Okay here's the sixth chapter, hope you all enjoy and continue to follow me through Clary and Jace's Odyssey of the Shadow world.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Mortal Instruments or any of the characters everything belongs to the one and only Cassandra Clare. No copyright Infringement is intended. This is strictly for Fan-Fiction purposes only. So please don't sue me, although you can't sue in NZ but still.
Although I do own my own creativity
City of Jewels
--- 6. Invisible Entity ---
Clear silver droplets of water showered the windows of the Institute like a cluster of tears streaming down the face of a child.
The clouds were grey in mourning and the wind swiftly breezing through the windows. Summer had been swallowed up by fall and the kitchen no longer alive with teenagers, just a pile of dirty empty plates left over from dinner.
It was quiet for once, everyone had somewhere to go, someone to be with and here Jace sat alone at the table drowning in his own thoughts.
Clary's image kept popping up in his head as if her face stained the back of his mind. Jace sighed and made his way to his bedroom. The dark shadows under his eyes were more defined showing signs of sleepless nights.
Exhaustion suddenly took a hold of him and he found himself yawning.
Clarys eyes were dark as night, blood streaming out of her hands and dark shadows surrounded her. Her face now buried leaving it covered in a bloody veil and the world crumbled to darkness as she paced her way through the gates of hell.
Jace woke up out of his nightmares shaking with cold sweat staining the contours of his body. It was the first time he had a nightmare of Clary; He shook his head as if to erase the thought of it and sat up in his bed panting.
His pale yellow sheets twisted across his legs showing signs of tossing and turning, and the window was left open letting in a cold whip of air. Jace peered out of it guessing it was nearly midnight.
He must have fallen to sleep. He needed to clear his head so he thought he might as well go hunting for some demon action. Jace threw his legs out of the bed and shrugged his jacket on leaving his hair a ruffled mess.
He made his way toward the weapon room sliding steles and daggers into his belt making use of every one of his many pockets his gear contained and made his way out of the Institute.
The streets were lit up with lights. The trees were rid of their leaves making the pathways colorful and mundanes strolling by like sleepless zombies looking for a place to eat or drink.
A typical night out for most people in New York meant meeting up with friends at the nearest downtown club or café, but to Jace it meant slaying a few demons or what he liked to call ridding the earth of parasites.
Usually he would be with his parabatai Alec and his sister Isabelle but he ventured out alone this time, but he didn't mind, after all the streets were his favourite playground. Though, they were lacking in the action department, as in no Demons coming out to play or Raveners hissing for a battle, just him and his thoughts.
The amount of action he experienced was as much as kicking leaves around and flipping his stele idly in his hands. He wondered if he should swing by Clary's apartment to check it out before anyone else.
It wasn't like he'll find anything exciting there like a poisonous Ravener waiting for her to come home, but the thought made him want to anyway.
He arrived at her apartment and traced an unlocking rune over the door knob. A slight click of the bolt and it was opened. This was the first time he had seen inside her new apartment.
He searched for his rune-stone making sure not to draw any attention to himself by switching the lights on.
The pale fluorescent glow of the witch light made the room look eerie and cold as it scanned the furniture. It smelt of burnt wood and paint making his nose wrinkle. Clary's sheets were strewn across the bed, drapes pulled shut as if someone just up and left but nothing too strange.
He wandered around the apartment and tripped on something making his rune-stone slip out of his hand bouncing numerously across the wooden floor. He kicked the object and swore angrily rubbing the pain off his shins and realized what he tripped over, "stupid chair!" he murmured. The rune lit up the floor boards and he cocked his head to the side gazing curiously at the pattern that stained the floor.
It was a pale white scar of a rune he hadn't seen before; he knew this had to be Clary's doing remembering her new found talent of creating runes that aren't even in the Gray book.
He heard a static beeping noise and something was vibrating in his pocket. It was the sensor going off, so he knew that something demonic took place in this room. Although the frequency wasn't strong enough to tell that something could be still lurking in the shadows but it was a precaution that Jace was used to.
He studied the rune for a second brushing his fingers over the markings and he caught a slight movement in his peripheral vision.
His eyes gazed around warily with his hands on his stele, but before he could slide it out, his body was slammed backward with bone crushing force falling to the ground. It took him a moment to recover and he swore viciously as he shuffled painfully on the floor. He reached for his belt and slid his stele out of its sheath and raised it making his left shoulder ache even more.
Jace scrambled to his feet and he crept around in the darkness letting his eyes trickle across the room, then in one silent movement he was pinned against the wall leaving his legs dangling inches from off the floor.
