Next semester starts tomorrow and I wanted to get another chapter up before my holiday ended.
I don't own TMI :'(
I woke up in damp grass, the loud sirens of police cars wailing in the background. Clary was beside me, cruiser lights flashing in the distance. I lifted my head to look at myself, blood and black smeared over my clothes and skin.
"Careful now." came a voice. A boy was leaning over Clary, wrapping bandages around her. He smiled at me and went back to work. I laid back, the grass feeling nice and cool on my body. I heard the boy speak to Clary, which meant she was awake. I tried to listen, but my head throbbed.
"Ravener...neck...demon poison...Institute. Hold still." Was all I heard.
The boy came over to me, taking my hand and pulling out a rod. He pressed it to my skin, drawing a small circular pattern, while explaining that it would prevent us from being seen. It burned a little, but I just stared at him. He was hot, and would have given Stoner a run for his money.
"I can walk." I choked out while managing to stand up. He helped Clary to her feet and looked at me. I took a step forward to prove my point, and stumbled. He smirked at me, giving a small laugh. I wasn't in pain, but I was still being affected by the drugs and alcohol. He probably knew too, if he'd seen my eyes or even smelled me. I reeked of blood, smoke, and alcohol.
"Jace, this is..." Clary started, but realized she didn't know my name.
"Danielle." I said, looking around for my bag.
"Jace" said the boy, handing me my bag. "Is this what you're looking for?"
I took it, extending my hand. He shook it, but stopped when he saw the mark on my hand. Clary hadn't noticed it.
"We should head back." He said as he slipped from my grasp. Wrapping his arm around Clary's waist he turned to me, "Are you sure you can go it alone?" he teased, but he seemed wary. I nodded, stumbling along behind them.
I sat in a bed in the infirmary of what I had been told was called the Institute. Clary was unconscious in the bed beside mine. She'd been there for three days, I was worried. Every time I went to sleep I'd prayed I'd waked up in the ICU of the hospital from a drug overdose, but I kept waking up here. For now I had to believe that this was all real.
"Mundies die awfully easily, don't they?" said Isabelle. I'd met her when we arrived that night. She was stunning, and pretty smart. She had long dark hair, and porcelain skin. She wore jeans and a tight blue tank top with a red pendant, that I'd never seen her without, hanging from her neck.
"Isabelle, you know it's bad luck to talk about death in a sickroom." said Alec, Isabelle's older brother. He was tall, and all together very similar to Isabelle, same dark hair, same skin, but not as nice. They both acted like Jace had around me, friendly yet cautious.
Jace wasn't there, I'd seen him a few times, but we hadn't talked, and when he did see me he was staring at my hand. I mostly stayed in the infirmary with Clary or hung out with Isabelle in her room. I'd been borrowing Isabelle's clothes, fortunately we were both D cups, all I had to do was roll up her pants to fit my 5'3" frame. I could only imagine what Clary would look like in them.
"Sometimes I wonder if he-Look! She moved!" said Isabelle. I immediately set down the tisane I'd been drinking from Hodge, their tutor, and spun to look at Clary. She slowly sat up and blinked her eyes open.
"I guess she's alive after all. I'll go tell Hodge." Alec sighed, leaving the room.
"So, you're finally awake, Hodge will be pleased. We all thought you'd probably die in your sleep." said Isabelle, handing Clary a tisane.
"Is this the Institute?" Clary asked.
Isabelle rolled her eyes. "Is there anything Jace didn't tell you?"
Jace hadn't told me much, but Isabelle had. Apparently the creature from the apartment was a demon, it was Clary's apartment, and Clary's mom is missing. She also explained, reluctantly, that they were Shadowhunters, which meant they hunted demons. I had a hard time believing all this, I still don't.
"Tell me, is he always really rude, or does he save that for mundanes?" Clary asked. Mundanes, or mundies, were how Shoadowhunters referred to normal people.
"Oh, he's rude to everyone," said Isabelle airily. "It's what makes him so damn sexy. That, and he's killed more demons than anyone else his age. "
"But he's your brother! Doesn't he live here with you?" Clary exclaimed. I picked my drink back up and sipped it to hide my laugh. Isabelle and I had already had this conversation.
"Yeah, but, he's not my brother. Jace's parents are dead." I choked on the tisane at that, "his mother died when he was born. His father was murdered when he was ten."
