Peek-a-boo! Guess who's back!
X
Jace was right, they did save time. Record time, actually. They were barrelling up the steps in minutes. They burst through the doors and Jace slowed down to a fast walk to let Clary catch her breath. Between gulps for air, she asked him. "What are we going to do?"
"I don't know." He slowed down to a fast paced walk as they veered through the cathedral. Clary guessed it was probably to let her catch her breath. They came to a stop out side the elevator and Clary's hand slammed against the button. Her Body was still shaking. "I need to call Luke."
Jace handed her his phone as the bird cage elevator rattled to a stop in front of them. Clary took it, fumbling at the key pad and lifting it to her ear. She followed Jace into the elevator and it shuddered around them as Luke picked up the phone.
"Hello?"
"It's Clary, Luke you need to get to the Institute fast."
"What? Are you okay?" he sounded panicked, and something about the words 'Are you okay?' stirred a reaction in Clary. A childish desperation for Luke to be here. She felt like she did the day her Mom disappeared, sitting in the library trying not to cry down the phone to Luke in front of a bunch of Shadowhunters she didn't know.
"It's mom." She whimpered. "Can you come to the institute?"
"I'll be there in 10, okay? Don't do anything stupid, Clary."
Luke hung up and Clary listened to the dial tone until Jace pried his phone out of her hands.
"This is my fault." She said. "My fault. I should have gotten there earlier, or visited more often. This is my fault, just like Simon being a vampire and Luke-"
"Simon?" The elevator clunked to a stop and Jace yanked the doors open. "Last time I checked, you said that one was my fault."
Clary's mouth dropped open and she glared at him. They had never, ever acknowledged that conversation they had had in his room the night they went to the Seelie queen. Jace had begged her to see him in secret and she had called it sickening. Even now, she remembered the look on his face when she had said it; like water turning to ice, freezing over and becoming void of any feeling. He wasn't looking at her now, but she knew he could feel her glare because he started to walk so fast she had to jog to keep up with him, and she almost crashed into his back when he abruptly stopped.
"Idiot." He spat, yanking his hair out of his eyes.
Clary blinked at him. "What?"
"I'm an Idiot. We were meeting everyone at Taki's after we had visited Jocelyn. No one is here."
"I'd forgotten." Clary's mind was running at a million miles an hour. "What could they do anyway? What could anyone possibly do?"
Jace stepped towards her but Clary recoiled, her voice raising as her hands trembled. "I can't do this again. I can't lose my mom to him again, Jace. I won't. Valentine has her and we don't know where- or even how he walked into a mundane hospital and just took her-"
"Valentine Morgenstern has been spotted in the city?"
They areeled. At the end of the hall, was Emmet Whitetail, wide eyed. "Is that what you just said?"
Jace, who's colour had never really returned since she almost killed them on the drive over, seemed to turn a shade whiter. "Eavesdropping?"
Emmet's concern didn't waver, but he did shoot Jace a glare. "No need to eavesdrop when you're shouting loud enough for the whole Institute to hear." He had papers in his hand, which he folded and tucked into his pants. "If what you're saying is true, I need to send word to the consul, right now."
"It's True." Clary said. "He's taken her from the Beth Israel's."
"Clary," Jace hissed, yanking her arm. "Shut up."
She whirled on him, ripping her arm out of his grip. "Valentine has my- Our- Mom. The Clave will help find her, can't you see that?"
Hurriedly, she turned back to face Emmet only to see he had already taken off down the hall.
"Now you've done it." Jace's voice was cold, despite the hot flush of anger on his face. "Can't you see that we've already summoned a demon- breaking convent law by the way, as well as not reported that rune to a silent brother. Some help we're going to be from the cells of the silent city. You don't know a thing about the Clave-"
"I don't care!" Clary's voice broke despite her best efforts to control it. "About the Clave or the law or any of it! I care about my Mom. I care about getting her back into the hospital and-"
The hospital. "Oh my god." Clary's stomach lurched so suddenly she thought she might be sick. "Oh my God."
