Reforming

Chapter 2: Into the Darkness

Jace Lightwood looked at himself in the bathroom mirror once again. Though Jace wasn't a biological Lightwood, he was still considered part of the family as they were the only ones who loved him for who he was as a person during his childhood. He'd felt loved by them and they provided him with a home. Turning back to the mirror, Jace counted off the amount of times he'd faced it today. It was the fourth time that morning that he'd questioned his appearance for the day.

He wasn't usually like this, but something about seeing Clary made him more aware of the need to look presentable. Ever since they'd discovered they were not brother and sister as they had once believed, Jace's thoughts had constantly been settling on Clary and the possibilities that were now open to them. No longer did they have to repress their feelings for each other, it wouldn't seem wrong or sick.

Sighing, Jace moved away from the bathroom and vowed not to enter it again today. No amount of primping and styling was going to get rid of his nerves, so he might as well give up the hopes of ever fixing himself to any form of perfection. He looked at the clock; 12:03. He was late. Last night, Jace had called Clary to scold her on not being reachable that afternoon and they'd arranged to meet up today and just hang out. Although not much hanging out could happen if he didn't get a move on.

Jogging out the door he raced over to the elevator and made his way downstairs into the entrance to the Institute. It was a wide cathedral that was lined on all sides by faintly glowing candles; at least they were faint at the moment. The light was necessary during the day.

As the door ahead opened, Jace raised his gaze until it settled on a girl with vibrant red hair; it was Clary. She was framed by the sunlight, which brought a smile to his face as he imagined her to resemble an angel walking out to greet him. Anyone who knew them would see the irony in these thoughts; not only did shadowhunters contain the blood of an angel, but both Jace and Clary were the result of an experiment using angel blood before their births.

"Hey." He whispered when they'd finally reached each other.

"Hi." Clary replied, a smile breaking out across her face. "Got a plan for the day?"

"Well I thought we could go have lunch at Taki's and then go hang out around Turtle Pond." Jace answered.

Clary was slightly concerned. "You want to go hang out in the Seelie Court?"

"Not in it, just near it." Jace clarified. "The underground scene isn't too pleasant, but can you seriously say the same for the scene above ground?"

"I guess not." Clary said nervously before Jace took her hand and washed her nerves away. It was just a pond; a pond in a park. There was nothing wrong with visiting it, especially if they had no intention of taking a trip down to faerie-land. 'Both courts and it hasn't even been a day yet. That has to be a record.' She thought to herself as they walked out the door.

Turtle Pond was dazzling during the day. The sun was just setting, sending rays of light over the sparkling surface of the water. Clary watched as Jace bent over the surface and swiped his hand through the water sending little droplets over the immediate area of the pond. She smiled at him before turning to view the surrounding landscape. Like most parks in the area, forest like trees indicated the edge of the park. Clary used to imagine they held mystical creatures in their depths, but now she wondered if she'd ever really imagined it.

The hair on the back of her neck stood up, tickling her slightly and she got the opinion they were being watched from somewhere. A twig snapped in the distance. 'It could be anything.' Clary told herself, it was a park after all and lots of people wandered around in the early evening. Another noise sounded, like footsteps treading gently through the dry leaves below.

"Did you hear something?" Clary asked suddenly, turning sharply to face the direction of the park trees. She shivered though it wasn't a cold night.

"I didn't hear anything." Jace confirmed, his eyes narrowing as he followed Clary's gaze. "But I do see something."

Clary took a step backwards bumping into Jace as a figure emerged from the trees beside them. The figure was slim and slightly elongated at certain joints, and Clary noted that it was must definitely female. Her skin was pale blue, though she didn't appear to be cold as you might expect when you come across a blue person. She had thorns poking out of her wrists and was wearing a lazy smile upon her face. She was a faerie.

As she made her way closer to them, Clary gasped. She'd seen this faerie before, in the Unseelie Court the previous night. It was Rita.

"Shadowhunter." Rita said seductively to Jace, raising her hand in a small wave. "You shouldn't be out this late, someone might think you're hunting something dangerous." She said the word 'dangerous' as though it had more than one meaning, though what she could possible have been hinting at Clary had no idea. She thought she'd escaped notice until Rita continued her random comments. "Hello Human. It's so nice to see you again. I thought our time together last night was going to be our last. I'm glad I was wrong."

"What is your business here Faerie." Jace growled in his Shadowhunter voice. He had a way of changing from the fun loving relaxed Jace, to upholder of the Law Nephilim Jace without even noticing he'd done so.

"Just wandering." Rita replied. "Giving my regards to the Seelie Court, searching for a few people looking for a fun night. You know how it is."

"Then continue what you're doing and move along." Jace stated firmly.

Rita smiled again. "As you say Shadowhunter." And with that she left. Clary was sure she was going to be on the wrong end of a lecture and braced herself for its explosion.

Instead, Jace ignored Rita's remarks. "You must have felt the faerie in the trees."

"I don't think so." Clary replied. "It felt darker, like something was watching us; not someone."

"Are you sure you weren't –" Whatever it was Jace was going to accuse Clary of was cut off when a dark shape moved swiftly past the two of them.