"Was it demons?" Clary pressed.
Isabelle got to her feet. "Look, I'm gonna go. You and Danielle have some talking to do. Oh, and there's soap in the bathroom," she added. "You might want to clean up a little. You smell."
Clary glared at her. "Thanks a lot." She said as Isabelle left.
"You should shower, we can talk after. You look sore." I said smiling. Clary nodded and headed into the bathroom and I slipped out of Isabelle's pyjamas and into some clothes. A pair of ripped skinny jeans and a low cut flowery chiffon baby doll top that was white with pink flowers. I'd already done my hair and makeup so I just stared at myself in the mirror. I'd come out of everything relatively damage-less.
Clary came out of the bathroom just as I was pushing up my boobs.
"What are you doing?" she asked, awkwardly.
"Making sure the girls look great. You never do that?" I asked. She blushed and turned away. I realized she didn't have much to push up, oops. "Forget it, Isabelle left clothes for you over there." I smiled as she walked over to the pile. She was shorter than I thought; I noticed when she began rolling up Isabelle's jeans. She couldn't have been more than 5'1", probably less. The red sweater she put on emphasized her lack of a chest and I silently thanked god for my D's.
After she was dressed we talked, and she let me play with her hair. I love playing with people's hair. She told me everything she knew about Shadowhunters and what had happened, starting with some club named Pandemonium.
"I need to call Luke, he's good friends with my mom. He might know where she is. They must have a phone here." Clary said as she put on her Skechers. I slipped on my Chanel flats, ready to go.
We walked out into the hall in search of a phone. I looked around for Church, but didn't see him. That cat was crazy, always knew where people were, but was never around when you needed him. I heard a piano playing in the distance.
"Come on, I know where the piano room is." I said, pulling Clary along.
"Do you know your way around here?" she asked, walking behind me.
"Not exactly... but I know where the piano is. I was messing around with it with Isabelle yesterday." It had been pretty fun too. I liked Isabelle, she'd been the nicest to me so far.
When we got to the room we saw Jace playing the piano. He was good, no denying it, and that bugged me. He seemed like the kind of guy who was good at everything. I knocked on the door and he turned to look at us.
"Play me a song, Piano Man." I joked. Jace laughed and walked over to us.
"I should take you to see Hodge, come." He led us down hallways full of identical looking empty bedrooms.
"Why are there so many rooms, I thought it was a research facility?" Clary asked.
"This is the residential wing. We're pledged to offer safety and lodging to any Shadowhunter who requests it. We can house up to two hundred people here. "Jace said.
"But most of these rooms are empty."
"People come and go. Nobody stays for long. Usually it's just us-Alec, Isabelle, Max, their parents-and me and Hodge. "
"Max?"
"You met the beauteous Isabelle? Alec is her older brother. Max is the youngest, but he's overseas with his parents. Think of them as foreign diplomats and of this as an embassy, of sorts. They're in the Shadowhunter home country, working out peace negotiations. They brought Max with them because he's so young. "
"What's Shadowhunter home country? Man, I need to see you guys in action, fighting demons and stuff. Everything you're saying sounds like it's straight out of a fairytale. For all I know this is an asylum and you guys are crazy" I said.
"Hopefully you won't end up in a position where you're fighting 'demons and stuff' with us. As for homecountry, That's Idris. You wouldn't have heard of it. There are wardings- protective spells-up all over the borders. If you tried to cross into Idris, you'd be transported from one border to the next. It isn't on any mundie maps. For our purposes you can consider it a small country between Germany and France." Jace said, an air of superiority about him.
"Have you been there?" Clary asked.
"I grew up there." Jace continued. "There are Shadowhunters all over the world, but Idris will always be our home."
We reached an arch-shaped set of wooden doors. Church lay curled in front of them. He raised his head as we approached and yowled. "Hey, Church, " Jace said, stroking the cat's back with a bare foot before entering the massive library.
Books lined every shelf, stacked all the way to the ceiling. It was amazing, i'd never been in there since arriving. Hodge stood near a desk at the center of the room, his raven, Hugo, perched on his shoulder. I'd met him a few times, usually so he could ask questions and observe my hand, taking notes the entire time. I'd given him every answer I had, and he hadn't given me any.
"Good day to you, Danielle. And welcome, Clary, to the Institute." Hodge smiled.
