Distractions - Chapter 27: Chapter 27
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She glared darkly at the coffee maker from where she sat on the counter. Her jade eyes were alight with promises of a fiery death and her scowl was deeper than he had ever seen it. He didn't really want to approach her, not when she looked that angry, but then Clary shoved him towards the nineteen year old with dark sunset colored hair, leaving him with no choice.
"We have a mission, Everest," he said, hoping he was hiding his nervousness well.
"Have fun," she responded bitterly.
"No, you and I have a mission," he clarified. Was he going to get shot? Maybe. That was unclear at the moment.
"Says who?"
"Says everyone else being busy."
Everest grumbled curses that even Jace didn't know as she stalked out of the kitchen, the blonde following behind her. He waited outside her room as she changed into Shadowhunting gear (she had, after almost a year, given into wearing the leather clothing so that she was safer on missions). Every once in a while there was a thud, then a curse louder than the rest, followed by Everest cursing out whatever object she had tripped over. Jace both wanted to know why his sister was so pissed off and clumsier than usual and wanted to avoid that answer all together.
"You alright?" he called through the sticker-covered door.
"Give me five minutes!" Everest called back. Her words were both sharp and defeated, it was an odd combination but Jace supposed it was common for her to have an odd mix of emotions on her face or in her voice. That was just Everest.
There was another loud string of curses that floated through the door and Jace decided enough was enough. He was going to text Alec to figure out what the fuck was going on with Everest.
HandsomeBlonde:
What the fuck is wrong with Everest??
Parababitch:
What do you mean? What did you do?
HandsomeBlonde has sent a video
Parababitch:
I didn't know half of those curses existed...
What did you do?
HandsomeBlonde:
I didn't do anything! I just found her glaring at the coffee maker and then when I told her about the mission she ran up to her room to get changed and she's been swearing the whole time!
Parababitch:
Has she had coffee?
HandsomeBlonde:
How am I supposed to know?!
Parababitch:
She's your sister [annoyed/deadpan emoji]
Did she look dead?
HandsomeBlonde:
Yeah...
Oh shit.
She hasn't had coffee
Parababitch:
Get her coffee before she dies or kills you on a mission or something
HandsomeBlonde:
Where? Everywhere's closed for Work Day or whatever it is
Parababitch:
Labor Day*
I don't know, call her friends or something. Just get her coffee
HandsomeBlonde:
Her friends are terrifying!
Parababitch:
Roslyn "I'm a tiny person with no strength" Henry and Gino "I'm too prideful to punch you" Brin are terrifying? [Amused emoji]
HandsomeBlonde:
Yes!
Parababitch:
Suck it up.
HandsomeBlonde:
You're not helpful
Parababitch:
I don't try to be
The sticker-covered door to Everest's room opened and she stepped into the hallway, ready for the mission and glaring just as darkly as before. There were bruises blossoming on her knuckles, likely from the punch Jace heard her throw before she cursed out the chair she still hadn't gotten rid of.
"You ready to go?" he asked.
She nodded and they walked to the Ops Center in silence. It was mostly empty when they got there, but Jace was pretty sure it was better that way, less people for Everest to piss off because she was pissed off.
"What's the mission?" Everest asked. Her voice was quiet and shook slightly, likely in an attempt not to take her anger out on him.
"There's a small group of demons in a subway tunnel that we need to take care of," he explained. He handed her the daggers she used most often and new bullets.
"How likely is it that I'm going to die?" she asked with a small smirk. "Out of ten."
"Zero. I'd be dead the moment anyone found out you died while on a mission with me."
She laughed a little, and for a moment Jace thought her mood had lifted, but then her expression was stormy once more. He sighed softly as he grabbed his weapons. He needed to find a way to get her coffee soon.
...
"What are you doing?" he asked as Everest stopped just outside the subway tunnel. He hadn't been able to find a place open that sold coffee and he was more worried about his health than he was before.
"Giving myself a magical caffeine boost," she muttered, drawing a rune Jace didn't know near her Parabatai rune.
"What?"
"Clary made a new rune for me. It does the same thing coffee does," Everest explained. "Want to try?"
