The lights tossed eery shadows over the cement floor, the flickering forty-five watt bulb swinging back and forth over the the warehouse to rhythmically meet with the other two lights. Alec had his witchlight out in his left hand, fingers dimming it so that his location wasn't exactly obvious, a thin hunting knife ready in his right. The demon he had been tracking actually wasn't anything important or overly dangerous, Nexus or any one of her friends could have dealt with it, so this hunt was a waste of the precious time he could have been using to talk to his daughter... Well, the sooner this "urgent matter" was over, the sooner he could return home to his family and focus on his duties as a parent.
"Shhhadowhunter! I sssmell you!" The demon was reptilian with a mouth that ran almost entirely around its pin-shaped head, a giant black tongue slithering between jagged rows of razor sharp fangs. Crystallized quill-like feathers ran up and down its lengthy underside, allowing it to move on almost any terrain with ease, a tapered tail flicking back and forth as it searched for the Shadowhunter.
Alec rolled his startling blue eyes, prominent even in the dingy filth and horrid lighting of the warehouse, at the demon's stupidity, jumping down from a stack of unmarked boxes, blade plunging into the top of its head, just below a single, bulging eye with a dilated pupil the color of human blood. It wailed as the blade ripped through its skin, black ichor spewing venomously from the wound, curses and a string of profanity stinging the air like tiny bumblebees.
"Just die already!" Alec pulled the blade free of the demon's black scales, sending a fresh wave of ichor to the surface, stabbing it dead-center in the eye. It moaned in anguish as it died, folding in half and vanishing back to its home dimension.
XxX You Think You Love Me XxX
Magnus looked at the sky, silver drops of rain falling on his upturned face. He quite liked the rain, and after a days work, it was nice to relax and enjoy it. But now wasn't the time for relaxation - he had Nexus to worry about. Even if Devon was still around and Magnus was only a tiny part in her child's life, he knew that that girl would still be a daughter to him. Reaching into his pocket, he took a plain silver cellphone, the newest, most expensive model, out from his back pants pocket, dialing the first name on speed dial.
"I think I have a lead on our button's problem... But she'll have to stay at your sister's place for a little bit longer." He didn't even wait to hear Alec greet him before speaking, excited by this news.
"Well hello to you too!" Alec snapped halfheartedly, wiping the hunting blade clean on the side of his heavy black pants, "Wait, how did you get a lead? I thought that you were summoned for a patch job."
"Hello, love." Magnus teased Alec, purring as if he had all the time in the world to seduce his Shadowhunter, "I was summoned for a patch job... And it was exactly like what happened to Devon."
Alec's face paled considerably, even as he stepped back outside into natural city light, "And?"
Magnus' eyebrows knitted, a deep sigh heaving itself up from deep within, "The poor thing had been suffering through the pain and fits for nearly two decades, but the symptoms she displayed were much more subdued than Devon... I did what I could to ease her pain, but she killed herself with a letter opener when I was speaking to her son. Jace might have enjoyed the mess it made, but it was almost too much for my constitution, and I used to associate with vampires. The boy said that she had been suffering ever since he had been born, and that she had tried repeatedly to kill herself these last few years. He seemed unfazed by her death, almost as if he had been waiting for her to succeed. Poor woman, living in that kind of agony for sixteen years, nothing but that miserable mope to keep her company."
"Anything else?" The Shadowhunter swore as yet another cab passed him by, "The one time I actually try to get a cab, the damn things are full!"
Magnus ignored Alec's outburst, though he was vaguely amused by it, "When I asked about the boy's father, he told me that his father had been imprisoned shortly before he was even born, but that they had had limited contact through the years. It was quite an effort on my part, but I was eventually able to get a name... Dae-Jung."
Alec froze, remembering his mother and sister mentioning the name, discarding it as useless gossip, "Dae-Jung was a part of the Unseelie Court, before he was taken prisoner by the Seelie Court for crimes against their kind, or so the rumors went. Isabelle thought that the fey were covering up even fouler crimes, but she had no proof so the matter was dropped."
"Unless I am mistaken, Devon married in a very prestigious Downworlder named Dae-Jung," Magnus knew next-to-nothing of Devon's husband, other then the fact they married shortly after meeting. "but if he was a part of the Unseelie Court, I'm unaware."
"You should call Nexus and tell her that business is going to take longer than we anticipated..." Alec hated the idea of leaving Nexus alone with those nightmares, but this sounded much too promising to miss.
"Alright, I'll call her so you can come over here. I'm at the library." Magnus was not the type to being around the library, even though he was an exceptionally learned man.
Alec didn't hide his shock, "The library?"
The warlock, for once, wasn't very amused, "You know, the place full of books?"
"You can cool it with the sarcasm, I'm not Jace, you know," Alec wasn't in a very good mood today, so he couldn't help but be a bit crabby with Magnus.
"Of course I know who I'm talking to! You're my little - " Magnus whispered something into the receiver that made the person on the other end of the phone turn an attractive shade of pink, or so the warlock imagined, "So relax, or I'll have to punish you the next time we're alone."
"Magnus, no matter how welcome the idea is, now is not the time." The Shadowhunter patiently told his love.
"I know now's not the time for innuendos or promises, we have to think of our daughter." He was being half-serious, half-flirtatious when he said that.
"Oh, so you do remember her!" He finally succeed in hailing a cab, paying the driver to take him to the public library.
Speaking in a soothing voice, he whispered into the phone, "Yes, I remember her."
Even though he couldn't see it, the younger man rolled his eyes, "I love you."
Beaming, older man looked up at the sky again, "I love you too."
He hung the phone up, slipping it back into his pocket. Sometimes he wondered if Nexus wasn't really their daughter by birth, becuase it was clear that the both of them would move heaven and hell for that child, just to make her happy. When he met Alec, he honestly thought that his life was complete, which of course it was, but when Clary and Jace had left Nexus in Magnus' hands, he had realized that his life had been missing something, and now that he had Nexus, it was full. A sappy sentiment that Mundanes would eat up, but the warlock didn't care, becuase his family really did fulfill whatever emptiness he had known.
"Clumsy me," Magnus pulled his phone back out from his pocket, dialing the second number on speed dial, "Lollipop, it's daddy!"
"Daddy?" Nexus' voice was shaking, as if she had been crying, but it brightened almost instantly when she heard his voice.
Thinking immediately of Ben, Magnus sympathetically reached out to her, "What did Ben do?"
Surprised, she failed her head, strands of hair hitting her face, "He didn't... It doesn't matter, I can deal with that later! When are you coming back?"
"Oh, Lollipop! Your father and I have to look into something, so you'll have to say there with your aunt for a little while longer." He was never sorrier to tell her that, "But - "
"No! You have to look into these nightmares, please! I can handle this on my own, alright? You have to believe in me." She cut him off, almost hanging up on accident.
Never prouder of his daughter, he blew a kiss into the phone, "Alright, you have our full faith. We love you baby girl!"
"I love you too, daddy. Both of you!" She sounded happy as she hung up, but he knew better.
A/N:
Whew, a bit of our very own Magnus Bane! Oh, and a plot! And completely off topic, I got Clockwork Angel (still reading it), and it is awesome! I honestly wasn't expecting much, but when I heard that Magnus was in it, I had to get it, and I am so glad that I did! Sorry for the shameless ad, but I regret nothing! Oh, and Dae-Jung is a Koren name, so if he is in fact Nexus' father, then that would make her part Korean. And the Unseelie Court is real, and evil! But a fairy eviler than New York's Seelie Queen is scary!
