Okay, so this is my newest story! How to not Die During the Zombie Apocalypse. I hope you like it, and despite the two genre categories that it is under, I promise that it is going to be every bit as funny as all of my other fics.
Chapter One: Never Trust Strangers
~Clary~
Clary woke up when she heard a loud banging noise. She sat up on a soft and plush mattress. It took her a moment to remember that she and Tessa had stopped the night before at an abandoned house for rest.
She looked over groggily and realized that her sister was no longer on the large bed beside her; that, coupled with the loud sound that'd woke her up, was enough to send Clary into a slight panic.
She immediately pushed herself off the Mattress and got to her feet. She grabbed the knife off the short wooden nightstand standing beside the bed and raced out of the open doorway.
The house was small with only two tiny bedrooms, a bathroom, and a living room that led into the kitchen. It was obvious that it'd been abandoned since the beginning of the end of the world. The dust was settled on the floors, the walls, and the sparse pieces of furniture that littered the rooms.
She moved out of the room and walked through the tiny hallway. The bathroom door was opened, but when Clary stuck her head inside, all she saw was a grimy toilet and a dry rotted curtain covering a shower. Feeling a little more panicky, she backed away and moved toward the kitchen at a run, making it there in under a second. This was a feat due to the shortness of her...well everything, really.
She expected to walk in on an ambush of three or four stumbling creatures chasing after her terrified sister. They would be slimy and gross as they attempted to catch her and sink their rotting teeth into her flesh.
Instead, all Clary saw was Tessa.
Her tall form was bent over a familiar large gym bag that as filled with what Clary was pretty sure were cans of food. It was probably what made the noise that had startled her so badly. Now that she thought back, it was a high pitch clink, more than a bang. Considering the fact that the bag was sitting in a messy heap on the filthy linoleum flooring, it was a pretty safe bet to make that it had been a false alarm.
Clary sighed quietly in relief, but it carried across the silent room a lot further than she'd thought. Tessa straightened up and spun around quickly. She stared at Clary with an expression that was equivalent of a child getting caught with their hand in a cookie jar.
She smiled at me sheepishly as she pushed a strand of her long, dark hair behind her ears. "I didn't mean to startle you," she said, her blue-grey eyes showing the same amount of guilt as her voice. "I figured that I could get us a bit of food ready to eat before we had to leave."
"That's fine," she said quickly, holding her hands up to stop her from apologizing any further; if Tessa wanted to handle the food who was Clary to stop her? "You go ahead and do that. I'll go out and look around to make sure no zombies decide to stumble up and surprise us."
"It's a good thing that they aren't attracted that much by sight," Tessa informed her jokingly. "Your hair would have gotten us caught years ago."
Clary smiled at the comment. "Shut up, Tess," she said. "You're just jealous that you don't look like this."
"You mean short and pale with red hair?" she asked her with a raised eyebrow.
"Exactly," Clary said, ignoring her sarcasm. She walked toward the living room, where the front door was. As she placed her hand on the knob, she called over her shoulder, "You forgot the freckles!"
She held on to her knife a bit more firmly, smirking as she heard the faint sound of her sister's laughter from the kitchen. She took a deep breath and opened the door, her knife raised to impale anything in her way. Except there was nothing waiting to lunge at me from the other side, much to her relief.
She walked out on to the porch, looking around carefully.
There was no way that one was getting past her notice. It threw her off that there was nothing around. Nothing at all. Not that she was complaining, but there was always one or two of the undead just shuffling around, hoping that she and Tessa might slip up so they could get some food.
She frowned as she slowly descended the stairs. There was nothing around...the front, at least. Sure that she'll find at least one walking corpse to put down in the back, she began to walk to the nearest side. She saw one at the very edge of her vision, but nothing close enough to concern her. They only started moving quickly when they sensed possible food. So it would be stumbling along for half a day before it made it close enough to sense them and start moving more quickly. She simply shrugged and turned around.
She noticed that the wind was starting to pick up a certain chilliness to it. She and Tessa were going to have to grab some jackets soon. She made a mental note to stop at the next store that they came across.
She climbed back up the stairs and stepped back inside. Tessa, who'd been sitting crisscross applesauce on the floor emptying out cans into bowls, jumped to her feet. She had a wickedly long and sharp knife in front of her, clearly intent on beheading whatever was in the doorway.
They locked eyes for a moment before she lowered her arm, breathing heavily. "Scared me," she said as she settled back down. She placed the knife on the floor beside her. "It didn't take you too long."
