Disclaimer: I do not own the Mortal Instruments series, nor any of the characters. The Mortal Instruments is owned by Cassandra Clare, I merely do this to entertain.
Clary woke up with inked arms around her, and immediately recognized them as Jace's. Smiling, she brought up one of his hands and kissed it, turning on her side to face him. She gasped as he was already awake, his golden eyes staring playfully back at her emerald ones.
"Hello, beautiful." Clary smiled when she heard him speak to her, his voice smooth, and his breath, warm, on her face. She snuggled into his arms, burying her face into his chest, and he kissed the top of her head.
"Ughlofffghh,"she said, her voice muffled. She felt-rather than heard- him chuckle, his body shaking with the laughter.
"What did you say?"
Instead of answering, she leaned up and kissed Jace fully on the lips. His mouth parted in surprise, and she took that as an opening. Her hands were on the back of his head, twisting and playing with his golden curls. She suddenly felt his hands on her bare stomach and gasped. They started to kiss passionately, and after a while, Clary drew back for air.
She smiled crookedly at him,"I said I love you."
His eyes lit up like fireworks in the night sky, and he hoarsely whispered,"I love you too, Clary." Jace's voice sent shivers down her back, and she closed her eyes with content. Clary suddenly felt his warmth disappear from her, and she opened her eyes, frowning. She gasped and screamed at what she saw.
Looming before her, instead of Jace, was Sebastian. His eyes were leering down at her, and in his hand, he held a short dagger etched with runes. She tried to crawl away, but found that her arms were tied over her head. His smile released a shudder down her spine.
"Hello, dear sister." Sebastian lowered the dagger, and Clary squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the pain. It never came. In turn, she heard a male cry of surprise, one that was all too familiar. Clary's eyes shot open, and she saw Jace chained to the wall on the floor, Sebastian leaning over him, the knife in Jace's chest. The light in his eyes started to fade, and his mouth opened, blood pouring out, and formed one word. Clary.
"NO! JACE!" She started to sob uncontrollably, screaming his name over and over again. It seemed like hours when someone started to shake her shoulders. It was Sebastian.
His eyes were cold and as lifeless as his soul,"Clary, Clary wake up. Clary, open your eyes. Clary-"
"Jace!" She woke up gasping, and found herself whispering his name over and over again, until she realized that he was right there in front of her, a concerned look on his face. He brushed a thumb over her cheek and she realized that she was crying. She immediately tackled him with a hug, tears running down her cheeks. Jace gently pulled her away and tilted her chin up with his finger.
"Clary? Are you okay?"
She averted her eyes, and mumbled a reply,"Yeah, just a nightmare."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
Clary shook her head, and right then and there, her stomach growled. She looked up sheepishly, and Jace laughed, poking her stomach.
"Looks like we've gotta get you something to eat,"he grinned cheekily at her,"Mangoes ought to do the trick."
The Institute was fairly quiet, what with Isabelle on a date with Simon, and Alec over at Magnus's place doing who knows what. Clary was following Jace, her hand in his, as he lead her to the kitchen, He then sat her down at a chair, and grabbed freshly cut mango out of the fridge. He popped the airtight container open, grabbed a fork, and plopped down in the seat next to her. He started to dig in. Clary couldn't help but laugh as juice started to dribble down his chin due to the fact that he was eating like a pig.
Grabbing a napkin, she leaned over and wiped his chin. She then continued to take the fork out of his hand, spear some cubed mango, and put it into her mouth, smiling smugly as he glared at her playfully, his jaw hanging open.
"I cannot believe you just did that."
"I thought that the whole purpose of us coming to the kitchen was so that I could get something to eat,"she said, matter-of-factly.
"Oh, if you wanted some mangoes, all you had to do was ask"-he pointed to the fridge-"there's some mangoes in there, feel free to cut some."
Rolling her eyes, she stabbed some of the mango with her fork and shoved it into his mouth. "If you're going to open your mouth, might as well add more fruit in there." He started to chew the fruit, but still glared at her.
"What?" she inquired.
"You took my mangoes….. you owe me."
"And what would that be?"
"Cut me more?" he asked, his puppy-eyes wide and shining his hands clasped together. Clary laughed and got up, going through with his request. He shouted in glee, and she leaned in for a chaste kiss before grabbing another mango and a knife. She stood at the sink, cut the mango into small cubes, slid it into a bowl, and placed it in front of a very happy looking Jace-only to slide it away from him and in front of her. She took the fork out of his hand and sat down, starting to eat the pieces of mango one by one.
