Simon awoke to a pounding in his head, and at the door. It never felt very refreshing, waking up in the morning, and Simon groaned as he tried to hide away from the sunlight streaming through the windows. He heard Izzy laugh at him, and he opened his eyes to see her standing above him in new clothes, her hair and makeup already done. He wondered how many hours she had already been awake, and was about to ask, when the knocking at the main Institute door wrung through the room again. Izzy looked up at the door, and then back at Simon.

"I'm going to get that, you okay to hang here? It's probably just some disgruntled down worlder."

Simon nodded, secretly relieved that he didn't have to get up just yet. Just as he was about to fall asleep again Simon heard a voice that instantly sent adrenaline rushing through his veins. He could hear the somber voice of Magnus Bane, who was being greeted by a bubbly sounding Izzy. Simon bolted to the door that adjoined the Sanctuary to the rest of the building and watched through the open door as his plan fell apart.

"Hey Magnus! How was Hong Kong? I was rather upset not to receive any crazy photos this time! Or were you and my brother too busy doing other things?"

Simon watched as Izzy's happiness was met with a death glare by Magnus. He noticed that the warlock was wearing all black, not a dash of colour or glitter anywhere in site. Izzy seemed to notice Magnus' appearance at the same time as Simon.

"Are you channeling Alec's fashion sense, or did you lose a bet?" She asked.

Magnus let out a small sigh, and for a second the warlock's years showed.

"I should have guessed that Alexander would not tell you."

"Tell me what?" Izzy asked, concern lacing her voice as she caught onto Magnus' mood.

"Alexander and I broke up. I was informed that Camille had… been killed. I am here on her behalf. Many of her vampire connections cannot come to the city at the moment, and as you may know I was her friend, a long time ago."

Izzy's eyes widened and her jaw fell open as she looked at Magnus with incomprehension.

"But…you two…when? You just went away. Did something happen in Hong Kong?" Her voice wavered, as she sounded more and more desperate for an explanation.

"Hong Kong? We never went away. I believe we broke up the night Camillie died, and I am personally offended that he chose not to inform me about that."

Izzy's eyes narrowed, and she turned to face Simon, who was unable to turn away from either Izzy or Magnus. He became locked in Izzy's glare like a dear in headlights, his panic clearly showing.

"Simon? Did you know? Did you lie to me?" Izzy asked as she slowly started to piece everything together.

Simon felt his natural instincts kick in, not so much his vampire instincts, but the rudimentary fight of flight complex took over, and after a minute of tense silence, Simon bolted for the exit as fast as he could.

"Isabelle, why did your boyfriend just flee as if he'd seen a ghost?" Magnus asked. He had promised himself not get involved with any shadow hunter business, but once again their world had drawn him in.

"He told us that you and Alec went away. He said that's why we couldn't get hold of Alec."

Magnus felt his heart stutter at the mention of Alec's name, especially because it sounded like the young man was in trouble. Magnus cursed his heart for caring so much, and practically melting. He was meant to be staying away from Alec, and never see him again.

"What do you mean you cannot contact Alec? Where is he? Can't you find him?"

The panic that crept into Magnus' voice alarmed Izzy, and they both quickly figured out how vulnerable Alec was when Magnus last saw him.

"We thought he was with you! You're the last one who saw him!"

Jace appeared in the hallway as he heard the shrill voice of Isabelle.

"What's going on?"

"Magnus broke up with Alec, and they didn't go away, so no one has seen him since, so Simon was lying to us about all that!" Izzy yelled at Jace, who instantly looked alarmed. Jace subconsciously lifted his hand to his chest, tracing his rune.

"We need to find Alec, now," he said sternly.

"Well obviously! Why wouldn't he come straight home, where else would he go? He always talks to me about this stuff. By the Angel this is his first break up, who knows what he's up to."

"No Izzy, you don't understand. I think it's more serious than that," Jace interrupted.

"What do you mean?" Magnus asked, his eyes tracing the movement of Jace's hands.

"My parabitia rune, it's been feeling weird since the other night. The one you broke up with Alec on. But, I've felt when he's upset before, even when Max died, I felt it, but not like this. It's different. My rune was even bleeding last night."

