"Valentine Morgenstern has a son?"

The news about the true identity of Magnus' security camera visitor had made Alec get out of bed and start pacing the floor of their room. He knew Valentine had been Clary's biological father but he had no idea that there was also a son in the picture too.

"Not many people knew this anyway. He kept it pretty much on the down low. Plus Sebastian isn't even his real name," Magnus said, waving a hand and rolling his eyes.

Alec cocked an eyebrow. "Then what is it?"

"Jonathan. Jonathan Morgenstern. Sebastian Verlac is just an alias to cover up his true identity, which I don't blame his father for. I'd want to hide too if my dad was on the America's Most Wanted list."

"Yeah. No shit." Alec collapsed into the armchair across from the bed with a huff. "But it still doesn't explain why he was here at your house."

Magnus thoughtfully rubbed his chin. "No. It doesn't. There's nothing of value here-unless you count a couple hundred thousand dollars. But I doubt Jonathan is short on money."

Alec picked up the laptop to look at the footage again. "So if there's nothing of value here and he's the son of the richest criminal in the country, then why the hell was he snooping around?"

Magnus shrugged. "No idea. I'd ask him myself but I don't know his address or phone number and I'd probably get killed if I tried."

The laptop suddenly made a ping, making Alec jump and look down at the screen. "Your proximity cameras were just triggered."

"Really?" Magnus leaned in to see the screen. "Open up the camera footage. It's live."

The camera footage opened to reveal all the areas of the house where surveillance was located. Camera one showed the front door. Camera two was the living room which also pointed towards the entrance. In total there were twenty one cameras set up throughout the house.

"How do you know which one was set off?" Alec asked.

"A notification flashes on the screen. See?" Magnus pointed to camera nine, which was the back lawn. "This was the one-oh hello. Who are you guys?"

Two men dressed in black were slowly approaching the back door, one of them bending down to disarm the locks while the other worked on the alarms.

"Those are the guys who shot at us in the trailer park!" Alec hissed as he watched them successfully disarm the locks and alarms.

Magnus shook his head. "They won't make it upstairs. Not if I can help it."

He walked over to the wardrobe and opened it. There was a click of a button, and the clothes hung up inside rotated inside to reveal a rack of guns behind it.

Alec whistled lowly. "Wow. Didn't pin you for a secret gun compartment kind of guy."

"Really? I have four or five just laying around the house." Magnus took down an assault rifle and aimed like he was about to shoot. "As one of my dear old friends would say: 'We're loaded up to the tits, lads!'"

The back door downstairs opened. Alec looked at the footage, seeing that the men were now inside the home and slowly making their way inside. "Magnus. They're inside."

The click of a clip being put inside a pistol told Alec that Magnus was ready. "Alexander. I know this is going to sound awful but I need you to get into the closet."

Alec shot him a look. "Seriously? I can help you. I'm still a good shot-"

"They let you do target practice in prison? Wow I'm really missing out on a good time." Magnus pressed the button again to switch back to the clothes. "Please get in and hide. I don't need you getting shot under my own roof. It doesn't look good for me and you're no good to me if you're dead."

With a sigh, Alec climbed into the spacious closet. His knees were against his chest but it wasn't an uncomfortable position to be in. "Will I find Narnia in here too while you're gone?"

Magnus chuckled. "I'm sure there's a button for that one. If you find it, let me know. We can escape there together."

He shut the closet door with a click. It took a few moments for Alec to adjust his eyes to the darkness but once they did, it still wasn't enough. So he strained his ears and listened for gunshots.

Silence.

Silence.

Silence

Bang.

Bang.

Alec jumped at the sound. It sounded close, like top of the stairs close, and his heart leapt into his throat, pounding violently against his skin.

Then the door to the bedroom slowly creaked opened, followed by footsteps. Alec braced himself. He was ready to jump out and fight if he needed to.

The floor creaked again, closer this time. There was something solid and large next to Alec's hand so he gripped it tight. He wasn't exactly sure what it was but it felt like a flashlight. A weapon was a weapon, regardless of what it was.

