"Fuck!" Simon muttered, staring at the murderous rage in Lilith's eyes over Cain's shoulder when her gaze landed on him. He wanted nothing more than to wither under that gaze. Or maybe turn back and face her army of minions instead. It would probably be a safer option.

Something about the way Lilith looked at him, however, had Simon pausing his retreat. If he didn't know any better, he would swear that he saw no small amount of fear in Lilith's eyes.

"You can't keep him here," Simon said, a lot more bravely than he felt. His voice didn't even shake. Thankfully. "He owes you nothing," he added.

"He owes me everything, Daylighter. I brought his brother back to him," Lilith said, glaring at Simon before her gaze flicked to a silent Cain, seeing him drop his head.

"You cursed him to an immortal life out of spite and jealousy, drove him crazy to the point of murdering his brother, planted a mark on him that destroyed everything he loves then you tricked him into coming to Edom with false promises of a life with his brother. Who you brought back as a zombie. I'd say you're the one who owes him," Simon said incredulously, his outrage overcoming his fear.

Cain flinched, hearing his entire life story laid out like that. Every word of it was true. Not only that, but he had let Lilith lock him up when she had dragged him back to her castle after her confrontation with the new Kings of the realm. And he had done nothing to stop her, too busy wallowing in his self-pity.

"Why are you even speaking?" Lilith asked Simon, wanting nothing more than to strike the Vampire down where he stood. "Leave, now," she said, stepping aside on the drawbridge that spanned the dry moat around her castle to let Simon pass.

"Excuse me?" Simon asked, his eyes flicking to meet Cain's gaze when Cain looked at him over his shoulder, positive that he had heard wrong. Cain looked just as confused as he did.

"You can go but Cain stays here," Lilith said from between gritted teeth, gesturing for Simon to leave. She still needed Cain.

"You're just letting me go, just like that?" Simon asked suspiciously, trying to work out what Lilith's game was.

"Oh, believe me, if it wasn't for that infernal mark, I would grind you into dust and scatter you to the four corners of Edom," Lilith snarled, her sense of self-preservation overriding her deep desire to annihilate the Vampire where he stood. Only her fear of what Simon's mark could do had her offering him safe passage out of her castle. As far as the end of the drawbridge, anyway.

"She thinks I still have the mark of... she thinks I still have the mark?" Simon asked Cain in a whisper, barely daring to move his lips in case Lilith was able to read them.

"I never told her that you didn't," Cain replied, just as quietly. Mainly because Lilith had never asked.

Simon quickly thought back to the last time that he had seen Lilith. It had been the day he, Jace, Izzy, and Clary had summoned Lilith. The day she had brought Cain back to Edom. Had she not noticed then? The only thing that could have tipped her off would have been when he had attacked Jonathan and ingested his blood.

But Lilith had been too busy trying to convince Cain to go with her to notice.

Cain's mark had reacted to Simon's dash to stop him from leaving with Lilith but Lilith had already disappeared by then, Cain disappearing through her portal after her as Simon had rebounded.

Simon fought the grin that wanted to spread over his face. As far as Lilith was concerned, the last time she had tangled with him, his mark had banished her back to Edom.

"Cain comes with me," Simon said, squaring his shoulders to step out from behind Cain, feeling more emboldened by the second when Lilith skittered back, eying him like a mouse would eye a mangy tomcat, right before the tomcat pounced.

"No! Cain is a man of his word. He agreed to protect me from Jonathan," Lilith gritted out furiously. "I brought his brother back. He still has to uphold his end of the bargain."

"Jonathan isn't here, you don't need his protection. And that wasn't his brother, by all accounts," Simon pointed out, his eyes narrowing when Lilith shook her head. More like she needed to use Cain against Magnus and Alec. Not going to happen, he thought.

"It matters not. He will be back and Cain will protect me when he returns," Lilith said, turning to Cain. "Won't you, son of Adam? You owe me," she said, her voice softening.

