"Channy? Chantelle open up.” Laressa said and the door opened. “Chantelle, is Ares inside?” But she answered her own question as she saw Ares lying on the mattress on the floor.

Chantelle and Ares often slept in the same room, but there was nothing intimate about it. It was just a friend kind of thing, and all they ever did was sleep, nothing else. Yet, Laressa couldn’t help but feel a little jealousy bubble up every single time.

“Yeah. He stayed up the whole night but just fell asleep like an hour ago.”

“Why? Because of that weirdo voice?”

“Yeah. He insists someone’s out to get me.”

“Do you believe that?”

“Even if I do, I think I can manage. And besides, we’ve already notified the Clave.”

“Oh.” Laressa leaned against the side of the door. “Tell Ares I need to talk to him. If he’s worried about protecting you, say it’s really important. In an hour, outside.”

***

Ares quickly threw on his jacket to join Laressa. Ares and Laressa had been dating for a month now, and Ares broke into a grin when he saw her.

“Come on, let’s go get Japanese.” Laressa said, as Ares threw an arm around her and they headed to the Sushi Cavern.

They chose a booth seat, and ordered sushi.

“So, what is so important that I had to tear my eyes away from the horse racing channel?” He grinned.

“Since when did you bet on horses?”

“3 hours ago.”

“3 hours ago you were guarding Chantelle.”

“Hey, I can multi-task.” He laughed, and his joking attitude was one of the reasons why Laressa liked Ares. Liked, not liked.

“Whatever. Oh, and your birthday’s 5 days away.”

“Yeah, I forgot. Channy had to wave her calendar in my face for me to remember. I didn’t remember my birthday but I remembered hers—10 days away.”

“Yeah. What should I get for her? Makeup?”

“No offense, but I think makeup is just a Laressa-Lightwood-thing.”

Laressa rolled her eyes jokingly. “So what should I get her?”

“Books, dance stuff, throwing knives, pick one.”

Laressa laughed. “But you never get Chantelle anything for her birthdays.”

“I do. Just that no one really knows. The first birthday she spent with us I bought her the Institute’s library.”

“What? You bought the library for her? I always assumed it was Pablo.” Laressa knew Chantelle kind of owned the Institute’s library (not that a lot of people visited it, considering the lack of people in the Institute. There was once when the Los Angeles Institute was the most popular, but a lot of people got relocated to Idris), but she assumed Pablo, Marissa’s husband, gave her the library after seeing how much she loved books.

“Nah. It was a gift, and a bet. I wanted her to be my parabatai. She said I would have to give her library first. She was joking, and she meant she rejected the offer, but I did it, which she didn’t expect. And the second, I gave her the hunting jacket with the knives.” The hunting jacket had at least 50 knives in there, and they must have cost a bomb. “I remember her face then, she was so happy. I love it when she takes interest in things like these.”

But then, Laressa saw his expression, the love in his eyes when he talked about Chantelle. Her suspicions were confirmed. Ares didn’t like Laressa that way, he just thought he did. The space in his heart was already occupied by Chantelle, whether it was the romantic way or not.

“Ares, I have to tell you something.” The sushi arrived and Laressa reached over to put her hands over Ares’. “Ares, I’m breaking up with you.”

Ares looked up at Laressa in disbelief. “What?”

“Don’t take it to heart, Ares. It’s not like I hate you or anything. Can we still be friends?” Ares took this news surprisingly well, reconfirming Laressa’s suspicions. “Okay?” She extended her hand.

He looked at her outstretched hand. Laressa offered a friendly grin. “Come on, don’t leave me hanging. Okay?"

 Hesitantly, but finally, he shook it. “Okay.”

***

“Ares, what’s wrong?” Ares walked into the Institute, and had a normal expression, but since Chantelle was blessed from Raziel, so was their parabatai bond. Nephilim were Raziel’s children, and Chantelle being blessed made her the favourite child. Of course, Raziel had to bless his favourite child’s bond, and the special bond made such that Chantelle and Ares could sense each other’s feelings. They could also sense presence from a mile. They even kind of had telepathy, and could “talk” to each other through the bond. That made the duo a great fighting couple.