The likelihood of this being a bad idea was about as high as not giving Everest coffee or caffeine of any kind (too high for anyone's good) and yet Jace agreed anyway.
He shrugged. "Sure."
Almost immediately after she drew the rune, Jace could feel the energy coursing through his veins. It was a weird feeling. It was like someone had taken one of the cartoon drawings of lightning, given it an electric charge, and then made it course through his veins.
"Let's go!" he said and Everest gave him an odd look. He wondered why.
Trigger Warning: Guns, fighting, death of supernatural creatures, and violence!
Everest trailed behind him, both of their steps silent as they approached the group of demons. Jace held out an arm to stop Everest from going further.
"Those are Hellhounds, don't get bit."
She glared at him. "Why couldn't you have told me that before we left?"
"I didn't know what demons were here."
Everest huffed. "If I shoot them, will they die?"
"If you use your special bullets."
"Okay."
Everest stepped around Jace's outstretched arm and shot at one of the five demon dogs. The bullet buried itself in its shoulder, but it didn't kill it. The demons whirled, snarling at the Shadowhunters. Everest glared and snarled back to Jace's surprise. Maybe that's the reason why she drinks so much coffee—so that she didn't snarl at demons.
The demons only got angrier and then it was a flurry of claws, teeth, blades, and bullets as Jace and Everest fought the Hellhounds. Jace winced as a claw grazed his shoulder and in retaliation he stabbed it where its heart would have been. He dodged the mace-like tail of another demon, cutting off its head before running towards Everest.
"Want some help?" he asked, a little out of breath.
"What do you think?" she snapped as she dodged a bite and tail at the same time.
Together they fought against the remaining two demons (Everest had killed one earlier). They didn't fight as perfectly as Jace and Alec, or Everest and Izzy, or even Everest and Clary fought, but that was okay. They weren't Parabatai or blood related, so it wasn't expected of them to fight together perfectly. However, over the last year they had grown closer and got better at fighting together. Now, unless you knew the ways that they didn't completely mesh while fighting, you could barely tell there were slight flaws when they fought together.
Their sibling-like bond showed in the way they always had the other's back, occasionally making unhelpful comments or jabs as they fought. Their moves echoed each other, Everest shooting a demon then kicking it towards Jace for him to finish it off and vice versa. They worked well together and soon the demons were dead.
Everest kicked at the scorch mark the Hellhound left behind. "I liked dogs. Now I'm not so sure."
Jace chuckled. Then he actually looked at his sister properly. "You're bleeding!"
She looked down at her leg, which now had a scratch winding its way from her mid thigh to just below her knee. "Well shit."
She pulled her stele from the pocket of the jacket she stole from Alec's closet and rolled up the sleeve. Jace thought she was going to activate her Iratze to heal herself. She didn't. Instead she reactivated the Caffeine rune Clary made for her.
"Everest!"
She looked up, confused. "What?"
"You need to heal yourself!"
"And you need to stop yelling," Everest grumbled as she ran her stele over the healing rune. The wound closed, but the blood on her leg stayed. Everest pulled a pack of baby wipes from her pocket and carefully wiped away the blood. She offered the pack to Jace, but he shook his head. She shrugged and walked towards the stairs that lead back to the streets.
Trigger warning over!
"Where are we going?" Jace asked after a few minutes of walking in the opposite direction of the Institute.
"Central Park. It might have coffee."
...
Central Park did not in fact have coffee, but it did have an ice cream cart and a pretzel cart. Everest made Jace wait for her as she bought a coffee ice cream with rainbow sprinkles and a large pretzel. Jace wasn't paying attention to where Everest was leading him, trusting that she wouldn't let him walk into a pond (which was probably a mistake on his part), at least he wasn't paying attention until he heard a loud "QUACK."
His head shot up from the chocolate ice cream he was eating and in the direction of the noise. Everest was standing by the pond, ice cream gone and pretzel being ripped up, surrounded by ducks of all kinds. She was feeding them ripped up pieces of pretzel with a smile that was far too smug for Jace's liking as she looked at Jace.
