Title: The New York City Angels
Summary: They'd always thought Idris was home. Every Shadowhunter did. Only as they watched their home destroyed in front of them did they realize that they'd been home all along. T for language mostly.
Notes: Thanks again to everyone! I'm so happy you guys like it! This was a little hard to write, and harder to post. I finished the newest chapter of MorbidMandy's Glitter and Glass story, and I was crying so hard. Everyone's being so mean to Alec lately. I guess I'm going with the crowd on this one. I hope you all like this.
Disclaimer: As much as I'd love to, I do not own the Mortal Instruments series. Last time I checked, I was not Cassandra Clare, but I did roleplay Magnus Bane. Does that allow me ownership? ;)
Alec pulled the soft cotton t-shirt over his head, messing up his already hopeless hair even more. He'd protested the offer, but Magnus had taken the chance to take some plain t-shirts and a few pairs of jeans while Alec dozed in the bedroom.
He was grateful – he felt as if he'd never be able to thank his boyfriend enough – but he couldn't put it into words. And he felt empty, so very empty. Like someone had ripped out his internal organs and he was just a shell of a person. Like he had when Max died, attending the funeral in traditional white with the red Marks of mourning, watching the ashes of his little brother fly away with the wind. The ashes of the Institute flew in the same manner.
He tried to smile more, though. Magnus was making such an effort to get him to smile, and even though he knew it was more of a pained smile or a grimace, he tried.
And Magnus was wary of him, too. Constantly keeping away from anything painful for him, no discussion if he didn't want to talk. Magnus actually seemed surprised, Alec noticed, when he left the room to show him the fire message. Was that because of the message, or how he was acting, he wondered.
He sat back down beside the window to wait out the next client of Magnus's, unaware of the warlock standing at the bedroom door, watching him with concern.
After a few minutes, he felt overly warm arms snake around his waist and leaned into his boyfriend's embrace. He shivered, still not used to Magnus's sudden warmth, especially since he was always so cold.
Alec took a deep breath and turned his head, meeting Magnus's lips with his own.
Later, they were so distracted that they didn't notice the time. The sun wasn't streaming through the window with the normal amount of daytime light, tipping them off as it grew darker. When they did look at the time, they regretfully disentangled to allow Magnus time to fix his hair. At Alec's protests, he said, "At least it was done up this morning. We'll be there soon, I just have to fix it. A certain Shadowhunter wasn't too keen on keeping his hands out of it. Not that I mind whatsoever, of course." With a wink, he retreated to his mirror.
Arriving at the location, Alec saw it was a nondescript warehouse-type building, probably some random piece of property the Clave owned the mundies were unaware of. He and Magnus seemed to be the only ones out, and he went inside, assuming the others were there.
The room at the entrance was completely empty, with nothing but a staircase going to the upper floors and a door at the other end.
He heard someone talking upstairs, and started towards them, but Magnus held onto his arm, a puzzled look on his face. Alec swallowed. "Magnus, what's wrong?" The warlock didn't reply at first, but started walking closer, slowly. He was mumbling something under his breath.
Then as he tried to tug Alec back out the door, they found it was shut, and red sparks growing into flames as tall as they were blocked their path.
Alec felt the pressure of Magnus's hand relieved, and found that he was gone, the sound of footsteps running overhead. He pulled out a seraph blade and named it – "Israfel" – and started up the staircase.
Isabelle and Clary reached the warehouse a few minutes late, and found Jace and Simon waiting for them. Isabelle called out to Jace, "Where's Alec?"
He shrugged, telling her, "He was coming with Magnus, but I haven't seen him. Maybe he's inside."
She saw Simon striding towards the door, hesitantly putting his hand on the doorknob. She traded glances with Jace and they approached with Clary right behind them. "Simon?"
"Someone's speaking in a language I don't know. It sounds like something I feel like I should know, though. And the door feels hot." Clary interrupted him as she cried out, pointing to a window that revealed a room burning in flames of bright red. Isabelle and Jace rushed forward, yelling at Clary to stay outside. Simon had backed away from the door, a look of terror on his face.
Isabelle smashed the glass with her whip and jumped in, with Jace close behind. They rushed up a staircase to a hallway with one door at the end. It stood slightly ajar, sparks of bright red and electric blue lighting the hall with their light. She adjusted the grip on her whip and checked her belt for good measure, making sure she had a blade handy. Jace had two seraph blades at the ready. They heard a voice, deeper than they remembered, but still intensely familiar, and a shout in response in another familiar voice: Alec. She followed Jace as they burst into the room, and tried to take in the scene before her.
