A/N:
Hi all, I swear I meant to upload this earlier. Anyway, leave a review!
Chapter 11: Cops and Robbers. As in, we rob the cops.
"We have to get the cup before Valentine does." Luke tells us serious and stern and Clary shakes her head in frustration.
"But I don't know where it is. Or, or even where to start looking!" Clary protests and I was drawing up a blank as well.
"It all starts and ends with you girls." He says firmly and I grumble.
"How do you even know that? How does anyone know that?" I rage because fuck it I was sick of people thinking that Clary and I knew exactly where the cup was. We didn't.
"Because I know Jocelyn." Luke says firmly "You girls are the only other people she would have trusted with the location of the Cup."
"If she trusted us so much, why didn't she tell us any of this?" Clary cries out pacing in her frustration.
"She didn't think this was gonna happen. She made provisions just in case it did." Luke said gently and Clary sags.
"The potion. Dot…"
Clary then tears up. I look down and with a jolt remember the ring. The ring that Dot gave me. I'd forgotten all about it and now I had no fucking clue where it was. I had been wearing it that night the demon attacked hadn't I? Did it get lost? Did it break? Was it somewhere back home or in the institute?
"Jocelyn said that I should tell you girls everything about our past. That it would unlock you." Luke admits but Clary stomps.
"What does that even mean?!" She yells frustrated.
"I don't know!" Luke said equally frustrated and sits up from the bed. "But you girls do."
"Memories wiped. Remember?" Clary snaps but Luke shakes his head.
"There are clues. They're inside the mundane world. Think." Luke says gently and I huff.
"Okay, you are sounding a lot like every other creep that wants the damned cup right about now." I say impatient but Luke doesn't take offence.
"We don't remember anything!" Clary says frustrated and looks to me "If mom hid clues, I don't know what they are!"
"Hey, don't look at me. I'm even more lost than you." I say holding up my hands and Clary grumbles.
"You have to figure this out." Luke says urgent and Clary and I look to each other.
"Okay, okay. You said you had to tell us everything right? Is there anything else? Any other detail that might help?" I ask and Luke sighs. Clary however draws up short.
"Wait! The box!" She says and rushes to her bag to pull out the box and brings it over to the bed. She holds it in front of Luke. Luke draws back.
"Wait-" He says but Clary wasn't waiting.
"What is this?" She demands but Luke shakes his head.
"No." He says but he doesn't even get the full word out because Clary's talking over him in a rush to get it all out.
"Mom said this belonged to our father… but Valentine's our father. Who's JC?" Clary demands and Luke sighs.
"I want you girls to remember your father could be a good man-" Luke tries and I shook my head.
"Yeah, that went down the drain when he did a swan dive off the deep end. For God's sake he literally threw you to the wolves Luke! Giant, wolves!" I say and Luke shakes his head.
"This is worse, Lou. Much worse." Luke says grimly and Clary presses forwards.
"I don't care! Luke, we need to know, we… you said it yourself. You have to tell us everything." Clary says and Luke looks to me then Clary and then sighs.
"JC stands for Jonathan Christopher. Your brother." Luke says and Clary and I stare at each other slowly and then at the box.
"Brother?" I ask numbly because what the fuck? Since when? Before we were born apparently.
"We have a brother?" Clary asks and Luke shakes his head.
"You did." He said "He died in a fire at a Fairchild Manor. A fire that your father set."
I choke and Clary gasps. Numbly she puts the box on top of the sketch pad abandoned on the bed and I reach out to gently wrap an arm around my baby sister. We had a fucking brother and Valentine killed his own child. Clary presses down on the box and suddenly I yelp because the box wasn't there anymore and instead of a three dimensional box, there was a sketch of a box on the sketchpad. I stare.
"MAGNUS!" I shout because there could be no other explanation for this "YOUR MAGICAL SKETCH PAD ATE A BOX!"
"It did no such thing!" Magnus calls from another room and I splutter and Clary chokes.
"A-Actually, Lou… I think that was me." She says numbly and I stare at her and then at the pad because… what the fuck? "T-that was the ending of the story mom said we needed to hear but… is that what she meant by unlock?! How did I do that?!"
"Actually, I'm still all for blaming this on Magnus." I say numbly and Luke takes the picture.
