So... whoever is following me on tumblr and saw a weird post, about me being extremely exited about the reviews I've been getting for this fanfic, just know: I'm almost positively sure that I'm not insane xD I was just so too HAPPY you have no idea! I admit, it's not normal to freak out over reviews this much but who wants to be normal anyway? xD

ilyreid - You'll understand a bit better after this chapter I promise!
AlejandraMartinez - Here it is :)
ICraveYou - Thank you sweety^^ and the Harry-Potter-Part isn't quite over.
Lexilovespickles - Thanks! I'm glad you like it!
Whip and Fangs - omg are you serious? Thank you so much! I'm not sure about your Sizzy-Heart either but just keep reading!
RWBRyan - Ok ;)
TheLittleRoguex - How could I not update when you're falling in love with it?^^

I know it's taken me a while to update this time and I'm sorry, BUT this chapter is a bit longer than the other ones!

CITY OF CRYING ANGELS
chapter six: A Rune, hot like Fire

For hours Simon sat in the floor and told Izzy the plot of each and every Harry Potter Book, as detailed as he remembered it. After a while Isabelle sat up, leaning her head against the wall and gave up trying to sleep. Simon didn't think she had planned to sleep from the start. He also had a feeling she didn't care about what he was telling her at all but as long as he kept talking and distracting her it would fine. He might as well could have taken a sports magazine (not that he had one) and read every single page out loud.

But no matter how long, detailed or distracting a story was - every story had to end sometime. "Harry waved his son, Albus Severus Potter, goodbye as the Hogwarts Express took off. And all was well."

"Albus Severus… poor kid." Isabelle said in a monotone voice.

"Hey, those happen to be very meaningful names."

"So? Children don't care for meaningful. If it weren't for Potter he would probably get beaten up a lot in school."

"Maybe that's why Joanne K. Rowling didn't write any more books. Mystery solved."

Izzy didn't comment on that. Instead she paused a moment and then abruptly changed the topic: "You said you would have come to Magnus' even if all I would have wanted was you to hold me while I sleep. You tell me stories when I ask you to. And you didn't yell at me for leaving without telling anyone..." He knew who she was referring to: Jace would have yelled. But he and Jace expressed their emotions in very different ways. "Why do you do all that?"

Simon had never really thought about that. He shrugged his shoulders. "You need me and I'm there. That's just how it is." For him this wasn't something to consider but a law of nature. "I'll always be there for you, Izzy, no matter what. It doesn't matter if your life is in danger or all you want is the latest issue of Batman… which, by the way, would be so cool, you should totally start reading that. Besides: Who would ever say no when Isabelle Lightwood requests something?"

She lightly smiled and was silent for a long moment. Until: "I'm sorry I ran away. Usually I'm not 5 years old."

"I know you're not. Usually you're about 200 but who's counting." The tease caused Isabelle grabbing the pillow and throwing it at Simon. He caught it with a smile, glad to have gotten a playful reaction out of her. "Okay okay, I'm sorry. You can pass for 150." But then he got serious. "Why did you do it? And why did you tell Maia you didn't want to see any of us?"

"I needed to get out of there. And I thought it would better if I didn't see any of you."

"But why? We were worried about you. You could have at least told us where you were going."

"I know and I'm sorry. It's not like I intended to run away when I got back in the bedroom. At first I thought I could handle it. I mean I'm supposed to be able to handle everything. I thought I was stronger than that. I am Isabelle Lightwood… I'm not scared. And I'm not weak."

Simon resisted the urge to go over to her and take her into his arms, she didn't made the impression on him that she wanted to be close to him right now. "It's okay to be those things sometimes. No one can handle everything." He said. "That doesn't change who you are."

"What if it does? What if there are some things… you don't recover from?" she was so desperate it nearly physically hurt him to see her like this. He couldn't sit at the other side of the room anymore. He got up and walked over to the mattress but made sure to keep his distance as he sat down on it.

"Iz… there is nothing anyone could ever do to you that you can't recover from. I mean it. You're not some ordinary girl. You're not even an ordinary Shadowhunter. You are in every possible way extraordinary. And I'm absolutely sure if we had never met – I'd miss you. I wouldn't know who I'd be missing, of course, but I would know that something in my life wasn't quite right."

Moved by his words she smiled but that smile faded at fast as it had come. She swallowed and even in the darkness he could see her eyes shimmering. "I… I thought he was you." A tear ran down her cheek but she brushed it away. Simon frowned but didn't say anything, he didn't want to interrupt her.