Jace screamed and without looking back, he ran. (He'd deny all this later, though he would be proven to be lying when Everest revealed a video she had taken.) He ran the entire way back to the Institute, not bothering to see if Everest was behind him or not, and when he got back to the building, he wasted no time in finding his girlfriend and siblings.
"Your sister—" He pointed to Clary and Izzy, then to Alec, "—your girlfriend is insane!"
"What happened?" Clary asked. She looked amused, as if she already knew why Jace looked and sounded so frantic.
"She let herself be surrounded by ducks and she fed them!"
The three burst out laughing and he glared at them. This was a serious matter, ducks were not to be trusted. They were bloodthirsty beasts and if left unchecked, they would take over the world! Why were they laughing?
"I'm not kidding!" he exclaimed, ignoring Everest when she walked into the Institute.
"You're still hyper," Everest mused.
"Still?" Izzy laughed harder. "How long has he been hyper?"
"Uh...since a little bit after we left for a mission." Everest's head tilted. "He got hyper after I gave him that Caffeine rune Ritz made."
Clary's facepalm was audible. "That rune gives you an Everest worthy amount of caffeine. Why did you give Jace that rune?"
Everest's face fell in surprise, then she smirked. She was doing that a lot that day, Jace supposed it was a side effect of her not having actual coffee. "I didn't know it gave someone that much caffeine. It does make Jace yelling a lot make sense, though."
"I bet," Alec deadpanned, though he smiled a little as Everest leaned into his side.
"I'm not hyper!" Jace protested.
Izzy began to cackle again, Alec smirked, Clary facepalmed again, though her shoulders shook as if she was laughing,, and Everest raised her eyebrow at him with a smirk.
"Really, Dye Blonde? You think you're not hyper?"
"I'm not!"
Everyone dissolved into laughter at that, Izzy collapsing to the floor (Clary didn't look far off from the same fate) and Alec and Everest were clutching each other tightly as Everest buried her face in her boyfriend's chest in a pitiful attempt to hide her laughter. Jace glared at all of them before stalking off. He wasn't hyper, he couldn't be. He'd know if he was hyper, wouldn't he? He wasn't hyper, right?
"We have a mission, Everest," he said, hoping he was hiding his nervousness well.
"Have fun," she responded bitterly.
"No, you and I have a mission," he clarified. Was he going to get shot? Maybe. That was unclear at the moment.
"Says who?"
"Says everyone else being busy."
Everest grumbled curses that even Jace didn't know as she stalked out of the kitchen, the blonde following behind her. He waited outside her room as she changed into Shadowhunting gear (she had, after almost a year, given into wearing the leather clothing so that she was safer on missions). Every once in a while there was a thud, then a curse louder than the rest, followed by Everest cursing out whatever object she had tripped over. Jace both wanted to know why his sister was so pissed off and clumsier than usual and wanted to avoid that answer all together.
"You alright?" he called through the sticker-covered door.
"Give me five minutes!" Everest called back. Her words were both sharp and defeated, it was an odd combination but Jace supposed it was common for her to have an odd mix of emotions on her face or in her voice. That was just Everest.
There was another loud string of curses that floated through the door and Jace decided enough was enough. He was going to text Alec to figure out what the fuck was going on with Everest.
HandsomeBlonde:
What the fuck is wrong with Everest??
Parababitch:
What do you mean? What did you do?
HandsomeBlonde has sent a video
Parababitch:
I didn't know half of those curses existed...
What did you do?
HandsomeBlonde:
I didn't do anything! I just found her glaring at the coffee maker and then when I told her about the mission she ran up to her room to get changed and she's been swearing the whole time!
Parababitch:
Has she had coffee?
HandsomeBlonde:
How am I supposed to know?!
Parababitch:
She's your sister [annoyed/deadpan emoji]
Did she look dead?
HandsomeBlonde:
Yeah...
Oh shit.
She hasn't had coffee
Parababitch:
Get her coffee before she dies or kills you on a mission or something
HandsomeBlonde:
Where? Everywhere's closed for Work Day or whatever it is
Parababitch:
Labor Day*
I don't know, call her friends or something. Just get her coffee
HandsomeBlonde:
Her friends are terrifying!
