In the morning, Victoria showered but didn't bother changing, they'd probably be headed out to see Sylvester shortly after their meeting. The sun was shining through Victoria's window as she slipped into her fuzzy slippers and stepped out into the hallway. Theo was coming out of his room too, rubbing his eyes. His hair was a complete mess, standing up in every direction. Before Theo reached the end of the hallway, Zachary stepped out of his room looking not much better. Victoria realized they were doing the same thing. Zachary was rubbing his eyes too and his hair was standing up all over the place. She started laughing.
They both stopped and at the same time said, "What?"
That made her laugh harder.
Theo started walking faster and pounded down the stairs, while Zachary stood there confused.
Erelah was already eating at the table when Victoria got down there. Theo was making toast and sipping a cup of coffee—which was a little odd, Theo didn't like coffee.
"Good morning everyone," Erelah said once Zachary made it to the bottom of the stairs. He headed grabbed a muffin from the small plastic container on the counter by the sink and stuck it in the microwave.
Eventually, they all settled around the table, and Thomas came up the stairs, "Well, it's official," he said, "There aren't any weak spots in the wards."
"So it is a warlock summoning them," Zachary said.
"Speaking of which," Erelah turned to Victoria, "What did you learn last night?"
"Oh right," Victoria set down her coffee, "I have an address of someone we need to go see. His name is Sylvester, and according to my friend—"
"Your very secret Downworlder friend," Theo corrected her.
"My friend," Victoria said through her teeth, glaring at Theo, "says that he's a werewolf who is more versed in the Downworld gossip than anyone else around Newark."
"So we have a lead now," Erelah said, "That's good considering yesterday's dead end."
Theo nodded, "So where is he?"
"Bloomington," Victoria told him, "just outside of Newark."
"You'll have to take the car then," Thomas said.
"Right." Theo said, "And it needs gas too, so Dad I'm going to need a loan."
Thomas sighed, "I'll be right back." As he walked away he mumbled something about kids and wasting money on stupid things.
Zachary felt exhausted and it took several cups of coffee before he finally felt awake. Then he returned to his room, which he swore he'd decorate sooner or later, and laid out his gear for their mission. His room was painfully bare, plain white walls, and a bed with plain white sheets. Compared to Erelah's room, whose walls were painted polka-dotted with white, purple, and pink, and with a desk, and a shelf of comic books, and a purple bedspread, his room was just boring. Back in Idris, his room was decorated nicely with a black bedspread and dark hardwood floors. Witchlight lamps on two identical end tables that sat on either side of the bed. A fancy bookshelf with everything but books. Ornamental weapons, maps, little gems, pictures, one of which was a framed message from Theo. Zachary owned a couple books, and they were tucked away under the bench by the window.
One day, he swore, one day, my bedroom here will look like my bedroom at home. Thinking about home brought back the memory of his sparring match with Theo, how he'd promised to leave if Theo showed him he didn't need him around. His chest ached, thinking about how much Theo seemed to hate him, even when they were alone, or out of earshot. Originally, he'd thought it was because of the others. Zachary knew Theo was terrified of coming out, but he felt like there was something else going on. Maybe what they had was just a fling? Something to keep Theo busy while he was in Idris, but the idea of that killed Zachary and so he pushed it away.
Zachary climbed in the shower and scrubbed his body, and then his hair. When he stepped out of the shower, he wrapped a towel around his waist and ran a comb through his hair. He dried himself off, started pulling on the layers of his gear.
Then he headed to the armory, he'd been here multiple times in the last couple of days, twice even to just look at the weapons. It was a large square room; the light blue walls were lined with all sorts of different weapons. Spears, swords, maces, even a huge hammer. Tables ran along the edges of the room, filled with arrows, and inactivate seraph blades. There was a bin in the corner labeled, "For Recycling," it seemed full of seraph blades that needed to be recycled by the Iron Sisters. He scanned the walls for a weapon, he almost went for a longsword, but eventually settled on an iklwa, a short spear, and grabbed a couple seraph blades as well. Sometimes he wondered if he ought to pick a weapon and stick with it, like Victoria's bow or the Silverguard Sword, but he also liked the variety.
