It's so sad that this story is going to end soon! :( There's only like a couple more chapters I think…then it's over! *PAINSTAKEN GASP* I'm going miss all my peoplezz! Anyway, sorry about that. I had a moment. Hope you like the new chapter! Review plehz! ;)

Chapter 12

Watching Simon's dark figure disappear around the block, Alec worried at his bottom lip. This whole operation was risky. Simon, of course, wasn't in any danger, but Katherine was most definitely in harm's way. And if Katherine got hurt one way or another, Magnus would suffer nearly as much.

Bunching his jacket around himself, Alec turned to head into the abandoned apartment building they were using as a hideout. He, Clary, and Jace had seen Simon off, giving him precise directions to simply lure the people out of the building. Alec led the way to the broken window he'd picked out earlier to observe from. Through the dirt-smudged, jagged glass, he could distinctly see Simon sauntering casually up the walkway.

The address Magnus had pinpointed Maia at was a rundown little bug of a building. It crouched like a roach while it nestled between two much taller structures. There were absolutely no windows, and Alec deduced that most of the experimental goings on happened somewhere underground, beneath the tiny pest of a building.

"You're so tense," commented Magnus's smooth voice. He stood behind Alec and reached up to massage his shoulders.

"There's a lot to be tense about," replied Alec without taking his eyes from Simon's silhouette. He'd reached the door and was reaching to press the buzzer. The plan was for Simon to bring as many people out as he could with the bait that his car had broken down—a scene which Magnus provided. At the end of the street there squatted a beat-up, red Cadillac. Magnus had mysteriously summoned the vehicle. Under the circumstances, Alec hadn't bothered to ask where he'd gotten it.

"I still say this was a bad idea," Clary muttered. She leaned against the wall, looking out the window next to Alec's. The door had been answered and Simon was now speaking to someone across the threshold. He gestured toward the car then the figure in the doorway disappeared for a moment. Then, he reappeared with several others and the group followed Simon toward the road. It looked like the plan was going to work.

"He literally can't be harmed. What's the worst that could happen?" Jace said. He'd been watching with Clary, but as he spoke he moved his gaze to her. Most of the other heads had turned in their direction as well, including Alec's.

"That," Clary replied, pointing her finger out the window. Everybody's eyes looked back to find Simon struggling with the group. They'd placed a cloth over his face and begun dragging him back toward the building.

Clary was nearly out the door before Jace caught her. "Wait! Clary we can't just go bursting in there. Like I said before, Simon's fine for now. We need a plan." She gave him a dark glare before growling,

"Well, you better come up with one fast."

"Why do you so have little concern for your friend? He may be a vampire, but these people kidnapped Katherine from a room occupied by werewolves, a Shadowhunter, and a warlock. They are obviously prepared to deal with Downworlders," Lexis pointed out. Logan and Cody seemed to be speculating the same thing because they both crossed their arms and turned their heads to look expectantly at Clary and Jace.

But before either could think of a reply, Magnus answered for them. "Aside from being a Daylighter, Simon has another strange quality. What it is and how he got it is nothing of concern. You simply need to know that he is virtually invincible."

Lexis's brow rose at that last word, but he said nothing else.

"Can we please hurry up and decide what to do?" Clary snapped impatiently.

"Calm down, missy. No need to get your panties in a twist." Magnus's tone was irritatingly patronizing as he waved a dismissive hand at her. Her hands curled into fists, but before she could do anything, Alec interjected.

"Alright, everybody, just calm down. We need to stay reasonable." He paused, giving everyone a stern look. "Now then, I think we should sneak around to the back entrance. I went over the floor plans before we got here." He produced a large paper scattered with blueprints. "There are three floors to that building. Two are underground. Magnus couldn't pinpoint Maia's location, but he says she's on the bottom-most floor. Logan, Bat, and Cody, you three and Magnus will head to Maia when we're inside. Most likely, Katherine will be somewhere near her so you can get them both. Clary, Jace, and I will Mark up then we'll take Lexis and find Simon. Once we've each found our target, we'll rendezvous on the middle floor."

"Do we have an estimate of how many people are in there?" Logan asked, his expression serious.

"Probably not many. This is a research facility anyway. The workers in there will most likely be easily incapacitated. And we're only knocking them out. No blood is to be spilled, understand? What they're doing may be wrong, but they're still humans," commanded Alec.

"Look at you, being all responsible," Magnus purred. Alec avoided his eyes and pretended to ignore him, but a rush of blood crept into his cheeks.

Alec cleared his throat before continuing, "Is everybody clear on what they're doing?" All of them nodded. "Then let's go." Brushing quickly past Magnus, Alec headed straight for the door. Awkwardly, the rest followed. Clary noticed that instead of hurrying to keep up with Alec, Magnus lagged behind to stroll leisurely with the werewolves, specifically Lexis. They didn't say anything to each other, but Lexis seemed oddly aware of Magnus. He walked closely to Logan as if he wanted to stay as far away from Magnus as he could.

"Clary!" Jace exclaimed. A steel grip yanked her roughly to the right. Losing her balance, Clary collided with Jace's broad chest. "Watch where you're going. I can't save you from every pothole." Confused, Clary looked at the ground. Sure enough, a huge gap yawned in the pavement where she'd been about to step.

"Sorry. Thanks," she said.

Pushing her off of him, Jace refused to meet her eyes. "Just be careful." Then he stalked off after Alec.

"Seems both our boys are rather moody, huh?" a smooth voice chuckled. Magnus was staring after Jace and Alec—though probably more after Alec than Jace—a wistful expression on his face.

"Well, at least you know why yours is moody. I can't figure out what's wrong with Jace," Clary complained.

"I'm sure you will soon enough."

