Arrested (Book 1 of the Arrested Trilogy) {malec au}

Chapter Twenty-Five

Alec screamed until his throat was raw, all while holding Jace's limp body in his arms and he sobbed and cradled his little brother back and forth on the floor until he was numb on the inside.

"Alec....." Magnus knelt down on the floor. He didn't care if the blood was ruining the soles of his shoes. Alec's brother was just murdered in cold blood in front of him. "We need to call this in. That's what you do when there's an officer down, right?"

Alec said nothing. He just stared straight ahead and held Jace close to his chest. His eyes were swollen and red from crying; he looked broken and defeated.

"Alec, please. Jace deserves a proper funeral. Regardless of his choices in the end. We all deserve to go to Heaven."

At the mention of Heaven, Alec's gaze flickered to look at Magnus. When he spoke, his voice was gravelly and crackling. "Valentine needs to pay."

Magnus nodded. "And he will. We're going to catch him and he's going to prison for everything he's ever done."

"No. No," Alec shook his head quickly. "He needs to die. I'm going to find him and I'm going to kill him."

"You're not killing him. He doesn't deserve that. He doesn't deserve to go that way. That would only be too sweet for him. Don't you think prison time would suit him better? Have him rot behind bars with nothing but scratchy blankets, an orange jumpsuit and a bar of soap you're supposed to make last a year?"

Alec gently placed Jace's body on the floor beside him. "No. Don't you think Jace deserved to live? He didn't have to die. Valentine could've let him go but instead he shot him. Valentine shot my brother, Magnus. Killed him in cold blood. Jace isn't stupid. He just does stupid things. Like this. But he didn't deserve to die."

Magnus said nothing as Alec went over and picked up the gun Valentine used to shoot Jace. "And where do you suspect we find him next? All our leads mean nothing now. Everything we worked for. Everything we've been through-"

"We'll find new leads. Something has to lead to him eventually. That's the way the world works," Alec checked the ammo of the gun. "Are you coming with me or not?"

Before Magnus could respond, the metal door that Valentine escaped through burst open and men dressed in black with the letters SWAT on them swarmed in, all yelling at the same time.

"Get down on your knees now!"

"Drop the weapon, Lightwood!"

"Put the gun down and put your hands in the air!"

"You too, Bane!"

Alec dropped the gun and slowly got to his knees, hands in the air. Magnus did the same. "What the fuck is going on here!"

"We could ask you the same thing," a familiar voice spat. Lydia came in, hair tied back in a tight bun and a bulletproof vest on. She glanced down at Jace's dead body and scowled. "Decided to go rogue, did you? How much did he offer?"

"Wh-what? I don't know what you're talking about!" Alec winced as he was handcuffed. "Are you saying I killed Jace?!"

"I'm not saying anything. I don't have to. We have proof that you killed Jace. Cuff the other one too," Lydia ordered the SWAT team.

"Me? What did I do?! Alec didn't kill Jace! It was Valentine! Jace was the-" Magnus froze when Alec glared at him. Even in death, Alec still wouldn't rat out his brother. "Best guy ever. He was the best. But it wasn't Alec. You can quote me on that."

"Oh we're going to quote you on a lot of things. In interrogation, that is. Bring them in, boys. And get a body bag for Jace. See if the bullet matches that inside the murder weapon."