Chapter 18

Mia carefully placed their orders on the table.

Noticing the obvious tension between the two men, she smartly decided not to tarry, avoiding the usual silly pleasantries one engaged in that would perhaps earn them more tips. Having emptied the tray in her hands, she slightly bowed her head, wishing the two men a happy meal, before quickly leaving their table.

She wasn't stupid, of course she knew exactly who the two men were. Ragnor Fell, although very grumpy, antisocial even, was actually very nice and wouldn't hurt a fly unless otherwise provoked. Magnus Bane on the other hand, although charming and seemingly sociable, him you had to watch out for. The High Warlock of Brooklyn had no problem seperating a person's flesh from their bones. At least that was what she'd heard. Not to mention Luke had been very diligent in his warnings not to step on this person's toes.

Magnus and Ragnor nodded their heads, thanking Mia.

The two once again settled down, Magnus picking at his food. Honestly he didn't really have much of an appetite anymore, plus he felt that it would be best to continue the rest of their conversation somewhere more private. So, after indulging Ragnor for a while longer and forcing himself to eat a few bites, Magnus asked for the remainder of his food to be made up to go.

Having noticed the servers' nervousness and not wanting to leave too bad of an impression, Magnus made sure to leave a hefty tip behind.

The two warlocks walked out of the restaurant and into an abandoned alleyway. There, Magnus quickly opened a portal and the two of them headed back to his apartment.

"I think you should just give into her and look at the surrogates," Magnus was saying as they stepped into his living room. "Who knows, it might just work out."

"Even if I wanted to before, do you honestly think I'd want to now after everything you've just told me." Ragnor glared at Magnus as if he'd suddenly grown two heads. "Now is definitely not the best time to bring a child into the world."

Ragnor headed to couch, while Magnus made his way over to the bar. "Now, enough about my problems. We obviously have much bigger issues to worry about, so let's get back to that. What exactly is it that you need me to do?"

Magnus brought two glasses of drinks over to join Ragnor. As he sat down, placing one of the glasses on the coffee table in front his friend, he let out a tired sigh.

"We have demons secrectly scouring the other realms trying to find her. So far we've come up empty handed. There's only one place left where she could be. I cannot very well summon demons here to search, that would obviously alert the shadowhunters," Magnus explained. "This is where you come in. There's definitely someone here helping her; a warlock. I need you to find out who it is. If we can find out who's helping her, then perhaps they can lead us to her whereabouts."

Ragnor finally took a sip of his drink. "This isn't going to be easy." He thought over everything for a moment, tapping his fingers against his chin. "And I trust you want to keep this under wraps for as long as possible."

"That is a given. Which is why for now I don't intend on telling the Council anymore than is absolutely necessary. It's difficult to know who we can trust right now. Someone has obviously helped her regain her full powers and their using some kind of cloaking spell that even I haven't been able to break through." Magnus emptied his glass in frustration, frowning at the bitter taste. "Father has already placed Edom on high alert. We're preparing for war, Ragnor..." After Magnus said those words, he couldn't help but paused for a moment, as if allowing them to fully sink in. "The first in my lifetime."

If Ragnor didn't before, he was now truly begining to grasp seriousness of the situation. "Is your father really that worried?" He couldn't help but ask, hoping that they were all just overreacting.

"There have false alarms in the past as well as petty conflicts between the princes, which you're well aware of. This time however, Dad's not leaving anything to chance. And honestly with everything that we've gathered thus far, I have to agree with him. I've even secretly placed a protection spell on Alexander last night, as well as strengthen the wards in the Institute. Nothing demonic is getting in that old church without me being alerted."

Ragnor could not help but chuckle, his laugh laced with a sort of nervous distress. "Maybe you should place a tracking device on him and put a camera in his room as well."

"You think I should?" Magnus asked in all seriousness. "Although he does have his parabatai rune, and that thing is it's owning tracking device....not to mention he only ever leaves the Institute in my company." Magnus thought about Ragnor's camera suggestion for moment but then quickly shook his head. "No. He would never agree to it, and he would never forgive me if I went behind his back. He already feels like he's a prisoner. This would just make..."

