Alec was busy carving his name into the wooden panelling of the fencing hall when the door was thrown open and Jace rushed into the room. Alec looked up.

"Finally!" he said. "How long do you need to-"

"I overheard your mother on the phone," Jace panted, talking over him, "and she said there's demonic activity here in Manhattan and she sent Malik and Kadir out to deal with it!"

"So?"

"So," Jace said, his eyes glowing excitedly, "Malik and Kadir live in Brooklyn! It's gonna take them ages to get there while we," he threw Alec a significant glance, "can be there in ten minutes!"

"No we can't," Alec said. "We're not allowed to go on hunting trips yet."

Jace grinned mischievously. "We don't need to be allowed."

"But-"

"Just come on," Jace said, stuffing a couple of seraph blades into his belt before dashing out of the room.

"But, Jace- Jace!" Alec yelled and ran out after him.

Jace had been right. It only took them a quarter of an hour to reach the street Maryse had mentioned. It was a desolate area, filled with the square concrete blocks of warehouses and industrial buildings. The dreary grey was broken only by patches of dry shrubbery here and there, brown and withered from the fumes of the trucks and vans that crowded the streets during the day. Now, in the evening, all was quiet.

The two boys hurried down the street, Jace pressing forward eagerly and Alec throwing nervous glances over his shoulder. They saw nothing, and Alec had just begun to hope that they were at the wrong address when Jace skidded to a halt.

"It's here," he announced.

Alec turned around. "How- oh."

In front of them, just a few yards away from the pavement, lay a woman. Alec's first impulse was to run over to her, but Jace's outstretched hand stopped him.

"It's useless," he said quietly. "Look."

Alec looked and saw that his friend was right. On second glance, the woman was most definitely dead. Her torso was covered in deep gashes through which her intestines were visible, torn and bloody and clearly not functional. And where her face should have been…

Alec looked away to keep himself from retching.

"A warehouse," he said as his eyes fell on the building in front of which they were standing. "Why did the demon come here?"

"Maybe it's an alcoholic," Jace said, pointing at the emblem of a beer brand that was glowing over the entrance. "Hey, maybe it's drunk. Can demons get drunk? Would that make them easier or harder to kill?"

Alec was about to answer when a loud shattering noise disrupted the peaceful silence.

"It's in there!" Jace said excitedly, nodding at the warehouse.

"Okay," said Alec. "First we should scout the outside of the building to make sure it's clear and then- Jace!"

But the blond boy had already sprinted up the driveway and was now drawing an unlocking rune onto the gates. Suppressing a curse, Alec ran after him.

The inside of the warehouse was dark and largely empty. Only at the back of the room was one row of stacked beer crates, barely visible in the dim grey light that fell through the dusty windows. One wall was lined with loading docks for the trucks, each of them shut with a large roll-up door, and a small forklift stood abandoned in a corner.

The noise had come from the back of the warehouse. Alec turned and saw that Jace hadn't hesitated; he had already crossed half the room. Alec hurried to catch up.

He reached his friend just when he crouched down behind a stack of beer crates. Carefully, the two boys looked around its edge.

And there, settled contentedly on a pile of shattered beer bottles, was a demon.

Alec was sure he had seen a picture of its kind in one of his books, but he couldn't remember its name as everything he had learned seemed to disappear from his head. Seeing a picture of a demon in a book and seeing one in real life were two entirely different things, he decided as he crouched behind the wall of beer crates, wide-eyed and frozen in shock.

Jace, however, didn't seem to think so.

"Hey, did no one ever tell you that alcohol is no solution?" he yelled and jumped up, drawing his seraph blade. "Iphiriel!" he called imperiously as the demon raised its scaly head and growled.

"Jace!" Alec called, jumping out from behind the beer crates as the demon advanced on his friend. But Jace paid him no heed. He had drawn his second seraph blade as well and was dancing around the demon, slashing and stabbing at it while trying to stay out of the reach of its claws. He was good, Alec had to admit. The demon was about the size of a big pony and walking on six clawed feet. Jace was a little taller, his arms a little longer, and he was obviously a match for the creature. Already, black blood was oozing out of several long cuts in the demon's skin, while Jace appeared to be fine.

Alec was just about to join his friend in the fight when he noticed something. The clicking noise he heard came from the demon's claws which hit the concrete floor whenever it moved its legs. But even eighteen claws on six legs could not account for the amount of clicking he was hearing.

His heart filled with a dark foreboding, he turned around just as a long, scaly head emerged from a gap between the beer stacks and lunged in Jace's direction.

"No!" Alec yelled, nocking an arrow and releasing it before the creature could even blink. It hit the demon right between the eyes and bounced off the heavy green scales. But the force of the impact was enough to throw the demon slightly off its course – just enough for Jace to kill the monster he was fighting without a set of teeth in his back.

