A/N: Here is chapter nine guys! Thank you for sticking with me after such a long wait
you're all so awesome!

Disclaimer: I don't own TMI, Magnus, Alec
or any of CC's characters :*(

(I apologize for any typos or mistakes)

Chapter Nine

Alec left Magnus' apartment feeling uplifted, like he could take on anyone who wanted to take him for his tail. Magnus told him to be careful though, to not look for trouble and to lie low for a while. Being a shadowhunter and all, Alec had said that that was harder than it sounded. But all the warlock said in response was to try his best to stay away from danger, even if it meant pretending to be ill or tired, because they didn't know who knew about his secret and who didn't.

The sky hinted at rain in the darkness, the stars invisible behind the thick clouds. Alec picked at his nails as he walked the streets of Brooklyn, trying to come up with believeable excuses for Jace and Isabelle as to why he'll have to stay in the Institute for a while. If it did rain, that could be excuse number one. And now that Jace and Clary both knew about who it was, he could use it as an excuse much more often.

As he walked, something suddenly came back to him. A memory of what had came to mind when he had been out cold because of Abbadon. The letter she had written him that Hodge gave him before he died. How it had ended had always struck him as odd.

Someday I'll come back for you.

What did she mean? Why would she come back for him? She ditched them Isabelle was born and, apart from the letter, never showed the slightest of interest in coming back. She had left because she didn't want to deal with having a mutant son, she hated him. She ditched him and Isabelle and never came back because she couldn't accept her reponsibilities and hated who she was. She had never accepted her heritage and therefore didn't accept what her genes had made Alec become. Why would she ever come back?

She never would because she believed Alec was a monster, if she said that wasn't the case.

Alec himself had accepted this over the years, knowing somewhere in his heart that she was correct and had every right to leave him. But he could never bring himself to forgive her because, since she left, Isabelle was raised without a mother. Isabelle needed a mother. His sister had always claimed that it didn't bother her at all, that Hodge had been a brilliant guardian and had given her everything that her mother hadn't. But Alec knew she was lying. It was in Isabelle's nature to hide her emotions and she would never let people think that she needed someone.

It broke Alec's heart that Isabelle believed that she had to hide herself from everyone else. And that was because of his mother. And if she ever did come back, Alec wasn't sure if he wanted anything to do with her.

His senses pricked up to the sound of footsteps behind him, both of them almost insync. The first instinct is obviously to believe that it's just two people walking in the same direction as him which is easy to believe. But after what Magnus had told him about the amount of Downworlders that would be after him if they knew the truth, Alec had to think into it further and come to the conclusion that there was a possibility that these people behind him were following him.

What would people after him would he do? Did he have the authority to kill them if he had to? He was capable of doing it, he had came to Magnus' apartment with his usual weapons hidden in all the usual pockets and loops and holsters. Would he be the one at fault if they tried to . . . what was it they wanted to do? Kill him? Kidnap him for his scales? What exactly were they going to do to him if they got their hands on him?

The footsteps were getting closer, Alec could practically feel them breathing down his neck.

"Alec! Look out!"

Recongizing his sister's voice, Alec spun around just in time to duck when a guy he didn't recognize took a swing at him. Almost instantly, Isabelle was ontop of the guy, her thin arms wrapped around his neck and her legs around his waist. She grappled with the man for about ten seconds before she managed to drag him to the ground. Clary appeared and leaped ontop of the guy, fumbling with a seraph blade (okay, who gave Clary a seraph blade?!) and holding it over her head as if threatening to drive it into his chest.

"Alec," Isabelle gasped, scrambling out from underneath the man. She jumped over him to get to her brother and attacked him in a hug. "Oh my angel, Alec, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine?" Alec replied, sounding as if he was asking a question. "I wasn't really in . . . danger?"

"Clary saw this guy before," Jace said, materializing beside them. "He took a photograph of you when the vampire threw the water at you?"

"Oh," Alec frowned. "Right."

"Wait, where's the girl?" Clary asked, the seraph blade still hanging over her head. "The blonde one! Where did she go?"

"Oh, the hooker?" Jace asked, scowling and looking around him. Alec looked over her shoulder in search of the woman they were talking about but saw no one. He slid his hand into his back pocket and pulled out the small crinkled photograph Magnus had given him of his so called 'ex' just for reference because, even if this Camille woman wasn't in New York, the warlock still felt he should still have it.

"Is this her?" Alec asked, handing Isabelle the picture.

Isabelle's eyes widened and her mouth fell open. "Uh-huh," she nodded. "That's her. Do you know who it is?"

"Camille Belacourt," Alec answered. "She's . . ." What was she exactly? A crazy ex of Magnus Bane? A nutjob who's obsessed with the mer-folk? Well, Magnus had certainly been wrong anyway . . . Camile was most definitely in New York.

