Leaving the Nest

They stood on the front steps of the brownstone house. Cars occasionally rushed past on the street, but for the most part it was quiet. The time being around ten at night probably had something to do with that. For the fourth time, Gennyfer raised her hand to ring the doorbell. Once again, she stopped before she would have rung the bell. "I'm not sure…"

"You'll be fine." Raphael insisted, also for the fourth time. He had to admit that he was starting to get a little annoyed, but he held back, remembering how worried he had been the first time he'd gone to see his family after becoming a vampire. "Ring the bell. Your neighbors might call the police if we stand here any longer." Gennyfer took a deep breath and finally rang the doorbell. Raphael heard heavy footfalls coming towards the door and guessed that it was her father.

He was the only person currently in the house who worked the night shift at the local hospital.

The dark-haired man who opened the door blinked unbelievingly. "Genny?" Gennyfer smiled carefully.

"Hi Daddy. I'm home." Her father looked at her for a few moments. Then he pulled her into a hug, tears running down his face. Raphael stepped back and tried not to get in the way.

"My baby girl." Gennyfer's father sobbed. "Amos told us you were dead!" That mutt. He couldn't have just not told them anything? Then again, he was what Stephan would classify as a 'nice guy', and probably felt obligated to give Gennyfer's family closure.

"I'm fine Daddy. I ran into a little trouble, that's all." Her eyes began to well up and Raphael hoped that she would be able to stop herself from before she dripped bloody tears all over her father's shirt. As if responding to his thoughts, Gennyfer sniffed and stepped back. She gestured towards Raphael. "Daddy, this is my friend—"

"Raphael?" her father interrupted with surprise. "Is that you?" Raphael looked into the man's eyes. He recognized them, even after so many years.

"Abilio." he breathed. The last time he'd seen his baby brother he had just been starting high school. That was also the year that their mother died and Raphael stopped visiting his family.

Abilio wrapped his brother in a cautious hug. "You little desertor, you haven't visited any of us for years! Have you forgotten about tu familia?" Raphael hugged him back.

"I've been a little busy." he said honestly. Abilio let out a choked laugh.

"Of course you have, Mr. Hechicero Inmortal."

"Immortal sorcerer?" Gennyfer mouthed to Raphael over her father's shoulder.

"Later." Raphael mouthed back. Gennyfer cleared her throat, breaking up the hug.

"Would either of you care to explain what you're talking about?" she asked, looking between her father and her…uncle? That was a strange thought.

"I'm your father's older brother." Raphael said.

"Oldest." Abilio corrected. Gennyfer blinked.

"Oh. That's not weird at all." She squinted up at the sky. "On that note, Daddy, you are going to be late for work if you don't leave now."

Abilio looked between his brother and his daughter. "But…" Raphael shook his head.

"No buts. We can talk later."

"We'd better." Abilio said. He fixed each of them with his listen-to-me-or-else look, another thing about him that hadn't changed, and rushed back inside to grab his work bag. After locking the door as quietly as possible, his wife and son were sleeping inside, Abilio walked with Raphael and Gennyfer to the bus stop. When the bus arrived he gave each of them a hug and waved at them through the window as the bus pulled away.

"Well." Gennyfer said, looking up at the stars again. "I'd say I have about five minutes to get to school. What would you say?" Raphael looked at her with barely veiled surprise. School?

"School?" he asked aloud. Gennyfer giggled.

"Well, Uncle Raphael, BAA is a very interesting place. If you run with me, I'll tell you about it."

"Don't call me 'uncle'." Raphael muttered. Gennyfer smirked. They began running inhumanly fast and it only took them two minutes to reach the grey brick building that was Brooklyn Academy of the Arts. Fortunately, everything interesting about the school could be summed up in one sentence: "The only night-shift arts high school in the United States." It was also where Gennyfer had met Amos, they were both 'majoring' in vocal music. Raphael didn't know what would happen if his niece ran into the werewolf again, but she did promise not to kill anyone.

School ended at four in the morning, so Raphael decided to talk care of all the clan problems that he may or may not have been neglecting slightly. This included having a talk with the second in command of the werewolf pack that Amos belonged to so that they could apologize to each other for the previous night's fiasco.

By the time he had finished everything school was out and he arrived in front of the building just in time to see Gennyfer caught up in an argument with Amos. He kept back, ready to interfere if it looked like things were going to get violent, but he wasn't the least bit surprised when Gennyfer pulled Amos towards her and shut him up by kissing him, hard. Two girls and a boy who were standing behind them grinned at each other.

"So, I guess that means you've made up?" the girl with green hair asked as Raphael approached.

"Gee, what do you think?" the boy said sarcastically, rolling his eyes, crossing his arms, and nearly hitting the girl with the portable easel he was carrying. The second girl rolled her eyes up to the sky and seemed to be begging for an answer as to why her friends acted like this.

Gennyfer broke off the kiss when she realized that Raphael was there. She looked at him with a wry smile. "Hi."

"Hi."

"And who are you?" the green-haired girl asked flirtingly. Gennyfer cleared her throat.

"This is my cousin, Raphael. Raphael, these are my friends Raychel, Emily, Milton and Amos."

"Another cousin?" the green-haired girl, Raychel, asked. Gennyfer nodded.

"My dad has six older brothers, remember?" her friends nodded. It wasn't a bad cover really. Amos looked carefully at Raphael.

"Gen, do you have to get going?" the werewolf asked. Almost unperceivably he tightened his grip around her waist. Gennyfer sighed.

"Jez wanted to fit in another lesson." She looked at her friends, who were all looking slightly confused at her statement. "I'll tell you guys later. I have to go."

"Walk with us." Raphael said quietly to Amos. The werewolf nodded and the three of them started walking towards the bus stop, though, obviously, the two vampires would not be talking the bus.

"You know the clan will not be happy about this." Raphael said, gesturing at Amos. "Nor will your pack." Amos growled quietly and Gennyfer gritted her teeth.

"Stupid old vendettas." Amos muttered. Gennyfer put a comforting hand on his tense arm.

"We can deal with it." she said carefully. "I know we can." Without getting one of them killed? Hopefully.

A bright scent suddenly reached Raphael's nose. He sneezed and frowned. "Shadowhunters." he hissed. Amos and Gennyfer became obviously more alert. Another scent blew towards them that made Raphael more worried, blood. Specifically, vampire blood. He scanned the sidewalk upwind of them and quickly caught sight of a black-haired man with bright red smears on his face running in their direction. The man looked towards them and Raphael recognized the Lightwood boy that Magnus was rumored to be dating.

"Shadowhunter." Raphael acknowledged haughtily when Alec Lightwood nearly dropped to the pavement beside them, panting. He must have been running for a long time; it took a lot to get a Shadowhunter winded. "Who did you kill tonight? Not one of my people I hope."

"Not me." Alec choked out. "Maureen." The insane vampire girl? Wonderful, she was causing more problems. He'd lost count of how many mundies she'd killed.

"Did you kill her? That would solve a lot of problems for me." Alec shook his head.

"She's killed Camille Belcourt." he said, having finally gotten his breath back. "She's claiming to be the new leader of your clan."

"What?!" Raphael exclaimed. "We are not werewolves! That's not how it works." He took a breath and checked his temper. "I must go back to my clan, to make my claim." He looked hesitantly at his niece.

"Go." Gennyfer told him. "I won't help your case, go!" Raphael nodded and ran off without a word. He ran as fast as he could to reach the Hotel Dumort first.

He ran to save his clan.

THE END