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David.

I stood facing the old building about 20 feet away from the guy who had been a mundane less than a week ago.

David looked different. His skin was even more pale than before, making his freckles stand out. Before, I had to be close to him to even notice them. All of his changes were subtle, just like it had been when Simon turned into a vampire, but the overall effect was noticeable.

David's stance was different. He stood up straighter and it made him appear more confident. The expression he wore was completely blank, though.

I accessed him in the space of a couple seconds. I couldn't afford to let my guard down; the others were not in sight and I had no idea what David was going to try to do to me.

As it was, he just stood there, looking at me intently, watching my every move as my hands travelled to my waist to where my throwing daggers and seraph blades were. I didn't dare go for my bow since, at that close of a distance, it would have been ineffective.

He was the first to speak. "Alec. I'm not the enemy. Allow me to explain everything to you." He called to me, raising his hands slowly into the air.

That's when I noticed my siblings, along with Clary and Simon, creeping back around to the front of the house.

I didn't want for them to surprise David and for him to see them as a threat and attack. With his vampire senses, though, I knew it was highly likely that he had heard them before I did.

"David. I need you to remain still." My eyes bored steadily into his. "One move and you will be dead before you even register it. My friends are coming around to join me, now. You can say what you need to say to all of us."

As I said that, I could see the others hurrying to my side, weapons dawn. I could tell Jace was just itching for David to move so that he could have an excuse to kill him.

To my growing surprise, David stayed completely unmoving and calm as we made a semi-circle around him.

"I promise I won't try anything, but we need to leave or someone will notice I'm gone." David said. Actually he almost pleaded the request.

Jace and I locked eyes for a split-second. That was all that was needed to come to a consensus. Before anyone else could react, Jace threw two daggers- they, of course, were blessed by angelic power- that hit each of David's feet and immobilized him.

Once I saw that he was down, I leapt forward and bound his hands and legs with a thin, pliable blessed metal that was used to restrain downworlders. I was nice enough to make it so that he could walk, albeit only in small strides, without the metal burning him. I wanted to hear what he had to say, but I didn't trust him. Not when the people I cared about were there and could get hurt by what could be a vampire trying to trick us.

David was obviously not happy with our little arrangement, but he didn't say much and chose instead to walk somewhat ahead of Jace, who couldn't seem to resist giving him a shove every now and then.

I tried to call Magnus but, once again, there was no answer. I was beyond worried. It was now almost 10pm. I decided to call Pablo since I was clearly desperate.

"Hello, young Nephilim. I think this is the second time you've called me in only two days. I didn't realize we were so close."

"Pablo." I said, ignoring his comments. "Have you seen or talked to Magnus lately? He's not answering his phone."

"What? I thought he was supposed to be with you by now?" Pablo sounded considerably more serious, now. "He told me earlier not to bother him tonight, because he had a date with you, bro."

"When did you talk to him last?"

"About 6pm. A warlock requested him to do a job. The guy, like, begged me to get Magnus to do it and no one else. Said Magnus was the only one who could."

I didn't really know what to do with that information, so I pressed on. After some prodding I got the name of the warlock, a former regular client of Magnus' by the name of Elijah, but Pablo didn't know any of the details. I hung up with him after getting him to promise to call me if he heard from Magnus.

We arrived at my apartment eventually. I let David sit down on the couch, which was an awkward affair because I wasn't about to remove or alter any of his restraints. Still, we all watched him intently, as if he was going to start attacking at any minute.

David addressed me and mostly ignored everyone else, except to give their weapons a weary looking eye occasionally.

"I have a relative who is a vampire… an ancestor, I guess you could call him. He's my grandfather's grandfather." David laughed humorlessly, pausing for a moment before continuing. "My family was killed by a demon. I thought it was some huge dog or something at the time, but it was just too weird and it moved too fast to be something as normal as a dog."