"Claaaaaaaary," he whined,"Whyyyyyyyyyy." Clary just smiled at him innocently.
"Whatever do you mean, my dear?" He tried to take the bowl away from her, but she slid it out of reach.
"Ugggggggh, it's so faaaaaaaaar."
"You're a Shadowhunter,"she said, amused,"Lazy isn't supposed to be a part of your vocabulary." He looked at her pleadingly until she sighed, finally giving in. "Okay, okay, fine, maybe you can have one- JACE!" she shouted. When the bowl was just in reach, Jace's hand shot out like lightning, and when she looked at him, he was shoveling the pieces into his mouth. Within seconds, when he was satisfied that he hadn't left a bit of the delicious fruit left, he placed the bowl down onto the table triumphantly.
"That was hardly fair."
He ruffled her hair,"Life isn't fair."
"You have mango all over your face."
Jace used his shirt to wipe off his face, and she could see a strip of golden skin. Clary unconsciously leaned closer to him, not aware of what she was doing until they were merely inches apart. Before they knew it, they were kissing feverishly, Jace's hands ghosting over her, Clary's fisted into his hair. They were too focused to notice the door slam shut, or to hear Alec and Magnus talking while walking down the hallway and into the kitchen. Alec yelped in surprise, and Magnus, startled, snapped his fingers and a towel came to rest over Alec's eyes, shielding him from the view. Clary jumped back, her face reddening at the fact that they were just caught making out in the kitchen.
Magnus's eyebrows were in his hairline, but he made no comment. Alec shoved away the towel, his face red as well.
"Seriously?! In the kitchen?!" he exclaimed.
Jace chuckled,"Hey, the heart wants what the heart wants." All of a sudden, Isabelle came barging in, following with a scared-looking Simon. Maryse and Robert all tumbled in as well, they were all dressed in gear.
"Gear up,"Isabelle said,"Demons."
"It must be pretty bad for all of us to be going,"Jace pointed out.
"Two dozen,"she said, to be exact.
"Why so many?"
She shrugged, "Don't ask me, ask the demons themselves. Now, go, shoo, get dressed. I want to get this overwith so Simon and I can spend more time watching cheesy romance movies together."
Clary dressed in her gear, grabbed her weapons, and opened the door to see Jace, his hand held up in a fist as if he were about to knock. He grinned at her, and took her wrist, leading her out to where everyone else was gathered. When he touched her, it elicited a spark of fire that blew out all over her body. They divided up into separate teams; Marsye and Robert, Isabelle and Simon, Magnus and Alec, and her and Jace.
After being given the location, they went their separate ways. Clary and Jace were the last to leave. Jace was waiting outside the door for her while she ran back upstairs to grab her forgotten Seraph blade. After rummaging through her closet, she finally found it and was busy strapping it onto her belt in front of her floor length mirror.
Clary glanced up for a final check when she saw Sebastian looming behind her. She cried out and spun around, her arms up as if to fend herself, only he wasn't in the room. Confused, she looked back at the mirror to see only herself, her chest rising up and down quickly from the fright. She shook her head and dug the heels of her palms into her eyes. She shook her head, her red curls flying everywhere. Clary took a deep breath, spun around the room to check that she was alone, and walked out of the door.
She raced out to meet Jace, not wanted to have any more surprises. Once she caught sight of him, her breathing relaxed. It seemed as if Jace was the only remedy to this madness. He saw her and smiled, gesturing with his hand for her to follow him. He started to walk, not looking behind him to see if she followed him. When Clary reached his side, his arm instantly went around her shoulder, pulling her close to him. She habitually leaned into his touch. While they were walking, she saw a flash of blond hair, and stiffened. Jace, sensing that she was uncomfortable, stopped walking and looked at her with concern,
"Clary? What's wrong?"
"N-Nothing, it's just.."she looked around his shoulder to see that the blond hair belonged to a man around his mid-thirties, wearing a suit, and rushing about to get to his destination, and she sighed in relief,"It's nothing, Jace. Don't worry about it." She forced a smile at him,"It's fine. Really." He hesitated, but nodded after a while. His face told her that he didn't believe her, but he didn't ask anymore questions. Their walk continued on in silence, only the busy sounds of people and cars bustling on the streets to fill the gap. At a certain building, Jace halted and held out an arm to signal that this was the location.
It was a grungy old building, with windows that were either broken or boarded up. It reminded Clary of their time at Hotel Dumort, when they'd gone to save Simon from the vampires. Just looking at the building gave Clary shivers, and she didn't like that an uneasy feeling had started to grow in the pit of her stomach. Her head had started to hurt, but she shook it off.
