Disclaimer: The Mortal Instruments belong to Cassandra Clare

Clary managed to stay on her feet when she burst through the portal. But she only narrowly escaped the bushes and chain link fence across the street from the warehouse. It was dark, more so than usual. She noticed all of the lights in the area had been broken out, glass littered the ground in even intervals all the way to the side door. With a silent prayer to the Angel for strength, she started the trek across the darkened street, picking her way as silently as possible. With her eyes on the windows as she slid down the alley, she noticed the lights were at full blaze. So he was here; she'd expected as much. The men in her family were nothing if not predictable in their arrogance. She drew her stele as she reached the door, expecting to find the door locked, but it swung inward freely when she tried the knob. Quickly replacing her stele, she instead drew two of her throwing knives and tightly grasping one in each fist, blades facing away from her body.

Easing the door open further with the toe of her boot like she'd seen Jace do, she edged in sideways, pressing herself up against the wall. Nothing rushed her as she scanned the room; she didn't see Jonathon anywhere. The entire first floor clear to the bend was empty of any signs of life.

"It's customary to knock before you break and enter, but since you were already here once today, there's no need to stand on ceremony. Aren't you a little old to be playing dress up though?" Jonathon's voice called down from the catwalk over head.

"You left your door unlocked, I didn't have to break, just enter. That's not a good idea in this neighborhood you know, someone could just come in here and kill you." she answered, her voice hardening with hate at the sight of him. He gave her a wide smile full of sincerity.

"I really doubt that, little sister."

"So we're dropping the act, then? No more poor sad brother just wants his family back?" she asked, pushing away from the wall and taking a few steps further into the room. He looked genuinely disappointed when he answered her. "I wouldn't put it quite like that. It's not that I don't want my family back. Or at least, you." taking hold of the steel railing, he hopped over it the way clubbers would hop a velvet rope, and landed lightly several feet away from her. Clary swallowed hard and pushed away the tremor of fear that threatened her. She'd almost taken Jace after all, and she'd seen him jump off the Institute roof. She didn't have to beat Jonathon, she just had to stay out of his reach until he tired out on his own. His eyes never left hers as he continued, "I think we'll just have to bring you around to my way of thinking."

* * *

Jace watched as Isabelle checked the caller ID on her cell again before scowling and slamming it back in her pocket.

"Maybe you should answer it, Izz. He seems awful persistent, maybe it's important." Alec suggested. Her withering glare stopped the words of agreement on Jace's lips.

"I don't care if he's caught fire, I'm not going to talk to him. And if it were important, he'd call one of you two." she snapped, reaching into her pocket to press the ringer off again. Alec looked at Jace, who just shrugged in response. He didn't know what Simon and Isabelle were fighting about, but he certainly didn't want to get sucked into it. Not that it was very hard to guess with Simon's new gal pal tagging around all the time. Before they reached the end of the block, Isabelle was ranting again. It had been a ranting night for her.

"Where are all the beasties anyway? I couldn't feel more like killing something."

Alec looked at her sympathetically. "Want to try Pandemonium? There's usually a rogue vamp--never mind," he muttered as she turned the icy blue slits on him again. Jace had to fight the laugh that was rising up, but went stony faced when she fixed him in her gaze too.

They'd already worked their way in a loop around the city and found nothing. It was almost eerily quiet, like the city's demon inhabitants had collectively decided to stay in. None of them felt like Pandemonium, not after the Mastemas. Now that the Downworlders who loved the place were equally responsible to keep it clean, it was rarely a trouble spot anymore anyway.

Jace found himself looking forward to getting back, to check on Clary. Once again it hit him how much she had changed him. Before her he'd have been driving them on, spoiling for a fight just to let out his pent up energy. Instead he was drifting along beside them, anxious to get back to her.

Turning the corner, he was the first one to see Simon. An impossibly pale dot in the distance a few blocks up, standing in front of the Institute. He looked agitated, pacing back and forth gesturing wildly. What could possibly be wrong now? Jace wondered to himself. Most people mellowed some when they had eternity stretched before them. Simon just seemed to get more anal retentive. Isabelle's phone rang in her pocket again beside Jace and Simon's head whipped up, his preternatural hearing picking up the ring even from this distance. It happened very quickly after that. One second he was registering that Simon had started towards them, the next he was being slammed against the brick wall of the building behind him and while Simon screamed in his face. He couldn't catch everything at first; after all it was very disorienting to suddenly find oneself the target of an enraged vampire. One who was inches from your face, fangs distended. When the shock wore off and the buzzing from his head smacking the bricks had subsided, the first thing he heard was Isabelle shrieking obscenities at Simon from somewhere to his left. Then he caught the tail end of Simon's last sentence.

