Pandemonium
Jace Wayland barely held back a groan of frustration as he, Isabelle and Alec Lightwood entered Pandemonium club. As usual, the club was filled with mundie teenagers swaying back and forth to the hypnotic trance music, clad in leather, oblivious to the danger that surrounded their normal lives.
Dry-ice smoke was swirling effortlessly around the club, filling it up - adding to the euphoric state that seemed to engulf Pandemonium. Bright coloured lights flashed sporadically, momentarily blinding the mundies as they 'danced'.
'If you can call that dancing', Jace thought dryly.
He just wanted to find the stupid demon, kill it and return to the Institute to drown his sorrows with weapons training. There's no need to spend extra unnecessary time with the mundanes.
"Over there," Alec warned, his vibrant blue eyes glistening in the light.
Jace glanced to where Alec was looking and saw it. The blue-haired demon, dressed in a red jacket, stroked the razor-sharp blade it carried, smirking as it did. The glamour, the demon put on the blade, was useless against them - more for the benefit of the humans. The demons acid green eyes scanned the crowd, looking for its latest victim, it would seem.
"Bait's in," Alec smirked, only slight worry marring his features, as his sister, Isabelle, lured the demon.
Isabelle did make quite an impression, Jace admitted. Not that he thought of her in any way, other than a sister. Her hair, like Alec's, was charcoal-black and trailed down towards her waist, in a shiny, sleek curtain. She wore a floor-length white dress that covered most of her skin. She donned a ruby-red pendant, around her neck, that seemed to pulse like an erratic heart.
She bunched up her skirt as she backed away from the demon, a mischievous smirk on her face. The demon was so entranced by her that it didn't notice Jace and Alec, following them, as they entered a storage room stating;
NO ADMITTANCE - STORAGE.
Jace almost laughed. It was too easy.
Him and Alec stood outside of the door, Jace pulling out a sharp blade.
"Let the fun begin," he muttered, grinning at the thought of destroying the demon, as he pushed the door open.
They heard Isabelle laugh inside, followed by a victorious;
"He's all yours, boys."
Alec laughed as he hauled the demon upright and threw it against a concrete pillar, avoiding the copper wires that snaked across the floor. He pulled the demon's hands behind it and bound it's wrists together, tightly, with wire.
Jace decided to make his grand appearance as he slid away from the side of the pillar, making himself known to the demon.
"So," he began, "are there any more with you?"
"Any other what?", the demon hissed, struggling with its bounds.
He supressed a growl. Seriously? The thing was trying to lie to him? "Come on now," he started, revealing the runes inked onto the skin of his wrists, palms and back of his hands. "You know what I am."
"Shadowhunter," it growled, grinding its teeth together.
Alec grinned widely. "Got you."
Jace shoved his hands into his pockets as he studied the demon. Its face was strained with fear and pain... Good.
"So, you still haven't told me if there are any other of your kind with you," he repeated, growing more and more impatient.
"I don't know what you're talking about," the demon lied.
"He means other demons," Alec started, "you do know what a demon is, don't you?"
Jace stifled a laugh. Of course it knew about demons, being one itself - unless it was seriously stupid, which he was inclined to think.
"Demons," he drawled out, tracing the word in the air for effect. "Religiously defined as hell's denizens, the servants of Satan, but understood here, for the purpose of the Clave, to be any malevolant spirit whose origin is outside our own home dimension-"
"That's enough, Jace," Isabelle groaned.
"Isabelle's right. Nobody here needs a lesson in semantics - or demonology," Alec agreed.
Jace was irritated both Alec and Isabelle interrupted him. Nobody interrupted him while he was dealing with demons.
In retaliation, Jace raised his head while smiling slightly.
"Isabelle and Alec think I talk too much," he stated, confidingly, to the demon, "do you think I talk too much?" He was almost daring the demon to say something out of line.
"I could give you information. I know where Valentine is." The demon said, trying to appease the Shadowhunters.
