Hello! I know I'm a day late, but this's been a pretty difficult week for me and a lot of people. To all my American readers and to all those affected by what happened a few days ago, I hope you're doing alright. We're facing difficult times, but I'm positive that together we'll come out stronger. As Dumbledore said in the light of Voldemort's return, "we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided," so hold on to each other and spread nothing but love.

Anyway, here's the new chapter! I don't have much to say about it, just that I hope you enjoy it ;) Don't forget to share your thoughts and fave the story! See you all next week!

Chapter 7

Alec opened his eyes and a series of images of the events of the night before started to flash before his eyes like scenes from a movie. The message on the postcards, the note on the abandoned building, the rooftop, the food, the wine...the company. Everything was so vivid, so fresh in his mind that he could swear he could still smell those hints of sandalwood from the criminal's cologne and taste the notes of fruit and fennel leaves from the wine.

And there, in the privacy of his apartment and fully aware that no one could see him, Alec allowed himself to smile—to truly smile. He was well aware that this date hadn't been what people out in the world would call a real date. It had been more like an unexpected reunion of two people on opposites sides of a line that had, despite everything going on between them, enjoyed their time together. But, well, he had gone out on a Friday night and with a guy, so in Alec's world that was the closest thing to a real date he could get.

For years, Alec had been putting his work first, prioritizing his career and his duty to his country above everything and everyone, and once again, this hadn't been the exception. The only difference now was that ironically, this time it had been his work and his career the ones that had given him the opportunity to, well...have some fun for a little change.

What he had experienced the night before had been completely unexpected in every sense of the word, and now that his mind wasn't fuzzy with all the wine, the delicious food, and the interesting conversation, he realized that he had screwed up—big time. He hadn't followed the usual protocol for which he had been trained. He hadn't asked for backup, he hadn't set up a perimeter, he hadn't taken the necessary precautions, nor had he equipped himself with the proper devices used in such situations. He had let his desperation and eagerness to catch the criminal take the best of him and now, thanks to that, he was in big trouble.

He couldn't share what he had found on the postcards and what had happened after that because, well, he would be placed under supervision and removed from all his cases indefinitely. He was a respected federal agent with a name that went back several generations, but when it came to things like these, the name or prestige didn't matter. He had agreed, under false pretenses or not, to go on a date with a criminal and that had been all kinds of wrong. If the outcome of the evening had been different, meaning with Magnus behind bars, then he wouldn't have had a problem, but Bane had escaped, and now because of that, Alec could even be accused of complicity and his career would be over.

"I hate you." Alec whispered because it was until now that he was realizing that Magnus had known that all along. He had known that by agreeing to meet him under his terms, Alec had unknowingly signed a non-disclosure agreement. He was bound to keep their encounter under wraps or he would lose everything for what he had been working for years.

Alec rolled his eyes not quite believing his level of stupidity. He had, voluntarily, given Magnus what he had wanted from the get-go: the satisfaction of knowing that despite all, he was still more powerful and clever than the FBI.

"Well played, Bane, well played." Alec said, laughing in astonishment and dragging himself out of bed.

He had been conned by none other than Magnus Bane, and despite how annoying and frustrating that was, he was laughing because he couldn't deny that it had been quite impressive to watch him work. Now he knew why the man was at the top of the list of most wanted criminals. He had the charms, the intelligence and the skills to subdue anyone who stood in his way—including Alec.

"Unbelievable." Alec whispered, stretching and feeling all his joints cracking at once. He grabbed his phone from the nightstand to check the time, but soon realized that the device was still off. He had forgotten he had turned it off the night before as requested, so he turned it on and the moment the small apple disappeared from the screen, the device started to blow up with thousands of messages and calls from the office, his boss, and his siblings.

Alec frowned, wondering what had happened. It was Saturday, they didn't work on Saturdays unless an emergency occurred, and even so, the White-Collar division was very rarely called into action, their presence was never required. They were the nonviolent crime section of the Bureau and therefore, any 'emergency' could wait until the next business day.

