Angelic

Alec ~ 27

We all froze when we saw the boat, and the demons surrounding it. There had to be at least twenty of them, and most of them were already on the boat. It was a sight that arose two feelings inside of me: the first was dread, knowing that Lizzie could already be dead before we even got to the boat, and I knew Ev wouldn't react well to it; the second was a spark of eagerness, the same feeling I got whenever I was about to fight—adrenaline pumped through my veins, making my heart speed up. This was the feeling that I was addicted to.

The scream came twenty seconds later. And it was so loud I had to fight the urge to cover my ears. It was high-pitched, the noise carrying out over the water. It was undoubtedly Lizzie's.

Ev was swimming through the water before any of us realized what she was doing.

"Eveline get back here!" Raphael shouted, but it was already too late. She had gone underwater, unable to hear him. When she resurfaced, she was halfway to the boat.

I put the arrow back in my quiver, throwing my bow over my shoulder and running after her.

"What are you doing?!" I turned to see Raphael staring at me like I was insane.

"I'm doing what a Shadowhunter is supposed to do—kill demons." I told him, stepping into the water.

Before he could protest again, I dived into the water, kicking my legs as hard as I could and pushing my arms as quickly as possible. I felt my heart beat even faster, my lungs beginning to cry out. I rose back to the surface, gasping for breath, and saw that I was only a third of the way to the boat. I gasped for breath to go back underwater when I heard a splash from behind me. I turned to see Raphael and Jace gone, two ripples in the water appearing where they had dived underwater.

I had to give it to him—that vampire was braver—or stupider—than I thought.

I dove back under the water, urging myself to swim as far as I could before I had to go back up for breath.

In a matter of minutes, I had reached the boat. If Ev hadn't already been on the deck, I don't think I would have found a way to pull myself up—the railing was twenty feet above me. As it was, she had to fold her body in half over the railing to reach my hand. She helped drag me out of the water, and I landed in a crouch on the deck. Her drenched hair and dress clung to her body like velcro. Her eyes were wild, and I could see the fear in them. Not fear for herself—I doubted she ever feared for her own life after being kidnapped—but fear for Lizzie.

"I'll help Jace and Raphael." I told her in between gasps of air. "You go."

She gave me one last hesitant look before running around the deck. Moments later I heard something that sounded like a whip slicing a demon in half. I had heard Izzy fight enough to know the sound, but I didn't realize Ev preferred the same weapon.

Jace appeared soon after and I pulled him up over the deck. He landed gracefully next to me. He glanced at me, and without me having to say a word, he ran around the deck, following Ev. Raphael appeared next. He was much more easier to lift up than Jace.

Raphael landed next to me. "I won't say this often, but thank you."

I pulled out a wet arrow from my quiver and pulled it through my bow. "Don't expect anymore help from me."

He didn't say anything else as we rounded the corner of the deck to find Jace and Ev surrounded by demons of all sorts—the large and slimy bodies of Behemoth demons left a trail as they moved towards Ev; two Eidolon demons surrounded Jace, their camouflages bodies just a slight shade off from the wood of the boat. At the back of the boat, a small girl with curling blond hair that I assumed was Lizzie was holding out a knife, trying to defend herself against a demon with smooth, white, larval body—a Drevak demon.