A/N:

forbesqueen: Well, it's not Maya that is the kidnapped daughter. I never liked her in the series so I'm not sure that she'll be in this story. But fear not, there are other werewolves in the Institute that are taking care of Alec and his family.

Guest1: I'm glad you think so.

Guest2: Here you go.

Tay: Here you go.

Thank you for all reviews, follows, favorites.

Characters belongs to Cassie Clare, except for OCs.

Enjoy reading.

Chapter I

"The plan"

"You've got to be kidding me!" Magnus exclaimed, once he fully understood Raphael's words. The three hundred year old warlock was pacing the cold bedroom, arms thrown into the air. His sharp cat-like eyes were burning holes in the vampire's body. "No fucking way!"

"Magnus…"

"No! Do you know who I am?" the pure rage was escaping his mouth, as he was speaking. "I'm the High Warlock of Brooklyn. The most powerful warlock in the whole world!"

"I know this and that's why you're the perfect man to fulfill this task," Magnus just shot him a murderous glare. "Believe me, Bane, If I had someone else to comply with this, I'd choose him."

"We have other people. Why can't you send some other downworlder, huh?"

"Because I trust none of them," the vampire explained, following every move of Magnus with his black eyes.

"And you trust me, since when?"

"I never said that I trust you," Magnus looked at him meaningfully. "But I know that you won't betray me, you won't betray your own kind. And I know that you want to do it. You want to save Catarina, right? She's been enslaved for years now. She serves that vain woman, Penhallow, as a healer of their dangerous wounds. You want to rescue her, right? You want to rescue Ragnor as well, right?"

Ragnor had been captured by shadowhunters as well, five years ago, during his trip back to London. If only he'd put a stronger glamour on himself, he wouldn't have been noticed by the group of five young shadowhunters from the Cartwright family. Now the old friend of Magnus serves the hunters as their pet warlock, with his magic bounded by Kassandra, the witch who had been, as Magnus puts it, brainwashed by Valentine and his demon's tricks. Magnus met the witch only once in his entire lifetime, back when he was barely seventy, living in Peru.

"Do you?" Raphael's voice got him out of his thoughtful state. The cat-eyed man stopped his pacing and looked down at the vampire sitting on the bed. Even though Raphael didn't sleep on this bed; he had a coffin for his day rest; he insisted to keep the bed here for his unofficial lover, Ragnor, back when he visited him before he was captured.

"I do," Magnus finally spoke, letting out a long breath he didn't even know he was holding."I want to rescue them and kill those hunters, just like you. But it's not that simple, Raphael. It's not like I just can go, knock and expect them to take me in. We need a plan."

"So you agree?"

"I'm sure that I will regret it and it will end badly, but yes, I agree."

"Marvelous," Santiago stated. The vampire got up from his chair and walked closer to the big window he had in his bedroom. He looked up at the shining moon, letting it brighten his pale face. He heard behind his back the loud sound of Magnus's steps, as the warlock came to stand next to him. "I don't want to live in hiding anymore, Magnus. And I want Ragnor back."

"Me too, but how do we do it? How will I get inside the Institute, huh?"

"I have a plan," Magnus shot him a stern glare, knowing perfectly that the plan either will be terrible or impossible. "A Shadowhunter will get you inside the Institute." Mangus was confused by Raphael's words. It seemed too surreal. First of all, they didn't know...well they did know some hunters, but none of them would lead Magnus willingly inside the holy Institute. Bane was sure that Raphael has just gone crazy in his suffering since Ragnor was taken years ago. That has to be it. Or maybe the young boy had always been that crazy? "Moreover, you'll be lead in there by one of Valentine's closest dogs."

"By Robert Lightworm?"

"No. Not Lightwood. Emil Pangborn," Raphael explained, moving himself back to his bed. He sat down and took from the nightstand a simple glass cup filled with a dark red fluid. Magnus bet that it's a human blood, especially once the vampire mixed it, the metallic scent got in Bane's nose, making his stomach twist. "He and Samuel Blackwell are the most loyal to them. So there won't be any suspicion when they bring the great Magnus Bane with bound powers to be a servant for Valentine."

"But still, it sounds too good, but how will you convince them to take me, huh?" There was this devilish glimmer in the black eyes of Raphael Santiago, when he looked into the cat-eyes of Magnus. The warlock eyed him suspiciously, not knowing what it could mean. It could mean anything, really. Santiago was known for his strange ideas, and Magnus knew that for years now. The younger man drank down the remains of the blood from the glass, and placed the dish on the night stand. A drop of the liquid fell from the corner of his mouth and was running down his chin. Raphael caught it with the tip of his right hand's index finger. He brought it to his lips and licked it. If it was any other man or woman, it could look very sensual to Magnus, but when he was looking at Raphael doing it, it made his stomach sick, not only because the boy drank blood.

"Simple, the only way I can."

