Chapter 8

Luke led Grizz and his two traveling companions up the rest of the stairs and down a short hallway before coming to a stop at one of the doors. As Luke knocked lightly on the entrance, Grizz gestured to the bench that sat against the opposite wall and quietly asked Alec and Jace to wait outside for a few minutes.

Hearing the soft reply from inside the office, Luke opened the door and held it open for Grizz before shutting it behind both of them.

The church office was fairly small with a simple layout. The walls were painted in a light tan color. Two bookcases had been placed on opposite sides of the wall across from the entrance, leaving room in between for the famous painting that hung in the center that depicted the image of Jesus and his twelve disciples at the Last Supper. A dark brown, Neela desk sat in the middle of the room over a blood red rug with two mahogany chairs positioned in front for visitors to sit in. A simple wooden bench was placed between the two windows that were on the wall to the right of the door.

Grizz wasn't surprised to find Will sitting in one of the available chairs in the room. Will and Allie had been good friends long before everyone disappeared from West Ham, and since then, the two of them seemed to only grow closer. Now, Will had taken on the position of her advisor.

"Grizz!" Allie chirped, excited at seeing his safe return home. She turned away from the window that she had been staring out of and stepped closer to greet him. "How was your trip? Did you find any land for us to farm?"

"Well . . . Not exactly," Grizz hesitated, stealing a glance in Luke's direction. "We did find something though, and I think it could be just as useful in helping us as the farmland would have been. If not better."

"Really?" Allie asked, raising an eyebrow. "What did you find?"

"Luke has something he needs to tell you as well," Grizz said, gesturing with his thumb in his friend's direction, ignoring Allie's question for the moment. "You want the good or the bad news first?"

Based on the glare that Luke shot in Grizz's direction, it was clear to Allie that one of her Guards was trying to hide something big from her.

Allie trained her own glare onto Luke. "What now?" she asked, her tone turning stern.

With one last concerned look at Grizz, Luke sighed before admitting, "Campbell and Harry cornered us in the park yesterday. Campbell wants to help Harry take charge of the town by force, with Campbell being his advisor. He tried to talk Jason, Clark, and I into spying on you to help them find the right opportunity to take power."

Allie folded her arms across her chest. "Yesterday? Why wasn't I informed about this sooner?"

Luke gave a small shake of his head. "Jason and Clark are thinking about helping them. I haven't had the chance to try to warn you about it without them hanging around until now." He hesitated a moment before adding, "And as a further bribe, he gave them some weed."

Allie gave a heavy sigh. "Are they high right now?"

Luke simply nodded gravely.

"Great," Allie groaned. "Like we don't already have enough to worry about . . ."

"Maybe I can help lift that burden a little?"

Allie's gaze drifted back to Grizz, studying him curiously.

"In the woods . . . we found another district," he explained.

Allie frowned in confusion. "What?"

"We aren't the only ones stuck here," Grizz tried to explain. "There's a city, or at least part of a city, out in the middle of the woods. Brooklyn."

"New York?" Will spoke up from his seat, blinking in shock at the announcement. "You found other people? More teenagers?"

"Yes, more people, but not all teenagers," Grizz noted. "I'm not sure what happened there exactly, if there was some kind of justification for why some of them disappeared and others didn't, but there seem to be people of all ages still living in Brooklyn. Just a lot fewer of them."

"This didn't just happen to West Ham?" Allie's gaze drifted away from their faces, staring off into the distance as she tried to make sense of the situation.

"One of their leaders is here," Grizz added.

This announcement brought Allie's attention back to him. "Here?"

"He's waiting out in the hallway with his brother. We thought maybe you guys should talk," he explained, gesturing to the door behind him before shrugging. "Since we're all stuck here, we thought we should use this opportunity to help each other out with supplies. Maybe even work together to find a way to get us all back home."

A genuine smile brightened Allie's face at the news. It had been a while since Grizz had seen her even relatively happy about anything. Certainly not since they had found themselves in this strange new world they were trapped in.

"Well, send them in," Allie demanded, turning to take a seat behind her desk. "It's about time we had some good news for a change."

