"Melody please," began Magus gently. "If you would just let me…"

"No! Whatever it is, I don't care! Just leave!" she snapped over him. "And take your holier than thou friends with you!" She pushed past them to the door.

Alec frowned. What the hell did she mean by 'holier than thou'? Did she hate them just because they were part angel?

Izzy could see that Magnus was going to give up so she stepped in.

"Look I don't know who you are or what's going on between you and Magnus but we're desperate and we need your help. My name is Isabelle Lightwood and this is my brother Alec…"

Melody whipped around at the sound of their names.

"…and this is Jace and this is Clary. We need…"

"Lightwood?" Melody interjected almost viciously as she glared at both Izzy and Alec. Realisation had hit her. "You're Maryse's kids." It wasn't a question, it was an accusation.

"You know our mom?" Alec asked, surprised.

Melody laughed darkly and turned to Magnus. "You're kidding me with this shit right?" She continued to laugh.

"Mel…"

"No! No! Not a chance!" She ignored them, turned around and hastily fished for her keys in her bag.

Jace was annoyed. They came all the way here for this?

"What the hell is your problem?" he burst out. But she ignored him and placed the key in the door lock.

"Valentine's back." Magnus said clearly. They all saw Melody's back stiffen. She turned around slowly, wide eyed and looked back and forth between them all.

"That's not possible. Everybody knows he died in the fire years ago!" she protested, but they could tell she believed it.

"Apparently he didn't," the warlock said obviously. Melody stood still for a moment processing this new information. She quickly recovered.

"I'm not a part of your world anymore Magnus." She began calmly. "This has nothing to do with me. Please, just leave." Then she looked at the others. "Please, just forget you ever met me. I don't want to have anything to do with this."

"So you're just running scared?" Alec said forcefully. "Magnus what are we even doing here. This girl is weak! She can't help us!"

Melody whipped her head up and locked eyes with Alec. She walked forward so that she was standing right in front of him. She was glaring daggers at him and even though Alec was thoroughly annoyed and slightly intimidated (even though she was shorter than him), he couldn't dismiss her beauty.

"I. Am. Not. Weak!" she said in a dangerously low tone. "You don't even know me asshole!"

"And I don't care to!" was Alec's retort. He wanted to put some distance between them. She was too close. "Come on guys, let's go."

The rest of the group started to move but Clary who hadn't said anything decided to speak now.

"I'm Valentine's daughter." She said clearly. Magnus and the others stared at her in surprise. They hadn't expected her to volunteer this information to a stranger.

Melody had heard her clearly and everyone waited for her aggressive reaction. It didn't come. Melody hadn't seen Clary properly throughout this whole exchange. Partly because Jace had been standing in front of her unconsciously protecting her and partly because she had been distracted by the fact that Maryse Lightwood's offspring were here. But she could see Clary clearly now and it wasn't the fact that Clary was Valentine's daughter that had shocked her. It was because she had recognised Clary.

"Rissa?" she whispered, shocked.

"Oh that's right," started Magnus. "I had forgotten that you two know each other."

He had not forgotten.

"You're Clarissa Fairchild." Stated Melody. She was still in shock.

"Wait, you know me?" asked Clary. "How? Please tell me. I-I don't have all my memories. Magnus took them and fed them to a demon so I don't remember. I can't remember. Please help me."

Melody took in Clary's desperate look and she couldn't say no. Besides, she was curious. The last she had heard about Jocelyn and Clarissa Fairchild was that they had disappeared from existence and were presumed dead.

Melody nodded slowly, "Come in," she said simply and opened her door. Clary and Magnus entered but as Alec and the others went to follow she put a hand out to stop them.

"Whoa! Not you boy and girl Lightwood or you Blondie! You three can wait here."

"Like Hell!" was Jace's response and he made to push past her.

"Hey!" boomed Melody. "It wasn't a suggestion!"

All of a sudden the door of the apartment opposite them opened.

"Is everything alright dear?"

Melody lived opposite a sweet elderly couple who she had become quite attached to. She would drop by to check in on them, sometimes do their grocery shopping and whenever she had cooked too much food she would bring them some. She realised she must have yelled too loudly and because the shadowhunters couldn't be seen, it would have looked like she was yelling at herself.

"Sorry Anthea, I'm fine," she smiled at the elderly lady. "Just stubbed my toe on the door. I didn't mean to yell so loudly but it hurts like a bitch."

Anthea smiled sympathetically. "Well as long as you're ok dear."

"I swear I'm fine."

"What time is your date tonight?" Anthea smiled mischievously. Melody had thought it very sweet and grandmotherly that Anthea had always harassed her about her love life but at the present moment she was annoyed. She didn't want to discuss anything personal in front of these angelic soldier wannabes.

"Not for another three hours." She tried to keep the conversation brief. She realised that she would have to be the one to stop Anthea from asking more questions by going into her own apartment which meant she couldn't argue with the Lightwoods or Rissa's lover-boy.

She opened the door fully, discreetly indicated with her eyes that they should go inside, then made a quick excuse to her neighbour that she still had to figure out what to wear for her date and closed the door behind her.

She turned to see everyone sitting on the couches in her living room and sighed. She was already feeling drained.

She walked over to them and sat next to Magnus and then looked at Clarissa.

"So you want me to help you get your memories back?"

The red head nodded. Melody was confused.

"I don't get it. Why don't you just summon Valak and take your memories back?" She then looked at Magnus wondering why he hadn't suggested it.

