Angelic

Ev ~ 9

I couldn't sleep again that night. It wasn't just missing home this time. It was Alec. I'd seen the way he'd looked at me today. I had only worn that expression once, when I was looking into the faces of my parents' murderers. It was more than just the look you gave someone you wanted to kill; it was the look you gave someone you wanted to personally deliver to Lucifer's feet. No one had ever looked at me with that much hatred before. Just the thought of it... it unnerved me.

I didn't bother crawling into bed that night. Instead, when I grew tired of reading by the fireplace, I threw on leggings, a tank top, and running shoes, not even caring that it was nearly midnight.

I didn't really know my way around the city yet, but I didn't care. Tonight was a good night to get lost. I found myself running down Broadway ten minutes later. As I watched the people around me walk to and fro, I noticed the familiar back of someone twenty feet in front of me. I slowed my pace, not wanting him to notice me, and before I knew what I was doing I began following him. Maybe I would see who his secret lover was.

He turned left, and I followed behind him, trying to keep as much distance between us while still keeping an eye on him. He glanced over his shoulder once, and I casually bowed my head, taking an interest in something on the palm of my right hand. Once he was walking again, I dropped my hand and continued to follow him.

He stopped on a street that was almost abandoned. I hide behind a bush, watching as he walked up to a door with some specks of glitter on it. Was I seeing this right? He knocked on the door, and a loud, booming voice responded, "WHO DARES DISTURBS MY SLEEP?"

"It's me, Magnus." Alec responded, putting his hands in his pockets. "Alec."

Five seconds later, the door opened, and an olive-skinned man with black spiked hair opened the door. He wore pajamas with pineapples on them, but despite the strange clothing, he held himself with an air of sophistication. He smiled up at Alec, who was at least three inches taller than him. "Ah, Alexander. Lovely to see you again."

"Can I come in?" He asked. "I have to talk to you about something."

Magnus nodded. "Of course. But I have to go do something. Just make yourself comfortable."

Alec walked inside, disappearing behind the front door. Magnus walked out and I got up to go back to the institute, but the moment I turned around, Magnus was in front of me.

"Why are you following Alexander?" He questioned.

"Magnus Bane." The name fell from my lips dumbly. "You're the High Warlock of Brooklyn, aren't you?"

"Well I'm not Magnus Bane, the magnificent Broadway dancer." He told me.

"Ragnor Fell told me to say hi to you." I said. "He also started rumbling on about something along the lines of a pirate ship in Peru, but I don't think that's important."

A small smile danced it's way onto Magnus's lips. "You must be Eveline Carstairs. I would like to say it's lovely to meet you, but I don't find stalkers very lovely."

"I'm not a stalker!"

"Then why else are you here, at the same time Alec is?"

"I was out for a run--"

"At midnight?"

"Yes, at midnight. I found him when I was running. He had told me something about a boyfriend, but he wouldn't tell me who it was, and when I saw him, I got curious." I had a feeling Magnus was using some kind of magic on me, because otherwise I wouldn't have told him why I had come, and I most certainly wouldn't be rambling like I am.

"He told you he had a boyfriend?" He raised an eyebrow, clearly not convinced.

"Well, I forced it out of him." I admitted. "But that's besides the point. Don't tell him I was here."

"Why would I do that if I won't get anything in return?"

I rolled my eyes. "This is why I don't get involved with Downworlders..." I mumbled under my breath. "How about I make you a deal? You don't tell Alec I followed him, and I keep your relationship a secret."

"What makes you think I don't want everyone alive knowing about us?" He questioned.

"Even if you do, Alec clearly doesn't, and if you care about him, you won't let anyone find out." I told him.

He didn't say anything. I got him. "Fine. But you need to leave."

"Can I ask you something?" I asked.

"I suppose."

"Why doesn't Alec want anyone to know about you and him? Besides the fact that you're a Downworlder."

"What do you have against Downworlders?" He questioned.

"Native Idrisians have higher standards than most Shadowhunters." I explained.

"And Downworlders don't meet your standards?" He wondered.

"I was taught to hate you from a young age." I told him. "Now it's ingrained in me. I probably couldn't change my mind even if I wanted to, which I don't. So, why?"

"Why what?"

"Why does Alec want to keep you two a secret?"

Before he could answer, the sound of the front door opened. "Magnus?" Came Alec's voice.

"You need to go." Magnus told me again, before walking over to Alec and disappearing inside with him. And then I understood it, the reason Alec didn't want anyone to find out about them.

...

I ran another four miles through the city before heading back in the direction of the institute. The entire time, I had been lost in thoughts of the life Alec had built for himself, not to protect him, but to protect the people he cared about most. And, seeing how he's acted since I met him, had to be his family. I wondered what it was like to believe with every part of you that your family would never love the real you, so you created a fake version, perfectly crafted to their liking.

Jace and Izzy and Max, though... I couldn't see them judging Alec for that. If anything, I could see them loving him more for sharing a part of himself with them. But then again, the only family I ever had was a fifty year old man who was so crippled he couldn't even train in Idris anymore, and two mundanes, so what did I know about family? I clearly didn't understand loyalty between loved ones. Loyalty wasn't moving to another country, lying about why you're going, and having no idea when you're coming back. In fact, that was the opposite of loyalty. That was--

I stopped mid-thought, mid-stride, watching as a big, slimy, green demon with a hundred mouths scattered about its body attacked someone who was trying aimlessly to fight it off. I recognized the creature right away: it was the Greater Demon Hunger. It appeared to be attempting to eat the person who was trying to fight it off. The only thing that kept me from attacking it right away was that Hunger was an extremely challenging demon to kill, seeing as it always revived within minutes of being killed.

I tried to think of something that would kill it, and then I remembered. My whip. It's laced with mercury. That should keep him down, at least for a while.

I shook my wrist, feeling the weight of the bracelet leave my wrist, and suddenly I was holding a thin, shiny silver whip in my hand, the other end of it colored in a less shiny shade of silver--Mercury. I swung the whip around until it latched on to Hunger's neck, choking him. I pulled the whip towards me, causing the whip to slice through the demon's slimy figure of a body and suddenly it exploded, slime flying everywhere. I ducked, covering my face with my arm. Only once the slime had settled all over the street and evaporated, I turned back towards the mundane. I was trying to think of how I would explain this to them, or if I should just draw a Persuasion rune and convince them that this was all a weird daydream, when I realized it the person standing before me wasn't a mundane at all.

It was Alec.