Work Text:
Reggie had never really been jealous of his friends' relationships. If anything he was happy they’d all found people they loved so much that they’d do anything for them. He’d never felt left out, not even when they were all together, maybe especially not then. They’d reached a point in their friendship where everyone was just close witch each other and no one got left behind.
To be honest, he hadn’t really cared about relationships. He’d had a few flings here and there with a Shadowhunter or two, but nothing he was interested into evolving to something more. And that was okay, he was cool with it. He was also open to the possibility that things could change.
And this past month... Well, things had kind of changed.
Kayla had joined the pack. She’d gone by the bar a couple of days later, gotten to meet more members and was trying to get used to what being part of the Shadow World meant. Reggie and the others were looking into the rogue situation which meant their contact with the pack had increased. Kayla was looking for a job and Willie had offered her a position in the bar. Reggie liked to tag along with Alex when he went by the bar for business reasons.
Reggie liked Kayla. Kayla also seemed to like Reggie. What's the problem you ask?
Timing.
Because Kayla had still so much to learn about what the hell was going on around her and how she fit into it. What being a werewolf was about, how vampires and warlocks and faeries existed. How demons existed. And how Shadowhunters fit in that picture.
And then Reggie had the rogues to worry about and what that meant. They’d asked around the Downworld, depending on hints and whispers, trying to figure out who was doing this and why. They hadn’t been able to find any of the rogues and that was enough to create tension, but they were still handling it well. There was a full moon coming in just one day and they were determined to get a solid lead then. They weren’t going to let anyone else get bitten like that.
The full moon... another great reason that went under bad timing. It’d be Kayla's first full moon and she was freaking out. Well, she was trying to play it off cool, but she was freaking out because she had no idea what that meant. Willie had been reassuring and really, if he told Reggie he’d be okay if he jumped off a roof, Reggie would believe him, so he at least hoped it wasn’t as bad.
So, yeah, maybe after the full moon and after they’d had a breakthrough in the case then maybe-
"No," Alex said.
"No?" Reggie questioned as they got out of the car.
"No," Alex said again. "I mean the full moon part yes, you should absolutely wait after that’s done, but don’t put your life on hold until the mission makes sense. Nobody else is."
"I don’t think it’s exactly the same," Reggie said, opening the door to the bar.
"Yes, of course, dating a werewolf sounds super weird," Alex said, rolling his eyes as they walked in and headed to the bar. "Hey," he told Willie with a smile and leaned in to kiss him.
"Hi," Willie said, smiling back. "Oh and Alex is right," he added as he turned to Reggie.
"That dating a werewolf is super weird?" Reggie asked.
"No, that whatever this is, it’s not worth putting your life on hold," he said.
"Did you hear us talking outside or have you developed some weird couple telepathy thing?" Reggie asked, gesturing in between the both of them.
"Ooh, I like that," Willie said, "but unfortunately werewolf hearing prevails here."
"Anything new from the Shadow Market?" Alex asked already knowing the answer was gonna be negative.
"No," Willie said. "I mean whoever it is they’re either too careful or have no idea about the Market. And us. I don’t know." He sighed.
"Well, it is a full moon tomorrow," Reggie tried to be encouraging, "someone's bound to show up, right?"
"That's what I’m counting on," Alex said.
"I should come with you," Willie said.
"Yes and Luke and Julie should stop getting lost in each other's eyes when there are knives flying around, but you don’t see that happening either, do you?" Alex said as if the parallel made perfect sense. Not that they didn’t get it, Reggie didn’t think it was a good idea either. Just because Willie had great self control it didn’t mean they should push it.
"Hey, it’s the Angel people!" Kayla said as she came up beside them and put a tray with some empty glasses on the bar. "So, are you magical beings or not?" They hadn’t delved into Shadowhunter lore yet, taking everything step by step, but Reggie was happy to assist.
"Depends on what you mean by that," he said with a smile.
"I don’t know, do you have like inherent superpowers or something? Really fast, really strong, spidey sense, anything?"
"What sense?" Alex asked confused, welcoming any distraction from the dead end they’d hit.
"It hurts every time you ask a question like that..." Willie said with a sigh.
"Spider-Man?" Kayla said as she looked in between Reggie and Alex. They both looked back at her expectantly. "Oh my God, do you live under a rock?" she asked amused.
"You’re gonna have to be patient, Willie can only plan so many movie marathons," Reggie said with a chuckle.
"How do you not have any pop culture knowledge? It’s 2021! You have phones, you have wifi!"
"Ask them what Instagram is," Willie said, trying to muffle a chuckle behind his hand and failing.
"Didn’t you have any social media as teenagers?" Kayla asked.
"No, we were learning how to kill demons at that point," Alex answered, not even joking.
"So you don’t have any superpowers," she said. "What about all the tattoos?" she asked pointing at the visible Marks on Reggie's skin.
"Runes," Reggie said, "that’s angelic magic. It enhances certain things, levels the playing field."
"Okay," Kayla said with a nod, "I’m intrigued, tell me more." She sat down on the stool next to him, eager to listen. Reggie didn’t miss how Alex and Willie moved further away on the other side, giving them some privacy.
"They kind of give us a boost on certain things," Reggie said, "it's the closest thing to superpowers you're gonna get," he added with a chuckle.
"So, like... it makes you a better fighter?" Kayla asked.
"Yeah, among other things... There are a lot of them."
"And you have to keep drawing them every time? What happens if you get them mixed up?"
"Nah, it becomes second nature after a while, you can't get them wrong, but yeah you got to keep drawing most of them. Some are permanent, like Voyance," he said, raising his right hand. "It enhances the Sight."
"Ooh, I know that one," Kayla said with a smile, "helps you see the Shadow World."
"Exactly," Reggie said, smiling back.
"See? I'm learning," Kayla said proudly. "I mean I hoped I could stay at the cool stuff, but I guess I have to face everything else too."
"You're nervous about tomorrow?" Reggie asked.
"I... yeah, you could say that. I mean I'd say terrified, but also nervous, yeah," she said with an awkward chuckle, her fingers drumming against the bar.
"Willie is not going to let you get hurt. Or hurt anyone else."
"No, I know, I know, it's just... It's still a lot. And I know it's painful and just the thought of having all your bones broken, just-" She shuddered at the thought. "It's not something I'm looking forward to."
Reggie reached for her hand, giving it a squeeze. He knew there was nothing he could say that would make things better because yes, he understood what she was talking about, but he couldn't get it. He had no idea what it was like to be scared of what you were, to be afraid of losing control to another part of you. If anything Shadowhunters learned control and balance from a young age, both essential to a good fighter.
