"We have to split up, cover more ground." Isabelle declared once they were on the subway. Clary internally groaned. Great; now she was alone looking for Jace. They all separated once they hit Manhattan: Isabelle going North, Alec West, Simon South and Clary East. Clary went into every store that was open, every restaurant and every bar, even a really seedy one where all the waitresses wore bras, but still no Jace. She had wandered aimlessly through the city until she was in the upper east side, where all the rich New Yorkers spent their time. Exhausted and defeated, Clary took a seat on the bench outside of Barneys.
She tilted her head up to look at the night sky. When she was Alicante, she could make out all the stars and see the indigo blue of the sky. But in New York, the only stars you saw were helicopters; there was also no indigo in the color scheme of New York's night. It was kind of yellow and brown, washed out. In that moment, Clary wished she was in Alicante, only not really; for obvious reasons. But she didn't want to be here either.
Her thigh buzzed and for a moment Clary thought she was having some sort of epileptic seizure. Then she realized it was her phone.
"Hello?" Clary greeted, trying not to stare at the cross dresser coming out of Barneys; the velour jumpsuit was extremely distracting.
"Clary? It's Alec. We found Jace. He's at Magnus's. Come quickly," he hung up before she could reply.
Relief flooded through her; finally Jace was found. Her joy came to a full stop when she realized two things. one; Magnus lived in Brooklyn, quite a ways away from the upper East side and two; she was out of money. Absolutely broke. Clary slumped in her seat: crap. Just when she considered pan handling for loose change a very loud revving of an engine pulled her out of her thoughts.
Clary glanced up. A motorcycle was right in front of her. No shit, Clary, a voice in her head that was scarily similar to Jace's whispered, where else would a thunderous engine come from? The rider's face was hidden by the helmet but it was the bike itself that tipped Clary off. It was odd, almost organic looking, and she was almost positive it didn't run on gasoline. Oh no, Clary let her gaze settle back on the rider, the helmet was now gone and he was smiling, joyous at her discomfort,
"Need a ride?"
How did he find me? How does he always find me? Those thoughts and others were running rampant in Clary's head as she stared at Raphael. The most awful part of the whole ordeal was that Clary did need a ride, most desperately.
"Yeah, I do actually." She confessed stiffly.
Clary never felt humiliation and total fear simultaneously, but now, asking Raphael for a ride on his demon death machine, she had experienced the feeling.
"Get on then," he had pulled over so the cars were no longer honking at them. Clary climbed on, slightly familiar from her last adventure on a demon motorcycle; the only damper on this trip down memory lane was that motorcycling on demon energies had almost gotten her killed.
Why was she doing this?
Clary kept her torso and legs as far from Raphael as possible, tentatively holding onto his shoulders.
"You're going to fall off," he warned her.
"I'll be fine." she said through gritted teeth, not sure why she was so agitated. She decided it had to be Raphael's influence.
He sighed; reaching behind him he grabbed Clary's legs and dragged her forward. Clary made a sound of protest but of course Raphael disregarded the sound as possibly being one of the traffic.
Her legs were now pressed against his, as were her torso against his back. Now that the proximity had dramatically increased Clary had to wrap her arms around his waist instead of holding his shoulders. He passed her the helmet; she frowned, not taking it.
"It's yours."
"Ah, but my head will not be split into two when we crash. Yours will. Take it,"
Clary put the helmet on, the tinted visor blocking a lot of her vision,
"When we crash? Don't you mean if?"
"If it makes you feel better, sure."
Clary was starting to really regret even getting on the bike.
Before she had a chance to voice her doubts or possibly leap off of the seat, Raphael put the bike into the gear and they were off. The speed was exhilarating, and Raphael drove a lot faster than Jace. They swerved around cars and took short cuts through alleys. When they stopped short at a red light Clary almost flew out of her seat.
"Forgot to ask: where are you going?"
"Brooklyn; Magnus Bane's house."
Clary felt rather than saw Raphael nod,
"I know where that is."
Clary had an idea that most Downworlders knew where Magnus lived.