Parababitch:
Roslyn "I'm a tiny person with no strength" Henry and Gino "I'm too prideful to punch you" Brin are terrifying? [Amused emoji]
HandsomeBlonde:
Yes!
Parababitch:
Suck it up.
HandsomeBlonde:
You're not helpful
Parababitch:
I don't try to be
The sticker-covered door to Everest's room opened and she stepped into the hallway, ready for the mission and glaring just as darkly as before. There were bruises blossoming on her knuckles, likely from the punch Jace heard her throw before she cursed out the chair she still hadn't gotten rid of.
"You ready to go?" he asked.
She nodded and they walked to the Ops Center in silence. It was mostly empty when they got there, but Jace was pretty sure it was better that way, less people for Everest to piss off because she was pissed off.
"What's the mission?" Everest asked. Her voice was quiet and shook slightly, likely in an attempt not to take her anger out on him.
"There's a small group of demons in a subway tunnel that we need to take care of," he explained. He handed her the daggers she used most often and new bullets.
"How likely is it that I'm going to die?" she asked with a small smirk. "Out of ten."
"Zero. I'd be dead the moment anyone found out you died while on a mission with me."
She laughed a little, and for a moment Jace thought her mood had lifted, but then her expression was stormy once more. He sighed softly as he grabbed his weapons. He needed to find a way to get her coffee soon.
...
"What are you doing?" he asked as Everest stopped just outside the subway tunnel. He hadn't been able to find a place open that sold coffee and he was more worried about his health than he was before.
"Giving myself a magical caffeine boost," she muttered, drawing a rune Jace didn't know near her Parabatai rune.
"What?"
"Clary made a new rune for me. It does the same thing coffee does," Everest explained. "Want to try?"
The likelihood of this being a bad idea was about as high as not giving Everest coffee or caffeine of any kind (too high for anyone's good) and yet Jace agreed anyway.
He shrugged. "Sure."
Almost immediately after she drew the rune, Jace could feel the energy coursing through his veins. It was a weird feeling. It was like someone had taken one of the cartoon drawings of lightning, given it an electric charge, and then made it course through his veins.
"Let's go!" he said and Everest gave him an odd look. He wondered why.
Trigger Warning: Guns, fighting, death of supernatural creatures, and violence!
Everest trailed behind him, both of their steps silent as they approached the group of demons. Jace held out an arm to stop Everest from going further.
"Those are Hellhounds, don't get bit."
She glared at him. "Why couldn't you have told me that before we left?"
"I didn't know what demons were here."
Everest huffed. "If I shoot them, will they die?"
"If you use your special bullets."
"Okay."
Everest stepped around Jace's outstretched arm and shot at one of the five demon dogs. The bullet buried itself in its shoulder, but it didn't kill it. The demons whirled, snarling at the Shadowhunters. Everest glared and snarled back to Jace's surprise. Maybe that's the reason why she drinks so much coffee—so that she didn't snarl at demons.
The demons only got angrier and then it was a flurry of claws, teeth, blades, and bullets as Jace and Everest fought the Hellhounds. Jace winced as a claw grazed his shoulder and in retaliation he stabbed it where its heart would have been. He dodged the mace-like tail of another demon, cutting off its head before running towards Everest.
"Want some help?" he asked, a little out of breath.
"What do you think?" she snapped as she dodged a bite and tail at the same time.
Together they fought against the remaining two demons (Everest had killed one earlier). They didn't fight as perfectly as Jace and Alec, or Everest and Izzy, or even Everest and Clary fought, but that was okay. They weren't Parabatai or blood related, so it wasn't expected of them to fight together perfectly. However, over the last year they had grown closer and got better at fighting together. Now, unless you knew the ways that they didn't completely mesh while fighting, you could barely tell there were slight flaws when they fought together.
Their sibling-like bond showed in the way they always had the other's back, occasionally making unhelpful comments or jabs as they fought. Their moves echoed each other, Everest shooting a demon then kicking it towards Jace for him to finish it off and vice versa. They worked well together and soon the demons were dead.
