- 6th July 2008 -

"Come now Evangeline, it's like you're not even trying." Hodge Starkweather commented with a smirk. It was Evie's eighteenth birthday and he had woken her early, marching her down to the training room before the sleep had even been rubbed from her dark eyes. They'd been sparring ever since and now stood opposite one another, chests heaving with exertion and sweat glistening on their rune covered skin.

"Are you kidding me?" Evie gasped, ducking just in time to dodge a flying punch and flashing Hodge a smug smile when she straightened up, she may still have been half asleep and was still yet to have her first coffee of the morning, but her reflexes were as impeccable as ever. "We've been at this for hours." She whined, pouting her bottom lip ever so slightly. Hodge's gaze flickered to it for a fraction of a second before he shifted it elsewhere.

"Demons don't wait for you to roll out of bed at 2pm, Evangeline…" Hodge quipped, turning away from her momentarily as he walked across the room, removing his tshirt as he walked and tossing it onto a chair on top of his sweater which he had discarded almost immediately after entering the room.

Evie bit her tongue, choosing not to correct him for using her full name. With most people, the use of her full name came part and parcel with a chastising of some sort, but not Hodge, the way Hodge said her name was completely different. He didn't say it with disdain, or with any sort of irritation. Instead he said it softly, as though he were taking care with every syllable. Hodge Starkweather spoke her name like it was his favourite word in all of existence, and every time he did it Evie got a feeling in the pit of her stomach that turned her legs to jelly and made every hair on her body stand on end. Something which she only just about managed to hide, although she was pretty sure he noticed it, he was a particularly perceptive shadowhunter after all.

With his back turned, Evie allowed herself a silent moment. One in which she wasn't a shadowhunter, trained to always be on guard and ready for the next attack, which could come at any moment from anywhere. Instead, she was a girl who had just turned eighteen, who happened to be in the same room with a particularly attractive, and only partially clothed, man. Her dark eyes drank him in, from the defined muscles of his back, to the runes that littered almost every inch of his skin. Completely caught up in the same fantasies she'd daydreamed about for years, Evie wasn't quick enough to look away before Hodge turned back to face her. There was a moment of eye contact, where neither of them dared to blink. The room fell so silent that Evie felt as though she could hear her blood pumping through her veins and she was certain the temperature raised by at least a couple of degrees. However, almost as quickly as the moment had come about, it ended when Hodge tore his gaze from hers and moved to pick up his weapon of choice, the chakrams.

He ran at her then, at full speed and without holding back an ounce of his strength. Evie watched him carefully, planting her feet firmly on to ground and holding her own until the very last second when she twisted her upper body, dodging his advances and tripping him in the process. Hodge stumbled, and fell to his knees, dropping his weapons. Taking his moment of weakness as her own moment to strike, Evie placed her right foot between his legs and planted a hand firmly on one of his shoulder. She kicked at his knees, and pushed down hard on his shoulder so that he now lay flat on his back. She pinned his each of his arms to the floor with either one of her knees which were placed snugly at either side of his waist, her hands palms down against the ground inches from his face.

Evangeline's breathing was perfectly steady, unlike Hodge's whose caught in his throat as she leant down towards him, so that her dark hair, which had been tied back into a French plaint fell forwards and the ends of it tickled at the skin of his face. Evie could feel the way his chest rose and fell heavily between her legs and although she couldn't be sure whether this was due to exertion and the shock of suddenly being pinned to the ground by someone much smaller than he was, or for a different reason entirely, she didn't really care.

Hodge strained his neck, leaning upwards and for a second Evie thought he might kiss her, but in the same movement he freed his right hand from its pinned position beneath her knee and double tapped the floor in surrender. Evie raised a shaped brow in silent challenge, and when she was met with a steely expression she gave in and shuffled backwards, sitting back on her haunches and tilting her head to the side ever so slightly.

"…and so the student becomes the master." She mused, bowing her head and bringing her hands together as though in prayer as she spoke.

Hodge scoffed. "Hardly, that was luck, I was distracted."

