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For the first time in weeks, Clary and Isabelle were the first patrol pair to find the nest of demons.
The Halphas demons had been haunting New York City for over two months, reappearing every time the shadowhunters thought they had caught and killed the last of them, and Clary was starting to get truly sick of the flying creatures. She didn’t have anything against demon hunting, since that was pretty much her job, but she would much rather have moved onto something else and forgotten about the giant pigeon-like demons.
“There’s not that many of them,” Isabelle murmured from where she was standing, inches away from Clary. They were still hidden in the shadows, plastered against the wall furthest from the end of the alley, staring at the group of demons. “I mean, compared to what we’ve had to deal with in the past.”
“Hmm,” Clary agreed. She counted no more than fifteen of the pests, which was nothing compared to the sixty they’d had to battle a week earlier. “Are the boys on their way?”
Technically, Alec and Jace were on the same patrol team as Clary and Isabelle, but they had long since decided to split up into pairs. It was faster, more effective, and it also meant they got to make their evening a little more fun. And in usual shadowhunter style, ‘fun’ meant competitions.
Clary had never thought of herself as a competitive person when she was younger. Sure, there had been times when Simon and she got into huge arguments about who was right and who was faster and who was better, but she had never really understood the point in sports or other competition-based hobbies. As a shadowhunter, though, she had learned what a real challenge felt like.
She could still remember the high she had ridden for days when she had been the first to kill one of their pesky demons. She could still picture the proud smile on Isabelle’s face when they had tallied their kill count and the dark-haired woman had come out victorious. She could still recall the petty disappointment she had felt when Alec and Jace hadn’t waited for them to start the fight two days earlier, leaving Isabelle and Clary with nothing to do but clean-up.
“They said they would be here in twenty,” Isabelle told her, glancing at the demons again and grinning mischievously at Clary as she sent off another text to her brothers. “We’re not waiting for them, right?”
“Oh, absolutely not,” Clary smiled just as evilly. “They played dirty last time, and there’s no way I’m letting them take the trophy this month.”
“Maybe we should create an actual physical trophy,” Isabelle hummed thoughtfully, her right hand reaching for her whip as she twirled a short seraph blade in her left one. “You know, proof of what we’ve accomplished? The boys only got rid of eight demons last time, so beating this nest would put us in the lead, no matter how impressive Alec was with that rift two weeks ago.”
Clary nodded empathically, because closing a rift with his boyfriend’s help definitely didn’t have anything on slaying fifteen – sixteen, her observations supplied – demons at once. Her hands reached for her two blades, the metal glinting ominously in the moonlight, and then she was turning towards Isabelle, an excited smile curling at her lips.
“This is going to be epic,” she whisper-shouted. “God, I’m so glad you’re my partner. Alec would have definitely made us wait for back-up.”
“Alec needs to learn to take a few risks from time to time,” Isabelle huffed. “Now, are we doing this? Twenty minutes might be cutting it a bit short, no matter how talented we are, and I would hate for us to get interrupted halfway through our fight. I know you don’t do well with sudden distractions.”
“Twenty minutes is more than enough,” Clary rolled her eyes, even though she was shaking a little at the thought of tackling fifteen demons in such a short amount of time. “We’re the best pair of fighters in New York, those parabatai brothers of yours be damned, and I think it’s time for us to prove it.”
“I love you so much, Clary Fray,” Isabelle beamed, leaning in to kiss Clary briefly as they activated each other’s speed and strength runes again, just to make sure their powers didn’t run out during the fight. “Ready to kick ass?”
“With you?” Clary chuckled. “Always.”
And then they were spinning away from each other, darting into the alley silently and stalking towards the demons easily. If there was one thing Clary was good at, it was stealth. She was nowhere near as strong as most of the other shadowhunters at the Institute, but she could sneak up on them and catch them off guard with her speed, which she had learned to use to her advantage.
Demons were a lot dumber than shadowhunters, which meant following the shadows and taking out the first demon before any of them could even move was far too easy. Isabelle had lashed out with her whip at the other end of the nest, and the fight started.
Clary tore her blades out of the first demon’s body, dodging the splatter of ichor expertly and twisting around to face off an already-injured demon – probably one of the escapees from their mission the week before – as the rest of its group took off, flying higher than Clary could reach. In those moments, she couldn’t help but wish she was half as talented as Alec was with a bow and arrow. Long-range weapons weren’t always the most practical, but when it came to Halphas demons, they were dead useful.
Thankfully, whips worked just as well, and Clary could already see Isabelle leaping onto a fire escape and letting her whip send three demons plummeting towards the ground. They had developed their strategy after their first fight against the flying demons. Clary took out the injured, slashing them apart efficiently whilst Isabelle found the highest spot around the nest to damage the demons’ wings and put them back on Clary’s level.
The redhead grinned sharply as the injured demon dissolved in front of her, revealing its three angry friends storming towards her, their wings flapping angrily and their beaks clicking in distress and intimidation. The action would have been a lot more impressive if the demons didn’t literally look like overgrown ducks, but Clary could appreciate the effort.
