Magnus watched both teenagers with seemingly unfazed eyes. Inside, his emotions and thoughts swarm around in chaos, screaming obscenities that not even Alec would have used. How could he have been so careless when he had banished everything? But he couldn't berate himself now. He couldn't show any emotions beyond irritation at this point; too much more than that would give himself away. "I babysat for a dear friend. She must have left the toy here when she picked up the tiny little demon. Why does it even matter?" He held one disdainful eyebrow up, praying silently that the two in front of him would buy it.
Clary had the decency to look slightly shame-faced, her wild curls spilling to cover her face as she lowered her gaze slightly, blushing. Simon was a different matter; his lips were pulled downward in the slightest of frowns and his dark eyes were thoughtful. Magnus could his sworn his nose had twitched slightly, as if he was sniffing the room in an obtrusive way. Magnus would have to deal with that later, Clary, a direct link to the Clave, was a more dangerous aspect.
"Now, you nearly died last week, Clarissa. Get back into bed." Magnus guided a slightly protesting, still slightly red-faced Clary back into the guest bedroom. He knew Simon was following closely behind but was still bent on ignoring him for now. Simon would, Magnus was sure, have a clearer head about the situation while Clary would be more likely to be rash, which he obviously did not need.
"Magnus, I feel better," Clary tried in vain as Magnus non to gently pushed back onto the bed. Magnus merely raised an eyebrow as he pulled the thick blankets back onto her.
"I can and will make you sleep if I have to Clary. No arguments." Clary made to open her mouth once more but Magnus merely held up a single finger. Clary closed her mouth, knowing full well that Magnus would make good on his threat, and settled herself in for the forced rest. Magnus smiled slightly, hoping it was convincing, before leaving the room.
Simon followed, as Magnus knew he would, and closed the door slightly, letting it stay open just a gap, incase Clary began to get up or needed something. He opened his mouth to say something but Magnus gestured for him to keep quiet. He was willing to tell Simon part of the story, depending on how much the vampire had guessed or knew, but he would wait until the rustling had quieted. It would not do to have Clary hear the conversation from her room.
They bade the time in silence, an awkward and uncommon thing for Magnus, who had grown accustomed to the little sounds the twins had brought into the house. Still, Magnus could not bring himself to turn the television on or the radio. He could not even bring himself to move from the spot, worried that if he did, Simon would find some other piece of incrimination amongst the furniture.
Finally, once thirty minutes had passed and there were no more rustlings from Clary's room, Simon spoke. "Why'd you lie?" Subtly never was his strong suit, Magnus reflected silently as he finally moved from his spot, hoping to draw Simon further from Clary's door.
"What do you mean?" he replied casually. It was a common game, amongst humans, or near humans, as it would be more apt to say, to bait the other into revealing his hand. His knowledge. Magnus was good at this game; one couldn't live centuries in relative safety, without being adept at the game.
"There weren't any strangers in this house. Not recently anyway. The smells here, they are a mixture of you and Alec, with some faded scents, days old. Even if your 'friend' hadn't noticed the missing toy by now, her kid would have. Why would you lie about babysitting?" Simon stared intently at Magnus, obviously hoping to draw some sort of answer. But Magnus had played this game a thousand times; he knew every curve, every back road, and every alleyway.
"I haven't allowed anyone into the house since Clary was placed here. The Clave told me little about the attack, what type of creatures, excluding the demon of course, that were there and who they thought was involved. And Alec's hardly been home to tell me himself, so I've had little to go on about what Downworlders might be a threat. Not to mention some Downworlders have certain auras that simply clash with a healing environment." Magnus made sure to add just the right amount of disdain for the Clave, and irritation at Alec to be believable. Simon was quiet for a minute.
"It's funny you know," he began again, moving now, also further from Clary's door, his voice dropping low. Magnus, surprised by the change, kept quiet, eyes staring warily at Simon. "Alec's been different since he came home. Not just his attitude," he added as Magnus opened his mouth, "his scent's different too. At first I couldn't place it. It was him, but different. He used to smell like Jace, but less obvious. Now however, it's closer to his mother's or Clary's mother's even. They all seemed to share a common element that wasn't present in any of the guy's or even Clary or Isabelle. It was confusing, until, at least, I saw a woman in the park with a young baby. The appearance was nothing special, but the smell. That hit me. She also had that same element Alec's produces. Which, you know, confused me still until this moment."
Magnus simply raised an eyebrow, daring Simon to continue. He had to admit, he was impressed. It usually took a far more seasoned vampire to tell the subtle differences between someone who had bared a child and someone who had not. Still, he would not admit to the twins until he was absolutely sure Simon knew enough that he could not be swayed a different way.
"Alec was gone for a strangely specific amount of time. About six months? And he'd been acting strangely for the few he'd been here before that. Isabelle told me about the sickness. How she'd found him vomiting one morning. Weird, considering how rare it is for a Shadow Hunter to get the flu, especially at Alec's age and health."
"Where are you going with this? Magnus interrupted smoothly, his voice soft. He wanted Simon to get to the point. It was obvious he knew, if not the whole thing, far too much for Magnus to just not tell him. He wanted this over quickly.
"He was pregnant." Simon stated calmly, as it was not the most absurd statement in the world. "The baby toy seals it. He was pregnant, and now you two have some unheard of warlock-shadow hunter hybrid that's obviously never been seen before and are keeping silent because you are worried that Clave is going to hunt him or her down like some monster."
Magnus stared for several moments. He would never again poke fun at the intelligence of the vampire before him. It was quite obvious that Simon was more observant and clever than any one of them had ever given him credit to be. Finally he spoke. "They can't find out Simon. The clave will hunt them down like they are Sebastian. They won't see the difference. Clary can't know either. She's more blind them the rest of them, her hatred more severe. If they knew they existed, especially that there are two, they'll be killed. Most likely along with me and maybe even with Alec. That can't happen –"
Magnus was interrupted by a loud slam from behind him. His heart fell when he realized where it had come from. With hardly a pause, he crossed the living room and slammed the door to the guest room open, cursing himself for not closing it all the way and looked in. He didn't know quite when his heart stopped. It was somewhere between the empty bed and the wide open window. It didn't really matter.
He had just let slip the biggest secret of his life to the very person he was trying to hide it from. He had just signed the death warrant to his own children.
I'm so sorry! College has made everything hectic, and I've fallen behind on writing these! I just want you all to know (who ever is still reading this anyway) that I'm planning on absolutely finishing it, even if posts take a long time! I hope you enjoyed this, thank you for reading, and I will try to update again as soon as possible!