Detained [2] 《SHADOWHUNTERS》

Chapter Four

Andina stared at the portal in front of her, the light rippling over everything in the room. She could feel the slight sway of the boat underneath her feet, but her eyes focused onto the stopwatch in her hands. Valentine had left it swinging on the door handle.

There were two minutes left, and she watched each second tick away as if it would make time go faster. Her brother was on the other side of this portal, that was for certain. 

The stopwatch beeped. It fell from her hands and she jumped into the portal without hesitation.

She landed on pavement, glancing up to see a dark street. Buildings loomed above her, making her guess she was back in New York. The road was void of any cars or pedestrians, just herself and the man in front of her.

Andy stood as she took in her father's smirk. He hadn't been surprised when she jumped through, he had probably been expecting her. She frowned, looking at the shop parallel to the portal. It was boarded up and seemingly abandoned, a fading sign reading Reggie's hanging above it. There was a blood stain on the cement in front of the door, leading into the building.

"Is he in there?" She asked, pulling out her seraph blade.

"Yes," Valentine said, taking her wrist in his tight grip to stop her from going in. "You just missed him."

She met his eyes fiercely. "Let me go."

Her father shook his head. "No. You have showed me you're quite capable of killing, darling. Let your brother have his turn."

Andy frowned, but she turned her glare on the entrance to the vampire nest, fearing the outcome of directing it towards her father. She felt a familiar tug of the skin on her left arm and glanced over to see she still had a deflecting rune. Someone was already trying to track her, but it wasn't going to work.

Glass erupted from one of the boarded up windows, two bodies flying out of the building. The one, a vampire coated in fresh and old blood, stood up quickly. Valentine released his iron grip on Andy's hand and she activated her seraph blade, holding it up in warning at the vamp tried to escape.

When the undead woman turned back around, Andy let her eyes follow. Her brother was on the other side, alive and in the same position as she, glaring at the vamp that tried to hiss her way out of the situation. "You won't kill me," the vampire insisted.

Jace scoffed, holding a makeshift wooden stake above her heart. "You think I won't?"

She threw her arms down. "I surrender to the authority of the Clave."

Jace faltered, but quickly held up the weapon once more as the vampire laughed.

"You actually can't kill me," she chuckled. "You see, I broke the accords, but you won't. You're just a slave to the Clave. Now, get off of me." She shoved him forward, making Andy tense. Valentine's hand landed on her shoulder, pulling her back roughly.

"This is his fight, Andina." Jace looked up in shock at the name of his sister, making eye contact with her. Andy's blue eyes were full of fire, her grip tight on her seraph blade. "Jonathan," Valentine adressed him. "Are you going to let her mock you after what she did? This thing in front of you, she was once Reggie the Pizza Guy's wife."

Valentine walked forward, shoving the vampire in front of them. He had his hands in his pockets, like this was something he usually found himself doing in the middle of an evening stroll. 

The woman hissed. "You leave my husband out of this! His death was an accident."

"You devoured him," Jace pressed. "Is that what you mean?"

In a blur almost too fast for Andina to follow with her eyes, the vampire was suddenly on her brother, latching her teeth into his neck. At the same time, he shoved the stake into her heart, turning her to ashes that soon flew away in the wind. The street fell silent.

Andy raced over to her brother to make sure he was okay. There were two small gashes on his neck. A vampire's teeth being ripped out of someone's neck made one hell of a wound. She frowned at the blood, not having her stele with her to give him a healing rune.

"Ah, that's my boy," their father praised. Jace didn't respond, he was staring forward blankly. Andy understood the feeling well. He had just broken the Accords and killed an entire nest of vampires. With a sigh, she went to give him an iratze when she heard a gasp.

Andy's head snapped up to see something she hadn't been expecting at all. Simon and Clary were cowering in the mouth of an alleyway, looking on in shock. But Clary's gaze wasn't on the trio standing in the middle of the road. "No!" She cried.

A click came from behind Jace. Both he and Andy turned around to see a crossbow aimed at his heart, Jocelyn Fairchild behind it and pulling the trigger. Before either could register what was happening, their father ran in front of them, the arrow lodging itself into his shoulder.

He let out a noise of pain, Andy catching him before he could fall. "J-Jonathan, they want you dead! Run!" Valentine warned, watching Jocelyn load another bolt into the crossbow.

"Jace!" Andy called for her brother's attention, which he granted her. She nodded towards her father's other side and he got the message, running over to help them. They made it to the portal just as another arrow began whipping through the air. It closed behind them.

The weight of their father cause the three to topple over as they were portaled back onto the cargo ship. They were panting from the effort of running, two of them while injured.

Jace took a seat on a tall crate to catch his breath, glaring at Valentine. "You set me up," he accused.

"You killed that vampire because it was the right thing to do." Their father gripped the arrow in his shoulder and began pulling it through. "The world's a better place without that-that thing." he winced in pain. The arrow made a noise as it came free and Andy cringed, watching it fall to the table beside them. "Would you rather have turned her over to be interrogated by the Clave?"

Andy watched cautiously as they argued. Jace still had an open wound on his neck which she desperately wanted to iratze.

"That is my job!" Jace shouted. "'The law is hard but it is..."

"...the law," they finish in unison. The blond scrunches up his nose in distaste.

"But they do nothing to enforce the rules," their father argued, activating his own iratze rune. "Demons multiply, while our numbers dwindle year after year. This is the only way."

"You're wrong." Jace said, walking over to his sister and expecting to be backed up. She only watches their father with a careful gaze.

"Wrong about you mother trying to kill you?" Valentine followed him, watching his head fall. "Look, I know you even better than you know yourself."

"You don't know anything about me."

"You two saved my life. You could have portaled me anywhere, even to the Clave in Idris." Andy frowned, realizing what he was saying. "But did you? No. Because deep down inside, you know that I'm right." 

He left the two in that room, surrounded by hanging cages and chains.

"I'm sorry," Andy muttered, gaze trained on the floor.

Jace tried to reach out to her, but she turned and followed their father's path.