"I owe you nothing. I am leaving," Cain said, anger flashing in his eyes. She had indeed tricked him, the thing that she had brought back had not been Abel.

"I wouldn't if I were you," Simon said when Lilith moved to block their way, thinking more quickly than he had ever done in his life. "Remember what happened last time? What do you think will happen if you go up against the mark this time? There is no banishment, you're already here," he said with a raised eyebrow.

Lilith fought a silent battle with herself, her anger building when she realized that Simon had her over a barrel. If she tried to stop them from leaving, their marks would kill her outright but they could be on their way to Magnus, only strengthening his position.

In the end, self-preservation won out for Lilith once more. She had no choice, she would just have to cross that bridge when she came to it and hope that she had enough strength to bring to bear against Magnus and his stupid husband, even if they had Cain by their side.

Simon started out cautiously, taking hold of Cain's arm and pulling him along when Lilith moved back to let them pass with a frustrated growl. Moving as quickly as he dared, he pulled Cain across the drawbridge, trying not to look too closely at the piles of bones in the dusty, empty moat.

Cain let Simon pull him along, skirting a seething Lilith to make his escape, an escape that he should have made the moment Alec and Magnus banished his brother.

They had barely made it a couple of dozen steps down the path that led from the bridge when something caught Cain's attention from his peripheral. "Simon, look out!" he muttered, trying to shove Simon out of the way.

Simon had been so intent on getting past Lilith and away from the creepy keep that he failed to notice the demon that was heading his way. Small, pink and grey mottled skin, six legs, and rather large teeth. Jonathan's pet demon rat. It came straight at him, its small jaw clamping around the leg of his jeans and hanging on when its mouth wasn't big enough to get around his leg.

"Ugh! Get it off me!" Simon shrieked, flailing his leg in a kick that was meant to dislodge the demon. It wasn't working, the rat was more persistent than it looked.

Cain risked a glance over his shoulder, his stomach dropping when he saw Lilith's face. "Run!" he yelled, reaching down and ripping the thing off of Simon's leg, along with a good chunk of the denim material. Chucking it unceremoniously over his shoulder, he grabbed Simon by the arm and took off.

"Shit!" Simon yelled, also glancing over his shoulder. The expression on Lilith's face, a mixture of outrage and glee, promised a slow and violent death. Cain didn't have to tell him twice to get moving.

Just look ahead! Simon silently chastised himself for being the idiot in the movie who always checked behind themselves instead of getting the fuck out of there when he looked over his shoulder again to see Lilith running after them, his stomach dropping when Lilith turned into a massive bat-like creature on the fly. Literally. She was flying to catch up with them, screeching at the top of her demonic lungs.

"Just stay close to me," Cain muttered to Simon when he looked behind them and saw that Lilith wasn't the only one chasing them now. A small swarm of demons had emerged from the castle, more than likely in response to her outraged scream.

"Believe me, I intend to," Simon muttered back, running faster than he had ever run in his life, which was fast! Reaching behind him, he yanked at the bow that was strapped to his backpack, his other hand already dipping into the quiver that was strapped to his hip.

"You think that will do anything to stop her?" Cain asked incredulously, secretly impressed when Simon managed to nock an arrow and let it fly at Lilith while he continued running. Even if the arrow would be nothing more than a toothpick to Lilith in her current form.

"It's worth a try. And these arrows are Alec and Magnus' specialty arrows," Simon muttered, once more managing to twist the top half of his body to fire another arrow at Lilith. This one actually struck, exploding when it hit Lilith's tail. It didn't do much damage but it seemed to annoy her. Probably not a good thing, he thought.

Another scream had Cain looking over his shoulder again as he ran flat out, his eyes widening when Lilith let out a plume of flame with her screeches. It wasn't aimed at them but he had no doubt that she would aim for Simon, the second the other Vampire left his side.

Simon fired a couple of arrows at the demons that chased them, further behind than Lilith was. Apparently, they were no match for his and Cain's Vampiric speed so he gave up on trying to hit them and conserved arrows for Lilith, firing one at her every once in a while to keep her away from them.

