Club La Amour was loud and noisy, filled with drunken faeries and young couples grinding against each other to the music. Ash made his way to the back of the bar, where he knew a friend of his father's would be able to provide much help when it came to the teenage girl knocked out in his truck.

"Pasha?" He asked and the bartender gave him a curt nod. Drumming his hands on the cool bar top, he let his eyes wander over the people on the floor, pausing to watch a group of obviously drunk college girls dancing and giggling. Their boyfriends were nowhere in sight or maybe they didn't have any; he highly doubted, this however. One of them, a pretty brunette, caught his eye and waved him over. A laugh graced her face and he could almost smell the mundane smell on her-sickly sweet, like overripe fruit. It filled his senses and he knew if he didn't cut this down quickly, things could get messy very fast.

"No," he mouthed, shaking his head and turning away. He thought he saw a hurt look flash across the girl's face but his attention had wandered elsewhere to some dark corners of his mind. The bartender from before returned, this time with someone in tow.

"Pasha," the person extended a hand and he took it although he didn't exactly like the contact. Long nails dug into the skin of his palm and wrist. "You're Ash? You look so much like Jonathan."

"Thank you," he murmured, although he really didn't need reminding-he was his father's son, as far as looks went. Looking in the mirror was like looking at a picture of Jonathan, except someone had colored his eyes the wrong color and the Sometimes he wished that he had more of his mother on him, but if he was that lucky it would be almost a miracle.

"Jonathan told me your bringing someone. A girlfriend?" Pasha grinned, although the grin was more sharp then genuine. She had a predatory look to her, from the sharply pointed teeth to the ice blue eyes that watched him like he was some nice prey. Exactly Jonathan's type, he thought as he nodded.

"She's in my truck. She doesn't like loud noises. I thought I might bring her in through the back."

"Of course. If you'll come with me."

"Lead the way."

Ash followed Pasha through the back storage rooms to a narrow stairwell. It was dark and musty there, the only light coming from the emergency door at the bottom. At one point, Pasha somehow managed to slip behind him and he had to turn himself half sideways at times just to make sure she wasn't thinking about trying to get a feel on him. While his father enjoyed the female attention, he didn't like it so much. At one point, he had even started to believe he was gay or something but had cut the thought immediately-Jonathan wouldn't like something like that. He was his father's son and someday, he would be his father's successor as well. Might as well start learning how to act like him now.

"How old are you?"

"Twenty one." Ash didn't feel the need to elaborate.

"Is she really your girlfriend?"

"Does it matter?"

"She's not," Pasha sounded almost thoughtful. "A handsome young man like you...I would have expected you to be married already."

"I think I'm a little too young for that," he mustered politely though he was starting to feel irritated with her needless meddling.

"You're never too young to be married. My own daughter is seventeen, looking for suitors. Her name is-"

"We're here," he pushed the door open, into the dark alley beyond. Pasha fell silent behind him but he chose to ignore this; he was here to get Adeline to Jonathan, not listen to marriage proposals from one of Jonathan's old friends, no matter her loyalty. If Jonathan really wanted him to married, he could arrange it directly. "I'll bring her here, alright?"

"Fine," said Pasha and there was bitterness in her voice. Ash sighed, forcing himself to fall back on his diplomacy skills. He wasn't going to like this but it had to be done if he wanted to get Adeline into the club.

"You're daughters name is Nishata, right? Jonathan's mentioned her a lot of times."

Pasha seemed to perk up at this. Got you. It wasn't exactly a lie either; Jonathan had mentioned her a lot but mostly it was to comment on how she was turning out to be just like her mother-a lying, sneaking gold digger. Ash chose to go Switzerland to this.

He walked down the alleyway to where he had parked the truck-a dark shadowy part of the street. Clicking the keys, he pulled open the back doors to where Adeline lay curled on the seat. She was drooling, her hair a wild halo of pale gold fanned around her head. He grabbed her, pulling her out and balancing her against him. As he had suspected, she was warm, too warm to be able to be touched by normal mundanes and Shadowhunters. He was lucky that he had cast a rune on his arm, the rune of cooling or he'd have already fried his body by now. Grunting, he closed the truck and picked her up, bridal style.

"That's her?" Pasha's eyes, like frigid ice, regarded her cooly. "Not as pretty as I thought…"

"She's not supposed to be," he replied, breezily. "Her looks are irrelevant. It's what's in her blood that counts."

Pasha's eyes widened as she made the connection between her and Ash. It was almost amusing to see her eyes dart back and forth between the two of them-from Adeline's hair to his own, then the look over as she was trying to find more ways to tie them together. "A Morgenstern-?"

"Yes. And she's waking up. So we need to get inside."

Pasha was silent the entire way back. Adeline's head was thrown back, exposing a nick on her throat. A knife wound? He could see the binding marks of a Shadowhunter on the column of her pale throat, trailing down into her shirt with more marks like curling tendrils wrapped around her wrists and hands. He agreed with Pasha-she wasn't pretty in the conventional way but her features were binding, in a way. If he had seen her as a stranger passing by on the street, he doubted he could ever forget her.

"Where's the portal?" He asked.

"In here," and she was leading him down a darkened hallway to a section marked of as VIP. The security guards moved to let them through, one of them sending a questioning look at Adeline.

"She's had too much to drink," Ash said, putting on a polite smile and sympathetic expression. It worked; the guard's expression softened. This was one of the gifts he had inherited from his mother; the ability to tell half truths and convince people to believe him. The skill was enhanced more by his father's training-the lying, the acting, convincing people to see to it his way.

