Hello again

This idea came to me in a dream one night and I couldn't get it out of my head. The characters are roughly the same as they are in Paintings but I wanted to explore Emma's character, and in particular her fears that we've been told about so far in more depth. I love thought of Emma's and Julian's relationship and even if the way I've written them isn't exactly the way they turn out I can definitely say that I ship them completely.

Please leave a review and tell me what you think. I've worked really hard on this story and Paintings because I wanted to be sure that I got them both right. Hopefully if I have another idea, it will feature some of the other characters such as Cristina and Helen in person.

Enjoy!

The Dark Artifices

Nightmares and Fears

Emma gripped the seraph blades as she cautiously made her way closer to the surf. It was night-time in Los Angeles and the moon above her shone brightly, casting its rays across the white sand and the almost hypnotic waves tauntingly sliding towards her feet. She remembered her parents used to tell her stories of creatures in the deep that would drag children away from their parents to their watery graves to drown. That night she had woken up crying that she had been taken away from her parents to the cold waters. She had never thought that it would unfortunately come true years later...

She shook her head with a curse. "Keep it together Carstairs. Nothing's gonna get you."

"Are you alright Em?" Julian asked from beside her. He was dressed in his usual Shadowhunter gear; black trousers, leather protective jacket and weapons galore around his waist and crossing behind his back. He finished tying up his bootlace and slipped a blade from its sheath on his leg. The holy metal glinted silver in the moonlight.

"Yeah...it just gives me the creeps is all." She tried to suppress the shudder that crawled up her back but Julian caught it all the same. She knew that Julian wouldn't ask what she meant because he already knew her feelings about being near the ocean.

"Don't worry. I'll protect you." He squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. Emma thought about telling him that she didn't need protecting but at the moment she wasn't so sure. They stalked along the beach, searching for any signs of demons but found none. Emma was just about to call it a night when Julian halted beside her. "Em, did you see that?"

"What? Is it a demon?" Emma tensed, swapping her seraph blades for her own favourite weapons, the wind and fire wheels.

"There! Come on!" Julian exclaimed suddenly as he leapt into a sprint down the beach, chasing after an invisible foe. Emma frowned after her Parabatai before she ran after him, cursing his six-foot-something height and long legs.

She followed Julian onto an old pier, closed off from the public for refurbishment. When she reached the entrance she had already seen Julian vault over the fence, crouch into a roll before springing up to continue his pursuit. Emma did the same a second later, wincing as she landed on her shoulder. Her heart was beating frantically in an effort to keep up as she dashed across creaking floorboards. Julian reached the end of the pier and nearly pitched off the end but he skidded to a halt against the railing. "Lost it. Crap!"

"What was it? I don't remember a demon that can move so fast it was invisible." Emma panted as she reached his side. Julian gave her a look.

"Invisible? You mean you didn't see it at all? It was a ruddy giant of a thing." Emma shook her head. The sounds of the waves crashing against the pier made her feel uneasy and she slowly started to retreat to the safe ground.

"Jules I don't think this pier is safe. We should get out of here."

"It's got to be around here somewhere. It can't have got far." Julian leant over the edge of the railing and Emma almost let out a noise she would be ashamed to repeat.

"Jules get back from that railing. You could fall in." She took several steps back, anxious to get away from the edge. "Please, just let it go for now. We can look for it once we get off this pier."

The waves churned underneath them and all Emma could think of was the story of the Kraken, a deadly squid creature with a thousand tentacles swishing and swirling the ocean beneath a ship ready to swallow its crewmen whole. She shook her head but her fears still came; Kelpie snatching little children by lakes and ponds who thought they were innocent seahorses; vicious Merpeople who would gut you through with rusty tridents rather than look at you; Sea serpents that would lift you from the shore and rip you apart with a twist of their mouths...

"Jules so help me I will drag you by your throat, now come on!" Emma turned to run back to safer grounds when she heard a crack and a yelp from Julian. She spun around in time to see Julian clinging on for his life as he was dragged by his boot towards the sea by a long slimy tentacle. "Julian!"