"Which way?" Cain asked when faced with a natural fork in the dusty path up ahead of them.

"Left," Simon replied, focusing on the path once more. He didn't know what lay to the right but had taken the left path to get to Alec and Magnus' house when he had entered the realm. He was surprised at how far they had already come, his main focus had been on Lilith during their escape. But he veered off to the left anyway. They weren't far now.

Simon stuck close to Cain for the rest of the journey, practically hip to hip with Cain the entire way. He wasn't willing to give Lilith a target, not with the huge plumes of fire that she spat into the air every time she screeched. The demons that trailed them came into view now and then, whenever they crested another rolling, sandy hill. But he and Cain were managing to stay ahead.

Another twenty minutes of flat out running brought Alec and Magnus' house/compound into view, something that Simon had never been more grateful for in his life.

"Alec, Magnus!" Simon yelled as they approached the house in a blur, praying to the angel that Alec would hear them, Lilith was still after them. It seemed they were in luck when he and Cain passed through Magnus' extended wards, still fifty ft from the compound. "Fuck the gate, just jump the wall," he muttered when he saw Cain aiming for the gates.

Simon had never felt more relief in his life than when he saw arrows and fireballs flying from the roof of Alec and Magnus' house, all heading in Lilith's direction. Nodding towards the wall for Cain's benefit, he waited until the last minute to bend his knees and launch himself over it, Cain following after.

Cain looked up when he landed in a huge courtyard, to see two men, Alec and Magnus, standing on the roof of the building, both firing at Lilith as she circled the building, continuing to scream her fury out.

Making a quick decision, Cain bent his knees and launched himself up onto the roof to join them. They were offering him help after all. The least he could do was protect them with his mark if Lilith decided to fight back. It might as well be used for something good, he thought.

"Cain, it's good to see you again," Magnus said, another bolt of magic dancing across the tips of his fingers as he watched Lilith fly a few more circles overhead. He maintained the shield that he held over himself and Alec, even when Lilith gave up and turned in the air to fly away.

Alec was surprised as hell that not only had Simon made it back but he had managed to bring Cain back with him. He let off another five tipped arrow at the retreating backs of the swarm of demons that had chased Simon and Cain, nodding a greeting to the other Vampire when it looked like they weren't coming back.

"I don't think they're coming back anytime soon," Magnus said, letting his magic die away as Lilith and her demons dissapeared into the distance. "Shall we?" he asked, gesturing to the ground where Simon was waiting for them.

Alec wrapped his arms around Magnus' waist, waiting until Magnus' arms were securely around his neck before stepping off the roof. Bending his legs slightly when he landed, he released Magnus, back on solid ground.

Magnus took a moment to get his breath back, his stomach settling in place. It might not phase Alec to drop thirty feet through the air but he much preferred portals. It hadn't been so bad when Alec had picked him up and launched them in the direction of the roof when his wards had gone off.

"What happened?" Alec asked when they were all back on solid ground.

"I tricked Lilith into thinking that I still had my mark. It almost worked. Probably would have if Jonathan's pet rat hadn't tried to take a chomp out of my leg," Simon said, waving his leg around to show them the rips in his jeans.

"Maybe you should start at the beginning, Simon," Magnus suggested, his hand resting on Alec's shoulder when Alec muttered a question about pet rats. To be fair to his husband, Simon wasn't making much sense. "Maybe inside, with refreshments?" he asked, turning to Cain to include him in the invitation.

"Thank you, Your Majesty," Cain said, observing proper manners, as he should have the first time he had met the two kings. Simon's loud, stuttering snort had his head snapping up.

"Your Majesty? Him?" Simon asked, busting out into a fit of laughter. He completely missed Alec's eye roll and Magnus' sniff when Cain raised an eyebrow at him. "Wait, you're serious?" he asked.

