Secret (Alec Lightwood)

Chapter 9

The following morning, I wake up to a knocking on my door.

"Charlotte?" Izzy calls out. "You up yet?"

I sigh. "I am now."

"Can I come in?" I knew she was gonna pester me about last night, but I didn't think she'd be doing it this early. I would've thought she'd let me sleep.

"Sure," I sigh while sitting up and running a hand through my hair.

She opens the door and walks in, closing it behind herself. Wow, that's a first. She closed my door for once. "I think you know why I'm here," she says while sitting on the edge of the bed.

"You wanna know about the date."

She nods. "I don't mean to be a snoop, I just get excited. You're my only friend that's a girl."

I take a deep breath and nod. "What do you wanna know?"

"Everything. Where'd you go after you left Pandemonium?"

"We came back here so I could change. I wasn't gonna walk around looking like that."

She nods. "What'd you do after you changed?"

"We walked around for a while."

"Anything interesting happen?"

I shrug, trying not to make a big deal of what happened. "We talked, he kissed me, he asked me to be his girlfriend, and looked at the lights all around the city."

"He kissed you?"

I nod. "It's not a big deal."

"That is a huge deal!"

"Not really."

"I don't know about you, but that's Alec's first kiss. I think that makes it a big deal."

"how do you know it's his first?"

"Because Alec's never dated anyone before you."

"As far as you know."

She sighs. "Whatever. You his girlfriend?"

I nod as a small smile creeps across my face. "Yeah. I just hope he doesn't treat me... like my last one did."

"What'd he do?"

"Don't worry about it."

"What, did he get your family killed or something?"

I look up at her, slightly suspicious. "How'd you know that?"

She shrugs. "I guessed. I wasn't being serious, though. Was I right?"

I nod grimly. "Yeah," I sigh. "You were right."

"Mind if I ask how?"

I sigh. "It's a long story."

"We've got plenty of time."

I look down at the ground. "When I was like, thirteen, I met this Shadowhunter named Jake in Idris. He became my new best friend, since I didn't have many friends after Jace left. He and I actually became parabatai."

"That sounds like a great relationship, how did your family result in death?"

I sigh again. "We started dating after a couple of months. Once we'd been together for about a year, some vampires showed up at my house when he was having dinner with me and my family. I didn't know why they wanted him, so I started fighting. My family joined in, to protect me. They were all drained of their blood, killed by the vamps. He neglected to tell me that he'd been turned into a werewolf and had to fight a group of vampires with his pack."

She shakes her head. "Why didn't he tell you?"

"He was afraid that I'd hate him or something."

She sighs. "Is he still alive?"

I shrug. "I had no one after they died, I was all alone. After a couple years I got too lonely and went looking for him, but he was gone. He'd fled Idris. Haven't seen him since."

"You know that Alec isn't gonna do anything like that."

I take a deep breath, then sigh. "I really hope not. I can't have it happen again."

"I'm not trying to say don't go out with Alec, but if this other guy broke your heart, why are you trusting him not to?"

I sigh again. "My heart had been broken for a very long time, Izzy. There was a hole in my heart, my soul, my world. When I met Alec for the first time... it started to feel whole again."

"Are you already in love with him?"

I chuckle and roll my eyes. "God, you're just like Jace."

"It's a legitimate question."

"No, I'm not already in love with Alec."

She chuckles. "Just making sure."

"Trust me, if I do fall for Alec, you'll notice it."

"I will, trust me."

I chuckle and roll my eyes. "I'm hungry, let's go eat."

She nods and we stand up and head down to the kitchen.

"Hey," Jace says from across the room. "Late night with Alec last night?"

"Jace Wayland!" I yell.

He laughs. "I'm just kidding, Char."

"Yeah, you'd better be. I'm sixteen."

"And yet, you're willing to let demons think you'll sleep with them."

"Do you want to get stabbed?"

He puts his hands up in mock surrender. "Sorry, sorry."

I roll my eyes. "Yeah, you'd better be." I open up the refrigerator and look for something to eat. "There's no food here."

"That's because there's no one here to cook," Izzy sighs. She takes out her stele and draws a nourishment rune on my arm. "Better?"

I nod, suddenly not hungry anymore. "Much. This is a great way to diet."

"Why do you think Shadowhunters are so thin?"

"Because we eat a lot and train to burn the calories. At least, that's what I did."

Alec walks into the room, running a hand through his bedhead of hair. "Morning."

"Hey," I say to him with a slight smile.

"Is this gonna happen every day?" Jace asks.

"You got a problem with it?" Alec asks while putting an arm around my shoulders.

"A problem with way too much PDA? A small one."

Alec rolls his eyes. "Learn to live with it."

I look up at him. "I'm gonna go train, come meet me in a few minutes. I wanna talk to you about something."

He nods. "Yeah, I'll be there in a few."

I smile at him then exit the room, heading towards the weaponry.