He strapped the iklwa to his back and headed back into the lounge. Thomas, Theo, and Erelah were standing together, talking. Zachary had first mistaken Thomas for Theo when he walked into the Institute for the first time, they looked eerie similar. Zachary had realized that Thomas was not Theo when he got closer and noticed all the age lines set into Thomas' face that Theo couldn't possibly have, he later noticed that Theo was an inch shorter than Thomas. Theo and Thomas were mirroring each other's stances, their feet shoulder-width apart and their arms crossed. Zachary wondered if someone had ever mentioned it to them.
"Are we just waiting on Victoria?" Zachary asked as he approached. Theo moved, both creating a space in their little circle for Zachary and distancing himself from Zachary. Zachary tried not to take it personally, but after everything else over the last couple days, it was hard not to.
"We're also debating whether to get lunch afterward or to make grilled cheese here," Erelah spoke.
"And Theo is trying to convince me he needs a hundred dollars for gas." Thomas said, "and he's not doing it well."
"I'm telling you, dad," Theo responded, "Mundane gas prices have skyrocketed. It's the economy!"
Thomas patted Theo's head and Theo glared daggers at him.
After a good twenty minutes, Victoria came down the stairs in her gear, and her bow slung over her shoulder, "Let's go."
Erelah nodded, "Road trip!"
Theo rolled his eyes, "Rae, it's a twenty-minute drive."
"Road trip!" Erelah exclaimed again, pumping her fists.
Thomas chuckled, "Crazy kids."
Thirty minutes later, Theo, with his sword at his hip, Erelah, Victoria, and Zachary, all armed, stood outside a 7-Eleven on the corner of Bloomfield Avenue, in Bloomfield just outside of Newark. The Shadowhunters were all standing around, Erelah looking at a map and comparing it looking up at the store. Zachary and Victoria were talking, and Theo was watching the other cars. The Shadowhunters weren't entirely glamoured, just their Marks and their weapons, and people were giving them looks.
"This is a convenience store," Zachary said, "are you sure this is the address?"
Victoria pulled out a slip of paper and read it over again, "Yeah no, this is the address."
"Maybe he works here," Erelah suggested.
Theo felt like this was all really suspicious, and his gut was telling him something was about to go wrong. He ignored it and looked over his shoulder, "Come on, let's see if Sylvester is working,"
A small family of mundanes walked past with a small boy, no older than five or six, who started shaking his mother's arm and exclaiming, "Mama! Mama! Look at their tattoos! Look!" And pointing wildly at the four of them.
Victoria's mouth fell open, Erelah's hands flew to her neck as if she was trying to cover her Marks, and Zachary's eyes grew wide. Theo knew what it meant—they all did, it just wasn't a common thing. The kid had the Sight, he could see through the glamour they'd put on their Marks. Theo turned around, and hissed, "Come on,"
The boy's mother put his pointing hand down, "Don't point at people Matthew!" The boy started fussing over their "tattoos" rambling on about how he wanted tattoos like that when he grew up and started describing to his mother where he was going to get them.
"That was interesting," Zachary said casually.
"Definitely not something you see every day." Victoria agreed. Theo pulled open the door to the 7-Eleven and glanced at the person working the counter. It was in fact, according to his nametag, Sylvester Bianco. A werewolf without a clan who worked at 7-Eleven. Sylvester was a tall guy, almost as tall as Zachary. A chunk of thick, frazzled chest hair stuck out from the neck hole in his shirt, which was of course a standard 7-Eleven employee shirt. He was lithe, built like a runner, with some definition to his arms and legs that Theo attributed to becoming a werewolf. Theo went straight to the counter, while Victoria dragged Zachary over to the Slurpee machine. Erelah followed them.
