Based on the Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices universe created by Cassandra Clare.
This will be a chapter of character exposition! Exciting.
Chapter VIII
Lysander had bought a mattress over to Micah's room; I guess my room too now. Lysander and I worked on moving Micah's desk and my mattress under the loft, while Micah was off in the cellar working on magic or something. The room/mini house was detached from the main house and as far as I could tell was made to look like it was on a completely separate property.
"Is he always such a pain in the ass?" I asked Lysander while stuffing the pillowcase.
"He's a little rough around the edges since he's shy," Lysander responded in defense of the green warlock.
"Shy?" I snorted, "out of all the adjectives that could be used to describe him, that's definitely not one of them."
"Think of it from his perspective, he's never around many other people and he's not sure how to act around you."
"You and June aren't around many people either but you aren't assholes for the most part," I retorted.
"For the most part?" Lysander asked pretending to look wounded, "I think it also doesn't help that you are a girl."
"He afraid of cooties or something?"
"No, more like he's afraid of making a fool of himself," Lysander stood up after patting down the sheets, "try not to be too hard on him."
"I'll try but I probably won't succeed," I sighed dramatically.
"Bathrooms upstairs and here's a towel," Lysander said handing it to me, "rest well because you'll be coming on your first mission with us tomorrow."
"Really?" I asked excited.
"Really. Sleep tight kiddo," Lysander walked out the door and began the acre long trek back to the house.
After he was out of sight outside, I went up the thin stairwell that lead to the second floor. It was just as colorful as the downstairs, except the walls were covered in a faded red wall paper as opposed to the blue walls down stairs. The only other notable features of the room was that there were only two doors: one presumably for the bathroom and the other leading out to a balcony. I walked into the bathroom and began to prepare for bed. By the time I got downstairs in my pajamas, Micah was still nowhere to be seen and I settled into my newly minted bed. I lied awake thinking over what Lysander has said about Micah being shy. It didn't hold water though; Micah acted nice when he wanted to but he also could change his mind in an instant and snap at you. Well, I'd have my chance to see if Lysander was right; since Micah and I were sharing a room there would be plenty of time for him to get used to me and un-shy himself.
"Up, up, up," I woke up with snot leaking out of my nose while I laid in fetal position.
"What time is it?" I asked, as my eye sight focused and my ears picked up on the persons voice, I realized it was June, "oh right, the mission."
"Yes the mission, since we couldn't get to your late night practice yesterday I figured you had plenty of sleep last night," June said looking down at me. I finally noticed her outfit. She wasn't wearing the stretchy workout material I was used to seeing her in, but instead she was wearing all neutral colors and a thick military print jacket. Around her neck hung a plastic ski mask that had leaves printed on them.
"Are we hunting caribou?" I asked pointed at her get-up, "also do I need to wear the same thing?"
"trying to sleep," Micah snarled from his bunk bed.
Ignoring Micah, June responded, "you'll be wearing similar attire, as will Lysander. You have twenty minutes to get dressed and eat and we'll all be meeting in the car."
She handed me a pile of light green and brown clothing, as well as a green ski mask and walked out the door.
"I hear ski masks are making a come back this fall," Micah said from his bunk.
"Aren't you asleep?" I asked him sarcastically.
"Yeah, so keep down the racket," he mumbled as turned to bury his face into his pillow, successfully ending our short conversation. I muttered under my breath and went upstairs to change in the bathroom. I cringed as I looked at my reflection in its full glory. The mask was an overkill so I pulled it off and walked downstairs, chucking it on my bed.
"You know you have to wear that right?" Micah piped up again.
"Do you have an aggressive case of sleep talking or are you still awake?"
"The second one, and like I was saying; overlord June will not be pleased if you don't bring the mask."
"I'm not wearing it out," I said crossing my arms. Even though I had convinced myself not to wear it, I still was planted in the room staring at the thing.
"Look hun, if you don't wear the mask now, June will just force you to wear one of the spares she keeps in the trunk of her car. When I say force, I mean force by the way,"
I huffily grabbed the mask and began putting on my running shoes.
Micah said seeming amused, "the sacrifices Shadowhunters must make for us lesser folk in their nobel battle against immorality."
I grabbed a book that was shelved on a table next to me and threw it at Micah.