"Alec, call me as soon as you see this. It's important."

Alec read the last text message he had received, it had been from his sister, so without wasting any more time, he called her.

"Alec! Finally!" She exclaimed as soon as she answered the call.

"What happened, Iz?"

"We're in the office, we have a new case." She said.

"But it's Saturday." Alec complained.

Normally, he wouldn't be the one complaining about working on Saturday, he loved to work no matter the day or time, but today he was very, very tired. Besides, now that he knew he couldn't share what he had discovered about Magnus, he wanted to investigate the place where he had met with the criminal on his own and see if, out of the book, he could find a way to catch the man and fix his mistake.

"I know, but this is top priority. Hodge called us all." Izzy said. "We knocked on your door before we left, but you never answered. We thought you'd already left."

"I was asleep." Alec said, because, well, that wasn't a lie. It had been so long since the last time he had slept that well. He wasn't used to drinking and yeah, the wine he had drunk the night before had made him sleep like a baby.

"Did you go out last night?"

"What?" Alec said, walking to his closet and choosing some clothes.

"I think I heard noises very late in the hallway. We arrived past midnight from the concert and saw your lights out, so we assumed you were already asleep, but then I heard a door, so...was that you?" His sister asked.

Izzy, Jace and Alec lived in the same building and on the same floor. It was the closest they were to each other and so far it had worked. They were practically living together, but each had their own space. It was convenient for everybody.

"What are you, my mom?" Alec said, suddenly feeling a bit defensive.

"Oh my God!" Izzy shouted over the phone. "It was you! You did go out last night, didn't you!? Why didn't you tell us!? Where did you go? And with whom? Is there something you haven't shared with your favorite sister in the whole world? Speak, Alec! I want details! Juicy details!"

"Izzy, stop freaking out, okay? I didn't go out last night, alright? I just stayed working very late at the office, that's all." He lied.

"Really? Again?"

"Yes, I stayed there trying to find something on the postcards and lost track of time."

"Big brother, I think it's time we do something about your lack of life outside the office, you're missing all the fun, but anyway, tell me that at least it was worth it, did you make any progress?"

Alec felt bad about lying to his sister, but he didn't have much of a choice, did he? "No, I didn't. I think the postcards are a dead end."

"I'm so sorry, Alec. I know how confident you were about that lead."

"Yeah..." he said, feeling like the worst human being on the planet for lying so blatantly, "but it's okay, we'll find something else. Anyway, I'll see you soon, okay? I'll just take a quick shower and head to the office. See you there in a bit."

"Okay, don't take long, Hodge's been waiting for you. Oh, and dad is here too."

"Okay, yeah, bye."

Alec hopped into the shower and in less than five minutes he was ready to leave and on his way to the FBI Headquarters. He lived in the Upper West Side, so getting to the office took him some time, not because it was that far, but because the traffic in this city was, even on weekends, a real headache.

"Morning, boss." Raj said, smiling at him as soon as he saw him stepping off the elevator. Alec didn't know how the agent did it, but he was always there to greet him when he arrived. "The captain is waiting for you in the conference room."

"Thank you, Raj." Alec said, making his way in. The office was as crowded as it was on any other business day. Several agents, mainly from his team, were walking around like busy ants, rushing to their respective destinations and bumping into each other. "Could you please come to my office when I'm done with Hodge? I need to ask you a favor, it's kind of personal, so I'm gonna need your discretion."

"Of course, boss! No problem, I'll be more than happy to help." The agent exclaimed.

Alec just nodded and without stopping to say hello to anyone else, walked to the conference room. Alec had been expecting to see more special agents working together on whatever the case was, but the place was empty, only his dad, his boss, Jace and Izzy were there.

"Sorry for the delay, I stayed up very late working on something." Alec said, quickly taking a seat in one of the empty chairs. "What do we have now?"

"A boutique store." Izzy said, handing Alec the case file.