"--her, I'll kill you myself. I swear I'll kill you myself." he was hissing into Jace's face, not even an inch away, fangs bared. Isabelle and Alec managed to pry him off just as Maia jogged up.

"What the hell is your problem, Simon? What are you talking about?" But Simon didn't hear him. He was so enraged, Jace could see the fresh blood he'd fed on coloring his face, the veins in his neck standing out as he worked to control himself as he continued his tirade.

"I don't get it, I don't know what it is about you. Ever since you've met her you've dragged her into one dangerous situation after another. She's almost died more than once because of you. And now this. I don't get it, I'll never figure out why, but she'll do anything for you, won't she?" he was screaming so loudly lights were going on in the surrounding buildings, people yelling out their windows for quiet.

Jace suddenly went very still. He could think of only one thing that would make Simon this angry. There was only one thing in this world Simon had ever wanted badly enough to kill for it was Clary herself. But why would she have told him? Wasn't what they'd shared something for them alone? Watching Simon quaking with rage before him, Jace actually felt a little bit sorry for him. A very little bit.

"Look Simon, you know it's not like that. You know I'm not using her, that I love her. I could never use her like that," he found himself blushing slightly as Simon and the entire assemblage realized what he was saying.

Simon's jaw dropped and he paled, choking on words he couldn't even force out. "You-- you…and now she's…" he stammered. Any other time it would have been funny, but the pain on his face had Jace reaching towards him, to try and make him understand. Jace never got a chance though. With a deafening roar, Simon threw himself on him.

The first swing connected with his jaw and stars reeled in his vision just as he felt himself falling backwards Simon landed on top of him, raining down blows in a blind fury. He was screaming things again, but Jace couldn't hear any of it as he reflexively fought back, feeling his own punches connect with ribs, jaw, and gut. He caught a right hook and knew it would become a black eye, might even swell shut. And then something small and dark flew at Simon from the right, knocking him off of his perch on top of Jace. Hissing, Simon rounded on his attacker, but recoiled when he saw it was Isabelle, her whip at the ready. Her eyes were blazing as she stood over him. One look at her, and Simon's fangs retracted. His rage sputtered and went out.

"Don't. Touch. Him. Again." she enunciated each word as if it were its own sentence. "Why is it such a big deal, Simon? I thought you were over it," she said, only slightly more calmly when it became evident the battle had subsided. Simon's face was shocked when he looked at her.

"I don't care about them. I don't care about--that. I care about Clary. If something happens to her…." he trailed off, looking bewildered as he swept their faces. "Why are you here? Did you come back because you got my messages?" he asked, fear beginning to take hold. "Did you call Magnus, is he on his way, too?"

"Why would Magnus be coming?" Jace asked, getting to his feet and rubbing his jaw. He didn't like the sickened look on Simon's face at all. "We were only coming back because it was a quiet night, nothing to do. I for one was going to see what Clary wanted to do." Simon's eyes suddenly fastened on Jace's face, ignoring the snort from Alec.

"So you don't know?"

Jace's chest felt tight as he looked at the panic in Simon's eyes, fearing the answer. "I don't know what?"

Simon's voice was soft as he answered, but Jace flinched at the words anyway.

"Clary isn't here. She went after Jonathon."

Jace blinked twice in silence and then shook his head in confusion. "Jonathon is dead, Simon. That's impossible, you're wr--"

"I'm not wrong," Simon cut him off. "I saw her with him last night at Jamba Juice. She's known he was alive for weeks. He's been claiming he's sorry, that he wants her and Jocelyn back in his life, wants a second chance."

Jace heard the words, but his brain had ceased to comprehend them. She's known he was alive for weeks, Simon had said. He'd seen her out with him. She'd known, and not told him. Jace's mind was reeling. The horror of Jonathon being alive was lost in the betrayal he felt. His heart had started pounding painfully in his chest and his breathing was labored, each breath he drew more constricted than the last. He looked at Simon as he continued talking, directing his words now to Isabelle and Alec.

"I was calling because she texted me. She went after him tonight, didn't want any of us in danger she said. We need to find her, but I don't know how. Magnus knew Jonathon was alive too, she'd made him swear not to tell us."

Isabelle's voice was pure ice when she broke in. "Why bother to tell us now? Why do you even care about Clary anymore? She's a Shadowhunter, like the rest of us. And we know you're all about the Downworlders now." Her eyes pierced Maia who stood back in silence. Alec blanched at that himself, but Jace was beyond reaction at this point. He was watching everything from a distance, separated from the immediacy of the moment.

