After City of Heavenly Fire

8: Three

"They look...well, normal." Jace turned to the hooded figure.

"And three, that wasn't expected either." Simon added. The four nephilim, the warlock and the silent brother watched the three bundles with a speechless awe that was almost comical. Tufty ice-white hair peeked out of each ball of swaddling, betraying the newborn that slept inside.

"And that's it? Nothing else is different?" Simon asked.

"It's difficult to tell," the Silent Brother said wordlessly, "They have changed so quickly."

"What-" Simon began.

"Izzy," Alec interrupted, "Can we see her?"

"She is weak, weaker than you have ever seen her before so only one may visit and for a limited time." The Silent Brother informed.

"I'm her brother!" Alec and Jace cried in unison.

"Great," Magnus muttered sarcastically then raised his voice before Simon could pitch his argument, "I'll sit this one out as long as whoever goes tells me exactly what happened as soon as they get back."

"I will too." Jem said.

"She's my wife!"

"She's my sister!"

"She was my sister ten years before she was your sister!"

The squabble continued a while longer, Alec and Jace turning on Simon, Alec and Simon turning on Jace, all against all until a voice at the door bellowed, "Very mature!"

Magnus and the Silent Brother left the room, leaving Jem, Alec, Simon and Jace trapped with the babies.

"Backstabbing-" Jace began.

"Shut up." Alec scolded.

"I still think I-" Simon continued and faltered when he saw Jace's fists clenching and unclenching.

Simon went tentatively towards the bundles and picked the nearest up, his frame tense as he drew the swaddling away from the baby's face. This was his daughter and she looked, for all the world, like just a normal human baby. But she wasn't, she couldn't be. Simon had seen those things clawing at Izzy's insides, he had seen them moving against the stretched skin of her belly, when he remembered it now it felt like some twisted nightmare. The girl in his arms slept on, providing no answer to the question pounding against the inside of Simon's head. What had been inside Izzy and what had happened to it now?

"Jem?" Simon asked, "Can you find out what happened, what was inside Izzy and where it is now?"

"I'll try but I'll be no more use than you or Alec or Jace on this, after all, I'm not a Silent Brother anymore." Jem said gravely.

"Hey!" Jace bellowed, "Someone, anyone please stop the suspense!"

"By the Angel Jace, you think that'll help?" Alec scolded.

"Alec I want to see her!"

"You think I don't?" Alec challenged.

Simon lay the baby down with the other two, "What's the point in arguing, it's hardly going to get us to her quicker!"

"Hey, look come see this." Jem called, "Jace woke them up yet they don't cry, look at their eyes."

The other three shadowhunters dashed to Jem's side.

Simon breathed a heavy sigh of relief, "With the white hair, I thought they might have had Sebastian's demon eyes."

"They're just like mine and Tessa's." Jace noticed.

"Half demon, half angel, but not faerie." Jem observed quietly.

Jace began talking loud and fast, "It's like Jem said about the Daylighter thing, the demon took Simon's vampire-ness and left his Daylighter-ness-"

"My Daylighter-ness?" Simon interrupted.

"You got a better word for it?" Jace challenged.

"Actually-" Simon began.

"Shh! But Jace is right, I mentioned this before. That explains the golden eyes, they have more angel blood than most shadowhunters-" Jem said.

"It's an exclusive club." Jace interjected and earned himself a glare from Jem who was still trying to explain.

"But the demon part's more tricky."

"I could be wrong but the way I see it," Alec said, "there are two places it could have come from: vampire-ness or Magnus's father."

"What if," Jem's eyes lit up, "the Daylighter-ness (is that what we're calling it?) would be rendered useless as it's normal for mundanes to walk in the day so it latched itself onto the only thing demon it could."

"What's that?" Simon asked.

"Greater Demon magic."

"So my daughters are basically mortal angels with demon magic?"

"Something like that."

Simon sighed, "I didn't expect that when I woke up this morning."

"That is pretty awesome." Jace piped up.

"Of course we'll have to keep a close eye on them," Jem continued, "as far as I know, this is a first."

"And Izzy?" Alec said.

"We'll just have to wait and see."