Hey, guys! Just a quick heads up that I'm not sure if there will be two updates for every story next month, like there has been for the past couple months, we'll just see how it goes. Working a lot at the moment and my husband and I are doing renovations on our home and just general busy life stuff, so don't have a lot of free time right now x
The next day, after her classes finished, Will told Clary that they were being picked up. He didn't tell her what it was they were going to be doing or where it was they were going, and she didn't pry into his mind, but she knew that it had something to do with Jace and what had happened to her, the people that had attacked her. It had been two days since she had spoken with Jace, since the night that she had proved to him—for the umpteenth time—just how powerful she was when she was using just a portion of her powers. He hadn't spoke with her about what they had been doing, but he had murmured before they had gone to sleep that night, that next time they had a lead, he would ask for her help.
The SUV that was waiting for them in the staff parking lot wasn't as conspicuous as the limo that Jace had picked her up in last time, but it was still one of the most expensive cars in the lot. Will and Clary walked over quickly, getting into the backseat and closing the door behind them.
"Afternoon, florecita," Raphael greeted her, but there was a slightly tighter tinge to his tone than their usually was, not quite as happy and carefree as usual. That worried Clary, and she dipped into the shallow waves of his mind, and picked up an argument between himself and Jace. It was about her, about picking her up. Raphael hadn't wanted to come and get her—not because he didn't want to see her, of course, but because he was worried about her and didn't want her to come with them to where they were going.
Clary quickly receded from his mind, not wanting to look any further, given the reason for his not so great mood was because he was feeling protective toward her. She appreciated the gesture on his behalf, but it wasn't necessary, whatever was happening here.
"Where are we going?" Will asked, his words clipped.
"Boss wants us to follow up with a couple of Hodge's known associates," Raphael replied as they pulled out of the parking lot and merged with the heavy traffic.
"We've already done that," Will replied, not bothering with a seat belt as he sat on the edge of the seat, one arm braced on Raphael's drivers seat and the other hand on the back of the seat that he and Clary were sitting on.
"We haven't done it with her," Raphael answered as he looked in the rear view mirror, back to where Clary was. The redhead met his eyes and then turned to look at Will, who was looking back at her with his eyebrows pulled together. It looked as though he was carding quickly through thoughts, not too sure how to school his expression, before he pursed his lips and jerked his head in a nod, leaning back in his seat.
Clary wasn't too sure how long they drove for, because they circled back near the University a couple of times and then down random side streets and doubling back. She checked her phone at one point and noted that it had been almost forty minutes since classes had let out, so they had been driving for at least that long, but then she slipped her phone into her bag and settled back in her seat, trying to force herself to be calm.
At least one of them in the car had to be, and it clearly wasn't either of the men.
The traffic was heavy and she was guessing that it was rush hour when they parked down a side street. They were downtown, in the business sector of the city, and Clary vaguely recognized their surroundings through the tinted glass windows. She was pretty sure they were only a few blocks away from where Jace's work building.
"This is a place that Jace uses to meet with some...Clients," Raphael said under his breath as he nodded to the building on their left. That didn't surprise Clary too much, she knew that he had a lot of properties under his name. It would also make sense that if he's following up with some unsavory clients, then he wouldn't want them to be coming to his main place of work, but it was close enough that he didn't have to leave his office for too long. "Jace is inside, just down the hall, through that door," Raphael gestured at the steel door just in front of the SUV. "He's meeting with a couple of people who have had connections in the past with Hodge and his group."
"So, what?" Will narrowed his eyes. "He wants Clary to just go filing through all of their minds as he talks to them to see if she can sniff anything out?" Raphael's eyebrows pulled together in a glare as he looked directly at Will.
"You think I like this anymore than you do?" He snapped.
"You're the glorified chauffeur here, bringing us right here, where there's potential danger going on the other side," Will snapped back.
"As if Jace would ever put her in danger on purpose?" Raphael sniped, looking defensive. "That's why we're out here!"
"Well, he's already put her in danger. Look what happened last time—"
"Hey," Clary's voice was sharp as she interrupted Will, cutting him off with her words and with a sharp look. "That's not okay to say," she told him, and Will had the decency to look ashamed of his words. She turned to look at Raphael and nodded. "So Jace is in there talking to people now?" She asked, although it wasn't really necessary because she was already reaching out with her mind. Despite how big the building was, it was relatively empty, and that was undoubtedly on purpose. She felt Jace's mind first, and then Alec's, because those were the ones that were most familiar to her. Then she also felt Max's, and finally it was the person that they were speaking with. She could also feel that there were more people in the building, but right now, they weren't the focus, and she zeroed in on the person that held Jace's focus at the moment.
Clary got an idea of the situation, a picture of what the space looked like in her head, as she got glimpses of it through the minds of the people that she was looking into. It looked like any other office space, except the room was almost completely empty, and all of the windows were made with bullet proof glass. There were two guards at the door, as well as Alec and Max standing beside Jace, all with weapons.
Clary then expanded her thoughts, building outward from Jace, and she lost track of how many people he had brought in through an entrance on the other side of the building. She was guessing it wasn't the front door, but she wasn't really keeping her mind trained on the guards who were the ones that were actually bringing the people in. She was focusing on each of the men—and women, given there were two. Alec was the one asking the questions, while Jace was just standing back, watching silently. From the minds of the ones being interrogated, Clary could tell that they all knew who Jace was, and they grew even more scared of him when he remained wordless. One of them even kept having a recurring fear of Jace clicking his fingers and sending the metal pipes that were running along the walls flying, and burying them into his body.
