Simon sat under the willow tree, using his night vision to good effect so that he could read his graphic novel. The restless tapping off to his left had him letting out a deep sigh.

"Quit it, Fray, you're making us all nervous," Simon said without looking up from his book. He didn't need to.

"Sorry, sorry. It's been three days. Shouldn't something have happened by now?" Clary asked, tapping her stele on the sole of her boot. She took Jace's hand when it sought out her own. He had been inconsolable and hadn't slept for three days, constantly on the move, refusing to sleep until Alec woke up.

"He has to do it himself. We can't help him with this," Simon said. He wasn't an expert but he knew enough. Raphael had been mentoring him. "He'll get up in his own time; when he's ready."

"He does know that I'm going to kill him again when he wakes up, right?" Maryse asked, glaring at all of them, letting them wither under her gaze. They had thought they could keep Alec's ridiculous plan from her. Sure. She had to glare at them to keep from crying.

They were all there, Clary, Jace, Izzy, Simon, Maia -to help them control Alec if they needed to- Luke and Maryse. Even Raphael was waiting inside the Institute, there at Simon's request. As a mundane, Raphael stood the least chance of making it out of a fight with Alec in one piece. So he was waiting inside, too much of a temptation.

Simon almost said that there was no other way. It hadn't gone over well the first time he had said it, however, so he refrained. Maryse Lightwood might have lost her runes but she was still a badass. She had moved back into the Institute for a few days and the aggression that she had taken out in the training room was no joke.

Izzy said nothing, just stared at the mound of earth that they were all sitting around. All she wanted to do was sink into Simon's embrace but she couldn't. She couldn't even touch him. She thought that she had imagined it at first when she felt a rumble come from the earth, looking up to see if anyone else had noticed. None of them had.

"Did you guys feel..." Izzy cut off when it came again, a deep rumbling that had Alec's grave dirt shifting.

"Get back, all of you," Simon warned when everyone just sat there, staring at Alec's grave. "Now! He will be thirsty enough to take all of you down like a fat kid at an all you can eat so move, now," he said, grabbing several bottles.

Everyone scrambled to their feet and backed away, all of them refusing to pull a blade. They were all armed but none of them could bear to pull a blade on Alec, no matter what state he was in. The silence was deafening, all of them refusing to even breathe when the grave dirt continued to shift, a peak forming in the middle. Until a hand shot out of the earth. Swiftly followed by another.

Simon cautioned them all further back, watching them all try to push each other behind their backs. Stashing the huge bottles of blood in the crook of his arm, he opened the first one and stepped closer as Alec clawed his way out of the grave, hoping that the scent of the blood would be enough to distract Alec from the others.

Alec fought his way up when his hands met fresh air, emerging from the earth with a snarl. He took a deep, gasping breath when his head broke the dirt -some residual instinct left over from before the darkness- that now felt foreign to him. The fresh air did nothing to alleviate the hunger that raged through him, nor did he feel any relief from the action in his chest. It was odd.

"Alec, over here," Simon said when Alec kept on climbing, emerging fully from the grave. He gave Maia a nod on the other side to make sure that she was ready if Alec went for any of the Nephilim, Luke included. That had been a shock when he had turned up at the Institute with Maryse, with runes instead of werewolf fangs.

The only thing that could push through the rush of sounds and sensations that ripped through Alec was the scent of something that would ease the hunger that plagued him. The scent was everything, promised everything. It was what he needed, so close. He focused long enough to see that it was coming from a bottle that a man was holding. No, not a man. A predator, a small part of his brain informed him. Before the need for the blood came once more.

Maryse watched with stinging eyes as Alec ran full pelt at Simon. Well, she tried to watch but he moved too fast for her to track. What she didn't miss was the way Alec snatched the bottle from Simon's hands and started pouring it into his mouth.

Alec didn't have the concentration to register that he had just moved across the small distance within the blink of an eye. It had felt normal to him, even though he knew that the movement had been swift. All he could think about was the red hot scent that invaded every cell of his body.

