Alec knew it wasn't Magnus, but it was his eyes, and his voice, and it hurt so much.
"Magnus, please. Don't do this, you can fight it!"
The warlock's eyes were cold, and his voice hard, as he came after the love of his life, with balls of magic curling around his palms.
"What if I don't want to? What are you worth to me? A few years? One measly lifetime? You are a blink of an eye; a memory lost among thousands of others. You are nothing to me."
Alec let out another sob as he desperately tried to crawl away from his boyfriend. They'd been spending the day together, and it had been perfect, until Magnus had changed.
His shoulders shook, body curling in on itself as he groaned out a warning.
"Alec. It's a...ugh, it's a demon. I can't stop it. Run."
And then his eyes turned cruel and he'd laughed hysterically. It was so unlike Magnus it had made Alec shiver. His voice was tinged with humour.
"Too late, little shadowhunter."
Alec had tried to stop him, tried to draw a devil's trap on the floor, but the demon was faster, and it had broken Alec's arm before he could make a single mark. That agony, that white hot pain, blurred Alec's mind, and he couldn't think clearly.
And now, the demon stalked its prey, slowly advancing on Alec as he tried to crawl towards the apartment door. Izzy and Jace were trying to get in, but were being kept out by Magnus' wards. Alec wasn't even sure how the demon had gotten past it.
The demon threw another ball of magic, one of many that had already been thrown, among kicks and punches and every ugly insult that the demon could find that would hurt Alec.
The ball of flame struck the Nephilim in the chest as he screamed. The concentrated orbs of magic hit like a bat, slamming the shadowhunter to the ground with a force that made several of his ribs snap. Alec sobbed again, unbroken arm wrapping around his chest as he tried to reason with the body the demon was in.
"Magnus, I know this isn't you. It's okay. You'll be okay, we'll get it out. Just...please try to fight it."
Jace and Isabelle could hear it all, and slammed at the door with renewed vigour, at the desperation in Alec's voice. Jace could feel everything his brother did, and he knew that Alec was hurt. His own hands were bloodied, and still he hit them against the doors, desperate to save his Parabatai.
It was agony, hearing and feeling his best friend being hurt by the man he loved, while being shut out, unable to help.
Isabelle cursed as she tried every rune and resource she knew to break the wards and get through, but none were working.
Again, the demon came closer, as Alec backed himself against a wall. He had nowhere else to go and he couldn't stop him on his own.
Usually, when possessed by a demon, the victim has no control and doesn't remember it happening afterwards. Alec knew that feeling for himself; that strange hollowness, the loss of time. But because Magnus was part demon, he had more say over what his body did. He didn't have much control, but he couldn't bear to hurt Alec anymore.
Using every ounce of strength he had, Magnus forced the demon to the back of his consciousness, and took over his own body, just for a second. But a second was all he needed.