Chantelle studied Ares and could feel it through the bond. She couldn’t know things that Ares didn’t want her to know through the bond, but if he wanted her to know and “opened up his feelings”, she could tell. “Oh, I’m so sorry.”

Ares shook his head. “To be honest, it wasn’t that awful. I don’t think I actually liked Laressa that way. And we’re still friends.”

“Oh.” Just then, Marissa came down the staircase, a little girl trailing behind her. The girl had curly blonde hair and big green eyes, reminding Ares of the day Chantelle showed up at the Institute.

“Ares and Chantelle, this is Mabel. She’s temporarily staying here, and she’s from the New York Institute.” Marissa introduced. “I’m going to talk to Mabel’s father. Take care of her for me.” She strode away. As soon as she was gone, Mabel’s eyes widened at the sight of Ares and Chantelle.

“No way! You really are Ares and Chantelle!” She yelped. They exchanged a look and Chantelle bent down to Mabel’s height.

“Yep. How do you know who we are?”

“Totally! I mean, who doesn’t know you! The future Consul and the best Shadowhunter of this generation! Is it really you? By the angel, Shane’s going to be so jealous! Can I get your autograph?” She was definitely fangirling. It reminded Ares of the time Chantelle went to meet her favourite mundane author (she had to remove her glamour first). Shadowhunters barely had external jobs like writing, so Chantelle had to fulfil her fictional pleasures from mundanes, not that it was wrong to do so, as long as she acted as one of them.

Chantelle chuckled. “I don’t see why not. And I certainly did not know we were so famous.”

Mabel rolled her eyes. “Come on. Over in New York, you guys are celebrities. And you guys are like the last pair of parabatai that are of different gender.”

Ares laughed, bending down too. “The last? I didn’t know that.”

Mabel did a dramatic sigh. “The Clave’s been getting prickly, since parabatai fall in love so easily nowadays. But they can’t say no to you, Chantelle, since you’re the chosen one and all.”

Chantelle and Ares exchanged another look and Chantelle stood up. “Well, Mabel, it’s your lucky day. Ares is going to bring you around Los Angeles.”

What? Ares asked Chantelle through the bond.

Come on. Take her to Disneyland. Chantelle urged.

Disneyland’s demolished! Ares protested.

It’s so not. Chantelle rolled her eyes.

“It is! It was demolished last year!” Ares said out loud. Mabel looked at the both of them with curious eyes.

“Don’t tell me… you guys have telepathy.” She squeaked, excited.

“Kind of.” This started another round of fangirling, which made Chantelle wonder if that was how she looked like when she read stuff about her OTP. Ares read her thoughts through the bond and he nodded, laughing, which earned him a light shove.

“Just bring Mabel somewhere. I’m going to talk to Marissa.” Ares groaned but listened to Chantelle. He only ever listened to Chantelle.

Ares and Mabel headed outside and Mabel tugged at his sleeve.

“Your girlfriend’s nice.”

“Laressa? We aren’t really—“

“Who’s that? I’m talking about Chantelle.”

Ares was surprised at this. “Channy? We aren’t—“

“Come on. I see how you look at her.”

Ares laughed. “Whatever you say, kiddo.”

“And you look a hell lot like Jonathan Christopher Herondale. Magnus Bane would think it too.”

“You know the High Warlock of Los Angeles? And Jace Herondale?” Somehow, alarm bells started ringing then. Something didn’t strike quite right for Ares. Then he realised Mabel had a dent in her skull. The dent would have killed her, but here she was. Next he guessed Mabel was probably dead from that dent. Maybe a demon was just possessing her…

Mabel—or whatever she was--seemed to have seen the signs of realisation flickering in his eyes. It changed, and it was confirmed that it was a demon in disguise. Ares could have taken it down, but its actions were paranormally fast. This demon, one he never seen before in life or when he was studying about demons, could move faster than light.

It lunged for him.