Theo stood on a hill surrounded by demons; they were clawing up the sides of the hill trying to reach him. He was alone, and when he glanced down at his parabatai rune, it was faded and white. All of his runes were faded and white. Even the permanent ones like the Angelic Rune on his forearm and the Voyance rune on his left hand. In Theo's hand was the sword Zachary had given him, and it was shining like the sun. Theo then noticed that everywhere but the top of the hill where he was standing was covered in darkness. Every time a demon made it to the top of the hill, the light would disintegrate them. Theo couldn't tell where the light was coming from, whether it be the actual sun or if the sword was so bright it was like the sun.

"Theo!" Someone shouted behind him. He searched for the voice and found Zachary. He was overrun, desperately trying to battle the demons with a dim seraph blade. "Theo run! Save yourself!"

Theo panicked as the demons swarmed Zachary and Zachary was pulled down under a horde of them. "No!" He shouted and took off running, the light coming with him. All the demons in his path disintegrated as he raced towards Zachary. When he finally reached him, he pressed the sword in Zachary's hands.

"This is your sword Hyacinthus," Zachary told him, but Theo shook his head.

"It's yours."

And Theo stepped out of the light, and let the demons take him.

Theo sat up and rubbed his eyes. Stray pieces of grass were stuck to his face, he peeled them off and looked out at the lake. He remembered it all, driving around for almost an hour, and then finding himself at Weequahic lake. He'd stopped and sat by the edge of the water, drawing in the grass with a spare stele from the glovebox since he'd left his own at the Institute. His brain had felt like it was going to explode, and then he remembered laying down. He'd fallen asleep. He looked up at the sky, clearly, he'd been asleep for some time. He stood up and dusted himself off before heading back to the car. He grabbed a spare napkin like what he'd used to write on before, and scribbled a note before sending it off:

I'm on my way back, please don't freak out.

And then he started the car and headed back for the Institute. He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel to the beat of the mundane song playing through the radio. Traffic was slow, it was rush hour now, and the sun was beginning to set. They'd be mapping out their patrol route now, and probably going over the plan for the vampire den afterward. It wasn't something that necessarily needed a plan, but Shadowhunters were very big on their plans.

Eventually, he pulled into the Institute and ran inside.

Erelah was standing in the living room, "Welcome home," She said, "would you care to explain why you suddenly ran away?"

"No I would not," Theo replied.

"You're gonna have to tell me someday you know,"

"But not today." Theo said, and headed for the stairs, "I'm gonna go get ready,"

Erelah didn't say anything else.

And she still didn't say anything when Theo came back downstairs, all geared up to wait, "Are you mad at me?"

"No," She said, "but we're supposed to be parabatai. We're supposed to tell each other everything, to know each other better than we know ourselves, and you won't tell me about the sword, and you won't tell me about Zachary…" She sighed.

"Erelah, I swear to you I will tell you it all one day," Theo said, "but just not yet." Not before I know you won't hate me forever.

Theo had thought about asking her about how she felt about gay people, but that felt too forward. He'd brought up Alec Lightwood and Magnus Bane's relationship before, but she never voiced any opinion either way. He knew how the Clave felt about gay people—admittedly, it'd been a little better since Alec had kissed Magnus in the Hall of Accords before Valentine was killed. But still, not everyone was on board, and he wanted to be absolutely certain that Erelah would still be there, even if no one else was.

"One day," Erelah repeated.

"I swear on the Angel before we're eighteen, I'll tell you everything." He said. That seemed like reasonable enough time for him to get an answer from her about her views.

She seemed satisfied, "I've got to get ready. By the way, I think you should apologize to Zachary, he thinks it's his fault."

"It is his fault."

"Then you should make sure he knows that," She said and headed up the stairs.

An hour and a half later, the four Shadowhunters were ready to patrol. Their route was mapped, they had a plan for the Vampire Den, and they were ready to go. Zachary had borrowed two haladies from the armory, short daggers with one blade on each end of the handle, and Erelah had grabbed a shortsword. Victoria of course had her bow slung over her shoulder. Thomas had come to see them off like he did every night.

"Work together," he said, and that's all. Shadowhunters didn't say good-bye. It was bad luck.

"Got it," Victoria said, and the four of them stepped outside. They didn't take the car, they Marked each other, Erelah and Theo giving each other Marks—Marks given by your parabatai were stronger than those given by someone else—and Victoria and Zachary Marked each other.

