Chapter 1

"You can't bring that in here" the bouncer said for what felt like the millionth time, crossing his arms over his broad chest.

"Oh, Come on" the boy complained.

Clary leaned forward with everyone else to see a boy arguing with a tall broad bouncer at the entrance to the Pandemonium Club. The boy had something strapped to his back that the bouncer was eyeing at.. The two were arguing pretty loudly so the people in front of Clary and Simon and fifty or so people behind had all started to pay attention to them.

Clary didn't come to the Pandemonium club often but when she did it was usually alone but for the last two weekends it had been with her best friend Simon, only because he had found out that she went there without telling him and he wanted to see what was so great about it. Clary had told him that it was different from other clubs around New York and she liked going there but really the reason had been because it was where she could get answers and do what she had been born to do, kill demons.

Now that may sound a bit crazy but a couple of years ago she had started seeing things, things like fairies and demons. For the first couple of months she just thought it was her brain playing tricks and she had gone to the opticians to get her eye tested, her eyes had be fine. Then one day she had saw this guy walking down a ally dressed in strange dark clothes and tattoos on his arms, even on his face. No one except from her seemed to see the person walking past crowd and down into the ally way. He had had a dark leather jacket with the hood up and black skin tight trousers that had been attached to swords and daggers of sorts. She had followed him and he had given her the answers she had been searching for and the whole time he kept his hood up so she could only see her mouth. He had been surprised that she could see him but had quickly came to a conclusion to tell her the answers she needed.

He had told her that she was Nephilim- half-human, half-angel - , part of a race of people that protected the humans from demons that would happily kill them. He had called humans, mundanes. He said that the tattoos gave him strength and helped when in a fight. She had asked him to give her one, he had gave her one that she always kept hidden on her shoulder the one for sight. It would always make sure that she could see the demons and other mythical things. It had been excruciating, it had felt like someone had carved a couple of lines into her skin with a piece of hot coal. He told her that it would get easier each time he did it but it would always hurt.

He couldn't tell her everything because he had been in a hurry but he had given her a small book with a pen type thing that had used to mark her skin, he had also gave her a long curved sword with a dagger. He had been kind to her even though he looked like one of the dark sort of people that went around mugging people in New York. She thanked him for explaining and she had been confused to why she had believed him so quickly but her instinct told her to believe him.

So she had discovered the Pandemonium club a month later. Once she saw the sign above the door she knew that there was something unusual about it.

The boy arguing with the bouncer had electric blue hair with green eyes that were to bright a green to be a normal mundane's eyes. Her suspicions were that he wasn't even a mundane but she couldn't be sure. She leaned in closer to listen in to what was being said.

"It's part of my costume" the boy explained hoisting the thing over his shoulder and holding it across his palms. It looked like a wooden bean with a pointed end.

"Which is what?" the bouncer said, the irritation clear in his voice.

The boy looked normal enough, Clary thought, for Pandemonium. His blue hair was stuck up around hi head that looked like the tendrils of a startled octopus. He smirked at the bouncer "I'm a vampire hunter" He pressed down on the point of the wooden beam in his hand. Clary saw that it had begun to bend to the side before hir finger had began touched it. He was definitely no mundane. "It's fake. Foam rubber. See?"

The bouncer shrugged and let the guy passed. He slipped past the bouncer and walked into the club and that was when she saw the teeth at the back of his throat. He was no mundane, at all.

I was snapped from my own thoughts by Simon saying in his low voice "You thought he was cute" sounding resigned "Didn't you?"

Clary turned and looked into Simon's brown eyes that hid behind his glasses that was covered a little by his brown fringe. She shook her head and elbowed him but stayed quiet.

She had been friends with Simon since she was little but she had decided that he didn't have to know about the whole Nephilim thing. He was Clary's only friend and he was a good one. Tonight he wore a dark grey shirt underneath his light brown zip up baggy jacket with dark jeans a old old sneakers.