"What do you want with my brother asshole!" Isabelle snapped, snapping her boot down onto the man underneath Clary's chest. "Who do you work for?!"

The man grabbed Clary's face and pushed her off of him, hitting Isabelle's boot off his chest. Clary yelped as she fell sideways onto the ground and hit her head off the road. Isabelle stamped her foot down, digging her heel into the guy's hand. He screamed in pain and grabbed her ankle, sitting up and trying to pull it out. Jace kicked him square in the chest and knocked him flat again.

Alec, concerned about Clary, turned around them as the other two yelled at Camille's accomplice for information. The red head lay on the road, unconcious from the hit. A small trickle of blood came out of her temple, leaking down the drain that sat by her head. Alec felt her pulse, relieved to find it beating normally. She was going to be fine, thankfully. He pulled his stele out of his jacket pocket and carved a healing rune into her arm, just to be on the safe side.

"What does Camille want with my brother?" Isabelle demanded to know. When the man refused to answer, Isabelle ground her heel harder into the ground, so much so that blood started spilling out to mingle with Clary's.

Alec lightly tapped Clary's face. "Clary?" he whispered. "Clary, are you okay?"

Clary squeezed her eyes shut tighter and moaned. "What happened?" she asked.

"You just hit your head, that's all," Alec replied.

"Is she okay?" Jace asked.

"Yeah, she's fine."

"Answer me!" Isabelle roared.

"Okay Izzy, calm down," Alec said. "I doubt yelling is going to help anyone." Isabelle looked at him incredulously, as if he had just told her that he was a rainbow barfing unicorn that pooped solid gold. "Seriously, someone might hear you if you shout any louder."

"You sound just like him, you know that?" she said. "Angel, he said the exact same thing to me. That's not cute, that's scary."

"Who said the same thing as me?" Alec asked.

Isabelle shook her head. "Not the time to talk about it," she said. She dug her heel into the man's hand again, making him scream in agony. "Talk chump!" Alec rolled his eyes and sorted Clary out, putting her into the recovery position and pulling her hair back. Something rattled behind him and he looked over his shoulder, frowning when all he saw was Jace at the end of the street, checking the alleyways for Camille. Shaking his head, he turned back around and unzipped Clary's jacket to loosen the restriction on her body.

Alec crossed his legs and watched over Clary as Isabelle continued to relentlessly scream at Camille's sidekick. Somehow, he wasn't disturbed with the news that Magnus' ex was in New York-and after him, no doubt-and found himself feeling quite calm about the situation, as if the warlock's advice on how to defend himself had increased his confidence.

Isabelle's back was facing him as she straddled her victim's waist and threatened to wring his neck in if he didn't tell her what she needed to know. There was another rattle but Alec ignored it this time, thinking it was probably just Jace mucking about. Clary was back in the land of nod, sleeping on the road almost peacefully, and didn't show any sign of waking up.

When Alec began contemplating lifting her up while also prying Isabelle off the man and heading back to the Institute, when someone flicked his shoulder. He turned again, still seeing nothing, and felt a presence of an entity appearing behind him. A cold hand clamped over his mouth and dragged him to his feet. Alec struggled, thrashing in his captor's hold and trying to yell loud enough for Isabelle to hear him.

The only reason his sister really looked around was out of pure concidence and when she saw him, her face melted in horror. Her lips parted to yell at whoever had hold of him but the man underneath her lifted his fist and punched her in the chest, knocking her off him and onto the pavement. Alec screamed her name, his voice muffled by his assailant's hand. He was pulled backwards into the darkness when Jace came running back.

"Isabelle!" his parabati yelled.

"Not one word," a female voice breathed in Alec's ear, "or your sister will get it." Alec's heart was pounding in his chest, his blood pumping in his ears. He could hear Jace's seraph blade slicing into skin but he could not make out the crack of his baby sister's whip at all. He tried to pull out of his captor's grip but they would not give, instead their grip becoming tighter.

"Isabelle, where's Alec?" Jace exclaimed. She didn't answer, instead responding with a cracked cough. "Isabelle, answer me! Isabelle!"

Alec struggled, trying to get to his sister. He grappled at the hand over his mouth but it felt like metal was clamped across his lips, preventing him from moving it. "Rumour has it you're shacking up with Magnus Bane," the female voice purred. She snickered, "Black hair and blue eyes were always his favourite combo. I think that's one of the reasons we grew apart."

Oh shit.

Camille.

Camille had him right where she wanted him.

"Now let's get you to some water now, shall we?"

~xXx~

"MAGNUS!"

Isabelle pounded on the warlock's door, Jace's screaming making up for her lack of speech. Camille's fucker of a partner smacked her head off the pavement and she couldn't find the strength to speak because she was losing so much blood in her head. She cupped the wound at the nape of her neck and punched the crap out of Magnus' door with the other. Coupled with Jace's finger pressing against the buzzer without pause, they were certainly in for an earful when Magnus answered them.

