This is my first TMI fic, but enjoy!
Footsteps pounded on the pavement around her as Clary ducked out of the alley in broad daylight, sprinting after Jace down the street. Alexander Lightwood and his sister Isabelle were on either side of her, and all three of them were thoroughly drenched in demon ichor. The demon whose ichor it was was swarming after them, tentacles flying, globs glooping, creating a trail of black down the sidewalk from the many wounds that the shadowhunters had created with the help of their weapons.
Clary couldn't help but notice that not one of the odd group got a second glance from passerby. She still felt strange being invisible, or glamoured, to use the correct term. Of course, she thought, when she was in New York, it didn't matter if she or the demons were glamoured.
Following Jace, she and the others weaved through the crowded streets, shoving people left and right. When they reached the shadow of the trees in Central Park, they stopped. Even shadowhunters eventually tired from running.
"You'd think the demons would be dead," Isabelle snorted, sorting through the tattered pieces of her gear. "Their ichor is all over our clothes." She sighed, "I am gonna have to scrap some of this when I get home."
"Easy for you to say," Jace grumbled. "They didn't ruin your favorite jacket." He carelessly tossed the abused scrap of cloth into a nearby trash can.
The buzz of battle was wearing off now that the threat of demons had gone, and Clary could clearly feel her injuries. There was a spike of pain at the back of her head, and her body was stinging all over from the ichor.
She reached into her weapons belt and pulled out her stele. The adamas in the light was as blinding as Raziel himself. After iratzeing herself, she moved on to other people. Once everyone had an acceptable amount of runes, they moved out, starting back to the Institute.
"Hey! You guys!" A shout from behind them stopped all of them in their tracks. Clary glanced at Isabelle, whose face was a mask of extreme guilt that Clary was sure matched her own.
"Simon, what are you doing here?" Jace exclaimed sharply. His voice was filled with annoyance. "This hunting was supposed to be for experienced Shadowhunters only."
"That's what you said, but Isabelle and Clary told me to meet them outside of Taki's, which was supposedly on the way there," Simon explained to Jace, with an accusing glance at the pair in question. "Only, they never came until I saw you sprinting like your lives depended on it, straight past me."
Jace rolled his eyes in response, "Of course they did."
"We were going to walk right by you!" Clary defended herself and Isabelle.
"It was the perfect plan!" Isabelle exclaimed and sighed in exasperation. "Then our buddies over here insisted that we take a cab."
Jace shrugged. "We needed a getaway vehicle, but it turned out to be a useless venture. The cab just stole our money and left."
"I wish you guys would take me along with you once and a while," Simon sighed, looking dejected. "How am I ever going to get any experience with you guys shunning me all the time?"
"Once you finish your training, you will be welcome on all of our outings," Jace replied smoothly, starting to walk deeper into Central Park. "Actually, not all of them," he amended, "Just the ones we want you on."
"Which would be all of them, right? I know for a fact that Izzy and Clary want me along."
"Don't be so sure of yourself, 'bloodsucker.'" Izzy laughed, nudging Simon with her shoulder.
"You guys aren't totally off the hook." Simon stated pompously. "You left me in front of Taki's on this gorgeous day for five minutes longer than promised, and then zoomed right past me without even saying hello."
Jace chuckled. "To be fair there was a demon hot on their tail. Don't you worry though, they will be severely punished back at the Institute for their extreme negligence."
Everyone laughed softly as the group continued through the park.
It was indeed a gorgeous day. Clary walked beside Jace as she took in the beauty of it all. She wished she could lie down beside him in the grass and sketch the scenery, but they had to report back to the Institute.
"Speaking of extreme negligence," Simon said, interrupting the sounds of the city. "You still haven't told me what you were doing."
Alec sighed. "We were hunting, and it was Clave assigned. That's why you weren't allowed to come."
"He's with us now," Clary pointed out. "We might as well tell him since he saw the demon."
"That demon was an experiment. Someone has been combining very deadly demons with very vicious demons to create extremely deadly vicious demons," Alec said.
"On the bright side, they aren't smart demons yet," Jace pointed out. "We managed to escape certain death by getting all but one out in the sun."
They reached the Institute gate and Simon paused, "So let me get this straight, you guys didn't even catch the bad guys?"
"On second thought, maybe you should come along next time. That way you can kill all the demons and their scary master yourself," snapped Jace. He paused thoughtfully. "You can also sacrifice your jacket and spare my next one the pain."
Everyone was silent. Clary had learned from experience that any deep involvement in a Jace-Simon banter would follow you around for days.
Simon turned to face Jace, "I might, but I haven't finished my training due to my sorry excuse for a teacher."
"Well at least you don't have the laziest student in the world," Jace replied haughtily, clearly offended. "Oh wait, you aren't lazy, you just spend all of your time…"
"Excuse me?" A boy, probably only seven or eight tugged on Jace's sleeve. "My sister is standing over there, and she really wants to talk to you all."
Alec instantly backed away. The boy may have resembled Max with his brown hair, but the similarities stopped there. Clary was puzzled, but then she that they were supposed to be glamoured.
The boy's sister, standing a few yards away on the sidewalk, could obviously see them also, but she seemed to be embarrassed by her brother's behavior because she was hiding her face behind one hand.
The boy, whose name was still unknown, scamped back to his sister and dragged her over to the group of perplexed shadowhunters.
"I'm sorry," she said, her grey eyes wide. "He shouldn't have come over here at all. We will be going now."
"No! Wait!" Jace exclaimed. "How can you see us?"
Clary felt a pang of jealousy in her chest. After all, this was basically how she and Jace met, but she told herself she was being stupid and she pushed it down.
"I wasn't going to tell you guys this, but I saw you standing there and you are all so cool and I didn't know what to do so I thought, well I'll just mention it to Eli but then he dragged me over here." The girl said it all very fast with one breath, and Clary had to suppress a smile as she saw that Jace regretted asking.
The girl continued, "Anyways, I am a huge fan!"
"You still haven't answered the question," Alec stated sharply.
The girl reached into her bag and pulled out a book. It was titled The City of Bones.
YAY! First chapter/exposition is done... and I think it is the longest chapter I have ever written.
Please Read and Review, let me know if I should write more :)