A/N: I am an idiot for starting yet another fic...

Chapter summary: In which Alec and Izzy arrive at the Institute, shots are fired, and a warlock is interested.

Possible Trigger Warning: There is a school shooting scenario in this first chapter. Just FYI.

Mortal Implications

1: Remove the Safety

They deserved it. She never regretted it. The flames dancing around the house after the lightning strike were forever imprinted on her mind. She clung to her brother, her arms tightening around his neck. Her backpack filled with possessions hung heavy on her back making her slip from his grasp. He shifted her back up his waist and closer to him, turning her face away from the destruction so she couldn't watch the flames dance.

Then her brother turned and ran, putting the blazing inferno behind them. She lifted her head and could see the flames over his shoulder, feel the heat, and watch the lightning dance in the sky far above.

They deserved it.

The second bang was louder than the first. The third startled her awake.

She immediately lifted her head and looked around her. It was storming heavily outside. The bangs she'd heard had been the claps of thunder that rattled the old truck. She lifted her head from the bed to see her brother staring out the rear window of the truck. It was still dark outside even with the storm raging.

Lightning illuminated the cabin through the curtains blocking the windows on all sides of the hard shell canopy of the truck bed where they lived. It took a few seconds for the thunder to follow. The rain was falling hard on the roof above them creating an almost constant rumble that they had both learned how to ignore.

"What time is it?" she asked, sitting up just enough for her head and shoulders to poke out from the sleeping bag in the pile of blankets and pillows.

"Almost 5:45," her brother replied, glancing back at her. "I wasn't going to wake you for another hour or so."

"I'm fine," she mumbled, sitting all the way up and scooting down to the far end of the bed so she could sit beside her brother and watch the storm. "Get back in here," she ordered, tugging on her brother's loose shirt. "It's cold."

A smile tugged at his lips as he pushed his pale feet back into the sleeping bag. It had been his idea to try zipping together two separate sleeping bags into one big bag to help hold in the heat. Thankfully, the bigger combined bag was just roomy enough to comfortably fit the two siblings as long as neither rolled around too much. Her brother scooted down until he was completely covered up to his neck then his sister leaned against his shoulder.

His messy black hair tickled her cheek even though it was cut just above his ear. She blew the few taunting strands out of her face and closed her eyes. She smiled when she felt her brother loop an arm around her shoulder and pull her closer. Alec loved storms, but he loved heat more than cold. Izzy and the sleeping bag were warm and they still had an hour or so left to sleep.

Unfortunately, six-thirty came too quickly for either of them and to make matters worse it was still raining outside. At least it was no longer storming. Either way, it would make Izzy's first day at her new school a bit rough.

"Want me to drop you off?" Alec offered, pulling on a somewhat fresh pair of jeans.

Izzy pushed the curtain back from the window on her side of the cabin and glanced out. "If traffic's not too bad, that'd be great," she said. "Hey Alec," she called, waiting for him to pause and look up at her, "thanks."

Alec nodded mutely and began pulling on his shoes.

Half an hour later, the old Ford's engine rumbled to life and they were on their way to the New York Institute of Art and Technology. Traffic wasn't too bad yet, relatively speaking, but it got slightly heavier the closer they got to downtown New York City. The pouring down rain didn't help anything.

Alec pulled into the huge commuter parking lot that stretched from the steel and glass bookstore down to the right along the Campus Loop Road which, as its name suggested, looped the college campus and adjacent green space in the middle of the city. Directly across the Loop from the bookstore was a grand, elegant building made of reddish brick and white accents. It looked like a refurbished cathedral nestled in the middle of a green field surrounded by trees, parking lots, and the never sleeping city of New York. It felt like an entirely different world than what either sibling was used to.

The commuter parking lot was large but nowhere near big enough to accommodate the college's growing commuter traffic. Thankfully, there were ten metered parking spots directly by the bookstore for guests, three of which were empty. Alec pulled into the first empty spot and turned off the engine.

"Nice choice," Izzy said, gathering her backpack and umbrella as Alec drove up to the curb in the parking spot.

Alec pulled his messenger bag over his shoulder and grabbed old black biker jacket out from the space behind his seat and put it on, flipping the collar up around his ears to help keep them dry. Then he took the umbrella from Izzy's hand and opened the door to climb out of the truck. He locked the driver side door by hand and clipped the keys to his belt loop before fumbling through his pockets from some loose change. A quarter and a dime bought him twenty minutes from the meter.

He hiked his bag up, tucking it under his coat and hurried back to the passenger side door, opening it and holding the umbrella out so Izzy didn't get too wet. When she was out and settled, he closed and locked the truck door and walked up the sidewalk to the bookstore, passing the connected bagel shop without a glance.

