Jace, Clary, the plot, Simon nor Eric's bad poetry belong to me. The are owned by Cassandra Clare. I only hope I can be half as good as her.

What was I doing here? I though to myself, as I sat, wincing at the bad poetry, in Java Jones. Hodge said to get her, so why haven't I yet?

I was sitting as far back as I could get, in a black leather chair, behind a plant. The girl had seen me last night and I didn't want her to see me before I wanted her to. She was talking with the boy, also from last night. Simon, I think. It was hard to keep a straight face while watching him talk to her. She was either exceptionally oblivious to the fact he seemed to be in love with her, or terribly mean. She didn't seem the type to be so cruel to anyone, though, as she had stopped me from killing that demon last night. I closed my eyes, and last night came flooding back.

[Flashback]

Stop it! She yelled.

I turned around, my blade hitting the pillar in the last second.

'Who's this? And what is she doing here?' Alec hissed.

'How would we know, Alec? We've never seen her before.' Isabelle retorted. ' Maybe you should ask.'

'I don't care who she is.' I interrupted before Alec could speak again. 'I want to know why she can see us.'

'Of course I can see you.' The girl looked confused and angry. 'I'm not blind, you know.'

'You are.' I replied mildly, pulling my knife out of the wall. 'You just aren't aware of it.' I slid my knife back into its sheath. 'You better leave, before anything happens.'

'I'm not going anywhere.' She spat back, 'If I do, you'll kill him.'

'Correct.' I admitted, taping a rhythm on the handle of my knife. 'But what's it to you?'

'Be-Because-' She stammered, 'You can't go around killing people!'

'Ah-HAH!' I smirked. 'I can't go around killing people.' I pointed at my prisoner. 'This is no person.' She looked over at the thing and her mouth pulled down at the corners, but her eyes looked were still smiling. 'It may looks like a person, but this is a monster from nightmares.'

'Jace.' Isabelle whispered to my back. 'That's enough.'

'You're crazy.' The girl took a step back. 'I've called the police, you know. They'll be here anytime.'

'She's lying.' Alec tried to sound exasperated with the girl, but there was too much doubt in his voice. 'Jace, do you-'

I don't know why he stopped, but when something hit my side like a sack of bricks, I got my answer. The demon must have been loosening the piano wire this whole time. I didn't think of much else, as I had to work on getting him off of me. We wrestled on the ground for a bit, as I didn't have my weapon out. He got on top of me and stared at me hungrily.

'So this is why you never stole any girls. Well, it certainly explains a lot. But, then why did you go for Isabelle?' I asked in an infuriatingly calm voice, with a huge smirk on my face. The thing's eyes widened and his face twisted with face. Alec and Isabelle came running over just as he went to slash out at my face. I jerked under him and spun him around, like I had Alec, before. Now I was the one on top.

'Just the way I like it.' I was still smirking, which got the thing even angrier. It snarled, and lashed out, and managed to bite my hand. How the Hell it did that, I'll never know. I whipped out my knife and held it in his face. 'That better not leave a scar.' I threatened.

But, the demon was so busy looking surprised and cowardly, it didn't even notice. 'My Lord...' It whimpered. 'I'm sorry. I though you were a Nephilim. I didn't know it was you. You've changed.'

I didn't even say anything. It must have just been babbling on to save its self. I just stabbed it, clean through the chest, and watched in gratification as its blood bubbled up around the blade. He shook once, and his body started to fold around on its self, until there was nothing left and my knife clanged again the floor.

As I picked it up, I heard Isabelle's whip slice through the air. The girl gasped as it wrapped around her wrist. 'Stupid Mundie.' Isabelle hissed, 'You could have gotten Jace killed!' The girl struggled and her face was contorted with pain. Her pain cut me, for some reason. I winced as she did, and reached out to help her-…

[End of Flashback]

'The memory ended as something cut through my thoughts. The voice of the girl, Clary, seemed to be directed in my general direction. Was she talking to me? I whipped around to see if she was, but quietly hunkered down when I saw she was talking to another girl. I rose out my chair, and snuck to a closer couch. Simon came back, and they started talking again. I listen for a bit, and laughed as I heard what Simon was trying to tell Clary. She just wasn't getting it, as obvious as Simon was being. I couldn't help it but laugh. I managed to conceal it behind a fake cough, but Clary still heard it. She turned. And I panicked.

I never panicked, but I didn't know what else to do. I just raised me hand, keeping my face emotionless, and walked out. I didn't need to look, to see if she was following; I could hear her excuses to Simon, her feet tapping delicately on the tiles of the floor. I pushed open the door and waited outside for her in the alley next to the shop. I leaned against the wall, relaxing my heart that had begun to race when Clary had looked at me. I took my Sensor out of my pocket, just as she was coming out the door, to make sure it hadn't looked like I was waiting for her. When the bell rang out her exit from the coffee shop, I looked up, put my Sensor away in back in my shirt's pocket, and tried to look surprise, like I hadn't been expecting she would follow. It still caught me off guard, so I merely said the first thing that came to mind.