"Le Joyau Prieux?" Alec questioned, reading the location of the robbery. "Is it an important store or something?"

"No, only the most exclusive boutique in the whole city." Izzy said, sounding almost offended by the fact that Alec didn't know that important piece of information.

"I'm sorry to break your bubble, Iz, but not all of us go waste our paychecks on exclusive boutiques."

"Evidently." She said, looking at Alec's worn out jacket with disdain.

"But anyway," Alec said, trying not to pay her any attention, sometimes his sister could be really annoying, "what happened?" He asked.

He could just read the file and see it for himself, but it was already late, so an abridged version would probably be better. Besides, he didn't know what could be so valuable in a clothing store that required their presence on a Saturday.

"We got a call this morning," Hodge said, "the boutique was going to host a very important event this weekend, they were going to exhibit the Hope Diamond, one of the most valuable diamonds in the world. This morning-"

"Let me guess…" Alec interrupted, already guessing what his boss was going to say, "the diamond was gone."

"That's right, the thief killed the guards and took the precious stone."

"The boutique doesn't know how it happened, though." Jace intervened. "Their security system is top-notch, the Washington Museum was in charge of installing it personally." He said.

"The Washington Museum, why?"

"The diamond was part of their collection, valued until yesterday at about $250 million dollars. They agreed to lend it for the exhibition."

"A terrible mistake." Alec said with sarcasm. "Okay, well, what else do we know? When did this happen? Has anyone been at the crime scene?"

"No, we could have sent a team an hour ago, but we were waiting for you." Hodge said. "We want you to take care of this investigation personally."

"I'm guessing that's why you called me and nobody else is here, but can I ask why?" Alec asked, scanning the file.

"Because…" Hodge said, "according to what the people from the boutique said. This was Bane's doing again."

Alec looked up from the file the moment he heard Magnus's name. "Come again?"

"According to the people from the store there's glitter all over the vault."

"When did this happen?" Alec asked again.

"Yesterday, they're guessing sometime around 7 p.m. and 5 a.m., they don't know for sure."

"It's not Bane." Alec said sure of himself. Not only because he had been with Magnus at least three of those ten hours, but because the criminal had told him himself that he wasn't a murderer. And if this man had killed the guards, then Alec was sure that the culprit of this heist was the other criminal, the one who according to Magnus, had been trying to ruin him.

"Agent Lightwood, are you going to keep insisting on the same thing?" His father said. Until now he had remained completely silent, just reading the files, and looking at Alec occasionally. "We've talked about this, Bane's MO has changed. He's not the same criminal you've been chasing for years, he's corrupted now, he's a killer."

"He's not, just trust me on this one, okay? I'm going to prove it." He said, standing up and opening the door of the conference room. "We leave in five minutes." He informed his siblings, not giving anyone time to question him any further.

Alec hadn't lied to his father, he was going to find a way to prove them all that this person wasn't Magnus, not because he wanted to help the criminal or anything, but because it was the right thing to do. His job was to solve crimes and put the criminals responsible for them behind bars, and he was going to solve this huge mess. First, he was going to prove that Magnus and Valentine weren't working together, and then, he was going to catch them both and put an end to all this. That much he could promise.

o-o-o-o-o

Magnus walked to his living room, turned on the TV and looked for the news. He had tried to avoid watching them all morning because, well, he didn't want to hear just yet what he already knew would be the breaking news of this weekend. He had woken up in a very good mood and the idea of hearing that his name was being connected to yet another heist that he had clearly not committed hadn't sounded like the best idea to start a Saturday, but in the end, he had decided to watch them. He knew very little about what had happened yesterday, and although he'd rather just keep daydreaming about the date he had shared with the FBI agent the night before, he had to know what he had 'allegedly' done this time.

Magnus waited until the news lady started to talk about the attack on the boutique store to turn up the volume. As Magnus had already guessed, the robbery had only been reported this morning, and according to early reports no alarms had been triggered and no one could explain how it had happened.

