WOOHOO! New cover! yay! maybe new title, I don't know :P
{post write, june 10, 2017: there's that stupid emoji again -_- and yeah i made both a new cover and title since I wrote this book, so there you go}
Instantly Magnus snapped out of his haze. "Clary, go get holy water. As much as you can. Isabelle, Jace, hold him down for me. Make sure he's secure. Maryse, try to calm him down and distract him. This will be extremely painful, so he needs to be reassured that he will be ok," Magnus instructed, his professional calm instantly settling in. The immature, sarcastic façade that was there earlier was gone. In its place was the all serious, 852-year-old High Warlock of Brooklyn.
Clary nodded and left the room again to get holy water. Then she popped her head through the door and asked, "Where would I get holy water?" Jace sighed softly and gave his girlfriend the directions to get to some holy water. She nodded and was off. The blond shadowhunter turned back to Alec, dropping to his knees so he could hold him down.
"You're going to be ok, Alec," Maryse soothed as Alec's eyes widened in panic when Isabelle held down his other arm. He had lapsed back into the strangled choking sounds, so he wasn't screaming anymore. Something changed in his eyes, something sinister. Magnus instantly recognised what it was, but decided to hide his diagnosis from the others until he could confirm his suspicions. Alec's body thrashed as he tried to jerk out of Jace's and Isabelle's grip, but he stopped when Magnus leant over him, their noses almost touching.
"I'm just going to clean out the wound and have you drink some holy water, ok? It will hurt, but I need you to be a big boy and not move," Magnus said, but it seemed like he thought he was talking to a child.
Alec's face contorted into a look of rage. He tore out of his siblings' grips and tackled Magnus to the ground. "Don't you talk to me like that, you worthless son of a-" Alec started his insult, but was cut off when Magnus pushed him off and pinned him down. Looks like he found his voice, Magnus thought dryly.
"You know perfectly well what I'm the son of, so I'd be careful about angering me. I was already considering leaving you ungrateful shadowhunters on your own this time; be grateful I've actually stayed this long," the warlock whispered coldly. The look in Magnus' eyes made Alec stop struggling and lay back, allowing Magnus to do what was needed. Magnus sat up, pleased, and rummaged in his bag for a few things. "Ok, I'm going to have to insert a cleaning rod doused in holy water inside the actual wound so I can stop infection. Then I need to inject holy water into your bloodstream to eradicate the venom that's inside you." Magnus stopped and looked up, noticing the nervous cough Jace gave to get his attention. He looked a little scared.
"Are you sure that's safe?" he asked softly. The concern he was showing for his friend made Magnus' heart swell a little. If only I had had a friend like that, he thought. Then he was all business again.
"Yes, I am 67% sure that this will not kill or affect dear Alec in any major way," he said. Three heads snapped up to look at Magnus in astonishment.
"Sixty-seven percent sure?! Sixty-fucking-seven percent sure?! How could you be so unsure?! This is my son we are talking about! I cannot lose another son! Especially not because some stupid warlock couldn't be completely sure that he won't end up killing my baby!" Maryse yelled. Her face was pure red in rage. The fury was rolling off her in tsunami-sized waves. Magnus was so surprised -and scared- that his eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.
"Um... W-well, I suppose it would be more like 72% sure..." Magnus trailed off as he noticed he wasn't really helping. Then he sighed. "Listen, this is the only way I can help him. If I don't do this, then Alec has a 100% chance of death. I don't know about you, but 72% chance of life sounds a hell of a lot better than 100% chance of death." He looked around the room expectantly. Their heads were bent down somberly, praying that their family member would be ok.
"Do it," Isabelle said softly. She looked up at the warlock with tears in her eyes. She always was a brave one, Magnus thought. He offered her a small, grim smile, then turned to Clary as she came running into the room carrying several bottles of a clear liquid.
"I have it," she said breathlessly. Magnus thanked her, took a jar of holy water, and opened it. Then he stuck a thin rod with a wad of cotton on the end in the jar. After letting it soak for a minute, he took it out. The cotton was turning a faint blue as if an aura were surrounding it. Magnus looked up at Jace and Isabelle. They received the silent message and held Alec down. He had been lightly resting, so when they touched him, he instantly woke up and went into attack mode.
He ripped away from them, causing his shoulder to tear even more. He cried out and jumped away behind the ruined bed frame. Something about him seemed desperately off; even more so than he had been in the past three days. There was a feral, animalistic look in his eyes, which were turning faintly red. His teeth were bared and a low growl was escaping his lips. The shadowhunters all looked at him in astonished horror. Jace was the first to recover from the shock. "We're not going to hurt you," he said soothingly as he inched closer, his hands out in a gesture of peace. But Alec wasn't having any of that today. The half-possessed boy snarled and even snapped at him a little.
"Stay back!" he yelled. His breaths were coming in ragged gasps, his chest heaving with the effort. Magnus knew if he didn't do anything soon, the boy would be completely overtaken by whatever was being harboured in him.
