"Oi Bella, are you coming or what?" A voice called as he walked past the door, "You know what Alec's like, you'd better hurry up before he throttles you."
"Coming Ted!" the brunette replied, smoothing down her bobbed wig fondly.
She strutted out of her room, smiling in excitement for the mission, and greeted her best friend with a smirk, soon falling into step with him.
"Hey there, big bro." She greeted.
"Really?"
"What can I say? Demons dig blondes."
"Well obviously, Belle, but that's more white, isn't it?" Ted questioned, gesturing to the wig.
"It's platinum," she corrected, "And they don't exactly like Shakespeare, okay boys?"
"You're plenty distracting on your own, Izzy." Alec commented.
"So be yourself? Is that what you're saying?" Isabelle challenged, almost making Ted laugh with her expression, but moreso the look of irritation that covered her brother's face as they sauntered down the stares and towards the natural blond.
As much as Ted hated getting into trouble, living with the Lightwoods and Jace really took a toll on a person—although Alec, the eldest, was more or less opposed to anything that went against the rules, so Ted often found some consolation in the fact that he wasn't the only 'killjoy' on the team.
They had reviewed the mission quickly, already speculating as to the motive of the demon attacks that drained the blood of their victims, and grabbed their preferred weapons, Ted's being his quarterstaff that he'd taken with him from London (which could phase into two blades, which was useful for quicker battles) as well as a spare seraph blade, should anyone need one.
"Look, if we get caught, I will not hesitate to throw you under the bus, Jace." he mentioned offhandedly, as they walked away from the ops centre.
"One, so what if we do get caught? Two, why not Izzy? She's agreeing with me."
"Well to be frank with you, Wayland, I like Iz better than you," he paused with a smirk on his lips, waiting for Jace's fit of indignant, offended noises to calm down before continuing, "Besides, she's the youngest of the group, and thus she is a child—a child who has been tainted by your rebellious ways."
"Do you make it your mission to hurt me, Herondale, or does it just come naturally?" The blond mumbled out with a pout, feigning upset.
"Can you two focus? If we're gonna risk going on an unapproved mission, at least give us a chance." Alec grumbled, eyes fixated straight in front of him.
"You're right, sorry Xander." Ted conceded, promptly shutting up.
Prowling the streets in search of a shapeshifting demon was not an ideal way to spend a Friday night, but somehow it had become a fairly common happening. Besides, Teddy couldn't say he minded much, especially when he was with people he loved.
Ted had taken the lower ground with Alec, the two men acting inconspicuously on opposite sides of the bustling street, a little way down from each other. Alec gave a signal to the brunet, who nodded in return and flashed a quick gesture to the definitely-not-platinum wigged girl following the events on the street from a rooftop.
The demon turned around, just missing Alec leaping onto the top of a building across from where Isabelle was stalking, leaving Ted to follow on the ground. The two lightwoods met with Jace, all managing to keep track of the demon, when the trio jumped down from the cross point above the street gracefully to meet the brit below, who sided next to Isabelle.
They followed the shapeshifter into a club, the Pandemonium, which Teddy suspected was just as tacky on the inside as the garish and unsubtle neon sign outside, reading 'Pandemonium', but flashing 'demon' every once in a while. They stalked their way through the people dancing, attempting not to lose sight of the demon's form.
The quartet found themselves in the VIP area, as usual, Izzy acted as the distraction, Jace did the talking, whilst Alec and Ted were left to stow themselves away, ready to attack. It was a routine they were more than comfortable with, and the mission was all going as planned.
Until a little red head changed practically everything.
The demon roared as she pushed it out of the way, it's face no longer taking the mundane appearance. Ted wasted no time as he pulled his staff in the middle, and aimed one of his knives at the demon just as it hit the sofa, causing the girl to scream (although that may have been in part due to Jace throwing her on the ground behind him—or the whole tentacle-face situation, come to think of it).
The four shadowhunters cut through demon after demon, Ted now wielding a seraph blade and a slightly smaller knife (primarily because the other knife had clattered to the floor by the sofa across the room after he killed he demon), slicing and stabbing the ambush of creatures as best he could.
"Ted!" Isabelle yelled from one side of the room, where a cluster of demons had swarmed her.
Within seconds, one had a knife in its back and Isabelle had a seraph blade in her hand, making quick work of the rest of them, while Ted retrieved his weapon swiftly. None of the shadowhunters had quite realised the mundane had run out, looking terrified.
Jace and Alec stabbed the final demon in unison, only then did they scan the room properly.
"Where'd the girl go?" The blond ask, eyes darting around with an inch of concern in them.
