Authors Note: I love the Mortal Instruments series. After it ended I wanted more, especially of Jace Wayland, who is a wonderfully deep and multi-faceted character. This fanfic will center on Jace as he meets Clary and will follow him through the rest of the series as he matures and grows from Jace Wayland-Morgenstern-Herondale to Jace Lightwood. I think I will probably continue it a little past where the series ends because I want some Jace-Clary action :)
Jace Wayland stood, shrouded by a glamour, slumped against a wall inside the Pandemonium Club next to his best friend and adoptive brother, Alec. He was bored. They were hunting a demon that attacked a pretty mundane girl a few days ago. She thought the demon was just a rapist, but Jace, Alec, and Alec's sister (therefore Jace's adoptive sister) knew better.
The rapist was a shape-shifter, an Eidolon demon, who they had recently discovered frequented the club. The fact that they were hunting a shape-shifter in a crowded club full of mundies had momentarily stumped them, at least until Jace remembered that his adoptive sister happened to be very pretty and very popular with any male (mundie and Downworlder alike) who was (mis)fortunate enough to cross her path. That girl is a force of nature with the opposite sex. Quite like myself, thought Jace with a conceited smile.
Jace assumed the demon would strike again if properly tempted and he formulated a plan to do just that. When he presented his idea to Isabelle, she was quite pleased; she wouldn't pass up tempting a boy to his doom (especially as in this case the boy was a demon and the doom was quite literal instead of metaphorical). Besides, she hadn't yet had the opportunity to do any proper tempting that week.
However, when Jace had been devising his plan he hadn't considered he might actually have to wait. Jace had thought Isabelle would catch the demon's eye immediately, while he and Alec waited briefly in a corner for their cue to move.
Jace thumped his head against the wall in thinly-veiled impatience. Alec shot him a dark look, and then quickly resumed scanning the crowd.
In an effort to ease his boredom, Jace too began a study of the crowd's occupants who were oblivious to his presence. He didn't bother looking for Isabelle; she was uncharacteristically easy to spot in the dark, foggy club in her long and flowing old-fashioned dress, which served to hide the Marks that all Shadowhunters wore from the demon. Instead, his eyes skimmed over the teeming mass of dancing teenagers, mundie and the occasional Downworlder, who were working themselves into a frenzy to the pulse of DJ Bat's latest headache-inducing creation. His gaze didn't pause on the outlandishly attired boys and only just lingered on the exposed flesh of the many gyrating girls, more out of bland interest than actual curiosity. At the moment, he couldn't lift his glamour and saunter into the crowd to find a pretty girl to charm, but he planned to later, maybe to add another all too willing girl to his long line of one-night stands with a quick tumble in one of Pandemonium's back rooms. He meticulously noted for later reference that the Pandemonium could indeed present many opportunities for entertainment if he ever had a particularly slow week.
Jace loved to be entertained. To him, entertainment was pretty much limited to killing demons, enforcing the Law in the Shadow world, and the occasional, brief dalliance with a girl, which was fine with him. Jace was always on the look-out for entertainment. What else was there to life?
Right now, Jace was ready for a little entertainment of the demon-killing variety (but then again when was he not in the mood to kill something?); the promise of an impending fight wound his nerves and muscles into tight bunches. It was one of the best feelings in the world and he loved it. Fighting was exciting, got his adrenaline pumping, quite like how he felt when he desired a girl.
A flash of bright color brought his eyes to the entrance of the club. His eyes fastened on a halo of fiery, copper-colored curls. His eyes moved further; the hair belonged to tiny girl, small enough to be a pixie, though her clothing and demeanor suggested otherwise; she wore a lime green tank-top and baggy jeans and she moved with a distinct lack of grace that a pixie would never be caught exhibiting. No, she couldn't be anything but mundane, as she was one of the most normal looking people Jace had ever seen, excepting the tall boy next to her who leaned down and whispered in her ear. The boy was more boring looking than average for a mundie, something Jace hadn't thought was possible. Just goes to show that you really do learn something new every day. Jace watched as they entered the dance floor, trying to get a better look at the girl, not knowing why she interested him.
Jace's study of the mundie girl and her less than memorable companion was suddenly cut short when Alec jabbed him in the shoulder. He shook his head, both chiding himself for letting a mundie girl distract him and for somehow being annoyed at Alec for interrupting his perusal of the girl. It was just a girl. "Look," Alec said, "I think she found him."
