Scarred for Life
Chapter 13
Sorry it took me a little bit longer to update than usual, but I was looking for a Beta. I found one! Her name in KelseyMasun16 and she is amazing! She edited this chapter and made it SO much better! Thanks!
Clary P.O.V
It was now 6:45 later that night, and I had just finished getting dressed to go hunting. My outfit consists of a black tank top, matching combat boots, and tight dark pants made from a leathery material. Securing my brown hair in a sleek high ponytail, I made my way to the weapon's room.
When I walked through the door, I found Alec loading his quiver with a dozen multicolored feather arrows. He turned around when the door slammed unexpectedly behind me. "Hey, Rebecca, are you getting weapons?"
I nodded while making a beeline for a long wall adorned with various seraph blades, trying to ignore the guilty pang in my stomach that gnawed on my conscience whenever I heard the name 'Rebecca'.
I failed.
I hate having to lie to the people that I have come to regard as my second family. Even though Isabelle and Maryse already knew my true identity, I wanted everyone else to know, too. Especially Jace. We were officially a couple now, but I felt like I was betraying him every time he breathed my name or leaned in for a kiss. On top of all that, I still have to deal with my psychotic father and mentally deranged brother.
"Ummm, Rebecca?" My head snapped up to meet Alec's. He was clad in our full shadowhunter gear, weaponry and gadgets included, with a curious glint in his piercing blue eyes.
"Yeah?"
"Are you ready? You've been staring at the wall for the past 10 minutes."
"Oh, yeah. Sure. Just… give me one second." I grabbed a couple of seraph blades, a small vial of holy water, a flask of silver powder, plus a chakra, and ran down the hall after him. I walked into the front room to find Alec, Magnus, Jace, and Simon waiting by the door, looking rather impatient.
"Where's Izzy?" I made my way to Jace, who immediately wrapped a possessive arm around my shoulders and shot Simon a taunting triumphant look. Simon, who was watching me intensely, rolled his eyes at Jace with an unidentifiable expression on his face.
Magnus looked up from his whispered conversation with Alec and answered my question with an exasperated sigh and disapproving wave of one polished hand. "She's still getting ready… women!" He shook his head, causing a sea of glitter to rain down in a magnificent arc on the hardwood floor.
"Shut up, Magnus! I would have been ready sooner, but someone stole my eyeliner." Isabelle stomped into the room and gave Magnus an accusingly pointed look.
"Shut up, both of you! Everyone's finally ready, so let's go kill some demons!" Alec exclaimed harshly and marched out the front door. Too startled with the fact that Alec had snapped, we followed after him without further debate.
.o.O.o.
After spending nearly half an hour driving out of the city, we finally reached Cain Forest. It's known in the Shadowhunter community as a hotbed for demon and rogue downworlder activity.
Simon parked his beat up van, which had been a moving away present for Simon from Eric, on the outskirts of the forest. We climbed out and began our long trek through the dense forest. After hiking for about 20 minutes, we reached a clearing.
Jace crouched down and inspected the forest ground. "There's human blood on the ground; lots of it. I think we have ourselves a rogue vampire nest to take care of."
We all smiled knowingly and moved deeper into the wooded area. We walked another half mile, until we discovered our first clue that the vampires were near. A disgusting scent, a mix between rotting corpses and death, tainted the air and caused my throat to burn slightly. Not even five seconds after the stench overcame us, six vampires appeared from behind the tree line and strode into the clearing. Their numbers consisted of three drop dead –no pun intended- gorgeous girls and three equally as attractive guys.
Two of the women were really tall with perfect, long blonde hair and striking blue eyes. They looked to be in their early twenties. They were each holding hands with their 'mates'. One of whom, was Hispanic looking with dark dreadlocks and chocolate brown eyes. The other had shorter black hair with pale grey eyes. Though they obviously weren't lacking in the beauty department, they each had a dark, predatory air to them.
As my eyes traveled to the last two remaining vampires, I gasped. They were children! The girl looked around 14 and the boy couldn't be more than 8 years old when they were Changed. The girl also had blonde, curly hair and innocent blue eyes. The small boy had light brown hair with angry, guarded hazel eyes.
The adult man with black hair stepped forward and spoke. "Hello, Shadowhunters, my name is Christian. How may we help you this evening?"
Jace snorted, "Christian? Funny name, you know, considering you're damned for eternity."
Christian frowned at one of Jace's signature snide remarks, "Tsk, tsk. I would think you would be more polite around the Children of the Night considering you have one traveling with you tonight."
I glanced over at Simon and saw that he looked incredibly uncomfortable. I decided to step in. "We are polite to every downworlder, that is, until they break Clave Law." The adult vampires did a good job of keeping their emotions in check, but the little girl's face looked guilty. That told me that she was only recently Changed.
Isabelle spoke with a superior tone. "All six of you are to be executed, under the name of the Clave, for feeding on mundanes."
One of the blonde women jumped forward and ran towards Magnus. She stopped about 5 feet from him and dropped onto her knees. "Magnus, you can't let them do this! Remember the love we used to share?"
