Hey guys! Sorry it took forever to update. Yay for you, not so much for me, this chapter is loooooong, cuz the book chapter is exactly 26 pages. The others have been in the 10-15 page range. Plus there is a lot of talking, so of course the characters according to me have to dissect everything But seriously, I am extremely sorry for the long wait and my only excuse is this wretched chapter. My poor laptop no longer closes all the way due to abuse from my frustration with this chapter. Plus…..I might've sat down once or twice to write and ended up flipping through the book to the greenhouse scene…the fight with Valentine scene…..the vampire hotel scene and going Oooooooh, that'll be fun to write! Of course, I first have to slog through this chapter to get to those I have remembered. Oh! And an enormous thank you to FreakingOutGirl, who sends emails with great ideas that make me get my ass in gear. So, without further ado, here's the chapter!

Chapter 5: Clave and Covenant

Jace was reading again. Simon had elected not to for his own reasons, and Isabelle and Magnus had decided I wasn't allowed to read, since I might skip over embarrassing parts. Which was, truthfully, my plan.

Isabelle made a face at the chapter title, "This sounds boring. Too political." Jace rolled his eyes and started reading. The chapter started with me unconscious and Isabelle and Alec discussing whether I would die or not. Isabelle mentioned at one point that mundies died awfully easily. I glared at her. She shrugged, unapologetic, "It's totally true. If you had been a mundie, I bet ten bucks you would've died."

I raised my eyebrows, "Really? Next time we find a mundane with demon poisoning, I bet twenty bucks they'll live!" Isabelle shot me a wide grin. There was nothing she loved more than a challenge.

She rose out of her seat, "Lets go poison one now! I could use twenty bucks."

"Um…Izzy?" I started, but an exasperated Alec interrupted, grabbing her arm, "Isabelle Lightwood! You are not going to poison a mundie and hope they die! What part of 'shadowhunters protect humanity' did you miss?"

Isabelle flopped back down with a sigh, "Fine! I'll wait until I can find one purely by chance. Happy?" she asked her brother with a glare.

He brushed his hair out his eyes, "As long as you help us try to save the mundane and don't try to kill them for twenty bucks."

Isabelle considered this for a moment, then shrugged, "Fine." Then she smiled, "I'm still winning."

Jace spoke up, "Now that Izzy has got her homicidal urges out in the open, can everyone shut up and let me read?"

Magnus raised an eyebrow, (damn him!) "I resent that implication. I haven't said a word this chapter."

Jace threw his hands in the air, "Fine, whatever, just shut up and listen." He picked up the book.

He read about the dreams I had had while I was unconscious. My mom in a hospital bed, Luke standing on a pile of bones, a winged Jace, Isabelle with her whip curled around her naked body, crosses burned in Simon's palms, and angels falling out of the sky and burning.

Everyone blinked at me. "That's intense." said Magnus.

Simon was staring at his hands. The hands that would never again hold a cross or they'd burn. He looked up at me, "You are freaking me out, woman."

The others nodded in agreement and started discussing whether I was psychic or it was a shadowhunter side-effect, except Isabelle, who had a contemplative look on her face. "What I would like to know," she said, "is why you were dreaming about me naked. Not that I'm not flattered, but we both know I don't swing that way. And neither do you, last time I checked." Her dark eyes flickered to Jace almost unnoticeably.

I refused to fall into that particular pit of eternal torment, "So would I," I replied and wrinkled my nose, "it wasn't my idea, trust me on that." I was not, under any circumstance, going to acknowledge that she had immediately thought of Jace when deciding my sexuality.

The boy in question swallowed once as a flash of pain shot across his face, and then a smirk slid into place, hiding his feelings. Jace's mask is smirks and sarcasm. I hate that damn mask of his, but there's not a whole hell of a lot I can exactly do about it while being just his sister. This particular train was chugging into Places I Did Not Want To Go, so I quickly turned my attention back to the book.

I was still unconscious, and the Lightwoods were still talking about me. Isabelle said she thought I was a pixie, but I wasn't pretty enough. I stuck my tongue out at her. She giggled quietly and gave me an exaggerated apology face. The corner of my mouth quirked up.