Cocky demons were better than smart ones, so she wasn’t about to complain. She made quick work of the bravest one, slashing it in half with her longer blade and injuring another one with her shorter sword, grinning widely when the creature inched away from her, obviously recognising her as a threat. A few years ago she would have been appalled, but now she was thrilled to be seen as something other than a useful pile of limbs.
She had worked hard to get to where she was and, as she slashed through the third demon efficiently, she couldn’t help but think it had all been worth it. Four demons were down, probably five if the crow of victory she had heard from Isabelle was anything to go by, but their work had only just begun.
Another five demons dropped all at once, and Clary barely had the time to shoot an appraising and impressed glance in her girlfriend’s direction before she was being pulled back into battle. She would have all the time to fantasise about Isabelle and her whip later, when they were back in the safety of their bedroom. For now, she had some slaying to take care of.
She narrowly dodged one of the demons as it aimed straight for her face with a long claw, her heart beating wildly at the nearness of it. She really should have been paying more attention, because she was suddenly surrounded by three demons as the other two creatures circled them lazily, trying and failing to flap their wings in an escape attempt. Or an offensive mechanism, Clary wasn’t quite sure.
“Now you guys are just asking for it,” she muttered underneath her breath as she held both her swords in one hand, drew out her stele, and rapidly activated her rune of pure light, blinding two of the creatures and startling two others. She was left to deal with one, stabbing it with both swords before spinning around and aiming for two of the others, incapacitating one and sending the other straight to hell.
She was sweating profusely, functioning on pure adrenaline, and she hadn’t felt this happy to be out and fighting in over a month. Things only got better when four other demons dropped down, quickly followed by Clary’s favourite person in the world.
Isabelle grinned at her, wiping a smudge of ichor away from her face and swapping her whip out for a second seraph blade, lighting it up with a whispered command before turning towards their group of eight attackers. The hard part of the job had been taken care of and, when Clary saw the glint in Isabelle’s eyes, she knew exactly what this part would be about.
Indeed, her girlfriend jumped up and kicked one of the creatures in the face before piercing its skull with one of her blades, immediately hand-springing off it as it started dissolving into ichor. She was showing off and they both knew it.
Unfortunately for their lovely little monstrous companions, Clary had never been one to pass up on the perfect opportunity to flirt and impress the woman she loved. She was racing towards the pair of still dazed demons from earlier, her swords extended on either side of her body, and she efficiently destroyed the two creatures before bringing her two swords down hard on a third demon that had been making its way towards Isabelle.
“Letting me do all the work tonight?” She teased, panting heavily as she steadied herself, glancing at the four remaining demons. “Not that I’ve been keeping count, but I’m pretty sure I’m in the lead right now.”
“Oh so that’s how you want to play it?” Isabelle all but growled, her smile turning feral as she twirled her blades around – and no, Clary didn’t find that attractive at all. “You’ve got nothing on me, sweetheart.”
And then she was moving so fast Clary almost couldn’t keep up, although she made sure to catalogue her girlfriend’s moves as best as possible. Isabelle easily dismissed the demon closest to her, elegantly chopping its head off before jumping onto another one’s back, using its wings as a way to propel herself upwards, piercing its chest with her longer blade even as her right hand lashed out to slice at the third demon’s face. The creature let out an ear-shattering shriek, cutting itself off when Isabelle dug both her blades into its body, smiling smugly as she wiped ichor from her blades.
She shot Clary a meaningful look as the third demon slowly backed away from the deadly duo, proving that there was a brain in there somewhere. It tried moving its wings, let out a few shrill cries, but Clary and Isabelle weren’t the type of people to leave a job half-done. They were both advancing on it before the monster could so much as blink – although Clary wasn’t actually sure Halphas demons blinked at all.
Isabelle had the advantage of experience, but Clary was faster. She reached the demon five seconds before Isabelle and was already plunging a blade into its thick skin when her girlfriend’s whip lashed out and wrapped itself around the creature’s neck. Clary gaped at the weapon as the last demon faded into oblivion, leaving her to stand in a puddle of ichor, drops of complete blackness streaking down her chest and arms.
“I definitely got the last kill,” she pouted as Isabelle reached her side, smirking like the cat who had caught the canary. “Your whip only got there after I plunged my blades in.”
“If that was the case, there would have been nothing for my whip to wrap around,” Isabelle pointed out, and goddamnit, she was right. Clary hated it when the dark-haired shadowhunter was right. “Admit it, I get the award for last kill.”
“We both get it,” Clary mumbled, pouting lightly at her girlfriend. “But I get the award for the most kills, so I believe I’m taking the crown for the night, no matter how gorgeous you looked whilst you were fighting.”
