IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT CHAPTER 13 (written by me and @irl-scrungass) IS OUT NOW! Happy Halloween my fluffy fellows and vampy vixens. It’s time to get spooky this October Night.
You can read it here------> Chapter 13
(Also sorry that it’s signed with my old username. I made the piece way before I changed my tumblr handle lmaoooo)
"It's a ritual we must uphold every year to appease the Hidden Folk [...] And this year the ritual could not be completed... Because the White Buck's blood was spilled by a vampire." -- @scrungass, @animason
chapter 1 | once again: the most special of thanks to @tyblackthorn and @mostawesomepineapple for their guidance, they are both very lovely and i highly recommend you follow them if you arent already <3. also, i will be posting this to ao3 soon so keep an eye out for that but otherwise - enjoy losers!!
Julian was just finishing placing the last dirty breakfast dish in the sink when he heard Cameron come into the kitchen. The room was now empty, save the two of them, all the kids having gone off to be on their own, and Diana having not arrived yet.
It was clear that Cameron had come to check on Julian, and find out what had occurred with the institute head the previous night. The last he’d known, Arthur had been in a maddened state worse than usual, but Julian had told him to go to bed and that it was under control, which had, of course, proved to be true. Normally, Cameron would have wanted to stay up and help to ensure these results, but he’d had a particularly nasty fight with an Eidolon demon earlier in the day, and had been exhausted, something he’d felt guilty about the entire morning.
“What happened last night? You look exhausted. I think even Dru was a little intimidated by the bags under your eyes.” Cameron had come around the table, and was now settled into a chair that he was sitting backwards on, his arms draped over the back, facing Julian, who was leaning back against the kitchen counter and wiping his hands on a floral towel.
“Gee thanks,” Julian responded, giving his parabatai a dry look. As he set the towel back on the counter, he squinted at the blaring sun coming in through the window, and figured today would be a good beach day. The whole family hadn’t had one in a while. The only problem would be convincing Diana to cancel training for the day, though she might go for it if they invited her to the beach . . .
“Hello? Earth to Jules.” Julian shook his head to clear it, and focused back on a worried Cameron. “Did everything go okay last night? You seem distracted. You would have woken me if anything had gone wrong, right?” The guilt was clearly displayed on his face, even though Julian had been the one to tell him to get rest. Julian quickly worked to reassure the other boy that it was alright.
“Yeah, sorry, no worries.” Julian gave a small smile, but it was quickly replaced with a more serious look as he sighed. “After you went to bed last night I tried getting in contact with Malcolm for at least a half hour before deciding it was no use. I would have tried for longer, but there was no time. Arthur was only getting worse.” Julian seemed sickened by the memory, and Cameron looked only slightly better. “I was running out of options, had nearly given up entirely, resigning myself to a night of a deranged Arthur, hoping Malcolm would come in time to fix it, or that he would wear himself out, that we wouldn’t need to involve the Silent Brothers or the Clave or anything, you know?”
Cameron nodded his head in acknowledgement at the predicament that he’d heard and experienced himself a thousand times over. He wondered how his parabatai had gotten around it this time. With some brilliant plan, most likely.
Julian continued on, prompted by Cameron’s response. “Well, anyway, lucky for me, I just barely remembered the advice Malcolm had given us that I had nearly cast from my mind entirely, disregarding it as irrelevant but––”
“You called Emma Carstairs?!” Cameron clearly recalled the time that Malcolm had recommended the foreboding warlock to them, and how ridiculous the idea had seemed then. They hadn’t told Malcolm how absurd his proposition had come across as, but they had poked fun at it on their way back home from his house and well after. Emma was notorious for hating Shadowhunters, and was very private. Very few knew what she looked like, or where she resided for most of her days, but supposedly she received a lot of requests via fire-message from individuals hoping to gain her help, hearing of her powers, and optimistic to become one of the few who could say they knew her.