"Majesty is the title one use's when addressing a King," Cain explained, wondering if Simon had ever attended a school. "Since Magnus is the one who inherited the throne, I would address him as Majesty. Would you prefer Majesty or Highness?" he asked Alec.

"There's no need for any of that, Cain. Just call us Magnus and Alec," Magnus said when he saw how uncomfortable the question made Alec. He managed to refrain from flipping Simon off when Simon stifled a laugh and led the way inside.

"You weren't joking about that whole, "ruling another realm" thing, were you?" Simon whispered to Alec, following Magnus and Cain into the large hallway and through the arched doorway to the room with the fancy chairs. Magnus and Alec's thrones.

"Technically it's true. Or it will be once we take care of Lilith," Alec shrugged, following Cain and Magnus into the loft. He veered off into the kitchen and heated up a couple of baggies, decanting them into a jug once the blood was warmed to drinking temperature while Magnus made himself a drink at the drinks cart in the living room.

"Why don't you start at the beginning, Simon?" Magnus asked when everyone was seated in the living room, all of them clutching a drink.

Simon proceeded to explain everything that he had done and seen since leaving Magnus' portal, managing to tell them everything before the questions started. They had a lot more restraint than he had.

"Is that the only army she had? The ones that you might have destroyed? Or were there more?" Alec asked, including Cain in his question, wanting to get an idea of numbers as soon as possible.

"That was her army of the undead. She also has a horde of demons at her disposal. Some of them serve her out of fear, the more mindless ones. Others, those with a little more brainpower, struck bargains with her," Cain said, wanting to be as helpful as possible.

"Fourteen wouldn't seem so bad if each one of them wasn't the equivalent of five people," Magnus said, scrubbing his hand over his face. It was a relatively small number, one that either of them could probably take out single-handed - if they weren't such formidable enemies. The fact that the returned dead didn't have to worry about injury or death didn't help the situation.

"Can I see the blanket?" Magnus asked, holding his hands out until Simon had dug it out of his backpack. Holding the musty, ragged blanket between his hands, he closed his eyes and scanned it with his magic, trying to get a sense of who might have owned it.

Small flashes came to Magnus, images of a frightened child, an angry teenager, a desperate man. There was a lot of confusion, hurt, and anger.

"You were right, this belonged to Jonathan. Good thinking, Simon," Magnus said. The blanket could easily be used to track Jonathan, hopefully giving the others the lead that they desperately needed.

Alec was too busy trying to come up with numbers and tactical advantages to pay any attention to Jonathan's plight when Simon started going into detail about Jonathan's bedroom. He might be a vampire now but those Shadowhunter instincts and the training that he had gone through, his entire life, were still a part of him.

"The pictures were so creepy, it was like a shrine in there. The dude is way too obsessed with Clary," Simon muttered, shuddering at the memory of the scratched out eyes that Jonathan had drawn on all of the pictures that didn't feature Clary. "And he slept in this bizarre cage bed. I'd feel sorry for him if he wasn't such a psychopath."

"That's probably the reason he is a psychopath. I can't imagine Lilith showed him much love while raising him. Jonathan probably doesn't even know what love is or how to react to it in the correct way if he was shown an ounce of it," Magnus speculated, feeling a strange sort of empathy for Jonathan at that moment.

Sure, Asmodeus had never made him sleep in a cage. But Magnus could certainly relate to having a remorseless demon raise him and the shitty upbringing that Jonathan must have faced as consequence for Valentine dumping him there. To say that Jonathan didn't know any better was no excuse for the way he was acting but Simon's trip to the castle gave him an insight into why Jonathan was the way that he was.

"What about you, Cain? Will you share your story with us?" Magnus asked. He had been watching Cain, watching the way the Vampire had tried to be subtle as he had gawped around at the loft.

"Lilith tricked me into coming to this realm. She promised that she would bring my brother back in exchange for protection. However, when she applied her dark magic and brought him back... he wasn't himself. Abel was like a blank slate, a puppet. He would stand in one place and stare at nothing until Lilith commanded him to move. He didn't speak or eat... he didn't even look at me unless she commanded it," Cain said, his stomach clenching painfully.

