City of Bones: Meeting Clary from Jace's POV
It was not common for mundanes to resort to this kind of frivolous movement they called 'dancing'. Jace didn't seem to see the point in any sort of action without a deemed purpose probably stemming from his youth-grown training in the martial arts. He actually found the sweaty teenagers grinding to deafening pulse music that was considered 'indie' irritating in every aspect. Frankly, he found them to completely undermine his own abilities and this teenage image recklessly ruined by their constant immature doings. Then again, Pandemonium Club was the breeding ground for future delinquents and youths revelling in their own problems, half of which they didn't even realise existed; the whole Shadowhunter world not remotely registering in their minds.
He threaded through the half-drunk, half-drugged youths and kept a careful eye on Isabelle, with special consideration to the target, a blue-haired demon who had obviously taken the bait, drooling after Isabelle with a ravenous glint in his eyes. It was always easy luring demons, with their irresistible temptations of virtually any mundane breathing and alive. He saw Isabelle's slender figure disappear with the demon through a door and caught Alec's signal to follow.
He glanced quickly around to make sure there were no followers and his eyes flickered briefly over a petite girl with flaming-red hair and piercing bright emerald eyes which seemed to stop his train of thought for a moment. She seemed to register him, those intense eyes ringed with dark kohl widening in surprise and secret scrutiny. There was something about her. Mundanes couldn't see through the glamour! Why could she? Jace shook his head. It wasn't possible. It was probably a figment of his imagination, produced by the pounding music and fluorescent strobe lights. He started towards Alec, drawing out his seraphim blade as a flower of apprehension started to blossom inside his chest. What was with the mundane girl? Jace couldn't get her out of his head. Those penetrating emerald eyes, hair like blood intertwined with fire and her strange beauty. Beauty not like Isabelle's but under the light, she reminded him of a phoenix trapped by something guarded in her expression, ever threatening to burst forth.
They slipped through the door, like shadows, which suited their profession perfectly, as Shadowhunters. Isabelle had worked fast, with her signature metallic gold whip firmly restraining the demon to the floor, where he was biting his lip in pain as the wire tautened. Jace had no trouble showing his ultimate satisfaction and revelled in the demon scum's suffering.
"He's all yours, boys," Isabelle grinned, the sheer fabric of her dress barely covering her numerous Marks snaking around her arms, neck and legs. But she refused to wear anything more covering because: 'it's a club, not my mother's funeral, not that you boys would understand'.
Jace laughed lowly, grinning in spite of himself. Alec and he stepped into the limelight, his posture holding an air of superiority, before proceeding to try and drag out the demon's torture. Interrupting Jace's train of torment of the demon, his trained ears picked up the faint rustle of movement even before the flame-haired girl had practically leapt from behind a pillar, yelling "Stop! You can't do this." Alec started slightly, surprise clearly dawning on his face as he registered the mundane girl spontaneously barge into their eagerly-anticipated hunt. Jace was confused by the look on the girl's freckled face. It was a cross between angry and bewildered. How could she have those expressions yet look so beautiful at the same time? He shook his head, refusing to admit anything, before relaxing into what Isabelle called his 'arrogant stance'.
"You'd better get out of here, if you know what's good for you," Jace smirked, twirling his seraphim blade in one hand.
The mundane girl narrowed her emerald eyes in scrutiny and brushed a lock of curly red hair away from her face. "I'm not going anywhere," she pronounced, with such determination Jace almost believed she wasn't terrified. Good actor, he thought, almost as good as me. "You'll kill him." Jace smiled inwardly to himself. What possessed her to think that they would kill him? Some inner angst perhaps? Guardedness? He felt something indescribable draw him to her, a ravenous hunger to know that fiery soul more, the one that matched her hair.
"What do you care if I kill him or not?" Jace had never really considered what the consequences were, he'd just been trained to kill, kill, kill, every single unfortunate demon that crossed his path. Isn't that what Valentine had always drilled into his mind?
"Be-because-," the mundane girl spluttered, emerald eyes wide with exasperation. "You can't just go around killing people." Clearly her terror was replaced by some moral compass most mundanes seem to possess and Jace couldn't help but notice her hand reaching up to impatiently push her curly hair behind one ear, something he felt he would notice as a habit. Not that Jace would know her for long. The Shadowhunter's Codex clearly stated that Shadowhunters could not interact intimately with mundanes unless in a time of emergency. He felt his heart sink.
Jace easily slid into his cocky personality Hodge always told him would get him into trouble one day. But what fun could he have then? "You're right. You can't go around killing people." He gestured to the demon scum. "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," Isabelle warned. "That's enough."
"You're crazy," the girl spluttered, backing towards the store room door. "I've called the police, you know. They'll be here any second." Jace narrowed his eyes. Was she lying? Something about her attitude told him she wasn't, but then again, she was a good actress, probably in character. Jace smirked. She had guts. And lots of them. Even facing three armed leather-clad teenagers who probably looked like young bikies, she was able to lie through her teeth.
Distracted for the moment, Jace felt the metallic claws rake across his chest even before he heard the animalistic yowl that tore through the air as the blue-haired demon lunged at him. Yet it was easy, even when the demon had the element of surprise, with his adoptive siblings beside him, they were able to dispatch the demon, leaving not even a blood smear on the ground, as it evaporated into thin air. Many killings had left Jace immune to the sight of blood and the piercing scream of pain as the demon left the earth. The mundane girl tried to scramble out of the room but one cracking flick of Isabelle's whip caught her around the wrist and she strained to free herself.
"She can see us, Alec," Jace said. "She already knows too much." He now realised his mistake. Curse his impulsive nature! Valentine always said that it was something to be treasured, but now his confused feelings for his stranger, a mundane even, had left the Shadowhunters in danger - his family in danger. The ones that had taken him in when he was lost, afraid.
"Let her go," he whispered under his breath, biting back his retaliation to take her back with them to the Institute. Isabelle shot him a surprised, almost angry look, but kept her trap shut. The whip slithered back to curl around her wrist.
"Maybe we should bring her back with us," Alec suggested. "I bet Hodge would like to talk to her." A flicked of hope sparked in Jace's chest.
"No way," Isabelle gasped. "She's a Mundie."
"Or is she?" Jace had just realised. He turned to the flame-haired mundane girl with the mysterious green eyes guarded by something he couldn't identify. "Have you had dealings with demons, little girl? Walked with warlocks, talked with the Night Children? Have you-"
"My name is not 'little girl'," the mundane girl interrupted as Jace raised his eyebrows in surprise. No one had really interrupted him before. Maybe Valentine. But not some stranger in a club.
"Clary?" a nerdy-looking boy with large crooked glasses stepped into the storage room next to a well-built bouncer narrowing his eyes in scrutiny. "Are you okay? Why are you in here by yourself? What happened to the guys, you know, the ones with the knives?"
Jace chuckled as Clary whirled between looking at them and at Simon, who obviously could not see through the glamour. He grinned at her and dropped a mocking shrug, testing to see what she would do. Clary left the store room without a backward glance, her fiery red hair the last thing Jace remembered of her as she departed and as a pit of regret settled into his stomach.