Wild Warriors: A Shadowhunters Fanfic

22. Vampire Liberation

          After forming a loose plan with Magnus about how to go about getting the Book of White from Camille, I retreated into my room to change.
But I had only a few minutes of calm silence before a loud, frantic knock sounded at my door. I frowned and quickly crossed my room to pull the heavy door open.
Clary stood there, still dressed to the nines, her red hair waving messily about her shoulders.

"What's wrong, Clary?" I asked. "Is it Jocelyn?"
The girl shook her head and tried to catch her breath. She had obviously run here as quickly as she could.
"No, it's Lydia," she gasped.
"Lydia?"
"She was attacked in Robert Lightwood's office when she was packing for Idris. Alec and Magnus just found her. They say she blamed Hodge."
"Hodge!" My heart sunk deep inside my chest. There was no way, it was impossible that Hodge would attack a member of the Clave. Especially without reason...
"Why would Hodge do that?" I demanded to know. Clary flinched a little at my tone of voice and I felt a pang of pity.
"The Mortal Cup is missing."

I froze at the dreadful news. I muttered a curse and closed my eyes, leaning against my doorframe.
"Of course it is," I whispered. "Of course Hodge was working with Valentine all along, why didn't we see?"
"Cara, you can't blame yourself," Clary hurried to tell me. "The others are downstairs. Izzy is searching the cameras for any information."
I sighed and allowed the small girl to take my hand and pull me down the hallway and towards the elevators.

True to her word, Clary found the others seated around a large monitor in the foyer. Isabelle was scanning through the cameras that lined Robert Lightwood's office during the time Lydia was attacked.
Clary went to stand next to Alec and I took a seat next to my parabati. Isabelle's face was frowning in both pain and confusion as we watched Hodge backhand Lydia across the room before bending down to retrieve the Cup from the floor.

"We treated Hodge like family, how could he do this to us?" Alec asked bitterly. Jace sighed heavily and shook his head.
"I don't know, but we led him straight to the Cup," he said.
"Him and Valentine," I added. "But how was Hodge able to give the Cup to Valentine? Valentine never came into the Institute, we know that much."
"We don't know that he has given the Cup to Valentine," Isabelle told me. "All we know is that both Hodge and the Cup are gone."
Without a word, Jace reached over Isabelle's shoulders and tapped a second camera recording off the the side. The recording of Hodge and Lydia disappeared and was replaced with a second recording of Hodge standing over Jocelyn's comatose body.
Clary let out a frightened gasp when she saw Hodge next to her mother.

We all watched in silence as Hodge twisted a ring around his forefinger. Off to the side, nearly out of view of the camera, an apparition of Valentine appeared.
"That's how," Jace whispered. "He's using the ring to talk to Valentine."
"And look," I pointed back to the screen. Hodge was now holding his neck and through his fingers we could see his Circle rune burning red and then disappearing altogether. "Valentine deactivated his rune. Now he can leave the Institute."
"But that doesn't explain how he got the ring," Alec said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"What, do you think someone smuggled it past the wards?" Clary asked.
"It's possible," Jace shrugged. "Hodge wasn't the only ex-Circle member around here."
"Look," Isabelle swung around in her chair to glare at Jace. "I know I don't always see eye-to-eye with my parents, but I know they aren't traitors."
"Neither are mine," I said, trying to keep my voice neutral. "They wouldn't do this, they wouldn't have anything to do with Valentine. They left the Circle years ago."

"Isn't that what you just said about Hodge?" Jace asked me. I frowned at him and crossed my arms like Alec had.
"What exactly are you accusing my parents of?" I wanted to know.
"It had to be someone we trust, someone already inside the Institute. If there was an intruder in here, we would have found them by now." Jace remained unclear.
"What about the Forsaken attack?" I suggested. I wasn't liking how this conversation was becoming directed at my parents, or the Lightwood parents.
"No," Alec immediately said. "We killed that thing. And it didn't have a ring."
"There wasn't one during the autopsy, but I can check the footage." Isabelle clacked against the keyboard for a few seconds before she was able to pull up the footage from the attack a few days ago. She sped through the footage of Hodge attacking the huge Forsaken and paused it when Hodge knelt over the body. She played it back and we all watched at Hodge slide something off the Forsaken's finger and pocket it.