The door opened to reveal a pissed off looking warlock. "What do you want?" he asked, exasperated. He took in the sight in front of him: Isabelle bleeding out, Jace a wreck and Clary hanging over his shoulder unconcious. "What the hell happened here?"

"They've got Alec," Jace said.

Magnus' feline eyes widened. "Who's got him?" he asked.

"Some bat crazy blonde!"

"She-she c-call herself C-C-Camille," Isabelle panted. "A-A-Al-Al-Alec t-told m-me."

If Magnus recognized the name, he tried not to show it. "Come in out of the cold," he said, stepping out the way of the doorway to let them through. "I'll treat your wounds and then you can tell me what happened." Isabelle felt light headed but the healing rune on her arm gave her the strength she needed to walk. Jace held onto her elbow but passed her over to Magnus as they entered so that he could carry Clary properly.

Magnus helped Isabelle settle onto his chair, telling Jace to put Clary on the couch. "Tell me everything," the warlock instructed as he went to his kitchen and started mixing some potions together. Jace explained everything to him, sparing no detail as he recounted everything.

"I didn't see who it was that took him though," he concluded. "When I got back Camille's accomplice was attacking Isabelle and Alec was gone."

"I-I s-saw," Isabelle said, clutching her chest and trying to loosen the coil in her chest. Magnus came back into the living area and handed her a vial of orange serum. She downed it all in one, the magic immediately freeing her voice box so she could speak smoothly again. "It was definitely Camille. Alec showed me a photo of her and it was most definitely her. Who is she?"

"An . . . aquaintance of mine," Magnus answered. He went to Clary and lifted her head so she could swallow some yellow liquid he'd put together in a similar vial. "She's obsessed with mer-folk, in love with the idea of the money that she'd get for its scales and has always wanted one for a pet. She's truely unstable."

"Mentally?" Jace asked.

Magnus shrugged. "A bit of both. So, you're saying she's taken Alec?"

"Yes," Isabelle confirmed. "Her partner is dead, Jace took care of him, but she was long gone by the time he killed him. Do you know where she is? Does she have an apartment here or anything? Somewhere where she might have taken him?"

Magnus sat down and ran a hand through his hair. "There's three possible places she could be," he answered.

"Well let's go!" Isabelle stood up too fast and took a light head, stumbling backwards into the couch and falling back into the cushions.

"You're in no condition to go anywhere," Jace said.

"I'm not sparing a single second that I could use to search for my brother," Isabelle said defiantly, pressing her hand harder against the wound and got up slower. "And I'm sure Magnus feels the exact same way, right Magnus?"

The warlock winced and looked at her with a pitiful expression. "Jace is right," he said. "What if you found them in the state you're in? Would you be able to fight them off? Somehow I don't think you'd have the strength. You'd be deadweight."

"Deadweight?! How dare you!" Isabelle accused.

"He's right Izzy," Jace said, not sounding too pleased with having to say that Magnus was right. "You're not fit enough right now. And we need someone to look after Clary while we try to find him."

"I'm not going to babysit your girlfriend!" Isabelle snapped. "Why can't Magnus stay?! He can tell us where these three places are and we can go look! This is my brother we're talking about here, I'm not going to sit around on my ass doing nothing while you two go out like the fucking Chuckle Brothers to find him!"

"Yeah, that won't work," Magnus said. "Camille's hideouts and difficult to get into. There's codes and puzzles to unlock the doors. As someone who used to know her, I know how to solve these codes and puzzles. And, you're right, I'm not going to sit and wait around for news on how Alexander's rescue mission is going."

"Alexander?!" Isabelle exclaimed. The hell? No one called Alec that, not even her when she was annoyed with him. "And so you just think I'm going to sit around? I don't think so!"

"Isabelle, please," Jace pleaded. "The parabati rune is burning me, he's in great danger. We don't have time to fight about this!"

Isabelle screamed in frustration and kicked the sofa, dropping her face into her hands. "Fine, leave. I'll look after Clary. Just be warned, though," she said, "I'm going to leave once she wakes up and you won't be able to stop me."

Magnus was already up and at the door, as if the thought of waiting any longer before going to save Alec was too painful to even consider. Jace mouthed, 'Thank you' at Isabelle and followed the warlock out the door. Izzy glanced at Clary, who was still out like light, and couldn't help feeling annoyed that all it had taken was a push to incapcitate her.

'Please save my brother Magnus,' she pleaded in her head. 'He's all I have. Please.'

And then, as if by magic, the warlock's voice came into her mind.

'I will do everything I can. He's all I have too.'

A/N: duh, Duh, DUH!
Heh, I'm glad to finally be writing some action!

On a different note, do you guys like the new cover photo? I made it myself! ^_^

Please R&R! :D