We all come out the haunted house hanging on each other and laughing, as we make our way down the exiting walkway; splitting apart when Max stops at the table to the left of the path - where the homeowners, dressed as skeletons, sit - to get his candy before we continue on. I don't know why this child puts himself through all that just for a large handful of candy. I mean, he can get the candy without going inside the haunted house, since they sit on the sidewalk handing it out to all those who pass by. And I know he loves the mummy, but that wasn't there the first year we went through; it was just empty coffins then. Maybe it's the rush, and the curiosity of what could have been added each and every year, that gets him.

Deciding that, that's got to be it, I look over at Jace, still laughing, and ask, "Now what was that about you having my back or whatnot?"

"Man, that was different," he says, his laughing coming to a stop, then looks at me. "And I did come back to protect you." He inhales sharply as if he is surprised by what he just said, then quickly adds, "All of you in fact."

"Yeah, but not before shitting yourself," I laugh, my left hand loosely balled into a fist in front of my mouth while pointing at him with my right index finger.

"I did not shit myself," he protests. I look at him skeptically, both eyebrows raised, my lips pooched out, and my hands on my hips. "Okay, maybe a little," he chuckles before adding, "But not literally."

"That's what I thought," I chuckle, dropping my hands from my hips as our group begins putting distance between ourselves and the haunted house; Max leading the way, closely followed by Izzy and Alec, and Jace and myself a step behind them.

Jace raises his right eyebrow at me with a smirk on his face, and says, "I'm glad I could be of amusement for you."

"Oh, you were," I tell him assuredly, looking around once again because I can feel the eyes back on me.

The mass of people on the street has increased in a significant amount, making it even harder to spot who it could possibly be, as they shuffle from house to house, and back and forth across the street.

"HA! Right there!" He exclaims pointing at me. His eyes looking hopeful, but his voice sounding sure when he says, "You're warming up to me."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just keep telling yourself that, bub." I say, dismissing his accusation.

He jumps out in front of me, facing me while taking a couple of steps backward, and stops suddenly; causing me to crash into him as he cuts me off from Max, Izzy, and Alec. His arms automatically go around me as I start to fall backwards from the force of our collision, and he pulls me into him as he keeps me from hitting the ground.

I look up and my eyes meet his, our faces only a couple inches away from the others, and our bodies are pressed against each other to the point that I can literally feel his heart beating against my chest as if it were my own. And all I can think is that this reminds me of some cheesy cliché from the movies; girl falls, guy catches her before she hits the ground, their eyes lock, and then they kiss. Just then Jace's face comes closer to mine, and I move my head to my right. Oh no the hell he isn't!

"No, you just keep telling yourself that," he whispers against my left ear, his warm breath causing goosebumps all over my body as it touches my skin. Come on, Clary, I know it's been a while but damn girl, this is ridiculous. He stands me back up straight, never pulling his cheek away from my own, or any body part for that matter, and whispers, "You'll see that you can't resist me for long."

"Dude, you are so full of your damn self that it's unreal," I say loud enough that a passerby chuckles. He pulls back, letting me go as he does, and the look on his face is as if I just castrated him. Good! He needs to be knocked down off that high horse he thinks he rides on! I very proudly tell myself before continuing. "You don't know me. You don't know what I can, or can not, resist. So, don't assume that you do!"

He stands there looking like a deer caught in headlights, and it's evident to me that he is at a total loss for words. That must be something new to him, I laugh to myself as I decide to catch up with the others. I take a step to the right, to go around him, and he grabs my left forearm as I go to take another.

"I'd like to change all of that," he says softly, finally finding his voice and stopping me. I look at him with my eyebrows raised. - Really?! After all of that, he still won't give up. I can't believe this shit, man. - He turns his body so that he is completely facing me. "I'm serious. I would really like to get to know you better. And just so that there's no pressure, you could always come with Max and me to get ice cream tomorrow."

"As appealing as that offer is," I say sarcastically. "I'm going to have to pass. I've got other things I have to do."

I have to hand it to him though, he is persistent, and trying to use Max like that; it's almost as if he knows, but it won't work for him.

"Like what?" He asks as I pull my arm away from his left hand and begin to walk off, and he falls in step beside me.

"Wouldn't you like to know."

"Well, that is why I asked."

"Look at you, you do have another side besides arrogance and conceitedness."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"It means, that you also have sarcasm to go along with the rest of your attitude."

