Chapter Four

~Love's Drug~

Why, of course Jace Herondale must return to the story some time, and that time happens to be this chapter! Where on earth would we be without him? Yes, I said Herondale. Herondale! READ CITY OF HEAVENLY FIRE IF YOU DIDN'T KNOW THAT HE RENAMED HIMSELF HERONDALE, JESUS, AND WHY ARE YOU READING THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T BECAUSE THERE ARE SPOILERS! Okay, let's get on with this.

Review Responses:

foxy_heart: Why, thank you! I love those types of readers… it's very complimentary.

ink2parchment: Hmm, are you right or are you right? ;)

Guest: Hehe, thank you! Tessa and Jem are by far the most enjoyable to write about.

Guest: I'm not sure whether this is the same guest as the other, so I'll just write the responses separately… Thank you very much! It's been really fun writing this, but with school back on, updating can become quite irregular, sadly. :)

Something burned at her skin, and indistinctively, Tessa felt her own hand move up to touch the clockwork angel at her throat, where it seemed calling her. Her eyes flew wider as her fingers made contact with the angel, because it was ticking again.

How was it possible? The angel couldn't have returned… it was impossible… Tessa's hands went straight back to her side, as did Clary's, and neither of them moved. They were at a standstill. Finally, Tessa spoke.

"You–" she began, but winced at how hoarse she sounded, and cleared her throat. "You were going to ask me something?" Clary shook her head, though she remained as white as milk.

"No, it doesn't matter," she said conclusively, and it was as though her alarm had made her forget to act formal as she usually did around Tessa. Tessa herself observed this, and couldn't help but prefer Clary like this. "I… yep, I've got to go... I, um, bye." And when Clary scurried away, Tessa couldn't help but allow her eyes to follow the girl, eyes trained on her trouser pocket. With a frown, Tessa thought, what is in that pocket? Tessa hated sitting in silence with unanswered questions, and returned to an institute certainly seemed to be stirring a dozen of them up. She wondered whether she would indeed be better off going back to Los Angeles with Jem, where they would be able to watch over young Emma Carstairs and the Blackthorns once again. And if it hadn't been for the whole 'Mortmain' matter, she would be halfway across America by now, and probably not looking back over her shoulder.

Clary needed somebody to confide in. Anybody. The clockwork angel was beginning to freak her out, and what freaked her out more was the fact that Tessa had been wearing the exact replica of it. And as soon as Clary had moved to take it out of her pocket, Tessa's hand had gone to her neck, as though there was a magnet between the two of them.

Something weird is going on here, Clary decided without giving it too much thought, and thundered up the stairs, probably stirring up a cloud of dust behind her. With a scowl on her face, she found her way into Jace's room, where she was not at all surprised to find it empty.

Sighing, Clary fell onto her back atop his bed, which had been made neatly, and gazed around the room. Not a speck of dust could be seen, she mused to herself. Quite the opposite of what could be seen in her own bedroom. People would have thought that teenage guys would the ones with the messy rooms, but in this case, it was quite the opposite, and it didn't help that Jace had a sort of OCD.

Smiling into her hand, Clary turned her face upward and watched the ceiling silently. There was something about this room that calmed her nerves, and now, lying in the dim room, she felt an obsessive tug in her mind, lulling her to sleep. Seeing no point in resisting, Clary allowed herself to be carried away, like a leaf taking flight in a gentle air current.

"I swear, it started ticking again!" Tessa exclaimed, dangling her clockwork angel necklace between her fingers. It had gone silent now, a lifeless mechanical body, completely limp and cold against her skin.

"Tessa, that isn't possible–" Jem began, leaning down from his perch up on one of the higher beams of the greenhouse. He seemed to have picked up on some tips from Church, who had always had a knack for finding comfortable places which nobody usually disturbed, and apparently the roof beam in the greenhouse was one of them. Tessa wasn't entirely sure whether to feel alarmed or amused as she gazed upwards. She was all too certain that Jem wouldn't fall and break his leg (and even if he did, he could always use an Iratze rune), yet she still wasn't all too comfortable with it.

"Of course I'm aware that it's not possible," Tessa said, exasperated, "yet apparently it is." She wasn't sure whether she was relieved that the angel had gone silent once again (however much she looked like a fool for believing that it had come back to life momentarily), or whether she wanted the angel to have returned to protect her for good, and nor was she sure whether that sentence had made sense or whether she looked like a bumbling idiot.

Jem simply extended a hand, indicating that Tessa should throw the necklace up to him, and she warily undid the clasp at the nape of her neck before tossing it up with exact precision. Jem caught it easily and brought it up close to his eyes to examine. Tessa folded her arms and looked at her feet, which were clad in a pair of black Doc Martens, so different to what she had grown up with, which made her feel even worse at her next thought.