Clary jumped and moved closer to Jace. He threw his arms out and over her, pulling her towards him and let go the moment the shape passed.

"Demons. And on my night off." He commented lightly as though this sort of thing occurred everyday.

"Not funny Jace." Clary said weakly. As long as he remained calm she was certain she could too.

The dark shape moved past them once again. Jace swore.

"Clary, stay here and what ever you do don't follow me." Said Jace grabbing hold of her wrist with one hand to stress his demand, while his other hand reached for one of the seraph blades he kept at all times. He didn't like giving Clary orders, especially when she rarely followed them; but his protective nature kicked in and the words came tumbling out before he could stop them. The present danger served as a reminder of how important it was for Clary to be safe. If only she would take the hint.

"Stay here? You can't be serious. What if it comes back to get me?" She screeched, eyes reflecting the panic in Jace's own face.

"It's not after you." Jace tried to reassure her. He went release her wrist only to find Clary's hand clamped around his own arm.

"How can you be sure? I felt them here earlier!" Her voice wavered and she jumped at the sound of a twig snapping behind her someone. "And it's a demon. Since when do they have a set agenda?"

"Clary, listen to me." Jace said turning her body to face his own. "You will be alright here. You're under a lamp, you have your witchlight in your pocket and you've got a stele. But it's my job to hunt down demons –"

"I know it's your job and I've fought demons before. I can handle this."

"Like you handled being in the Unseelie Court yesterday?" Jace shot back, his temper getting the better of him. "Never mind. Come on. Don't lose sight of me at any moment. I'd hold your hand but I think I'll be needing both of them when we face whatever demon it is following us."

"So you agree then, this thing has been following us all night?" Clary asked grabbing hold of his hand once more.

"Look, I'm still not convinced you saw anything before but we're certainly being followed now." Jace admitted glancing around them before heading off in the direction of the Institute.

"I never said I actually saw something, just that I felt it." Clary defended, jogging slightly in order to keep up with Jace. "We could still go after it now. I don't need to be watched or protected like you keep trying to convince me I do."

Jace shook his head not looking at her. "Not a chance. We're getting reinforcements. If this thing has been chasing us around the city we're going to need a little more help locating and destroying it."

"The fantastical Jace confesses that he's not all powerful." She mock gasped earning a smile from Jace before he drew her closer to him, wrapping an arm around her waist.

o0o

Slowly the Institute came into focus. Clary had hardly noticed its approach, distracted by the thought of being followed by demons. She was glad of its presence knowing they'd both be safer once they got inside the protective holy grounds. Once inside the doors, they made their way across the familiar Cathedral-like entrance to the elevator at the end. Jace reached out a hand and pressed the call button.

In the ride up, Jace started strategising. "When we reach the top you go straight to Isabelle's room, I'll go find Alec. Tell her there's an emergency, she'll yell at you for waking her up but just ignore it. We'll meet you in her room – say it's a compromise."

Clary, having nothing better to add, nodded and waited for the elevator to stop moving. They stepped out when the doors opened and ran straight into Alec.

"Well there goes my job." Jace muttered to no-one in particular.

Alec raised an eyebrow. "Your job? Am I missing something?"

"You're always missing something." Jace said at the same time as Clary answered with "Demons are chasing us."

"Demons are chasing you?" Alec asked looking between Jace and Clary as though it were some kind of joke.

"Come help us wake Izzy up and we'll explain there." Jace replied heading down the hall not waiting for Alec or Clary to catch up.

"If there were demons coming after you guys, why didn't Jace just kill it?" Alec asked Clary as they paced down the corridor leading to Isabelle's room.

"He wouldn't let me help track it without reinforcements." Clary answered in an annoyed tone. She was watching her feet and almost ran into Jace as they approached Isabelle's door.

"No," Jace corrected looking at Clary and not Alec. "Clary wouldn't stay under the street light while I got rid of it."

"You can't really have expected me to stand around in the dark and wait for you to turn up again. What if there had been more than one demon, you would have had me to back you up." She defended glaring at Jace. She jumped when Isabelle's door flew open revealing a murderous looking girl.

"See." Jace exclaimed pushing his way into Isabelle's room, ignoring the look of offence that crossed her features as he entered uninvited. "You jump at the smallest of movements, not exactly the best trait when you're out in the field."

"What in the name of the Angel is going on!?" Isabelle demanded cutting off the reply Clary was about to give. They gave her and Alec a brief account of being followed by the demon and how it was probably safer that there was more than one qualified shadowhunter out hunting it.

"Just get dressed and Marked, ok?" Jace said moving towards the door. Clary and I are going to go upstairs and get a few more weapons. Meet outside the Institute in 10 minutes." He grabbed hold of Clary's arm and pulled her out of the room and towards the elevator once more.

"Isn't the weapon's room that way?" Clary asked as they passed the door she was familiar with.

Jace nodded his head. "It is, but there are a few better knives upstairs. Maryse keeps this really pointy one hidden from the rest of us." He said naming Alec and Isabelle's mother. "She thinks we don't know where it is, but the amount of times we've explored this place it's hard to find a spot we haven't come across before."

