Chapter 10: Found

I AM SOSOSOSOSOSOSO SORRY! I promise I didn't mean to take so long! I feel so bad! Please don't hate me! I don't own anything!

Jace POV

I didn't want to panic them – especially Izzy and Magnus – but I had a feeling that I was doing a bad job at hiding my thoughts. I couldn't help it; Alec's pain was coursing throughout my body. While I could feel a dull ache before, Clary changing the parabatai rune seemed to open a floodgate. With the feeling of Alec's pain coursing through me, my sense of urgency increased by the second.

Soon, I was flat out running in the direction we needed to go. Surprisingly, no one complained or asked to slow down. Izzy had actually worn boots without heels for once and had no problem keeping up, and Magnus and Clary were close on our heels. We were all panting wildly when we finally reached our destination.

~rRr~

Izzy POV

I looked up at the cold grey building in front of me, dread settling in my stomach. My brother was in there? Oh, hell. For the first time since the nightmare started, I questioned if Alec was even still alive.

'Stop that!' I scolded myself. 'We would know if Alec was dead. Jace would've told us.' I was yanked out of my thoughts by someone trying to barge into the creepy, looming building.

"Jace!" I snapped at him and he paused in mid-climb on the chain-link fence.

"What?" he asked, attempting to make his face the picture of innocence. It didn't work.

"What are you doing on the fence?" I shrieked. He was going to eliminate the element of surprise!

"Uh, I'm going to get Alec?" he replied, with an obvious 'duh' in his tone, and continued climbing. "It's not as if that stupid witch don't know we're already here anyway." As much as I hated it, I had to silently agree. She sent that cursed box, so she obviously knew we would come looking for him.

I went to join Jace and found Magnus was already on the other side. Jace muttered something under his breath that sounded an awful lot like "cheater."

Magnus just flashed him a half-hearted smile. "Silly Nephilium. You didn't think I would get dirty just for a fence, did you?" he asked, before turning on his heel as we dropped down next to him. Jace took the lead again and led us past the entrance and to the side. I hoped it was warmer inside than it was out here. Even in a fur coat and thigh-high leather boots I was freezing.

Jace suddenly stopped and leaned against the side of the building, as if by pushing hard enough he could break through. "Here," he said. "Alec's in here, and we need to get him out. Now," he ordered, his voice now even more urgent.

Clary was already drawing a doorway onto the wall with a rune instead of a handle, since a portal would take too long. Once finished, she took a deep breath and stepped through it like something out of that mundane wizard movie (I only know because Simon made me watch all eight movies. It's ridiculously unrealistic). We all followed and stepped into a freezing room. It looked empty at first – and then I noticed the crumpled figure in the corner.

"Alec!" Magnus cried, running over to my brother's limp form. Jace, Clary, and I all stayed frozen with shock, unable to comprehend the state Alec was in. His leather shadow hunting gear was ripped, burned, and bloody, revealing much of the bruised skin underneath. His unnaturally pale face glowed in the dim lighting. It made me sick just looking at him – I couldn't even imagine what it would look like in the light.

Magnus was pleading with Alec to wake up and had wrapped a thick blanket around his thin form. Jace sucked in a sharp breath and Alec's eyes fluttered open and the foreign feel of the warm blanket. Magnus smiled reassuringly, but Alec's face was a mask of terror.

"Magnus?" Alec breathed, his voice hoarse from screaming. He paled when he looked around at all of us. Jace winced like Alec did when the latter pushed himself into a sitting position. "No. No you can't be here. You have to leave. You have to-" Alec broke off in a violent fit of coughing, wincing and holding his ribs.

"No." I didn't realize I had spoken until I noticed everyone looking at me. I ran over to Alec and pulled him into a hug. He looked even worse up close. "No," I repeated. "I'm not leaving you here. I love you Alec. I'm not going to lose you. Not again," I said. By the way Alec's eyes started to tear up, I knew he was thinking about Max, too.

"Yeah, Alec," Jace said. He was kneeling with his hand on Alec's shoulder. "You're my Parabatai. I'm not leaving you."

"Me either," Clary agreed. Magnus stayed silent, but he didn't really have to say anything. Alec knew Magnus wouldn't leave him; it would be stupid to even ask.

"No," Alec insisted. "You don't understand. It's a-" he cut off and paled suddenly, looking at something behind us. I turned and saw a woman dressed in gold with pink hair and cat eyes - a warlock.

"Rachel," Magnus snarled. Rachel snapped her fingers and suddenly all of us except Alec were on our knees, hands and feet tied together.

"Magnus," Rachel purred back. Her voice was filled with so much venom it could kill an elephant.

Rachel walked father into the room, reviling a man behind her. Sebastian.

"You fucking bastard," Jace spat.

Sebastian smirked and kneeled next him. "I look forward to torturing you as I did your Parabatai, brother," Sebastian sneered.

As soon as he finished speaking, Rachel attacked Alec. She had her hands clamped so tightly on my brother's shoulders that I could see blood welling up from her nails digging into his fragile skin. She said something in a foreign language and screams suddenly filled the frigid room.

Alec was screaming and trashing, trying in vain to get away from demon bitch attached to him. Jace quickly joined in, pain traveling through the newly widened parabatai bond.