'Your friend's poetry is terrible.' And that was a terrible way to start a conversation. Usually, my charm was already working, and I just had to stand there and look uninterested. Other people always started the conversation, and I always replied. Now I was just making things awkward.

'What?' Clary asked. She had the right to be confused; my comment had come out of nowhere.

'I said your friend's poetry is terrible. It sounded like he ate a dictionary and started vomiting up words at random.' It was a stupid thing to say, and I had already said it once. I hated repeating myself.

It seemed to make Clary furious, though. 'I don't care about Eric's poetry. I want to know why you are following me.'

I half smiled. She had a temper, this one. 'Who said I was following you?'

'Nice try. And you were eavesdropping, too. Do you want to tell me what this is about, or should I just call the police?' Her voice was usually light, but her angry made it deeper, and darker.

'And tell them what?' I demanded maliciously, 'That invisible people are bothering you? Trust me, little girl, the police aren't going to arrest someone they can't see.' I couldn't give away that fact I had remembered her name, it would seem….Stalkerish.

'I told you before, my name is not "Little girl". She growled through her teeth. 'It's Clary.'

'I know,' My voice had come out before I could even stop it. 'Pretty name. Like the herb, clary sage. In old days people though eating the seeds would let you see the Fair Folk. Did you know that?'

'I have no idea what you're talking about.' Just like last night, when I'd asked if she had walked with vampires or seen demons, she denied any involvement with the Shadow World.

'You don't know much, do you?' I brought a lazy look into my eyes, like I dealt with this everyday. Maybe if I seemed like I did, she would listen to me. 'You seem to be a mundane like and other mundane, yet you can see me. It's a conundrum.'

'What's a mundane?' She asked. She didn't seem to be angry any more, just curious.

'Someone of the human world. Some one like,' I paused, 'You.'

'But you're human.' She insisted.

'I am,' I conceded. 'But not like you.' I didn't bother to hide it. She could see me, and that meant she was a part of this world now.

'You think you're better.' She was angry again. 'That's why you were laughing at us.'

'I was laughing at you because declarations of love amuse me, especially when unrequited,' I retorted. 'And because your Simon is one of the most mundane mundanes I've ever encountered. And because Hodge though you might be dangerous, but if you are, you certainly don't know it.' I had to work to close my mouth slowly. I had said more than I had wanted to.

'I'm dangerous?' Clary's voice echoed mine, even with the same inflictions. It was like she had memorized me voice. 'I saw you kill someone last night. I saw you drive a knife up under his ribs, and, -' She stopped abruptly, like the rest of her sentence had frightened her. I suddenly wanted to protect her from whatever evils I had invited into her life.

'I may be a killer,' I replied emotionless, 'but I know what I am. Can you say the same?'

'I'm an ordinary human being, just like you said. Who's Hodge?' She was quick to change the subject, like maybe; just maybe, she had guessed she wasn't an ordinary human being.

'My tutor.' I killed the topic of who Hodge was more effectively than I killed demons. 'And I wouldn't be so quick to brand myself as ordinary, if I were you.' I leaned closer to her, breathing in her scent of history and paint. 'Let me see your right hand.'

'My right hand?' Her voice echoed mine again. 'If I show you my hand, will you leave me alone?'

'Certainly.' I knew I was lying, and amusement colored my voice.

Clary's hand crept out from her side. It was pale and delicate in the fading light, and her knuckles were painted with freckles and flecks of paint. Her expression was slightly guarded and embarrassed. I saw nothing, so I turned it over, not expecting anything, just wanting to hold her hand longer. 'Nothing.' I muttered, and the relief of her face fueled my disappointment. 'You're not left-handed, are you?'

'No. Why?' She saw curious again.

I reluctantly released it with a shrug. 'Most Shadowhunter children get Marked on their right hands- or left, if they're left handed like I am- when they're still young. It's a permanent Rune that lends an extra kill with weapons.' Her blank look told me she needed a visual, so I held up my hand.

'I don't see anything.' Her voice had me think she though this was a joke.

'Let your mind relax,' I suggested, wanting this to work. I hated being wrong. 'Wait for it to come to you. Like waiting or something to rise to the surface of water.'

'You're crazy,' She dismissed, but let herself relax. She had been really tense. She gazed at my hand, holding it in her stare. There was a sharp intake of breath, and her body jerked away from me a slight bit. It bothered me. 'A tattoo?'