Jace read how Alec and Isabelle had talked about him not showing any interest in me while I was unconscious. No one at the table commented. Finally, we got to the part where I had rejoined the land of the living. As I went into details over the agony of opening gummed-up eyes, Isabelle smirked, "Lovely," she commented.

Jace read how I had stared at the cherub-painted ceiling of the Institute and wondered if I was dead and heaven really looked like that. Everyone at the table laughed. I blushed. Jace read how I had eventually figured out it was a ceiling, then looked around the infirmary.

Next, he read how I had met Isabelle for the first time. In an environment that didn't involve demons and weapons in the back room of a club in the middle of the night, that is. She told me that she thought I would die in my sleep quite cheerfully, then I gave a quick description of her. When I mentioned her skin was like a bowl of cream, she gave me one of her rare genuine smiles. She and Jace were more alike than they knew, really. I told her I was sorry to disappoint her, then asked if I was in the Institute. Isabelle rolled her eyes and bitched for a bit before answering me. Then I nearly passed out again and Isabelle cheerfully remembered she was supposed to have given me a mixture of Hodge's when I woke up.

Alec shook his head, "And then she wonders why we don't let her near guests."

Isabelle folded her arms, "I thought it was because I told everyone I slept with that one shadowhunter who stayed here and turned out to be running from our law?"

"That too," said Jace, fighting a smile.

"Did you sleep with him?" I asked.

"No," Isabelle said, shuddering with disgust, "he had bony knees." I burst into laughter.

Jace shot us all a Look of Doom and picked up the book. Once Izzy gave me the potion, we talked about how Jace had gotten my blood all over the hallway and would have been grounded by Mayrse.

"That's the wonderful thing about you people," Simon interjected, "You never let something insignificant like impending death get in the way of your priorities."

Magnus snorted with laughter, but the rest of us stared at Simon blankly. Bleeding and dying and being tough about pain was a part of shadowhunter life. It was something even I, the newbie shadowhunter, had completely accepted.

After we all blinked at a now uncomfortable Simon, Jace went back to reading. Isabelle and I had talked some more, she had been amazed that a mundane could kill a demon and I had savored that. Our eyes met across the table and Izzy winked. Jace read how I had asked where he was and Isabelle told me I could borrow her clothes since he had burned mine. When I asked her if he was that rude to just mundanes, she replied that he was rude to everyone, that and the fact that he had killed more demons than anyone his age was what made him so damn sexy.

My mouth quirked up at the memory; I knew Izzy thought of Jace as a brother. Magnus and Jace had both raised an eyebrow at Isabelle, Magnus looking mildly amused, while a gratified smile tugged at the corner of Jace's mouth. Simon blinked at her for a moment, then shrugged and smiled. Good vampire. Alec, however, turned purple and spewed his drink all over Simon and Magnus, who were sitting across from him. "What!" he choked out, then started glancing between Jace and his sister, "You and-and-and HIM?" he screeched in a strangled voice, pointing at Jace dramatically.

I tried, I really tried, but just then, Jace caught my eye and we both collapsed against each other in laughter. I was leaning on his chest and wiping my eyes as he recovered from my shoulder, eyes still dancing with amusement. Until we realized everyone at the table was staring at us draped all over each other. We sat up quickly and fixed our clothes. Angel, that thought sounded really wrong in an I wish sort of way…. I shook my head and angrily ordered my brain to shut up. Good luck with that, my brain replied. I worry about myself sometimes.

Alec had calmed down apparently, since he had returned to his usual pale skin tone and was no longer screeching or pointing at people. It really was shocking that we hadn't yet been kicked out of the restaurant, what with all the noise.

"Sorry," Alec said, attempting to shrink away from everyone's gazes. "My bad." He turned to Isabelle and put his hands up, "I surrender." She grinned, then leaned towards us and stage whispered, "He's afraid of me."

"Why?" I asked, just to see what she would say.