Alec was standing in the middle of the room, a seraph blade in hand and seemed to be pounding his fist against air, though Isabelle knew there must be a glamour there. On the other end of the room stood two men, with sparks and flames shooting between them from their fingertips. The wooden floor was singed black from where it had burned from missed attacks, almost obscuring a pentagram that was carved into it. One of the men was Magnus, familiar now to her as Clary was. The other was unmistakable. It was the face she saw in her nightmares, though his pale blond hair was longer now, shoulder length, and he attacked with bright red magic. She had known him as Sebastian before, but she had learned of his real name.
Jonathan Morgenstern. She had been a bit apprehensive when his body hadn't been found, but Jace told her he'd killed him. Why wouldn't she take his word for it?
And yet he was standing there as if nothing had ever happened to him, much less a fatal knife wound.
He turned his head and she was enveloped in fear as her eyes met his. They were black and fathomless, gleaming with battling amusement and anger.
He grinned. "Isn't this a pleasant reunion? How's your brother, Isabelle?"
"You son of a bitch!" "You should be rotting in Hell!" Isabelle and Jace spoke simultaneously, and they rushed to Alec's side, meeting the same resistance as their brother.
"Now, now, there's no cause for such language, Jace. My father taught you better," Jonathan mocked. "I suppose Clary wasn't able to make it?" He looked behind them. "Well, speak of the devil."
The others looked back. There stood Clary, stele in hand, knife in the other. Isabelle wondered where she got the weapon.
"Nice to see you, sis." Clary just walked up to the wall and started to draw a rune, not focusing on the ash gray lines that seemed to appear in midair but instead glaring at her brother. If looks could kill, Isabelle thought, hell, he'd've been dead before Clary got here.
Noticing that his wall wouldn't stand a chance, he threw one last shot of sparks at Magnus's feet. The warlock jumped back and the blue flames lighting his fingers sputtered out. As he looked at them in confusion, Jonathan began chanting quickly in a language that hurt to listen to. Alec screamed as the bright red flames shot up around Magnus's feet.
Exactly where the lines of the pentagram was etched.
Jonathan's chanting grew faster and his grin grew even wider as Clary's rune finished, burning bright white like the witchlights that lit Idris. He stopped right before a noise like shattering glass reverberated in the room as the rune fell in a pile of ashes, but as they rushed forward, Alec at the front of the group, they found that they were too late. Magnus and the flames disappeared with Jonathan at the snap of his fingers. He uttered one last phrase while looking straight at Alec with malice and disgust: "See you in Hell, Lightwood."
When Alec punched the wall, it made a sound like a dull thud. Shoulders heaving, he sank to the floor and curled in on himself. Isabelle went over to console her brother while Jace led Clary from the room, cell phone in hand. He was most likely calling Mom, Isabelle observed. She turned her attention back to her brother when she heard the muffled sobs he emitted.
Alec wouldn't leave. He'd sometimes trace the pentagram with two fingers, but mostly he sat in silence as several members of the Conclave pieced together the story while they surveyed the room.
Alec wouldn't talk, either. His breath and voice had gone when he screamed. He felt as though Morgenstern had taken them along with Magnus as he disappeared.
Alec tried not to close his eyes. Whenever he did, he saw the mocking grin from the other side of the glamour wall, and the snap after which they had disappeared.
Alec couldn't hear much as the voice kept ringing in his ears, the language that hurt to listen to.
Alec tried to pretend not to feel anything when he was feeling everything imaginable. He was caught in a whirlwind of anger, sadness, guilt, confusion, pain, loss, hopelessness, and pure hate. There were brief periods of emptiness when he'd gain a reprieve from his emotions, but he wasn't sure whether he liked it more or less than facing what he felt.
Alec couldn't think clearly. Memories flooded his mind: the party where he'd met Magnus, going back to the apartment, the meetings in secret, and then the time he'd spent missing him in Idris, the kiss in the Accords Hall, the party afterwards, and countless nights spent together ever since. Occasionally a certain vivid memory would come up: the throaty laugh he loved to hear, the feeling of warmth from just being around Magnus, the sound of the words "I love you" in Magnus's voice, and his automatic reply of "I love you too."
After a few hours, though, he became more aware of what was going on. He noticed the Shadowhunters crowding the room had lessened in number, and that Jace and Clary had come back, and Simon still hadn't come inside. Or maybe he had, and Alec just didn't see him.
For that matter, he couldn't see much clearly, as his vision wavered. He finally realized that his face was wet. Tears, he thought numbly. Have I been crying all this time? He wiped some of them away and stared at them as they settled on his hand.
