City Of Black Magic

The Mundane

"Am I More Than You Bargained For Yet?"

-Fall Out Boy

While exiting the backroom, leaving behind the warlock and vampire, Brandon asked, "Any other ideas?"

The hallway was immediately louder; it seemed to shake from the beat of the music. Still, Brandon knew the actual dance floor would be much worse, so he intended to do as much of the talking there as he could.

Once the door closed behind him, and the same vampire that he had blown off before gave him a glare, Lis was answering him, her French accent light but audible. "Get John to file 'zee reports on every warlock in New Orleans." Brandon grinned at the roll of her r. He followed her through the dark hall, seeing her bleach blonde hair move behind her like a messy silver cape. She went on, saying, "Interrogate the ones specializing in potions. If zat doesn't work, we move to all the warlocks in Louisiana."

"It could be the fey, too," Brandon said, agitated by the realization. The fey were a large and tricky group, and they were basically screwed if it were them. "In that case they could even be in Faerie...With how the Clave has treated them, I'm sure they would love to give us information." He rolled his eyes, blowing a strand of curly black hair out of his face.

Lis ran a hand through her hair, sharing Brandon's annoyance. "Let's focus on zee warlocks first," she said, wincing as the music of the club hit them like a wall, lights and all. "Where's John?" The two moved toward the crowd, which moved in a cluster of limbs. "Somewhere," he said, slipping into the sea of bodies.

Brandon grinned lightly to himself, thinking about how he would normally enjoy this scene—the multicolored lights flashing flying over the crowd, making it difficult to see much; the music so loud that ringing would follow for a few hours; bodies hanging on one another, no matter if they're strangers or best friends, as everyone looked the same when on a buzz. It was a typical place for a teenager—or, rather, young adult for him now.

Overall, Brandon was never too rebellious. He would cause trouble at the Academy, but he was obedient toward his family. He only knew so much about clubs, drinking, and girls because his family was very lenient. A lot of Shadowhunters seemed to be these days.

Brandon stepped through the crowd easily, skillfully dodging the flailing of so-called dance moves. He let his feet choose where to step, trusting that he could find John better without trying. Perhaps it was their parabatai  bond, or maybe that they had known each other for seven years. Most likely, though, it was just that Brandon was too lazy to put actual thought into it. Still, it worked.

After a short time of maneuvering around drunken, and possibly high, teenagers, Brandon's blue eyes fell on a hallway. This one was much more illuminated, and speckled with vampires. Brandon knew instinctively that John was that way. 

That  was definitely the parabatai  bond.

"Lis!" Brandon called, hoping to be heard over the music. When he saw her blonde head swivel in his direction, Brandon pointed his thumb toward the hallway. "He's over here!" She gave a nod, and Brandon turned to enter.

As he did, he was pelted with scowls from a few vampires. this was typical for members of Angelah's clan; they hated Shadowhunters a great deal. Brandon simply gave a charming grin and continued, only stopping when something ran into him. From what he could catch, the thing was a man with brown skin. The man looked up for just a split moment and Brandon caught the mixture of fury and fear in his dark brown eyes, as well as the shockingly white fangs protruding from beneath his lips. 

He dashed off, vanishing from Brandon's gaze in the strobe lights and crowd.

Well, Brandon thought with a hint of amusement, I wonder who caused that.