They had indeed stuck Alec in the basement when he had gone for Raphael, the moment that he had scented the former Vampire. Everything else had faded away and all that had been left was the hunt for something warm and wet and quite frankly, delicious smelling. Even Raphael's pulse had called out to him.
It was different with Alec's family. As delicious as they all smelled, they were just that. But he had no emotional bond with Raphael and the new mundane had just been stood there, like a particularly juicy steak, ready to become his dinner. Luckily, Simon was faster and stronger than he looked and had taken him down before he could reach Raphael, snapping him out of it. And Raphael was more forgiving than he had a right to ask for.
The situation had mortified Alec when he had come to his senses and it was a good motivation for not losing his cool like that again. That and the thought of what Magnus would say if he knew that Alec had almost chowed down on his foster son.
So they had stuck Alec in the basement. For a few hours - until he had gotten bored of looking at the walls and the curious gazes of his siblings. That had been two days ago. He had told them that he would have to test whether he was a Daylighter at some point.
Izzy's answer had been to try him with a witchlight first. When Alec's skin hadn't started smoking the second he had come into contact with the glow from the witchlight, they had tried him with a UV lamp. When he still hadn't burst into flames, he had ventured out of the basement and cautiously stepped into a beam of morning sunlight in the training room.
It had gone against every one of Alec's new instincts to go near the shaft of light but he had forced himself forward anyway. To say that relief had been the prevailing emotion when he had felt the warm sunlight on his skin would have been an understatement. As much as he had accepted that he would be a creature of the night, he could only be grateful that Jace and Clary had tricked him into drinking their blood.
The relief had been short-lived. That was the moment when a handful of Alec's former Shadowhunters had decided to show up for training, all of them staring at him and the blood that still coated his clothes. They had no showers in the basement. He had barked at them to get back to work and they had been so attuned to following his commands that they had actually done it, even after his fangs had snapped out.
After a hot shower and a couple more baggies of blood, Alec had fallen into his own bed and slept like the dead. Literally. The baggies had been an experience that he would never forget. He had pierced them with his fangs and drained them like a couple of juice boxes, not as grossed out as he would have thought. They had tasted better than he had been expecting and dimmed the hunger that was a constant inside him. The shower had been unforgettable too.
The loss of his runes had momentarily thrown Alec. Of course, he had known that they would disappear when he died but it had been disconcerting, to say the least when he had looked down after peeling his filthy clothes off to find them gone. Hoping that Magnus wouldn't be too disappointed with the loss of them, he had hopped into the boiling hot shower, trying not to think about how proud he had been when he had received his angelic rune and all the others after it.
The next morning had brought a couple of visitors to New York. The expression on his father's face was nothing short of furious at first and the rant that had followed about jumping into decisions without discussing it with them had lasted a few hours. Alec had endured it because he knew that his dad needed to get it out.
But after Alec had talked to him, explained that there was no other way for him and that he was happy with his decision, Robert had pulled him into a hug that lasted longer than any hug he had ever given his son. Alec had held on just as hard.
Funnily enough, Max's reaction was the one that Alec had been dreading the most. At least Izzy and Jace had had a notion of what was going on. He hadn't realised just how much he was dreading the first interaction with Max until his little brother -after a fast and furious game of twenty questions about what the transformation had been like- had shrugged off the fact that Alec was now a Downworlder and given him a hug.
After the way Max had reacted to Magnus at the party Magnus had thrown for him after Max's rune ceremony, Alec wasn't convinced that Max would fully accept him as he now was. The hug and the acceptance had given him a small glimpse at the Shadowhunter that Max would one day become and it filled him with pride, knowing that Max would do better than previous generations. Even if he wouldn't be there to see it, he was still proud. It made it easier to say goodbye.
