Chapter 1: The Uninvited Guest

There were a lot of people here tonight at Magnus' club. It was a huge celebration for the fifth anniversary of peace amongst everyone. The Clave had finally seen the light and now all old animosities have gone. This was a celebration of all that has been gained and a remembrance of all those that were lost. Izzy and Simon had just shown up with Jace, Clary, and Alec following close behind. Magnus had Madzie staying with a friend tonight. This celebration would go late and she needed to sleep for her studies the following day. She was becoming quite the little Warlock and he and Alec were so proud of her. It was clear that the two of them had grown into great parents and Madzie was a perfect child. They both felt very blessed with their lives and this was the night to celebrate it.

Izzy and Simon were already dancing on the dance floor. Simon was now a very skillful shadowhunter and could keep up with the rest but his dance moves were still lacking. Izzy laughed at his geeky dance moves. Alec walked over to Magnus and gave him a light kiss on the cheek. "How are you, love? Did Madzie make it to Sara's okay?" Magnus looked into his blue eyes and nodded. "She is safe and sound and probably driving Sara mad with her latest spell she mastered." Alec laughed thinking of Madzie's new obsession. She could now make her voice appear to be coming from places around the house. He could just imagine all the mischief she was causing with that. He looked back at Magnus and they shared a warm smile. Alec's thoughts shifted slightly to the thought of their lives, their future, and his smile dimmed. It was beautiful, what they had, but he knew he would age and die. Magnus and Madzie would be left behind to mourn. He would be left behind in death. He pushed this thought away again as he had so many times. No need to dwell on the future when the present is perfect.

Alec moved away from Magnus and headed back towards his Parabatai. Jace was the only one he had shared these concerns with. Jace could feel his sadness in these moments so there was no point in trying to hide it from him. There was comfort in being able to share this with someone. He knew he could never speak it out loud to Magnus. There is nothing Magnus could do about it anyway and it would only hurt to utter the words. Jace gave him a knowing and gentle smile as Alec approached him. "You need to stop dwelling on that Alec. It will only drive you mad with grief for a future that isn't here yet. Enjoy these moments. That is what life is about." Alec brightened. Their connection had only grown stronger, if that was even possible. Even Clary and Simon's Parabatai bond did not match the synchronicity of Alec and Jace's Parabatai connection. The Clave call it a True Parabatai. This kind of Parabatai connection usually only appears once in several generations. Two halves of a soul. It was no wonder Alec had mistaken it for romantic love once, but it transcends any kind of love on earth. His life belonged to Jace and Magnus, his Parabatai and his true love.

It was clear that tonight was going to be a great evening filled with joy and celebrations so Alec set his mind to doing just that, celebrating. He walked back over to Magnus and with a devilish smirk pulled him out onto the dance floor. They all smiled as they watched the two of them swing around the floor gracefully. Magnus had plenty of time to teach his love all he knew about dancing and it showed. Clary, Jace, Izzy, Simon, and the rest of the guests all watched in awe as they danced together, a perfect depiction of what this peace had brought to them all.

Suddenly, there was a loud crash and everyone stopped moving. Magnus' cat eyes glowed in the dark as all the lights went out. With a wave of his hand there were glowing lights illuminating every corner of the club. Another loud crash and a section of wall came crumbling down. Alec and Jace immediately jumped into action. Magnus flicked his wrist and an angel sword appeared in Jace, Clary, and Simon's hands. With another flick of his wrist Alec's bow and quiver appeared in his hands. Izzy grabbed her bracelet and extended her whip. While Magnus began to create a portal to evacuate the party Alec and Jace crept towards the fallen wall with Clary and Simon right behind them. Izzy backed the guests up and stood in front of them. The wind from the exposed night air came rushing into the club. With it there was a dark black mist that crept in. They all readied to fight whatever demon this was. Suddenly Magnus was knocked out when the mist swirled around him and the portal disappeared; only a few guests had managed to leave through it. Alec let out a gasp as he saw Magnus fall to the floor unconscious. Jace dashed forward into the mist and swung the angel blade through it. Nothing happened and within seconds Jace went down too. Alec could feel a sting in his Parabatai mark. There was a darkness that crept through Jace before he went down.

Clary looked at Simon with worry. If their angel blades did nothing on this mist how would they defend themselves? She tried to think of a rune to create to fight this mysterious mist off but nothing was coming to her. Simon looked at the people in the club. "We need to get them out of here, Clary!" With that he moved for the door and kicked it open waving all of them through. Izzy led them out in case there was more mist outside. They all began to pour out through the door and the mist began to move towards them but Simon grabbed a piece of cloth from a nearby table and whipped it sending the mist backwards. With a smile Clary now knew what to do. She grabbed another cloth from a table and began fanning the mist away from everybody, but the mist grew larger and seemed to learn. It swirled around getting bigger until the cloth did nothing to it and it crept in on them. Clary and Simon looked at each other in terror as they had no way of fighting off this mist. Alec, seeing that the situation was dire and there was nothing that seemed to be working, decided to try and distract the mist long enough for the last few people to make it out. He jumped in front of Simon and Clary to face the mist. Clary shouted for him to watch out. Alec looked at them quickly and said, "Get the rest of them out of here!". With that he faced the mist. It moved in on him and as it began to swirl around him he felt a darkness creep into every particle of his being, but something began to change. He could feel an energy emanating from his chest and an anger built up inside of him. What was this thing? How could it take down Magnus and Jace so quickly? How dare it! Alec let out a loud and angry scream and something bright flashed. The dark mist recoiled and immediately fled the building. Alec felt completely depleted of energy and crumpled to the floor. Clary and Simon were stunned. "What was that Clary? How did Alec do that?" Clary looked at Simon and said, " I have no idea Simon, we need to check on them!"

They ran over to Alec, Jace, and Magnus. Jace and Magnus appeared as though they were sleeping and Simon smacked their faces and they came to. They were light headed and weak but okay. Clary shouted over to them. "Guys get over here somethings wrong!" Magnus and Jace got up and they all rushed over to Alec. He was lying on the floor motionless with his eyes rolled up into the back of his head. Clary could not wake him. Magnus and Jace flew to either side of him. They each grabbed one of his hands and started calling his name. "Alec, wake up!" "Alec, can you hear me?" Jace looked at Magnus. "Something's very wrong, I can feel it. Alec is burning up on the inside, it is like he has a fire inside of him." Jace picked Alec up in his arms and Magnus made a portal to the institute infirmary. Simon and Clary stayed behind with Izzy to check on the people.

Magnus and Jace stepped through the portal with Alec and they arrived in the middle of the infirmary. Everyone stared at them, Magnus shouted quickly. "We need help, Alec went down while we were fighting an unknown entity made of dark mist. Jace and I should be checked as well. We went down during combat. In an hour Izzy, Simon, and Clary appeared and explained what they saw. Alec had stepped into the mysterious black mist and it swirled around him, then his skin began to glow faintly with a yellow ember light. When he shouted a ring of light exploded from around his chest and it appeared to hurt the mist. The infirmary staff had never heard of this before and they couldn't figure out why he was unconscious now. He appeared to be in pain and his body temperature was unusually high. They called in the head researchers from the Clave. Clary and Jace began to wonder if Alec had pure angel blood like them and this was some special power like they had. The infirmary decided to do some tests on him to find out.