"It some kind of glamour or... something else I wasn't able to see through. You came back from the institute sooner than the others and said Alec and Magnus had stayed with my mother. You were different than usual but I figured that was because of last night. We started… making out. I realized it wasn't you eventually… I felt his heart beating. But it was too late. He was stronger that I am and I… couldn't stop him. Suddenly I felt like my body was burning and I felt like I was falling into darkness. The only thing holding me in this world was him. He kept me from falling but I was surrounded by darkness and even though my body felt like it was on fire everything was so... cold. And then…" she didn't finish the sentence but Simon, frozen in horror, knew the end to it. "When you came back he was long gone. And so was I. I tried to… be normal. I thought I couldn't possibly tell you what happened."

He knew it was his turn to say something, he just couldn't think of anything that weren't death threats against Sebastian. It took him a while to swallow all of that and he finally managed to say: "I shouldn't have left you."

"Like I said before that wouldn't have mattered. He probably-" she broke off and Simon had an idea what she was thinking: That sicko would probably have made him watch! Isabelle couldn't bring herself to say it and he couldn't blame her. "It would have been pointless." she ended in a weak voice.

Simon had grown up as a mundane and of course had heard about this happening to girls, but he would have never figured that something like that could happen to a Shadowhunter. Of course, with Sebastian on the lose, nothing was impossible. Maybe it was a good thing that he and Jace were linked for now, that way Simon had some time to think about 99 + 1 ways to hurt someone enough, so he would feel like dying, without actually killing him. He didn't just want to kill that son of a bitch he wanted him to suffer. For the first time ever since he became a vampire he felt like he was truly a killer and not just because he was hungry.

Hungry... he had drunken his blood. To save Clary, he did it... that was what brought Sebastian back to life. Him. And now that had happened to Izzy because he hadn't convinced them to unleash Azazel. Simon clenched his hands.

"Simon?"

He hadn't realized how out he had been, staring with dark eyes against the wall and not talking. "Sorry. I'm back."

"Where have you been?"

"In a wonderful land called: Island of Sebastian's Death. See, every day is kill-Sebastian day and every day he suffers more. It's even a contest. You can win a teddy bear and there are bonus points for maim. - You should pay a visit, it's lovely there this time a year." He wasn't going to tell her that he blamed only himself for all of this. She had enough to deal with, him beating himself up over it, wouldn't help her. She needed him now, more than ever and he was going to be there for her.

Izzy smiled a bit. "Sounds great." And then the smile fainted again. "Simon, there's something else. Two things actually. One: You can not tell Alec about this. Or my parents. Or anyone. I can't have anyone else know this."

He swallowed. "Of course." He didn't feel good keeping this from her family, but it was her decision.

"The second thing... he did something else. I don't know how or when... I didn't even realize it until I saw it. A Rune. I think he must have... somehow drawn it on me when I felt like I was on fire. Because the heat arose from the rune. I have never heard of a rune who'd do this and also... I have never seen it before."

"Y-You're not saying that Clary... she would never have helped him hurting you!"

"I know that. But what if she didn't know what it was about when she showed him the rune?"

"She wouldn't help Sebastian. Period. Look, Izzy, I know you're upset. But her power doesn't even work that way. She doesn't draw a line and calls it a rune, the runes come to her... nothing bad would ever come to her."

Isabelle nodded. "I know how it works. It's just fact that he somehow found a glamour, or whatever that was, that even I couldn't see through and there's a rune on my body that I have never seen before. And Clary is the only one who can do such a thing."

Yes, those were indeed the facts but Simon couldn't believe that Clary had somehow helped Sebastian going through with this, even if she might not have known what she had done. "Can I see it? The rune I mean."

She hesitated for a moment. "It's almost completely gone by now. It's still... burning though." She rolled up her shirt a bit – which was still his – and he saw it. To him almost all runes looked the same, like something you would doodle while you're on the phone. This one, somehow, was different. It was very simple but extremely big. It started at her waist and ended somewhere on her chest. He couldn't see where exactly, because of the shirt. Also, he noticed, it wasn't drawn in black ink, which made it even weirder – it was dark red and reminded Simon of blood. Of course, since he was a vampire basically everything that was even remotely red (sometimes even dark pink) reminded him of blood, but still.

"Izzy... I know you don't want anyone to know, but we need to find out what that rune is."