"Oh, I have many sides," he says sounding amused now. "And I'm not conceited, I'm convinced. There's a difference."

"Whatever," I scoff while rolling my eyes. "But a word from the wise, it's not what we females would call an attractive quality."

"I've never heard any complaints," he says sure of himself.

"Well, you have now," I tell him, and then sigh. I am not going to let him break me, but after what he did for me earlier I think I should help him out a little. "Confidence is an attractive trait, being full of yourself is not. It makes one wonder if you would even have any room left in yourself, to have any real feelings for them." He makes an ahem noise, and I glance over at him, he's grinning as if I was speaking in code and he just read between the lines, breaking it, so I firmly add, "Not me."

"Okay," he says, sounding like he doesn't believe me, but I am dead serious. I mean, yeah, if I was looking for somebody that would be true, however, I'm not. I'm not looking to let anybody get close enough to me, that they would be able to hurt me, ever again; that's why I only have associates. I've got to keep that wall up, I have got to keep myself guarded. "But for the record, I have many layers. And if you took the time to get to know me, you would see who I really am."

"Thanks for the offer, but again, I'm going to have to pass," I say solemnly, as we finally catch up with the others. Thank the angel, I'm not alone with him anymore.

"Fine," he huffs, and storms off after Max and Alec, as they make their way up another long walkway.

"What the hell was all that about?" Izzy asks quizzically, turning her head to the right to look at me.

"I turned down his offer of getting to know him better," I say directly with a shrug.

"Why?" she asks, worry written all over her face. "What happened?"

"Nothing happened, Iz."

"You're lying to me," she says with certainty. Damn! Sometimes I hate that she can tell when I'm lying. "You two seemed to be really hitting it off, so tell me what happened."

"Where do you want me to start?" I ask a little more venomously than I had intended. "How about how he is so full of himself that it is unreal. Or how about how, I'm just not looking to get myself tangled up in another relationship, of any kind, where I'm just going to get screwed over in the end."

"Clary," she says sadly through an audible release of breath, and puts her hands on my cheeks, cupping them. "When are you going to realize that everybody is not going to hurt you? None of the things that have happened to you were your fault, it was theirs for being idiots and not realizing how great of a person you are, and how lucky they were to have you in their lives.

"And yes, I know Jace is extremely conceited, but he really likes you. I have never" she closes her eyes and stretches her neck out when she says the word, "known him to act the way he has about anybody, but you. Ever since last year, every single time he called, he'd ask about you; wanting to know how you were, if you were with anybody, how things were going in your life, when we would give him your number, and the list continues. So why don't you just try to get to know him better, you might be surprised." She sighs exasperatedly. "Besides, you need somebody in your life."

I put my hands on her cheeks, mimicking her as if we were standing in a mirror. "I have you, Alec, Max, and your mom - I even have those that I associate with - so I don't need anybody else."

"Oh, Clary, you do. You just can't see it, like I do," she says, shaking her head very slightly towards the end, then slowly drops her hands from my face.

I open my mouth to tell her how wrong she is, but before I get the chance, I see Max out the corner of my eye running up to us with an ear to ear, toothy grin, holding his bag open.

"Look what I got," he says excitedly, and I drop my hands from her face. I bend over, looking into his bag, and see a king-sized Reese's on top of all the variety of other candies.

"That's great, Max." I put my hand on his shoulder and quickly glance up at Izzy, who's standing there with a fake smile on her face, then back to him; giving him my complete and undivided attention. "What do you say we go see what else we can get."

Jace

"Man, what's her deal?" I ask Alec in a low voice as the two of us follow a few feet behind Clary, Max, and Izzy, as they continue trick-or-treating; all the while keeping my eye on Clary. I know somebody is watching her still, I can feel it. And if that somebody tries something, I want to be able to cause them a world of hurt without any delay; even though I've seen first hand that she is a ferocious fighter, that shows no mercy.

I don't know why I feel this need to protect her like I do, but I do, and I can't really explain it. It could be because she is so tiny, but they do say that dynamite comes in small packages. It could be that I feel this connection to her, like I've never felt with anybody else; it makes me want to be the one that makes her smile and laugh, - Oh, that laugh of hers sounds like angels singing, and her smile is like the sun's rays beaming down on me, bringing warmth and happiness. - and just be around her. I just want to be the one that keeps anything bad from happening to her.