That seemed to make sense to Clary; after all these years living in the New York Institute she couldn't imagine there'd be a room that hadn't been wandered into by one of the Lightwood children at least once.

Jace led them into a dark room and turned on the light switch. The room was fairly empty. There was a chair placed awkwardly against one wall and half a table lying on its side on the floor.

"I can't imagine anything in hidden in this room." Clary said looking around.

"That's probably what Maryse thought we'd think when she hid it here." Jace remarked shutting the door behind him and walking over the bathroom. He went straight for the tiled wall at the back. "Can I borrow your jacket; I need something to help pull the tile out so I don't touch the edges. Maryse fingerprints."

Clary shrugged her arms out of her jacket and handed it over to Jace with a frown. "Maryse is slightly paranoid, don't you think?"

"I would be too if I though Isabelle was going to use my best knife." Jace remarked before pulling a loose tile away from the wall with Clary's jacket, revealing a hollowed out section of the wall. He thrust his hand into the hole not bothering to check for nasty things lurking on the inside.

'Why would a shadowhunter care about things like rats or spiders? The scary things aren't likely to be in the wall.' Clary thought mentally yelling at herself for being so squeamish still after all she'd seen and been through. 'You can take the girl out of the mundane world, but you can't take the mundie out of the girl.'

"Huh," Jace said turning around to look at Clary. "I think Maryse is onto us. The knife's not there. Here, put your jacket back on, we'll go meet the others."

Clary struggled with the jacket in the bathroom before entering the room again. Jace's back was to her and he was fiddling with the door.

"Is the door locked?" Clary asked twisting the handle. When nothing happened she looked over her shoulder to questions Jace just in time to see him dive out the window. She screamed, though why she did she wasn't sure. It's not like she'd never seen Jace jump out of a high window and not survive; but the shock still caught her up occasionally. "Jace!"

Running over to the window, Clary saw that Jace had landed safely and was waiting for Isabelle and Alec to join him outside of the Institute. "Jace! Not fair, I can't just lead out of a window and float gracefully to the floor." She screamed at him from her position in the empty room.

"That's the point." He replied calmly readjusting his weapons belt. Even from a distance Clary could see the glint of his angel blades poking through the belt.

She checked her pocket for her stele and found that it was empty. "You stole my stele!" She shrieked. "How am I supposed to help you fight from inside the Institute?"

"You're not supposed to be fighting at all." Jace said smiling at his well laid trap. "You can stay there until we get back. You'll be safer and I won't have to watch out for you when I should be killing the nasty demon things."

"Nasty demon things?" Isabelle snorted coming up beside him. "Is that the technical term now? Hi Clary." She waved from the ground.

"Yes, it's a very technical term." Jace stated frowning at Isabelle before turning back to Clary. "Just sit tight and we'll be back soon."

"But – Wait! There's nothing in here to sit tight with. No books, pens and paper, no food." Clary argued, hoping he'd chance his mind and come up to get here. She doubted it though.

"There's a tap in the bathroom for drinking purposes. When we get back we'll order pizza or something." He turned away heading towards the street.

"Jace!" Clary yelled once again. He turned around about to yell back when she cut him off quickly. "Be careful."

Jace blew her a kiss and grinned. "I always am."

Sighing Clary turned around and faced the empty room. "He better bring my stele back." She told the walls sternly, her voice echoing back at her in different volumes.

Alec squinted in the darkness of the alley. They'd tracked the demon all over the city and Jace had said he was certain it had gone down this side street. Alec had his doubts. It hadn't mattered how many times they'd thought they were one step ahead of the demon it managed to escape. He suspected that meant there was more than one running around them, but without proof he couldn't make Jace see otherwise.

"I don't think we're going to find anything." Isabelle commented as they crept towards the end of the alley.

Jace shushed her with a stern look and continued his silent walk into the darkness. Alec looked at Isabelle and shrugged. They'd both follow Jace into a hunt without any questions at all, but more often than not neither Isabelle nor Alec was as attached to find the demon as Jace was.

"It's empty. The damn alley in empty." Jace exclaimed as the came to the wall at the end. "How does it keep evading us? What is it, the invisible demon, or maybe the demon of camouflage?"

"We don't have an answer for you Jace." Alec said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "But the sun's about the come up so I don't think we'll find the demon around here anymore. And you still have Clary locked up in a room."

Jace swore. "I forgot about that."

"You forgot about Clary?" Isabelle asked smiling at her step-brother. "She's definitely not going to like that one."

"I didn't forget Clary; I just forgot I'd locked her up." He replied turning away from the siblings. "Come on, let's head back."

A/N: Chapter #2 complete. I want to state my opinion on the whole relationship between Clary and Jace. Yes I think they'll be together, No I don't think it'll be sunshine and daisies for them. Even when they thought they were brother and sister they fought each other and they loved each other. Their emotions and actions aren't likely to change just because they can now love each other openly. That is why Jace still argues with Clary about her participation in the demon hunting.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

~James' Girl Lily