What was it I said a few chapters ago? Oh yeah, all I'm doing is apologizing. But once again, I'm REALLY sorry, guys. Life has hit me like a brick this month and is going to continue to do so until end of summer.

The bad news is I'm losing my full-time job come the end of May.

But the good news is I'm moving a couple states away in August to finally go to school.

I'm so excited! But with that, I'm also very, very busy.

Hopefully you'll find it in you to forgive me with this chapter?

I'm apologizing in advance for the crappy Malec…I tried, okay. Can y'all at least give me that? …Please? I'm begging. Lol.

One last warning, if Jace is in the scene, then the scene is in his point of view. Just so you don't get confused.

"Pick up, pick up, pick up…" Alec was saying into his phone as Magnus drove the two of them back to Alec's house.

Finally, he gave up and threw the phone to the floor. "He's not picking up."

"Did you really expect him to?" Magnus asked.

Alec shook his head, "No, I guess I didn't."

"Don't you have the cars GPS tracked or something? Can't we find him that way?"

"Yeah, I suppose we could try that."

They were stopping at Alec's so he could pick up some guns…just in case.

"I never took you as the shooting type." Magnus commented from in the doorway.

Alec looked up from cleaning the weapon out, "I'm not…at least, not really. I don't personally care for guns. I see too many people come in with gunshot wounds."

Magnus could only nod as he watched Alec strap one to his ankle and put another in the small of his back.

Alec then grabbed a small device from off another one of the tables.

"And that is…?" Magnus asked as he followed Alec back out to another one of Alec's cars.

They were bound to be a lot faster than the one Magnus had.

Alec smirked, "The GPS tracker."

"Looks like he took the bike and another car with him; Jonathan probably rode in the car, and he and Clary probably took the bike, but…that's weird."

"What is?" Magnus asked from the passenger seat.

"They're parked in some deserted location."

"That can't be good." Magnus commented without hesitation.

Alec shook his head, "Definitely not." And after they had gotten into one of the other fast cars, Alec punched the gas.

When they pulled up to the scene moments later, Alec drew his gun and was ready to shoot.

Unfortunately for them, all they found was a barely conscious guy in the back seat.

Alec began slapping him on the cheek.

"Are you sure you should do that?" Magnus asked, and when Alec shot him a look, he elaborated, "I mean, I know you're a doctor and all, but you're not entirely sure what's wrong with him."

"I don't need to know what's wrong with him to know that he's not supposed to be unconscious in one of Jace's cars while Jace, Jonathan, and Clary are missing.

Magnus could only nod as a response and Alec went back to slapping the guy on the cheek.

Finally, the guy groaned and sat up rapidly; then grabbed at his head.

"Yeah, you probably shouldn't do that." Alec said from behind him.

He turned his torso and stared at Alec and Magnus. "Who the hell are you two?"

"Funny," Alec said, aiming his gun, "I was going to ask you the same thing, and personally, I think you should go first." Alec cocked his gun for emphasis.

The guy rolled his eyes and threw his hands up in the air. "Lemme guess, you're looking for the guy with the blonde hair, and the two other guys with him."

Alec smiled and nodded, "Very good."

"I sent them to Meliorn's basement." And then he spouted off the address.

"Why?" Alec asked, his eyes narrowed.

"Because they asked me where the other two had taken the girl."

Alec nodded his head back in understanding, but to Magnus' surprise, Alec pointed the gun inches away from the guy's forehead.

"Now, you're going to tell me where they really are…"

The guy laughed at him, "Please. I told them where they really had taken her. And I'm not scared of you." He pointedly looked Alec up and down.

Alec narrowed his eyes, "Funny you should say that. I'm a doctor. I know where to shoot you so that it hurts, but won't kill you before you bleed to death."

The guy rolled his eyes, "And, since you're a doctor, you can't morally do that."

"Oh yeah?" Alec's eyebrows went up and he shot into the seat centimeters from where the guy was sitting and he jumped what would have been twenty-feet had he not been sitting in a car. "My brother's life is at stake, now, you going to tell me where they are; or are we going to do this the hard way?"

"Alright, alright. Damn, man, just put that thing away. They're not at Mel's house, they're at Sebastian's."

"Address." Alec said sternly, putting the gun up to the guy's face.

He spouted off an address and in one swift motion, Alec had twisted the gun in his hands and hit Raphael over the head with the butt of it.

"Remind me not to piss you off." Magnus muttered.

They quickly got back into their car, and Alec pulled out his phone dialing Jace's number.

When we pulled up to the house, I found it highly strange that all the lights were off.

I parked across the street and we all got out quietly, drawing our weapons and I handed my backup piece to Simon.

Believe me, I'm still questioning my sanity for that one.

At first, he just stared at it; then finally, he gave me a little hope as he cocked it and held it like I was.

I could only hope he was prepared to shoot it if necessary.

I led the group up to the front door. We weren't cops - far from it, actually - but we each knew enough about their procedures to not stand in front of closed doors. From the sides of the door, I nodded to Jonathan - who immediately nodded back - and I turned the handle.

Locked, of course.

I turned around to Simon - who, somehow, miraculously took the hint and looked through the bottom corner of the window. He immediately shook his head.

I held my hand up to Jonathan and counted to three before standing in front of it and kicking it in.

For once, I was glad for all of those "training sessions" Izzy made me do with her.

The door flew wide open under my foot and we each held our guns up and split up.

Once again, we weren't cops, but we certainly sounded like them - each of us yelling, "Clear!" whenever we didn't find anything.

"Where the hell is the basement?" I growled as we all met in the living room.

"I didn't even see a door." Simon added.

"I know." I retorted.

"Me either." Jonathan and Jordan said in unison, shaking their heads.

