The City In Between

Chapter 1

The streets of New York tonight were quieter than usual so Alec hadn't bothered to glamour himself. Still, drunk partygoers stumbled out of the clubs they had been kicked out of and continued their celebrations in the streets and near by alleyways with the moon as a spotlight to dance by. It was November so the night came with a chill that leant well to Alec's already buzzing nerves; goosebumps ran up his neck and along his arms, spreading down his spine to his legs. He felt the suspense of a fight about to arise-
'Love,' Magnus said in a gentle voice. He stopped Alec with a hand on his shoulder. 'You are walking very fast. Slow down,'
Alec softened at Magnus' warm touch. They continued on, slower this time.
'What exactly is it that has gotten you all riled up?' Magnus asked. They passed another club of neon lights, shouting and a cacophony of smells.
'I don't know,' Alec replied, looking down alleyways and through shadows with the help of his night vision rune.
'Something doesn't feel right.'
'I completely agree.' Alec looked at Magnus with alarm as if his suspicions had been confirmed. 'Many of my past dates I have spent walking the streets at night but not with weapons and expecting to kill.'
Alec sighed. 'We've been through this Magnus. I'm sorry that I forgot I was on patrol tonight. You didn't have to come with me.'
'I am not missing date night again Alec. I simply won't turn down another night of wine and expensive food.'
Alec chuckled and reached for Magnus' hand. Magnus smiled, 'This is more like it.' Gradually Alec felt a warmth spread through him, defrosting his chilled skin. Looking down and his hand that was joined with Magnus' he saw faint blue sparkles and no longer felt quite so tense. An ordinary patrol.

Silently, Clary watched Jace gazing up at the starless sky, thinking. Some months ago, she had almost lost Jace and everyone else she loved to her brother, Sebastian. Back then she would have killed him. She did kill him. But those eyes still haunted her. Green eyes, the same as her mother's and her own, had stared desperately at her from their mother's arms and the words he had said whispered through her mind every night and drifted through her dreams. 'I've never felt this...light'. Every night, she had dreamt of the brother she could have had if he hadn't been poisoned with demon blood. She thought of the life she could have had as a shadowhunter from birth. Every night she had to convince herself that that was impossible. She wouldn't have met Simon, she probably wouldn't have known Jace as well as she did now...he would be happier. Jace would have grown up as a Herondale. Max would be alive. In fact whole institutes would still be alive. Perhaps she was being selfish. None of that mattered now. Jace was beside her, looking at her as if no star could shine as bright. He was happy. He was looking at her.
'You're staring Clary,' Jace said. 'You aren't falling for me again are you?' He grinned. Clary wanted with every part of her being to wipe that smirk off his face but at least he was safe and smiling. 'We are supposed to be focussing here. Good thing i'm your partner tonight, if you get attacked while gazing into my soul, i'll just have to save your life again.' He continued. They passed closed shop fronts and turned down a darker street.
'I believe I was the one who saved you last time.' Clary said.

Izzy and Mo walked the chilly November streets talking, as sisters do, of Boyfriends. Picking up loose rubbish as she went, Mo was listening to Izzy's despair at being so far from Simon. 'And he still doesn't remember anything?' Mo asked. She had found a bin and was shoving all of rubbish in at once.
'That's what he says. Obviously he remembers Clary though.' Izzy pouted. 'Probably just changed his mind about me. His loss. He had better be training hard in Idris because he has another thing coming when he gets back.' Her heels clicked so hard on the ground, Mo imagined a Simon shaped head underneath them.
'What an ass. He definitely wants nothing to do with you Izzy. The only thing he ever did for you was submit himself to a greater demon and give up his best friend, memories, essentially his life and you in exchange for the whole world's safety. How selfish.' Mo grinned happily to herself. Relationships amused her. How stupid people became when they were given the dubbed a couple. Izzy scowled and they walked on in silence.
'...you're right,' Izzy burst out. 'I'm being selfish aren't I?' She trailed on and Mo drifted in and out of the conversation. It was like a dream. Almost like it had been before any of this, before Jace had met Clary. The moon was bright tonight, the semicircle in the sky reminded Mo of the cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland. She imagined the cat becoming visible and galavanting around the sky.

