CHAPTER SEVEN
To Battle (II)
"Will is prettier than I am, I don't see why I have to lure it out," Winnie protested with a frown as she crossed her arms. Luring a creature out meant that she could not ambush it directly, and it was always much more fun for her to witness the grotesque expression of a cornered demon. "And it's not as if the Eidolon has a preference to which gender of human it wants to eat."
A smile spread across Jem's mouth and his eyes flickered up to Will, who had a hand behind him on top of where his dagger was tucked away at. His blue eyes looked past Winnie and seeming displeased with what he saw, he brushed past her. "Fine. You two wait here," he muttered, "I'll bring out the Eidolon to the back in two minutes."
"Will, wait –" Jem called.
"No, he will not," she giggled a second after he began moving. The blue eyed boy threw a glance over his shoulder, unamused, before going inside. She looked back at Jem, and he nodded as they began moving to the other end of the ship. Carefully balancing their weight on the roof of the cargo ship, they silently ran over the top of the cabin. In that brief moment, Winnie could see the murky, dark water and the reflection of the moon off it. The boat was chained at the dock, but it did not stop the water from rocking the boat ever so slightly.
On the other end of the boat, Will had his back towards the length of a wall. He turned his head around the corner but where he had sensed a nonmundane trying to be a mundane: there were only two sailors getting drunk with their legs hanging over the bow. Singing loudly, of course. He narrowed his eyes. He knew there was a demon among the two, but which?
He looked up over the roof to where Jem and Winnie was hunched over, frowning. Silently, Winnie slid off the roof and landed on the side. "Will," she whispered, her eyes still intent on the two laughing sailors, "something's wrong."
"I know," he agreed with a frown, "but which one?"
For a moment, she did not respond. And then at last, Winnie swore and turned around angrily before whirling to face Will. "Let's go home, Will, we have no business here."
"What do you mean?" he asked, his eyes going past her shoulder to Jem who slid off the room to meet the whispering two.
"It's a faery," she sighed, rubbing her left eye. There was the every slightest glow beneath the black velvet. Jem could see the twitches on her face as she tried to keep her on eye closed but then with a sigh, she took off the eye patch and tucked behind her. He remembered that Winnie had told him once that when it began to irritate, it would heat up her eye noticeably enough to make her uncomfortable and only having it exposed to air and wind would soothe it.
Jem tried not to stare at the glowing eye. The entire eye was a deep indigo colour with the black outlines of a wing patterned over it, and Jem could swear that the longer he looked at it, the more the lines of the wing looked like it was moving. Where there was suppose to be pupil, instead, had the boundaries of a pentagon.
Winnie looked over the corner and at the faery as Jem and Will exchange the same dubious look, as if saying, Yes, I know, her eye looks like its alive.
"We should just go," Winnie said lowly, looking at both boys. "We can't do anything here – the Accord prevents us from intervening and it looks...harmless."
"You're right." Jem looked at Will, waiting for his confirmation.
He sighed reluctantly. "So, where would you like to go? The night is still young and - "
"And we have been out for two hours and there aren't any demons worth killing."
They stopped. Winnie looked at them – curious about the sudden stop of the conversation.
It was to no one's surprise that Will was the first to break it. "Do you smell that, Jem?" Will asked, his eyes shining.
"Ah, yes," Jem nodded. "I think I do." Winnie gave him an exasperate look but it was Will, of course, who finished the banter.
"I do believe it is stink of the Morgenstern's haughtiness." Will nodded and then tapped his finger on Winnie's forehead. "And to think that we did a good job of wiping it off clean, but I suppose that being gone for several months revealed the hubris yet again."
"I am not haughty," Winnie objected but then rubbed her face with both her hands. "All right, so perhaps I may be. But there must be somewhere else that we could go like - " She stopped abruptly when her stomach growled and Jem could not help to laugh but Will spun around to where the sailors had been sitting. Luckily they seemed to be thoroughly drunk and neither of them heard – unless there truly was a fey among them who ignored the grumble.
"Let's just head back to the Institute and hope that there's still a morsel remaining of dinner," Jem suggested.
"I would rather chew on the bones of my prey," Winnie said expressively with a slow forming grin.
"Charming," Will said. "Be sure to clean out the ichor in the marrow."
xxxx
Tessa work up with a stark at the sound of Sophie's cry -
"Master Jem – Will, Winnie!"
Immediately her eyes fluttered open and Tessa was up in a moment, running like the wind to where she heard Sophie scream. She was still not quite awake – she had fallen asleep several hours ago – and the dark, dimly lit corridors blurred as she ran and then stopped hastily, breathless, where she nearly tripped over her feet. She felt a strong sense of nostalgia – but this time, a blonde girl did not arrive drenched in rain...
Instead, the blonde girl was covered in blood.
Tessa gasped and took a step back.
There was a wild look in the blonde girl's black eyes, and she was grinning, laughing, with her palms up – palms that were equally covered in black blood. A demon, it must be. Tessa swallowed something as Sophie hurried to the front.
"I swear it's not as bad as it looks!" Winnie exclaimed immediately, wide eyed. "This demon just...splattered and I have no idea how to get it off! And there was a beastly wolf pack – a nomad one – and they created a huge mess!"
Jem was coughing as he came out from behind Winnie – his pale skin, his silver hair was equally covered in black. "Well, perhaps they would not have turned on us if you didn't scream out your name and steal their hunt," he said not unkindly.
"Jem!" Tessa said immediately, never minding the mess, as she ran towards him and touched his face. "What happened – are you all right?"
