Chapter Text
When the call came to the Institute that there was a portal opened from Hell to the world the whole place blared with a ring. The head of the Institute, Yuna Hollander, assigned Shane, Rose, JJ and Hayden for the mission. They got changed into their leather clothing, so that the demon venom would not burn their skin if they ever got close enough to harm them before the hunters sent them back to where they came from. They got donned in their weapons and swords.
Shane’s favorite weapon was arrows. He has been trained in archery since he was five years old, no one knew how to aim an arrow better than him. He’s done this his whole life.
“Do we have any intel on what kind of demons they are? Please tell me they are not the worm demons, I hate them. They salivate everywhere and it stinks.” said Rose.
“No idea.” Shane answered as he checked if everyone was ready and stepped into the Portal.
The club looked normal at first look, nothing out of the ordinary. There was nothing the humans would find out of place, but Shane saw everything. There was a demon disguised as a human in every corner of the large room. They weren’t worm demons, luckily for Rose, but they were worse. Reyn demons were a lot bigger than worm demons and they had octopus arms that could grow up to fifty feet to catch their opponents.
Fuck.
This was not going to be an easy job. It was better to divide into two groups to handle this. They had backup coming in a few minutes anyway. Rose followed Shane as they made their way to the north corner of the club. It didn’t seem like the demons had realized that the hunters arrived. Reyn demons didn’t have a good sense of smell.
Shane was not worried that the humans in the club would see the commotion when the fight started. They were already invisible to them. The plan was to lure the demons to the back alley where their backup will meet them. The plan was successful until then, but the backup team didn’t show up in time.
They were on their own for now.
Shane retrieved an arrow from the sack strapped to his back as he started shooting them to the demons. His comrades took out their swords and started to slash through the demons, sending them back to Hell. As demon blood spilled on to the gravel ground new and stronger demons appeared. Well shit. That was new. Shane has never seen anything like it.
He shot his arrows back to back, but they were not enough to stop the demons. Shane eventually reached for his belt and retrieved his sword. He knew the runes on the sword would be more effective with the demons, but it would need closer contact.
He approached the scene determined for this fight to be over soon. He felt the impact as soon as he was within arm’s reach to the demon. The creature’s octopus arm made contact with his torso and pushed him back, making Shane fly into the air before his body fell to the ground with a loud thud.
Before he could feel the pain, everything went black.
***
Darkness was all Ilya has ever known, all he was able to remember. At one hundred eighty years old he was stuck at twentyfour. It was a cold winter in Russia when it happened. He did not want to remember the details but the next thing he knew was that he was on a ship making his way to a continent he’s never been to. He built his own community here in Montreal, found people who are just like him, but it got lonely sometimes. He had people who he shared his nights with, he had his best friend Svetlana, but it was lonely. He didn’t have someone he could share the deepest parts of him with; his weaknesses, his strengths, what he found joy in this life of eternity.
Ilya looked around, the black night surrounding him as he made his way further into the alley. He didn’t like to stay at the den when it was dark. He was the creature of night for a reason. He trilled in the feeling of anonymity, he liked when people could see him but not really see him.
He stopped in his tracks. There was a smell in the air. Blood. Not just any blood, angel blood. He could smell it from a mile away. Ilya took off in that direction instinctively. The scene he found at the end of the smell was peculiar.
Countless shadowhunters fighting some demons that looked atrociously ugly, one man was sprawled out lying on the floor. Blood pooling down beneath his head.
Ilya walked towards the man, no one seemed to notice him. He stopped right beside him and looked down to him. Shadowhunter, young pale face, soft features, high cheekbones, freckles. He looked nice for a dead man. Ilya’s thoughts got cut off when he heard the slightest of a heart beat. Not so dead after all.
Ilya kneeled beside the man and leaned down to his neck. He breathed in the sweet smell of the angel. There was nothing more tasty than shadowhunter blood, but Ilya knew how to control himself. He brought his nose to the man’s neck and dragged his face up into his hair and took another deep.
He didn’t hear the commotion stop until someone was trying to get him off of the young man. No matter how strong a shadowhunter was, they could never be as strong as a vampire, an eternal being.
“Get off of him you monster.” a girl with ginger-ish hair said. Her clothes reeked of demon saliva, her face dripping with sweat and tears.
“Uh-oh, I don’t think is good for you to piss off the person who can save your friend. Maybe his only choice.” Ilya said.
“Fuck off.” The girl said as she took out her pen, Ilya knew it was the Stele, and started to draw runes on her friend's body. Ilya assumed they were to heal the boy, but he was too far gone. His condition was bad enough that the distant help of the angels won’t save him.
“You only need to say please.” Ilya said “And I can save him.”
“What the fuck are you talking about.” said a voice behind him. Ilya slowly turned towards the owner of the voice.
“I’m saying that a bit of my venom will be enough to save your angel friend. But I guess we are monsters for you, right? You won’t want me close to your boy.”
Ilya watched all the hunters gather around them. They all seemed to be communicating with each other in a silent way, trying to decide what to do. They could call a warlock to heal the boy, which would take too long to get a hold of one if they didn’t have one connected to their Institute. They could let the boy die, or they could give Ilya the permission to bite the boy, so he could heal with the power of the vampire’s venom.
“It’s your choice, I’m happy to leave and let your friend die.” Ilya started to get up when the ginger girl stopped him.
“Wait.” she said, her voice low, a tear streaming down her cheek “Help him.”