"And how are we supposed to do that? Will you take a picture and send it to Clary?"

"No." he really wished she'd stopped blaming Clary but she had been through a lot and he wasn't going to argue with her. "I was thinking about Magnus."

She immediately shook her head. "No way. He's Alec's boyfriend and the biggest gossip I have met in my entire life."

Simon hesitated for a while but decided to tell her: "I think he may already know. He said he had a few ideas of what had happened, because of the way you behaved... he didn't say anything, but he knows how to figure out stuff and somehow manages to be right about it. And if you ask him I'm sure he can keep it a secret even from Alec. - Isabelle, I'm worried about that rune. He didn't just draw it because he was bored."

Izzy bit her lip. "But there's nothing Magnus can do. If I'm right and Clary drew that rune-"

"Then we'll know at least that." He wanted to grab her hand and encourage her to go to Magnus, but after what he knew now, he didn't think she'd want anyone to touch her again ever. Especially when Sebastian had started out looking like him... or did he look like him the whole time? Had Izzy been able to see through his glamour after she figured it out? He didn't dare to ask that question.

It took her a while to answer but then she finally said: "Okay. Let's go back. Let me leave a note for Maia, though. I ran out on you guys I don't want to run out on her as well."

They left his room and found Jordan to be asleep on the couch. Well that wasn't entirely true, he was half on the couch and half on the floor. Upside down. How he had managed to do that, Simon would never know. They left a note in the kitchen and then got out of the apartment. When they stepped out of the building Isabelle took a deep breath.

"I don't want to walk." she said and in that very moment sounded like nothing bad had happened to her. She sounded normal.

"Okay, I'll call a cab." he had his cell half way out when Izzy took it out of his hands.

"I don't want to take a cab, either."

Somehow she always managed to confuse him without even trying. "Uhm... walking and cab are kind of the only options we have here. I can't borrow Eric's van, because when he's asleep and I don't ask it's called stealing."

And then she really surprised him. "There's another way. You could use your vampire speed to get us there fast."

"But... that would mean I had to... carry you." he said.

She hesitated. "I know. Simon, I don't mind you touching me." Simon figured her hesitation before told him that she did mind... she just didn't want it to.

"Isabelle, I'm not sure. I mean... it's only natural, if it bothers you. You don't have to pretend with me."

Suddenly she grabbed his hand and it was him who jerked with shock, not her. It was horrible, he felt like he was hurting her just by touching her... and while Izzy did look uncomfortable, she didn't seem scared, which he had expected her to be.

"I'm not pretending. Sebastian has destroyed a part of me with what he did." she admitted and let her other hand rest on his chest, where his heart would be beating. "And right now you're the only thing that keeps me from falling apart. You always do. When I'm with you I feel like I can survive anything. I want to be close to you, Simon." She lowered her head and leaned her forehead against his chest. "I am not going to let him destroy that part of me as well."

Her words touched him so much that for a very long moment he was paralyzed. Then he squeezed her hand a bit and put his other arm around her. Someone who saw them from a distance might thing they were attempting to dance, without music. After a while he let go of her hand and lifted her up. He had never carried anyone in his arms that way, not even Clary. It was the way he remembered every Superhero carrying their loved one out of the danger-zone.

Except that he wasn't a Superhero and he wasn't bringing Izzy out of any danger. He had been standing in front of a burning building, with nothing to do (except looking like an idiot) while she had been through the worst moments of her life. He certainly wasn't a hero. And he would never forgive himself for letting Izzy down, because that's what it felt like.

But right now he held her in his arms and she snuggled into his chest. "I like listening to your heart not beating." she said and Simon lightly smiled.

"I'm glad to see the trouble I went through to make that happen wasn't all for nothing." And then they went off. The sun was coming up as he raced through town in super-speed with her in his arms, carefully avoiding bumping into traffic (which, in New York, never slept) and/or people.

This, he thought, would look like the end of a Western movie. Where the good guy rode into the sunset with his girl. Except that the sun was coming up, not going down, they were one horse short, it wasn't a movie and most certainly not the end. If anything Simon had the feeling that this was just the beginning.

To everyone who's thinking: Chapter 6 and just the beginning? WTF? - Well, I never said the fanfic would be short... ;) In fact the real plot hasn't even begun yet.

I'm sorry for those who were hoping nothing had really happened between Izzy and Sebastian, I really am. But I hope you still like the fanfic!
Please let me know!