Authors note: Simon has ascended and is out of the academy, but Magnus and Alec don't have adopted children. I own nothing^^
Chapter 14
Magnus' POV
It was all dizzy again. I laid on the floor, it had to be very early in the morning, the sedative normally wears off after two or three hours. This time there stood something to eat in front of me. As if I would touch something again... I looked down on myself and registered other clothes. They really undressed me when I was unconscious, at that thought I felt sick. I didn't know one thing they did to me, only that they changed my clothes in clean ones. The trousers were too big, the shirt too tight, plain black both, my feet were bare now and they made a hole in the material of the jeans for my tail. My enchanted ones were more exactly and comfortable but this one will work. My tail twitched and then I saw it. At the tip of it was a little pink bow on the black fur. Yeah!... Funny!... I ripped it off and threw it to the ground. I felt my ears twitching back to my head, showing the anger I felt.
"Now now... who's going to be so petulant?" I heard the key unlocking the door and saw the form of a human body in the shadow of the opening. A man came in, wearing an expensive, well fitting suit. He had blonde, short hair, green eyes, lightly tanned skin and red horns on his head. A tail whipped from side to side lazily, looking like the red tail of the devil is often pictured. As he came closer I tried to slide away from him, but the chain didn't offer much possibilities. "Oh, don't worry. I won't touch you in that way, you're too precious." He knelt down on one knee next to me and examined the dark fingerprints on my neck before standing up again and cleaning his hands on a handkerchief as if I'm dirty.
Another man came in, the bear from the last time. He carried a chair and put it down far away from me and grinning in my direction before he turned to leave. The man in the suit grabbed his arm and whispered "John, we have to talk. Come over in an hour." The bear, John, nodded and left, closing the door but not locking it. The suit guy sat down on the chair. "Yes, I'm an Ifrit ... and the collector who catched you. I will talk to your keeper. He has to be careful to not leave any bruises until we deliver..." "But he's allowed to hurt me?" I interrupted him. He looked at his fingernails as if they were the most interesting thing in the world. "Yes... if you don't behave. I got a few warlocks in my services, they can heal you if necessary. But you have to do what the keeper says." "Everything he says?" He looked at me thinking about it a few seconds. "Not everything. Every collector got the same orders, it's not allowed to rape you or fray you beyond repair. No scars or something else that influences your beauty. But you know how much damage can be healed by a warlock's magic without leaving scars or bruises, don't you, Magnus Bane?"
I got up in a sitting position and watched that guy. He had to be one of the high class collectors, his suit looked very expensive, tailored for him. There had been eight warlocks at the attack and even when they were young, they were expensive. "You know me and still you have the nerves to kidnap me? My friends are already searching for me, I hope you know that." He grinned in my direction and said: "Which ones? The shadowhunters? From your boy toy Alec Lightwood? Or your warlock friend? She wasn't on the rarity list, she got killed at the attack, so don't wait for her. But your little boyfriend would maybe bring some money, he's quite beautiful..." I tried to stand up with as much force I could muster, tried to get my hands to this shithead's throat and strangle him. I pulled at that damn chain until the shackles carved into my skin and blood dripped down to the ground. "If you try to touch Alexander, I will rip your head off and push it so deep up your ass that it comes out of your throat again, you piece of shit!" He laughed at that and lit a cigarette, taking a deep breath before looking at me again. He wasn't even the slightest bit afraid. "It's okay. Cool down, little neko." He exhaled the smoke into the room still looking as if I didn't mean any harm. "He's not important for me." He stood up and went over to the door, even with the shackles cutting in my wrists, he was nearly 10 feet away, completely out of reach.
"Who's paying for me?" He looked over his shoulder, exhaling smoke again. "You will see soon enough, your just staying another night. Your friends won't find you, it's too late. Eat something." He closed the door after he went through and locked it. I crashed to the ground and let the tears run down my cheeks freely now. It can't be. She's not dead... I would've felt it... Catarina is okay... she's okay... I couldn't think of something else as I stared at my bloodied hands and let the tears silently roll down my cheeks and mix with the blood on my hands when they fell...
Alecs POV
(Magnus' POV was a few hours ahead, because of his drugged sleep)
We went back up to the apartment and to Catarina after Jace let me took some breaths of cold air. I sat down beside her again. "Hey, are you fit enough to heal yourself?" She opened her eyes and looked at me with a tired gaze. "No, I'm too tired and exhausted. I need a few hours of sleep before I can do something. Alec, we have to get Tessa Gray over here. She and her husband James are in Rome right now. We have to perform a locate spell as soon as possible or we will not find him. My jacket is in the living room, please give me my phone out of it, would you?" I got the phone and gave it to her. I left to go into the bathroom, closing the door behind me and leaning over the sink to splash some cold water into my face. The man in the mirror nearly shocked me to death.