I looked around me, feeling my blood boiling my body from the inside out.

They weren't here.

That bastard lied to us.

I was going to back and kill him with my two bare hands.

"Alright, well they have to be somewhere." Jonathan said.

I shot him, what I know damn well, was a nasty glare.

In return, he shrugged.

So that's where Clary gets it.

"If they're not here, what makes us think they're not at the other guy's place?"

And that's precisely when a realization hit me, "Jonathan, you recognized them, didn't you?"

Jonathan nodded, "Yeah, Raphael Santiago and Sebastian Verlac."

My eyebrows went up, "Alright, which one did we get to back at the shed?"

"Raphael; so we're looking for Sebastian, but I don't know where he lives."

I shrugged, pulling out my phone, "Isn't that what all this fancy fucking technology is for these days?"

I started by trying to google his name. When that didn't work, I realized I had an incoming call.

It was Alec.

Shit.

I contemplated not answering it, but I remembered what happened the last time I ignored one of his calls and wasn't going to make that mistake again.

"What?" I answered into the phone, walking outside.

Suddenly, I turned to the guys who were staring at me. I knew my eyes were wide and I probably looked as though I had just seen a ghost…or heard about one.

Two, as a matter of fact.

"Yeah, yeah. We can discuss that later." I hung up the phone quickly, taking off in a full sprint towards the car.

"They're at Sebastian's house!"

I had the ignition started and we were rolling before Simon had even had the chance to close the door behind him.

So close.

"We haven't heard from Raph yet?" Sebastian asked Meliorn.

"That motherfucker better hadn't call either one of us, and if he does, you don't pick up; got that? I don't give a damn where he is. He's there because he screwed up, and we're not going to go save his ass."

Sebastian sat down in a chair next to the bed that Clary was currently occupying. "I thought you might say that."

"Then why the hell did you ask the dumb question?"

Sebastian shrugged, "Curiosity I guess."

"Yeah, well, your damn curiosity got us into this mess. If you had been in your position like you were supposed to – we would've just gotten the money and left no witnesses."

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

"You know damn well you were supposed to go with Raphael to the safe. I was watching the front!"

Meliorn and Sebastian were both standing now.

"And, you let a woman overpower the two of you! You're disgraces!"

Sebastian sent a quick punch to Meliorn's jaw – blindsiding him and then took off running.

Meliorn took off running after him, grabbing him by the leg and practically throwing him back down the steps he was trying to go up to get out of the basement.

Sebastian tumbled, but got up quickly and they resumed the punches.

Clary was doing her best to keep quiet as she could hear the noise going on around her.

They were fighting – which was good.

She wasn't sure who she was hoping would win.

A part of her was even hoping that they would just kill each other.

Suddenly, she could've sworn she heard a vehicle door slam, and her heart skipped a couple beats.

She heard more than one door.

Was it possible that Jace and Jonathan had found her?

After all, the goons had disposed of her cell phone somewhere…

And precisely at this point, Clary realized she still had the knife stuck in her sock.

They probably hadn't been expecting her to have a weapon.

Then, she realized that the two of them had ceased fighting each other.

They had heard the doors too.

She wasn't sure who, but as soon as she had realized they had stopped fighting each other, one of them grabbed her and slung her over his shoulder.

"Get behind me." She was pretty sure that was Meliorn.

"What the hell are you doing? We don't even know who it is yet!"

"I do. It's fucking Jace."

"How do you know that? We haven't even seen him…"

"Damnit, just do what I say for once."

"Why?! She'll just slow us down!"

"He won't shoot at us if we use her to block."

"Fair point."

Clary resolved at that moment she would do something once they had made it outside. Fortunately, her feet weren't bound, and her hands were in front of her.

These two really were idiots.

Yes, we had slammed the doors.

I hoped these motherfuckers would come out guns blazing at us and leave Clary outside where she was hopefully safe and unharmed.

If they had done anything to her, I swear…

I already wanted to tear both of them apart with my bare hands.

Unfortunately, there was the whole thing about them having guns that stopped me.

The four of us drew ours and spread out; so that we would have a clear shot when they did come out.

We knew they heard us. There was no way they didn't.

But, I wasn't expecting what I saw when they came out.

Meliorn was carrying Clary bridal style in front of him – his right hand in her hair protecting his face and his other on her body protecting his.

I had a clear shot of his legs, but that wouldn't kill him immediately and Clary would more than likely fall on top of him.

"Put the guns down or I snap her neck." He shouted at us.

I could feel my body temperature rising with every quarter-second, but we complied.

Three of us at the very least cared about Clary…and the fourth knew better than to screw up.

"Good." Meliorn smiled, turning his torso.

Sebastian came out from behind him, his own gun held up and his face holding a smirk that any demon would be jealous of.

I glared at him as he started walking up to me.

I couldn't believe it was going to go down like this.

He was going to shoot us, and there wasn't a damn thing we could do about it with Clary in Meliorn's arms.

I took a deep breath and hoped that at least it would be quick.

My instincts refused to go down without at least a fight, though.

As he approached, I lowered my body toward my gun.

"Jace, don't be stupid." Jonathan muttered from next to me.

"I prefer to call it bravery." I muttered back, just before he reached me.

"Stand the hell up." He shouted at me.

I glared and he took aim.

And, I can at least say that I didn't even so much as flinch when the gunshot sounded.

OMG I AM SOOOO MEAN!

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

But whoa…

So, do y'all forgive me yet?

Please, again?

And please, leave the rotten tomatoes in the garbage and pitchforks at home.

Thank you ALL again SO MUCH for reading, favoring/following & pming me. I truly do appreciate it.

See y'all on the other side.