"Of course I had to tell them my name, I could recognize that cursed Swiss pack - " She slowed down and began quieting as the excited look in her eyes died down. She watched the brown haired girl care for her fiance. There was this gentle look in her gray eyes as she looked up at Jem and Winnie could not help but feel like this girl was so completely genuine and...and as bitter as Winnie was about the entire situation, she could only grow to like the warlock more.
"Yes, yes, I'm fine," Jem assured Tessa kindly, smiling. His attention had completely went to Tessa and Winnie felt an odd pang of...of having to share Jem which made absolutely no sense to her since he had always been Will's before he was hers and yet...this was different.
Will, behind them, saw the way the outspoken blonde suddenly slowed down, from a storm to a still day. He wiped his face on his shoulder as he stepped up. "You got a little something here," Will said to Jem as he pointed towards his face, despite the fact that the boy's face was matted in dirt. It was nothing compared to Winnie whose face looked as if she had painted it in blood. He swiftly walked around the couple and grabbed Winnie by the wrist. "You, on the other hand, are being sent straight to Bethlem, you psychotic, blonde little -"
Winnie's eyes were still on Jem but at hearing Will's voice, she blinked and laughed. She allowed Will to take her away straight down the hallway up to the basement and Tessa could still hear the two's distant complaints – of Will, telling her to calm the bloody hell down and Winnie, insisting that Jem needed a shower just as much and perhaps they should all three bathe together.
Sophie looked horrified. "Who's going to clean this mess?" she whispered, staring at all the blood and dirt the three trekked in.
It was then that Charlotte arrived, still in sleeping attire. Jem's face was now clean of any remnants of whatever hunt the three had went on, but his clothing were still just as stained. Having heard of Sophie's question, Charlotte frowned at the remaining boy.
"You three," she answered as she pointed towards a sighing Jem and down the hallway where Will and Winnie had left to. "I'm not going to ask what happened but I will make sure you clean up after yourselves. We'll deal with it tomorrow morning." She stopped, her frown deepening. "I know that you are no longer a child, Jem, but...those two, really. Do try to hold them on a tighter leash," she said as if Will and Winnie were simply puppies. And with that she nodded at Sophie and the two older women left but Sophie could not help but to throw a glance back at the mess.
Tessa turned her attention back to Jem who was running his fingers back through the mess of his hair. "What did happen?" she asked as she took a step back. There was a track of blood from the doorway and she was sure that there must have been footprints leading from there too.
Jem sighed. "We ran into a Greater Demon -"
"What?"
"It got away," Jem continued. "We're not sure where it was being chased from or why but there was a lycan pack following behind it." He paused. "Winnie believed it was a Swiss pack and...well, the Morgensterns have quite a history with them. Regardless, things escalated much too fast and had not it been for Will, we probably would have all returned as werewolves."
Tessa gasped and then whirled back to look as if Winifred was still there. Shaking her head, she peered back at Jem, looking at him closely. "But you're fine?" she asked worriedly, biting her lip. Jem didn't look harmed and usually there were clear indications if he was feeling unwell. If anything, he looked thrilled. Perhaps he was running on adrenaline, she thought. Things were calm for the past several weeks with Mortmain gone and Will weaving in and out of the Institute.
And then Winifred Morgenstern returns, and they run into a nomadic werewolf pack.
"Yes, I am." He stopped, and smiled in a way that made Tessa wonder if he knew that he was smiling. "Will was quite impulsive as always but Winnie is quite protective of everyone's well being but her own." He looked up, as if just realizing something. "In fact, we should make sure that no one was bitten in the chaos."
Tessa nodded but the moment they began to move, the blonde girl still in Shadowhunter gear and not at all cleaned up ran by them again, muttering something that sounded like oh damn but before Tessa could quite follow it, the girl was out the door.
"What's going on?" Jem frowned. Only a second later Will ran after the girl. He turned around slightly, pointing at Jem and saying quickly, "Jem, close the door. Winnie and I can handle this."
Tessa shuddered. There was a sudden air that changed in the Institute and she could feel the sudden chill through her bone. But it was not the same feeling as when she was among vampires...no. This was different. It felt as if she was in a hunt, caught in a chase behind the Devil's hound of some sort -
"But what can you handle?" Jem continued to ask before he was cut off. Past his shoulder Tessa could see the girl at the front of the iron gates, peering outside with her gloved hands around it. Above her head was a pale, silver moon. She leaned out further, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever it was that was going outside. It sounded like chaos, it sounded like pandemonium. There was a distinct, collaborated and multiple growls beneath it all and it was a sound that made Tessa thing of...dogs.
Will made a frustrated sound before he left them to stand beside the girl and Winnie spoke up first. "State your business - "
And then she was cut off, and Tessa could only hear shrieking before Jem's face was consumed with panic and by the time two ran outside -
"Jem - Jem!"
Winnie was crying out, howling his name. Will was gone – chasing after whomever had arrived – and Jem rushed out there and enveloped the girl, pulling her into his arms. She was holding her face, her eyes, and screaming and shrieking. And when Will came back a second later, panting, shaking his head with his blue eyes wide, Tessa was still frozen with shock.
What happened?
It was not until Jem wrapped his arms fully around the girl, cradling her like a child with his hand wrestling with hers so he could examine her face that Tessa could see it: acid, thrown at the girl's eyes.
And the blood that poured along down with it.
Ah, yes. Things finally seem to be picking up. Plot is thickening and now...or rather, there is actually a plot...
Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Perhaps I should have posted it up on Halloween seeing as to how I had it on my computer (mostly...but not thoroughly edited, as you could tell) since it sort of fits the mood but better late than never!
Thanks for reading, reviews would be lovely (:
