Author's Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing! Just so you all know, you're all awesome for reading this and I am thrilled to have people enjoying my story. So Enjoy!
Chapter 12
Will does as he says he is going to: he gets drunk at the Devil, then goes and wanders the cemetery, speaking loudly to himself, loud enough to wake the dead, and then he goes to a townhouse close to the Thames and bangs on the door until the house's occupant howls in protest and finally opens the door.
"Thinking about me yet?" Will asks. He leers at Magnus, who frowns. Magnus is holding a letter in one hand and a glass on brandy in the other. He's dressed in baggy pants and an oversized coat. His eyes dart back and forth as he reads the letter.
"I was afraid you might show up," Magnus mumbles. "I knew I should have moved."
"Where's Archer?" Will asks.
"Camille took him. He was her subjugate, and of little use to me," Magnus says. "Come in." He turns around and walks down the hall. Will closes the door and follows him back to the parlor. Magnus finishes the letter, folds it, and places it in a desk as Will takes his coat off and tosses it onto a chair. Magnus finally looks up at him and gives him an unsteady smile. It is such a change from Magnus's usual confident demeanor, Will immediately takes notice.
"What's the matter?" Will asks.
"Nothing," Magnus replies. "Nothing at all. I'm just tired." Will has seen Jem lie enough about things that are the matter with him, and he knows not to pry. The truth will come out eventually.
"You could kiss me. It might brighten your mood," Will suggests. Magnus walks over and places his hands on Will's waist. He leans close to Will and Will turns his head. He closes his eyes, fully prepared to receive the kiss.
"No," Magnus whispers, his breath hot on Will's cheek. Will moans and throws himself onto the couch, kicking his feet like a child having a tantrum. "Glad to see you've made yourself at home." Magnus sits on the couch and Will lays his head in Magnus's lap.
"So was the letter from Camille?" Will asks.
"It's none of your business who the letter was from." Magnus replies. He runs his fingers through Will's hair, and his nails scrape at Will's scalp. Will closes his eyes and relaxes.
"So you don't want to talk about him?" Will asks. Magnus tugs on Will's hair and stares at the coffee table in front of them. The room is quiet but also feels dark and foreboding. Like every room of the first floor of the house with the exception of Magnus's room, the parlor lacks life. "Let's go to your bedroom."
"No," Magnus says. "I don't want to be tempted." Magnus twirls a bit of silky hair in his fingers and looks down at Will, a nervous frown on his face.
"You're concerning me," Will says, "but don't get used to my concern. I really don't care about your feelings."
"Of course not. That would go against your very nature," Magnus says. "The letter was from a warlock by the name of Ragnor Fell. I met him when I was very young and new at being a warlock. He saw me struggling and took me under his wing as a… tutor… of sorts. Just as I am with Tessa. He heard about my split with Camille and wanted to see how I was."
"So why didn't you want to tell me that your former lover wanted to see how you were?" Will asks.
"How do you know he was my lover?" Magnus asks.
"Well, he wasn't just your tutor. He was your tutor of sorts, so he must have tutored you in all sorts of things," Will says. "Perhaps you and he shared something beyond the study of sorcery."
"Sorcery," Magnus mumbles. "Do you know what was between us?"
"No. I could care less," Will says dismissively.
"He was my… first time… ever," Magnus says. "But don't worry. There are no feelings left between us. Ragnor and I were together a very, very long time ago. He is deeply in my past."
"You act like I care about what you feel for someone," Will says, "I don't."
"You lie," Magnus says. "You care. That's why you've still got your head in my lap and you've yet to change the subject. You care. You just have a backwards way of showing it."
"Don't flatter yourself. I don't care," Will says. "I'm only here because I was drunk and hoping you might want to have more meaningless sex with me. Now that I find that you want to talk about your past sexual partners…." Will starts to sit up but Magnus holds him down with a hand across his chest.
"We ended things amicably back in 1609. I wanted to travel, he wanted stability… It was for the best. He was just checking in. Seeing how I was doing this century." Will nods and Magnus continues raking his nails across Will's scalp. "You're allowed to care, Will. You can care about who I was with, who I want to be with…"
"But I don't care," Will insists. "I've spent the past two years going back and forth between Jem and so many girls, I lost count. I don't care who you might have loved five hundred years ago. I don't care who you loved five hours ago."
"You," Magnus says, "I was with you five hours ago."
"I should be going home," Will mumbles.