"What do you mean?" Alec asks.

"One minute, it's as if we're connecting on some level. And then the next, it's like she wants nothing to do with me. Is that normal?"

I sure as hell hope he knows, because the angel knows that I don't and that I am completely confused by it all.

"These days it is," he says. "For her anyway," he adds as an afterthought, and I look over at him expectantly with my left eyebrow raised. He opens his mouth to begin, and I look back at Clary. "She use to be this... this brilliantly, bright force. - Izzy always called her, her shooting star because of it. - She lit up any room she entered. - And it wasn't because of her fiery, red hair either. - She had this way of getting along with everybody, and a way of getting you to spill all your deepest, darkest secrets to her." He says that part as if he knows from personal experience. "She was outgoing, loved to hang out with everybody and have fun, and..." He sighs. "You know what, it doesn't even matter what she was anymore, because she's completely changed. She has a wall around her now, and none of us have been able to get her to take it down. She pushes everybody away, with the exception of Izzy, Max, mom, and me; we're the only ones that she really and truly has anything to do with, and that's enough for her. - She doesn't even talk to dad anymore, but that's understandable." What the hell does that mean? Why wouldn't she talk to Robert anymore? "And you can't say that I didn't warn you about her being hot and cold with people, because I did when we were at the carnival earlier."

"Is that why you and Izzy never told her that I wanted to talk to her?" I ask, my curiosity getting the best of me. "Or that I was the one that pulled her off that bitch Seelie? She acts as if she has never heard anything about me, or even seen a picture of me before."

"That's because she hasn't," he admits. "She knew that we were going to visit our cousin, when we'd come for visits, and what we did while we were there, but other than that, no she hasn't. And it's not like you ever came to visit us. As for pictures, we don't really have any of you; except from when we were little kids, and they're in photo albums." He takes a deep audible breath and releases it. "And with everything that was going on that night, that week, it didn't really seem important to tell her that someone that was a complete stranger to her, pulled her off of that slut and wanted to talk to her. Besides that, Izzy and I were protecting her from getting hurt anymore than she already was."

"Protecting her from me?" I ask incredulously.

"Yes, from you," he says as if it is the most obvious thing in the world, and I can hear the anger that he is trying to fight back in his tone. "Face it, Jace, you're a player. You have never been in a real relationship, just a series of fuck buddies. And you would have preyed on her emotions, twisting them around to use for your own advantage, and then crushed her in the end."

"You don't know any of that to be true," I snap at him. "I would not have done that to her! Sure I have been a player, but... I don't know, there's just something different about her. I can't explain it, but there is."

Wow! I can't believe I just said all of that out loud. Sure, I've been thinking it; I think about it a lot actually, but never ever have I said anything like that out loud before now. And yeah, at first my attraction to her was due to her beating the shit out of Seelie. But then when I pulled Clary off of her, I got this strange tingle through my body everywhere our bodies made contact, and I felt like I was being drawn to her for some reason. Those are all still very much a part of my attraction to her, but after actually meeting her and having a conversation with her, there is more now. She's a firecracker! She doesn't seem to take shit from anybody. She's protective over Max. She has a sense of humor. She seems really smart. And even though it steams my ass, she calls me out. She's also a challenge, seeing as how she won't just throw herself at me like I'm use to; so this is going to take actual work on my part.

I look over at Alec sheepishly, his mouth is gaped open, and his eyes look like they are about to pop out of his head from shock. He starts moving his mouth as if he is trying to say something, but nothing is coming out. Then again, maybe he is just trying to close his mouth, but it is refusing to stay shut. I turn my face back to the others, slightly embarrassed by what I said and what the result of it has been on him, and I hear what sounds like Alec saying, 'Izzy and mom were right,' under his breath, but I choose not to pay any attention to it.

"Max," he says faintly, then clears his throat. "Max is her weakness. She can't say no to him, and he's your only shot." He walks in front of me and stops, causing me to stop. Then he puts his finger in my face, pointing at me. "But let me tell you something, Jace. If you do hurt her, in any way, just know that I'm going to physically hurt you."

"I won't," I try to assure him, and I suppose it works, if even just a little, because he nods, turns around, and the two of us start walking again. "But, I know that I'm going to have to find a way to prove that to her."