"Distracted?" She raised a brow again and could've sworn she saw the hints of a blush peppering Hodge's defined cheekbones. "Or maybe, I'm just better than you now. I wasn't gonna stay that little kid from China forever you know."

"Believe me," Hodge sat up, "I know you're not."

"Ahem," a voice from the far side of the training room caused both Hodge and Evie to whip their heads towards its owner. At the sight of Isabelle Lightwood, leaning casually against the doorframe Hodge's expression turned to one of embarrassment laced with just a hint of guilt, like the child who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Evie on the other hand, grinned like a Cheshire cat and clambered up from her seated position on Hodge's lap and bounded towards Izzy. "I wasn't interrupting anything was I?" Isabelle smirked.

"What?" Evie questioned with genuine innocence, glancing towards Hodge who sat bemused on the floor, no longer looking at the girls but instead dead ahead of him, as though he were contemplating something existential. "No, nothing, training. I, I will have you know my dear Isabelle, just flattened Hodge's ass."

"Oh I'll bet you did." Izzy mused with another sly smirk, watching Hodge carefully over Evie's shoulder. "But if you're all finished here birthday girl, we're needed upstairs. Mom has a mission for me, you and the boys, a wolf gone rogue down town. Apparently he's attacked a couple of mundanes."

"Awesome!" Evie exclaimed, and Izzy pulled a face. "But terrible, obviously, those poor muggles probably scared to death thinking 'winter is coming' and the Starks have sent direwolves after them or something…"

"I…" Izzy was positively flummoxed. "Have absolutely no idea what you're talking about Eve's." Something that, when it came to Evangeline Calloway, was not entirely uncommon.

Evie rolled her eyes, ignoring Isabelle's comment and motioning with her head that they should leave. Izzy didn't need telling twice, and pushed up off of the door fame that she had been leaning on and headed down the corridor towards the elevator that would take them upstairs to the Ops Centre where Alec and Jace were no doubt already waiting for them.

Before following after her friend, Evie turned towards Hodge, who had managed to get himself to his feet and was half way through pulling his tshirt over his head once again, as their training session was clearly over. "Hey," Evie called out to him just as his head emerged from the hole in his black tshirt, his blonde hair dishevelled and falling messily in front of his eyes.

Hodge ran a hand through his sandy hair, pushing it back and out of his face. "Hmm?"

Evie smiled, "I just wanted to say thank you for this morning, even if you did forget my birthday."

"I didn't forget." Hodge mused as he retrieved a small box from the front pocket of the grey hoodie he'd discarded on a chair hours ago.

Evie's eyes widened at the sight of the small black velvet box and she held her breath as Hodge walked towards her. She hesitated for a second when he presented it to her, unsure whether she should even be accepting a gift from him at all. On the one hand, he was her teacher and had been for a number of years, accepting a gift from a teacher could be seen as inappropriate, and certainly unusual. Whilst on the other hand, with all the time that they'd spent training together, she by now considered Hodge Starkweather to be one of her closest friends, a confidante that she would happily pour her heart and soul out to should she need to, and if Alec or Jace were offering her a gift, she wouldn't think twice before accepting it. With that in mind she took the box from Hodge's open palm, and opened it carefully. Inside was a necklace, with a small onyx angelic rune pendant, it was simple but beautiful, much like Evangeline herself.

"Happy birthday Evangeline." There he went, saying her full name again like it was the most precious thing on earth, making Evie's stomach do backflips. He picked up the delicate chain and motioned for her to pull her hair back. Evie obliged, lifting up her French plait so that Hodge could place the chain around her neck and tie it at the back. When he was finished she let her hair down and glanced down towards the pendant which sat just shy of the top of her own angelic rune which was emblazoned in what looked to be black ink on her chest.

"It's beautiful, thank you."

Hodge gave her a small nod, dropping his arms to his sides and pushing his hands into his pockets. "You should go, they'll be waiting for you upstairs."

Evie nodded. "Okay, I'll see you later for the debriefing right?" She asked hopefully.