"Ouch! I could get a concussion!" He complained.
"Try not to slip into a coma while you sleep," I smiled back sweetly while walking out the door. Just as it closed I heard the thud of the book hitting the door.
"Binoculars?"
"Check."
"Power bars?"
"Check?"
"Phone?"
"Check?"
"Wooden stakes?"
"Umm… check!" Lysander said after rifling through a hiking backpack which was carrying all the supplies we'd need for our mission.
"So this has to do with vampires?" I asked them. Suddenly my memories flashed back to the vampire I'd met in that tunnel and running home to my mother. My mother, another topic which made my insides churn. The two reasons I still remained with the Shadowhunters was to find out why they scared Ebony so much that she ran away, and to find a way to contact her. The other was to find the vampire that left the threatening note in my mom's house and stop them from being threatening. Once both those problems were solved I would promptly drop out of the Shadow World.
It was too bad I was doing a lousy job of resolving both those issues and today's mission was the first time I was coming any closer to my goals. The sooner I fixed my problems, the better. I would be starting school next week, I took a week long break insisted on to "acclimate" to my new life, I thought I could have weaseled most of the information out in this time. I really had to pull my shit together.
"Yes and now Lysander will brief you as I drive," June's eagerness to follow strict guidelines also leaked into road safety; where she rarely talked or turned on the radio, saying that they could distract her. It was a hilariously excessive reaction to driving, especially since the roads were always calm and nearly empty in Greaton.
Lysander turned around in his seat, he was also wearing a similar outfit to June and I. Even through the thick material, I could see an allusion of muscle tucked underneath them, "Okay so today is strictly a scouting mission. It's safe enough to bring a rookie like yourself along so you don't need to worry about being attacked or anything. Besides, either June or I will be around you at all times."
"What exactly are we doing though?" I asked.
"We'll just be surveying the surrounding foliage, we've mapped out most of the areas in Greaton, but what were really searching for is any area which could house Vampires," he said pulling out a map from the inside of his jacket. He unfolded it and pointed to the center, "this is where most of the housing is, June and I have already surveyed all the houses that are mapped and have found no vampire activity. Now that leaves us with two options."
"Let her guess them," June said from the driver's sear.
"Huh?" Lysander questioned.
"Let her guess what options that leaves. Where else could vampires be staying?" She replied curtly, evidently annoyed that she had to elaborate. Her eyes darted to all the mirrors, to make sure her perfect driving hadn't faltered at all.
"Um, I guess they could be living in some abandoned house out in the middle of the forest?" I said looking between the twins.
"Good! Now what's the second option?" Lysander asked holding up two fingers.
"They could be staying out of town?" I asked more then answered.
"We thought about that before, but the cases are all surrounding this particular area," Lysander said pointing at the map, specifically at the area surrounding Greaton, "the most concentrated area of vampire attacks is in town, which leads us to believe that they are based somewhere close by. So the second place we figured they could be hiding is in a cave somewhere or maybe even in an R.V."
"A coven of vampires huh?" I asked in wonderment, "two weeks ago if you were telling me this I would have asked for whatever you were taking."
"Sometimes life will throw you a curveball and you've just got to roll with it, and Harley, you've been doing well," Lysander complemented.
"Thanks," I replied as the car came to a halt. We were parked next to a cabin in the middle of the forest. I looked around confused.
"Time to get out, give me a minute to go handle something," June said as she opened the car door and walked up to the dingy cabin. A balding man opened the door and looked her up and down. I would have guessed that he was checking her out if it weren't for the outlandishness of her outfit. Which was a mix of military gear, dedicated hiker, and ninja. Luckily she had left the mask in the car before knocking on his door. When she walked back she had three guns in her hands.
"Woah, woah, woah! I thought this was low danger mission," I asked with my palms sweating.
"These are paint ball guns, if you had been paying attention on our drive you would have seen the sign that stated this cabin to be a place to rent equipment and use the facilities," she said while handing me a paint ball gun, "first lesson of Shadowhunting is always pay attention to your surroundings at all times."
"I thought the first lesson was to kill demons?"
"That's second, first you have to find them," she said while walking out of the car. Lysander also grabbed a gun and slung it over his shoulder with the strap.
