Chapter Text
"So how exactly do you have these connections and deals with the downworlders?" Aiden questioned as we began walking to Coast Diner. "I just mean you've been here what four months? Eli and I've been here over a year and still don't have their trust."
"Maybe it's the fact you visibly carry a seraph blade around everywhere you go," I pointed out. "Or they just want a pretty face." I looked at Eli. "I'm sorry, did I wound your feelings?"
"Don't need beauty if you got brains."
"You said it," I told him. I was wondering how this was going to go. I was hoping Finn had got the warlock, who's name I now knew as Varic, out. I had sent him a hurried text when the Parabatai pair weren't looking. I knew he had the pack meeting but if he could slip out for a moment-
"So is your deal going to crumble down if we go in their guns blazing?" Aiden asked.
"It's a possibility so that's why you're not," I told him. "The downworlders know me, they respect our deal. If I go in there with you two they'll be expecting me to break it. So, I'm going on alone. You guys can wait across the street, out of sight. I'll find the information about Varic and be out of there."
"I'm not being ordered around by somebody who been a shadowhunter for five seconds," Aiden said. "We're all going in there."
"Do you want this to work?" I decided to brush off his comment about my lack of experience. It wasn't true but we didn't have time for fight about it. "If we all go in there, there will be a fight, that's for sure. And who knows maybe we'll get the information out of somebody but it's also just as likely we won't. If I go in alone , I can get the information."
Eli rested his hand on Aiden's shoulder. "You should listen to her, Aiden," he said. "She really knows her downworlders."
I decided to ignore both boys now. Both were getting on my nerves, for separate reasons. I was beginning to see why they were shipped from Institute to Institute. Nobody could stand them.
As we reached Coast Diner I turned and looked at the two of them. "Stay here, out of sight. I'll be back in a minute." I walked across the street before Aiden tried to argue again.
Entering the diner, I found no one payed the slightest bit of attention to me, that was good. I also noticed Varic wasn't here, that was good as well.
"Sydney!" Elvia was behind the counter as I approached. "You almost look terrifying in those clothes."
I had forgotten that I was wearing my gear. "Come on, you know I wouldn't hurt anyone here," I told her. It was the truth, mostly.
"I know. What can I do for you? Your usual?" Elvia questioned.
"No, listen, can we talk?" I glanced around the diner. "In private?" She nodded before taking me to the back storage room.
"What's going on? Finn ran in here early nearly yanking that new warlock off his feet-"
"Oh thank god," I sighed. So Finn had gotten Varic out. "The Nephilim, they want to bring that warlock in, Varic's his name. Apparently he was traced from another city where he committed a crime."
"But that doesn't matter here," Elvia pointed out. "Once you come here, it's a new life. The Alpha isn't going to be happy."
"That's exactly why I don't intent to listen to the Nephilim," I told her. "But I need something. Some bit of information to throw them off his track. Do you know where he was earlier in the day?"
"You're playing a dangerous game, Sydney," she warned me. "But, I think I heard him boasting about going to the casino. He was going to win big or something."
"Thanks, Elvia," I told her before walking out the door.
"Sydney," she caught me. "Be careful."
"I will." I nodded to her.
Jogging across the street I met back up with the pair of boys, who had miraculously stayed hidden. "Apparently he went to the casino earlier. He might still be there," I told them.
"A warlock at a casino," Eli miffed. "How is that not cheating?"
"Just because he's a warlock at a casino doesn't mean he's using magic," I told Eli.
"Why are you defending him?" Aiden questioned accusingly.
"I try to see the best in people," I explained. At least that was the truth. I'd grown up around downworlders and most of them were actually kind and caring, not blood thirsty savages like the Clave made them out to be.
"Downworlders aren't people, they're part demon," Eli pointed out.
"Part being the key word there," I said. "The other part of them is mundane."
"Ah yes, evil and stupid put together, a wonderful combination." He walked on ahead. What on earth was his problem?
***
As we arrived at the casino the three of us applied glamour runes. We weren't exactly kids but none of us were exactly 21 either. And it might be a bit strange to see three young adults walking through the slots with battle gear and weapons.
"We should split up." It was Aiden who suggested it. "This place will take forever to search if we're all together."
As Eli and Aiden went off on their respective ways I pointlessly 'searched' the ground floor. If downworlder information was what you wanted I knew exactly where to go but I wasn't going to let Eli and Aiden know that.
As I was walking past a supply closet an arm suddenly reached out and pulled me inside. As the door closed I was about to judo flip whoever had done it when I realized it was Finn.
"What are you doing here?!" I yelled at him.
"You haven't been answering your phone," he explained. I had turned it off; I didn't want the two boys asking who was texting me. "I got Varic to a safe place."
"Thank you, but you need to go. If Eli sees you here he's going to put two and two together and it's not going to be g-" I stopped myself when I saw the look Finn was giving me.
"Why does Eli know anything?" Finn asked, accusingly.
"Because he saw us together this morning and he's not an idiot that's why," I told him. "He was going to rat me out to the whole Institute if I didn't tell him the truth."
"The truth?"
"The whole truth," I sighed.
"Seriously Sydney?" Finn was mad now, it was easy to tell. "You told the guy who already has no respect for downworlders that you were raised by one? That you're dating a werewolf?"
"I had to!" I defended myself. I knew Finn wasn't going to like what I had done. "Would you have rather everyone known about us?"
"Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea."
"Finn, what on earth is going through your head? It would be a horrible idea!" I didn't know what he was thinking.
"Sure Nephilim relationships with downworlders are frowned upon but they're not forbidden. No one can stop us from being together."
"And how long until people start asking questions, Finn?" I asked. "How long until everyone discovers the truth? If the Clave realizes I was raised by werewolves they could question my loyalty. I could be stripped of my marks."
"Would that really be such a bad thing?" Finn asked. "Maverick was going to turn you when you were eighteen before this whole shadowhunter thing anyway! If you lost your marks, you could still become one of us."
"I thought I was one of you; I thought I was a member of the pack."
"That's..." Finn sighed. "That's not what I meant. Of course you're part of the pack, you always have been, you always will be. But you've never known what it's like to run with the moon. The feel, sense the outdoors in ways no mundane or shadowhunter could ever imagine. Isn't that what you still want?"
Four years ago I wanted nothing more than to be a werewolf like the rest of my pack but now...I wasn't so sure. I had been dreading this conversation with Finn because I wasn't even sure what I really wanted.
My phone suddenly chimed and I looked down at it to see a text from Eli: "Got him. Meet in back."
"I thought you got Varic out," I asked Finn.
"I did," he told me as I showed him the text. "He's at a safe house-"
The door suddenly swung open revealing Eli. "Well, well, what do we have here?"