I knew it. I knew she could see it, and I let it show on my face. 'I thought you could do it. And it's not a tattoo- it's a Mark. They're Runes, burned into our skin.'

'They make you handle weapons better?' The disbelief was strong in her voice.

'Different Marks do different things. Some are permanent but the majority vanish when they've been used'

'That's why your arms aren't all linked up today?' She seemed to be asking a question, but it sounded like a statement. 'Even when I concentrate?'

'That's exactly why.' I knew she could figure this out, with my fabulous explanation. 'I knew you had the Sight, at least.' I looked up, seeing how much daylight we had left. There wasn't much. 'It's nearly full dark. We should go.'

'We? I though you were going to leave me alone.'

'I lied.' There was no point about lying about having lied. 'Hodge said I have to bring you to the Institute with me. He wants to talk to you.'

'Why would he want to talk to me?' Her voice said that she had no idea how special or important she might be.

'Because you know the truth now. There hasn't been a mundane who knew about us for at least a hundred years.'

'About us?' She'd gotten really good at echoing my voice. It anyone else had done it, I would have gotten really annoyed. ' You mean people like you. People who believe in demons.'

'People who kill them,' I corrected. 'We're called Shadowhunters. At least, that's what we call ourselves. The Downworlders have less complimentary names for us.' It was a joke, but Clary didn't even smile.

'Downworlders?' There was that echo again.

'The Night Children. Warlocks. The fey. The magical folk of this dimension.'

Now Clary thought I was joking. ' Don't stop there. I suppose there are also, what, vampires and werewolves and zombies?'

'Of course there are,' I informed her, slightly miffed. She shouldn't make jokes about them. 'Although you mostly find zombies farther south, where the voudun priests are.'

'What about mummies?' Now she seemed to be serious. 'Do they only hang around Egypt?'

'Don't be ridiculous. No one believes in mummies.'

'They don't?'

'Of course not.' I insisted forcefully. 'Look, Hodge will explain all this to you when you see him.'

She crossed her arms over her chest, like she was trying to be threatening. 'What if I don't want to see him?'

'That's you problem. You can come either willingly or unwillingly.'

Now she looked flabbergasted. 'Are you threatening to kidnap me?'

'If you want to look at it that way' I mused, 'Yes.'

She opened her mouth to yell at me probably, but her phone went off, interrupting her.

'Go ahead and answer that if you like.' I offered generously.

It stopped, for a beat, then started again, an insistent buzzing noise. Clary frowned about something, and turned away from me and dug through her bag for her phone. I wanted to turn her back towards me; it bothered me that she turned her back on me. Clary's voice, though, cut through the silence. 'Mom?'

I couldn't hear much. Or maybe, I didn't want to hear much. I could usually hear the complete conversation when someone was on the phone, even if I wasn't right beside the phone. But, it felt wrong, somehow, to listen to Clary talk with her mom. There was a lot of static and Clary's frantic voice that kept getting cut off by a loud noise, or by her equally frantic mother. Then all the static stopped. There was a slimy thud, and Clary's mother's voice saying 'I love you' as the line went dead.

'Mom!' Her voice was shrill and riled with panic. 'MOM!'

She was yelling into the phone, but the screen said, "Call ended". I had to calm her down. 'Clary.' I loved the way her name curled around my tongue. 'What's going on?'

She ignored me and started hitting the redial button like her life, or her mother's, depended on it. Maybe it did. The busy signal kept coming back, though, and her hands were starting to shake. I saw the phone fall from her grasp and knew I could save it, but I just let it fall.

'Dammit!' By now, tears were in her eyes, and her voice was shaking, too. She picked the phone up on her hands and knees, but the screen was cracked and dead. She threw it down this time.

'Stop that.' I murmured, and helped her up by her wrists. 'Has something happened?' Well that was brilliant. No, Jace, nothing has happened. Clary always acts this frantic after getting a phone call.

When she was up, she snatched my Sensor out of my pocket. 'Give me your phone. I have to- '

'It's not a phone.' I didn't move. I was frozen by the way she had been so close, her fingers brushed against my chest- 'It's a Senor. You won't be able to use it.' I had to concentrate on the matter at hand.

'But I need to call the police!' I doubted the police could help her, in this situation.

'Tell me what happened.' I had her wrists, and I could feel her attempts to escape my grip. 'I can help you.'

I don't know what part of my words angered her so, but her face twisted with rage, and she lashed out with her hand, her nails grazing against my cheek. It was a reflex, to let go of her and step back; I wasn't use to girls attacking me. She ran off before I could get a hand on her again, and she was surprisingly fast.

At the end of the alley she turned, as if to she if I would follow. She looked frightened, and peered into the shadows to see if I was there. Nothing moved in the shadows, though. I was already on top of the building, perching on the edge of the roof. She took off towards her house, I climbed down and took off after her.