Everest kicked at the scorch mark the Hellhound left behind. "I liked dogs. Now I'm not so sure."
Jace chuckled. Then he actually looked at his sister properly. "You're bleeding!"
She looked down at her leg, which now had a scratch winding its way from her mid thigh to just below her knee. "Well shit."
She pulled her stele from the pocket of the jacket she stole from Alec's closet and rolled up the sleeve. Jace thought she was going to activate her Iratze to heal herself. She didn't. Instead she reactivated the Caffeine rune Clary made for her.
"Everest!"
She looked up, confused. "What?"
"You need to heal yourself!"
"And you need to stop yelling," Everest grumbled as she ran her stele over the healing rune. The wound closed, but the blood on her leg stayed. Everest pulled a pack of baby wipes from her pocket and carefully wiped away the blood. She offered the pack to Jace, but he shook his head. She shrugged and walked towards the stairs that lead back to the streets.
Trigger warning over!
"Where are we going?" Jace asked after a few minutes of walking in the opposite direction of the Institute.
"Central Park. It might have coffee."
...
Central Park did not in fact have coffee, but it did have an ice cream cart and a pretzel cart. Everest made Jace wait for her as she bought a coffee ice cream with rainbow sprinkles and a large pretzel. Jace wasn't paying attention to where Everest was leading him, trusting that she wouldn't let him walk into a pond (which was probably a mistake on his part), at least he wasn't paying attention until he heard a loud "QUACK."
His head shot up from the chocolate ice cream he was eating and in the direction of the noise. Everest was standing by the pond, ice cream gone and pretzel being ripped up, surrounded by ducks of all kinds. She was feeding them ripped up pieces of pretzel with a smile that was far too smug for Jace's liking as she looked at Jace.
Jace screamed and without looking back, he ran. (He'd deny all this later, though he would be proven to be lying when Everest revealed a video she had taken.) He ran the entire way back to the Institute, not bothering to see if Everest was behind him or not, and when he got back to the building, he wasted no time in finding his girlfriend and siblings.
"Your sister—" He pointed to Clary and Izzy, then to Alec, "—your girlfriend is insane!"
"What happened?" Clary asked. She looked amused, as if she already knew why Jace looked and sounded so frantic.
"She let herself be surrounded by ducks and she fed them!"
The three burst out laughing and he glared at them. This was a serious matter, ducks were not to be trusted. They were bloodthirsty beasts and if left unchecked, they would take over the world! Why were they laughing?
"I'm not kidding!" he exclaimed, ignoring Everest when she walked into the Institute.
"You're still hyper," Everest mused.
"Still?" Izzy laughed harder. "How long has he been hyper?"
"Uh...since a little bit after we left for a mission." Everest's head tilted. "He got hyper after I gave him that Caffeine rune Ritz made."
Clary's facepalm was audible. "That rune gives you an Everest worthy amount of caffeine. Why did you give Jace that rune?"
Everest's face fell in surprise, then she smirked. She was doing that a lot that day, Jace supposed it was a side effect of her not having actual coffee. "I didn't know it gave someone that much caffeine. It does make Jace yelling a lot make sense, though."
"I bet," Alec deadpanned, though he smiled a little as Everest leaned into his side.
"I'm not hyper!" Jace protested.
Izzy began to cackle again, Alec smirked, Clary facepalmed again, though her shoulders shook as if she was laughing,, and Everest raised her eyebrow at him with a smirk.
"Really, Dye Blonde? You think you're not hyper?"
"I'm not!"
Everyone dissolved into laughter at that, Izzy collapsing to the floor (Clary didn't look far off from the same fate) and Alec and Everest were clutching each other tightly as Everest buried her face in her boyfriend's chest in a pitiful attempt to hide her laughter. Jace glared at all of them before stalking off. He wasn't hyper, he couldn't be. He'd know if he was hyper, wouldn't he? He wasn't hyper, right?
End of Distractions Chapter 27. Continue reading Chapter 28 or return to Distractions book page.