"Do the police have any leads?" The news lady asked the reporter who was at the crime scene waiting for more information to emerge.

"Yes, Susan." The reporter said. "The NYPD preliminary report states that the well-known forger and thief, Magnus Bane, is behind this heist again. The FBI has just arrived with a team of experts, and they are already working on collecting all the evidence, so we'll keep you posted."

"Were there any casualties?"

"We don't know for sure, it was originally reported that they had found some bodies, but so far no one has denied or confirmed that information, Susan."

"Well, we'll get back to you later to see if you have any more information." The news lady said, and Magnus turned off the TV—he had heard more than enough.

Although it was not confirmed yet, Magnus already knew that his impostor had killed the guards to get the diamond. He had already tried to analyze what had happened. They hadn't seen him enter the store all day, so the most likely scenario was that he had already been waiting inside. For how long? Only God knew, but Magnus guessed that at least a day.

Magnus sighed loudly. He had to find out who this man was as soon as possible. He couldn't let him and whoever he was working with, to keep smearing his name like that. Magnus wasn't a killer, and seeing all those innocent people die under his name was as infuriating as it was depressing.

Magnus had always based his criminal life under the principle that the greatest thrill was not to kill but to let live. Criminals were often put in that position in which they had to choose whether they were willing to cross certain lines or not, and since day one, Magnus had clearly marked his own limits. He had decided that wherever his life took him, he would never, ever, take an innocent life just to get away with whatever he was doing. It wasn't right, it wasn't fair—there was no need to make others pay for his decisions.

However, now there was some random criminal using his name and completely ruining everything Magnus had done for years. As he had already said, having someone adding achievements to his already impressive list of misdeeds was good, but never at this price.

"Who do you think he is, Chairman?" Magnus asked the only other living being in the loft. The little creature was lying on the arm of the couch, watching him with his big eyes.

"We don't have powerful enemies." Magnus continued, trying to think of someone, anyone, who might be behind this. "Well, we do, but they don't want to ruin us, they just don't like us because we're better than them, so maybe it's not an enemy, but a crazy fan...what do you think, Chairman?"

The cat ignored him and closed his eyes, making it very clear that he didn't care about the problems Magnus might be having.

Magnus laughed and for a second wished he could do what his cat did, close his eyes and not worry about anything. But he couldn't, this was a serious problem. His prestige and reputation were at stake. And, what was a criminal without those?

"Free." A voice in the back of his head whispered.

Magnus shook his head, took a deep breath and better closed his eyes to stop thinking nonsense.

His mind immediately went back to the date he'd had with Alec and how different things had been from what he had originally planned. To begin with, he had never expected to have such a great time, much less discover a completely different person from the man he had imagined all these years. Alexander Lightwood was like no other person he had ever met. He was smart and very handsome, charming and charismatic, but he was also compassionate and funny, noble, loyal, and above all responsible. Qualities that nowadays were very difficult to find in a person.

Magnus had spent all his life meeting all sorts of people, good and bad, but never in all his thirty years had he met someone who had made such an impression on him. Alec had, within a few hours, put Magnus in a very tight spot. The agent had managed to discover sides of him that until now, Magnus had thought were well hidden under all those layers he used to protect himself—and that had been equally fascinating as terrifying.

Magnus's only intention with the date had been to make a statement of power and control, and although he had achieved that, the evening, at least for him, hadn't been just about that. Alec, perhaps unknowingly, had shaken Magnus to his core and now, he couldn't stop thinking about him.

His smile, his eyes, his lips, his hands—everything about him had fascinated him. The way he frowned when he was confused or uncomfortable, how he rolled his eyes to pretend not to be affected by whatever Magnus was saying, how he licked his lips before speaking, how, when not knowing what to do, he fidgeted with his hands or with the rebel strands of his hair that dared to cover his beautiful eyes. The man had completely captivated him, and sue him if he had enjoyed more than he should what had happened between them.