"Who cares? She jeopardised the mission, let that be the end of it." Alec sighed, his tone firm—which wasn't saying much, it practically always was.
"No, Alec, Jace has a point, I mean, it's not everyday a mundane has the Sight, right?" The brunette spoke up, letting her whip coil around her wrist.
"Plus," Jace added, "The seraph blade lit up when she touched it. I think she's one of us."
"That doesn't explain why none of us know about her, or more importantly why she wasn't runed at all." Ted mentioned, folding his arms with a confused expression.
"All the more reason to investigate, right?" Jace smirked, the way he always seemed to do when he knew he'd get his way.
"Fine, we'll head back to the institute, you go find the Mundie if it really means that much to you." His parabatai sighed, motioning for the other two to follow him, whilst Jace picked up a button from the floor and tracked the ginger girl who seemed to pique his interest so much.
Back at the institute, the three organised their weapons and started on a mission report, just in case the Clave found out about it, which they likely would—the institute was full of, for lack of a better word, snitches.
"Paperwork is so boring." Izzy complained loudly, "I mean come on—we're warriors, not office workers."
Ted leant back in his chair at her words as he replied. "True as that might be we're not just warriors, we're shadowhunters, Belle. I can make you a coffee if you'd like."
"Translation: you can make me a coffee if that would shut me up." She quirked a brow as a smirk glided onto her lips.
"Will it?"
"We'll see."
"Promising," he quipped, turning to the raven-haired man, who seemed to be both annoyed and amused by the interaction, "Want anything, Xander?"
"A break."
The brunet snickered slightly and headed to the kitchen, setting out the trio's favourite mugs and getting each of their drinks prepped: black coffee, two sugars for Alec; Izzy loved mochas and, as per the stereotype, Teddy opted for some tea.
He carried them back on a tray, along with some biscuits to 'keep them going' (which was really just Ted stalling so he didn't have to fill out any forms), only to find that their table had been abandoned and the files left scattered all over. He looked about for anyone who wouldn't mind being interrupted before asking about the Lightwood siblings, his eyes landing on his friend, a blonde woman in her late twenties, with an electric smile and the ability to win an argument with a look.
"Hiya Jackie, have you seen Izzy and Alec?"
"Oh, sure, I think they headed to the infirmary." She replied, nodding to the door the siblings had left through.
"Cheers Jacks, you're a lifesaver." He patted her back in thanks.
"It's kind of our job, Herondale, or did you not get the memo?"
"Your wit distracted me, Holdenstark." He called over his shoulder and he retrieved the tray and set off to find his friends.
"Oh, I see you've found our ginger short-stack." He commented as he walked through the open door, seeing the vibrant orange hair splayed out on a pillow.
"I see you've found the drinks...and the cookies."
"They crunch, they're biscuits." He corrected, joining the group hovering around the bed, "So, what's wrong with her?"
"Demon venom. I've given her an iratze so she just needs to rest up." Jace replied with his arms folded, never once moving his gaze from her sleeping face.
"I suggest we leave her to it, she shouldn't even be here." Alec grumbled, picking up his coffee from the tray on the beside table.
"Besides, you boys have the mission reports to get through," Isabelle smiled, knowing how annoying she could be, "I'll mind the girl for now, I say we rotate until she wakes up."
"Give us a shout when you need us, right? And I want some of those digestives left over when we get back, Belle."
"Are you suggesting I'm greedy?"
"I'm suggesting you get bored pretty easily and eat as a result." He smiled, rolling his eyes at her mock-offended expression; he turned and followed the two others out of the room, leaving the girls alone.
The paperwork, though boring, was fairly simple for this mission, in spite of how disheartening it was to have to write 'due to unforeseen obstacles in the secondary location, the team was unable to discover the identity of the blood buyer'.
It was a waiting game, from then. It was pretty evident four hours in that she wasn't waking up anytime soon, and so, at six in the morning, three shadowhunters, exhausted and confused, dragged themselves to bed.
It was lunch before Alec had finished sifting through files and reviewing potential culprits of the case by the girl's side, and slumped off to wake Teddy for the next shift. As much as he hated to wake up the boy in front of him, and as much as he wanted to admire how his wavy hair looked soft as he slept, the oldest Lightwood opened the curtains as the natural light made the British boy squint.
"'Time's it?" He slurred slightly, his voice thick with sleep as he sat up.
"Time for you to mind the mundie," He smiled, "Don't worry though, chances are she's not waking up anytime soon, you can sleep for a while there."
Ted gave a wide, appreciative smile which made Alec's face flush slightly. He stuttered out a response that merged perhaps four different phrases together, before fumbling for the door.