Jace turned just in time to see Isabelle break away from the horde of male admirers who had been clamoring for her attention. He watched as she began to walk across the room and saw the exact moment when an electric blue-haired boy in a red jacket noticed Isabelle. The boy tensed, like a dog scenting its prey, his eyes locking onto Isabelle. Gotcha, thought Jace. Finally.
He and Alec began moving as one through the crowd to the back of the club, to the storage room they had picked out earlier. On their way they glimpsed Isabelle as she lured the Downworlder into the unlocked room with a show of thigh high boots and a wicked, seductive smile. Jace shook his head and grinned ruefully. Isabelle enjoys this as much as I do, Jace mused.
The shape-shifter turned around and looked scanned the crowd for observers, causing Jace and Alec to dart into the mob of people for cover. Seeing no observers, the boy turned around and entered the room after Isabelle while Jace and Alec moved to stand guard beside the door.
"We wait for her signal right?" Alec asked, shooting him a quick sidelong glance.
"Sure, we wait for her signal, Alec," Jace cracked dryly. "If by signal you mean a thump and the demon cursing Isabelle." We'll be lucky if she leaves us anything, Jace ruminated to himself.
The words were barely out of his mouth when he heard, sure enough, a commotion inside the room. Quickly, before Isabelle could have all the fun, Jace withdrew a blade from the weapons belt that circled his hips and silently opened the door. When he slid into the room, he was not surprised to see the demon already on the dusty floor amid coils of electrical wiring, with Isabelle's whip twined around his ankles. Jace grabbed the shifter and dragged him off the ground to throw him into a concrete support pillar. Jace held him as Alec bound its hands with wire. Jace asked, his voice cold, "Are there any more with you?"
"Any other what?" spat the demon insolently. Righhht. Like he didn't know what Jace was talking about.
"Come on now." Jace urged, as he raised his hands, almost menacingly, allowing the long sleeves of his black shirt to slip down toward his elbows, gifting the boy with but a glimpse of the many Marks that covered his body. "You know what I am."
After a moment's silence, Jace was rewarded with a hissed, "Shadowhunter."
Jace couldn't stop the smile from spreading slowly across his face. Finally, we are getting somewhere. He shoved his hands in his pockets, and said, "Got You."
He watched the emotions flit across the demons face. Pain, hate, and fear were the ones that registered the clearest, the ones Jace looked for. Well, at least I'm good at what I do, thought Jace with no little amount of satisfaction.
Jace began to pace in front of the boy, affecting an unhurried air, as if he had all the time in the world to get his answers, something he knew the boy wouldn't like, as he, as Jace just observed, was in no little amount of discomfort. In this situation, as with so many others, Jace knew he had the power. "So, you still haven't told me if there are any of your kind with you."
"I don't know what you're talking about," the demon spat again. The boy's electric blue hair wouldn't let Jace take him seriously. Or maybe I'm just a little bit biased.
Alec chose this point to finally address the boy with, "He means other demons."
Ah, bravo Alec. I think the filthy bit of slime got that part.
Alec, however, was not finished. "You do know what a demon is, don't you?" Hm, I get it now, thought Jace. Alec thinks he is being funny. I really have got to talk to him about his people skills.
Jace watched as the demon turned his face from them, as if trying to get away. Always the one to lend a helping hand, he decided their new friend needed a little prompting.
"Demons," he began, writing the word in the air as if on a chalkboard, he a teacher and the demon boy an exceptionally dim pupil. "Religiously defined as hell's denizens, the servants of Satan, but understood here, for the purpose of the Clave, to be any malevolent spirit whose origin is outside our own home dimension—" Only to be cut off by Isabelle with a warning of, "That's enough Jace." Huh, she was the one who had teased the creature. Was I not allowed to taunt it just a little?
"Isabelle's right," interjected Alec. "Nobody here needs a lesson in semantics-or demonology." Traitor, thought Jace good-naturedly, as he lifted his head and smiled. I guess it's time to stop playing with him and get it over with, Jace sighed inwardly. He switched tactics, using his deadly charm to try tempting the demon into giving him answers. "Isabelle and Alec think I talk too much." he said to the demon, as if discussing a matter close to his heart. "Do you think I talk too much?"
Jace watched the Downworlder boy closely; he looked as if he was trying to work up the nerve to say something, reaching for something that would stay Jace's hand and save his life.
"I could give you information," the Demon said. Huh, how did I know? Jace asked himself sarcastically, but the boy's next words wiped the smug thoughts right from his mind. "I know where Valentine is." Stupid Downworlder. We would get the insane one, mused Jace, even though he remembered that this wasn't the first time a cornered demon had resorted to spouting out lies about a 17-year-dead Shadowhunter who had led the Uprising against the Clave.
