Chapter Text
Alexander Lightwood looked somewhat grumpy. He couldn't help but complain about anything his mother said to him, and looked at the ceiling to avoid eye contact with her. 'Mm,' were what most of his replies sounded like. Best to leave him alone, unless your name was Maryse Lightwood, and you were trying to convince your son to lead an important mission this night.
'Literally,' he sighed as he dropped himself onto the bed, 'she would do much better on a mission like this and you know it. I don't know so much about warlocks. She knows her way around downworlders, knows how to persuade them into sharing useful information. You've said yourself how this mission is too important to screw up, then why aren't you letting Izzy lead the mission?'
Let me phrase it differently this time, Alec now looked more than somewhat grumpy. And his mother wasn't doing too much of a good job trying to talk her son into doing this.
'This is exactly why I assigned you to it. You might be one of our best hunters, Alec, but you still have got plenty to learn. You can study warlocks for as long as you desire-although I'm not certain that would be something you'd be so excited about, but you know that experience is gained in the field.' Maryse folded her arms and cleared her throat. 'Besides, you are confusing warlocks with seelies. They are the ones that cannot lie.'
Alec hated arguments and would do anything to avoid them, but the arguments with his mother were the absolute worst.
'I know seelies can't lie, mom, I'm not stupid.' He turned around and now looked out the window, still avoiding eye contact with Maryse. 'But she can get any downworlder to trust her, and would get so much more information out of some stupid warlock than I would. Izzy is literally perfect for this mission.'
Strange murders have been happening for the past couple of weeks, and the Clave recently found traces of an unknown potion inside the body. It must have come from a warlock, but why would a warlock want to murder other downworlders? Sure, Valentine could've been a possible threat, he had a thing for killing downworlders anyway. But there was no way he knew how to create a new potion, one that hasn't ever been created before.
Unless...
No, not possible.
Magnus Bane owned the second place on the suspect-list. And as the high warlock of Brooklyn, he had knowledge about potions, perhaps more than any other warlock in the area. If there was anyone who knew something about an unknown potion, it would be him. Shadowhunters, on the other hand, didn't really know much about potions. It was Alec's job to get close enough to the warlock to find out more about potions, and hopefully to figure out what kind of potion was found in the bodies.
'Magnus will be at the Pandemonium tonight because he planned a downworlder rave, probably a business meeting in disguige. I want you to go there and keep him occupied, collect enough information to keep this investigation going. Remember, he cannot find out that you're undercover.' Maryse said. Alec nodded with his head and frowned his eyebrows, there was no way to change his mother's decision anyway. 'Will do.' he answered monotonously.
There was one thing you probably need to know about him. Alec was different from the other shadowhunters at the institute, and he knew this better than anyone. In fact, he might've been the only person to know he was different, and he intended to keep it that way forever. In other words, he was planning on taking his big secret to the grave, he wouldn't even dare to share it with his own parabatai. By the angel, his secret was about his parabatai. Alec was in love with his male parabatai.
Jace Wayland was the perfect shadowhunter in his parents eyes. Not only was he quite charasmatic and goodlooking, he was the strongest and fiercest shadowhunter at the institute right now. The two of them were raised like brothers, which is why Alec knew nobody could ever find out about his stupid crush.
The poor shadowhunter changed his entire life in order for his big secret to remain one, but hiding who you really were wasn't so easy as he thought it would be. Sometimes it took a huge toll on him, often resulting into him being in the worst possible mood. The other shadowhunters got used to it, thought it was because of puberty or his strict parents. I mean, being in line for running an entire institute was not nothing. He was afraid of being himself, it was his deepest fear that people would find out about the truth.
Alec had decided not to mention the real reason why he hated this mission so much. Besides, who would care anyways?
What if during this mission, he couldn't contain himself and became too close to the warlock? What if everyone would find out that he felt attracted to the same gender? There had never been a shadowhunter in line of running an entire institute like him, who knew what measurements the Clave would propose if they knew? He could lose everything he worked so hard for his entire life, Alec didn't want to risk it.