The thing was too fast, usually he'll sense something but this was out of the ordinary. He hung there like a piece of clothing pegged to a coat hanger but he couldn't see anything in his view.
A cold wave of mist hit his face, as if something were breathing right in front of him, but there was nothing there. Almost like an invisible entity holding him in the air.
Jace could feel pressure on his throat slowly cutting off his airway and he found himself choking, his face turning blue and his voice screaming for air. He sliced the thin air with his stele but still nothing happened.
Slowly the thing released him and he started panting as he struggled to catch his breath.
"Show your face you slime ball!" Jace muttered as if he were out of breath.
Suddenly the thing tugged at his jacket making his body fly toward the stained floor boards. As if by reflex Jace threw his arms in front of him to cover his face, but instead of his body thumping against the ground he vanished along with the invisible thing into the wooden floor.
--- 0o0o0o0o0o ---
Jace found himself flipping out of control, he realized he was no longer in Clarys apartment; instead he was whirling through the darkness and flung around like a rag doll. Moments later he landed on a concrete surface.
His face buried in shards of rock as he was knocked unconscious. His eyes ached as he tried to open them but failed and blood seeped out of his temple. A strong jabbing pain shot up his left arm and his shoulder; he winced as he turned over realizing he dislocated it.
His eyes twitched open and he was staring at what looked like a blur of colorful lights. He blinked continuously and his eyes came into focus and it wasn't lights he thought he was seeing but instead it was jewels placed around a cloth of stone marble wall.
He stumbled to his feet wincing at every effort with his hand holding his left shoulder. Where am I? Jace thought as he gazed around with amazement.
A familiar object caught his eye and he noticed a cup resting on an altar. Is that the Mortal Cup? He thought and made his way toward it but he felt something hold him back and something jingled at his feet.
He noticed a thick silver bracelet wrapped around his ankle and a chain hung from it. He was chained to the wall like an animal. He yanked at it to break free but it wouldn't budge.
"Damn it!" Jace murmured. He felt around his belt for his stele but he was stripped of all his weapons.
He was startled by a soft whisper of someone crying. It sounded like a lost little child sulking for its mother.
"Hello―" Jace yelled as it echoed through the cave.
He heard it again and creased his eyebrows together.
"Who's there?" Jace asked but still no reply, just a soft weeping noise flowing through the cave.
He felt an urge of sympathy crawl through his body and he felt sorry for the child.
"Who's there? Are you hurt?" Jace asked again but this time he sounded sympathetic.
He heard the crying stop and something moved in the shadows and crawled into the light. It was a girl with pale blonde hair but her face was hidden in her hands. Jace thought she looked like a pixie so he guessed she was one of the fey.
"Did they hurt you little girl?" Jace asked as he moved toward her but got pulled back from the cuffs that held him there.
The girl released her hands from her face and looked toward Jace. Her pale features were soft and child-like and the color of her eyes angelic grey almost like silver droplets. She wore an ivory colored dress and some kind of jewelry was wrapped around her forehead and the same cuff hugged at her ankle with a chain attached to it.
"What's your name little girl?" Jace asked curiously. She wiped her tears that lingered on her face and her breath caught.
"Skye― Skye Chasely." the girl said softly like a ring of a wind chime whispering a chord.
"Are you hurt―Did they hurt you?" He asked worryingly.
"No" she cried softly "I just want to go home," she managed to choke and she buried her face back into her hands.
"Don't cry" Jace said awkwardly, he was terrible at trying to comfort her but he was trying as hard as he could. "Don't be afraid I won't let them hurt you―I promise," although he wasn't exactly sure how to do that yet and then added. "You must be one of the fairfolk. How did you end up here?" he asked.
The girl nodded as she sniffed heavily trying to catch her breath she felt a wave of fear wash away as she was promised that she would be protected then she spoke.
"The Seelie Queen sent me to Idris to sit in for Meliorn but I woke up here," she sang lightly. Her expression on her face looked fragile and she wrapped her arms around her knees.
"You mean on the council? But children aren't allowed on the council." Jace said.
Skye smiled for once but it didn't seem to touch her eyes. "I may look like a child but I've lived through many trials―I just hope this will be the last" Skye said softly as she rested her chin on her knees.
"So you're not a child?" Jace said in a confused tone.
Skye shook her head sideways. "Two hundred years to be exact."
Jace was taken aback she looked no more than twelve years old.
"Huh. I guess it's true what they say―don't judge a book by its cover" Jace said thoughtfully.