Jace couldn't resist a quick look at Alec, who just shrugged. Load of help you are with the crazy demon. You are supposed to be the sensitive one.
Jace turned back to the demon-boy. "Valentine's in the ground. The things just toying with us."
"Kill it Jace. It's not going to tell us anything." Was all Isabelle had to say on the matter. She was bored and wanted to get back to dancing in the club. Maybe the slightly muffled thumping that's was DJ Bat's version of music was calling to her. Party-pooper.
Oh, well. I'm not going to get that brawl after all. Looks like he would get to distract himself with a girl in the room beyond sooner than he thought. I wonder if the tiny redhead is still here, thought Jace as he raised his seraph blade. Before he could plunge it into the demon, however, the boy gasped, "Valentine is back!" He wildly fought the bonds Alec had put on his wrists. "All the Infernal Worlds know about it-I know it- I can tell you where he is-"
Jace finally felt his patience slip, along with his carefully controlled mask that was usually always in place. The Downworlder was pissing him off. "By the Angel, every time we capture one of you bastards, you claim you know where Valentine is. Well, we know where he is too. He's in hell. And you-" Jace said as he repositioned his seraph blade in his grasp, readying for the kill, "You can join him there.
A voice behind him cried out, "Stop! You can't do this."
What? He whirled around with such force that the seraph blade he held fell from his hand and clanged to the floor. His eyes focused quickly on a girl in the shadows; it was the girl that had distracted him earlier, the one he had just thought about. How could she see us? Was I wrong? Is she more than just a mundane?
It was Alec who spoke first. "What's this?" he asked, nervously glancing between Jace and Isabelle and the small copper-haired girl.
Jace couldn't resist and felt compelled to state the blaringly obvious to his less than observant partner. "It's a girl. Surely, you've seen girls before, Alec. Your sister Isabelle is one." Jace couldn't help but study the girl again, a little more thoroughly this time. He stepped closer to her, as if pulled by an unseen force. He saw again her neon green camisole, baggy jeans and ballet flats, but he was close enough now to notice the slimness of her body, which he didn't get a good look at before; her curves, as small and delicate as the rest of her, captivated him. He could also see her face now, unlike previously from across the crowded club. He was startled by how exquisite she was; by far the prettiest mundie girl he had ever seen, though he usually wasn't discriminate when it came to girls. He took in sharp cheek bones in a pale, elegant face that were accented by a pretty cupids-bow mouth and a small, delicate nose dusted with freckles. His gaze fixed on her eyes; they were big, long-lashed, and the color, a beautiful emerald green, reminded him of rolling hills in Idris, of home. He shook himself, disconcerted.
Those were staring widely up (God, was she tiny) at them, him. When she wasn't supposed to be able to see them!
"A mundie girl," finished Jace, "And she can see us."
"Of course I can see you. I'm not blind you know."Jace saw a small flicker of annoyance behind the girl's eyes, and admired her for it. She had to be afraid right now. He pictured the scene as she would see it, with outsider's eyes; three very tall, very armed people in a dark back room grouped around a boy, a boy they were going to kill.
When did he care about what outsiders thought? Jace was amused at his reaction. "Oh, but you are," he responded to the pretty little mundie girl as he folded himself to retrieve his blade from where it had fallen on the dusty floor.
Jace had a sudden vision of the demon somehow escaping him, Alec, and Isabelle; it could easily overpower such a tiny, weak mundane girl. Jace remembered the demon liked pretty girls; remembered why they were hunting it. Jace knew these things happened often; it was how warlocks were created. It didn't usually inspire any emotion but disgust; now for some reason he couldn't bear thinking of the demon sullying the girl's flawless skin with its touch.
He inwardly scolded himself. He wasn't the type to go panting over any girl, especially a mundie, no matter how pretty they were. They were entertainment, distractions, he reminded himself. He resolved to be annoyed with the girl.
"You'd better get out of here, if you know what's good for you."
The girl, unaware of what motivated Jace to send her away, said, "I'm not going anywhere. If I do, you'll kill him," She said, indicating the demon with her eyes.
"That's true," said Jace, ever honest, as he twirled his blade between his fingers, purposely trying to scare her, to get her to realize that this was her cue to leave, though at the same time not wanting her to. What is wrong with me? "What do you car if I kill him or not?"
