Chapter 4

Here's chapter 4, and to those of you who are guests, make an account so I can reply to your wonderful comments! Don't forget to review, it motivates me ;) x

Disclaimer: I don't own ze mortal instruments or any of that shit

JACE'S POV

I soon had fallen asleep after Clary. I looked at her beautiful red hair under the moonlight whilst she was peacefully sleeping and I knew I was already falling for her, I had never believed in love at first sight until now. It was a shame my love was probably unrequited though. She had snuggled into my chest then, showing me her face with the light dusting of freckles across her cheek bones and her little upturned nose. I sighed, wishing this night would last forever, and tomorrow we'd reach the casino and meet its owner; Asmodeus. Asmodeus who made very generous deals but made you pay a heavy price for them, I was dreading what his price would be for something as valuable for a car. Whatever it would be, it would be worth it, and besides, I had Clary to look out for now. She was part of our somewhat dysfunctional, but happy family. I had laid my head down and fell asleep like a rock for the first time in months after that final thought.

I cracked my eyes open to sunlight and to find the warmth that was Clary was gone. I immediately thought she had left in the night like she said she should have done, but when I sat upright I saw that her pack was upright against the wall like it had been left last night, but the rifle beside that was gone. I stood up pushing a hand through my messy tangled hair and turned around to look of the edge of the cliff but Clary was still no where in sight. I would have been lying if I said I wasn't worried if she had run off or if she had been attacked, but I decided to push it aside knowing she wouldn't have left her pack behind even if it meant causing us a distraction for us not to follow her.

I suddenly heard a bullet whiz past my head and hit the cave wall behind me; I immediately ducked down and scanned the landscape from the direction of the bullet. I narrowed my eyes as I saw the little redhead step out from behind a boulder grinning at me from below. I saw she had 3 good sized rabbits and what looked like a bag of fish that she must have hunted, hanging from her belt and I raised an eyebrow and gave her an impressed look.

"You could have killed me you know" I said loudly with mock hurt so she could hear me.

"How do you know that isn't what I was trying to do?" she said as her grin widened.

"Because you have a far better shot than that" I chuckled "Now get up her and make me my breakfast, woman" she rolled her eyes and then gave me a disapproving snort whilst heading towards me and climbing the cliff beneath me.

I helped pull her up and she greeted me with a sly grin and a 'good morning'. I nodded whilst smiling. She's so beautiful I thought as she began preparing the meat in front of me.

"Do you think you could go find some water since all your lazy friends are still sleeping, you all sleep in so late, I've been up for three hours now" she laughed lightly. She has the most amazing laugh too I thought as I smiled at her.

"Yeah, I'll wake up Alec and bring him with me, its not always safe to go alone" I said, still smiling at the short little redhead. I swiftly picked up one of the fishes and walked over to Alec still peaceful sleeping in his sleeping bag. With an evil grin on my face I quickly slapped Alec across the face with the fish and he instantly jolted, sitting straight in his sleeping bag with a terrified expression on his face. I fell to my knees close to crying with laughter as Alec recovered himself quickly and glared at me.

"Did you HAVE to do that?" he said looking down at the fish. I heard Clary laughing behind us, "Can you not play with your food Herondale?" she laughed. I turned back to Alec, "come on lazy, we need to go fetch some water, we're running low" with that Alec growled but started to get up and reach his pack to get his clothes.

I sat on the edge of the cliff, my legs dangling off the edge waiting for Alec until he joined me. We climbed down the rock face and began to head towards a lake we had seen on the way to our cave. After a few minutes of walking in silence, Alec spoke.

"You really are falling for that girl aren't you" I looked up at him, gold hair falling into my gold eyes.

"Is it that obvious?" I asked quietly

"Pretty much, but she seems oblivious to me. She's that damaged I don't think she recognizes what love is anymore. Whatever happened to her, it messed her up real bad" I nodded, knowing everything he was saying was true. I suddenly had the guilty urge of wanting Clary to be a different person. Sure she was strong, beautiful, skilled, brave and had a beautiful heart, but she was damaged, and our love would be hopeless because I was damaged too. I just never showed my heartache on the outside because I had to be strong for the others. Two damaged people together would not help one another; we would only destroy each other further, pushing ourselves deeper into oblivion.

But like hell that was going to stop me, we only live once and I wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to be happy, even if it was only temporary.

I grinned at Alec "Then I'll have to have a go at healing her, then I'll make her mine."

Alec then clapped his hand on my shoulder "I wish you good luck then, brother" but instead of smiling at me, Alec's face was worried and serious and his tone matched his expression. I shook off his concern. Clary would be happy with me eventually, everyone has a weakness in their hostility, and it was just a matter of finding hers before I was too late.

CLARY'S POV

Alec and Jace returned about half an hour later with about 5 liters of water, not clean water, but still water. They set it down and took the food I had cooked on the fire. Izzy and Magnus had woken up soon from the smell the roasting meat. Whilst everyone ate I got to work on purifying the water with the precious iodine I had picked up from a dead traveler a few months ago, it was a rare find and I was quite pleased with myself because there was a lot of it.