Jace glanced back towards Alec, who shrugged at him. "Valentine's in the ground. The thing's toying with us," he said.
Isabelle, getting tired, flipped her hair in annoyance. "Kill it, Jace. It's not going to tell us anything."
He raised the translucent blade, which was rather beautiful with the hilt set with crimson stones.
The demon scrambled, trying to find words to stop the fierce blonde boy. "Valentine is back!" He started to struggle against the bonds again. "All the Infernal Worlds know it - I know it - I can tell you where he is-"
Jace felt instant rage, and he only saw red. "By the Angel, every time we capture one of you bastards, you claim to know where Valentine is. Well, we know where he is too. He's in hell. And you-" He twirled the blade in his hands, relishing the demon's tangible fear. "You can join him there."
He was about to run the demon through and be done with it, when a feminine voice rang through the air. "Stop! You can't do this."
Jace span around, startled. The blade flew from his hands and onto the ground. Isabelle and Alec, even the demon, also turned, in confusion and bewilderment, at the spectacle in front of them.
It was a mundane. Rather beautiful, for a mundane, Jace had to admit. She had long, thick, curly red hair, that seemed to quiver with every infinitesimal jerk of her head. She had the most enchanting, deep viridian eyes. She was also fairly small and slender, from what he could tell, and had a very faint spray of freckles spread across her face.
'What the hell, Wayland?' Jace thought to himself, gathering his, usually impeccable, composure.
Alec was the first one to speak. "What's this?" He, all but, demanded, looking from the mundane to the Shadowhunters.
'As if we'd know', Jace thought irritably.
"It's a girl. Surely you've seen girls before, Alec. Your sister Isabelle is one." He deadpanned, squinting at the small mundane, not believing his eyes. "A mundie girl. And she can see us."
"Of course I can see you. I'm not blind, you know," she retorted, surprising Jace.
"Oh, but you are," he said while bending to pick up the dropped blade. "You'd better get out of here, if you know what's good for you."
He hoped she would accept his advice. Leave quietly. He felt this strange - very foreign - urge to protect the innocent girl from the horrors of the world. He wanted to keep her safe. Gahh, Wayland, really?! 'To love is to destroy'.
"I'm not going anywhere," the girl said, ignoring Jace's warning, much to his displeasure. "If I do, you'll kill him." She pointed towards the demon.
Poor girl didn't realise he was doing her a favour.
"That's true," Jace admitted, playing with the knife in his hands. "Why do you care if I kill him or not?"
"Be-because-" she stuttered. She clearly hadn't been expecting that question. "You can't just go around killing people."
"You're right," Jace agreed, " you can't go around killing people." He pointed at the demon, stressing the word, trying to get it into her head, that the 'boy' she was trying to help, would have no problem draining the life out of her. "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."
"Jace, that's enough." Isabelle warned.
"You're crazy," the mundane said, slowly backing away. "I've called the police, you know. They'll be here any second."
"She's lying," Alec said, though with a flicker of doubt on his face. Jace, however, was unfazed. "Jace, do you-"
Alec was cut off by a high, screeching cry, as the blue-haired demon tore free of its restraints, and flung itself onto Jace.
He was pushed to the ground with the demon on top, as the demon lashed at him with hands that glittered like metal. He barely noticed the mundane getting tangled in the wires - a bit busy trying not to get killed. The demon sat on Jace's chest, slashing again at him. He instinctively threw an arm up to protect himself, as Alec and Isabelle rushed to his aid - Isabelle bringing her golden whip down onto the demon's back. It yelled in agony and fell to the side.
Jace quickly rolled over, blade in hand, and plunged it deep into the demon's chest. A thick, black substance emerged, around the hilt of the blade, as the demon arched its back, gurgling and writhing. Hah!
Jace stood with a grimace on his face. His shirt was stained black, wet with the fresh blood. He strode towards the now-dying demon, yanking the blade out harshly - black liquid dripping from it.