Nobody had cringed harder than Alec when Max's arms had wrapped around his waist at first. It had been a close call though. Sure, Maryse had come a long way from "all for a Downworlder" but her youngest was still hugging a Vampire and she had still pulled in a deep breath before remembering herself. Robert had visibly twitched and opened his mouth to object before Max had raised an eyebrow at them. Alec had almost shit his pants but he hadn't scooped his little brother up and drained him dry. So that was something.
Alec's new fangs were what he was focussed on now, as he waited for his guests to arrive, his tongue flicking over them, again and again. They felt strange in his mouth, as though his teeth were too big to fit his face. Talking around them made him sound a bit like he had a speech impediment but it was getting easier to work his lips and tongue to form sentences while they were in the way. Simon and Raphael had coached him through keeping them retracted but they still managed to snap through his gums at the most inopportune times. Like when he was excited or angry or nervous.
"Stop playing with them, you're making Underhill nervous," Izzy whispered, nodding in Andrew Underhill's direction when Alec looked up at her from across the room. The fact that Alec had heard her from the other end of the room was still a bit crazy to her.
They were all in the ops centre, Robert, Max, Maryse, Luke, Simon, Izzy, Clary and Jace, waiting for Lorenzo and Meliorn to arrive. And Underhill was staring.
Maybe it was a bit petulant of him but Alec flashed his fangs in Underhill's direction, like a five-year-old sticking their tongue 's what happens when you stare at people, he thought with a grin, watching Underhill's gaze dart away.
The front doors opening caught Alec's attention fast. Seeing that his guests had finally arrived, he stopped poking at his teeth and fiddling with his engagement ring, and unclasped his hands from behind his back to step forward to greet each of them with a handshake, raising an eyebrow when both men stared at his fangs. Was it always going to be like this?
"Gentlemen, thank you for coming," Alec said, gesturing for Meliorn and Lorenzo to follow them to the training room. Underhill's blatant staring snagged his attention again as they passed him. Looking over his shoulder, he realised that it was Lorenzo he was staring at. And Lorenzo wasn't bothering to hide the fact that he was staring right back. That was an odd match but he couldn't deny the chemistry that sizzled between the two.
The thought of telling Magnus practically had Alec rubbing his hands together. He wasn't above something as mundane as gossiping and Magnus would be delighted at having something to rub in Lorenzo's face. That made him smile, uncaring of the fangs that didn't seem to want to retract, even if Magnus never got to actually do any of the rubbing in.
"You actually became a vampire?" Lorenzo asked, staring at Alec's back the entire way. "It must be love," he muttered under his breath, unable to think of any sane reason why a person would subject themselves to that. Especially a Shadowhunter.
"I needed a way to be able to survive the demonic atmosphere in Edom," Alec replied, rolling his eyes as he walked. Of course, it was love. It would have been obvious for a silent brother to see how much he and Magnus loved each other.
"And the Shadowhunters just let you stay here?" Meliorn asked, grasping his staff a little tighter. It wasn't unusual to see the Shadowhunters look down their noses at him but some of them were also directing the same snobby looks at Alec now too.
"We didn't give them much of a choice. It's only been two days anyway. One of them still took it upon themselves to inform Jia of my transformation but none of them was willing to physically eject me from the Institute when she sent a directive to kick me out. Not after they watched my training session yesterday," Alec shrugged when they reached the training room.
"He took all of us on without breaking a sweat," Jace said ruefully, watching his brother move with a grace that went beyond even a Shadowhunter's natural grace. Alec had been like water, flowing between them all, kicking their asses. He had already been one of the best Shadowhunter's around but add in the enhanced senses, speed and strength, and Alec had been like poetry in motion. They had all felt it for a long time afterwards.
"It was a humbling experience, to say the least," Luke added with a shake of his head. It had been a long time since someone had handed him his ass so thoroughly. Alec had taken him, Clary, Jace, Underhill and Simon on and walked away without a scratch. The rest of them had been left in the dirt, activating their Iratze's.
The training session would have been fun for Alec - if he hadn't been plagued with worry for Magnus the entire time. He was more than ready for Meliorn to mark him so that he could be on his way. At the same time, he was saying goodbye to his family. It was a fine line between dread and need that had him on edge.
