Chapter 6: Balance
Jocelyn's POV
*flashback to 13 ish years ago*
"Come here little ones! Mommy made chocolate smoothies!"
The sound of my children running grew louder and louder until they were right in front of my eyes jumping up and down. All I can think is that I hope that this works. If it doesn't do anything I don't know what options, I'll have left with them.
My little Jonathan looked up at me, his eyes a cloudy black color. No trace of his beautiful green iris' left for me to see. The pain in my heart spread throughout my body, but my smile didn't falter.
"Here you go handsome boy. A chocolate smoothie just for you."
He took the smoothie and quickly started drinking, the excitement clear on his face despite the lack of emotion in the dark pits of his eyes.
"Mommy! Mommy! Me!" To my right my daughter was impatiently begging for her smoothie. I reached behind me grabbing the drink and silently thanking the Angel that she wasn't as far gone as her older brother. One smoothie was left to give on the counter.
"Here you go princess. Don't drink too fast or you will get a brain freeze."
I stood back and watched as my two young children played together as they finished off their drinks. Angel, I hope you weren't lying to me and that these do the trick.
One week later.
The morning light peaked through the curtains into my bedroom. I glanced to my right looking for Valentine, but he was already gone, probably working in the basement. Hopefully he won't be as cranky today as he has been recently.
I threw on some clothes for the day, making sure to take my supplement before making my children their morning smoothies. It had been a week since I'd started them on the stuff and I had already noticed slight differences in the way they acted. My daughter was finally showing emotions again and the green had returned to my son's eyes. Hope filled me once again.
Clary's POV
I ran both of my hands through my hair trying to comprehend what just happened. Two demons were following us sent by…by my father? Jonathan was in the middle of wiping what was left of the demon off of his dagger when he spoke exactly what I was thinking.
"We can't tell anyone," he said.
I looked at him and nodded. While I feel like we might be able to trust the Lightwoods, this information is too delicate to share with anyone but ourselves until we understand what is actually going on.
"You don't think that father is actually ordering those things to deliver messages to us, do you?" I asked. I wish I could be disappointed in father, but I truly wouldn't be surprised if he was working with demons at this point.
"I think father does a lot of things that I don't understand. Wouldn't put it past him to be buddy-buddy with a pack of demons or two."
We had arrived at the institute and were led to the training room by my favorite grey puff ball. Nobody was in there when we showed up, which was expected since we came a little earlier than we'd originally said.
"How about a little warm up fight brother?" I smiled at him ready to have a weapon in my hands. It had been too long since we'd trained together in a space this large. I didn't realize before how much I actually like doing this.
He chuckled at me, "That eager to lose sister?"
There was a rack in the corner of the large room holding a large variety of weapons. We had a collection similar to this one back home with father, but none of them were this nice looking. Overall the training room here had more than we've ever had plus it was a lot larger than what either Jon and I were used to. There were mats off to the side for softer landing I assume, and there were beams scattered above us. The beams when up for what looked like two stories above us.
"Wanna fight on one of those Clary?" Jon pointed up towards the beams, a playful look in his eyes.
My vivid imagination pictured me falling down and breaking both of my legs, but even that worry wouldn't hold me back from beating my brother. Besides, if I were to ask Jon to stay on the ground that would make me look weak, which is something father had ingrained in our minds never to become.
"How far up are you thinking?"
His eyes squinted together, and his lips pursed out as he thought over his options. "How about we go up four beams and then fight there?"
I was surprised he picked one so high up, but knew he only did that to try and make me more nervous. "Sounds lovely," I said as I grabbed a weapon and jumped to the lowest beam, making my way up to the fourth.
It wasn't long before Jon joined me on the beam. I studied his weapon, taking in all of the weak points I could find. He had chosen a stave, while I had chosen a lance. Both were similar weapons in the fact that they were long and pole like, easier to reach your opponent.
"Nice of you to finally join me Jon."
"Ha. Ha. I was just giving you the time you needed to adjust."
I glared at him and moved into my fighting stance. The tricky part about fighting with Jon was that we were both trained by the same man, meaning we have similar fighting styles. We also grew up fighting and learning together so both of us are very familiar with how the other works.
