Hey, beauties :)

Hodge made the call a couple of days later. Jace was in the room when the call was being made, just to monitor and make sure that he didn't say anything that was going to tip Sebastian off. Clary was back in the alleyway with Isabelle, listening in to the other side of the conversation. She was sitting in Hodge's mind when he picked up his phone and dialed the number.

The man was petrified, but he didn't have any intentions of tipping Sebastian to the fact that he was calling with Jace standing right there. He sounded nervous when the phone stopping ringing and was answered. Clary swallowed hard as she heard Sebastian's voice for the first time.

"Yes?" He stated and Clary couldn't stop her shiver. His voice sounded so cold and indifferent, even just in that one word. She hadn't known what she was expecting, but for someone who shared DNA with Jace, she expected some type of humanity in the voice. Then again, Jace could sound scary when he wanted to, and he generally had a flat tone when he was talking to people that he wasn't close to. "Why are you calling? Do you have something?"

Hodge was stammering again, the same way that he was when he had been cornered by Jace. He managed to get his demands out though, explaining in terrible fashion that he felt as though he deserved more money because of what had happened. He said that protection was one thing, but the way that he couldn't even go back to the city meant that he wanted to be compensated more greatly so that he could leave and never come back. Sebastian didn't say anything for a long time, and Clary was trying to reach out to Sebastian, but she couldn't get a grip on his mind. It was probably because he was far away, but Clary also couldn't help but wonder if there was another reason as well.

She couldn't always slip into someones mind by secondary transference, but sometimes she could. However, other than hearing Sebastian's voice, she couldn't read anything. She tried not to let it worry her, because there were a few reasons why it wouldn't work, not just because of any nefarious reasons.

After leaving Hodge to sweat for a few minutes, Sebastian spoke again, and simply said that they would meet to discuss, and he would get back in contact with a time and place. The call was then disconnected and Hodge gasped for air, the panic that had been swarming in his mind suddenly releasing now that the hard conversation was over, and his shaking hands dropped the phone to the ground.

"I expect you to contact me as soon as he calls you," Jace said, his voice firm, the threat clear if Hodge didn't do what he asked. "Hold on to that burner phone," was the last thing he said before he turned around and left the room, Alec and Will close behind him. Clary didn't leave Hodge's mind as she felt them getting closer, she stayed to file through his mind to make sure that there wasn't anything else that he was keeping from them.

All she got from him was that he was calling up a prostitute to come over and help him get rid of his tension. He began thinking in detail what he was going to do when she got here, and Clary cringed, quickly withdrawing.

"Is anyone watching him?" Jace asked as he got into the car, shutting it behind him. Will and Alec got in the SUV that was parked behind them with Raphael behind the wheel. Clary took in a deep breath and stretched out her mind. She could feel a lot of people in the buildings around them, and on the street, and in parked cars. As far as she could feel though, it didn't seem as though any of them were paying any particular attention to them or to Hodge.

"I don't think so," Clary murmured, still trying to swoop through all of the minds of the people around them. She bit down on her lip and let out a sigh as she let her eyes refocus on Jace, who was looking at her expectantly. "I don't think so," she repeated. "But if they've got telepathic blockers or resistance training, and I can't focus on them to break it, then I won't be able to read them. And then...There's always that girl, the one made of diamond? I couldn't read her mind at all. I don't know how her power works, or far it works."

"It's okay," Jace told her carefully, resting his hand on her knee. Clary gave him a small smile and covered his hand with her own. "Iz, take us home." Isabelle nodded and turned the car on, and the two SUV's pulled out of the alleyway and into the street. They began driving home, and Clary tried not to think about what was coming.

Jace was purposefully going to walk into a meeting with Sebastian, someone that even he viewed as dangerous. And that scared Clary, because other than when she was injured, she had never known anything else that had frightened Jace. This guy had purposefully found someone to set up a meet with Jace, and then he had attacked them, and he hadn't cared who he hurt in his mission to get to Jace.

"I'm going with you," Clary said as they drove down the busy streets.

"Clary," Jace sighed, and she raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm going with you," she repeated. "And there's nothing that you can do about it." Jace sighed and pressed two fingers against his temple as he thought. Clary knew that she was probably just adding to his trouble, because now he was going to be worrying about her coming with him, but she wasn't going to let him do this alone.

"Alright," Jace muttered. "You don't make this easy, woman," he told her, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. Clary just leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. The SUV that they were in and the SUV that Raphael were driving split up to go in different directions, and Isabelle looped back a couple of times, moving through the busy traffic, going a long way around the city to get back to their apartment. When both SUV's were satisfied that they weren't being followed, they rejoined and headed toward Jace's apartment building, which might as well be called Clary's apartment building as well. Jace got out of the car first, holding out a hand to Clary to help her out.

