When I turned the corner into the alley behind Bernie's bar, I knew all hell would be loose. I suddenly wished I would have brought more than my favorite dagger and my angel blade. Three seawick demons surrounded me, each looking like they wanted something good to eat. They looked like they should be in the Hudson River with their tails and legs a dull gray and they're eyes like fishes. They're arms were long, with dark blue scales running down the length, connecting to their sharp, webbed hands. From what I had learned from my mother about these demons, the only way to kill them was to hit their armpits. Great, I thought, there is no way these ugly demons use deodorant, and I'm going to have the pleasure of taking a whiff of their lovely smell.
"Hey there sweet thing. What are you doing out here, alone in New York City?" said the demon of the left in a seductive voice, majorly disgusted, I turned around to walk away, cause I seriously did not want to do this tonight, the demon wiped his arm out and grabbed my elbow pulling closer, "Now, now, now," he said angrily, "where do you think you're going? I never said you could leave, little girl."
My piercing greens eyes flashed with anger, I seriously hated being called little girl, as I pulled put out my angel blade and muttered, "Raziel" under my breath. The angel blade lit up and I charged at the demons. Most people don't know how well I can fight, because no one took time to look past my fiery red hair, badass attitude and my stupid height. It's not my fault I'm barely past 5ft 1in. Anyway, I got the upper hand by surprising them and stabbed the closest demon in the armpit, which smelt like the boys locker room after they ran the mile, and believe me you do not want to know how I know that.
I was coughing from the stench of the first demons armpits when another one tackled me to the ground. My angel blade slid across the ground just out of my reach. I was about to start panicking when I remembered I still had my dagger. The seawick demon brought it's hand up to my cheek and was rubbing circles with its so called "thumb". Ignoring the urge to gag, I let my hand make its way to my belt where I felt my dagger. In one fluid motion I raised my hand with the dagger up to the demons armpit and stabbed, all while pushing it off me, standing and looking for the last demon. Two down, one more to go, I thought, now where is it?
Just as the thought finished in my head I heard a sickening snap. I whirled around to see the demon standing over a little girl, probably no older than ten, lying on the ground, her blue eyes wide and fearful. Her breath came to a slowing stop, but the pile of blood kept growing from her neck, which was bent at an odd angle, staining her blonde hair. Her mouth was parted in a surprised "o" shape. I suddenly felt a rush of anger towards the demon. More than usual, anyway. He had no right to kill that little girl simply because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I looked up at the demon would had moved a couple of feet away from the mangled body, and lunged at him. He barely had time to react, by bringing his arm up and swiping at me with great force. I flew back and the brick wall, sinking to the ground. Black spots dotted my eyes as I tried to regain focus. When the spots cleared my vision I looked up to see the seawick demon hovering over me. Somewhere, in the process I managed to lose my dagger leaving me defenseless. Suddenly, the demon went rigid, and blood and ichor sprayed all over my face. I stifled a scream and looked up to see a hand shoot out for me to grab. Not knowing who it was I grabbed it, grateful for the help, but wondered who would have seen the demon. I looked up to see gorgeous amber eyes staring at me with concerned filled in them. It was a boy, or a man so to speak. One of the most beautiful I had ever seen, and saying something. The boy had luscious gold hair that reminded me of a halo. He was tall, probably 6ft 4", and the dude had some serious muscles going on. I suddenly thought of the movie "Night at the Museum 2" when the statue guy said, "Boom, boom, fire power" while kissing each of his arms.
Reality sank in when I realized he'd been talking to me for the past two minutes, "…are you ok?" he finished.
"What" I said stupidly.
He chuckled, "I said, are you ok?"
"Oh yeah, ummm, did you see the thing that attacked me by any chance?"
"Duh, why else would I have come to save the damsel in distress." He said sarcastically.
My eyes flashed with anger again and I took a step closer to him, getting into his personal bubble, "Look mister, I didn't need your help I could have take the last demon down. I took the other two down, without your help. So don't go calling me a damsel in distress, you can just take your ass jacket off and cut the crap."