The trek through the residential areas proved too easy, there never seemed to be demons in the neighborhoods, but Theo was sure they'd find some in the alleyways closer to downtown.

"Zachary," Victoria asked, "what's your favorite weapon?"

"A longsword," Theo blurted out.

"I asked Zachary," Victoria said, whipping around to look at him.

Zachary laughed, "He's not wrong though, I would've brought one tonight, but since I thought shorter weapons would be better for the alleyways.

"Good choice," Erelah said, "though I'm sure if you'd like to bring a longsword tomorrow night that you'd be fine. The alleys are pretty large."

Zachary nodded, "Good to know," he looked at Theo, and then quickly back at Victoria, "I assume yours is the bow?"

"Yeah," Victoria patted the string of her bow, "I've always been something of a prodigy with shooting,"

"I bet Alec Lightwood would smoke you in an archery match," Theo said. Truthfully, there were a lot of reasons to look up to Alec. He was a hero of both the Mortal War and the Dark War. He had paved the way for gay Shadowhunters, even the Consul's daughter had come out after Alec, and now she had a girlfriend. Alec was also smoking hot, like his parabatai Jace Herondale, another hero of both the Mortal and Dark Wars. And Alec was the head of the Downworlder-Shadowhunter Alliance.

Victoria scoffed, "That's not fair, he's got magic on his side."

"I don't think Alec is the kind of guy to cheat in a contest, even if his boyfriend is a warlock."

"I've met Alec once," Zachary said, "Very nice guy."

A little pang of jealously ran through Theo. Of course, Zachary got to meet Alec.

"I bet he is," Theo said, "All gay people are nice."

Erelah laughed.

Victoria shook her head, "Aren't all faeries bisexual?"

"I don't know about all faeries," Erelah said.

"My point still stands."

"Not all faeries were on Sebastian's side you know," Zachary said, "the Cold Peace is extremely unfair."

Victoria looked at him like he'd just betrayed her, and in a way, Theo supposed he had. Erelah, Theo, and Thomas all knew not to bring up Faeries because while they didn't agree with the Cold Peace, Victoria did and it ended up being a touchy subject in the end.

"If the Faeries hadn't joined Sebastian in the first place," Victoria replied, "then there wouldn't be a Cold Peace at all."

Zachary shrugged and kept walking. Victoria folded her arms and looked ahead. She didn't talk to Zachary anymore.

Erelah and Theo talked though, "Who do you think would win," Erelah asked, "Clary or Jace?"

"That's a very random question," Theo said, "but uh…let me think." After a moment he continued, "Well Clary would probably just create a rune that would kill Jace, but Jace could also outpower her in actual combat with ease, but realistically I don't think they'd ever fight for real. They are like madly in love with each other."

"Must've been weird," Zachary said, "thinking they were siblings." They crossed the street into what Theo considered downtown. Here there were plenty of stores, restaurants, and businesses.

"Definitely," Erelah said, "but I feel bad for them. That must've been horrible."

"I guess we'll have to ask them one day," Theo smiled.

Erelah smiled back, "Definitely."

"Wait," Zachary said, "Do you hear that?" He stopped and turned his head left. Theo stopped too and listened. The sound was like little legs scuttling, except there were probably seventy of them and they were coming from a nearby alley.

"Ready to carry out our Holy mission and protect the mundanes?" Theo asked Erelah.

"Always,"

And the Shadowhunters headed off towards the noise. They all drew their weapons as they charged into the alleyway and found at least ten Drevak demons, large, worm-like demons with a mouth full of sharp teeth, scuttling along down the alley, away from the Shadowhunters.

"Where are they going?" Zachary asked, "They should've smelled us and turned to attack."

Victoria nocked an arrow and fired it right into the back of one of the demons. It shrieked but didn't turn around.

"Okay, that's weird," Erelah said.

Theo drew his sword, "Let's kill them then, this'll be easy."

Just then several Raum demons, tall humanoid demons with octopus tentacles for arms, leaped down from the roof and screamed.

"Of course you had to jinx it, Theo," Victoria sighed and fire an arrow into the chest of one of the Raum demons.

"Of course there's more tentacles," Erelah sighed, "this is becoming a problem. Why can't we fight armed demons?"