"No stragglers," Clary explained. She walked over the dusted carpet and to the linoleum flooring. She sat beside her sister, the freezing floor permeating through her jeans. She shivered slightly as she grabbed her blue plastic bowl of what looked like pork and beans mush for breakfast. Scrumptious.
As she started slowly lifting her battered spoon to her mouth, she saw her sister looking at her funnily out of the corner of her eye. "There were no stragglers?" she questioned incredulously. Clary sat her spoon back in her bowl and turned to look at her sister. She had her arms crossed over her chest, her bowl sat on the floor untouched.
"None," Clary agreed solemnly. "I don't know why, I just know that there weren't any."
"I don't like this," Tessa said, frowning as she turned and looked out of the kitchen window. It wasn't like she could see anything but the sky at the angle at she was looking at. It made Clary wonder sarcastically if she was looking to see if it was going to start raining the undead.
"What don't you like?" Clary asked, raising an eyebrow at her. "Personally, it made my morning a little easier. For some reason, the thought of impaling a knife into the forehead of a used-to-be-human, which happens to be located too close to the mouth for comfort, puts a damper on my day.
"Clary," Tessa says in that gentle older sister voice, "I don't think you're getting it."
"What is there to get?" she demanded, finally scooping out a pile of the gunk that was her breakfast and shoveling it into her mouth.
"There were stragglers last night," she said slowly, hitting her outstretched left index finger with her right one, as though she was ticking off a point. "We killed those ones, but think about it, why weren't there any this morning to kill? When there's one zombie around, Clary, there's always a few shuffling behind it somewhere." Tessa looked at her sister pointedly, and Clary just stared back blankly, still not getting her sister's train of thought. "If we didn't kill them, Clary," Tessa said, her voice was now holding the slightest hint of impatience, "then who did?"
"Oh," Clary managed weakly, "I get it now." Someone else was nearby.
"You remember our oath, right?" Tessa asked Clary sharply.
Clary nodded. She remembered the group of people who'd killed their parents two years before over a few cans of meaningless food. If Tessa wouldn't have thought to have grabbed the frying pan and slammed it over the top of the head of the man who was coming after them, neither would be here. She found herself rattling it off to her sister, "Never trust strangers."
She felt dread pooling in her stomach as she looked over at Tessa. "We need to get out of here," Tessa said, "before we find out who these strangers are."
"Agreed," Clary nodded in confirmation. She stood up and grabbed the bag in one hand and the knife in the other. "Let's get packed. We can eat on the go."
~Jace~
There was something about zombie hunting that just completed Jace Herondale. He didn't know if it was the way that he was able to simply release pent-up aggression, or if it was the glee of being able to do something so violent and not be punished for it. It was probably a strange mixture of the two.
He and his cousin, Will, were out on a three day raid of a supermarket a couple of towns over for the small community that they'd managed to salvage in the town of Alicante. They'd stopped at every single untouched gas station along the way and managed to loot them clean. So it was the middle of their second day when they finally hit the town. Jace was driving the large red Ford truck while his cousin Will sat shotgun. He had his nose stuck in an old map, giving him directions to the center of the town, which was where the store of choice.
"You think we'll be able to find Cecily something for her birthday?" Will asked him, suddenly breaking the silence between them, which had lasted well over three hours. Jace was fairly sure that it was a record.
"Do you even know when her birthday is?" Jace asked him, actually curious. He looked away from the deserted road for a moment to look at his cousin, who hadn't looked away from the map yet. All Jace could see was his mop of black hair, which he hadn't bothered brushing since they'd left, and the edge of a blue eye.
"I know it's when it's just starting to get cold out," he says. "It's toward the end of September, and considering the fact that it was fairly chilly out this morning…." he trailed off, clearly figuring that an ending to the sentence was not needed.
Jace shrugged. "She's what? Sixteen now?" He looked over at Will, who was slowly nodding, as though he was unsure of the exact age himself. "What do sixteen year old girls even like?"
"Oh, yes," Will said sarcastically, finally tearing his gaze away from the map to look at him sharply, his blue eyes obviously glowing in irritation, "ask me because I obviously know what a sixteen year old girl likes! I was one only a few years ago!"
Jace nodded his head. "That explains a lot. Probably why you scream like a little bitch every time we see a zombie."
