Prologue

"Alec..." Magnus sighed contentedly, running his fingers over his lover's chest. The warlock marveled at the beauty of the younger man's skin, how it seemed to sparkle in the moonlight—though in a way that was completely unlike any vampires in the dreams of ridiculous fangirls. No, Alec's skin was a kind of quiet beauty, punctuated, no, adorned by the scars of former marks. Magnus loved looking at them, the stories of battles in his lover's young life. He'd seen so many that sometimes Magnus forgot how young he really was, barely two decades; Magnus always thought of his as his equal.

"Are you going to keep staring, or will you take me some time in this century?' Alec smirked up at the warlock, his own fingers teasing the other man's skin, dancing around the waistband of his briefs. Magnus leaned back a little, appearing to consider it.

"This century's still young, you know. I've got time. I'm a patient man…" Alec's hand slipped underneath the cloth to where the warlock's member was already hard.

"On second thought…"

Chapter One: It Started One Morning

Alec looked at the cherry wood kitchen table, lost in thought. He was tired, of course, it was pretty early, and Magnus had seen to it that he hadn't gotten much sleep last night. And then he'd woken up with the warlock when an urgent all had come through from a client, and for some reason, Magnus had taking the situation uncharacteristically seriously, even at 3:17 a.m. This both surprised and worried Alec, which is why he was now sitting, half dressed in just pajama bottoms, at the kitchen table, falling asleep over a quickly-cooling cup of coffee.

Alec glanced at the clock on his phone. 5:58. More than two and a half hours Magnus had been gone…

The shadowhunter shook his head. His own demon-hunting missions frequently took that long, so why was he watching the clock? Surely an emergency that actually concerned the High Warlock of Brooklyn would take a few hours, and anyway, Magnus had quite a few years of experience. He could handle himself, as he had told Alec when the younger man had insisted on getting up with him. "Go back to sleep," he'd said. "This could take a while." But he wouldn't say what "this" was, no matter how many times Alec had asked.

He took a sip out of the blue ceramic mug and winced. It was completely cold, but it was still better java than he'd get at the institute. Maryse was gone to Alicante, and somehow Isabelle even managed to screw up coffee. Alec stood up and trudged over to the microwave, carefully setting his mug inside and pressing the reheat button. He glanced out the window at the pre-dawn sky, and yawned. The late June weather was making it hot already, the city getting its usual summer stickiness. Alec was glad he was inside the cool apartment.

Just as his coffee finished with an annoying beep, Alec got a text from Izzy:
demon Pandemonium, b there in 10.

Alec sighed and downed the rest of the coffee as he heading into the bedroom for his gear. This would wake him up.

The demon turned out to be four demons, all attracted to the excess human energy at the club from a few hours before. As Alec fought the last demon, he tripped and rolled in some ichor before executing the last upward stab. This one sprayed even more ichor all over his filthy gear, and Alec groaned inwardly. He would really have to do laundry when he got back to Magnus'. He stood up as the demon collapsed and started to shrink and disappear, gasping for breath. Feeling a little off-center, he turned to Isabelle, who was giving him a slightly concerned look.

"What?"

Izzy's face changed to a smirk. Lost your balance there. Trip over the invisible demon corpse?"

"Shut up, Isabelle." Alec glared at her with cold blue eyes.

She tossed her hair over her shoulder, her own gear immaculately free of dirt or ichor, as always, and looked at her nails. "Oh relax, I'm only joking. Pick up your stele so we can get away from that ichor smell, god, you reek—"

But Alec didn't catch the rest. At the mention of the smell, his stomach had flipped and contracted sickeningly; he turned and stumbled over to an alleyway garbage can, ripped the lid off, and vomited, gripping the rim as he shook with each retch. He'd just had a few bites of bagel to supplement his coffee, but his stomach rebelled against him violently. After about a minute, he let go and sank to the ground, shaking slightly with adrenaline. Eyes closed, the pale skin of the shadowhunter seemed washed out next to his black hair and gear, his mouth a thin line of pressed lips.

Isabelle had been watching, her own mouth covered by her hands. She hesitated, then softly, "Alec?"

"I'm fine," came an equally quiet, somewhat hoarse reply. Izzy swallowed before trying again.

"Are you sure? Have you been feeling sick the whole time/. What did you eat at Magnus'? He didn't feed you some weird exotic warlock stew, did—?"

"I'm fine, Isabelle." Alec's eyes snapped open and he started to get up, brushing off his sister's movements to help him. "Probably just breathed in too many demon fumes or something. I feel better now. Really," he added, seeing Isabelle open her mouth to protest. "I'm just going to go back to Magnus' and wash off. Don't worry about it. And don't," he paused, "don't tell mom. I'm fine."

Isabelle frowned, but conceded. "Fine. But I'm walking you home. Or mom and Jace hear about this."

Alec shook his head and started walking. "Fine."

Izzy didn't come in. Alec managed to get rid of her at the door, before she could tell Magnus what happened. He watched her go, trying not to focus on the smell of his clothes. He had been telling the truth when he said he felt better, but he still didn't want to take any chances. Alec walked up the stairs where it found the main door to Magnus' apartment unlocked; so he was home.

"You reek." The centuries old warlock didn't open his eyes from where he was draped across the couch, boots still on, silky shirt untucked and unbuttoned. Alec looked away from his lover's chest and grunted softly, not opening his mouth, lest Magnus smell something else.

Instead, Alec ducked in to the bathroom where he turned on a hot shower and brushed his teeth, trying to be quick but thorough before stepping under the water. Unlike his boyfriend, Alec really wasn't one for soaking in long showers with grapefruit scrub. He typically got in, washed off, got out, looking at his body as little as possible as he went. It wasn't that he hated his body, but he'd spent so many years trying to be unnoticeable so people would realize he was gay that he wasn't in the habit of noticing himself. And then, Magnus noticed him out of everyone else, and it was both a shock and pleasant surprise.

Alec grabbed a bar of soap and started scrubbing his hair and body. The hot water streamed down his chest and back and he shuddered, suddenly realizing how good the water felt on his tired muscles. He couldn't remember ever feeling so tired after a demon-slaying… Okay, maybe that time a few summers ago when they'd fought that Greater Demon in Clary's old house. Alec had eventually passed out, only coming to after Magnus worked his magic—literally. The shadowhunter smiled as he recalled how Magnus had been the first thing he saw when he woke up in the sick wing. It was that day that Alec decided he wanted Magnus to be the first thing he saw every time he opened his eyes.

Alec shook his head, feeling a little dizzy, and turned off the water. Grabbing the towel rack to steady himself, he stepped out of the shower and started to dry off, his mind wandering to the warlock in the living room, all his thoughts of being sick totally pushed out of his head.