CHAPTER 8

"You really shouldn't have been there. What if the demons attacked you?" Clary inquired Jace as she cleaned his wounds.

"I have Magnus." Jace shrugged, but winced in doing so.

"But what if Magnus wasn't there?" Clary deliberately poked him, almost near his wound to let him get her real point.

"That hurt." Jace frowned. "And Magnus was there! What's the point of arguing?"

"Chances are: you will do it again. And the next time you do, Magnus might not be there to save you." Clary closed the medical kit with a loud thud. All Jace could do was stare at her in amazement.

"I never knew you could be so bossy."

Clary didn't respond and stood up to place the kit back on the top of his drawer while Jace, in all his might, tried to sit up properly without creasing the fresh wrappings Clary had just made.

"Alright, alright. I won't do it again. If it pisses you off so much." Jace surrendered.

Clary turned around to face him again. "You knew from the start that it will piss me off, but still you did it."

Jace stood up carefully. And slowly, although still with that air of arrogance and determination, he walked towards where Clary was.

"You know from the start that I can't be contained," Jace took her hand. "I can't just wait here not knowing."

"Well you can if you try."

Jace smiled softly. He stroked her cheek, trying to reassure her. "I will. I promise."

And just as he was reaching down to kiss her lips, a terrible cough interrupted them.

"Excuse my bad throat, but I just came here to tell you that Mom and Dad just arrived."

Jace and Clary turned towards the door to see who interrupted them.

Isabelle.

"Of course! Who of all people would use that lame excuse?" Jace groaned and watched as his sister plopped down comfortably on his bed. His face twitched a little seeing how badly creased it became. Clary chuckled.

"No joke." Isabelle said. "They're downstairs if you want proof. But Alec just told them about your accident that they'd rather just go here… and in about thirty seconds too."

And just like a slap on Jace's face, Maryse and Robert appeared on his doorway.

"Jonathan Christopher Lightwood. Having so much fun again, haven't we?" Maryse said, her arms crossed. Robert chuckled lightly behind her and shook his head.

"If being bed ridden for hours is what you call fun, then yes. It was a lot of fun." Jace shrugged but can't keep the tempting smile forming from his lips now that his parents were back.

"How are you?" and motherly so, Maryse crossed the room with a worried look on her face as she hugged Jace. Robert followed suit and gave his son a one-armed hug.

"What kind of demons could actually stop you?" Robert beamed proudly.

"His kind of demons." Isabelle said, now sitting crossed-legged on the bed, busy texting on her phone. "Or maybe just Clary."

"Really?" Maryse raised an eyebrow. "Well, I doubt if she can ever be." She then reached for Clary and hugged her as warmly. "Always, the angel, this girl."

"No doubt about that." Jace winked at her to which Clary blushed a little.

"Well I'm no parent!" Clary said, trying to revive herself. "You might want to do some lecturing with Jace."

"I think we'd better go, now that you mentioned it." Isabelle jumped up and pulled Clary out from the room. "Jace, you deserve this, believe me."

Jace rolled his eyes and watched as the two girls left him with Marsye and Robert. But what happened next was something he didn't expect from the kind of lecturing he always had with them. Instead of banning him from future demon hunting and physical training, Maryse and Robert both exclaimed, with too-proud-of-a-parent's face,

"Congratulations!"

"What?" Jace had to hear it again, wondering if he might just still be hallucinating from the demon poison.

"The Clave wants you Jace, back in Alicante!" Maryse exclaimed.

Robert explained more calmly. "Most in the Clave thinks you're ready."

"But I was injured." Jace said. If the past days weren't as odd, he might've seen himself already packing his stuff the second Maryse mentioned 'Alicante'. But it wasn't really normal sounding to him.

"I got hurt by a demon." Jace repeated.

"Not just by any other demon." Maryse said. "They're training demons."

"Training demons?" Jace sounded baffled. It made him feel stupid that after all these years, believing that he knew everything about demon hunting, there's just this one tiny bit he had forgotten to research about—fickle training demons.

"Sacred water-injected demons." Robert shrugged. "We use them all the time for apprentices. It's some sort of a final test to get Shadowhunters off-guard. Holy grounds are the safest place for people like us. It's our comfort zone and we tend to relax and be off-duty. So once trespassed unexpectedly by unexpected visitors, it would be the real challenge."

"Injected demons?"

Maryse chuckled. "Yes, Jace. There are such things. Demons are lowly creatures that could be easily manipulated. And ever since the fall of Valentine…" She paused—pursed her lips and carefully studied Jace.

Jace acted nonchalantly, but the single twitch of his mouth—and only for just about a millisecond—gave him away. Robert and Maryse didn't say anything as they knew Valentine was still a very raw subject. But like Jace, they too pretended that there wasn't a fleeting moment of awkwardness.

"Ever since that," Maryse continued. "They even got weaker, and we… we got even stronger."

"So you could just play around and inject something in them?" Curiosity was killing Jace now.

"Well," Robert sat on his bed (this time, Jace didn't mind though). "I hope you of all people can attest to that." He smiled warmly.

Jace nodded, suddenly convinced. He was a living proof that it was possible—he and Clary, for that matter. The only difference was that they both got angel blood.

"Well?" Maryse said, once more getting very elated. "What do you say?"

For the first time in his entire week of weakness, he felt alive. He felt stronger. He was going back to Alicante… but still…

"I lost." Jace suddenly realized again.

"Well, technically you did." Robert shrugged. "But no one ever really has won against our kind of demons."

"So," Jace raised an eyebrow, "Technically speaking, you guys caused me all this damage?" Jace pointed out his gauze infested chest.

"I got worse burns than yours."

"And well all over his face too!" Maryse added.

"Well that made me feel better." Jace chuckled.

"Going back," Robert insisted, "What do you say?"

Jace knew the answer was just so easy to say. He needed not to think about it.

"Yes. It would be an honor."

And he can't already wait to tell Clary.

Hey guys, I can already foresee the end of this story. Give it three to four more chapters. Hope you will all like it! :))