He stared at me for a moment, a disbelieving look on his face, before he wiped it clean and smirked, "Ass jacket? That's a first. They have those? You know you're not very intimidating using words like that, and well I'm also about a foot taller."
"What's my height have to do with anything?" I said taking a step back, trying to cool down.
"Nothing, I just felt like bringing it up. Or well down in your case." That's it, he's crossed the invisible line. I thought.
"I don't need you talking down to me." I said starting to walk away.
"Well I could hardly talk up to you." He said catching up to me in four strides.
"Oh by the Angel, would you stop talking to me!" I shouted. He froze as soon as I said the words "By the Angel"
"You're a shadowhunter." He said, not a question, just a statement.
I gulped, Oh boy he wasn't suppose to know that, moms gonna kill me when she finds out. Oh well, cats already out of the bag. "Yeah so?"
"Well that explains why you see the demons and why you had an angel blade with you. Now tell me, do you always get stuck in sticky situations, or should I say bloody?" he said pointing at the blood all over my face.
"No, I wasn't looking for trouble, it found me on it's own. Now if you don't mind, I would like to go clean up my face." I looked around hoping to find a store with a bathroom in it.
"Wait. Don't you want to know if I'm a shadowhunter. For all you know, I could be a werewolf." He said, chuckling to himself like it was an inside joke.
"No, I already know you're a shadowhunter, you have runes and we all know downworlders can't bear the marks." I said taking a step closer with each word. I was only inches from his face now.
He stared at me for a moment, studying me, then said, "What's your name?"
I hesitated. I'm not suppose to give my name out, because then the Clave would find me, and we all know that, that would ruins mom's lovely plans. Ah, what the heck, most of the cats out of the bag anyway, he already knows who I am. Why not just let the rest of the cat out? I thought.
"Clary. Clary Fray." I said sliding my arm to shake his, "Yours?"
"Jace." He replied, taking my hand and shaking it.
"What no last name?"
"Only people I know get the privilege of knowing that." He smirked at me.
"Where's the trust? I already know you're a shadowhunter, and you've known me oh so long." I said sarcastically.
Jace laughed, and then leaned in so that his lips were right by my ears, "If you come to the institute tomorrow, then I'll tell you my last name."
As soon as he said institute I knew who he was, he was Jace Lightwood. The best shadowhunter his age, besides me, but since the clave didn't know me, so I don't count. He was adopted and he was the most annoying person in the world.
I smiled mischievously at him and said, "You got a deal, Lightwood." The look on his face was priceless. With that I turned on my heel walking away, listening to his laughter as it ran out like an angels.
The next day, I was up at the crack of dawn, leaving a note for my mom saying that Simon and I were having a Harry Potter marathon again, and that I would be at his house, spending the night. She knew that when we do these marathons we start REALLY early so that we can get as much as we can in. Simon was my best friend and my only friend. He was used to covering for me though, since I always sneak out, and use him as a cover. I had called him the night before telling him to cover for me, and that I would talk to him sometime soon.
Simon knew I was a shadowhunter, just like I knew he was a vampire. Still, even as a vampire Simon was geeky. He always wore jeans since the weather didn't affect him, his beat up sneakers, and stupid t-shirts that said things like "The epic t-shirt". He had straight brown hair that covered his eyebrows and he had chocolate brown eyes. He was sort of tall 5ft 11", but skinny.
I grabbed 2 angel blades and muttered their names "Gabrielle" and "Sanvi", went to my earth brown room and grabbed my IPod touch and phone, then headed out the door. I ran down the stairs of the apartment complex and whizzed by Madame Dorthea's room before she could complain about the stairs being to creaky, and that Luke should come fix them.
When I made it safely outside, I pulled my IPod out and started scrolling until I found my favorite song, Stutter by Maroon 5. I started walking in the direction of the institute, humming the words, and letting the lat fall breeze hit me. It was November 19st, only five days until my birthday. I let the soothing voice of Adam drown me while I walked.