"You want me to enchant him? I'm powerful, but enchantments, especially on supernatural creatures are very complicated, I'm not sure…"

"No," Santiago cut his rambling off. "We will lure him in a traditional way." Magnus's eyebrow went up in a question. "They may be descendants of angels and shadowhunters, but still, they are men. And there's only one weapon that any straight man is helpless to. A woman."

A dead silence filled the room, which was broken only by the steady breath of Magnus. The warlock tried to comprehend the words that escaped his friend's mouth. He wanted to understand what the younger meant, but it seemed that either he was too stupid or it was some kind of riddle. Magnus tried to play out every possible result of those words in his mind, and only one seemed to be kind of right, yet stupid at the same moment.

"You don't mean, that you want me to turn myself into a woman and lure him, right? Because if so, then I'm not your man." Magnus stated this with his most serious tone.

"You wouldn't be a beautiful woman, Magnus, let's face it," Bane felt offended by that statement. He huffed at the younger man, squinting his eyes to emphasize his offended state. "But, I know that there are women, at least in some parts women, who are very good at luring men."

Raphael gave him the look, and Magnus immediately knew what he's talking about.

"Mermaids? They smell."

"But they're good at luring men, Bane," Magnus had to agree with Santiago. If there was someone who was able to lure even the toughest, it was a mermaid. "We just need to ask them for a favor."

"You mean, I have to, right?" Raphael nodded, offering him a toothy smile - well in this case it was a fangy smile. A growl escaped Magnus' mouth, as he threw his arms up in the air in frustration. "I think I can call on Arela, though she may be pissed at me, after all I didn't let her eat that man twenty years ago."

"Let's just go at the East River's dock to talk with her. Then I'll explain to both of you the rest of the plan, mi compadre."

An hour later they were standing at the dock. The night was quiet, interrupted only by the light sounds of mundane music coming from the nearest house. Someone had to have been hosting a party there. Raphael looked around again, like he had been doing for the past half hour from even before they got here. The vampire was almost sure that someone had followed them, and he's rarely wrong. Magnus just rolled his eyes, who could follow them when they were hidden by a spell?

The East River was calm tonight. The moonlight brightened it, making it look like it's shining like diamonds. The water had an almost black color. Here and there the stars were mirrored in it.

Magnus knelt on the ground and brought his face closer to the water, even though he was scared as hell. He hated open waters since he was still a little boy, since the night his stepfather tried to drown him in the pond behind their home, back in Indonesia. Raphael stood behind Magnus and placed a hand on his shoulder to keep him from falling into the water. After all, he knew the horrible story of Magnus's childhood, the warlock had told him once, when he had been really drunk. The warlock whispered some words to the water's surface in a language that Raphael didn't know. Probably something archaic or demonic. Then the man leaned back, too fast, almost knocking the vampire to the ground. Bane sat down on the ground, crossing his legs and motioned for Raphael to do the same. They had to wait now.

They didn't speak to one another as they waited for some mermaid's arrival. It could be minutes or hours, before they spotted that the water of the river starts to become unsteady. The waves started to form close to the deck. Suddenly Raphael spotted a dark red mass underneath the water surface, it was followed by some kind of a light, long thing. The closer it got, the more the vampire was able to recognize. The long thing was a tail in real, a fish tail. Finally the red mass sprouted out of the water and turned to be a nice looking, young woman (half woman to be exact) with long, red, curly hair. Raphael wondered, how she could have curly hair under water? The mermaid had black eyes now turned at him and Magnus.

"For a brief moment I thought that my hearing deceives me, when I heard your call," the mermaid smiled at them, showing her sharp teeth covered with the remains of some red liquid, probably blood; she must have been eating not so long ago. Magnus wondered what or who had she eaten. His stomach twisted at the thought. "Magnus Bane, long time no see."

"Yeah," he mused, trying to not think about the blood on her teeth, but his cat-eyes seemed to focus on them, whenever she spoke or smiled. The half woman turned her cold eyes at Raphael.

"That's rude of you, Bane, bringing me a dead treat? Not nice. I thought we're friends," she eyed Santiago, licking her lips nonetheless, as he could really be her food.

"He's Ragnor's sweetheart," her eyes widened in a surprise, as she offered a beautiful smile.

"So you must be the famous Raphael Santiago, pleasure to meet. I'm Arela, the daughter of the Acheloos," she reached her hand towards him in a greeting manner. Raphael copied her move, but before he had a chance to grab and shake her hand, he was stopped by Magnus. The vampire sent him a confused look, when the warlock squeezed his hand too hard; even though he was a vampire and dead, he could feel his strong grip.

"Don't. Even though you're dead and resistant to her enchantments, she could still pull you underwater and you'd be truly dead," Magnus pushed Raphael a bit to the back and moved himself there as well. It was safer to have a distance between them and Arela. Who knows, maybe she'd try something on them, mostly on Magnus, since he's alive being.