Through the slight crack in the door, Alec could see a shadow approach the closet so he gripped the flashlight in his hand so tightly that it almost became a part of him. He took a breath just as the door opened and jumped-

"Ow! Jesus, Alec!" Magnus yelled as the door opened and his taller boyfriend jumped out with something solid in his hand.

"Magnus? Fuck, I'm so sorry! I thought you were one of the guys from downstairs." Alec let the flashlight fall to the floor with a thud. "Are you okay? Did I hit you too hard?"

Magnus rubbed the spot on his head. "Not hard enough, apparently. Maybe if you had given me short term memory this all would've just been a thing of the past."

Alec frowned. "Sorry. Here. Let me kiss it and make it better for you."

As he leaned in and gently placed a kiss on Magnus' forehead, Magnus couldn't help but snicker at how small he felt. "Thank you. But my boo boo is the least of our problems right now. There's two bodies downstairs that need to be disposed of."

Alec pulled away, an eyebrow raised. "Bodies? You mean you shot them?"

"Well I certainly wasn't going to invite them in for tea. They had their own weapons, Alexander. They had every intention to kill us and I them. I was just faster about it."

He put the gun back in its secret compartment before leading Alec downstairs. Near the entrance to the kitchen had two bullet holes in the wall; one near the oven and the other closer to the swinging doors. Alec inspected the one by the doors, feeling it with a finger before looking down at the two dead men on the floor.

"I see your aim hasn't gotten worse," he grumbled. "Though you're a few millimetres away from the center of the forehead."

"Don't go criticizing me when you're the one who hasn't been to target practice in six months," Magnus snapped. He took out his phone, dialling a number and waiting for an answer. "Let's see how well you do next time there's an intruder-hey. It's me. I have a job for you."

Curious, Alec listened in on the conversation carefully, making sure not to miss a single second of it.

"Yes, I'm aware it's been a while. But you'll get your money like you always do." Magnus glanced down at the bodies. "Oh, you know. The usual. They tried to break in and hurt someone I cared about."

His eyes flickered up to look at Alec. Whoever was on the other end must have been giving him instructions. "Alright. Back door will be unlocked with the money on the counter. Just make this go away."

He finally hung up which allowed Alec to speak. "I take it that this isn't the first cleanup crew you ever called?"

"When you're in my line of work, sometimes you just need certain things to disappear." Magnus seemed to fall into the kitchen chair, exhausted. "Come on. Let's go back to bed. The crew don't like to be seen while working. It's part of their whole mysterious act."

Alec snorted humorously. "Mysterious act? They're cleaning up blood. Not sawing a woman in half for a magic show."

Magnus shrugged. "Wouldn't surprise me if they really did do that. Minus the magic show, of course. A magician never reveals their secrets."

**********

It was a little after 3 when Alec heard muffled voices coming from downstairs. Instinctively his body tensed for a fight, but a reassuring hand on his shoulder told him to relax.

"Don't," Magnus whispered. "It's just the cleanup crew. Let them do their thing and they'll move on eventually."

Alec felt his muscles relax a little. "You trust them to just come into your house like that?"

"No. But someone needs to get rid of the evidence and they're the best this place has to offer."

The voices stuck around for another twenty minutes or so before it went completely silent. Alec heard a vehicle starting outside, then the flash of headlights against the bedroom wall as they pulled away. He sunk back into the bed, now wide awake.

"I'm going to go work out for a bit," he whispered to Magnus in the dark.

His boyfriend moaned. "Seriously? Stay in bed, Alexander. Keep me warm and I'll return the favor. You name it and I'll give it."

The offer sounded tempting but Alec shook his head regardless. "Sorry babe. I need to go blow some steam. Won't be long."

He leaned down and kissed Magnus on the shoulder before grabbing his sweats and heading into the home gym. The lights were blinding when he turned them on. He squinted, allowing his eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness, and when they did he gripped the chin up bar with both hands and pulled himself up, crossing his ankles to balance himself out.

