A.N: I'm extremely sorry for the delay, what can I say? Life happens. Hopefully such a long wait between updates won't have to happen again but I make no promises. I have my favorite band's (Kamelot) concert next friday, which is when I usually update and from then on three weeks of finals in university. Hope to read you soon! Love you all :D

Chapter 11: No escape

The air was cold the night I fled,

Your eyes were more than I could take;

I ran so fast, I ran like hell,

And still wasn't able to escape...

When you hurt me the most by Stream of Passion.

Alec didn't know how long he had been running. It felt like hours, days, even years, and yet as if no time had passed at all.

He kept going, in no particular direction, putting all the strength he had left into moving his legs, which felt terribly heavy and hurt terribly, every muscle in his body felt as if it was made of molten lead.

You can't run from me little angel, you are too weak for that.

Alec gritted his teeth and shut his eyes closed, trying to ignore the demon's jabs and provocations, the shadowhunter had gotten used to Sonneillon's habit of speaking straight into his mind for the past days. They were constant companions now. Companions that loathed each other and wanted nothing but destroy the other.

"I already beat you though, and that's enough for me" Alec tried to make a derisive chuckle, but the noise was drowned out by a fresh streams of coughs that caused his body to rock and spasms, when the fit was over Alec collapsed, weak and breathless to the cold concrete wall of the street.

You see? Sonneillon said, unable to suppress the amused tone of his voice. You will never be able to escape me.

Alec leaned against the street's brick wall, trying to control his panting breaths with little success.

"I did escape" the shadowhunter said "I ran away from them, my family won't have to see me die, a small mercy at least"

Not if I can help it Sonneillon replied, clearly not as in control of his emotions as he made himself to be.

"You can't force me to go back to them, and your magical wards have ascertained that they can't find me either"

As if on cue, Alec's mind was assaulted by a stream of images and terrible scenarios. Alec place his head between his hands and tried to shake of the terrible illusions playing in his mind.

Focus Lightwood. He chided himself. This is just one of his tricks to make you go back, focus,focus, FOCUS.

But he kept seeing them, picture after picture.

Magnus holding his stiff lifeless form in his arms, crying his heart out and begging him not to die.

Another image followed. Isabelle crumpled on the floor, making some heart-wrenching noises that reminded Alec of a wounded animal. Simon had his arms around her but it was obvious to the Lightwood boy that the gesture wasn't very comforting to his sister.

Then there was Jace. His parabatai was sitting on a cold floor, his eyes looking at the distance. His gaze seemed empty, as if a piece of him was missing.

Then Alec noticed. His adoptive brother was clutching at his collarbone, rubbing it intensely and when he lifted his hand, were is parabatai rune had been, there was nothing, not even the pale white hint of a faded rune. As if the both of them had never been bonded on the first place.

Alec didn't have much time to ponder this oddity since a scorching pain in his forearm and the painful clenching of his heart shattered the illusions he had been seeing.

He noticed vaguely that he was slumped on the floor, his left hand clutching at his right forearm were his skin burned as if someone had branded him with a hot poker, he looked down and the sight that greeted him made his blood run cold.

A black fluid ran down his arm like blood, making the shadowhunter's skin burn as it cascaded to the floor, though in reality his pale white skin remained unblemished, the sensation was only an illusion.

That was not what alarmed Alec the most though, when the black fluid ceased to flow from his forearm he noticed that the source had been his parabatai rune. The only rune that had remained on his skin when his body had started to reject the angel's mark and it was…gone. Not even the white scar-like remains of a faded rune, the mark had disappeared entirely.

"Angel no, please NO!" Alec cried, with a voice that was faint but earnest in its terror. It couldn't be true, this couldn't be happening!

"It seems to me that the last shred of angelic power within your blood has finally deserted you"

Alec recognized that voice. It had spoken to him ceaselessly for the past few days, but always to his mind. He couldn't be here physically, he didn't have the strength for that.