"For Hell's sake!" Ragnor exclaimed, abruptly cutting Magnus off. "Magnus..." he stressed, quickly trying to reel back in his friend's paranoia. "I was only kidding. I prefer you when you were acting nonchalant," Ragnor joked, placing a calming hand on Magnus' shoulder. "Nothing will happen to your mate. He's safe where he is, protected by his fellow shadowhunters. You're father has things in Edom under control and is duly ready to ward off any attack. Let's just focus and do what we need to do here. Alright? You get ready for your meeting, and I'll go see about a warlock."

After discussing things for a little while longer, Ragnor finally left, leaving Magnus alone with his thoughts. The alpha got busy right away, fearing that he would drive himself crazy if he allowed his mind to wander even for a minute. He was running low on a few important potions, so he headed to his apothecary. There is where he would stay until it was time for his meeting.

~ooOoo~

Alec, Jace, Izzy, Simon and Clary, all sat together having lunch at their usual table in the cafeteria.

"So where are you guys heading?" Izzy was asking.

After filling their trays and sitting down, Clary had began telling Izzy about her's and Jace's plans to have a night out.

"We haven't really decided yet," said Clary. "Honestly I'm just happy at the mere prospect of being able to do something normal for once. It's been such a long while since we've had a date night."

Izzy nodded in agreement. Alec couldn't help but feel a little bit guilty as he listened to them. While his friends were all busy putting their lives on the line, night after night fighting demons, what was he doing?

"Maybe we should do something as well?" Izzy glanced across the table at Simon. "I need to let loose and set this town on fire," she proclaimed, excitedly.

"I think you meant paint the town red," Simon corrected, quickly pouring water on Izzy's fire. "And for the safety of the city and all of it's dwellers, I think it would be best if you just stayed home."

"Come on baby." Izzy pouted as she reached across the table and took hold of one of Simon's hands. "I'll be on my best behavior. Promise. No craziness. Even you'll have a great time."

Alec couldn't help but cringe at the couple's display, Jace and Clary snickering at them.

"Please..." Izzy begged as Simon looked to the others for help. But they all quickly looked away, as if saying; you're on your own with this one buddy.

Sighing audibly, "Can't we just stay in and play some video ga...?" Simon started to suggest, but had to quickly swallow the rest of his words at Izzy's death stare. If looks could kill... The poor innocent beta would've been dust in the wind.

Izzy stared at her mate for a while longer before she continued. "Anyways..." She settled back down, releasing Simon's hand, much to the embarrassed beta's relief. "Too bad Magnus isn't here, else this would've been the perfect oppertunity for a tripple date." Then, as if she was remembering something, Izzy's gaze focused in on Alec. "Alec," she drawled non too sweetly. "I'm suspecting you. Why didn't you come to training this morning?" She of course did not need Alec to confirm her suspicions. One look at the omega's face and light redness tinting his ears, and she had her answers. Izzy stood up, reached across the table and smacked Alec on his shoulder. "Magnus came by this morning, didn't he? That's why you were couped up in your room all morning."

"Wha...?" Jace and the others all shot him a look of disbelief.

Alec did not correct their assumptions. It was best if they only thought that Magnus came by this morning, and not that the warlock had infact spent the night. Alec was in no mood for a lecture...and from his little sister of all people.

"You know what this means right?" Asked Izzy, obviously planning something. They all looked at her expectantly. "With Magnus being back, we can do the tripple date."

Alec groaned. "Iz, I'm sure Magnus will have a lot of work he needs to catch up on. Plus I'm pretty sure that Jace and Clary were just trying to have a couple's night out before you steam rolled them and invited yourself along."

"Thanks bro," Jace finally spoke up. He had been secretly elbowing Clary this entire time, trying to get her to pull the brakes on Izzy's plans. Unfortunately they all knew how Izzy was whenever she got an idea in her head; the feisty alpha would just keep going, full speed ahead.

Izzy looked over at Clary seeming genuinely surprise. "Is this true? Did I really just..." She gestured between Jace and Clary. "Crash your date?"