“Well, I actually fire-messaged her, but yes. She showed up almost right away. I’m not sure how the night would have gone without her, but I imagine quite poorly.” He then recounted the rest of the tale from the night before, how Emma had calmed down Arthur, what she looked like, their conversation after. The only part he left out were her qualms about being wary of Malcolm. Julian wasn’t sure if he trusted those yet, and there was no need to worry Cameron over nothing. “Just don’t mention this to Malcolm, please. He hasn’t even gotten back to me from last night yet, but I don’t want him to think we don’t need or appreciate his help. You know how flaky his feelings are, and I’m not sure how willing Emma would be to help us again if Malcolm thought we didn’t need his help and started refusing to give it.”
It wasn’t the best excuse, and Julian didn’t like having to keep things from his parabatai, but Cameron accepted it without question. “So she doesn’t hide her identity because she’s actually hideous? Livvy will be so disappointed.” It had been a long running joke in the Blackthorn family that for Emma Carstairs to be so secretive, her appearance must be atrocious. Livvy had been the one to start the conspiracy, and she was highly dedicated to her cause. Julian smiled at the thought.
“I’m glad that’s what you took away from the story, Cam,” Julian sighed. Finished with recounting the story, he went back to work wiping down the counter, turning his back on Cameron. He might joke, but Julian knew Cameron was only trying to lighten the serious tone and not make light of the situation itself, knowing how delicate the balance was.
The other boy didn’t look deterred by this response and merely shrugged. “That’s what I’m here for, dissecting the important parts of the stories that you overlook while you’re too busy overanalyzing everything else. Without me you’d be hopelessly lost, I’m sure.”
They shared a smile, and then set to clearing out the rest of the kitchen. They threw around meaningless conversation as they did, crafting a plan to get out of the day’s training and joking around. The matter from the night before was temporarily forgotten, and life continued on like normal for the LA Institute.
Julian knew that after the kitchen was clear, he would go off to the office to respond to the letters the institute had recently received while Cameron watched the kids for him. He knew that Diana wouldn’t give them a beach day, and they’d still have to train. He knew he was of age but still couldn’t do anything to save his family, not really, and he knew that his business with Emma Carstairs was not done, and wouldn’t be, not until he found out what was fueling her suspicions of Malcolm, and was sure he’d avoided any and all threats to his family.
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Julian could not stop thinking about Emma Carstairs, or rather, he could not stop thinking about what Emma Carstairs had told him.
As it turned out, the family had been able to squeeze in a beach day, so he’d spent the day at the beach with his family, minus Diana, who had been unable to make it to the institute at all that day due to other arrangements. Malcolm had finally gotten back to Julian around noon, texting to see if everything was alright, and Julian had easily responded that Arthur had eventually passed out from sheer exhaustion and had not awoken since, but that they needed more medicine. Malcolm had promised to bring it over before the next day’s end.
This was nothing out of the ordinary, Malcolm being flighty with his responses, but helping them out in the end. What made it different now was that another well known warlock, one that Malcolm had recommended himself, had warned Julian against trusting Malcolm. It wasn’t as if he even knew Emma Carstairs, or had any reason to trust her, even if she had helped him greatly and without charge the night previous, but he couldn’t help but consider that maybe she had good reasons. If that was the case, Julian wanted to know what those reasons were, and what her intentions were, because he couldn’t risk endangering his family, whether through Malcolm or through Emma.
He was pulled from his thoughts when Tavvy called out to him. He and Ty had just finished building a sandcastle, and they wanted him to come see it. As he made his way across the sand to them and saw Cameron splashing around with Livvy and Dru in the ocean behind, he vowed to get to the bottom of this Emma Carstairs business one way or another. He would do whatever it took to keep his family safe.
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Julian didn’t know if this plan would work and he didn’t like the feeling. The thing about Julian’s plans was that they were always foolproof, always well thought-out, and always reviewed by Cameron to pick out any possible flaws. The problem with this particular plan, was that it qualified as none of those things.