Ignoring everything else, Alec poured the liquid silk down his throat, glugging it down as fast as he could. The sensation of aching, gnawing hunger didn't lessen by the time he reached the bottom of the bottle. Thankfully, another one was thrust into his hands when he dropped the first one. The sound of seven loud, thudding hearts, pumping more of the delicious liquid through seven very warm bodies tried to snatch his attention but he focussed on the bottle in his hands for now.

Simon had the lid off of the third bottle as soon as Alec ripped the second one out of his hand. This was good, Alec had gone straight for the bottles instead of the seven walking blood bags that surrounded him. If he had had his way, Maryse would be inside the Institute with Raphael. But trying to tell Maryse anything was like trying to wrestle his mother away from a 2 for 1 deal on brisket.

Simon handed Alec the third bottle, holding it out and watching it disappear as fast as the first two, already opening the fourth.

Alec snatched bottle after bottle from... Simon, he remembered, his head getting clearer with every gulp. The blood tasted phenomenal, sliding down his throat like silk but never quite quenching the thirst that still raged through him like fire. It sloshed uncomfortably in his stomach but he kept on drinking, gasping for breath that he didn't need.

It was still odd to Alec, as were the hundreds of sounds that threatened his concentration and the new scents that had finally started registering with him now that he was feeding the hunger. The strength that flowed through him was like a tangible thing, there under his skin, flowing through his muscles. None of it, however, was stranger than trying to drink from a bottle with the fangs - that felt like they had been jammed into his gums - in the way.

Izzy almost spoke until she saw Simon shaking his head in her direction when she opened her mouth. She looked around at the others, everyone watching Alec hunch over the bottles that Simon was feeding him. Her brother was filthy and stooped, and looked half crazy with hunger. But he was there, Alive. Technically. He was animated, anyway.

Simon pulled out one last bottle -a smaller one- when Alec stopped pouring the blood down his throat and settled for smaller, more civilized gulps. The animalistic grunts had stopped too, indicating that Alec was coming back to himself. He remembered when it had been him - when he had had that moment of clarity - with a shudder. It probably helped that Alec had chosen this.

"Are you full?" Simon asked, unscrewing the lid on the smaller bottle in his hands. The term full was used loosely. Alec's body would feel full but the hunger would never quite die down. "Drink this one, all of it," he said, handing the bottle over.

Alec would have said that he was full - if the scent that emanated from the bottle hadn't snagged his undivided attention. The scent of the bottle's contents wasn't like the rest of it, it was 1000 times better. Snatching the bottle, he downed it in six gulps. It exploded over his tongue, the flavor of everything else he had drunk in the last ten minute's fading to ash compared to this.

Jace asked Simon silently with his eyes if it was done, his breath huffing out of him with relief when Simon nodded. It seemed the sound had caught Alec's attention, because his parabatai... former parabatai spun on the spot to look at him. Fast!

Alec continued the spin, taking in all of the eyes that watched him. He sniffed the air, seeking all of the scents out that surrounded him until his eyes landed on the blonde one, the match of the scent that had just come from the bottle, mixed with the red head's scent. Jace, Clary.

Alec's head cleared a little further when he remembered their names, stopping him from lurching forward for another taste. Shaking his head, he stared at the couple for a moment, watching them hold hands, both staring right back, and let the memories of them, of all of them, crash through him.

It was a crazy whirlwind that would have stolen Alec's breath. If he'd had any. But the memories came, crashing into him in a confusing deluge that had him shaking his head. It took him a good ten minutes to recover and put them into order but he got there. He remembered it all. Including who they all were and why he was there. The scent that still lingered in the air had him narrowing his eyes at his parabatai.

"What was in that bottle?" Alec demanded, staring at Jace with suspicion. He already had a feeling he knew. His voice sounded hoarse and scratchy from disuse so he cleared his throat and tried again. "Clary?" he asked.

Maryse couldn't stop herself when Alec used Clary's name. She dashed forward, only to have Luke's arms come around her waist and yank her back. The motion had Alec spinning towards her.