He looked back at the road for a moment, maneuvering out of the way of a station wagon that had been abandoned in their lane of the road. He looked back at Will and snorted at the venomous look that his cousin was favoring him with. It was quite hilarious.
"Something wrong, William?" Jace asked innocently.
"Nothing at all Jaciepoo," Will replied smartly. "I'm simply planning your death in a methodical manner. I'm even taking into consideration how to muffle your screams so the zombies won't hear us."
"Two requests," Jace replied easily as he turned off an exit ramp that would take them directly to the middle of the town. "First, don't shove a sock in my mouth. Especially not a dirty one that's been anywhere near your disease ridden foot."
Will snorted and shook his head as he began folding up their map. "Noted," he said with a nod.
"Secondly," he said. "Whatever you do, make sure that my face isn't affected. It's much too attractive to sustain damage."
"You sure it isn't because you don't want to be any uglier than you already are?" Will asked; his voice was steady and straight. Jace turned his head and looked over at him. He was just staring at Jace with a raised eyebrow. Jace almost bought it, but he could see the corners of Will's lips fighting from forming a smile.
"You've got it mixed up," Jace informed him cheekily. "You see, I'm the stunningly handsome one and you're the stunningly hideous bastard."
"I think you've done something to your head," Will said. Jace saw the back of his hand coming toward his face, but since he was driving, it wasn't as though he could really dodge it. He winced slightly, as it slammed into his forehead. "You don't have a fever. Have you been taking anything that would make you hallucinate? I mean I know the past few years have been hard on you, but I'm telling you, Jace, drugs are not the answer!"
Jace rolled his eyes and swatted Will's hand away from his face. "Shut up, Will."
"That the best comeback that you can muster up, little cousin?" Will asked mockingly. "I'm terrified. Clearly we have a lot of things to work on…like sharpening your wit again."
Jace would have said more, but he saw the large building of the store that was their target. It no longer had any distinguishing signs that would tell anyone what it was, but Jace wasn't stupid.
"Welcome to the magical world of Wal-Mart," he said, leaning over at patting Will on the shoulder. "Are you sure that a gorgeous pretty boy like yourself won't mind venturing inside?"
"Not entirely," Will replied smartly. "I'm sure I can suck it up just this once."
"Good," he said, looking out of his side window. "Because we have a couple of stragglers starting to limp our way and I would hate hogging all of the fun."
Before Will could reply, Jace had already leaned into the back and grabbed his favorite two blades. He couldn't remember the actual names for them, only that they were weird. They were long, almost like two short swords, and they were wickedly sharp.
Will reached in behind him and pulled out an actual sword. It was his pride and joy, Jace knew, and he had to admit that Will was good with it. He would hate to get into an actual fight with him. "Well let's go," Will said. "Whoever kills the most zombies is off the hook for tonight's drive."
Jace found himself nodding. Will stuck out his hand, and Jace grasped it. They shook on it once firmly and Jace said, "You're on."
He opened his door and jumped outside. He heard Will do the same on the other side of the truck. The zombies seemed to move even more quickly now that he and Will were exposed. Jace looked down at his knives and whirled them around in his hands.
"Let's not get scratched this time," he said as Will walked over to his side. His cousin casted him an award winning grin, showing off his straight and bright white teeth.
"Sounds like a plan, little cousin," Will nodded. And then they went to work. Jace took off in a run, his arms behind him slightly as he came to his first victims. They were limping toward him with their arms stretched out in his direction. He could see the dirt and grime on their fingernails as he vaulted off the ground. In mid-summersault, he slashed his arms forward, not having to look to know that he'd made his mark. He could feel the knives tearing past the rotted flesh and bone. The sound of their dismembered heads hitting the pavement, which had made him sick the first few times that he'd heard it, was music to his ears.
He landed gracefully on his feet right in front of another straggler. He flashed his knife forward, blocking its hand from reaching him, and bringing his other knife around. He drove it into the monster's skull and ripped it out at the same time that he flipped the hilt his other knife over in his hand and slammed it backward, catching the creature behind him before it could get to him. He turned around and saw that he'd managed to catch it in the neck. He brought his other knife up and, with one clean strike the head was off the zombie's shoulders.
And, just like that, they were alone all over again, with dismembered bodies lying all around them.
"Four so far, William," Jace said, turning to face his cousin.
Will smirked at him, his hand gesturing grandly to his handiwork. "Well, Jace," he said, "I'm not sure why you're so smug. Allow me to explain, seeing as you can't count. I've killed five."
