The Institute
(The pairings may take a while to show up completely, but until then I'll give little hints to them. I hope you enjoy this chapter. I'll be trying to update every week or at least every few weeks.))
The way back to the Insitute was fairly quiet. Kanda, Lavi, Lenalee and Allen all wondered why no one was paying them any mind. Lavi decided to store away the information for later questioning to the two boys ahead of them.
Will pointed down a long, narrow alleyway, giving Jem a look that only he could decipher. The young Chinese man nodded, heading down the alleyway first. Will took a look at the group following them, motioning for them to remain where they were.
A few seconds later brung a loud scream that sounded like Jem's voice yelling for Will. The group that had originally remained where they were sprung forward, getting ready to attack any Akuma. When all the saw was another -weirder- looking man making a circle around Jem, they all stopped.
"What the hell is going on?" Kanda questioned, sheathing his sword.
Once the words escaped his lips, the new man turned to them, his teeth bared, showing sharp teeth extruding from his gums. They all did a retake, the sight confusing them. The only other person with teeth that looked like that was Krory, and from what they knew he was the only Excorsist that looked like that.
"Stay back," Jem warned, his focus on the person in front of him, but also to his friend on the ground groaning in pain. "He's a vampire, don't come any closer."
Jem pulled a dull tube with a blunt edge from his side, bringing it close to his face as he whispered "Seraphiel" to it. As soon as the tube was taken away from his face, it sprung to life, growing into a bright, glowing dagger.
The Exorcists' faces all conformed in confusion, never having seen any weapon like it. As they all heard Will coughing and seeing blood run down his chin, they couldn't help but wonder what had happened. Jem ran forward, dodging the attacks that the vampire was giving out. His agile movements helped him to make his move on the vampire, bringing his dagger across and slicing it through the body of the vampire.
The body fell as one, though it didn't stay that way once it hit the ground. Once Jem had caught his breath, he ran over to his parabatai and shook his shoulder. "Will," he spoke out, hoping the other hadn't lost consciousness. Digging through his pockets, Jem pulled out a slender twig made of whitish-silver material and pressed it to Will's skin. Four pairs of eyes watched at Jem drew an intricate design on Will's skin.
"Will," Jem attempted to get his friend to answer again. After a moment, Will's eyes fluttered open, his wounds on his body slowly dissolving. As this was happening, the mark that Jem had drawn on him started to fade to a silver color. Upon seeing this, Lavi noticed that on other parts of both of the boys' skin, there were faint marks of silver that looked oddly like the one that had been placed on Will only seconds ago. This was once again filed away for him to question them about.
"Jem..." Will smiled at his friend, his hand landing on his shoulder. "I should have known you'd save me."
Rolling his eyes at his friend, Jem helped him to stand. The silver-haired youth realized that they still had company and smiled apologetically. "We'll explain all of this once we get to the Insititute. For now, could you please help me?"
Three pairs of hands all came up to help while the fourth stood back, letting out a 'che' and walking out of the alleyway. Lenalee, Allen and Lavi all helped Jem to bring Will to a good point to where he could stand – and possibly walk – with a little help from someone else. Jem had decided to be that person to help him along, snaking his arm around Will's waist as he pulled one of the black-haired boy's arms around his shoulder to keep him steady.
"You're making me blush, Jem. What with showing all this affection towards me in front of a group," Will stated, looking over at Jem and finding their faces close in proximity.
Ignoring his friend, Jem walked on, still having to show the Exorcists' the way to the Institute. Once again, the group noticed that no one seemed bothered by the silver-haired boy half carrying another, darker-haired, boy along the road. After a few more minutes, they all stopped outside a large gate, a huge church stood on the other side of it. Lenalee wasn't able to look at it long because for some reason, when she looked at it it seemed to be blurry and out of focus like it didn't want to be seen.
Jem pushed the gate open and walked in, followed behind by the rest of the group. "Can one of you hold Will for a moment?" This request was followed by Lavi walking up and taking Will from Jem's hold, keeping him standing. Making his way up the steps of the church, Jem gripped the knob tightly and opened it, looking inside to see if anyone was nearby. "Charlotte?" He yelled out, heading inside further, motioning for the group to follow.
A few moments passed, during which Will was given back to Jem and everyone took the time to look around the main hallway that greeted them. Suddenly, a very small woman, almost child-size, with thick brown hair knotted at the nape of her neck, and a neat, clever little face with bright, dark eyes like a bird's came down the stairs. Her eyes widened upon seeing not only Will hanging off of Jem but also the new group behind them.