Emma leapt to her friend and grabbed hold of his arm, pulling with all her strength. Julian groaned in pain as he glanced back over his shoulder. "Emma, it's got my leg. Ah! Crap."

"Jules fight back! I can't hold on for much longer." She puffed digging her feet against one of the wooden posts of the railing. She felt him claw at her arms, desperate to hold on and she saw a dark fear in his eyes.

"Emma, don't let me go. I'll never ignore you again just please don't let go."

She felt him slipping from her hands. "Julian, no. Hold on!" She needed to cut the tentacle loose but she wouldn't have the strength to hold onto Julian with one hand. "Please Julian!"

There was a vicious tug and Emma landed on her stomach being dragged along with Julian until she was dangling on the edge with Julian hanging from her grip. Beneath him the water churned like a whirlpool as huge green tentacles thrashed about. "Emma, pull me up! Please!"

"I can't! You're too heavy!" She felt a tear slip down her cheek as she was holding on to Julian's hand with only her fingers. "I'm sorry. I can't do it!"

"No, don't you dare! Please, just hold on! Emma!" Julian slipped through her fingers with a scream as he was swallowed up by the water.

Emma woke with a choking gasp, her fingers clawing at her throat and her body paralysed from fear. She couldn't breathe and she felt like she was drowning as she tried to move. The mattress beneath her shifted and she heard an all-too-familiar voice. "Emma stop kicking me in the back or you can go sleep in your own bed." She snatched at his arm and he let out a yelp as her fingernails dug deep welts into his skin. "Ow! What the -? Em? Hey, calm down you're dreaming. It's just a dream!"

She felt him sit up beside her as she panted and seconds later a bright glowing witchlight lit up the bed from the bedside table. She watched him through blurry, sleep filled eyes as he leant over her and gently shook her shoulders. She blinked to see Julian's dark messy hair fall into his light green eyes before he gathered her up against his bare chest and rubbed soothing circles on her sweaty back. Emma struggled to get her breathing back under control but her parabatai helped by rocking her back and forth. She pressed her head against his skin feeling her long blonde hair sticking to her forehead and the back of her neck irritably. She took in a slow deep breath and she caught the scent of Julian's skin. As it was a warm night, as it is common in sunny old LA, Julian had the bitter salty scent of sweat but it was fortunately accompanied by the smell of paint solvents and tobacco smoke. She slowly started to calm down feeling shaky as Julian lay back against his pillows, pulling her along with him as she rested her head on his chest.

"Better?" he asked stroking her long blonde hair out of her eyes and wiping her cheeks with the pad of his thumb. She nodded staying quiet as she felt her heartbeat begin to slow. "Was it that dream again?"

She shook her head. He thought it was the dream about her parents but this one had been plaguing her for months. "Water." She mumbled to his throat. "Kracken...drowning..."

Julian squeezed her arm reassuringly. "Em, you know there's no such thing as the Kracken right? There's nothing to be scared about." She shook her head defiantly. She sat up and shoved her hair away from her back.

"Come on, get up. We're training." She ordered throwing the covers off her legs before she stood up. She felt a dizzy rush to her head and she swayed on the spot before her head cleared and she continued on.

"Now? It's three o'clock in the morning. Mark's tutoring us at eight." Julian groaned. "Sod off Emma, I'm going back to sleep." Emma grabbed his pillow before he could use it and whacked it against his head.

"Don't ignore me. That's what got you in trouble last time." She said hotly. Julian rolled over and glowered at her.

"What are you talking about?" he huffed.

"Nevermind, we're training now." She shook her head and put her hands on her waist. When Julian gave her another look, a more concerned one, Emma let out a sigh. "Please for me? It's the only way I'll be able to sleep."

Julian stared at her for a moment before he groaned. "Fine but one hour only and you can tell Mark why I'm going to be yawning all the way through his lectures."

Emma nodded. "I'll meet you in the training room. Don't go back to sleep though. I'll expect you in there in five minutes."

"Alright, alright I'm coming." Her parabatai grumbled rolling himself up as she left him to get dressed.