"You will, it's not like I've got anywhere else to be." His words were said with just a hint of bitterness, something he'd never been able to shake when talking about his inability to leave the New York Institute. Hodge had been bound to stay within the walls of the Institute years ago after being outed as one of Valentine's circle members. Maryse and Robert Lightwood had been outed as much the same, and yet they found themselves the heads of the Institute, free to come and go as they pleased. Hodge was seen as little more than a glorified babysitter and history teacher for the Institutes younger inhabitants, and whilst he did enjoy the company of some of them, namely the dark haired shadowhunter that stood before him, he did desperately crave his freedom.

Rather than get drawn into another debate about how it really could be a lot worse for Hodge, Evie chose to instead back out of the training room slowly before running to catch up with Isabelle who had waited for her by the elevator.

The Lightwood girl clocked Evie's new accessory almost immediately, having a keen eye for these sorts of things, and a sixth sense for anything that even remotely smacked of romance and she gave Evie a knowing look as she called the elevator down to them. "It's very you." She commented nonchalantly.

"Hmm?" Evie glanced down at the pendant, fingering at it before giving Isabelle a pointed look. "Shut up Iz, it's just a necklace."

Isabelle was going to point out that Hodge had failed to get her a gift when she'd turned sixteen a couple of months ago, but instead kept silent and stepped into the elevator alongside Evangeline.

The pair rode up to the Ops Centre in a comfortable silence, and when the elevator doors slid open they were met by Jace and Alec, both of whom stood in the exact same pose, with similar expressions etched upon their handsome features.

"Morning…" Evangeline greeted them both as her and Isabelle stepped out of the elevator and into the main entrance of the Institute.

Jace nodded a quick hello, before turning to talk to Isabelle. Whilst Alec, whose expression was usually brooding and uninterested, gave Evie a warm smile and pulled her into a tight embrace. "Happy birthday Eve's." He mumbled into her hair.

Evie returned the hug before pulling away and linking her arm through Alec's, guiding him towards his mother who stood at one of the workstations, a 3D map of down town Manhattan displayed in front of her.

When they neared his mother, Alec instinctively pulled his arm from Evie's grasp and stood up a little straighter. Acting differently around his parents and Jace was something that Alec had done for years, and was something that Evie found incredibly sad to witness, but was also something that she daren't bring up with Alexander, not until he was ready. Whilst she was close with Isabelle and Jonathan, and always would be, Alec was her closest friend within the institute, and she would never do anything to jeopardise that.

Alexander and Evangeline were rivals. They were the same age, had both grown up the children of prominent clave members, with surnames that carried great respect in the shadowhunter world, and one day one of them would single-handedly run the New York Institute. Despite this, they were friends, best friends at that, and there were no lengths that they wouldn't go for one another. Evie would die for Alec Lightwood and she didn't doubt he'd do the same for her. It was for that reason, that rather than protest that he was pushing her away, instead she moved to stand opposite Maryse at the other side of the work station.

"Well good morning Evangeline, it's good of you to drag yourself out of bed to join us." Maryse announced as her son and Evie positioned themselves around the table. Jace scoffed at his adopted mothers comment and Evie shot him a glare.

"Sorry…it won't happen again." Evie didn't even bother to explain that she'd been up since the crack of dawn, as Maryse would no doubt have questions regarding Hodge and Evie's private training sessions which Evie didn't want to have to answer.

Turning back to the map, Maryse Lightwood enlarged an area of downtown Manhattan. "We last tracked the rogue wolf to the TriBeca area, not far from Rockefeller Park." She explained, pointing out the area on the map despite the fact that the four teenagers that surrounded her knew New York better than Maryse Lightwood ever would. They had grown up here, they may have been born elsewhere, but they were New Yorkers through and through, each and every one of them.

"Is he a tearaway from a local pack? Should we speak to Lucian Graymark?" Alec asked, directing his question towards his mother rather than to the other members of his team.

