-Simon.
As I am walking to Luke's, I can't help but think about my revelation about Clary. I had always been so consumed with my desire to be with her that I never stopped to think if I ever was with her, would she be happy? I knew she never saw me as anything other than a friend, but that didn't stop me from trying to force a relationship with her that I always, deep down, knew was doomed. It was always the idea of being with her that I was in love with. Someone that was safe and that I trusted.
I finally reach the steps to Luke's and knock on the door. I know it's early in the morning, but he was always an early riser. He opens the door and he looks like he has slept about as much as I have, which isn't much. The smell of coffee is coming from the kitchen but all I can smell is his blood. It has been almost a day and a half since I have eaten and it is starting to bother me.
"Hey Simon, come on in." Luke says as he turns and heads back towards the kitchen.
"Have you heard anything about Clary, yet?" I say. But before I can get through with my sentence, his phone rings loudly. "Hold on a sec, Simon." he says as he answers the phone. I move across his living room and sit down on the couch.
"Hold on." Luke says into the phone. "Slow down. What did you say?" There is a pause and I see his expression change. "Paris? Is that correct?" By the look on his face I can tell that this phone call is out of the norm. "Okay, I will. Thanks, Jared." he says and hangs up the phone. He immediately starts to dial another number.
"Come on, Maryse. Pick up the phone." Luke says in a low voice.
"Wait. Why are you calling Maryse? Did you hear something about Clary?" I ask raising from the couch.
"I told you" Luke begins, "that I would have my pack out looking and listening for any information about Valentine. Well one of them has a contact in Europe and they called to say that Valentine was spotted in Paris yesterday." He swears and hangs up the phone and dials the number again. "Apparently he had a meeting with some shadowhunters and then they went hunting. For wearwolves. Only a few of them escaped."
This is it! This is the break we are looking for. "Why isn't she picking up the phone?!" he screams. I have rarely seen him so panicked.
"Jace said yesterday that they were going to Idris this morning." I offer. "I will try to call Isabelle." I dial her number quickly and after a few rings, I get her automated message. "Dammit. She isn't picking up. I will try Jace." His phone rings and rings and then goes to voice mail. "Dammit!" I shout at my phone.
Luke walks across the room and grabs his jacket and keys and starts to head to the door. I quickly match his pace and we are out on the lawn making our way to his truck. "Where are we going?"
He hops in the truck and jams the key into the ignition before he replies, "The Institute. If they are leaving this morning for Allicante, then they wouldn't be bringing their phones. We have to hurry and try to catch them before they leave. Once they get there, it will be nearly impossible to get a hold of them."
"Alright. Let's go." is all I manage to get out before we are tearing down the highway.
-Jace.
I double check to make sure I have everything I need before I head downstairs. When I am positive I haven't forgotten anything, I walk out in the garden where Magnus is waiting. He is wearing something that reminds me of the costumes "performers" wear in Times Square. I am pretty sure you could see him from outer space. "Hey Magnus, what's the big hold up?" I ask him. "Why don't you have the portal going yet?"
"Because you are the only one here." he says and waves his hands around to prove his point. Just then, Alec comes around the corner. When he spots me, his face turns into a mask of surprise.
"I didn't think you would be down here so early, Jace." Alec says as he self consciously adjusts his gear. "It's like 30 minutes early."
"Well I didn't know I would be intruding on something." I say as I hold both of my hands up and slowly start to back away.
"You're not." Magnus says sternly looking in Alec's direction. I can see my parabatai's face fall when he says that. I guess I have been too wrapped up in finding Clary that I have obviously missed something big between them. 'Way to go, Jace. Sucking it up again' I think to myself.
We all turn our heads as we hear heels tapping against the pavement. I know who it is before she comes around the corner. Isabelle rounds the side of the building and tosses Alec her bag when she picks up on the atmosphere around us. She stops quickly and looks to each of us slowly.
"Am I interrupting something?" she asks.
"That's what I just said." I say.
"And once again, no. Nobody has interrupted anything." Magnus replies exasperated.
Isabelle raises her eyebrows and says "O-kay then. I guess we are just waiting on Mom." We all then lapse into a very awkward silence that no one seems to want to break. Five minutes, ten minutes, then fifteen minutes go by without a word from anyone. Right when I am about to make one of my hilarious observations about Magnus' outfit, I hear tires screech out in front of the Institute. Alec and I start walking down the garden path to the front when Luke and Simon come barreling into the garden. They both look panicked.
"What is going on?" Alec says from behind me.
"Where's Maryse?" Luke asks him. "She should be coming down any second now." Alec offers back. As soon as Alec finishes his statement, Maryse appears at the top of the Institute's stairs.