"We did that," said Alec, "but the demon was too strong for us to contain and I accidently let go of our hands and broke the circle. Valak attacked Jace and Clary saved him by killing the demon."

"You killed Valak?" Melody asked in shock.

"Yes and Magnus said you might be able to help us get my memories back." Stated Clary hopefully.

"Of course he did." Melody glared at Magnus who just winked at her. She rolled her eyes and then sighed.

"So can you?" asked Jace as he leaned forward, eager to hear her answer.

Melody looked at Clary and then back at Jace. She took a deep breath and nodded.

"How?" asked Clary.

Melody cleared her throat. "Before we get to that, I have a condition that you all have to agree to. You can't tell the institute about me."

"Why not?" demanded Alec. He didn't like the sound of this.

"I have my reasons," Melody stated. "Whatever we do here, you cannot tell anyone."

Alec frowned.

"Fine." Agreed Jace.

Alec was annoyed. Jace didn't seem to care about the rules anymore lately. "Jace…" he began, but Izzy cut him off.

"Alec, this is for Clary to get her memories back," she looked at her brother pointedly and he knew that she was hinting at the fact that it was his fault Valak was gone and that they were here in the first place.

He clucked his tongue in annoyance. "Fine," agreed. "We won't say anything."

"I can't just take you at your word." Stated Melody.

Alec rolled his eyes. "Then what do you want? For us to write it in blood?"

Melody locked eyes with him and glared. "No, but we can use a secrecy rune." (A/N: I have no idea if there's such thing as a secrecy rune but let's say for the sake of my story there is.)

Alec's eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Secrecy runes can only be used on shadowhunters. The one with the secret and the one who's keeping it." Izzy explained as if what Melody was asking couldn't be done.

"I know." Was Melody's reply as she rolled up her sleeve. "Get your stele out."

"You're a shadowhunter?" asked Jace in surprise.

"Wait, why don't we know about you?" asked Alec almost aggressively. The institute knew about every shadowhunter – except Clary – and now apparently this girl.

"Because I never wanted you to!" Melody replied as if he were an idiot.

Alec whipped around to Jace and his sister. "I don't like this. This isn't right."

"Of course you don't," taunted Melody. "You're exactly like your mommy. You never met rule you didn't like to follow."

She saw Alec's shoulders tense as he ignored what she said.

"This is the only way I can get my memories back." Clary said pleadingly as she looked up at Alec.

Izzy and Jace seemed to have no problem agreeing to the secrecy rune and in the end Alec let his guilt get the better of him and he gave in. Once all shadowhunters had the rune drawn on them he felt uncomfortable knowing that if he wanted to say something about this girl to his parents he physically wouldn't be able to get the words out. He didn't like not being in control. Ever since Melody had made a comment about his mom he wanted to ask her all about this mystery girl and now he couldn't. It was impossible.

"So let's get this over with," he said grumpily as he motioned to Melody that it was her turn to hold up her end of the bargain.

"It's not so simple," she began. "I may need a few nights before I can help you."

"Why?" asked Izzy curiously.

"I should be able to open a portal to the dimension where Valak was banished. But I can't do it if I haven't been there."

"But only warlocks can open portals," said Jace in confusion.

Suddenly Alec's eyes grew wide in understanding. "This is why you wanted us to draw the rune. You're part shadowhunter and warlock."

(A/N: I know that this is possible because of Tessa Gray and what I've read online but I don't know all the particulars so I'll make it up as I go.)

"Yeah I am," said Melody. "And now you can't tell mommy dearest. I'll help you this once but I'm not getting sucked back into the shadow world."

Alec was furious. He got up and crossed over to where Melody was sitting and towered over her. "You can't do this. There are rules in place to-"

Melody rose quickly. "Not my rules!" exclaimed. "I haven't followed them for a long time!" She took a breath to calm herself down and looked at Clary. "If you want my help it's yours, but I'm not dealing with this (she glared at Alec) anymore."

Once Jace had managed to convince his parabatai that they were doing the right thing the atmosphere calmed down, though it was clear by Alec's body language that he was struggling with their decision to trust this hybrid girl. Melody ignored the frustration she felt towards him and explained how she could help them.

Most warlocks could create a portal if they had already been to the place they were creating a portal to. Magnus pointed out that the problem was that no warlock had been to the dimension Valak was banished to and Melody explained that she had the unique power to visit different places and even dimensions in her dreams, and that if she could travel there, she could then create the portal for them to get to Clary's memories.

Alec was annoyed that this could take a few days because of the unreliable nature of her dreams. He just wanted to get away from Melody. He didn't trust her and it didn't help his mood that he couldn't control himself from wanting to keep looking at her. He couldn't deny how beautiful she was and it bothered him.

Clary was just excited that they could get her memories back and even though Magnus hid it well, he was also excited. Melody was back in the game whether she knew it or not. He had missed her.

When they left, Melody collapsed on the couch. She couldn't believe what had happened. One minute she was living the ordinary human life she had set up for herself and now she would soon be preparing to summon a demon. She tried to convince herself that in a few days she could go back to that human life however she realised that if Rissa knew how much history they shared, she might end up being dragged back into the shadow world. She then briefly thought about the colour of Alec Lightwood's eyes but then dismissed it. She had to get ready for her date.

So I know I promised Alec and Melody goodness in this chapter but what I envisioned will happen in the next chapter. Hint: Alec crashes her date.