Ok, sorry for the wait. Here it is, probably (hopefully) the best chapter so far. Just as a quick note before you read, I haven't quite decided what will be included in this story. Like I don't know yet if Simon is a Daylighter, I don't know if Jace/Clary are even in the story at all... yeah... I mean it might not make any difference, because they might not make an appearance, but we'll see.
Isabelle was nervous for her date, and she had no idea why. Actually she did have an idea. An idea with dark brown eyes and vampire fangs. She got ready for the date in record time, or, well, a record for slowest time. She snuck out of the Institute, although she wasn't quite sure why she was sneaking. She was allowed to leave whenever she wanted.
She made her way across the city to Taki's, where she and Simon had decided to meet. She opened the door and saw Simon sitting at a booth, with a single red rose on the table in front of him.
Simon almost didn't notice her when she walked in, he was so focused on the table in front of him. He seemed a little on edge, his hands clasped together tightly and his leg shaking under the table. He looked up when Isabelle walked over and smiled.
"I was getting a little nervous that you weren't going to show up," he admitted.
Isabelle smiled. "Come on, I'm not that late," she teased.
Simon looked down at the rose again. "Oh, um, this is for you," he stuttered. He picked up the rose and handed it to her.
Isabelle felt her cheeks warm up. She was actually blushing; she couldn't believe it. It was just that she'd never gotten a rose from anyone. Or at least not like this. "Thank you," she said softly.
"So, what did take you so long to get here? Someone at the Institute holding you up?" Simon asked.
Isabelle laughed. "No, I just take a long time to get ready. No one at the Institute would really care about me leaving for a little while."
"Oh. It's just that I don't really know anything about what happens at the Institute," he answered.
"It's really nothing special. It's just where my family lives. Occasionally we'll be called on by the Clave, but most of the time it's just a really big, really old house."
"So what's it like being a Shadowhunter? What's the Clave really like?" Simon seemed so curious about it, Isabelle wondered if he secretly wanted to become a Shadowhunter. Not that it could ever happen, seeing that he was a vampire. But if he were to somehow, miraculously become mortal again… Isabelle shook her head at the insane thought. Nothing like that had ever been heard of before.
"I already told you Clave secrets about the Institute. It's your turn to tell me about being a vampire. How long have you been a vampire?"
"I haven't been a vampire that long, only a few years. I was sixteen when I was turned, so that's the appearance I'm stuck with. I've been living at the Dumort with the rest of the New York vampire clan under Raphael's leadership. But vampire politics are so complicated. It's awful. Raphael is the leader at the moment, but only because Camille Belcourt went back to Europe for who knows how long. Raphael's pretty cool, but he's pretty strict on us about what we can and can't do. We can't date mortals, for starters. So this right here would be forbidden if he knew about it."
Isabelle looked down at the table. "Shadowhunters are forbidden from having more than casual relationships with Downworlders," she agreed. They sat in silence for a moment before she added, "so what are we going to do about this?"
Simon took a deep breath and looked at Isabelle intensely. "We keep meeting in secret. I'm not ready to say goodbye to you. Not yet. I can't just forget about you."
Isabelle looked back at him. "I can't forget about you, either."
They stayed at Taki's for a while longer, talking and cheering themselves up after discussing the forbidden state of their relationship. Finally, they stood up and walked out of the restaurant, Simon saying he'd walk Isabelle at least part of the way back to the Institute.
About halfway between Taki's and the Institute, Simon stopped walking. "Did you hear that?" He asked Isabelle.
Isabelle shook her head, but knew not to take Simon's worry lightly. He was a vampire, and could hear much better than she could, and even with the slight possibility of danger she had to be poised to attack. She reached her right hand to her left wrist where she always kept her whip coiled, but only felt her own arm. She looked down and saw that her whip wasn't there. And she hadn't brought any other weapons with her because this was, after all, a date. A perfectly normal date that she shouldn't have to bring weapons to. Isabelle sighed, but decided to just hope that Simon had just heard a cat or something.
All of a sudden, a giant blue demon came out of nowhere.
Simon made a hissing sound as his fangs emerged. Isabelle took a step back, realizing she would be useless in a fight against a demon without her weapons. Sure, she was trained in hand to hand combat, but that was useless against a demon.
Simon turned back to look at Isabelle. "What are you doing? You're a Shadowhunter, fight!"
Isabelle couldn't hide the fear from her face. "I don't have any weapons. I must've left my whip at the Institute." She was prepared for Simon to yell at her for being stupid and a pathetic Shadowhunter. It's what her parents or brother would've done.
Instead, Simon's face mirrored Isabelle's fear for the briefest of seconds. Then he turned back to the demon and stepped between it and Isabelle.
"Come at me, demon!" Simon yelled at the blue creature.
The demon simply growled and started moving toward Simon. Simon ran to meet the demon and started attacking it with vampire speed. He bit his fangs into the demon's neck and pulled away flesh. The demon tried to fight back, but Simon was too fast for it. Simon finally managed to remove the head of the demon from its body. He threw the head while the body started thrashing and finally collapsed.
Unfortunately, Simon didn't realize he had thrown the head directly at Isabelle. Isabelle saw it flying at her, and there was so much demon ichor that if it touched her skin, it could very likely kill her. But she couldn't move, she was frozen in place. The world seemed to move in slow motion as the demon head flew toward Isabelle. Simon turned his head and saw Isabelle's predicament. He ran to her with lightning fast speed and pushed her to the ground. The demon head hit the wall that had been behind Isabelle with a disgusting thud.
Simon was now pinning a shocked Isabelle to the ground. "Are you okay?" He asked breathlessly.
"Yeah, I don't know what happened. I couldn't move. I—you saved me."
Simon smiled down at Isabelle, who suddenly became very aware of their position. She could feel every place Simon's body covered hers, and although his body temperature was cold, she felt a sort of heat surrounding them.
Simon seemed to notice their position as well and stood up. He reached a hand down to help Isabelle stand up as well. They were still standing close to each other.
"Thank you," Isabelle said, looking up at Simon.
Instead of voicing a reply, Simon leaned down and kissed Isabelle.
Isabelle reached out and wrapped her arms around Simon's neck, and he put his arms around her waist.
Neither seemed to be able to get enough of the other. Eventually, though, they finally pulled apart and smiled at each other.
"Isabelle?" A voice called out from behind her. Isabelle's heart stopped. She knew that voice. It was her brother.
Another note: this is before Malec. That might become part of the story later, but I don't know for sure. So this is when Alec is all "Downworlders bad. Clave good." Please let me know what you think!