"Mom?" Alec asked, taking a step back from his mother, toward's Simon. She smelt far too good right now, even with the blood sloshing through his stomach. "Seriously? None of you could keep her away for a few days? I said I'd tell her myself when I woke up," he said, glaring at his traitorous friends and siblings.

"When you woke up? You haven't been asleep. You haven't been having a nap, or a snooze or a fucking siesta!" Maryse yelled, forgetting that she was happy to see her son up and about. "You died!" she yelled, elbowing Lucian off of her so she could yell some more. "Do you have any idea what I have been through?"

"I was gonna wait until I..." Alec cut off when he saw the fire in his mom's eyes. Maybe it was the wrong choice of words. "I hadn't planned on you finding out until it was over. I'm sorry but I had to. It was the only way," he said.

Maryse ignored the stares that everyone aimed at her when she started pacing, rolling her eyes when Alec skittered back from her. "Calm down. You won't hurt me, you've just drunk the equivalent of sixteen baggies and..." she trailed off, her eyes flicking to Clary and Jace.

"And what?" Alec asked, remembering his earlier question as he rounded on Clary and Jace. "Please tell me that you didn't? Both of you?" he asked, wanting to stick his fingers down his throat and puke the contents of his stomach back up when they both nodded.

"Why?" Alec asked redundantly. It was obvious. They didn't even look repentant about it.

"It worked for Simon. We gave you a double dose," Jace shrugged, fighting the grin that tugged at the corners of his lips. He couldn't help it. The monumental eye roll that Alec aimed in his direction was so Alec that a giddy laugh burst out of him, relief that Alec was there, flooding him. "We had to give you all of the protection that we could. Why shouldn't you take advantage of it? Simon does," he said.

"So I'm a Daylighter now?" Alec asked, holding his hands up when Jace moved in his direction. Sixteen baggies and a bottle of Jace and Clary's concentrated angel blood notwithstanding, he didn't feel up to that just yet.

"Probably? We will have to wait and see," Clary said, also wanting to reach out and hug Alec but respecting his boundaries. It seemed that Simon had no such qualms, throwing himself at Alec.

Alec didn't hesitate to flip Simon over his shoulder and slam him into the ground when he felt a pair of arms wrap around him from behind. The move had felt normal to him, his mind telling him that it had taken the normal amount of time to pull it off. The stares of his friends told him otherwise.

"Uh, sorry Simon," Alec mumbled, reaching down to offer Simon a hand.

"No problem," Simon wheezed, thanking the angel that he didn't need to breathe. Alec had just pile drove his lungs into the ground.

Izzy stared at her brother, watching him pick Simon up off of the ground. Every move took a fraction of a second. The speed and strength that he had displayed had been incredible. She wished that she could hug him, to be sure that he was still her brother in there. Instead, she settled for a hug from Luke.

"I'm going to hug you now and you will accept it," Maryse said to Alec, raising an eyebrow at him when he gaped at her. She still wanted to smack him but she settled for a hug.

Alec cautiously wrapped his arms around his mom's shoulders when she approached him, loosening his hold when she winced slightly. His eyes slammed closed when her neck came a little too close for comfort, his fangs digging into his bottom lip as he locked his muscles down. There was a small voice in his head telling him to have a taste, just a little one but he shoved it down. He was not feeding on his mother! She felt good in his arms, her arms not so gentle with him. She squeezed the life out of him. Or would have.

"See, not so bad," Maryse said when Alec released her and pulled back slightly, ignoring the chill from her son's freezing body. And the implications from it. He had been dead. But he was here now. Instead, she focused on the fangs that he did his best to wrap his lips over. Shaking her head, she reached up and poked at his lip until he stopped trying to hide them. They were a part of him now. If the three-day wait had done anything, it had given her a chance to come to terms with what Alec would be like once he woke up. Fangs and all.

