1. Pandemonium

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Moonlight shone through the windows of Alec Lightwood's messy bedroom as he smoothly squirmed his muscled arms into his black leather jacket. He looked at his reflection in the mirror and took a deep breath before turning around to his mother. 'Izzy would do much better on a mission like this as I've got zero experience with things like these.' the shadowhunter explained to his mother. 'Which is exactly why you were assigned to this mission. You might be one of our best hunters, but you've still got enough to learn.' Maryse tilted her head to the right and looked in the hazelnut eyes of her son.

Alec stared through the window and noticed a falling star passing through the sky, he had always wondered why mundane's made wishes upon stars as they were nothing more than just a stupid meteor. 'She literally can get any man to trust her and would get much more information out of a stupid warlock than me.' he replied in defence of himself after he turned back to his mother.

Demonic murders had been happening for over the past couple of weeks and the Clave found traces of a potion inside the bodies, which must've been from a warlock. Valentine could've been a possible threat, but he wasn't a warlock and couldn't have made these potions himself. Besides, he was too smart to just throw those potions around everywhere unless he was trying to frame someone for his crimes. Magnus Bane was next on the list of suspects, as the high warlock of Brooklyn he had access to many potions and this made him a possible perpetrator. Shadowhunters didn't know how potions exactly worked, and therefore it was Alec's job to get close enough with the warlock to figure that out.

'Magnus will be at the Pandemonium tonight as he organised a downworlder rave, make sure to keep him occupied and collect enough information as possible.' Alec nodded his head and frowned his dark brows as he grabbed his phone from his nightstand. 'Will do.' he eventually answered his mother in a monotonous voice.

The shadowhunter never really spoke about his feelings and so he decided not to mention the real reason why he didn't want this mission. He was different and the day he realised that was the very same day that changed his life completely, and his parents just assumed it was because of him going through puberty. Ever since he realised that he was gay he felt afraid to be himself and that might've had anything to do with the fact he didn't want to be exposed yet, he didn't want to come out of the closet yet or for things to be rushed. He didn't want his parents to know until he was ready himself, which was also why he didn't want this mission. If he became close with Magnus, everyone could find out about this - as he thought - imperfection of himself.

Maryse left his room a few seconds ago which gave the raven-haired shadowhunter some time to prepare himself for the mission. 'Why do I always have to do such things.' he whispered to himself in a monotonous voice as aggressively grabbing his bow and arrows from underneath his springy bed, which he absolutely hated. Alec used a glamour to keep his weapons from being seen by the public eye after he swung them onto his back, he didn't want the downworlders at the rave to recognise his weaponry so a glamour was the least he could use to prevent that from happening.

The shadowhunter grabbed his stele from the pocket of his black jeans and activated his anti-tracking rune which he activated because he knew the Institute would check where he could be found every now and then. 'What are we waiting for,' he whispered to himself underneath his breath as putting his phone into the pocket of his leather jacket. He rushed his hand through his dark hair one last time before finally leaving his room, yet not sure if he looked good enough to actually impress the warlock.

After checking the reports one more time and saying goodbye to a few shadowhunters, the raven-haired man finally managed to make it outside. 'You're gonna do great, big brother.' the soft voice of Isabelle Lightwood spoke as she joined him on the road towards the Pandemonium club. 'What are you doing outside so late?' Alec replied, being the overprotective brother he always was as Izzy rolled with her gorgeously dark eyes. 'You seriously need to stop babysitting me.'

They both remained silent for a few minutes until Izzy had to take the left turn. 'You update me on your mission and I update you on mine.' she demanded and poked her brother's chest with her index finger before continuing her pace towards an abandoned-looking street on their right side. The raven-haired shadowhunter checked his phone one more time before also making his way towards the club he was supposed to be collecting information about Magnus.

He nervously put his cold hands in the pockets of his leather jacket as slowly walking towards the Pandemonium as he really didn't want this mission. Alec made himself believe that if he ever had close contact with a man other than Jace, his secret would be exposed to the world and he would lose his job and everything he had worked for his whole life. That's why he had always kept quiet about his sexuality and just let people assume he was crushing on a girl or a woman, instead of his male parabatai who also happened to be straight. Jace and he had been good friends ever since they were kids and Alec didn't want to ruin their friendship by admitting that he loved him romantically, that and him not being ready to come out of the closet yet.

'Pandemonium, where on earth could you be.' the shadowhunter whispered underneath his breath as he thought perhaps the club was glamoured. Suddenly his heart jumped out of his chest as his phone rang at full volume and giving him the goosebumps by doing so. 'What the-' he managed to keep himself from swearing but frowned his brows as he saw the name of his mother on his phone screen. Alec rolled his hazelnut eyes before pressing his thumb on the decline button.

After what felt like an eternity, the shadowhunter had finally found the club and now stood directly in front of the building. 'Jeez, here goes nothing.' he grumbled as eyeing on the many people that stood in line to enter the party, and he didn't expect so many downworlders to have come here tonight. 'Good evening, handsome.' a female vampire said seductively as her lips turned into a naughty smoulder. The vampire placed one of her hands on Alec's shoulder and took a few steps closer to him. 'Not interested,' he answered monotonously as he finally entered the club, walking straight past the stupid vampire.

The shadowhunter now realised why he never attended parties and preferred to stay home to watch a movie or even read a book. People were grinding against each other as if their life depended on it, the lights that shone through the room almost blinded his sight and he would definitely have no hearing left tomorrow morning. 'Let's get this over with and find the stupid warlock.' he told himself as trying to make his way through the enormous dancing crowd.

Suddenly someone bumped into him which almost caused the shadowhunter to trip over his own feet. 'Watch where you're going!' he shouted aggressively and continued his way towards the front of the club. He had been into clubs before to hunt demons though, and he knew that the most important people were usually to be found in a special lounge near the front. Pandemonium had one of those lounges and Alec was certain that his target for tonight would be there, so he slowed down a bit to prepare himself for the conversation he was planning on having with Magnus.

The poor shadowhunter had been rehearsing multiple conversations in his head ever since lunch break this afternoon, and he was sure that he wasn't going to mess this up as he couldn't be more prepared to speak with the warlock. 'Be demanding and direct but not too fast forward,' he spoke underneath his breath as swallowing strongly. Alec carefully grabbed his stele and activated his courage rune just to prevent himself from messing this up as he knew how uncomfortable and clumsy he could get around beautiful men.

Alec wasn't saying that the warlock was beautiful though, considering that he hadn't ever seen him in person yet, but he knew that warlocks could be very aware of their appearance. For only the slightest moment he wondered what Izzy was doing, but got roughly interrupted as he laid his hazelnut eyes on the man across the room. The shadowhunter swallowed strongly and felt the nerves running through his veins as he realised he was looking straight into Magnus' gorgeous eyes.

Everything about him was magnificent, from the shiny necklace around his neck to the beautiful jewels that decorated his hands and he looked much more handsome in real than he did on the picture in his file. The warlock had a certain spark in his chocolate-brown eyes that only seemed to intensify every time the shadowhunter looked into them. 'By the Angel,' he whispered unknowingly.

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