And yet, the hands that reached for Alec's face when he tried to turn away from the voice felt solid and real, as did the cold breath that brushed against his ear when Sonneillon whispered

"I told you that you'd never be able to run away from me. You are mine"

Alec heard nothing else, he was surprised by an onslaught of pain shooting through his body and another fit of bloody coughs blocking his air supply, the shadowhunter had lost count of how many times he had passed out in the past couple of weeks, but he succumbed to the darkness of unconsciousness again. This time with the demon that had cursed him hovering above him.

Two days before thine demise. Then revenge will be finally mine.

(MAGNUS POV)

Magnus stared mindlessly out of one of the institute's many windows. His mind wandered into many directions at once, but it always came back to the same pair of haunting blue eyes. Alexander.

The warlock hadn´t known what to expect when the shadowhunter woke up, but certainly being evicted from his room in a painful display of anger had been the last thing Magnus had thought would happen.

He shouldn't be surprised though, his little shadowhunter had been through so much already, and then he had made matters worse because of his stupid pride. Why couldn't Magnus just be honest with his own feelings? He wanted to be with Alexander as much as the boy wanted to be with him, so why couldn't he do it?

You are scared. A tiny voice whispered into his head. You are too frightened to lose him, more so now, with how sick he is. Magnus shoved the annoying voice back into the farthest corner of his head and ignored it, not willing to confront his fears at the moment.

The warlock turned away from the window and towards the other shadowhunters that leaned on the white walls of one of the institute's many corridors. All of them exuded an aura of anxiety and nervousness, especially Isabelle and Jace, who hadn't stopped beating themselves up about not realizing something was wrong with their brother sooner than they did.

"Stressing like this is not going to help Alexander at all" The warlock reminded them, hoping to calm them down just a little, though all he got was a scoff and a sarcastic comeback.

"Yeah, because constantly rejecting my brother and making him feel unworthy does so much for his health" Izzy replied curtly without turning to look in Magnus' direction.

The comment stung, but Magnus didn't let it show on his face, instead turning towards Clary and Simon, who seemed to be the most level-headed – which didn't really mean a lot at the moment- of the group.

"Alexander didn't tell you anymore about the curse?"

The redhead just shook her head.

"At this point you know as much as I do, though the outbursts of rage are new"

"Can you blame him? He is terribly ill and then everyone starts treating him like frail china and towing with his emotions, of course he's entitled to feel angry" This time it was Simon who addressed Magnus and he rest of the group, taking them all by surprise.

"I am not toying with his emotions" The warlock growled displeased.

"Maybe not intentionally" Simon conceded "But you give him just enough attention to keep him hoping and yet not enough to think he has a chance with you again" Magnus noticed how the daylighter's gaze wandered briefly towards Clary before settling on Izzy, the warlock felt a pang of jealousy in his chest at the love he could see in that gaze. He wished he could look at Alexander like that.

He let go of that train of thought –it wouldn't do any good right now- and started to open his mouth to argue, before Isabelle cut him off with her own comments.

"There's no time for DTRing right now, we need to pull ourselves together so that we can help Alec when he's ready to see us again" The shadowhunter girl seemed slightly apprehensive. Magnus noticed how she chewed on her lip and curved into herself, this whole situation was taking its toll on the Lightwoods and Alexander's outburst had shaken the siblings' confidence in their mission of finding and destroying Sonneillon.

"It might take some time before Alec is ready to see us again" Clary said, placing one hand reassuringly on Isabelle's shoulder while extending the other for her boyfriend to hold, she settled her green eyes on Magnus, her gaze intense and pleading. Please, be the strength Alec needs, Stop hurting him. Stop hurting YOURSELF.

Magnus held the redhead's stare for a moment before averting his eyes. Perceptive little shadowhunter, He thought, before turning his eyes to Jace who had suddenly become oddly still.

"Are you feeling all right Jace?" Inquired the warlock, while Clary brushed some hair away from the blond shadowhunter's face in an attempt to call his attention, but to no avail, the Nephilim boy seemed strangely…blank?