"What happened?" She ran up to the two boys, checking over Will to make sure he was okay.
"Vampire attack," Jem explained quickly. "He was hurt but I managed to get a healing rune on him before anything serious happened."
"Sophie!" The woman called out before taking Will from Jem's hold. "You'll be explaining this once we get Will healed, Jem."
"I know Charlotte," the silver-haired boy had said. Just then, a slender young woman, with dark hair and eyes that were a dark hazel came from the staircase that Charlotte had just come from. She was very pretty, but her beauty was marred by a thick, silvery ridged scar which slashed from the left corner of her mouth to her temple, pulling her face sideways and distorting her features into a twisted mask.
"Mrs. Branwell," she made her way to Charlotte, looking at the boy in her arms. "Did Master Will get hurt again?" She took the taller boy from Charlotte into her own grasps.
"Yes. Jem said they were attacked by a vampire. I need you to make sure he didn't drink any of the blood yet again, Sophie."
"I shall do that right away Mrs. Branwell," Sophie walked off with Will hanging off her toward a room down the hall.
"Now, Jem," Charlotte stated once Sophie and Will were out of sight. She looked at the group that had watched the interaction, giving Jem a look that said 'explain'.
Going through the details of what happened before and after the attack, Jem gave any ounce of detail that he could. The explanation finally finished and Charlotte took another look at the group. "So these are the Exorcists," it was more of a statement than a question. "Very well. I shall have Sophie prepare them rooms once she's finished with Will. Until then, would you please make them as comfortable as possible. I believe there is some food left over from breakfast and you all could probably do with something in your stomach's."
The young boy nodded in understanding before Charlotte headed off down a seperate hallway and away from the group. Jem didn't get far before he heard someone speak. "James," it was the red-headed boy that had spoken.
"Oh, please, call me Jem," he turned back around to face them and smiled. "What is it?"
Lavi continued with what he had been about to ask. "What is going on here?"
Jem sighed and signalled for them to follow him. "I'll explain, but for now, let's all relax and get some food."
Allen agreed with Jem's plan of food as his stomach growled for the substance. The second light-haired boy chuckled as he led them to the dining room of the church to get food.
The door to the dining room opened, showing a large room, the ceilings almost as high as the Black Order's. There was a singular table in the middle of the room, the length exceeding any other thing about it. "Why is there only one table if the place is so big? There must be more people here than this," Lenalee stated out from where she stood, gaping at the sight of the decorations around the room and the beautiful chandelier hanging from the ceiling.
"Actually," Jem pulled out a few chairs for them to sit in. "The only ones here are myself, Will, Charlotte, Henry, Jessamine, Sophie, Cyril and Bridget."
"Eight people? There's only eight?" Allen stated out of disbelief. "How come?"
"There are many different Institute's around the world. This is only one of the many. All Shadowhunter's are divided between them so they can look after the buildings and the places surrounding them. If there's ever a battle that is too much then other Shadowhunter's from the different Institute's will be sent here to help out. It's sort of like what you Exorcists' do."
"Are all of you Shadowhunter's?" Lenalee questioned as she took a seat near Kanda. Lavi took the one across from her with Allen next to him.
"No. Sophie, Cyril and Bridget are servants here. Sophie is our maid, Cyril is our carriage driver and Bridget is our cook."
"Who's Henry then? And Jessa.. Jessamine...?" Lavi took the opportunity to ask a question himself.
"Henry is Charlotte's husband. He's usually is the crypt doing research and inventing things that usually turn out to be disasters," he chuckled, remembering a few of the failed attempts of the red-head's. "As for Jessamine, she's another Shadowhunter. She truly hates it here but lives through it just so one day she can find a mundane and marry them so she won't have to be a Shadowhunter any longer."
"Mundane?" The confused question came from the purple-haired girl.
"It's a word we Nephilim use for humans," Jem explained, forgetting for a moment that the group didn't know what Nephilim were. "Sorry; Nephilim are a secretive race of humans born with angelic blood."
"So you are all humans with angel blood," the voice wasn't one that Jem had heard too often but found that it belonged to Kanda. "You're pretty much super-humans like the Noah Clan."
Jem cocked his head to the side, not understanding what Kanda meant while Allen, Lenalee and Lavi all gasped, shocked that Kanda would say something like that.