He stayed this way for ten minutes pulling himself up and down before switching to lifting weights. By now he was already sweating through his thin t-shirt so he peeled it off and tossed it into the corner of the room. The 25 pound weights were heavy in his hands but he started doing reps anyway, grunting under the strain.

"Need a spotter?"

He looked up into the full wall to wall mirror and saw Magnus staring back at him. "No. I'm good. Go back to bed."

Of course Magnus didn't listen. He heard what was said but was much too busy staring at the beautiful body that was being presented before him. Though Alec might've lost some of the muscle he had before he went to prison, he was still absolutely beautiful in Magnus' eyes.

"You're salivating," Alec grunted through a rep.

"I'm sorry, what? What did you say? I was too busy salivating over your delicious body," Magnus chuckled. "Goddamn, Alec. I'll never tired of seeing you this way."

"What, pale and half starved from six months of prison food?"

In two long strides, Magnus made his way over and placed a hand on one of the weights that Alec was about to lift. "Stop. Whatever it is you're doing, I want you to stop."

Alec sighed out through his nose. "I'm not doing anything. I'm just....working out. Trying to gain back what I lost."

"Fuck your gains. There's obviously something on your mind and you're going to tell me exactly what it is."

It took a moment but when Alec finally looked into Magnus' eyes, he couldn't help but notice how pretty they were; a golden brown with a hint of amber around the irises. Even his eyelashes were beautiful as they batted against his skin when he blinked.

"If you want the truth, there's just too much on my mind right now that I don't even know where to begin," Alec told him. "Those bounty hunters. Valentine having a son. You killing those guys-"

"I only did that to protect us. It was them or us."

"And I get that. I'm thankful you have a quick trigger finger. But Magnus-Jesus Christ-I'm not weak. You hid me in the closet like some child. I can fight back, you know. I'm a grown man."

The muscles that were tensed for something much worse in Magnus' body relaxed a little. "I know. And I'm sorry that I made you feel that way. But I just wanted to protect you. You understand that right?"

Alec set down the weights only to place his hands on his hips. "I do. But next time I want in on the fight. You're no good to me if you're dead."

Magnus laughed at the familiarity of the words. "Touché. I'll remember that for next time if another poor soul decides to break into my house...."

His eyes roamed down over oblivious Alec's taut body before stopping at the waistband of his grey sweats. It hung down low enough to showcase the V of his hips as well as a pale scar just above his left hipbone where he got shot half a year ago.

"It healed up nicely," Magnus barely said above a whisper, reaching out and gently tracing the scar with a finger.

Alec looked down to see what he was doing. "Yeah. It did. Only because you gave me your strength that day."

"I don't think that was it. Your sister patched you up and Luke fixed up what she couldn't do. I just held your hand and drooled over your shirtless bleeding form."

Alec's mouth twitched upwards into a crooked smile before gathering Magnus into his arms for a hug. "You did the most out of everyone there."

Hesitating, Magnus eventually returned the hug. "You cheesy fuck. Plus you're all gross and sweaty. Let go of me-"

"Just let me hold you a minute longer-"

"Alexander! If you don't let go of me, so help me god-"

"Screw you and your threats. I just got busted out of prison. I think I deserve to hold the people I love close to me for as long as I like, don't you think?"

Magnus sighed heavily but gave in anyway. "Fair enough. But I'll have you know that this robe is Gucci. Sweat stains don't wash out-"

"Hey Magnus?"

"....yes?"

".....shut the fuck up."

A/N: that last line though 😂 what a wonderful way to end a chapter.

I hate to say this and I know people are not gonna want to hear this either but I'll be taking another (hopefully short) break from this fic to work on some other stuff (one of them being a sequel to a certain malec zombie au). But I'll come back to this ASAP. You'll get another chapter or two before the break so it's not like this is the last one you'll be getting. The break will allow me to refresh my brain and let me come up with new plot material that isn't half assed.

So yeah! That's all I wanted to say. The sequel to Left For Dead will arrive sometime in March, date to be determined. But there's a video coming out soon for the sequel that's being made by a good friend of mine so check out my fandom Twitter (@gaydemonium) for when it's released.

Thanks for reading!