I'd like to start this chapter by saying I'm not good with writing fight scenes. I can write the most fluff-tastic chapters about my pairings but when it comes to fight scenes I always feel like they fall sorta flat; I'm never satisfied with them. That being said, please be gentle with me on this chapter lol.


"I'm pretty sure Maryse is trying to kill me with training; that's the only logical reason I can think of right now," Clary sighed as she shifted her phone to her other hand, carefully juggling her grocery bag. She wondered briefly if she could fit the gallon of milk in her hand into her backpack before discarding the thought; her backpack was already filled with her art supplies, her sensor and a few weapons. Fitting a gallon of milk in there might make the straps rip or the bottle would get punctured by one of her weapons. God knew after the long day she had, she didn't need another problem.

Clary had spent all afternoon in the training room of the Institute with Maryse and the woman was merciless. Clary had told herself that Maryse was just trying to make up for the missed training time while she was in Idris, but her muscles weren't consoled by the thought. It was only after the sun set and night had fallen that Maryse had released her from training. She was surprised she could still walk to the train to go home afterward, certain her legs would give out at any moment.

"There's no whining in Shadowhunting," Simon replied dramatically, deepening his voice. "Only blood and war."

Clary snorted loudly, "Have you been watching Gladiator again?"

"Underworld," he answered easily. "You should watch it; it's great. Kickass vampires fighting equally kickass werewolves. I wanna root for the vampires, cause you know, team spirit, but the werewolves are pretty sick. And none of them whine."

"Hey, if there can be whining in vampirism, there can be whining in Shadowhunting," she snarked. "You have to be the whiniest vampire I've ever met. I just want to go home, have a cup of coffee and lay on the couch. And never move again ever."

"You mean until you have training tomorrow," he laughed as Clary groaned. "I think Jace's drama queen tendencies are rubbing off on you."

Clary shrugged her shoulders, adjusting her grip on her grocery bag. "Maybe. Probably," she admitted. "Between him and Izzy, I don't know how Alec has survived so many years."

"He's probably just desensitized after so many years," Simon mused. "And now he's dating Magnus, who's probably more dramatic than Jace if that's possible."

She laughed loudly as she waited for the crosswalk light to change. She could picture Simon in his room, his body sprawled out on his bed as he absentmindedly flipped through the newest manga he bought; it was such a familiar sight, she could paint it just from memory. Even after such dramatic changes in the past few months, things were still the same between the two of them. "Are we still going to Gotham Comics tomorrow?" she asked.

"Yeah sure, if you can survive until then," Simon teased. "How far are you from home?"

"Just a few blocks," Clary replied as she crossed the street. She paused at the corner as she heard a strange noise coming from her backpack, setting down her grocery bag. "Simon I've gotta go," she said suddenly as she realized what the noise was. She fumbled around in her backpack, her hand landing on her vibrating sensor. 'Demons,' she thought.

"Everything alright?" he asked worriedly.

Clary slipped her backpack back onto her shoulders, slowly making her way down the street as the sensor's vibrations increased. "I think there's a demon around here; I need to call Jace and the others."

"Get outta there!" he yelled, panicked.

"I'm a Shadowhunter, I kill demons," she replied quickly before hanging up. After calling Jace and getting his voicemail, she left a hasty message, explaining where she was. 'Alright, Clary, this is what you've been trained for,' she thought, trying to encourage herself as she pulled her stele out of her waistband, quickly drawing a few runes onto her arms. They stung for a moment before the sensation faded away, the black Marks standing out against her pale skin. She tucked it away before pulling out her seraph blade. 'No idea what I'm up against or how to fight it, but I'm going to fight it. I'm a Shadowhunter.'

A squeal escaped her lips as a tentacle shot out from the alleyway, wrapping around her torso and yanking her toward its body. 'What is this?' she thought frantically as she stabbed her seraph blade into the tentacle, causing the demon to drop her. As she turned to the creature, her stomach rolled at the stench of it; it resembled an oversized octopus with a wide mouth across its torso. Its body was wide, taking up most of the space in the alley. 'Okay, don't panic, don't panic,' she told herself as she tried to focus on what she had learned. As a tentacle shot out again, she dodged it, quickly swinging her stele to slice off the appendage.

The demon screeched in pain, its tentacles thrashing wildly. 'Maybe I can do this,' she thought as she swung her stele again, narrowly missing another tentacle. Tightening her grip on her blade, Clary darted forward, running toward the creature. She knew she wouldn't be able to kill the demon by just slicing off its tentacles; she needed to give it a mortal blow. As she neared the torso, its tentacle shot toward her, forcing her off balance momentarily. She fumbled as she tried to regain her footing; another tentacle shot toward her, throwing her body against the brick wall.

Clary cried out as her head was smacked against the wall, her blade falling from her grip as black spots swam before her eyes. Her vision was blurred as she sank down to the ground, her lungs struggling to take a deep breath. 'Shit shit shit shit,' she panicked, trying to get her vision to clear as she searched for her stele.

As she heard a tentacle whistling through the air, her searching hands finally found her seraph blade, fumbling as she gripped it. 'Not enough time,' she thought as she raised her blade to defend herself. Clary braced herself for the impact , but it never came; instead the air was filled with the sound of the demon's shrieks.

Looking up, she sighed in relief as her vision finally cleared, her eyes gazing up at her rescuer. A pair of familiar golden eyes locked onto hers as a hand reached toward her. "Jace," she breathed. "What took you so long?"


Let me know how the scene was! Reviews please!