Authors Note: Sorry it took so long for an update. There was a death in the family and then I started classes, so there hasn't been any extra time for me to spend in the Mortal Instruments world. Plus, writing the transitions in Jace's feelings is pretty hard for me to figure out. The naughty boy has been giving me loads of trouble :) Anyways, I hope you all enjoy. I've had load of alerts place on the story, but feel free to review it. I'd like to know how I'm doing.

Around the corner from Clary's apartment, Jace heard a scream. In an instant, his body exploded into motion, running at breakneck speed toward the door of her building. He didn't bother checking to see if it was unlocked, didn't bother with his stele if it was; it gave easily under a vicious shove of his shoulder. Jace sprinted up the stairs, taking them two at a time. He stopped when he saw an opened door and the chaos that lay beyond. What happened here?

Jace walked slowly into the apartment, making no sound. Jace took out an Angel blade and named it. He glanced into the demolished kitchen before he continued on. He passed the gutted sofa in the living room, his eyes searching the ruined canvas and books littering the floor, looking for a flash of copper hair. Where the hell was Clary?

Then, he heard something…. a sick gagging that he suspected would have that mundie boy Clary was always hanging around with retching all over what was left of Clary's apartment . But all prejudices against the boy aside, Jace was suddenly very thankful that he had such a strong stomach..Isabelle's sorry forays into 'cooking' turned out good for something other than a good reason to begin a strict diet.

He crept through the apartment toward the sound; it led him to a bedroom that was pretty, Jace supposed, in a feminine way and from what he could see it was not destroyed like the rest of the house.

Scratch that, he though, as his gaze lowered to the floor of the room. There were deep gouges, scoring the hard-wood floor by the bed. Jace moved silently into the room and what he saw made him cringe and swear.

She was lying motionless on her stomach, a dark red puddle slowly seeping onto the floor; he didn't like that puddle at all. A lumpy, black something lying on top across her torso. Her hands were stretched out toward the door and her bright hair was tumbled around her face, hiding it from him, but he could tell she was breathing. Jace let out a ragged breath that he hadn't realized he had been holding. He wasn't accustomed to worrying about other people. Alec and Isabelle could take care of themselves.

The lumpy, black something was a Ravener. Jace moved quickly forward and kicked the gagging and squirming thing away from Clary before it could do any further damage to her. Plus, a Ravener could easily suffocate someone as small as Clary. He glimpsed the pieces of glass that pierced its alligator-like hide and saw with no little amount of satisfaction (and something that felt suspiciously like pride) that the Sensor Clary had taken from him earlier was shoved half-way down the Raveners throat. He smiled: it looked like Clary wasn't as helpless as he thought. Shadowhunters always had a weapon or two (or five, if you were Jace) on them at all times. The fact that Clary, who was raised a mundane, killed one without an actual weapon was astonishing. He was liking this girl more and more every minute. Clary….

Clary, who lay unconscious and bloody on the floor not two feet away from him. Jace was jolted back to the present and the smile faded. Jace raised his blade into the air. He was going to enjoy this more than usual, he was thinking as the Ravener gagged one last time and disappeared. For a second, Jace could only gaze blackly at the spot on the floor where the Ravener had been. Oh, well, he consoled himself, at the rate they were going, Jace supposed he would have another opportunity to save Clary's very fine butt very soon.

He reached down and gathered her up in his arms like a child. He carried her swiftly out of the apartment, pausing only to grab a hand towel from the kitchen, and then down the stairs and through the foyer. He gently deposited her onto the ground behind a few bushes that would hide them from the gathering crowd of people that was congregating around the building. He needed to get them out of here. Fast. He got down on his knees, and began to take stock of how bad she was.

It wasn't pretty. Clary had small acid scores on her face and throat, but her wrist was completely covered in it. She had a small scrape on her head, not to mention on several other places, and he suspected she had a concussion and maybe a few broken ribs. Worst of all, he spied a Ravener sting on the back of her neck. Now he knew where the blood was coming from. At least she was still alive. No thanks to him, thought Jace. He should have gone straight after her instead of sulking in the alley. He thanked the Angel that Clary more spunk than the average mundie, even though Jace suspected that she wasn't just a mundane. If she wouldn't have fought it, it would have killed her.

Jace had just begun tearing the towel into strips when he heard Clary make a strangled noise. It sounded like she regaining consciousness. He glanced up just in time to see her open her eyes. Again, Jace thought of home when he met her gaze. None of that, now, Jace chided himself. He had to stabilize her well enough for the trip back to the Institute.

"Don't move," he warned her. He didn't need her retching all over the place while he tried to stop the bleeding. Clary promptly disobeyed. She hasn't listened to anything I've told her so far, Jace noted. "I told you not to move," Jace said, trying to keep himself from cursing at her. "That Ravener demon got you in the back of the neck. It was half-dead so it wasn't much of a sting, but we have to get you back to the Institute. Hold still." He smeared a salve he kept in his pocket for situations such as these across the make-shift bandages.

