Summary: In the world we live in, people who fall in love can fall out of it. But that isn't the case with Alec and Magnus, because in the world they live in, a new magic is at work, finding for people their Soulmate: the one person they are destined for. What will Alec do when he finds out that his is a Downworlder, the very species he had always been told to hate?

Disclaimer: See chapter one.

What's this? An update? Yes, yes it it. I hope you enjoy it. And thanks to Angel for being an awesome proof reader!
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Chapter Eleven: Because Of A Ghost From The Past

Chapter summary: Along with a shadow from his past, the life the Magnus lead before Alec is pushed into his life now, and everything falls apart.
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"What do you think Camille wants to see Magnus for?" Simon asks no one in particular, leaning further into the gates of the Institute. Izzy and Jace are standing on either side of him, all waiting for the warlock and his soulmate to make an appearance.

It stays silent between them for a while, nobody knowing how to answer the question, until Izzy blurts out somewhat thoughtfully, "maybe she wants some fashion tips."

"Highly unlikely," Jace says, smiling slightly at the prospect. "Magnus and Camille are both really old," he says more seriously. "I suppose it's not that odd that they know each other. Maybe she thinks Magnus will help get her out of this mess."

"Or she's just buying some time," Simon suggests. Just then, two figures become more prominent in the distance, becoming clearer as they get closer. "They are here," Simon observes, pushing himself away from the wall to make his way towards the figures. Izzy and Jace follow to meet Alec, who is in his usual black jeans and sweater, and Magnus, who has his hair spiked, but surprisingly without his glitter. When they get to them, they quietly make their way into the Institute, Alec with his hands interlocked with Magnus'. Izzy smiles discreetly, happy that his brother is finally getting more comfortable with himself in his new found relationship.

"It's cold down here," Simon shivers once they reach the stone-bound entryway that leads to the corridor connecting to the Sanctuary. The Sanctuary is a massive room attached to the main body of the Institute through a narrow passageway, left deliberately unconsecrated as a holding place for demons and vampires, since those creatures cannot enter the Institute itself. The room holds no windows for obvious reasons - vampires burn in daylight - but witchlight torches the centre of the room, creating gloomy shadows in the corners that the light does not reach.

When they enter, a big stone-bound and pillared room of the Sanctuary welcomes them, leaving the hairs on their arms standing on end as colder air washes past them. "Spoke too soon," Simon says, holding his hands against his chest to keep him warm.

"I told you to go home when Clary was leaving, you insufferable brat," Izzy snaps, stepping further into the room. "Stupid mundanes!" She says to herself.

"Love you too, babes." And the blow to the stomach Simon receives from Izzy leaves Magnus laughing out loud.

Venturing further into the room, Magnus' laughter dies down as they take in the sight before them. Camille is manacled and bound to a pillar in the centre of the room with lengths of silvery-gold chain. It's crisscrossed across her torso, her knees, and her ankles, holding her completely immobile. Maryse is pacing back and forth near her, occasionally conferring with Kadir, her second, clearly trying to sort out some kind of plan. As they watch, Camille moves a little in her place, twisting her wrists behind her as if to get more comfortable. The vampire's face crunches up in pain instead, giving out a little screech.

"Blessed metal," says Alec, wincing slightly. "It burns them." He adds, for Simon's benefit. For a mundane who has been together with a Shadowhunter for almost a year, Simon knows next to nothing about their world. Probably best this way, or he'll be in as much danger as the Shadowhunters themselves.

When Simon looks about to throw up, Jace adds helpfully, "the manacles are lined to protect her wrists, but if she moves too much ..." he makes a sizzling sound just to see Simon squirm.

"Nice," Simon says, but the tone in his voice shows that he thinks it's anything but.

After a while, Maryse finally seems to realise that they are here. She makes her way to them, Kadir in tow. Camille looks up too, realising that more people are in the room. Upon noticing Magnus, the vampire goes still, her entire focus on the warlock as if he is all there is with her in the cold room. Izzy notices from her peripheral vision, but takes no note of it. She did ask to speak to the warlock after all.

