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Will stared into blank space. He was trying not to look at Tessa and Jem who were whispering softly to each other, their fingers laced. He tried, furtively, to avoid eye contact with Tessa.

He had a distinct notion that she felt sorry for him. Of course she would, that was one of the reasons why he even fell in love with her in the first place.

He was sorry enough on his own in the first place. He regretted not noticing the sparks between the two of them sooner. If he had not been so wrapped up in his own problems, things wouldn't have come to this.

Will winced at the memory. He had rushed into the drawing room and had proclaimed his love for her, only to find out that she was engaged.

That, and the fact that he had almost asked her to forsake her engagement with Jem, his parabatai, for his own selfish reasons. What kind of person was he?

Will had spent a long time perfecting his façade- to make people around him hate him and not love. He never realized how hard it was to do the opposite. His mask of cockiness had embedded itself into a part of him. Another scar from the demon.

If you love someone, set them free.

Will tried to pretend that everything was as normal and he just suffering from a hangover. He would have done anything to take back what he had said to her that night, to save her from the awkwardness that would transpire from them now.

It wasn't easy to that. He was good at lying to people, but he could never seem to lie to himself. It was he who needed more convincing. What Will needed most was someone to talk to and he would usually gone to his parabatai about that.

The problem was that you can't exactly tell your sworn brother that you have secretly crushing on his fiancée all this while. That would have been cutting. Will pushed his thoughts away.

It would do him no good to lose his focus at a time like this. Especially in front of the two Lightwoods. The carriage shuddered.

Between the five of them and Cyrus driving the carriage up front, he was amazed that it had made it so far. It seemed that there was somebody knocking on the wheels of the carriage every time they passed a bump.

There was a loud thump as something metal collided against the wooden walls of the carriage. "Did you hear that?" Gabriel muttered. "I could have sworn I heard someone hitting the boot."

Will laughed aloud as he leaned out of the window. "Too much worms in one day for you I'd say. Your mind is playing tricks-" Will's eyes widened. It was the golden boy from back at the Institute.

Will frowned as the boy placed his finger on his lips. "Will, is anything the matter?" Tessa asked slowly, her hands laced in front of her.

Will had a silent debate with his inner demon and angel. "No, it's nothing." He said, smirking. "I think Cyrus ran over a duck."

"By the Angel, you really do hate ducks, don't you?" Jem grinned, color vibrant and dancing in his cheeks.

"Yes, I guess I do despise those filthy creatures. They love to sit on boot carriages, their golden hairs brushing atop our wood." Will said this extra loudly, projecting his voice to the window.

To any other person, he might have been talking to himself or maybe the window, but the Jace knew what the blue eyes was saying. Get off now. He decided to trust him and jumped. His training kicked in and he dashed straight into the nearest under bush.

"Will," Jem looked at him curiously. "you do know that ducks have feathers right? Not hair."

"Oh, feathers and hair. What's the difference?"

The carriage slowed to a halt. "I would love to stay and debate about your ducks, but we have a demon in these grounds. I would suggest we move out quickly." Gabriel said, purposefully not meeting anyone's gaze as he hopped off the carriage.

Gideon would have followed suit, but he almost stumbled when he saw the third carriage in the front. It had the a circular crest on it with some leaves. Tatiana's carriage.

There was a crowd gathered round it by the time Will reached them. It was splattered with gore and Gabriel paled, his voice stuttering. "Father…"

Gideon put his hands on his shoulders gently. "We should search the grounds now. Yell if you see or hear anything." The group of shadowhunters split into two and Will found himself trailing behind Tessa.

He hoped that she would be safe. Slowly, he edged away, towards the under bush he saw the golden hair dive into. Will found him crouched over an arm, studying the bit of gore like it was a specimen. Will winced and massaged his arm. He reached out to touch the arm…

Jace felt the boy who had undoubtedly saved his life and insulted him at the same time, stand over him. The boy reached out to touch the arm.

Jace immediately slapped his hands away. "Don't touch it. It's infused with demon blood."

The other boy winced and said sweetly, "Well, thanks for the heads up."

"Don't mention it-" Jace tilted his head to get a better view of the boy. There was only so much he could do to keep himself from stumbling back with shock. The boy seemed to have noticed though.

He smirked. "Well, don't be awed by my presence. I'm naturally attractive." He looked so much like Alec but in ways, he was not. Jace didn't reply.

The boy held out a hand to him. "I hope you don't plan to stay here all night, do you? We have a demon to hunt. You can't tell me you followed us all the way here for fun."

Jace grudgingly took the boy's hand. "Fun is what I do." He said.

"I suppose you want my name now. I'm Will Herondale, consider yourself worthy to be in my presence." He waved his ring in the air in front of Jace. "And you?"

"Jace. Just Jace," he said smoothly.

Will raised his eyebrow. "Very well, if you would follow me. You can help us to kill the demon to, or maybe clean up?"