She turned away as if she didn't want to talk anymore so Jace sat there quiet, his pain in his shoulder was getting worse.
"Finally, I thought she'll never stop sulking."
A husky voice said somewhere in the distance. Jace was startled at the voice.
"Who said that?" Jace demanded, as he studied the shadows of the cave.
"Darius is the name and don't wear it out" said the voice and his face came into view.
The boy had long brown hair just past his shoulders. His eyes were chocolate coated brown that hid in long dark eyelashes and he looked about Jace's height but his features showed that he was younger. Darius had a smirk on his face.
"You can call me Wolfgang, well that's what my grandfather used to call me before I left the Rez."
Jace rolled his eyes then said. "What did you do to get that name? Gang up on a few kitty cats?"
"No, because I fight as good as a gang of wolves" Darius retorted as if to state a fact..
Jace tried to hide the pain that stung inside his shoulder away from Darius so he took his hand away from it and rested it on the wall of the cave. He needed his stele urgently.
"Have you come to save the day Blondie?" Darius chuckled lightly.
"Don't flatter yourself, besides I got the impression you were comfortable on a leash" he replied.
Darius snarled low in his throat and Jace looked momentarily gratified.
"Now, now―nice doggy" Jace teased and that malice look on his face left the boy filled with rage.
Jace realized that he had got the better of him.
"I'm Jace," he said as he ruffled his fingers through his grimy hair, "―but you can call me the greatest Shadowhunter that ever lived, and don't worry my name will never wear out." Jace said proudly.
"That's weird, I could've sworn you were an ass," Darius said dryly.
Jace ignored him and his face looked serious again.
"Where are we anyway?" He noticed Darius's shirt was torn and his jeans were ripped to shreds and blood smeared around his ankles.
Darius hesitated for a while and then calmed his tone.
"I believe we are somewhere between Idris and Hell" Darius said, "―although hell does seem like a better place to be at the moment, if I have to listen to anymore of that sulking" he said as if he were annoyed.
"I'm not sulking―" Skye jumped to her defense although she knew she was "―anymore, I'm not sulking anymore" she chimed lightly.
"How did they get you?" Jace asked looking toward Darius and then said. "Did you bark up the wrong tree?" Jace said wryly.
Darius's eyes narrowed and said "Very funny Blondie. No I was running with my pack down Brocelind Plain and I stopped for a detour realizing later that it was a trap and I ended up here cuffed with silver iron." He finished and rage suddenly flushed up in his face as he thought of it.
"You must know Luke then" Jace added as he remembered Luke telling him he used to lead a pack of wolves in the same place.
"You mean Luke Graymark?" Darius asked.
His eyes lit up as if he were talking about a great warrior. "I've only heard of him but I've never had the pleasure of meeting him yet" Darius finished.
Jace noticed the way he said Luke's name as if he carried a great amount of respect for him and still he had never met him. Then he started thinking of Luke getting the respect from children everywhere he went, and the power he carried when leading his pack and he envied him for a second.
Their conversation was intervened by a loud chorus of hissing and high pitch shrieking and black shadows moved swiftly across the cave.
Jace had seen a boy struggling in the midst of the shadows and they were dragging him by one leg across the concrete surface making his clothes tear beneath him and shedding blood until he was chained to the wall just like the rest of them.
Jace noticed the boy was too a child and his skin was as pale as a ghost. He gazed after the shadows as they disappeared into the rock faces leaving the boy limp on the ground.
"Great we have company," Darius said as he flashed a crooked smile as if all this was a cosmic joke to him. "How nice of you to drop in" he finished.
"Who's there?" The boy cried.
Darius chuckled "Always the same questions and yet I find myself answering them all" Darius said as if he was amused at the idea.
"Who said that?" The boy asked again. Jace noticed the boys' fangs slide out of its sheaths as he hissed around the floor struggling to break free of the cuffs. The cuffs seemed to burn him every time he touched them.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you" Jace warned the vampire boy.
"Who said that? What do you want from me?" The boy hissed.
Jace crawled out into his view and startled the poor boy then said. "The cuffs are blessed with holy water and if you keep touching them, it will seethe your skin to ashes." Jace explained "Now we don't want that do we?"
"Although it is fun to watch" Darius added.
The boy stopped struggling and stared curiously around the cave.
"Does the leech have a name?" Darius asked coldly.
Jace interrupted "I'm Jace and that is Darius and Skye is in the corner over there" Jace introduced them by pointing them out in each of their directions.
