Chapter 13

Alecs POV

I went to the door to buzz the front door open and left this here open, going back to Catarina and Chairman Meow like a zombie. "Alec!?..." "Over here... in the spell room... we need the first aid kit..." Jace came in, putting away his seraph blade, with the kit under his right arm and Izzy, Clary and Simon behind him who also jacked away their weapons. He knelt down next to Catarinas free side and pushed my hand with the towel away to examine the wound. "Alec, what happened? The apartment's a mess." "I don't know... Magnus is gone..." He opened the first aid kit and started to clean the wound, looking at me a second and saying: "Alec! What happened!?" Then he began to suture the cut. "I couldn't find him..." He watched over his shoulder to the other three. "You search the apartment for something that tells us what happened and if we need help from the clave. Clary, come over here." Izzy and Simon turned around and left, Clary knelt down in front if me. Somehow I was just gliding with my fingers through Catarinas hair, although she couldn't be calmed by it, it calmed me down. "Slap him." Clary looked at Jace confused. "What?" "He's shocked. Slap him. I need him to talk and my medical gloves have to stay antiseptic."

I felt Clarys hand crush down on my cheek, my head flew to the side and the skin tingled where her fingers connected with it. "Hey! Slap him, not knocking him out! I forgot how good you are at that." "Ouch..." I said, rubbing my cheek and smearing Catarinas blood over it without really recognizing it. "Alec, was Catarina awake as you found her?" "No. No she was already unconscious." "Okay. Does she have other injuries?" "I didn't search." I realized that I didn't really do anything for her and searched her body for other injuries. "No other injuries except a few bruises. There's just a silvery powder at her nose and lips." Jace gave me a swab from the first aid kit and I wiped it off, maybe she knows what knocked her out when she sees the silver dust. Jace made the last stitches and covered everything with band aids. Catarina as a nurse maybe will flip out when she'll see it, but for first aid it was good, Jace knew what he did.

Izzy and Simon came back the same time I went to the corner in the room to pick up the Chairman again who ran over there as I opened the door. "Magnus is nowhere to be found, but he gave the intruders a hell of a fight. He attacked them with his magic before they could take him. We didn't find anything that could tell us where they went. I'm so sorry Alec." I just nodded in Izzys direction and crawled Chairman Meow. "We have to wait until Catarina wakes up, maybe she knows more. Let us take her into one of the bedrooms." Jace heaved her up already as he said that and I opened the doors for him. We laid her down on the bed in the master bedroom cause the en suite bathroom was the best stocked one if something was needed. "Thank you for bringing a first aid kit, I had to find out that I forgot to get a new one. And sorry because..." "It's okay, Alec. It's about Magnus, I understand that you're puzzled. It would be the same with me if Clary had disappeared like that."

I felt tears stinging in my eyes and I did everything to push them back. "I'm back in a second, I'll get a glass of water and a wet washcloth, maybe we can wake Catarina up." On the way to the kitchen I stopped in the living room, looking at all those damages in there, at the blood on the floor, somehow I knew it was Magnus' blood at the bookshelf, the biggest puddle of all. I shook myself out of those thoughts and got the water and the washcloth. I sat the water down on the bedside table and laid the cold washcloth on Catarina's forehead. I sat down on the bed beside her and touched her cheeks with my cold hands. I ignored the gazes of the others who sat on the other side of the bed, (Jace) in an armchair next the window, (Simon) at the end of the bed (Clary) and standing next to the door (Izzy). I just hoped she would wake up because I wanted her to. "Come on, sweety. Wake up." She mumbled something in her sleep and I needed a few seconds before I understood "No Magnus... No..."