Jace immediately felt a touch of annoyance. "Ducks…" he cursed under his breath.

Will grimaced, "I've always hated ducks, their squawking and all."

"Oh, me too." He said airily. "I've tried to feed the ducks back at Central Park, duck pies before, to see if they would eat one of their own kind. That would be cannibalism then. My parabatai was absolutely against it and said it was a waste of duck."

Jace was actually trying to be sarcastic but was surprised when Will did not take the bait. He laughed instead and gave him a weird look. "I've done the exact same thing."

Jace didn't reply. "Oh come on, don't be a drag. Show me a smile. Going shadowhunting with Will Herondale is a great honor you know."

"Yeah right…" Jace muttered. There was a commotion and he heard someone yell the name of 'Jem'.

Will immediately tensed. "Now would be good time to join the fun," he yelled before sprinting forward. Jace followed him quickly.

When Will had said demons, Jace had imagined some Shax demons or something like that, but he had no idea they were dealing with a giant worm. He whipped his seraph blade out of his belt and went to join the fight.

-Break-

"Demon pox?" Clary asked, flabbergasted. "I've never heard of it before."

"Yes, yes…" Magnus muttered. "It doesn't matter if you've heard of it before, I did and Benedict Lightwood is now a rather demonic worm. I suggest we go and help the shadowhunters out and possibly your angel boyfriend before they kill themselves."

"Jace is there?" Clary breathed. "I-"

"Um guys, haven't you noticed something?" Simon said.

"Well what is it? Spill it already, lives are at stake, we can't alter more than we have to. Most of them there are your ancestors."

"Okay, okay. So there are like a rather large group of shadowhunters fighting the demon with their runed weapons but there's hardly any damage. So Clary, maybe you could use one of your runes."

Clary gripped her stele harder. "I could but, it's trashing around too much, I can't place it on the worm. To make the rune effective I would have to be on the worm itself…"

"Nuh-uh Clary, don't think about it. I'm not kidding. If you got hurt, I'd never live with myself. That and the fact that Jace would kill me." Simon's fangs slid out.

Clary turned to Magnus. "Please, there must be something you can do to get me up there, or I'll do it myself."

"Well, I suppose I could send you onto worm's back, but after that, I can't help you any more. The demonic energies from the worm would affect my powers…"

"Well, at least send me with her, she can't go on her own…" Simon said worriedly as Magnus started chanting, blue sparks flying from his fingers. Clary was clenching her stele tightly in her hand, her forehead scrunched up in concentration.

She already had to rune for destroy in her mind and she was clinging desperately onto it.

"I'm sorry Daylighter, I only have enough strength for one. To overcome those energies is very taxing. You would do to be a great distraction though. A vampire at dusk, with the sun still out…"

Blue sparks started fizzing around Clary as she glared at Simon. "No, don't you think about it, Simon, no."

But, it was too late, he was gone. Simon had sprinted as fast as he could, which was really fast, to the battleground. His fangs were already out of his mouth by then.

He could feel the astonished looks of the other shadowhunters fighting the worm. He thought he caught sight of Jace's golden head somewhere.

Distract the worm, he had to be the distraction. He could already see blue sparks fizzing above the worm. The worm was eye-less and as it opened it's mouth to howl, Simon observed sharp dagger-like teeth inside.

Note to self, avoid mouth. Benedict Lightwood, Magnus had said. "HEY!" Simon shouted. "Keep your filthy self away from my friends. You're poxed! Go to hell, Lightworm!"

The worm shuddered angrily. Oops, Simon thought. He also felt bad at the same time, insulting Isabelle and Alec. He heard a collective gasp from beside him and curses.

The worm lunged, but Simon wasn't looking at it. He was observing the blue sparks above the worm's body, now forming a certain red-headed person.

Someone pushed him roughly away from his earlier position, where the demonic worm's jaws were now.
"Jace…" Simon breathed. "Yeah, nice to see you too. I know you're dead already, but are you sure you really want to die, again?"

Clary materialized from pitch darkness. She tucked her legs in and her training with Jace kicked in. She landed on feet, atop the massive sliminess of the demon's body.

Steadying her hand, she started to draw on the worm's back. The demon shuddered when the stele touched its skin and began trashing, making it harder for Clary to hold on.

She griped the worm's smooth-like skin for traction and instantly regretted it. The white slimy liquid oozed onto her hand. She flicked it off and using her other hand, she completed the rune.

She could hear the others shouting and cursing as the worm's body stopped shuddering. A few long seconds passed, but nothing happened. She breathed deeply. What had gone wrong?

And then, the worm's body exploded with such force that Clary was thrown into the air. The world was a blur of blue and green until the darkness came and washed it all out.

Like it? Or not? Review please or PM me to fangirl. I'm bored like nobody's business. And ideas will be gladly taken into consideration.