"No," Evie answered before Maryse had the chance to. "If this was one of Luke's pack we'd know about it, Luke Garroway knows the rules of the accords and he abides by them…"

"Well…" Maryse tried to speak over Evangeline but was silenced by the dark haired shadowhunter when Evie placed both hands on the table before her and shook her head firmly.

"It's an omega. Trust me." Evie enlarged a portion of the map, Rockefeller Park, and pointed it out to her fellow shadowhunters. "I say we start there. A lone wolf in the big city, scares a couple of muggles and wants to get away from it all…there's no way he's heading to Central. This is the place."

Isabelle, who was a couple of years younger than Evangeline, stared up at the elder girl in pure admiration, not only had Evie just stood up to Izzy's mom, which Isabelle found to be truly astonishing, but what she said also made sense. Evie was a natural born leader, and Isabelle didn't doubt that she'd follow Evie Calloway to the ends of the earth if she was asked to. "I think Evie's right."

"You always say that." Alec pointed out, more matter-of-factly than accusingly.

"That's because I'm always right." Evie countered, flashing Alec a cheeky grin. "Right so Iz, you're with me and boys, you're together of course." Alec glanced towards Jace, who winked at him before looking back to Evie for further instructions. "Flank both sides and flush him into the middle?"

The boys nodded in unison, followed by Isabelle a couple of seconds afterwards and after that, the four teenagers left the table and headed to the armoury to gear up, leaving Maryse stood in a dumbfounded silence at the work station. After a moment the Lightwood matriarch closed down the 3D map and turned to watch Evie and Jace pick out a seraph blade each, Isabelle went straight for her whip and Alec retrieved his bow and quiver from its mantle. Whilst Maryse found Evangeline to be a little overconfident and more than a little testing at times, she was incredibly proud of how far she'd come as both a shadowhunter and a leader in the time since she'd left the Beijing Institute behind.

It was still early, and the sun was only just creeping through the cracks between the buildings that lined New York's usually busy streets. There were only a handful of mundanes milling about, some out for jogs first thing in the morning, before they headed into work, some just getting in from a night shift and others who didn't have anywhere else to be than in the street. When she wasn't on a mission, Evie always made a point to stop and speak to the latter, having noticed that very few people, Nephilim or mundane, took any notice of the cities' abundance of homeless and rough sleepers, whereas Evie found them to be not only fascinating, as she found most mundanes to be, but also extremely helpful on more than one occasion.

As the four young shadowhunters arrived at Rockefeller park, an aging gentleman called out to them. "Evie!" He shouted, a little too loudly for the shadowhunters liking, given that their plan of attack relied heavily on stealth and the element of surprise. "Evie Calloway!" He shouted again and Alec groaned in frustration.

"I don't even want to know how he knows your name…"

"I'll be two minutes, tops. Stay here." Evie excused herself, and ran over to the man who smiled softly up at her from his seated position on a bench at the entrance to the park. "Franklin, good morning what a pleasure."

"It's your birthday." Franklin smiled. "It's your birthday and you came all the way downtown to see me."

Evie smiled, and took Franklin's outstretched hand giving it a light squeeze before returning her hand to its previous position – a couple of inches from the hilt of her seraph blade, which was glamoured to hide it from the sight of mundanes like Franklin. "I'm actually working Frankie, I can't stay…but Wednesday we're playing chess in the park, don't think I've forgotten."

"You're a good girl Evie, kind and good." Franklin turned to look at the others, all of whom were staring at him with a mixture of irritation and curiosity, none of them had ever understood Evie's affinity and fascination with mundanes. "If you and your friends are looking for that young boy, he went into the park, headed towards the Irish monument. I hope you find him soon Evangeline, he looked cut up pretty bad."

Evie looked in the direction that Franklin had suggested, and her gaze was immediately drawn to the small trail of blood that veered off into the shrubbery, it wasn't clear whether the blood belonged to the wolf in question or a victim, but she didn't doubt that she'd find out soon enough. "Thank you Frankie…" She backed away, offering the elderly man a small wave. "…and I'll see you Wednesday!"

When she re-joined the group Alec pulled a face, "I hope you're going to wash your hands before you eat anything."

