Hey everyone! Here the next chapter of Welcome Back... Not I'm glad that you seem to be liking this, and I just want to thank everyone for their reviews. Especially from someone named 'GlamourMurderer'. "Horrible woman... brilliant woman"? Thanks, but I only just turned 17 after all. Got a little bit more time before I could actually be called 'woman'. But thanks for it. It's nice to hear things like that, Also, thanks to Alice Whitlock111 and ronnie00 for the criticism. To ronnie00; don't worry, you'll find out the answer to your questions in time. For now, you'll just have to read and wait I'm afraid.
So anyway, let's get this thing started, shall we? Again, Cassandra Clare owns the Mortal Instruments series. I just own the occasional random character and stuff like that along with this story's plot line.
Ch. 3 Clary's POV
"What are you talking about?" I asked Isabelle. "I thought Luke was still at his meeting with the rest of the wolves!"
"He was, but he called to say that he was finished and was going to see your mom and the line cut out."
"What's wrong?" Jace whispered. I waved him off impatiently, trying to tell him to shut up.
"Maybe it was just the connection that messed up. It's pretty common after all in Brooklyn," I stated, hoping that Luke's M.I.A. was just a fluke.
"Clary, we just bought him a new cell phone at the beginning of summer- one that never loses the line. And I've got the same kind, so it couldn't have been mine," she quickly said before I had the chance to say it.
"I'm coming back," I said before snapping the phone shut and shoving it back in my pocket. "Come on Jace. We gotta go," I said to my brother as I walked back over to Simon, who obviously heard the conversation.
"What happened?" Jace asked as he walked behind me.
"Luke's missing. We're heading back to the Institute!"
,:~:,
"You know, this would be a whole lot easier if you weren't breathing down my neck!" Magnus huffed. As soon as she Izzy had heard the news, she immediately called Magnus and told him to come over, to which he wasn't pleased. Judging by the purple leather vest, electric blue pants, and a dozen handfuls of glitter in his hair and on his body, he was hosting another of his parties.
Jace had taken another of the demon bikes somehow and had followed me and Simon back to the Institute. Of course, being a vamp, Simon couldn't come in and kissed me goodnight. "Call me when you find out what happened," he said before speeding off on his bike. As soon as we got in, I ran to my room and changed back into my Shadowhunter gear.
"Well, I'm sorry," I huffed back. "But it's been two hours now and nothing! Are you sure you're doing it right?"
"Of course I am! Why, do you think you could do better?" he nearly snarled back at me, his cat-eyes darkening to a dangerous color. I sighed angrily but held my tongue. Now wasn't the time for petty bickering. Seeming satisfied, Magnus turned back to his spell book on Hodge's old desk and continued to work on whatever he was doing.
"By the way, you're now paying me extra," he said.
"What?!" Izzy practically screeched. "Luke is missing! He could be hurt or even-" she cut herself off when she saw the deadly glare that I shot at her. "Or something, and you want us to be paying you?!"
"Isabelle, just drop it. We'll deal with the money problem later," I said. When she was about to continue protesting, I just held up my hand and she stayed quiet. Great thing about being who I am with my special power; I kind of intimidate others. Alec stood silent in the corner of the library, while Jace on the other hand was no where in the room. I had been so nervous, I didn't notice him leave.
After what felt like another two hours or so but was actually five minutes, Magnus finally found where Luke had been last and gave us the proper location. Then he held out his hand, obviously waiting for his payment. I sighed, but walked back to my room and retrieved my black leather wallet and removed seven twenty dollar bills and one ten. Then I walked back to the library and placed the money in his waiting hands.
"Thank you," he said as he tucked the wad into his pocket. "I think I can show myself out." And with a wave of his hand and some blue sparks, he vanished.
"Why must he always do that?" Alec finally spoke up. I smiled to myself and said, "Because he wants to show off," and I headed to the weapons room to arm myself. When I got there, I saw that Jace was in the room, strapping two blades onto his arms. Another two blades were already strapped into his belt.
"Hey," I simply said as I began to load up on knives, blades, and my gold whip. Enough that I wouldn't be weighted down by the load but still would always have some weapon on me.
"Hey Clary. Listen, can we talk?"
"Later. Right now, we need to find Luke. That's my main priority," I answered sharply before I swiftly left the room, not wanting to start up another fight or something with him. I don't think I could have handled it right now. As I walked over to the elevator to wait, I pulled out my phone and dialed Simon's number. It rang just once before he picked up.
"Clary?" "Yeah, it's me. Listen Simon, we found out where Luke was at before he disappeared. I'm sending you the location. Can you meet us there?" "Sure Clare. I'll be there soon. Love you." "Love you too."
,:~:,
"There was demon activity here and not that long ago," Alec said as he placed his sensor back into his pocket. "Question is, where did go to?"
"Your guess is as good as mine right now," I sighed in frustration as I twirled the handle of my whip in my hands. We had arrived to the corner of the street Luke was last at, the bright lights of restaurant signs and shops lighting the street. But of course, with glamours all around us, the most the mundanes saw was an empty street, not five teenagers, four of which were heavily armed with weapons.
