Clary dropped her stele back onto the coffee table as she finished tracing the iratze on Jace's arm. His throat sealed up, and his frequent gasps for breath slowed down to a regular pace. Feeling relieved, Clary slumped down on the brown couch beside him and rested her head on his shoulder. She ran her hand up and down Jace's muscular arm, taking in his warmth with gratitude. She had been feeling cold since dinner.
On the other side of the room, as far away from Jace as Jocelyn could keep him, Luke sat on the big blue armchair, nearly tearing the stuffing out of the cushions. He was still pretty pissed, Clary judged not only from his expression, but also by the way he was screaming out all of the things he would do to Jace once he got a hold of him alone. Much to Clary's discomfort, many of these things involved a pair of scissors and a lot of pain on Jace's part. Luckily he was still unconscious, and couldn't hear the plots Luke was forming against him.
The boy's breathing slowed, and Clary could tell by the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest that Jace had dozed off. She shifted her weight on the couch and moved to place his head on her lap. She stroked his blonde curls, taking them between her fingers and twirling them around and around until they lost their shimmer. He seemed peaceful in his sleep, Clary observed. Almost as if nothing was wrong, and Clary hadn't ruined everything by getting herself pregnant.
"The little bastard better hope I never catch him alone. 'Cause as soon as I do, I'm gonna hang him to the ceiling fan by his eyelids and set his pretty little face on fire, one cell of skin at a time…" Luke was seething with anger, and Jocelyn seemed disturbed that such thoughts were coming from her fiancées mind. Clary was a little shocked too; Luke had always been so gentle, like a stuffed animal or a favourite TV character that idealised the perfect father figure. He was the huggable lovable teddy bear that no one feared and everyone wanted to have around. There was obviously a dark side to this guy that both Clary and her mother had never seen before.
Without any warning, Luke suddenly burst out of his chair and stormed towards the bathroom. Jocelyn stared after him perplexed before turning to Clary with saddened green eyes. She took in the sight of her daughter, as if seeing her for the first time. Clary was glad that everyone had left; she had a feeling that the way her mother was looking at her would have made anyone else in the room extremely uncomfortable.
Jace stirred on Clary's lap, causing her to break her mother's gaze and glance down at him. His eyes were fluttering open, his long lashes beating lightly in the air. He seemed disoriented as he glanced around the room. His eyes appeared to be searching for something, and Clary was fairly certain she knew exactly what. Her suspicions were confirmed as his sights settled on her, his lips curving slightly to the sides. "Hey beautiful." Across the room, Jocelyn made a slight gagging noise, and Clary looked up to glare at her.
"Sorry," Jocelyn muttered "But if you don't mind, no PDA in the living room. I'm still trying to decide whether I'm angry or not, and you two groping each other in front of me isn't going to aid you very much in this case."
Clary crossed her arms stubbornly, bending over to plant a kiss on Jace's forehead. "Fine. We'll go elsewhere."
"You will not!" Jocelyn yelled, jumping off the couch and nearly knocking over a vase on the coffee table as she did. Must have made up her mind about being angry, Clary thought to herself. Jocelyn continued to scold her daughter. "I trusted you to be responsible Clarissa! I didn't mind what you did as long as you took care of yourself, because I thought you would be smart enough to make the right decisions! Obviously I was wrong, because you're standing here now with your delinquent boyfriend, with a baby on the way and no idea what to do!" There were tears welling in both women's eyes; Jocelyn's from anger and disappointment, Clary's from hurt and rejection.
Wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, Clary fought the urge to sob. "First of all," she said, hoping her voice didn't waver, "Jace is not a delinquent. He thought we were safe because he wore a condom, and he thought I was on birth control. It was completely my fault, so please leave him out of this. And second of all, I love him, and I know for a fact that nothing is going to break us apart, so there is no reason that having his baby is a bad thing."
Jocelyn opened her mouth to speak, but Clary held up a hand to stop her. "I'm not done yet. I love Jace and Jace loves me. All Shadowhunters have their children young these days, so this is actually normal. Even though this baby wasn't planned, that doesn't make it any less of a blessing. I'm happy with my situation, and I quite frankly don't care what anyone else thinks."
Jace was staring up at her looking impressed. "Nice work." he whispered, just loud enough for only Clary to hear. She smiled, but quickly wiped it off her face to look at her mother. Jocelyn was just standing there, her expression completely blank. There was no indicator of whether the speech had made her soft or angry, but Clary wasn't prepared to find out. She sat up, forcing Jace to straighten into a sitting position. She leaned toward him and kissed him slowly on the lips, breaking away only to speak again. "I have to go to the bathroom. If you're planning on saying anything to Jace that you don't want me to hear, do it now." And with that, she got up off the couch and stormed down the hall into the bathroom.
Clary stomped into the powder blue tiled room and shut the door behind her, collapsing onto the ground in tears. She laid a hand on her stomach, seeing if she could feel the life inside of her. There was nothing, but that was what she had expected. There wasn't supposed to be any sign of pregnancy this early; she wouldn't have ever thought there was anything different with her if those tests hadn't all been positive.
She was about to get up and go back to the living room when the door swung open, sending her flying across the short width of the room. She slammed into the wall with a thud, tasting the metallic flavour of blood in her mouth. Slightly dazed, she looked up to see a figure walk into the room. It was tall, broad-shouldered and pale, with the exception of the dark runes that twined around its body. It was clearly male, and as it stepped forward, she began to make out the face.
Gasping in horror, Clary surveyed in Sebastian's features. He still looked just like Valentine with his silver hair combed to the side, the way he stood indicated that he was confident and proud, yet still sly enough to deceive you. He might have looked somewhat human if it weren't for his eyes. They were fully black today, no trace of an iris or a pupil anywhere. "Hello sister." he said with a sneer.
Clary backed up towards the shower, trying to find a way to escape. "You-you-you…" she was at a loss for words. The last she had seen of Sebastian he was lying dead on the floor of the Institute after a bloody showdown between himself and Jace. "You're supposed to be dead! Jace killed you…" Sebastian scoffed. "If only things were that simple, little sister. I heard you have a little bun in the oven."
Clary placed a hand protectively over her stomach, surprised to see how she had reacted so naturally to something she had only known about for less than a day. "It's none of your business, you sick excuse for a human being. Now leave me alone before I scream." His expression changed from sly to amused. "It wouldn't do you any good, you know." Before she could ask what he meant, his body began to twist and grow, molding into the shape of another human being. Seconds later, his hair had changed from silver to dark brown, and he wore the same white shirt and tie that her almost-step-father had worn earlier that evening.
Sebastian now stood before her, looking exactly like Luke. "What have you done to him?" she asked, fear squeezing through the cracks in her composure. "Who, the wolf? He'll be fine. He's in the closet out there. As for you…" In one swift movement, he brought his hand down on Clary's face, smacking it back against the hard tile. She cried out in pain, feeling as if he had shattered her skull. For all she knew, he very well might have. "Jace…" she moaned, calling out for her boyfriend to save her.
The thing that wore Luke's face smirked. "It's no use. He can't hear you. Might as well just give up now." Clary mumbled some very unladylike words before she slipped into the darkness, hearing Sebastian chuckle as she lost consciousness.