Chapter Two
Clary woke up to the slamming of a door. She looked up to see the boy who kidnapped her standing at the door and looking impatient. Scanning the room she realized that Tessa wasn't with her anymore.
"Rise and shine!" He said with a smile. "We're going for a walk."
Clary frowned. "What if I don't want to?"
"I guess I'd have to carry you then. You have no lamps to hit me with this time. I made sure of that." Clary rolled her eyes, something she'd been doing a lot of lately, but got up anyway. Despite what some people might say, getting stabbed with a random tranquilizer needle does not feel good. Clary didn't want to experience it again.
Jace opened the door wider and gestured for her to go through. Clary rolled her eyes (she definitely needed more facial expressions to show exasperation) and walked with him.
"So, how are you liking it at Hotel Lightwood," he asked happily once they were out in the hallway.
"Is it really called that?"
"No, but it should be." Clary didn't understand why he was acting so calmly. She imagined kidnappers to be mean and scary. Although he was wearing all black and he was quite a bit taller than her, he had kind eyes. They were a kind of gold color, something she'd never seen on someone before. Her hand itched to draw him, but she didn't have her sketchbook. Damn, she thought sarcastically, I should've packed it.
"Here we are," he said, pointing to a door to their right. She went inside and looked around. It looked pretty similar to her room except there were no beds. There was a table in the middle of the room and a lamp. There also looked to be… A sketchpad?
"You can sit down," he said, closing the door quietly.
"Why? What am I supposed to do?"
"By the Angel, you're just full of questions. Look, if you do what I ask you to, I'll answer two of your many questions at the end. Deal?"
"Fine." She sat down in the chair and looked at him expectantly. "Happy?"
"Very." He leaned on the opposite side of the table and crossed his arms. "I want you to pick up the pen there." She pointed at the large black pen. "Yes that one. Why do you even need to ask? It's the only pen in the room."
"You're the only pen in the room." She couldn't think of any good comebacks so she had to resort to immaturity which was one of her best skills. She could be very immature if she wanted to, something she was proud of because she didn't even have any siblings to argue with when she was younger. She picked up the childishness all on her own.
"Okay then. Anyway, I want you to pick up that pen and draw whatever comes to your mind on that piece of paper in front of you. Ready, set, go."
She gave him a blank stare. "You want me to draw for you?"
He raked a hand through his hair. "You're impossible! Yes I want you to draw for me."
Clary shrugged and picked up the pen. It was a little too big for her small hand, but she made it work anyway. Taking a deep breath, she set the pen to the paper and started to draw a cat. Clary didn't know what she was supposed to draw, but she figured that a cat would suffice. If not, sucks to suck.
"What are you- Is that a cat? You seriously drew a cat."
"You told me to draw whatever came to my mind. Be glad that I didn't draw an ugly picture of you."
"There's no such thing as an ugly picture of me. And keep in mind that I could just knock you unconscious and figure everything out by dissecting your brain."
Clary sighed. "That's not possible." Upon seeing Jace's serious face, she didn't really feel like calling his bluff. She very much liked her brain. "Fine. What do you want me to draw? And don't tell me to draw what my heart desires or I'll just draw more cats."
He paused for a minute to think. "Draw something that isn't real. I want you to make something up. Don't think about it. Just scribble something!"
Here goes nothing. She started to draw again, only this time, she disconnected her hand from her body. Not literally, but in her mind. She imagined that she had no control over what she was drawing. It worked somewhat. Her hand etched a few strands here and there and she was happy until she saw that it was just a weird group of connected lines, but apparently that's what Jace wanted because he snatched it off the desk.
"That's perfect! Now if you'll excuse me, I need to-"
"Answer my questions," she interrupted. "Remember our deal?"
"Damn it. I was hoping you'd forget." He sighed and sat back down on the table again. "What would you like to know?"
"Why is Tessa here," she asked immediately.
"Really? You'd rather know about her than yourself?"
"Just answer the question."
He pressed his lips into a firm line. "I can't exactly tell you about Tessa because she's Will and Jem's assignment and I don't know very much about her. Alec, Izzy and I were assigned to you. I can only tell you that she is important for our… research, just like you."
Clary nodded, trying to think of a good last question. She didn't want to waste it on something like 'what's your favorite color'. She tended to blurt out stupid things like that.
Finally, after a few moments of thinking, she landed on something she was curious about.
"Earlier, like yesterday or something, a guy named William came into my room. I'm assuming that would be the Will that you were just talking about. Anyway, he was staring at me like he was trying to evaluate me and he said something along the lines of 'you're not how I expected you to be.' What was he talking about?"
"Honestly, no one knows what goes through Will's mind and that's a lot coming from me because he's my cousin." Clary glared at him. He had to know a little more than that. "That's really all I can tell you. As hard as it may be to imagine, I don't know everything there is to know. I'm also not the one in charge here."
"Who is, then?"
"I can't tell you that either."
Clary groaned. "So you pretty much can't tell me anything." Jace smiled and nodded. "Fine. I do have one more question. This one is pretty easy. Was your dad really my dad's best friend in college?"
Jace laughed. "You're still hung up on that? No, he wasn't. My dad didn't go to college. Not in your world at least."
"What do you mean my world?"
"Forget I said that. Anyway, it's a kind of illusion that we use. It's called glamour. It can be used to trick people into believing or seeing something that isn't true."
"So it's like magic?"
Jace snorted. "I guess it's like magic. Anyway, it's time to go." He stood up, gently tugged on her arm and pulled her to the door. As he opened it, someone with black hair was walking by. Could that be Will?
"Ah, Alec, just the man I wanted to see." The boy turned around. He had black hair and blue eyes like Will, but his hair was a little shorter and his eyes were a few shades lighter.
"What is it?" When he walked into the light, Clary recognized him as one of the Lightwoods from their little dinner party. Geez, she thought, I'm really slow.
"I need you to walk Clary back to her room. I have to deal with this." Jace showed him the piece of paper that Clary had drawn on and Alec nodded in understanding.
"See you later, Red," Jace said with a smile. He then walked away at a very fast-pace.
"Come on. Let's get you back to your room then." Alec started walking in the direction towards their cell and Clary fell in step with him.
"Is he always so enthusiastic?" She asked him.
"Jace? Yep. He's pretty much never serious. Unfortunately, that means I have to clean up all of his messes. Not that I think of you as a mess," he stuttered. "I, uh, sorry. I just meant that he's not very responsible."
Clary laughed. She was beginning to feel more comfortable. Although she was a prisoner, she really didn't feel like one. So far, all the people that she had met were fairly kind to her. The only thing she was worried about was the food. Prisons usually had terrible food and she doubted that Hotel Lightwood was a five-star restaurant. Little did she know, but her meal was being cooked in the kitchen as she walked back to her room by none other than Chef Izzy.