The Drevak demons continued away as the Raum demons charged. Zachary didn't bother pulling either of the haladies he'd brought, instead he drew a seraph blade, named it "Michael", and waited for the Raum demons. They were fast, incredibly fast. Two Raum demons swung their tentacles at him, he remembered something about their tentacles having poisonous suction cups on the end of their tentacles, and dove out of the way, bringing his sword upward as he did and cutting one of their tentacles off. Quicker than Theo thought, the demon regenerated its lost limb and swung again. Theo sliced his sword again and cut the tip of the tentacle off, and then charged inward. The demon wrapped the other tentacle around Theo's waist, thankfully his gear had protected him from potential poison, and tossed him in the air. He brought his sword down right through the demon's head, and it folded in on itself before winking out of existence.

"Nice one Theo," Zachary said as he slashed out with his seraph blade. Theo ignored him.

Victoria was standing behind them all, firing volleys of arrows wherever she could get a shot. Erelah was battling one of the demons with her shortsword in one hand, and an activated seraph blade in the other, slashing rapidly with it and moving ever closer towards the center of its body.

Already they were diminishing the Raum demons. There were only a few left, Zachary turned to Victoria, "Victoria, Erelah, go after the Drevak demons! Theo and I've got this."

"Are you sure?" Victoria called back.

Theo didn't want to be left alone with Zachary, but they needed to go after Drevak demons anyway. This would speed up the process.

"Go now!" Zachary shouted, "Before the opening closes!" Zachary was right, there was a relatively straight

"Erelah," Victoria called, "Let's move!"

"On it!" Erelah followed after Victoria as Zachary moved towards Theo.

"Just like old times ain't it?"

"Focus," Theo said, "We have demons to kill."

"Right." Zachary slashed out with his seraph blade, as Theo slashed with his own sword and then moved in for the kill. Zachary dispatched one shortly after Theo killed the one in front of him.

"Good!" Zachary exclaimed, "Just a few more."

"Stop talking to me!" Theo replied as he sliced through a tentacle, "You're distracting me."

Zachary didn't say anything else. He focused on the demons.

Picking off the Drevak demons had been easy. They hadn't fought back as Erelah dashed in with her swords bn and Victoria fired arrows into their backs. As they hurried back down the alley to where they'd left Theo and Zachary, Victoria was still trying to figure out why the demons had retaliated. It was more concerning than relieving.

Zachary and Theo were standing on opposite sides of the alley like both of them had a different plague and they were trying to avoid catching it. Victoria thought Theo was overreacting about Zachary. Regardless of what happened between them, there was no reason for Theo to act like Zachary was secretly Lucifer in human form.

"Everyone good?" Zachary asked once they reconvened.

Theo, Victoria, and Erelah all nodded.

"Good, then let's go intimidate some baby vamps," He said.

Right then a piece of paper flew through the air, and Victoria plucked it out of the air.

Come to the Complex tonight my dear, I await your curiosities.

Victoria folded the piece of paper and stuck it in her pocket, as Erelah asked, "Who's that from?" Victoria took a couple steps back and looked behind her.

"I have to meet someone," She said, trying to reveal as little as possible, "a Downworlder who agreed to answer some of my questions but I have to meet him alone—"

"No," Theo said, stepping forward, "that's dangerous."

"They won't hurt me," Victoria said, "he's harmless." She pulled her bow and quiver off her shoulder, "But Erelah I need you to take these back to the Institute."

"What about the vampire den?" Zachary asked.

"You and Theo will have to handle it alone," She told him, "you'll be fine. And Theo will be nice." She shot him a glance and he shrugged.

"If you're not back in three hours, we're tracking you." Zachary said firmly and gave her a little nod.

"You're not gonna seriously gonna let her go by herself, right?" Theo looked up at Zachary and then quickly looked away, "That's ridiculously dangerous."

"Victoria can handle herself, Theo," Erelah said helpfully. She looked at Victoria, "Go, we'll see you back at home."

Victoria nodded, "Good luck," and turned around.

"I swear to god Victoria if you get hurt," Theo yelled, "I'll kill you myself!"

Victoria laughed.

Thankfully, they weren't too far from the Complex, just a couple of blocks. She knew she'd look a little off, wearing her gear, but it didn't matter she was only there to see Fane. Not to socialize. She threw the doors to the Complex open and stepped inside.

