Two
Despite the daylight outside they were plunged into darkness as soon as the door closed behind them. Clary briefly considered pulling the witchlight out of her back pocket but quickly dismissed the idea, it was never wise to announce your presence without first knowing who you were announcing it to. So instead she pulled out her stele, set it against her arm and began tracing the night vision rune onto her skin. It moved, like it always had, as though it was an extension of her body with no conscious though necessary to draw the runes that she needed. The pain that drawing runes caused was accompanied as always, by the burning smell that never truly left a shadowhunter's skin, but Clary didn't mind, fresh runes were familiar and comforting, like a piece of home. As soon as the rune was finished her vision sharpened, the room didn't get any brighter but suddenly she could see clearly, she reached out silently and took Jonathan's arm, setting her stele on his skin she drew the rune onto him as well. Jonathan rubbed the spot on his arm where the new rune had been burned, he didn't mind runes, but he'd never taken the same, almost masochistic pleasure in them either.
Now that her eyes were properly adjusted Clary could fully appreciate the vastness of the warehouse, even with the night vision rune the end was still swallowed in darkness and between there and where they were standing was a maze of conveyer belts, scaffolding and abandoned and broken machinery. Basically it was a hodgepodge of places for demonic beings to lie in wait for unsuspecting shadowhunters. She had to ask, "Do you think it's a trap?" Jonathan surveyed the space, "I don't think so, traps are supposed to catch people unawares, this place all but screams 'people go missing here'."
"It could be a really badly thought-out trap."
He inclined his head, "Possible, but it's more likely that it's a nest."
Clary screwed her nose up in disgust, demon nests were awful. Plenty of demons hunted in pairs or trios but a nest was five to twenty living together, it only ever occurred when there was a food-source that made it worthwhile. They were always dark and damp and stunk of demons and on the rare occasion that she and Jonathan had discovered one Clary couldn't help but wonder how many mundane's lives made coexistence worthwhile.
Jonathan caught the look on her face and gave her a wry smile, "You wanna keep going?"
Clary quickly readjusted her expression to one of practised indifference, a shadowhunter trademark, and nodded.
"Alright then, you go that way," he pointed directly ahead, "I'll cover you from the elevated catwalk." He pointed in the general direction of the ceiling. Clary mentally kicked herself, so much for shadowhunter skills; she could pull off a shadowhunter facial expression but couldn't even scope-out a room properly. Jonathan grinned sidelong at her, "You should really learn to look properly Clarissa." He only ever called her Clarissa when he was angry or mocking her, 'Clary' was the hasty result of toddler Jonathan's tantrum over not being able to pronounce his little sister's name and it was what she'd been called ever since. The only other person who called her Clarissa was her mother, and even then, only when she was in a great deal of trouble. She poked her tongue at him and began marching in the direction he had indicated, she heard a derisive chuckle and then the unmistakeable groaning of rusted metal as he began to climb the ladder to the catwalk.
Clary crept through the darkness, wincing every time she accidently kicked one of the numerous metal pipes lying over the floor. Even a lifetime of shadowhunter training couldn't completely erase her clumsy streak and it always seemed to show itself at the most inconvenient of times, like when she was trying to be stealthy. She walked carefully around yet another suspended chassis, she'd walked under one a few minutes ago and had had terrible visions of the chain rusting through and the whole thing landing on her head, since then she'd avoided them. She was beginning to wonder if they would ever find anything when she heard a demon scream up ahead and saw the bright flash of a witchlight flaring up. Clary ran, pausing only long enough to draw her seraph blade out and name it.
"Raphael." She shouted, watching as the blade sparked to life, above her she heard Jonathan doing the same thing, followed by the sound of feet on metal as he sprinted off again. Clary hurled her body forward, racing towards the bright light and the sounds of fighting. The cold calm of battle descended on her and she smiled as she finally reached the conflict site. There were at least twenty ravener demons crammed together in a kind of sunken pit in the floor and as Clary had predicted it stunk.