"Don't be an ass, Frankie has just told me exactly where our wolf is, so you can personally thank him on Wednesday when you join me for a chess tournament."

"I don't play chess."

"Well my dear Alexander, you better learn. Right…" Evie pointed towards the Irish monument "…that way apparently, me and Iz will take the left, Jace, Alec you're on the right."

As they rounded the left side of the Irish monument, Evie retrieved her seraph blade from its holster on her thigh, and the blade glowed with heavenly light as she held it out before her. Isabelle walked alongside her, her whip-bracelet firmly attached to her wrist, ready to be wielded should the need arise. Evie could see that the boys were rounding the other side of the concrete monument, and when she made eye contact with Alec he shrugged, there was no sign of the omega wolf.

"Maybe Frankie had a bit too much moonshine and was seeing things again." Jace suggested with a smirk, nudging Alec in the ribs as he spoke. Alec laughed, more out of courtesy and adoration for Jace than anything else.

"Franklin is nine years clean Jonathan…" Evie countered, lowering her blade slightly as she picked up a new, much finer, trail of blood. She pointed it out to Isabelle who nodded and followed a little way behind Evangeline as the pair followed the trail.

The blood trail led into the trees that lined the pathway, and eventually after some searching the two girls found the source. There, lying in the dirt, was a boy who looked to be about Evie's age, who, save for a couple of leaves he'd clearly picked from the nearest tree, was stark naked. His tan skin was grubby, and his dark hair was long, falling in strands across his face and despite the prominent scarring that went from just above his right eye all the way to his collar bone, he was incredibly handsome, in a sort of close to death kind of way.

"Go and get the boys…and bring Jace's jacket." Evie barked an order to Isabelle, who pouted out her crimson stained bottom lip.

"Do I have to bring the jacket?" She whined, swaying on the spot in a truly Isabelle like fashion as her gaze raked across the young wolfs toned physique appreciatively.

"Now Iz…" Evie dropped to her knees, so that she was at a similar eye level to the boy. He glanced up towards her, his dark eyes wide and his hands trembling, he was clearly either terrified or in a state of shock. "Hey," she spoke softly, as not to startle him. "Hey, can you hear me…my names Evie, I'm here to help you."

"Get back Eve's." Alec approached quickly, making the young wolf flinch. "There's a mundy over there unconscious, in pretty bad shape…" He narrowed his eyes at the boy, sizing him up. At the sight of his naked body, Alec recoiled a little and turned his gaze to the tree above the boys head. "By the angel will you cover him up." Without looking at him again Alec removed his jacket and tossed it towards the boy, who scrambled to cover his dignity.

"Any scratches?" Evie asked, without looking up towards Alec. Instead she continued to watch the wolf carefully. Something about the entire situation seemed off to her, but she couldn't put her finger on why.

"Jace is checking it out, can't we just hand him to the clave already? Its daylight and the park will be littered with mundanes pretty soon. I don't feel like explaining a naked boy covered in blood to a bunch of Wall Street robots do you?"

Ignoring Alec, Evie continued to watch the wolf cautiously but smiled when he finally shifted his gaze to meet hers. He truly was beautiful, and the scars on his face in Evie's eyes made him even more so. "What's your name…?" She asked softly.

Something about the way she spoke to him, and the way that despite his current attire or lack thereof and the situation that he presently found himself in she did not appear to be afraid, resonated with the wolf. "Heironymus." He said, surprising even himself with the sound of his own voice. He'd been in his wolf form for so long that he hadn't been sure he even still knew how to talk, let alone what his voice sounded like. It was deeper than he remembered, more coarse sounding. "My friends call me Harry."

"Well Harry," Evie tilted her head, taking in his appearance again, mentally putting a name to the handsome face. "I'm going to need you to tell me what happened to that mundane, and where is your pack?"

"Mundane?" Harry queried, a puzzled expression flashing across his features.

Alec frowned. "You do know about the shadow world don't you wolf?" Harry shook his head, no. "You've got to be kidding me."

