Verena // Alec. Lightwood [1]

Bad Day for Take-Out

"Not even close." Alec sighed, and Lydia seemed to have a sympathetic look to her.

"My parents tried to set me up, too." She announced, and i listened a little.

"And how'd that work out?"

"Not well for them. I made my own path. Married the love of my life... John Monteverde. Together we were going to run the Lisbon Institute. And then John was killed. Everything was ripped away. My love, my dream job... Piece of advice... In this line of work, the only thing worth falling in love with is the work itself." Alec looked to me and shook his head.

"You're wrong." He said and she looked to me before nodding. Taking it as the cue to go, we walked into the Jade Wolf.

"It's got some characteristics of a Forsaken. It was human. It was runed." Lydia informed us her and Luke examined the dead Forsaken. Which, believe it or not, was a human that got runed. They survived, but went crazy.

"I don't know." Luke said skeptically. "It was more focused, more determined. It attacked like it had a plan. Plus, a normal Forsaken wouldn't have been so hard to kill. It took five wolves to take that thing down. Never seen anything like it."

"We'll take the body back to the Institute. Do a full autopsy." Lydia pronounced, and Luke frowned.

"Oh, hold up." He argued. "I get that i called you...actually, i called Alec. But what i didn't want is someone to come down here and just take over."

"Yeah, that's kind of her thing." Alec said, and i chuckled a little.

"Look, i know i can come across...abrasive." She said in acknowledgement of how she makes herself appear to others. "But we're all on the same side here. Can we agree on that? The Institute has the resources to find out what this thing is."

"We have an expert forensic pathologist." Alec announced. "Highly trained in all the creatures of the Shadow World."

"Do you have one here?" Lydia asked Luke. "In this, uh, Chinese restaurant?"

"Fine." He huffed, not happy about the situation. I knew that much. "You win. Just let me know what you find."

"You think Valentine was behind this?" Lydia questioned, and Luke was quick to reply.

"No question. It's definitely his work."

"What do you think he's after?" Alec asked, and i was questioning why i was there.

"Honestly? Me." Luke answered, and i frowned.

"Why?"

"So you think Valentine's going after ex-Circle members?" Lydia asked, making my one worded question go unheard.

"I don't know. It might be kind of personal. We have a complicated past. But of course, he could be going after the old crew. I'm sure Valentine has a grudge against anybody who turned against him."

"We'll put extra wards on the Institute." Lydia said, and Alec nodded.

"Right, for Hodge."

"And your parents." I looked to Alec, shocked that he kept it from me. But by his alerted expression, he didn't know either. "Did they conceal that from you?"