"Alec, sweetie, it's ok. This isn't you. This monster in you is in control. You need to fight it so I can help you. It's not too late to stop the changing," he said. Isabelle and Maryse looked astonished at this, but Jace had a look of grim understanding as if he had suspected it but had hoped it wasn't true. Clary just looked confused. "We can stop this."
Alec's eyes filled with a new emotion Magnus couldn't pinpoint. Hurt? "What if I want it to take me? What if this is what I want?" Alec asked. His voice was strained and weak, making him sound like a lost little boy. He is a lost little boy, Magnus realised. He needed guidance from him. He couldn't just leave him on his own like this when he needed him most. He couldn't do to Alec what the whole world had done to Magnus his whole life. The warlock scooted forward, and Alec quickly moved back, hitting his back against the wall. His chest was rising and falling rapidly as sweat collected on his forehead.
"You don't want that, baby, trust me. Killing for blood, fearing the sunlight, never being able to visit the Institute," Magnus reasoned. But this just made Alec angrier.
"STOP THAT!" he screamed. Tears began to slide down his cheeks.
Magnus frowned at him in confusion. "Stop what?"
"Talking to me like we're still together! I hate it! Make up your mind! Do you despise me and think of me as a child, or do you love me and care about me? CHOOSE, GODDAMMIT!" The tears were pouring relentlessly down his cheeks. His shoulders were shaking with silent sobs. "M-maybe if I were a vampire, we could finally be together. We could live tog-gether forever and we wouldn't have to worry about m-me getting old..." Magnus looked at the lost boy in sadness and guilt as he rambled on about how they could live together, repeating the same thing many times. I did this to him. I broke him. Then Magnus crawled over and wrapped his arms around him. Alec struggled against him at first, then stopped in defeat. "We'll never be together again, will we?" he asked softly. The broken despair in his voice caused Magnus' heart to shatter into a million tiny pieces.
Magnus didn't know how long they sat there with Alec sobbing into his shoulder and clinging to him like his life depended on it. But by the time he finally pried Alec off of him, his jacket was soaked in tears and blood. "Alec, sweetie, we need to clean your shoulder now," he whispered softly in is ear. Alec nodded and laid down, bracing himself for the horrible sting he knew was coming. After re-soaking the cotton stick, Magnus gently probed around the bites. A hiss escaped Alec's closed teeth, but that was his only sign of discomfort. "This will hurt a lot," Magnus warned, then stuck the stick into the bite. Alec's mouth opened in a silent scream as his eyes screwed up in pain. He clenched his jaw and writhed on the floor. Magnus closed is eyes against the heart-wrenching scene, slowly turning the cotton stick to clean the wound. Then he pulled it out and began cleaning the other entry. Alec's face and neck were covered in a sheen of sweat, and his breathing was becoming noisy. This whole process was taking a toll on his body. The cotton stick was finally pulled out, bringing some relief from the pain.
"Clary, get me a jar of Holy Water," Magnus instructed. Then he poured the jar over Alec's stifling body, bringing a content moan from the prone figure. Sensing Alec's need for relief from the constant burning through his body, he propped him up and helped him drink some of the water. "I'm going to inject some of this into your veins. This will hurt more than anything you have ever felt, but you need to be strong. You need to fight it off," he warned."Can you be strong for me, Alec?" he whispered to him. Alec just nodded, leaning his cheek against Magnus' hand. Being this close to him was like Heaven to the shadowhunter, especially after being through Hell the past couple days.
Taking a shaky breath, Magnus brushed Alec's sweaty hair off his forehead and placed a gentle kiss there. He knew this wouldn't help anything, but he needed it for himself. He had to indulge his sick desires at least once, or he would be haunted by the prospect that he had a chance for one last show of affection yet squandered it. Alec looked up at Magnus, unsure of how to feel about what just happened. He didn't get a chance to worry about it for much longer when Magnus found a vein on his arm and unceremoniously stuck the needle in. Alec went rigid as the holy water rushed into his bloodstream. His body convulsed once then went stiff as he arched his back into the pain.
Alec's eyes followed Magnus' as he was passed off to Jace's lap. "Make sure he is soaked in Holy Water every half hour, and have him drink some, too," Magnus told the blond boy. Jace nodded but looked a little confused.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"Taking a break," he said tightly as he got up and left, not being able to stand watching his love in such pain.
Be grateful that I stayed up this late to finish this chapter. And that I made it this long, too. I'll probably edit it later, 'cause I'm really tired. I could be sleeping, but here I am (or was) writing this for you guys. It was especially hard because the 'H' key wasn't working. Ugh. HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH there. So if you see a missing H somewhere in there, get from there <-ENJOY AND TELL ME HOW IT IS! This is almost done too. Oh, and sorry for the swearing. It just seemed appropriate for the tension-filled scene c: