Just Bite Me Already

Chapter 3

Simon sat under the willow tree, using his night vision to good effect so that he could read his graphic novel. The restless tapping off to his left had him letting out a deep sigh.

"Quit it, Fray, you're making us all nervous," Simon said without looking up from his book. He didn't need to.

"Sorry, sorry. It's been three days. Shouldn't something have happened by now?" Clary asked, tapping her stele on the sole of her boot. She took Jace's hand when it sought out her own. He had been inconsolable and hadn't slept for three days, constantly on the move, refusing to sleep until Alec woke up.

"He has to do it himself. We can't help him with this," Simon said. He wasn't an expert but he knew enough. Raphael had been mentoring him. "He'll get up in his own time; when he's ready."

"He does know that I'm going to kill him again when he wakes up, right?" Maryse asked, glaring at all of them, letting them wither under her gaze. They had thought they could keep Alec's ridiculous plan from her. Sure. She had to glare at them to keep from crying.

They were all there, Clary, Jace, Izzy, Simon, Maia -to help them control Alec if they needed to- Luke and Maryse. Even Raphael was waiting inside the Institute, there at Simon's request. As a mundane, Raphael stood the least chance of making it out of a fight with Alec in one piece. So he was waiting inside, too much of a temptation.

Simon almost said that there was no other way. It hadn't gone over well the first time he had said it, however, so he refrained. Maryse Lightwood might have lost her runes but she was still a badass. She had moved back into the Institute for a few days and the aggression that she had taken out in the training room was no joke.

Izzy said nothing, just stared at the mound of earth that they were all sitting around. All she wanted to do was sink into Simon's embrace but she couldn't. She couldn't even touch him. She thought that she had imagined it at first when she felt a rumble come from the earth, looking up to see if anyone else had noticed. None of them had.

"Did you guys feel..." Izzy cut off when it came again, a deep rumbling that had Alec's grave dirt shifting.

"Get back, all of you," Simon warned when everyone just sat there, staring at Alec's grave. "Now! He will be thirsty enough to take all of you down like a fat kid at an all you can eat so move, now," he said, grabbing several bottles.

Everyone scrambled to their feet and backed away, all of them refusing to pull a blade. They were all armed but none of them could bear to pull a blade on Alec, no matter what state he was in. The silence was deafening, all of them refusing to even breathe when the grave dirt continued to shift, a peak forming in the middle. Until a hand shot out of the earth. Swiftly followed by another.

Simon cautioned them all further back, watching them all try to push each other behind their backs. Stashing the huge bottles of blood in the crook of his arm, he opened the first one and stepped closer as Alec clawed his way out of the grave, hoping that the scent of the blood would be enough to distract Alec from the others.

Alec fought his way up when his hands met fresh air, emerging from the earth with a snarl. He took a deep, gasping breath when his head broke the dirt -some residual instinct left over from before the darkness- that now felt foreign to him. The fresh air did nothing to alleviate the hunger that raged through him, nor did he feel any relief from the action in his chest. It was odd.

"Alec, over here," Simon said when Alec kept on climbing, emerging fully from the grave. He gave Maia a nod on the other side to make sure that she was ready if Alec went for any of the Nephilim, Luke included. That had been a shock when he had turned up at the Institute with Maryse, with runes instead of werewolf fangs.