Hey, guys! Before getting into it, I want to recommend some of my favourite songs as of late...Undrunk by Fletcher. Dance Monkey by Tones and I. And then of course Kill My Mind by the beautiful Louis Tomlinson and Lights Up by the just as beautiful Harry Styles, although the Lights Up music video was an experience and a half, especially while high. Pretending and Honest by Mali Koa are just beautiful. Then Promise Me by Badflowers, which...Made my heart hurt when I heard the song, and then when I watched the video, I cried for the next hour. Yeah. I just wanted to share some happy things, since my note down the end isn't as happy, I guess. Anyway. On with the story x
Clary didn't want to know what Jace was doing with the guy that he was holding down town.
They got back to Jace's apartment with no detours and Raphael probably breaking several speed limits. Both men escorted her into the elevator, giving a nasty look at another girl who approached the elevator as well, and she quickly seemed to change her mind, holding back and waiting for the next elevator to come. Usually Clary would scold them for being rude, but she just wasn't in her normal head space right now. She felt shaken, and she knew that it was because everything was coming back, she felt as though she was right back in the aftermath of that woman driving a piece of her diamond into her stomach.
"Clary?" Isabelle was standing just outside the elevator, and the redhead realized that they had reached the top floor and the doors were open. "You ready?" Clary swallowed hard and stepped forward, out of the elevator. Will came with her, while Raphael stayed where he was.
"I'll be back once Jace is finished," he said quietly, leaning forward to the press the button to go back to the underground parking lot. Will nodded, and he followed Isabelle and Clary into the penthouse. Clary didn't like having them in her space, feeling like she was being babied, but she knew why they were there, they were just worried about her.
Clary sat on the couch in the lounge until Jace came back.
She felt his presence as soon as Raphael, Alec, Max and he rounded the block in the car, and she felt him getting closer and closer as the car made it's way through traffic and then into the parking lot. She could feel that he was angry, but it was a controlled rage, and she knew that she had to feed off that. She had to share his strength and his resolve.
She had to push aside her fear and her worry, because they needed to get to the bottom of their problem so that they could move out without it following them around.
When Jace walked in, Clary stood up, hands clenched into fists at her side and chin jutted forward.
"I want to help. What can I do?" She asked, her voice steady.
Clary could feel that there were three men in the room, other than the primary target. They all had weapons, but none of them were paying much attention to their surroundings either. They were lazy and they had let their minds wander, and she easily entered their consciousness. One of them was next to a computer monitor which flicked through the security feed, and she was the one that focused mainly on, masking the entrance of Will, Alec and Raphael, and then Jace, who was walking behind his men, at a much slower pace, a murderous look on his face. The other two men were talking among themselves, and their minds were easy to cloud until Will and Alec were on them.
She quickly withdrew from their minds when the shots were fired.
Jace had warned her about that before they had gone in, saying that the only person that they were going to keep alive was going to be Hodge, and that was why he had been worried about using her power. He didn't want her in anyones head when they died.
She never wanted to experience that.
There were a few more minds that Clary reached out to in the building, and they were similar to the first few, they just weren't paying any attention and they were easy to manipulate. She pushed the thoughts of where they were into the minds of Jace and his men as they moved through the building, and then she easily located Hodge, where he was with one other man.
"They in?" Isabelle asked quietly from where she was sitting in the drivers seat of the SUV that was parked just down the block from the building.
"Yup, making their way toward Hodge," Clary said quietly. They didn't need her anymore, there was only one guard left and they could easily take care of them without any further help from her. But she remained in the back of Jace's mind, watching through his eyes. His mind was angry, angrier than usual. She didn't like it when he was like this, she wanted to make it go away, to soothe over the pain, but she knew that she had no right to take that away from him, so she just remained small and unheard.
Alec shot the last guard in the head, no flair required in taking him out. Hodge was sitting at a long desk in the corner of the room and he jumped when the doors flung open and almost fell off his chair when the bullet went off. Clary didn't need to be in his head to know how frightened he was when he the men moved aside and Jace walked past them, his eyes narrow as he looked down at the man.
"M-Mr Herondale," he stammered out. Jace didn't say anything, just kept on advancing across the room. Hodge looked as though he wanted to melt into the floor below him and just before Jace reached him, he flicked his fingers, and the metal legs of the desk were torn out, a loud crash as the table of the desk and it's contents scattered across the floor. The metal legs creaked as they wrapped themselves around Hodge's arms, pinning him to the chair, another leg wrapping itself tightly around Hodge's neck, more going around his legs. They were squeezing so tightly that Hodge's breathing started coming out in rasps, and Clary considered pulling out of his mind.
Just because she knew that Jace killed people, sometimes even tortured people, but that didn't mean she wanted to see it.
Clary was about to withdraw when she felt Jace relent just slightly, his power loosening in his mind, and the metal table leg that was wound around in his neck gave just a little.
"You fucked me over," Jace began, getting straight to the point. There really wasn't any need for beating around the bush, because Hodge was clearly already aware of just how powerful Jace was, and he was absolutely petrified. "Tell me everything." For a moment, it looked as though maybe Hodge wasn't going to say anything. Clary could see the indecision on his face, even though he was frightened of Jace, he was also just as scared of the person that he had made a deal with.