Jace's icy glare didn't waver. "I would ask if you've come to your senses, but I doubt it. What is it?"
"We need to go to Luke's Now." She said, already moving.
Jace matched her Jog with a fast walk. He had his phone in his hand, presumably texting Alec. "Why? Do you think he's getting her a book for the journey?"
Although his voice dripped sarcasm, all she could hear was her own thumping pulse in her ears. "I think I know how he pulled kidnapping my mom off, and I really hope I'm wrong."
X
Clary was hardly aware of Jace talking behind her as she tore through Luke's house like a tempest. The stone in her stomach continued to sink as she got closer to her own room, throwing open the door and immediately dumping out her bedside draws.
"Well," Jace said, loudly as he stood in the door way. "Your skills in re-decoration could give Magnus a run for his magic."
"I need to find them." Clary shoved books and empty water bottles aside with abandon. "I need to know he didn't come in here."
There was a moment of pause, before he spoke. "What are you talking about?"
"Computers can't be glamored, Jace. You can't just walk a comatose person out of a hospital."
"Have you ever met Valentine?"
Clary felt like an elastic band in her snapped, and she spun on Jace. "Have you ever used a Mundane hospital? Do you know how much paper work goes into those places? There are Cameras and computer systems and rules to moving people about-"
He rolled his eyes so hard that Clary might have expected them to disappear into his head. "You're an idiot if you think that's going to make any difference."
"Then why," Clary said, reining her temper in as not to throw something at Jace's head, "are all of my Mom's hospital documents missing?"
Jace didn't waver from his hard stare. "I don't know. I'm surprised you know where anything is in this room."
She turned from him and focused on digging through her desk. Clary could feel his eyes on her, but refused to turn around even to glare at him.
"You know," Jace said, sounding like he had flopped onto Clary's bed. "That codex was only to borrow, not to cover in blood."
Clary spun to find him laying on his back on her bed, the copy of the codex she borrowed from the institute in his hands. It was open on the last page she had used, and the parchment was splotted with blood.
"For someone who lives behind a bookstore, you think you would take better care of it." He said, peering up at her through his eye lashes. "No need to ask what happened. This passage is about Rune disfigurement."
"Like I said at Magnus's," Clary leaned over him and went to snatch it from his hands. "It didn't work."
"Does it hurt?" Jace caught her wrist. "Where you cut it."
Clary pulled her hand away with little resistance from Jace. "A little bit."
"Can I see?"
She would have to take her pants off to show him. "No." She said, not unkindly. Clary turned back to her desk and pushed the idea of so much of her bared to him with no one else at home.
"That was a stupid thing to ask." He sat up, pushing his hair away from his face. "Stupid."
Clary sank back onto the bed with her back to Jace's amongst the mess of covers.
"Why?" Something between a laugh and a sob tore through her. "You were just being sibling-ly."
He didn't say anything for a long moment. "That's not a word."
"I know."
The silence in the room fell like a stifling blanket, choking her. The weight of Jace being so close across the bed to her that she could turn around and touch him was like a hand around her throat when she already couldn't breathe.
"Clary," He said her name with such a desperation that turning to face him was involuntary, like a cord had pulled her to the sound of his voice.
When she met his eyes, they reminded her of the way the fire under the Iblis Demon had roared in Magnus's pentagram. "What if-"
There was the unmistakeable sound of the front door opening and Closing, followed by running foot steps up the hall.
The fire in Jace's face seemed to be snubbed out as he jumped to his feet like he had been doing something criminal, just as Simon swung the door open.
"What the hell happened in here?"
Jace's voice was as cold as ice. "Valentine took Jocelyn's hospital paperwork to take her from the hospital."
"But you said-"
"Forget what I said," He snapped. Jace tilted his chin at Simon. "What do you want?"
"Wait," Clary paused, taking real notice of Simon. "How did you know we were here"?
"I was in Taki's with Isabelle and Alec when Jace text. She told me to come get you guys." Simon bit his lip, and Clary's stomach seemed to sink a little further. "I talked to Luke as well. He said- said you should pack a bag."
