𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐋 ━━ ISABELLE LIGHTWOOD

13

KADE WAS SHARPENING his blades while Alec was runing some arrows, both of them doing their own things silently, their heads filled with different stuff— people. They hadn't noticed Hodge who walked up to them, "Kade, Alec."

Surprised, they turned to face the man who gave them a look, "didn’t know you were here."

"yeah, no, I, uh—" Alec was cut off by Hodge who sighed, "don’t tell me. I don’t wanna have to report you."

"It’s just that, you know, Clary is—" Again, Hodge interrupted Alec, "that girl is Valentine’s—" he hissed in pain at the rune which was burning on his neck, "—the monster’s daughter. There must be some reason why the roaches are coming out of the woodwork again, right? I’ll leave you guys to it."

"Hodge?" Alec stopped the man, "thank you."

"You remind me of me, Alec." Hodge looked at the older lightwood while Kade stared at him with narrowed eyes, "A loyal friend standing in the shadow of the chosen one." Kade lightly scoffed at that making Hodge glance at him slightly before looking back at Alec, "don’t make the same mistakes I did. Look where it got me."

Then he walked away. Kade instantly turned to Alec, "you're not letting his words get in your head, are you?"

"I don't know, Kade..." Alec sighed, picking up his arrows again, "maybe he's right."

"Yeah, no," Kade said just as both their phones beeped with a message from Izzy, "he's not right. We'll talk about this later, let's move."

**

They reached to the location where Izzy told them to come. Upon seeing her, Kade let out a string of curses under his breath which Alec could hear perfectly well. She was wearing a red dress which was somewhat revealing.

"We got your text," Alec announced, the two boys making their way towards the younger Lightwood, "Where are we exactly?"

"It’s an old meatpacker’s service entrance," Isabelle replied, taking her eyes off Kade and fixed them on her older brother, "if we go back there, we come up into the basement of the Hotel Dumort. Perfect, right? We distract the vamps, Clary and Jace have time to find Simon."

"Okay," Alec pursed his lips in a thin line earning a frown from his sister, "Okay? It was hard work interrogating Meliorn to get this intel."

"Seelies don't lie," Kade said, a hint of bitterness in his tone, "I doubt you did much interrogating."

"Yeah and you have faerie dust on your dress," Alec pointed out, not liking the idea that his sister slept with a seelie to gain information, "and I hate being the distraction."

Isabelle turned to Alec, "You know, you’d be a lot happier if you weren’t so freaking repressed," Alec began walking away and started checking in the other rooms, ignoring Isabelle, "Alec? Hello?" When Alec blatantly ignored her, she sighed,."You’re really not gonna talk to me, are you?"

"That’s because you have no idea what you’re talking about." Alec responded, glancing at Kade who was now ahead of them.

"But I do," Isabelle urged, "You’re hiding from yourself, not me. You have feelings, whether you like them or not, Alec."

"That's rich coming from you," Alec shot back making Isabelle bite her lower lip and went silent. Alec rolled his eyes, "look, Izzy, you're both being so miserable and freaking blind that it's making me sick."

"He doesn't feel the same." Isabelle mumbled, "he can hardly look at me these days. I don't know what's up with him."

"You don't?" Alec raised his brows questioningly to which she shook her head, "no."

"Guys? Mind accelerating a bit. The vamps aren't gonna distract themselves." Kade's voice interrupted their little conversation as they looked ahead and saw him climb up a ladder. Exchanging a look, the siblings followed him, the three entering another room.

"This must be the way." Isabelle said as she opened the door, revealing a group of vampires hissing, ready to attack. They closed the door quickly, the vampires pounding on the door.

Kade took out his stele and attempted to draw a rune on the door but it wasn't working.

"Any day now," Isabelle said making Kade look at her, "yeah, if you hold the door still, it might be a lot easier," Kade tried to draw a rune on the door again, "it’s not taking it." His eyes fell on a pipe beside Izzy. He then shared a look with her who understood what he was silently asking her to do. She grabbed Alec’s blade and cut off a pipe before sticking it between the handle of the door. Isabelle then looked at the boys with a smirk, "Whoever said, ‘The pen is mightier than the sword,’ was an idiot."

"When you’re right, you’re right." Alec muttered.

"Do you think they know where we are?" Isabelle asked to which Alec shrugged, "that’s the idea, right? How long do you think we have to distract them for?"

"Ten more minutes."

"Ten minutes?" Alec raised his brows, "Are you kidding? We’re liquid lunch in five."

"So let’s distract them." Kade said, looking at the siblings. Izzy nodded, repeating his words as the three positioned themselves, ready to attack. Kade twirled his blade in his hands as they prepared themselves to fight.

"You better get ready." Isabelle said to the two guys as her whip started hissing. Just then, the door broke open and the vampires barged in.