Distractions - Chapter 47: Chapter 47

Everest had quickly changed into jeans and a sweater, throwing on a warm looking leather jacket over top and tucking her gun into one of its pockets. She followed after Jace, who had been waiting for her in the hall, as she tried to pull her hair back into a ponytail. It only sort of worked.
"This better be good," she grumbled as she aggressively tucked the loose strands of fading purple behind her ears. She'd need to recolor her hair soon.
"It's Valentine. I think our definition of good and his definition of it are very different." Everest hated to admit that Jace had a point, but he did. Whatever Valentine wanted to 'show' them was probably some murderer or crime scene.
Valentine was talking to two people when the siblings made it to the top deck. One of them was Cyprus. Everest groaned and lagged behind Jace, who was so busy trying to avoid the Circle members swarming the ship that he didn't notice. Once she was sure Jace wouldn't follow, Everest bolted.
She ran through the ship, towards the kitchen, not caring if she knocked into someone. She dodged flying weapons, angry shouts, and startled mundanes the entire run to the other side of the ship. Everest slammed the kitchen door shut and she frantically dug in the cabinets.
"Please have good food. Please have granola bars or something. Please," she muttered over and over again like it was a chant.
It seemed that it was Everest's lucky day. As she was going through the cabinets on her third round, she found a small pile of granola bars sitting innocently amongst the spices. She eagerly tore one open, desperate for something besides coffee and Skittles. If she had to deal with whatever Valentine wanted to show her and Jace, then she would need something that had a chance at filling her up.
Someone cleared their throat. Everest whirled. Behind her was Valentine, watching her with narrowed beady eyes and a contemplative frown.
"Follow me," he commanded, and Everest was scared to disobey. His voice was low pitched and harsh in the way that most men's voices got when angry. It was a voice that she had learned to listen to very quickly. (Unfortunately it was a voice many people, especially women, learned to listen to very quickly.)
Trigger warning: Needles/blood draw
She followed him down to a level she hadn't been on before. It was full of lab tables and cages, medical equipment and scribbled notes. It was terrifying in the way that the labs of mad scientists in books always were—except this one was real. Valentine pointed to a sterile white bench, Everest sat without hesitation. At least it wasn't a chair. He pulled her sleeves up in one harsh motion and pulled out a rather large syringe and without warning the syringe needle was in her arm. Everest cried out, more out of shock than pain. The syringe filled with blood that had a strange shimmer to it, but also an odd shadowy depth. Neither description was one that should be used to describe blood, but that was the only way Everest knew how to describe it.
Valentine absentmindedly handed her a band aid as he placed the syringe in a container without a word. Everest watched with wide eyes as he beckoned for her to follow him.
Trigger warning over
"What did you just do?" she demanded, not caring that her voice was an octave too high and her words were sharp with distress.
"I took a sample of your blood to test," he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Why?"
"There weren't granola bars in the kitchen." Valentine faced her with a sort of curiosity burning in his gaze that reminded Everest of a forest fire. It was obvious and bright, but also deadly.
"But I just found some."
"There weren't granola bars in the kitchen," Valentine repeated. "Yet when you were looking for them, they appeared."
"That's not how that works." Everest's small smile was tense and slightly mocking, her tone just the same.
"That's the point." Who knew Valentine could be so deadpanned that it sounded sarcastic?
"Why did you need my blood then?" Everest asked, getting back to the point.
"To see if there is anything else in your blood that would have caused you to be able to wish things into existence." Valentine continued walking, but Everest stared, dumbfounded, in the middle of the hall.
"WHAT?" she shrieked. "What? No? That's not how that works! That's not how anything works!"
"Calm down and follow me," Valentine snapped. "We're going to be late."
Everest really wanted to scream, or even better, throw something, but she had to suck it up and follow the psychotic ass who was her father. She did allow herself to mime punching Valentine, as well as throttling him, and that alleviated her pure frustration a little bit.
"Jace," Everest hissed into the blonde's ear when she stopped to stand beside him. "Why is Valentine so irritating and unhelpful? It shouldn't be possible to be as irritating and unhelpful as he is."