(SPACE)

All eight of them crouched in the shadow of the building as Alec carefully tested the door to see if it was locked, the fresh Marks on his skin burning slightly. When the handle gave a soft click, Alec glanced back at Jace and gave him an affirming nod. Stealthily, he pulled it open and peered inside. The door opened onto a short, empty hallway.

Quickly, each of them slid through to huddle in the hall. The dim light provided by the single, bare light bulb barely showed them that the hall was in terrible condition. Beige paint peeled away from the walls and the dingy floor tiles were broken and missing in some places. With the skill of a trained assassin, Alec crawled to the door at the end of the hall. When he looked out of the glass in the upper half of the door, he was disappointed to find the next room to be in the same condition as the hall. Empty and decaying.

Is this really the right place? Alec asked silently. But he kept moving forward. The room they entered looked like it had once been an office. Cubicle walls were collapsing in on themselves while several of sheets of paper waved greetings to the intruders.

"Did you hear that?" Cody blurted a bit too loudly. Logan smacked him over the head. "Ow!" the younger boy protested, rubbing his head, though he'd gotten the message. He whispered his exclamation, thankfully. "I'm serious. It sounded like a scream. You guys didn't hear it?"

"Well, you always did have freakishly good hearing, even for a werewolf," Logan mumbled.

"Where is it coming from?" Clary asked.

Cody listened for a moment then, "That way." He pointed to a door on the left side of the room. There were three other doors in the right wall. Two of them were marked as bathrooms, and the other one had the stairwell sign on it.

"Okay. Magnus, Cody, Bat, Logan, take the stairs. Lexis, Clary, Jace, we'll go after the screams," Alec ordered. He felt a little surprised at himself. Normally, Jace would be the one in command, but throughout this whole thing, Jace had seemed quite docile. So Alec had taken the initiative to organize and lead their group. He couldn't stop a bud of pride from flowering in his chest.

A warm hand lay on Alec's shoulder. Startled, he looked up to find Magnus standing there. "Be careful. Please," he whispered. Shyly, Alec gave a curt nod and shrugged Magnus's hand off then started for the door.

Alec, Jace, Lexis, and Clary were heading down a very brightly lit passage that veered off to the left into a waiting area. It had once probably been a doctor's office. Confused, they turned back to look for a door in the passage, but there were none besides the one they'd come through.

Suddenly, a terrified cry seemed to radiate from the longer wall of the passage. Clary pressed against it with her hands, urgently trying to get through. "Simon!" she called. Alec glanced around for any kind of switch that could possibly open a secret door.

Clumsily, Lexis tripped over a broken floor tile and knocked a statue over on the receptionist desk. Then a soft pop sounded and a crack appeared in the peeling paint of the wall. Through the crack, a shout of horror pierced the air.

Hand ready at his seraph blade, Alec shoved the hidden door open and barged in. But the sight before him wasn't quite what he'd expected.

Under a blinding light, Simon sat in a chair similar to a dentist's. It looked as if someone had tried to bind his wrists and ankles to the chair with silver chains, but the Mark of Cain on his forehead had prevented that. On either side of the chair lay shining chains half buried in piles of salt. Alec thought he might be sick, but he fought it down.

The terrified scream had come from a skinny man in a lab coat cowering in the corner. He rocked on his heels, his face buried in his knees.

"Simon!" gasped Lexis's thick accent. He'd come in after Alec, and behind him was Clary who sucked in a shallow breath when she caught sight of Simon before rushing to him.

With an irritated sigh, Alec stepped over to the quivering man. "He must have seen it happen," said a deep voice. Jace was gazing at the man with cold pity.

"What should we do with him?" Alec asked. Jace met his eyes for a moment before shrugging.

"Knock him out for now." Then he turned to watch Clary and Simon. Delivering a clean blow, Alec caught the man and lowered him carefully to the ground. When he stood up, Simon was hugging Clary.

"Thanks for coming to get me, guys. Where is everybody else?" Simon said.

"They've gone to the lower levels to look for Katherine and Maia," replied Alec. "Now that you're safe, we should probably go see if they need help."

"Weren't we supposed to wait for them on the second floor?" Clary asked.

Alec had to admit that he'd rather make sure that Magnus was okay than follow their original plan. But he decided not to let them know that. "Well, it didn't take us long at all to find Simon. I'd assumed that it would take us a lot longer."

Without giving his companions a chance to question him, Alec stepped to the door. Hurriedly, he swept down the passage, through the office area, and across the room.

"Wait. Maybe we should have somebody stay here and guard," suggested Jace.

"Lexis and I will stay behind," Simon volunteered.

"Okay, fine. Now let's go," Alec urged.

(SPACE)

Simon watched the door swing shut behind Alec, Jace, and Clary. Then he turned and asked the question that had been itching at him for hours. "Do you have some kind of problem with me?"

"What?" Lexis said, a little startled.

"Ever since Magnus's house you've been avoiding me, and you're always tense around me. Did I do something to make you angry? I mean, at Magnus's it looked like you wanted to eat my face off for a minute. Is it because I'm a vampire? Because I thought you were cool with that."

"N-No! Of course not! Simon, I—" Lexis choked off, the words caught in his throat.

"Then what? Look, if you don't like me, fine. But don't just suddenly start ignoring me."

"Simon, you do not understand." Lexis was fighting the urge to start speaking in French.

Taking a deep breath, Simon calmly said, "Then explain it to me."

When Lexis opened his mouth to speak, nothing came out. He stared at Simon, dark eyes filled with desperation. Sighing, he breathed, "Je regrette, Simon. I'm sorry."

"What do you have to be sorry for?"

Lexis swallowed the sick feeling rising in his stomach before he whispered, "For falling in love with you."

*Gasp*! What will Simon do now! How will he react to this unexpected confession? Only one way to find out… Review! ;)