"I knew it was wrong, to keep him in that state. I know that I should have left him to death but I was so desperate to make amends for my past misdeeds that I ignored all of that. I missed what we had before Lilith became a part of our lives and wanted it back but..." Cain trailed off. Abel hadn't been the man he once was.

"We understand," Magnus said. As an immortal, he had faced many losses over the years. There had been many people he had wished that he could bring back. He felt awful, hearing the guilt in Cain's voice, seeing it in his eyes, knowing that it must be worse to be the orchestrator of your loved one's death.

"It's understandable that you wanted him back but it goes against the natural laws, Cain," Magnus said quietly, not wanting to upset the Vampire any further. "Unfortunately, we cannot change the things that have happened in the past, only move forward. If you spend your entire life living in the past you forget to have a future. Maybe I didn't know Abel but I would think that he would want you to move on, to have a life instead of suffering."

Simon was in the process of nodding his agreement when a flair of fire, right there in the middle of the rug that sat between the chairs and couch they were sitting on, made him jump a foot in the air.

"My sixteenth-century rug!" Magnus yelled when a grave-dirt message burned its way into the rug, forgetting entirely that it wasn't actually his priceless rug but a replica.

Alec stood and circled the message to read it the right way up, reading it out loud for Simon's benefit while Simon recovered from his shock.

"Hey guys, it's Clary.

The blood transfusion worked!

We all have the Heavenly Fire now.

Except for Helen, the Heavenly Fire destroyed her blood sample.

She had too much demon blood in her, apparently.

Our next step is to find Jonathan.

I hope Simon made it in one piece and that you guys are holding up down there.

We haven't forgotten you, we'll bring you home.

Maryse told me to remind you both to take proper care of yourselves.

And Izzy said that she loves you both but you have to send Simon home,

because she misses him.

Jace is trying to be cool but he misses you, Alec.

See you soon,

love Clary."

Alec finished reading the message out, half relieved that the experiment hadn't fried any of his friends and half worried about them going up against Jonathan.

"They will be okay," Magnus said, reaching out to take Alec's hand. He was as worried as Alec was but put a brave face on for his husband's benefit.

"I know. They've trained their whole lives for this. Well, most of them have. It doesn't stop the worry though," Alec said, squeezing back when Magnus' grip tightened.

"We should make a move," Simon said to Cain, climbing to his feet, too busy packing Jonathan's blanket into his rucksack to notice the expression that flitted over Cain's face. Until Cain spoke.

"I will not be coming with you, Simon. I will stay here and help Magnus and Alec fight Lilith," Cain said, shaking his head when Simon started to protest. "There's nothing there for me and Lilith needs to be stopped. She has been allowed to ruin too many lives as it is. I won't let her destroy your friends too."

"Cain, you don't have to stay. We don't expect it of you," Magnus said, worried that Cain felt like he owed them something. As welcome as Cain's help would be, he wouldn't ask the man to risk his life for them. "You could start fresh, begin a new life..."

"I will stay. This mark that I have been cursed with has already hurt too many people. Both those I love and those who have hated me. I don't feel safe interacting with defenseless mortals. But I would like to use it to help you both," Cain interjected.

"You should know that I also have the mark," Alec said, pursing his lips when Cain looked at him with a mixture of horror and pity stamped across his world-weary face. "I had to protect my husband. This was the only way. Even as a Vampire, I wouldn't be strong enough to face her without it," he said. As much as it was a pain in his ass, he would take the mark 1000 times over if it meant he had a way to protect Magnus.

Magnus took hold of Simon's arm when Simon still looked like he was going to protest. "It's his decision," he said.

"Fine. But I hope you know that you have friends top side if you ever change your mind," Simon said to Cain. He didn't want to leave Cain behind. He knew that Cain could build a life for himself in the mortal realm. But he also accepted that it was Cain's decision.