Jace stifled a laugh. "It's part of his charm I guess."
"Yeah, well. His charm can fuck off and never return."
Jace had to work harder to stifle his laughter that time, but he succeeded somehow.
Everest pulled her sleeves over her hands and crossed her arms, a scowl mixed with panic forming on her face. Nothing was going right. Not her being kidnapped, or Cyprus Fallis of all people being on the ship, not being colder than a polar vortex all the time, not having blood drawn so Valentine could do tests on it, especially not finding out that she was experimented on as a kid. Everest groaned and tilted her head back to face the starless, smog-filled sky. Could this—no. She wasn't even going to go there.
"Come along, follow me," Valentine beckoned. He spoke as if he hadn't just drawn blood from his youngest child, as if he wasn't a horrible person leading her and Jace to who knows where. Everest hated it.
Everest followed Jace and Valentine through a Portal that had appeared at some point and immediately wanted to crawl in a hole and die.
She was standing between Jace and Valentine on a random New York street (as evident by the angry lights and glaring 'New York' in front of everything around her) that wasn't so random. Specifically, the pizza parlor in front of her wasn't as random as she would have liked.
"Why are we at Reggie's?" she demanded. She moved to Jace's other side so that she wasn't standing next to Valentine. Jace was an adult, he could deal with the jerk. (Technically Everest was an adult too, but Jace was older so he was technically more of an adult than her.)
"You know this place?" Jace groaned, giving her a look that clearly showed how disbelieving he was that she knew yet another place in the ShadowWorld but didn't know she was a Shadowhunter.
"Reggie was an idiot who knew Gino and Meliorn." Everest shrugged. "He made okay pizza."
Jace shook his head. "We're stopping for pizza?" he asked Valentine rhetorically.
"Reggie served the best pie in all of Brooklyn." Everest scrunched up her nose. Reggie's pie sucked. Was Valentine stupid or did he just have no taste? "Note the past tense. When Reggie's wife, Maria, turned into a vampire, she slaughtered Reggie and created a den inside."
Everest hated it when she was right sometimes.
Jace sighed. "What does this have to do with us? Besides the fact that Everest knew Reggie apparently."
Valentine walked to stand in front of Jace, resting his hands on his shoulders. Everest was uncomfortable for Jace. "You really think that love will stop you from hurting your family and friends? No matter how hard you fight it, demon blood makes you kill. It starts in small ways. Urges. See, that's why you want Clary and always will."
Everest nearly threw up. "Look, I'm her twin sister and even I'll admit that Clary's not the worst looking girl in the world. But I don't think demon blood is what makes her look good to Jace. I think that's just her natural pixie-like charm."
Jace paled. "Please stop talking, Purple. That made it worse."
Everest thought over her words and grimaced. "Sorry. It didn't speak the way I thought."
A woman screamed. It was faint but unmistakable as anything but a scream of terror. Jace didn't spare either Valentine or Everest a glance before running inside. Everest made to follow, but Valentine caught her arm.
"No. Jace has to do this alone."
"Then why am I here?"
He released her arm as the door to the pizza parlor slammed shut. "I don't trust you not to do something stupid."
"What? Like jump off the railing to my burning death?" See, this was why Everest needed to have a proper sleep schedule, proper food available, and pleasant company. Because otherwise she turned into a horrible person with no filter.
"Like fight with Fallis."
Okay, so maybe Valentine had a point there. She almost fought Cyprus in that training room and if he had kept talking, maybe she would have at least pulled out weapons.
"He would deserve it," she grumbled softly and without enunciating her words much, before returning her voice to a normal volume. Valentine looked amused, as if he had heard her. He probably had. "What am I supposed to do then? My phone is basically dead so I can't play on it, I don't have my projects with me, and everyone I would willingly spend time with is either not here or fighting vampires."
He rolled his eyes. "You need to watch the perimeter, make sure no vampires escape. You're not ready to fight a den yet, but you should be able to deal with any strays that wander away."
Everest stared at Valentine and then, seeing no more deceit than normal on his face, huffed and stalked off. She decided to just sit in the alleyway, too tired and irritable to do anything else.