"Nice to meet you bloodsucker." Darius greeted him with a smirk on his face.
"Great, who let the dogs out?" the vampire boy snarled showing his fangs as he seen the werewolf boy come into view.
Darius chuckled and he was annoying the hell out of the boy. "Stop it!" Jace demanded, "What's your name anyway?"
The boy calmed his expression and turned back to Jace. "Demetrius―Demetrius Scarvy" He said and Jace noticed a slight accent hiss out of his mouth. The boys' hair was pitch black and combed back perfectly making him look centuries old. His sharp features were marble like but the garment he wore was a face of a child.
"Where is your lair? I've never seen you around here before" said Jace.
"Precisly because I am not from around here. I lead a coven back in Russia and was visiting Hotel Dumort for business, next thing I know I'm getting dragged by the leg and ended up here" Demetrius hissed as if he were disgusted of the place.
"Now we just have to figure out where, here is" said Jace.
Demetrius wrinkled his nose and he snarled low in his throat, "You are bleeding" he hissed as his fangs came into view "I haven't fed in a while," he added, but tried to resist the temptation.
Jace looked to where he was bleeding on his arm and smiled crookedly "Unfortunately I'm fresh out of donating blood to your kind Demetrius" Jace said and then looked around the cave "We have to work together if we want to get out of this place." Jace added thoughtfully.
"No offence but we tried that already" Skye sang lightly.
"Well if it weren't for that red-haired girl we would've been out of here by now" Darius retorted and he had Jace's attention almost instantly.
"What do you mean? What red-haired girl?" Jace asked curiously.
"There was a little red-haired girl in here talking to those demons, but she couldn't hear me so I gave up" Darius said. Jace couldn't believe what he was hearing, Clary is here? Jace thought and his stomach clenched.
"But she sounded evil, she would've never saved us, and her black eyes were so creepy it gave me the chills" Skye said softly.
Jace creased his eyebrows together, that can't be Clary, they must be talking about someone else Jace thought.
"What did she look like?" Jace asked, almost more of a demand than anything.
"A short thing―about yay height, long red-hair with a bit of a bad temper" Darius sat there as if he were admiring the girl he was talking about. "―she'd be quite pretty if it weren't for her temper though" Darius added thoughtfully.
Jace's muscle in his jaw tightened, his fist were clenched making his knuckles white as he knew that had to be Clary, but it still didn't make sense as he knew Clary's eyes are green not black. Then suddenly he remembered his nightmare he had of Clary and she wore the eyes of a cold blooded killer and they were dark like coal. Jace shook his head as if to erase the thought.
"Do you know where she went?" Jace asked.
"I heard her talking about a sword and some kind of ceremony, I can't remember, but her eyes were on that cup over there" Darius pointed to the Mortal Cup.
What would she want with the Mortal Instruments? Jace thought and he remembered Valentine's intensions and how he wanted to wipe out the whole Nephilim race with The Mortal Instruments and raise his own army of followers surely that can't be Clary's intensions too. That must explain why there was a pixie fey, a werewolf and a vampire trapped in a cave, but why would they need me? He thought. Valentine Jace thought.
"Who's Valentine?" Darius asked as he snapped him out of his reverie.
Jace hadn't realized that he must have said his name out loud. Jace's eyes narrowed.
"A person that seems to never stay dead" Jace said suddenly furious.
Jace's eyes expanded as he realized what Clary was up to and he mumbled something incoherently then asked. "Did she say when the ceremony was going to start?"
"Midnight I heard her say" Skye sang lightly. Then they all fell silent as they heard something in the distance.
"I think someone's coming," Jace whispered and they could hear faint footsteps creeping toward them and a screeching sound of metal being scraped across the walls.
It sounded awful like someone scratching there nails down a blackboard and he shivered. He heard what sounded like a humming noise and he cocked his head to the side and he focused on the girls humming.
It was somewhat familiar. I know that tune; I play that for―Jace hesitated and his eyes blazed a golden light through them as he knew exactly who it was.
"Clary?" he muttered to himself.
A/N:
Jace sighed, "So you're still not talking to me?"
Clary sat there silent with her arms folded and her eyebrows furrowed.
"She said to tell you, that you're an asshat, and that you deserved that beating from the invisible thing." Isabelle said bluntly.
"Why don't you let her talk Izzy?" Jace said slightly annoyed.
"Clary said she doesn't talk to pigs," Isabelle glared.
"Fine, I'm out of here!" Jace muttered.
"Don't hit the door on the way out!" Author says earning the 'middle finger' from Jace.