Chapter 12
Blaine could feel his hands shaking at his sides as he made his way up the stairs to the Hummel's apartment. Clutching his fingers into fists, he tried to still the fidgeting digits, which helped slightly.
He was a Shadowhunter, damn it. He had faced groups of angry Downworlders before and could take down three demons single handedly, but making plans to meet his boyfriend's father for the first time? Forget it. He was a nervous wreck.
Pausing for a moment outside of the door that he knew led into the apartment that Kurt shared with his father, Blaine pulled out his stele and activated his courage rune on his collarbone and instantly felt most of his fear drift away. He could still feel a tightness in his heart though, but he couldn't determine for sure what was causing it. There was nothing he could do about it now anyways.
Stashing his stele back in his pocket, Blaine let out a breath to help calm any lingering jitters before knocking three times on the door that stood in front of him.
"I'll get it!" he heard Kurt's slightly muffled cry from inside, causing the side of Blaine's lip to perk up in a smirk. Seconds later, the door flew up to reveal the brightly smiling mundane. "Hi."
"Hey, I–" Blaine started, but his words got cut off as he was suddenly jerked into the foyer and a soft chuckle spilled from his lips as he felt Kurt's arms snake around his shoulders, pulling him close. "Don't tell me you missed me already," he mumbled into the boy's shoulder. "We just spent hours this morning together rehearsing for Regionals."
"We were working," Kurt stated in exasperation as he pulled out of the hug, keeping his hands resting on Blaine's upper arms. "That's not the same as being with you one-on-one."
Blaine's grin grew and he lowered his voice to make sure he was not overheard by whoever he could hear moving around in the kitchen. "One-on-one? Isn't your father here right now?"
"You must be Blaine?"
The two boys look up to find an older man in a baseball cup coming around the corner.
"Yeah," Kurt chirped. "This is my boyfriend, Blaine. Blaine, this is my dad."
Blaine extended his hand out in greeting. "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Hummel."
"Please, you can call me Burt," the man said letting go of the hand the Shadowhunter had offered.
"Burt?" Blaine asked turning back to his boyfriend to give him a questioning look and raised an eyebrow. "Burt and Kurt?"
"My mother's name was Katherine," Kurt noted with a small shrug. "With a 'K'."
Blaine's eyes swiveled from the father figure standing before him to his boyfriend and back again. "It's a ship name?"
The man chuckled softly at Blaine's reaction and placed a hand on his son's shoulder. "We wanted something special. A name that would really mean something to the two of us."
Blaine couldn't help the ache that pulled at his heart at seeing the look in Burt's eyes as he stared down at his son. This man's eyes shone with love towards Kurt. As he studied the man's posture and demeanor, the way he spoke and the clear look of acceptance in his eyes . . . Blaine couldn't find a trace of prejudice in Burt over his son being gay. Why couldn't his own father look at him like that?
"Come on in, Blaine. Dinner is almost ready," Burt stated, turning to head back down the hallway. "You boys could help set the table."
"So, where are you going to school, Blaine?" Burt asked as he spooned some mashed potatoes onto his plate.
"I've been home-schooled since I was a kid," Blaine replied, cutting up his chicken. "And I've got a job working with my cousins."
"That sounds nice. What kind of work do you do?"
"It's a rehabilitation job," Blaine stated, deciding to stick with his original explanation that he had first giving Kurt. Easier to keep the lies together that way . . . "We help people get back on their feet after some kind of accident or trauma."
"What about your parents?" Burt scooped some food onto his fork and started to lift it towards his mouth. "Do they do the same kind of work?"
Blaine nodded slowly, keeping his eyes diverted. He could feel Kurt's eyes on him, knowing that this was a difficult subject for him. "Yeah, they have a similar business set up in Ohio."
"Ohio?" Blaine could hear Burt's voice grow a pitch higher at the news. "Why did you move out here then?"
"Dad." Kurt sent his father a warning look, but Blaine shook his head.
"It's fine, Kurt," he soothed his boyfriend before locking eyes with the boy's father across the table. "My parents refused to have me living under their roof if I was going to be gay. They kicked me out of the house, but my cousins offered to take me in."
Burt sent him a small smile. "So, they're more accepting?"
Blaine nodded grinning back. "One of my cousins is gay too. His family has been a lot more accepting about everything. Honestly, I don't think I would have been nearly as happy as I am now if I had stayed with my parents."
"One of your cousins is gay?" Kurt perked up at the news.
"Yeah," Blaine nodded. "My cousin, Alec? He's dating Magnus."