"Yeah," he chuckles. "That's going to be the fun part."

"I've figured that out already," I laugh. "Okay, so I know you told me earlier that you wouldn't tell me anything about Clary, because that was her place, but can you at least tell me something? Anything that might help."

"Hmm.." he says, then pauses. "Okay, she shares an apartment with Izzy. She's a senior in high school, just like you. She-"

"Wait," I interrupt him. "She's a senior in high school, but she has her own place?"

"Yes."

"How does that work?"

"It's not really my place to say. So, if you want to know, that's something that you'll have to ask her."

Clary

After another hour of trick-or-treating, and Max's bag being completely filled, we finally called it quits; the watching eyes on me the whole time. I could never find who it was, but I did catch Jace staring at me the few times that I looked behind me; each time it seemed like he was wanting to say something, but he never did. Which I was happy about, but he could've stopped with the whole watching me thing. It was unsettling, like he expected something to happen to me. Then again, with an ego like his, he could have thought that if he stared at me long enough that I'd throw myself at him; it really wouldn't surprise me.

That brings me to the car ride back to the park, which we are currently doing in awkward silence, other than the radio playing; and even that is so low that you can't really make out anything but the faint beats. Izzy occasionally looks back at me, gives me a half smile, and then looks back to the road. Max keeps dozing off, his head falling onto my left shoulder every now and then, and Jace's right shoulder the other times. I've seen Alec and Jace exchanging looks with each other every once in a while as if they are talking telepathically before Alec turns back around; like they are doing right now.

Alec nods his head, and from his profile, I can see that he is urging Jace to do something. Just then, Max's head falls back onto my shoulder. Ignoring whatever it is that's going on around me, I sink back into the seat, tilting my head back, and closing my eyes, as I take in Max snuggling up to me; he's such a little sweetie.

I hear Izzy's phone going off, and I open my eyes. I guess I must have dozed off because we are nearly to Jace's car. GOOD! I'll be rid of him soon.

Izzy slides her finger from left to right across the screen, answering it. "Hi, mom."

"We're on our way to get Jace's car, and then they'll be home," Izzy says after a short moment.

"Why?" She asks incredulously.

She sighs. "Can't this wait? We have school tomorrow, and I'd have to take Clary home first."

"No," she says through her clenched teeth. A few seconds later. "Because."

"Fine," she says and hangs up the phone.

"What's going on?" Alec asks worriedly.

"Dad," she seethes. Now I know why she said she had to drop me off first, she did it for two reasons; one, as usual, she didn't want to see him, and she had hoped that by saying that, it would get her out of it, and two, she knows that I still can't stand to be around him either. "He has something important that he wants to talk to us kids about," she says mockingly.

"Me too?" Jace asks skeptically, leaning forward slightly.

"No," Izzy replies, then sighs. "The way I understand it, he wants to talk to Alec and me."

"Whew," Jace breaths, and wipes the back of his left hand across his forehead, the relief showing on his face as he sits back.

She looks back at us as she says, "Don't worry, I'll take you to your car first." She looks back to the road. "And you can take Max and Alec home, while I take Clary home."

"Jace could take Clary home," Alec suggest eagerly. Then quickly adds, "That way you can get it over with sooner. And I'm sure he won't mind." He looks back at Jace. "Would you?"

I knew it! I fucking knew it! And I didn't even have to interrogate him, he just busted himself. I mentally shake my head. I thought that out of everybody, he would be the one to understand where I was coming from the best. Oh, Alec, what do you really think you are going to accomplish?

Jace smirks and says, "Not at all."

"Clary?" Izzy asks with uncertainty.

"If it gets you out of there sooner, then I'm alright with it," I say biting my tongue. I had really hoped to be rid of him once we got to his car, but now I'm going to be stuck with him even longer. I sigh inwardly. Oh, the things I will do for Izzy.

Alec grins. "Then it's settled then."

So I hope that you enjoyed this chapter!

Let me know what you think about it, and what is still yet to come, with a review.

I want to thank all of those that have left reviews this far, keep them coming! I love reading them! Mwah!

I was going to post this earlier today, but football was on lol. GO Florida Gators, and Oklahoma Sooners! Both won! Now if Miami wins tomorrow, I'll be able to say I had a pretty good weekend! HAHA

I'm going to try to get at least one new chapter posted every week, fingers crossed that life allows that.

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