Sweet Creature ▹ Alec Lightwood [2] ( SLOW UPDATES )

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN
DOWNTIME

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

     Adrian woke up to a wide pair of brown eyes, identical to his own, peering down at him.

He jolted in his bed, briefly reaching for the knife he kept on the bedside table, only to recognize the person above him a moment later. Sighing, he relaxed back into the pillows and wiped a hand down his face, over his tired eyes. Abigail, who liked scaring the shit out of everyone if she could get away with it, giggled and eased away from him, choosing to curl up on the edge of the bed instead. Adrian peeked at her through his fingers. She was clearly back from school, judging by her messy hair and the brightness of the room.

"Abby, I love you, I do, but one of these days, I'm gonna launch you across the room," Adrian groaned, finally gaining enough strength in his limbs to push himself up. He checked the time with heavy eyes. It was four in the afternoon. Abigail was fresh from school, then; she usually waited to be driven home by Michael, who had after-school activities. Yawning into his palm, he reached for his phone and checked the messages. One message from Isabelle, saying she had a morning shift. One from Alec saying the same thing, but adding that they had found nothing new. A message from Magnus, saying that Jace was still untraceable, but he would keep trying. A message from Oliver, saying the pack hadn't heard or scented anything new, either. It had been like this ever since Jace had disappeared, along with Sebastian's body. Jace was nowhere to be found. For all intents and purposes, he had completely vanished.

It had been two weeks since then, and every Shadowhunter in New York had been assigned extra patrols in the search for Jace. It was the assumption that they were looking for a resurrected Sebastian as well, and until they found Jace and could confirm that Sebastian remained dead, it would stay that way. Adrian knew in his heart that something had gone wrong on that roof, that Sebastian was indeed alive and well. Why else would his body be gone? Why else would Jace be gone? Lilith's plan to resurrect Sebastian and link Jace to him must have worked, even if Lilith had died before the completion of her spell.

"You gotta catch me first," Abigail said cheerfully, shifting to sit across from him. Adrian took a moment to send a quick message back to his friends, telling them he'd once again crashed at his family's house, and then he set the phone aside and studied his baby sister. He had told her once in the last two weeks that she was fast, and he hadn't heard the end of it since. It made him smile. Abigail beamed back at him, then scrunched up her nose as she studied the gear Adrian had left on the floor. "What is that?"

"Demon guts," Adrian said bluntly, then laughed when she shivered and scrunched her nose up even more. "I'm joking, relax. Your mom would kill me if I tracked demon ichor in the house."

"Our mom," Abigail corrected immediately. Adrian allowed it with a small shrug. He'd been so busy the last two weeks that he hadn't had the time to really figure out if he wanted to call his parents 'mom' and 'dad.' Neither of them seemed to mind. They didn't seem hurt whenever Adrian referred to them as only Abigail and Michael's parents; they seemed to just be glad that Adrian was visiting more, especially without his friends. "And are you really joking? Because it looks and smells gross."

"Yeah, Abby, I know. It's not demon guts, I promise. They usually disappear, anyway. Once they're killed, at least." He ran his fingers through his hair. He'd been so exhausted the previous night that he'd forgotten to leave the dirty gear in a trash bag. His parents didn't mind when he tracked mess into the house, not as long as he cleaned up after himself, but his gear usually got dirtier than his boots. Boots he could wash off with the hose at the side of the house. His gear, not so much. Alice had taken to washing his gear whenever he was too exhausted to go home. Abigail scrunched her nose up at the gear in question, then looked at Adrian curiously.