She leaned against the rough bricks, breathing deeply and tapping her fingers against her thigh to an unrecognizable beat. She needed to calm down, to stop being on the verge of an anxiety attack every few seconds. She needed to stop having to push said attacks away and force the tightness in her chest and shaky panic out of her body. She needed to get out of there, needed to get away from Valentine and his ship. But that wasn't going to happen, not if bad things kept happening like this.
Something shattered then two thuds echoed into the alleyway and Everest was running. Jace was running after a young woman in a bloody white dress towards Valentine. What the hell happened while she was in the alley?
"You're done. You're done," Jace panted.
"You can't kill me," the woman taunted. Uhh...couldn't everything be killed in some capacity?
Jace spat, "Watch me."
Jace lunged for her, but just as he was about to stab a wooden stake through her heart, she grinned.
"I surrender to the authority of the Clave."
Jace began to shake angrily and the woman laughed. Was that the equivalent of giving yourself up to the police? Everest was so confused.
She inched forward, hand twitching towards her gun, with hesitant steps. She really didn't want to die, not like this.
"Aw, look at you. You got your stick all ready to go and now you can't use it," the woman taunted. Everest couldn't help herself; she snorted softly.
"No, you broke the Accords." Those were the ShadowWorld's version of the Constitution, right? "You killed innocent mundanes. And now you're going to die like the rest of your friends."
The woman tutted. "But unlike them, I'm no longer a threat. I know my rights." This lady wasn't allowed to meet Camille. Everest forbid it.
"Your rights?" Jace questioned.
"Yeah, my rights. I may have broken the Accords, but I know you won't."
"You don't know anything about me," Jace snapped. Everest moved closer again. Now she was only feet away from Jace, Valentine, and the woman.
"I know you're weak. Hmm. I can smell it." The woman's wicked eyes flickered to Everest. "Even she's stronger than you. She'd last as a Downworlder. You wouldn't. You'll do whatever the Clave tells you to do. Now, get off me." She shoved the stake away from her.
"Johnathan," Valentine said loudly. "Are you going to let her mock you after what she did?"
Trigger Warning: Guns and usage of guns
Jace held up the stake again. Everest pulled her gun from her jacket but kept it at her side.
"Jace, don't do something stupid," Everest said, begging slightly. She was ignored.
Valentine continued. "This thing in front of you, she was once Reggie the pizza guy's sweet and loving wife."
"You leave my husband out of this!" roared the woman.
"Woah. You mean the guy you murdered? You mean the man you devoured? That's what you mean?" Jace's words were mocking and cut deep, just as intended.
Footsteps thundered down the road and Everest looked over to see Simon and Clary running towards the situation in front of her.
The woman lunged at Jace and Everest fired. Her bullet hit its mark just as Jace's stake met cold, undead skin.
Trigger warning over
"Ah, atta children." Everest's eyes widened and her expression filled with disgust at Valentine's words. 'Atta children?' What was he, a Boomer? Wait, was he? How old was Valentine?
Something behind Everest clicked and she whirled. Standing near Clary and Simon was her mom, a crossbow loaded and ready to fire.
"What the hell?" Everest all but screeched. The red headed woman gave her a surprised look but her gaze locked on something, or someone, beside Everest. The only person beside her was...
"Jace, move!" she shouted, shoving him. But her efforts in being helpful weren't needed as Valentine had dove in front of the both of them and took an arrow to the shoulder for his efforts. A sadistic glee went through Everest's mind when she realized that Valentine was injured. He deserved it for being such an asshole.
"No!" screamed Clary, rushing towards her mom.
"Run, Jonathan. They want you dead," Valentine grunted. "Take Everest and go!"
Everest was breathing heavily, gun heavy in her hand and eyes wide as they locked on her mom reloading the crossbow with ease. Her arm was grabbed and then she was being pulled through the Portal by Jace, Valentine's arm draped over his shoulders. This seemed wrong, everything about this seemed wrong. She should be running with Jace towards Clary and Simon, they should be going home. But her mom, their mom, had just shot at Jace and Jace was pulling Everest back to hell on water. None of this seemed right.