She smiled, "Because I'm so damn sexy."

I groaned, "You're going to use that for a long time, aren't you?" I asked her.

"Definitely," she said, smiling with devilish glee. Great.

Next, I asked about Jace's parents and Isabelle told me the story they had believed to be true at the time. Jace was back in stone face mode. Great. Though I couldn't exactly blame him. Luckily, Isabelle then told me that I smelled, which lightened the mood.

Jace then read how ridiculous Isabelle's clothes had looked on me. When I thought how the tank top's plunging neckline emphasized my lack of a "rack", everyone started snickering. I banged my head on the table and groaned "I hate this book," which just made them laugh harder. Glad to know I could provide the entertainment.

Jace read how I had cleaned myself up, then wandered down the halls until I found Jace playing the piano. "Alec?" he asked, "Is that you?" (Just had to say to say it, total Clockwork Angel moment right here! You know, Jem, violin, yada yada? Sorry, I will get back to the story now)

I told him it was me and we talked for a bit until he told me he would take me to Hodge. We walked through the Institute until I asked him who lived there. He said it was just him, Hodge and the Lightwoods. When I asked who Max was, he told me it was the beauteous Isabelle's younger brother. At this, yet another very loud "HA!" came from Isabelle's direction. A werewolf at the next table jumped, sending Izzy into peals of laughter. Jace shook his head and kept reading. I guess he was used to her by this point.

Jace told me about Idris and a little about how he had grown up there and the Lightwoods here until we reached the library. That's when I said it must kinda lonely, knowing only the Lightwoods. Jace told me he had everything he needed. Isabelle batted her eyelashes and opened her mouth to say something undoubtedly sarcastic, but Alec gave her an unreadable look and she closed her mouth slowly, eyes widening slightly with understanding. We all understood. The Institute and its inhabitants were everything Jace had, what he had built his life upon for years. It was all he needed. Until Valentine and I showed up and it all crashed down around his head. The thought sent an arc of agony through me that I quickly repressed. Now was sooo not the time.

Next, I described the library and how I had first met Hodge. When he introduced me to the bird, Hugo, I winced. "God damn crow," I growled to the table.

Jace looked up at me with a grin, "Did you not hear the man?" he asked me teasingly, "It's a raven, not a crow."

I narrowed my eyes into slits, "I think its mother was a crow." Isabelle snorted.

Alec was fighting a smile, "Hugo was accused of being a chain smoker due to his rasp once or twice" he said, his eyes lit up with amusement like a pair of blue lanterns. Magnus was staring at him with a dreamy half smile on his face while everyone else laughed at the whole crow conversation. Maybe there was hope for them yet.

Still chuckling, Jace looked down at the page. He read how Hodge had asked exactly how I had managed to kill a demon with a Sensor when Alec decided to make his presence known. He asked Hodge if he really bought my story while slumping in a chair and glaring at me.

Magnus and I exchanged glances; we knew the other knew what Alec's problem was. "Jesus," said Isabelle, "Way to make a good first impression, Alec." She sounded flippant, but I could see the pain and worry for her brother in her dark eyes. So she knew as well. Jace's face was blank. He could have been thinking about Russian dancing bears, for all I knew. Alec wisely decided to stay silent.

Hodge had asked him if he was suggesting I hadn't killed the demon. Alec told him that I was a little mundie kid and there was no way I took on a Ravener by myself. Alec leaned around Jace to look at me apologetically, "Can I just apologize in advance for anything I say to you in this book?" he asked me wryly. I looked at him, then at Magnus with my eyebrows raised, "No problem, Alec." He caught on a second later and turned away to hide his blush. Well, well, well.

Alec continued to insult me until I shouted in outrage that I was from Brooklyn, Alec was a dickhead, and both him and Isabelle were spoiled-rotten rich brats. It was quite a tirade. Isabelle raised her eyebrows at me, "I love you too, Clay," she said.

I rolled my eyes, "Hey, you were bitchy at first." Magnus began to make cat noises and claw at the air. Isabelle and I glared at him until he raised his hands in surrender.

