Newark, New Jersey September 2009
Theo Beaugrove could hear the demons further down the alleyway, specifically their tentacles. Theo did not ever want to hear demon tentacles sliding along the ground, but especially not tonight. Every night for the last two weeks, Theo and the rest of the members of the Newark Institute had been finding packs of demons deep in Newark's alleyways. On his left was Erelah Stillwood, his parabatai, they crept shoulder-to-shoulder down the alleyway, the runes of quietude they'd marked themselves with beforehand muffling their steps. Erelah pulled her seraph blades, ready to activate them the moment they saw the demons. Theo kept his hand on the hilt of his shortsword but didn't draw it. Not yet. Somewhere above them, on the rooftops of the buildings that walled off the alleyway on either side was Victoria Hayrun with her trusty longbow ready to fire a hailstorm of arrows if things got out of hand.
Cars and people drove and walked by the alley, but none of them saw the two Shadowhunters creeping down the alley, they were both glamoured, as was Victoria, though no one would see her on the rooftops anyways. The tentacles were getting louder, no louder wasn't the word. They were getting slushier and it was making Theo even more uneasy. Theo and Erelah reached the corner, their bodies pressed up to the wall. They exchanged a glance and he quietly drew his shortsword, its electrum edge gleamed in the darkness, and he could see the various runes running up the center of the blade. The hilt fit nice and snug in Theo's hand and the bright crimson pommel seemed like it was waiting to kill something. Peaking around the corner, Erelah confirmed they were demons and nodded six times, six demons. Theo was about to signal Victoria when she fell from the rooftop and landed both silently, and gracefully (as she always did) right next to him with an arrow nocked in her bow.
Victoria's black hair was cropped short, almost as short as Theo's When they were younger, a demon had grabbed onto her hair and yanked her around by it until finally one of the older Shadowhunters on the patrol with her, Lukas Lonestern, had cut her hair off with his seraph blade. Erelah's hair was blonde and long, reaching her mid-back, but she always had it pinned up securely behind her head while they were patrolling. Most of the guys that Theo knew (not that it was many) always asked him how he could be around two beautiful women such as Erelah and Victoria and not feel anything. The truth was that Theo just didn't see anything in either of them. Sure, Erelah was hilarious and bright, and bubbly. And sure, Victoria was tough and kickass. But really, Theo never once even thought of the possibility of either of them being something more for him. They were both his best friends, and they were all on the same page with that—at least he thought they were. He hoped they were.
Victoria pulled back her arrow and leaped around the corner, firing into the darkness. Theo wasn't worried that she'd miss though, Victoria was terrifyingly accurate with her bow, and that was without the assistance of runes. At that moment, Erelah named her seraph blades, the right one named "Lailah" and the other "Cassiel." Theo drew his shortsword and followed Erelah into the pack of demons. Theo didn't recognize them, but honestly, there were so many demons he didn't know how other people memorized them all. They were octopus-like, with nine or ten slimy tentacles and beady red eyes that Theo tried to avoid looking at. One of them swung a tentacle towards him and he quickly ducked down, bringing his sword upwards as he did, slicing the tentacle clean off and sending it flying across the alley along with a spray of ichor that he had to roll forwards to escape. Its owner made a screeching noise and recoiled back. Another tentacle from behind him wrapped around his ankle and lifted him into the air, but before he could even try to cut himself free, an arrow shot threw the demon's tentacle and Theo was dropped. He twisted in the air and landed on his feet, immediately having to jump over another tentacle.
"Thanks," He said as charged one of the demons.
"Less talking, more chopping," Victoria told him. Theo sliced another tentacle off one of the demons as Erelah was thrown into the wall, her seraph blades scattering across the pavement. Theo didn't exactly feel her being thrown into the wall, but because of their parabatai bond, he felt something. More like the feeling of "Oh, she just got hit, I should probably help her because I swore an oath to do so." Swinging his sword like a madman, severing tentacles left and right, he sprinted across the alley towards Erelah, who was already getting back to her feet, but her swords were missing, and two of the demons were descending on her. Victoria seemed to be locked with one of the demons herself who was trying to steal her bow. She didn't seem happy about it, letting out a fury of curse words that would've probably killed her parents on the spot if they heard her.