Trigger Warning: Panic Attack
As soon as they fell out of the Portal and onto the ship, Everest stumbled back, knocking into tables and cages until she was against a wall. She gripped her head between her legs and her fingernails scratched at her upper arms. Her breath was too heavy and too quick to be normal and her throat was tight. She fought to swallow the brick in her throat. Her chest was tight, as if it was a coil that was wound too tight, and her head hurt. She shivered, colder than normal once more.
She didn't know how long she sat like that, hyperventilating and scratching at her arms. All she knew was that she needed to stop, stop thinking, stop moving, stop panicking, stop everything. Of course, none of those things happened.
Eventually, after a lot of almost calming and then panicking more, Everest's breathing started to slow and her cries turned to hiccups. She swiped at her face for a while, until she was sure all her tears were scrubbed away. She stood on shaky legs, arms wrapped around herself as she made her way out of whatever room she was in and to her room. She didn't know where Jace and Valentine had gone, but she didn't care all that much at the moment. She just needed to lie down.
Trigger Warning Over
She stumbled into bed, curling up in a ball under the comforters. She breathed in the scent of new, clean sheets and then there was nothing but empty blackness.
...
When Everest woke up, the clock beside the bed said 01:17 in harsh red letters. She groaned. Fuck sleep schedules apparently. She rolled over, trying to find her comfy spot again to no avail. After several minutes of quite literally tossing and turning in bed, Everest gave up. She rolled out of bed and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
The hallways were lit by those ugly emergency lights that fill every single room available to them the moment they sense a new room has been opened for them to light up. Everest grimaced at the sudden flood of light and stumbled down the hallway. Somehow she ended up on the deck.
A familiar figure sat on the deck; it was Jace. Everest plopped down beside him, leaning her head, which was covered by a hoodie hood, on his shoulder.
"Can't sleep?" he asked like every character in every piece of media ever.
"I slept," she said, yawning. When was the last time she slept for a full night again? "I just woke up. Why're you up?"
"Couldn't sleep." It was clear to Everest why. After all, he had just defeated a vampire clan and got shot at by the woman who was supposed to be his mother. Not a great night.
Everest hummed and took a handful from the granola bag Jace had in his lap. She wasn't sure why he had it, but oh well.
"I'm bored," she complained after a while. "Let's go on an adventure."
He snorted. "I don't know if you've noticed, but we're stuck here, Everest."
"No, I mean let's do something stupid."
"You mean like existing on this boat?"
She snorted, but shook her head. "No, like fire."
"You want us to do fire?" Ugh, grammar. It made her ideas seem weird.
"No, let's make or play with fire. Fire's fun."
There was a pause and then, "What were you thinking?"
Everest grinned. "So, we would need..."
...
It took ninety minutes, a lot of cursing, and a lot of confusion, but Jace and Everest managed to make a flamethrower.
"I don't know why any of this stuff was on the ship, but oh well." Everest shrugged. "Do you wanna test it?"
Jace nodded eagerly, like a young child who was just asked if he wanted to stay up later than he was normally allowed to. He turned the air compressor on and fire erupted from the nozzle. Everest screamed in delight and terror.
"FUCK YES!" the two screamed.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOINGI?!" demanded an impossibly angry voice. It was the same angry voice that most men had, the one that made you terrified and want to listen to whatever they said.
Jace paled and flicked the flamethrower off. The two turned to Valentine sheepishly. The man was in sweatpants and a tank top. (Everest didn't know how she felt about Valentine being in lounge clothes. It didn't really fit his vibe. It was weird.) Everest did her best to hide behind Jace when Valentine stalked forward. It didn't really work.
"We're testing our flamethrower," Jace informed the man. Everest couldn't help but admire his brave stupidity in admitting exactly what they were doing at 2:45 in the morning with a contraption that spat fire to the man who could very well have them killed.
The bald man glared darkly at the blank expression Jace had forced onto his face and the innocently devious mask Everest had perfected in school years ago. Valentine let out a long, suffering sigh, dragging a hand down his face.
"They're going to be the death of me," he whispered harshly. Everest didn't think she was meant to hear that.
There was a roar to Everest's left and she looked over to see that the flamethrower had turned back on. By itself. It wasn't supposed to do that.
