Shadow Accessories: Blood of a Demon

Chapter One-Mistrust is Born

April 2nd

Jonathon seems to be embracing his demonic nature more and more as he grows older. With the recent celebration of his 1st birthday I've noticed he's begun to exhibit more violent behavior. A small setback. The demon blood seems to have perfectly mixed with his shadowhunter blood, it is possible that I may have created the first of a new breed of unstoppable shadowhunters. I was worried during Jocelyn pregnancy that the blood wouldn't take but it seems to be perfect. Jonathon is still only just a child through, more monitoring is needed to see weather or not any major demonic changes will occur. Other than the violent tendencies Jonathon is less social and people seem to shy away from him. Even his own mother seems to be appalled. I thought my own aversion to the child was because I knew the reason for his being like this. I supposed in time though, he could be taught to be more sociable...

Jocelyn Morgenstern read the short paragraph of the entry in the journal, shocked at what it said. She had known her husband was getting more and more ambitious in his plans to take over the Clave, but to make an experiment out of his own child? Jocelyn felt like she was going to be sick.

The first moment Jocelyn had held her son, Jonathon Christopher, she knew something was not right with her child. His eyes were as black as night and were far too cold to belong to any infant. Everything in her had screamed something was wrong, but she had repressed it and told herself that it was just nerves about raising a child. Now though, she knew the truth. The only thing Jocelyn could think about was how Valentine had gotten demon blood into the baby while she was still pregnant with him, the possibilities made her sick.

The young shadow hunter had just been cleaning up her and her husband, Valentine, bedroom. She had stumbled upon a journal in his bedside table. It was a ratty old small journal, but for some reason it had intrigued her. Jocelyn had just read the last entry and felt no need to go through the rest of the entries. From just flipping through she had a pretty good idea about what the rest of the little book contained. Every fiber in her told Jocelyn told her to throw the book, get it as far away as possible. Jocelyn walked to the window and raised the accused book above her head, ready to throw it out towards the green fields that could be seen all around her family estate. Just as she was about to catapult the offending book out the window she halted herself. Valentine would notice if this was gone, Jocelyn was sure.

So instead of throwing away the book that documented the destruction of her son, Jocelyn walked back to the table where she found it and replaced it in the drawer.

"He's a monster." Jocelyn spat venomously aloud to no one in particular as she stormed out of the bedroom.

"Are you speaking of Lucian my dear?" Chills ran up Jocelyn's spine as she heard that familiar voice speaking from behind her. She whirled around and there stood Valentine, looking as cool and collected as always, even when mentioning his dead werewolf best friend.

"I-Yes." Jocelyn said. "I'm still trying to come to terms with what happened to him. I thought maybe saying it out loud would help let it sink in." Valentine examined her for a moment, his cold blue eyes baring into her. After a few moments he stepped forwards and wrapped his arms around his wife, Jocelyn had to force herself not to flinch away.

"I know you miss Lucian. It's natural to. He was your childhood companion. But remember my dear, he's dead now. He died as honorable a death as any shadow hunter inflicted with the lycranthrope disease can die." Valentine looked straight into Jocelyn's eyes. "Although I am intrigued as to why you referred to him in present tense, as if he were still alive."

Jocelyn paused for a moment, her mind working a mile a minute to try and come up with an exclamation. "Well as hard as it is to except he was turned into a werewolf," Jocelyn said slowly. "It's harder still to except him as dead. It's just going to take some getting use to darling." Jocelyn forced a smile and stretched up to give her husband a small kiss on his cheek. "Shouldn't we be leaving? The meeting will be starting soon."

"Ah yes. How could I forget." Valentine released his wife from the hold he had around her. "The carriage is ready and waiting outside and Jonathon is with your mother in the family room. I was coming up to get you. Come along now Jocelyn." Valentine wrapped his arm around Jocelyn's shoulders and lead her down the hall, towards the front doors of their estate. On the gravel driveway in front was the Morgenstern carriage waiting, the family crest of stars surrounding the letter "M" on the door. The driver hoped down from his seat when he saw the couple approaching and opened the door for them.

"Thank you Maxwell." Jocelyn nodded towards the boy as she stepped in the carriage, Valentine remained silent. The door swung shut behind the couple and Maxwell resumed his seat, taking the reins in his hands.

"We're running late Maxwell," Valentine called through the little window towards the driver. "Be sure to make good time to Wayland Manor."

The Circle was a group of young Shawdowhunter hand picked and led by Valentine. Their goal was to rebuild the Clave, the center of Shawdow hunter society, as Valentine had convinced him it was corrupted by greed and need to be purified again. He had collected many followers, Jocelyn included, with his powerful speeches and flawless charm. Along with trying to create a better working Clave, he had also convinced them of the unnaturalness of Downworlders. Werewolves, vampires, faeries, and warlocks had been hunted vigorously by the Circle; almost completely wiped out of Idris.

The Circle meetings almost always took place in the Wayland Manor. Micheal Wayland was widowed and had no servants or other family members besides his year old son. The manor was large and had room upon room that was never used. Valentine had marked one of the larger rooms the official meeting place of the Circle. A large oval table was placed there, with enough chairs for each of the Circle members. Other than that the room was bare.

Jocelyn dutifully sat by Valentines side throughout the meeting, although making less comments and remarks than she usually would have. Even though she kept her mouth shut, her ears were still wide open.

As per usual with the last few meetings, this one centered around the Uprising. For months the Circle, the people Jocelyn used to count herself as, had been planning to ruin the Accords. To disrupt the meeting between Downworlders and Shadowhunters. As Jocelyn listened to the talk and plans that she had helped create, she realized how much had changed since this group had been brought together by Valentine so many years ago.