I knew Jon wasn't going to strike first, so I made my move. He blocked me and kicked out with one foot trying to catch me off guard. I jumped up and flipped backwards avoiding his kick. My landing was a little unbalanced, but I quickly regained my footing and moved forward. I didn't take too much time before squatting down and spinning around as fast as I could, trying to knock Jon in the shins with my lance. He ran forward, jumping over me and turning around to strike just as he landed.
I was mid spin when I realized he was going to strike, so the only option I had to avoid getting hit was to jump down to the next beam closer to the floor. Right as I landed Jon joined me and we both ran at each other striking and blocking over and over again. About fifteen minutes passed before a presence entered the room. I was mid flip looking down at Jon, the point of his stave was an inch from my eyes, when a voice called out to us.
"Ah started without me I see?" I landed on the other side of Jon and we both looked down to watch as Jace jumped up on the beam to join us. He was holding a metal rod in his left hand. "Don't mind if I join do you?" He aimed the question towards both of us but was looking into at me the whole time.
"The more the merrier," Jon said as we all began to fight again.
The next half hour consisted of a lot of close calls for all of us, but nobody had actually come close to beating the other two. I'd say we are all pretty similar in our level of fighting skill, which must be a shock to Jace considering we were supposed to be coming here to learn from him.
"I gotta take a leak. I'll be back in a few." Jon jumped off the beams and jogged out of the room leaving Jace and I alone to spar.
I tried to strike his right side with my lance, but he dodged it like it was nothing, swinging his weapon right into mine. My grip on the lance faltered and I dropped my weapon. The corner of his lips turned up in a small smirk as he walked closer to me.
"No weapon Clarissa. Can't have that," he threw his metal weapon to the ground, "let's make this a fair fight."
I chuckled and got into position. "You didn't have to do that Jace," I said as I dodged a blow from the left. I kicked out hoping he would jump up, and he did. As he was in the air I threw a punch straight to his gut.
He landed gracefully, coming at me quick with a blow to the side. The hit took me off guard, causing me to lose my balance. We locked eyes just as my right foot slipped off the side of the beam. Jace reached out just in time to grab my hand. I hung there soaking in my defeat as he smirked down at me.
"So, are you gonna keep me hanging here or are you gonna pull me up anytime soon?"
Jace chuckled as he began to pull me up. Right as my feet were back on the beam we both lost our balance. Jace fell backward pulling me down on top of him, still on the beam. His right hand was on my lower back and his left hand was on my upper back. My curls were falling down, a few of them grazing his face.
This is the closest I've ever been to him, to his face. His eyes were the most beautiful shade of gold I'd ever seen, and they were locked in mine. I could feel his heart beat against my skin, rapid like my own. He moved his left hand away from my back and used it to put some of my stray curls behind my ears. I should be scared or at least nervous that we might fall, but I feel safe in his arms.
"Thanks for not letting me fall."
He smirked again, "You mean for saving your life?"
"For all you know maybe I wanted to fall."
His eyebrows shot up and he shook his head a little. "Have you ever trained on beams before?"
"No."
"Well then I think you and your brother aren't going to need as much combat training as I was expecting."
"Yeah you're right we did basically kick your ass," I said.
"I'm just gonna let you think your hot shit."
"You don't think so?"
He was silent for a second as he took in my question before whispering, "I think so." The look in his eyes grew more intense, almost darker. He reached his hand back up, tangling his fingers in my hair and slowly bringing my face closer to his.
"Clary are yawl still up there?" My brother asked, and he barged into the training room.
Without thinking I jumped up, flipping over Jace and landing on my back, my head a couple inches away from his. I leaned over the edge of the beam and looked down at my brother. "Hey yeah we ditched the weapons a little after you left and have been doing hand on hand combat."
"You better not have roughed up my sister Jace or I'll beat the shit out of you."
Jace peaked over the side of the beam and yelled back, "You have nothing to worry about Jon. She was in good hands during your absence." Jace sat up with his legs dangling off the edge of the beam and looked over at me. He winked, then jumped down until he reached the ground.
