their thoughts. There was a small part of Alec who found this to be almost heavenly, but he knew that after a day of peace and quiet he would be driven slowly insane. Throughout his entire life he had thought this was the kind of place for him, he was surprised at how uncomfortable it made him feel. He thought to himself that he was destined for a life filled with chaos and madness, as it always had been and always would be.

Perching delicately on the window ledge he watched the world go by. The night stayed still, but occasionally the stillness would be broken for a second as people stumbled home. Occasionally Alec would feel a pang of jealously for all of the things that mundanes say as trivial and took advantage of. He was jealous of their ability to spend a night out without the over looming darkness that seemed to follow shadowhunters. He was jealous that it was not normal for them to lose friends at a young age and worry anytime you watched a family leave, filled with a fear they will never come back. Most of all he was jealous of their ignorance. Alec knew that no matter what he would not swap being a shadowhunter for anything but occasionally he wished he could turn it all off for a short period of time. It was hard to enjoy the simplest things in life when you knew that the world was going to hell in a handbasket.

Breaking the silence, Alec's phone buzzed. Standing slowly to allow his stiffened joints to loosen Alec made his way over to the bedside table where he had abandoned his phone earlier. He had two text messages. The first being from Isabelle telling him about her unsuccessful attempt at stealing church back. Quietly he laughed to himself imagining the frustration underlying the humour his sister was trying to convey. The second text, he saw was from Magnus, just seeing his name cause Alec's heart to quicken. The text was simple and reading it cause Alec to roll his eyes. It wasn't the first time he had gotten a text like it and it wouldn't be the last.

So I got into a fight.- M xxx

The nonchalance of the message let Alec know that Magnus was not hurt or in too much danger. Still he couldn't help the small ball of worry that began to rise in his chest. Quickly he typed out a reply, throwing the phone onto his bed as the message sent.

Me too! Did you win? –A xxx

Alec laid back on the bed beside his phone. He was restless, unsure of what to do with his time. One thing he knew is that sleep would not come for many hours, but his mind could not pinpoint what he would do before he could. Once again his phone vibrated, and Alec shot out his arm to read the reply.

But of course my love. I was mighty and victorious, I may have also been a tad drunk. I trust that you emerged the victor also, for you know how to do no less. Now sleep beacons me to its tender embrace. Till we speak again remember that I love you. Xxx

Alec didn't need to be told that Magnus had been drinking, he was more willing to fight and own up to doing it after a few drinks. He laughed to himself as he read the message, knowing that the spell check on his phone would have come in handy. Being hundreds of years old Magnus was known for sounding a little old fashioned which worked well with his flamboyance. Alec also knew that he was unlikely to get another reply, as Magnus had probably fallen asleep in some random space in the apartment. Despite this he couldn't help the stupid grin covering his face as he wrote his reply and sent it.

Goodnight weirdo, Love you too. Xxx

Alec quickly lost himself in the pages of the book, they story taking over all of his mind. He had grown up reading books faster than they could be supplied, but they had been non-fiction. They had been books about demons and fairy tales and ghost stories, all of which were so real in his life. Magnus had introduced him to a world of fantasy and wonder. To stories about people making stupid decisions when it came to love and aliens from far off planets. These new stories had begun to call to him like a siren, calling him to read more and keep going. It was one of the greatest forms of magic that Alec had experienced. Being with someone hundreds of years old had its benefits, as Magnus outlined the best books for Alec to read ignoring the dull and overrated. These stories allowed Alec to escape his insane life by living someone else's.

He had started the book only days before but despite his busy life he was over two thirds of the way through. Glancing at the pages he had left he cursed himself. He had promised himself that he would slow down while reading this one, but as per usual he was too caught up in the story to stop. It would be over soon and he was not ready for that.

A period of time had passed, Alec was unsure of how long it had been, when he finally lifted his head from the book. He had curled up on the chair beside the window as close to the dull lamp as he could get. It would have wasted precious time to get and turn on the main light. As he glanced around he caught sight of the shadowy figure standing at the door. Alec was unsure how long they had been standing there, and if they had even said his name. As gently as possible, so not to spook them, Alec gesture for them to come in. The girl with the short dark hair and impossibly large brown eyes entered the room timidly, unsure of what to do now. Alec smiled as kindly as he possibly could.

"Can we talk?" Her voice shook as she asked the simple question.

"Of course." Answered Alec somewhat unsure. He was beginning to doubt what he could do to help, but he had promised.

He gestured for her to take a seat on the bed and watched as she did folding herself in as she sat. Slowly so not to spook her Alec arose from the armchair and closed the bedroom door. If nothing else this would be interesting he thought to himself. Taking a deep breath Alec turned to face the girl whose name he did not know. It was a good thing he wasn't tired enough to sleep, it was going to be a long night.