"There are Shadowhunters that have unusual angelic powers like Lou but I've never seen anyone do what you just did." Luke said numb and I splutter.
"Wait, wait, wait. I have what?" I ask and Luke looks at me.
"All the things that you break? You think you can break a wooden oak table in half just because you kicked it by accident?" Luke points out and I stare.
"Okay, hold up. Hold up. So, you're saying that because we've got angel blood, I get sporadic super-strength and Clary can suddenly… I don't know, magic objects into drawings?" I say and Clary flips the paper over and over again trying to figure out what the fuck she just did. Luke shrugs.
"Can these powers… be inherited?" Clary asks and Luke blinks.
"I think so." Luke admits and staring at the picture and I suddenly remember standing by the door, hand in hand with Clary and there's Mom sitting at the table a tarot card in hand. A large card, with purple backing and gold foil. I abruptly remember Dot's tarot card set. The ace of cups suddenly seemed a lot like how they were describing the Mortal Cup.
"There's no way… right?" I ask softly and Clary looks at me and then shrugs.
"Did you think of something?" Luke asks and Clary grins.
"I think I know where the cup is!" She declares and bolts out of the room. I look to Luke.
"Hobble together?" I offer and Luke chuckles.
"Sounds good to me." He says and I help him out of bed and we make our way slowly to the living room where Clary is no doubt telling everyone about our most recent discovery. We hear them before we see them.
"If Dot had the cards when she was taken, we don't have much time." Jace says grimly.
"If Valentine gets his hands on the cup…" Clary says weakly but Magnus interrupts.
"We'd know. If Valentine started creating Shadowhunters or gained control of demons, it'd be like Beyoncé riding on a dinosaur through Times Square. People would notice." Magnus says and I have to snort. Luke rolls his eyes at me. Still, who doesn't want to see Beyoncé riding on a dinosaur through times square?
"But he can control demons. I've seen it." Clary insists as Luke hurries a little faster and I do my best to make sure we don't all fall over.
"Mm, paying off a few demons is easy, especially since they rarely survive long enough to collect." Magnus dismisses and someone snorts. I was betting on Jace.
"Still waiting on Valentine's thank-you card." Yup. Definitely Jace.
"Opening the gates of hell, that's a little more tricky." Magnus says ignoring Jace just as Luke and I finally make it into the room.
"Valentine doesn't have the cards. I do. They're in my desk back at the precinct." Luke says and we all turn to stare at him. Since he had an arm slung around my shoulder, it was a little difficult for me to stare but I give it my best shot. "When the girls went missing, I went to the loft and I cleared everything out, 'cause I didn't want the Circle to track them."
"That's great. This should be easy." Clary says and Magnus hums.
"Hm. That's what General Custer said." Magnus points out and flops onto the couch and I had to wince. General Custer was an American war hero who despite his near-worshiped status managed to get his entire battalion wiped out because of his ego during the American Civil war. He had ignored warnings from his scouts and as a result he and the six hundred and fifty men under his command were all killed at the battle of Little Big Horn. It was later glorified by his widow into Custer's Last Stand. They even made movies out of it.
I grew up in an antique's shop, I was not that big of a history buff.
Okay, I was kind of a history buff but it wasn't my fault.
"Magnus is right." Luke admitted "Valentine has spies everywhere. Even in the NYPD."
"Seriously?" I groan and Luke nods.
"We have to be discreet." He says and Clary laughs.
"Discreet? Luke, you look like something out of a mummy movie." She points out.
"Never mind that, I doubt he can even walk on his own." I grumble and Luke gives us both the 'look'. Magnus suddenly… I don't even know what sound it makes but it was like this little giggle-chuckle thing that was way too high pitched and it cut off abruptly and… wait, no, titter. Yup. That was it. Magnus just tittered. It was oddly hilarious. Clary stares at Magnus and I bite my lip to stop from bursting out laughing. Magnus immediately looks away and pretends that he made no such sound. Luke saves him.
"We'll go in the morning. Werewolf healing, remember?" Luke asks and I huff.
"Of course werewolves have rapid healing. Who's heard of a werewolf without rapid healing?" I complain and Luke grins.
"This is nothing a couple of hours of beauty sleep can't fix." Luke says chuckling and I glower.