Serves you right, he thought.
The demon's eyes fluttered open, filled with pure rage. "So be it. The Forsaken will take you all." It hissed, before folding in on itself as Jace snarled at it. Eventually, the demon completely vanished, signalling its death.
Alec had quickly reached Jace and held his arm, pulling the sleeve to get a better look at the wound. They both turned when they heard the familiar crack of Isabelle's whip. The whip had coiled around the Mundie's wrist, tightening when she tried to pull away.
"Stupid little mundie. You could have gotten Jace killed," Isabelle hissed, teeth clenched.
"He's crazy," the mundie stated, struggling against the whip. Ouch. She cut me... She cut me deep, Jace thought sardonically. "You're all crazy. What do you think you are, vigilante killers? The police-"
That's enough now... "The police aren't usually interested unless you can produce a body," Jace stated. He carefully made his way through the wire-ridden floor, cradling his injured arm - face set in a scowl.
The mundane glanced at the point where the demon had been but kept quiet. Jace internally smirked, knowing there wasn't any evidence of there ever being a 'murder' taking place.
"They return to their home dimensions when they die," he started. "In case you were wondering."
"Jace, be careful," Alec warned.
Never taking his eyes off the mundane, he stated; "She can see us, Alec. She already knows too much."
"So what do you want me to do with her?" Isabelle demanded.
She deserves a normal life... Ugh, I better not be going soft.
"Let her go," Jace said quietly.
Isabelle and Alec glanced at him - surprised - before Isabelle, almost angrily, pulled the whip back. It slithered away from the mundane's wrist as she gingerly rubbed the sore mark.
"Maybe we should bring her back with us. I bet Hodge would like to talk to her," Alec contemplated.
"No way are we bringing her to the Institute. She's a mundie." Isabelle deflected, appalled at the idea.
"Or is she?" Jace asked, gently. His head was filled with possible explanations as to why she could see us. Ignorant Downworlder, maybe? Shadowhunter? Mundane with the Sight? He hadn't decided yet.
"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 interrupted. "And I have no idea what you're talking about." Jace could practically see the cogs turning in her head, probably debating with herself.
"I don't believe in- in demons, or whatever you-"
"Clary?" An unfamiliar voice intruded. The mundie, Clary, he corrected, span around towards the sound. It was a teenage boy, standing by the storage room door - a muscled bouncer behind him. Jace smothered a laugh. He was the most mundane mundie he'd ever seen. The boy had dark brown, curly hair - glasses perched on the edge of his nose - while he wore jeans and a T-shirt saying; MADE IN BROOKLYN.
"Are you okay?" He glanced around. "Why are you in here by yourself? What happened to the guys- you know, the ones with the knives?" The mundane asked, confused.
Clary turned towards the three teenagers. Jace still held the knife, covered in blood and ichor. When she met his tawny eyes, he grinned and offered her a half-apologetic, half-mocking shrug - enjoying the show way too much.
Clary didn't seem shocked that neither the boy nor the bouncer could see them. She slowly turned back to face the other mundane, facing the embarrassment.
"I thought they went in here," she tried to defend. "But I guess they didn't. I'm sorry."
Jace had to bite the inside of his mouth, to keep from laughing at the awkward expression on Clary and the boy. The bouncer's expression just grew to frustration.
"It was a mistake."
Isabelle giggled at the poor lie.
Once Clary and the mundanes had left, Jace, Alec and Isabelle exchanged glances.
"I still think we should've brought her to the Institute," Alec stated.
"Yeah, we all know what you think Alec," Isabelle retorted, still peeved from the encounter with the strange redhead.
"Let's just head back," Jace muttered, suddenly weary.
This is my first fanfiction so errors may occur. I haven't updated as much as I would like so I'm going to try to find more time to do this. Please feel free to give me constructive criticism if I am doing something wrong or could improve. Let me know what you think. Love you!
~Jess xo