"Oh lovely, Shadowhunters, and you're all armed, fantastic," Sylvester sighed heavily, "What can I do for you?"
"Well, apparently, they're all getting a Slurpee," Theo said, "and I have a question for you,"
"I'm not consorting with Faeries," Sylvester said, "I know what the Cold Peace means,"
"What? No, I don't care about Faeries," Theo shook his head, "I need to know if you've heard of any warlocks around the city summoning demons?"
"Packs of them," Erelah offered as she, Victoria, and Zachary, all with a Slurpee in hand, came over to the counter.
Sylvester went pale. Theo didn't like that. Theo's body tensed as Sylvester launched the cash register at him, then leaped towards the floor, bursting out of his clothes, transforming into a huge, gray-furred wolf mid-air, and breaking off into a run behind the register.
Theo ducked under the cash register, which struck the ground behind him and broke open, scattering coins and bills everywhere. The others were already vaulting over the counter to follow him, Victoria unslinging her bow from her shoulder and nocking an arrow. Theo followed after them through the back of the store, following the trail of knocked over boxes, and shelf items.
The back door of the 7-Eleven came out into another parking lot for a different business, and Theo could see a blur of gray bounding across the asphalt, mundanes staring after it with their eyes wide. He wondered what they were seeing, those without the Sight wouldn't register a werewolf. Maybe they were seeing a golden retriever. Or perhaps a poodle. They were all falling behind, and with the mundanes nearby, Victoria couldn't get a shot. The Angel only knew what they'd see, and then the police would get involved. Theo regretted not glamouring himself completely, but the mundanes wouldn't have liked it if there was no one driving the car while he crossed town.
Sylvester kept running, bolting across the parking lot and into the street. Cars swerved around him, but he didn't slow down. He kept going through yet another parking lot, and disappeared behind a building by the time Zachary, who was the fastest of them, reached the street. One after another, the Shadowhunters crossed Grove Street and followed after the werewolf.
Erelah was almost across the street by the time Theo reached it, and as he sprinted across the pavement, a car sped around the corner (which led into a junkyard) and gunned their engine. Theo barely had time to leap across the hood of the car before the car sped by. He didn't stop to see if they stopped.
Ahead of Zachary, Theo could see Sylvester, still running, across the pavement. This lot was bigger than the other and completely empty. Theo could see the next parking lot Sylvester was heading for and decided that Newark had too many parking lots, "Vic!" He shouted, "Take the shot!"
Victoria didn't respond, she just nocked an arrow and let it fly. It sunk into the back of Sylvester's back leg and he howled but didn't stop. He kept running. Victoria got another arrow nocked as Sylvester barreled through the fence of a house, disappearing into some trees. Erelah shouted a curse and kept running.
They followed Sylvester through the wrecked fences where he ran through the front yard of a house, with multiple mundanes screaming after him and the Shadowhunters, and across another street. Zachary and the rest of them were gaining on the werewolf, Victoria's arrow had slowed him down a bit. He probably couldn't keep running for long. Theo noticed the huge building that Sylvester was running towards and silently cursed. He was pretty sure it was a Global Distribution Center, a warehouse with plenty of places to get lost in—and plenty of exits.
Like Theo thought, the werewolf barreled through the door to the Distribution center and disappeared into the darkness.
Theo immediately started commanding the others, "Erelah with me! Take the right side of the warehouse! Zachary and Victoria! Take the left!"
"Zachary's the leader Theo! We follow his orders!"
Victoria shouted back.
"No, Theo's right!" Zachary said, "Victoria with me! Erelah go with Theo!"
"Right!" Erelah called.
They stopped in front of the doors, Victoria nocked an arrow, and Zachary pulled a seraph blade, "Zadkiel," He said, and the seraph blade blazed to life. Erelah pulled two of her seraph blades, naming them "Ariel"and"Uriel". Seraph blades were better against werewolves than weapons like Theo's sword or Victoria's bow. Nevertheless, they all shared a unified nod and headed into the warehouse.