Wild Warriors: A Shadowhunters Fanfic

23. Morning Star

          The High Warlock of Brooklyn swung open his heavy door and looked down at the five of us standing on his doorstep. Camille and Simon were standing under a narrow sliver of shadow coming from the top of Magnus's apartment.

"Ah, the Shadowhunters need me again," Magnus sighed lazily and threw his door open. "I suppose I have no choice."
"Thank you, Magnus," I smiled at him as I walked past him into his apartment. Simon and Camille quickly followed, and Izzy closed the door behind us.

"So Magnus, what has it been? 100? 150 years?" Camille drawled as she sauntered through Magnus's living room.
"138," the Warlock corrected, "and oddly, I haven't missed you."
Camille spun around to smile flirtatiously at Magnus. "Of course you have, my love."
"Alright, you two can catch up later," I interrupted the vampire. "We have a job to do. We need to find the Book of the White."
"And you will," Camille snapped at me. I raised an eyebrow at her but she continued, "But not without payment." She turned back to look up at Magnus and said, "You of all people should understand that."
"Of course. And what is it you need?"
"A clean slate."
"She wants a Writ of turning me into a vampire," Simon said from across the room. He was still standing right next to Clary while Isabelle and I had drifted over to the large mahogany table in the middle of the room and were leaning against it.

"We need you to draft it, Magnus," I said. The Warlock turned to look at me with his glowing cat eyes and smiled.
"Anything for you, little Cara," he winked. I smiled back at him and watched as he and Camille moved over to the table and started discussing the terms. Apparently the Writ was extremely complicated and the terms were set very high.
I looked away from the heated conversation and turned to my parabati.
"I'm going to call for backup," I told her. "We need Jace and Alec here for when we search for the Book. And I need to talk to Jace."
Isabelle grabbed my arm on my way past her. Her eyebrows were knitted together with concern.
"Are you and Jace okay?" She whispered. I inwardly groaned. I should have known she would pick up on something, even if one of us wasn't even here.
"Yeah," I whispered back. "We're fine."
"Don't lie to me, Cara."
"I'm not lying. I'm just...stretching the truth."
Isabelle dropped her hand from my arm and brushed some hair behind my shoulder.
"That counts as lying," she said.

"Whatever. We'll be fine. We always are."
"You haven't gotten this mad at each other before," Izzy pointed out. "Just a word to the wise: don't let him do whatever he wants just because he's upset about Valentine. He needs you by his side, you keep him sane."
I smiled ruefully and let out a small sigh.
"Yeah," I whispered, "I'm starting to think he keeps me sane, too."

Isabelle let me go after that and I walked out of the room and turned down the hallway for some privacy.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and quickly dialed Jace's number. But I stared at the screen for what felt like an hour before I was able to press the call button.
What if Jace didn't want to hear from me? What if him and Alec were far away and in some kind of trouble? What then?
I shoved away the horrible thoughts and started the call. I held my phone up to my ear and counted the rings that went by.

One...
Two...
Three...

"Hello?"
"Jace!" I was so relieved to hear his voice and know that he wasn't dead that I forgot I was upset at him. "Are you alright?"
"We're fine, Cara. Where are you?"
"We're at Magnus's. Listen-"
"Magnus's? As in Magnus Bane?" Jace sounded surprised and a little confused. "What are you doing there?"
"We're close to finding the Book of the White. Izzy and I helped Clary and Simon get the information out of Camille. Camille has the Book, just like we thought, but she won't give it to us unless Simon signs a Writ of Transmutation. So Magnus is drafting it, Simon will sign it, and Camille will give us the Book."
Jace was quiet for a few seconds after my short explanation. Then he finally said, "And you think that will work?"
I sighed heavily and looked around the hallway I was standing in. The dark walls reflected the white light from the lamps on the wall and I could see my reflection in them.