"Stop running," Magnus says.
"I'm not running," Will says, "I just really want to go home." He tries to sit up but Magnus again holds him down, and Will doesn't bother to struggle. He turns on his side, facing Magnus, slips a hand up Magnus's shirt, and sighs. "I'm just going to lay here until my head stops spinning."
"Take your time. I would hate for you to vomit all over my floor the way you vomited all over my bed," Magnus says.
"Oh, well, in that case, I'll just jump up and down and spin in circles," Will says.
"But I have my doubts about you even being drunk." Will pinches Magnus on the side and squeezes his eyes shut.
"You know, Will, love and happiness can only be found by people who want to find love and happiness," Magnus says.
"Love is foolish," Will says. "It's the easiest weapon to use against someone. As for my happiness, Mr. Bane, you barely know me, so don't you dare judge my mental state. I'm perfectly happy."
"Just as long as you believe that." Magnus gently rubs Will's forehead and then goes back to running his fingers through his hair.
"Do you have some sort of fetish with my hair?" Will asks. "You've made me hard." Magnus looks down at Will's pants and sighs audibly.
"Honestly, Herondale," he says. "You're the most easily aroused man I've ever met."
"I'm sorry. Jem has me trained quite well," Will mumbles. "Pretty much any touch lighter then a slap evokes some sort of reaction to my body."
"I can tell Jem is special to you," Magnus says. "You love him, right?"
"It's none of your business," Will replies. Magnus is silent, still running his fingers through Will's dark locks of hair. "It wasn't love, but it turned into something a lot like that. If he didn't love me and I didn't love him… perhaps the thought of losing him wouldn't be so unbearable. Our relationship has been based so heavily on being together because one day we won't be."
"I understand perfectly," Magnus says.
"I have my doubts," Will mumbles. "I had to get out of the Institute. Sometimes that place feels so stifling, and Jem… I just can't handle him right now. He had sex with Sophie and now he is taking her to the wedding as his date. He's leading her on. I can't stand to watch when he does things like that. He's not normal. He shouldn't be trying to have a normal life."
"Doesn't he deserve a normal life?" Magnus asks.
"The question isn't whether or not he has a normal life. It's a matter of what he does with that normal life," Will says. "Leaving behind me is a far cry from leaving behind a wife and a baby. His death is going to be awful enough. He should be making sure that when he dies, he leaves behind minimal heartbreak."
"But he's the one who is dying," Magnus says. "You can't expect him to make it easy on everyone. He has other things to concentrate on."
"I don't know expect you to understand what this is like," Will says, sitting up. "It's not like you've ever been with someone who is going to die. After all, your first love is still alive."
"So is yours." Magnus lays his hand on Will's shoulder. "You can't tell him what to do with the time he has left."
"Can I change the subject now?" Will asks. Magnus shrugs. "What are you doing Monday night… around six?"
"Monday at six is when I gather my league of gentleman warlocks together to discuss our plans for eventual world domination," Magnus says.
"But that violates the Accords," Will protests. Magnus frowns at him.
"At some point, you're going to need to learn about something called sarcasm," he says. "Monday is a pretty slow night for me. Lately, I've been coming home, dressing in the lovely outfit I'm wearing now, and sitting in this very room until I fall asleep on this very couch. Last night I read a few pages in a book. I'm incredibly busy, you see."
"I don't think that reading and sitting around makes you busy, but I'm not here to judge," Will says. Magnus closes his eyes and mumbles something to himself. "I have plans for us on Monday night."
"If they involve me naked in any manner, I'll take my books instead, thank you," Magnus says.
"The London Institute is hosting a wedding on Monday afternoon, and you're going to accompany me to the reception," Will says.
"I beg your pardon?"
"The Consul's oldest son Auggie got this poorly bred girl pregnant, and now they are getting married on Monday," Will says. "As Jem would say, you're going to be my… date of sorts. That's his way of saying that you're a date that doesn't necessarily have to be taken seriously. We had sex and now I want to attempt to make it seem like it was more than sex between us… which is what you did have in mind when you proposed this silly little challenge. Right?"
"Okay, scrap the drunken rebound sex. This is the worst idea you have ever come up with," Magnus insists.
"No, it's a perfect idea," Will says. "There will be food there. Food and cake. And me. I'll be there to. You don't have to dance or anything, it's just to prove a point."
"Which is what? Warlocks are people to?" Magnus asks.