Clary winced at the explicitness of the fear and she tied to push it aside.
She knew that there was blood on Jace's hands, one didn't become as powerful as he was without doing some things that Clary would never want to hear of.
Or think of, and visualize.
She could sense the restlessness from Will and Raphael in the care, especially since they weren't able to listen in to the minds of what was going on inside, they were just sitting there in silence. She could also feel that Jace was getting tired, and she noted that it was dark outside, so they must have been there for a while. Clary was about to ask Raphael if he had any idea of how long they were going to do this, but then she caught a glimpse of a familiar figure.
A womanly shape, made entirely of diamond.
Clary gasped, panic welling in her stomach at the image, and Will was at attention suddenly, leaning in and putting his hand on her shoulder.
"Clary?" Raphael asked quietly. Clary just shook her head, quickly moving from the mind of the man who was in the chair in front of Jace and his men and sliding into Jace's mind. She had been careful not to intrude into his thoughts since she had gotten there, other than quietly murmuring that she was outside when they had first arrived. But now, she spoke loudly, her voice clear in his mind.
He knows something. He knows something about the diamond girl. Jace didn't reply mentally, but she knew that he had heard and understood what she had said, because he finally spoke, after staying silent for the past few hours.
"We're going to speak with him somewhere a bit more private," Jace said, and the man in the seat jerked, fear spiking through him. Clary instantly caught something else in his mind that made her jolt. That panic that had been swirling around in her stomach from the moment she had seen the person made of diamond starting rising up in her throat. She felt her lungs beginning to work double time as she sucked in more air through her nose and mouth.
"Clary?" Will sounded even more worried now, tightening the grip that he had on her shoulder. His fingers were pressing into her upper arm and it hurt slightly, but that was good, because that dragged her back.
And he knows that you have a girlfriend, Clary projected to Jace, and she felt his whole body tighten. When Jace had spoken, several different images had flooded through his mind, and one of those thoughts had been the man speaking to someone else, someone sitting in the shadows of a car, and telling that shadow that word on the street was that Jace had a girlfriend. He didn't know who, he didn't know if she was a mutant or a human, but she knew that she existed.
A moment later, Raphael's phone rang, and he quickly pulled it out of his pocket. His eyes moved back to Clary and Will as he spoke, and Clary instantly knew that it was Jace.
"Yeah?" Raphael answered the phone. His eyes narrowed and a thundercloud rested over her face. "Got it," he stated and then ended the call. "We're getting out of here," he said as he turned back around.
"What's going on?" Will questioned, still braced on the edge of his seat, his eyes flicking between Clary and Raphael.
"The guy they've got in there—he knows about Clary," Raphael's voice was rough as he turned on the engine of the SUV.
"What?!" Will growled, his eyes widening.
"H-he knows that I exist, not w-who I am," Clary said shakily. Will pursed his lips together and jerked his head in a nod, before moving back in the seat next to Clary. Raphael speed out of the alleyway, the only thing on his mind was getting the redhead somewhere safe.
Songs that I recommend are Die A Little by Yungblud, Teeth by 5SOS, Love Myself by Olivia O'Brien and Middle Finger by Bohnes, all of which have just been on repeat for the past week or so. Also, my husband is completely obsessed with Motivation by Normani and Slide Away by Miley Cyrus, so I've been hearing those a lot recently as well. Lol.
I've been fighting this cold/flu/virus things for moooonths now, and I took a day off work coz it hit hard and I was feeling sorry for myself and I just spent it watching fluffy movies that make me happy. Haha. Footloose, the original one, of course, even though I don't mind the new one. A Cinderella Story, Ever After, Raise Your Voice, Centre Stage: Turn It Up, What A Girl Wants, The Prince & Me, 13 Going On 30 and High School Musical so those are my recommendations!
Okay, so questions—how many of you guys are planning on getting Disney+? Haha. It's just been announced that it will be getting released in New Zealand, which we were worried it wouldn't be because so many streaming services aren't. But it's gonna be here in November and me and my partner are psyched! Haha.
Is everyone else heartbroken about the Sony/Marvel breakdown? Honestly, my heart goes out to Tom Holland the most, because he has done such an incredible job. There's always going to be a special place in my heart for the OG Spiderman, but there's just something about Tom's version, he was fucking amazing and had so much heart, and I'm just so upset that there isn't going to be more of him in this verse. He seemed so heart broken at D23. Poor baby :(
Last one! Anyone watch performances at the VMAs? I honestly kind of think the VMAs/Oscars/The Golden Globes yadda yadda yadda are pretty bullshit, pretty biased, so I don't pay too much attention to the nominations and the winners, but I live for the outfits and the, like, two or three performances from artists I like. Lizzo and Missy Elliott were fucking amazing, and I screamed when Alyson Stoner came out on stage. Miley Cyrus' performance was totally heart breaking, so fucking good. And Halsey and Jonathan Van Ness were my stand out outfits! Oh also—Joe and Nick Jonas and Sophie Turner's reactions to Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes not kissing in their set was fucking hilarious. Let's face it, I think anything involving Sophie is hilarious—did you guys see her pasta related Instagram story? Ahahahaha. She's amazing.
Drop a review, let me know what you think, love you lots x