Chapter Fourteen: Never Listen to Family

~Clary~

Jace had been dead to the world when a man opened her door. He had blond hair and dark eyes. "It's time to go," he told her. "Your father wants to see you."

Clary nodded and slowly shifted over, moving so that Jace's head was laying against the lone pillow that was on the bed. He woke up, looking groggy and Clary just smiled at him and leaned over and kissed him chastely. "Go back to sleep."

He nodded and closed his eyes again, drifting off quickly, much to Clary's surprise. He was normally a very light sleeper. He must have been exhausted, though she could understand that; a lot had gone on in a very small amount of time. She moved away from the bed and looked back at the intruding man, who was standing at the door, clearly uncomfortable.

"I'm ready," she said.

The man nodded and gestured for her to walk out. She did so without complaint and as soon as she was out of the doorway, the man shut it behind her and locked it. He looked at her strangely for a moment, and Clary figured it was because of the way that she had handled Jace. The man really should be grateful; if she hadn't soothed him and made him go back to sleep, he would have woken up and started some sort of massive riot before he would have allowed her to leave.

"Where are we going?" Clary questioned.

"To see Valentine," the man said shortly.

Clary rolled her eyes and said, "I know that. Where is he?"

"In his office," the man replied before he began walking toward the large white building. Clary followed behind him, knowing that there wasn't really a point in trying to escape. She had no idea where anything was; she had no weapon to fight the man in front of her, which meant that she couldn't get Jace out. If her father had been willing to shoot her because Jace wouldn't cooperate, she didn't want to think about what he would do to Jace if she broke out. She would never leave him anyway.

They got to a large glass door and the man pushed it open. Clary walked inside and saw two large men standing on either side of the doorway. She had no idea if they were supposed to be the first line of defense against the zombies or not, though she doubted it. The stragglers weren't exactly smart enough to use doors.

The man said nothing to the guards. He just walked past them as though they were not there. Clary, on the other hand, looked at them as they both glared at her. She was normally tough and fearless, but it was hard to be confident when two people that were more muscular than Jace and Will were both staring down at her.

She hurriedly followed the man down the hallway, putting plenty of space in between herself and the brutish guards. "What's your name?" she asked the man as they turned a corner.

He looked back at her suspiciously and asked, "Why do you want to know that?"

"So I can think of you as something other than dude," she replied smartly. "It's kind of weird walking with someone that you don't know the name of. Normally when I'm being led somewhere by someone, they either have a nametag or they introduce themselves."

"Michael," the man replied after a moment.

Before Clary could say anything else, he stopped and gestured for her to walk toward a doorway that was cracked open. She inhaled deeply and walked forward, pushing it open. She really didn't want to go inside; her father scared her, and she really hadn't wrapped her head around the fact that he was alive, much less evil and psychotic. She looked over at Michael, wondering if he would offer her an outing. When he just looked at her almost impatiently, she knew that he would be of no help to her.

Deciding to just suck it up and get everything over with, she sighed and pushed her way past the door.

Valentine's study was not what she had been expecting. She knew that her father had worked at the medicine plant, but she really didn't know what he'd done there. When she walked inside, she saw papers tacked to the walls with different drawings of chemical compounds. They were all labeled different names that she was fairly sure that she couldn't pronounce even if she wanted to.

Her father was hunched over the desk, scribbling something on a sheet of paper. He stopped when she walked inside.

"How's your arm?" he asked. Clary could almost believe that he was concerned. The fact that he was the cause of all of her anguish quickly diminished any form of affection that might have sprung from that thought.

She scowled at him and snatched, "You shot me. How do you think it feels?"

"Did Herondale fix it properly?" he asked.

"Yes," Clary said stiffly. "It doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt, asshole."

"I'm your father," Valentine said, clasping his hands together on his desk. It would be smart of you to remember that. You will speak to me with respect."

"Screw you," Clary snarled. "I've lived in this hell for over three years, the majority of with without you or my mother. What makes you think that you can come around after faking your death and ditching out on your family and try to control the way that I speak to you. You're lucky that I'm even speaking to you."

