I decided not to delete "The Nine Lives of a Shadowhunter" and I will try to update as soon as possible. But in the meantime, enjoy this new story! I switched around some details but other than that, it should all be the same characters and places you know.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters!

Chapter 1

Alek sighed as he listened to yet another argument between the Mai leaders in a pride meeting. He wasn't of age yet—he was 16 years old—but he was Valentina's nephew and sometimes that had its benefits.

This was not one of them.

Valentina just had to drag him and Jasmine—his cousin—to a pride meeting to see what it's like, especially for Jasmine since she was to take over when her mother resigned from her position as leader in San Francisco. She, of course, pulled some strings to get Jasmine and Alek in the meeting; she was, after all, a powerful Mai among the pride leaders. Alek was grateful for all the things that she'd done for him but sometimes he really wished that she wouldn't get him involved in Mai politics.

He sighed again and looked at his watch. Five more minutes, I don't think I can endure another minute in here, he thought. He was about to doze off but a sharp nudge in the ribs prevented him from settling into his sleep. He looked toward his right; Jasmine was giving him a look that clearly said pay attention but he could tell that she was as bored as he was. He started to daydream about all the things to do in New York when one word captured his attention to the meeting. Uniter. Finally, he thought, they're discussing something actually worth listening.

"There have been reports that the Order has spotted the Uniter and is trying actively to capture her," the New York pride leader, Henry, said.

Alek leaned forward in his seat, eager to hear information about the Uniter like everybody else. The Uniter was a warrior who was destined to stop the war between humans and the Mai. A lot of the Mai were getting killed by a group of humans who hunted them, called the Order.

"Then we must find her before they get to her. If they capture our last hope, everything we've worked for will perish," Valentina said. "We can send groups of Mai to look for her in places that were rumored she'd been in. It will take a while, I assume, to find her, but it will be worth it."

Other pride leaders nodded and Henry, glancing at the clock, said, "It's almost dinner time; I know most of you are tired from your trip here so I will let you rest. We will converse on this some other time." He looked at Valentina meaningfully and tipped his head toward Alek and Jasmine. Alek frowned; he should be able to hear what else they have about the Uniter. He was after all the nephew of one of the most important Mai leader and like every other Mai in the world, he wanted to know who and where was the Uniter. It doesn't matter, he decided. I'll pry it out of Jasmine later. She was Valentina's daughter and was bound to know something about the Uniter.

Alek exited the meeting room and headed toward his hotel room; it was practically free since the New York pride owned that hotel and any Mai were welcome to stay there any time, completely free of charge. The hotel was also heavily guarded against any Order members that might be lurking around, making it an ideal place to stay if you are visiting New York or the vicinity. He quickly unpacked his most important items, grabbed a light jacket—it was summer and even in New York it was pretty hot—and went over to Jasmine's room. He knocked on her door and waited for her to open the door.

"Hey, do you want to go to a restaurant? I'm starving; I haven't eaten in hours," he said to her when she opened the door. Jasmine rolled her eyes; "hours" was practically "days" in Alek's world.

"Sure; I'm feeling a little hungry anyway." She grabbed her bag and jacket. "Where are we going?"

"I found this place called the Pandemonium Club. It looked pretty cool and it served food so I'm all for it if you're okay with it." Alek knew that she would be a bit uncomfortable because it's been a while since she's been out doing something actually fun, but he used his best puppy dog eyes—or was it kitty cat eyes?—and Jasmine, of course, succumbed to it after trying to resist it for a few seconds.

"Ugh, fine. I hate it when you used that expression on me," she complained. "How am I supposed to be a big tough leader if I can't even uphold against that?"

Alek put his hands on his hearts dramatically and pretended to be offended. "Hey, that took me a long time to master! Don't underestimate my puppy dog expression!"

They decided to jump from rooftop to rooftop since it was almost dark already and they were really fast anyway so humans couldn't see that supernaturals were flying over their heads. Alek loved jumping on rooftops; it made him feel as if he were flying and it calmed him down. They finally landed in a secluded spot away from prying eyes and walked up to the club. "It looks pretty okay if I do say so," Jasmine said, examining the club.