Jace's smugness faded slightly, but he managed to regain it quickly. "It's no matter," he said with a shrug. "There's still plenty of time."
~Tessa~
"You dragged me in here," Tessa said aggravated, "for coats?" She was looking at her sister incredulously. "I can't believe you!"
"Yes you can," Clary said, waving behind her blindly, though it was in Tessa's general direction. "We need jackets, and I'm not about to freeze. We can get in and get out." They were standing in a Wal-Mart parking lot, and both of them were looking at the old building.
Tessa looked away first and her eyes caught the sight of something grave indeed: mangled bodies. Actually, they would be mangled, dismembered bodies. "Clary," she said, taking a step in the direction of the offensive sight. "Clary, do you see that?"
"See what?" her sister asked. A moment later, she must have followed Tessa's gaze, because she inhaled a small and sharp bit of breath and said, "Oh, that."
Tessa moved forward. She'd had it with all of the strangeness of the day. The stragglers not around that morning had been odd enough, but this was something else entirely. As she got closer to the bodies, she realized that the goo that was coming from the stumps of the creatures' necks was still gooey, and that the footprints that were leading away from the now permanent corpses and to the Wal-Mart were still wet.
"These are fresh," Tessa said, looking over at Clary. "I think we need to go somewhere else for your coats."
"I think," Clary said, "that this has to be connected to this morning, and if it is," the shorter girl shrugged, "I want to ask them why they've been so close to us." Tessa had really wished that Clary was going to tell her that they could just go. Not confirm her fear and then insist on facing it. "If they have a problem with it," she pulled her long knife out of its sheath and twirled it around in her palm as a wicked smile started growing on her face, "I guess we can settle it easily."
"Why is it that you always cause trouble?" Tessa asked. "It won't take us an hour to get to another city. We can get jackets there!"
"Because," Clary said, turning to look at her with a shrug, "This is fun."
So, obviously, when Clary said that going into a Wal-Mart that has already been entered by some other possibly dangerous band of strangers would be fun, Tessa would have suggested that she be sent in for a mental evaluation if the world was up and running. It was needless to say that when they stepped inside and she said, "Split up, it'll be quicker!" and ran away from her before she could say anything, Tessa was contemplating whether or not she should have been committed as a child; this level of insanity didn't just come in overnight.
She had no other choice than to go her own way, mostly because she lost sight of Clary moments after she ran off. Tessa wasn't worried about her; she knew that Clary could take care of herself. She was more worried about the fact that there were other people inside of the store and she didn't know where they were. Even if they weren't dangerous, she and Clary didn't really need any distractions from their goal of being out of the town and into a new one before the sun went down. They were already seriously running late.
"I'm going to kill her," Tessa muttered under her breath as she looked forward. The store was a mess. Everything around her was in disarray; clothes were strewn all over the floor, along with broken and scuffed toys, old and battered boxes, and the occasional severed limb. Why Clary, of all people, who was short and small, would want to run off was beyond her.
"Fine," Tessa muttered to herself, walking forward. She had her knife sheathed still, not really wanting it out as she was maneuvering through different mounds of shirts and other trinkets that she could break her ankle over. She'd impale herself for sure. "The sooner I get a stupid jacket and the sooner I catch back up with Clary, the sooner we can leave!"
"You know, lady, talking to yourself isn't really a good sign," the voice—obviously a guy's—came from somewhere to her right. She spun on her booted heel and gripped the hilt of her knife, sliding it from her sheath effortlessly. She held it protectively in front of her, every single one of her muscles was tensed as she looked around for the unwelcomed intruder. She didn't see one, though. All she saw were aisles that had been knocked over like dominos, clothing racks, most of which were no longer standing, and a banner advertising for a sale for some clothing line that was only being held up by one string; the other end was brushing against the ground.
He stepped out from behind the banner. He was about twenty feet away from her, and the entire store was casted into shadows, so most of his features weren't sharp enough for her to make out at such a distance. The only things that she could see for sure were the piercing blue eyes that were looking at her with the same level of distrust that she felt.
"Who are you?" she demanded. She didn't like the casual manner that he was just standing in.
He smiled at her, though she could tell that it wasn't a warm one, and crossed his arms. "Why would I tell you that?" he demanded. "Isn't the rule ladies first?"
"Shockingly," Tessa said, "I'm not in much of a sharing mood at the moment. I also asked nicely," she looked down at the weapon that she was holding. "Don't think that I'm going to do that again."