"I do remember, Camille, but we have both moved on. I now have my dearest Alec and you have Raphael." Magnus nodded towards the Hispanic looking man. "I am sorry old friend, but you have broken Clave Law, and there isn't anything I can do. You must die for your crimes."
The young girl turned and looked at the other woman desperately with fear in her eyes. "Mom, you said we were invincible; you said we never had to worry about anything, anymore."
"I know Maureen, but we fed off human blood. It made us stronger, but the Clave found out. We must pay." She gave her brief little speech, but then turned and whispered something to her group too low for us to hear. We didn't need to hear, though.
We knew they were going to fight their condemned fate.
Jace and I stealthy slid two seraph blades free of their holsters and whispered their names, while Isabelle unraveled her golden whip from her forearm, Alec notched an arrow in his bow, Magnus' hands began to crackle with blue static, and Simon bared his fangs threateningly.
The vampires turned to look at us in alarm and Christian stepped forward. "Before this turns into a battle, we would like to try to negotiate."
"We don't negotiate with rogues," Jace sneered in disgust.
"Now just wait a minute, Jace, and let's see what they have to say." It was Magnus that had spoken up for the criminals and Christian nodded his head in gratitude.
"Thank you Bane, I see that Camille was right about you; you can be trusted." I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw that Alec was glaring daggers at Camille. "We will give you information regarding Valentine, if you set us free."
I scoffed, "We already know that Valentine and Jonathon broke free."
All sets of eyes turned to stare in my direction and Camille gave me a wicked smirk. "Do you know about Valentine's daughter?"
My blood ran cold and I felt my face grow pale as Jace's head snapped up. I saw his hand flex around his seraph blade, almost as if he was imagining stabbing Clarissa/me. "What information can you tell us about Clarissa Morgenstern?"
"First, you have to swear on the Angel not to kill us, but I can tell you that she's closer than you may think." I closed my eyes to stop myself from crying. This can't be happening. It's not the right time! Why can't the bloodsucking bitch just back off and let me handle my own problems?
I opened my eyes when I heard the scream.
I saw Camille on the ground, with a seraph blade through her heart, and Isabelle standing on top of her. Jace looked furious. "What the Hell Isabelle? She could have given us information about Clarissa!"
"She was lying, Jace. She wanted to live, so she came up with a bunch of bullshit. Everyone in the supernatural community knows what happened to your father, and she used that against you."
"You don't know that!"
"Jace," Isabelle locked eyes with me, "If Clarissa is still alive, she would want to stay as far away from you as possible, right now."
"Camille!" We all turned to see Raphael lying on the ground, holding his dead lover's body in his arms. "You! You did this! You will all die for what you have done!" The next thing I knew, Raphael was laying on top of Jace, trying to bite him. Alec quickly ran over to help Jace.
The remaining blonde woman launched herself at Isabelle, but she wrapped her whip around the woman's legs and pulled, effectively bringing her to the ground. Christian started in on Magnus, leaving me to deal with the kids. They slowly walked towards me in an eerie, Children of the Corn manner. The little boy spoke. "Hello, Rebecca Fray, or should I call you Clarissa Morgenstern?"
I looked around to see if anyone had heard, but they were all too engaged in their own battles. "How do you know my name?"
"We work for Valentine. My family and I are very high up in his inner circle, so we know all about you."
"It takes a long time to earn his trust. How old are you?"
"My name is Maxwell, and I am over 800 years old. My sister, Maureen, was just Changed about a year ago."
"Why would someone Change you? You were just kids." I was close to tears at the mere thought of the tragic truth.
"No one would suspect us. We could go wherever we wanted and help in any way possible. That's why Valentine wanted us." Maxwell's calm and collected voice scared me. He sounded like a 40 year old man stuck in an 8 year olds body.
"Why would Valentine want you? His goal in life is to destroy every demon and Downworlder."
"We're not really sure. All we know is that he's a very powerful man with very generous rewards."
"Well then, I'm sorry to say, but you won't live much longer to enjoy his 'very generous rewards'."
"Ha! We'll see about that." He gave me a dark, evil smile and seemed to disappear. Maureen launched herself at me and I had to quickly move to the side to avoid her small body.
She landed on all fours, like a cat, and spun around to face me. I brought my seraph blade up in hopes of stabbing her, but one polished combat foot left the ground and kicked me hard in the wrist, breaking the bone, and causing me to fling the seraph blade across the clearing. I cried out in pain, but quickly grabbed another blade out of my belt, named it, and flung it at her chest in desperation as she lunged at me again. I heard the audible thunk and knew that I had found my target.
I turned around to go see if anyone else needed help, but Maxwell reappeared out of nowhere and landed on my back. "This is for Camille."
He whispered as he sank his small fangs into my exposed neck. The last things I remember seeing were Jace's panicked expression and terrified eyes, before the world went black.
I'll probably slow my updates down to about twice a week now. Once again, thanks KelseyMasun16!
Tell me what you thought!
See you soon,
ByTheAngel99