"If we show up with our numbers and weapons there's no way the Clave will ignore us." Pangborn was saying from halfway down the table. "It will be simple enough."

"But if the Clave sees us with weapons drawn then their sure to go into defense, and I'm sure that the werewolves and vampires won't take to lightly to having weapons pointed at them." Robert Lightwood argued from his wife's side.

"Enough of this pointless banter." Valentine said suddenly, cutting off all discussion in the room. "The key here is subtlety. How do we get in and get heard without causing a riot. The last thing we want is for their to be a battle of any sort. Shadowhunters should never fight against one another." Valentine looked around the room, looking each person in the eye. "We must remember that weapons would alert the Clave, like you said Robert, and that we don't have as many numbers as we had hoped for for the Uprising. Stephan's and Celine's deaths are only the latest. We've lost many valuable members in the last year alone, if the Uprising goes as we hope though, our group will no longer matter and we will become the Clave itself." All around the table Circle members looked up at Valentine in awe, amazed at how confident he sounded.

"Valentine," Hodge Stalkweather suddenly spoke up. "What if we..." Hodge sprang into yet another way to put the plan into action. Jocelyn listened intently, making sure to memorize every single detail of the plan. When Hodge had finished speaking the room remained eerily silent, everyone waiting for Valentine to make a move. Jocelyn looked up at her husband and saw the calculating look in his eye, knowing that he was doing a mental run through of the new idea. Everyone in the Circle stared at their leader, waiting. Slowly a small smile crept over Valentines face.

"I'm surprised Stalkweather. This plan of yours is easily the best one so far." Valentine gave Hodge a nod, acknowledging him. A murmur of chatter broke out in the group, all discussing this new plan. Jocelyn took advantage of the buzz of conversation to get Valentines attention.

"Valentine, I think I'm going to go back to the manor. I'm not feeling well and I miss Jonathon." Jocelyn said, trying to make her voice sound as small and weak as possible.

"Yes dear, you don't sound very well at all." Valentine frowned, looking at his wife. "Maxwell should be waiting downstairs with the carriage. Have his bring you home and then come back. I should still be a while yet." Valentine brought a hand up to stroke Jocelyn's cheek and then placed a light kiss on her forehead.

Jocelyn then got up and walked out of the meeting room wordlessly, ignoring the stares of Circle members that followed her. She held her head up high as she exited, blocking out the mutterings of why Valentines wife would leave his side during a meeting. None dared to voice their opinions too loudly though. When she had exited through the grand doors of the room Jocelyn let out a sigh of relief. Every minute she was with Valentine was another minute she feared he would guess her plans. Picking up her pace, she quickly made it out of the Wayland Mansion and onto the front lawn. It didn't take long for Jocelyn to track down the Morgenstern Carriage, and Maxwell lounging in the drivers seat.

"Maxwell," Jocelyn said, catching the young boys attention. Maxwell was only 16 and had just recently started working for Valentine. "I would like to go home now. Valentine said for you to come straight back after dropping me off at the Manor. The meeting should be done soon."

"Yes Mrs. Morgenstern." Maxwell nodded, jumping down to open the carriage door for Jocelyn. she gave him a small smile as she stepped in and waited for him to take his seat in the front. Jocelyn used the quick ride to the Fairchild Manor to think to herself, to solidify the plan she had been formulating since she had read what her husband did to their child. By the time Maxwell was turning into the drive way Jocelyn knew exactly what needed to be done. When the carriage stopped outside the doors to the Manor Jocelyn was out the door of the carriage before Maxwell could even get out of the seat.

"Hurry back Maxwell. You don't want to keep Valentine waiting." Jocelyn waved the boy off. Maxwell nodded quickly and took off down the gravel path again, Jocelyn watched him until he was out of sight. "Now I just need one thing..." She turned and hurried into the mansion.

Keeping her steps swift but silent, she wound her way through the manor until she reached a room and the end of the second floor corridor. Jocelyn hesitated in front of it, resisting the urge to knock out of habit. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Jocelyn opened the oak door and stepped into the room.

It looked exactly as it had the last time she was there. Bed unmade, a few belongings scattered around, one or two pictures on the night stand. A layer of dust covered everything. The sight of the vacant room made Jocelyn want to smile and cry at the same time. This was the room that her childhood best friend, Lucian Greymark, had stayed in for the terrifying month after the werewolf camp raid. The month when they waited to see weather or not he was infected with the disease.

Jocelyn shook off the memory, she had more important things to do. Valentine had told her that Lucian had killed himself when he found out he was infected with the disease. Jocelyn had never questioned it, but now she decided it was time to find out if it was true or not. She looked around the room for something personal of Lucians, her eyes landing on a his hairbrush that held a few stray strands of hair. Picking it up she clutched the hairs in her hand tightly and turned her fist over. Taking out her steele, she started drawing a rune on the back of her hand. When finished she closed her eyes and concentrated.

Inside of her eyelids she saw a clearing in a forest. It looked like a small camp was settled their. People of all types were walking around. Jocelyn opened her eyes, slightly surprised. She hadn't expected the rune to work, but from what she just saw she was sure of two things.

Lucian Greymark was alive and he was living at a werewolf camp.

A/N I randomly got this idea a few nights ago and could stop writing. I have the outline done with the idea for the two other stories to make the Shadow Accessories Trilogy. Review and tell me what you think of it :) Feedback is always welcome

-Caitii