West of Words (Alec Lightwood)

🗝 Chapter Twenty-Eight 🗝

Varian's sleep was fitful, and full of pain.

Memories that didn't belong to him flashed through his mind as his magic transformed inside him. What felt like hours stuck inside the dream world that Ragnor had created for him, was really minutes, painful and agonizing.

When Varian woke, he felt strange.

His mouth was dry, and his head hurt in a different way than a headache. His baba  was beside him, and he let his head loll over, smiling in a small way as he looked at him.

"Baba." Varian's voice scratched at his throat as he spoke, and without any prompting his baba  conjured a glass of water for Varian to drink.

"How are you feeling?" His baba  moved to sit on the edge of the bed, helping his son to sit up.

"Tired." He muttered, "But well rested."

His baba  smiled, and Varian copied it. His smile fell from his face almost as quickly as it arrived, as Varian flung his legs over the side of the bed. He started to stand, ignoring the protests from his baba  as he did.

"I've got to help Alec and Jace and Clarissa." He mentally ran through what had happened in the past few hours before he passed out, realizing that he had sent the three of them on a mission to get the Book of the White  from a not-so-friendly vampire.

"Your in no-"

"Baba." Varian's voice was firm, and Magnus stopped protesting. "I've got to go."

Varian started towards the door, breathing deeply as he did. He reached for the handle of the door but paused when he caught sight of his reflection in a mirror.

"Bloody hell." He muttered, changing tactics as he moved to the mirror in the corner of the room.

In the rush of the past few hours, the excitement that came from kissing Alec and interrupted the wedding, it was a distraction from the changes that would happen to him after the death of Ragnor.

And while the changes were subtle to anyone else, to Varian, who had seen his reflection thousands of times in his life, it was the most obvious thing in the world.

He had white hair, which was a stark contrast from his dyed blue hair before, and an even stranger change from his natural dark red hair. Varian's hand lifted up to touch it, his fingertips light as he did, as if the color would disappear when he touch the hairs.

It didn't.

He also had horns, like Ragnor's, little iddy biddy ones a few inches into his hair. With quick hands Varian ruffled his hair, the color changed to blue as he did, and he successfully hid the horns in a few movements.

"You can't hide the changes forever." His baba  appeared in the mirror behind him, and Varian looked at him through the glass.

"You do."

It was spoken without venom, Magnus Bane knew for a fact that he was being hypocritical and that his son was right. His cat-eye pupils rarely made an appearance because of his insistence to hide them.

"I've got to go." Varian checked his hair in the mirror once again, smiling as the white continued to stay the same shade of blue as before, and the horns hid underneath the hairs.

He left the room without looking back, his form rippling slightly as he freshened himself up. Varian followed the same path that Alec had led him through before, the presence of his baba  behind him an afterthought in his mind.

"Varian!" A voice broke through his thoughts, and he rotated in a full circle, looking for the source of the voice. Izzy was running towards him, a bright smile on her face, and to his shocked surprise she threw her arms around him in a tight hug. "I'm so glad you're alright!"

Varian faltered, "So am I."

She pulled back, "We need your help."

"As Shadowhunters usually do." Varian said it with a joking smile, and Izzy just rolled her eyes.

She put her arm over his shoulder, pulling him towards the front door of the Institute as she spoke under her breath. "We need to keep this under wraps, but we've got Camille-"

"Really?" Varian was genuinely surprised, the Vampire had a knack for disappearing and he had expected it to take them a lot longer to find her. "Where is she now?"

Izzy laughed a dry laugh, "Well, that's the thing. She's back at your apartment?"

Varian blanched, and acted quickly, turning the front door of the Institute into a quick portal as they both stepped through. Izzy stumbled on the other side, a stream of colorful words leaving her mouth.

"I wish you would warn me." She muttered.

Varian ignored her comments, looking at the woman currently laying across his couch in a way that straight people would deem 'sexy,' Varian found it more annoying than anything else. His eyes wandered through the others in the room, smiling at Alec in a bright way, and nodding at both Clarissa and Simon in greeting.

"Camille." Varian's voice was flat as he acknowledge the woman's presence. "What can I do for you?"

She smiled, and Varian was sure to look away as she did.

Camille and Varian had always had a strained relationship. She was a manipulative bitch, and Varian could see that from a mile away. She liked her Warlocks, a testament to every single relationship that she had ever had in the past six hundred years. Varian just happened to be the one Warlock she could never get.

She counted him as a challenge, and Varian counted her as a threat.

Which was the only reason behind the wards of his flat.

"I need a Writ of Transmutation, little Warlock." She stood as she spoke, crossing the apartment with easy steps. Varian looked anywhere but her as she approached.

He flinched away as she reached up to touch his cheek, a wave of accidental magic pushed her a few feet away, and for once Varian was happy the color had darkened to black. He tried to ignore the waves of concern coming from Alec.

"Oh look at you," Camille's voice bit at Varian's ears, and he wished more than anything that she would disappear. "You're a real Warlock."

For the first time Varian looked at her, and he instantly regretted it. Her black eyes looked deep into his soul, and he felt sick as she looked ready to eat him up. Varian took a step back, wincing subconsciously when he felt his hands touch the wall behind him.

Camille smiled, "Oh come on, Ragnor and I were old friends."  She put emphasis on the word, as she took one more step closer. "How dumb do you think I am to not recognize his magic?"

Varian couldn't form any words, he tore his eyes away from the ground and looked to Alec, a pleading look in his eyes. He could see Alec's jaw twitch in anger, his voice firm as he spoke.

"That's enough Camille."