Clary smiled awkwardly. "Sort of," she admitted. "But it's ok, I don't mind." She quickly added, much to Jace's annoyance.

"No," said Izzy. "You guys deserve a couple's night out. The last thing I wanna do is intrude. Simon and I will just do our own thing tonight. But..." Izzy emphazed, pointing a finger at Alec. "We're still going on that group date, so you better tell Magnus about it. I've barely spent anytime with that fabulous brother inlaw of mine. Not to mention we still haven't had a chance to properly celebrate you finding your mate yet. With the extra free time, not to mention that magic potion you've been taking, this is the perfect opportunity for all of us to hang out together....outside of the Institute."

"She's right," Jace agreed. "It's about time that Magnus really met the 'gang'. I've barely had a chance to threaten him properly."

The others chuckled, nodding in agreement as they all started chiming in one by one; Clary exaggerating about how Magnus is always whisking Alec away to some faraway unkown destination, and Simon stating how he had a few history questions that he was just dying to ask Magnus.

"You've been selfishly keeping him all to yourself," said Izzy.

Alec simply rolled his eyes at their antics. "Fine, fine," he agreed, sighing in exasperation.

They continued chatting lively as they ate their lunch, discussing where would be a good place to go on their group date, when Alec suddenly remembered something he'd wanted to ask. "By the way..." he interrupted Clary who was telling them about this great new restaurant she'd heard about. "When did Raj return from Rangle island?"

Izzy immediately let out an ugh sound, as if the mere mention of that person's name annoyed her to no end. "The bastard did a very good job pleading his case before the Clave, Izzy explained. "He claimed that he was provoked. And you know how the Clave are. Since each time he acted out of line it was towards a downworlder, they decided to let him off with only a warning strike on his record."

"Oh." Was all Alec could say. He didn't even know why he was surprised. With how the Clave felt about Magnus being his mate, despite currently not being able to do anything about it, they most certainly would not go out of their way to punish a fellow shadowhunter, who's actions they probably agreed with. Even if Raj did insult him as well.

Alec decided to drop the issue. It really wasn't worth bothering about. If that person ever disrespected him or his mate like that ever again, he would just have to deal with the matter personally.

~ooOoo~

The days continued to pass by quietly and without incident. The trees had finally shed the last of their leaves and the chill of winter had slowly seeped it's way into veins of the city. It was unfortunate that Magnus could not enjoy this kind of respite. Infact, the lack of activity was what was bothering him.

Everything in Edom was calm...for a hell demension anyways, and so far Ragnor had not found out anything substantial. It wasn't until just this morning that he'd called Magnus, informing him that he was finally starting to make some headway.

Through a process of elimination, Ragnor had managed to cross those warlocks who lacked the sort of power needed to cast the kind of cloaking spell that Lilith was using, off his list of suspects. Doing this, he'd managed to narrow the list down to a dangerous few, and had currently placed eyes on all of them.

Of course, the people he had trailing said suspects, were wholly unaware of the deeper reason as to why they'd been hired for such a job in the first place, and only knew that they were to follow their targets and report back him. They were expected to give Ragnor a full account of the suspects daily activities, down to the last minute detail; when they eat, when they sleep, even when they visited the bathroom.

As for Magnus and Alec's relationship, everything was pretty much the same. Other than their new heightened level of intimacy, the only thing different, was that Alec no longer pushed Magnus to open up about certain topics that the warlock was clearly not ready to discuss with him; more specifically, whatever it was that was going on in Edom. The two of them had formed a sort of silent understanding about the situation. If Magnus was ok with talking about it, then he would, if not, then Alec would not pursue the issue. And although Alec felt like Magnus was keeping something important from him, he was nevertheless determined to be patient and understanding with his mate. He knew that Magnus would talk to him about whatever it was that was going on whenever he was ready.

Another thing that hadn't changed, was Magnus' daily visit to the Institute. In fact, that was exactly where the warlock was currently headed. A little over a week ago Alec had informed him that his sister had been pestering him about setting up a group date with him. That fiesty little sister of his mate had even accosted him about said group date when she'd felt that Alec hadn't carried her message convincingly enough.