"No. If Tessa is allowed to go to the wedding, I should be allowed to bring whoever I want, and if it's a warlock, so be it," Will says. Magnus closes his eyes and moans. "Mags, you know I hate to be wrong. Just come with me. I'll give you any sexual favor you want."
"I'll just have to wait five more days to collect on it," Magnus says. "I don't know, Will. My showing up at a Shadowhunter event is bound to infuriate some people."
"I infuriate people every day," Will says. "You shouldn't let your concern with upsetting people get in the way of you enjoying your life."
"You infuriate your own kind, all the time," Magnus says. "Leave me out of it."
"What are you afraid of?" Will asks. "It's not like anyone will know we're together. You're just someone to talk to. If you want, you can go with Tessa. I just want you there, Magnus."
"So you can rub it in Jem's face that you've moved on?" Will stops short of replying. "That's what I thought. I'll think about it but I'm not promising anything."
Will agrees to that, and they each lapse into silence. Will spends the time following the crown molding around the room with his eyes and marveling at the fact that he was there for three days and only saw the inside of Magnus's bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and parlor.
"So what was it like, living with Camille?" Will finally asks.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," Magnus dryly replies. "We were introduced about fifty years ago by a mutual friend. We started off casually and bought this house about ten years ago. We had little in common but somehow muddled through life together."
"Did you love her?" Will asks.
"Love isn't the right word for it," Magnus says. "I admired her, yes. I was infatuated with her, most definitely. Camille was very beautiful, and I do like beautiful things. But… I didn't love her for myself. I was with her because I thought she needed me… as if a vampire needs anything but blood. She somehow convinced me that she couldn't survive without me. She was very cold… not just temperature wise. You remind me of her."
"Am I to be flattered?" Will asks.
"Camille played a constant game. She was the master, and I was the cat trying to get the string she dangled before me," Magnus says. "Sometimes I got the string and sometimes she snatched it away to fast. Sometimes, others got the string. She wasn't faithful… I wasn't either… but whenever she entertained people upstairs and left me out of it… it always hurt. But the next day she would make it up to me, like I didn't have to lay in my bed and hear here talking and laughing with someone upstairs in her bedroom."
"You didn't share a bedroom?" Will asks.
"Only when she wanted to. She left me to my own devices most of the time. I was her pet, just like her soulless subjugates. There when she needed me and wallpaper when she didn't," Magnus says.
"You could never be wallpaper to me. You're to colorful, for one. And the way you dress… you could never blend in," Will says.
"Are you insulting me?"
"Just your sense of fashion."
Magnus frown and musses Will's hair.
"Camille was very manipulative," Magnus continues, "It was always love on her terms. She only gave me what she wanted to and withheld the rest. Take this house, for example. We bought it together, but the upstairs belonged to her, and the downstairs to me. When we had… relations… I was permitted in her room, but she kept the door locked the rest of the time, and she asked that I stay downstairs as much as possible."
"So what does a vampire's lair look like?" Will asks. "Are there whips and chains and blessed metal shackles bolted to bloodstained walls?"
"You forgot about the beds of nails and broken glass," Magnus replies. "It's really nothing special. There's a bed she never used, plenty of furniture and candles…"
"We should have a look anyway." Will climbs off the couch and starts for the door.
"Camille didn't like me upstairs unless I was with her," Magnus says. Will stops and turns around slowly.
"Didn't you say she's gone and never coming back?" Will asks. Magnus nods. "Then what are you waiting for?"
Will pulls open the door and runs into the hallway Magnus curses, yelling for Will, but Will reaches the end of the hallway and tears up a flight of stairs with Magnus hot on his heels. Magnus reaches out and tries to grab the back of Will's shirt, but Will is just the slightest bit faster and evades him.
"This is extremely impolite of you!" Magnus yells. "Running through my home…"
Will gets to a door and throws it open. He steps inside. "By the Angel!" Magnus slams into Will's back and tries to look into the room. "Have you ever seen a bed this large?" Will runs into the room and leaps onto a bed that is at least twice the size of the one he has at the Institute.
"Get off the bed!" Magnus exclaims. He looks up at Will, a distraught look upon his face. Magnus puts his hands out and tries to grab at Will, but Will steps backwards, his boots smearing mud across the covers.
"Or what? You'll subdue me with your hocus-pocus?" Will asks. His face breaks into a grin and he begins to jump up and down on the bed. Each bounce sends him closer to the ceiling and he starts to laugh. It begins in his stomach, just a low chuckle, but after a few breathes, it's evolved into a hysterical, high pitched laugh.
