"Henry, come on! I wanna ride the bikes!"
"Hush, Thea! I'm coming!"
"Well come on faster! There's only so much time before the sun rises!"
"You don't think I know that?" He hissed while silently landing beside me. "I've been around a lot longer than you, Athena. I know how this whole thing works."
I rolled my eyes, proceeding to make my way out of our mansion of a house. "Are George and Emilia joining us?"
"I believe so, and it amuses me how you will say my clans' real names, yet I'm pretty sure you fail to even remember mine."
"Of course I know your real name, Henric. I just prefer Henry."
"Yes, and I suppose you're fond of George's name?"
I ran down the steps of our porch to the shed that had been made into the 'bike garage', stopping outside the door when I found it locked. I huffed in annoyance. "Why on Earth do you lock the shed?"
He blinked. "Never mind that, have you harbored feelings for George?"
"First of all, George is literally a thousand times my age so that would be revolting. Second, why do you always have to sound so-"
"Wise?"
"Elderly." I muttered, snatching the keys from Henry's hand. "I was going to say elderly."
He put a hand to his heart. "Thea, how could y-"
"Henric, run!"
We both turned around just in time to see Emilia fall to the ground with a piece of wood in her back, a pool of blood immediately starting to form around her. I let out a shriek as Henry pulled me inside the shed and locked the door.
"Get on a bike." He whispered, his hand reaching for the garage door opener.
I pulled it back down. "What about you?"
"I'll be fine, alright? I have to stay back and help my people. You have to go."
"What? No Henry, I won't leave y-"
"You have to." He hissed. "The markings on that wood was that of a Nephilim. No doubt they're here for you. My people are being slaughtered for you so you will make it out of here alive for them, alright?"
"Who's doing this? What would any Nephilim want with me?" I felt a rare tear roll down my face and he reached up to wipe it away with a pale finger.
"I don't know chica, but you have to go." He gave me a look saying that was final as he pushed me over to the bike rack.
"Where am I supposed to go?"
He thought about it for a minute while he unlocked the to the bike I was on. Then he looked up at me as something clicked in his brain, but it was as if his face fell as he let out the words. "New Yor-
"WHAT? No, no I can't go to New York. Henric pl-"
"Athena!" He grabbed my shoulders to stop me from shaking. "An old friend of mine by the name of Raphael Santiago lives in Brooklyn. He owes me a favour from ages ago. Tell him who you are— he already knows about you— and he'll take you in, alright?"
I shook my head, the tears now flowing freely. "Henric, please. There has to be ano-"
I was cut off as the door burst open and a man with a glowing blade stepped through, cutting Henric's head clean off. I screamed, unable to move as I watched the only person I'd ever considered a father's head fall to the ground. The man looked down at me with calculating eyes before he smirked, moving towards me as quickly and gracefully as a snake. He took hold of my hair, pulling my head back to look at him. He had oily brown hair that fell almost to his shoulders with black eyes, and his nose was three times too big for his face, taking the shape of a deformed potato.
"Well, well. Look's like you're a long way from home, shadowhunter."
I closed my eyes as his knife pressed tightly to my neck. "What the hell is a shadow hunter?"
His arm slackened a little at my words and I took that as my chance to elbow him in the stomach and grab the blade out of his hand. Well, I thought I grabbed his sword, but as I backed away from him, the glowing blade disappeared leaving me defenseless with just the black hilt.
The oily man's eyes widened as he glanced from his unsheathed blade, to me, back to the hilt. "But...you're not..."
I looked around, grabbing the closest thing to a weapon I could find—which happened to be an axe— while tucking the hilt into my back pocket. No way was he getting it back.
"But Valentine said...what on earth would he want with a mundane..."
"Valentine—is he the one who sent you here? Sent you to kill my family?" I seethed as I moved closer to him, axe in hand, ready to attack.
The man snapped his head up to me. "You're family? Vampires are no family to mundanes." He spat.
"I'm not going to discuss my history with you. Why is this Valentine doing this? What does he want?" The axe was now raised above his head. I was going to kill him whether he answered or not.
The man blinked, looking absolutely stunned with my reaction to everything. What the hell did he expect? "He said he wanted a shadowhunter with the last name of Westchester."
"A shadow what?"
Before he could answer, a grunt sounded from behind me, and I moved out if the way just in time to see another man with a glowing sword try to attack me. Using all of my force, I quickly swung the axe at his neck, watching in horror as he fell to the ground, his hands stained red as he raised them to his neck which was now gushing out blood. The oily haired man looked up at me in panic and without even thinking about it, I swung the axe into his head.
As if this night couldn't get any crazier, a large purple circle suddenly started to form in front of me and out of it stepped a man. I was to disoriented with everything going on to realize he had even grabbed me and began to pull me to the purple thing. As much as I wanted to see Henric last time, I refused to look at him. I don't think I could bare it to...
"Athena? Athena are you alright?"
I looked up to the guy that had stepped out of the purple circle. It was only then that I realised we were no longer in the bike shed. Instead of garden tools, there were books everywhere I looked as well as exotic rugs and furniture.
"Where am I?" I asked, turning from him to look around at everything.
"New York."
I didn't really process his words at first as I was too dazed to really think about anything, but as the words left my lips, well that snapped me awake. "How did we get to New Yor- NEW YORK?!"
I spun around to stare at the stranger. He was wearing eyeliner that made it look like he had raccoon eyes. His hair was black and sticking up and he had brown eyes.
"A portal." He answered like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"A PORTAL!?"
"Yes, I believe that's what I said. You're Athena Westchester?"
"NEVER MIND ME! WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!" Honestly, this man brought me through a goddamn portal and acts all cool and shit while the only real family I've ever known was being slaughtered as we spoke. What the hell was wrong with him? No better question: "ACTUALLY, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU?!"
The raccoon man gave me a skeptical look. "You're meaning to tell me that you lived with vampires and you don't know what a warlock is?"
"A what?"
And the next thing I knew, this man—well I think he was a man— had cat eyes. Did he expect me not to shriek and move backwards, bumping into one of his bookshelves and knocking over many of his books and some? Because that's exactly what I did.
He sighed, giving me a look of disapproval before he flung me over to the couch and moved all of his books back into place with a flick of his fingers.
I stared at him in horror. What was happening, it was real. And the reality of that just hit me like a bus. Henric was dead while the rest of his clan was probably suffering the same fate. And where was I? I was standing in the house of some random ass raccoon man who was apparently a warlock and I had no idea why.
"Athena Westchester, my name is Magnus Bane and I am the High Warlock of Brooklyn. Welcome to New York."
Heyo! So this is my second fanfiction and OH MY GAWD I cannot tell you how much I love TMI although I wrote this with a different personality for Clary so there'd be a bit more drama :)
But I love Clace, oh muh Lord. ❥ Anyway, I do hope you enjoy this story. This chapter was kind of just a base for everything. Feel free to vote and comment! Xx