A/N Wow! It's been a while since I've updated, huh? Sorry for the wait. I hope the excitement of this chapter makes up for it. I will try to update more often. Reviews are appreciated!

While Alec fiddled with some of the weapons, Jace and I trained with swords. I blocked as Jace swung at me but lost my footing and fell on my butt. Jace pointed the sword at my throat.

"Clumsy." He accused, smirking. He offered me a hand and helped me to my feet before going over to help Alec while I put the swords away again. Clary came into the room.

"Where's Hodge?" Jace asked.

"Writing to the Silent Brothers." I had to repress a shudder.

"Ugh."

"What are you doing?" She asked, motioning to Jace and Alec.

"Polishing these. Made by the Iron Sisters, our weapon makers. They're seraph blades." Jace explained.

"Those don't look like knives. How did you make them? Magic?"

"The funny thing about mundies is how obsessed with magic they are for a bunch of people who don't even know what the word means." Jace said to nobody in particular.

"I know what it means!" Clary snapped.

"No, you don't, you just think you do. Magic is dark and elemental force, not just a lot of sparkly wands and crystal balls and talking goldfish." I told her.

"I never said it was a lot of talking goldfish, you-" Clary started to tell me. Jace waved a hand, cutting her off.

"Just because you can an electric eel a rubber duck doesn't make it a rubber duck, does it? And good help the poor man who decides he wants to take a bath with the duckie."

"You're driveling." Clary observed.

"I'm not!" Jace said with great dignity.

"Yes, you are. Look, we don't do magic, okay? That's all you need to know about it." Alec told Clary. Clary sighed and looked at Jace.

"Hodge says I can go home."

"He said what?!" Jace demanded.

"To look through my mother's things. He said to take Marissa with me."

"Why me?" I asked.

"He seriously doubts anything will be there and figured it would be good Shadowhunter practice." She explained.

"Fine. Let's go." I agreed.

"I'm coming too." Jace jumped up.

"I can handle it!" I protested. He ignored me.

"If we go right now, we should have another three, four hours of daylight."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Alec asked.

"No! I can handle it without Jace!" I said.

"Clary, Rissa and I can handle this on our own." Jace assured him.

"Have you got your house keys?" Jace asked.

"Yeah."

"Good. Not that we couldn't break in, but we'd run a greater chance of disturbing any wards that be up if we did."

"If you say so."

"Jace?" Clary asked as we got into the elevator.

"Yeah?"

"How did you know I had Shadowhunter blood? Was there some way you could tell?" She asked.

"I guessed. It seemed like the most likely explanation."

"You guessed? You must have been pretty sure, considering you killed me."

"I was ninety percent sure."

"I see..." There was something in her voice that made Jace turn to look at her. Her hand cracked across his face, a slap that rocked him back on his heels. He put his hand to his cheek in more surprise than pain.

"What the heck was that for?"

"The other ten percent." We got out of the elevator and Jace walked ahead. I looked at Clary in surprise. No one else would dare slap Jace.

"What?" She asked.

"You slapped Jace."

"Sorry."

"Don't apologize. That was awesome." I gave her a high five and then we ran to catch up with Jace.

We rode the subway train towards Clary's house. I rested my head on Jace's shoulder and Clary sat on the other side of him.

"Those girls on the other side of the car are starting at you." Clary told Jace. I looked over at them. They didn't seem to care that he had two girls with him.

"Of course they are. I'm stunningly attractive."

"Haven't you ever heard that modesty is an attractive trait?"

"Only from ugly people." He said and smirked at his own cleverness.

"The meek may inherit the earth, but at the moment it belongs to the conceited. Like me." He winked at the girls, who giggled and hid behind their hair.

"How come they can see you?" Clary asked.

"Glamours are a pain to use. Sometimes we don't bother."

As we walked down the street, Jace started humming.

"Do you have to do that? It's annoying." Clary complained. He hummed louder. I rolled my eyes.

"I'm sorry I smacked you." Clary muttered.

"Just be glad you hit me and not Alec. You would have hit you back."

"He seems to be itching for the chance. What was it that Alec called you? Para-something?"

"Parabatai. It means a pair of warriors who fight together. Who are closer than brothers. Or sisters, in Isabelle and Rissa's case. We're more than just best friends. Alec's father and my father were parabatai when they were young. His father was my godfather, that's why I live with them. They're my adopted family." Jace explained.

"But your last name isn't Lightwood?"

"No." We had gotten to her house.

"It looks the same." Clary noted.

"On the outside." Jace pulled a Sensor out of his pocket.

"So that's the Sensor? What does it do?" Clary asked.

"It picks up frequencies, like a radio does, but these frequencies are demonic in origin." Jace explained.

"Demon shortwave?"

"Something like that. It's picking up some trace activity but that could be just left over from that night. I'm not getting anything strong enough for there to be demons present now." We had walked up to the door.

"Good." She said with a sigh. She unlocked the front door.

"I'll go in first." Jace said. He pushed the door open with one hand, beckoning for us to follow. We walked in.