After purifying the water I sat down with the rest of the group grabbing a portion of the fish and ate with them.

"How many miles do we have left until we reach this casino then?" I asked

"Roughly about 2-3 miles, which will take us a few hours maximum" Jace answered whilst smiling at me, again. He seems to be smiling at me a lot lately…I thought to myself silently, stop being so ridiculous, I told myself, a guy as nice and as good as looking as him has no interest in you.

"Don't be so sure little red" Jace winked at me, I then realized everyone but me and Jace had gotten up and was arranging their packs. Shit. I really need to stop speaking my mind out loud, I'm around people now. "Sorry," I blushed, "I usually just say what's on my mind; it's an old habit".

"Just for the record, you're perfect for me" he whispered in my ear whilst giving me a shy smile. He then got up, leaving me sitting there with my mouth open. Jace Herondale shy? Shy?! And he said I was perfect for him, what the fudge does that mean?! Without questioning it, I stood up and grabbed my already made pack.

"We all ready to go then?" Izzy asked. I nodded whilst Magnus gave a quick 'yes'.

We walked in similar formation as the day before, but this time me and Izzy were up front with Jace at the back and Alec and Magnus in the center. I found myself suddenly curious as to where her and Alec came from since I knew mostly everything about the other two. "Izzy, I hope you don't mind me asking, but which vault did you come from?" she sheathed her knives and tuned to me with a friendly expression. "Alec and I both came from Vault 165, it was opened around a year and a half ago now" my lips parted into a little o in shock. "Your vault is right next to mine too! Just like Magnus's! His was opened four years ago, mine two years and yours a year and a half ago. Its… it's like they're connected somehow" I said, fiddling with a bit of my hair in nervousness. Whatever this was, it didn't sound good, why were the vaults just opened one after another causing chaos for their unprepared residents? I had a dark feeling in the pit of my stomach that this had something to do with my father and my brother and I didn't like it at all. But I kept quiet about it; I didn't need to alert the others about something that could be nothing just yet, and plus that would mean I would have to explain what was going on with me, and I wasn't ready to do that just yet. Isabelle looked at me curiously like she could see that I was hiding something but then quickly dismissed it. I couldn't help but feel relieved.

"right now I don't think we should worry about this, right now we need to worry about what Jace's friend is going to make us do to make him give us a car, and there's other people in this group who aren't comfortable visiting this guy" Izzy's voice lowered "Magnus isn't on very good terms with this bastard but even he agrees we have no other choice" I opened my mouth to speak but Izzy put her finger to my mouth and smiled,

"You're very inquisitive Clary, but the questions will have to wait, we're here now".

I turned my head forward to see that we were walking into what looked like a lively area of the city. My eyes widened as it was like nothing I had ever seen before. The old buildings were still in one piece even with what looked like a few repairs that had been made. But what fascinated me most were the lights. Electricity ran through this part of the city, lining the streets with bright red neon to white flashing bulbs. But despite my fascination, as we got closer I could see that the place was sleazy. Business's from casinos, to bars to strip clubs lined the streets, all with electricity and sultry music coming from inside. Music. I had never really heard any music before, not if you considered the soft melodies my mother used to sing to me when I was younger back in the vault.

We all came into a huddle, and I felt Jace grab my hand but refused to let go when I flinched. He leaned down and whispered in my ear, "Stay with me at all times, as badass as you are, and I know you could pretty much kick anyone's ass, this is no place for women." I nodded understanding and I looked in front of me to see Izzy flanked by Magnus and Alec, both with broad shoulders and with a protective posture saying come close and you die. We walked to the end of the street, whilst I was trying to avoid the hungry looks from men who were looking at me and Izzy. At the end was what was probably the biggest building in the area, it looked surprisingly tidy considering the place it was in, the double doors we're open and the dim glow of lights filtered through. Big white neon letters around 2 meters above the door spelt out "CASINO" and I could tell this was the place Jace was speaking of.

We walked up the steps of the building and entered through the doors. Inside wasn't as appealing as it was outside. Inside the floor was covered with red carpet and dimmed lights shone above us, the air was somewhat foggy from cigarettes and what could possibly be drugs smoke. People lay half awake on couches at the side of the room intoxicated and unable to control their inhibitions. Others were sitting at tables gambling away their money and others were buying booze, soon to follow the people on the couches. Finally, women walked around wearing barely any clothes delivering the drinks that had just been brought, I had never been into a place like this and I didn't want to ever again.

I didn't cower away and grasp Jace like any sane woman would, no; I held my head up high and kept the scowl that I had perfected over the many years on my face. I would not let a bunch of disgusting men intimidate me.

I glanced along the faces but stopped when I locked eyes with a handsome boy that looked slightly older than me with dark black eyes and black hair. He looked slightly familiar. Maybe I had seen him before or something, but I dismissed the thought as I was distracted by his predatory gaze. I had never seen anyone look at me with so much lust and jealously in their eyes before and it made me feel physically sick. I glared at him and looked away, my grip tightening on Jace.

We made our way to the bar and Jace then spoke to the bartender with a harsh clipped tone.

"We're here to talk to Asmodeus"

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-ToffeeandFudge