Kayla looked at him with a small smile. She looked as if she was contemplating something, thinking if she should talk or not, but before Reggie could ask what it was, the door opened and a girl rushed in. She had long brown hair with a few white streaks and looked to be around their age. She looked over everyone, her eyes bouncing around wildly, before turning to the bar over to where Alex and Willie were.
"I'm looking for Willie?" she said.
"That's me," Willie said, furrowing his eyebrows. "Are you okay?"
The girl didn't look any less terrified. "I-I think-" she started, finding it hard to speak. "I think I might have kiilled someone."
Alex sat down on a chair opposite of Willie and the girl, careful not to startle her any more. Her hand was shaking around the glass of water she was holding and she didn't seem any more at ease than a few minutes ago when she'd bursted into the bar. They'd taken her to the office in the back, away from everyone else, trying to make sense of what was going on. Alex was pretty sure this was somehow connected to their mission. Willie had recognized her for being a werewolf and if he didn't knew her that definitely meant she was a rogue.
"What's your name?" Willie asked her softly.
"Jess," she said quietly.
"Okay, so I'm Willie," he said with a smile even though she already knew that, "that's Alex. How long have you been a werewolf?"
"I tell you I killed someone and you're interested in my life?" she said.
"Well, you said you think you might have which means you might have not, so let's take it a step at a time," Willie said.
Jess looked at him apprehensively, uncertain if his kindness would come at a price or not. "Three months," she said.
"You’re from around here?" he asked.
"Yeah, I... I’m sorry, what are you?" she suddenly turned around and looked at Alex.
"Me?" Alex asked almost confused.
"You’re not a werewolf."
"I’m not," he said. "I’m a Shadowhunter."
"What’s that?" she asked.
"He’s part of our world," Willie said, "you don’t have to worry. Do you have a pack?"
"I... yes? I don’t know how it works," she said. "Look, all I know is that I cannot trust them and I heard Brad talking about you- I didn’t even know there were other werewolves in LA!"
"Wait, Brad?" Willie stopped her. He still appeared focused and confident, but Alex could see all of that slowly slipping away. "Brad Taylor?"
"Yeah," she said with a nod.
"Who is it?" Alex asked fully aware that there weren’t a lot of things that could shake Willie's calm demeanor.
Willie sighed. "That whole thing with Caleb..."
Fuck. That wasn’t what Alex expected to hear and it was definitely not what he wanted to hear. If it tied up with the rogues... then it definitely had to do with Willie and the pack and his position. It was a certainty and even though Alex had been wishing for a solid lead for a while now, he hated that it led to danger surrounding his boyfriend.
"Why do you think you killed someone?" Willie turned back to Jess.
"The last full moon, I... I woke up in the basement I was supposed to be. This whole month though... I don’t know, I’ve been having flashes of memories... I think I got out. I think there was a girl..." she said quietly. Willie glanced at Alex.
"Do you remember anything else? Your surroundings?" Willie asked.
"I don’t know, everything’s hazy. It was dark, I... I don’t know."
"Hey, it’s okay," Willie reassured her. "I don’t think you killed anyone."
"How do you know?" she looked up at him, her eyes hopeful.
Willie's eyes drifted to her hair. It was the first thing Alex had noticed when she’d talked about killing someone. They’d seen that hair before. Or, well, fur.
"Alex and one of his friends found a girl last full moon. She was bitten, not killed," Willie said.
Her expression faltered. "I bit someone?" she said. "I wouldn’t- I don’t know how I got out! I would never bite anyone!"
"It was your third full moon, you can’t blame yourself for what happened, you weren’t even in control," Willie said.
"No, something's wrong, I’m not the only one who's had doubts before and a wolf can’t unlock a door! They’ve been doing something to us! We didn’t even know there was a pack in LA! You have to help us," she pleaded with Willie.
"Brad bit you?"
"I don’t know," she said, "he definitely found me. He’s been helping or saying he wants to help, but we keep increasing and I don’t think I trust him. I heard him talking about you!"
"Do you know where he is?" Alex asked.
"Yeah," she said with a nod.
"Could you tell us?" Willie asked while Alex was already getting up to get Reggie. He opened the door and spotted him on the bar still talking to Kayla.
He looked up when Alex got closer, taking in his hands on expression. "What happened?" he asked.
"We know where they are," Alex said, taking his phone out to text the others.
"Did she actually kill someone?" Kayla asked. Alex hesitated. He knew she was scared about the full moon and hearing that a werewolf could kill someone without even meaning to wasn’t the most reassuring thing ever. He didn’t know if the truth would do much to put her at ease either though.
"No," he said, "she didn’t."
Reggie looked at him as if almost understanding something more. He’d seen Jess' hair, it wasn’t hard to put two and two together.
They gathered their stuff and after getting a location from Jess, they got ready to leave. Willie wanted to join them, but he had things to take care of with the pack and let them know about what was happening. Alex reassured him he didn’t have to come, they were definitely qualified to look into things on their own.
"She bit Kayla, didn’t she?" Reggie asked as soon as they were in the car.
"Yeah," Alex said.
Reggie sighed. "This won’t be easy."
"Yeah, Reg, I know," Alex said as sympathetic as he could.
"What did she say exactly?" he asked.
Alex recounted everything even though he really didn’t want to actually think about it. There was no other possible explanation here, this was about power and revenge. And so many innocent people had been caught in the middle. And more would come if they didn’t do something about it.
And Willie was going to be one of them.
They stopped in the general vicinity of the address Jess had given them and spotted Luke and Carrie waiting for them in front of one of the abandoned buildings. Alex and Reggie got their weapons from the trunk and walked over to them.
"Julie and Flynn?" Alex asked.
"Checking the perimeter," Carrie said. "What should we expect?"
"I don't know," Alex said. "We don't even know however long this has been going on, but I don't think we have to worry about the rest of them. Jess couldn't make sense of how she could have gotten out last full moon. My best guess is Brad and Noah started this and are using the rest of the new werewolves every full moon to keep expanding the pack."
"So, they are deliberately trying to build a pack," Luke said as they started walking further down the street. "All this time it had been about revenge for throwing them out of the pack?"
"And power," Reggie added. "It all comes down to who ends up on the top. Things have been going good because we get along with Willie, Dante and Fuego, if you change one Downworld leader with someone who's already broken the Accords once, it can all come crushing down."
"Yeah, the thing is werewolves don't just change Alphas. And there's no way Willie's going to just hand the pack over," Alex said, still tense. Either the current Alpha handed their position to someone else willingly like it'd happened with Willie, or they were challenged for it. To the death. And sure, he knew Willie wouldn't just accept a challenge where he'd be called to kill someone, but he also wasn't one hundred percent sure how serious werewolf politics were surrounding that matter.
"It's not going to get to that," Luke said even though there was no way to know that for sure.