“Help him what?”
“Help him, please.”
“Good.”
It has been a while since Ilya drank his life's source right from the vein. Not that he did not prefer it, fresh blood always tasted better, but it was prohibited to hunt humans in the city. They had bloodbags to feed from.
He once again leaned into the young man’s neck and inhaled, a dozen shadowhunters watching his every move.
He sank his teeth into the boy’s neck. The vein popped into his mouth. The boy tasted incredible. Sweet, delectable, angelic. He drank a mouthful, he did not want to drain the man who lost a lot of blood already, but he did not take his teeth out. He pressed his lips to the man’s soft neck and let the venom sink into his blood.
“Okay enough.” said the annoying man from behind him, but Ilya didn’t move. He brought his hand to the boy’s cheek and felt the blood in his veins move under his touch.
He was going to heal, but not without Ilya.
“Your friend is going to need to stay with me.” Ilya said when he took his teeth out from the boy’s skin. He watched the mix of his venom and the boy's blood drip from the two little holes left on his neck.
“No he will not fucking stay with you.” Lord, the little shadowhunters were annoying.
“Yes he will if you want him to heal fully. If you separate him from me now he will not continue healing. It will look like he is healing but will die from unknown reasons in a few days if the healing process doesn’t get completed.” It was not really the truth, but Ilya had the urge to keep the young man close to him, even if it was just for a few days. He never felt something similar to this. ”So he either stays with me for a week or he dies.” Ilya shrugged. “Is your choice."
After a long beat of silence the young girl said “Okay, you will come with us to the Institute. We will be your hosts for a week and when Shane fully heals, you will leave.”
Shane.
“Ah, no. Venom will not show its full effect unless we are at my den.” Another lie for a good cause. Maybe?
Everyone looked at each other. A silent conversation happened between them. The annoying guy gave a nod to the ginger girl.
“How are we going to tell Yuna that her son got abducted by vampires?” she said.
“Hey, is not abduction, and is only me in the den. I will bring your boy to you safe and sound.” And he would, Ilya had no intention to hurt him. “If I wanted to hurt him I wouldn’t have saved him in the first place.”
“You better not be lying.” However Ilya would like to hurt the annoying guy.
“What’s your name?” Ilya asked.
“Hayden.”
“Ah, I see. Stupid name for a stupid boy.”
“Fuck off, Rozanov.”
Everyone in the city knew who Ilya was, so it did not surprise him that Hayden knew his name.
“You will get your boy in a week, yes? You know where to find me if you have questions.” Ilya said, looking at the young girl.
He leaned down and picked Shane up, one arm under his knees, one arm under his back. He was feather light, so delicate. With that they disappeared into the night.
***
With a pounding ache behind his head, Shane opened his eyes. He could feel the softness beneath his body but he could not see anything. He tried to get up from what he presumed was a bed, but his body gave out and he fell back into the pillows.
“You’re awake.” said a voice Shane didn’t recognise. He tried to look into the direction of the voice but he could not see anything.”
“Um- Yeah, can you open the lights?” Shane asked. He heard some rustling then a blinding light filled the room. Shane squinted his eyes by the sudden brightness.
“Sorry, forgot you can’t see in the dark.” said the voice. Confused, Shane turned to look at him. With his eyes getting used to the light, he was able to make out the features of the man. Light curly hair, a prominent nose, sharp blue eyes. Shane studied him, pale face like he has not seen the sun in decades, rosy lips slightly parted. The man opened his mouth to speak. Fangs.
He was in the house of a fucking vampire.
Regardless of the ache in his head Shane straightened up and leaned onto the back of the bed. He looked around the unfamiliar room. He didn’t know where he was. The room was decorated in red and black, the curtains were shut making it hard for Shane to see what time of day it was.
“What- I- What am I doing here?” Shane asked groggily.
“Sweet boy." the man cooed "What is the last thing you remember?” he asked. Shane furrowed his eyebrows.
“I was on a mission, fighting with demons then…” Shane tried to conjure up the rest of the memory but he could not remember. Why could he not remember this?
“Ah, I see.”
“Where- Where are my friends? Are they okay? Who are you? What am I doing here?”
“So many questions.” said the man “Your friends are fine. You, however, were not.”
“What do you-”
“You were going to die, and I saved you.”
“What are you-” talking about, Shane was going to say, but he was cut off by the man’s rough voice.
“Do you know what I am?”
Of course he fucking knew.What he didn’t know was that what the hell he was doing in a vampires den.
Shane got out of the bed, he looked around for his weapons. He couldn’t see them. Fuck. All vampires were not dangerous per se, but you never know what or who you are up against.
“Not so fast. You can’t go anywhere.”
“Why is that?” Shane asked, he was starting to get creeped out. Did he get kidnapped or something?
“Because I healed you and if you leave now you will die.” Shane started dumbfounded at the man’s face, waiting for him to explain. He rolled his eyes and continued “You were going to die and I saved you with my venom now you have to stay with me for a week so the venom settles in and doesn’t kill you.”
Oh.
“Can I call the Institute?” Shane asked. He had to talk to his mother.
“Of course.”
“What- What is your name?”
The man seemed shocked that Shane did not know his name.
“Ilya. Ilya Rozanov. It’s nice to meet you Shane.”
Shane gulped as he shook Ilya’s hand. A slight shiver ran through his whole body when their hands touched. It was going to be a weird couple of days.