Chapter 1

"By the Angel, why the hell won't this thing die already!" I shouted aiming my voice towards a figure about 10 metres away.

"I don't know. All I know is that I haven't seen or heard about this type of demon before." Replied Jace who then proceeded to slash his blade across the its throat.

"Me neither," I said "I mean what is it. It's somewhere between an Oni demon, a Raum demon and an Ahaib demon!" Worry and confusion cracked through my usually calm voice as every lethal blow that should have killed the thing, left it with a gash that would ooze a pungent liquid then heal into an off white scab.

"Okay, this thing is getting on my nerves now!" Yelled a voice as a whip coiled around the creatures throat. The whip was then pulled with such a force that it decapitated the demon leaving it to blunder about oozing liquid before a scab formed over the end of its throat.

"Oh come on!" Shouted an aggravated Jace, "You have got to be kidding me!"

The creature started to run down the alleyway towards Alec who just stood against the wall his eyes glazed with sadness.

"Alec, what do you think you're doing?" Jace yelled at the boy "You let it get away!" The boy continued to stare into space with a vacant expression at nothing. If it weren't for the pained look that clouded his bright blue eyes, I would have thought that he wasn't feeling.

"Alec, Alec!" Izzy shook her brother trying to get him out of his self-induced coma "Alec!"

"What?" He said shaking his head and blinking as if he had just stepped from a dark room into the sunlight. "Sorry, my mind was on…other things." He mumbled and fixed his gaze firmly on the floor.

"Don't worry," I said placing my hand on Jace's clenched fist. He unclenched his hand and let my own slip in to ease his anger at his adopted brother. "we can get it another time. In the meantime lets head back to the institute." I said eased by the nodding heads of the others.

We walked to the institute with Izzy comforting Alec and Jace and I's hands entwined. Isabel's black hair hung down in a velvet curtain surrounding the two of them and engulfing their faces. Alec's hair was ruffled like he had been running his hands through his hair, he probably had been. His breakup with Magnus was short and brutal, like one of Izzy's, and had hit him hard.

We got back to the institute by midnight and were about to head our own ways when we heard the strangest warping sound.