"Maryse, I have news." Luke says with relief in his voice. "I was worried we wouldn't make it in time to catch you before you left. I got a call from a member of my pack saying that his friend in Paris was attacked by Valentine and other members of the Circle yesterday."
This news is like a shot of adrenaline in my veins. "Paris?" I manage to say through the pounding in my ears. Before anyone can answer, Isabelle comes around the bend saying Magnus has the portal up and ready to go. That's when all hell breaks lose. The gates on the other side of our group come flying inward to us and about 15 Forsaken are marching their way towards us followed by some sort of mist that I can't really see through. We all pull out our blades, but there is no way we can escape unscathed if we try and fight them off.
Maryse jumps into action shoving us behind her. "Get to the portal. Now!" she shouts at us just as the first one reaches us. Maryse swings her blade low and I go high shoving my seraph blade into his head while Maryse cuts his feet out from under him. We both turn and start to run towards the portal when I see Simon standing there with his mouth hanging open in a mask of shock. 'Stupid mundane' I think to myself as I grab his arm and drag him with me. We round the corner and I hear Magnus yelling something at us while Isabelle slips through the portal. Alec yells something at Magnus that I can't make out over the groans of the Forsaken. Magnus replies saying, "I will be fine. Now GO!" and Alec is gone through the portal. I reach it then and shove Simon through before me and Maryse shoves Luke through as the swirling of the portal rips my hand off of Simon's arm.
-Clary.
Tapping. Why do I hear tapping? "Clary. It's Jonathan. It's time to get up." My eyes snap open as I remember where I am. For just a second, I had blissfully forgotten where I was and I groan out a muffled response that sounds something like "Go away." I hear soft laughter come from the other side of the door.
"Open the door, Clary. I have some news." This perks me up and I jump up to swing the door open. Jonathan is leaning against the door frame shirtless with his pajama pants riding low on his hips exposing the muscled "V" shape at the bottom of his stomach. Something about the way he is standing puts me off. I don't know what it is exactly, but...
"Father said I could help train you today." he says with a smile on his face.
"Train me?" My voice is filled with the surprise that is in my head. "Yep." he replies. "He says since you have had a mundane upbringing, you are severely behind and need to be caught up. He wanted to do all the training himself, but I convinced him to let me help."
"Really? Why is he letting me near weapons? Isn't he afraid I will try and fight you or him off and leave again?"
"He says you couldn't kill a fly with an electric fly swatter; so no. He doesn't see you as much of a threat." As Jonathan tells me this, he has the courtesy to look sheepish.
This makes me think of something Simon is always saying. "Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, dear old Dad."
"Anytime, Clarissa." I stick my head out of the door to see Valentine standing a few feet away. Dang it! Maybe he is right because I didn't even notice him standing there.
"You need to get used to rising early and not being so lazy. Jonathan will help you train this morning while I take care of some business." With that, Valentine turns and walks towards the kitchen.
Jonathan looks back at me and tells me to put the clothes on that he pulls out from behind his back and to meet him in the kitchen for breakfast in 10 minutes. I turn and step back into the room and shut the door. "Training." I say to myself. Up to this point, my very very minimal training has been left up to Jace and occasionally Alec (which he hated doing). Those few training sessions with Jace were like torture. Having his hands on me and falling on top of me, pinning me to the ground over and over was the most sexually frustrating experience of my life. I can't wait to tell him we aren't brother and sister. I start to think about what those training sessions will be like from now on with him and a shudder runs through my body. IF I ever get out of here, I remind myself.
I quickly pull on the clothes and braid my hair to keep it out of my face while we train. I go to the kitchen where we eat a bowl of cereal and then make our way upstairs. "I didn't see a training room when you were showing me the place yesterday."
"That's because it is in father's room." he answers me. My hopes that we would be going outside to train are quickly dashed. "Where are we today?" I ask him.
"Umm. India, I think." As we reach Valentine's room, I glance out his window and all I see is the side of another building. Jonathan walks over to the wardrobe and pulls it out to reveal a staircase leading downwards. "The training room is down here." he says and gestures for me to go first.
After what seems like 5 million hours, Jonathan finally says it is time for lunch. We are both covered in sweat from head to toe. I excuse myself to go take a shower and he says he should probably do the same. As I am standing in the water, letting it melt away the knots in my body, I think back to this one paricular moment during our training. I had never seen someone move so fast in my life. Not even Jace. Jonathan had knocked me to the ground for the hundreth time and fell on top of me in between my legs, pinning my arms above my head. The way he looked at me then was a little unnerving. And he seemed to linger a little too long on top of me. I tell myself I am being ridiculous and finish my shower.
I get dressed and leave my room and head into the kitchen and stop dead in my tracks. Valentine is back and he looks wrecked. His gear is torn and bloody and there is a pink mark across his face where a cut is healing from the iratze on his neck. Jonathan appears at the bottom of the stairs just then and makes a low whistling sound. "It looks like your meeting didn't go as planned, Father." he remarks.