"Jace, come on" his girlfriend pleaded "Earth to Jace, JACE SNAP OUT OF IT!" The girl had grabbed him by the shoulders and tried to shake him with all her strength – which was not little, but still not enough to really affect someone with Jace's build- their height difference making the scene look comical, or it would have been if the circumstances were not so alarming.

Finally, Jace seemed to come out of his daze, he looked down at Clary, a question in his eyes.

"B-by the angel…what's going on?"

"That's what we want to know" Clary said, hugging him close.

"Dude, you just zoned out" Simon put in "You kept looking at nothing with a blank stare, what's up with that?"

Jace shuddered and furrowed his eyebrows, trying to put his thoughts together.

"I…can't really explain" the blonde shadowhunter said "It's just…all of a sudden I felt so…odd, as if a part of my soul was floating in the air, quite unsettling"

The whole group stared at Jace in confusion.

"I don't understand"

It took a moment for Magnus to notice that Isabelle had spoken, or that she had moved closer to Jace and Clary, her face was a mask for worry again, no doubt unsettled because of her adoptive brother's well-being as well.

It was Magnus' turn to speak, clearing his throat he addressed the blonde Nephilim "I'm afraid I don't quite get what you said either, what did you mean by the whole 'a part of my soul was floating in the air' business? I've never heard something like that before"

Jace tightened his hold on Clary's hand and turned to face the warlock.

"It's just that… suddenly I felt as if a part of me had detached from my body, as if I was suddenly looking at myself from the outside, A part of my soul left my body and-" Jace's explanation was suddenly cut off as his expression went blank again, this time his knees buckled as well and he tumbled to the floor.

"JACE!" Clary bellowed, kneeling beside him. She placed a gentle hand on his back and tried to get a reaction out of him, but Jace just remained there, a silent blond heap sitting on the floor.

After a few moments Jace's eyes focused again and recovered some of their light, though there was still something vague and distant about his aura.

Clary hugged him closer to herself, while Izzy and Simon loomed over him helplessly, when Jace seemed to have gotten a grip on himself again, the group started to question him.

"What is it this time?" As always, it was Clary who remained closest to him, soothing the shadowhunter and asking him all the questions.

"I can't..." Jace whispered "I don't understand."

He looked at each of his companions with a confused, beseeching gaze, as if he was looking for something. The furious intensity of that golden gaze unsettled the High Warlock of Brooklyn, especially when he noticed a single tear rolling down Jace's cheek. Magnus felt an ominous chill run down his spine, but tried to reel in his fear and focus on finding out what was wrong with the golden boy.

"Calm down Jace" Izzy soothed, enclosing his free hand in one of her own "Focus for a bit, does anything hurt?"

Jace shook his head in denial and Clary exhaled with relief, though the fact that the shadowhunter's strange behavior was not caused by pain seemed only slightly reassuring.

"What is it then?" Magnus asked, his nerves frayed by the whole situation and the constant sense of dread lodged at his gut. Nagging, never fading.

He noticed that Clary shot him a heated gaze, Jace still in his arms, but he chose to ignore it. She was worried about the person she loved, but so was he, and right now Alexander's situation was the worst of the pair, they needed to find out what was wrong with the blond boy so that they could move past it.

At last, Jace moved out from his girlfriend's embrace, though he remained on the floor, he turned towards Magnus before answering.

"I felt it again" he said "That odd, out-of-body sensation I told you about, but this time it was a lot stronger as if a fragment of myself had vanished into the air. I wasn't physically painful it just felt so…sad and scary" Jace shuddered slightly and Magnus noticed that the shadowhunter boy absently took a hand to his collarbone and rubbed the spot for a moment before letting it fall to his side.

"Something wrong with your neck?" The warlock asked, noticing how Jace's fingers fidgeted and one of his hands shot to his collarbone once again.

"Huh? No, I just felt something-" Jace trailed off, pulling down his shirt in order to have a clear view of the spot he had been rubbing. He inhaled sharply while his eyes opened wide with horror, Magnus let his gaze wander to the shadowhunter's hand. The fingers that had touched the boys' skin were coated with some sort of black ink, puzzled, the warlock turned his eyes toward the spot Jace had been rubbing. What he saw froze the blood in his veins.