"If only you weren't the one chasing me." He sighed, wondering how it would have been if he had met Alec under different circumstances. How it would have been if they had really been just two guys getting to know each other, enjoying an evening together on some ridiculous rooftop in the city that never slept.

Magnus was so lost in his own thoughts that he never noticed when Ragnor and Raphael entered his loft, so when his friends cleared their throats to make their presence known, Magnus jumped so high that he almost fell from the couch. "For the love of God! Knock the damn door before entering! I almost had a heart attack!"

"Why are you so jumpy? Did the fed find you?" Ragnor immediately asked, using that tone Magnus hated so much. "I told you it was a bad idea, Magnus! I told you this could go wrong, but of course you didn't listen because you never listen to what I'm saying! You think you know what you're doing, but you're just fooling yourself, sometimes I swear-"

"Shut it, okay!?" Magnus exclaimed, to keep his friend from lecturing him with some nonsense about Magnus's lack of self-preservation instinct. He hated when Ragnor tried to lecture him about that. He really hated it. "He didn't find me. You know I always take extreme precautions, so he won't find me unless I want him to. And I was jumpy because, well, I was thinking about some personal things and I didn't notice when you two entered. I've told you both that there's a lock in there for a reason, but you keep forcing your way in, so don't blame me for being alarmed when someone walks into my house without permission."

"Then leave you door unlocked."

"You know I can't leave the door unlocked, you fool."

"Then give us a key."

"I'm not going to risk anyone else having a key to the only place I can be myself, I chose this place for a reason and-"

"Dios mio! Can you two stop arguing for a second?" Raphael intervened. "There are more important things to discuss than whether you should give us a key or not, like for example, why we are here."

"Speak." Magnus said. With the small disagreement, he had failed to notice that both his friends looked worried.

"We know who's behind the last two heist committed under your name." Raphael said.

"Who!?"

Raphael and Ragnor shared a look.

"Valentine."

Magnus frowned. "Valentine? Who's Valentine? Ragnor, do we know any Valentine?"

"Valentine Morgenstern, Bane!" Raphael said.

Magnus frowned even more confused—that simply couldn't be true, Valentine had died years ago, when Magnus was just a kid. He didn't remember exactly when it had happened since, well, he hadn't even been in this country when the criminal had been at the height of his career, but he had learned about him when he had grown up. There was no way to be a criminal and not know who Valentine Morgenstern had been and how the FBI had taken him down—it was History of Criminals 101.

"That's impossible, he's dead. Besides, the man I met is about my age, if Valentine were still alive he would be much older. I don't know much about him, but I reckon he'd be about fifty give or take."

"Well, that's because the guy you met is just one of his henchmen," Raphael said, "but he's very much alive."

"And behind all this mess." Ragnor added.

"And why does he want to ruin me? I don't even know him!" Magnus asked confused.

"No lo sé, but this is worse than we imagined." Raphael said. "If we aren't careful this man could-" His friend bit his tongue.

"Could what?"

Raphael didn't answer, but Ragnor slid his finger across his neck, and somehow, that was the only answer Magnus needed.

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh."

Magnus gulped—he couldn't believe it.

o-o-o-o-o

Alec, Jace, Izzy, and their team were at the crime scene. The NYPD had already given them all the information they had managed to gather, and now, they were trying to match it with their own. Both the CSI unit and the forensic team were currently processing all the evidence and taking all the samples of the dead guards they had found to determine what had really happened. A crime scene investigation was the meeting point of science, logic and law, and therefore 'processing a crime scene' was a long, tedious process that involved purposeful documentation of the conditions at the scene and the collection of any physical evidence that could possibly illuminate what had happened and point to who had done it.

Alec already knew that determining how the crime had happened wasn't going to be easy, it would probably take them a couple of days, but knowing who had done it was pretty obvious to him, with the dead guards and the glitter, it was evident that this wasn't Magnus's work.