"Not exactly." Valentine replies. "The damned vampire clan head just wouldn't die. We were clearing out of nest of them when we realized that the intel that we got on just how many of them there were wasn't really that accurate. We lost a few good shadowhunters today."
Good, I think to myself. Any shadowhunter that fights alongside you desereves to die. He glances at me, then turns to Jonathan. "How did her training go today?"
"It went well, Father. She is a quick learner." Jonathan tells him with a small smile playing at the corners of his lips.
"Glad to here it." he says back, although his tone says otherwise. "I am going to clean up. Clarissa?" Valentine turns and looks at me. "I want to speak with you after lunch. There are a few questions I have for you."
I don't trust myself not to say something sarcastic, so I just nod my head in understanding. I allow myself to relax when I hear his door shut behind him.
"Great. Now I won't be able to eat. All I can think about now is that I will have to be in the same room with Valentine while I am forced to act like the site of him doesn't make me want to kill myself." I say acidly.
"I can go with you." Jonathan offers. "But only if you want me to."
"Yes, please. That would be great." I reply. Having a buffer there couldn't hurt.
We make sandwiches for ourselves and talk about random things. I am trying to explain what Naruto is and his is scrunching his face up in a way that reminds me of mom. It is strange to see her features and expressions on someone else's face. It makes me miss her so much.
As we are putting our dishes away, Valentine appears in the living room holding a pencil and a what looks like a pad of paper. He motions for me to come and sit across from him and my stomach turns flips. Suddenly, Jonathan scoots close to me and grabs my hand giving me the strength to approach him. We walk hand in hand until we sit down on the couch opposite of our father.
"Awww. How sweet." Valentine drawls out. He leans forward and hands me the pencil and pad of paper. "A little birdie in the Clave told me you can create new runes. He said you created a Fearless rune and placed it on Jace before he got on the ship. Is that how he was able to defeat Agramon?"
I am too shocked to form a response. How did he find out about that? The only people who knew I did that were Alec, Magnus, Jace, and Luke. And I can't imagine them telling anyone.
"I will take your shocked face as a yes." Valentine says with a smirk on his face. What I wouldn't give to slap that smirk right off his face...
"Do you know why you can do this?" he asks me. "No." is my only response. "Well I do." he states matter of factly. "But we don't have to get into that now. I want you to make me a new rune, Clarissa. I couldn't help but think this morning while we were being ambushed by all that downworld slime that a portal would be a great thing to have right then."
"A portal?" I choke out, my voice going up two octaves. "I don't think I can do that. I thought only warlocks could open portals."
Valentine leans forward resting his elbows on top of his knees. "Yes, and that is why I have come to you. So we can remedy that problem."
"It doesn't work like that." I say almost tripping over my words. "I can't just draw some lines on a piece of paper and call it a rune. It has to come to me. And...and nothing like that has ever come to me."
"Well you obviously did it once and you can do it again." I can hear him growing impatient and angry when he says this.
"No, I can't!" I shout back at him. Everything that happens after that happens really quickly. Valentine stands up and reaches back like he is going to hit me again but Jonathan moves quick enough to grab his hand mid-air and stop him from connecting with my face. Pure fury then races across our father's face and he reaches down and grabs a knife that has a knuckle guard on it. Valentine snaps his fist back and brings it forward, using the knuckle guard like brass knuckles, and punches Jonathan squarely in the jaw once, twice. I see him pull his arm back to punch him again and I jump up.
"Okay, okay! I will do it!" I scream at the top of my lungs. I would do anything to stop the vicious beating that I know Jonathan will get if I don't step in.
Valentine releases Jonathan and lowers his hand. "I thought you would see it my way." he says smugly. I reach over and place my hand on Jonathan's arm. "Are you okay?" I say in a low whisper. He turns and gives me a weak smile and nods his head. I turn and look back at our father and he is wiping his son's blood off of his knife. 'I will kill this man. I will kill this man' I chant to myself in my head. But later. Right now I have to focus. I grab the pencil and let it rest on the pad of paper. I close my eyes and take a few deep breaths. 'Portal...portal...portal' I recite.
Suddenly I start to see flickers of lines and my hand starts to move of it's own accord. When I open my eyes and look down at the paper, I know I have done it. When I look at this new rune, it says "portal" to me. I raise my head up from the paper to see both Valentine and Jonathan openly staring at me with the strangest expressions on their faces. Valentine looks like he is surprised with a mixture of smug pride? And Jonathan is looking at me with such intensity and fascination that I have to look away.
Valentine looks at Jonathan then and says "I told you she would be useful." and stands up and leaves the room.