The Only Thing

Summary: When Valentine snatches Clarissa from Jocelyn and brings her with him back to Idris, he notices a change in his dark son, Jonathan Christopher. And he cannot seem to tell if his daughter creating a strong bond with his son is a good thing for his plans or not.

Disclaimer: Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices series and their characters solely belong to Cassandra Clare.

Chapter Two: His Angel

The door opened quietly and the cool radiance provided by the witchlights from the hallway flooded into the dark room. A small shadow stood at the doorway. The figure lingered there for a few good minutes hesitating if it will be okay to step into the dark room or not. Inside the room, a body was lying still on the spacious bed. The body was connected to a head crowned with silvery blonde locks. The shadow at the doorway finally decided to move in. It climbed onto the side of the bed where the back of the person on the bed was faced with.

Curious green eyes that belong to a little red haired girl took a peek at the sleeping boy. It was unknown to her that the boy was anything but asleep at that moment. The little girl watched his face for a few moments before she slipped off of the bed. For her, she moved gracefully and quietly enough not to be noticed but for the boy who was pretending to be asleep on the bed, all of her movements were as clear and as noticeable as the bright sun during the day. She walked around the bed to the other side of it. Her small hands grabbed onto the heavy sheets and raised them with effort as she pulled herself up on the bed. Once she was settled, she took a deep breath and stared at the scary shadows on the white ceiling. Her hands unconsciously tightened on the sheets and she turned her face away from the shadows. She rolled onto her side in order to have a full view of the boy's calm face.

She just stared at him with the hope that the calmness in his features will slowly pull her into a deep sleep. Indeed it gave her the desired effect. She soon felt her eyelids getting heavy but then a voice effectively snapped her back to her senses.

"What are you doing here… again, Clarissa?" The boy opened his eyes. His eyes almost darker than the night sky itself. The moonlight coming from one of the windows in his room cast ugly shadows across his pale complexion. He actually looks… different. From another person's perspective, he would look anything but comforting but the little girl lying next to him did not seem to be fazed by his intimidating look.

"I'm going to sleep here," the girl said softly as she pulled herself closer to the boy.

"I already let you sleep here last night," the girl just blinked at him. Those green eyes of hers looked so honest and true. "You know it's improper for you to be sleeping in my room… I'm a boy and you're not," he explained and the girl smiled. The room suddenly looked a lot brighter than it was supposed to be for the boy.

"But you're my big brother… It's alright," she said and reached out to hold onto his hand. He didn't hold her hand back. He just watched the five year old girl before him with that same impassive expression he almost always wore. "Goodnight, Jonathan…"

Jonathan wondered if all little girls sounded as angelic as his little sister.

The loud chirping of the birds and a soft humming pull Jonathan Morgenstern out of his slumber. His brows furrow and his face scrunches up. He doesn't feel like getting up any soon. He just had a rough night. All he wants to do is sleep some more. He might be an exceptional Shadowhunter because of his demon blood but his own body admits the fact that taking on a bunch of lycanthropies last night on his own took a toll on him. He feels his bed sink some more as another person's weight burdens it. The demon blood in his veins alerts his senses and he stops himself from attacking the other person on his bed knowing that it is only his little sister. Who else in their right mind would dare to invade his room? Even their father does not enter his domain without announcing his presence first. It's only his sister… Only her. He shifts a little and buries his head some more on his pillow. A groan escapes his lips as he feels the muscles on his back complain because of his little movements.

A warm burning sensation erupts from his right shoulder. He feels it spread in a familiar pattern and soon enough he feels his muscles relax. He opens his eyes, finally giving up the fight for more sleep. He sees his sister putting her stele on the nightstand before grabbing her sketchpad and pencil. She takes a seat by the foot of his bed and starts to get lost in her own little world. He watches her hand move expertly on the blank paper. Her green eyes have that distant look again like she's seeing another world only she can see.

Jonathan moves to sit on his bed. He places a pillow at the headboard and then rests his naked back on it. His sister doesn't even look to check up on him. "What are you doing here?" He himself wonders why he still bothers to ask. Clarissa Morgenstern is always in his room since the day she learned how to walk and find his room. He stares at her for a moment taking in how the bright sun rays coming from his window make her red hair look like live flames. He always thought that Clarissa looks so different under the bright lights. It makes her glow. He turns his head away from her and slips out of the bed.