"Let's recap." Jace said, standing right where Alec and Izzy were looking at the glitter trails. "No alarms were triggered, we don't have any prints, nobody knows what happened, we only have glitter and three dead guards, is that all?"

"And, no security footage." Izzy added.

"How is that even possible?" Alec questioned. "Wasn't it supposed to be top-notch or something?"

"It was, but, well, this criminal knows how to tamper with most of them." Izzy said. "You know what they say, there's no such thing as the perfect security system, they all have flaws."

Alec nodded, kneeling next to the glitter. As it had happened before on the bank's crime scene, this trail was completely different from the ones Magnus usually left. It looked out of place, and as Alec had told the criminal himself, it was very easy to see that this person wasn't Magnus, so the real question was, who was he?

"Iz?"

"Yes?"

"Have you checked the surveillance cameras on the street?"

"Our team is working on that, but I don't think we're going to find anything. When the bank robbery happened, he made sure most of the cameras weren't working and the ones that were, weren't of much help. We couldn't find anything."

"I know, but this city has more than 10,000 surveillance cameras, he has to be in at least one, we just need to find it. So make sure we get footage from each and every camera around the block. Ask the other stores for their security footage too, we have to find out who this criminal is."

Izzy nodded and moved away to take care of what Alec had asked for.

"Do you really think this isn't Bane's doing?" Jace asked.

Alec nodded. "The MO is very similar, I can't deny that, but the murders and the glitter are big tellers, at least for me."

"Are you sure? Maybe he changed it. All criminals do it, why would he be any different?"

"Because he is." Alec said. He couldn't exactly share with his brother why he was 100% sure that Magnus would never kill anyone. "Just trust me, okay?"

Jace sighed, but nodded. "I'll go check with the team to see if they found anything, maybe if we found the postcard?"

"It's not him, Jace."

"Okay, fine, but we have to be sure, don't we? I'll be right back."

Alec sighed and just thanked for the time alone. He needed space to think and come up with a way to prove the Bureau that he had been right all along. That Magnus wasn't behind all these recent bloody crimes and that he wasn't working with Valentine. Well, he wasn't so sure about that last part, since the criminal hadn't mentioned Valentine during their date, but either way, the Bureau's assumptions didn't make sense.

Magnus wasn't the person they were trying to make them believe—the cold-blooded murderer who killed to please a crazy boss. Even before spending more time with him, Alec had already known that, not in vain he had spent almost a quarter of his life studying him and learning to know how he thought and how he acted. Magnus was egocentric, yes, cocky, that too, but never a killer.

"Alec!" Izzy exclaimed, running from the lobby of the boutique. She was almost out of breath.

"What happened?"

"We got him?"

"What?"

"On camera...we got him on camera. As I told you, the cameras in the area weren't working last night, but the one in the corner caught something. It's not much, but we can see someone coming out of the store a little after 7:30 p.m., we think it's him, you have to see it."

Alec ran as fast as he could to where the team was examining the evidence. They were watching a black and white video frame by frame. "Play it from the beginning." He requested.

The agent on the computer nodded and replayed the video. The image wasn't very clear, the shot was from afar, and it didn't help much either that it was so dark and that the lights of the store were off, but the silhouette of a man walking down 79th street and heading to Central Park was very visible.

"Is that all?" Alec asked when the video stopped.

"From this camera, yes, but now we know he's out there, we just need to get the footage from other cameras around the area to try to find the route he took."

"Can you zoom in?" Alec asked.

The agent nodded and zoomed in as far as he could. The image was even less clear than before, but the silhouette of the man was more visible, at least shape-wise, and now that Alec had seen Magnus twice face to face—and this time really close—he was even more sure that this person wasn't him. He looked like him, even seemed to be dressed like him, but this man was shorter and not as fit as Magnus was. Not that Alec had analyzed Magnus's body in detail, no, of course not, but it was something hmmm...pretty obvious. The man wore very tight clothing.

"Well, there you have it." He pointed to the man. "That's not Magnus Bane."