"Blood." Jace ran his hand along the banister and it came back red.

"Maybe it's mine. From the other night." Clary suggested.

"It'd be dry by now." I told her.

"Yes. Rissa is surprisingly knowledgeable when it comes to blood. Don't ask why." Jace told her.

"Come on." He added a second later. We headed up the stairs. She unlocked the door there before Jace pulled her back.

"I'll go in first." We walked inside with Jace leading the way.

"What would demons want with our microwave?" Clary asked, going into the empty kitchen.

"I don't know but I'm not sensing any demonic presence right now. I'd say they're long gone."

"Are you satisfied? There's nothing here." I told Jace, since he seemed tenser than usual.

"I want to see my room." Clary told us.

"If that's why it takes." I said with a sigh. I turned and lead the way down the hallway. I paused by the three doors at the end of the hallway. Clary went to open one of the doors. Suddenly the door blew outward. It hit both of us and knocked us against the opposite wall. I moaned and rolled myself over onto my stomach. A Forsaken loomed over us, but turned to look at Jace. He pulled his seraph blade out of his pocket.

"Sansanvi!" The blade shot from the tube. He slashed at the Forsaken and it staggered back with a bellow.

"Come on!" He whirled around and grabbed Clary, pulling her to her feet.

"Rissa!" I scrambled to my feet and ran with them as we headed out the front door again. Jace slammed it shut behind us and we all heard the click of the automatic lock. The door shook on its hinges.

"Get downstairs! Get out of the-!" Jace started. The door hinges gave way and the door flew outward. Jace moved out of the way. He yelled something at Clary, but neither one of us heard it. Clary flattened herself against the wall as the Forsaken made its way over to us. I drew my own seraph blade and called its name. The Forsaken threw its axe at us. We moved out of the way and it buried itself into the banister. Jace and I looked at each other and nodded in silent understanding. We jumped forward and stabbed our seraph blades into the Forsaken's chest. It fell forward and we tried to move out of the way, but we weren't fast enough. The three of us fell down the stairs. Somehow, I ended up on top of Jace and underneath the Forsaken. I felt like the inside of a sandwich, but I didn't think I was hurt. Clary ran downstairs and over to us as I debated how to free myself. She kneeled down and laid a hand on Jace's shoulder as I tried to squirm free. Clary whispered Jace's name. His eyes popped open.

"Is it dead?"

"Almost." She said grimly.

"My legs." He winced. He looked at me.

"You aren't helping, Rissa."

"Hey, I'm stuck too!" I shot back.

"Hold still" Clary crawled around to his head and slipped her hands under his arms. I groaned and lifted myself up as much as I could, which was about half an inch. Clary pulled him out from under me and the spasming Forsaken. Once Jace was gone, there was nothing but me, the hard floor and the Forsaken.

"Is your arm alright?" Clary asked Jace.

"No. Broken." He answered.

"Yeah, okay, little help?" I asked.

"Two seconds. Inside jacket pocket, right side. Get my seraph, Clary." Clary grabbed it for him.

"Sanvi." It activated. Jace pushed himself to his feet.

"Rissa, don't move. I don't want to stab you." He stabbed the Forsaken to finally kill it.

"I thought it would disappear. Back to its own dimension, you said." Clary said as Jace dropped his seraph blade. He grabbed my arm and between me squirming and him pulling, I got out from under the body.

"I said that's what happens to demons when they die. That wasn't a demon." Jace explained shortly. I grabbed my stele from my boot and grabbed Jace's arm.

"Ow!" He complained. I drew a healing rune on his arm.

"Thanks." He mumbled. He flexed his arm.

"That's amazing. How did you-?" Clary asked.

"That was an iratze. A healing rune." I explained shortly. Jace prodded the Forsaken's corpse with his boot.

"We're going to have to report this to Hodge. He'll freak out."

"Why will he freak? And I get that that thing isn't a demon, that's why the Sensor didn't register it, right?" Clary asked.

"You see the scars all over its face?"

"Yes."

"Those were made with a stele. Like that one." He motioned to the stele I held in my hand.

"You asked me what happens when you carve Marks onto someone who doesn't have Shadowhunter blood. Just one Mark could burn you, even kill you, but a lot of Marks, powerful ones? Carved into the flesh of a totally ordinary human being with no trace of Shadowhunter ancestry? You get this. The runes are agonizingly painful. The Marked ones go insane. The pain drives them out of their minds. They become fierce, mindless killers. They don't sleep or eat unless you make them and they die, usually quickly. Runes have great power and can be used to do great good, but they can be used for evil. The Forsaken are evil." Jace explained.

"But why would anyone do that to themselves?" Clary asked, staring at Jace in horror.

"Nobody would. It's something that gets done to them. The Forsaken are loyal to the one who Marked them and they're fierce killers. They can obey simple commands too. It's like having a slave army."

"I'm going back upstairs." I told them, heading for the staircase.

"But there's nothing there." Clary called after me.

"There might be more of them. You should wait here." Jace told her. He hurried to catch up with me.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. There are more of them where the first one came from." We spun around towards the voice.