Julian knew that it was a bad idea, trying to contact Emma Carstairs again, and to do it by lying to her. Warlocks were usually pretty grumpy to begin with, and he doubted she would appreciate the false summons on top of that. He didn’t even know if she would respond at all. These were only two of the very many things that could go wrong with this plan. As Julian sat at the desk in his room, sighing as he watched the clock strike past midnight once again, he began writing his letter to Emma.
When he finished, he set down the pen and picked up his stele, quickly scrawling the fire-message rune onto the back of the sealed and folded letter. After sending it, he got up to go to the institute’s entryway, to hopefully intercept Emma when she arrived, and finally taking notice of the mess in his room, duly noting that he needed to clean it.
He wasn’t entirely positive that he wasn’t hallucinating from sleep deprivation when Emma Carstairs suddenly appeared in front of him. He rubbed at his eyes just to be sure.
“Julian, I’m so sorry! I feel awful about Arthur, I really thought the spell would hold! Take me to him now, I’ll fix it for you, and I’ll be sure it holds this time. No charge again, of course.” The guilt was all over her face, something Julian had not accounted for. It was clear that she’d been about to go to bed, if she hadn’t already been sleeping. She was dressed in cotton shorts and an oversized sweatshirt, paired with fuzzy socks and Ugg slippers. Her hair was down and draped across her shoulders, unlike the night previous when it had been held back in a braid.
“Don’t be sorry. I’m sorry. I lied to you so you would come, Arthur’s fine.” Julian scratched the back of his neck, hoping to pull off an innocent look. Judging by her face, the warlock was not impressed. He began thinking that perhaps the brutal honestly had not been the way to proceed with this plan, but he hadn’t had much time to think about it.
“What do you mean he’s fine?” Her arms were crossed over her chest, and she was staring him down. Julian silently hoped she wouldn’t turn him into a frog, and hoped if she did Cameron would take the risk and kiss him to see if he turned back. The kids wouldn’t survive with Cameron left as their only guardian. Julian needed to fix this quick.
“Look, I know this job has probably been––unusual, to say the least.” Emma raised her eyebrows at that, but Julian continued on, unmoved by her reaction. “I really am sorry that I had to call you back, and that I lied to you in the process. The truth is, I needed to see you to ask about Malcolm. Trusting him is no small matter for me and I couldn’t live knowing that I might be putting my little siblings in danger by keeping him close to us. I need to know what you know about him and how you know it.” Julian knew he’d been successful in getting to her when her glare gave way to a weary look and she began rubbing her eyes.
“Look, I’m not about to start telling you my entire history. I understand why you had to lie to me, but why should I tell you anything? Not to mention, it’s the middle of the night, and I rushed here for no reason. Is this how you conduct all your important business meetings?”
“I know you have no reason to tell me anything, but please, I’m begging you on behalf of my family, my siblings who have done nothing to deserve the shit hand they’ve been dealt in life. If you tell me this, and help me protect them, I swear I’ll never try to contact you again and I’ll pay you double whatever you’d be asking for this information.”
“Zero doubled is still just zero. Plus, making such promises is ridiculous. I will tell you what I can now, Julian, and if you desperately need me again I’ll come, but please don’t make light on that offer. It is to be used only in the most dire of instances, and only applies if you cease from lying to me again. Especially when it’s at the expense of my emotions, and my pizza, which has definitely burned by now.” She looked put out as she said this, though over his lie, her guilt, or her charred pizza, Julian couldn’t say.
“There isn’t much I can tell you about Malcolm, though it isn’t due to my withholding of information. In truth, I can’t even be absolutely sure he has ill intentions. What I am sure of is the bitterness that has always resided within him, and the horrific history he has with Blackthorns. It is entirely possible that he has seen sense and long forgotten the matter, though as someone in your situation, I wouldn’t count on it.” She let out a sigh and made her way to Julian’s desk to lean on as she told the story.