Grizz peeked out the door into the hallway and waved the two men in, stepping out of their way to allow them inside the tiny office space. Grizz closed the door behind them before stepping forward to make the introductions.

"This is Alec Lightwood-Bane. He's one of the co-leaders in Brooklyn," Grizz explained, pointing at the tall man with black hair before gesturing to the shorter blonde man standing next to him. "And that's his brother, Jace. This is Allie Pressman, our town's Mayor."

Allie gestured for the men to take a seat in the chairs in front of her for their discussion, silently telling Will to get up, freeing it for their guests. Instead, Will moved to stand next to Allie behind the desk.

"Co-leader?" A small frown appeared on Allie's face as she studied the men in front of her. "He's back in Brooklyn? Why didn't he accompany you?"

"He had some business back in the city that he needed to address today," Alec said, keeping his explanation simple. "We can arrange a meeting for the two of you to meet at another time."

Grizz walked over to the small bench that was by the wall and made himself comfortable. Luke was heading over to join him when Allie stopped him.

"Luke, I want you to go back outside with Jason and Clark."

Luke stared back at her, perplexed at the demand. "You're getting ready to formulate a trading agreement with our apparent neighboring city. Shouldn't a member of the Guard be present for this?"

"Grizz is a member of the Guard," Will pointed out, gesturing in the mentioned teen's direction.

Allie nodded in agreement. "Not only that, but Grizz was the leader of the expedition that set off into the woods and found the city. Something may come up that requires him to explain more about what happened while he was out there."

"If this is about what happened with Harry and Campbell–"

"This has nothing to do with whether or not I trust you, Luke," Allie stated firmly. "You came forward and told me about the two of them. I don't believe you are going to try and double cross me or anything."

"Then why–?"

"You just told me that Jason and Clark are both high right now, yes? And are considering Campbell's . . . partnership?"

Luke nodded slowly.

"I really don't think those two should be left alone right now, Luke," Allie explained, furrowing her brow to further state the seriousness of her demand, and Will crossed his arms across his chest in solidarity. "I want you to go back outside and keep an eye on them. We will fill you guys in on the agreement later."

Luke met her eyes momentarily before glancing at Grizz who just gave him a small shrug.

"Fine," Luke relented and began to head for the door.

"And let me know if Harry or Campbell try to approach you guys again about this," Allie called after him before the door slammed shut behind Luke.

As the boy that Grizz had identified as Luke walked out of the room, Alec couldn't help but be a little impressed by the teenager that was sitting behind the desk. He had initially been a little wary about the idea of coming all this way to speak to a teenage mundane about something that could affect the futures of both of their districts, but this young woman at least seemed to have a relatively good head on her shoulders despite finding herself in such a tough position at her tender age.

"Okay," Allie let out in a soft sigh once the door had been closed behind Luke, and she locked eyes with Alec. "Look, honestly, we don't have a lot that we can spare for trading, but we'll be willing to help you guys in any way we can for help in return."

"Yeah, I understand that," Alec admitted, leaning forward slightly in his chair. "Before we came here, I spoke with Magnus, my co-leader, about a list of things that we could spare to help you out and things that we are in dire need of."

Alec noted the look of relief that flashed across the face of the woman across from him.

"Great, let's start with you guys then. What do you have that you could spare."

"Well, clothes for one thing." Alec heard Jace chuckle softly at that as his blonde companion shifted briefly in his seat beside him, and Alec smirked at his brother's reaction. "There are a lot of clothing stores in Brooklyn, but because of what's going on . . . Not a whole lot of it is being used. We also have a few greenhouses that people have been attending to around the city, and Magnus and I have been working on squaring off a section of our park for a garden or farming land to use when the weather starts getting warmer."

At this point, Alec paused to gesture towards the boy that was sitting against the wall. "Grizz told us that the reason you originally sent their group out into the woods was to look for land to farm, but honestly you could set up something here for that. There has to be a lot of open land in people's backyards or courtyards that you could set up small farming locations in."

"We do have one greenhouse here," Grizz stepped in, "and I set up a community garden on the other side of town, but it's not that big. We need something bigger to be able to sustain everyone that we have living here."