"What, did you think that I would pick something totally inappropriate?" Alek asked, already fully knowing her answer.

"Well, it's you and you're one of the male population, so yeah," she teased back. They entered and sat down at the bar, where they actually ate some decent food; Alek had to admit that he was surprised. To be honest, he really wasn't expecting great food at all; he had heard that a lot of supernaturals came to the Club and wanted to check it out. There were a lot of vendors in New York anyway so he could have bought from those anyway. He looked toward the dance floor; a pretty brunette and a tall guy who looked like he might be her brother stood at the edge of the dance floor. His eyes met hers, which narrowed and a knowing look came into her eyes. She briefly let her pupils go to slits, assuring Alek that she was, indeed Mai, and Alek did the same with his.

He stood up from his spot. "Come on, Jasmine. There are some Mai over there we could hang out with." Jasmine looked interested; they hadn't been able to meet a lot of teenage Mai in the hotel. Mostly there were pride leaders and important assistants or something. They made their way to the girl and the boy. "Hi, I'm Alek and this is Jasmine," he said, offering his hand to the girl. "We're from San Francisco." Jasmine offered a smile to the two Mai.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Zane and this is my sister, Mimi," the guy said. "You're Valentina's daughter, aren't you?"

Jasmine sighed; she loved her mother but Valentina tended to scare away all the boys she had been interested in, telling her that she needed to focus on her responsibilities. "Yeah, I am; we're here because Mom had this important meeting with all the other pride leaders. Typical." She shrugged. They started chatting; Zane seemed pretty nice with dark brown hair and playful eyes. She really hoped that he wouldn't be intimidated by her mother; she really had no other friends beside Alek and longed to have some kind of best friend, if not a boyfriend. Of course she wasn't the type to start daydreaming about that, but she was still a girl after all and thought about that sometimes.

Meanwhile, Alek started turning on his charms on Mimi; she was pretty to look at, that was for sure, but Alek wasn't so shallow that he'd pick girls for looks only. Mimi was quite interesting person but he didn't feel that he instantly got along with her. However, he wasn't going to sit around during his vacation attending boring meetings; he might as well do something fun and hang out with girls. Alek turned around to get a drink—non-alcoholic, mind you, he wasn't about to get drunk and have Valentina skin him alive—and saw a blue-haired boy weaving through the crowd, following a girl, wearing a floor-length, long sleeved dress. He didn't blame the guy; she was gorgeous with long curly honey blonde hair and violet-blue eyes but something about the way they moved raised Alek's suspicions. What was weirder was that there were three dark shapes also following the girl; they moved gracefully, as if being careful not to touch any people. The blond girl was about to step into a room that clearly said NO ADMITTACE when a drunken boy swished by her and would have knocked her over, but she dodged at the last minute, causing her skirt to lift up to her calves. The blue haired boy paled when he saw some black drawings on her calf and immediately began to run out of the club. The blonde girl cursed and the four of them—the girl and three figures—chased after them, hot on their trail but not before Alek saw something that really raised his internal alarms—a sharp, deadly-looking knife in the girl's hand.

Chloe was beginning to get very annoyed at her brother. First of all, he broke into her secret stash of her favorite chocolates—she really didn't blame him; no one could resist those chocolates—then he has the nerve to say that her cooking isn't really that good! Jace should really be grateful that Isabelle wasn't cooking for them; she could probably kill a Greater Demon with her cooking.

Chloe diverted her attention from her brother and flashed another flirtatious smile at the demon. Of course he was just sucking it up, like any other demons; they might be inhuman but that didn't mean that they didn't appreciate beauty. She moved toward the door that said NO ADMITTANCE—she fully ignored the writing—and caught the sight of a tall blond guy watching them. He was undoubtedly handsome but something was not right. She narrowed her eyes; they had put on glamours. He shouldn't be able to see them, yet he was staring straight at her and the demon! She wanted to investigate that matter further but a glance over her shoulders told her that the demon is not far behind. She pushed that thought to the back of her head, thinking that she'll tell the others of the blond guy after they disposed the demon. She was about to open the door when a boy, who was clearly drunk almost crashed into her; she quickly dodged, thanks to her Shadowhunter genes but the movement caused her dress to lift up to her calves, revealing a bit of her runes.