She was wearing her usual clothes when she went to the Pandemonium club. Her dark red leather jacket, black tank top. Long black jeans with studs that weren't tight but weren't too loose either. Her red converse were slightly covered by her jeans. She was carrying her rucksack with her portable bow and a sword in it. As I did every week I left my hair down.

Within a couple of minutes they were in the club and heading towards the dance floor. Clary was looking around the crowd for the boy with blue hair but couldn't see him anywhere. After a few minutes of dancing, well more like jumping, I saw the boy he was walking off the dance floor and then stopped in his tracks when he saw a girl in a white long dress with long sleeves that covered all her skin except her face. She had long black hair that was pinned up in a bun at the top of her head. The girl was walking towards the door marked no admittance. She slipped through the door looking over at the boy. The boy that was shaped as a mundane walked towards the door and that was when I was going to move to stop him from probably killing that girl when I saw two guys walking towards the door, waiting a moment then walked in. The guys had been wearing dark clothes. One had had jet black hair like the girl and the other had long blond hair.

They hadn't been normal mundanes, they had been Nephilim and she knew that they were going to kill the boy, well demon actually. She hated it when people stole her kill even though she sort of hated doing it herself.

"I'll be back in a minute, Simon" clary said as she walked towards the door. She made her way through the dancers grinding against each other. She reached the door then turned and made sure no one was looking before she stepped in.

It was dark, the only light shining through bars at the side of the small room but she quickly darted behind a a speaker that was close to the four figures. She could see wires all around her on the floor so she was careful not to get tangled in one as she lay down her rucksack and opened it. She could see that they had been able to tie him up against a metal pole that was attached to the wall, which would only make Clary's job easier.

They were speaking to each other.

"Come on now" the boy with the blond hair. He held up his hands and his sleeves slipped down showing his runes on his wrists "You know what I am"

The boy didn't move his mouth but a whispering voice hissed from the teeth at the back of his head. "Shadowhunter"

Shadowhunter? Clary thought, I hadn't heard someone call me anything like that before.

"Got you" said the dark haired boy that was now standing beside the girl that had a whip in her hand now.

"You still haven't told us if there's any more of you" said the blond.

"I don't know what you're talking about" the boy sounded pained but surly.

"He means other demons" said the dark haired "You do know what demons are, don't you?"

"Demons" drawled the blond "Religiously defined as hell's denizens, the servants of Satan but- "

"That's enough Jace" said the girl

Jace? Well if the shoe fits.

"Isabelle's right" said the dark haired boy "No one here needs a lesson in semantics or demonology"

Isabelle. Isabelle Lightwood?

From the Institute? In the book she had got from the guy those few years ago, there had been names of who ran the institutes. Covenents of sorts made up of the Nephilim.

Clary started to assemble her bow quickly.

Jace smiled but it didn't touch his eyes and it looked like a fierce gesture. "Jace and Alec think I talk too much. Do you think I talk too much?"

Yes, Clary thought. She had assembled her bow and was knocking an arrow into place as quietly as she could.

"I can give you imformation" the boy said hastily "I know where Valentine is"

Valentine? I need to know where Valentine is. Is he bluffing? She released her arrow.

Jace glanced at Alec who shrugged. "Valentine's in the ground"

"Kill it, Jace" Isabelle spoke "It isn't going to tell us anything"

No you can't kill it! ,Clary thought as she docked the arrow again.

Jace raised his hand. You could see the sword he held. It was more like a long knife now. It looked crystal clear just like the other swords she had seen.

"Valentine is back!" the boy insisted "All the Infernal world knows it. I can tell you where he is-"

Jace cut him off " By the Angel, every time we capture one of you, you claim to know where Valentine is. Well we know where he is too. He's in hell. And you-" He raises the knife in his grasp, the edge sparking like a line of fire. "-can join him there"

Clary aimed the arrow then let it fly. It hit it's target perfectly. It hit the blond guys handle of his knife causing him to drop it.