Jace nodded at the boy. "We could work out a more elaborate plan when it starts getting warmer, but we should have a discussion on what each of us will grow. We could trade crops with each other."

Alec nodded in agreement before turning back to Allie. "Also, you should probably keep in mind, we have a few doctors and nurses that didn't disappear on us. I know all of your adults vanished in . . . whatever it was that happened with us. If something ever comes up where you need a medic, just let us know."

"Thank you, we'd really appreciate that," Allie said, her tone filled with gratitude. "And, Grizz, could I put you in charge of setting up other gardening locations around town?"

Grizz nodded. "I'm on it."

"All of that would be great, Alec," Will thanked him as well, "but there's got to be something that we can give you in return for all of your help. What do you need?"

Alec bit his bottom lip gently as he tried to think of the best way to bring up the subject. Ever since he had the discussion with Magnus the night before on a rough outline for their trading agreement, Alec had not been looking forward to this moment. He hadn't even considered the issue himself until Magnus had brought it to his attention. What they needed the most right now wasn't exactly something that mundanes would usually qualify as a basic need, but among some of the Downworlders . . . It would definitely cause a problem if they couldn't find a way to resolve it and fast.

"We need blood."

A few hours had passed since the four teenage mundanes had stumbled into their mini version of the once loud and bustling city that it used to be, looking for help. With the assistance of Isabelle and Clary, Grizz, Mickey, Bean, and Gwen had been made to feel at home in the apartment for the night, giving Alec and Magnus time to discuss their plans for the next day.

Magnus tapped his pen a couple times against the paper that was lying on his desk in front of him. A short list had been compiled on the page of what little they could spare to try and help the teenagers that have probably found themselves way out of their element.

"Well, it's not much, but it's better than nothing," Magnus mused as he studied the list.

Alec had pulled up a chair next to his husband, glancing at the words over his shoulder.

"They've probably been through a lot already," Alec reminded him, tapping a finger against the corner of the piece of paper. "I'm sure they will appreciate all of this."

The warlock nodded slowly. "I know, but they are just teenagers. I wish we could do more."

Alec rested a hand on Magnus' arm, giving it a light squeeze. Alec might not have had the best memories and experiences with mundanes, but he knew his husband had a slightly different opinion when it came to the clueless creatures. Over the warlock's long life, he had grown close to many of them, fighting side-by-side in wars and even falling in love with a few. Magnus already had such a kind heart in general when it came to helping others, especially children. Knowing that there was a group of kids out there, stuck on their own in this strange new world they had found themselves in . . . Alec knew it had to be hard on the deeply compassionate man that sat next to him.

Alec was silent for a moment, before turning their conversation back to the matter at hand. "Okay, so now that we have an idea of what we could give them, what do we need?"

Magnus tapped his pen a few more times before responding. "Well, we are talking about a relatively small group of teenagers in a suburban town. They probably don't have a ton that they can spare . . . but the one thing we definitely need is mundane blood."

Alec sat up straighter in his seat, furrowing his eyebrows in surprise. That was the last thing he had expected to come out of his husband's mouth, and it was spoken so matter-of-factly. "Blood?"

"For the vampires," Magnus explained, turning to look into his husband's eyes. By the tone in his voice, the warlock clearly thought the issue should have been obvious. "They can't drink Shadowhunter blood. It's too addictive for them, and they don't get any sustenance by drinking from other Downworlders. The blood that was on tap at the Hunter's Moon and the stuff in the blood banks at the hospital are starting to run low."

"And how am I supposed to bring up a request like that?" Alec asked, horrified about the situation that Magnus was laying out in front of him.

"You'll have to come up with something . . . Tell them we have some sick people in the hospital that desperately need blood for infusions or something," Magnus said, rubbing his temples. "What do you think is going to happen when the vampire clan hears that there is a town of mundane children just a short distance from here? As soon as the sun goes down, they will go over there and massacre the town in their sleep, Alec. We have to come up with a system where the vampires can get the blood supply they need while also keeping those mundanes alive."