Jace and Alec stood there for a moment, unsure of the events that had just taken place, but then they heard a noise. They both held their seraph blades ready and listened. A muffled groaning sound was heard from what seemed like through the walls. Alec spotted a small crawl space near a broken chair, kicking out it of the way and gesturing for Jace to go before himself. Jace crouched on his knees and peered down the dark hole.

"You are most kind." Jace grinned as he crawled through, Alec took one last look around the room before following his adopted brother. When he stood up he looked around; it looked like an old kitchen. Once white tile floors and counters were now rotten and stained, a single flickering light hung from the ceiling. There was a small group of disfigured rats laying on the floor and making groaning noises, they were sick and weak. It was odd, seeing a creature with no intelligence slowing dying and not even knowing what would happen next. These were the thoughts that the eldest Lightwood had wished he never had, his mind drifted back to the present. He noticed Jace kneeling on the floor beside a battered old couch, a bunch of red bags on the floor surrounding him. Alec moved closer and felt a knot in his stomach, he could see a pair of legs. He moved quickly up to Jace and stared. A body laid on the couch motionless, a boy. His hair was damp with grime and sweat, dark long eyelashes looking like marker streaks on his white cheekbones, and his eyebrows were like painted dark marks. His skin was sickly pale, Alec could even see a few veins in his cheeks. He studied him slowly; he looked young, but was probably no younger than sixteen, he was beautiful, even in death. Pushing away the those thoughts (again) Alec looked down at the dead boy's arms; thin tubes attached to his wrists and the higher parts of his forearms. Deep crimson blood flowed through the tubes and into the bags. Jace picked up some of the blood bags from the dirty carpet floor.

"Are these all his?" He asked. "This is a lot of mundie blood." 

"What if he's not a mundane?" Alec reluctantly pushed the boy's black and purple lips away, looking closely at his gums and teeth. "Not a vampire or werewolf. Unless, he was just bitten." They checked the body for bites, but there were none. 

"He can't be a warlock; no demon traits." Jace concluded. They stared at the body when something caught Alec's attention. A trail of blood and sweat had pooled down the boy's chest, which covered and stained on his gray t-shirt. Alec looked closer and saw the shirt rise for a second, then fall.

"Is he breathing?" He questioned, he wasn't sure he just saw what he thought he did. They rushed to check for a heartbeat, and plucked out the IV tubes in his arms.

"By the Angel," Jace breathed. "He's alive." At that moment they both felt blank on what to do with the boy. As they argued options they turned to the body. Around his eyes had turned a very dark purple-gray and his lips were coated with thick black blood. Demon poisoning.

"We have to bring him to the Institute." Alec said huskily. "He will die in a regular hospital."

"Bringing a mundane to the Institute?" Jace laughed.

"It's not like it's never happened before." Alec snapped. "Anyways, we have questions that need answers. Like why he was being drained of blood by a random group a demons? I'd easily call that vampire behavior, but demons?"

"Demons are murderous and bloodthirsty." Jace said. "Maybe they just wanted to try something new."

"Yeah," Alec said. "Using mundane equipment? Why would they be putting his blood in bags? And why would they use those IV tubes instead of just slicing his throat? Something's wrong here." They looked at each other and then to the teenage boy.

"Grab him." Jace ordered grabbing a blood bag from the floor and moved over to the crawl space. With the help of a rune, he knocked down the old boards used to cover some of the doorway and make the crawl space. Alec drew a strength rune and lifted the unconscious boy up in his arms, carrying out to the first room they entered. 

"Jace," Alec said, causing Jace to turn to him. "I'm not going to be carrying him all the way to the Institute am I?" Jace pursed his lips.

"You're right." He said. "You can carry him halfway and leave him in the middle of a street." 

"Or we each carry him halfway?" Alec reasoned, and was surprised by the answer.

"Okay, fine." He agreed. "But he better not be too heavy."

"He hardly has any blood in him, that probably lightened him up." Alec could have sworn he heard Jace chuckle but he was already on his way down an unlit hall. They both had their Night-Vision runes on so it was unnecessary to take out their witchlight stones. Once they had gotten out of the confusing maze-like apartment building, they had a very long and tiring walk ahead of them.