Chapter 2.

Disclaimer: I do not own the mortal instrument characters.

"What? What did you see Clary?" she obviously didn't hear me because she was still staring but the look of fear and panic was gone. Now she just looked like she was trying to figure out what she saw. I snapped my fingers in her face trying to catch her attention. She looked over at me.

"Did you see that? Tell me you did see that?" it was my turn to look puzzled.

"See what?" she pushed past me into the coffee shop and ordered her coffee then picked out a booth in the corner. I followed her lead and ordered my favorite pumpkin mix coffee with extra sugar and cream, then sat in the booth opposite side of her. The booth was clearly meant for only two people telling by the size but between Clary and him they could have easily fitted someone else in the booth on both sides. She set down her coffee cup and faced me. The look she gave immediately told me she was about to explain something I should have already known. Man I hate that look, it made me feel like a stupid kid being scolded and trust me I am not a kid.

"Stop playing games with me. I know what I saw and you should have seen it too. Look over there," she said pointing to the opposite side of the shop. From where we were sitting you could see him perfectly, that probably means she picked this seat for that exact reason.

"See him?"

"Yeah. So what?"

"He was the one that Alec and Isabelle saw at the county fair. Remember? Alec showed us the video he took of that guy who had the bronze sword and was attacking the teenager with the hot electric blue hair." I remembered now.

"Oh yeah, I felt real bad for that kid. But what I didn't understand was 1. No one else seemed to care or didn't see and 2. The way he disintegrated afterwards instead of dying of blood loss. Speaking of which, he didn't even bleed blood it was like black ink or goo or something!"

Now that I think about it he didn't even seem human. No human would disintegrate like that. Like they were sucked up by the earth and sent down into the deepest holes of Hell. It just wasn't natural, but nothing these days had seemed right. Even their friends Alec and Izzy said that they had been getting strange dreams lately. Clary said last week that there were mermaids in the water or something like that. Maybe she said water faeries? I'm not really sure. We were so deep in thought that neither of us saw the boy make his way over to us until he sat down in the chair at the next table and begin to speak did we snap out of the reverie. He looked at us then laughed. I didn't understand.

"Sorry, what did you say? I didn't hear you," I said at the same time that Clary said, "Huh?"

He laughed again. "Hey, my name's Jace Wayland. Nice to meet you." He held out a hand for either of us to shake but me and Clary didn't even move. I was busy trying to figure out why he came over here. Apparently he got the message that neither of us planned on shaking his hand so he put it down.

"Sorry to interrupt your date, but I saw both of you staring at me and found it a little strange so I came over to introduce myself," he said flashing Clary a smile. I snickered knowing Clary never cared about looks usually and definitely wouldn't return the smile because of the video our friends showed us. She absolutely feared him, I remember from the look she gave me before we walked in and the way she talked about the scene earlier. Surprisingly she spoke first, swallowing some more coffee before she did.

"What do you want with us, murderer?" Her voice was full of pure hatred as she spoke that last line.

"Calm down Clary," I said with some tension.

"What!"

"I said calm down. You can't go around and just place nametags with murderer on people."

She looked at me with sad eyes and a surprised face. It hurt to look at her so I looked at the wall behind her.

"We should give him a chance to explain Clary. I don't think he knows what we're talking about," I said with finality. She tensed because the boy decided to sit in the booth with us. He moved and sat next to me. Which meant I was squished up against the window and it wasn't very comfortable. She still had sad eyes and only looked right at me. The boy looked between us with a puzzled look on his face. I was getting angry he shouldn't have sat here not only did he make me uncomfortable but Clary feared him ever since she saw the video. I spoke up with a tight, frustrated voice.

"Go back over there. You're too close and neither of us like you too well."

You could tell I had surprised him since I was the one to mention him staying and hearing the story. I knew that if he stayed over here long enough Clary wouldn't be able to keep her barrier up. As hard as it is to bring it down I knew it wasn't what I wanted: to see her up set and distraught was not on my wish list. So I repeated it a little more meanly.

"I said to leave man, we don't want you here."

"I'm sorry I just thought you wanted to hear my explanation over something I did?"

"We do want an explanation, just not from you. So leave."

He looked frustrated and kept staring at Clary. I was about to punch him but I saw Clary's pleading look and I knew what she wanted.

"Come on Clary, we're leaving."