"Yeah, because I wasn't breathing," Alec mumbled quietly, smiling tentatively for his mother. She accepted him without batting an eyelid. The moment she had approached him, he had sucked a redundant breath in and stopped breathing, kind of glad that it was still second nature to him to try and draw breath. He couldn't help but stare when his mother pulled back and he saw the dirt and blood that had transferred to her clothes.

Alec would probably have blushed then when he looked down at himself and saw the blood that had drenched his shirt. It was everywhere. Those first few minutes were no joke. He shuddered to think what would have happened if Simon hadn't been there with blood for him.

The successful hug broke through Alec's maudlin thoughts and emboldened him. He still held his breath but was able to give each of them a hug. Except for Izzy. "Sorry, Iz," he muttered when she had to hold back.

"I'm just happy that you're alive," Izzy said, really wishing she could throw herself into his arms then. Her eyes widened when she realized what she had said. "Alec, I'm sorry. I didn't mean..."

"It's okay, you can say it. I still feel like I'm alive. Well, not alive. I mean, I don't need to breathe but I can move, walk, talk, think, you know?" Alec asked, knowing that she didn't in fact know. "I don't feel like a corpse," he said with a shrug. He still felt emotions, wants, needs.

Wants and needs... Magnus, Alec thought when the ring on his finger caught his eye where he had been gesturing with his hands.

"I have to send Lorenzo a fire message," Alec said, patting his pockets down. Before he realized that he wouldn't be able to use his stele anymore, that it wasn't even there. Jace must have removed it.

"Uh, can one of you send Lorenzo a fire message?" Alec asked, looking around at them all, rolling his eyes at the sad expressions on their faces. "It's not the end of the world, it's a fire message," he said. It was probably going to take some getting used to, not being able to do certain things anymore but he would manage.

"You can't just go running off to Edom right this second, you need to work on controlling yourself first," Maia said, giving Alec a pointed stare when he let out an irritated huff.

"You're a newly minted vampire. Like it or not, you're going to have control issues. A few hugs don't mean you've got it in the bag. Just remember, Magnus is going to be the only one down there that you could possibly feed off. Do you want to hurt him, or would you rather wait a couple of days to be sure?" Maia asked. They all had control issues when they first turned, he would be no different.

"Fine," Alec snapped, furious that she was right, he didn't have time for her to be right. Apart from those few moments when they had reunited and gotten engaged in Alicante, he hadn't been with Magnus for a week.

Alec just had to hope that Lilith hadn't gained too much strength while he had been lying around for the past few days. Only the fact that he couldn't hurt Magnus had him following the others when they all turned for the institute. All except Simon.

"Uh, what are you doing?" Alec asked Simon when he turned to find the Vampire... the fellow Vampire, scooping handfuls of dirt into a small barrel. Fellow Vampire. That was going to be weird.

"It's your grave dirt, it comes in handy," Simon said, pausing in scooping up another handful to look up at Alec. "You know, in case we need to contact you in an emergency?" he asked.

"Will that even work in Edom?" Alec asked, confusion pulling his brows into one line.

"Don't know," Simon shrugged, continuing with his task. "But it couldn't hurt to keep some around. Plus, I think it will help the others, to have something of yours around when you leave," he said.

"They do know that I'm not coming back, right?" Alec asked, scooping a few handfuls of the dirt up, himself.

"You do know that they will never stop trying to find a way to bring the two of you home, right?" Simon countered, hefting the barrel when it was full.

Alec chewed his lip and clasped his hands behind his back as he followed Simon back to the institute, playing with his ring as he mulled Simon's words over. Of course, he would love it if they found a way but he had made his decision and accepted the consequences of his actions, which meant that he had accepted that he would have to stay in Edom.

First up of those consequences, however, was greeting his former Shadowhunters in his new form. Hopefully, after he got a shower, a new change of clothes, some news from Meliorn and Lorenzo that they were still willing to help and another bottle of blood.

Then maybe he could roll into bed. He felt surprisingly tired, he also felt the approach of dawn. They would probably stick him in the basement.

Fun, Alec thought with a roll of his eyes.