Inside the VIP area, there were rooms, each marked with names and locked doors. Adeline was starting to get too heavy for him to hold but luckily Pasha had stopped at a closed door.

ASH M. the sign read. With one hand, he grabbed the key in his pocket, the one Jonathan had given him and put it in the lock. The door turned and he was greeted by a suite room inside, typical to the other rooms in the hallway.

"Thank you."

Pasha nodded, then hesitated. "If your interested in getting married, just-"

"You'll be the first I'll call," he sighed, forcing himself to keep his tone amiable and agreeable. "I'll tell Jonathan."

Pasha grinned, obviously pleased. "You know, now that I can see her better, she's really not that bad looking,"

"Thanks," he said, although he wasn't sure why. He waited until she was gone before entering the suite. Dumping Adeline on the bed, he pulled out his cellphone. Jonathan had warned him he was in a meeting and to not call him so he texted him instead.

I found her.

The reply came back mere seconds later.

Good job.

The praise was rare and he stared at the phone for a few more moments before concluding Jonathan must have been drunk again. He threw the phone on the bed, next to Adeline's head before pulling the stele out of his pocket.

The iratze rune from earlier had not yet faded away yet. He checked the other hand, but it had the typical voyance rune all Shadowhunters received upon their twelfth birthday. He stared at it, a little surprised. His earlier presumptions were that Adeline led a sheltered life, away from the world of Shadowhunters and the Clave but it seemed the opposite was true. The runes marking her body, combined with the silvery white scars that traced her skin like old paper cuts...he turned away, not letting the thought formulate.

He pulled the lower hem of her shirt up. Her stomach was bare and unexposed. Dragging the stele across the skin, he traced the rune. Awaken. Her eyelids were starting to flutter as she regained consciousness but he wasn't finished; he drew another rune next to the previous, pressing down harder this time. Her eyes flew open, wide in surprise as she stared down at her wrists. He yanked her shirt down, surveying his work with a vaguely satisfied feeling of satisfaction.

"What did you do for me?" She managed to croak out, her eyes still on her wrist. Two circles of burning fire bound them together, linked together with a third smaller ring in between. She yanked, trying to get the binds to loosen but they didn't work.

"Binding runes," he explained, and made no further move to elaborate.

"Why?"

"So you won't escape, obviously,"

"I figured that," she snapped, "but if you think you can try and even lay a hand on me, I'll bite you."

Bite me? This must be Isabelle's influence. Jonathan had mentioned the dark haired girl with a smile almost similar to fondness and amusement.

"Don't worry," he said, "I won't go anywhere near you. And biting me isn't a good idea either. My blood is poisonous."

Adeline's eyes narrowed in suspicion as he moved across the room, to the bare patch of wall between the door and bathroom. He started tracing a stele across the wall, concentrating on getting it right. When he stepped back to survey his handiwork he nearly bumped into someone.
"If your thinking about popping my head of, I must disappoint you; I don't think you could get your leg high enough to do that," he said, quietly.

"Don't worry; you're not worth the torn ligament and pulled muscles." Her eyes were fixated on something, his neck, he realized a moment later.

"What?"

"Your neck," she replied and he realized what she must have been staring at.

"Knife accident when I was twelve," he said matter of factly. "Nothing serious."

"Nothing serious?" She asked, a little incredulously.

He shrugged. "I was playing around with one of Jonathan's knives and I cut myself."

"Who's Jonathan?"

"You'll see," he replied, closing the discussion to further questions. "Stand back."

She moved back. The portal started to open up, and he grabbed her wrist. She looked up at him, a bit startled. It was interesting to note that her eyes were a paler green then his and while his had flecks of bright blue, hers were pure green, nothing but green.

"We're going through,"

"We?" She repeated.

"To meet someone."

"Jonathan?"

He nodded, taking a step towards the portal with her in tow. She didn't try to struggle, which was great; he was almost worried he'd have to drag her through the portal. There was a rush of air and the feeling of being thrown sideways and suddenly they were standing in a room so familiar to Ash that he could recognize it simply by scent. The shelves of books and long hard mahogany tables, polished to a fine gleam. The windows were drawn shut, the marron drapes pulled shut and one of the reading lamps was on and he saw the half finished book he had been reading earlier, The Flowers of Evil. As usual, he had neglected to put any book mark in it and the pages had snapped shut but he couldn't bring himself to even be annoyed.

"Where are we?" He heard Adeline ask. She was clenching his wrist tightly, tight enough to cut the blood flow of to his hands. His gaze lingered there and she got the hint; letting go, she turned away.

"Home," he realized he was grinning. "Come on, we have some time before Jonathan comes back. I'll show you around.

~:~

A/N: Alright so several things to say. First of all, for some reason, the shout out I wanted to give last chapter had the name cut of so I'll say it again-thank you to juliasoda24 for following this story! Your support means a lot to me. Also, thanks to the guest reviewer who let the wonderful comment on my story! I really appreciate it :)

Several more announcements to make:

-To those of you who like to get in the technical aspect of it, I know that the binding rune only appears in the movies but for the purpose of the story I used it because it seemed cool (okay that was a weak excuse but what can I say?)

-To answer any questions, yes, Ash and Adele are technically half brother and sister. They have some similarities but they don't look completely alike; I'd say their most distinguishing feature is the same pale blond hair they got from Jonathan.

-Third and finally, yes, Jonathan and Sebastian are the same people. In this story, we're going by the name Jonathan :)

Thanks for reading this story and remember to review and tell me what you think!

Happy Writing!

-Amber