"What the hell happened?! I was gone for an hour!" Serena asked as she ran into the ops centre and Alec hugged her, relieved that she was ok and not a victim of the demon after she'd disappeared from the crime scene earlier.
"The demon that killed the mundane is in the Institute. It killed Welkie," Alec informed her and she gaped as she began to gear up.
"Victor's unreachable. I've ordered the Institute be put on quarantine until we kill this thing. Glad you made it back in time Serena, we could use your expertise," Lydia explained.
"Glad to be appreciated," she smiled at her friend.
"But I don't get it. How did the demon get past the wards?" Clary asked.
"Same way it got in without setting off this," Izzy said holding her necklace. "It must have some advanced cloaking ability. It hid in that dead body and let us do the rest."
"I didn't know demons could do that," Clary said.
"Until now, they couldn't," Alec informed.
"This new form of possession, cloaking ability, targeting the Institute, it's..." Izzy continued before trailing off, not wanting to complete the thought only for Clary to do it.
"Valentine. His experiments," she said. "My mom told me how he was determined to create a super-being that could defeat the Clave. It's what he tried to do with Jace."
"Not if I can help it," Serena said defiantly.
"Both victims had damage to the prefrontal cortex," Izzy explained. "The demon must be feeding on negative emotions. Anger, hate, rage. Causing the host to violently act on those urges."
Serena's hand gripped Alec's as Lydia gave out assignments.
They both were pretty filled with negative emotions recently.
And as they headed for the living quarters, they could only pray that the demon didn't prey on them.
******************************************************************
The demon didn't prey on them.
It preyed on Lydia.
Serena and Alec had finished sweeping the living quarters when they heard Lydia's screams and rounded the corner to find Raj - the Shadowhunter that guarded Alec's room when he tried to find Jace through their bond- breaking her arm as he held her to the floor.
Alec fired an arrow into Raj's leg as Serena ran for him, seraph blade in hand as her knee made contact with Raj's nose, sending him to the floor before a cloud of black smoke erupted from his mouth and disappeared into the vents.
"Lydia!" Serena yelled as she fell to her side, the girl crying out in pain as she clutched her arm.
"You're ok," Alec promised as Serena ran her stele over Lydia's iratze, the wound on her chest healing.
But little did they know who the demon would possess next.