"Just get off the bed, Will. I don't want to risk you falling off and getting hurt," Magnus says.
"So what if I got hurt? You could heal me," Will says. "You'll save me, Magnus Bane!"
"It's not that simple. There are limits to my powers when they're directed towards you," Magnus says.
"Jump with me!" Will cries. He claps his hands and continues his bouncing. Magnus folds his arms across his chest. "What's wrong, Mags? Are you too old to jump on a bed? Do you just want to go back downstairs and sit in the parlor and wait for Camille to come back? Do you want to spend another fifty years playing cat and mouse?"
"I'm just not in the mood to jump on the bed," Magnus says. "I wish you would get down."
"I'll get down if you come up first," Will says. He holds his hands out and smiles to Magnus. "Please?"
Magnus curses beneath his breath and climbs onto the bed. He grabs Will's sweaty hands and begins to jump up and down with him. He tries not to smile but soon, he's laughing with Will as they try to see who can jump higher. Finally, a bed spring snaps and Will plummets onto the mattress, pulling Magnus down with him. Magnus's elbow hits Will in the nose and there's suddenly blood among the laughter.
"I told you so!" Magnus exclaims. He touches Will's nose and delivers a spell that stops the bleeding. Will lays down on his side, trying to catch his breath, and Magnus lays beside him. Will moves closer to Magnus, resting his chin on Magnus's shoulder, his swollen nose close to the warlock's neck.
"Jem and I were jumping on the bed this one time when we were twelve and Jem fell off. He bumped his head pretty hard and got knocked unconscious…and I haven't jumped on a bed since," Will mumbles. "I haven't had that sort of fun since I was twelve."
"I understand the need for it now," Magnus says. He reaches over and tucks a bit of Will's hair behind his ear. "You're going to need your stele."
"It's downstairs in my coat pocket," Will says. Magnus begins to climb off the bed but Will grabs him and pulls him back. "It's just a bloody nose. I get one twice a week. Lay with me. Don't leave me." Magnus sighs and lays beside Will. "You said there were limits to your powers when they are directed at me. What did you mean?"
"It just has something to do with what we are. If you were anything besides a Shadowhunter, my spells would work on you. If you were injured by a demon, I could heal you. But as far as injuries not demonic in origin, I can only keep you alive. I can't heal you," Magnus explains. "Take your nose, for example. I got the bleeding to stop but it's still broken and you're still getting two black eyes as we speak."
"I'll be fine," Will says. "I'm just glad you got the bleeding to stop. It proves your kind is good for something."
Magnus shakes his head and runs a hand through his hair as he looks at Will. He rolls over, and folds his knees up so that they rest against Will's knees.
"You know this isn't a good idea," Magnus says.
"What? You and I, a Shadowhunter and a warlock, lying on a vampire's broken bed?" Will asks. "Oh, by the Angel… what if she comes back? Where will she sleep?" Will giggles hard enough to make his nose bleed again. Magnus performs another spell.
"You and I, together, in this way, is not a good idea," Magnus says. "Maybe we should call the whole thing off. Or make it just sex between us. We'll never have anything tangible…"
"I don't want it to just be sex. I want it to be jumping on the bed until it breaks," Will says. "I want it to be this. You can't offer me everything you've offered and then take it off the table because you're afraid that some people might not want to see me spending time with you."
"It's not that," Magnus says. He rolls onto his back and looks up at the ceiling. Will reaches over and rubs Magnus's hand with his palm, and Magnus flips his hand over so that they are palm to palm.
"Then what is it?" Will asks.
"It's complicated," Magnus replies. "We'll talk more tomorrow. The usual place, at the usual time."
"I'll be there," Will says.
It's past midnight when Magnus finally shows Will to the door. They promise to see each other in the morning, in the library, and each avoid a good night kiss. Then Will returns to the Institute, walks inside, goes up to his room, and climbs into bed. He's just about to fall asleep when his door opens, and Jem sneaks in. Jem climbs into Will's bed, puts his arm around Will, and lays his hand on Will's chest.
"I couldn't sleep," Jem whispers. He kisses Will between the shoulder blades and falls asleep. Will stares at the wall and pretends he's in Magnus's arms.
Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Here is a teaser:
"Ragnor didn't write only to see how I was," Magnus says.
