Authors Note: Just to make you all aware, these characters belong to Cassandra Clare. (Yes, I intended that to be cheesy.)

Jace's POV

I walked through the door of the institute on a Clary induced high. According to the clock in the entrance way, it was 12:40 am. I guess I should have been tired, but I felt full of energy; definitely not in the mood to go to bed.

My stomach growled and reminded me it had been close to five hours since I had eaten anything. The hotdog from the concert wore off a long time ago, so I made my way to the kitchen. Checking the fridge, I saw the makings of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. As I threw it together I thought of Clary. She was convinced I had no culinary abilities; I hated to admit it, but she was right.

I was about to pour myself a glass of milk when I heard the front door slam. A few seconds later, Alec stormed into the kitchen. I think my presence startled him, but he recovered and headed straight for the refrigerator and quickly appraised its contents. "There is nothing to eat in this house," he said irritably. "You were supposed to pick up some food yesterday." He stormed over to the cabinets and rampaged through their contents. "Why am I the only one who shops while Mom and Dad are gone?"

"Because you're the responsible one," I said sweetly. "Everyone knows that."

Alec gave me a look. "I'm not in the mood for you're sarcasm, Jace."

"I'm not in the mood for you're attitude, Alec."

I knew Alec well enough to know he wasn't upset about the lack of choices he had for a midnight snack. It was early for him to be home, so that left one choice as to why he was upset. "Did you and Magnus have a fight?"

Alec sighed. "Yeah," he said sheepishly. "He makes me so angry sometimes. When we disagree about anything he always brings up the age thing. 'Alec, I'm seven hundred years older then you, I know what I'm talking about,' he mocked in a Mangus like voice. "I am so sick of hearing him say that. He needs to get over himself already."

I tried not to laugh, really I did, but the absurdity of the statement was too much for me. I let out a low chuckle, and if not for my quick reflexes I would have been on the floor, because Alec charged me. Instead of slamming into me, he hit the counter hard. Not giving up, he flew at me again. Chaos ensued for the next few minutes as we traded playful blows and just wrestled around. I had Alec penned against the refrigerator when he finally surrendered.

We were both breathing hard when we sat down at the table. As a peace offering, I offered Alec half my sandwich which he accepted.

After a few moments Alec broke the silence. "How was the date with Clary?"

"The band was terrible, but the date was…..great. Clary was great."

Alec raised his eyebrows and then smirked at me. "You're turning into such a girl, Jace."

I laughed at that. "You're calling me a girl when you're so afraid of upsetting Magnus with your lack of fashion sense it took you two hours to get ready tonight." Alec started to interrupt. "Don't try and deny it," I continued. "Every time I walked by your room earlier, you were in a different outfit."

Even though Alec looked extremely uncomfortable with the direction this conversation had taken, I figured I would embarrass him further by adding, "You look great, by the way."

I ducked as Alec took another swipe at me, and then we both started laughing.

We had just sat back down when Alec changed the subject. "Is Isabelle home?"

"Yeah; she came in as I was leaving to pick up Clary."

The playfulness of a moment ago was forgotten. Alec's face was etched with concern. "How did she seem to you?"

"She seemed better, I guess. I asked her if she had plans for tonight, and she said she was going to bed early. I started to ask her if she wanted to go to the concert with me and Clary, but she looked so tired I let it go. Have you talked to her lately?"

"I've tried, but she just keeps telling me she's o.k. She gets upset when I press her, and you know how she gets when she's angry." Alec's expression turned wistful. "It's almost worth making her mad….at least then she's acting more like Isabelle. I miss her," he admitted.

At Alec's words, I felt a surge of anger. All the things that Jonathen had put our family through raced through my mind. My hands clenched, and I wished I could kill him all over again.

"She seems so lost, Jace. I thought that with time she would start to heal, but that's not happening. We need to do something…..I just don't know what to do. I think we should try talking to her again. She's trying to act like she can handle this all on her own, but she can't, not this time."

"We'll talk to her in the morning. If we talk to her together, maybe she'll listen this time."

Alec nodded in agreement.

We got up and started straightening up the kitchen when Alec's phone rang. He looked to see who it was and then walked out of the kitchen. I would only need one try to guess who had just called.