"Shit!" Jace shouted, running forward to turn it off. Somehow, magically, he didn't get injured. Everest could never.
"Why'd it do that?" the blonde asked Everest.
She shrugged. "I dunno. I don't actually know if we built it right or if I even remembered what it was supposed to look like."
"So we might have just built a flamethrower with a mind of its own?" Jace raised an eyebrow.
Everest shrugged again. "Maybe."
"That's it," Valentine snapped, expression murderous once more. "Get off the ship."
"What?"
"We can do that?"
"Get. Off. The. Ship."
Everest threw her hands in the air and backed up when Valentine's expression and tone became even darker. She didn't want to die by the hands of her estranged father, thank you very much.
"Where should we go?" Jace pressed. His voice was unwavering, though his hand reached back to grab Everest's in what seemed like a form of comfort.
"I don't care. Just get off the ship and be back before morning," the man ground out.
Everest and Jace shared a wary look as Valentine summoned a warlock over to open a Portal.
"I know where we can go," she whispered to Jace. He just nodded.
Everest and Jace stepped through the Portal after one more wary glance at Valentine's angry face. She stumbled slightly when she landed on an empty soda can, but Jace helped steady her.
"Where are we?" he asked, sounding slightly dazed.
Everest gestured around. "Welcome, Jace, to Le Petit Sénégal."
"Where?"
She huffed. "It has really fun food and culture and there's a really fun shop that I'm pretty sure is open all day."
Jace seemed to ponder this for a moment before nodding. "Where to first?"
...
Everest wasn't entirely sure how they had gotten where they were. One moment she and Jace were at a very pretty shop that specialized in unique clothing, and the next they were in a tattoo parlor. Jace was currently laying on one of the very scary chairs with his eyes closed and mouth slightly open as he dozed off. See, somewhere between being at the shop and the tattoo parlor, Jace had dragged Everest to a mundane bar where he proceeded to get drunk. Then, at least according to Everest's not one hundred percent reliable brain, he came up with the idea of getting tattoos and now here they were. Jace was sleeping and Everest was talking to one of the tattoo artists.
"Please, could I do his tattoo?" Everest asked, following the tattoo artist to the front desk. "I promise I won't kill him."
The man regarded her with wary, calculating eyes that shone with a hint of recognition. "You're Theo's food buddy, aren't you? The one who changes her hair color and profile picture constantly?"
Everest's smile tightened at the mention of Theo. Did this person, who obviously knew Theo, know that he had died? Everest hoped so, she didn't want to be the one to give that news.
"I know he died, Kid." Everest sighed in relief. "I found out the morning after. Gretel called me and asked me to help clean up the Jade Wolf. You were there, right?"
Everest grimaced. "Yeah. Theo and some of the others kinda kidnapped me and my sister and our friend so some of our other friends came to unkidnap us. Is that a word? It is now." She shook her head. "I didn't mean for Theo to die, you know. I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt, much less die."
A large, callused hand settled on her shoulder heavily. Everest looked up. The man had a small smile and his eyes were warm, if slightly pained.
"I don't blame you, Kid. You weren't the reason Theo died. Theo and Luke were fighting for Alpha, it happens." Everest smiled softly and nodded.
"Can I do Jace's tattoo?" she asked again.
The man sighed, then shrugged. "Sure, why not. Just don't kill him."
"Thanks! I'm Everest by the way."
"Markus."
Trigger Warning: Tattoo needles
Markus took Everest over to a desk area and had her sketch out what Jace's tattoo would be, and then he printed it onto a special paper that would transfer the design onto his skin so she could tattoo it. Everest was grinning ear to ear as the man showed her how to properly do tattoos. Markus seemed ever so slightly wary of her grin, though he did say that she wasn't horrible at tattooing considering she had never done it before. (She didn't have the heart to tell him that she had taken a few crash course tattoo classes and had a tattoo gun and kit somewhere. Maybe. It might have gotten destroyed, but she was pretty sure that it might still be in the apartment. She'd have to look for it later.)
