Chapter 2: New Life
Jace's POV
I followed the two mundies for several hours while they searched for a new place to live. Millions of questions kept flooding my mind. Could they truly not know anything about our world? From the sound of it, they've both heard plenty about it.
I peeked around the side of the building next to me, to watch the mundies walking into their 40th apartment of the day. Usually I'd followed them in, glamoured of course, but I've gotten lazy. They are either looking for something very specific, or they are really picky when it comes to buying apartments. This was a good neighborhood if they were on the run though. It's very busy, so whoever is looking for them would have a hard time finding them through all of the chaos.
"I think this is the one," a girl spoke from a small distance away. I knew the voice right when it hit my ears. Red.
I peeked around the corner again to see the siblings standing in front of the apartment's front door. They argued for a minute about whether or not to buy it, but finally decided it was the one and went back inside. I knew I needed to figure out their room number, so I made sure my glamour rune was still intact and followed the two inside.
I'm sure Hodge will be pissed when I come home late, but this is important. I can feel it.
It wasn't hard to find the mundies. They were handing a large sum of cash to the lady at the front desk, who exchanged the cash for two silver keys. It wasn't long before they went up to their room and locked the door on me. As much as I wanted to continue eavesdropping on Red, I got all I needed.
Room #687.
Fast forward 30 minutes
The tension in the air was thick as I listened to a very upset Hodge. "You understand what rules are correct? Because you don't seem to follow any of the rules I set up."
"I understand your rules Hodge, but when a situation is really important or there's hot chicks involved, rules don't apply anymore."
Both Alec and Hodge rolled their eyes at me. Izzy was nowhere to be found. "Okay then what was so important about this situation?" Alec asked, "and don't tell me it was important because hot girls were spoon feeding you Takis again. Something like that can only happen once."
"You'd be surprised how often something like that can happen Alec," I smiled at him as the memory of a bucket of honey and Kaelie flashed through my mind, "but that's not the point. The reason I was out past curfew was because I found something. Well not a something, but a someone."
"Go on," Hodge said as he crossed his arms.
"Well, I was minding my own business when my eyes landed on some beautiful red curls belongin-"
"So, it was for a chick again?" Alec shook his head at me like I'd burned his waffles or something cruel like that.
"Shhh and listen. The curls belonged to a normal mundie girl in the cafe sitting by herself. Not long after I got there a guy joined her, so me being curious who he was…I listened in to their conversation. Turns out he's her brother, so yay me, but they were talking about demons being in their home."
Hodge squinted at me like he was trying to read my face for lies and truth.
"Weird right?" I raised my eyebrows and continued, "This is when it started getting interesting. They are on the run from their father, who they claimed was talking to a demon in their house. They said, and I quote 'it was telling him things about a circle forming and soon after he started yelling about being the king of demons'."
I paused as the boys took in the new information. Judging by their confused, yet intrigued faces, I'd say we won this one. "You can't tell me that's not important intel," I said.
Hodge let out a deep breath of defeat. "What did they look like?"
"The girl was short with red hair and green eyes and the boy was a little over six feet, white blonde hair and green eyes. Sound familiar to either of you?"
Alec shook his head, but Hodge hesitated. He must recognize something in their descriptions.
"And you're sure they weren't shadowhunters?" He asked.
"They looked like your average mundanes. No sign of runes, no voyance runes, nothing." I thought about the siblings in my head making sure I wasn't missing anything when I remembered the bruises. I didn't really think much of them at first, but they could mean something to this odd situation. "Actually, both of them did have more scarring than the average person and did have bruises. It sounded like their father might get a little handsy."
"Interesting. I'll look into them to see if I can find anything in our records. For now, you boys can leave me be."
Alec gave me the silent treatment while we walked down the hall to our rooms. I swear sometimes he can be such a baby. "Earth to Alec?"
"Did you forget we were supposed to train together today?"
"No. I have energy right now if you're ready to get your ass kicked."
His glare turned soft. "Takis now, your ass kicking later?"
"I'm always down for some Takis Alec. Let's go."
Clary's POV
"I just feel bad Jon."
"Don't waste your energy on that. If she wanted to come with us, then she would have said something when we asked. That's on her, not me and definitely not you."
He was right, but it still hurt to think of her alone with him. I'm sure he turned into a complete monster after he realized that we left him. I shudder at the thought of my father.
We had gone on a shopping run earlier to get new clothes and food for the week. I was sitting on Jon's bed as he folded up his black t-shirts. Our apartment was very nice considering the price we got it for. There are two bedrooms, a living space with a kitchen space attached to it. The bathroom is a Jack and Jill that we are sharing, but the best part of the apartment is the office room. We'd decided to turn it into our new training space. Back home we'd been forced to learn to fight and train, but now it might be the only thing that can protect us from father if he ever finds us.