Magnus took action as Jace spoke, quickly conjuring up the necessary ingredients for a locater spell.

"Warlock, if he isn't okay, I swear on the Angel I will kill you as slowly and painfully as I can," Izzy said venomously, and Jace stepped next to her, showing his support for the idea.

"We just need to find him," Magnus said, trying to reassure himself more than anything else.

Magnus was quickly finished with preparing the spell, and he had a strong enough connection with Alec to not need a personal artifact. It took the warlock a while to concentrate, his doubts and worries all threatening to consume him. The one that plagued him the most was that if anything happened to Alec, it would be his fault. Magnus felt his magic flare, but it was nothing to do with the spell, so he focused on calming his emotions again. He still felt so intensely for Alec, and it was that raw emotion that had scared him enough to want to run away.

As Magnus was finally able to concentrate he hit another problem; no matter how hard he tried he couldn't detect Alec. There wasn't even the slightest presence, so he extended his search. Even once he had scanned through the whole city, there was nothing. He tried to push the boundaries of his search again, but this was always difficult, and large-scale searches could take days. He stopped the spell, and as soon as he came out of his trance he saw Jace and Izzy looking at him expectantly.

"He must have left the city."

"What? Alec would not do that," Izzy declared.

"If you last saw Alec where Camille died, and Maureen killed her in those tunnels…" Jace's voice was strained, and it sounded like he was horrified by the implications of his own words.

Magnus already knew that was the only other explanation as to why he couldn't detect Alec.

"No. He must be outside the vicinity of the city." Magnus stated. "I will set up a long distance search, but in the meantime perhaps I should track Simon down, seeing as he seems to know more than all of us."

Izzy and Jace quickly agreed with the idea, and so Magnus focused his magic again. This time it was a lot easier for Magnus to lock onto Simon, once Izzy had fetched his jacket he had left behind in his mad scramble to get away. As Magnus locked on to his target he conjured up a projection of where Simon was at that moment, and opened his eyes to watch along with Izzy and Simon. No sound filled the room, but the images alone were fascinating. It didn't take long for Magnus to deduce that Simon was in the Hotel Dumort, and was running up towards the top level. Simon appeared to be randomly wrenching open doors, not a good idea in a vampire establishment in daytime. Finally Simon seemed to hear something, and he headed towards the sound. The door he arrived at looked like it was crumbling on its hinges, but Simon didn't hesitate to rip it open, making the rotting wood shudder from the force. Simon stopped in his tracks as he saw what was happening inside the room. Alec had Raphael pinned to the floor, but that was not what struck Simon as odd, it was the fact that Alec and Raphael had their lips locked.

Simon gaped at the scene; Alec and Raphael were kissing, rather heatedly, and Raphael's hands were tracing up Alec's chest, as he had at some point taken off Alec's shirt. On closer inspection it seemed that the shirt had been torn away from Alec's body. The two other vampires were so caught up that they didn't notice Simon, so he audibly cleared his throat. Still he was ignored, and so he awkwardly knocked on the door, which shook as he banged on it. Finally both Alec and Raphael looked up at Simon, and after a moment of hesitation the two jumped apart.

"They know," was all Simon could think to say.

"I do not understand," Raphael said, looking flustered for the first time Simon had ever seen.

"Magnus came back, and he told Izzy what happened…so now they know that something is up."

"Scopare," Raphael muttered, and he then rushed out of the room, leaving Alec and Simon to stare at each other.

"Not that I'm judging or anything, but what did I just walk in on?" Simon asked.

"What do you mean?" Alec replied.

"You and Raphael, I was just wondering, you know, what all that was about."

"What was what about?"

"Uh, Alec, I just saw you two making out."

"No you didn't."

"What?" Simon asked, taken back.

"I don't know what you think you saw, but we were not making out."

Simon stared at Alec blankly for a while, before finally speaking again.

"Alec, you were on the floor with Raphael underneath you, with your tongue in his mouth, and his hands all over you. Your shirt is even lying in tatters at your feet. Don't try and tell me nothing happened."

"Yes, I think we would all love to know what's going on," Jace's voice suddenly filled the room as he, Izzy and Magnus all walked through a portal that had appeared in the room.