How was it possible to want to drag something out and have it over and done with at the same time? Half of Alec wanted to get it over and done with, not only because he missed Magnus more than he missed air but also because the longer it took, the more it hurt to know that he would never see his family again. The other half of him wanted to drag it out for that exact same reason. Fine line didn't even begin to cover it.
"So, how did you do it?" Meliorn asked when Lorenzo took his cue from Alec and started marking the floor out with a pentagram.
"Do what?" Alec asked distractedly, half watching Lorenzo work - half watching his family, all whispering amongst themselves on the other side of the circle that was being marked out.
"Your transformation," Meliorn asked, shrugging when Alec looked at him as though he had lost his mind. "I find it fascinating that a Shadowhunter would give up his runes for a Downworlder. How did you end your last life to begin your new one?" he asked.
"Seraph blade through the base of the skull," Alec shrugged, indulging Meliorn's morbid curiosity. One moment he had been looking down at the dirt, filled with a surprisingly calm sense of peace, the next he had been clawing his way out of it. He hadn't even felt it, so swift and sure was the blow. "And not every Downworlder is like Magnus. I'd give up 100 lifetimes for him," he said.
"No, not every Downworlder is like Magnus," Meliorn conceded. "Are you ready to receive the mark?" he asked, continuing when Alec nodded. "You will need your friends to hold you down, it will hurt, a lot. You will also have to make yourself a Daylighter to receive it. The mark of Cain doesn't just work on any old Vampire."
"Why didn't you tell me that five days ago?" Alec asked. He was already a Daylighter but Meliorn hadn't even mentioned it when he had made his request.
"I wanted to see if you would actually go through with it first," Meliorn shrugged. He also wanted to watch the process first hand. Everyone knew that the Shadowhunters had a way to make Vampires into Daylighters, however much they denied it. He wanted to know how.
"Luckily for me, I'm already a Daylighter," Alec said, watching Meliorn try to hide the disappointment that had flitted across his face momentarily. He didn't have superior vampiric eyesight for nothing, he'd seen the expression.
"Why didn't you tell me that I had to be a Daylighter to receive the mark?" Alec asked Simon when the other Vampire joined them.
"Uh, because I was too worried about having to turn my girlfriend's brother into a Vampire," Simon said, trying not to wring his hands together under Alec's incredulous gaze, thanking the angel when it softened slightly. Thank fuck for the sire bond. "It's not a problem, you are a Daylighter," he said, clapping Alec on the back.
"Your girlfriend?" Meliorn asked, his eyes flitting to land on Isabelle who was watching them intently. "So you finally made it official. Congratulations," he said, bowing his head slightly before continuing. "My offer still stands."
"What offer?" Alec asked, distracted by the wide-eyed stare that Simon was giving Meliorn.
"Nothing… I… Uh…" Simon mumbled, unable to get even those few words out when a smirk played over Meliorn's lips. Alec didnotneed to know about the Seelie knight's offer, the last time that he and Izzy had gone to the Seelie realm. Thankfully, Lorenzo managed to save his ass from having to explain.
"It is done," Lorenzo said, dusting his hands off and marvelling down at his masterpiece. The masterpiece that nobody was giving a second glance heathens!He thought, glaring at them all.
"There is still the matter of my price," Meliorn said, leaning on his staff when Alec's friends approached and made to hold his arms. The enquiring stares had him elaborate. "Jonathan Morgenstern has made himself quite comfortable in our realm. His presence is infecting the court and the Wanderwoods like a plague. Our Queen is enamoured of him and refuses to take counsel against him. I want him gone."
"Why would you go against your Queen to bring us this information?" Clary asked suspiciously, sharing a look with the others. It was the lead that they had all been searching for relentlessly. They were all surprised that Jonathan was in the Seelie realm and suspicious of why Meliorn would reveal such a fact to them.