The club was full of vampires, most of them were dancing, but the booths on the wall were full of vampires. It was an even night so there were some mundanes with the Sight there too, dancing along to the music or in the booths. She'd heard that having your blood sucked was euphoric but had never tried it. She immediately spotted the group of vampires that usually clung to Mathias' side, but no Mathias. He was probably back at the den waiting for Theo and Zachary. Victoria hoped that Theo and Zachary would get along for long enough to do what they needed to do. She also suspected that they might need some time alone. Theo was a pretty forgiving person, and maybe if they just talked about it—whatever that was—he'd finally get over the stick Zachary shoved up his ass. Victoria stood around and searched for Fane at first, but it began to take too long and she couldn't see well through the crowd. Instead, she moved through the crowd towards the bar and stopped when she reached the glass counter. There were a couple vampires drinking blood from shot glasses along the bar, but like she'd hoped Fane was sitting there, drinking something out of a martini glass that kept changing colors.

"Fane," She said. Tonight Fane was wearing a bright white tuxedo, and a top hat.

He turned around and looked at her, "Why hello my dear—well aren't you dressed like a Shadowhunter, good for you, nevertheless it is so good to see you."

"I've got to get back as soon as possible, let's head down to the—"

"Shhh," He said, standing up, "Come along." And he led her towards the laboratory.

Everything was the same as it had been the night before, and she immediately went to sit on the red stool. She unzipped the jacket of her gear and pulled it off one side. Fane prepared the syringe, prattling on something about vampires and their raves, and came to stand next to her, "Anyways," he said with a sigh, "what would you like to know?"

"Have you heard of any other warlocks in the area summoning demons?" She asked, "There've been an unusual amount of them everywhere and tonight—"

Fane raised his eyebrow, "What happened tonight?"

"Well," She sighed, "we came across a pack of Drevak demons that completely ignored us. Even when we killed one of them, they kept moving like they were so entranced by something that they didn't notice us."

"Hmm," Fane pulled the tube of blood free and hooked another empty to it, "That is very peculiar. Perhaps they were under orders from their master not to engage with someone? Drevak demons are terribly stupid."

Victoria shook her head, "I don't know it was weird, and when we first tried to attack them, a couple Raum demons showed up out of nowhere like they were guarding the Drevak demons. I don't know, everything is weird."

Fane finished drawing the blood and waved away the vials. Victoria had pulled out her stele and quickly Marked herself with an iratze.

"So you haven't heard of any warlocks—"

"Not at all," Fane said, shaking his head, "I'd check with Sylvester though, honestly he knows much more about the Downworld's darker gossip than I do. No one tells me anything." He turned around, conjured a pen and a notepad from somewhere, and scribbled something down before handing it to Victoria, "I do hope this helps."

She took it, looked at the address, it was in Bloomington, right outside of Newark, "Thank-you."

"Of course dear, and if I hear anything else, I swear you'll be the first to hear about it—well maybe the second. There's a particularly sexy vampire I'm trying to impress."

"Uh, okay."

"Anyways," Fane said, "shall I walk you out, or do you have more questions?"

"I've gotta get back," She said, "my friends will be looking for me."

Fane nodded, "Very well," and summoned a Portal, "Off you go."

"Thanks again, Fane."

"Anytime dear," He replied with a friendly smile, and Victoria stepped through the Portal. The moment she appeared back in the Institute's lounge, a wave of exhaustion hit her and she yawned. Erelah was waiting on one of the sofas, she was wearing pajamas now, and had showered. Victoria's bow and arrows were laid across her lap.

Erelah jumped up, "You're back!"

"Are the boys back yet?"

"Not quite, Theo just sent me a fire message saying they were on their way." Erelah handed Victoria her bow and quiver and Victoria headed for the stairs.

"You two sure love your fire messages."

"It's a very convenient way of messaging each other."

"Or you could just get phones like normal people."

"Theo doesn't like phones," Erelah replied.

Victoria shook her head, "Goodnight Rae, I'll tell you guys what I found out in the morning."

"Sleep well!" Erelah called up.

Erelah had already headed home, and now it was just Zachary and Theo. Zachary was playing with his hair, and Theo couldn't stop watching. Zachary had very soft hair, and when he let it grow out like he had the summer after the Dark War, it grew in waves.

