I speed through the hallway towards the infirmary. I hear a door open and see Jace poke his head out.
"Well you got over Magnus quickly,"
"What?" I reply.
"Bringing boys home already!" He saunters over and looks at the boy in my arms.
"Defenceless unconscious ones freshly snatched from their beds, too. Wow, Alec, you are taking the break up incredibly well," Annoyance flares through me.
"He is hurt and might have internal head bleeding, so can you please wake up the others and help me figure out what to do with him," I snap. For a second there is surprise and then Jace's face hardens.
"Okay, find him a bed and we'll be there in a minute," I do as he says. Jace, holding a sleepy Clary's hand enters hurriedly, followed by a very grumpy and angry Isabelle.
"What the hell is this Alec? Just because you can live without sleep doesn't mean we can!" she attacks, storming up to me. I point at the boy. Isabelle blinks.
"Who's that?"
"I don't know, but he appeared out of nowhere and kind of hit his head and now is unconscious and I don't know what to do," I say, getting whiny like a tired child.
"Have you ever heard of a hospital, Alec?"
"He's not human," my voice lowers. "He practically teleported. No, he did teleport. For some reason I don't feel it's safe for him to go anywhere mundane," Isabelle stares at me for a moment.
"You're insane,"
"No, Alec is right," Jace pipes up. "There's something about him…it's weird… I've never encountered it before,"
"Same here," Clary says "It's like the whole room's temperature has dropped because of him,"
"There's also the glaring force of "Stay away or I'll eat you," surrounding him," Jace continues.
"Yeah, and-" Clary begins but is cut off by Isabelle.
"Okay, I get it," She turns to me. "What do you want us to do?"
"Do you know how to check for concussion?"
"No,"
"Yay!" I announce sarcastically. I glance down at the boy. He could be dying right now and I can't do anything about it.
"Maybe…maybe he could be a young Shadowhunter? Made a portal that went wrong?" Clary asks.
"I wish, and then we could use runes. But I know- and you do too- that he isn't,"
I look at Isabelle. She's on the phone, waiting for the other end to pick up.
"What are you doing?" I ask.
"Calling Mum,"
"What?" I start "Are you crazy? She'll kill us if she found out that we brought a non-nephilim here!"
"Do you want to help the boy or not?" There's silence. "Look, she's part of the Clave so she might know what on earth he is. If she knows, she might also know how to heal him,"
"She has a point," Jace says gently. Before I can reply Isabelle is talking to Maryse.
"Hey Mum? Yes, I'm sorry, I know the time…I'm sorry, I know, I know. Just listen, it's urgent. No, Alec and I are alright. Everyone's fine….Look, just please listen. This boy teleported in front of Alec, banged his head and ended up unconscious. We have taken him back to the institute-"
Isabelle had to move the phone a little further away from her ear when our mum's voice rose over the phone.
"No, Mum, listen," Isabelle firmly continues "He's not a mundane- we don't know what he is. We think he's some sort of Downworlder we can't specify. We were hoping you could come down and see and help him. He might have a head injury but we don't know what to do as he's not a Shadowhunter so we obviously can't use runes…Yes…he looks human…" Isabelle is studying the unconscious teenager's face.
"Yes, Mum, he's breathing so he's not a vampire…nor werewolf, werewolves can't teleport…actually no Downworlders can teleport without a portal so why are we even having this conversation?"
Isabelle looks up and smiles at us reassuringly, but you can tell she is obviously very stressed and frustrated.
"So are you coming?" Jace, Clary and I all lean towards her.
"Yes! Thank you, bye!" Isabelle hangs up the phone. "She's coming," she says. "She's not very happy, but she is coming."
"Good," I pull up a chair and sit beside the boy. The rest all drag a chair towards the bed also and flop onto them, tension releasing. Clary rests her head on Jace's shoulder and yawns, gazing down at this new person.
"I wonder what his name his," she says. Jace peers down at him.
"Well he looks Italian… Maybe something like Luca, Lorenzo, Leonardo?"
"So you are definitely sure his name begins with 'L' are you?" I half-heartedly mock- my lack of sleep catching up with me.
"Okay, Giovanni? Rocco? Nico?"
The boy murmurs something.
"That's the first show of proper awakening since he was knocked out!" I say, hopeful that he is waking up and there's nothing seriously wrong with him.
"What did he say?" asks Isabelle, intrigued.
"I couldn't make it out…Jace, say Nico again,"
"Um, Nico?"
All we seem to hear is just incoherent murmuring, until an attempt of a name was heard.
"Jas…Jaso…"
We all turn our heads to Jace.
"Guys, I don't know him. He couldn't possibly be asking for me,"
"Jaso…Jas.."
"He looks upset. Speak to him, Jace," Clary says. She's right; despite having his eyes closed his face was one of sadness. I had a weird urge to stroke his head- some sort of comfort- but restrained myself.
"O-okay," she shifts his chair a bit closer. Despite us all feeling sorry for him, the kid let off this vibe that he didn't want you to.
"Um…hi…you called on me?"
"J-jaso…Jason…Jason," he mutters, a bit more concise and urgent.
"Well I came here to have a good time and honestly I'm feeling so attacked right now,"
Isabelle laughs.
"Oh, so you perk up when I'm insulted, thank you," Jace says.
"Sorry," she smiles.
"Aw, bless him," she says "He wants someone…Jason- whoever he is," she starts stoking his cheek. Jealousy shoots through me. I blush. It's not like anyone knew I was jealous, but this is so weird. Why should I be jealous?
Isabelle frowns.
"He's so cold…and his face is sticky…oh, he was crying! Look, can't you see those tear stains?" I notice them and I feel sympathy for the boy. This might be private stuff he doesn't want complete strangers to know about.
"He's so adorable…Clary, do you think we are allowed to keep him when he wakes up?" she jokes.
"Hm, I'm not sure he'll like that," Clary replies.
"Yes," I say and lift Isabelle's hand away. She stares at me.
"What?" I reply, now very self-conscious.
"Nothing," she says and continues watching the boy, face blank.
I try to break the awkwardness.
"So you think his name is Nico then? You know, because, he stirred when you said the name," Before anyone replies Maryse bursts into the room, flustered and in basic wrinkled clothing, hair messy. She's holding a bundle of briefcases and bags.
"I guess we'll find out," says Jace.