"Youngest Master Morgenstern?"
Light fingers brushed across his forehead and down the curve of his temple, as gentle as the sweep of a butterfly's wings on a flower petal.
"Please open your eyes."
Jace's eyelashes twitched as they tried to comply with the whispering voice's request. The first thing Jace was aware of was a dazzling green set of big eyes, inches from his own.
For a moment, warmth struck through him as he mistook the eyes for Clary's, but then his vision cleared and he saw the face that the eyes were set into, and that the hair that covered the head and framed the delicate face was green and not the fiery red that he had been so hoping to see.
These eyes were far too light a green to be hers anyways…hers were darker, deeper, like rich, moody emeralds compared to the clear peridot of Jasper's.
Jace groaned as the realization sank in that Clary was not there with him.
"I know it hurts," Jasper whispered to him as he looked down Jace's naked torso at the numerous gashes that split his golden skin.
Jasper couldn't help but cringe; the cuts looked awful. Some were long and wavering, like Jace had tried to pull away from the blade as it cut him so the end result was a not very straight line that sort of looked like a sinister smile that pulled up at one end.
And other cuts were short and precise; like they were put there by a very meticulous hand. Some wounds overlapped others, like blood drenched sticks stacked up for burning, and as Jasper's eyes traveled over the damage he found a pattern of incisions he couldn't believe he had missed before.
From where he was standing, he could clearly see the long, finger length letters that had been carved into Jace's stomach and though he was looking at them from the wrong direction, he could still read what had been written there.
Jasper's stomach roiled as the two little written in congealed blood red words seemed to jump out at him with all the viciousness and cruelty of the boy who had surely carved them there, and with the fiercest glee...
HA HA
Jasper tore his eyes away and back up to Jace's face, feeling relief the second he was no longer looking at his many injuries.
Jace was blinking slowly, like he was trying to remember what had happened and where he was. He started to move his arms, and finding them restrained, turned his head quickly to look at his wrist as he sat up in alarm.
Just as Jasper reached out his hands to hold him down so he wouldn't hurt himself more, Jace yelled loudly; his sudden violent movement had yanked his cuts and caused the congealed blood to split and the scabs to crack, making the pain new again.
Jace fell back onto the table with a small sob, fresh blood now rolling down and staining his skin like slow scarlet tears.
Jasper's hands fluttered over him nervously as a worried frown creased his perfect face. "You shouldn't move much…" he mumbled.
Jace was too exhausted to even open his eyes again, let alone offer a sarcastic retort about the painfully obvious.
"Jasper, you shouldn't be here." he said back finally.
Each word scraped against the raw insides of his throat like they were lined with metal.
Jasper's frown deepened as he heard Jace's voice; no longer the smooth fluid tone with the touch of sarcasm in it that he was accustomed to, but a bleak sounding, low croak that was void of any inflections or hints that would give Jasper hope that the golden Shadowhunter still cared about anything at all.
And it seemed true that Jace appeared resigned at the very least, and completely dead inside at the most, because when Jasper peered down into his eyes, he had never before seen such dullness in them. Their usual bright amber color, like that of fire, was now faded and lackluster, almost as if their rebel flames had been beaten out and all that was left was ash. With a shudder, Jasper realized that his metaphor probably described what had happened here…
"I know, but I had a feeling something was wrong in the Manor…so I thought I should come see for myself." he peered intently at Jace before continuing, "Normally, when I get bad feelings coming from the house I ignore them, but this time…it felt like it had something to do with you, Master Morgenstern." Jace turned his head to the fae boy and looked at him.
"That was stupid. You shouldn't have come here." he repeated. Jasper lowered his eyes at his reprimanding tone.
"Never put yourself in danger for someone else. That's rule number one. And don't trust anybody…ever. That's also rule number one. There's two rule number ones, don't ask me why, there just is."
Jasper smiled despite the continued bleakness of Jace's voice.
"I get the feeling you are making these rules up as you go, Master Morgenstern."
The dead look that Jace gave him in response chased away all Jasper's humor.
"That doesn't mean they should be ignored. Trust me, you'll be better off if you just look out for number one." Jasper studied him.
"Better off?" Jace's dark circled eyes fixed up on the ceiling.
"Way better off."
"I'll be better off if I never trust or help anyone?"
