When Nico returned to Camp Halfblood sometime during the campfire, he had little time to relax, since Will dragged him off to the infirmary. It was a quick affair, they made out, Nico got scolded for doing something stupid(again), and Will was relieved that Nico had somehow managed to get out of his lastest kidnapping unharmed.

"So who even was it this time anyway?" Will asked, finally calming down.

Nico showed Will the Codex, who looked unamused, "Angel, I can't read Latin, and I don't see how an old book is supposed to help."

Nico sighed, "They called themselves Shadowhunters, apparently they hunt demons and whatnot, acting like supernatural police. I got arrested because they caught me while I was working."

Will looked unconvinced. "Shadowhunters? That sounds kinda stupid to me, and they certainly aren't in charge of us."

Nico messed with his ring as he tried to figure out how to explain what he'd figured out, "Well... so you know how mortals can't see monsters and stuff because of the mist? How everything mythical is hidden?"

Will nodded, following along.

"Well, then there was the "situation" with the Romans, how we lived together, but never exactly encountered each other," Nico continued.

"Are these Shadowhunters part of a different pantheon? Like the Egyptians?" Will asked.

"yes and no... It's complicated. They're more like a part of an entirely different system..." Nico was beginning to struggle.

Will lightly sighed, "I wonder why we haven't encountered them before. You've been all over the world, Sunshine, are you sure you've never encountered them before."

"Certain."

"Then why now?" Will asked quietly, though not expecting an answer.

Nico thought for a moment, "Has anyone who left camp recently seen anything?"

"Clarisse is out right now, we can ask her when she gets back. Lou going to some sort of meeting tomorrow... something about Maria's murder." Will explain.

"Maria, the Demeter girl? She died?" Nico perked up, a knot in his stomach. He hadn't noticed.

"Yeah... it was some sort of sword wound... but Lou says she'll handle it, whatever that means. She and Maria were pretty close, after all."

"When's the funeral?" Nico hadn't really known Maria except as a friend of Lou's, but he still felt awful that he hadn't picked up anything about a demigod dying, especially if it was close by.

"Sometime tomorrow afternoon, the Hecate Cabin and Demeter Cabin are working together on the shroud..." Will trailed off.

Nico leaned into Will, his mind still jumbled mess, trying to figure out what was happening but there was one more thing.

"Will, I have an awful feeling that whatever this is, its only the beginning."

"Then let's hope everything will be okay in the end."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alec was a mess, a stressed out, tired, caffeinated mess. First, there was the situation with the kid, who had since somehow escaped, then there was the recent string of downworlder murders. The murders were almost indiscriminate, but linking them were violent and extreme messages left behind and the method of killing, a sword. Now, there were a few demon attacks on Downworlders to add to that rising number, where there were never any traces of actual demons. And finally, Jace was following a buff girl with a spear on her back throughout Manhattan.

Alec just wanted a nap... a long, magically induced nap.

Alec couldn't tell if it was a good thing or not when they finally lost track of the girl, but Alec was thankful none the less that he and Jace could continue their actual assignment. They were on their way to meet with a witness, Alec going there to talk to them, Jace there as protection. The witness was a mundane with the Sight, and annoyingly difficult to track down. The only way they were able to find her was because she went back to the scene a few days later and someone saw her. Even then, someone had to convince her to meet up with them, just do they could talk. Alec was exhausted from just thinking about it.

Alec glanced at the meeting place, a small cafe a few blocks from Long Island, boasting proudly about their sandwiches. There were relatively few mundanes around the establishment and seemed to be even fewer inside, but either way, Alec's stomach twisted in apprehension, suddenly envious of Jace. Here he was, dressed up nicely (Magnus didn't let him out otherwise), on his way to meet a girl in a cafe. It just... didn't sit right with him. Meanwhile, Jace was in gear, glamoured to be invisible to mundanes.

A small bell chimed their entrance, and a tired-looking teen glanced up from his phone behind the counter.

"Hi, welcome to Kimmy's Cafe, can I get you anything?" he said so monotonously, Alec was almost insulted if he wasn't already uncomfortable himself.

"I'll have an Italian Sub," Alec ordered.

"And a mango smoothie," Jace chimed.

