Shadows | Alec Lightwood | Discontinued

Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

"Is cracking someone's mind open supposed to take this long? Maybe we- uh... you should go check?" Simon suggested.

"Jace has it covered." Alec replied to the mundane.

"Take my word for it." Isabelle spoke her voice soft as she twirled hair around her finger. "The silent brothers are quite unpleasant."

"I happen to be friends with one of those unpleasant silent brothers."

He was ignored.

"That's not helping." Simon grimaced shaking his head. "Not at all."

Adrian sighed, watching Simon and Izzy interact. This was why he hasn't wanted to stay with them. Simon would constantly obsess over his sister whilst Izzy would constantly be in a state of half flirting with the boy.

Simon went to ramble on again only to be cut off by Alec.

"He literally never stops talking."

Adrian shouldn't have laughed but he did. It was a good job Clary wasn't here. She was very protective of her best friend.

"Is he always so charming?" Simon asked Izzy in retort and then they returned to their blatant attraction to each other.

He was grateful however when they left to find Simon's phone back in the van. Or at least that was the excuse they gave.

Once again Adrian was left alone with Alec. Fate must hate him.

"What's it like? Living at the Institute?" Adrian found himself asking Alec. It was something he was curious about. Before he first entered the Institute he had hated the place but now it was beginning to grow on him.

"Stressful. There's never a moments peace. You're constantly surrounded by people watching your every move, but it's home. If it wasn't for the Institute I'd probably have never met Jace or Hodge." Alec spoke. Even when he talked about the bad things Adrian could hear the affection he had for the Institute. "Why did you never come to the Institute for training when you were younger?"

"Clary and I, we were pretty much raised as Mundanes and since we were raised by only one parent our mom couldn't take one of us somewhere and not the other. We might as well have been glued together. It was only as I got older and Clary hung around her friends more that I had time to train with my mom in secret. Besides, my mum was in hiding from circle members who were still loyal to Valentine. By going to the Institute she would have drawn attention to herself as well as putting Clary and I in danger."

"She cared about you two a lot." Alec noted sounding almost envious. Adrian absentmindedly nodded.

"Clary was one of the main reasons she betrayed the circle. She didn't want her daughter to grow up in that."

"But you're older than Clary?"

"By a year and a half. I guess she just saw a daughter to be more delicate, more vulnerable than a son." Adrian shrugged.

In a way he felt as if he drew the short straw by being born first. He had to protect his sister. He had the burden of knowing about the shadowworld. He lost all of his friends having to follow his younger sister around to make sure she didn't get hurt. His school grades were the ones that dropped from spending all of his spare time learning the ways of Shadowhunters and learning to fight like one.

"Alec." Adrian cautiously said. The shadowhunter hummed showing that he'd heard him. "Would you be able to kind of not mention what I told you earlier to anyone. I never told Clary and my mom about what happened with my friend. They eventually just assumed that he moved away and it's gotten to the point where I don't want them to know. I don't want to reopen that part of my life."

Alec seemed a little confused but he nodded.

"Thank you."

Adrian caught sight of Clary and Jace coming out of the City of Bones, immediately noticing the look of distress on his siblings face. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Valentine is Clary and Adrian's father."

"Wait, wait a minute. You're telling me that this girl- these two show up out of nowhere and just happen to be Valentine's children. Did it occur to you that she might be a spy. That this might be part of her- their plan."

Adrian stepped closer to his sister wrapping one arm around her in comfort.

"That's enough." Jace muttered quietly.

"Do you think I planned for any of this? Do you think I planned for my mom to be taken? For Dot to be taken? Do you think I planned to have a giant sword dangled over my head and find out that my fathers one of the most dangerous people in the world. Really?" Clary snapped her voice breaking as she was on the brink of tears.

"Where's Simon?" Clary asked noticing that her mundane best friend wasn't here. Of course everything always ends up returning back to the helpless human. "Where's Simon?" She repeated as Izzy appeared. Without Simon.

"I told him to stay in the van." Izzy spoke. "I searched everywhere."

"He's gone?!"

"I can't find him." Isabelle said. She sounded worried, concerned for Simon.

"You were supposed to protect him." She accused Izzy running off and shouting Simon's name.

"It's not your fault." Adrian assured Izzy. "You tried to protect him."

Adrian followed after her as she ran in the direction of the van.

Simon wasn't going to be in the van, he knew that. Izzy had already said that she couldn't find him there. If anything, the van would be a trap, designed to lure anyone wanting to find the mundane.

He shook his head to get rid of the thoughts. Things would be fine, they had to be.

"Simon!" She shouted again.

"Is that the mundane's name?" A voice called. Adrian whirled around eyes searching for the source of the voice. His eyes landed on a familiar vampire casually holding Simon upside down. "I'm afraid Simon's coming home with us."

"No, he's not a part of this." Clary shouted racing forwards to Jace's side.

"And it'll be my pleasure to kill you unless you return him." Jace threatened.

"Careful. We'd be violating the accords." Alec warned Jace.

"I'm afraid your sidekick is quite right. The night children have broken no laws. We're negotiating. The mundane unharmed in exchange for the mortal cup. And the clock is ticking. Tick tock people."

The three vanished. The two vampires taking Simon with them. The only sound of there departure was Simon's faint call of Clary's name.

"Simon! No!" Clary shouted back staring up at the beam where he had disappeared.

"Simon! Simon! Simon! Simon!"