He noticed Isabelle's stare and turned to look at her. Her hair had been taken out of her braid, and her makeup was smeared. Had she been crying too? Her makeup was usually perfect, just like-
Magnus.
A fresh wave of tears threatened behind Alec's eyes, and he hugged his sister, burying his face in her shoulder before they spilled.
Once he had regained his composure, he supposed it was time to start joining in on the conversation.
If not to contribute, just to see what was going on.
His mother was talking in hushed tones to a few Shadowhunters in the Conclave – one of them he recognized as Sam Midwinter, who kept looking at him with something like pity in his eyes.
Alec needed to move, go get some air, talk to someone. He supposed Jace and Clary would know. Isabelle helped him up. He felt the pins and needles shoot up and down his legs and winced.
Isabelle caught Clary's eye, and they led Jace and Alec outside. As they walked down the street, Clary started filling him in.
"Okay, so it's pretty obvious now that Maryse didn't send those fire messages. She's pissed that Jonathan was able to pull this off, and we're doing everything we can to find them. Simon went back to Dumort to see if the vampires would help, though he said he could probably only convince a few of them. Luke's talking to his pack and other pack leaders about it, and they'll probably be able to help. Maryse contacted some friend of Magnus's, Markus something, and he's doing a tracking spell, reaching out to search the area, doing whatever he can." She paused. "What I don't get is why he decided to take Magnus instead of one of us."
Isabelle replied haughtily, "Magnus is a warlock, a Downworlder that's been known to help us in the past. I mean, he is Valentine's son. He probably just hates Downworlders like his father."
Something about that clicked in Alec's mind. When Alec spoke, his voice was clearer than he'd expected it to be, but still soft and quiet. "Magnus is a warlock, one that we know well and care about. He's been there to heal us whenever we encounter demon poison that the Silent Brothers can't take care of, since there haven't been any since Valentine killed the previous ones."
Clary gasped. "That's probably his next move! We can't get rid of demon poisons by ourselves, and having Magnus around has been awful convenient. But the fire – it's like he's magic."
"He does have Greater Demon blood. It must be growing stronger. It explains the demons, it explains the way he could put up wards and use magic like Magnus can – it's like he's almost a warlock, except the Greater Demon blood burns out his humanity because it's from that Lady of Edom," Jace added.
"So, what now?" Alec tentatively whispered.
Isabelle slung her arm around her brother's shoulders. He was slumping down, which made him seem shorter than he really was. "Now, we tell Mom and Dad and the rest of the Conclave about what we were talking about, and wait for Magnus to be found."
There was an unspoken understanding between them, though. Isabelle sounded as if she had more to say, but she didn't need to. They all knew that they probably wouldn't find Magnus, not if Jonathan didn't want him found. And they knew exactly what they were waiting for instead.
They were waiting for Jonathan to make his next move.
Disturbing Emily - Thanks for the review. I hope you like the new chapter.
Bookworm24601 - Now we know who sent the letters. And fantabulous? You really think I deserve that word? Why thank you. I will do my best to keep it up!
Chairman Meow II - Lol, I love your screen name! Thank you for the review! I've been doing the same - we have until April. Have you read the teaser chapter for CoFA? It's in the paperback for City of Glass - I love it. It's got Malec cuteness. And you got the Markus Zusak reference! I love you for that! Hope you like this chapter as much as the previous one!
HidingDani - That's one of the reasons I was a little hesitant in updating. Everyone's been so mean to Alec lately. I guess I've joined the club. I was thinking about putting the couples together, but decided against it. Jocelyn would never approve, and could you imagine what Simon's mom would say? A friendship is pushing it, but they are on better terms lately. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure exactly where I'm going with this - anything could happen!
AverageDreamer - If he wasn't depressed last chapter, he certainly is now. Thank you for the review, and I hope you like the new chapter!
Snow Angel5466 - I'm glad you're intrigued. I hope you're just as intrigued by this one!
Fly Away Dreams - Poor Alec, I'm feeling bad for him, too. He's just going through so much bad stuff lately in almost all the fics I've read. I hope you like Tangled. It looks like a cute movie.
dandy9 - Thanks for the review, hon! I'm glad you like it, and I hope you like this one just as much!
OK, so this time, because the chapter I'm planning next is so long - I'll wait for 10 reviews until I post. I figure that should give me some time. So please review? I'm sure you all want Magnus back with everyone and everything okay just as much as I do - though I can't promise much right now *evil grin*