Chapter 7

Clary's POV

************One Week Later

I had busied myself with memorizing the patterns that were painted on the wall. It was a completely white wall, but the wood that it was painted on had groves and dips that created images. If I looked at them for too long, they would dance and bend, and it would give me a headache. I was so tired. You would think that you would have loads of energy if you didn't do anything, but that wasn't true for me. I felt drained, physically and mentally, emotionally as well.

I hated this feeling. Not being able to do anything. I hated waiting, even if it meant that Jace might come and save me, I didn't like the fact of relying on someone else to fix my problems. I didn't admire princesses and their need to be saved every minute, but that's all it came down to. I was powerless, and the only way something was going to happened was if Jace came and somehow brake the barrier, or if the demon came to possess me. The latter wasn't an option I took an interest to.

I had barely eaten. I couldn't tell now weather it was days that had passed or years. I knew it wasn't years, but it sure felt like it.

We need more people. The voice made me jump in my own skin. It hadn't talked to me for days.

"Huh?"

We need more people. You are going to retrieve them. I shook my head, slowly at first as thoughts came to mind, and then vigorously as those thoughts slowly contained bloodshed and dead Nephilim. Nephilim possessed like me.

"No."

A cold sensation flooded over me.

"Please no."

I felt the demon presence creep into me.

"No!"

My body jolted and I no longer was in control. The demon painstakingly jerked me into a stand. I found that once the strength left my body the welts and pain stayed behind, so everything was painful until the demon entered me.

I blacked out, like someone was literally covering me with a mask to keep me from seeing anything. And when it was done, when my body was finished from whooshing and twisting, I ended up in Idris.

I usually wore different clothes, and this time I was only half dressed in gear. A leather jacket with my hood up that concealed my ratty hair, but dark jeans and simple shoes to make me look like a standard Idris resident that you'd pass by on the streets when walking to a coffee shop of a weapon store. And an obvious sword in an ordinary hilt that smacked against my thigh was fastened to my waist as I maneuvered my way around buildings. My heart pounded, well not literally, but I imagine if I was in control of my body it would be.

I walked a familiar path, one that passed the shadowhunter academy and the accords hall. Nobody paid any attention me, even though I expected someone to see through the shadow of the hood, or even the way I walked and recognize me.

We took turns around shops until I came up to a way to familiar house, with too familiar steps that lead up to a porch. My house. Mine and Jace's. One that was supposed to be lived in after we got married.

Married.

A sickening feeling spread throughout me at the thought of never getting a wedding. Kids. A life with Jace, or, a life in general.

Fortunately we passed the house. The demon made a decision to not go in there today. We passed the houses until we found a cluster of people right by the border that divided Alicante from the rest of Idris. I swooped around them, so that I was on the other side of them. I came with a running start as I started screaming, still fully concealed.

"Help! Help me!"

These people looked at me instantly.

"There is a hoard of demons right outside of Idris! I can't fight them all, please!"

They took action immediately, and whatever thoughts about who I was, if there were any, vanished. They pulled their swords and ran with me into the supposed battle.

Once we were out of Idris, I turned on them. I whipped around, yanking my hood down to expose my hair and face. Some of them looked at me wide-eyed in recognition, and some of them looked at me in horror.

I lashed out at two of them, striking them across the face and creating bloody cuts across their cheeks. The other two took action and drew their swords, but I was much faster.

I slammed heads down on the ground, and the two who drew swords were instantly on the ground clutching their sides as my sword grazed them. Two of them were unconscious, and I did the same to all but one. I took the only one that was still responding into my clutch and bore down on him with my eyes.

"You will send a message to the Clave. Tell them that they are too easily fooled."

I didn't think the message was all that clever, but it got the point across. He trembled as I withered him with my glare, and scratched the sigil into his neck.

Jace's POV

A week. It's been a week. We've formed the search parties, some grouping in small groups of four, and some grouping in quantities of twenty to look for Clary. We made sure to show them what she looked like, so between Jocelyn and a picture I had of her in my bedroom that I had confiscated, everyone knew her face.

We searched outside of Idris, in Idris, in New York, around New York. But you couldn't really look everywhere. She was probably right in front of us, the way she had been when she stormed into Idris and knocked down our door. Right in front of us, yet we couldn't even keep up with her. I would have ran forever to catch her, but I knew it would be a waste of time, and if there was anything I could save besides Clary, it would be time.

And then, he came back.

This shadowhunter was a horrid sight to see. Blood welled and pooled down his neck while his clothes were nothing but scraps, the skin that showed was also covered in red.