"Well they couldn't have just vanished into thin air, right?" Simon asked. I looked over my shoulder at him and gave my usual 'are you kidding me' look. For the past three years, he's known that some demons can disappear, fly, and other shit like that, and he still forgets. I love him, but some times he can be really loopy.
"I still think that we could use the vampire's smelling abilities and see if we can try to follow a trail," Jace said. 'Follow a trail'? Simon's a vampire, not a bloodhound!
"Sure, and then I'll just sprout some wings and fly around in the air and be aerial visuals," Izzy said sarcastically. Jace looked sour at the comment, and I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling. "Why don't you just leave this to the professionals, huh Jace?"
"I am- why do you think I'm here?" he asked smugly, and my mood darkened. I turned to stare at him, and I don't know whether it was because he was scared of me or he felt ashamed of trying to joke at a time like this, but he bowed his head and backed up a little.
"Now is not the time to be making your lame-ass comments Jace," I sneered. "We need to keep focus if we're going to find anything to help us find Luke."
"Maybe we should go back and retrace our steps," Izzy offered. "Maybe we overlooked something."
"Hey wait a minute!" Simon exclaimed as he started jogging over to an alley opening not far from where we were standing. We followed right behind him and I saw him kneel down and scoop something off of the ground. I looked over his shoulder and saw what exactly it was; Luke's glasses. The lenses were mostly cracked and the frames were twisted into odd looking shapes, like they were almost melted. I felt tears starting to prick at my eyes, but I kept chanting in my head I'm not gonna cry, I'm not gonna cry, I'm not gonna cry…
I was really starting to feel shaken by this. Usually I was better at controlling my emotions, but with everything happening lately, I felt like I was about to break down and bawl my eyes out. I knew that becoming a Shadowhunter would be very dangerous and challenging, but what other choice did I have? My home was gone, my mother in some sort of coma she had placed onto herself, her best friend was a werewolf, my best friend not long after became a vampire, my biological father was wanting to eliminate anything that wasn't like himself, and I had creatures of all kinds who were under his orders to possibly kill me. I had to do something to defend the people that I care about.
Besides, even if I didn't know all these things and everything was back to normal at home, could I really just turn my back on all of this and keep a blind eye whenever I saw a vampire lurking in a club, or some sort of demon waiting in the shadows to kill some innocent human? I couldn't! If I did, I might as well as be the demon about to do the killing, since I would be letting the humans be slaughtered like cattle at a butcher shop.
"Ok, now what?" Alec asked, breaking the silence. I turned, about to start yelling at him, just to somehow let out all my frustration and pain, when I heard something from the back of the alley. I looked down the alley and saw some sort of shape, but my eyes were unable to make out what it was. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the witch light stone there, and raised the bright light high, while I held my whip defensively in my other hand in case it was a threat. When my eyes focused on the object against the wall, both items almost slipped from my grip.
There was Luke, his clothes torn in most places and the usual boots he wore were missing. I walked closer and saw that there was dirt and blood smears all over him, but from what I saw, there were no marks on his body other then a couple of dark bruises. But his face is what was worst. His right eye was swollen shut, there were severe bruises along his jaw, and I saw some blood dripping from his hairline. He was propped up against the side of the building like a rag doll on a little girl's bed; with his arms and legs resting in ways that they shouldn't, like they could be broken.
"Luke!" I yelled as I dropped the stone and whip and dashed over to him. He raised his head and opened his eye as must as he could and smiled warmly at me.
"Clary. You're alright," he whispered.
"Forget about me, Luke. What happened?" I asked as I pulled out my steele to make healing runes on him.
"Clary no, you know what will happen if-" "Relax Luke. I know what I'm doing," I stopped him and pulled the sleeve away from him and began to draw. Once I was done, I watched as the bruises faded and the wound on his head began to close. "Now, tell me what happened!"
"It was Valentine's followers. They said something about having your brother, but I didn't know what they meant. They said that we had him, but that's impossible after all. Jace is-" Luke stopped as he saw Jace come closer to us. "But- I thought that-"
"Don't worry, you're not the only one," I said as I swung his left arm over my shoulders. "Come on, up we go!" I said as I started to pull him up, Jace helping on the other side. "So what happened after that?"
"Of course, they didn't believe me and they attacked. I ran here and tried to transform, but they caught up with me and started attacking before I finished. Eventually, I just passed out, and when I did they left."
"They left?" Jace repeated as we helped Luke walk back to the opening of the alley. "Why would they just leave? That doesn't make any sense!" I had to agree. They wanted information about Jace's location, so why, when their opponent was down, did they just get up and walk away? It was very confusing.
"I have no clue Jace," Luke answered. "All I know is that you better be careful and keep a low profile. If Valentine wants to know where you are, it must be something important."
"But why should I matter? I'm not even his son!" Jace said as he let go of Luke. Due to the shock of what Jace said and the fact that I was trying to hold up Luke by myself, I quite literally lost my grip on Luke as I stumbled backwards. Luckily, Alec caught him and Simon caught me.
"What?" I asked; too shock to say anything else.
"I'm not Valentine's son Clary. We're not related to each other."
So how was that? Needs work, or is it good as it is? Please read and review. It really helps me with knowing how you guys think it's going.
Thanks!
Nancy (aka megamatchmaker)