Simon staggered back as if she had slapped him. "Is that what you think it is?" He whispered, his eyes wide with disbelief, "You think that I don't care about you anymore?"

"Honestly Simon, I don't care what you feel, I'm over it."

He stood very still, watching her as she turned her back on him and herded Jace into the building.

As Isabelle started snapping directions, guiding him up the steps and through the nave, there was a tinny ringing in his head, as if this were all happening to someone else. He allowed them numbly to shove him into the elevator on the way upstairs.

As the door opened and Isabelle pulled back the gate, a sudden thought pierced the panic that had cocooned him. Regardless of anything else, Clary was right now on her own, trying to take on Jonathon. A ghost of a pain in his chest seared him, the memory of a dagger scraping down to bone and blood pouring from his mouth as he tried to say her name. On the heels of that memory came the vision of Abaddon, in Clary's guise, covered in blood and dying in his arms. His stomach lurched into his throat and his heart started to race, all rational thought evaporating in the memory of her broken and bloody. He tore from the elevator and raced to her room, ignoring Isabelle's cries behind him. He only dimly heard Alec tell her to let him go, to instead go and get weapons, that they'd catch up with him.

As he crashed through her door, her presence hit him like a wrecking ball. From her scattered books and pencils, to the clothes she'd left tossed on her bed, the whole room screamed Clary. His terror for her choked him like a fist wrapped around his throat. Preparing to tear the room to shreds for any sign of where she'd gone to find Jonathon, his eyes fell once more on her desk and her scattered papers. He saw the journal and his breath caught. He knew what it was, but could think of no plausible way for it to be here. Crossing the room, he picked it up, his hands shaking visibly. He opened to the page she'd marked and read the entry. Realization dawned on him, as it must have on her. He went to replace the sheet of paper she'd used to mark the page, and caught his name at the top of it. Unfolding the sheet, he saw a short note she'd scribbled in haste.

Jace,

If you're reading this, I know you're going to be angry. I just hope you can forgive me. For my mother, I had to wait until I was sure. For you and for Max, I've been ready to do what I had to from the beginning. I know there will be no way to make you understand this, but I couldn't risk losing you again. I had to watch once as you died right before my eyes. It broke a part of me that will never heal. I still have nightmares about it. I don't think I'd survive a second time. There's no angel to give you back to me now. Please forgive me.

I love you,

Clary

He folded the paper carefully and put it in his pocket. Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to think clearly. It wouldn't be any use to her to run off without weapons, but he didn't want to run into Alec and Isabelle either. He remembered the stash of weapons in his room and took off down the back halls, to avoid the others.

Dragging the trunk out from under his bed, he threw back the lid. He shoved every seraph blade in the case into his gear and pocketed half a dozen chakrams. Jonathon liked to jump, he remembered. Lastly, he reached into the case and pulled back the false bottom. There beneath the lining was the fiercest knife he'd ever seen. He'd found it in the cave in Idris and he'd been surprised it was still in his gear when he woke up by the lake. He'd kept it, not intending to use it, just admired the sheer brutality of the weapon. A ten inch blade, three inches wide at the hilt, tapering into a fine point. The thick blade was strong, sharpened to a razor's edge. The leather wrapped hilt had brass knuckles built into it, two ugly weapons in one. He slid it into the sheath he'd strapped to his thigh just as the door began to buzz. Taking off in a jog, he beat Alec and Isabelle to the elevator, still clutching the journal under his arm. Alec slid to a stop at the gate, yelling down to him.

Jace ignored him, throwing the gate open at the bottom and jogging down the aisle. He knew it was Magnus at the door and he wanted to beat them to him. Wrenching the door open, he pushed Magnus back on the step.

"I need a portal," he demanded. Magnus looked stunned.

"I'm not at your beck and call, boy. What's going on? Alec sounded beside himself."

"You will give me a portal or I'll report you to the Clave for not reporting Jonathon Morgenstern's reappearance." Magnus' eyes narrowed, raking over Jace and giving away nothing. His tone was contemptuous when he answered.

"I've never seen Jonathon Morgenstern, and you're bluffing. Where's Clary?"

Jace scoffed as he answered. "That's exactly why I need the portal. She's at the warehouse down by the docks. That's where I want to go." He shoved the book into Magnus' chest.

"He's part greater demon and he has more power than even you do. That's where she is. Do you want Alec in his path too? Give me the portal. And hurry, they're bound to be on their way down as we speak."

"That stupid, reckless girl. I told her to talk to me first, damn it." The warlock sputtered, giving up his act. Jace was inclined to agree.

"Just get me there, before she gets hurt."