The sidewalk widened into a patio area for the bagel shop customers to sit and relax under the shade of a huge, ancient oak tree by the street. The sidewalk narrowed further to the right along the front of the bookstore facing the Loop to accommodate a spacious bike rack that was currently empty. No one else except for a handful of people driving to their early classes or work were awake at this hour.

Alec paused under the small overhang from the community tower and turned to his sister. "I'll be in the library later on," Alec said. "I need to put up the flyers and maybe print a few more out from the library if it's free."

"I can do that," Izzy said.

"You have class," Alec said, shaking his head.

"Just in the morning."

"And you need to keep your grades up if you plan on keeping your scholarship and staying in college," Alec countered sternly. "We can't afford to pay for this otherwise."

Izzy's shoulders drooped in disappointment. "Alright," she sighed taking the umbrella Alec handed her. "See you later," she said, stepping out into the rain.

"Izzy!"

She paused and turned around to see her brother's blue eyes watching her. "Good luck," he said with a soft smile.

She smiled. "Thanks," she said. "You too."

Alec watched her make her way to the glass and steel building across the street from the bookstore in silence. She'd been forced to grow up too fast over the last five years. Granted it had taken a while to figure everything out along the way but it had all worked out well in the end. Even then Alec had known this day would come, but that didn't mean he was ready for it.

He had hoped he could avoid this place for another year or so. But if there was one thing he was incapable of doing, it was refusing his sister when she gave him that pathetic look. When she'd asked him if she could go to college, he had been proud and disappointed. He was still bothered by the juxtaposition of those emotions. He wanted his sister to succeed, but he couldn't afford the nicer, bigger colleges. Plus, it had been too late in the year to bother sending in applications to more than a small handful of local community colleges that were still accepting applications.

Of those, the Institute had responded with an acceptance letter the quickest. Since it was in their home state and Izzy had maintained high grades throughout her atypical high school education, it qualified her to receive the state's Furthering Education for Prospective Students or FEPS scholarship and grant. So long as the student receiving the scholarship maintained at least a 3.5 GPA, they would receive a full ride to any in-state college they chose to attend for four years or until a bachelor's degree was achieved, whichever came first. It did not include the coverage for textbooks, but with the tuition and fees covered, that made the textbook prices slightly less intimidating. Alec firmly believed his sister was capable of pulling that off. She was smart and clever. It was a pity she had to learn that the hard way.

Dismissing his more morose thoughts, Alec pulled out a couple flyers from his slightly damp messenger bag and turned to the campus community tower behind him. The community tower was just one of many columns rising about eight or so feet from the sidewalk around the campus where anyone could pin flyers, advertisements for local businesses, music performances, and even club meetings.

Alec moved to pin one of his flyers offering his services as a tutor on the tower when an unexpected voice startled him.

"You shouldn't worry."

Blue eyes automatically sought the voice's owner and found him sitting comfortably at one of the three picnic tables outside the bookstore despite the pouring rain. His skin was darker than Alec's and he wore an elegant silk shirt and black leather pants that hugged his legs flatteringly. His shirt was a glistening ebony that matched his pants perfectly. He struck a very distinctive figure. How Alec missed the man's presence a second ago was beyond him. That aside, why was this stranger talking to him in the first place?

"She is strong," the man continued, "and independent. She will spread her wings soon enough."

"Mind your own business, old man," Alec griped with a cold glare.

The man's attention whipped to Alec abruptly, his soft brown eyes narrowing in what could have been surprise. He said nothing else but the faintest hint of a smile made his lips twitch upwards at the corners. "Whatever you say," the man replied easily.

Alec rolled his eyes. He had no desire to get sick standing out here berating a stranger for staring at his sister. If he got sick then Izzy could get sick and that was unacceptable. Not to mention the fact he could not afford a visit to the doctor. That was simply too expensive. Besides, he had more important things to worry about right now.

He made his way over to the bookstore fifteen feet away. He had to buy a handful of notebooks, mechanical pencils, and Izzy's textbooks. It took slightly less than twenty minutes to buy the supplies thanks to his early arrival. When he walked out of the bookstore, the parking lot was more full than it had been earlier. He walked quickly back to his truck, pulled out of the parking lot, and waited to turn left back towards the Campus Loop. He would drive around to find a suitable place nearby to park relatively long term without too much trouble.

