"Alec, come on!" Max cried. "I wanna practice before tryouts!"

"Alright, alright. Hold your horses! I'm coming!" Alec called back, breaking out into a jog to catch up with his little brother. "Come here you little munchkin!"

Max screamed with joy as Alec picked him up and tossed him over his shoulder. "Stop! You're making me dizzy!"

"Did someone say my name?" A female voice said. Turning, Alec saw Isabelle climbing up the hill with a picnic basket in her hands. "You say my name?"

"Unless your name is Dizzy then no," Alec chuckled as Max tugged at his ears. "What's that in the basket?"

Isabelle lift the basket with a smile. "Surprise! I thought we could make a day out of it. Just sit and enjoy the nice weather. Max is finishing up school soon. Consider this an early end of school celebration."

"Yay!" Max clambered down from Alec's arms to open the basket. "What did you pack?"

"Your favorites. Take it out," Isabelle told him.

Alec watched with a smile but it quickly faded once he saw what was in his little brother's hands. Covered in blood and still beating....

....was a human heart.

"Awesome! Thanks Izzy!" Max dove right in before Alec could protest, his teeth sinking into the bloody, beating heart. The squelching sound almost made the contents of Alec's stomach rise out of his mouth, but he managed to swallow the bile down.

"Alec? What's wrong? You look a little green," Isabelle laughed. "Don't you like picnics anymore?"

"I...." Alec let his gaze fall back down to Max. Little Max's face had completely changed; a chunk of his face was missing as well as his left eye. When he chewed, Alec could see his teeth move in the gap where the skin of his cheek should've been.

"Alec. What's wrong?" Isabelle just placed a hand on his arm when a stream of blood rolled down over her hand.

Alec nearly lost it when he looked up and saw a scalpel sticking out from her forehead. "Oh god. Izzy..."

"Alec? Have some of the stuff that Izzy packed! It's delicious!" Max exclaimed cheerily.

This was all too much for him. He tried to move away when Max grabbed hold of his arm to keep him in place.

"Where are you going, Alec? I thought today was going to be a family day," the thing that wasn't Max told him.

Alec was about to protest when he felt a pair of teeth sunk down into his arm. He screamed.

And screamed.

And screamed.

Alec quickly shot up in bed, panting heavily. His skin plastered in sweat, the blankets tangled around him were drenched as he tried to kick them off in an attempt to free himself.

A dog happily trotted into the room and jumped onto the bed. Blue Bell, a border collie mix, took her usual spot at the foot of the bed, her two different color eyes gazing at him lovingly.

"Hey, girl. It was just another nightmare. Did I wake you up?" Alec asked her, laughing as she inched her way up to Magnus' side of the bed to cuddle with him.

Blue Bell came as a surprise to the both of them when they first found the house over a year ago. The farm was abandoned (or so they thought) apart from the two corpses they had to discard from the barn, which was a man and a woman who had hung themselves but still turned.

That's when they found Blue Bell.

The dog was in the house, skinny and starving. When Alec tried to approach her, she snapped and snarled while backing into a corner to protect herself.

"Alec. Watch yourself," Magnus had said.

"I know. Hand me a piece of meat. Maybe that'll coax her out."

Magnus handed him a piece of meat, which Alec slowly placed a few feet away from the hungry dog. She seemed interested in it right away. She sniffed it, then attacked it like she hadn't eaten in weeks.

"She's so thin. She's probably been trapped in here for a while." Alec picked up an empty bag of dog food. "She was feeding herself at least."

"Until it ran out. Poor girl. All alone in here like this. It's no wonder she's part feral." Magnus knelt down to watch the dog lick the remnants of meat off the floor. "Hey, pretty girl. It's okay. We won't hurt you."

The dog licked her lips with a low growl, but slowly approached Magnus as he outstretched his hand. Her growl turned into a low groan once she sniffed his hand, and by some miracle or another, she nuzzled into him.

"There you go," Magnus breathed. "Good girl. Got some food in you and now you feel good, huh?"

The dog's entire demeanor changed when he spoke to her. Her tail wagged a mile a minute and she fell to her side and let both men rub her belly all the while panting with a smile on her face.

"She was just hungry. We're not ourselves when we're hungry," Alec chuckled.

"True. Hey, she's got a collar on. Let's see what it says." Magnus flipped the chain around to see what was on it. "Blue Bell. Is your name Blue Bell?"

At the mention of her name, Blue Bell shot up and barked. She even gave Magnus a wet doggy kiss on the cheek.

"I guess it is!" Alec laughed. "It's been a while since I've even seen a dog. Can we keep her?"

Magnus gave him a look. "What are you, 12? Of course we're keeping her. How can you say no to this beautiful face?"

So that was that. Blue Bell became a permanent member of their family from that day on, even contributing with hunting (which she proved to be superior at) as well as providing an alarm clock and security for both men.

"Let's go see what dad's up to, huh? Come on. Let's go," Alec said to her. With a yip, she jumped off the bed and charged downstairs before he could even pull on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt.

It was a cold spring day, but not cold enough for Alec to have to throw on a winter jacket. Wood had been thrown in the fireplace downstairs, signalling that Magnus was already up and about doing chores and gathering eggs and milk from their chickens and cow.

It was a miracle alone that the animals were still alive when they found the farm. Extremely malnourished, it took a while for Magnus and Alec to get the animals back to their healthy selves before they could get any produce to sustain them in their new farm life. But once they were healthy again, Alec and Magnus were living the good life with fresh food everyday.

Magnus looked up from the pail of milk to see Alec walking towards him with Blue Bell by his side. "Good morning, gorgeous. How did you sleep?"

"You talking to me or Blue?" Alec joked, leaning down to kiss Magnus on the lips. "How's our girl today? She giving us some love?"