"Because I have a great foreboding. I feel like my Queen is in danger. She will listen to no one. My loyalty is to my Queen but my duty is to her safety. And you all know that duty comes above all else," Meliorn said, looking from face to face. "As you have accepted the consequences of your decision, Alec Lightwood, I too shall accept the consequences of my betrayal. But you will not receive the mark unless you can promise me that you will remove Jonathan from my realm."
Alec wanted to swing for Meliorn. He was springing this on them now? Delaying him further from getting to Magnus because he couldn't get rid of Jonathan himself?
"Will you accept our help without Alec?" Jace asked, resting a hand on Alec's arm. He knew that twitch anywhere, the reflexive reach for his bow and arrows.
"That is acceptable," Meliorn acquiesced. The Nephilim knew better than to try and renege. Plus, he had wanted Clary to be the one to do it anyway, Jonathan would listen to her. She hadn't wanted anything from him, however, so he had used the next best thing. Alec's need.
"Fine, we have a deal," Alec said, nodding to Jace, silently thanking him for taking on the responsibility. He gave Meliorn a nod when the Seelie raised an eyebrow at him, letting Jace and Luke take hold of one of his arms, Clary and Simon grabbing the other.
Izzy wrapped her arms around her mom's waist, clinging on when Meliorn lifted his staff and reversed it. Neither of them could look when Meliorn pressed the blue, glowing end of the staff to Alec's forehead. Her hand slid down to cover Max's eyes where he hovered in front of her, not even realising that she was digging his glasses into his face as he tried to wrestle her off him to watch.
Alec gritted his teeth and fought the pain with everything that he had when the end of the staff pressed into his skin. He wasn't able to hold back the scream, however. It felt like somebody was branding his skull with a red hot poker, which was exactly what was happening. The pain that radiated from the spot and vibrated through his skull was unlike anything that he had ever felt before. It would have induced nausea if he'd had any food in his stomach.
Jace might not have been connected to Alec anymore but the sound that ripped from his brother's mouth still sawed at his gut. It made him feel sick just hearing it, unable to imagine what it felt like. Judging by the expression on Simon's face when their eyes met, Simon knew exactly how Alec was feeling.
Alec's scream echoed through the cavernous training room, even after he had stopped making the sound, slumping in his family's arms when Meliorn removed the staff. It took him a moment of heavy breathing - the action more to soothe his need to feel human than out of actual necessity - before he could straighten up. The pain resided for a few minutes longer as he gathered himself.
Simon had warned Alec that the pain would be beyond anything he could comprehend and he had been right. Simon didn't warn him, however, before flicking him in the arm.
With a blinding flash of blue light, Simon flew backwards across the room with a grunt of pain, landing hard on his ass and skidding a few more feet -like a stone skipping over the rippling surface of a lake- when he was flung back from Alec. He clutched his arm, silently wondering if it had been broken. It felt like a battering ram had been run into his arm.
"Are you serious? What the hell is wrong with you?" Alec asked, crossing the room in a split second to pick Simon up before half of the room could comprehend what had happened. It annoyed him to no end when his anger drained away, even if he wanted to keep feeling sire bond!That had quickly become a pain in the ass. Every time he felt something negative toward's Simon, it had faded after a few moments.
"I was checking to see if it worked," Simon said, rubbing his arm and looking around at the shocked looks on Clary and Izzy's faces and the amused, incredulous expressions on Jace and Meliorn's faces. "I'm the most durable, remember. I thought a flick would hurt me less than a punch," he said.
Alec just shook his head at Simon. This was seriously the guy his sister had chosen? He was an idiot. Simon had had the mark himself and still thought it was a good idea to have a go. He also realised that the mark had indeed worked. All Simon had done was flicked him and he had ended up on his ass, fifteen feet away.