It wasn't that late, but there was no one around, the neighborhood seemingly abandoned. There was one thought going around in Alex's head... What if Jess had lied? What if they were walking into a trap? But no, Willie had trusted her and so had Alex. It was the first solid lead they'd had in a month.
They suddenly heard a sound coming from one of the buildings next to them and someone was jumping down right in front of them.
"Woah, I'd appreciate not getting shot with an arrow, thank you very much," Flynn said, raising her hands in surrender.
"You can't just jump out of nowhere in a situation like this!" Reggie said putting his bow back down.
"We checked around, didn't see or hear anything, if there's anyone here, they're probably inside a building or something," she said, dismissing everything else quickly.
"Where's Julie?" Luke asked, looking around.
"She thought jumping out of nowhere in front of you was going to get us stabbed or something, she took the fire escape," Flynn said as if it wasn't exactly what had happened.
"And she was right," Julie said coming up behind them and standing between Luke and Alex. "Just try and pretend to be careful just once. For me, please."
"The point is," Flynn said again, "I don't think there's anyone here."
"Well, we still have to look," Alex said and they went ahead to do just that. They split up, going through every building, coming up with nothing.
Had they been played? Did they make a mistake?
"You're okay?" he heard Reggie a few feet away from him.
"No," Alex said, "I'm angry. I begged my parents to take this off their hands, made no progress within a month and now we get the answer to the big question and it's just plain wrong!"
"Look, I know things have been going good with your dad and I'm glad, we all are, but taking over the mission was the best thing you could have done. We've done everything right, you know that. The only thing your mom would have done different would be harassing the pack way more, trying to get something out of them when there's nothing there. Also this? What is actually happening? Better they don't know how they're connected and what actually happened with Caleb," Reggie said.
Alex took a second to let everything process. Reggie was definitely right about that last part, the story with Caleb was over and so was everything else, these guys resurfacing now... They weren't going to actually admit what they'd done, but any other Shadowhunter could go looking. And even though it'd been taken care of, even the Consul had helped, it wasn't something they needed to go through again.
He still couldn't help but worry though. Had they actually done enough? Had they missed something? There was no one left to ask for help or information. And yet this girl had come out of nowhere telling them exactly what they needed to hear.
"I know," Alex said with a sigh. And he did. But he also desperately needed a win. "Tomorrow's the full moon though. If this continues they're going to just keep biting unsuspecting mundanes. If it doesn't get further than that. We have no idea what they did before coming back to LA."
"If there's anything-" Reggie started to say when Alex's phone rang. He glanced at the screen, seeing Carrie's name and answered.
"What's up?" he said.
"We found something," Carrie said.
A couple of minutes later they were all standing in the same empty warehouse. On first glance, it looked like everything else around there did, abandoned. The same couldn't be said for the basement though.
"They changed in here?" Julie said, her hand going over the scratches on the walls in the different storage rooms which had obviously been used to keep the werewolves contained. It was a smart choice, abandoned building, relatively far from mundanes, it worked.
"This is not a normal lock," Luke said looking at the doors, "I doubt the door would open even with enough pressure."
"They've been letting them out," Carrie said. "Probably one or two at a time to be able to keep them under control. They don't want chaos, they just want numbers. If something goes wrong they're not the ones in danger."
"If the girl told you you'd find them here it probably means they use this place to meet up like the pack has the bar," Flynn said, "which begs the question, are they eventually coming back, or..."
"They realized Jess was gone and packed up shop," Alex said. "It's still a full moon tomorrow though, they need a place for the newer werewolves to change."
"If they've realized she went to Willie they won't risk coming back," Julie said.
"Maybe not today, but they need the place tomorrow. Even if Brad and Noah don't show up, the rest of their pack is bound to," Reggie said.
"It's not a great idea going up against two angry werewolves during a full moon," Luke said, "even if they can stay in control."
"Let's hope that we won't have to," Alex said.
They looked around the building a bit more in hopes that they would find something more, but eventually coming up empty handed. Alex had started gaining hope though, they had a location. That was way more than they'd had in so long. It could potentialy all be done tomorrow.
"I'm gonna go back to the bar, let Willie know what's been going on," Alex said, hovering over the open driver's door, "I'll see you in the morning?"
The others nodded as they filed into the other car. Alex got in too, closing the door behind him and leaned back on the seat, sighing with his eyes closed. He distantly heard Carrie starting the car and driving off. He grabbed his phone, wanting to send Willie a text that he was coming back. He wasn't eager to have that conversation with him, even though he was pretty sure he must have figured out a lot of it himself. Willie appeared to have a nonchalant atittude about most things, but he still worried about equally as many. He was the Alpha, he had so many people to think about with every decision he made and there was no way he was going to leave them to be led by someone who didn't have their best interest in mind. And he shouldn't. It was precisely why Alex worried. And why he hoped they could be done with this tomorrow before Willie had to get involved.
His fingers hovered over the keyboard when he heard something. His head snapped up, looking around. He wouldn't have given it much attention, but they had established that they were alone and if there was someone actually walking around, they definitely weren't there for a good reason.
He opened the door, stepping outside, one of his daggers in his hand, wanting to make sure he wasn't overreacting. What if he was freaking out over a stray cat or something?
He looked around, waiting for something more. It didn't come. He closed his eyes for a second, taking a deep breath and focusing on his hearing and the rune marking his arm.
Each second passed by slowly and then suddenly he was turning around, his dagger pressed against someone's neck. He didn't recognize the guy standing in front of him, but it wasn't hard to put two and two together.
"The Lightwood, I presume," the guy said with a smirk, not at all fazed by Alex's upper hand in the situation.
"Oh, call me Alex," he said with an anything but welcoming smile, "one of the rogues?" he asked, riling him up on purpose.
He didn't like the characterization, but he didn't let it show. "You know actually, this worked out for the best," he said.
"How so?"
"You are such a better incentive than anything else we could have had," he said.
Alex registered the movement a second too slow and suddenly something heavy came crushing against his back. He was thrown off balance and hit the ground. He could feel the paw on his back, rather than see it, but before he could even try and do anything about it, something hit the side of his head hard enough to knock him out.
Reggie woke up half an hour before his alarm went off. He felt a weird burst of energy and the need to do something about it even though right about now he should be craving breakfast. And it wasn't even the good kind of restless energy, he just felt like screaming for no apparent reason.
He got dressed and went downstairs to meet up with Flynn. Target practice had become their thing every morning and it definitely worked to take off some of the edge. Today it didn't.
"Are you okay?" Flynn asked him. "You've missed every single shot, maybe you should eat something first."
"No, it's not-" Reggie said frustrated he couldn't put it into words. "I don't know!" He had missed the center of the target in every single shot, some of the arrows not even hitting the actual target. Reggie didn't just miss shots.