"I'm going to head back to our work," Will said quietly as he came over to Jace. "I'm going to monitor the bugs that we put in Hodge's apartment, make sure he doesn't call Sebastian back again and try to double cross us."

"I'd be careful," Clary said to him, making a face, and Will frowned in confusion. "Not about the whole Sebastian thing, but he was planning on calling a...Uh, a woman to come and keep him company and he had some interesting positions in mind." Will's frown dissolved into a smirk and he shook his head.

"I'll keep the warning in mind," he told her before leaning forward to give her a kiss on the cheek. He nodded at Jace and the others and then headed toward his own car, which was parked at the back of the lot. Raphael lead the way toward the elevator door, and he and Isabelle got in first, taking the elevator to the the floor where Isabelle's apartment was. Alec waited with Jace and Clary in the parking lot until another elevator came, and then the three of them stepped inside.

Once they were up in the penthouse apartment, Clary left the two to talk while she went into the kitchen. She'd had an early class that morning, and then Will had picked her up and brought her to Jace, and they had gone to Hodge's from there. Between all of that, she hadn't eaten anything since the smoothie that she had had for breakfast that morning, and her stomach was reminding her of that.

"You guys want anything to eat?" Clary called out.

"We're good, babe," Jace responded, raising his voice slightly to be heard from the other room. He and Alec were talking quietly, and Clary thought about listening in on their conversation, but she heard the words 'Hodge' and 'after he sets the met', and she decided that she probably didn't want to know what was being said. She moved around the kitchen, not in any rush to get back to the lounge, because in the past couple of days, she had seen a lot more violence and felt a lot more fear that she had in a while, and despite the fact that she pushed Jace to have more to do with what was happening, it didn't mean it was easy to swallow.

Clary ate in the kitchen, staring out the window at the city below. There was so much life happening in the streets below, the sky scrapers around her and even in the sky above, the planes that were flying to and from the airport. When she was younger—much younger, she would sometimes listen in. Not in detail, but just for the overhead. She listened in for the good things, liking that she could feeling that filled her chest. But the older she got, the more bad she could feel, and she had no idea how to filter. It had only been a few months after that that she had been sent to the special school by her parents, thankfully.

Clary came back into herself when she heard a phone ring in the room, and she picked up the glass of juice that she had poured herself and walked to the doorway. Jace picked up his phone and put it to his ear, Alec moving to sit down on the couch.

"Right," Jace nodded, his fingers tightening around his phone. From the way his lips were pinched in the corners and his eyes narrowed, Clary could tell that it was something to do with Hodge and Sebastian. "No, we will get our own tickets...Yup," Jace ended the call without a goodbye, shoving the phone into his pocket. He was quiet for a moment before he glanced between Alec and Clary, and then down at the ground. "That was Hodge. Sebastian called him back."

"And?" Alec prompted.

"He wants to meet at a charity dinner in three days time," Jace's voice was clipped. "Hodge offered to get us tickets, but I don't want him knowing how many people we're going to have in that building."

"It's not like you can't get into any event you want to anyway," Clary said with a small smile, and Jace nodded in agreement in her direction. "Alright," she took in a deep breath and straightened up. "Looks like we all need to go shopping."

So obviously it's been a while, and there's a lot of songs that I haven't recommended! I've just decided to log into that website thing that shows your top tracks, so these are my short term top ten. 1) She - Harry Styles. 2) Radio - Lana Del Rey. 3) Living Proof - Camila Cabello. 4) Hazel - Carlie Hanson. 5) September Song - JP Cooper. 6) We Made It - Louis Tomlinson. 7) All My Friends - AJ Mitchell. 8) The Sound - The 1975. 9) Wrong Direction - Hailee Steinfield. 10) Dazed & Confused - Ruel. Bonus song would be You Should Be Sad by Halsey, which is fucking amazing, so far my second favourite of the released tracks from Manic.

There's been a lot of amazing TV shows that have recently come out; The Witcher/His Dark Materials/Watchmen/The Mandalorian. These are all amazing, incredible acting, the sets and scenery and costume design is just A+. Also Spinning Out was really good, I absolutely loved Mandy and Marcus. I love when there are strong side characters that I can fall in love with, and it had good story lines.

I've also been to a couple of concerts that were great; Greta Van Fleet, Ruel, Shawn Mendes and Khlaid. All bloody brilliant.

Now. I don't want to say much about how shit 2020 has been because we're only 14 days in and holy shit, I feel like there's a lot going on. A fucking lot. For me, what hits closest to home is Australia on fire. On the fifth of January our skies turned an apocalyptic orange because the winds changed and the smoke reached us here in New Zealand. I just want to say to everyone who is dealing with anything right now—it doesn't matter how big or small—I love you and you're not alone x

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