Theo leaped into the air, lifting higher with the help of his various combat runes and innate Nephilim skills, and swung his sword in a downward arc over the head of one of the demons trying to corner Erelah. He severed it in half, covering himself with ichor. The two halves of the demon folded in on themselves and winked out of existence as most demons did. The other demon turned on Theo now, ignoring Erelah, and before he could react, wrapped two thick, slimy tentacles around his torso and began to squeeze. His arms were pinned to his side, and he dropped his shortsword, the sound of it clattering to the ground sounded a lot louder in Theo's head than he thought it should've. Suddenly, the demon disappeared, and Theo was released. He took a deep breath and collected his sword. Erelah, with Cassiel and Lailah, ran over to him and put on a hand on his shoulder.
"You good?"
"Super," Theo replied.
Victoria backed up next to them, aiming another arrow, "If I ever see another tentacle again, it'll be too soon," she said as the other three—Victoria must've killed one of them—demons converged on them. She let her arrow fly, and it sunk deep into one of the demon's beady eyes before the demon finally died. Two left.
Erelah had already gone after one of them, swinging her swords like some war goddess, and Theo rushed after the other, eager to get this over with and head home. He ducked under a tentacle, leaped over another one, and jabbed his sword deep into the demon's body as Erelah finished off the other one. Theo sighed with relief and wiped his blade on his pants, getting as much ichor as he could off of it. Erelah was already on her way, stele out, ready to give him iratzes. Theo pulled his stele from his belt, a long wand-like piece of adamas that was carved to look as if small, intricate, flowered vines were wrapped around it, converging at the tip. It was a family heirloom among the Beaugroves, and a gift from Theo's father, who now used a regular, standard stele. Erelah's stele wasn't very decorated either, it carried a couple of different runes down its length, but that wasn't entirely out of the ordinary for steles. Erelah put the tip to Theo's forearm and started drawing as Theo did the same to her arm.
"I'll just Mark myself. No worries." Victoria said sarcastically as she pulled out her stele. Erelah laughed as Theo finished up the iratzes he had drawn. Once Erelah had finished drawing her runes, Theo felt the burning fade and he took a breath.
"While I would say that I am loving all this demon-slaying we're doing, maybe the demons could just? Take a night off?" He suggested.
Victoria slung her bow back over her shoulder, "Aw, come on Theo. Weren't you having fun almost being tentacled to death?"
Theo looked at her unamused.
She shrugged, "Well, suck it up." She walked ahead of Theo and Erelah a bit, "Come on, let's finish up. I'm ready to go to bed. I need my beauty sleep."
As they walked, Theo noticed Victoria playing with her hair more than she usually did. Victoria was fairly tall for a girl, only three or four inches shorter than Theo, who wasn't exactly the tallest guy in the world. However, compared to Erelah, Theo was a giant. He towered over her petite height and frame. Theo liked her eyes, which were a vivid hazel color. Sometimes, they were all you could see when you looked at her. Like a deep black hole sucking you. Victoria's eyes were bright green, and the sun made them sparkle like emeralds.
"Theo," Victoria commanded, snapping him back to attention, "would you rather fight three of those tentacle guys unarmed, or a dragon demon unarmed?" Theo wasn't sure where Victoria discovered this game, but she seemed to be obsessed with it and forced Erelah and him to play at any chance she had.
"Uh, neither?" Theo replied cautiously.
"You have to choose," She said, "or else you're a coward."
Theo did not want to be a coward, "Well I guess the tentacle guys because I've already fought them. They seem pretty harmless as long as you avoid the tentacles."
"But how long could you avoid the tentacles?"
"Probably longer than I could avoid a dragon demon's fire." Erelah chimed in.
Victoria seemed satisfied, and moved on to asking Erelah a question, "Would you rather be an Iron Sister or a Silent Brother?"
Theo was about to say that wouldn't work because Erelah was a girl, and thus couldn't be a Silent Brother, but Erelah answered first.