The light turned green and Alec was just about to go when the man who had been sitting at the table in the rain calmly stepped into the crosswalk and strolled directly in front of Alec's truck. Alec slammed on the breaks to keep from hitting the idiotic man and was immediately honked at by the car behind him. He glanced at his side mirror to glare indirectly at the obnoxious driver. But when he looked back up to the crosswalk, the man was gone.

Alec huffed in frustration and drove onto the Loop completely dismissing the man. All he needed now was coffee, gasoline, some groceries from the local convenience store, and a place to park for the day until he could find a safe place to park on a more permanent basis without having to buy an expensive campus parking pass. He sincerely hoped he did not have to do the latter. He wasn't sure his already thin wallet could take that strain.

Izzy took a seat in her classroom and immediately felt out of place. She had somehow managed to get turned around twice in this campus. The campus wasn't huge but it wasn't small either. Its layout was organic, growing with the need for more room. The addition of the Greek community a decade ago had given the small Institute a much needed student boom. But that also brought more people and the parking lots and dorms were feeling the strain. The number of college aged students had climbed over the years since Izzy and her brother had been here last.

Alec had homeschooled Izzy for the years since yanking her out of their former life. School on the road had been rough but fun. They took turns driving and studying, stopping at libraries and coffee shops any chance they got to access and submit online homework. Data was too expensive to use unless absolutely necessary.

This whole actual classroom with lots of people and ridiculously tiny desks was uncomfortable but new and an interesting change. The chairs were definitely uncomfortable though. There was no leg room and the desk was connected to the chair so there was no chance of adjusting the distance. Watery sunlight rippled through the windows along the far wall where Izzy wanted to sit but couldn't because the students who had arrived before her had stolen those spots. At least some of the other students were nice looking.

"Alright," the professor announced as she walked into the classroom just as the classroom clock showed eight o'clock exactly. "My name is Dr. Carson and I'm the professor for this class. First thing's first. This is Calculus 1001. Anyone not in Calculus 1001 might want to leave and find the right classroom."

When no one moved, she set her textbook down on her desk and pulled out a sheaf of papers stapled together. "When I call your name, please respond so I know you're here. If you have a name you prefer to go by or if I mispronounce your name, let me know. I'll be doing this at the beginning of every class and it will count towards your class participation grade which will factor into your final grade."

There were groans at that but Dr. Carson ignored them. She just held the papers up to her face and began reading off names. Izzy readied herself to respond to her name.

"Isabelle Lightwood," Dr. Carson called, She looked up to both find the person with that name and confirm her pronunciation.

"Just 'Izzy,' please," Izzy said, catching the professor's attention.

Dr. Carson nodded and made the correction in pen on the paper for later reference and continued calling out the other names. Finally, she began handing out the syllabus to the class and explaining the grading scale, homework load, and general class expectations. However, instead of letting the students leave after that, Dr. Carson went straight into teaching the first section of the textbook.

It was then Izzy deeply regretted not buying notebooks before the first day of class. At least she would have a few for tomorrow's classes but until then she would have to do her best to commit what she was seeing and hearing to memory. That wasn't an easy task with math.

When class finally ended, Izzy grabbed her umbrella and walked out of the building and back into the still pouring rain. She had an hour break until her next class at 10:10 and was starving judging by her grumbling stomach. There supposedly was a coffee shop on the first floor of the library and chances were that's where her brother would end up later on. She headed there and sure enough, there was a café with a small patio at the entrance to the library facing the largest green space colloquially named Love Valley in the center of the small campus. The sign on the short overhang said Java Script, a local chain of coffee shops popular in the area.

Only one person was out on the patio at the moment smoking under the overhang. Everyone else was inside out of the rain. Izzy walked up the four steps to the patio flashing a smile and a quick 'thank you' when the person opened the door for her. It was warm and dry inside the cozy café. She walked up to the counter and ordered a cup of hot coffee and sat down in the booth by the window overlooking the patio and the wet Love Valley close to the café entrance to sip her drink slowly. It was beginning to look like the start of a long, lazy day.

Half an hour later, she picked up her umbrella and half full coffee and started the walk to her next class Back out in the rain. she knew from studying a campus map the day before that the Humanities building was behind the library somewhere, but couldn't remember exactly where.

She still had twenty minutes until class started so she should be able to track down the building by then. If not, it was syllabus day and the first day of add/drop. Missing today wouldn't be a serious problem. The only drawback was that she enjoyed History and actually wanted to go to that class.

She huddled close to her warm coffee under her umbrella as she walked down the sidewalk now bustling with students heading to their morning classes. She was just about to walk onto a large square with patches of grassy knolls and shady trees surrounded by a building on every side when her phone began ringing. So did the phones of at least 15 other students rushing down the sidewalk and the square in the rain around her. She pulled out her phone and checked the caller ID. Not recognizing the number, she silenced the call and slipped it back into her pocket.