David looked up at me and into my eyes. "I ran and hid after I saw that thing ripping my father and my little brother and sister apart." He lowered his head. "I saw everything, too. So much blood… everything… spilling out of them. I knew if I stayed, I'd have been dead too, but I know I'm a fucking coward for running. Not fighting. I don't even know how I got away, really. Guess I was just lucky." Another bitter laugh.

"After that I just wondered around different parts of the city. I didn't have many friends, so I'm sure I wasn't missed when I never showed back up at school. I found abandoned buildings to sleep in at night."

David seemed like he was just getting warmed up in his story, but Jace felt the need to interrupt.

"I don't want to come off as rude, bloodsucker, but what the fuck does this have to do with what's going on right now? And I find it funny that you never gave us the name of this vampire gramps of yours."

I could see how David might misconstrue Jace's words as rude, but well, he did have a point or two, there. All eyes turned to David again.

"I'm getting there, I promise." He squeezed his eyes closed for a second. "I found that building one night, the one you saw me coming out of. I was trying to get in and I got spotted by the former vampire leader, Raphael. He and some other vampires circled me and would have probably killed me or something then, but my relative was with them and recognized me.

"They say he's odd, for a vampire. He keeps tabs on his family, although he never makes contact with any of them. He just watches them. He saved me that night and countless others because he was constantly protecting me from the vampires."

I finally spoke. "So you're saying you lived with them for a year as a mundane?"

"No. My relative, Benjamin's his name, helped my get a job and I found somewhere to stay more permanently. Anyway, Benjamin saw me talking to you through a window that day you first saw me outside of the Dumont, Alec. He said he needed me to follow you and he used faery smoke on me, but the stuff doesn't always work as intended. He never told me why he wanted me to do it, though."

"When did you become a vampire?"

"Monday. Benjamin had already gave me his blood prior to that. He was coming after me to kill me when I was on the phone with you." David's eyes narrowed. "I didn't want to become a vampire, but he made me. And he made me go along with what the Seelie Queen wants, too. I just only managed to get away."

David lapsed into silence and nobody spoke for a few minutes.

Simon looked around at the group. "So, does anybody else think he's bullshitting?"

Clary shook her head. "I don't know. He sounded truthful, but I don't think we should trust a guy who admits that he's been working for the enemy."

"We have to take him to the Institute, Alec. They will figure out what to do with him." Izzy said to me.

I agreed.

I called my mother to request the conclave meet to talk to David and discuss what to do with him. She sent out some shadowhunters to help transport him to the Sanctuary of the Institute, even after I assured her I had it handled.

Since there would be a meeting that night that would probably continue on into the morning and beyond, I decided to spend the night at the Institute.

I left a note for Magnus on the dining room table, in case he returned. Every time I thought about where he might be and why he was not responding, I got a very bad feeling in my stomach. I had pending obligations, but I had to find him to make sure he was ok. There was just nothing I could do until I had some information to go on.

Jace and Clary waited for me to get a few things to stay the night at my old home. Before I left I went into my office to grab some of my paperwork that I had been working on from earlier.

On the way to the Institute, I suggested that Clary call Luke and invite him. I called Pablo and invited him, as well. I figured, the more trustworthy downworlders there, the better. Nephilim tended to be pretty harsh when punishing the other races, and I wanted everyone to get their fair share to tell their sides of the story.

About an hour later, we were all stuffed in the Sanctuary of the Institute since that was the only room that a vampire could enter into. For once, my dad was actually present at the meeting. As inquisitor, his role was more focused on dealing with shadowhunters who broke the law, not downworlders. Still, his opinion on things were held in a high regard in this matter.

David's apparent willingness to expose the faeries and vampires motivated a lot of Nephilim out of their beds and away from their hunts. There were so many people there, no one seemed to notice or mind the four underage shadowhunters in the mix.

At my insistence, Pablo and his group of warlocks were allowed to sit in on the meeting, as well. For I some reason, Luke had been a no-show. I wondered briefly why he was missing, knowing that Luke was probably more than interested in hearing what David had to say.