Maryse had already left the room, giving Alec some time to prepare himself for this oh-so-stupid mission.
'Why does it always have to be me,' he scoffed.
The shadowhunter grabbed his stele and activated his anti-tracking rune, he knew the institute would check his location every now and then. Theoretically it was against the rules, but what if he would be going to Magnus' place and his secret could be at risk. 'Well' he whispered to himself, 'what are we waiting for?' Alec looked in the mirror and quickly ran his hand throug his dark locks. If he wanted to gain the warlock's trust, he should at least make a good first impression.
Alec managed to make his way outside of the institute, it was dark outside and there was a light fog covering the ground. Just as he thought he was finally alone for a moment, the sound of clicking heels got closer and within a few seconds, his sister had joined him for a walk. 'What are you doing out so late?' Alec wondered, being the protective brother he always was.
Izzy rolled with her eyes. 'You seriously need to stop babysitting me.'
They talked about her mission for a while, just the usual making sure there are no demons running out and about everywhere. The siblings remained silent after that, until Izzy had to take a left turn somewhere. 'You update me on your mission and I'll update you on mine, just like how we used to do when we were younger.' Isabelle granted her brother a kind smile, the one that told him it would all be fine, before disappearing in an abandoned alley.
The corners of his peachy lips curled up a little, and Alec looked after her until she was completely out of his sight.
'Like hell I'm going to update her on my mission.'
After what felt like an eternity, sorry vampires, Alec had finally reached the club.
The entire area was swamped with strange-looking mundanes, and there was an enormous line in front of the entrance. Loud noises where coming from literally everywhere and inside played some kind of trance music. 'Not my genre,' Alec said to himself and continued his pace. He noticed some downworlders in line waiting to enter the club, at least one vampire and a couple of seelies.
Alec remembered how much he hated parties and much more preferred to stay home and watch a movie, read a book or catch up on some work. People were grinding agains each other as if their life depended on it, his sight was almost blinded by neon lights and he couldn't even hear himself think because the music was so loud and...excruciatingly terrible. Let's just get this over with and find the damn warlock, Alec thought.
The second he entered the club, it began to stink of sweat and alcohol. 'Good evening, handsome.' said a female vampire as her dark lips turned into a naughty grin. She took a few steps forward and placed her cold hand onto Alec's shoulder, tracing a vein in his neck with her razor-sharp nails.
'Not intersted,' he answered.
He slapped her hand away, and the vampire granted him an arrogant look before leaving him alone. Not that he cared, though.
Alec scanned through the building but there appeared to be no sign of Magnus Bane. He had been rehearsing different conversations in his head, and he was sure he wasn't going to mess up as he could not be more prepared to speak to the warlock. Be demanding and direct, but not too fast forward, he thought. Alec grabbed his stele and activated his courage in combat rune, to prevent himself from messing this up, just in case. Most warlocks were quite aware of their appearance, so it shouldn't have be too hard finding him.
Alec felt something buzzing in the pocket of his black jeans, he sat down on a barstool next to him and grabbed his phone.
Izzy 23:58: Killed some ravener demons outside the club. Have you talked to him already?
Alec 23:58: No. Am busy.
The shadowhunter put his phone back in his pocket, he took a deep breath and continued to focus on the mission. 'Excuse me,' a raspy voice said to him, 'someone ordered you a drink.' Alec sighed and turned around to see a bartender pointing to the martini that stood in front of him. The shadowhunter frowned his dark brows, and the bartended shared a quick look to his right.
Alec followed his gaze and locked eyes with a stunning man who sat across the room, he swallowed strongly and felt nerves racing through his veins. Suddenly he forgot all the words he had prepared to say earlier this evening, it felt like there was a lump in his throat and that all his surroundings were frozen. Magnus Bane, he was even more beautiful in real life than on those files, a thousand times more magnificent than Alec had thought he would be. Than he had hoped he would be.
'By the Angel,' he said to himself.