The Other Wayland

Chapter 4: Attack on the Institute

Alec's P.O.V.
I had been quiet the whole way home, and I could tell Annie was worried about me. As soon as we got back to the Institute, I wordlessly rushed off. I heard Annie start to say something, but she apparently thought better of it, because she let me walk away. I was grateful. My head was still spinning, and I needed to blow off some steam. I headed straight to the training room, immediately starting to practice on the punching bag. I became lost in the training, not noticing anything around me. I had no idea how much time had passed when suddenly I saw Magnus Bane enter the room.
"Magnus." I greeted him, immediately going to put my shirt back on, sensing that this was a business call.
"Oh, you don't have to get dressed up for me." He said.
I chose not to reply to this, instead simply stating, "I didn't know you were here."
"Yes, your sister called me." He hesitated for a moment, obviously hoping for a reaction. After a moment of not getting one, he moved on. "I have the preliminary autopsy results." He said, holding them out to me. I didn't take them.
"Those should go to the head of the Institute." I told him.
"They are." He said, smiling at me.
"I assume you're looking for me, then." I heard Annie call from the doorway. Magnus turned, startled.
"Annabelle. I didn't know you were back." He said, quickly recovering his cool.
"I arrived yesterday." She explained, walking towards us.
"And you're the new head. Congratulations."
"Temporarily." She said, taking the autopsy results and thumbing through them.
"Well, congratulations anyway." He told her, and she finally smiled. "Well, my job is done, so I really should be going. Good to see you again, Annabelle." He told us as he began to walk off.
"Good to see you too, Magnus." She called.
"Thanks for saving me back there." I told her once he was gone. She grinned.
"He has a crush on you, you know that, right?" She asked.
"What! No he doesn't." I protested. She laughed.
"Yeah, he does. Don't worry, it's Magnus, it'll blow over." She tried to reassure me.
"How do you know?" I asked.
"Because every time I work with him on a mission he has a new one." I accepted this answer, and turned back to the punching bag. Before I could begin training again though, Annie stopped me.
"Hey, you should probably take a break for a little while, ok?" She told me, grabbing my arm. This distracted me for a moment, which she apparently took as hesitation.
"I know you're upset, but this isn't going to help."
I simply turned back to the punching bag saying, "I'll be fine." She persisted, stepping between me and the punching bag.
"Hey, it's like I tell Jace all the time, right? The pain here," She grabbed my hands, "Won't help the pain here." She finished, putting her hand on my chest, over my heart. I hoped she couldn't feel how fast it was beating at how close we were. I knew she was trying to make me smile with the cheesy line, so I cracked a half-smile.
Encouraged, she went on. "Seriously, Lec, we both know you can't train forever. You'll have to deal with what you're feeling at some point." I sighed, knowing she was right. I agreed to go find something to do that didn't involve training.
"Actually, I need your help with some reports anyway." She said, smiling again. I rolled my eyes, knowing that I wasn't going to get out of this, and let her drag me to my dad's office, which I guess was her's now.
We had been working for an hour or two when we decided to take a quick break. On our way to the kitchen, Annie was stopped to answer a question, so I continued on alone. As the training room came into view, I saw Hodge inside, battling a Forsaken. I rushed to help, grabbing my bow. I saw it kick Hodge to the ground, and it stood over him, raising its club. I shot the Forsaken in the shoulder, and it turned towards me. I shot it again, this time closer to the heart. It didn't die, but it did slow down. Before I could get another shot off, it struck me hard, causing me to fall. It raised its club, and I braced myself for the impact. Before it came, I heard a knife whistling through the air, landing in the Forsaken's skull. A second quickly follows, landing in its heart. As the Forsaken fell, I saw Annie rush towards me. Izzy was right behind her.
"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" Izzy exclaimed, bending down and pulling me onto her lap.
"Are you okay?" Annie asked anxiously, sitting down beside us. I smiled at her, hoping to reassure her.
"I'm fine. I just had the wind knocked out of me." I said, trying to get up.
"Wait, you got scratched." She said, pushing me back down. My heart skipped a beat as she opened my shirt a little to look at the injury.
"We should get him to the infirmary." Izzy said.  Annie simply nodded in reply, her eyes still trained on the scratch, her hands hovering over it.
"I'm okay, I can-" I started, but cut myself off when Annie gave me a death glare. I reluctantly agreed.
When they had transferred me to the infirmary, Izzy took off my shirt, quickly tracing over my iratze with her stele. She then began cleaning and bandaging the wounds the rune wouldn't heal.
"How did it get past the wards?" I wondered aloud.
"It had angel blood." she told me. "There was some in the Forsaken that attacked the Jade Wolf too."
"Valentine's up to something." Annie spoke from the corner. "He wouldn't send just one Forsaken unless it had a very specific purpose." I could hear the stress in her voice. Izzy looked between the two of us, and obviously decided that we needed some alone time.
"I'm gonna go find Jace and Clary." She said, leaving the room. Annie didn't acknowledge this, but walked over to where I was sat on a bed.
"I'm scared, Lec. I feel like I can't do this, like the Clave put too much trust in me." i grabbed her hand, pulling her closer to me, ignoring the butterflies that went off as I did so.
"Hey, you can do this, I know you can. And obviously the Clave does too. Everyone else believes in you, you just have to believe in yourself." I told her. She smiled.
"I'm glad you're okay, Lec. Get some rest." She said instead of answering, letting go of my hand as she moved away. She was about to go out the door when Izzy burst in again.
"Jace and Clary went to turn the mundane into a vampire. I thought you should know." She told Annie. Annie simply sighed.
"I figured they would. Just let me know when they get back so we can talk, okay?"
Izzy nodded, then came back over to check on my wounds again. Annie gave me one last smile before disappearing out the door.
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A/N
So there's part 4! Sorry it took so long to upload, I didn't like where it was going so I completely rewrote it. Thank you for the interest in the story, it warms my heart!