I shouldn't have left him alone... he did all that work on the spell for me, made the first spell because of me and I left and had fun with my family and friends while he fought for his life. I heard Catarina's voice through the door. I wanted to scream, I wanted to destroy something, hit somebody... I just wanted to do something! I came back into the bedroom when Catarina ended the call. "They will portal over here soon. Tessa is a very good friend, she loves Magnus and will do anything to help." "Thank you, Catarina. Try to rest now, but don't sleep, when you have a concussion it's not allowed. When Tessa is here, she can heal your wounds."
I left to the living room where the others sat and silently talked to each other, making plans or just saying their partners what's on their mind. They stopped talking as they saw me. "Tessa and James Carstairs will arrive through a portal soon. They can help with a locate spell and heal Catarina's wounds." Clarys eyes had a gleaming in them, she already knew Tessa and liked her. Jace said: "The infamous Tessa and Jem the catnapper. I hope they can help us. Did you already decide if we should inform the clave? That Duncan guy owes Izzy a favor but maybe we need more capacities..." "Hayden!" I nearly screamed. Jace and the others looked confused. "What?" "Magnus' black market contact! He can search for information, too." I picked out Magnus' phone and dialed his number. "Bane! What can I do for you, baby?" "Here's Alec..." "Ohh... mmh... I didn't mean it with that baby..." "Shut up and listen, Walsh. You owe me a favor for hitting on my man and still being alive..." "Mmh... Yeah..." "I need your contacts, eyes and ears on the black market. Sent your little birds out and give me all information you get about Magnus or selling a neko. I need places, names, rumors and the best time for the infos was yesterday, understand that?" There was a short silence, than I heard him answering: "Yes... okay. Who would be so damn stupid to kidnap Magnus?" "You know how the black market works, tell me..." "I don't know, man. I'll do everything I can to help. I call you when I got something." "Okay." I ended the call and looked in the shocked faces of Clary, Jace, Izzy and Simon. "What?" Simon answered for all of them: "Wow Alec, who knew you could be so bossy. It suits you pretty well. I still have the feeling I have to salute or something like that."
The others nodded at that, I rolled my eyes and put Magnus' phone away just as a portal opened, the blue shimmer showing through the half closed door. I went over there and saw Tessa and James entering the room. Both just nodded at us and Tessa directly asked for Catarina. I showed her the way to the bedroom. "She has some bruises and maybe a concussion, she had a deep cut on her forehead. She's tired and exhausted, her power so far to minimum that she can't heal herself." "Okay, give us a few minutes."
Jem stayed with us in the living room and talked to Jace. "I still think it's weird that you look as old as me and married my great great great grandmother. Whose son with your parabatai, who was called James in memory if you, married a Carstairs. Is that only confusing me in what I have to call you because of the family tree or everyone else too?" Jace laughed at Jem who answered: "I think we should stay with 'Jem'. That's the best. No 'uncle' and never something like 'grandpa'. You always knew that you're special, didn't you? Why shouldn't it be seen in your family tree?" Jace shrugged and grinned, he just loved it to be called special. Then he filled Jem in in everything that had happened. I leaned my head on the door frame and heard Catarina talking to Tessa, explaining everything, their voices very quiet through the wood.
After half an hour they both came out of the bedroom, could I say that Catarina had a healthy blue skin color again? She was twiddling at the band aids on her forehead, the stitches underneath them were gone. "We're going to perform a locate spell. Depending on whether he is protected or even hidden with magic barricades it may take a while, hours even. We need something that belongs to Magnus..." I looked at Tessa, went into the bedroom took one of his favorite shirts and put it into his blood in front of the bookshelf, giving it over to Tessa carefully. "Are you sure it's his blood?" "Yes. I'm sure." She just nodded and went with Catarina into the spell room. Izzy came over to me and pulled me in her arms. "I know you don't want to hear that, Alec but try to sleep. You can't help him when you didn't get enough rest." "I can't sleep, Izzy. I'm exhausted, but my mind is running high. I can't sleep." "Just try it, Alec. I will wake you up if we get to know something no matter how unimportant it may seem." I nodded on her shoulder slowly slipping out of her embrace. "Okay... I'll try it."
I laid in the bed I shared for such a long time with Magnus now. His scent was in every fiber of the sheets, blankets and pillows. I rolled myself up on his side and inhaled his scent, trying to get him back to my side with just my willpower. After an hour with staring at the wall, at the ceiling and the window, I slipped into sleep.