"Right. Before you go off sleeping beauty. Mind handing over your handcuff keys? These fashion accessories are bugging me." I jingle the cuffs and Luke digs out his keys from deep in his pockets and unlocks the cuffs for me and I gratefully rub my wrists once they're off. Stupid Alaric putting them on so tight.
We set Luke to bed at Magnus kicks us out of his loft. He does portal us back to the institute though so we don't have to walk so that was nice of him at the very least.
Clary goes to pace in her room and maybe tentatively bonds with Jace and I go to the infirmary.
I try to ask people that were milling around, I really do but they were generally unhelpful. Those that were polite enough to not walk away when they spot me approaching at least. I end up rummaging through the draws of the infirmary and getting quite a few demands as to what 'Valentine's daughter' was doing snooping around the Institute. I'd said at least six times that I was looking for a ring with my literal name on it but the questions were getting more and more frequent and I think those two guys at the entrance were about to come and frog-march me out when Izzy walks past and for a moment, I nearly don't recognize her.
"Lou!" Izzy says with a smile and I stare and do a double take because this was not the Izzy that I know. Her usual long hair was straight as a ruler and lacking in any of her signature curling wave. Her makeup was still there but far less colourful. Her clothing was a simple dress that went from neck to mid-shin and it was one of those solid dresses. No naughty parts. In fact, hardly any skin and it was so not Izzy that for a split second, I wondered if Izzy had a twin that I didn't know about.
"Uh. Izzy?" I ask and Izzy obviously seeing my rather pole-axed expression smiles.
"My new style. What do you think?" She asks doing a twirl like she's pleased with herself and I know she's not but I couldn't really say that it wasn't her style. So I smile and nod.
"You look good, but then again, you always look good." I say and Izzy beams.
"Why thank you. So, what are you looking for?" She asks and I breathe a sigh of relief.
"My ring. Big gold thing, my name literally on it. I swear I was wearing it when I was hauled in here unconscious but I'm not quire sure and it's kinda important so-" I babble and Izzy lights up.
"Oh that ring! I know where it is. Don't worry, you think I'll throw something like that away?" Izzy asks and heads straight to one of the filing cabinets that I didn't think I was supposed to touch. She pulls out the bottom-most drawer and it must be the lost and found because there were pieces of clothing, jewellery, some sort of hammer, and a knife. Izzy plucks out my ring and I rush forwards to take it.
"Thank you." I breathe out and cradle it in my hands because it's too important to lose.
"It's beautiful." Izzy says with a gentle smile and I smile weakly back.
"Thanks. It was a present. Eighteenth birthday." I say and Izzy laughs.
"Well, whoever gave it to you must have excellent taste." She says and it was a lie because the ring was a gag present. It was big and gaudy and so obviously meant for laughs but Izzy saw that it was important to me and responded in kind. I think I loved Izzy for that.
"Yeah. It, uh, it was Dot. It's more of a gag present than anything…" I admit and Izzy slings an arm around me and gives me a hug.
"Well, put it on!" She encourages and I slip it onto my right hand and laugh at how gaudy it was. It was still awesome though.
"Maybe not every day." I chuckle and Izzy smiles and pats my hand.
"Wear it. It looks great." She says and we walk off. Some guy glares at me but I ignore it. Yeah, Valentine's Daughter coming though. Part like the red sea motherfuckers. If Izzy notices the hostility, she says nothing and I didn't expect her to. Izzy had this badass aura about her that made people want to back away slowly least they incur her wrath. No words needed. Truly a woman after my own heart.
"Got time to kick my ass a little?" I ask and Izzy laughs.
"So getting your ass kicked by werewolves wasn't enough for one day?" She asks amused and I shrug.
"I am trying to make sure that doesn't happen again. I endeavour to be a princess with a self-rescuing function." I say primly "Also, trying to kick werewolf ass with your hands tied behind your back is an activity that I would ten out of ten not recommend."
Izzy laughs and nods.
"Alright. Change and meet me in the training room by five. Your ankle doing okay?" Izzy asks and I nod.
"I can walk and everything!" I say with false cheer and we split to change into something that wasn't covered in blood in my case and something that wasn't a tight dress in Izzy's.
We meet in three minutes fifteen seconds and Izzy kicks my ass with her bare hands. So awesome. Also, so painful.