"I'm doing this for the good of the Earth," Valentine said, clasping his hands together calmly.

Clary blinked uncomprehendingly. "What the hell?" she said. "What does having me locked up have to do with anything about the world? Have you completely lost your damned mind?"

"Speak to me with respect, daughter," Valentine said calmly, "this is the last time that I will ask it of you. I will respectfully answer your question like you have not lost your own damned mind. Outside is survival of the fittest, the way that it needs to be. The weak are being picked off the earth and the strong are the ones that are surviving. We need this purge."

Clary opened her mouth to reply, but her mind was completely blank. Unable to form a coherent sentence, she just made unintelligible spluttering noises. She was right about one thing: Valentine was completely crazy.

"Don't look so shocked daughter," Valentine said calmly. "You're not an idiot; you know that most people are weak and worthless. We'll just be weeding out the weaklings. They have no place here. This is a chance for the strong to prove themselves!"

"You've actually gone crazy," she said faintly. "That's the only explanation for what the hell just came out of your mouth. A purge? That's what you think all of this hell is? You think that people dying, coming back to life as walking corpses and walking around eating other people is a good thing?" Clary just shook her head in denial of what she was hearing. She tried and tried to come up with a term that would properly describe just how psychotic what she was hearing was.

"So why am I here?" she finally asked sighing. "What do I have to do with all of this?"

"You see, daughter," Valentine said. "Out of the two of my children, you are the only one that inherited a rare enzyme in your blood that was able to fight off the infection. Your and my blood is the key to the cure."

"Okay," Clary said. "Then you need me to make it?"

Valentine shook his head slowly. "You're here, Clary," Valentine said, "because I want to keep you out of the hands of the people that are going to try to use you to find a cure."

Clary blinked and looked at him, already getting used to this psychosis. "You said two children," she said, "there are three of us."

"I only have two kids," Valentine snarled. "You notice my two children at least look somewhat like me. The oldest brat is no child of mine. Jocelyn had an affair with that pathetic dog, Lucian."

Clary blinked and felt a bit of her sanity slip after everything that had happened. "I think I'm ready to go back to Jace now," she said faintly. "I need to lay down."

"Go then," Valentine said.

Clary didn't hesitate to walk out of the room, not even looking back.

~Jace~

Jace had worn himself out, banging and beating on the door. His knuckles were bruised and his back and shoulder were sore by the time that he'd given up. He felt a throbbing in his foot from where he had attempted to kick the door down as he sat on the lumpy mattress with his face buried in his hands. He didn't want to think about what was happening to Clary while he was just sitting helplessly in this stupid building.

He heard the sound of hinges squeaking slightly as the door swung forward. He looked up and saw Clary standing there with a blond man. She stepped forward, seemingly unscathed. The guard didn't say a word as he swung the door shut. Clary looked as though she was unsure of anything at all as she sat down on the bed and looked at the wall in front of her. Jace walked forward and knelt down in front of her. "What?" he asked her. "What happened to you?"

"My dad wanted to talk to me," she said quietly. "He's crazier than I thought." She looked up at Jace, her green eyes filled with so much anguish that he was surprised that she hadn't been consumed completely by it. "I don't know if we can save him or not."

Jace knew that Valentine was beyond help when he shot Clary. He didn't mention that aloud, though. He figured that admitting to wanting to skewer her father with both of his blades and decapitate him with Will's sword wasn't the right path to travel. He smiled weakly at her and said, "We're going to do what we can, but your safety is my top priority right now."

Clary smiled weakly at him and shook her head, "I don't know if there is any help for me, Jace."

"What do you mean?" Jace asked frowning. "Were you bitten?" Freezing fear jolted through him, almost causing him to seize up. "Please tell me that you weren't bitten."

"No," she assured him. "It wouldn't matter if I was anyways."

Jace looked at her curiously. "Why?" he demanded. "It would matter a lot to me if you were bitten."

