The Banhee (An Alec Lightwood Story)

Chapter Fifthteen

Luke and Jace burst inside of the Jade Wolf, making the pact lay their eyes on the alpha and Shadowhunter who followed him into the dend. Airy silence that had taken over the room was enough to show that everyone inside knew the gravity of the situation they had involved themselves in. One of the werewolves walked their way through the small crowd to face Luke. It was Alaric, the second in the pack. The one who was responsible for the choices concerning the pack when Luke wasn't there, and if Luke was to die, the status of alpha would fall to him.

"In the back." He spoke instantly knowing what Luke was going to ask. Luke nodded, motioning for Jace to follow him through the pack of werewolves, who glared at the Shadowhunter as they entered the back room of the Jade Wolf restaurant where they sometimes put new werewolves during their first full moons. As told by the stray claw marks scattered on the walls. A pertinent reminder of what this place truly was. But also the perfect place to hatch a plan to rescue Alec.

Jace scanned the room and saw that the only source of light was coming from the light bulb hanging above them. He also saw that Magnus and Simon were standing in the room, leaning against the walls, with a sort of doom and gloom look plastered on their faces. With a heavy sigh, Luke walked over to the table in the center of the room, Jace following after him, standing by the werewolves' side and looking at Magnus, whose eyes were locked to the ground.

"How bad is it?" The blonde asked, preparing for the worst as Magnus looked at him, his young looking eyes holding the images that flashed in his mind.

"Alexander is in a catatonic state, unable to move or probably speak for that matter." Magnus words flowed out of him, each one having more and more anger in them as the warlock spoke. "And your mad-man of a father standing over him saying that he'll open his mind by tomorrow, and it's tomorrow. Alexander only has a few hours at best."

"That doesn't make sense." Luke spoke, confused, which only made everyone else confused.

"How come?" Simon asked, walking to the center of the room, joining the rest of the group.

"Last time Valentine did this, capture all the Banhees and Banshees. He studied them for at least a week then moved onto the next one and everyone in the circle knew that, and we all thought he killed them at one time not individually. Alec's only been missing for two days. Valentine has been studying Alec for two days and is now going to kill him after two days. When with the others he killed after a week. Why would he break his pattern now?" Luke posed the question, making everyone think. Luke did know what he was talking about, he knew Valentine the best, he was in the circle at the height of its power. Plus Luke was now a detective. He spent years going after criminals learning about their behaviours, their patterns, their motives. He understood the criminal mind better than Simon, Jace and Magnus combined.

"Something scared him." Magnus mumbled, looking at everyone. "Alec scared him."

"You're not making sense, Magnus." Jace said, sounding as puzzled as ever. "How could Alec scare Valentine if he's in a catatonic state?"

"Because he projected his consciousness." No one understood what the warlock was getting at, making Magnus rack his brain trying to figure out how to explain this. "When Alexander projected his consciousness at my apartment, when Isabelle and Lydia were there yesterday long enough for me to make the dust so I could track him and for him to tell us that he was catatonic."

"Your point?" Simon asked.

"For someone like Alec, it takes an awful lot of energy to project their consciousness, a lot more when they're catatonic because the mind is basically asleep at that point and they need their mind to do it. If Valentine was trying to keep Alec in a state where his mind is asleep only in his words to open it. What if the result of Alexander using that energy to projected his consciousness started to-"