Chapter Eight

"Why didn't you tell me?"

The question came out more accusing than she'd meant it, but something in her had hurt finding out that her brother had kept such a huge secret from her. It couldn't have been because of his preferences, after all she'd been the first one to find out, but she couldn't think of another reason that he would've hidden such a big part of his life from her.

As if she didn't tell him everything.

Alec stared at her, and something tugged at her heart when she saw just how exhausted he looked. She hadn't seen him so tired in years even when he'd first taken over as acting head of the institute. It made her wonder.

After a moment, he looked down. "I had planned to. AJ had been asking about all of you. And so David and I, we had talked about introducing you slowly."

His lips twisted into a tiny smile, bittersweet and brittle. "Most of Aj's bedtime stories were about you and Jace and he was always so excited to hear them. I had a few pictures of you from the time you discovered that mundane "selfish" thing, and I would show him. I wanted to introduce you first since you knew I liked men, and you wouldn't stop implying that I was in love with Jace." He sent her a look and she smirked, the tugging in her heart keeping her from snickering as the older Lightwood mixed up the word selfie with selfish.

One day she would teach him more about the social side of mundanes.

One day.

"David and I had just come to an agreement on the walk home that night. I was going to try to tell you that morning when I snuck back into the institute, then he would make dinner and I would invite you over." He took a shuddered breath. "After...everything. I couldn't bring myself to say anything. It hurt too much, especially when I would get here and realize that I didn't have a home anymore. The two most important people in my life were gone."

His voice broke and she was out of her seat before she could even think it through. Winding her arms around him she felt a few tears escape her eyes at the grief her brother had no doubt been suppressing for years. At the loss of a nephew and a brother-in-law she'd never gotten a chance to know.

"I'm sorry, hermano." She whispered and he hugged her back silently, both of them startling slightly as another set of arms wrapped around them.

"We're here, Alec." Jace's voice sounded, rough and full of his parabatai's grief and for the first time in a long time, she felt him relax around them, a tiny smile full of gratitude and all the words he couldn't bring himself to say, curling across their older brother's lips.

"I know."

*/*

It had been a misunderstanding.

Even now, years later he could remember the incident that started everything. The incident that had set The Banshee on his war path.

He remembered leaving Rico's club after his interview, eager to get home after a long day. Remembered nearing his home that night only to stop when a scream reached his ears. Worse, he remembered running in the direction of the scream just as it cut off to find himself standing in an alley. To find David Vitalino standing over two bodies, one that he recognized as Xavier Rico, his friend and his boss' older brother and a woman that must have been his wife. Beside the Vitalino heir was an older man, one he didn't recognize, though he hadn't been able to bring himself to care, especially when he saw the cold satisfaction in the man's eyes. Thinking back on it, he could remember how Vitalino's eyes had held shock and something like grief but at the time, he hadn't seen it. Instead, he'd heard the sound of sirens and bolted with his heart in his throat, not even sure if they'd seen him.

The next day, he'd gone into work to find his boss grieving and raging and with nary a thought he'd spilled what he'd seen that night. As he spoke, he'd watched as James went still, his eyes burning with something that wasn't quite mad and then just a day later the man had vanished, reappearing with a manic grin and full of grim satisfaction. His son returned hours later, reporting the successful death of the Vitalino heir and his family.

They'd gotten revenge...for a moment.

Only hours after the return of Rico's son...the Banshee had appeared.

With dark eyes full of grief and rage, lips pulled back as their owner keened a low wail, he'd torn through the club, killing everyone in his path, tears hissing as they evaporated from blood stained cheeks. He'd been beautiful and deadly, terrifying in a way he'd never expected anything to be and when it was all over he could do nothing but sob in relief because he was alive.

A soft groan had told him that his boss had survived as well, though there hadn't been many in the club that had.

The man went into hiding soon after and recommended he do the same.

One hundred and four people had died that night, and as if that hadn't been enough, he'd later discovered that it had been a misunderstanding.

The unknown man in the alley had been a rogue agent sent to kill Xavier and Vitalino had stepped in to stop it. Having lost people to Rico's reign, the assassin hadn't had any qualms about shooting all three, only stopping before he shot Vitalino because of Victor's arrival.

Discovering that the Vitalino heir's son had also died, a child only four years old, had nearly destroyed him. He hadn't even known the Kid was married.

It had convinced him that the Creature hadn't chosen them indiscriminately. He'd tried to put that night behind him, tried to ignore the dreams of a faceless woman sobbing as her child lay bloody in her arms, Vitalino dead beside her. Tried to ignore the guilt, festering, choking, killing him, and the icy trill of fear (terror) as those haunting wail rang through his ears.

For years he'd succeeded…

Then-

Suddenly he couldn't. Not anymore.

Not when the creature had reappeared with a name (Xander Vitalino), and eyes that burned with the barely banked embers of his rage. Not when the snippet of conversation he'd heard between the Vitalino head and the shattered man had painted a clearer picture, had dragged his guilt, his fear, his damnation kicking and screaming to the forefront of his mind.

"Killing them won't bring them back, tesoro." Gentle, anguished.

"I know." Knowing, agonized, angry.

Perhaps that was what had led him here.

After all, he had no true obligation to be there. Not when the only other person that could say anything was dead and yet, he couldn't stop himself from knocking on the innocuous office door before him.

The single beat that passed before the door opened was terrifying and left his heart trapped in his throat.

Then-oh.

The Don himself answered, his gaze cold as it met Victor's own.

"We had no business with the Rico famiglia after...recent events."

Victor swallowed. "Please, Don Vitalino. I- I have some news you may wish to hear."

A single silver threaded brow rose. "Oh?"

He inhaled shakily, knowing that it was now or never. "I-I know what led to the death of your son."

TBC...