"Alec is dating a war– He's dating Magnus?" Kurt asked, sounding excited for Blaine's cousin.
Blaine scrunched his eyebrows at his boyfriend in acknowledgement of his almost slip up in front of his father, but his attention was drawn away from the boy when a low hum sounded. Glancing down at his arm that was resting on the table, Blaine found the small, dark red rubies of his wristwatch pulsing and glowing with each other. Quickly sliding his hand under the table, Blaine turned back to his boyfriend to find he too had noticed it going off and the mundane slowly lowered his fork back down to lie on his plate.
"Everything okay, kid?" Burt asked from across the table. The man's gaze was lingering on the edge of the table where Blaine's arm had once been.
"Yeah . . . Yeah, of course," the young Shadowhunter stuttered, his brain racking for an excuse to leave the table for a few minutes. "C–can I use your restroom?"
Kurt suddenly leaped up from the seat next to him. "Sure, I'll show you where it is," he exclaimed and practically dragged Blaine out of his chair and around the corner. "What? Is there a demon in our house now?" Kurt asked, lowering his voice as they made their way farther down the hallway.
Blaine gently pulled his arm out of his boyfriend's iron fisted grip and shook his head. "I doubt it," he groaned, mimicking Kurt's lowered tone. "It's probably on the roof . . . or crawling up the side of the building." He spun around to face the mundane as they neared the front door. "I'll just take a quick look around the premises; see if I can find it. If I can't, I'll contact Izzy to come and do a more thorough search. Just . . . keep the door unlocked for me? It would be easier to keep your dad clueless if I don't have to knock to be let back in again."
Kurt quickly nodded his head. "Of course, but what are you going to do if you find it? You don't have any of your weapons on you."
Blaine smirked at the chestnut-haired boy before stealing a glance back down the hallway to verify that Burt wasn't approaching. "First rule about being a Shadowhunter . . ." he explained, grabbing his hidden fighter's staff from his side and gave the pole a spin in the palm of his hand to trigger the blades to pop out of each end, "always be prepared."
Kurt stared, astonished, at the sudden appearance of the weapon. "What . . . How . . . ?"
Changing his grip slightly, Blaine allowed the blades to retract temporally back inside the staff. Blaine shrugged. "It's called a glamour. We use it to hide the fact that we are carrying weapons while we walk among mundanes. We can also glamour ourselves when we go out for missions."
Slipping out of his boyfriend's apartment, Blaine headed straight for the staircase, deciding to head for the roof first. From that perspective, he should be able to quickly check the whole perimeter of the building for the demon.
Reaching the top of the stairs, Blaine cautiously opened the door and peeked out, cringing as the hinges squealed from their lack of use. Not seeing the creature on the landing, the young Shadowhunter forced the door open just enough for him to squeeze through before quickly closing the noisy barrier behind him.
Walking towards the low wall that surrounded the rooftop, he glanced down at the sheer drop below him and scanned the brick wall for the dark monster. Not seeing anything, Blaine turned to check another side but froze when he heard scraping coming from somewhere behind him, accompanied by a gargling sound.
Slowly spinning around, the teenager located the source of the noise; a dark form was perched in an animal's hunting crouch on top of the door Blaine had just exited from. Long fingernails; like claws, extended out of the creature's human shaped black hands and were scratching against the shingles that were underneath him. The strange gargling noises continued as the demon rotated his head into an unnatural angle until Blaine was sure the thing was watching him.
Not taking his eyes off of the demon, Blaine twirled his staff around in his hand and heard the blades popping out once again before getting into a fighting stance. Shifting his feet a little, he waited patiently for the form to make the first move.
Before the beast could attack though, the door flew open below the dark creature and a pale boy with chestnut hair charged through and onto to the roof.
"Blaine, did you–"
"Get back!"
The demon let out a deep-throated screech before leaping off of its vantage point. The teen spun around just in time to see the black monster dropping on top of him and the boy was knocked onto his back.
"Kurt!" Blaine cried out in fear.
Unglamouring his seraph dagger, Blaine flicked his wrist and sent the weapon flying towards the demon, plunging deep into the creature's forehead. The dark form gave a last jerk before collapsing onto the body beneath him.
"Kurt!" The young Shadowhunter darted across the roof. Shoving the black form off of his boyfriend, Blaine kneeled over him. "Kurt? Are you okay?"
Giving the boy a quick look over, he found a large rip in the kid's shirt. Blood was already staining his clothes.
"Kurt?" Blaine tried again to get him to respond but the boy's eyes were starting to close. He let out a small moan, but nothing more.
