Predator in disguise

The Bond

The room seemed to suck all the air from my lungs. I stood gasping at Alec's side, unable to control the shaking in my limbs. My voice wavered as I called his name again and when he did not reply, I began screaming his name over and over. I shook his shoulder roughly in hopes that, by some miracle, he would open his eyes and breathe once again. But he remained unmoving, unresponsive, dead.

With bile rising in my throat, I stepped away from the table and ran my trembling hand through my hair. Coherent thoughts were eluding me. There was nothing except the coldness in my limbs, the numbness in my heart and the pounding of my pulse.

After a long moment, just as my hysteria began to subside, the memory slammed into me: Alec's body slammed against the pavement for the second time. I remembered the way his body bounced on impact. I remembered the way my stomach had dropped as if the ground had given out beneath me. I remembered the tiny splotch of dirt on the hood of the yellow taxi.

JC had told me that Alec was only unconscious, but he had not seen Alec get hit by the car. We hadn't told him. If Alec's state of unconsciousness was more serious than it appeared, there was no way for JC to know. He was completely unaware that his partner's life was in danger. And if Alec had hit his head on the road, JC's knocking him unconscious, depending on the method, would have caused even more damage.

Unsteadily, I moved forward again and reached out for the hem of Alec's shirt. I peeled the gear upwards slowly, exposing Alec's skin inch by inch. Just as I feared, there was a large, dark red splotch covering the side of Alec's abdomen. Internal bleeding. The discoloration was wider than the span of my hand and stretched down beneath the waist of Alec's pants.

My eyes caught a slight bulge in Alec's pocket. Moving on its own accord, my hand shot out and snatched the object within. When I looked down into my palm, I almost crumpled to my knees to see Alec's cell phone. I tore through Alec's contacts until I found Magnus's name. After punching the call button, I held the phone up to my ear. I waited anxiously for the music of dialing numbers, but all that reached my ears was my ragged breathing. I pulled the phone away and stared at the screen. No service.

"Goddammit!"

I stretched my arm towards the ceiling and began roaming the room, searching desperately for a signal. It was all I could do not to hurl the cell phone at the wall when my search came up empty. I strode towards the doors at the posterior of the basement, but paused just as my hand extended towards the handle. It occurred to me that JC could have positioned guards at the doors or somewhere else in the building. If there were other Downworlders lurking the halls I would be caught, and the chances of me surviving a fight in my condition were slim.

Unsure of what to do, I returned to Alec's side and stared down at his lifeless face. I knew that the longer I waited, the less chance there was of bringing Alec back. But if I was caught sneaking around the building, we were both dead. For good.

A magnetic pull suddenly drew my attention down to JC's body. A puddle of blood, too dark in color, had formed around him. The seraph blade remained protruding from his chest, gleaming in the light like a pure soul springing free from a dark and demonic cage. My legs moved at their own will, dragging me closer to JC.

"As his mother screamed and screamed, the boy reached into her chest and squeezed her heart until her life transferred to him."

JC had told me that he'd spent his life murdering Shadowhunters by placing his hand on their hearts and stealing their existence. He'd taken their lives and made them his own. But I wondered he'd ever tried to give life back...

Lowering myself onto my knees, I closed the small distance between me and JC. As I stared down into his eyes, I imagined Alec's blue irises replacing JC's dark ones. I wanted to see Alec wink at me again as he teased Magnus. I wanted to see the crinkles in the corners of his eyes as he grinned at me around a cigarette. I wanted to see him roll his eyes as I cracked a lame joke. I wanted to see the unabashed love swimming in those blue oceans that was always present whenever Magnus and Alec were together.