Clary didn't have to nudge very hard in his mind to give him the idea that Jace didn't need him alive, that he had someone else who could give him the information and therefore he was expendable, before he started speaking.
It came out in stutters and stammers, but it gave them a lot of information.
Hodge had agreed to help Sebastian Verlac get close to Jace in exchange for protection. Protection was an invaluable thing to have, especially for mutants, and Jace would never make that offer to Hodge, so Hodge had taken it up from someone else. He hadn't known what Sebastian was going to do though, because although he wanted protection, he wasn't suicidal, and he wouldn't have stepped up against Jace in such a big way if he had known that was what was happening.
"This is my city," Hodge managed to say, needing to take in shallow breaths given how tight the metal bar was still wrapped around his neck. "This is where I've lived all my life. And now I can't come back because of what happened to your team," he swallowed hard, and he looked up at Jace from beneath flickering eyelids. "There was rumors that one of them was your girl as well." Jace didn't answer that—he didn't even flinch—and neither did the men at his side. Hodge swallowed again and dropped his eyes.
"Do you have a phone number for him?" Jace asked, his voice low and gravelly, and Hodge dipped his head in a nod. "What else did he ask you for?"
Hodge continued. Sebastian had asked for him and his men to keep their eye on Jace and his men, and especially 'his girl'. Hodge had no idea who she was, given it wasn't as though Clary was seen in public very often with any of them, and she managed to keep herself concealed when they did venture out. Hodge had also been finding it difficult to keep track of Jace and his men, given how they utilized Alec and Max's teleporting abilities and Clary's cloaking ability and also the fact that Jace had been keeping them pretty under the radar. So Hodge hadn't actually been in contact with Sebastian on that number, and he was probably due to make a phone call any day now.
"Right," Jace nodded, and rubbed a hand over his mouth as he thought for a moment. "You're going to use that number to call Sebastian, and you're going to set up a meeting." Clary made sure to follow every single one of the the thoughts that flew through Hodge's mind. For about half a second, he considered calling Sebastian and telling him everything that had happened, and hoping that Sebastian would come to his aid. But he dismissed that quickly out of sheer fear of Jace.
"W-what do I tell him when he asks why I want t-to meet?" Hodge asked shakily.
"You tell him that you want to renegotiate the terms of your arrangement with him," Jace responded. "You tell him what you told me—that you fear for your life if you return to the city and especially if you had no idea of what Sebastian was going to do to myself and my team, you feel as though you need to be compensated greater." Hodge didn't like the idea of that—of challenging Sebastian, Clary didn't need the ability to read minds to know that, and Jace knew that as well. "Be convincing, because if you don't successfully set up this meet..." Jace trailed off and his finger flickered at his side, and the band of metal around Hodge's neck suddenly tightened. Hodge spluttered, making futile attempts to pull his hands free and grab for the metal, but Jace's face was completely impassive as he just tightened those restrains even more.
Hodge's breaths came out in wheezes and his face was bright red, his eyes wide and petrified. Clary knew that Jace wasn't going to kill him, he unfortunately needed Hodge, but Clary didn't need to see anything further, and so she completely withdrew from his mind and everyone elses who were in that room.
"You alright?" Isabelle asked softly, already turned around in the drivers seat, her eyes on the red head. Clary swallowed hard and jerked her head in a nod. "They'll be back soon," she assured Clary, even though she didn't know what was going on inside, like Clary did. Clary just nodded again, leaning back in the chair and tipping her head backwards and closing her eyes.
Isabelle had been right, Jace and his guards began leaving the building shortly, she could feel them getting closer, and there was a slight tug of reassurance in the ring that she wore around her thumb, and she knew that that was Jace's way of telling her that they were okay.
Even as Jace got back into the SUV, and Will, Raphael and Alec got into the SUV that was parked behind them, Clary kept her eyes closed. Even though she was no longer in Hodge's mind—or anyone elses—but she still had images flashing behind her eyelids. Of the men that Jace's people had killed, and also of Hodge's face, or the petrified expression as the metal had wrapped tighter and tighter around his neck.
She tried to quiet her mind as Jace reached out and touched his fingertips to the back of her hand.
Alright, so, obviously I didn't update last month. My bad. I'm in a pretty shitty spot, to be honest, mentally and physically and I've just got a lot going on right now. I'm still dealing with the abrupt loss of a family member and the fall out of that on my family and recently my husband has had a colleague take his life, which has brought up a lot for him. We're going to be okay, we're dealing with things, but I just need to take a breath right now. When I am in front of my computer and I'm actually focused enough to write, I'm not sticking to the schedules that I had before and I'm just writing what I really feel like which unfortunately hasn't been these stories. So I'm just...Gonna take a step back for a bit.
You guys are all beautiful, and I'll be back soon, I just need a bit of a breather to re-centre myself.
Since updating last, it has been World Coming Out Day and World Mental Health Day and I just wanted to say to anyone dealing with mental health issues and anyone in the LGBTQ+ community, whether you are out and loud or still processing things internally, you are all beautiful and deserve love and kindness. Just because I'm going to be away for a little bit, doesn't mean I'm unreachable, feel free to message me on my socials or on here if anyone ever wants to just chat, even if it's just about movies or songs, we all need to look after ourselves first, and then one another.
Much love xx
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