"Your room has a better view of the landscape…" she says softly.

Jonathan does not bother to turn and look at what she's sketching knowing that she's not really drawing the landscape besides it's quite obvious that one cannot see the landscape from her location on his bed. He continues to walk towards the bathroom. He's right that his sister is not drawing the landscape but he will never imagine her drawing him. Once he's in his bathroom, he looks at the mirror to see his back and sees the healing rune Clarissa has done for him a while ago. At times like this, thoughts about her becoming his parabatai enter his mind. But he doesn't really like the thought of her willing to sacrifice her own life for him. For Jonathan, it's enough that it's only him who is willing to sacrifice his life for her.

Later that afternoon, the Morgenstern siblings are sitting at the edge of a clearing. The trees around them provide a good shade from the burning rays of the sun. Jonathan is busy slashing and stabbing at his invisible enemies with his seraph blades while Clarissa is contented sketching on her pad under a tree. Her brother notices her lack of interest in training and stalks towards her. "The creatures of darkness won't be defeated by your sketches," he says in a cold manner as he presses the tip of his blade at the delicate skin of her throat. His eyes narrow as blood oozes from the tiny cut he created. He wants to protect his sister but he will never deny the fact that he also likes to see her bleed. There is just something fascinating about it for him.

A glow coming from her sketchpad distracts him and he watches her dip her hand into the paper. A sick smile spreads on his face as he watches her pull a sword out of her sketchpad. He takes a few steps back to give her space to stand up and put herself in a fighting stance. Clarissa's eyes turn a shade darker as she locks on her target. She launches herself at him in her fastest but she will be always slow for Jonathan. Her brother has no doubt of her skills. He has seen her fight off demons and Downworlders enough times to have faith in her but they both know she cannot be on equal footing as him. They both know about the demon blood in him and the angel blood in her. They both have their own unique abilities and they both utilize it to make up for the shortcomings of one another.

Light and Dark.

Angel and Demon.

Good and Bad.

Untainted and Tainted.

They are the obvious opposites but they balance each other perfectly. Their blades clash with one another. The bright rays of the sun are being reflected on the blood-stained blades. Just then Jonathan feels a familiar tingling sensation in his body. The little hairs on his neck stand up as a signal that there is enemy nearby. He grabs a dagger hanging from his belt and throws it at his left. A loud howling fills the clearing as a werewolf jumps out of the bushes, Jonathan's dagger buried at its side. Its eyes are clouded with blind red anger directed towards the fair haired boy before it.

"Jonathan–!" Clarissa readies herself to move to aid her brother as the werewolf launches itself on Jonathan. But this makes her let her guard down; another werewolf jumps out of the bushes and tackles her down on the ground. She lets out a surprised scream and this makes the blood in her brother's veins run cold. Several more wolves emerge from the bushes and proceed to circle the both of them in a predatory way. The sky is no longer blue and fair. It's now tinged with red as the sun begins to set.

Clarissa struggles under the weight of the werewolf on top of her. The wolf growls at her and tries to bite her but she moves quickly enough to avoid the bite. She'd rather die than be bitten by a werewolf. She tries to reach for a dagger from her belt but her hands can't seem to make it. For the first time in her life, she feels fear in her heart. She grabs a hold of something but she knows it's not a dagger. Judging by its thin and slender structure, it's her stele. "Anything will do," she reminds herself as the canines of the wolf descend upon her. She stabs it on the eye with her stele and it howls in pain. The wolf gets off of her but it just made the situation worse for Clarissa. The other wolves eye her with renewed anger.

The werewolf she just stabbed makes its move towards her. Its right eye is closed and half of her stele sticks out of its closed eye in a grotesque manner. Clarissa fumbles on her belt to get a hold of a weapon. She finally gets a firm hold on a dagger but by the time she looks up; the one eyed wolf already lies in its own pool of blood. She scans the area for her brother and sees him on the back of one of the wolves. His hands do not possess any weapon but his arms are wound around the neck of the wolf. The Downworlder struggles beneath him and Clarissa watches its movements stilled as loud tale-telling cracks fill the clearing. Jonathan has snapped the neck of the wolf just by using his brute strength. He moves onto the next lycanthrope. His black eyes are looking blacker than ever. She cannot distinguish the pupil from the iris anymore.

