Children of Heroes

The Next Generation

Rafael brought the string of the bow to his cheek, closing one eye to cancel the parallax. The demons were fast, as they often were, but Rafael's reflexes were faster, and his arrows too.

He released the string and the arrow flew, expertly missing the blonde head of the girl who fought in front of him. She was inexperienced but practiced - he hadn't had to help her out too often.

His arrow lodged into the eye of a Shax demon - it screamed and writhed on the floor before dissolving into a cloud of black dust. At the same time, Alexa's seraph blade sliced through another demon's abdomen, severing its top from its bottom.

Other demons kept bursting into blue flame, apparently spontaneously. But there was a blue warlock boy sitting on the edge of the roof above, thrusting his hands at them as magic unfurled from his fingertips. Rafael loved fighting demons with his brother - they weren't the most typical team, one Shadowhunter and one warlock. But they seemed to compliment each other in battle, just as parabatai did.

The demons had come quickly, but they'd picked them off quickly, as well. Although they hadn't even had time to burn new runes into their skin, their existing runes did the trick - they'd only been fighting for five minutes, and the demon count had dwindled significantly. There were now only a few left.

Rafael picked off another couple with his runed arrows, as did Max with his magic. A demon bared its teeth at Alexa - she tried to react but not fast enough, so Rafael took the liberty of shooting an arrow through its head.

The last demon advanced at Alexa. In one wide arc she brought the blade down on it and it exploded in a cloud of dust.

For a moment, there was a moment of tranquility, filled with only their heavy breathing. Then two children jumped out from behind a dumpster - Kiera, holding a phone out in front of her with her mouth hanging wide in awe, and Elizabeth, exhilaration conflicting with anxiety on her face.

"That. Was. Awesome!" Kiera shrieked, holding her phone up for a moment longer before ending her video and stuffing it into her pocket.

"Wasn't it?" Alexa said, wiping the demon ichor from her blade and grinning.

Rafael shifted his grip on his bow and walked up to Alexa, placing a hand on her shoulder. "That was great Lex! A little more practice and you won't need my help at all."

"Thanks, Rafe," she replied, sliding the blade back into its sheath. "That felt great."

There was a sudden crunch of asphalt behind them; Max had jumped from the roof to the floor. "I thought I was pretty good too," he added, running a hand through his shaggy black hair.

Rafael held his hand up for a high-five, which Max reciprocated. "You never need assurance of your performance in battle, brother," he said.

"Very true," Max agreed. "Some might say I'm even better than you."

"They would be wrong." The others laughed. "Come on guys, let's get back to Institute before anybody notices we're gone."

Rafael led the younger kids out of the alleyway, which looked the same as it had before, as if some epic battle had not just occurred there. In fact the only indication they had even been there at all was the indentations they feet left in the gravel.