She took a moment to survey the scene around her, the demons had clearly been surprised and despite their few numbers the shadowhunters were defiantly holding their own. The boy with dark hair was standing calmly on the edge of the pit with a bow and arrows, disrupting all attempts made by the demons to organise themselves and generally causing mass panic. He shot to wound, leaving the injured creatures to be dispatched by the other two, who were standing in the pit, unflinchingly surrounded by grotesque many eyed monsters, killing anything that got within range of their weapons. The girl was holding two electrum whips, lashing with vicious skill at the demons around her. The golden boy was even better, he held a blazing seraph blade in each hand and moved so fast he seemed to blur.
I only know of one other person who can move like that.
Even as the thought entered her head she saw a blur of movement, a graceful body falling through the air. Jonathan had launched himself from the catwalk at a height that would have broken the legs of any normal person, even a shadowhunter, but he landed effortlessly and, without faltering for an instant, through himself into the battle.
He's such a show-off. Clary thought as she ran forward, summersaulting neatly into the pit after him. A ravener turned towards her and she buried her seraph blade up to the hilt in its domed skull, right above the black cluster of eyes. She pulled the blade back out and took a hurried step back in an attempt to avoid the worst of the ichor splattering as the demon exploded in a shower of gore, the way they always did. She still caught a few droplets though, the acid-like blood burning into her cheeks and the backs of her hands, she knew when the fight was over it would hurt, but for now she could barely feel it.
While her attention was being held by the first creature a second had snuck up behind her. She turned to face it, bringing her blade up once again, but before she could take so much as a step towards it an arrow appeared in its eye socket, effectively dealing with the problem. Clary spun around, looking for the source, and locked eyes with the boy still providing cover fire. His eyes were a beautiful, icy blue and he was regarding her with no small amount of confusion, no doubt wondering who the hell she was. Clary gave him a wide smile and he nodded to her in bemusement before returning his attention back to the fight. Clary waded through the mass of demons, stabbing one scaly, reptilian monster after another. Then she heard the girl cry out for help, "Alec!" most likely the name of one of the boys with her. Clary turned towards the sound, a ravener had used its barbed tail to knock her off her feet was now advancing on the prone figure. Clary raced forward and plunged her blade into its back, it screamed in pain, turning to face its new attacker and wrenching the seraph blade from her grasp. She reached for her dagger but never made it that far, one of the girl's whips made a deadly arc through the air, slicing the ravener's head clean off. It disintegrated, showering both her and the other girl in burning ichor. Clary leaned down reaching out a hand to help her to her feet, the girl had been staring at Clary in shock but quickly snapped her mouth shut and grasped her hand, allowing herself to be pulled to her feet. At full height she towered over Clary, not that that was hard, everyone towered over Clary. "Hi." The girl said. "Umm… Hi?" Clary replied, already turning to check on her brother.
Jonathan was standing in the midst of several puddles of ichor, grinning like a manic, he met Clary's eyes and she couldn't help but grin back, her eyes already moving past him once she verified his safety, in search of someone else.
The golden boy was fighting the two remaining demons, Clary stepped forward, removing her dagger from its sheath and drawing her arm back in a practiced gesture and then throwing it forward. It sailed through the air and imbedded itself in the first ravener's heart, the boy didn't skip a beat, turning and plunging his blade into the other beast then stepping back neatly to avoid the twin showers of ichor. The fight was over, it had only taken a few minutes.
"Who-" he spun around but the question died in his throat as he noticed the newcomers for the first time. His eyes locked with Clary and shock and recognition chased themselves across his face. Jonathan stepped forward and the boy's eyes flickered to him instead. "I'm Jonathan and this is my little sister Clary."
The beautiful girl stepped toward him, clearly taking it upon herself to do the introductions for her group, "I'm Isabelle Lightwood and these are my brothers, Alec and Jace." The golden boy, the one called Jace locked eyes with Clary again as he was introduced and he smirked before returning his attention to Jonathan. Alec had jumped into the pit with them and after applying an iratze rune to Jace was offering one to Jonathan, Jace, for his part had assumed an air of disinterest.
Isabelle stepped closer to Clary and she turned towards her, expecting thanks for saving the other girls life, instead, Isabelle kept her eyes on Jonathan, a small flirtatious smile curling her lips, "Is your brother single?" Clary rolled her eyes, some things never changed.
What does everyone think? Is this Story worth continuing? Please review and tell me!
P.S. forgot to add this on the first chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own this series. The Mortal Instruments series and all characters and events relating to it belong to Cassandra Clare.
XD