"Uh, please keep our marriage to yourself until I can find a way to talk to my mom. She will only find a way down here to kick our asses," Alec said, enduring it when his sire pulled him into a hug. Simon really wasn't a bad person.

"You have nothing to worry about," Simon said, raising his hand to slap Alec's back before thinking better of it.

"And pass our best wishes onto the others. If they need anything, magic wise, send them to Catarina or send a grave-dirt message if they need anything from me," Magnus said, giving Simon a hug. He looked like he needed it.

"I will," Simon said, releasing Magnus to start unbuckling the thigh holster and weapons that Alec had lent him.

"Keep them, I'm sure you'll find a use for them," Alec said, holding his hands up when Simon made to hand him his bow back. He had plenty more and he had no doubt that Simon would find himself in a situation where he would need them. The guy got kidnapped every other week.

Magnus led Simon into Alec's training room, the largest room in the loft, with Alec and Cain following behind. He shut the door behind them and waved his hands in a complicated pattern, securing the room from everything on the other side to be sure nothing could escape with Simon before creating a portal with a wave of his arm.

Simon prepared himself with a few deep breaths, still hating portal travel as much as he always did, before stepping through the portal with one last look at Cain. It didn't sit right with him but he dutifully left Cain behind to return to New York.

Magnus closed the portal as soon as Simon disappeared, ensuring that it was fully closed before snapping his fingers to bring down the protections that surrounded the room.

"How about I show you to your room?" Magnus asked Cain, gesturing for the Vampire to follow when Alec led them out into the main living area.

"You don't have to put me up. I can find somewhere else to stay," Cain said, grateful for the offer, even if he hadn't meant to imply that he expected to stay with them.

"It's fine, we have the room," Alec said, smiling for their guest. It might still technically be their honeymoon but he wouldn't see Cain out on his ass. "Just make yourself at home. Trust me, you can't be a worse houseguest than Simon," he said, only half-joking.

Simon had actually barged into their bedroom with a tray of pancakes and a jug of blood that morning. Luckily for Simon, they had still been asleep. It would have been awkward for everyone if Alec had had to kick his sire's ass for walking in on them while they were fucking.

"We even have plumbing so you can get cleaned up," Magnus said, refusing to hear another word about it.

"Thank you, both of you. I appreciate your hospitality," Cain said, grateful for a chance to get cleaned up and sleep in a decent bed he noted when Magnus led him to a guest bedroom that smelled strongly of Simon.

Alec pulled Magnus down onto the couch when his husband returned, taking the opportunity to whisper in Magnus' ear when he heard Cain get into the shower.

"I'm guessing there'll be no... you know, tonight either?" Alec asked quietly when Magnus settled into his side.

"You guess correctly," Magnus chuckled when Alec rolled his eyes. He was just as disappointed as Alec was but Cain's hearing was just as good as Simon's was.

Alec let out a groan, wondering if it would be considered rude to have Magnus build a guest annex so he could fuck his husband in peace. Who knew that he would still be getting cockblocked all the way in Edom? He was just grabbing the remote to put a movie on when a thought came to him.

Magnus almost fell off of the couch when Alec disappeared from beneath him, his head hitting the couch cushion where Alec's shoulder had been a moment before. He didn't have to wonder what Alec was doing for long.

Alec searched through Magnus' spellbooks on the bookshelves in the hallway at top speed, flicking through a promising looking book of basic spells. He almost yelled in triumph when he found what he was looking for.

"This one," Alec said, practically flinging the book at Magnus when he returned to the living room, wondering why neither of them had thought about it before. Unable to help his impatience, he tapped at the page, a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth when Magnus' face split into a grin.

Magnus tossed the book aside when Alec scooped him up off the couch. He didn't need a spellbook to tell him how to place a silencing charm on their bedroom. Snapping his fingers, he left a note on the couch, telling Cain that they were having an early night and to help himself to anything he wanted before Alec kicked their bedroom door closed behind them.

They had a honeymoon to continue.