Alec groaned, "And a small mango smoothie," Alec added. Jace huffed in indignation.

The worker gave him a look for his emphasis on the word 'small', "Ok, have a seat. Your order will be out in a few minutes."

Alec went to glance around the cafe for their witness, but a tug from Jace caught his attention, "Back right corner, in the booth by herself."

Alec saw her then, not noticing her before. She had dark brown hair and was munching on her own order, but carefully watched them, both of them, as Alec and Jace drew closer. Alec slid into the booth with her, while Jace took up residence on the bare wall next to them. he noticed her dark green eyes and suntanned skin. there was a leather corded necklace around her neck, lined with a small collection of handmade wooden beads. She was young too, probably around 17.

"Hi, I'm Alec. You know why I'm here right?" Alec asked, just to make sure he had the right girl.

"Yeah, you're one of those shadow-cops, here to interrogate me about the murder that I witnessed." She said, her tone kept close and flat.

Alec knew this wasn't going to be fun, but there was also her indifference to the fact that she had witnessed a murder. It... didn't sit right with him. Didn't mundanes normally cause a panic about murders?

"Yeah... but I don't want to interrogate you," Alec defended himself, "I just want to ask you what you saw so we can get a lead to who's murdering all these people."

She seemed satisfied with his answer, and leaned into the back of her booth, grabbing a fry from her plate, "Well, I was walking by when I felt something was off, then when I glanced into an alley, there was this cloaked figure, all black, almost to the ground, and this guy making out with some girl. Through it was weird, then the hooded guy pulls out the sword, like a massive sword with a black blade, and skewers them both. After that, I bolted before he could notice."

Something wasn't adding up, Alec through, "When we got the report to investigate and the Silent brothers arrived, there was only one body, not two." Alec stated.

The report read that there was only a half-fae boy found at the scene, the corpse of the girl wasn't at the scene. There was also no evidence that a body had been dragged away by whoever murdered them either. But there had been evidence that the fae boy had been stabbed through the back and into the wall, the sword embedding into the wall, leaving a mark. Alec was going to ask if there were the blood of multiple people at the scene or on the body.

"You wouldn't happen to know what happened to the girl, right?" Alec decided to ask.

Her face seemed to grow tense and she swallowed, "No... I left as soon as they were murdered, but I just know they died in each other's arms..."

Alec gave a sad nod, but the logical part of his mind wanted to argue that she was lying. She knew the girl, didn't she...? Alec didn't want to press into the matter of dead friends.

The tired teen from the counter walked over to their table and set down a fair-sized sandwich and a small mango smoothie. After he walked away, Jace removed himself from the wall, and grabbed the smoothie, meeting Alec's eyes as he did so. Jace knew she was lying too, but he didn't say anything either. They were interested in the murderer, not the location of a corpse, as cold as that did sound.

Alec wrapped up his sandwich in the paper it came served in, intending to eat back at the Institute and give a portion to Isabelle.

"Thank you for your help, Ms...?" Alec realized he never caught her name.

"My name's Lou Ellen Blackwater. What's your and mango-smoothie's name?" Lou asked.

Alec through for a moment, she had a name similar to that of a Shadowhunter, but he'd never heard of the Blackwaters before. It was uncommon for a mundane to have a name like that, but not unheard of.

"I'm Alec Lightwood, and he's Jace Herondale," Alec introduced. Lou gave a nod, seemingly satisfied.

"I'd like to know when the murderer is caught, it'd be reassuring to know that there's no longer a cloaked swordsman skewering people." Her green eyes grew dark, almost shifting in color to a black-emerald from their pine color before.

Suddenly, Lou stood up, staring at something in front of the shop. Alec reacted as well, stiffening at whatever could make her react like that. Most importantly, Jace went for a blade, prepping to actually do something, but there was nothing outside the window, not when Alec glanced back, and Jace now just looked confused, turning to Lou.

"What'd you see?" Jace asked.

"Nothing, it's just time for me to go," Lou said tautly, gathering her few things across the table and putting what was left of her food into her bag. She got up from the table and took a few steps away before Alec called out to her.

"I'm not supposed to, but I'll do my best to let you know when he's been caught." Alec said, and Lou returned with a tense smile.

