Hello! I would have posted yesterday but forgot to bring my laptop home. Argh! Not sure I can keep up with daily updates but getting to some good stuff now - at least I'm really enjoying writing it. Hope you enjoy reading it.

Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare owns TMI and all of the wonderful characters.


"Jace," Alec was leaning against a bare white wall, his voice clearly exasperated. "Can we leave now? We promised Mom not to meddle around."

"Did you promise that?" Jace asked mildly. He was crouched down, examining a seemingly innocuous dent in the wall on the other side of the room. "I don't remember promising anything myself. Would be a real shame to lose your company." Jace turned to face Alec with a lopsided smirk on his face. "You never know what kind of trouble I could get into without you to watch out for me."

Alec sighed heavily, "Listen, Jace. We've been back at this apartment five times already. How many times do you have to look at an empty room to get the picture? There's nothing here."

"Really?" Jace was now staring up at the ceiling. "I didn't think you'd mind an occasional trip to Brooklyn. It's one of the finest outer boroughs of New York City and I got the impression you were really finding a lot to appreciate about the place."

"Shut up," Alec folded his arms but grinned good-naturedly. "I'm going to be late meeting up with Magnus." Only Izzy and Jace knew about him and Magnus and that suited Alec just fine. He could only imagine his parents' horror when they found out their oldest son was gay and dating a warlock. At first Alec was terrified of Jace's reaction. He had harbored a crush on Jace for a while but somehow Jace had just guessed that Alec was seeing Magnus. Well, it might have something to do with all the glitter that started to appear on his clothes, his hair, random body parts. It had been the most natural thing in the world. Jace was his parabatai and now that he had Magnus he could clearly see that he had never been in love with Jace. Jace was family, the best kind of family. Someone who loved and accepted him wholeheartedly. Alec was not so certain he could say the same about his parents and he felt a twinge of guilt that he was actually glad his mother and father had gotten tied up in Idris.

"Anyway, Maryse hardly knew she wouldn't be returning anytime soon," Jace broke into Alec's thoughts. He was now walking around the room, his head darting back and forth as if there was something to see.

Hodge had received word from Idris. It seemed the Council did not put much credence behind the words of a warlock. But, the Clave was worried. It would soon be time for the Accords to be renewed and while they did not accept Valentine Morgenstern was a living threat they believed there were still active members of the destructive Circle who would try to destroy the Shadowhunters' peace treaty with Downworlders. Although Maryse and Robert had been punished and ostensibly forgiven for their participation in the Circle, they were not fully trusted and the Council would not allow them to return to New York until the Accords were peacefully accomplished. They were kept under strict surveillance with the excuse that as former members of the Circle, their knowledge of any missing and unaccounted for deviant shadowhunters was invaluable to the Council.

"Go on, then," Jace returned Alec's smile. "Tell Magnus I said hi."

"Are you sure?" Alec asked sincerely.

"I think I can find my way back home," Jace drawled.

"Jace, what do you think you'll find? Why are you so … preoccupied with this?" Alec worried. "I mean, yeah, they're shadowhunters but we both know shadowhunters die, all the time, and it's not like we knew them or even like the Council cares …"

"Yeah, I know," Jace dismissed. "I just can't get them out of my head. I just feel like this," Jace waved his arms up, "is huge. I can't shake it. I know it means something." He shook his head. "But you're right. I'm not getting anywhere wandering around an empty apartment. I'll leave in a few minutes. I promise. I'll see you back at the Institute."

"OK, Jace," Alec replied. "Promise me, no demon hunting without me."

Jace rolled his eyes, "Yes, Dad. I promise. Go on, get outta here."

Alec looked worried but hurried off, eager to see Magnus. Jace was happy for him. Alec seemed so much more comfortable in his own skin since he met Magnus and Alec deserved to be happy.

Jace took another turn through the apartment. He walked into a small room with a window facing the tree lined street below. It was a quiet block. It had begun to rain a bit and the black asphalt shined with the reflection of the streetlights. Every now and then a car would pass, spraying up the puddled water at the corners. He'd been haunted by a recurring dream lately. There was a girl. Even through the dream's opaqueness, her hair was a bright red. She was waiting for him. He walked over to her. Her shining green eyes reminded him of the dewy morning fields surrounding the estate from his childhood home in Idris.

"Where have you been?" she whispered. She held out a hand and he took it into his own. Her hand was small, warm and strong. It felt … perfect.

"I'm here. I've always been here," he answered.

She quivered. "It's too late. I'm sorry." She reached up on her toes, she was very small, and kissed him gently on the cheek.

And then he woke up.

Jace wasn't sure why the dream bubbled up in his thoughts now but somehow he could clearly imagine her red head below his, peering through this very window, seeing the world as he saw it.