Alec had just entered Magnus' loft to find the warlock standing next to his bar cart. He appeared to have been in the middle of preparing himself a drink, but was now frozen in place with a cocktail shaker gripped tightly in one hand.
"Magnus?" Alec called to him and watched as his boyfriend's attention drifted back.
"Oh, Alexander," the warlock greeted doing a fairly good job of acting like everything was okay, but Alec wasn't falling for it anymore. "I was just about to make myself a drink. Do you want one?"
"No." Alec shook his head and Magnus went back to fixing his own. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong," the warlock said, sounding calm.
"Magnus . . ." Alec moaned in frustration and took a step closer to the Downworlder. "I love you, and I can tell something has been bothering you for a while now. Whatever it is, I'm here for you."
"I appreciate it, but I'm fine."
"No, you're not," the Shadowhunter insisted. "I'm sorry, but I'm not going to leave until you talk to me. You shouldn't be pushing away the people that care about you when you are clearly hurting."
Magnus looked back up at his words. After a moment of silence, he placed his glass back down on the cart.
"When I was tortured in Valentine's body . . . that agony rune . . . It made me relive my worst memory. And now . . . I can't get it out of my head." Turning away from Alec, Magnus made his way over to the couch and took a seat.
Sensing that Magnus needed him close right now, Alec kneeled down right in front of him. "What is it?" he asked quietly. He could already see the warlock's eyes getting wet as he started to explain.
"I was nine years old when my mother found out what my cat eyes meant. She couldn't live with the fact that she had borne the son of a demon . . . so she took her life. I was the first one to find her."
"Magnus . . ."
"My stepfather found me shortly after," he quickly continued. "He screamed at me. He called me an abomination."
"What?" Alec's voice came out barely above a whisper, but Magnus heard it none-the-less and huffed.
"He was right," the warlock insisted. By now, the tears were starting to run down his face. "He blamed me for her suicide. He said that she hated herself for giving birth to a monster . . . So I lashed out. With all the magic I had . . . I burned him, Alexander . . . I murdered my stepfather."
Alec hated seeing his boyfriend like this. So broken. "You were just a boy," he said, trying to comfort him in some way. "You weren't in control of your powers."
But Magnus shook his head slowly. "No . . . Actually, I was." He paused for a moment, waiting for Alec to say something. When he didn't, he wiped a couple of his tears away. "I'm sorry . . . I never wanted you to see this . . . terrible, ugly side of me, of my past . . ."
"Hey," Alec spoke up softly.
Magnus had been looking off to the side as he talked, not being able to make eye contact with Alec as he discussed what he had done for fear of finding disappointment and ridicule on his boyfriend's face, but at hearing the caring tone in the man's voice Magnus slowly turned to lock eyes with him to find; to his surprise, only love and concern on his face.
Magnus couldn't help but flinch slightly as the Shadowhunter reached a hand up to cup the side of his face and he stared back at Alec with fearful eyes, terrified that this man wasn't going to want anything to do with him anymore after learning about what he had done.
Looking deeply into Magnus' eyes, Alec gently used his thumb to wipe away a few of the warlock's tears that were still pouring down his cheeks. "There is nothing ugly about you," Alec stated firmly in what he hoped sounded like a genuine and loving voice. To his relief, he saw the fear of rejection leaving the Downworlder's eyes and he pulled the man in for a hug.
The sound of the front door being shoved open drew the couple away from their bonding moment to find Blaine stumbling inside with a teenage boy gripped tightly in his arms. Seeing the pale skin and chestnut hair, Alec and Magnus quickly jumped to their feet and Alec rushed over to take the wounded boy from Blaine's arms.
"What happened?" Alec asked in a panicked tone at seeing the bloody shirt that was clinging to Kurt's body as Magnus gestured for them to place the injured teen on the other couch that was in the room.
"D–demon attack," Blaine sputtered out as he tried to get his breath back from his dash to the loft to find help. "He was scratched. I–"
Magnus snapped his fingers and instantly Kurt's red stained shirt was gone to finally reveal the hideous wound underneath. Three long, angry looking claw marks ran diagonally across his upper chest. Black, vein-like streaks were already beginning to branch outwards from the open wounds.
"What is that?" Blaine questioned, terror growing in his voice. Magnus rushed off towards his apothecary office only to return seconds later with a bowl and his arms full of various ingredients, which he quickly laid on the coffee table that was close by. "Magnus, what is it? Is Kurt going to be okay?"
"He's been infected with demon venom," Magnus stated with determination as he sorted through the items he had retrieved. "It's spreading fast. He doesn't have much time."