It felt like hours before her eyes fluttered open, but only have been a few minutes maybe half an hour. I nearly jumped up as she looked at me. "Catarina... Where's Magnus?! What happened!?" I felt Jaces hand on my shoulder to get me to slow down. "How are you? Maybe you have a concussion, you got a big cut on your forehead, I sutured it." Jace looked in her eyes and searched for signs of recognition, confusion or anything else. "Magnus? Is he...?" "He's not here. Do you remember what happened?" Jace asked. She softly touched the band aids on her forehead and hissed in pain before she tried to sit up. Jace tried to hold her down but she gave him a look which told him to back off. "It's okay, it's just a headache." We knew she lied but let her have her way, she was the nurse after all. She sat up and took a sip of the water I gave her. "We were working on the spell as the bell ringed. I don't know who it was, but Magnus must've opened the door, otherwise his spells would've protected us. It must've been someone we know. Before he could've come back into his spell room the hell broke loose. I heard him and minimum five other guys shouting and things breaking. Four people came into the room, three warlocks attacked me until the third one got the chance to press something to my face. I fainted then... I think... I still heard Magnus fighting... but that's all... I'm sorry..." Catarina looked at me with tears in her eyes, she was one of Magnus' oldest friends, it must've been hard for her too. "We found that silver dust on your mouth and nose, do you know it?" I gave her the swab. "It's a sedative for magic creatures, warlocks and faeries. Normally you just throw it at someone, a small amount will knock you out if you breath it in. But they had warlocks with them, so that's why those humans tried to press a rag to our faces."

"Did you recognize anyone?" Jace asked. "No, the warlocks were very young. The rest seemed human. But there were ten or eleven people in here at the end, it was well planned. Alec... a few weeks ago, at Magnus' party... you weren't the only ones who saw his tail and cat ears that night. I heard rumors about him, friends told me that collectors were searching for him." "Collectors?" I asked, I never heard that, just rumors. "They are what it sounds like. Collect and show or sell at the black market. Magnus knew about it, I told him and other, trustworthy contacts did too. He searched even harder for a cure and thought his name and status would protect him, but we were wrong." Her eyes got a shiny glance again, a tear finally finding its way down her blue cheek. I took her hand and asked: "Do you really believe those collectors kidnapped him? He's the High Warlock of Brooklyn and a few hundred years old, who would be so damn crazy?" I got angry and tried not to scream at the end.

Jace looked at me, then to Izzy. "It's still something we can work with. Izzy, we need someone who's not known by the downworlders to search the black market for infos. If someone really wants to sell Magnus,..." Jace spitted that word out like venom. "...it will emerge very fast. We need names, places, rumors... anything." Izzy left the bedroom with her phone in her hand. Catarina squeezed my hand and I looked at her and she said quietly: "Alec, a neko doesn't exist naturally. You saw at the party what happens when Magnus gets aroused. Do you know what people will do to get him? You have to save him, please." She didn't say all she wanted to say. My thoughts were the same. What would people do or pay to get Magnus alone as a trophy for his status? What would they do to him with this sexual influence he has as a neko? I had to close my eyes as my thoughts ran wild, I had to swallow down the bile, feeling sick suddenly. Yes, I had to find him. Very fast.

I tried to calm my breathing down, inhale as much oxygen as I could. I stood up from the bed and heard Clary saying my name like through clouds, then Jace... I stumbled out the bedroom, out the apartment, out the house and turned to the right, vomiting into the hedge. While I was just coughing anymore, I heard steps behind me, but didn't find the strength to stand straight. "Do you feel better now?" It was Jace. I didn't even feel embarrassed, just sick, angry, panicked... just too much. "We have to find him, Jace..." My voice sounded like I had eaten sand. I took the water bottle Jace offered me and gulped down a mouthful. "I don't want to think about what they will do to him... but it doesn't stop... It's nothing like when Sebastian kidnapped him. He could stand much but what... what they want..." I had to fight down the bile again. "He's very strong, Alec. We will get him back to you, no matter what it takes. I promise that in the name of the angel Raziel."

Magnus' POV

Ouch... ouch... My head was beating like a drum, as if my brain wanted to get out of my head. I pressed my hands against my head, or... I tried to press them to my head... I heard the rattling of metal chains when I moved my hands and felt cool metal at my wrists. I opened my eyes and tried to focus on something cause everything seemed like a blur of colors and too bright light. After a few seconds I recognized my hands, my wrists were encased from shackles, a thick chain going down into an anchoring in the ground. I rattled on the chain getting angry at the déjà-vu. "Argh! Come on! You have to be kidding me!" The chain only was about three feet long, I was possible to sit but not to stand straight. Just like in Jonathan Morgensterns fucking prison just without other people in the room, I was completely alone.