As they were getting over the Brooklyn Bridge, it had started to rain. Just spitting at first then a second later it became a torrential downpour. Although the rain didn't slow Raphael's speed, it made Clary exceedingly nervous. She was pleased when they pulled up to Magnus's front door.
Once the bike had come to a full, no-doubt-about-it stop, Clary dizzily got off and chucked the helmet at Raphael. The rain had soaked her; Luke's jacket absorbed the water like a sponge, and it felt like Clary was carrying an extra hundred pounds. She turned around to thank Raphael (although she didn't want to) but he wasn't looking at her. He was staring at Magnus's house. Clary wasn't sure why; it wasn't like Magnus's house was pretty to look at, but Raphael seemed mesmerized by it.
"Err. Right, thanks for the ride."
Raphael's dark eyes left the house and focused on her. What she saw there made her heart beat go up a notch.
"Look. What happened earlier," she moved closer so she could be heard over the pounding rain, even though got her even wetter. Raphael was as drenched as she was; but he didn't seem that bothered by it.
"It was a mistake. It shouldn't have happened."
"Are you sure about that?"
"Of course…"Clary was caught off guard, "Of course it was a mistake. I love Jace, and you love ah…well, whoever. Point is, I wasn't supposed to do that and I don't want you getting the wrong idea."
"I'm just saying" Raphael said, sliding off the bike and coming to stand near her, "even if you were attracted to me, there is no shame in it. The heart wants what the heart wants."
Clary wasn't sure if she was going to groan in frustration or laugh at the ridiculousness of his words.
"Oh my God, you did not just say that."
"What?"
"It sounded like something from Breakfast at Tiffany's,"
"I'm going to pretend you just didn't compare me to Holly Golucky," Raphael mutters. Clary rolled her eyes,
"Look, I am not attracted to you. Never was and never will,"
"So that's why you kissed me: it all makes sense now."
"Shut up," Clary hissed. He had said it loud enough for the whole Tristate area to hear. Raphael grins,
"I can say it louder," he took a dramatic deep breath, "I KISSED…" Clary clapped her hand on his mouth, effectively cutting off his words.
Carefully Raphael took her hand off of his mouth. Clary stared him down making sure he wasn't going to go yelling about again. When he didn't, she stepped back.
"Well if that's all…" Clary took another step back and headed back to Magnus's porch. She felt someone's hand on her arm and soon she was spun to face Raphael.
"You may think it's a mistake, but I don't."
"You don't even like me." Clary found nesccary to point out though she could feel her breathing become shallow.
Raphael shrugged,
"Does that even matter? I have my reasons and so do you."
Clary couldn't believe they were having this conversation. She tried to back away, but since his grip was quite strong, it achieved little.
"Raphael, let me go." Clary tried again to jerk out of his grip but it didn't work. When she was just about to resort to kicking him in some highly personal areas, he leaned down and kissed her.
Her immediate instinct was to pull away and slap him. It was what she was supposed to do, a thing a good, faithful girlfriend would do. But to Clary's increasing shame, she didn't want to. It wasn't safe and it was definitely stupid. Raphael didn't care about how she felt, her guilt: and Clary found herself grateful for his lack of sensitivity. It was as if she didn't need to worry about consequences, not when he was so careless. And she wanted to be careless, just for once. She held onto the lapels of his leather jacket and his arms wound around her waist, pressing her against him. She was standing in the rain, on the sidewalk kissing Raphael; cheating on Jace. And no one needed to know.
That was, no one needed to know until the front door of Magnus's swung open. Alec stood there, obviously intending to berate Clary for her tardiness, when he finally took in what he was seeing: a rainbow of emotions crossed his face. At first pure undeniable shock, like he couldn't believe what he was seeing was real. Then came the sadness and pain, and at last, the Alec Anger.
Clary just noticed Alec when he had come right up to her and Raphael. With a strength Clary couldn't compete with, he snagged the collar of her soaked jacket (she had the feeling he was very much resisting the impulse to take her by the hair) and dragged her up the dimly lit porch, into the foyer, and slammed the door behind them, effectively leaving Raphael out in the pouring rain. Which, Clary was saddened to note, also effectively left her alone to deal with Alec.