"I like this practical field knowledge over reading that abominable book," I said referring to the Codex. I'd only been force to read it twice so far, but it had been enough to bore me to tears. A book was boring no matter how many demons and runes it talked about in it.
"Well, you still have to memorize that abominable book, and this will give you a chance to see that knowledge in action," June said.
"Okay I know this probably feels like twenty questions but sometimes you folks can be confusing: why are we playing paint ball?" I asked.
"It's the perfect cover up. The area we need to survey is near here and no one will question us if we just say we strayed too far while playing," June replied, "you two go north and I'll be going north west, we can meet back in three hours. Keep your phones on vibrate."
"Hey June? Do you wanna switch with Harley at any point?" Lysander asked hopefully. I tried not to take it personally but his question sent a ripple of insecurity through me.
"No I'm fine, you just tell her everything she should be doing and teach her the basics of tracking," June replied before running into the woods at top speed.
Lysander sighed and locked the car as we set off on our direction, "I know they look dorky but put on the mask, It'll help keep your identity secret even if someone's watching."
"You're sounding a bit June-like," I said jokingly, "I'll try not to slow us down too much."
"Oh you won't," he said while we walked. I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not. I wondered if I should have just stayed home and read the Codex today. Maybe I was annoying Lysander by being around him all the time.
"I could still stay in the car if you want," I said quietly. I could still drive home and then pick them up later once they were done.
"Do you not want to be here?" Lysander asked me as we moved through the forest.
I tried to gulp down the sudden flash of emotion that pulsed through me when I replied, "no, I just understand why I wouldn't be very helpful, being half-baked Shadowhunter and all…"
I continued to walk until I felt his grip on my arm, Lysander spun me around so I was facing him, "Don't think you're ever annoying us okay? I didn't want to trade places with June because I wanted to get away from you. I just wanted to make sure she wasn't on her own,"
I gulped as he stared intensely into my eyes as if willing me to understand. Reluctantly I stared back and realized that his hazel eyes were actually more green in the sun, "I get it."
"No you don't," Lysander said finally letting go of my arm and to rub his eyes warily, "it's just that June's, she- she doesn't like anyone else doing the dangerous stuff."
Lysander's voice was light but I could detect an undercurrent of something beneath it. I wasn't used to this side of Lysander who took things seriously and I wasn't sure how to react to it. I stuck to asking the easiest question that popped into my head, "why doesn't she like you doing dangerous stuff?"
"Well, she doesn't want anyone doing anything dangerous, even you and Micah,"
"Micah?" I asked him thinking of what Micah could possibly be doing right now that was dangerous other than nursing a small bump on his head from the book I'd thrown.
"She doesn't really let him out, at all actually. She's afraid of him getting hurt," Lysander said walking over to lean against a tree, "when we were kids she was like this but to a lesser extent. We were all Shadowhunters, my family."
"Is that normal?"
"Yes, but also no. Usually younger Nephilim would fight against demons and older members of the family would become a part of the council or retire in Idris," I remembered from the little that I read in the Codex that Idris was the Shadowhunter's main city: the city of glass, "our entire family, young and old, were combative Shadowhunters. Our last name is Youngblood, which actually is a name that came around because of the superstition involving our family."
I sensed that I was broaching a delicate topic, "superstition?"
Lysander sighed, "we're known for dying young in combat. Our entire family esteems itself on the ability to fight demons and for generations we've trained for that specific purpose with out taking any other positions in the Clave."
I furrowed my brows dissecting what he said, "so she's afraid of you dying young? Why is she also afraid of me and Micah getting hurt?"
"Well my older brother died a couple years ago, and my parents many years before that," Lysander said softly, "it's not too uncommon to loose family in this business."
I didn't know what to say to that, so I just stated the obvious: "so that's why June's afraid of anything happening to anyone else."
"Yeah, that's the reason," he confirmed with a tight smile, "speaking of June, we should get going unless we want to eat a protein shake for dinner instead of takeout."
I nodded and we began lightly treading through the forest stopping to take note of certain land marks. I thought of how it made sense that June didn't allow any space for error. In her life she'd seen that even the smallest mistakes meant death.
Thanks for reading! I'd be happy for reviews and any constructive criticism you've got!