I tried to bring myself into a sitting position but my headache let me sink back to the tiled ground. I remembered fighting off five very young warlocks I didn't know the names of and a human, who just tried to come closer all the time. I remembered Catarina screaming my name. I attacked them with my magic and knocked two of them out before one of them got their goal. I felt blood running down my side and soaking my shirt. I tried to get back into the spell room, to Catarina. On the way there we destroyed the living room with our magic attacks and they were very good in blocking the way. I got another deep, bloody wound on my right thigh as I stood in front of the bookshelf, slowly feeling dizzy from losing too much blood and that human pressed something to my mouth and nose. Then all went black and silent.

That human, he came to me as a client and didn't want to hear that in the moment I didn't take any jobs. He unnerved me with his calls and visiting so I let him in to tell him in person that he had to find another warlock. Now I knew that it all was planned 'Henry Dayton' maybe doesn't even exist. I looked down at myself. My clothes were bloody but as I felt for any wounds there was nothing, the warlocks must have healed me. I took a look around. Tiled ground, blank white walls, a small barred window completely out of my reach, exactly like the metal door with the barred opening. I laid on an old blanket, next to me stood a glass of water and... that's it. Wonderful... I feel like in a luxury hotel... I'm curious, when will I get my spa treatment? "Hello?!" I listened a few seconds but only heard a hushed rustle. "Is anybody here?!"

"Shut up, God dammit." It was more a whisper than anything else and it was full of fear, a female voice. "Where are we?" "Shut up... or they will punish you for disobedience..." "Who are they?" I heard a door crashing into a wall, rustling of chains and movements of more than one person. "What the hell is going on in here!" I tried to get over to the door, but the chain pulled me back into a sitting position nothing even near the door. "Hello? Where are we? What do you want?" A key was turned in the lock and the door also crashed into the wall. A bear of a man entered the room and before he closed the door, the back of his hand crashed down on my jaw and throwing me to the ground. I could see stars dancing around my head and heard beautiful bells ringing. "Ouch..." I opened my mouth to test if my jaw was broken, it was just bruised. "I can pay you a big amount of money, more than your actual employer. Just let me go."

One of his paw-like hands grabbed my jaw and made me wince. It was impossible to get out of this grip, that man was just made of muscles and flesh and a head taller than me. "Listen, little neko. I'm doing my job, I'm not corrupt and if you would know who my employer is, you would understand why I don't even think about raping you. Although your a hot piece of meat..." His fingers played with my ears, his left hand slowly closed around my throat and pushed me to the ground, pressing down on my airway. I tried to stop him with my hands but couldn't reach my neck, the chain was too short. He pressed me down with his body, one of his legs between mine and still choking me as his right hand found it's way between my legs and under the jeans. I struggled hard beneath him, but had no chance to get rid of him. "Oh yeah... I would love to play with you..." He licked his way up from my jaw, to my mouth and over my cheek. A shudder of disgust ran down my spine. "And you taste so good..." I fought to get enough air in my lungs under his choking hand. "Fuck... you..."

He laughed above me and said: "Be glad you're so precious, otherwise..." He squeezed my dick one last time and I winced before he let go and stood up again. "Behave... or I'll forget the fear for my employer. And he said nothing about not hurting you." He closed the door behind himself and locked it. I rolled myself into a ball until I could reach my neck with my hands and coughed, while I softly examined the damage. Despite of my assumption that the water was poised, I grabbed the glass now and took a mouthful. I soothed the burning in my throat and I nearly moaned at that. You fucking asshole... Come back to me when my hands are not captivated... My vision became blurry, like my thoughts. Fuck... I knew it... Alexander... "Alexander..." I whispered before I became unconscious again.