Shadowhunter in the Apocalypse

Reed stumbled out right behind the Commander, Hale's long strides carrying him into the clinic like a man trying to outrun his shadow. The nurses were shouting orders at each other, their hands scrambling over vials and wires, trying and failing to come up with a solution.

Mia's body convulsed on the bed, her back arching, skin paling by the second. Blood bubbled from her lips, dripping down her chin in a sickly stream as she spasmed harder. Her eyes rolled in their sockets, caught somewhere between this world and whatever storm raged inside her.

Hunters lined the corridor, whispering, muttering, watching with uneasy faces. Some crossed their arms tightly as if bracing against something they couldn't fight. Others glanced away, unwilling to look at the daughter of the Commander breaking apart before their eyes.

"Go get Hannah," Hale barked at one of them, his voice sharp enough to cut. "Tell her to bring both prisoners fast from the interrogation room!"

The hunter vanished into shadow instantly.

Reed looked at Hale. The old man was trying to keep his hands steady as he gripped Mia's trembling fingers. He was calm in appearance, but Reed had trained under him long enough to know when he was breaking apart inside.

The guilt was eating at him. But Reed himself wasn't feeling guiltless either.

'I should have seen it. I should have trusted my instincts. The signs were there.'

The sound of rapid footsteps cut through his thoughts.

"They're here. Everyone clear out!" Hannah's voice carried ahead of her as she entered, dragging the prisoners with her shadows.

Eric and Henry looked like they had already been put through hell. Their bodies were barely clothed, their skin raw and bruised. Hannah's shadows coiled around their necks and wrists like hungry snakes, forcing them forward, leaving streaks of blood across the floor.

This woman didn't know the meaning of mercy.

Reed turned focused Eric in a heartbeat. His hand shot out and plucked the hybrid clean off the ground by the throat.

"How did you survive your own ritual?" His voice was low, cold, every syllable vibrating with threat. "Don't play games with me, unlike her I don't play with my food."

Eric clawed at his hand uselessly, his legs kicking in the air. There was nothing human left in Reed's stare, only black swirling in his eyes.

"I don't know!" Eric gasped out, the words tumbling in a rush. "It depends on the blood combination inside the serum and the body itself! It reacts different every time! Anything can happen, I swear it!"

Reed's eyes darkened further, shadows formed a dagger as he showed his displeasure at the answer. The prisoner flinched already seeing his death "Please! I swear on my mother! We never knew what it would do. Some survived, some didn't. All we could do was wait it out."

Reed's lip curled. "So fucking useless."

He threw Eric across the room, his body slamming into the wall with a crack before collapsing in a heap.

"Baby… I am so sorry," Hale whispered, his voice breaking. He leaned over his daughter, clutching her hands tighter. His forehead pressed against hers, his words spilling out between ragged breaths. "I'm sorry I made you feel like you had to prove yourself. I'm sorry I made you think you weren't enough. This is all my fault."

Mia's body convulsed harder, her teeth grinding as another wave of spasms shook her.

Reed stepped closer, his jaw tight, but his voice softened as he bent near her. "Mia, listen to me. You can hear me. I know you can." His hand wrapped gently around hers. "You are stronger than you think. Stronger than anyone else in this room gives you credit for. The blood doesn't make you a strong Shadowhunter. The belief does. Belief that you can fight through anything."

Hale blinked, hearing the awkward honesty in his words. Reed was not the type to give speeches, nor the type to comfort so it was quite surprising.

"Come on, Mia," Reed whispered, holding on tighter. "You've got this. You can do anything if you trust yourself."

Her breathing hitched. The spasms grew sharper, more violent.

Then she screamed.

Fire burst out in a violent stream out of the very depths of her body.

The blast roared across the room, a jet of white-hot flame that came within inches of striking both him and Hale. Reed jerked back, shadows surging instinctively across his chest, while Hale threw his arm in front of his face, teeth clenched against the heat. The curtains on the far wall blackened instantly, smoke curling into the air before one of the nurses smothered it with a heavy blanket.

For a single second there was silence as everyone prepared for another attack.

Then blood began to seep out of her skin.