Thus, this rota ran for two days, involving endless excuses for the absences of one member of the quartet, keeping people out of the infirmary (and concealing the girl when people entered anyway), before eventually, Izzy let them know the mundane had woken up, causing the boys to pile into the room to get some answers.
"A mundane shouldn't even be here."
"She's not a mundane—"
"How'd you know that?"
"The seraph blade lit up when she touched it, we've been over this," Jace sighed, getting impatient, "Isabelle, can you—" he gestured vaguely to the bed and the girl moved to another seat.
"I'm Jace Wayland."
"Am I the only one that finds this unusual?"
"You find everything unusual, Alec." The blond sighed, seemingly growing less and less patient with everyone.
"We have to report this to the clave." Alec stated—it was true, obviously, but predictably, Jace didn't like that suggestion very much.
"Look, can you just dial it down a notch?" He snapped.
"My brother doesn't have a dial. I love you Alec, but you have a switch that's always on." Isabelle said fondly.
"I love you too," he smiled briefly, before his expression hardened as he gestured to Clary, "But this—"
"Hey, you know what? Give me a minute." When nobody made any move, he added; "Here's a word you never hear me say: please?"
Alec began protesting and Ted gave his parabatai a look, and she dragged him out of the room. The Londoner would have gone with them, but he began to see why Jace was as curious about the girl as he was, and decided instead to sit and observe, as he liked to do with anyone when he first met them.
Meanwhile, Jace absolutely butchered his explanation of the shadow world to the girl.
"Jeez, alright, let me keep it simple: all the legends are true—"
"Oh come on Jace, don't be such a dramatic bitch," Ted hoisted himself up from his seat, as he clipped the blond round the back of the head, after seeing how scared and confused the redhead looked, "What's your name again sorry, love?"
"Clary."
"Right, Clary, I'm actually going to make it simple: you've got normal people, we call 'um mundanes but they're like muggles in Harry Potter, and us shadowhunters protect them from demons. Mundanes can't usually see us, we have angel blood and they don't, and we use these tattoo-looking things called runes to glamour ourselves if we go out on missions—you with me so far?"
"Kinda, actually?"
Ted then briefly outlined the four downworld races as best he could, with vague gestures demonstrating warlock spells and mundane references to calm her down a little, and it worked, he reminded her of her best friend, and although she longed for Simon, knowing there was someone with little Simon-isms in this world was good enough for now.
"Are you done with the history lesson yet or do I have to wait until you crack out a rune textbook?" Jace complained, growing agitated.
"Alright you snippy twat, I'm ever so sorry filling Clary in on this wildly new concept is inconvenient for you," The brunet remarked, rolling his eyes, "But yes, I think that's all she needs to know right now."
"My brain would probably explode if you told me anything else," Clary confessed, smiling lightly, "But, if it's not too much trouble, can you tell me more later?"
"Of course love, cash it in whenever you'd like—within reason, obviously. I'll let the pair of you get on then." He gave a small salute as he left the room, clapping Jace on the shoulder, hard, earning him a 'What was that for?' on the way out.
He walked through the institute in search of at least one of the Lightwoods; a common occurrence, Ted found. He'd been living in New York for nearly seven years, but he still felt far more comfortable in the institute if either Jace, Izzy or Alec was with him.
"Hey Teddy, how's Clary doing?" Isabelle greeted.
"Terrified, naturally, but I think I cleared the basics up— I can't say I trust Jace to keep her calm though." He confessed, to which the girl laughed.
"Can you ever? But c'mon did you see how he looked at her? Totally dreamy, totally likes her."
"You don't need to play Emma right away.. but yes, I saw it too— although in all fairness, she is insanely pretty, isn't she?"
"Not as pretty as me though, right?" Isabelle pouted, feigning hurt.
"'Course not, Iz, I don't think anybody could be—well, besides Alec." He conceded, a dopey sort of grin forming on his face.
"I'll take that." she smirked, looping her arm through her parabatai's.
"You did leave her some of your clothes, right?" Ted questioned after a moment or two of silence.
"Mhm, I bet Jace'll have a field day with her in them." A mischievous expression gliding across her face.
"You are a nightmare Isabelle Lightwood." He sighed with a smile.
"And you are a daydream Edward Herondale." She teased back.
A/N- first proper chapter done! Hope you enjoyed it—I apologise for the fight scenes, please let me know how to improve (as the book goes on I'll probably get the hang of it and edit these early ones),, comment + vote if you liked it, it really helps with motivation :)
Stay safe! x