"Why?"
Jace sucked a sharp breath in. "Emmet wrote to the clave, and the clave wrote back, didn't they?"
"Yeah." Simon said, looking between them with an apprehension that felt like a cord around her throat. Out of the corner of her eye, Clary saw Jace slowly pick up the empty duffle bag that Sebastian left in her room the other day. Had Simon not had that look in his eye, she would have been more worried about that. "And you're really not going to like it."
X
The ride back to the Institute was as agonising as Clary thought it could get. Simon offered to drive and Clary let him, unable to take it back once she realised she would be squished between Simon and Jace on the bench seat in the truck cab. Jace had pressed himself against the window as not to touch her so forcefully that she worried he might try and climb out of it if the traffic didn't let up. Simon turning the radio on to break the silence made it even worse.
When they finally pulled up in front of the Institute, Jace clambered out without a word to either of them.
Clary watched him disappear through the front doors before finally letting her breath out.
"That good, huh?" Simon raised an eyebrow at her.
"Ignore him." She said. "He's just worried."
"I find that somehow hard to believe." Simon killed the engine and the truck shuddered to stillness. "He doesn't have to be an ass about it."
Clary leaned her head on Simon's shoulder. "He can't help it."
Simon signed, leaning his head over hers. "You should get in there."
"I wish you could come with me."
"Me too."
They stayed like that for a few moments of calmness, before Clary finally willed herself to get out of the truck and Simon walked her as far as he could go.
"What will you do now?" She asked him.
"Luke said he would drive me home, so I'll probably wait in the truck."
"Put the heater on, okay? You'll freeze out here."
Simon laughed dryly. "Perks of being undead. Don't feel the cold anymore."
"Oh,well…Put it on anyway." Clary pulled him in for a quick hug before turning away from him and starting up the front steps. "I'll be out soon, okay?"
He nodded with a small, sad smile, and she pushed into the Institute without looking back again.
X
The raised voices as Clary approached the library didn't instil her with any good feeling.
"You heard what they said- Do nothing and-
"Do nothing?" She said, stepping through the already propped open door and into the scene in the library."Do nothing about what?"
Emmet had been the one speaking, but now he pressed his mouth into a hard line and glanced at Luke, who was standing by the fire place with a vacant expression. "Jocelyn isn't a member of the clave anymore, they say they can't help her."
Jace was looking down on them from the gallery. "You mean they won't help her."
Clary focused on Luke, "What about valentine? He was in the city. He was in my room- in our house! He took Mom's paper work!"
The lines in Luke's face seemed as if they could be carved there, like the marble tears of the twin angels, holding up the solid stone table in the centre if the room. It was Emmet who spoke. "So Jace said. But it doesn't change the fact that he hasn't made a move against the clave-"
"Oh," Isabelle scoffed loudly. "So murdering half our conclave wasn't enough? Does he have to be banging on the door of the guard before they do something?"
"yes, actually. The council are almost certain that Idris is his next target. This is a distraction to draw us out so he can attack Alicante at its weakest." Said Emmet, in the tone of someone repeating something they wanted to believe.
Isabelle and Emmet continued to bicker, Alec attempting to mitigate before being completely stomped out by his sister.
Luke crossed the room to Clary quietly, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Did you pack a bag?"
"I'm not going to the farm house," She dropped her voice, hoping that everyone in the room was focused on the full blown argument taking place on the other side of the room. "or where ever else you want me to hide."
"Clary-"
"You can't make me. I need to be here for my Mom, and Simon and Jace-"
"I'm not asking you too." He sounded as tired as he looked. "Emmet and I have decided living in the institute would be the best option, until we think of something safer. Wards on the book store or something."
The idea of living under the same roof as the lightwoods, as Jace, was an idea that made her head feel like it was being squeezed. "You'll have to close the store, and the pack-"
Luke's expression became a little softer. He squeezed her shoulder, just a bit. "Not me, Clary. Just you."