She does re-do my healing rune again though so that made it all okay in my books.
"I really need to get myself one of those magic wands." I sigh and Izzy laughs.
"I would recommend learning to draw runes first." She says and I sigh but concede the point. Best not fuck around with runes until I know what I'm doing. Knowing my total lack of artistry talent, I'll end up setting myself on fire when I'm trying to give myself a little speed boost like I'd seen Izzy do.
With my ass thoroughly beat, we part to shower and I flop back onto the bed happily reunited with Wallace, and stare at the ring on my nightstand. I didn't want to wear it on my hand because Shadowhunting wasn't exactly the cleanest of occupations and I didn't want to accidentally break the ring. I sigh and roll over and pout. Clary's super power is completely cool what with her ability to put three dimensional things into a drawing. That was superhero level man. Me? Sporadic super-strength that meant I broke stuff. Joy. I huddle underneath my blankets and grumble trying to annoy myself into sleep.
I resort to counting sheep.
It doesn't work at all and I get hardly any sleep and the next morning I'm up bright and early with a nice set of panda eyes. Clary gives me a coo of sympathy but that's all I get as she hustles me to the police station. Can't say I blame her.
We go with Jace babysitting us, well, it's more like we sneak out with Jace showing us how but that was besides the point.
I make a point to remember to bring Wallace this time.
Luke goes on a one-man mission into the police station and everything promptly goes wrong because it's us standing outside and Luke is getting arrested.
"What the hell?" I whisper as I stare into the windows of the precinct and I swore that I saw Luke being hustled away. "Valentine's men?"
"No. Mundanes. Internal Affairs." Jace says immediately and I turn to stare at him. Clary scoffs.
"Oh, and you can just tell by looking at them?" She challenges and Jace smirks and lifts up a sleeve to show off a rune. Clary's phone rings and she takes a glance before declining the call. I frown but Jace is talking.
"No. I can tell by reading their badges. Better than binoculars." He says and Clary stares at the rune impressed.
"Handy." I remark and Jace smirks. Then he starts forwards.
"Luke had his chance. Let's go."
"For the record. I think this is a bad idea." I mutter but chase after them and they ignore me. Figures.
"Here, give me your arms." Jace says and takes out his stele. I hand my arm over for whatever rune he's planning on drawing and Jace quickly scribbles it into my arm first. "Invisibility rune. Anyone with the sight will spot us from a mile away but it'll keep the mundanes oblivious."
"Good to know." I say rubbing the rune "How do I know if it's worked?"
"It's worked." Jace says immediately and holds out a hand for Clary. Clary holds out her arm and there was sparks flying there and I look away. First Magnus and Alec and now Jace and Clary… actually, Jace and Clary probably shot sparks at each other first. Was everyone coupling up these days? Seemed like it.
"Ow." Clary hisses and I pat my sister's shoulder in sympathy. Jace finishes quickly and then leads the way straight into the police station. We have to weave around people because while we were invisible, we were very much solid. I'd found that out the hard way when I'd bumped into someone and they looked around slightly freaked out. Sorry dude.
We slip into the interrogation room Luke is in out of pure luck and Luke stares and I quickly press a finger to my lips and Luke gives me the most deadpan 'duh' look I've ever seen. That's fair I supposed.
"Garroway." The guy who was interrogating Luke says impatient "Coffee?"
"Oh, uh, no, I'm good." Luke says quickly and then very pointedly does not look at us until the door is shut. Even then, he doesn't turn to look. He blows his nose into a tissue and whispers.
"Camera."
I look up and want to swear because fuck. Technology man. Did cameras see us? Shit, did our footsteps and audio get recorded?
Jace reaches up and just flat out unplugs the camera. Seriously dude?
"Luke, what is going on?" Clary whispers and Luke sighs.
"I think I'm about to be the prime suspect in a murder investigation." Luke admits and I wince. Oh, that was bad.
"What do we do?" Clary asks.
"Get the cards. They're in my desk, bottom drawer." Luke says immediately and Clary goes to open the door but I stop her.
"We're invisible remember? Doors don't open on their own." I hiss and Clary groans.
"Also, I'm not the only Downworlder in the force and we don't know who's working for Valentine. If anyone spots you…" Luke warned and I put a hand over my eyes.