Jace's parabatai rune was the source of the strange black fluid, it oozed from it like dark blood, running down the shadowhunter's sun-kissed skin. Horrified, the blond boy turned away from the downworlder and towards Clary, Isabelle and Simon, who had been waiting anxiously for an explanation.

They all turned an alarming shade of white when they noticed the state of Jace's rune. It could only mean one thing. His parabatai connection to Alexander had been severed. There were only a few things that could undo such a powerful bond. Being stripped of marks, becoming a silent brother or an iron sister, turning into a downworlder…

Death A voice whispered into Magnus' mind

No. NO! It can't be…Alexander can't be…

He heard Isabelle shriek in a high-pitched voice, she had started running down the long corridor an onto Alexander's room, Simon closely behind her. It took a moment for the rest of the group to react and follow her, quickly they went up the vast stairwell and numerous corridors until they finally arrived to Alec's closed door, both Jace and Izzy knocked once, softly-or as softly as they could- but obtained no answer.

"Open the door, Alec!" Izzy bellowed, knocking with a lot more strength than the first time.

"Come on bro, let us in" Jace said, trying to coax a response from his adoptive brother.

When no response came the shadowhunters, daylighter and warlock exchanged a brief questioning gaze, silently they reached a consensus and Jace stepped forward, knocking the door of its hinges with one powerful, graceful kick.

None of them were prepared for what they found upon their entrance into Alec's chamber, or rather, what they didn't find.

Alexander is gone…

Magnus turned towards Jace "Can't you feel him, can't you feel anything through the bond?" the warlock was aware of how desperate an unhinged is voice must sound but he didn't have the strength or time to give a damn about it.

"The bond is gone" Jace choked out "That's what I've been feeling, I can't sense Alec at all. But how? I should have known, I should have felt something!"

"No. no no no" Isabelle sobbed, burying her face in Simon's chest "We have to find him, he can't be out in the streets like that, he could die!" She stared at Magnus with a manic glint in her dark eyes.

"Surely you can find him, right Magnus?" Isabelle demanded "There must be a tracking spell you can do or some other magic you can use, right?"

Magnus didn't know how to tell Isabelle that he had already tried. Ever since that gut-wrenching feeling of wrongness had settled over him. It was as if Alexander didn't exist, or he was being shielded by some strange force so that he couldn't be found.

"I've tried Isabelle, I can't find him"

But the shadowhunter refused to listen, she kept screaming at them all to help her find her brother. It took Simon nearly half an hour to calm Isabelle down enough to make her understand that they all wanted to find Alec as much as she did. But no one judged her for breaking down, the trauma of losing Max was still a very raw memory for the Lightwoods, they couldn't lose another member of their family. They couldn't lose Alexander.

Ican't lose him… The thought alone was maddening, it made his vision darken and his heart pounded so hard, the warlock feared it would escape his chest. He turned towards the other shadowhunters, a wild thought in his mind. It was only a theory but at this point he was willing to try anything to find Alexander.

"I think I have an idea that might help us find Alexander, but I will need help. From all of you"

Jace stepped forward to place himself in front of Magnus "I don't care what it is, we will do it, just tell me, are you completely sure you will find him?"

Magnus only reply was a low dark chuckle. He motioned for them all to follow him outside Alexander's room and refused to answer any of the teenagers' questions while they walked towards the infirmary.

"Be silent for a moment, I need to think. This is not going to be easy and it will be quite taxing for all of us, but it is the only way to find him. You need to trust me"

"We do" said Isabelle, though her whole demeanor remained impassive "Now let's hurry we need to find Alec".

And we will, Magnus thought. We will find you Alexander.

So...Your thoughts? Please let me know your opinion about this chapeter, since it will start to get interesting from here and I would appreciate your feedback, opinions and expectations. Remember reviews are love! And I always appreciate ideas and suggestions!