Alec's grip on Magnus tightened. One of the street lights had exploded, startling them both. One by one, five other lights extinguished, leaving Magnus and Alec in almost complete darkness. With a click of his fingers, Magnus lit a small fire in his hand and Alec pulled his witchlight out of his pocket. Together, they lit the shadows. Suddenly a black, scaled thing threw itself at Alec. Alec hit the floor with a thud. Long, sabre teeth snapped, strenuously held back by Alec's shaking arms. He hadn't had time to draw a seraph blade. A flash of blue lifted the creature off him and held it suspended in the air giving Alec enough time to leap to his feet, arm himself with a bright blade and slice cleanly through the monster's exposed stomach. It's innards slipped to the ground in thick, slimy ichor that hung from the upper half of the body. Magnus released it with a disgusted scowl; before he could ask Alec if he was ok, an arrow whistled past his ear and sunk into something fleshy behind him. Another demon flew from the roof. A second arrow pierced the demon's chest and a pile of scales moulded into flesh before their eyes. Magnus didn't have a chance to watch it disappear on itself. Three, five, ten replicas of the creature emerged from the shadows around them. Magnus seised Alec by the arm. 'Run!' He shouted and dragged Alec through a gap in the monsters. Alec sliced the limbs of those he passed to slow their chase and sprinted with Magnus by his side.

After running a mile back towards the institute, the sounds of a new fight were just around the corner. Alec nocked an arrow, another hanging loosely from his fingers, and treaded carefully around the corner to be met by  dozens more of the demons. Now that they could see from a far, Alec recognised them easily as ravener demons: large, scorpion like creatures with black, scaled bodies and massive, sharp teeth. 'Magnus, send a message to the clave quick, we need help,' Alec instructed. Meanwhile he had dispatched three raveners   and injured two. Through the melee, Jace's golden hair shone. He spun and sliced and stabbed at the demons that closed in on him and Clary. With their attention away from Alec and Magnus, the demons didn't notice Magnus throwing them around or Alec shooting them, mid attack, until it was too late. There was another cluster too. A slightly larger pack of Raveners had Izzy and Mo surrounded. Izzy's whip was a blur and so was Mo with her two long blades. The six of them were depleting the pack's numbers quick but a fair few remained. From this distance and in the urgency of the fight, Alec could just make out Clary shouting to Mo but what it was she was calling, Alec couldn't say.

'Mundanes!' Clary yelled at Mo from under a ravener. The demon suddenly screamed and reared back with Jace's seraph blade in it's back.
'What?' Clary pointed to the shopfront beside Mo where a mundane couple were huddled and shaking. The guy was almost completely covering the girl as if he thought his body would be a sufficient shield from the monsters before them.
'Ah! What a brave gentleman,' Mo commented. She sliced the jaw off an approaching ravener and made a break for the mundanes. She put one of her blades away and held her hand out.
She panted, 'Hi, nice to meet you.'
The boy stuttered and spluttered.
'Not a lot of time to explain. Come on lets get you up-' Mo heaved the boy up by the arm and along with him, his girlfriend who he clutched to tightly. 'You see that sparkly man over there?' Mo gestured to Magnus and the couple nodded eagerly. 'You're going to run to him, got it?' Again, they bobbed their heads. The three of them ran, the couple in front sprinting for their lives. Mo barked her order at Magnus as loud as she could to open a portal to the institute. It took some time for him to understand but he quickly got to work and soon enough, a window to the institute stood before him. Mo instructed them to run through it and wait for them on the other side. Arrows started flying past her head. She glanced behind her. They had caught the attention of the demons and all of them were targeting her and the defenceless victims infront of her. Jace, Clary, Alec and Izzy managed to shake a few off but they still made a bee line for the mundanes.
'Close it! CLOSE ITTT!' Magnus began closing the portal just as the couple had reached it. Mo spun around, guarding the portal from the few standing raveners, tearing them down in front of the portal and collecting a few dissolving bodies at her feet.
'Watch out!' Izzy screamed. Mo felt something jump and latch onto her body, throwing her off balance. Before she had time to react, everything went dark.

'Watch out!' Izzy screamed. One of the raveners had steered away from the others and leaped at Mo from the side while her attention was on it's friends. As if in slow motion, Mo flinched backward but she wasn't fast enough. The demon threw its whole weight on her and knocked her back into what was left of the portal: a hole just big enough to fit a finger. Suddenly Mo had disappeared - shrunk into the hole - and a moment later, the thin air spat her out. She thudded on the ground and cracked her head against the concrete.