"Easy, a Silent Brother." She said, "Then I could have one of those cool staffs, and I'd rock those robes."
"No one rocks those robes," Victoria replied.
"That's because you've never seen me in those robes."
"Fair enough,"
Theo was staring at the sky and didn't hear the rest of their conversation until Erelah smacked him lightly in the arm to get his attention as Victoria asked him another one.
The Newark Institute had been untouched during the Dark War, which Theo was quite thankful for because when all the Shadowhunters retreated to Idris, he'd left his stele, and his sword at the Institute in a rush to get through the Portal. The Newark Institute was glamoured to resemble an old warehouse, but in reality, was a grand church that had been upgraded when the Nephilim took over. The gate around the front of the Institute, which was decorated with the Angelic rune, swung open as Theo, Victoria, and Erelah approached. The Institute was mostly quiet, most of the Shadowhunters who had lived in the Institute were either elsewhere in the world, helping to rebuild everything the Nephilim lost in the Dark War, or dead, victims of the Dark War.
The Head of the Institute and Theo's father, Thomas Beaugrove, was waiting in the entrance of the Institute, his black Marks poking out of his black suit, "How did it go?" Thomas and Theo looked a lot alike. Broad shoulders, shorter than other men, sharp facial features, and small eyes. Both had similar brown hair that got wavy when they let it grow out.
Theo all but fell into his father's arms, "Take me to my room, and we're never ordering noodles again."
Thomas arched his eyebrow, "What?"
"Demons again," Victoria explained, kicking off her boots.
Erelah yawned, "I am exhausted."
"So that's why you're tired," Thomas said to Theo, "but what's with the ban on noodles?"
"There were tentacles. Lots and lots of tentacles." Erelah answered.
"So many tentacles," Theo moaned.
"I'll send a report to the New York Institute, see if they any answers on the excess amount of demons lately," Thomas said, "Did you see anything else?"
"Nothing other than tentacles," Erelah replied, "though Theo did pull an epic stunt and split one of them in half."
"That wasn't me," Theo said, tapping the pommel of his sword, "that was my sword. I just jumped."
Thomas clapped Theo on the shoulder approvingly, "Nicely done."
Theo smiled. Erelah and Theo walked with Thomas towards the staircase, "You two should get cleaned up, I'll send the report to Maryse Lightwood."
"Sweet," Erelah said, "I'll see you both in the morning."
"Night," Theo called as Erelah raced up the steps, then he turned to his dad and they walked further away from the stairs, "Should we be worried?"
Thomas' face turned rigid, serious, "I don't know. We'll have to wait to see what Maryse says."
"Dad, you should ask her to send reinforcements," Theo said, "We're gonna tire ourselves out if we're the only ones patrolling every night, and we're having to fight demons."
"That's what we do Theodore. We fight until we die."
"Yeah, I just kinda hoped that I wouldn't die before I had at least one kid."
Thomas sighed, "Go on, go get showered and head to bed. We'll talk about it in the morning kiddo."
Theo decided to drop the conversation there, clearly, his dad didn't have answers, and headed for the stairs.
The walls of the Institute's main floor were decorated with various weapons. They had always been there, but once they returned from Idris, Thomas had put up even more just in case there were more attacks by the Faeries, who had allied themselves with Sebastian in the war. The first floor consisted of four rooms: The armory, the infirmary, and the training room (which was the largest room in the Institute). There was a chunk of space that wasn't any of those rooms, and Theo always referred to it in his head as the living room. It was littered with chairs, sofas, coffee tables, lamp tables, a bookshelf here and there, and a piano that hadn't been used as long as Theo had been alive. He headed for the stairs—though he'd been begging for an elevator since the day he was old enough to patrol—and walked up them to the third floor, where the rooms were. Theo's bedroom was near the end of the hallway. He could already hear the shower going in both Erelah and Victoria's rooms. Both of their bedroom doors were shut. It wasn't until he got to the room right before his that he stopped dead in his tracks.
A boy, a very familiar boy, stood in the doorway, "Hey there Hyacinthus," the boy said, leaning against the door, "Didja miss me?"