"We'd be leading them right to the Mortal Cup." Jace whispered.
"Great. Just great. Right. Clary, rock paper scissors. Who gets to sweet talk Captain Vargas." I say and Clary does play rock paper scissors with me and I lose. "damn it."
"Better to assume that everybody has the sight than gamble that they don't." Luke warns us and we nod. The door clicks.
"Luke." Clary hisses but Luke holds up a hand.
"I can handle myself." He says hurriedly and then shuts up because the door is opened and I hustle Clary out as the guy comes in all pissed.
"Hey, what happened to the camera?" He demands and Luke shrugs as the door is shut behind us.
Clary hustles us into the filing room and Jace grumbles about it.
"Really? In here?" Jace complains and Clary huffs.
"Why not?"
"There's got to be a better place."
"Yeah, not really. Cameras are still a thing and this place is the only place that's not constantly being stared at by Big Brother. Plus, it leads out to a real busy hallway so we can blend in." I say and Jace leans back only to bash the back of his head against a pile of boxes.
"Ow!" He complains and I snicker. "All right."
Jace runs the stele over his rune and flashes back to view. He does the same to me before offering Clary who is already trying it all on her own with her own stele. I really needed to get one of those things and soon.
"Need help with that?" Jace asked amused and Clary huffs.
"I can deglamorize myself, Jace." Clary says and tries again. Then promptly fails again.
"That's deglamorized?" Jace asks amused.
"Whatever." Clary grumbles and third time's the charm because it finally works. "The cards."
"Right. And how exactly are we gonna get them?" Jace pointed out and I eye Clary who's quite visibly tatted up. She has a healing rune on her neck, some other rune on her chest both highly obvious and her sleeves are shorter than mine so the runes on her arms aren't exactly hidden either. Me on the other hand, most of my runes are confined to my arms and I had on a jacket.
"I'll go. Mine are less obvious." I suggest but Clary smirks.
"It's okay Lou. I've got a plan." She says and I arch an eyebrow.
"A good plan this time?" Jace asks dryly and Clary smirks.
"Ninety percent." Clary admits and I shrug.
"Better than most of your other ones. Let's do this." I say and Clary smiles in triumph and Jace sighs.
"Just follow my lead. Oh, and I apologize." Clary says giggling and we catch eyes and then I have to turn away or I'll burst out into laughter.
"Apologize for what?" Jace asks.
"The other ten percent." Clary says and I lean over to whisper.
"That plan?" I ask and Clary nods.
"Always wanted to try it out." She admits and I look over to Jace and then snicker. Jace seems slightly alarmed. I nod to Clary.
I push Jace forwards as Clary strides into the room where Luke's desk was and sure enough, it was filled with people. A detective's floor was never empty. There was always some case going on, always someone sitting at their desk stewing over paperwork, someone glaring at the screen of their computer. There was always people doing things. The crime in New York City did not stop just because I discovered the Shadow World existed. Kind of comforting actually I do have to say. At least something didn't change.
"You son of a bitch!" Clary yelled and full on bitch-slapped Jace in the face.
I wait for the moment of shock to pass and then storm around the corner with the fiercest scowl I could muster.
"HEY DICKHEAD! GET YOUR FUCKBOY SELF AWAY FROM MY SISTER!" I roar and I was quite proud of the fact that even Jace backs up slightly. It was probably all due to shock but hey, still felt damned good.
"Hey, what the hell?" Jace whispers and the cops start coming and Clary gasps.
"What did you say?! You cheated on me?!" Clary demands and I grip Jace by the front of his jacket and raise a fist.
"You are a dead man!" I yell even as the two officers, Brad and Alan I was quite sure, gently pull me back and grab Jace by the arms.
"I… huh?" Jace says and starts forward "I did not…"
"You will never see me at your crappy apartment again!" Clary shouts as she starts to pull drawers on Luke's desk and I stand there in front of Jace trying to look menacing. Captain Vargas walks out of her office with an arched eyebrow.
"That girl…" Jace says but then I point at him as if threatening him with a knife and Jace shuts up.
"That the boyfriend I heard so much about?" Captain Vargas asks as Jace waves awkwardly and I threaten to beat his face in.
"Oh you trying to play someone else huh?!" I shout and Jace backs away. Clary and I made a good team. I turn and smile sweetly. "Captain Vargas? Can I borrow your gun? Please? Just for a second?"