"Alexander," Maryse says with affection, making her way closer to them. "Magnus, thank you for coming on such short notice," she adds somewhat awkwardly.

Alec muffles a noise of annoyance, but smiles at his mother nonetheless. "Happy to help, Mrs Lightwood." Magnus responds, gaining another muffle of annoyance from Alec. Although the blue eyed Shadowhunter seems irritated about being interrupted, his heart warms at the lack of menace between his Magnus and his mother.

"I still really don't see what any of this has to do with Magnus," Alec says, stepping closer to the warlock.

"She is suspected of having an involvement in the making of the Endarkened Ones." Maryse explains, as if they don't already know. "We need information from her, and she will only talk to Magnus Bane."

As his mother speaks, Alec looks up to take a look at Camille once again, trying to decipher why she wants Magnus. The warlock follows his gaze, and for the first time—or so it seemed to Izzy—looks at Camille directly. Something crackles between them, a sort of energy that Izzy thinks is much too dangerous for anyone else to be around. Magnus's mouth quirks up at the corners into a wistful smile.

"That is, if Magnus is willing." Maryse continues, a look of puzzlement passing over her face as she too catches the look between the warlock and the vampire.

"I am," Magnus says. "I'll talk to Camille for you."

Alec looks at Magnus with his eyebrows raised, his chest feeling much too tight for comfort. "You know her, then? Personally?" Referring to the use of the vampire's first name. He holds his breath, and realising it, he lets it go. He has nothing to worry about.

"We know each other, yes." Magnus says solemnly, as if wishing to say otherwise. "Once upon a time she was my girlfriend."

"Your girlfriend?" Alec chokes out, and the tightness in his chest increases - he has everything to worry about. "You dated a vampire? A girl vampire?" He questions in astonishment, hating that this is the first time he's hearing of this, realising why Magnus had remained so silent on the way here, and wishing he isn't so hurt by it as he is. He takes his hand out of Magnus'. Everyone else in the room looks around awkwardly, shifting from foot to foot.

"It was more than a hundred and thirty years ago. I haven't seen her since." Magnus says, reaching for Alec's shoulder.

Alec takes a step back. "Why didn't you tell me?" he demands. Alec hates how formal Magnus' tenor has become so suddenly, as if there's nothing but a professional relationship between them, not realising that this is how the warlock must be in front of the vampire: not himself.

Dropping his hand, Magnus sighs. "Alexander, I've been alive for hundreds of years. I've been with men, been with women—with faeries and warlocks and vampires, and even a djinn or two." Realising his audience, he looks sideways at Maryse, who looks mildly horrified. "Too much information?"

"It's all right," she says through cringed teeth, "I have business to discuss with Kadir for the moment. I'll be back." She steps aside, joining Kadir; they disappear through the doorway, but not before looking back to give Alec a sad smile. Simon, Izzy and Jace take their leave as well, sensing that they are unwanted.

"How many other people?" Alec asks when they are finally alone. "Roughly." He says, his voice choked, his body tense.

Magnus shakes his head, not believing that this is going on right now. Everything was okay not minutes ago. "I can't count, Alexander, and it doesn't matter. It shouldn't matter," he says, praying that Alec will just let it go. "The only thing that matters is how I feel about you."

"More than a hundred?" Alec presses. Magnus looks blank. "Two hundred?" he wants to know.

"Don't do this Alec." Magnus begs. "Please."

"Why so many?" Alec's blue eyes are so very bright in the dimness, and Magnus wants nothing but to reach out to him, make all this go away. "Do you get bored with people that fast?" his voice breaks, his eyes more intense, and there is no doubt what this is about now.

Magnus wants to take Alexander's insecurities away, but he can't seem to get the words out. Whatever he says just seems to close more and more of Alec off from him. "I live forever, but not everyone does." Magnus says so quietly that Alec nearly doesn't hear. In that moment, Alec looks as if someone has just hit him. He looks around the room, panic growing in his expression, looking for an escape - most probably. He looks as if he's trapped, and Magnus doesn't know what to do but to be honest - he can't lie just to make it go away, no matter how much he wants to.