By the time Julian had arrived in the training room, Emma had already dressed in gear, stretched, re-plaited her hair and was practising throwing knives at random targets in the room. She could still see flashbacks from her dream so she trained harder, throwing each of the knives in her possession quicker with each throw. She threw the knife in her hand with a growl.

"Whoa! Hey, watch where you're aiming will ya?" Julian yelped as he narrowly dodged the blade which lodged itself deep in the wood of the door. Emma paid no notice as she threw down the blades with a huff, listening to them clatter on the floor. She gathered some long pieces of cloth and wrapped each tightly around her wrists and knuckles. Julian eyes her concerned with his friend. "Do you want to tell me what's really going on?"

"Get the chalk."

"Right, so you're going to pretend its nothing like usual. Fair enough, I'll get the chalk." Julian muttered to himself as he cross the room, picking up a deep bowl filled with white dust and putting it down beside Emma. He then began to wrap his wrists just as she had done beforehand. Emma ignored him and readied herself in the centre of the crash mat. As soon as Julian stepped on the mat she swung her fist into his ribs, wincing inside when she heard him groan before feeling a sharp blow to the side of her face.

Half an hour later they were panting on their backs, sweat glistening on their foreheads as they rested. Emma closed her eyes as she felt Julian's stomach move beneath her head as he breathed. She turned her head to look at his face and she grimaced at the damage she'd done. Julian turned and met her gaze with a smirk. "Yeah and I'd still be able to give that Pattinson bloke a run for his money."

Emma shook her head offering him a tight smile. "Sorry. I got carried away back there."

"You think?" he snorted as he leaned up on his elbows. "You've got a mean right hook, you know that right?" He rubbed his puffed up and bruised eye as he spoke and hissed. "Yeah, a real mean one..."

Emma sat up reaching over for her stele and immediately started drawing healing runes into his skin. He flinched as the rune burned into his already tender skin. "Sorry." She mumbled kneeling up behind him and drawing another on the back of his neck.

"I'm used to it Em. I mean you do insist on using me instead of the actual punch bag." He gestured to the sandbag hanging in the corner of the room. "But I'm sure there was a reason..." He felt her hands still on his shoulders and he glanced to see her looking away. He reached up and squeezed her hand. Emma let out a deflating breath as she collapsed beside him resting her forehead against his shoulder blade. "Come on Em, time to tell Jules all about it." He felt a shove in the back and he smirked.

Emma shuffled around until she was sat down beside Julian, her knees pulled up to her chest and her plait lying down her back. He watched her face, a grim tired expression painted all over it. "Jules..." her voice was a whisper. His eyes caught her hands gripping her left arm and he knew she was gripping her scar, an old war wound from her first encounter with a demon. She wouldn't tell him which type of demon it was nor would she tell him when she got it but he knew it must have been when she was young. "After my parents died...all I've ever had in my life is you, your family and Cristina. If you had d -" She broke off taking a shaky breath and he wrapped his arm around her, rubbing her arm soothingly.

"I'm not gonna leave you on your own, Em. I wouldn't dare. Mostly because you'll kill me if I do." Emma felt the urge to let out a laugh and Julian smiled. "But you and me, we're Parabatai. That means something. If it didn't, I wouldn't do stupid things like agree to train with you at three o'clock in the morning, let you sleep in my bed even though you've got one of your own and I definitely wouldn't let you beat me up just so you can sleep better."

Emma nodded knowing that she was just being stupid. She tensed suddenly when she felt him press a small kiss against her temple. "Come on, I'm tired. Let's go to bed. Hopefully Mark will be nice in the morning." Julian yawned as he got up pulling his sweat-soaked shirt from his back. He looked back at Emma and raised his eyebrow. "You coming?"

"Yeah." Emma scrambled up and followed him out of the training room, collapsing on his bed as he pulled the covers over them.

"Turn the witchlight off, will ya Em? I'm too exhausted to move." He mumbled as he pressed his face into the pillows. Emma reached up and picked up the witchlight watching as it slowly dimmed in her palm before putting it in a drawer. She reached back and held Julian's hand, pulling his arm across her waist and weaved her fingers in between his. She slept peacefully for the rest of the morning and she never dreamt of Julian and the sea again.