Evie took the momentary pause in conversation as a time to stand up, and moved to stand beside Alec. She spoke in a hushed voice, though she didn't doubt that Harry could hear her regardless. "We need to take him back to the institute, check him over make sure he's okay."

"Evie he attacked a mundane."

"We don't know that."

"Really? Tell that to the woman lying on the concrete in a pool of her own blood, open your eyes Evangeline."

"I-I didn't hurt that woman," Harry scrambled to his feet, wrapping Alec's jacket around his hips to save his dignity. Alec grimaced at the thought. "There was someone, a thing, trying to hurt her. I think I scared it off."

"You see Alec!"

Before the two friends could come to blows over the situation any further, Jace appeared from the other side of the monument. He took one look at Harry and raised a brow before folding his arms across his chest and turning towards Alec and Evie, his superiors. "Izzy is tending to the mundane, superficial injuries, no scratches or bites."

Evie flashed Alec a look that said 'I told you so' without the need for her to explicitly tell him that she told him so and he rolled his eyes. "Fine, we'll take him back to the Institute, but after that Evangeline he is your responsibility." Before he left he turned towards Harry, looking him up and down once quickly. "We do not make a habit of taking in strays, so don't outstay your welcome wolf."

"I-I wont…" Harry stammered. "But, where are we going?" Alec and Jace walked away, leaving Harry and Evie behind. She waited a few moments before taking off after them, figuring that Harry wouldn't be far behind. "Hey wait, who are you people? Is anyone going to get me a shirt? Or some pants?"

"I don't think that will be necessary."

"Another word from you Isabelle and I'll have mom send you to Idris to live with Max." Alec warned, taking Isabelle by the elbow and dragging her away, she glanced over her shoulder towards Harry and managed to wink before being whisked away by her elder brother.

"Your boyfriend doesn't like me very much."

"Don't mind Alec." Evie smiled. "He doesn't like anyone…and he's not my boyfriend." Harry stared at her blankly, his expression akin to that of a lost puppy, and Evie laughed softly. "So Heironymus hmm? That's a pretty intense name…"

"Heironymus Heathcote." He introduced himself formally. "My mom was really into painting; Heironymus Bosch was her favourite artist. I hate it, but she loved it."

"Evangeline Calloway." Evie nodded her head curtly. "My parents thought they were being clever when they named me. Evangeline…evangelical…Nephilim…" When Harry showed absolutely no signs of understanding what she was talking about Evie shook her head. "Never mind, let's get you back to the institute; we need to figure out exactly what happened here."

When they returned to the institute, Harry was taken to the infirmary where his wounds were checked over and he was given a fresh set of clothes. His statement was taken and he recounted his story more than once to both Maryse and Robert Lightwood. Eventually, after discussions with Lucian Graymark, Harry was released from the New York Institute and taken by an armed guard to the Jade Wolf where he was introduced to Luke Garroway and his pack. Isabelle called Heironymus Heathcote the best and most handsome birthday present Evie could have ever received, which Evie did not dispute. And whilst she was sad to see him go, having grown quite close to Harry in the few days' he'd been living at the Institute, Evie still couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't quite right about him, and his sudden appearance in the city.

"I think he came here just for you Eve's." Isabelle had gushed one night as she attempted to master a new cupcake recipe she'd found in an old cook book.

Evie had laughed, blissfully unaware just how right Isabelle was.

A/N: Hey friends! Look whose back with an update and not that long after the most recent chapter. I am a changed woman. Anyways, here is Chapter 1. It's technically another prologue of sorts as we're still not into the actual show, in fact this is a couple of years prior. I just wanted to set some ground work and introduce some characters/relationships to the fic. I guess you could say it's a filler chapter, I hope you guys don't mind it too much and there are a few hints of things to come for Evie in this chapter. Please leave a review, let me know your thoughts and feelings because honestly it means the world to me and makes my day to see a review no matter how big or small. Thank you for reading if you've got this far and don't forget to check out my blog chlobenet on tumblr for lots of fun Evie edits!