"I…I'm immune to the infection," she said quietly. "My father doesn't want anyone getting ahold of me because I'm the key to the cure."

Jace was silent for a moment as a small wave of relief washed over him. She would live through a bite. She was a lot safer than the majority of other people in the world. "That's a good thing…about the immunity, anyway. Don't think that he's going to do anything to you. I won't let him, okay? I swear I'm never going to sleep again."

Clary let out a small laugh and said, "I don't think that you being half asleep is going to do you or me any favors."

"I swear," Jace said solemnly, "I'm going to take care of you. You're going to see your sister."

Clary just nodded her head halfheartedly, as though she was just trying to placate him and she didn't actually believe what she was saying.

"We're going to get out of here tonight," Jace swore to her. "I'm not going to give him a chance to hurt you. Ever."

She looked at him with wide eyes and said, "Do you understand how many people are out there?"

"Do you know who you're talking to?" Jace asked cockily. "I can take anyone that comes my way." He turned a bit more serious as he looked at her injured shoulder. "You're hurt, though, so I want you to promise me that you'll stay beside me when we go and do exactly what I tell you to."

She opened her mouth, but no words came out of her mouth.

"I'm serious, Clary," he said.

Her hand came up to his cheek and she said, "I'm not letting you get hurt for me. You remember when I told you that you were really reckless and it was going to get you hurt. This is what I'm talking about."

"I'm smarter than you give me credit for," Jace told her. "Everything is going to be okay."

She was quiet for a moment before she sighed and said, "It'd better be."

~Tessa~

The ride back was going by so slowly that it was about to drive her completely mad. She felt every single second that ticked by, and every few minutes, she would ask where they were. Will would always answer her calmly, but she couldn't help but wonder when his patience would give out.

Will, who was at the wheel, cursed loudly a couple of hours into the drive and banged on the steering wheel harshly. "Son of a bitch," he swore. Tessa was about to ask what was wrong before she heard the engine begin to stutter and then stall. The vehicle immediately slowed and then stopped a few moments later.

"What's going on?" Tessa demanded, pushing herself out of her seat and forward so that she was leaning between the two front seats. Will looked over at her with such a despairing gaze that Tessa felt a pit already starting to open itself up in her stomach.

"We're out of gas," Will told her. "We didn't pick up any at the station because of Clary, and I never thought about it afterward for the same reason." He slammed his hand against the wheel again as a display of agitation.

"We'll just find some," Tessa reasoned. She looked out of the windshield and saw that they were on a long stretch of a highway that was lined by overgrown fields on either side.

Will seemed to be following her train of thought, because he said, "That's not going to be easy."

"When did the sky get that dark?" Jon asked. Tessa looked up and saw with a grimace that the sky looked horrible…as though it was about to start pouring down buckets of water on them at any moment. She honestly didn't think that her situation could get any worse.

"I don't know," Will said. "We can't just stay here, though. Stragglers will eventually find us, and I don't feel like become a midnight snack for anyone…"

Jon agreed and opened the door. He jumped out and slammed it shut behind him. Will turned and gave Tessa a sly grin. "I'd be your midnight snack, though, if you wanted it."

Tessa felt heat come to her face as she lightly slapped his shoulder. "Be serious Will."

"I don't do serious," Will told her. "You don't want to see me serious, Tess. It's not a good sight."

For some reason, Tessa believed him. "Fine then," Tessa said. She backed away from him and crawled out of the backseat. Jon was waiting for them impatiently.

"It's going to start raining quickly," Jon said, looking up at the sky. "We need to find shelter until it passes."

"What about—"

"He's right, Tess," Will said, circling around the truck and coming to stand next to her brother. "It's not safe out here."

Tessa looked around at the empty fields that went on for almost all of her eyesight both ways until it abruptly cut off and forests began. "I don't know where we're going to find shelter before all of this begins," she snapped. "There's none around here! We're better off looking for a gas station so that we can get the gas and getting out."