"Okay, let's just go eat breakfast, we can't be perfect at everything all the time," Flynn said. And yes, Reggie wouldn't mind if something had gone wrong one time, maybe he was tired, maybe he was nervous for tonight, but all he knew was that something just felt wrong.
They walked into the kitchen aware that they would probably be the ones to start making breakfast, only to be stunned when they found the table already made and Luke pacing around the kitchen, holding a mug with something Reggie hoped wasn't coffee.
"Luke?" Flynn said just as confused as Reggie felt.
Luke was almost startled when he looked up at them. "Hey! I made breakfast," he said, nodding at the table.
"It's 8:30," Reggie said.
"It sure is," Luke agreed.
"Are you okay?" Flynn asked him warily.
"I am... something," Luke said trying to think of an adjective and failing.
Flynn and Reggie sat down and so did Luke, but Reggie could see his whole body vibrating. His leg was moving up and down nervously, his fingers tapping against the mug. Reggie tried to pretend that he was fine and just hungry, but he couldn't find it in himself to actually eat.
"Okay, what is going on with you two? You're both going off the rails," Flynn said, looking in between them.
"We're not-" they both started to say, but Flynn stopped them.
"You woke up at 8," she said, pointing at Luke.
"7:45," he murmured.
"7:45!" She looked at him with an incredulous expression. "And you," she said, turning to Reggie, "you shot an arrow through the curtains!"
Okay, Reggie couldn't argue with that, it was weird. He looked back at Luke who was still vibrating with movement and just the fact that he was wide awake so early in the morning was enough to make him believe something could actually be wrong. But Luke didn't seem to know what that was. And Reggie didn't either. And really, it was just weird that the both of them just had an intuition that something...
Reggie's eyes snapped back to Luke's at the same moment he went still.
"Call Alex," Luke said, his expression turning fearful.
Reggie had already gotten his phone out and was dialing Alex's number. He waited, each ring only working to make him more nervous.
"He's not answering," he said when the call ended.
"It's early, he might be asleep," Flynn tried to reason with them, but she didn't seem that certain herself. They knew not to doubt each other when it came to matters like this.
"No, it's ridiculously easy to wake Alex up," Luke said. "And he wouldn't leave the phone unanswered because then someone might worry and then Alex would be worried that he made someone else worry and you get the picture- I'm calling Willie."
"Wait," Flynn stopped him. "You need to stay calm, because if - if - something's wrong, you're going to make a werewolf very angry and very worried on a full moon. If Alex is not there we need to make sure he's not anywhere else first."
Luke looked like he wanted to protest, but they both knew she was right. The last thing they needed was for Willie to lose control, especially today, if they were going to deal with the rogue situation. And for all they knew Alex was fine and sleeping at Willie's. Yeah.
Only Reggie still felt like he needed to scream for some reason and he knew Alex wasn't just fine.
Luke breathed out, dialing Willie's number and putting him on speaker. They all waited over the phone, Reggie hoping and pleading that they somehow were so far off...
"Hello?" came Willie's drowsy voice. They'd woken him up.
"Hey, Willie, I'm sorry, did I wake you?" Luke said, his voice steady and almost carefree. Luke was really the only one between the three of them that could tell convincing lies. Reggie always just stmbled over his words trying to make something believable and Alex avoided lying because then he got nervous about keeping up said lie, or guilty about lying altogether. Luke on the other hand just never found the need to lie, he always said what was on his mind, always straightforward with the people around him. It's not like he had anything mean to say anyway. If he absolutely needed to lie though he could keep up pretenses.
"It's 8:30, man," Willie said, his voice muffled. "What is it?"
"Did Alex leave his phone there?"
"What? When?" Willie asked confused and obviously still trying to fully wake up. "He hasn't stayed over in like a week."
"Oh, okay, sorry for waking you up, we'll keep looking," Luke said.
"Yeah, okay," Willie said, his voice already a bit more distant.
The second Luke hung up, they all jumped off the table and out of the kitchen. "You look for Alex, we'll talk to the new girl," Flynn shouted as she ran upstairs to get Julie and Carrie, while Luke and Reggie were already heading for the front door. They jumped into the car and Luke had started the engine before Reggie had even closed the door all the way.
"How the fuck did we miss this?" Luke said as he drove off way over the speed limit.
"We left him alone! We drove off before him and we left him alone," Reggie said, a hand going over his forehead.
"He'd gotten into the car, he was just about to leave too! Why didn't he?" Luke said, trying to make sense of it.
"Because something stopped him and he was alone!" Reggie said, inadvertently raising his voice.
Luke glanced at him and back at the road to make sure he didn't crash into anyone or anything.
"I'm sorry," Reggie said. He knew Luke was just as worried as he was.
"It's okay," Luke said sincerely. Because Luke had been used to Reggie and Alex spiraling every now and then, used to them needing someone to lean on because their own families hadn't been there for them. And he'd never turned them away. Even when he was also undersandably freaking out himself.
Luke didn't slow down the whole way there, taking a sharp turn just as they turned into the neighborhood. The streets were still empty, the houses abandoned and so was the Institute's car where they'd left Alex last night.
They both got out, rushing over. The car was empty with the driver's door open. One of Alex's daggers was still inside while the other was on the ground a few feet away. Reggie picked it up, putting it safely back in the car. Alex had a habit of flinging those daggers around him, usually when one of the others was in danger. He worked better with a blade on each hand because he always kept an eye on everyone else and he could spare one to keep them safe. He'd switch to a seraph blade right after and carry on like nothing had happened.
"His phone is not here," Luke said, climbing back out of the car.
"Willie didn't even sound nervous," Reggie said, "someone must have texted him or something and pretended to be Alex. Someone who'd know he had to text."
"It's the werewolves, we know it's the two of them, that's the not the issue, the question is why?" Luke said.
"I don’t know, maybe they knew we were getting close?" Reggie suggested.
"They wouldn’t kidnap him then, they would k-" Luke stopped himself, his eyes wide. "I’m sorry, I didn’t- no," he said, shaking his head.
"You don’t think-" Reggie started to say, hating that the thought was even going through his head. He couldn’t let it go through his head, that was just plain wrong amidst everything else.
"No," Luke immediately cut him off. "No," he said again, "there’s something we're missing here."
Reggie raked through his brain, trying to make sense of everything as he leaned against the car. "Jess presented Brad as their Alpha yesterday, so he’s probably in charge. They’d been working to build a pack and eventually take over LA's."
"Which is why Alex was worried he would challenge Willie for the Alpha position," Luke said. "He obviously wouldn’t just hand the pack to them."
"He wouldn’t kill anyone either," Reggie said. The werewolves didn’t have a complicated hierarchy and their laws preceded them by so long ago. Reggie wasn’t one hundred percent sure how flexible they could be considered today.