"If only Henry was here," she said with a wistful sigh, tilting her head back to look at Jem, who was staring down at her with an unreadable expression. "What I mean is, he would know why it started ticking, if only for a second. Perhaps the mechanics malfunctioned for a moment or–" She fell silent as Jem swung down from his beam and landed right in front of her. Despite the fact that he had given up on remaining as a shadowhunter when he had returned to his former state of human, he still remained as well trained and skillful as he had one-hundred-and-thirty years ago. Now, Jem didn't even have to pause to catch his breath as he took Tessa's face in his hands, his long violinist fingers so delicate as touched her, as though she was made from china and could break at any moment. Tessa felt her heart speed up, her heart hammering in her ears at his closeness, and almost drowned in his dark eyes, so wise and old, contrasting against his young features.

"If Henry was here," he said softly, "he would tell you that you have nothing to worry about. Both Mortmain and the angel are gone, and they aren't likely to be coming back. We've skipped that part of history." In spite of the fact that Tessa's blood felt as though it was boiling due to Jem's closeness, she still managed a slightly more reassured smile, and she lowered her eyes at him.

"And does Henry have any more to add to that?" She asked, her voice close to a purr, and Jem's own voice was awfully husky when he responded.

"Not at all," he said, and lowered his lips to meet hers all too slowly. With a noise of frustration, Tessa grabbed the collar of his shirt and yanked him down, but Jem was obviously not in a mood that matched hers. There was a grin on his face as he kissed her, too tantalizing and slow to balance her needs, and he lifted her hair away from her neck to nip at her skin, and Tessa couldn't suppress the moan on her lips as he did so. She felt Jem's hands doing something behind her, but being so attuned to her collarbone, which Jem had now moved on to harass with his teeth, didn't leave her with much time to think about his hands.

Something cold fell against her skin, and Tessa's eyes flashed open and she automatically released Jem's collar to touch her neck, where the clockwork angel lay once again. Jem smirked, opening his hands wide to show that he no longer held the necklace, and Tessa scowled at him as he dashed out the door.

"James Carstairs, you have matured ever so drastically over the years," she called after him, yet she followed him out whilst shaking her head, positive that he could hear her. "And now I have you and your matureness to thank for the bites on my neck which will be sure to attract attention."

"Your love is my drug." Jem's voice echoed down to her from out of nowhere.

Something warm was pressed up against Clary's back when she woke up, and she blinked sleepily. She had had a dreamless sleep, and felt so tired still.

Yawning, she allowed her arm to sneak off of her bed and down to the floor to recover her phone to display the time. She then blinked in alarm when she realized that her phone was not in its usual place, and she was not in her bedroom.

Bolting upright, Clary stared at the room until she remembered that she was in Jace's room, and that the warm thing behind her was Jace himself, most likely back from roaming around with Alec, slaying demons. Now, however, when he slept, he looked a whole lot younger, without the cockiness that usually lit his eyes up, or the constant desire to keep a secret hidden. He looked like a normal boy. Teenager. Adult. Guy. Clary couldn't figure out which one fit best any more, not since Jace's eighteenth birthday. With a sigh, she slumped back, wondering what on earth she had been fretting about earlier. Now, she couldn't remember at all.

"Are you…" Jace yawned, a sound that reminded Clary of a great lion himself yawning, "…awake?"

"Sorry for waking you," Clary apologized, worming her way off the bed. "I should find Mom–"

"Jocelyn said that she's going to stay here while Tessa and Zachariah do," Jace interrupted, which was so much like him to do. "Plus, nobody would be too pleased if you went sleep-walking at midnight." He stared up at the ceiling, his golden eyes thoughtful, a rare trait for him. "Or rather, Mom-seeking."

"Har har, very funny," Clary scoffed, and she and Jace lay, shoulder-to-shoulder, on the bed. "There's something that I need to talk to you about," she said slowly and sleepily, and Jace was twining his fingers through hers.

"Talk to me, then," he said, in that simple yet somehow flirty way of his, and Clary narrowed her eyes.

"I just can't remember what it was."

"Sleep then. You'll remember in the morning, and anyway, I need my beauty sleep so that I may be as charming as ever to greet our two guests." Clary hit him over the head.

And all through the night, the clockwork angel lay in the dark depths of Clarissa Morgenstern's pocket, and it was clearly waiting for something.

I do hope that that wasn't too tedious. It's 1:05am precisely, and I wanted this chapter done, so I deserve some reviews and follows for that. ;D Hope you enjoyed the Jessa moment! And, ooh, naughty, poor Tessa has love bites all over her neck now for no good reason. :-o

~Black Cat Widow~