"Oh my god!" a girl's voice cried out from behind her.

Izzy turned around to see what the fuss was about when suddenly surrounded by the other students reacting in a similar fashion. Some began crying while others' eyes grew large and they looked around them in fear. Almost all of them began running to the nearest building as fast as they could.

Izzy had only a second to stare at the growing madness in confusion before someone grabbed her arm and forcefully dragged her back into the Humanities building. The unexpected turn and rush of air yanked the umbrella from her hand. People dodged the umbrella and rushed into the Humanities building ahead of Izzy and her companion. They raced into the elevator, stairwells, locked themselves in the many classrooms along the hallways on the first floor, and ducked behind the desks, counters, and bookshelves in the office on the far end of the hallway.

"What's going on?" Izzy gasped. "What's going on?!"

"Shooter near the Union," the student dragging her said in clipped tones, somehow keeping her voice lowered despite the very obvious fear causing it to waver. "The school's on lockdown."

"What?!" Izzy exclaimed.

The student pulling her didn't respond. She simply shook some of her long, copper braids from her face and booked it towards the already packed elevator inside of the main entrance of the building hoping to make it up to the higher floors. But they were forced to stop short when the metal doors closed. The red haired girl smacked the buttons frantically, giving up the next second and heading for the stairwell door on the other side of the hallway. They only made it halfway to the stairwell when Izzy noticed one of the doors along the hallway closing.

"Here!" Izzy commanded, pulling the other student towards the door. She slammed herself bodily against it, pounding on the wood. "Let us in!" she called as loudly as she dared. "We're unarmed."

The door cracked open and a young man with mousy brown hair and alert brown eyes peaked out, giving them a cursory look-over before yanking both girls into the room and turning out the lights. It was only now they were inside that Izzy realized they were stuffed in an office with floor-length windows lining the far wall.

"Oh shit," she muttered.

"We're piling stuff against the door to keep it from opening," the boy who let them in said, closing the door behind them. "Help me."

"Cover that window," a blonde boy with wide amber eyes ordered as he yanked anything he could find in the unlocked cabinets lining the walls and tossed them heedlessly across the floor.

The girl who came in with Izzy was knocked out of the way by the other person in the room, a petite blonde girl with a soft, oval face and big gray eyes. She untangled the blinds string and lowered them as fast as she could.

"One of us has to hold the desk against the door to keep it from opening up," the blonde boy said, tossing his backpack on the floor.

"Move!" Izzy said.

Then she and the girl with braided red hair who came in with her pushed a file cabinet down and laid it parallel to the desk. The guy quickly hopped over the cabinet and knelt down to help the girls brace the file cabinet between the room's walls. The other set of cabinets were finally pushed over by the brunette boy and laid across the base of the window.

"Line your backpacks against the file cabinets," the red haired girl said sharply, ripping off her own heavy bag and slammed it against the cabinet by the window.

Shots rang through the air outside and everyone immediately dropped to the floor between the two file cabinets. "Let's hope this works," the blonde girl said, reaching out to grab anyone's hand.

"Anyone got names?" the boy with brown eyes asked with a crooked grin. "I'd rather go down knowing that."

"Clary," the red haired girl said. She had chapped lips and simple stud earrings that matched her blue jeans and trendy orange and white striped shirt. "I was supposed to be going to my art class," she murmured, fighting back the urge to sob.

"Don't worry," he blonde guy said in an accented voice. He gave a faint smile, his white teeth flashed in the dim room. A few strands had escaped his gelled hair and hung over fearful eyes. "You'll get there. You'll just be delayed a bit. I'm Jace. I'm on the track team and a sophomore in phys ed."

"Lydia," the girl with long blonde hair said. She shifted closer to the group, adjusting her position. "I'm in comp sci."

"Izzy," Izzy said. "Hopefully forensics."

"Hope we're not your first assignment," the brown haired boy said. "I'm Simon. Classical studies with a history minor."

"Nice. We're gonna make it through this, guys," Jace said. "We'll be ok. Anyone got a phone?"

Izzy wanted to smack herself for not thinking of that sooner. "Yeah," she said, pulling her phone out of her pocket.

"I got mine," Clary said, pointing to her bedazzled phone tucked securely in her bra and poking out from her shirt. It stood out starkly against her pale skin. "Been recording this since I got the call. I'm not letting this be forgotten."

"You might want to call your parents and tell them you're ok," Simon said.

"Already did," Clary said. "Texted them anyway. My breasts haven't stopped vibrating since," she added wryly. "They keep calling me."