"He doesn’t have to, does he?" Luke said. "I mean murdering your way to the top seems a bit excessive. Does he have to accept the challenge?"
"No," Reggie said. "But they can still try and kill him. Okay, I haven’t really delved into werewolf politics, but I think the pack can’t interfere in a challenge. He’s basically alone and may the best werewolf win."
"Well, that’s not an issue because Willie's not..." Luke started to say, but trailed off. "Shit."
"What?" Reggie asked, standing up straight.
"Alex is their leverage! They can make Willie say yes!"
Reggie's mind was suddenly reeling too. "They don’t even have to make him say yes, they only need to rile him up a bit, it’s a full moon. Someone is going to get killed."
"No one is going to get killed," Luke said, taking his phone out and texting furiously.
"Who are you texting?" Reggie asked.
"Alex," Luke said. "I’m sending a very colorful text about what will happen if we don’t hear from him in the next five minutes."
"They’re not going to answer."
"If I annoy them enough they will," he said as he kept writing.
Reggie's phone rang first.
"Did you find anything?" Flynn asked as soon as he answered.
"The car is still here and Luke's been texting Brad and Noah trying to get them to answer."
"Suffocate has two f's right?" Luke asked.
"Jess said they only gathered there, but they must live somewhere close," she said.
"That doesn't really help," Reggie said with a sigh. They should focus on the good things, Alex was definitely alive. But also, no matter what Luke said, it was very plausible that someone was going to die today. "We need to tell Willie."
"It's not going to go well," Flynn said. "We risk unleashing an angry Alpha in the city during a full moon, people could get hurt. He could get hurt."
"He's going to find out either way, it's better it comes from us rather than two psychopaths," Reggie said. "We might avoid him losing control. We know Alex is okay, if they're using him as bait they're not going to hurt him."
"Let's just meet back in the Institute and go from there," she said.
"We're on our way," Reggie said, hanging up and turning to Luke. "Come on we're going back. Don't text and drive."
"I think I've-" Luke started to say when the phone actually rang, Alex's name on the screen.
"That actually worked?" Reggie said genuinely surprised.
Luke scrambled to answer the phone and put it on speaker.
"Hi," Alex's voice came through, calm and dripping with sarcasm, "my lovely captors would appreciate it if you stopped threatening them via text."
"Well, we would appreciate it if you weren't captured in the first place!" Luke said.
There was silence for a few seconds, something shuffling on the background until they heard Alex talking to someone. "I'm not saying that."
More shuffling and mumbling. Then came a sound that reminded Reggie an awful lot of a punch. Alex's groan accompanying it didn't exactly help.
"Hey!" Luke shouted.
"Hitting me is not going to change anything," Alex said even though his voice sounded a bit more strained.
"Just say what he wants you to say!" Reggie said before he could stop himself. A few words weren't worth Alex being in pain.
Alex sighed, obviously not happy with what he was about to say. "They say that if you intervene in any way they can kill me and it'll still work the way they want it to. For the record, I don’t think they will," he added which earned him a second punch, making Reggie flinch.
"Hey, assholes, you listen to me," Luke said taking back control of the conversation. "If there’s even a strand of hair missing when we get Alex back, make no mistake, I will kill you." Luke rarely got that dark to actively threaten someone, which only worked to make him scarier in moments like this. He was a literal music loving puppy 99% of the time but hurt the people he loved and he'd suddenly remember he was a highly capable Shadowhunter with combat and weapons training.
"Not many things can actually get Luke mad, one way or the other you are so fucked..." Alex said with a chuckle that was followed with another groan and what sounded like a kick this time. Reggie passed a hand through his hair looking away from the phone as if that was going to help somehow. Alex had the bad habit of turning his sarcasm up every time he was in danger. Reggie was pretty sure it was a coping mechanism keeping himself from spiraling and freaking out, but at the same time it worked to make things worse for him.
"Do not mess with things that are none of your business," came a different voice. "Remember that we don’t actually need your friend alive," he said and hung up.
Luke groaned frustrated and threw the phone in the car. "We can’t listen to them, they won’t risk killing a Shadowhunter!" he said.
"They risked kidnapping him! And they can still hurt him," Reggie said feeling like he was going to throw up. He didn’t do well knowing the people he loved were hurt.
"Hey, Reg," Luke said, his voice somehow soft and confident at the same time, "he's gonna be okay. We'll get him back."
And really, Reggie would follow Luke and Alex anywhere, he trusted them with his life. The same went for Carrie, Julie and Flynn, they were his family, he would blindly trust them to do anything, but the guys were different. He’d spent so long blaming himself that Luke and Alex didn’t get a parabatai, he hadn’t stopped to think that maybe it wasn’t a rune they needed or an established angelic connection.
He, Luke and Alex had something. None of them could explain it and they didn’t one hundred percent understand it, but it was definitely something. And maybe it wasn’t as strong or intuitive as a parabatai connection, but all Reggie knew was that when he woke up that morning he knew something was wrong.
And Alex being kidnapped and hurt... Reggie could almost feel the pain flaring across his cheek.
They drove both cars back to the Institute and found the girls already waiting for them inside.
"Someone is going to die today," Carrie said, but unlike Reggie, this wasn’t out of fear for losing someone they cared about. No, this was a declaration that Carrie was going to kill whomever was responsible for this.
"We talked to them," Luke said. "They said if we tried anything they will kill him, but I don’t believe that, it’s not smart!" Reggie wasn’t one hundred percent sure whether Luke actually stood by that or he just hoped if he said it enough times he would actually start believing it.
"So, what? Are we supposed to just sit and wait until tonight?" Flynn asked. "They don’t seriously think we'll do that..."
"We need to tell Willie," Julie said, "before he finds out from them. He’s been doing this for a while, he knows how to keep control, doesn’t he?"
"It doesn’t have to do with that, werewolves are more susceptible to anger during full moons. Even if they can control it, pushing them over the edge will, well, push them over the edge," Reggie said. "That’s what they’re counting on for tonight."
"I'm calling Dante," Carrie said, already taking out her phone.
"It's too early, the vampires can’t help," Luke said, "they already said they wouldn’t anyway."
"They said they wouldn’t go after anyone, but we know more now so they might know something more so I’m calling!" Carrie said, leaving no room to argue.
They had a little less than seven hours till sunset. If they could find Alex before then, everything would be avoided.
The whole day had been... weird. And at first Willie wanted to attribute it to the fact that it was the full moon, they kind of knew what they were dealing with, it wasn’t exactly the calming circumstances he preferred during times like this. But he could still handle it.
