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With the demons dead Izzy scooped up her coat before slipping back onto the main floor of the club, her brothers following behind, stowing away their seraph blades.
She plucking the bottle of blood from Jace hand, giving it an intent look before placing it in a pocket. “Looks like I’m not staying for some dancing,” she said, eyeing up a guy with enviable eyeliner.
“Sleep first, Iz. Your report can wait till morning.” Alec said, pressing a kiss to her hair. “I’ll see you both back at the Institute, I’m going to see if I can find Warlock Bane, see if this isn’t the first time demons have been peddling blood in his club.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” Izzy smirked, looping a hand through Jace’s elbow. “Going to book club, Jace?” she teased.
Jace considered it before shaking his head as he checked his phone. “Looks like Appleheart and Merrywright ran into something interesting a couple blocks away. I’ll go see if they need help.”
Watching as both his siblings left the club, Alec waited until they were out the doors before turning on his heel to head straight for the bar.
Slipping onto a stool at one end, it wasn’t long before Elliot was leaning towards him asking, “Here on business, Alec?”
The grin on his face made it obvious that he already knew the answer.
“Magnus around tonight?” he asked instead of answering, nodding his head in thanks when Elliot passed him a glass of colourful liquid.
“Right here, Mr Lightwood,” a familiar voice at his shoulder said.
“Mr Bane,” Alec said, turning on the stool to face Magnus.
Elliot passes a glass to Magnus before leaving them to serve some mundane clubbers.
“Your information was troubling,” Magnus informed him, far more casually than the situation probably called for.
“How do you mean?”
“Exactly how much do know about the Circle, Alexander?”
“More than I want to,” Alec said eventually, sipping at the drink. “But less than I probably should.”
It was bordering on sickeningly sweet, the way Alec liked, but with a sour note that wasn’t unwelcome. And non-alcoholic in deference to the fact that Alec was on duty. In the past few months since Elliot had started working the bar at Pandemonium, he hadn’t waited long before starting to test his drink creating skills on Alec.
When Magnus set down his only sipped at drink on the bar and curled a hand around Alec’s elbow, Alec set down his own glass and stood up. He also ignored the way his stomach half-heartedly flipped.
A couple years ago the touch from Magnus would have had a greater effect on him. But time had somewhat immunised him to the Warlock’s attention and their cordial relationship as High Warlock and more-often-then-not Acting Head of the Institute had turned into something like friendship. And Alec valued Magnus’ friendship far too much to do anything about the attraction he felt towards the other man.
The only thing Alec had done in regards to his crush on the centuries old Warlock was acknowledge it and then lock it in the box with the rest of that and put it away. This was not something he could ever have and if he told himself that Magnus’ friendship was enough, then maybe he would one day believe it.
The only good thing about his crush on Magnus was that it had finally cleared up Alec’s confusing feelings for Jace. For years he’d struggled to figure out what exactly it was he felt for Jace. Was he actually in love with the boy his parents had adopted? Or was it just physical attraction to the only boy his age that he spent any significant amount of time with? Or was it just the fact that Alec was being possessive over his parabatai and anyone that encroached on their bond, taking Jace’s attention away from him?
But what he felt for Magnus was worlds away from anything he had ever felt for Jace and time had taught him that what he felt for Jace was definitely just brotherly and very much platonic.
They remained silent as Magnus led him through the club, one of the attendees nodding at them as they headed up to the private spaces. Magnus led him directly to the room at the end of the hall, the dark velvet curtain pulling itself aside for them to slip inside at a wave of Magnus’ fingers.
Once inside, Alec was surprised to see two unconscious men tied up with swirling ropes of magic on the floor. A hand automatically going the hilt of his sword, Alec glanced at Magnus in question before returning most of his attention to the men.
“It appears the buyers meeting with your demons were rogue Shadowhunters, Alexander,” Magnus informed him, flopping gracefully on the curved couch.
With Magnus’ question about the Circle just minutes ago it was all Alec needed to know.
“Well, shit.” Alec muttered, crouching down besides the closer of the two, pulling down the collar of his jacket and shirt to reveal the bright red rune on the man’s neck.
It was definitely nothing good if Circle members were feeling brave enough to enter Magnus’ club. Bad enough they were walking around conducting shady business with demons, but this was the Magnus’ club. The implications of it were not good at all.
Drawing Somno runes on both men, Alec stood up only to join Magnus on the couch, tilting his head back until he was staring at the tiny twinkling mood lights on the ceiling.
“This is going to be a shitshow,” he groaned already tired just thinking about it. And then Alec decided to just not think about it, even if just for a couple minutes before he called the Institute to arrange a cell to be ready on his arrival back with the two prisoners Magnus had just handed him.
Speaking of Magnus, the man was being uncharacteristically silent, Alec realised.
Normally he would have made several flirtatious remarks by now. For a while Alec had been flustered by Magnus’ flirting, but now he looked forward to the terrible puns and cheesy lines, finding a challenge in thinking up replies with which to stump Magnus. The delighted, and slightly proud, looks Magnus gave him when he did never failed to warm Alec.
Letting his head fall to the side, Alec found Magnus looking at him intently. The look in his eyes something Alec couldn’t quite make out.
“You alright?” Alec asked, regretting it immediately as the answer came to mind.
Magnus was a Warlock and Alec was an idiot.
Magnus had lived through the Circle’s bullshit and terrorism twenty years ago, no time at all for an immortal. The two men bound on the floor at their feet were a sign of dark times for the Shadow World.
“Dumb question,” Alec admitted, the self-depreciating comment getting a small smile out of Magnus.
“No such thing, darling.”
Taking a deep breath in before letting it out slowly Alec got to his feet, fishing out his phone from his jeans pocket.
“I’ll get out something more official once I’ve got something out of these two, but you should alert the Down World,” Alec told him, already thinking of precautions that could be taken based on what the Circle had done twenty years ago.
Magnus stood, “A portal?” he offered.
Alec smiled and nodded, knowing it would be easier not to argue, not when he had two unconscious prisoners to transport. “Thank you,” he smiled. “Take of yourself, Magnus,” he said as he grabbed a collar in each hand, glad that his strength rune was still active.
“I will when you do, dear,” Magnus shot back.
It was an old joke that had far too much truth behind it to truly be funny. Entirely too often their talks had ended in one or both of them nodding off in the calm quite that tended to fall between them as they discussed business and non-business over drinks or food.
Somewhere else in New York Simon Lewis was falling asleep in the Fray’s guest bedroom, his stomach full. And in the sitting room Jocelyn Fray, Luke Garroway and Dot Rollins were sitting Clary down for what was going to be one hell of a talk.