For one terrifying second, I imagined that Luke had maybe gone missing like Magnus, but I scolded myself for jumping to conclusions and tried to keep my thoughts to the task at hand.

At that moment, the task was to listen to David retell his story that I had already heard. Instead of zoning out, I listened closely, wanting to see if I would catch David in a lie.

But he told the same story as earlier, although he didn't dwell on the part about losing his family to a demon.

David ended by saying that everything he did was against his will and that he would help the Clave bring the vampires and fae down in exchange for his freedom.

Jia called immediately for a vote on the matter. This, of course, was not met with a consensus. We spent the next 15 minutes arguing amongst ourselves.

"We have to do something. We have nothing else to go on." Someone said.

"How can we ensure that he won't turn on us? This could be a trick." An older female called out.

A bunch of responses rang out to answer that, but my father's voice was the loudest. "We won't know for sure. But we do have to act, and act swiftly. I say we hear him out without promising him anything."

"Ok. We will hear what information he is offering, then we can decide where to go from there." Jia said. "All in favor?"

All hands raised for this. A male shadowhunter walked over to David and began questioning him. I assumed that was the guy who dealt with downworlders who broke our law.

"I can get you into the place where they meet. You won't find it, or be able to get in without my help." David responded when asked what information he had for us.

"Surely, that can't be all you have for us?" Jia asked. "What assurances can you give us so that we know you are not leading us into a trap?"

David seemed to falter at the question. "I don't know. You can keep me restrained, I guess. Take me with you. I give you my word that I'm not trying to trap anyone. I was just a mundane less than a week ago." David's voice had gotten louder. He sounded panicked.

I didn't know how I felt about this. I didn't have time to think about it right then, though. Simon came up to me at that moment and jerk his head toward the door. I looked next to me and saw that all my friends were gone. I took one last look back at David and then slip out of the Sanctuary with Simon.

Once we were in the hallway that led to rest of the Institute, I asked Simon what he wanted.

"Luke's here with some pretty interesting news."

I stopped short and grabbed his shoulder. "What is it, Simon?"

"I think you'd better just hear it from him. They didn't even explain it all, anyway, before Luke told me to go get you."

We went into the kitchen where Luke was there with Clary, Izzy, and Jace. There was one more person in there, standing almost as if she were hiding behind Luke.

"Kaelie, right? What are you doing here?" I asked. I looked around at the others for help. "What the hell is she doing here? She's loyal to the Seelie Queen."

Luke started to say something, but Kaelie cut him off.

"I was loyal to the Queen and everything faery once, but that is mostly because there is no other way to be. My lady- I mean- the Queen controls everything in our way of life. There is no room for disobedience, no matter how justified one feels they are in their mutiny."

She took a deep breath and appeared to try to calm herself.

"The Queen has been working on improving faery smoke. She wants to make it more stable and more powerful. In order to make it, she takes certain substances from the people's bodies. That she does with the help of a warlock. In order to test out the effectiveness of the smoke, she tortures people with it to see what it does to them. She has been doing this with her own kind. I find it sickening."

"Kaelie ran away from faery a couple weeks ago. She took some other faeries with her, the ones who are against what their Queen is doing. And some of the ones who were being targeted by the Queen. She came to me for help and to offer assistance to the Clave."

"Well, there's a newly turned vampire in there offering the same assistance. Let's just take her to the meeting and her tell her story, as well." I said.

Kaelie hesitated. "How do I know the Clave will not just lock me up? You treat all of my kind as enemies, on sight."

Luke answered. "Just explain to them. I will do whatever I can to help you. If they take you away, I will continue to help your people."

Kaelie nodded.

I looked at her. "One more question before we go. Who is the warlock that is helping the Seelie Queen?"

"Warlock Elijah."

So now Alec knows that Magnus is being held by the fae and vamps...

BTW I have finalized my chapter outlines so I now know there will be 5 to 6 more chapters and then we're done!

Thanks for reading, y'all!