A lot of things weren’t making sense though. Luke calling at 8:30 looking for Alex's phone that wasn’t there, Willie not able to find Alex all day because for real, how long could he have lost his phone for? They got a lead last night, a real concrete lead and all he’d gotten back was a text saying nothing had turned up. This was just... weird. He and Alex had been together for over a year now, he could tell when something was off and this... It was definitely off.
The uncertainty was not helping. And being December certainly didn’t help either. The sun would set earlier and the nights tended to be worse when you had something bugging you.
No, he was probably being paranoid, if there was something he’d know.
When he checked the time though and noticed it was 4:00, his concerns started making more sense. Because if there was one thing he could count on it was Alex caring about him. No matter how many times Willie reassured him he was fine during full moons, Alex always called to see how he was doing. Going the whole day without hearing anything from him? Something was not right there.
Someone was knocking on his door. Willie rushed to open it knowing it would either put an end to this, or make things potentially worst. It couldn’t be worse than not knowing though.
He opened it and came face to face with Julie and Flynn.
"What's wrong?" he asked before they were even fully in the apartment.
"Alex told us he was coming back to the bar last night," Julie started, her voice calm. She'd rehearsed what she was going to say, she was trying to keep him calm. Which only worked to confirm that something was terribly wrong. "The guys found the car he'd taken abandoned this morning. We know the two rogues have him, Luke and Reggie talked to him, but we haven’t been able to find him up to now."
Julie's words weren’t fully processing. Or maybe they were because all Willie could feel was a headache building from trying to separate his emotions from another part of himself that was fighting to get out. A part he couldn’t let get out, not today.
"Alex has been kidnapped," he said slowly, trying to keep everything under control. It would be only a matter of time before he snapped at the girls and they definitely didn’t deserve that.
"They want the pack," Flynn said.
Oh, okay, scratch that. Alex has been kidnapped because of me.
Because there was no way in hell Willie would ever hand over the pack to someone who was going to hurt it and there was no way he was going to kill anyone just to win a challenge.
But now the circumstances were different. Because this was Alex and Willie had once told him that if the situation called for it he’d put him over the pack and that might have been an awful thing to say as an Alpha, but if something happened to Alex he wouldn’t be able to take it.
And if something bad happened to him because of Willie...
"Willie," Julie’s voice brought him back only to realize the doorknob he was still holding had slightly caved in. He let it go.
"I'm fine," he said. He very much wasn’t and the increasing headache was only proving as much, but there was a reason he’d been the last to know and he’d hate to prove their fears right. He also wanted to scream because how could he be the last to know? But that was probably part of the things he shouldn’t do to prove that he was fine.
"They are going to call," she said. "They want you to know. They want you to fight."
"Yeah, no, I got that," he said, still not moving from where he was.
"You’re calm," Flynn said warily.
"You don’t want me to not be calm right now," Willie said, concentrating on the self control he’d managed to acquire through all these years. He could do this.
"No, but you’re too calm which means you’re repressing and it will keep building up until you'll hit your peak and explode. That’s also something we don’t want," she said.
That sounded about right, but really, repression was all he had for now.
"What about Carrie and the guys?" he asked instead.
"They’re looking," Julie said. "We called Dante in case anyone in the clan has spotted Brad and Noah specifically..."
"Yes, because the vampires want nothing more than to help us," Willie said, rolling his eyes and immediately regretting it. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said, "where have you looked?"
"It's okay," Julie said, her voice holding such sincerity he couldn’t not trust her even if he wanted to.
They left the apartment, the girls analyzing how they’d been going about it and where they’d looked. They’d scouted the whole area where Alex had disappeared from, moved to other abandoned buildings and areas around and coming up empty. And really, all Willie could do was compartmentalize because he suddenly found it hard to repress as much as he had to in order to not change into a big wolf right in the middle of the street. Self control was great, but sometimes it just felt so fragile.
He was trying, he really was, when his phone rang. Julie and Flynn stopped with him, ducking inside an alley away from people. Willie looked at the screen, seeing Alex's name. It was the first time he wasn’t excited to answer the phone.
He accepted the call, but before he could say anything he heard voices on the other end of the line.
"... all you want, but I’m not your fucking messenger!" he recognized Alex. Willie almost sighed in relief hearing his voice, even if it was telling Brad and Noah off. Maybe especially then.
There was a grunt and Willie almost picked up a faint cracking sound in the background, followed by a muffled yelp.
Willie's hand shook at his side, clenching his fist. His whole demeanor was hanging by a thread, he honestly had no idea how, his mind had stopped on that crack.
"If you touch him again, I’m going to rip your throat out," he said, his voice eerily calm, carrying a certainty of absolutely seeing the threat out.
"Hey, Willie," Noah took over the phone, "long time no see."
"Where are you?" Willie asked, not the least bit concerned about playing their game.
"Impatient, I get it, you wanna meet up? Where we found your boyfriend? In twenty minutes or so? Commute is a bitch..."
"Don't go," came a raspy voice from the background.
"Oh, so you talk now?" Noah said.
"Shut the fuck up, I wasn’t talking to you," Alex said and even though his voice was steady enough, there was still something wrong. He was in pain and trying to conceal it. "Life was better when we were dealing with Caleb."
Willie furrowed his eyebrows, but before he could say anything, Noah talked again, "We'll see you in twenty minutes." And then he hung up.
"I'm leaving," he said.
"Wait, wait, Willie, you can’t go alone, you know what you’ll be walking into!" Flynn tried to stop him. "Alex will probably not even be there!"
"Probably is not good enough," he said. "You need to keep looking."
"The others can keep looking, you need backup!" she said.
"I'll be fine, it's still early. Alex mentioned that life was better when we were dealing with Caleb? I don’t know, it felt out of place, maybe it’s something," Willie said already backing up into the crowd on the street.
"No, Willie, wait," Julie said again, but he disappeared through the people before they could follow. He made sure to move through the crowded areas to make it harder for them to follow. He didn’t want to get them involved with two angry werewolves in a full moon. It would definitely end badly and fast.
He was moving quickly, the sun already setting in the distance. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but ideally he would try to save everyone. He couldn’t let the pack down. He couldn’t send them to their doom with two murderers. When he’d become the Alpha he’d taken on that responsibility and he was happy to see it through to the best of his abilities.
But then there was Alex and all Willie could hear was that crack and all he could think was that Alex was alone and in pain and Alex didn’t deserve any of that and Willie couldn’t just not put him first.
He eventually arrived on the area Jess had described last night. The place was obviously abandoned, the sun had set only a few minutes ago, sending them into a quiet afternoon which meant things weren’t that bad. Maybe if Willie kept repeating that he would ignore how every cell in his body was vibrating and the wolf was itching to get out.
"Right on time," he heard a voice and Brad walked up behind one of the buildings.
"Where's Alex?"
"Still alive," he said nonchalantly and there it was again. That sound. Crack.