Satisfied that Magnus was suitably dealt with, Isabelle turned and looked straight at me. "You know why," she said simply. I nodded, and the tense moment was over and we were right back to our light friendship where love and loyalty didn't interfere like they most assuredly would if we became as good of friends as we might be. The others were looking at us in confusion, except Magnus, who always seemed to know what everyone felt about each other. Jace cleared his throat and began to read again.

Alec was in shock and Jace thought the whole thing was hilarious. Jace told him that he had found the demon dying on top of me and Alec said it might've got itself in the neck with its stinger. Jace asked him if he was suggesting it was suicidal. At this point, Jace shot a triumphant look at Alec in light of the events of the last chapter and Alec raised his hands, "Hey, I already made an advance apology."

Alec and Hodge went on to talk about why the Ravener had targeted my mother and I. I was entirely convinced it had been some sort of mistake. If only.

Hodge announced that he had to notify the Clave that I was there and Jace leaped up and shouted that they couldn't. Simon looked at Jace in confusion, "Why all the shouting?" he asked him quizzically. Jace went into stone face mode. Again.

Magnus spoke up absently, still staring at Alec, "He was trying to keep his girlfriend from leaving. Duh" You could have heard a pin drop.

Magnus looked up a second later, probably due to the fact Alec had gone into shock along with the rest of us, and saw our faces. He looked confused for about a second before his words came back to him. He ran a hand through his spiky hair and said in an overly bright voice, "Well. Shall we just…..continue…reading?" he added a question to the sentence when he saw Jace's face.

"She's my sister," Jace said softly, then looked down at the book and continued reading. I wondered if maybe heaven would take pity on me and open a bottomless pit beneath my feet.

Jace read how he had told us all that I wasn't a mundane because I hadn't turned into a Forsaken or suffered an instant death when he put the rune on my wrist. I rubbed the scar absently. My first rune. We then all discussed whether my dead father could have been a shadowhunter in hiding. Unfortunately, he was alive and kicking. More like alive and killing, I thought to myself. On the bright side, no one at the table said a word. Probably because Jace still looked like he was suffering from murder withdrawal after Magnus's little nuclear bomb.

Next I called Luke and was told to leave him alone. That still stung a little, even if it had been for my benefit. I had been about to cry in frustration and Hodge sent Alec and Jace out, even though Jace tried to stay and was disappointed when I didn't let him. Magnus opened his mouth again, but closed it when I made a slashing gesture across my throat. Hodge asked me if I wanted tea, but I told him I just wanted to hunt down however took my mother and murder them. The shadowhunters looked impressed. Hodge told me that he was all out of bitter revenge at the moment, so it was tea or nothing. Alec chuckled.

Hodge had me go over what had happened and a little about my mother and I. Then Hodge told me the story of Valentine and the accords. Or at least a version of it. I watched as the hand Jace wasn't using to hold the book with fisted so tightly on the seat that his nails were cutting crescents into his palms. I reached out and lightly touched his knuckles, watching as fist loosened and a little of the tension went out of his shoulders. I really wanted to kiss him at that moment. Well, that came out of left field, I thought to myself. It hadn't really. It was more of a constant ache that surfaced in moments of weakness.

I jerked myself back to the here and now in time to hear Jace read how Hodge finally agreed to let me go back to the apartment to see what was left as long as Jace went with me. I left with Church to hunt down him and Alec.

The last bit was from Hodge's perspective. He finished writing a letter, then gave it to Hugo, who bit him, and reflected on the Uprising before reaching for another piece of paper, not noticing the blood smearing across the page from as he wrote.

Jace shoved the book toward Magnus and looked down at the heavy silver ring on his finger. "That letter was to Valentine," he said flatly. I saw the hurt caused by Hodge's still-painful betrayal flash across the three shadowhunter's faces before they hid it.

I knew this had been a bad idea.

*Collapses and lays there panting* There you go, dudes. (I'm from California, we call everyone dude) Finished! Now for the next chapter! Which will come quicker, I promise. Review, review, review, dudes!