Magnus stepped out of a portal in front the Institute.

Despite his relationship with Alec, he still wasn't able to simply walk in, and so he was escorted by one of the guards to wait in the entrance hall. Of course he could always simply portal in if he wanted to, however, considering that this was a formal visit and he didn't want to give away his little secret, he thought it better not to do so. And so, Magnus pulled out his cellphone and called Alec to inform him that he was waiting for him.

Alec was already ready, and had been waiting in his room. Once he received Magnus' call, he texted the others to let them know that he was ready as he went to meet Magnus.

Like always, Magnus' heart quickened at the sight of his gorgeous mate.

"Hey," Alec greeted, Magnus meeting him half way.

"Hey to you too," Magnus returned, giving Alec a chaste kiss on his lips before he pulled him into his embrace, not minding one bit the two guards scorn filled gaze. If anything, he relished it. "I missed you," he whispered as he pulled back to take in Alec's appearance.

Alec looked dapper in a pair of black slim fitted jeans tucked into black high top military style boots, a dark gray sweater, and a black mid thigh length overcoat. A thick black scarf finished off the look. Magnus was salivating. However, the fashion crazed part of his brain just couldn't help but think about how much hotter Alec would look with just a bit of color. He was going to get more color into Alec's closet, no matter how painful it was going be.

Alec smiled at Magnus' words. "I missed you too," he confessed as he took in Magnus' appearance as well.

The warlock wore a combination of earth tones. Greens, browns and burgandies were very fashionably layered on top of each other. A dark olive waist coat sat beautifully atop his wine colored button down shirt and maroon colored pants. An overly embelished dark brown suade jacket along with a scarf and other accessories, finished off the look.

Magnus brought a hand up, combing his fingers through Alec's hair as he tried taming the beautifully wild locks. "Why didn't you use the hair gel I got for you?" He asked, trying to get a particularly stubborn lock of hair to keep out of Alec's eyes.

"I forgot I had it," Alec shrugged. To be completely honest, he really wasn't a hair gel kind of person. He always either ended up putting too much, which just looked messy, or he put too little, which didn't really have the desired effect. The only reason why he'd ever even bothered with such things in the past were to indulge his sister, and now, his mate.

"Let me summon it for you," Magnus suggested. He was about to snap his fingers when Alec quickly grabbed his hand.

"That's not necessary. Let's just let it be for tonight."

Magnus gave him a look that said he wanted to argue, but just then, they heard the others coming.

Izzy was looking beyond gorgeous in a classic little black dress. The sexy number was cut high above her knees with a few peekaboo lace covered cut outs at the sides as well as the neck and chest area. She paired it with a pair of black ankle boots and a long black, belted ankle length coat. A few accessories finished off her look. Clary was similarly dressed, though a bit more conservative in her own choice of little black dress. Simon and Jace were also donning the black on black look as well, with Jace's stand out piece being his black leather jacket, and Simon's being the silly video game design he had on his sweater.

"Magnus," Izzy greeted, leaning in to exchange one of those silly little double cheek kisses that didn't actually touch one's cheeks. As she pulled back, Clary awkwardly followed suit.

Simon, for some reason attempted a bro hug, whilst Jace, simply jutted his chin in acknowledgment, his gaze fierce as it met Magnus'.

Magnus couldn't help but snicker on the inside. He'd long since gotten used to Jace's constant overprotective 'big-little' brother roleplay and didn't let it bother him. He was confident that as it was with Izzy in the beginning, it was only a matter of time before Jace came around and accepted him fully as well, dropping his silly little act.

With all of the pleasantries out of the way, jackets buttoned and scarfs tied, the group made their way outside. Alec drunk the potion that Magnus had created for him to block his scent and Izzy brought up a map on her phone with the address of the restaurant. After deciding on a safe location within walking distance of the restaurant, Magnus quickly created a portal. Clary and Jace stepped through first, followed by Simon and Izzy, then, with their hands entwined, Magnus and Alec stepped through.

~ooOoo~