"I’m not going to fight you," Willie said even though his resolve was loosening. He shouldn’t do this, he could keep control.
"You’re not? Did we break your boyfriend's ribs for nothing?"
Crack.
Everything had started building up long ago and Willie's breath had quickened in his effort to keep it inside. He knew Brad was trying to rile him up, but he was still telling him the truth. He’d heard Alex and he was in pain. Alone.
He could feel his claws digging into his palm. The wall he’d been building was crumbling.
His control was sliping.
Alex had started making a list in his mind. If anything he would need it for when he was out of there. Concussion, bruised left cheekbone, bruised right side of his jaw, split lip and his personal least favorite, a couple of cracked? broken? ribs. Everything just fucking hurt.
He took a deep breath and pushed himself to sit up and leaned against the wall breathing out. He could only hope Willie wasn’t going to lose control. He'd already sounded deadly before and no matter what Alex did, he couldn’t have sounded a hundred percent fine. Werewolf strength during a full moon could really do a number on you.
He tried to focus on anything inside the bare room to ignore the pain. He’d recognized where he was the minute he’d seen that dirty hallway outside when the door had opened. It’d be a long time before he’d forget this basement. He didn’t even know if his comment for Caleb had even passed through or if they’d understood what he was talking about.
He gasped, his hand flying to his side, which could potentially be making things worse, but he needed to do something. God, he didn’t even need to be rescued, he just needed a stele to make this at least bearable.
He heard a faint sound somewhere further down the hallway and braced for another lovely visit. Instead, he heard the doors next to his opening. He was confused, as far as he was aware he was alone there.
Before he could... well, he couldn’t really do anything, but before he could ponder on it a bit longer, his door bursted open and Alex was only just a bit more perplexed.
"Luke?" he said.
And Luke didn’t say anything, just rushed inside and kneeled next to him. He took Alex's face in his hands, careful not to touch him where he was hurt and started inspecting the damage.
Alex could see the worry starting to build up in his face. "I’m fine," he said.
"Alex, you’re not," Luke said, his voice almost breaking. "You’re not fine."
Alex softly took hold of his hands away from his face, just tight enough to be grounding. "No," he said, "but I am okay."
Luke took out his stele and drew an iratze on Alex's abdomen. Alex knew it was going to take some more time for everything to go back to normal, but it took off some of the edge. And it definitely helped with the concussion.
"We leave you alone for five minutes and you go and get kidnapped," Luke said with a small smile.
Alex chuckled slightly, but winced at the pain on his side.
"What's wrong?" Luke asked, his expression slipping back to worry.
"Well," Alex said, "a couple of ribs. Cracked, broken, I don’t know. What about Willie?"
"Can you walk?" Luke asked instead.
"Yeah..." Alex said even though he wouldn’t swear on it.
"Okay, because we might need to run," he said.
"Why?" Alex asked warily.
"Yeah, okay," Luke said, a hand squeezing Alex’s shoulder, "Willie ditched Julie and Flynn about ten minutes ago and we're not sure where he is, but then Julie figured out you were here so we came for you."
"Fuck, okay, I know where he is," Alex said, taking the stele Luke had left on the floor and hovering over his arm. "I’m gonna regret this later," he said, drawing an energy rune. He was definitely going to crash later but that was a problem for future Alex. "Let’s go before my body realizes it should be resting."
"No, wait, Alex, you’re seriously hurt," Luke said, getting up at the same time as him with considerably more ease.
"I know, I know," he said, leaning on Luke when he finally managed to stand upright. "But I can’t let him get hurt. Or kill someone. He will hate himself."
Luke looked like he wanted to protest and tell Alex to sit back down until they’d handled it, but he understood him and so he eventually nodded.
"Okay, let’s go," he said, "but if it gets too much you’ll tell me."
"I'm hoping I’ll either be too blissfully unaware from the iratze or too focused from the energy," Alex said as they left the room. "Wait, what about-"
"Alex!" he heard a voice and turned around to see Reggie running up to them, bow in hand. He stopped next to them, his breath hitching at Alex's appearance. Well, he couldn’t blame him, the iratze had a lot of things to focus on and not enough time to do so.
"I'm okay," he said, trying to reassure him, "really."
"Are you?" Reggie asked, still looking at him with an almost pained expression.
"Well, some things hurt," he said, reaching for his hand and giving it a squeeze, "but yeah, I’m okay."
"What about Noah?" Luke asked.
"The girls are handling it, they're going to bring him in. They told me to find you so we can look for Willie," Reggie said.
They all hurried outside - well, Alex tried because even though his body was working he had hit his limits long ago - and drove off. Alex was drumming his fingers on his leg, because no matter how fast Luke drove, he had no idea what to expect and that terrified him.
It almost felt like the minutes stretched into hours - or maybe that was just Alex panicking and hurting at the same time - when they finally got to where they’d been yesterday. Alex heard them before he could see anyone. Growls.
"Fuck," he muttered and was out of the car before Luke even had time to stop the whole way. The pain he'd felt only moments before, took a backseat as he ran down the street and through the abandoned buildings, grateful for the energy rune on his arm.
The sounds were getting louder until Alex saw a wolf being thrown back towards a wall. He used his claws to stop himself and jumped right back in the fight. Alex would recognize that wolf anywhere.
Willie lunged at the other wolf in front of him, sending them both tumbling on the ground. Alex knew the best course of action wouldn’t be to just jump out there or startle them in any way because he could easily get killed or get Willie killed. But then he suddenly heard a whine and saw Willie pushing the other wolf back into a building from where he didn’t get up. Willie moved in closer and before Alex could stop himself and realize that it was a dumb idea, he shouted, "No!"
Willie's reaction was instantaneous and Alex was suddenly falling back with a werewolf right on top of him, baring his teeth. And Alex should have probably been scared because Willie was not thinking clearly and he could rip him to shreds if he wanted to and Alex wouldn’t even have time to react, but he wasn’t.
He noticed somewhere in the corner of his eye Reggie, his bow raised, tranquilizing arrows ready, but he held his hand out slowly, stopping him. There was no need for that, Willie wasn’t going to hurt him.
"It's okay," he whispered to the wolf above him. "It’s me, I'm here, I’m okay."
Willie looked at him for a couple more seconds without moving, until something softened in his expression, a spark of recognition going through his eyes. Alex sighed in relief when he moved back, freeing him, the pressure against everything that already hurt, disappearing.
With that though came back the intense pain and he struggled to get up without making it obvious that he was dying inside. Reggie rushed to get next to him, helping him up.
"You’re staying in bed for a week," he said.
"Yeah, that sounds nice," Alex agreed through gritted teeth. His hand found Willie's head, going through the fur. Willie leaned into the touch making Alex smile through the pain. "Where's Luke?"
