Shadowsinger

Chapter Twelve

Teigen opened her eyes, groaning a bit as the light from the fading sunset hit her retinas.

Blinking quickly to regain her vision, Teigen looked around the room, her room, as she noticed, with Rosco sleeping in the corner, Snuffles pressed up against the Great Dane.

Pushing back the covers, Teigen swung her legs over the side of her bed, hissing as her bare feet touched the icy floor. Shakily getting to her feet, Teigen pressed the heel of her hands to her eyes, rubbing them as gently as she could before they dropped back to her sides.

The door opened, revealing Alec, who poked his head around the partially opened door, slowly smiling at her when he caught sight of her standing. He stepped fully into the room, holding something wrapped in familiar colours and a glass of water in the other.

"Hey, how are you feeling?"

Teigen grinned, extending her arms and letting him deposit the sandwich and water into her hands. "Better now that I have something to eat."

She unwrapped the sandwich, turning around and placing the glass on the nightstand before taking a bite. "How did you know I liked this specific sandwich from Panera?"

Teigen heard him shift, turning around once she swallowed.

"Clary refused to eat anything Izzy made, dragging us all out and getting something for herself and you for when you woke." He lightly scratched his arm, gesturing towards the glass. "She also mentioned something about you needing to take your medicine?"

Teigen's face fell. "Oh yeah, I should probably do that." Pausing, she turned back toward him. "By the way, what happened last night?"

Alec's body tensed, his normal frown forming. "Well, a whole bunch of things happened. The three of you were taken by a pack of werewolves looking for the mortal cup, we were able to track you after Simon called Clary's phone which she left in her bag. Your friend Luke turned out to be a werewolf and is now the alpha of that particular pack but was severely injured and had to be taken to Magnus' to be healed."

"I guess you were pretty busy huh?"

Alec shot her a lopsided grin. "I guess so. Clary also thinks she knows where the Mortal Cup is, so Clary and Jace will be heading over to Luke's precinct in a little bit to go find it."

Teigen's face fell, whirling around and lunging for her phone that was also on the nightstand, cursing under her breath as she unlocked her phone, reading the messages sent to her. "Oh thank god."

"What? What is it?" Teigen didn't look up, focusing on reading the rest of the messages.

"I missed my shift last night, but somehow I'm not being penalized for it?" Teigen shook her head. "I'll deal with that later. Anyway, I have to be at a meeting right now. Lucky for me, it's in Luke's precinct."

Alec nodded. "I'll go text Jace and let him know that you'll be there in case he needs backup."

Alec looked so serious, nodding to himself as he mentally worked out an attack plan in case something went wrong, so Teigen couldn't blame him one bit when he looked like a startled deer as she started laughing.

"What? Did I say something funny?" Teigen tried sobering as quickly as she could because he sounded genuinely defensive and put out.

"I can't disregard my job entirely to help Mr 'I can't keep my hands away from Clary.' I'd get demoted, or worse."

"Oh." Alec frowned, his left hand coming up to rake itself through his hair as the right was braced on his hip. "This is going to be harder than I thought because now that we know that werewolves have jobs in the precinct, and who knows, however, many other Downworlders work there. They'd see right through our glamour and we'd be leading them straight to the cup."

Teigen tapped her foot, a hand on her chin as she thought. "I don't know how to help. It's certainly a dilemma." Their eyes met and he gave her another lopsided smile.

"It's fine, we'll figure it out. In the meantime, you might want to hurry up and get to your meeting."

Teigen nodded, watching as he left her room, the two animals in the corner watching him leave as well. Giving herself a shake, she jogged over to the bathroom, snagging her dress uniform on the way.

An hour later, Teigen was ready to commit several homicides. For the entire meeting, the idiots in positions of power seemed keen to waste everyone's time by arguing every single point made. Holding her tongue was hard, but she knew that if she didn't want to get into major trouble, she would have to suck it up. Fortunately, the meeting was dismissed.

Walking out of the conference area, Teigen noticed Alec standing by the front desk, giving Rita a smile that made something flutter inside of her stomach as Rita herself sat, unimpressed. Meeting Isabelle's eyes, she was given a pleading look and a discreet hand gesture that read 'help him please'. Nodding, she turned to the Sargeant, who gave her a knowing look as she gave a persuasive smile. "Meet me by the car, I have some things to go over with you before we head back to the station."

Giving Alvarez a thumbs up, Teigen quickly descended the stairs and launched herself at Alec, who thankfully caught her with a bewildered look that he quickly schooled into a smile once again.

As she hugged him, she moved her face to give him a quick murmur of 'Play along' before pulling back and turning back to Rita, who was smiling at the display. Teigen felt Alec wrap an arm around her waist and press his face into the side of her head, placing a fake kiss there before hiding his face with her hair and whispering 'key card'.

"I'm so sorry about this one Rita, Alec is a needy teddy bear that won't get the fact that he can't try and flirt his way past any situation to try and see me."

Rita smiled, leaning back in her chair. "It's okay Tug, Mark was the same way."

Chatting for a few more seconds as Alec used Rita's distraction to grab the key card on her desk, tossing it quickly over to Isabelle who strutted past as if she owned the place.

"This was nice, getting to catch up with you, but Alvarez needs me out by the cars." Rita nodded, smiling as Teigen detached herself from Alec to lean over, catching Rita in a hug. Pulling back, Alec's arm wound around her waist almost immediately, and she smiled at him before subtly dragging him out of the doors, waving goodbye as they went their separate ways, him finding a side door to go back in.

Texting Clary as the fire alarm sounded, Teigen let them know she would meet them back at the Institute once she was finished with the things she had to go over with Alvarez. 

I'm so sorry for the wait and the shitty chapter. Online school has been a bitch and at this point, I feel like absolute crap. For everyone who has voted, commented, or has done anything to let me know how much they loved this story, thank you so much for the constant support. It means so much to me that you guys are enjoying this because right now I'm just going through the motions right now and the support gives me so much motivation to work on my stories.