The demon who was following her paled and ran out of the building like a coward he was; the blue-haired boy was obviously an Eidolon—a shape changer—since demons did not look human at all. Chloe cursed and ran after him with Isabelle, Jace, and Alec behind her. She smiled slightly; it was tedious but she did enjoy the chase. "I can't believe you couldn't dodge a demon, Chloe! An Eidolon at that!" Jace said jokingly as they ran. She knew that he enjoyed the chase as much as she did; they were siblings after all.

"Well, I'd like to see what you would do in my situation, Jace. It isn't like we wear leggings under floor-length dresses. It would be a total fashion faux pas!" she said, imitating Isabelle.

"Hey! There's no harm in caring a bit more about our appearance than some people here!" Isabelle said, glaring at Chloe while Alec just shook his head at her. They had finally cornered the Eidolon into a dark alley and Chloe approached him flirtatiously, hoping to convince them that the runes were just ordinary tattoos, while Isabelle, Jace, and Alec hid in the cover of the darkness.

"Hello there. You ran away so quickly before I had a chance to say hi." She batted her eyelashes at him. "I don't understand; I thought you liked me!" She had no problem in putting up a fight with a demon but it was much more fun this way, as her brother would say, and she kind of agreed with him. Demons were not humans; they didn't deserve to be shown mercy when all they do is wreak havoc in the world.

"Sorry, I thought I saw something," the demon murmured. He was still being cautious with her. "I haven't seen you around in the club before."

"I'm just visiting; I thought I'd check out some cool clubs." Chloe giggled, lifting up her hand to cover her mouth. The demon stepped closer and froze as he saw a matrix of swirling lines on her skin that was revealed when she lifted her hand.

"You—" He didn't get a chance to finish as Chloe shot her palm out with impossible swiftness and struck him on the chest; he staggered; suddenly a golden whip shot out of the darkness and wrapped around his ankles. He fell as another girl tugged hard, securing the whip. Chloe smiled and said, "I thought you would have known by now; after all, you did see what needed to be seen in the club." Two other people stepped out of the darkness and hauled him to his feet with his back to a stone pillar, tying his wrists and torso with wires. "So tell me, are there any others with you?" she asked.

Gritting his teeth, the demon answered, "Any other what?"

Jace approached him and said, "You know exactly what we are," and lifted up his arm, showing the runes that were inked all over his wrists, his hand, and his palm. His gold eyes glittered as he smiled just like his sister.

"Shadowhunter," the demon hissed.

Isabelle chuckled low in her throat. "Finally, I thought we'd be standing here all night long while he tried to find out what we were."

Alec walked up to stand next to Jace. "You still haven't answered us. Are there any more with you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." His face was crumpled in pain as the wires cut into his wrists.

"Come now. He's talking about demons; you do know what a demon is, yes? After all, you are one yourself," Isabelle spoke. "Demons, servants of Satan, any spirit or form that is from outside of our own dimension—"

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Get on with it, Isabelle. This is not school." She gripped her knife in her hand, just in case the demon tried anything.

"I could give you information," the demon gasped. "I know who and where the descendants of ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses are."

Alec frowned. "All of you have claimed that; there aren't any descendants from the Egyptian gods. If there were, we would have heard of them by now."

Isabelle sighed. "Just kill it, Jace, there's no point in listening to his lies; clearly he's not going to tell us anything."

The demon struggled against his bonds. "They are here! We've always known that there are ancient races from Egyptian gods! In fact, there are two of them here right now!"

"We honestly don't have the time to listen to this," Jace said and plunged the knife into the demon's heart. Black liquid squirted out as he tugged the knife out of the demon's body.

He hissed, "You will all pay for this, we and the Order will kill you all." and crumpled into himself, getting smaller and smaller until he entirely vanished out of their sight.

Chloe sighed. "Great, Jace took his sweet time and finally killed the demon, can we go home now? My feet are positively killing me from the heels you made me wear; I don't know how I managed to run in them." The sound of wind rushing past their ears caused all four of them to turn around in alarm.

Two figures, clad in all black, stood in front of them, blocking their way out of the alley.