"You need to work on your communication skills," the boy informed her coolly, taking a step in her direction. "That isn't how you make friends."
"I don't need you as my friend," Tessa snapped at him, not liking that he was moving toward her, but she wasn't willing to show intimidation by backing away. "I need you to back off and tell me what kind of stupid death wish you have."
"It's more of a suicidal thing," he said with a shrug, "or at least that's what my cousin, Jace, says."
"Your cousin," Tessa said slowly, "is he here?"
"Nah-ah-ah," the blue-eyed boy shook his head at her, his cold smile turning more crooked as he took another step forward. "I'm not that easy to interrogate, though, if you're going to use the other methods you're going to have to take me out to dinner a few times first."
Tessa was silent as she looked the boy over. He still had the distrusting look in his eyes despite the crooked grin, but she still had to stay silent for a moment to ensure that she'd heard what she thought that she'd heard.
"I think," Tessa snapped at him, "that this is a good time for you to be serious."
The boy's smirk only seemed to grow. "This is serious for me."
Tessa looked away from him for a moment, hoping that Clary would just pop out of the shadows and they could figure out what to do about this smart-mouthed idiot before leaving. Sadly, she came up empty-handed in her searches.
"Looking for someone?" the boy asked. His tone was smug, almost as though he knew something that she didn't. His next words confirmed this feeling. "Short, like five foot three, red hair, pale skin, freckles?"
This time Tessa took a step forward herself, clenching her jaw together as she clasped the hilt of her knife more firmly. "Where's my sister?"
"Your sister is she?" the boy mused as though he found her more humorous than anything else. "You two don't look very much alike."
"Look," Tessa said to him, her patience finally snapping. "Either you tell me where she is, or I'll stab you with my knife!"
"You mean that you were trying to intimidate me with that little prick that you've got there?" he questioned with a humorless laugh as he nodded toward her weapon. "I figured that you were using that to cut down any little streamers that were in your way."
"Cute," she said to him dryly. "We'll see if you find this to be a prick when I stab you in the chest with it!" She took a step forward and held it right above her waist so that the point was angled toward his chest. "Tell me where Clary is!"
The boy shrugged. "I just saw her run off; she disappeared." He looked at her silently for another couple of seconds before remarking, "Just for the record, I answered that because I wanted to, not because I was scared by your little letter opener."
"I don't have time for this," Tessa groaned. "I need to go and get far away from you and your cousin, who might or might not be here!"
"Most women don't want to get away from me so quickly," he looked down at his body, as if checking his own figure out. "You hit your head or something?"
"Clearly you have," she replied venomously. "Just leave me alone, and stay away from me and my sister."
Before the boy could even so much as get the smug smirk off his face, there was a loud clattering noise, and two yells. The boy's eyes widened and he swore under his breath. "Jace!" Tessa saw his hand reach around to his back and a moment later, she heard the swishing noise of something coming out of a sheath. It was a large and wicked sword.
She couldn't even find it in herself to concentrate on that. She inhaled sharply and took off toward the back part of the store, where she was pretty sure that she heard the noise from.
~Will~
So taunting and tormenting the admittedly pretty girl that was just standing on top of a large pile of clothes was probably a bad idea, but he really couldn't help himself. He'd seen her sister dash away from her excitedly, and he'd already been separated from Jace to pick up all the different things on their lists, so he'd been thinking about keeping her away from his cousin because of the shorter girl that was bounding around somewhere in the store.
When he'd heard his cousin and a girl—probably the redhead—scream, he'd immediately dropped his joking demeanor for a more concerned one. He swore quietly, and more loudly, "Jace!" He pulled his sword out of its sheath. By that time, the girl with the brown hair and grey-blue eyes had turned around and started racing toward the noise. She was a total stranger racing toward his cousin. Will felt his foot push off the ground and he found himself darting after her.
He hadn't realized how tall she'd been atop the pile of junk that she'd been on. She was pretty lengthy; five foot ten, at the least. It made sense that she was so quick on her long legs. Will caught up to her after a couple of seconds, but, unlike his first instinct, he didn't stop her. Instead, he simply ran with her. She had her sister back there as well…Clary; that was what the girl had called her.
Will tripped and stumbled over a curtail rod, some sheets, a large pillow with half the stuffing scattered around it. The girl next to him had managed to nimbly dodge most things, but she'd still managed to trip herself up, going so far as to fall a couple of times. Will didn't so much as cast her a second glace as he moved forward. He heard her feet hitting the floor as she began moving again.
