Here it is guys =) Right before Valentine's Day. It's not much I know but I will keep the chapters coming I promise. I still don't have a laptop so I wrote this on my phone and posted it at work lol. I work at a tattoo shop so I have some down time between doing piercings lol. So brace yourselves...this Valentine's Day will be a little bittersweet

"Jace, come on!"Jonathan barked as he spun towards the stairs in the ground.

Jace rose to his feet and numbly followed his brother, not bothering to brush the grave dirt from his knees and belatedly realizing that the only reason he was following was because Jonathan had sounded so much like their father.

The boys crept soundlessly down the dirt packed steps, torches throwing their shadows against the walls in stretched and distorted versions of themselves as they strained their ears for the sounds of more Silent Brothers.

Jace drew a seraph blade from his belt and held it tight in his sweaty palm. Would these even work on the Brothers? What were they doing? What had Jonathan gotten them into?

In no time at all, Jace's boots were stepping lightly over a pattern of stars in the floor and before he could investigate more, Jonathan sheathed his blade and hurried over to a more impressive one that was mounted on the wall.

Jace appeared at his shoulder, his eyes taking in the curved wings on the pommel of the blade before Jonathan reached out and pulled it off the wall like it belonged to him. Jace saw the muscles in his bicep strain slightly as his brother swung the blade around and slid it into the sheath strapped to his back.

Then Jonathan turned to him, and Jace could see the hilt hovering at an odd angle above his shoulder as if someone had come up behind him and stuck it there, in the side of his neck. Jace swallowed as Jonathan shook his shoulder.

Jace suppressed a cringe as he looked down at it and saw that it was filthy; covered in dirt and caked in the blood of the Silent Brother Jonathan had slain above them. What was happening to him? Since when had he become so fragile, so easily repulsed by the sight of gore?

This was different...he promised himself.

"We have to hurry. They'll have alerted the Institute for backup by now," Jonathan said before pulling his sword back out and taking off in the direction they had come at a brisk run. Jace followed, aware of the eerie silence of the Bone City as it pressed down like a weapon on his eardrums.

They had just about reached the dirt steps when suddenly Jonathan let out a cry of pain and crashed to the ground, his sword skittering away out of his reach.

Jace slid to a stop, astonished, as no less than ten Brothers swooped in around Jonathan like birds of prey descending on a carcass.

Jonathan cried out again and clamped his filthy hands to his ears, eyes screwed up tight against the mental assault of the horde that surrounded him. They seemed to not even notice Jace as he stood there, uncharacteristically frozen as the robed figures drew in closer around Jonathan, who seemed to be writhing as if a current of slow electricity were running through him.

"Murderer...demon...stain on this Earth..."

Jace could hear their words in his mind, edged with fire so hot it nearly dropped him to his knees. Through watery eyes, he saw a Silent Brother approach Jonathan, his wrinkled white hand outstretched to touch his brother's pain riddled face.

"Abhorrent creature...sickness,"

Jonathan gasped and tried to move backwards away from the hand on his elbows, and Jace somehow knew that he would not survive it lest the hand make contact with him.

Jace felt the pain in his head multiply suddenly, as if all the Brothers combined their fury and joined in the attack, as he saw blood gush from Jonathan's nose and his eyes roll back into his head.

"Gabriel," The seraph blade in Jace's hand lit with blinding light before it was dimmed completely with the darkness of blood.

Jace wrenched his blade out of the back of the Silent Brother closest to Jonathan before turning it on the circle of Brothers that now turned their mental assault fully on him.

Jace's labored panting was the only noise in the Bone City.

Slain Silent Brothers lay all around him, tossed upon each other like rune marked kindling.

His seraph blade slipped from his hand and clattered to the ground, and Jace noticed the gear covering his left arm and chest was no longer Shadowhunter black, but a grim, dripping, traitorous red.

Jonathan made a rattling breath and Jace ran to him, heaving the body of a fallen Brother off of him.

Jonathan was the sickly white color of a corpse, save for the blood that colored his mouth like paint.

Jace pulled him onto his lap and brushed his sleeve across his sweaty forehead, succeeding only in leaving a smudge of unknown blood against his pale skin and in his hair.

Bile rose up in the back of his throat as he felt Jonathan's hard tremors through his lap, heard the low moans of pain that rumbled in his chest but didn't have the air or energy to make it out of his throat. Jace knotted his fingers in the material of his gear as Jonathan's eyelids twitched and his chest heaved with what could only be agony.

The setting was so complete Jace caught himself looking over his shoulder, expecting and dreading to see the horrid face of the laughing demon rise up out of the bowels of the City of Bones.

"Jace," Jace spun back around to look down at him. Jonathan's eyes were cracked open, and red veins were visible around the black irises.

"Yeah? Yeah, I'm here," Jace couldn't help but hold him tighter. Jonathan's eyes opened a bit more as he coughed, a painful sound that had Jace wincing in sympathy.

"The Sword. Did they get the Sword?" Jace shook his head.

"No, it's still here. You're still wearing it." In fact it had been digging into his knee, something Jace hadn't even realized or felt until now. Jonathan frowned and tried to sit up, so Jace released him.

"Stele," Jonathan groaned as he cupped his head in his hands and crossed his legs in front of him.

Jace quickly slid his out of his belt before applying a healing rune on the side of Jonathan's throat, holding his breath against the stench of burning skin. The effect seemed immediate. Jonathan looked around at the bodies that surrounded them and whistled. "Please tell me I took down a few of them,"

Jace looked down at his hands, at the red crescents that were his fingernails.

"No. It was all me."

Jonathan unsteadily got to his feet before offering his hand down to Jace.

Jace stood up on his own, not thinking he could take his brother's hand now that he knew Jonathan was alright. Jonathan walked a few feet away from Jace before kicking aside the leg of a Silent Brother Jace had killed.

Jace veiled his eyes, his stoic soldier training finally returning to him and hardening his jaw. Jonathan bent down and picked up Jace's seraph blade before wiping it clean on the parchment robes of the body at his feet.

Then, with the deepest respect making his black, blood veined eyes shine, he held the blade out to Jace, hilt first.

"Father would be proud of you, Jace."

His blood smeared lips curved into a grin as Jace mechanically took back his blade and tried hard to breathe around the groan in his chest.

"Now you're acting like a Morgenstern."