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Here's the next chapter, where the action really starts. Hope you like it. Please review!

2.

"Damn these mundanes," Will cursed as he surveyed the damage in the room. Body parts were littered everywhere and blood soaked the walls in areas that had not been scorched by fire. "My shoes are ruined. There's nothing that will get this much blood out of the leather."

"I've summoned the Enclave, though I'm quite sure there's nothing they can do about this," Jem reported.

Just an hour earlier, the boys had arrived at the house of Mr Thomas Batty, who had declared in The Inquirer magazine that he would be holding a séance and offering a bag of gold to anyone who could prove his medium was a fraud. Will and Jem had decided to attend, out of boredom.

Quite a number of mundanes had shown up and the house seemed filled to capacity. Indeed, one could not move about without bumping into someone else. So, when it came time for the actual séance, it was a tight squeeze and almost impossible for most of the attendees to watch the action. Will and Jem were pushed right to the back and pinned against the wall. They could see nothing except the backs of other people's heads.

This was why they were slow to react when they heard the screams. They smelled the sulphur first but had thought nothing of it, dismissing the scent as a mixture of the heavy perfumes the women around them wore and the food that had been served earlier. Then they saw wisps of smoke rising up to the ceiling. Again, they thought this was a special effect that the medium conjured up for the event. So, when the screaming started, they thought it was just another reaction to the medium's good acting skills.

Will was the first to realise something was wrong when the jostling became panicked and frantic. He pushed through the crowd, which was surging in the other direction, and jumped onto someone's shoulders. He pulled out his seraph blade, yelling "Narcariel!" as he soared above the throng and leaped from shoulder to shoulder to move above the stampede.

Two Achaieral demons had materialised in the centre of the room, right where the séance was taking place. Their dark leathery wings filled the space and were black holes within the darkness. Their blade-like talons and razor-sharp teeth flashed like lightning. Already, the six people seated around the table with the medium had been ripped apart.

Will saw Jem attempting to open the doors to let the people out. He saw the flash of the stele as Jem drew an Opening rune. But the doors remained stubbornly shut. "Leave it!" Will yelled. Jem seemed to understand and moved to join his parabatai, preparing his own seraph blade as he did so. Hellhounds suddenly appeared, adding to the terror.

The boys fought as only Shadowhunters could. They tried hard to protect the mundanes, but they were only two against the horde of demons. It was a massacre. Blood and body parts flew everywhere.

"Will, the medium!" Jem shouted, pointing at the medium who was, surprisingly still intact. The woman, dressed in a purple dress embroidered with stars and moons and wearing a large yellow turban with a gaudy jewelled ankh pinned on it, seemed to be in a trance. Her eyes had turned pure black and her lips were moving, keeping the spell going.

Will struggled with a particularly vicious Hellhound. Jem grabbed a piece of broken glass and flung it, striking the creature square in its back. It was not enough to kill it, but it was distracted long enough for Will to roll away and get close to the medium. He plunged his seraph blade into her chest. The medium let out a piercing scream, convulsed and then died.

The stream of Hellhounds stopped, but too many of them had already come through. Having killed all the other mundanes, the demons now turned to Will and Jem.

"There's too many of them," Jem said. "We can't kill them all, not unless they wait in line."

"Perhaps they'll do it if we ask nicely," Will suggested. "What do you say, chaps?" he addressed the demons surrounding them. "Wait your turn and we'll get round to dispatching you all back to your filthy demon realm."

The Achaieral demons roared in challenge. The Hellhounds added to the cacophony with their baying. The boys were forced to cover their ears to protect themselves from going mad with the sounds of hell. They looked around for leverage.

"I have an idea," Jem said. "The wine bottles in the dining room."

"Normally, I would not say no to some wine, but there's a time and a place, James," Will informed him.

"I meant," Jem clarified, "that alcohol makes an excellent combusting agent."

"Ah, the wine bottles," Will realised. "I assume you have matches."

Jem patted his pocket. "I'll need an opening."

"Leave it to me."

Will's seraph blade was almost spent but he summoned all his power and charged the Achaieral demon nearest to the door. As he attacked, Jem slipped through and into the dining room. Within seconds, he returned with a bottle of wine. The mouth of the bottle was full of fire. "Will!" he warned.

Will dropped to the ground just as Jem threw the bottle. It smashed all over the demon, causing it to burst into flames. Its screeching was ear-piercingly loud and it trampled all over the room in an attempt escape the flames. Jem repeated this move several times, running to and from the dining room with bottles. The demons crashed through the magically sealed doors and out into the open to get away from the fire. The cold night air that blew in helped to remove the stench of the demons and magic. The boys fell to the floor in exhaustion.

"Damn these mundanes," Will cursed. "That was no séance; it was a summoning. I blame that medium, with her hideous dress and disgusting turban."

"Mundanes would not know a summoning spell from one that opens a portal to the demon realms. It was probably a mistake," Jem reasoned. "One that, I am sad to say, had extremely unfortunate consequences. 'Curiosity killed the cat' holds true here in a terribly gruesome way."

"Well, I guess we're never going to see that bag of gold," Will concluded. He glanced at Jem, whose lips curled upwards. Sitting amid the carnage, the boys began to laugh hysterically.