"So you just stay with them as long as they live - or not even that - then you find someone else?" Alec steps back. It's like everything he thinks he knows is being ripped away from him, slowly and painfully; layer by layer. He looks up at Magnus, and wonders if he knows the warlock at all. They've shared secrets, dreams and hopes; he's given the warlock his past with that - which isn't much, considering he's only seventeen - and got nothing in return. Not this kind of past, anyway.

Magnus doesn't say anything for a while. He looks at Alec, his eyes shining like a cat's. "Would you rather I'd spent my life alone, before you?"

Alec's mouth twitches. "No." He answers. And it's not a lie. "I just wish you told me before, is all." Alec says, melancholy. "You evade any questions of your past like the plunge, while I tell you everything you want to know. You won't even tell me who your father is. I don't even know how old you really are -"

"Alec-" My past will only push you away from me, Magnus wants to say. He doesn't, and before he can say anything else, Alec turns away from him.

"I'm going to find Isabelle," and he's gone, leaving Magnus alone in the cold unblessed room.

Magnus just watches Alec go, his eyes glassy and sad, feeling as if all these past months hadn't happened. He feels as if these past few months with Alec has been a dream, like he'd suspected it was, because nothing that involves him can stay this perfect for long. Not when he's so shattered and broken.

The sound of clanking chains brings his attention to the whimpering vampire still in the room. "Eavesdropping, vampire?" He says, his voice cold and hollow.

Before Camille can reply, Maryse returns into the silent Sanctuary, confusion clear on her face. "Where's everyone?" she asks, looking around in puzzlement.

"They left," Magnus says.

Maryse rolls her eyes, as if to say, 'well that much is obvious', but instead says, "very well." She smoothes the front of her jacket down, though it lacks any wrinkles. "If you wouldn't mind…"

"I'll talk to Camille," Magnus finishes for her. "But I want to do it alone. If you'd like to wait for me in the Institute, I'll join you there when I'm finished." His voice sounds somewhat empty, and he does nothing to hide it.

Maryse hesitates, but doesn't object. "You know what to ask her?"

Magnus's gaze is unwavering. "I know how to talk to her, yes. If she is willing to say anything, she'll say it to me."

Maryse similes. "Okay," she says, turning her back to leave, but not before motioning the warlock closer. "Magnus," she says. "Whatever... complications in your past you think you are protecting Alec from, it hurts him ten times more not knowing." She says, staring down at the warlock. "He doesn't see it as protecting, he sees it as deceiving." She doesn't wait for a response, she simply turns on her heels and walks out of the room.

Magnus lets out a breath he hadn't realised he had been holding, and turns to the vampire across the room. "Camille," he says, when he is close to her. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?" He doesn't pay attention to what he's saying, not really. He is in too much of an affliction induced daze to care what comes out of his month - he senses all that Alec feels through their bond; the hurt, the confusion, the betrayal, and it's all too much to bear. He feels as if his throat is on fire, like his life is out of control because the past he's tried so hard to run away from is catching up to him. He endures it however, because he brought it upon himself. He knows he can't give Alec his past, he just can't. It'll do nothing but show his Alexander how truly messed up he, Magnus, is. And he really doesn't want that.

Camille smiles, oblivious to Magnus' internal conflict. Her skin looks whiter than he recalls, and dark spidery veins are beginning to show beneath its surface. Her hair is still the colour of spun silver, and her eyes are still as green as moss. She is still beautiful. Looking at her, Magnus understands why he might have thought he was in love with her, once upon a time. He understands why his weak pathetic past self became everything she wanted him to be, he sees how his younger self fell at her feet and did all the wretched things she asked of him. But understanding doesn't make it any less unforgivable, and it's something Alec can't know.

Magnus shakes his head, and really looks at her. In her, he sees London again. He sees the gaslight and smells the smoke and dirt and horses, the metallic tang of fog, the flowers in Kew Gardens. He sees a boy with black hair and blue eyes like Alec's. A girl with long brown curls and a serious face. In a world where everything goes away from him eventually, she was one of the few remaining constants. And he, foolish and naive, had thought holding on to her was all he needed.