“No points for elegance?” Isabelle asked mock-offendedly, gesturing at her body as though it was a gift from the gods. And really, it was. Clary had never met anyone who could look as effortlessly beautiful as Isabelle, and she had met a lot of people in her life, including Seelies and faeries and immortal vampires. “Although it probably wouldn’t be fair, since I would always win it.”
“Exactly, and then you wouldn’t be able to give me my reward,” Clary grinned, already thinking about all the possibilities that were open to her now that she had beat Isabelle at her own game. Her girlfriend had promised her a night of endless pleasure if she ever did better than her during a patrol, and this definitely counted as doing better. “Do you think we could finally try that thing with the cuffs we’ve been-”
“Oh my god.”
Clary’s head snapped up towards the alley’s entrance and she narrowed her eyes at Jace and Alec as they stepped in their direction, gazes incredulous as they took in the carnage surrounding both women.
“We only took eighteen minutes,” Jace gaped, his mouth opening and closing as he noticed how smug Clary and Isabelle looked. “Seriously, how many of them were there? You said there were at least fifteen, but that can’t be right, since it took us at least this much time to get rid of eight last time, and there’s no way-”
“Oh, but there is a way,” Isabelle said, her eyes blazing proudly as she glanced over at Clary. “You two may be parabatai, but nothing can quite match a couple trying to get the job done as fast as possible whilst impressing their partner.”
“Ew, were you guys using this as an opportunity to flirt?” Jace wrinkled his nose up in disgust, eyeing the ichor around them dubiously. “Isn’t this an instant turn off for you? Because I can barely stand the sight of black goo on my clothes, let alone on my body, and now you’re telling me you use demon-hunting as foreplay? Alec, please tell me you don’t do this when Magnus is around.”
Clary snickered loudly when the older man turned a bright shade of red, shrugging uncomfortably as his brother threw him a betrayed look.
“It’s not about the ichor, Jace,” Clary rolled her eyes. “It’s about the adrenaline, the competition, all those things that make us shadowhunters? I swear nothing is quite as attractive as Isabelle with a whip, so add a whole lot of sweat and extreme competence to that? Yeah, I’m- I’m definitely down.”
“Sweetheart, you’re far too kind,” Isabelle preened, leaning closer to Clary and pressing a kiss to the tip of her nose. She probably would have aimed for the redhead’s mouth, but even Clary could feel the blood or ichor dripping from it, so she couldn’t blame Isabelle for her slightly safer choice. “Just so you know, your little stunts are just as wonderful to look at. I could barely keep my eyes off you, and one of the bastards swiped at me because of it.”
“This is disgusting,” Jace threw his hands in the air, but Alec was looking between Isabelle and Clary with something that looked a little like understanding and a lot like fondness. Jace obviously saw – or felt – the emotions on his brother’s face, because he was storming out of the alley less than a second later, grumbling about insane and strangely kinky siblings.
Clary deliberately did not blush at his last line.
“Good job tonight, girls,” Alec interrupted her inner thoughts and the downright dirty turn they had taken at Jace’s words. “You handled this perfectly.”
“We know,” Isabelle beamed, letting go of Clary just long enough to hug her brother before clinging onto the redhead’s hand again. “Thanks for the assist, even if it didn’t end up being necessary.”
“Any time,” Alec nodded, smiling at Clary warmly before turning around and leaving them alone again. Bless her friend for knowing when to back off and leave them alone, no matter how much he was probably itching to check them over for injuries. Alec was a good man, but he was an even better brother, and Clary would have to make sure he got their health reports after they stopped by the infirmary.
“Stop thinking so much and wipe your fucking mouth so I can finally kiss you,” Isabelle said commandingly, her dilated pupils boring straight into Clary’s soul. “Or I might just revoke that reward you’ve been looking forward to so much.”
“Don’t you dare,” Clary wiped her mouth hastily, her eyes widening in panic as she thought about all the things she had been dreaming of for months. “Is this fine? Do I have something left or will it- hmph.”
Isabelle’s lips were as warm as ever as they pressed against hers, gently coaxing her mouth open with her tongue and expertly nipping at Clary’s bottom lip in the way that never failed to make the redhead keen. No matter how often the two of them kissed, Clary had never quite gotten over how good it felt to be in Isabelle’s arms, clutching at the other woman’s arms and breathing in the same air as her.
“Fuck, Isabelle,” she murmured, pulling away from the dark-haired woman before she could do something they would both regret. “Take me home. Please, take me home. I promise I’ll let you have your wicked way as soon as we get there, but the last thing I want is a quick orgasm in an ichor-covered alley, so get me out of here.”
“As you wish, sweetheart,” Isabelle smiled, kissing Clary softly before lifting her onto her back effortlessly, grinning at Clary’s disgruntled mumbles. The redhead shut up as soon as Isabelle took off, far too excited about what was to come to complain about being treated like a particularly heavy backpack.
Besides, they made it back to the Institute in record time, and Clary had never been gladder to be pushed against her bedroom wall.
Getting off on the high of a fight was amazing, but getting off on a sweaty and eager Isabelle was much better.