I couldn't take it anymore. I could hear Magnus sobbing, cursing, and struggling to get free. Jace was thrashing around on my other side with Sebastian looking in amusement from Alec to Jace to Clary, who was pleading to make it stop and apologizing to Jace over and over again for messing with the parabatai rune. I carefully bent backwards, stretching to reach the thin dagger in my boot. Obviously the ropes were reinforced with magic – otherwise Magnus would be free by now – but my dagger was magic-proof, so maybe I could cut through them.

I finally wrapped my fingers around the hilt at the exact moment Alec fell eerily silent. I shifted my attention back to my brother and saw that Rachel had let go of him, letting him fall to the ground panting. Since we were reversed hog-tied, I was able to slice through the ropes on my wrists and ankles easily and without being noticed.

I turned to Magnus, figuring it was best to take out the weapon before the wielder. I gently touched his wrist to let him know what I was doing and slashed through his bonds. Magnus shot to his feet and immediately aimed a spell at Rachel. She turned at the last minute, and it narrowly avoided her. Unfortunately, however, she had been in the process of creating a long cut on Alec's arm, which was now deep and jagged.

Sebastian turned to me just as I set Jace free, and the latter tackled Sebastian to the ground. I set Clary free and she whipped out a seraph blade to help Jace. Looking around, I saw Magnus and Rachel going at it with deadly spells from both sides. Sebastian and Rachel both seemed too preoccupied to notice the unconscious boy in the middle of the room or me, so I ran over to Alec, cradling him, trying to staunch the bleeding on his arm with my coat, and begging him to wake up.

From my spot on the floor I was able to hear everything Magnus and Rachel said.

"You owe me Magnus!" Rachel shrieked, her shrill voice making her sound even more insane than she already did.

"What the hell do I owe you for?" Magnus practically screamed at her. "You tortured Alec! Why on fucking earth would I owe you?"

"For Jacob, you ass!" Rachel screamed. My ear drums were practically bleeding from the noise banging around the small space, but Alec didn't even flinch at the pitch of Rachel's voice. I doubled my efforts in trying to wake him.

"I was trying to protect Jacob! Magnus argued. "I couldn't have done anything other than what I did!"

"Lies!" the bitch yelled back. "His life was worth so much more than yours!"

I paused in my attempts to wake Alec as what she said sunk in. This nut job wanted Magnus to die for this person? He must have been her lover or something.

Magnus paused in his spell and lowered his hands. Jace and Clary must have subdued Sebastian because everything was suddenly deathly quiet. Looking over, I saw Jace and Clary watching the warlocks duel with grim expressions on their faces, Sebastian's broken body at their feet.

"He was my life, Magnus," Rachel whispered, heartbroken. "You killed my heart." She turned and snatched Alec up by his hair, taking me by surprise. She suddenly had a knife pressed to my unconscious brother's exposed neck. "And now, I will kill yours slowly while you watched."

She pressed the knife harder to Alec's neck and I could only watch in horror as blood started to bead around the blade and slowly, ever so slowly, trickle down his throat. There was a flash of light and too many things happened at once.

Alec collapsed back onto the floor. I shot to my feet. Jace caught Alec before he hit the floor. Clary lunged toward Rachel with a blade in her hand, but was too late, as Magnus had sent the evil psycho bitch flying backward into a wall. Magnus pushed his hands toward her, hands sparking. There was another flash of light as his hands touched her chest, and she collapsed onto the floor.

Silence. Then, "Is she… dead?" Clary seemed just as shocked as the rest of us at her innocent question.

Jace gently lowered Alec to the ground and leaned over to check for Rachel's pulse. "Yes," he said. Magnus seemed to be in shock.

I stood up and walked over to Magnus, placing my hand on the warlock's arm. "It had to be done Magnus," I said grimly. "She would have killed us all."

Magnus just nodded. He looked numb; just staring down at the dead warlock. I glanced back over to Alec and noticed Jace and Clary leaning over him. Magnus followed my gaze and seemed to snap out of his trance.

"Right," he said. "Right. Jace, Clary – move. Clary, could you open a portal to my house, please? Izzy and Jace – help me stop the bleeding," he ordered. We did as we were told. I took out my stele and drew a healing rune, even though I knew it wouldn't be able to do much – the injuries were too extensive.

"Magnus? The portal is ready," Clary piped from her spot over in a corner. Magnus nodded and carefully gathered Alec into his arms, gently holding the pieces of fur coat to his bleeding wounds. The warlock walked over to the portal, ready to step through, and paused, looking back at us.

"I'll let you know how he is later," he said, and then stepped into the portal, disappearing into thin air with my brother in his arms.

Woohoo! A longish chapter! This was so hard to type since I had it written on literally scraps of paper. And my handwriting is tiny! Well I really hope you guys like this one and I'll try to update soon! But I'm moving into my dorm in a few weeks and I need to get my room clean and everything packed. I'm officially a college girl and an adult! Yippee! Oh! And happy birthday Harry Potter! You would be 22 today! (Since in 2007 the 7th book came out and he was 17.) Oh! Also, I have another original oneshot story in the works – two actually – on figment . com as Nicole Kristine Hazouri, so be on the lookout for those! I post about my writings and stuff on twitter if you want to stay updated. My username is nikkinick94 (so like this one but nikki instead of nicki). Please review! It would mean so much to me if you reviewed on this and my original! Only a few chapters left! I love you all and every time I get a review I literally start jumping and dancing around with joy singing "I got a review! I got a review!" You seriously make my day! :D

~Nikki