"I've missed you, Magnus," she is saying, pulling Magnus back to the reality he doesn't want right now, the reality where Alec is hurt. And it's his fault. In her Magnus sees dozens of faceless mundanes being tormented, mundanes that he helped capture, and he much prefers this reality.

"No, you haven't." He sits down on the floor of the Sanctuary, knowing his legs won't hold him up much longer. He can feel the cold of the stone through his clothes, and he takes comfort in it. "So why the drama? Just stalling for time?"

"No." She leans forward, the chains rattling. "I have heard things about you, Magnus. I have heard that you are under the wing of the Shadowhunters, now. I had heard that you have won the love of one of them. That boy you were just talking to, I imagine. But then your tastes were always diverse."

"You have been listening to rumours about me," Magnus says coldly, too tired to indulge in her games. Her manipulations. "When you could simply have asked me. All these years I was in Brooklyn, not far away at all, and I never heard from you. Never saw you. Never even knew you were here." He says. He doesn't care that he didn't know, not really; he couldn't care less where the vampire is, and he was to make clear just as much. "There has been a wall of ice between us, Camille."

"I did not build it." Her green eyes widens. "I have loved you always." Magnus can smell the stench of desperation oozing from her undead body. She would say anything to save her skin.

"Love?" Magnus laughs. "You do not know what love is, Camille." He spits. "You left me," he says in a matter of fact voice. It has been a long time. "If love was food, you would have left me starved and desperate like an abandoned animal."

"But we had all of eternity. We still do," she protests. "You must have known I would come back to you-"

"Camille." Magnus is filled with impatience. "I don't need you; I don't want you, I never did. I have Alexander."

"You do, do you?" Camille has a sinister smirk taking over her lips. "What do you think he will say when he finds out about your past, huh Magnus? Will you still have him then? Will you still have him when he finds out his warlock was nothing but a Serf of a vampire? You -"

"What do you want, Camille?" There are blue sparks emitting from his lean fingers, his eyes are blazing almost red.

The vampire's chest rises and falls quickly, even though she doesn't need to breathe. She always has been one for theatrics. "I know you have the ear of the Shadowhunters," she starts. "I want you to speak to them on my behalf."

"You want me to cut a deal for you," Magnus translates.

She looks away. "Your diction has always been so regrettably modern."

"They are saying you are involved in the making of the Endarkened Ones, you and the New York clan." Magnus states. "Are you?" He lifts an eyebrow.

"They were just useless mundanes." she spits with no remorse. "They are more useful now, stronger. And my clan needs to feed. Raphael doesn't let them take what they are owed…"

"Is that why you did it? To claim the clan as yours once again?" When she stays silent, Magnus says, "you know what they do to those who murder mundanes, Camille."

She meets his eyes. "I need you to intercede for me, Magnus. I want immunity. I want a signed promise from the Clave that if I give them information, they will spare my life and set me free. I want an out."

"They'll never set you free."

"Then they'll never know who ordered me -"

"Ordered you?" Magnus muses, getting up from the hard floor. "Interesting wording, Camille. Am I correct in assuming that there is more to this than meets the eye? More than blood and winning back Raphael's clan? Because why would you do this to win back the clan, when it is the sole thing that took them away from you?" When she looks up at him shocked, he says, "I know about what you did, Camille, killing masses of humans just for blood, just for the thrill. Raphael caught you, threatened to report you. And like the coward you are, you run away."

"I- how did you…" for the first time through their conversation, her voice wavers.

Magnus continues as if she hadn't spoken. "How pathetic of you to come back here, doing the same thing to win them back… unless you're not."

She stays silent, like doing so will get her away from the situation, her chest moving rapidly up and down.

"If you want me to speak to them for you," Magnus says, "you have to tell me at least some small thing. A show of good faith."

Her smile returns, more brilliant than before. "I knew you would speak to them for me, Magnus. I knew the past was not entirely dead for you."

"Consider it undead if you like," Magnus says, too exhausted to argue otherwise. "The truth, Camille?"