"A little bit. But it should be enough to trade at the next farm over. Who's a good girl? Daisy is!" Magnus cooed at the cow, proudly stroking her side.

Daisy batted her big brown eyes at them while she chewed her hay. She was the only cow they had at the moment, but Alec had his eye on a young bull at the neighboring farm that he was looking to trade for and have mate with Daisy.

"And how's my pretty girl? Give dad some kisses," Magnus chuckled as Blue Bell jumped on his lap to give him wet dog kisses. "I think she might be a better kisser than you, Alexander. Kiss me again. Just to see."

"Nuh uh. No way. You go wash your face first. I'm not kissing you after she just slobbered all over your mouth so you can forget about that."

"Don't be such a baby," Magnus wiped his face with a hand. "It's been proven that a dog's mouth is cleaner than a human's. Kissing you is probably much more unhygienic than her."

"That's lovely. Date her then. She'd love your attention 24/7." Alec picked up an axe from the stump just outside the barn. "I'm going to head out hunting in a bit. See if I can catch anything."

"Alright." Magnus tilted his head back and let Alec kiss him again but on the forehead this time. "Check the traps too while you're out there. The snow is melting so there'll be more rabbits hopping around. You might even catch the Easter Bunny."

"Wouldn't that be something." Alec whistled to Blue Bell. "Come on, girl. Let's go hunting."

At the word "hunting" Blue Bell leapt to her feet with an excited bark and ran towards the house. She turned back to look at Alec as if to say "hurry up I don't have all day" before going to the door and scratching at it with a paw.

"Excited to go out Blue?" Alec laughed when Blue's tail started to wag. "I thought so. Just let me grab my gear and we'll head out okay? Stay."

Blue Bell whined but sat down on the porch, her ears back against her head.

Alec packed up his gear for the hunting trip. Over the first couple of months that he and Magnus were on the road, he managed to pick up some handy items on their searches in houses, stores, wherever they thought had useful supplies inside.

His most prized find was the most beautiful bow he ever laid eyes on. It was about a month after they left what remained of the Institute. He and Magnus stopped at a house to get shelter from the cold when he saw it in one of the bedrooms. It was just his size and still looked brand new.

"I swear to god," Magnus said at the time. "You look at bows like you're eye fucking them and I can't tell whether I'm annoyed or just jealous."

"I'm not eye fucking it. I'm just....admiring it."

Magnus rolled his eyes. "Whatever, lover boy. I'll give you two some alone time to get to know each other."

Alec smiled at the memory as he slipped his quiver filled with arrows over his shoulder. Their other treasure finds included knives, a few hand grenades that were a last resort only, an assault rifle that Alec was pretty certain Magnus eye fucked on more than one occasion, and their pride and joy Blue Bell.

A sharp bark outside signalled that Blue Bell was getting impatient.

"Alexander! Someone out here is getting very pissy at you!" Magnus called out from the front porch.

"I know! I'm coming!" With his gear neatly equipped and packed away, Alec stomped downstairs. "Would a little patience kill you?"

Blue Bell's upper lip went up, revealing a single sharp tooth.

"Don't give me that look. You don't have get ready or carry around weapons with you," Alec told her. He turned to look at Magnus. "You coming with us this time?"

Magnus shook his head. "Not this time. I still have to collect the eggs and get water from the well. But you go ahead though-and don't bother coming home if you're empty handed."

Alec made a face. "I love you too. Even though you're an ass to me."

Magnus chuckled. "Go have fun in the woods, you caveman. Hope you catch something."

Alec loved to go hunting. He remembered going into the woods as a teen with his father on a weekend hunting trip after school and sitting in their little shack, waiting for something to pass. Sometimes they got something. Sometimes they didn't.

Isabelle loved hunting too. His sister was always the one to set up the rabbit traps because she claims he "always messed it up". She was the quieter of the Lightwood hunting trio. Where Alec and their father Robert often whispered and snickered at their own jokes, Isabelle (if she was there with them) would hush them like they were children. By herself, Alec knew she was as silent as a ghost.

"Oh Izzy," Alec whispered under his breath. "I'm still so sorry for what I did to you. You didn't deserve any of that."

Blue Bell was trotting beside him. With a small whimper she licked his hand before racing on ahead through the brush.

It wasn't long before Alec caught sight of a young buck off in the distance. It's head was bent as it ate some moss growing on a tree trunk so it didn't even notice Alec watching it carefully.

Blue Bell wasn't even of the pointer breed and her body was completely straight, her nose level with her back and tail as she pointed in the direction of the deer. She knew not to make any noise once they found something so she stayed still as Alec slowly and carefully took out his bow and nocked an arrow back on the string.

The deer suddenly looked up, ears alert. It sprang away before Alec could even let loose his arrow, disappearing further into the woods.

"Dammit," he swore under his breath. "That was the first buck in weeks."

Branches snapped somewhere behind him and he instinctively raised his bow again. He was surprised to see that the intruder behind him wasn't a predator or even a Forsaken for that matter but rather something he hadn't seen in a very long time.

Two kids. One was a boy about 13 or 14 with curly blonde hair. He was probably just below Alec's shoulder in height and he carried a little girl in his arms. The girl looked to be 5 or 6, her hair dark and curly to match her milk chocolate skin.

"Help....." The boy rasped. "Help us."

Then he collapsed into the snow.

A/N: ooooh wheeee hello! Book two eh? How was that for a first chapter? Who are these kids? What do they want? Where did they come from? So much more to learn in the next couple of chapters!

I want to keep this roughly the same amount of chapters as book one, if not just a little longer. That way you can get a fully formed story with a satisfying ending.

Let me know what you think! Vote! Comment! Follow and share!