Izzy jerked when she realized she wasn't imagining the vibrations from her own phone. She pulled it out of her pocket and immediately picked up when she recognized her brother's caller ID.

"Izzy, where are you?" Alec's voice demanded urgently.

"Alec," she said. "I'm okay. I'm with some other people. We're in an office in the Humanities building where I have history class."

"That doesn't mean anything to me," Alec snapped. "I need landmarks."

"I..." Izzy hesitated. "I don't know," she admitted. "Where are we?" she whispered.

"On the quad," Simon replied.

"I'm a freshman," Izzy said sharply. "I don't know where that is!"

Shots exploded dangerous close to the window followed by footsteps coming slowly down the hall inside the building. Izzy instinctively tightened her grip on the phone in her hand. She reached out with her senses like she had spent years learning how to do and searched for the familiar tingle that belonged her brother.

She knew she would regret doing this. Alec had repeatedly warned her not to do this. But she would not let these people die here. Her senses vibrated with a single word. Protect!

The silence outside the room was heavily making their ears ring.

"Alec," Izzy whispered into the phone speaker when she finally felt his senses latch onto hers. "I need you."

Then there was the sound of gunshots and glass shattering at the same time something crashed against the office door. Izzy heard several people scream, unsure whether or not she was one of them. Jace and Simon leapt up and did their best to cover the girls with their bodies to protect them from the flying glass and bullets.

Izzy slithered out just far enough from under Jace's body so she could stare at the shooter standing just outside the window, a gun aimed at their heads. The office door continued to shake as someone attempted to force their way in from the other side. But Izzy couldn't focus on anything except the shadowy form she that appeared standing directly in front of the shooter.

Strangely, she wasn't afraid anymore.

Thunder rumbled in the distance and the shooter raised his gun to his head, guided by the shadow's glowing hand, and fired. Izzy never saw the wound or the shooter's undoubtedly confused face. All she saw was the shooter's finger pull the trigger, blood spray from the other side of his head, and the body fall to the ground. The shadow turned around and gazed at her with golden cat eyes.

The spell was broken when the person on the other side of the office door pounded it again forcing the desk and file cabinet bracing it shut to jerk back an inch or so, knocking Izzy and subsequently Jace to the floor. When she lifted her head again, the shadow was gone. There was a scuffle in the hallway followed by a single gunshot then silence. For some reason, Isabelle knew had no reason to worry anymore. The silence from the hallway was confirmation of that.

It was over.

There was no more shooting, no more screaming, no more running, just the rain and heavy breathing.

Izzy stayed in the room with Jace, Simon, Clary, and Lydia until a policeman arrived and confirmed what she already knew, the two suspects were dead. The group stuck together, unwilling to let each other out of their sight. That one chance encounter in a small office had forced them to bond in a way they never would have before.

It was strange thinking this as policemen helped scared and stumbling students out of their hiding places and to safety while EMTs rushed to and fro helping the wounded. A coroner was carting away another body bag and people were crying and hugging and calling their parents and searching for their friends.

Izzy sat on the bumper of an ambulance under a temporary tent with many other students soaking wet from the rain and wrapped in a blanket. Jace sat next to her while Clary, Simon, and Lydia sat on chairs in front of her. They kept glancing at each other with haunted eyes, seeking confirmation that what they had just experienced had been real and not a nightmare.

"You were right," Simon said without preamble, pulling his blanket tighter around his shoulders.

"Who?" Clary asked absently.

"Jace," Simon answered, lifting his head to the blonde boy. "We did get out."

Jace huffed a laugh, too high strung for a more convincing response.

"Izzy."

Izzy looked up and was not surprised to see Alec standing behind Lydia watching her. His eyes danced across her body searching for any sign of injury. Sitting on the ambulance, she was actually eye level with him. Alec stepped around Lydia ignoring her startled cry and gathered his little sister in a tight hug, tucking his face in her shoulder.

Izzy hugged him back as best she could hampered as she was by her blanket and his arms. "Thank you," she murmured in his ear. He said nothing, just held her closer.

Neither of them were aware of the pair of unsettling golden eyes watching them from the shadows. The man said nothing, he simply watched. He had barely managed to get a warning to the police before the attack began. Had he delayed any longer than he had, his new object of interest would have been devastated.

It was so rare in this day and age for a Mundane to have the Sight, let alone two. It must have something to do with those breathtaking blue eyes. Just the sight of them had his stomach doing things it had no right to. He knew that from this moment, his casual interest in the Mundane would have to take a more serious turn. Who knows, maybe he could see those lovely eyes again. He certainly hoped he would.