"Do you ever wonder what life would be like if father's lies were real?" I asked.
There was a long silence in the room. I assume Jon was pondering the question. "You know I've spent a lot of time thinking about it all. Sometimes it feels like that world makes more sense than the one we've been living, but it's not real. There's no point to keep egging it on when we have to live in this world."
"I know, I know. I just can't help but think about it. I kind of wish it were real. The shadow world I mean."
"Why?"
"I don't know. Just the way father would speak of the hunters and how they could be invisible if they wanted to. It just sounds like that would be cool."
"It would be cool. But there would also be demons trying to eat you all the time, so I'd say that cancels out the coolness, don't you?" Jon asked.
I frowned at the thought of demons, "Yeah. I think if demons were actually roaming the earth right now I'd never feel safe ever again."
Suddenly, I heard growling in our room. My mind instantly went to imaginary demons and I tensed. Jon started laughing at me as I realized it was just his stomach. "Stop laughing at me! All this talk about demons has got me nervous."
"I'm sorry! I can't help that I'm hungry. You wanna see what kind of take out is around the apartment?"
"Yes!"
We searched the blocks around our apartment and found several different food places of interest but ended up going into one called 'Takis'. This one gave us both the best vibe. There was a bouncer outside the front entrance, which was kind of odd, but he was a really nice guy.
The lighting inside the restaurant was darkly lit with a slight blue tint to it. It was packed inside, but we surprisingly didn't have to wait long. A waitress named Kaelie took us to a small booth next to the right wall of the room. She was absolutely gorgeous and looked somewhat elven. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I feel like she would definitely get casted as an elf in one of those movies with fantasy creatures in it.
"What are you gonna get Jon?"
"Ummm. I can't decide between the 'Triple Cheese Burger' or the 'Pizza from Hell'. What were you thinking?"
"I keep coming back to the 'Loaded Brisket Potato', so I'm probs gonna get that."
"I want a burger," said Jon, "but I wanna know why they think this pizza is from hell, so I think I'm going to get that."
I smiled at my brother. "I'll be right back I need to use the restroom. Will you order for me?" Jon nodded, so I left to find the bathroom.
Jace's POV
The sweet taste of Taki's chili cheese fries spread throughout my mouth. I swear, this place has to do something faerie like to their food to make it taste this good. Alec has been going on and on about some new fighting stance he'd mastered this morning, but I couldn't keep focused on him. My mind kept wandering back to Red and her brother. I wish I could just take out their problems so that they could live free without worries.
I look up from my fries, deep in thought about her red hair when I started hallucinating her in the middle of the room. She was wearing a different outfit than what she'd changed into earlier this morning, and she looked slightly less frightened. I shoved another bite of fries in my mouth and blinked hard, so she would fade away, but when I opened my eyes she was still there.
"Jace are you good?"
If she's here that means her brother is also here. This could be the perfect chance to talk to them and figure out some of the missing pieces to their story. "They're here."
Alec's expression went straight to his serious face real quick. "Who? The mundie siblings?"
"Yeah," by this point Red had walked passed our table and was almost into the bathroom, "right there." I pointed in her direction.
"Okay so should we talk to her on her way back?"
While I do want to talk to her more than I want these chili cheese fries, I feel like it's too soon. "No. She might get scared off sense this would be the second time seeing her today. I mean we are in a huge city so the odds of that are very low."
"You're not wrong. But it did happen naturally."
"Let's wait. We could follow them back to their apartment. Maybe something weird will happen and we can intervene."
Alec shrugged. "Your call."
Clary's POV
As I made my way back from the bathroom, I couldn't help but feel that familiar feeling of eyes being on me. I stopped in my tracks to look around for whoever it could be, silently willing it to be the golden god. Just as turned to the left a body smacked into me. I was almost knocked to the floor, but a set of hands kept me steady.
I looked up at the man who'd ran into me. His black hair was spiked up and lightly glittered. His eyebrows scrunched down as he took in all of my facial features.
"Joceyln?" He asked.
Author Note:
Okay so I had intended on including info on the circle business with the demons and all that other stuff I mentioned in the last chapter, but it didn't happen. So instead of saying a specific chapter that it will be in, just know that info will be in one of the future chapters soon!
Jon and Clary got moved in smoothly and Jace's interest has been thoroughly peaked. I think you guys are really going to like the next chapter considering there will be more action and a certain redhead might run into a certain blonde god of a man…or they might not Lol. Come back to find out!
Thank you SO much for sticking around for chapter 2! I hope you guys come back for more and let me know what you think! For real though it means the world to hear what you guys have to say! I would also love to hear what y'all imagine happening in the future chapters! Happy Monday!