If I could touch you I'd never let go
Now you got me screamin' and I can no,
Shut up.
Now I am lying on the bedroom floor,
Barely even speakin' and I can not,
Uh, get up.
And I really, and I really…
I didn't bother marking myself up because a) it's the crack of dawn, and nothing but cars are out. And b) it's New York. Nobody cares if you skip school or not. Though I'm not skipping school, since I don't go, and there on a four day break, so I'm not worried.
When I reached the institute I didn't even hesitate and walked straight up to the door and was about to let myself in, when I decided to be annoying. I walked over to the door bell and rang. I waited another ten seconds before ringing again. I kept doing this until a very angry looking girl opened the door and let me in. She was pretty. Everything I wasn't, tall, long black hair, electric blue eyes. She had the curves I wished I had, and a graceful way of walking.
"Who are you?" she asked, as soon as I stepped in.
"I'm Clary. Who are you" I replied.
"Isabelle Lightwood, I live here. Is there any particular reason you're ringing the door bell at dawn?" she asked suddenly looking annoyed.
"No. I just felt like waking you guys up, for no absolute reason." Her eyes widened when I said that, and it took everything I had not to double over in laughter, "Kidding, jeez, no I'm here to see Jace. He told me to meet him here today, so I thought I'd come over early just to bug him."
Isabelle smiled at me and said, "I like you, come on I'll show you to his room."
"Wait. Can you take me to the kitchen first? I wanna wake him up in a special way." I said smiling at the thought of my evil plan to piss Jace off.
Isabelle's smile turned into a grin, "Oh hell yes! I've got to see this."
Ten minutes later we were standing outside Jace's door, me holding a bucket full of freezing cold water, and Izzy holding a cam. recorded. Izzy knocked lightly on the door and said, "Jace? You up? Are you at least decent?" We waited until we heard a grunt in response and took that as a yes. Isabelle opened the door, looked in to make sure he was decent, and then motioned for me to follow her in.
When I walked into Jace's room I noticed two things about him. 1) He was a neat freak. Everything he had was neatly organized and his wall were white. The second things was that he had no shirt on, so I got a full view of his six pack, and let me tell you, they do not disappoint.
I walked right up to him and said, "Wakey, wakey, Jacey." Just as I figured he would, he grunted in response. I looked up at Isabelle and mouthed, Get ready. She nodded and got the cam. Corder ready and gave me a thumbs up. I lifted the bucket over Jace's head and tilted the whole thing over his head All of the water hit his face, and suddenly Jace shot up, his eyes looked livid, like he could kill someone, who hopefully wasn't me or Izzy. Izzy and I doubled over, laughing our guts out until tears brimmed our eyes. "WHAT THE HELL!" Jace yelled at us.
Eventually I managed to get a hold of myself and stood up wiping tears from my eyes, "Oh. My. God. You should have seen the look on your face when the water fell on your head." I burst out laughing again while Isabelle continued to laugh.
"That's so not funny! Wait. Why are you here? It's like 5 a.m. the suns barely up."
"Yes, it is funny. And you told me to be here, so I came at the crack of dawn, better than midnight right?" I said sarcastically.
"SO YOU DECIDE TO COME HERE THIS EARLY AND DUMP WATER ON MY HEAD?" Jace yelled at me.
"Yes, I did." I said nodding my head and looking mischievous, "And let me tell you, I am not disappointed. Izzy here helped me out, recorded the whole thing." Jace looked murderously over at Isabelle, who stood frozen in spot. If looks could kill, I thought.
"Izzy!" He shouted and started after her. Isabelle darted from the room and down the hall towards Alec's room, who I learned was her older brother. Just as Jace opened the door again I ran threw, ahead of him and got to Alec's room first. I shoved open the door, and closed it as fast as I could, but not before Jace stuck his foot out and pushed on the door, opening it, and knocking me over. Now I'm seriously pissed, was the last thought that went through my head before I-