"Will!" he heard Jace's voice call toward him loudly. His cousin's tone was rarely anything but controlled, but this time it definitely had some obviously panicked.
He made it past a messy row of fallen aisles and saw his cousin's shaggy blond hair, and fit frame perched over a prone form.
"What the hell'd you do to my sister?" the girl behind him screeched. Her voice was so loud that he winced slightly at the noise.
Will turned around and managed to catch her in midair as she tried to jump at Jace. He threw her unceremoniously to the ground and turned to look at his cousin. "Jace," he said, his voice deadly calm, "What happened?"
"She saved my life," Jace said, turning to look at a dismembered corpse in a battered suit that was lying in a heap, black blood oozing from the stump that his head was going to be. "We were arguing one moment, and then she pushed me out of the way." He looked up at Will. "It scratched her."
The other girl was back on her feet, and Will hadn't even realized it until he felt something heavy and sharp hit the back of his head. He saw stars as he stumbled forward a few steps, just managing to regain his balance before he toppled into Jace. He spun around in time to have the brunette smack his sword out of his hand and point the knife to his neck. He felt the sharp steel sitting coldly against the skin. Immediately, his hands went up as he tried to think of something to say that might reconcile with her before he literally lost his head.
"What the hell?" Jace's voice came out behind him. "Are you crazy, lady?"
"Shut up!" Will snapped at his cousin. "I like having a head, Jace!" He looked at the girl in her narrowed eyes and said, "If you promise not to kill me, we can get your sister the medical attention that she needs."
"Why should I trust you?" she sneered.
"Think about it," Jace said as he slowly rose from the ground. "If I wanted to hurt your sister, I wouldn't have killed the zombie that tried to take a bite out of her shoulder."
"No," she snapped at him. "You just let him stick a handful of claws in her!"
"I wouldn't have let it do anything," Jace cried. "Listen…Tessa?" he looked at her with a raised eyebrow, as if making sure that he got the name right. "She's hurt, and if she doesn't get medical attention, she's going to die. We have a—"
"Jace!" Will snapped at him angrily. He might not have been able to glower at his cousin, but he was hoping to pass on his anger to him by sound alone. "Is there something wrong with your head? You don't just give out that kind of information to any pretty face that's looking for it!"
"I'm not looking for any information from you," Tessa snapped at him, her knife digging a little more firmly into his throat. "Keep talking, Jace."
"She saved my life," Jace told Will quietly. "I can't just let her die."
Will sighed, but knew that he was right.
"We have a small community of people a bit further out," Jace said to Tessa. "We have a few people there that are really good with medicine that can heal her up. She isn't the first scratch we've seen."
When Tessa didn't remove her knife from his throat, Will tentatively reached his hand forward, placing it on her arm. He didn't look away from her, and was afraid that he'd miscalculated his move when she tensed up. "Look, Tessa," he said, trying to keep his voice level and reasonable. "I can see that you care a lot about your sister, so don't let your stubbornness be the thing that gets her killed."
That finally did it. She slowly lowered her knife, wrenching her arm away from him. "Fine," she said. "Let's go." Will didn't miss the obvious mistrust that was shining in her eyes. He couldn't blame her, though. After all, Clary had hurt herself with Jace.
"Alright," Will said. "We can all fit into the truck."
Tessa moved forward, most likely intent on grabbing her sister, but Jace said, "I think I can handle her." Before anyone could say anything else, he'd grabbed her behind her neck and under her knees. He stood up and looked at them. He shrugged at Tessa, who was looking at him coldly, "It's the least I can do."
"Don't try anything funny," she snapped at him.
Jace looked at Will, raising an eyebrow. The message that he sent was loud and clear: Crazy! "Grab your sword, man," he said to Will. "You're going to need to pick up my and your slack."
"Let's save the trash-talking for later," Will suggested quietly so Tessa didn't hear him. He leaned down and picked up his preferred weapon. "Right now, we need to start thinking up an excuse to feed Luke about bringing in two outsiders."
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters, but the plot is mine!
Hey guys! I hope that you all liked the first chapter. I'm excited about this one and I'm hoping that you all are too. There's plenty more to come after this! It's 2:30 in the morning where I'm at, so I'm not really going to make this a lengthy author's note this time. Maybe later. Review on your way out and let me know what you think! Let me know if the story itself is something that I should even bother finishing.