"Yep."
"No offense, but you need a new rule number ones. They-it sucks."
The corner of Jace's mouth twitched.
He dropped his eyes down from the ceiling and fixed them on the boy. Jasper was pleased to see the tiniest flicker of life in them.
"Oh yeah? And what do you suggest my rules be?" Jasper's eyes brightened.
"Never stop fighting and no fairy wine after 3 a.m."
Jace smiled and the sight of it eased the dread that had been slowly crushing Jasper's chest since he had first entered the cellar and found Jace unconscious and mutilated.
"Why not?" Jace asked. Jasper's impossible eyes sparkled.
"Because angels should never give up when a war is raging on and they are needed." he said simply. Jace frowned, confused.
"No, I meant about the wine…" Jasper smiled again.
"I know that's what you meant…Fairy wine when drunk by mortals after the witching hour has some odd effects. Some people turn into various forgotten creatures for a few hours, while others simply combust."
"But the fun part is not knowing which it'll be right? Whether you'll pop like a balloon or turn into a dragon…"
Jasper's smile widened and revealed small white fangs that Jace had never noticed before. But then again he had never seen the fae boy smile before now.
"Right that is the fun of it,"Jasper said with a smirk, "For those who like to live on that little stick that hangs out over the edge."
Jace laughed, and even though it hurt his throat badly, it felt great. He hadn't thought he would laugh again so soon.
He looked over at Jasper and felt comfort in the boy's presence, even though he wasn't the person that he had wanted to see upon first opening his eyes.
Well at least he was pretty to look at like Clary was. And Jasper was a good sort of boy pretty, not like Jonathan's attractiveness, which had the air of being tainted and destroyed from within, like something black and vile all wrapped up in beautiful porcelain paper.
Jonathan wasn't fooling anyone though…his ugliness could be seen clearly from the outside; all one had to do was look into his eyes and suddenly his gorgeous face was nothing more than a mask he hid behind.
Jasper seemed to sense that Jace was thinking about troubling things because he placed a light hand on his shoulder and spoke quietly.
"You say it was stupid of me to come here and that I should only look out for myself…and yet you didn't only look out for yourself the day your brother had convinced himself I had killed his mare." Jace's face was empty. "You saved my life. He would've killed me had you not stopped him."
"If you're here because you think you owe me-"
"I'm here of my own choosing. And tied down as you are, there isn't much you can do about it."
Jace flicked a dark look at Jasper, who surprisingly, didn't back down from his look but continued to stare back at him with hard determination. Jace sighed and looked past him at the wall. Stubborn ass fairies...
"I stopped him because I like you better when you're breathing. If you get caught down here, my father won't hesitate…no matter how rare your gifts are." Jasper's eyes wandered down to Jace's injuries again.
"My gifts…" he said quietly as he stretched out his arm, palm lowered over Jace's chest. Jace flicked his eyes down at his hand and then back up at his face.
"What are you doing?"
"I can't heal you…they would notice that. But I can numb the nerves and skin so it all doesn't hurt as much." Jace could only stare at him.
"I thought your affinities only worked with animals?" Jasper smiled again.
"Are people not just civilized animals?"
But then his eyes flickered back down to the mess of bloody cuts on Jace's body and his smile was gone, to be replaced by a hard line.
"…It is true though that some are much more civilized than others."
And then without waiting for Jace to respond, Jasper lowered his palm down to his skin and closed his eyes. Jace winced as his light touch landed on two crossed cuts that skirted the edges of a permanent Mark on his chest.
Jace remained quiet as Jasper slowly brushed his palm down the length of his torso, spreading numbness like novacane all along his damaged skin.
When his hand reached Jace's lower belly, and passed over the cruel words carved there by his brother, Jasper lifted his hand away and opened his eyes, observing the blood that stained the heel of his palm and the tips of his fingers.
"There. That should be better."
Had Jace not been watching, he would have missed the blood evaporate completely from Jasper's palm, leaving his skin clean like the boy had never touched him at all.
"How did you do that?" Jasper's eyes gleamed brightly, their color reminding Jace of sea green glass in bright summer sunlight.
"Magic. Take care, Angel Jace. Don't forget your rules."
And then he was gone from the cellar completely, between one quick second and the next.