He whirled round surprised. She stepped out so they could see her. She had her bow in her hand with another arrow ready to fly if needed.

"You can't kill it" she stated confidently, to her own surprise.

Alec and Isabelle turned with him. "What's this?" Alec questioned.

"It's a-" Jace started but Clary cut him off.

"I'm a girl" Clary said deciding to be sarcastic "Surely you've seen girls before, Alec. Your sister's one after all" She emphasized his name to show that she wasn't dumb and that she had been here a while. He looked shocked to know she knew who he was.

"Is she a mundie girl?" Isabelle questions.

"Do I look like a Mundane?" Clary asks not even trying to hide her irritation.

"Well... the clothes say yes but the bow and arrow say no" Isabelle states. Whoa, if she had been blond she could of guessed she was this dumb.

"Well, the whip says Nephilim but the dress says ugly, Isabelle" Clary spits back. Isabelle was getting on her nerves and Clary didn't care if her mother ran the Institute.

"You-" Isabelle says taking a step forward but is stopped by Alec.

"Can we finish this conversation in a minute cause I have a demon to kill" Jace says dryly walking over to the demon who is struggling against the pole.

Clary lifts her bow to shoot Jace. She lets it fly but Jace is quicker he swipes his knife and slices the demon and jumps out of the way of the arrow.

"No! You are as annoying as the fair folk" Clary gives Jace her best death glare "And as stupid"

" Never heard that one before. You missed" Jace states smuggly.

"Wait. Who are you?" Alec asks. He let go of Isabelle a moment ago but she's glaring at me. "And why did you try and hit Jace"

Clary was feeling emotional all of a sudden. She could have just lost her one chance to find Valentine. She was now really annoyed. She put her bow away. She turned back to them.

"You know ours so tell us yours" Isabelle said still glaring. "Its only fair"

"I can't. I came here with someone and they'll be looking for me" Clary said remembering Simon causing her voice to soften "And from what I've experienced, nothing in life is fair, Isabelle"

"Wait, Your the shadowhunter from the streets aren't you?" Isabelle asked.

She walked out of the room without an answering and quickly strived over to where Simon was standing looking concerned as he saw her approach.

"Hey Simon. I think we should go. We're all ready late"

"Sure, are you okay? Where were you anyway?"

"Nowhere important. Can we just leave"

"Sure, Come on"

We walked out of the club onto the street and quickly waved down a cab to Clary's apartment. It was a long drive that seemed to go way to quickly. She kept remembering the three back at the club and how that demon could have been Clary's last chance to find out where Valentine was.

She had found out about Valentine one day when she listening to her mom's conversation with Luke her friend. She hadn't known I had been in the living room while she was talking.

I remember every word.

I had been sitting on the couch drawing a picture of an angel. When I heard them talking.

"Joselyn, you have to tell her. It will soon catch up to her. If you won't tell her about the Nephilim then at least tell her that the picture isn't of her father" Luke spoke up.

I knew straight away that they were talking about the framed picture of my father in the hall. He had died before I was born. But apparently that was a lie to.

"No, Luke. It has last this long, I won't tell her. Especially about Valentine, he was an evil man, who I was wrong to trust in the first place" My mother replied.

"Valentine was her father Joselyn. You can never deny that but he was never her dad. Please tell her. You know that she will grow up never knowing who she is" Luke pleaded

"Yes she will. She is Clarissa Fray daughter of Joselyn Fray. She is not and never will be Clarissa Morgenstern or Clarissa Fairchild. I left the Nephilim behind and I will not go back, Luke"

That was the day that I realised that I literary don't know who I am. I never did tell my mom that I had found out what I was and now I had a reason. She left that world behind and she was never going back to that life.

The cab stopped outside the apartment building of where Clary lived.

"Bye, Simon" she waved then she turned and walked into the building not waiting for a reply.

She climbed straight up the stairs, through her front door and into her room. She got changed then fell into her bed. It took her only a few seconds to fall asleep but even then she dreamed of the demon.