Alec grinned, slinging an arm around a surprised Simon's shoulder, Simon's surprise mirrored on everyone else's faces, except Jace who was snapping a picture of them on his cell. Until he realised that he was in danger of hugging Simon. Then a treacherous voice in his head told him that he was being ungrateful to his sire after everything that Simon had done for him. He then returned to scowling before finally admitting to himself that he was indeed being ungrateful.
How to be a Vampire 101. First up, 100 thoughts and feelings in ten seconds flat,Alec thought to himself with an eye roll before his mom came at him.
"At least you will have protection while you're away," Maryse said, disentangling herself from Izzy to go and hug Alec. She held on tight when his arms came around her shoulders, trying hard not to cry. "Go get him and come home to us, both of you. We still have a wedding to plan, you boys aren't getting out of it that easily," she said around the lump in her throat.
"Mom…" Alec wanted her to see that there was no way for him to come back, for her to accept it so that she could move on but she refused to listen whenever he brought it up. Which only made it harder for him to say goodbye. "Take care of her, please?" he implored Luke when the former Werewolf came to pull his mom away.
"I will," Luke promised, his eyebrow raised in surprise. He let Alec appraise him, understanding that Alec was looking out for his mom. He wouldn't have expected anything less from Alec.
"It was pretty obvious," Alec chuckled, reaching out to shake Luke's hand. If there was anyone who could look after Maryse Lightwood, it was Luke. Dropping a kiss on his mother's cheek, he turned to hug Clary and shake Simon's hand.
"Thank you for looking out for them, for loving my brother and taking my sister as your parabatai. It was a beautiful ceremony," Alec said to Clary. They had held hers and Izzy's parabatai ceremony the night before so that he could watch his sister join herself to Clary. He was happy, for both of them.
"No thanks required. Just look after yourself and Magnus. We will see you soon, I'm sure of it. This isn't goodbye, Alec," Clary said, giving Alec an extra squeeze before letting go.
Alec just nodded. If it gave them comfort to think like that, he could allow it. Although, it would be better if they could accept it and move on. After a quick shake of his sire's hand and a muttered, slightly embarrassed but completely menacing, "Thank you for all you've done, you'd better never hurt my sister or I'll come back for you," he pulled his brother into a bear hug, clearing the gruffness from his throat.
"Wewillfind a way to bring you both home. Our lives won't be worth living if mom doesn't get to throw you the wedding of the century," Jace muttered, holding on for a moment longer.
"Don't encourage her," Alec mumbled, shaking his head. Why were they all determined to make this so hard? "I'm sorry that it had to be this way, and that I had to ask you to do it but I had to. I love him too much to let him go. Thank you, for making it painless and for being my parabatai all these years. Even if I'm a Vampire now, that'll never change," he said quietly, listening to Jace's heart rate pick up.
"Hey, even death couldn't part us," Jace said gruffly, holding Alec a bit tighter for a moment. Until something barrelled into him.
Izzy ran forward and shoved Jace out of the way to wrap Alec up in a quick hug. Fuck the Heavenly Fire, he wasn't leaving without so much as a hug. "I love you, big brother," she said, pressing a kiss to his cheek before swiftly letting go. She could feel it building already and pushed the fire back as best as she could.
"Find a way to get rid of that, as soon as you can. Okay?" Alec asked when he saw the fire start to spark over Izzy's hands, worry etched into the lines of his face. "I love you too. Look after them," he said when Izzy nodded and Clary pulled her into a hug, the fire dying down a little.
Alec pulled Max into a hug when he saw his little brother's chin start to wobble. This was going to be one of the hardest goodbyes for him. As much as Max insisted that he was all grown up, and no matter how tough Max already was, they were loved each other deeply.
"Do better than the generation that came before us Max, huh?" Alec asked quietly, rubbing a soothing circle into Max's back. "It's up to Shadowhunters like you to show the old ones that the Clave and the Downworld can grow, together. Okay?" he asked, smiling when Max just nodded up at him.
