Shadowhunter in the Apocalypse

The hunters' breaths caught in their throats. Some instantly recognized him, not everyone could get a custom made shadow armor, but some didn't..

A younger hunter reacted first, maybe out of fear, maybe pride. "Who the hell are—"

Another hunter struck him hard across the face, sending him stumbling to the ground. He bent close and hissed so quietly it should not have been heard. "Are you stupid? Do you not see the armor? That is freaking Ghost."

The guy froze on the floor, blood running from his lip. His eyes widened as though he had just seen a death sentence carried out. He scrambled up and bowed his head. "Forgive me, sir. I…I didn't recognize…"

The figure didn't answer. Reed had other things to care about than fan boys and girls.

Ghost turned his head toward them. When he spoke, his voice was muffled by the veil but they didn't dare not answer. "What have you learned?"

The older hunter straightened like a man in front of his commander. "He is resisting sir, and we cannot press harder without proof since the disappearances have happened in other places as well. We don't know if he is responsible."

Ghost shifted slightly, the black veil moving as he regarded the warlock.

The warlock smirked. "Well, well. The House of Black finally sent someone with teeth. I was beginning to wonder how long they would let their puppies bark at me."

The hunters stiffened but said nothing. The warlock went on, clearly enjoying himself. "You know, Ghost, I have heard so many tales. The silent assassin. The boy who leaves nothing but corpses behind. The House's little phantom. They say you disappear entire covens in a night and no one finds the bodies. They say even demons fear the dark when you walk in it as absurd as that is. And now here you are in my city. Why is that? Did Los Angeles finally bore you?"

His words dripped with mockery but his eyes held calculation. He was gauging the man before him, testing how far he could go.

Ghost tilted his head slightly to the left, a slow, deliberate motion. The kind that said he could not believe the guts of the man standing in front of him.

"I will ask once," Ghost said ignoring the stupid question. "The young hunters. Where are they?"

The warlock chuckled. "This is not Los Angeles boy. You cannot throw your weight here. New York belongs to us. If you want to start a war, be my guest, but I promise you will not like how it ends. Call off your dogs before someone gets hurt."

The hunters exchanged worried glances. They knew the warlock wasn't bluffing. If they attacked without reason, the entire branch here could be forced to go to war and not just with warlocks and witches.

Ghost's voice was quiet but underneath his armor he was grinning like a mad man. "Can't I?"

The shadows behind him surged. A spear of pure black formed in his hand. He flicked his wrist and the weapon shot forward, passing just by the warlock's face and stabbing into the shadow behind him.

The warlock froze. His smirk faltered. For the first time, real fear cracked his calm exterior.

"Wait—" one of the hunters started, but his words died on his lips. They had no authority to command this man. Not Ghost.

Reed raised his covered face, his voice dropping lower, colder as he whispered into a completely new level of shadow magic. "Show me."

The warlock's body jerked as though yanked by unseen strings. His shadow rippled unnaturally, and Ghost's hand tightened on the spear embedded in it. The warlock gasped, eyes wide, as his memories were pulled open like pages in a book.

Images flickered across Ghost's mind, racing backward. Deals, meetings, faces blurred together. He cut through them, searching. Then the night before surfaced.

The warlock sat in a private lounge, laughing with a group of masked figures. His words were loud and arrogant. "I told you it would be easy to catch more. Shadowhunters are too proud for their own good. And yet here they are, weak as any human. Defeated by something as basic as contaminated drinks"

The figures handed him a bag. "You did well Zoro. Soon the hunters will be driven out of New York entirely. This city will belong to you warlocks."

The warlock grinned, drunk on his own pride. "What about the girl? The one in the black dress. Pretty little thing. Can't I keep her a little before I hand her over?"

"No," one of the masked figures said coldly. "Now please leave"

The warlock laughed it off and left, but not before sneaking into his hidden monitoring room. The screens showed every corner of the club, even the bathrooms. He licked his lips as he zoomed in on the masked figures with their captives. His jealousy was written all over his face. He expected them to indulge, to break the young hunters in ways he himself enjoyed.

Instead, the figures spoke among themselves now much more freely. "This is the last batch. We sail before nine. Once we are out of U.S. waters, there will be nothing they can do."

Reed ripped himself free from the memory. The warlock collapsed to the floor, clutching his head, whimpering like a baby, shadow magic wasn't without its consequences but Reed's will was strong enough to bulldoze over many of them. The warlock eyes rolled wildly, blood seeping from his nose.

The clock on the wall read 8:50.

The hunters stared in horror but didn't move. They didn't even know what they had just witnessed, shadow hunters couldn't even attack other shadows and expect the pain to pass over…..but apparently Ghost could.

Reed could already tell they misunderstood what had just happened, but he allowed it.

He touched his ear, and focused, it looked like he had gotten new information from somewhere.

Ghost turned to them. His voice was flat. "Report back to base. Bring reinforcements. Meet me at the docks."

"Which docks?"

"South Brooklyn Marine Terminal." His words were cold as stone. "They sail at nine."

Without another word, Ghost dissolved into shadow. The veil and armor vanished into the dark as if he had never been there at all.

The warlock whimpered on the floor, broken. The hunters did not move to help him. None of them would ever forget the sight.