"Dealing with the other situation," Reggie said, nodding to wherever the other wolf had crashed. "Peacefully." The fact that Willie didn't even move at that but stayed glued to Alex's side was enough for him to know that he was actually doing okay, the haze in his mind clearing up.
Reggie wrapped an arm around Alex's waist to help him, only slightly brushing over his hurt side, making him hiss. Willie in turn growled at Reggie who moved his hand further away where he knew he wouldn't hurt Alex.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said quickly.
"It's okay," Alex said, still petting Willie's head, hoping to calm some more nerves down. Staying in bed for a week really did sound great.
Alex woke up feeling like he'd been run over by a truck. He shifted a little on the bed, but stopped with a groan when pain flared up on his right side.
"Hey, wait, here," he heard a soft voice and then there was suddenly something cold over his side, making him sigh in relief. Something was placed inside his hand and his fingers curled around it.
"I love you," Alex said, lifting his shirt up a bit and blindly drawing an iratze.
He heard Willie breathe out a chuckle, but something felt wrong. Alex opened his eyes, seeing him sitting beside him on the bed, a hand holding an ice pack over Alex's side. Alex had stayed over at his apartment last night, knowing they would have to talk the next day. Willie hadn't changed back until much later that night and that conversation shouldn't happen over the phone.
"You're okay?" Alex asked.
"Me?" Willie asked incredulously.
"Yeah," Alex said trying to move so he could sit up, but it only worked to cause him pain.
"No, no, don't move," Willie panicked slightly.
"Yeah, that's a good idea," Alex said, settling back down. "What's wrong?"
"Alex, you- I am so, so sorry," Willie said, his voice breaking.
"You didn't do anything," Alex said. "It's not your fault there were psychopaths in town. They've both been detained now anyway."
"They took you because of me, they hurt you... I attacked you, I could have killed you!" Willie said, his eyes shining with unshed tears.
"You can't take that on yourself, what are we supposed to do? Not care about anyone because they might be used against us? As for the hurt part, I mean it wasn't fun, but it usually comes with the job..." Alex said, his hand finding its way to Willie's over the ice pack. "Also you didn't attack me. You could never hurt me."
"I knocked you down."
"I startled you."
"That shouldn't matter!"
"You came to your senses when you realized it was me," Alex said, only now realizing exactly what had gone down himself. Yesterday had been a pretty stressful day, he hadn't had the time to actually process what was happening. "You came to your senses when you realized it was me," he said again almost surprised.
"Alex?" Willie said confused.
"That's... wow, okay, yeah. That's kind of big. You must really love me or something," he said.
Willie smiled slightly for the first time ever since they'd started talking. "Never doubt that."
"I don't," Alex said. "I was never scared for me yesterday, I knew you wouldn't hurt me. I just didn't want you to get hurt. Or do something you were going to regret."
Willie looked at him for a couple of seconds, his other hand coming up to brush a few strands of hair away from Alex's eyes. He leaned down and kissed him softly. "Thank you," he whispered as he pulled back, their foreheads still touching.
"I love you too by the way," Alex said. "And if it makes you feel any better, Reggie was about to knock you out before I told him not to."
Willie chuckled as he turned around and lied beside him, facing him. "Oh my God, poor Reggie, I growled at him," he said, looking guilty.
"Wolf you gets a tiny bit overprotective," Alex said with a smile.
"It's the full moon, everything is augmented. I should apologize."
"I can call him," Alex said with a nod, "maybe not right now though. There was something he wanted to do first this morning."
Reggie walked down the hallway, looking for the right door. Students walked past him, not even acknowledging him, most of them still half asleep. Maybe he didn't even need the glamour.
He reached the last door to the right and knocked. He waited a few seconds until Kayla opened up and looked at him, her eyes wide. She grabbed his hand, pulling him inside and closing the door behind her.
"How did you get in?" she asked. "Random people are not allowed in the dorms."
"I'm glamoured," he said. "Didn't you tell me to meet you here?" he asked equally as confused.
"I meant outside, I didn't know you could get in. Wait, so you're like invisible to everyone else?" Kayla jumped from one question to the other.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I can go wait outside," Reggie said, ready to backtrack out on the hallway.
"No, it's okay," Kayla hurried to say. "I mean I would have told you to come here if I knew you could," she said with an awkward chuckle.
Reggie smiled. "Are you okay?" he asked, his expression softening.
"I..." she trailed off as she sat down on one of the beds in her room. "I'm better than I thought I'd be actually. I don't remember most of it... I guess that's good." She shrugged. Reggie moved to sit beside her. "I was with Leah and Seth. They're great, they really helped me out."
"I'm glad," Reggie said and really meant it.
"They said all hell broke loose yesterday."
"Yeah, it was... It wasn't great. But everyone's okay now."
"No more random people getting bitten on the street?" she asked with a small smile.
"No," Reggie said. "Did they tell you-"
"About Jess? You know it's been a month and I'm still having a hard time placing everything. I mean I get that she didn't do it on purpose, but it's just- This is so weird. I don't know what I'm supposed to do," she said, a hand going through her head.
"You don't have to decide now. This was your first full moon, no one would blame you if you take things slow," Reggie said.
"Yeah... Do you wanna get out of here? I need a change of scenery," Kayla said and got up, "maybe some coffee, definitely something with sugar... Do you have to work? Or whatever it is you do? I'm still not one hundred percent sure what you do on a daily basis."
Reggie laughed as he got up too. "I have time," he said.
"Great," she said and grabbed her jacket from he top of her desk, but then turned around tentatively. "I mean, If you want to."
"No, no," Reggie rushed to say, "I want to."
"Oh, okay, uhm, cool," she said, looking at the door. "You should probably stay invisible until we're out of here."
"Yeah, that makes sense..."
Kayla reached to open the door, but stopped. "Hey, before we go, I wanted to tell you something," she said, turning back around to look at Reggie.
"Okay," Reggie said with a nod.
"But you can't tell Willie you know," she added.
Reggie looked at her with furrowed eyebrows. "Okay...?" he said again, not sure where this was going.
Kayla stared at him with a serious expression. "There's eight more Star Wars movies."
"What?" Reggie asked, momentarily confused.
"Willie showed you the original trilogy, but they made eight more after that," she said.
"And he didn't say anything? By the Angel, what kind of friend is he?" Reggie said, personally offended by the whole situation. He'd seen like twenty movies in total in his life and he'd really loved those ones. This was considered a betrayal in his book.
Kayla chuckled. "Maybe we could watch them sometime."
"We definitely should," Reggie said, still caught up in that revelation, but coming back to himself moments later. "I mean, yeah, that would be nice."
Kayla smiled. "Okay, let's go, there's a great coffee shop right next to campus."
Reggie followed her out with a smile.