She runs her tongue across her lower lip. "You can tell them," she says, "Raphael and the rest of the clan aren't involved, naturally; only a few from the clan were happy to follow me when I came back. Tell them that I was under orders when I drained them. It did not disturb me to do it, but I would not have done it unless requested to do so by someone else, someone much more powerful than myself."

Magnus's heart beat a little faster. They are finally getting somewhere, but it would be a lie for him to say he he likes the direction in which they are headed. "Who?"

But Camille shakes her head. "Immunity, Magnus."

"Camille-"

"They will piece my skin a thousand times with blessed blades, they will leave me out in daylight at the sun's mercy. And they will watch me as I burn," she says. "That is what they do to vampires who murder mundanes."

Magnus steps directly in front of her. "I'll do what I can, but I make no promises."

"You never would," she murmurs, her eyes half-lidded. "Come here, Magnus. Come closer to me."

He doesn't love her, not in a million years, but she is a dream out of the past and will most likely be dead come tomorrow, so he moves toward her, until he is so close he can touch her. "Remember," she says softly. "Remember London? The parties at de Quincey's?"

He had forgotten. Or more precisely, blocked it out. "Camille-" he chokes out.

"Remember Will Herondale? I know you do. That boy of yours, that Lightwood. They even look alike."

"Do they?" Magnus says, as if the thought has never crossed his mind.

"Pretty boys have always been your undoing," she says, a soft smile forming on her lips. "But what can some mortal child give you? Ten years, twenty, before dissolution begins to claim him. Forty years, fifty, before death takes him. I can give you all of eternity."

"I guess rumours have always been your undoing, Camille; you crave them as much as you need blood." Magnus says. He does nothing to lessen his malicious tone. She ruined everything for him, then, and now too. "They never give the full story, do they?" He asks. "Alec is immortal; he lives forever just like you and I."

The vampire gasps, as if the breath she doesn't have is violently being ripped away from her. "I heard- I mean, I was told… but I thought it was a lie. How could a Shadowhunter possibly -" she's interrupted before she can continue with her stream of stuttered words.

"Didn't the rumours tell you everything, Camille?" Magnus' eyes are shining green, and it's as if all the pain and all the hurt he feels, he could inflict it on the woman before her, and he wouldn't even care - that's how much she means to him: nothing. "Alexander," he says the name as if it's a prayer, "is my soulmate." He touches her cheek, pressing so hard that he can feel her sharp cheekbone.

"You do know that if it is true, they will have your head, when this is over. The Shadowhunters will not allow a filthy Downworlder to corrupt their own. Me on the other hand-"

"Could give me the past," he finishes for her a little sadly, pressing harder against her cheek- she can give him a past he doesn't want. "But Alec is my future."

"Magnus—" she whimpers.

The marble white Sanctuary doors open wide, revealing Maryse standing in the doorway, outlined by the witchlight behind her. Beside her, Alec stands with his arms crossing over his chest, his eyes still burning blue. Magnus' breath catches in his throat, all his attention brought back to all the pain he feels in his heart, in his head… everywhere. He wonders if Alec had heard any of the conversation between him and Camille through the door — surely not? Hopefully not.

"Magnus," Maryse says. "Have you come to some agreement?"

Magnus dropped his hand, clenching in into a solid fist as he steps back from the vampire. "I'm not sure I'd call it an agreement," he says, turning to Maryse. "But I do think we have some things to talk about."

When Magnus tries to catch Alec's eye on his way out, the Shadowhunter does the exact opposite; he stares at his witchlight, his shoes, the ground… anywhere but at Magnus. The warlock feels his heart pounding hard in his chest, against his ribs, and it's like he cannot breathe. He doesn't acknowledge the single tear that slides down his caramel cheek, being too numb to feel it.

Alexander, tell me how to fix this, he thinks. Please. _

Love it? Hate it? Drop a reviewing letting me know. Next chapter is sort of planned so hopefully shouldn't take long. I have exams though so no promises. Thanks for all the support so far!

~Just A Girl