His silvery blonde hair is matted to his forehead with thick blood. His dark colored Shadowhunter gear looks darker because of the blood clinging onto it. Clarissa seems to lose the strength to fight. She stays rooted on her spot watching her brother cut off limb after limb of the wolves around them. There is something different with her brother. The look in his eyes is a lot different. She has battled alongside him several times before and all she ever saw was him keeping a calm and cool demeanor during the battles. He actually didn't look like fighting at all. He just looked like he was dancing. All his steps and attacks were measured and precise. He had such murderous grace. But right now, she cannot see any grace in his movements at all. All she can see is he is brutal, deadly, merciless, and murderous. It looks like he's fighting like a blind man reaching for anything he can tear into pieces in a very gory way.

It doesn't take long for the clearing to be thrust into darkness as the night falls. The only sound in the clearing is the gentle blowing of the wind. Clarissa notices her hands are shaking and she tries to stop them but to no avail. Jonathan roams around the clearing like a ghost. His pale skin looks a lot paler under this kind of lighting. She cannot see his eyes because of the shadows cast over his face. Those ugly shadows are contorting his handsome face to that of a monster. She watches him bend down to pick a dagger up once in a while. Soon enough, she realizes that he's walking towards her location. She doesn't even remember when her knees have given out. She is now sitting on the soft grass, her hands are still holding that dagger she pulled out to defend herself a while ago.

A pair of black boots splattered with thick blood stops before her. She stares at them for a long while. She cannot explain why she feels like she didn't know that sixteen year old boy slaughtering those werewolves a while ago. A warm hand touches her cheek; she feels something sticky and liquid cling on her skin as the hand moves to push some of her hair out of her face. She realizes that it is blood being smeared on her unintentionally. A pair of hands moves along the length of her body checking for any life threatening injuries. She wonders why his touch feels so familiar yet so distant.

"Let's go home… Dinner must be ready," he says in that same impassive manner. He gathers their things before he returns to her. Clarissa tries to snap herself back to normal. She tries to stand up but wobbles on her feet. In a flash, Jonathan collects her in his arms. She stiffens as the still fresh blood on his gear seep into her own. "Were you scared?" She looks up to see his face after what seemed like a thousand years. And as she gazes at those cold yet gentle black eyes of his, she remembers how she used to feel like a little princess whenever she was around her brother. She has that same feeling right now that she's safe in his arms. She gives him a weak smile.

"I'm just a little shaken. I didn't expect any of that… Sorry, brother." She rarely calls him 'brother' so he concludes that she's more shaken up than what she admits to be. He starts walking and she wraps her arms around his neck. She unconsciously plays with the tips of his hair which are hard and sticky with blood. "Do you think Father will be home tonight?" She asks just to break the deafening silence that surrounds the both of them.

"Who knows… He's been busy these days."

Clarissa stares at him. She feels like nothing really changed. Jonathan still looks and acts like Jonathan even now that he's covered in so much blood. But as she remembers how he was slaughtering those creatures a while ago, she can't help it but to feel something is off. It was not like watching a skillful warrior fight his way out bravely and gracefully out of a battle.

For Clarissa, it was like watching a demon dancing in sick delight as he sucks the life out of every living thing around him.

Jonathan looks at his reflection on the mirror. The water from the bath he has just taken is dripping from the tips of his now blood free hair. His gaze follows a droplet of water as it slides down the side of his face to his chin. He blinks and sees this late afternoon's events flash before his eyes. He can care less how he killed those stinky mutts. He just can't seem to erase the horrified look on his little sister's face after he has finished all of those Downworlders. He closes his eyes to clear his head and when he opens them again to look at his image on the mirror, he feels an overwhelming want to tear his skin apart. The thought of Clarissa being scared of him makes him disgusted of his own self. For the first time in his life, he hates the idea of having demon blood in his veins.