"You are no fun, as mortals say, Magnus," the woman commented and with the help of her arms, she pushed herself up and eventually sat on the edge of the dock, keeping her tail in the water. "What do you want?"

"Me? Nothing, but the vampire has a business to you, my dear friend," once again she turned her eyes at Raphael and waited for him to speak.

"We plan to start attacking shadowhunters," she nodded to that. "But we can't just burst into their home and attack, because it would be like a suicide mission. We need a plan. I have a plan already, but it requires your help, Arela."

"I'm listening."

"It is a time to let them know about our existence. It is a time we take the lead over the world. It is a time to finish them and rescue our enslaved kins," there was a glimmer of interest in the mermaid's black eyes, clearly seen by Magnus. "I want to send a spy into Valentine's home, into the New York's Institute and learn about their plans towards us, once they learn about our existence. Then I want to plan the final attack and kill all of them, like they had done it years ago. I want to rescue our kind from the slavery. I want us to rule the world, not that pricks."

"And who will be that spy? I can't stay on the land anymore. I can walk on once in a hundred years, and I've already have been out of the sea for two nights," her speech was interrupted by Raphael.

"No. My spy will be Magnus Bane. Valentine will be ecstatic to have the once High Warlock of Brooklyn…" Magnus wanted to cut him off, to say that he's still the High Warlock, the most powerful warlock on the Earth, but Raphael just waved him off. "Magnus will go to the Institute as the slave and will do everything, starting from listening to their conversations, flicking through their documents, books, whatever will seem to him important, to even seducing the Lightwood girl to get information that we ne…"

"What? You want me to seduce some girl? What if she's ugly?"

"I assure you, that Isabelle Lightwood is a beautiful girl, even for your standards," Santiago stated, not even taking his eyes off of Arela. "If you don't want to seduce her, you can try it with Valentine's sons, or the other Lightwood kid, I believe the archer is around fifteen or more."

"I'm not going to seduce children, Raphael. That's a big no!" Magnus was shaking his head to emphasize his statement. There was nothing in the world that could make him seduce children, let alone some shadowhunters. They were the worst creatures in the whole world, right after Mermaides, but only because they reeked of sea and alges. Horrible. He would never seduce the shadowhunter, never, ever. And nothing what Raphael promised him or said would make him even consider it.

"All right, you don't have to seduce them, but you will find out about their plans, ok?" to this he could agree, though he did it reluctantly.

"And what's my part in this plan, then?" Arela suddenly spoke, breaking their little exchange of words. Both men looked at the mermaid, who now was back into the water, with her arms folded on the edge of the deck, with her chin atop arms. She was giving them the look of annoyance.

"You are bound to lure Emil Pangborn," a dead silence came between them. Raphael was observing her, as she was thinking about the vampire's words. Magnus knew that she won't agree to it easy, after all, mermaids didn't do anything for free. They weren't creatures who liked to help, they only did things which could only profit them. So Magnus truly didn't expect her to agree to this, but he was wrong once he heard her answer.

"I agree. I will lure that man," on Raphael's face came a small smile of victory. "But on one condition."

Ah, here it is. Just like Magnus predicted. She wants something in exchange.

"Yes?" Raphael asked carefully. He knew he had to play his cards well, if he wants his plan to work out.

"In the end, when the war will come, or whatever you do at the end, I want to kill Arthur Blackthorn," both, Magnus and Raphael rose their eyebrows in a question. "He caught my younger sister, Talea, ten years ago. Now he keeps her as a pet in the aquarium in his home. I've seen her, I went to the land to see how she's doing. They keep her like a dog, you know. She's just two hundred, she's still a child."

"Fair enough," Raphael replied, confirming his words with a simple nod. "Anything else?"

"You will let me eat some of them. You will give them to me, so I could bring a feast to my brothers and sisters. Do we have an agreement, gentlemen?"

Then they established the details of the plan, which concluded Magnus giving legs to Arela for three hours so she could lure Pangborn and use the mermaid's secret weapon on him: The mermaid's kiss, which, in lack of better words, brainwashes the victim. Once kissed, you're receptive to manipulation of words spoken by the mermaid. For any warlock, Magnus included, the mermaid's kiss was similar to the most powerful enchantment they could create, and it didn't even require any amount of magic, nor it drained from it, not like enchantments that left the warlock drained for days.

But, though the kiss seems to be so powerful, there is always a catch, like in every magical thing. Most mermaids aren't able to stop themselves during the kiss, so they end up sucking the soul out of the victim and in the end they kill them with the kiss.

Later, once Magnus was back into his apartment in Brooklyn, he was thinking about this strange plan again. He had this feeling that it won't end up well. That is, if they will be able to move to the first part of it: the luring of Emil Pangborn and leading Magnus into the New York's Institute, inside the lion's den.

Now all he, all of them could do is wait for tomorrow, when they will begin their plan.

A/N: Did you like it?

In the next one, Magnus will be brought to the NY Institute.

Review if you feel like to,

Intoxic