He enjoyed the way her face screwed up incredulously. She looked stunned, astonished that he would ask such a question; she spluttered, tripping on her own words as she tried to say, "Be-because you can't just go around killing people." The tone to her words implied that there was an unspoken DUH lurking somewhere.
Jace gallantly conceded to this very valid point. "You're right," he said, for some reason wondering what kind of reaction his words would get from the girl. He watched her carefully. Indeed, he seemed incapable of watching anything else and said, "You can't just go around killing people." He pointed to the boy without looking at him. "That's not a person, little girl. It may look like a person and talk like a person and maybe even bleed like a person. But it's a monster."
Isabelle had to ruin the fun. She was quite dependable that way. "Jace, that's enough." A warning colored her tone.
"You're crazy. I've called the police, you know. They'll be here any minute."
Jace wasn't worried. It's not like they, unlike this oddity of a girl, could see him, Alec, or Isabelle.
"She's lying." Alec said, though Jace could hear the uncertainty in his voice. "Jace, do you-"
Alec's question was suddenly cut off by the demon, who voiced a very piteous howl as he ripped the wires from around his wrists. Damn thing must have been working at them while I was busy taunting the mundie. The boy threw himself at Jace. It looks like I am going to get my brawl after all. Hooray for me.
Jace let the boy come. As the boy drew level with him, Jace grabbed him, threw him over his hip and onto the floor, following him down and rolling on top of him. The boy's hands whipped wildly at Jace's face, as if trying to rip it off. Jace heard the girl gasp and he flicked his eyes in her direction. What happened to her? The Eidolon noticed Jace's distraction and took advantage of it. Abruptly, Jace was whirled around and the demon was somehow sitting on his chest. Jace thought a stream of ugly curses and blasphemies. At the rate they were going, that girl would be the death of him. Alec and Isabelle, sensing he might need a little help, started forward just as the demon tried to take a swipe at his face. Jace, his reflexes never failing him, raised him arm to divert the blue-haired boys' claws from raking his face. It stung, but he'd live. Disaster averted, he thought wryly, as blood streamed down his arm. Just think of all the girls who would be heart-broken to see a face such as mine marred. For some reason, the mundie girl's face sprang inexplicably to mind. The image disappeared as quickly as it had come when he saw the boy moving to strike again. He saw Isabelle's whip fall flash out of the corner of his eye; it struck the demon across the back and saved Jace another bloody, demon inflicted gash.
Jace, never one to waste an opportunity, took the moment to roll the demon over, putting it back on the ground as he quickly sank his seraph blade deep into the boy's chest; blood spurted all over him, soaking his shirt. Jace stood, feeling his face give away some of his weariness and pain. It had been a long day. Jace looked back down at his blade still hilt deep in the demon, who was thrashing on the floor. Wordlessly, he leaned over and pulled it back out. Black ichor stained the pure, deadly beauty of the knife. He was surprised when the demon fixed its acid green eyes fixed on him. It said, "So be it. The Forsaken will take you all."
If ordinary humans were Marked with many powerful runes, the pain of the Mark drove them insane, creating a Forsaken. If the Mark didn't kill them outright. The Forsaken became something that was no longer human; fearless, unable to think for themselves. Only the person that Marked them could control them. Forsaken were evil and doomed to die quickly after serving the one that created them.
Jace let his face screw up in to a feral snarl. A threat of Forsaken was never taken lightly. He watched as the demon's body got smaller and smaller as it faded into nothingness, going back to the world that it came from. Good Riddance.
For a few moments, Jace didn't move, didn't acknowledge Alec when he seized his arm and tore back the sleeve. Alec had done this many times before. It wouldn't be the last. Jace didn't flinch when the familiar, comforting burn of an iratze was carved into his arm.
He heard a gasp behind him. The mundane girl. He had forgotten about her when the demon had mentioned the Forsaken. He turned to see Isabelle's whip twined about the girl's small wrist.
"Stupid little mundie. You could have gotten Jace killed," accused Isabelle. Jace heartily agreed.
"He's crazy," the girl gasped as she tried to free herself from the whip, something Jace knew from experience was all but impossible without Isabelle's consent. "You're all crazy. What do you think you are, vigilante killers? The police-"
Ah, so she hadn't been watching when the demon disappeared from their world. Well, it was time to expand her education. "The police aren't usually interested unless you can produce a body." Jace said, almost pleasantly, as strode across the cable strewn floor. He heard Alec follow all after him, still trying to look at his arm. Jace watched her as she looked to where the boy had lain just seconds before and saw her stunned, disbelieving expression. "They return to their home dimensions when they die. In case you were wondering." Of course she was.