At first it was only a trickle along her forearms, but soon fine red lines split open across her shoulders, her collarbone, her ribs. It was as though her body was rejecting something from the inside. Blood ran down in rivers, staining the sheets, pooling beneath her.

Reed's heart clenched at the sight, yet he forced his voice calm. "Stay with us, Mia. Don't give in to it."

Her pallor shifted before his eyes. The ghostly white of her skin faded, just slightly, replaced by a tone that was less corpse-like though still far from natural.

Hale tightened his grip on her hand. "You are my daughter. You are stronger than this. You hear me, Mia? You are stronger than it."

More blood poured from her mouth, choking her scream into a wet, gurgling sound. The nurses cried out, but Hale silenced them with a single look.

Reed crouched low, eye-level with her face, his chest aching at the sight of her trembling. "Listen to me, Mia. This is pain, yes. But it is also change. You have to trust yourself to push through it."

Her body arched again, and this time it was not fire that came but the sound of bone snapping.

The crack of it froze everyone in the room. Her arm twisted at an unnatural angle, then snapped back, then her leg convulsed violently as her knee joint broke and reformed. Her chest caved slightly, then stretched outward again. Each sound was sharp and brutal, and every hunter in the hall flinched with each new snap.

"Mia!" Hale's voice broke as he shouted her name. "You fight it, you hear me? You do not surrender to this! You are my daughter, the daughter of Hale Stark, and you do not bend!"

Her scream deepened, a guttural sound that scraped raw at Reed's ears. He wanted to cover his face, wanted to close his eyes against it, but he didn't. He stayed right there with her.

The snapping grew worse. Her spine twisted visibly beneath her shirt, her shoulder blades stretching as though trying to push outward. The wet sound of cartilage tearing filled the room before it snapped back again. She convulsed so hard that the bed frame rattled against the floor.

Reed reached for her hand, steadying it against the mattress. He didn't dare let her think she was alone.

Her eyes rolled, then locked on him for a single moment. Just a second of clarity through the haze. Then they rolled back and the convulsions took her again.

"Hold on, Mia," he whispered. "You can do this."

Hale's face turned toward Reed, and for the first time in all the years Reed had known him, there were tears glistening openly. The man quickly wiped them away with the back of his wrist.

Reed turned back to Mia.

The sounds of breaking bones continued for long minutes that stretched like hours. Her ribs cracked, her jaw shifted, even the small bones in her fingers snapped one by one. She writhed across the sheets until she finally rolled off the bed entirely, collapsing onto the floor.

The two men moved as one, circling to the far side where she had fallen. Hale dropped to his knees beside her, Reed crouching low at her other side. Together they watched the spasms slow, the trembling weaken, until at last the breaking ceased.

For a moment she was still, so still that Reed's stomach twisted with the fear that she had stopped breathing.

But then he saw the faint, steady rise and fall of her chest.

She was alive.

Her skin no longer held the sickly pallor from before, though it was still far from natural. Every scar, every mark, every tattoo she had carried before was erased, wiped away as though they had never existed.

Her skin was smooth, untouched, as though she had been remade entirely.

"She…" Hale's voice cracked as he looked at her. "She survived."

Mia's chest rose again, and she let out a faint sigh, her body curling instinctively onto its side as though exhausted. Her eyes stayed shut, but her breathing remained steady. She was asleep, or something close to it.

Reed reached out and brushed her hair back from her damp forehead, shaking his head slowly. "She survived."

Hale pressed a hand to her back, his lips moving soundlessly in what might have been a prayer. He drew in a long breath, steadied himself, then stood abruptly.

The nurses were still frozen, their eyes wide and their faces pale.

"What are you standing there for?" Hale barked, his voice suddenly sharp and commanding again. "Stop gawking like fools and get her cleaned up. Now. Move!"

The spell broke instantly. The nurses rushed forward with fresh linens and towels, their hands trembling as they worked.

Reed remained crouched at Mia's side.

Something had changed in her and whatever it was, he was going to help her get through it.

Ignore everything under this, webnovel won't let me delete for some reason

of them.

So he really wanted to ask other people if they noticed something was wrong.

But before he could ask, the gate groaned again.

A deep, low vibration rippled through the ground, like a beast stirring from its slumber.