So here's another chapter! I think that it's longer than the other ones and I hope you don't mind that. Somehow, I just couldn't stop writing and at some point, I thought that it was enough and that the next events will take place in the next chapter. I hope you like it and I have to thank you for the reviews! You're really great and I love you for writing them! Could you please do that again? It's soooooo great! :)
I don't own the characters in this story!

Chapter 24

Magnus stood on the Angels Square and looked at the demons who were storming towards the city walls of Alicante, where hundreds of shadowhunters and downworlders were waiting for them. In front of him, Jace and Karael had just drawn their weapons and for a few seconds it seemed as if both of them were angels.

Karael was glowing in a white light anyway and with his blond hair Jace looked like he was shining as well. But while the angel was focusing a spot in the sky which was getting darker with every moment, the shadowhunter had turned his attention to the demons running towards Alicante.

"Is this...?" Simon asked slowly and swallowed. He was following Karael's gaze and when Magnus turned around to see what he was watching, he nodded.

"Belphegor."

First, you had to say that not all princes of hell looked similar to each other. Maybe some of them had things in common, but mostly they were completely different. With warlocks it was the same. You couldn't just compare Magnus with his cat-like eyes to Catarina, whose skin was blue.

Now it was the same. Just a few months ago, Magnus and his friends had met his father, Asmodeus. However, Belphegor didn't have anything in common with him. While Magnus' father had paid much attention to looking human, Belphegor didn't seem to think that it was important.

His skin was grey and it looked as if it was made of old paper. His hair was white and very long, but there were black strands in it and somehow, it seemed to be felted. And Magnus had to admit that fashion wasn't on top of Belphegor's list of his favourite topics. While Karael was wearing a suit of armour and carried many weapons with him, the demon was dressed in something that could have been a white suit many years ago (maybe two thousand?) and Magnus couldn't say if he was armed.

Slowly, Karael took a step forward, so that the distance between him and his enemy became a little smaller. Both of them were about two meters taller than normal humans and that made everything even more scary, if you could say it like that. Or maybe more impressing. But could you use that word in a situation like this?

Belphegor raised his eyebrows at Karael and crossed his arms. He didn't say anything, but the message was clear either way: 'What are you doing here?'

"Belphegor." The angel began and strengthened his grip around the sword. "It has been a long time since we last met and I did not think that I would ever see you again on this planet."

"Then you shouldn't have come here, Karael." The prince of hell spat out the last word and Magnus noticed mockery in his voice.

"It is not yours to decide whether I come here or not." Karael replied in an angry tone and pointed at Belphegor with his sword. "And I will not leave yet. Not before I have prevented you from destroying this world."

Belphegor made a choking sound and after a few seconds, Magnus realized that he was laughing. "You want to prevent me from killing all those humans? Why do you even care if they live or not?"

Apparently, that made Karael really angry. The light around him began to shine brighter and suddenly, it became hot all around him. Magnus and his friends took a few steps back quickly and he realized that even Jace hadn't left the Square yet to get closer to the demons. But maybe that wouldn't be necessary since there were so much of them that they could overrun the city without problems.

"Everyone deserves to live. And you have no right to fight against them, Belphegor. I give you one last chance to leave this world again, together with your army. But if you will not take it, I have to destroy you." The tone of the angel wasn't threatening, but only the way he was standing there was enough to show that he was deadly serious.

The greater demon didn't seem to care about the warning tone of the angel since he just shrugged. "You can try that, but I don't think that you'll be successful at it."

Magnus didn't see what happened after that because Alec grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the edge of the Square. He only heard a loud crack when the weapons of the angel and the demon met. Suddenly, he was glad that Alec had reacted so fast and they were moving away from the battle which had just started.

"Are you okay?" Alec asked in a worried tone and looked from Magnus to Karael and Belphegor for a few seconds. Then his blue eyes met Magnus' green ones and in that moment, all that was important were the two of them.

"Shouldn't I be the one who asks that question?" Magnus murmured and touched Alec's cheek softly, but the young shadowhunter just shook his head.

"It's not important right now."

"Later, you won't say that again."

"At the moment we've much bigger problems."

Magnus sighed. "Sadly, that's true."

Now Alec took his hands and squeezed them. "Thank you."

"What for?" He frowned and raised his eyebrows. It confused him that Alec said something like that right now.

"Defending me."

"Stupid Nephilim! You don't have to thank me for that! And besides, I mean every word I said."

"And I mean it when I say that you have to get ready for the battle! The demons are coming." Isabelle shouted and when Magnus turned around quickly to look at her, he saw that her whip was already in her hand.

"Why do we always have those conversations during battles?" Magnus asked and Alec shook his head.

"Don't ask me. I have no idea."