She saw Isabelle and Simon, Alec and Magnus, and Maryse and Robert emerge, their faces grim. Isabelle's ruby necklace was pulsing like crazy, and it was then that Clary knew that there was some serious demonic activities going on here.
"Wait," she said,"Why is Magnus here?"
Magnus looked at her with mock hurt,"If you don't want me here, I can leave." Alec rolled his eyes and Magnus shrugged,"I just felt like tagging along. It gets boring being home alone. Watching reruns of 'What Not To Wear' isn't the best way to kill time and-"
He was cut off by a loud crashing noise inside of the building, and everyone immediately went into a fighting stance mode, their weapons drawn. They waited a while to see if anything else would happen, and Jace was the first to speak. "Speaking of killing things..."
Clary took out her Seraph blade and whispered 'Ithuriel' before following everyone else inside. Everyone had Soundless runes carved onto the soles of their shoes. They would have had the element of surprise for what would lie ahead if not for the fact that Magnus was like a flare; obvious and giving away the location. All of a sudden, several demons flocked their sides, snarling and baring their teeth.
As she took a closer look at them, she saw that instead of eyes, there were only empty jet-black holes, their frame small and had vicious claws on their hands, and Clary winced as she imagined them severing her skin. Fire spurted out of one of the demon's eye sockets, aiming directly towards Isabelle, and she ducked, only pausing to get up and jerk her arm back, cracking her whip against it. It whimpered and shrieked, a sound that was no way near normal. The demons started to close in, and Clary remembered something from her training; that a simple phrase could be said to drive these type of creatures away.
It was that exact moment that Jace straightened and chanted "Moloch Moc Og Na" three times. The demons started to hiss horribly, spit foaming at the corners of their mouths. They gradually slunk back into the shadows, and Clary was horrified to find that they had left a piece of themselves behind, ranging from a piece of skin to a whole limb. A leg twitched, and Alec stomped on it. It made a 'Squish' sound, and Clary's stomach lurched. Her head started to throb more painfully now, but she still said nothing, just pressed her fingers to her temple and closed her eyes for a few seconds.
They were all still on edge from the scare of the demons that they just stood there, their backs to each other, inspecting the shadows in case any more demons sprouted from it. They didn't. Maryse sighed," Moloch Demons. I wouldn't say that they're fighters, but they're enough to scare. Someone summoned them here, to distract us most likely." As they progressed throughout the different stories of the house, more and more demons seemed to appear, each leaving after only taunting them for a short amount of time, each growing into a more powerful type of demon than before.
Once, when Magnus decided that he'd wanted some fun, he pointed a finger at one of the demons, blue sparks shooting out. It instantly turned into a duck, waddling about. Clary felt the urge to warn Jace, but soon opted not to, wanting to see how it would play out-it was worth it. When Jace spotted the duck, he screamed bloody murder, cursing rather colorfully, and jumped into Alec's arms.
They had finally come across a door that was locked. Maryse easily drew a rune on top of the doorknob and it sprung open. They cautiously crossed the room, and Clary noticed a dark spot in the middle of the room. Bringing her witchlight closer, she saw with horrible realization that it was blood, not black like a demon's, but red like a Shadowhunter's or mundane's. Her head was on fire now, and she couldn't stand it. She was about to say something when she heard an awfully familiar voice, one that sent shivers down her spine.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" drawled Sebastian, a smirk on his face. Clary screamed, and everyone's head shot up to look at her.
Jace ran to her side immediately. "Clary! What's wrong?!" She only stared incredulously at him, then back at Sebastian. How could he not see him?
Sebastian chuckled,"Silly sister, only you can see me. No one else can." Her knees gave out and she suddenly dropped to the floor, shaking violently. Her mouth formed shapes, none of which was a proper word.
"What a bad girl,"he chided,"Shouldn't you be happy to see your own brother?" Clary could hear Jace's voice, screaming at her, he was shaking her, but it all seemed far away. Sebastian glared coldly at Jace. "Oh, he's still here, is he? Don't worry Clary, I understand. We just have to…..dispose of him, and then you and I can be together. We'll always be together. We're destined to be together."
"NO!,"she shouted,"Stop it! Don't you dare hurt Jace!" Sebastian just laughed at her. Her head felt like it was about to split, and she moaned, clutching the sides of her head as if holding it in place. Arms suddenly went around her, enveloping her. Black spots danced in her vision.
"Soon….." was all that she heard before she faded out of consciousness, letting it blanket her, and she was carried into oblivion.
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