It was just dark and cold, I could feel my breath leaving my mouth in white clouds. Then I began to see the white tiles I was laying on, plain white walls and then the heavy metal door opened, revealing a shadow and... fear inside of me. There was this man... blonde with green eyes and red horns, blowing cigarette smoke in my direction... "Blonde with green eyes?... I never thought your taste in men would change so much... and so fast..." I felt a hand running over my shoulder, like a whisper of a touch. Magnus was visible next to me, I had to look up at him... but so much? I tried to touch him and heard chains clatter. Looking down I realized that I was sitting on the ground, my hands in shackles. The Blonde talked to me but I didn't hear a sound. "I would never cheat on you... I love you..." I tried to reach Magnus again but the shackles held me back. "You can't reach me like that..." Magnus said, his fingers caressing my cheek. "... you're too far away." "But I'm right here. I'm here with you." "It's just a dream, Alexander..." I wanted to lean into his touch, but it was gone and he wasn't standing next to me anymore. I coughed as suddenly no oxygen came into my lungs anymore. I grabbed my throat, my hands awkwardly slippery. I looked down on my hands, covered in blood a tear falling down on them. A whispered word reached my ears "Alexander..."
I shot up in the bed, looking at my hands and more confused because they weren't bloody. I inhaled deeply still feeling like someone tried to bar me of it. I went over to the bathroom and looked into the mirror. I was sure I'll see bruises of fingertips on my neck, but there was nothing, just black runes or silver shadows of old ones. I splashed water into my face. I pulled on a jeans, grabbed a shirt and closed the button of my trousers as I went into the living room the shirt hanging loosely over my shoulder. All eyes directly went to me as I ran my hand trough my disheveled hair, trying to tame it. Simon threw his hand over his eyes and said: "Ew man! I don't want to see you shirtless! That one time in the academy was enough!" Clary really blushed and looked away, fixing her gaze on Simon now, like Izzys, Jaces and Jems. "Which time at the academy?" Jace asked. I pulled the shirt on and answered hectically: "No time! He's just weird again." I remembered the day too well as Simon walked in on Magnus and me at the academy. I blushed slightly but came back down fast as I remembered my nightmare.
"How long was I asleep?" Izzy came closer and said: "Maybe four or five hours, but we don't have something new." "I had a dream about Magnus. It was like that vision in Edom, Magnus told me that it isn't real and I had to get out of it. This dream seemed like a mixture of a dream and reality..." I searched for Magnus' phone and dialed Haydens number. The others looked at me as if I'm completely crazy. "Walsh, Alec Lightwood speaking..." "Hey man, I'm fast but not so..." "It's okay, I'm calling because maybe I got something. Do you know a dealer, a collector or an informant with blonde hair, green eyes, red horns and a devils tail?" I knew I sounded silly and tried to block the gazes boring into me by turning half around as I talked. "Mmh... No. But it sounds l Iike a demon mark that's unique, I'll ask around and call you when I find something. It's a hard task, I got the feeling my contacts know something but are too scared to say it..." Was I imagining things or was his voice insecure for a second? "Hurry up. I'm waiting for your call." I ended the call and turned to the others, all eyes on me again... hurray.
I sat down on the destroyed couch and grabbed a coffee cup from the table. Someone must've went to Taki's and got breakfast for all of us. In that moment I didn't even recognize if the coffee was still hot or already cold, I just took a sip not really tasting anything. The others sat down too, on the floor, next to me on the damaged couch or in the rampaged seats. "Have you heard something from Tessa and Catarina?" Jem took a coffee cup for himself and said after taking a gulp: "No, I've been in there half an hour ago, they are both deep in the spell. I didn't want to disturb them and just left." Izzy took a bagel and ate it right out of her hand. "What did you dream, Alec? Who's that guy you described to Walsh?" "Like I said, it was like that vision in Edom. Magnus was there, I think I was in his position, chained with bloody hands and... it doesn't matter... Magnus stood beside me and that guy sat there talking, but I couldn't hear a sound from him. His suit looked expensive, he was somebody who has to say something. Magnus told me he's far away... but then I woke up." Izzy stuffed the rest if the bagel into her mouth and searched for her phone. "I'm gonna call Duncan. Maybe he can use the description for his investigation on the black market."
Simon looked after her when she went to the kitchen searching for the number on her phone. "Who is this Duncan guy? Do I have to become jealous?" Jace watched him with raised eyebrows "If you ask me..." "No! Everyone else but you!" Jace grinned into his paper coffee cup but shut up and I said: "Duncan Ashwell is a friend of Izzy, it's long ago that they worked together on a mission when he was sent to New York. She saved his life. No need for jealousy, he was interested but Izzy was more into downworlders to make our parents angry." Simon didn't look too pleased but didn't say more to that. Jace still grinned and patted his shoulder, he could be such a little sadist sometimes.