While he was on the phone I started loading the dishwasher and wiping off the counters. Just as I was finishing up, Alec walked back into the kitchen.

"I'm headed back to Magnus'," he said.

I repressed a roll of the eyes….barely; like I didn't see that one coming.

"Have fun," I said lamely.

Alec looked a little embarrassed. "Yeah," he said. "Don't let Isabelle leave in the morning. I'll be home early, but just in case…..

"Will do," I said hurriedly.

As Alec walked out the door, I walked up the stairs to my room. I got ready for bed, and lay down. In the quit of my room, my thoughts drifted to Clary.

Tonight with Clary had been fun. It had been awhile since that happened. It was my fault. I was so focused on Clary's training as a Shadowhunter. It had almost become an obsession. I knew she was getting a little annoyed with me, but how could I make her understand?

More then anything I wanted Clary to be safe, but I knew she wouldn't put up with my over protective nature, and that only left one option. I had to make sure she was trained properly as a Shadowhunter and I wasn't going to wait on the new tutor to arrive (if the Clave ever decided to send one.)

If it were up to me, Clary would never fight another demon. But I knew Clary, and I knew she would never accept that. She would never quit, not even for me. It was one of the reasons I loved her.

But tonight wasn't about us being Shadowhunters. It had been about two people spending time together, having fun, and loving one another.

Clary looked so beautiful tonight. In just a plain pair of jeans and a t-shirt, she was the most desirable girl I had ever seen.

Did she know the effect she had on me? When we kissed tonight, it was instant combustion. I felt consumed by her. It was that way from the moment I first saw her. She consumed my every thought, my every action. Every decision I made was colored with thoughts of her. The feelings I had related to her probably should have frightened me a little, but they didn't. She was what I wanted and what I would always want. The surety of that made me strong. I felt as if anything were possible.

I was starting to feel tired and looked at the clock. It was 2:40 in the morning. I closed my eyes, and with thoughts of Clary drifting through my mind, I went to sleep.

.

.

.

I woke to the sound of the alarm clock. I rolled over and groaned when I realized it was just 5:30. I forgot to turn the damn thing off.

I knew I would never get back to sleep, so hoping it would help wake me up, I jumped into the shower. Feeling a little better, I pulled on my gear and went to the kitchen. I grabbed a granola bar and a bottle of water, and made my way to the weapons room.

As I walked in the room, it felt like coming home. I reached for a Seraph blade, named it, and felt it come to life beneath my hands.

A surge of adrenaline flowed through me and I moved through the different training regimes. Time passed, but I felt removed from it as I pushed my body to the limit.

Wanting to test the new abilities I was just beginning to discover, I looked at the small ledge that ran the length of the walls around the room. I jumped twenty feet up in the air and perched lightly there. I felt the sweat running down my face and chest, and used my shirt to wipe it out of my eyes. I jumped down from the ledge, did a somersault and landed lightly in a crouch. At that moment, Alec walked through the door.

"How long have you been at it," Alec asked.

"Since about 6:30; are you just now getting home?"

"Yeah," Alec said. "Have you seen Isabelle this morning?"

"No. She's probably still sleeping."

Alec looked skeptical. "It's nine o' clock, Jace. She never sleeps that late. I'll go wake her up."

I walked out of the weapons room and went to get a bottle of water. I was headed for my room to shower and change when Alec appeared. "She's not in her room, Jace."

"She's here somewhere. Go check the green house and I'll check down here."

I quickly walked through the institute calling for Isabelle. After a few minutes, Alec was jogging toward me with a look of concern on his face. "She's not up there, Jace and she's not answering her cell. Where the hell is she?"

I didn't have an answer for him. Unconsciously, it seemed, we made our way to Isabelle's room. As we got closer, we could hear the alert on her cell phone that indicated she had a voice mail. Alec walked over to her bedside table, picked up the phone, and then we watched, as if in slow motion, a slip of paper falling to the floor. Reaching out to catch it, Alec opened it up. He looked up at me with a horrified expression and whispered two words; "she's gone."

Authors Note: This was a shorter chapter then my last one, but I felt this was a natural place to end it. There is a lot going on next chapter and it's already up to three thousand words, so I'll be making up for it in my next posting. What do you think happened to Isabelle? Let me know what you think. Good, bad, or indifferent, please review.