"Remember," Theo said, "We get in, we scare them with how we killed the Raum demons, and we get out."

"And try not to get sucked on the way," Zachary nodded. They were walking down the middle of the street, there were no cars, and if there was, they could easily move. The houses on either side of them were all dark, the curtains closed and the lights off. The street lights were lit, creating little pockets of light on the edges of the road.

"I don't think they're gonna try to blow us—"

"I meant our blood," Zachary cut him off, "don't be so dirty Hyacinthus,"

Theo really hated the way Zachary said "Hyacinthus" it sounded so perfect that he didn't even say anything about it.

"You're the one with the track record for being excessively dirty," Theo said, "and you worded it weirdly."

Zachary laughed and shook his head, "There's the house," He said, pointing ahead. The house looked different at night, eerier. The dead lawn and the "Keep Off the Grass" sign looked more menacing, and the fence felt like an impenetrable fortress wall rather than a small picket fence that Theo could easily step over.

"Let's go scare some people,"

Zachary nodded. They walked across the lawn up to the door and before they could do anything, Mathias pulled the door open.

"Welcome—" He stopped, "Where are the rest of you?"

"Busy," Theo said sternly, "We're what you get."

"But I-"

"I'm sorry Mathias," Zachary said diplomatically, "our friends are preoccupied with our investigation. We're all that was available."

Mathias eyed them both for a moment and then sighed, "Fine. Come in." Mathias led them through the house, past the living room, and to a concrete staircase in what looked like the Laundry room. The staircase descended into complete and total darkness.

"Mathias, give us a moment," Zachary said, pulling his stele, "We need to Mark ourselves."

"Whatever," Mathias said, walking down the staircase, "Just come down when you're done."

Zachary turned to Theo, "Would you like to Mark yourself?"

Theo held out his hand—the one without the Voyance rune, "Here." Zachary held his hand steady with one of his own and use the other to draw a Night-Vision rune on the back of his hand. Then Theo took Zachary's hand—it was calloused like always, rough but still gentle feeling—and began to draw.

"Thanks," Zachary said, as he stepped towards the staircase.

"Don't mention it," Theo replied, "Seriously."

Zachary chuckled.

Theo could see in the basement now. Victoria had been right, the basement was probably bigger than the house itself, with tables and chairs, sofas, and other furniture for decoration. It was mostly empty save for Mathias who was standing next to three other vampires, they all looked like teenage boys around Theo's age.

"Come along, I would like to get back to business," Mathias said. The three boys were laughing with each other, "This is Michael, Devin, and Ethan," Mathias pointed to each one as he named them.

"Uh, my name is Micah," The one he called Michael, a lean blond boy with pretty green eyes, looked up at Mathias.

"Yes, yes whatever." Mathias started for the stairs, "Speak to them, I've got business elsewhere. Boys, see the Shadowhunters out when you're done. Make sure they don't snoop through anything."

Devin, a shorter and thicker boy than the others, looked up at Zachary, "You're a Shadowhunter?"

"Yes," Zachary replied. Theo had to hold in a laugh, Zachary was making his voice just a little deeper, and he spoke with authority, "I just got done killing some demons actually, terrible things with tentacles."

"In fact," Theo was going off script now, they'd decided to just tell them about the Raum demons, but Theo didn't think that would work, "we were hunting a couple vampires. Fed on some humans and didn't exactly leave them alive," Theo laughed and pulled his sword, running his finger along the flat edge, "They died."

Ethan's eyes grew wide, "What?"

Zachary went along with it, "Yeah, they just couldn't follow the rules, so we killed them. Which is what we do."

"No trial?" Micah asked.

"Nope," Theo said, "We didn't even stop to ask questions." It was hard to tell, but Theo swore that Devin had started crying.

"Okay, bye!" Ethan called in a shaky voice after them, "See you…never hopefully."

"Thanks for not killing us!" Devin added. And then they shut the door.

"Jeez Hyacinthus," Zachary said once they were far enough away that the vampires couldn't hear them, "you got a little morbid at the end there."

Theo shrugged, "We were supposed to scare them, I think we did the job."

"I'm pretty sure that Devin guy would've peed himself if he could."

Theo shrugged again, "Oh well. Now come on, we've got to make sure Victoria got home safely."

"Right," Zachary nodded, "Let's go."