"What are you going to do when you see a zombie in the middle of the rainstorm and you have to fight it," Jon countered patiently. "You're going to be weighed down by water, and you're going to be a lot slower. You're going to get hurt. Neither of us want you to get hurt and neither of us want to get hurt ourselves."

"Well, you guys can go and find shelter," Tessa snapped. "I'm going to save our sister!" She looked pointedly at Jon as she spoke. She turned away from them and began walking down the road stubbornly. Her insides were lit up so hot with anger that she was surprised that she wasn't boiling from the inside out. They didn't want her to go and save Clary, something that they were supposed to have done on their own. It was Tessa's criteria for staying behind; Will had promised her that he would get her sister back, and he had lied. She didn't need him anyway! She clenched her hands into fists defiantly as she marched down the road.

The sound of footsteps rushing out after her was audible, but Tessa just ignored it. "Fine!" Will called out from behind her.

Tessa paused and turned around. She hadn't thought that she would get her way that easily. "We'll do it your way," he said, though she could tell that he didn't like it. "Well, we'll have a compromise. If you go with Jonathan and find some place safe to settle down before all of this blows over, I'll go and find a place for fuel. Does that sound fair?"

Tessa shook her head. "I don't want to split up," she said, "That's how we got into this mess in the first place."

"Then what do you propose?" Will demanded.

"We all go and get gas!" Tessa snapped. "What else would I propose?"

"Tessa," Jon said. "We're very experienced. Nothing is going to get to either of us. Will is perfectly capable of going and getting the gas. He and Jace are used to doing this kind of stuff."

"Clary and I are used to scrounging," Tessa snapped. "There's a reason that we're still alive!"

"I know that," Jon said. "Will is going to be okay." He looked up at the sky and said, "If we want to get the gas or the shelter before the sky opens up, we're going to have to hurry. We don't have time to start arguing about this! Stragglers are going to end up catching up with us and I don't want to be swarmed. We have to go."

Tessa looked at Will and walked forward. Jon was there, but she didn't care. She grabbed his face in her hands and brought it down so that she was kissing him. Will jumped, clearly not expecting it. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held him tightly. She let out a small sigh as he finally wrapped his arms around her and enveloped her in the most wonderful and relaxing hug that she had ever had.

"You'd better be safe, William Herondale," she said quietly. "Don't you dare make me find your corpse walking around."

"I promise," Will said. He looked as though he was holding himself back from completely devouring her…probably courtesy of her brother standing just out of hitting distance. "Now go with Jon." He released her and slowly stepped back from her.

The first thing that Tessa saw was her nauseated brother, standing a few feet off. He looked as though he was about to puke all over the street. "Let's get the hell out of here," Jon said weakly, "before I die from brain damage from the mental scarring that you just subjected me to."

"Grow up, Jonathan," Tessa scolded, wishing that her voice didn't sound so airy. She turned around and saw that Will was looking at her with a dazed expression. "

"Get her out of here," Will told Jon faintly.

Jon nodded at Will curtly and grabbed Tessa's hand. "Let's go big sister," he said before they began walking back toward the part of the road that they had come from. Tessa looked behind her and saw that Will was starting to hurry in the other direction, power-walking toward the forest area that was almost completely out of her vision. She felt fear squirm in her stomach as she prayed that he was going to be alright on his own.

I know, I haven't gotten Will's POV on this. No worries, I'll do two of his next chapter! I just wanted to get this up because you all are so freaking cool. Thank you all for the names that you came up with. They all sound badass, and I think that they are perfect for villain names! Thanks! And I've been really busy for the past few days. I've managed to look at a couple of the fics that you all told me about, but I'll get around to looking at them…promise.

All of the people who were kind enough to help me out last chapter! You're all amazing!

Williukea—No, I have not read Lady Midnight, though I do have the book and have started it.

Lilahjomiyoko

AndTheSaintsAreAllMadeOfGold

Debra Williams

Luvmortalinstruments

Howling2themoon

Boo