"Thank you, Alec Lightwood." Lou said, before quickly walking out, her stuff jostling in her bag as she fled with a strange assortment of sound.

Alec watched as Jace paused for a moment, before stalking her out a few seconds after. He slipped out of the shop, only to return quickly, seemingly disgruntled.

"She'd gone, vanished." Jace answered Alec's unspoken question.

Alec only sighed, what was with this week and strange teens?

Valentine had finally found what he needed, after a few complicated weeks of searching, searching though a world he didn't belong to but would conquer and cleanse all the same. Demigods were difficult to hunt down, even finding just one took him this long. He found it frustrating that such odd creatures existed, with the blood of the Greek gods flowing through their veins, yet perfectly hidden within the mundane world, yet also possessing combat abilities to rival a Nephilim.

Valentine no longer considered himself to be just a Nephilim, he was God's Chosen... a crusader sent to cleanse this world of the impure. But the demigods didn't concern him since they weren't related to demons, a mixing of blood, but a tolerable one. He wondered if they were able to become an army like the Nephilim never were, and he would have his army. It was one of the things he was promised after he completed this errand.

Now, he had never planned to simply kill the girl, that had completely been an accident. Valentine had seen her making out with that fae-boy and a fit of rage had taken over him, as it had been recently, so he had skewered them both with a quick blow, severing the boy's spine and through his heart, while piercing through the girl's throat, unintentionally, and Phaesphoros embedded into the wall.

The fits of rage he had experienced recently irked him beyond comparison, triggered by the appearance of any sort of downworlder. If they were alone, he'd simply kill them, in groups, he would just sit there and seeth, mentally plotting on how he could take out every one of them, but his common sense stopped him. One could get away if he was sloppy, recognize him and distort his plans, complicating everything. That was the only thing holding him back. That didn't apply to lone wanderers. They were easy prey, and he had no reason to hesitate. He planned to wipe them all out anyway.

Valentine removed his blade, flicking the blood off of it, and grabbed a vial from beneath his cloak. He collected a sample of the girl's blood and corked off the container. He had planned to interrogate the child, but this would still not go to waste, he could use her blood to find others like her. All he had to do was find another demigod.

He stiffened, freezing when he heard something impact the wall near the entrance of the alley. There was no one there, but he suddenly had the feeling of being watched, an enraged and mortified stare bored into him from a place he couldn't see. So, he left, not wanting to be spotted or the intent acted upon, fled back into the shadows of the alley.

~~~~

As soon as he was gone, Lou Ellen dropped the control of the mist around her, falling to her knees in both exhaustion and shock. Maria Arbolia was dead, one of her close friends, close enough that Lou had agreed to keep her boyfriend a secret from camp, including her meetings with him. Now she was dead, and Lou had no idea who was to blame.

They'd just come so Maria could have a nice date with August, and so he could see his "flower princess", now he was dead too, their final moment sealed with a kiss and a painless death. Painless or not, it was a meaningless death. The demigods who had died in the Wars understood what they were getting into, and to a degree, Maria knew her meetings with August were dangerous as well, but not like this. Monsters always followed them, not sword-murders.

Lou slowly pulled them apart, her heart clenching as she got their blood on her hands and clothes, and collected Maria in her arms. She hated to separate them... but she had to. She also didn't want to leave August dead in an alley all alone, but she had no choice. She didn't particularly like him, with his circuitous speech and his pointed ears that she could see but Maria couldn't.

People were getting closer, Lou could tell, and the mortal police were going to find them soon. This wasn't the most abandoned alley on the outskirts of East Manhattan, people were bound to notice. She collected Maria in her arms, staining her clothes even further in her friend's blood. She heavily coated herself in Mist, so thick the air around her distorted, it was the most potent cloak she had ever put up. Then she broke off into a run, panic and adrenaline empowering her to run with the extra weight in her arms that she would never drop.

She didn't mind the blood, but it brought back memories of the wars. This wasn't the first time Lou had carried the body of a dead friend, and she doubted it would be the last, that was just the life of a demigod.

But if she had any say in the matter, she wouldn't mind getting the blood of her friend's murderer on her hands too.

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(This was a long A/N, sorry)