"I don't think so." Captain Vargas says amused and Jace clears his throat.
"Okay, look, it was only tw- th- look, babe, I'm sorry." Jace says playing up the dickhead angle quite nicely.
"Oh bitch you gonna die!" I snarl "Someone gimme their taser or god help me I'm punching this jackass's teeth down his throat!"
"Okay, break it up." Captain Vargas said and nodded to Brad and Alan, "Take him out."
They do and Jace goes protesting about his rights. I stalk towards Clary as she tries to explain away the neck tattoo.
"I get it, you always fall for the bad boys." Captain Vargas says with a smile and Clary stares. "Or… is that just me?"
"Oh no, Clary's got a thing for tall blond and trouble." I say with a put upon sigh "You do not know how much trouble it took to get her to break it off with jackass back there."
"Lou!" Clary hisses flushing but coughs. "Um… Do you have… that key?"
"I'm sorry, but IA has all of Luke's things in the evidence vault upstairs." Captain Vargas says and I wince.
"That sounds real bad…" I say and she nods but turns to Clary.
"Maybe I can help you girls find the key you lost? Did you check your bag?" Captain Vargas asks and Clary digs out the key acting as flustered as possible.
"Oh, my god. You're totally right." She says and I sigh.
"Well, on the bright side, blondie's out of the way, so this wasn't a wasted trip at least." I say and sling an arm around Clary's shoulders "Thanks Captain Vargas!"
"Any time. Take care of yourselves girls." Captain Vargas says and we wave and leave so that Jace doesn't actually get arrested. Or tased. Could a Shadowhunter even be tased? Had to check that one out.
Jace of course wasn't going to take the slap and not complain our ears off.
"You know what, I'm going to bring Alec with me next time. I don't think he's ever slapped me in the face." Jace grumbles and I grinned at him.
"Would you look at that, a new and amusing experience. Two for the price of one." I say and move to smack Jace in the stomach but he jumps back slightly and I miss.
"No more slapping." He says and I kick out a little just for that and Jace steps over the kick with a superior smirk on his face.
We round the corner and I was actually quite surprised to see Alec and Izzy there.
"Some one call for back up?" Izzy asks with a smirk and Jace huffs.
"Yeah, what took you so long?" Jace complains.
"Funny. I was going to ask you the same thing." Alec snaps. Ohhh boy.
"It's complicated." Jace settles on and I roll my eyes.
"The fuck it is." I mutter and Jace glowers at me. I pretend not to see. Clary decides that enough was enough.
"We found the cup." She says and I nod.
"Yeah, bad news, it's in the evidence vault. So. Yeah." I say and Alec crosses his arms and does his 'I blame you for this shit' look.
"This is a disaster." He declares and Jace denies it.
"Demon pox is a disaster. This, is an inconvenience. We just need need a plan, that's all."
"What about a glamor?" Izzy asked with an arched eyebrow.
"We tried that, anyone working with Valentine would see right through it." Jace admits.
"Can we ask Magnus Bane to portal us inside?" Clary asks and it was Alec that answers immediately.
"No." He says and I wonder what the hell had happened there. What did they do? Hook up? Actually, what happened after. Did Alec have to do the walk of shame? Was that why he was so grumpy?
"That'd be awkward." Izzy says and then changes tactic when Alec glares at her "Magnus can only portal us to places he's been before."
"Never been arrested in this city? Who knew that could be a bad thing." I say and just then, Clary's phone rings. She pulls it out and sighs.
"Just give me a second." She says and walks off and I quickly follow. Clary shares her phone with me. "Simon, you've got Lou and I, but this is really a bad time."
"Where are you guys? This is an emergency." Simon says and he sounds freaked out of his mind.
"Simon are you okay?" Clary asks worried before I could get a word in.
"Not sure, I haven't been kidnapped yet today." Simon snaps over the line and I tug the phone closer.
"Simon, tell me exactly what happened." I say as calm as I can internally freaking out about what the fuck Simon had managed to get himself into or even worse, what we'd managed to drag him into.
"I think I'm sick. Like, really sick." Simon says and Clary sighs and even I roll my eyes.