"He shows me up on a daily basis," Robert sighed, giving Alec a hug when Max scampered back to stand with Maryse. "Take care of yourself. And Magnus. Always be on your guard down there, don't let that mark make you complacent. Watch your back, and make sure Magnus does too. You will be a force to be reckoned with, together, but never forget how treacherous demons can be. Especially the likes of Lilith."
"You almost sound like you approve of Magnus and I being together," Alec said, pulling back to look his father in the eye, unable to stop the hope that was building inside him. Whatever might have happened in the past, Robert was still his dad, his approval would still be welcome.
"I might not have the best track record when it comes to Downworlders or when it comes to your personal life but you love him enough to do this and that's all I need to know. As much as hate that this is our final goodbye, I couldn't be prouder of you, Alec. It takes bravery and loyalty to face Edom for the one you love and a father couldn't ask for any more than that from his son," Robert said, wrapping his hand around the nape of Alec's neck with a small squeeze.
Alec patted his dad's arm, blinking rapidly before giving him a nod and turning away. He gathered up the supplies that they had gathered for him. Some clothes and toiletries -brushing his fangs was a whole new experience- some bottles of blood, a couple of Magnus' favourite spell books and shirts, and some photos of them all, all packed into one of Simon's old camping rucksack's.
Alec strapped on the weapons belt that Izzy had made and filled for him, his stomach feeling like a lead weight, and buckled the double thigh holster's around his legs. Slinging his new mundane bow over his shoulder, he watched as Lorenzo lit the pentagram up.
"Dude, you look totally badass. Like Lara Croft," Simon yelled when Alec was ready to go, trying to defuse the tension between his friends. It might have worked - if any of them besides Clary knew who Lara Croft was.
Alec didn't have a clue who this Lara woman was but gave Simon a nod anyway. Taking his cue from Lorenzo, he stepped into the flaming pentagram and let the flames lick up his body. Stifling his yells when the flames started to consume him, he looked around before he was sucked through the portal, looking at his family one last time. The heat of the flames did a good job of drying his tears before they could fall.
Alec landed hard, bending his legs at the knees to absorb the impact. The first thing that he noticed was the heat. Edom was hot! Luckily, his new body seemed to be able to regulate his temperature so he wasn't uncomfortable. The second was the scent, slightly sulphuric but not unmanageable. He looked around at the orange skies and stunted trees, realising that the orange glow must be due to a sun that was burning out. No plants in this realm.
It didn't even take a full minute for something to come for Alec. A lifetime of reflexive action had his bow with a three tipped arrow nocked and ready in his hands, taking aim at the huge scaly demon that flew at him, claws first. Taking that one down, he snatched another arrow from his quiver, turning a second one to flaming dust before a third demon learned what it was like to go up against the mark of Cain.
The blow of a leathery wing -smacking him in the back- knocked Alec forward slightly before his Vampiric speed and strength stopped him from hitting the ground, face first. Luckily for him, he was a lot more durable now and the blow hadn't hurt too much. The same couldn't be said for the demon.
Alec stared at the burning pile of smouldering ashes that fell around him when the blue light faded. The mark had just flared up, automatically protecting him. It had been one thing to see Simon skid across the room but it was a whole new experience when the demon died without him forming a thought. He looked up for any more of their friends.
That was when Alec noticed one blue patch of sky. It was far away in the distance, miles and miles - judging by how small it was - and surrounded by more flying demons. There were flying demons everywhere.
Snagging one of his bottles of blood out of his rucksack, Alec drained it quickly, knowing that he would need the energy, before setting off in the direction of that patch of sky. It didn't take a genius to know that it was the rift. And that wherever the rift was, Magnus would be close by.
"I'm coming, Magnus," Alec muttered as he set off, picking up speed quickly, marvelling at how easy it was to put one foot in front of the other and practicallyflythrough the realm. But run he did, turning to a blur, his new eyes able to comprehend every detail that whizzed past him.
Alec ran as though his life depended on it, letting more than one demon feel the wrath of his mark, he couldn't get there fast enough. He had a fiance to spend the rest of his immortal existence with.