Everest wasn't sure if she was grateful for runes or not when Jace hardly flinched when she was doing his tattoo. At least she didn't have to listen to any whimpering or whining about the pain. She winced a few times when she felt the needle go ever so slightly too deep into his skin, even if Jace didn't feel it due to the runes he had activated before she started. She made sure to have Markus film her giving Jace a tattoo, just to have proof that she did it when Jace (and the others too) eventually found out about the tattoo.
Eventually, Everest leaned back and admired her work. Now tattooed on the inside of Jace's left ankle was a bathtub full of spaghetti and Everest couldn't be more pleased with her work. It was just in black and white so as to blend in better with his runes and clothing choices, but it also stood out because Jace didn't have any runes A) on his left ankle or B) that looked like bathtubs of spaghetti.
"Looks good," Markus complimented. "You want one?"
She faced him suddenly, neck cracking at the force of being moved so quickly after being bent in one position for so long. "What, a tattoo?"
"Yeah."
Everest pondered it for a moment and, before she could back out or begin to over think, said, "Yeah sure, why not."
Markus took the tattoo gun from her and once more they began to go through the process of designing the tattoo and prepping it. This one took less time to design since Everest had been, mostly jokingly, considering getting this tattoo for years.
Everest copied the pain-relieving rune onto her inner right elbow and Markus began to ink the design. While he did the tattoo and Jace slept, the two chatted for a bit. They talked about Theo, food, the ShadowWorld, anything and everything they could think of really; they just made sure to stay away from anything too personal. By the time Markus finished the tattoo of a toaster on fire on Everest's inner right ankle, Everest could safely say that she and Markus were acquaintances that wouldn't maul each other on the streets. (Which was saying something considering how her life had been going recently. She wouldn't be surprised if she had more enemies than not at the moment.)
Trigger Warning over
"Thank you so much," Everest told Markus sincerely, handing him the money that was owed for the tattoos.
"Anytime. And be sure to not be too rough with the skin around the tattoos, even with your fancy Shadowhunter healing runes." He smirked and waved her towards the door. "Try not to die out there, Kid. You're not horrible company."
Everest smiled and waved goodbye, draping Jace's (who was mostly asleep at the moment still) arm over her shoulder and guiding him out of the shop. And then ran into Valentine a block or so later. Literally.
The purple haired girl crashed to the ground, Jace groaning from where he was sprawled on the ground beside her. Everest looked up at who she had crashed into and flopped backwards. Why did she have to run into Valentine? Why couldn't it have been literally anyone else? She would have preferred to run into Jack, even. And that was saying something.
"Noooo."
"Up you two get," Valentine said sternly, grabbing them both by the shoulder and hauling them up. "Honestly, you would think you were drunk."
Everest facepalmed when Jace chose that moment to start to wake up a bit more.
"What's happening?"
Valentine looked like he was ready to drop Jace to the ground again when he looked at Everest. "Is he drunk?"
"A little bit, maybe?"
Valentine sighed. He traced a rune Everest didn't know on Jace's neck and suddenly Jace was wide awake.
"Why are you holding me?" he asked in the same petulantly innocent tone he had used earlier when Valentine was yelling at them for making a flamethrower.
"What did you do with the flamethrower?" Everest interjected before Valentine could answer.
"I disposed of it," Valentine said carefully. Everest wasn't sure that he actually had disposed of it. Maybe he had hidden it on board and was going to figure it out. Maybe he was going to use the parts for what they were meant to be used for. Everest nodded simply.
"We're going back to the ship," Valentine said, as if that answered Jace's question.
Everest and Jace both sighed in unison and Valentine's eye twitched. Did they get on his nerves? Good. He deserved it for being so horrible.
Valentine said tensely, "Let's go," and pulled the two through the Portal with him.
Jace and Everest landed on the deck, only stumbling slightly that time. Maybe they were getting better at Portaling. Or maybe their landing had to do with the grace and agility runes that Jace had drawn on both of them at some point in the night.
Everest didn't wait for anyone to say anything before she just left the deck, heading for anywhere that didn't have Valentine, Cyprus, or Circle members swarming it. It was a very short list of destinations that she had to choose from. Oh well, she'd choose one when she found it. It'd be fine.