"Jace, be careful," Alec warned.
He didn't know what he was supposed to be careful about. The girl had seen them, seen him kill a demon. Careful was long gone. Besides, it's not like there was anyone who would believe her. She had to know that. Jace carefully extracted his arm from Alec; he could feel it healing. "She can see us Alec. She already knows too much."
"So what do you want me to do with her?" Isabelle asked. I wish I knew. The whip caught a shaft of light and sparkled, still woven around the tiny mundie girl's wrist, which, for some reason, made him slightly uncomfortable. True, the girl had distracted him (more than once, Jace was ashamed to admit) and might have even gotten him killed if he wasn't as skilled as he was. But however conflicted his feelings were towards the girl, he didn't want to hurt her. Feelings? He couldn't believe he had just thought that. Jace Wayland didn't have feelings about girls.
"Let her go," he said, ignoring the startled glare Isabelle threw him before releasing the mundie from the whip. Jace watched the girl massage her now freed wrist with his mask firmly in place. Well, it's now or never .Time to get some answers.
Before Jace could begin to question the girl, Alec turned to him and suggested, "Maybe we should bring her back with us. I bet Hodge would like to talk to her."
I guess taking her down to the Institute couldn't hurt, Jace allowed to himself. Hodge would at least know what questions to ask the girl.
"No way are we bringing her to the Institute. She's a mundie."
Isabelle's comment struck Jace. What if the girl wasn't just a mundane?
He looked at the girl, golden eyes fastened on her face, ready to read it as his words fell on her ears. "Or is she? Have you had dealings with demons, little girl? Walked with warlocks, talked with the Night Children? Have you--?"
"My name is not little girl,'" she flung at him. He would have responded that she was indeed the smallest girl he had ever seen that wasn't classified as a midget or a Downworlder in an effort to goad her into admitting if she was, in fact, not human, but she continued on. "And I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't believe in--in demons, or whatever you--"
At that moment the storage room door opened. Ah, she hadn't been lying when she told them she had called for backup. Smart mundie. The tall, extra-extra- ordinary mundie she had entered the club peeked into the room and spoke one word. "Clary?" Her name. The girl pirouetted on the spot, surprisingly quickly.
Clary. How ironic that the mundie girl who could see them would be named Clary. Like the herb that was rumored to reveal the Fair Folk after being eaten.
The boy was followed into the room by the bouncer he, Alec, and Isabelle had to pass to get into the club. The particularly powerful glamour they had employed for the evening wasn't needed to fool him, though it hadn't been for Clary, but the bouncer was very dumb. Jace suspected his brain had been fried by steroids. The things mundies do.
The boy stared at the girl, bee lined for her like she was the only person in the room to him; of course he couldn't see through the glamour, so to all intents and purposes she was the only person there to him, but it was more than that. Jace suspected the boy would look at her like that even if they were he was in a crowded room. Tunnel vision, eyes on the prize, thought Jace cynically.
"Are you okay?" the boy asked when he reached her, while he squinted into the darkness through his crooked glasses. The kid is going to strain himself looking for things he will never find, Jace mused uncharitably. "Why are you in here by yourself? What happened to the guys--you know, the ones with the knives?"
The girl turned to look at him, Isabelle and Alec, still grouped close to where the demon had disappeared. He caught her eye and gave her a shrug, amused at her situation, though a small part of him wished she wasn't in it, wished he could take her to the Institute, or down to Taki's to get to know her. He still had questions for her.
She turned to face her tall, dark-haired mundie companion. When her eyes tore from his, he felt it like something physical. Maybe it was just the color of her eyes that inspired the feeling. He did miss Alicante. "I thought they went in here," the girl began. "But I guess they didn't. I'm sorry. It was a mistake," she said finally, addressing the huge bouncer who hulked in the doorway.
What else could she tell the bouncer and her friend? Only she would know the truth. Unbidden, a sense of satisfaction, of rightness, settled over Jace. It felt natural, correct that the girl knew his secret, the secret of his life, his world. He heard Isabelle laugh lightly, almost condescendingly at the girl as she left the room with the very mundane mundane and the steroid fried bouncer. I will see you again, he called out to her in his mind. He hoped the curiosity he had for her could be appeased after spending some timewith the girl, though he suspected that it would take more than just a one-night stand to do it. And for some reason, he was okay with that. In fact, he couldn't wait.