"Simon, remember the time you thought you had the bird flu, okay, just stay off the internet and you'll be fine." Clary sighs and Simon says something but Jace suddenly plucks the phone out from Clary's hand and hangs up.
"Simon's little problem can wait. I've got a great plan." Jace says and I was about to protest more but Clary had already snatched her phone back and let it go.
"Oh, there's a first." She teases and Jace rolls his eyes.
"Oh ha ha ha. Just follow my lead. Lou, go with Alec, and don't worry. In my plan, no one gets slapped." Jace says and I smirked.
"I don't know, it did work." I said and Jace flips me off.
I beam and flip him off right back.
Then I scurry off to Alec and Izzy before he could retaliate.
"So, tell me, what's the plan exactly?" I ask and Alec walks away. Fine. Izzy smiles and links arms with me.
"We get the ID cards, cause a distraction, Clary and Jace sneak in, and voila. The cup is ours." Izzy says and I sigh.
"Somehow I don't think it'll be that easy but fine." I say and we stride after Alec.
Ruth is sitting at the desk in her usual no nonsense manner and Alec makes a go-ahead gesture at Izzy.
"Okay, I'm guessing you're the distraction?" He asks and Izzy smirks.
"Nope. I've decided to grow up remember? No more distracting for me. Besides. I don't think I'm her type." Izzy says laughing and Alec pales.
"Oh crap." Alec says and tugs his jacket on tighter and Izzy snickers.
"Don't worry. It's good practice."
"Huh?" Alec mutters not really paying attention and Izzy smirks like a cat.
"You know, for asking out Magnus." Izzy teases and I arch my eyebrows.
"Magnus Bane? Now I'm impressed." I compliment pretending I didn't see this while it was still in the stratosphere and Alec glowers at us both and Izzy laughs and darts forward to start unbuttoning Alec's shirt and Alec flails as I smother snickers behind my hand.
"What are you… what are you doing…" Alec protests weakly.
"Unbuttoning your shirt. What does it look like I'm doing." Izzy says and Alec tries to re-button his shirt in protest.
"Izzy, this isn't really my department. Why can't Lou do it?" Alec asks.
"Am I finally being trusted to do something?" I gasp in mock amazement and Alec gives me a deadpan 'shut up' look.
"On second thoughts. You stay right there." He says and I shrug.
"Oh come on, you do this sort of stuff all the time." Izzy says and Alec turns his wide slightly alarmed eyes on her.
"You do. I don't."
"It's easy." Izzy assures and Alec buttons up the rest of his shirt and Izzy gives him a shove towards Ruth.
"Should I have told you that I know Ruth?" I whisper to Izzy and she looks over eyebrows raised.
"You do?" She asks and I nod as Alec awkwardly approaches.
"Yeah. She's been manning that desk since I was what, eight? Got a real soft spot for me." I say with a smirk and Izzy giggles and puts a finger to her lips.
"You can be our plan B." She promises and I grin.
"Hey." Alec says at the table and Ruth sits up.
"Can I help you?" Ruth asks already slightly charmed by the polite young man but then Alec had to open his mouth and ruin it all.
"You… uh, you come here often?" He asks and I could see the second Ruth wanted to beat the idiot to death with his own severed head.
"Okay. Screw plan B. This is a rescue operation." I say as Izzy laughs and I stride forwards.
"I work here." Ruth says in that tone that tells me she's a second away from calling in the guys with the tasers. I jog up and sling an arm around Alec's neck causing him to jump nearly out of his skin and try to throw me off. I cling on.
"Alec! Dude! Don't run ahead! I thought I lost you after that lady with the blue hair dye!" I say and Alec splutters at me but I poke him in the side and beam at Ruth.
"Hey Ruth, how're you doing? Is little Mitsy still grumpy with Harold?" I ask and Alec stares at me and then at Ruth and then he tries to glare me to death but he stops trying to throw my arm off.
"They're getting along great now." Ruth says with a chuckle "They just both needed a toy for Christmas to get the little tykes in line."
"Oh they are the sweetest." I coo and Ruth smiles and nods to Alec.
"Friend?" She asks and I laugh.
"Oh, no, this is Alec. One of mom's relatives." I say lying through my teeth and Ruth's eyebrows go sky-high.
"Your mother?" She asks and I nod.