"That thing-the monster--it talked."Clary whispered to him.

"You've talked to a demon before." Now that he actually had his hands on her, binding the sting on her neck, desire was the furthest thing from Jace's mind.

"The demon in Pandemonium--it looked like a person."

"It was an Eidolon demon. A shape-shifter. Raveners look like they look. Not very attractive, but they're too stupid to care."

"It said it was going to eat me."

"But it didn't," said Jace, reassuring her as much as himself. "You killed it." Jace finished the knot her was tying around Clary's delicate neck and leaned back on his haunches to look at her. She struggled to sit and he let her without a word. He had a feeling she was going to do it anyway, no matter what he told her.

"The police are here. We should--," Clary began, only to have Jace interrupt her.

"There's nothing they can do. Somebody probably heard you screaming and reported it." God knows if he had heard her from around the corner, someone else had to have heard her too. "Ten to one those aren't real police officers. Demons have a way of hiding their tracks."

"My mom," Clary reminded him, her eyes huge and pleading. She sounded like she had to force the words from her throat.

"There's Ravener poison coursing through your veins right now." Jace was starting to feel a little cornered, manic with a tinge of desperation. He ignored the feeling, pushing it back, as far back into his mind as it would go. It wasn't important right now. "You'll be dead in an hour if you don't come with me." He needed to get her out of here. Immediately. Jace stood and extended his hand to her, more as a show of courtesy than an actual choice; he was taking her to the Institute whether she took his hand or not.

Jace was saved from resorting to anything dramatic, like tossing her kicking and screaming over his shoulder, when she took his hand. He gently pulled her up and held her steady when she swayed, bracing his other hand on the small of her back. He looked down at her pale and bloodstained face; she was so tiny. "Can you walk?" he asked her. She didn't look like she was up to it.

"I think so," said Clary. She looked out at the crowd of police and what seemed to be neighbors. "Her hand--"

Jace, who had already spotted the blonde 'cop', interrupted Clary again. They were running out of time. "I told you they might be demons." Jace quickly surveyed his surroundings, his eyes following the length of the house and lingering on the back of the building. "We have to get out of here. Can we go through the alley?"

Clary shot down his hopes of a discreet getaway when she said, "It's bricked up. There's no way--," This time it wasn't Jace that interrupted her, but a sudden bout of ragged coughs. Jace saw the blood that coated her had when she lifted it away from her mouth. That was so not good. She whimpered, a low and scared sound in the back of her throat.

Jace took an instant to think. Jace was running low on options as well as time. He could only think of one way to get them out of there without being seen and he didn't know if it would work, didn't know if it could work. Uncertainties stormed through his mind: Was he insane? Could her body handle it? Was it in her blood to withstand it? Jace suspected it was, was ninety-percent sure it was, but was that good enough? Could he take that chance?

Still not entirely sure he could do what he was contemplating, Jace snatched up Clary's wrist and turned it so the inner part her arm was exposed to him. She was so pale. Through her skin he could see the Raveners poison as it pumped its way through her veins. He couldn't stand the thought of her closing her eyes and never opening them again, couldn't stand the thought of never seeing that Idris green again. Without letting himself think about the possibly terrible consequences of what he was doing, Jace pulled his stele from his belt.

He lowered it to her arm, hardly noticing when she tried to pull away. Jace didn't breathe as the stele cut into her skin. Then it was done. All he could do now was wait. And pray. Me? Pray? Jace wondered what was she was doing to him. He let go of her and his hand tingled where it had come in contact with her skin. He resisted the urge to wipe his hand on his pants; he didn't want to offend her.

"What's that supposed to do?"Clary asked, startling him.

"It'll hide you. Temporarily." He saw Clary's eyes lingered on his stele and then moved to meet his. "My stele," he told her before she had to ask, quickly giving the name of every Shadowhunters most important tool. Now was not the time for long-winded explanations.

Clary's eyes moved from his face to the ground, losing focus. "Jace," she breathed, his name falling from her lips for the first time. Before he could dwell on how right it sounded, she collapsed. He caught her as a reflex and cradled her small body in his arms, struck by how light she was. He hoped this was a reaction to the Ravener poison and not to the rune. If she passed out from the rune, then all might be lost. Ah, come on, be strong Clary…!

He whispered in her ear, promising to get her to the Covenant, to the Institute, to Hodge. He didn't think she heard him though. He watched as her eyes fluttered past his face and rested on the stars before closing as she drifted out of consciousness.

Jace stepped silently from behind the bushes, staying in long shadows in the alley that led to the front of the street. Using a glamour to hide himself, he turned the corner and began to run. It was surprising easy, easier than he would have thought, to run with Clary in his arms. The institute wasn't all that far away and Jace wanted to get Clary to Hodge as quickly as he could and no way he was going to be able to get a cab in this chaos.