Without saying anything else, Magnus pulled Alec closer and kissed him. He couldn't say how long the kiss lasted, but it showed them everything they had to know. I love you. I won't leave you. We will stay together until the end. We'll be there for each other, no matter what happens. You're everything to me.

When they finally pulled apart, both of them were breathing heavily. "Maybe we should get ready as well." Alec murmured and Magnus looked around to see the demons coming closer.

"I think so too. They're already in the city."

Alec took his bow into his hands and turned around to face the demons. Just when he wanted to shoot off his first arrow, Magnus let his fingers snap and it began to burn (of course the fire was blue). The arrow hit the demon in the head and suddenly, it exploded.

That didn't seem to confuse Alec since he only turned around and grinned at Magnus. "Brilliant!"

He bowed slightly and smiled at his beloved shadowhunter for a few seconds. However, there wasn't any time to say something else. Behind Alec, about two dozen demons were running towards them and Magnus' eyes grew wide when he saw that some of them were even carrying weapons.

Without hesitation, he shot a flash of blue light at them, which hit the first three demons. The others dodged quickly and continued to storm towards Magnus and his friends. Well, if you could say that. Isabelle and Simon were still there, but Clary and Jace had vanished. Presumably, they were already running towards the center of the battle. Magnus knew Jace well enough to say that he couldn't resist being in the place with the most demons.

"Do they have weapons?" Simon shouted unbelievingly and at the same time, Isabelle asked another question.

"Am I wrong or are they intelligent?"

Magnus looked over his shoulder quickly to look at the two shadowhunters. Isabelle had her whip in her hand and Simon was holding a seraph blade, which was glowing slightly. "Yes to both questions! And I think you should concentrate now. Otherwise we could get problems soon!"

"Don't we have them already?" Alec shouted and Magnus turned around again to see him fighting off the first of the demons. Instead of his bow, he was using one of his seraph blades now and it impressed Magnus again how skilful Alec could use the weapon.

The next demons stormed against them and one of them was hit by another flash of light. Unfortunately, the others seemed to know that trick by now since they jumped out of the way quickly. Magnus growled angrily and this time, he used a little more power, so that it wasn't possible to get out of the way anymore.

He knew that he couldn't do that all the time, but maybe it would frighten away some of the demons. He was wrong. Now, three of them were focusing him and when one demon jumped towards Magnus, it was hit by a knife immediately.

Alec positioned himself between Magnus and the Raum demon quickly. He jumped over one of it's tentacles and when the other one was about to strike him, he ducked. However, the shadowhunter didn't stand up. The demon was assuming it and that's why Alec rolled away. Now he was behind his back and when he stood up again, he stabbed the Raum demon with his seraph blade.

A little smile appeared on Alec's lips when he saw the expression on Magnus face. But while doing that, he didn't notice that the next demon was already running towards him. This time, Magnus pushed Alec aside and let blue sparks flying towards the demon. He fell to the ground and screamed since his skin began to dissolve. After a few seconds, he vanished with a crack and Magnus turned to his boyfriend again.

"Maybe we should leave his place." He murmured and the shadowhunter nodded.

They ran away as fast as possible; Magnus couldn't tell in which direction. He didn't care about that either way. There were so many demons in Alicante that it wasn't important anymore where you were.

Suddenly, Magnus heard a loud scream and when he turned his head, he saw a young girl being surrounded by Dahak demons. He didn't hesitate and started to shoot blue balls of fire at them. Apparently, Alec had noticed the girl in danger as well. He was cutting the skin of many demons with his blade and in the course of this, he jumped around Magnus' fireballs as if he'd never done anything else in his life.

It was always impressing to see how good Alec and Magnus were working together. A little smile spread on Magnus' lips and right now, he was determined to protect the young shadowhunter as best as possible. In his entire life, he'd never met anyone like Alec and their relationship was very special and completely different from the ones Magnus had before. He knew that Alec was the love of his life and he didn't know what he should do when something happened to him.

They found Jace and Clary in front of the Accords Hall. They were fighting about two dozen demons with the help of many shadowhunters and werewolves. Magnus thought that he saw Luke (he had to be there since Jocelyn was fighting side to side with her daughter) and Maia.

Right now, Clary and Jocelyn were trying to encircle a very tall demon Magnus hadn't seen before. It didn't take long until they had pushed him into the corner between two buildings. But instead of stabbing it, the two women ducked and a werewolf (now he was sure that it was Luke) jumped over their heads and slashed the demons throat.

Magnus couldn't see what happened after that because a voice behind him called his name. He turned around quickly to see Alec trying to fight off four demons. They had surrounded him and it suddenly, Magnus thought that his heartbeat was going to stop.

He ran towards Alec as fast as possible and to his own surprise, he grabbed the knife he was carrying on his belt. He hadn't wanted to take it, but Alec had insisted on it and so Magnus had given in quickly. How could you say no to a shadowhunter who had so beautiful blue eyes?