"But…No," Clary shook her head. She had become dangerously close to crying again, and was reminded of another time she had as in the library as Luke told her to stay in the Institute, that she wasn't his problem; Now, that time felt like it was centuries ago. "I don't want to live away from you. What if something happens and you need me or-"
"It's not negotiable right now, Clary. but it is only temporary, okay?" The room had gone quiet, and Clary was fully aware of the Gazes on her. "The pack's patrolling for any signs of your mother in the city. Empty warehouses, lay line points- that sort of thing."
She focused her eyes on a witch light lamp over Luke's shoulder and willed herself not to cry. "I thought we weren't allowed to look for her?"
A small, sad smile broke the lines on Luke's face. "So says the Clave, But I'm not a Shadowhunter."
"Thankfully." Jace had been watching the scene silently from the Gallery, like one of the stone gargoyles on the Institute's spires. Clary had forgotten he was up there completely, and hoped he hadn't seen her almost cry. He vaulted over the gallery bannister and landed soundlessly on his feet in the centre of the room. "Sniffer dogs seem appropriate, given the circumstances."
If Jace annoyed Him, Luke didn't show it. He squeezed her shoulder once more and Clary deflated. "You should go and look with them. I'll be fine, plus Simon is waiting in the truck, he might want to help as well."
Luke smiled again, and Clary felt a splash of guilt for keeping here so long when all he wanted to do was go out and join the pack looking for Jocelyn. It's all she wanted to do, as well. "I'm not sure throwing Simon in with the wolves would be a good idea. A daylighter is still a vampire, even if he is friends with Maia."
"Will you call me later?"
Luke nodded and Clary watched him go, her fingers fussing at the buckle on the strap of her duffle bag. Even after Luke was gone, she still had her eyes trained on the door. They would not see her cry. They wouldn't.
She hadn't heard his footsteps, but when Jace's fingers brushed her shoulder Clary started, tugging her bag further up her shoulder and stepping away from his touch. "I'm going to lie down." Clary said, not looking behind her as she headed out the door into a safe space for the tears to finally come.
X
It wasn't until Clary's footsteps melted into the distance did Emmet break the heavy silence in the Library. "Would now be a good time to mention the Iblis Demon's in Queens?"
Jace turned, facing Alec and Isabelle either side of Emmet. Caleb and Sebastian weren't here and Jace wasn't inclined to ask where they were. "Now is a perfect time to mention it."
"Jace," Alec said, stepping forward and wielding a look that felt like a vice on Jace's chest. "Maybe you should stay here with Clary?"
"You heard her, She's going for a lie down." Isabelle touched her brother's shoulder lightly. "I think some fresh air would do us all good." "
"Not sure how much fresh air you can get in an abandoned building-" Emmet muttered, stopping dead at Isabelle's icy glare in his direction. "I'll get the address."
He hurried from the room and Alec made that face again. "Are you sure you shouldn't stay here? Jocelyn is-"
"My mother." The words even Tasted bitter in Jace's mouth, the angel only knows how they sounded. "Don't think I don't know that."
Alec sighed, but didn't say anything until Emmet came back with an Address in queens and his brother trailing sulkily behind him. "Take him with you," Emmet muttered to Alec. "He's still upset that I sent word to the Clave."
Caleb chuntered something under his breath that sounded a lot like 'traitor', and Alec signed even harder than he had before. He handed Jace the address. "Let's go then, if you really want to."
Jace closed his fist around the paper tightly. He wasn't sure if Clary had really needed to lie down like she said, but he was sure that if he stood still for another moment longer he may rip apart at the seams. Blood, danger and adrenaline were all he could think about without going insane. "Believe me," He said, already heading for the door. "I really really want to."
X
I know it's super short but I needed to upload before you thought I had abandoned this story again! I haven't! I just finished up my Last term of College (Not university, my American friends, In the UK college is basically the last few years of high school.) And i'm off to Uni in September so my life is AHHHHHH at the moment! But I'm back now so tune in for a new chapter next week!
I'm so sorry again and thank you for bearing with me xxxx