His vision seems to go dark and the next moment he regains his senses, the mirror before him is shattered to pieces. Pain shoots from his right hand and he looks down to see glass shards sticking in cuts of different sizes. He curses himself and grabs for a clean towel. The door of his bathroom slams open and he turns to see Clarissa standing at the doorway with a worried look on her face.

"What happened, Jonathan? I heard something break… Are you– " She trails off as she sees blood seeping on the towel Jonathan has wrapped on his injured hand. She rushes to his side and takes his hand for her to inspect but he pushes her away as gently as he can manage.

"You shouldn't be barging in my bathroom… What if I was naked?" He tries to lighten up the mood but she doesn't seem interested to whatever he will say right now as she moves to get a hold of his hand again.

"Did you punch your mirror? What were you thinking?" There's a noticeable hint of anger in her tone. She looks up to see his face. "Come… We better remove the shards first," she says and he remembers the horrified look on her face again. He closes his eyes and lets her drag him out of the bathroom.

Later, the two of them are sitting at the edge of his bed. Clarissa is dutifully taking the shards out of his cuts while Jonathan just sits there. He doesn't even wince as she pulls out a pretty long shard. He looks like he's incapable of feeling any pain. She then giggles and this makes him look at her. He remembers when she would giggle at him when she was just a little girl. He likes how her green eyes seem to sparkle whenever she smiles or laughs. It will always be wonder for him how she can look so happy when the reality is she's living in a gloomy manor with only her almost mute and expressionless older brother and almost non-existent father serving as her company.

"What did the mirror do to you, dear brother?" She asks and there's obviously amusement in her voice. She looks up at him. "And don't tell me you were training because we never tried of breaking mirrors before to count as training."

"I just did, didn't I?" She makes a face at him and he notices the freckles on her face. He still thinks that she looks perfect even with those imperfections.

"Maybe we can just let you heal like a mundane so you can learn your lesson…" She thinks that is actually threatening but for him he can go without a healing rune even if he has a broken arm, his demon blood seems to accelerate his healing ability anyway. When he didn't respond to her 'threat', she grabs a stele with a pout on her face before she draws a healing rune just above his right wrist.

Jonathan gets up after his hand is fixed. He leaves the room without telling his sister where he's going. He has gone to the kitchen to drink some water when he returns to his room, he finds his sister comfortably lying on her side on his bed. He climbs on the bed and settles himself next to her. He watches the even rise and fall of her chest then his eyes proceed to silently trace the Marks running all over her skin. His dark eyes stop as some of the runes disappear into the dip of the light blue tee she's wearing.

It's amazing for him how someone as delicate and fragile looking as her can be a Shadowhunter. Clarissa actually looks like she can snap like a twig for him considering how thin she is. His eyes widen a little when she opens her eyes to look at him. Her lips stretch into a wide grin. "You're staring at me…" She says like it is some kind of secret she managed to find out. He doesn't make a move to deny her observation. He just continues to stare at her.

"Are you scared of me, Clarissa?" He watches her eyes widen and her pink lips form a small 'o'.

"Why are you asking such question?" She seems confused.

"I'm not human… You know I'm a demon… I do ter– " She gives him a hard glare to stop his next words from coming out.

"No you're not. You're not a demon! You just have some demon blood in you but that doesn't mean you are one!" She grabs his hand and holds it tight. "Look at me, I have angel blood in me but that doesn't make me an angel!" Jonathan wants to say that having angel blood or in Clarissa's case, having more angel blood in you is something you will not have to bother to think about. He thinks that no one really bothers to think about good things since they usually result to good things.

"I'm not an angel…" She repeats to emphasize her point and she surprises him when she moves closer to wrap her arms around his body. This is not the first time she embraced him. She actually does it all the time but for some reason this one feels a lot special. Jonathan feels his muscles relax and he closes his eyes. She feels incredibly warm against him. He thinks that he can just lay like this for the rest of his life. He lets Clarissa hold him as they both slowly fall asleep. She thinks that she is just imagining it when she hears him say…

"But you are… You're my angel…"

Thanks for reading and please don't forget to review. I know there will still be grammatical errors in my writing but I do try ^^;

Anyway Jace and the others will be in the next chapters ;D