SENTINELS | Alec Lightwood²

FOUR

A dank, musty, diner covered in cobwebs and dust... the chairs flipped and resting on the tables. Dried blood covered the linoleum floors. 

It was silent Jace took the chance to whisper, "Collective?"

"You, Alec, Clary, Izzy, Magnus... are all some blood-bonded people that I'm tied to." She muttered. She stopped in her tracks, turning to Jace. "That's why they won't kill me."

"What?"

"They don't need me to be on their side." She took another step deeper into the dark tomb that once was a restaurant,  "They just need you."

That was why she wasn't urged to run. Why when she was standing in front of Valentine with the strength to kill him, an unjustified man with cruel acts under his belt, that ringing in her ear she had now wasn't there.

Jace had conflicted thoughts about the evil man that had raised him. She had her own as well.

But Lazarus and Valentine know that she has now a strange bond with the people around her. Jace may be the weapon Valentine had made years prior... but the exodian blood-tying to him made him and her all the more useful to them.

Jace swallowed hard, leveling a conflicted look.

Then there was another scream. A pain-filled cry from a woman in the back of the shop. They burst through the door into the filthy kitchen. They froze at the sight.

Bodies filled the room. They had dead corpses hanging from the ceiling, in cocoons to keep them fresh. Vampires hunched over live victims crying in pain. Others hung from the ceiling like bats, hunched over like beasts.

It was nothing like the hotel DuMort... it didn't feel the same. She could feel the evil brewing within the air with the stench of death, mould and grime. She could feel her nerve endings sizzling, buzzing. It bubbled in her brain and made her light-headed.

It was a sick, cruel setup with involuntary sources for their feeding. A den that had dozens of victims. The laws they were breaking went beyond the Clave, it violated the very fabric of morals. It was just pure depravity. 

Like electricity, surging, Jace and Mayla moved as one. They turned to the pool sticks hanging on the wall. Jace called out to a vampire on the left, letting it spin around to hiss at him before plunging the pool stick into its gut, breaking it in half to use it sparingly.

Mayla went right, moving in on one of that unlatched itself from a young woman and came at her. She spun, snapping the pool stick within her grip and using one to shove it into its chest with a crunch. It turned into dust.

Her mind was bounding, and her want to use magic was screaming but her restrictions resorted her to this.

Jace, on the other end of the room, took out another vampire, leaving him with no weapon. A vampire jumped him, without the need to speak. Mayla tossed the pool stick into his extended hand, allowing him to kill the vampire as it ran straight into it.

It was strange. Like parabatia the pair did not speak to be able to fight side by side. Mayla didn't completely understand in that moment didn't have the time to question it. 

The victims scattered around the room-- the ones still breathing -- watched in awe. Jace exclaimed. "Get out now! Everyone out!"

Mayla helped an older woman to her feet before she, with the rest of the victims ran off.

Jace looked to the ceiling, where some of the animalistic monsters hung, hissing at them. "Hey, which one of you is Maria?'

"Who's asking?"