"S-she came!" He coughed, although something about him didn't seem right. Like the energy from him was drained completely, not something you saw in most shadowhunter's eyes. Usually it was excitement from battle, but this man...

"Who? Clary?" I demanded, none too kindly.

"Yes." He panted. "She took the other three shadowhunters and left me with the message."

"And what is the message?" Another shadowhunter asked.

"That the Clave is too easily fooled."

"How did this happen, were you guys out of Idris? I thought all parties were to meet here today?"

"We were inside Idris, right on the border, but she led us out and had us thinking she was some helpless shadowhunter that couldn't fight off the demons."

"We need to report this." Jia said, entering the conversation.

I nodded, but all I could think about was how they got to see her, but I didn't. They could have had her, but they let her slip through their fingers. I shook my head as a bile taste rose in my throat.

"I'm going to go back to the site, just to check." I left before she could assign anyone to go with me, like I needed a chaperone or something.

I took a slow jog over to the border between the forest and Alicante. There was some footsteps that trailed out into the forest. I thought about going out there, running into the mundane world to look, but I just knew that there was nothing I could find. Instead, something was pulling me in the opposite direction.

I ended up in my old-new house. The one I got with Clary.

I was hesitant at first, but then plowed right into the doorway, and shut it behind me. My buzzer rang dimly, the one that sensed demonic activity. I put a hand over my pocket, and judging from the amount of buzzing, it wasn't high. It was like only a half a demon was present.

And then I saw her.

She wasn't looking at me, I'm not sure if she knew I was there. I think all of it had to do with the fact that she was inspecting the granite counters like they were the most spectacular thing in the world. She ran a hand over it, smoothing it down with her fingertips like you would do an old picture when reminiscing. The expression on her face changed millions of times in each second, like she was literally battling for her own emotions as well.

"I know you're there, Jace Herondale." She snapped up, her eyes filling in a milky onyx color.

"I know."

"Stupid of you, really. I can kill you easily."

"I don't think you can." I tested my luck, which was what I always did in situations like this.

She whorled around and hissed a snake-like sound that sent shivers down my spine. I didn't draw my sword. She may not be able to kill me, but I could not kill her either. How did Clary do this? When I was not myself, did Clary suffer this much too? No, this is worse. At least I still loved Clary, at least I still had somewhat of a conscious, this thing was purely demonic, no trace of Clary except for the physical body.

"You underestimate me." She fast walks over to me.

"I think you underestimate Clary." I spit before she can get any closer.

At the mention of her name a flicker of recognition soars over her face, a flicker of humanity, but then it's gone. She lounges, but I am just as quick.

I duck under her outstretched arms and push her back into the wall. It hurts me to see, but I do it. I back into the counter, not sure if my luck was with me or not. I felt behind me the midnight flower seed, in a small pot. It had sprouted now, and a small green plant emerged from the dark rich soil. I had meant to give it to her after we got married, when I brought her home for the first time, but now I clutched it in my hand and planned to smash it into her if she came at me again. My body shook as she advanced towards me.

I brought the plant around, swinging it in an arc the length of my arm, and grazed it across her cheeks and nose. A sizzling sound bubbled on her face as she screeches and rears back. I see a red burn mark swipe across her face just below her eyes.

I stand stunned, clutching the flower pot in my hand tightly. It burnt her. The leaves scorched her skin.

"Midnight flower." I mumbled.

She squeals a sound of outrage and pain, and whips her hands toward me. I duck and swivel around out of her reach and her boy slams and cracks the granite counter top. Her eyes gleam black and I think I see red tint her eyes for a moment out of rage, but then she is swinging at me again.

That's when the windows and door burst full of black figures clad in leather- shadowhunters.

Clary looks around her wildly, scanning her eyes with a nasty glare, something only she can make look sexy. But I shake that thought off before anyone of them can get to her. She is too distracted to notice my body close to hers.

"Don't!" I stop a shadowhunter from swinging his blade into her head. He stops on a dime and looks at me with outrage and confusion. "Don't kill her! Grab her!" I twist around on my heel and loop my arms around her waist in a death grip. In another situation she might try and bat me off with petty attempts while I sling her over my shoulder, but this was not the case. She yanks out of my grip, but not once does she scrape skin and draw blood, and tumbled through the wall. She is covered with white dust and chunks of adamas is scattered across the floor. But she is gone. Another hole was made through the wall behind it, and she is gone, leaving a room full of confused shadowhunters with their blades half in and half out of their sheaths