"Yeah, so crazy story. Turns out, mom's parents were Amish. This is Alec and he's here for his rumspringa. So, for the next few months, he gets to enjoy all the luxuries of modern America before he's to decide if he wants to go back home or stay out here in the jungle." I say with a laugh and Alec laughs too and steps on my foot.
"Is it that time of year again." Ruth says with a sigh "We don't usually get that many Amish kids in New York. The tattoo also new?"
I look at Alec's neck and sees his deflect rune and nod.
"Yup. Wouldn't take no for an answer." I say with a dramatic sigh and lean forwards to whisper in Ruth's ear. "You won't believe the trouble I went through trying to convince him the washing machine wasn't possessed."
Ruth laughs and leans back and I pull back too and snag Ruth's name card while I was at it and shove it behind my back. Alec takes it and Ruth straightens.
"So, what's Alec doing here? He thinking of joining the NYPD?" Ruth asks good humoured and I shake my head.
"Oh, not at all, I just had to let him meet Luke at least once you know. Have you seen him around lately?" I ask innocent as could be and Ruth chuckles.
"Try the cafeteria." She says and I salute her.
"Aye aye!" I say and walk off. Alec does too but he accidentally knocks over a display of fliers on Ruth's desk and after an awkward bit of trying to clean up for her gets shooed away.
Izzy was laughing her ass off.
Alec catches up and glowers.
"Amish?" He demands and I shrug.
"After that 'do you come here often' line, you're lucky I didn't say you were from Mars." I said and Alec flushes a little but still tries to glare me to death.
"Let's just go." Alec snaps and I roll my eyes.
"You're welcome!" I shout after him and he pretends that he doesn't hear me.
Three turns in and I realize that Alec has no clue where he's going.
"You know… I don't think we need to go down to the holding cells. Or is the plan prison break?" I ask and Alec scowls and takes a random corner. "That's a dead end!"
Alec comes back and glowers at me. I smile innocently.
"Where's the stuff that controls the elevators?" He asks through gritted teeth and Izzy laughs and I bite my lip because laughing in someone's face wasn't exactly polite.
"Right this way good sir." I say and lead the way biting down giggles all the way. Stuff that controls the elevators. Alec should have been a comedian.
Growing up with a parent-figure that worked at the NYPD guaranteed that you knew your way around it. Not because they would let any Tom Dick and Harry in but because sometimes when Luke was babysitting us he'd get called in and it was either leave a pair of children in a house full of valuable antiques, various weaponry and a dodgy kitchen or take us to the station with him. He'd stopped when we'd gotten older but we still went to visit him. So, I knew my way around the place and thus guided them to the service corridors at the back and with a flourish showed them where the fuse box and 'stuff that controls the elevators' was. Alec swiped the card and Izzy stalked through. Then she drew a rune on the fuse box and three seconds later, the alarms started blaring and the lights fizzed out.
"You know that they're going to lock down the building after this right?" I ask and I was ignored. Fine.
The alarms blaring stopped and I nodded.
"Okay, before everyone figures out what we did, let's hustle people." I say and I think Alec flips me off but Izzy is already tugging me down the hall so I couldn't really tell.
We're outside trying not to seem obviously loitering when Clary and Jace come running out.
"Did you get it?" Alec demands immediately.
"Theoretically." Clary admits and I stare. What?
"Theoretically?" Alec demands and I had to agree because how the fuck to do you 'theoretically' get a physical object? Like… what?
"Yeah. I found the card. I just have to figure out how I reached into my notebook before. It's… it's not an exact science." Clary admits and I stare. Wait, pulling stuff out was different from putting stuff in? Great. Just great.
"Can't you just pull the cup out?" Alec asks and Clary shrugs.
"I can, theoretically, I just… it's not as easy as it looks Alec." Clary snaps but Jace puts an end to it.
"Listen, you two can discuss theories as much as you want when we get back to the institute. But right now, considering we just stole from the cops, I suggest we get home." Jace said and I have to say, I was kind of impressed.
"Smartest thing you've said all day. I vote we leg it too." I say raising a hand but then suddenly Izzy's necklace starts to pulse. The necklace that was only supposed to do that in the presence of demons.
"Guys…" Izzy says cautiously and we all look to her necklace and pale.
"Well fuck." I say and didn't that just sum it all up?