"How can you tell? It's super dark." Izzy said.

"That man is shorter." Alec pointed out. "Look at that payphone next to him, those things aren't so high and he's barely taller than it, so he must be, at most, 5'8'' tall; we know for a fact that Magnus is at least 5'11'' so..."

"I don't know, Alec, it's very hard to tell." Izzy said, analyzing the image.

"What do you think, Jace?" Alec asked, his partner was just joining them. He was filling up some reports.

"About what?"

"Is that Magnus or not?" Alec asked, pointing at the frozen image on the screen.

"I don't know...it looks like him."

"But?"

"I don't know, he looks...shorter than him?"

"See?" Alec exclaimed. "If Jace can see it, why can't you?"

Izzy frowned, but analyzed the scene in detail. Alec was waiting for her opinion when his phone buzzed, notifying him of a new incoming message. It was from Raj, the only agent of his team that Alec had asked to stay in the office.

The text message was just an address—the address Alec had asked him to find.

Before leaving for the crime scene, Alec had given Raj a detailed description of the buildings he had seen during his date with Magnus and asked him to find the rooftop. Of course he had omitted the actual date and the reasons why he wanted to find that particular place; he had given the agent a silly excuse about having seen that rooftop in some commercial and wanting to find it for a birthday party, and surprisingly, the agent had bought it.

"I have to go." Alec told his siblings.

"What? Why?" Izzy asked.

"I have some things to do." Alec lied. "Can you cover me for an hour? I'll be back and see you all in the office as soon as I can, I promise."

Izzy and Jace shared confused looks. Alec could see how much they wanted to ask what was that thing Alec had to do, but he couldn't let them ask. It was too risky. "Can you do it or not?"

"Yes, but-" Jace said.

"Thanks, then I'll see you back in the office later."

"Alec, but-" Izzy started to say, but Alec just turned around and walked out of the boutique.

Ten minutes later, he was parking outside a building in the East Harlem. It was an abandoned eight-story beauty clinic, it was in very good condition even though it looked like it had been out of business for a while now.

"Hello?" Alec knocked on the door. "Is anybody in there?" He peered through the window, but the place looked empty.

Alec looked around and meditated what to do. Unlike yesterday with the postcards, this time he didn't have anything to justify his behavior but his sheer curiosity. If someone caught him forcing his way in, they could accuse him of trespassing like any other civilian. Was it worth it? No, but he couldn't just leave. He had to enter and find out what was inside, so taking a deep breath, he kicked the door and walked in.

The lobby of the place was huge, but he could see the elevators at the far end of the room. One was clearly out of service since the machinery was all over the place, but the other one was working, the small screen indicated the number of the floor it was on.

Alec frowned, realizing one thing. If the elevator was working that only meant that there was power in the building and therefore someone came here frequently.

"Oh crap!" He murmured under his breath.

The chances of being caught were very high, but he wasn't going to stop now. He was already there, so he took a deep breath and walked toward the elevator. As soon as he was inside, the first thing he noticed was that the man who had brought him there yesterday hadn't lied, that elevator could only go to the rooftop, so he pressed the single button on the panel and waited.

When the doors opened, Alec couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Nothing of what had been there yesterday was there now, no Christmas lights, no garlands, no nothing—the magic was gone. But there, in the middle of the now empty space and where Alec remembered that the table had been, was a single red rose.

Alec rolled his eyes and walked to it. There was red glitter all around it, and out of habit, Alec took a few seconds to analyze it. The trail matched perfectly with all the previous cases he had had on Magnus, and for some reason that made him feel good with himself. He had been right, the criminal responsible for the robbery to the bank and the boutique couldn't be Magnus, this was Magnus.

He picked up the rose and read the attached note.

"Thank you for a lovely evening, Alexander, I'm looking forward to our date number two. XOXO, M.B."

Alec just brought the flower to his nose to smell it, looked down at the glitter, and smiled.

Oh, and that thing Magnus's looking forward to is just around the corner ;)