What the heck just happened? I wondered as I jumped down after Jace to join him and my brother on the floor for more training.
Same day, 5 hours later
Clary's POV
Jon and I had barely had enough time to shower and get ready before we had to speed over to work for the night. We'd gotten to the club about fifteen minutes late, and it was already full of people ready to have a good time. Jon went straight to the bar and started taking orders with one of the other bartenders on shift tonight. I was tying on my small apron when I felt a tap on my shoulder.
I turned to meet the eyes of a tall man, probably about the same age as my parents. He had brown hair and blue eyes that were fixed into an expression of confusion.
"May I help you sir?" I asked, weirded out by his body language.
He shook his head and began to back away, "No. No, I'm sorry I thought you were someone else."
The man vanished into the crowd behind him before I could respond. That was very odd. Usually the men here bother me through sexual harassment, not whatever that was.
I shook the encounter off and ran to my first VIP room of the night. My first three rooms were full of very rich families out for a good night, but my fourth VIP room was different.
As I entered the room I glanced around to see five men scattered around. Two were playing pool near the back side of the room and two other men were chatting in the lounge area. The fifth man was leaning up against the side wall looking out the window. I walked over to the men who were lounging to take the room's order, but as I left I glanced back at the man near the window. He turned around, almost like he felt my eyes looking in his direction. It was him. The man from the weird encounter earlier this shift.
I quickly left the room and put in their order and waited next to Jon. Should I tell him about the weird man or just wait and see what happens? I mean I would love to tell Jon right now, but I don't want to chance him dropping everything to go and threaten the poor old guy. Yeah, probably best to just keep it to myself for now.
Once the drinks were finished I walked back to VIP 4 and passed out the scotch to each of the men. As I left the room and started to walk back down the hallway a hand wrapped around my arm and pulled me back. I tried to scream but realized there was already a hand over my mouth. Where ever I was it was too dark to see, so I'd have no way of knowing if there is anything near me that I can use to my advantage.
"I'm going to take my hand off of your mouth, but don't scream. If you make any noise I won't hesitate to fix the problem. Got it?"
The voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't pin who it might be. It belonged to a man for sure but not to a man I know very well. I nodded my head and waited for the man to remove his hand from my mouth. I knew screaming wouldn't be any sort of help for me considering we are still in the club, so nobody would even hear me. I know that Jon will notice my absence soon enough, so I just need to wait this psycho out.
He removed his hand from my mouth, turned me around and tied my hands together with something rough. "Thank you for doing as I asked. I know it may look like it right now, but I'm not a bad guy. I'm just desperate right now, and desperate people do things they wouldn't normally do."
"W-what do you want from me?" My mind rolled through all of the things a strange man might want from a young girl. I grew nauseas the more I thought.
"I just need answers. You look like someone I used to know…used to love."
"Who?"
"Her name was Jocelyn. She wa-"
I stopped him mid-sentence, "You knew Jocelyn?"
"Yes. Very well. I think you might be her daughter?"
"Yes," I wondered if it was wise for me to confirm his ideas.
"Look. I just need to know if I can trust you and then I'll untie you and turn on the lights. Do you work for your father or with him in any sort of way?"
"What? No, God no. I hate that man," I paused to try and think where this guy might know my parents from and then it hit me, "Are you a shadowhunter?"
The man laughed for a minute before answering. "No dear. I mean I'm not now, but I used to be. I grew up with your parents."
The man went silent, but I could hear him moving in the room. All of a sudden, the lights were on and I could see the man from the weird encounter earlier. I did a spin to see that he had taken me to the storage closet and had tied my hands together with old leather shoe ties.
"My name is Lucian, but you can call me Luke."
Author Note:
So, we had some romancing and met a new character! What will Luke lead to for the story and will Jace and Clary become a thing so soon? Also, what was the deal with Jocelyn's smoothies? Anybody else think there was something fishy going on there, because I definitely think that was fishy.
Anyways, thank you guys for reading. It means the world to me! Happy late Saturday bros!