He realized he had remained in the apartment longer than he had planned. He was about to turn away from the window when he recognized an Eidolon demon standing across the street, waiting for someone or something as it moved its head back and forth viewing one end of the block to the other. It had taken on a human form, a non-descript middle aged man, brown hair, black trench coat, wire frames. Jace stepped away from the window and pulled a seraph blade from his belt. He knew the runes he and Alec had drawn on before they left the Institute were still good. He could feel their strength and energy course through his veins. Not that he needed them to take care of an Eidolon demon but it was an ingrained habit to check his weapons, runes, gear. He had promised Alec no demon hunting without him but really what could he do? The thing was practically on top of him. It was hardly as if he were actually hunting demons when they just appeared in front of him. Jace welcomed the surge of adrenaline as he rushed down the stairs. His hand was on the knob to the building's front door when the door to the lower apartment in the brownstone building cracked open and an old woman peered out of its entrance. She wore a yellow and orange tropically themed turban and matching caftan along with a pair of large gold and blue beaded hoop earrings. He knew she was Madam Dorothea, Seer and Prophetess, as advertised by a placard in her front window. He had already checked her out; completely human, dabbled a bit with the magical and arcane within her limited abilities. No threat and nothing of interest for him to investigate. He was about to turn away and get back to some demon slaying when the old woman called out.

"Jace Wayland. I know what you are. You're searching for them," she glanced up to indicate the last occupants of the apartment above her head. "There's someone you should meet. He's searching for them too … Damn near frantic about it," she harrumphed.

"You can see me," he said with surprise, "and how do you know my name?"

"I'm an old lady. I've been around," she cackled. "Come by tomorrow. I need to get my beauty rest now. But first, take care of that garbage out there." She shut the door.


Jace swung open the heavy front door and leapt out onto the darkened street. He landed only a few feet away from the demon but plenty close enough to reach it with his seraph blade.

"Jehoel," he sang out and the sudden burst of light seemed to blind the demon.

It backed up quickly and hissed, its disguise dissolving as its true form revealed itself. It was tall and charcoal black, sharpened horns at the top of its head, long talons protruding out of its stick like fingers, rectangular pupils in its eyes and goat-like legs, complete with hooves loudly clapping on the sidewalk.

"Nephilim," it bellowed, "I've been waiting for your kind." It smiled showing off a wide set of sharp little knives for teeth.

Jace was a blur of motion as he whirled forward and jammed the blade deep into its chest then pulled it out. The Eidolon evidently had not expected his bewildering speed. The stunned expression on its face was vaguely amusing as the demon buckled into itself then blinked out of the world.

"Well, that was just stupid," Jace muttered to himself. "I should have questioned it first but that one was just asking for it, cocky bastard." Jace felt the swish of air behind him before he heard a sound and immediately threw himself forward landing in a tumble, facing the opposite direction.

A trio of Golumon demons slithered before him. This would explain the Eidolon's cockiness, thought Jace. They were notoriously difficult to kill. Their fluid, slime covered bodies were poisonous and would quickly paralyze its victim at the slightest contact. They were also extremely rare. Jace had never seen one in person before, only ever reading about the Golumon in one of the ancient archives. At least his studies taught him where to strike. Izzy and Alec would have to appreciate his dedication to the old texts now, he thought gloatingly. That is, if I survive this, he amended flippantly. A small spot at the center of its disgustingly gelatinous head served as its "brain" and that was where he had to strike. He unerringly threw the seraph blade, slightly weighed down with the Eidolon's black ichor, at the monster in the middle while back-flipping to keep them at a distance. The beast roared a thick sludgy sound, collapsed, then disappeared in a fog of thick gray smoke. The remaining Golumon demons spread apart oozing a brackish brown trail. Tentacles emerged from their bulbous trembling bodies. Unlike the rest of its sluggish form, the tentacles whipped out in swift, long strides. The poison seemed to be concentrated in these feelers as they left sizzling black marks on anything they touched. Jace pulled out two daggers. He was barely visible as he vaulted all around the Golumon, away from their darting limbs. The daggers flew out at the beasts while Jace was spinning. One found its target and the demon disintegrated like the first. The other dagger connected thickly with an outstretched tentacle blocking the path to its intended point. Jace halted his dizzying shadowhunter gymnastics already reaching for another throwing knife when the last Golumon incongruously propelled its shuddering mass up in the air. Now that's something I didn't read in the book, thought Jace, just as a glowing seraph blade shot down from above and landed squarely in the beast's head. The monster impressively shattered into dust while it was still midair.

He held the knife firmly in his grip as he quickly surveyed his surroundings.

"Hiya," called out a jaunty voice from above. Then a flash of red and black suddenly jumped down from a streetlight over two stories tall. She shook her hair. Long, wild, flame colored curls spanned out on her shoulders. She stood up from her crouched pose on the ground, one hand expertly holding out a shortsword.

"Damn, broke my hair tie," she huffed. She stood straight and slid the sword smoothly into a scabbard hooked onto her belt. She was small, just skimming five feet but she was not a child. Her movements flowed like silk and she had the hard, lean muscles of a well-trained shadowhunter. The black leather gear fit snugly against her body.

In an evening of surprises, she was the biggest shock of all.

Her emerald green eyes took him in clinically. "You look OK. Did you get stung?" she asked.