More Than Starlight (Lady Midnight Julian + Emma)

Chapter 13 - Blackthorn Blood

As soon as the portal spit them out on the front steps of the Los Angeles Institute, Julian sprinted inside with Emma, Jace, and Clary on his heels. They burst through the doors and up the stairway, startling Cristina at the top.

"By the Angel, Julian!" She put her hands to her heart as if she could will it to slow, and bent down to pick up the papers she had dropped, "What's going on? You scared me!" She looked over his shoulder and her breath caught when she saw Jace and Clary.

"Tina, we know the message. It's Blackthorn blood. Where are Mark, Dru, Tavvy, and the twins?" Emma said frantically, moving to stand beside Julian.

"The kids are all upstairs, I thought I saw Mark outside a few minutes ago, did you not see him when you came in?" Her eyes widened as a cold fear gripped her stomach. Julian started to move but Emma put a hand on his chest to stop him.

"You, go upstairs and check on the kids. They need you to explain this to them, I'll go find Mark." She smiled ruefully, hoping to calm him.

"Emma-" He chided warningly.

"I'll be fine," With a curt nod he agreed hesitantly as long as someone went with her.

"I'll go look outside with Emma, Jace you go see what information you can find out about Annabel Blackthorn. We'll meet you in the library after?" Clary cut in, and all having agreed on the plan of action, set out in their separate directions. But not before Julian gave Emma's hand a tight squeeze.

Clary and Emma went outside of the Institute, it was unusually dark for how early in the evening it was. Looking up, Emma saw why, storm clouds were rolling in over the ocean. It was rare to have inclement weather in LA.

"How foreboding. Lovely," She muttered under her breath. Clary breathed out a short laugh and pointed to one side of the Institute.

"I'll check the right, you check over there. Do you have a weapon?" Clary asked. In response, Emma pulled aside her jacket to reveal two seraph blades strapped to her, "Good. Meet back here in 5 minutes." And with that they set off.

Emma looked around as she made her way over to the garden, rain starting to drizzle down, "Mark?" She called out, "Mark, where are you?" She heard a rustle on the other side of a hedge and her shoulders relax, "Thank god. We couldn't find you, we were worried."

***

Meanwhile, Julian had ran up to the library alongside Jace and Cristina, where she had said the kids were. They burst in the doors and Julian's eyes scanned the room; Dru reading a book, Livvy playing with Tavvy, and Kit actually in a conversation with Ty about some book on a shelf. They all looked up at him as the three of them burst in and his shoulders instantly relaxed. The relief was bittersweet, though, as soon as Mark stepped out from a bookshelf in the corner.

"Mark? Cristina said you were outside?" Julian asked, feeling as if ice waster was slowly flooding his veins.

"Good to see you too," He chuckled but, seeing Julian's worried expression, he quickly became serious, "I was on the roof but there is some bad weather coming in, so I came inside."

"So who did you see outside, Cristina?" It was Jace who asked, a look of worry dawning in his amber eyes.

"I- I don't know, I just saw someone moving by the gardens, I didn't see much of them. I just figured it was Mark-" But before she could even finish, Julian and Jace were already racing out of the room.

***

Emma cut off her sentence when she looked over the hedge and saw nothing. Strange, she thought. Instinctively her hand went to settle on the handle of her seraph blade, ready to arm herself at any given moment. She continued to look around, rain starting to pelt against her skin harder. Her shadowhunting training had made her incredibly aware of her surroundings at all times, so as soon she felt that cold presence when someone was behind you, she swung around with her seraph blade in hand, "Cassiel," She chanted. But, to her immense surprise, no one was there. She had no time to reevaluate her surroundings when she was rocked by a hard blow to the back of the head and then she saw nothing but blackness.

***

"Mark? Mark are you out here? It's Clary Fray." Clary had been wandering around the right side of the Institute for more than 5 minutes and had seen no trace of Mark. She cursed under her breath and made her way back to the steps, she had told Emma 5 minutes and would feel bad making her wait. However, seeing that Emma was not there either, Clary stood about awkwardly. A small bloom of worry built up and she grew cold, but not from the rain which was now coming down in sheets, lightning forking across the sky overhead. She started her way over to the side of the house Emma had been investigating when she heard a pair of familiar voices call her name.

"Clary!" Both Julian and Jace yelled frantically as they came running from the doors, Julian stopped at the bottom of the stairs but Jace continued until his hands were gently placed on the sides of her shoulders. He planted a quick kiss on her forehead.

"Thank the Angel you're okay, where is Emma? Isn't she with you?" Something in the crack of Jace's normally composed expression made the fear spread quicker through Clary's body.

"We split up to cover more ground, but she had weapons. And we were only separated for 5 minutes, she didn't come back so I was going to get her," She turned to Julian who was frantically looking around, "I'm so sorry, did you find Mark?"

Julian was stark white, "He was never outside. But I have a feeling I know who was."

The three of them had checked the grounds entirely for nearly half an hour but the only sign of Emma was a seraph blade in the grass near the gardens. Jace had his hand protectively on the small of Clary's back but Julian was starting to lose his almost perfected state of calm.

"We need to go inside, we're going to get nothing accomplished standing out here in the rain except maybe get sick," Jace finally said. Julian looked shell-shocked, but his eyes met Jace's, "Unless, that was your goal?"  He continued. Obediently, Julian followed the two others inside. As soon as they were in the foyer, Julian sat on the stairs and put his face in his hands. Clary made a move to comfort Julian, to tell him everything would be okay and they would find Emma, but she couldn't find the words. His hand was absently holding the place on his chest just below his collarbone. She didn't think he noticed he was doing it, but she realized shortly after that was where his parabatai rune was.

"Julian," She started cautiously, "We need to inform the Clave. They can help us." She regretted suggesting it when he stood up abruptly, fists shaking with rage.

"The Clave? And wait for them to respond?! There's no time!" His voice was exploding out of him and Clary winced.

"Julian, we have no indication of where she might be. We need to try and track her, go get something of hers out of her room and meet us in the weapons room." Jace spoke directly to him, bits of irritation seeping out in his voice. He hated it when people yelled at Clary, but this was no time to place blame. They needed to get things done. Julian turned on his heel and strode up the stairs.

"Jace," Clary whirled to face him, "You know we can't do anything without telling the Clave."

He grinned at that, "Like that ever stopped us before. You sound like Alec." She stifled a laugh.

"I know, but this is different. We are the heads of an Institute. I'm not suggesting we wait on their response, but we need to at least send a fire message to Jia." Clary and Jace had been friends with the Consul and Clary didn't like going behind her back. She respected her.

"I know, It's just-" Jace's eyes cast downward, as if he wanted to say something but didn't know if he should, "This is different, Clary. I know you care about Emma and Julian, believe me I do too, but this is different." He said again.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"When Julian wanted to talk with me earlier today- Look, I didn't want to say anything," Jace was struggling for words, this never happened to him which made Clary's chest tight with apprehension.

"Jace, what is it?" She put her hand on his cheek tenderly.

"If we could just wait till he calms down. If the Clave sees him like this, they'll know." His voice was wavering now.

"They'll know what?" She asked, but judging by Jace's tone, she had a feeling that she already knew.

"They're not just parabatai, Clary. They're in love."