Magnus cut the arm of one demon, who turned around to face him immediately. Luckily, another one was focusing him now as well. That made it easier for Alec to fight off the last two demons.

Before one of them could react, Magnus had murmured a few words and the knife in his hand began to shine in a blue light. He threw it at the demon standing closer to him and without hesitation, Magnus let himself fall to the ground. The tail of the second demon moved through the air just where Magnus head had been a few seconds ago.

He didn't have to stand up to defeat the demon. With the help of his magic, Magnus let him tumble. Then, he grabbed his knife again which was lying on the ground next to him since the first demon had dissolved already. Magnus sliced his throat quickly and tried to stand up.

But to his surprise, something hard hit his back and he cried out in pain. When he rolled over to see who was attacking him, he wished that he hadn't done it. Only a few inches away from him, a Hellhound crouched on the floor.

For a few seconds, Magnus was frozen. He didn't know how to move anymore and it wasn't even sure if it was wise to do anything in this situation. He had heard many stories about Hellhounds in his life and he'd also seen some of them. However, he'd never been that close to one of their kind and he didn't know how he would react to sudden movements.

"Magnus!" Alec's voice didn't seem to be far away and he noticed that it was full of shock and fear.

Magnus wanted to shout that Alec shouldn't help him and get away from there as soon as possible, but he knew that the shadowhunter would never leave him alone. And maybe it wasn't a good idea to scream when a Hellhound was thinking of thousand painful ways to kill you.

The arrow hit the demon in the shoulder and he was distracted for a few moments. That was enough time for Magnus to crawl backwards and get to his feet. Suddenly, Alec was next to him and together, they faced the Hellhound.

Magnus shot a flash of blue light at him and at the same time, Alec threw a knife the warlock hadn't seen before. However, that didn't seem to suppress the Hellhound. On the contrary, it made him even more angry. He jumped towards them and Alec and Magnus sidestepped as fast as possible. Apparently, the demon had decided that he didn't like Magnus very much since he turned around to face him instead of the shadowhunter.

Magnus took a step back and tried to distract the Hellhound with caustic sparks, but it didn't seem to work. Then Alec slit open the demons back with his seraph blade and he cried out in pain. That gave Magnus enough time to shoot a fireball at him and he hoped that he would hit the wound. That would be the end of the Hellhound.

Unfortunately, Magnus missed his target and the demon stumbled backwards, right towards Alec. They fell to the ground together and Magnus heard his boyfriend scream. Without thinking about it, he grabbed a blade that was lying on the ground and stormed towards Alec and the demon. Even if he wasn't believing in god or anything like that, he started to pray that he wouldn't hit Alec.

The blade in his hands began to shine in a bright blue light and when he stabbed the Hellhound, he had to turn away for a few seconds. There was a flash of light and with a loud crack, the demon dissolved.

Magnus knelt down next to Alec, who was still lying on the ground and took his hand softly. "Alec?" He asked anxiously and when he opened his blue eyes, Magnus couldn't hold back the tears any longer.

Alec got to his knees slowly and when he saw that Magnus was crying, he hugged him tightly. "It's all right. I'm fine. You saved me." Magnus couldn't stop himself from sobbing, but after a few seconds, he was able to calm down again. "I'm okay." Alec whispered again and kissed him quickly.

When they got to their feet, Alec groaned and the expression on his face showed Magnus that he was in pain. "Alec, what is it?" He asked quickly and looked at him closely, just to see that he had a long cut from the claws of the Hellhound on his back.

"It's nothing." Alec murmured, but Magnus didn't believe him.

"Yeah, well, lie to someone else, please. And now give me your hand so that I can heal you."

Alec hesitated for a few moments and Magnus raised his eyebrows slowly. "Don't you need your strength for the battle? What if something happens to you?"

"It's not important whether I can still fight or not. If you lose to much blood..." He couldn't finish that sentence and when Alec saw the look on his face, his expression became more gentle.

"And if I take too much of your power, you could die as well. Call the others, they can use a rune and then everything will be fine again."

But Magnus shook his head slowly. "A rune won't be able to fix that." He whispered and took Alec's hand slowly. "Even I can't just heal you right now. I can prevent you from losing more blood, but that's all. It takes too much time to make the wound vanish completely. It's too big. I'll have to do that after the battle."

"But I don't want you-"

"I don't care!" Magnus growled and narrowed his eyes. "You will let me heal you, Alec. I can't lose you." It wasn't easy for Alec to understand the last sentence since he leaned forward slightly.

"And you think that I could lose you?" Alec whispered back and now there was a sad look in his eyes.

"Would you please let me help you, then?"

"If you don't overestimate yourself, yes." Alec gave in and sighed, which let a small smile appear an Magnus lips.

"Then give me your other hand as well."