“You see, long ago, Malcolm had fallen in love with a Shadowhunter girl, a Blackthorn girl, who had loved him back just as greatly. Of course, at the time, it was seen as entirely revolting. I won’t go into the gruesome events that followed after they were discovered, and doing research on it would be essentially hopeless seeing as nearly all record of the event has been erased, but take my word for it that they were horrible. The girl was killed. Malcolm blamed the Blackthorns, among others. Maybe his connections to you and your family are of pure intent, but all I’m saying is that it seems awfully convenient that of all Shadowhunter families, he’s taken a liking to yours. He hasn’t wronged you yet, seemingly, but it doesn’t mean he won’t.”
Julian looked exhausted, and his eyes were filled with helplessness at Emma’s words. “I can’t go to Malcolm about this. If I imply to him that I’m suspicious and he has only pure intentions, he’ll get offended. If I tell him and he is working against us, he’ll only speed up his plans. Should I stop asking him for favors, just to be safe?” Julian knew that he couldn’t entirely trust what she was saying, and wouldn’t consider it fact, but he suspected there was at least some truth behind it, and plus, getting her advice on this might prove helpful. Something she said might give him a little more insight on how to proceed, even if he didn’t take her advice fully.
“Absolutely not. If you ever encounter an issue that you don’t feel you can trust Malcolm with or suspect he may be misdirecting you, contact me and I’ll help. Otherwise, Malcolm should be fine. He hasn’t steered you wrong yet, and never asking him for things would just seem suspicious.” She seemed like she meant it, and so far she’d done nothing but benefit him. He would certainly keep her offer in mind.
“Thank you. I’m sorry again that I tricked you into coming here, but I was desperate. Just like last night, I guess. God, I wish I would stop finding myself in this position.” He was looking at her through hooded eyes, his head hanging with defeat and fatigue.
“You’re welcome, and stop reminding me of your misdeeds, Julian Blackthorn. At this rate I shall never forgive you.” She flashed him the smile that rarely seemed to leave her face. “I’m glad I was able to help, even if it was only slightly.”
“Yeah, a little more information might have been nice, but I understand. It’s good that I know even this much, or else I might have gone on blindly trusting Malcolm for the rest of my life without it. Without you. So, thank you for sharing, and for helping, and for continuously showing up at my house in the middle of the night. Also, for risking your pizza, that one is important.”
“You said thank you already, but you’re right, the pizza was a tremendous sacrifice.” As she approached him this time, she reached out for his hand and shook it, still smiling all the while. “I’m not sure you need reminding, but just in case you’ve forgotten, don’t tell anyone I was here, and especially don’t tell Malcolm I was here. He doesn’t like me already, and I can’t imagine he would be pleased with me stealing his customers.” She ended her statement with a wink, and was yet again gone before Julian could respond. He guessed she must not like goodbyes very much, if she was always disappearing before they could properly happen.
As Julian made his way to his bed, ready to finally sleep, he couldn’t help but compare this night to the one previous. Emma was once again so different than he’d expected, even if he had met her the night before. She was also very gracious, contrary to her reputation, what with helping him again, and doing it free of charge both nights. He supposed he should be more suspicious than he was, but nothing that she’d done had seemed disingenuous, and she’d only helped him so far. You could say the same about Malcolm, his brain reminded him. He couldn’t help but acknowledge that his brain made a fair point, and yet still, he felt as though he could trust Emma, even if he had to tread carefully if he was going to do so.
She had once again left behind the smell of roses, and as he drifted off to sleep he couldn’t help but note one thing that was different about tonight. He was sure he wasn’t going to tell Cameron about this in the morning.
im thinking itdon chapter 2 tm maybe? bc ive had it done since before i posted chapter 1 and that was SO long ago omg aszhdxne here’s a snippet either way:
“ Julian didn’t know if this plan would work and he didn’t like the feeling. The thing about Julian’s plans was that they were always foolproof, always well thought-out, and always reviewed by Cameron to pick out any possible flaws. The problem with this particular plan, was that it qualified as none of those things.”
Chapter 14 of ITDON, the final chapter, is now up on Ao3!! At the end, you get to see a snippet of their lives in modern day, and I wanted to draw their outfits. <3
I’m sure they would be thankful for the modern fascination with body modification.