The second demon yowled, and Jace turned sharply, yanking his seraph blade out of the dead creature's body before it vanished into thin air. He looked at the second demon, then at the arrow at his feet and then to Alec.

Alec met his gaze and charged.

As he emerged from between the stacks of beer crates, Alec saw that there wasn't only one demon – there were eight of them, and even more spilling in through a large hole in one of the roll-up doors.

"I told him we should have checked the outside first," Alec groaned quietly.

But it was too late. He rushed to Jace's side and the next few minutes became a blur as he concentrated on nothing but claws, teeth and the string of his bow in his hands.

Neither he nor Jace noticed when the onslaught began to cease a little, nor when most demons started turning away from them to charge at another target. Only when the last demon had gone back to its own dimension did a sharp voice yank them out of their fighting mode.

"Jace! Alec! What the HELL were you thinking!"

Malik and Kadir had arrived.

After an unnecessarily long and loud rant from Malik and an even longer and louder one from Maryse, Jace and Alec had been sent straight to bed.

"And neither of you will touch a weapon for the next two weeks!" Alec's mother had announced as she marched the two of them to their separate rooms.

"Then what do we do if we're attacked by demons?" Jace had objected. But Maryse had just smiled grimly and replied, "You won't be attacked by demons because you are grounded! Now off you go!" And she had shoved Alec into his room and slammed the door behind him.

Now, several hours later, Alec was sitting upright in bed and not at all surprised to see a blond shadow slip through the door. His expression brightened as Jace threw him a packet of crisps.

"Brilliant," he said and moved over so Jace could sit down on the edge of the bed without sitting on his legs. Jace sat down and said nothing.

Alec put down the crisps. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Jace looked at him. "You saved my life," he said.

"Someone had to," Alec said bluntly. "Although you might not have needed saving if you had listened-"

"No, I mean you saved my life," Jace interrupted him.

"Yes," Alec said impatiently. "That's what shadowhunters do."

"No," Jace said. "Shadowhunters save the mundanes' lives and they themselves die in battle." He sat quietly for a moment. Then he added, "You know who saves each other's lives? Parabatai."

Alec stared at him. "Are you-"

"Will you be my parabatai?" Jace asked, his golden eyes boring into Alec's blue ones.

"I…" Alec was at a loss for words. "Are you sure? Why me?"

"Who else?" Jace asked, his face serious. "Who else knows what I'm thinking without me saying a word? Who else knows my fighting style better than his own? Who else would follow me on a-"

"Suicide mission?" Alec provided drily.

"It wasn't a suicide mission. We're both fine."

"Only because Malik and Kadir arrived in time."

"Anyways," Jace said, a slight grin playing around his lips, "I am very sure that I want you at my side in all our future battles. If your parents ever let us out of here."

"Give me a day," Alec said finally. "The parabatai bond is for life, I can't just charge blindly into it like a Jace Wayland into a demon-infested warehouse."

Jace chuckled. "Alright then," he said, "twenty-four hours." He got up to leave. In the doorframe he paused.

"Alec?" he said quietly.

"Hm?"

"Thank you."

And then he was gone.

Alec lay down on his back, crossing his arms behind his head and staring at the ceiling.

Parabatai.

The bond was supposed to give you advantages in battle: more strength, enhanced abilities, easier cooperation. Your parabatai was supposed to help you.

But Jace didn't need help, and certainly not from Alec. He was better at everything: faster, stronger, more agile, a better fighter and a better strategist. Everyone thought so; everyone knew it. Jace would never be on equal grounds with anyone; every team with Jace turned at once into Jace with a team. He was a lone warrior, he fought and won his battles without relying on anyone. Why would he, when he didn't need to?

When you were standing next to Jace, nobody looked at you. Alec had learned that long ago, and it didn't bother him. Everybody saw Jace's strength, his ability and his finesse, all so much better than Alec's, and to them it was obvious that Jace would fight alone, singled out by his talents. And it was true; Jace was proud. He did not rely on people. He preferred to do everything himself to make sure it was done properly.

But still, he had asked Alec to be his parabatai. That meant that he trusted him. That he appreciated his talent. That he thought that there was something Alec could give him, something Jace could profit from. And that meant that in Jace's opinion, there was at least one aspect in which Alec was better than Jace.

Alec took a deep breath. He didn't believe it for a second, of course. There was nothing Alec could do better than Jace. But Jace thought so, and that alone meant a lot to him. Everyone looked at the two of them and saw only Jace. But Jace looked at the two of them and saw them side by side – as parabatai.

Alec thought back to their fight that evening. He had saved Jace's life. And he would do so again, he was sure of it. Jace was reckless; he would always plunge ahead the way he'd done at the warehouse. And he would always need someone to watch his back when he did, or even better: to hold him back when he was about to.

And Alec could do that.