The usual disclaimer, I only own Ash and Baliyerus and the story line. Thanks! -IADS

Chapter 8: Clary_

***********************Clary's P.O.V*************************

"Did Jace bring me here?" She asked.

Isabelle nodded. "You got ichor and blood all over the carpet in the entry way. If he'd done it while my parents were here, he'd have gotten grounded for sure." Her eyes narrowed, "Jace said you killed that Ravener demon all by yourself."

A quick image of the scorpion thing with its crabbed, evil face flashed through Clary's mind. She mentally shuddered and her clutch around the cup grew tighter. "I guess I did."

"But you're a mundane."

"Amazing, isn't it?" Clary said, savoring the look of thinly disguised amazement on Isabelle's face. She looked to the girl named Ash; she was smirking at the look on Isabelle's face. "Where's Jace? Is he around?"

Isabelle shrugged, "Somewhere." She said, "I should go tell everyone you're up. Hodge'll want to talk to you."

"Hodge is Jace's tutor, right?" she asked the two girls before her.

"Hodge tutors all of us." Isabelle replied,

"It can get quite annoying sometimes."Added Ash.

"Oh come on, he's not that bad." said Isabelle calmly. She turned back to Clary and pointed to the far side of the room, "The bathroom's through there, and I hung some of my old clothes on the towel rack in case you want to change."

"What happened to my clothes?"

"Oh. They were covered in blood and poison and-" Isabelle began.

Ash cut her off, "Jace burned them." She said quickly.

"Did he?" Clary asked, "Tell me, is he always really rude or does he save that for the mundanes?"

"Oh, he's rude to everyone," said Isabelle airily, "That's what makes him so damn sexy. That and he's killed more demons than anyone else his age."

Ash raised her eyebrows and turned to face Isabelle, "Being rude does not make you 'sexy.'" She copied Isabelle's tone when she said 'sexy', "It makes you an ass." Isabelle ignored her. Ash turned to Clary, "Oh, and the burning, that was precautionary. Sorry 'bout that."

Clary looked at Isabelle, perplexed, "Isn't he your brother?"

"Close. Foster brother." Said Ash. Clary nodded.

That got Isabelle's attention. She laughed out loud, "Jace? My brother? No. Whatever gave you the idea?"

"It's your attitude, Izzy. You're much like him in that." The sarcasm in Ash's voice was clear.

"Not as much as you are." Isabelle wasn't being sarcastic, but was still joking. "But what did make you think that we're siblings?" she asked Clary.

"Well, he does live here with you." Clary pointed out, "Doesn't he?"

"Well, yes, but…"

"Why doesn't he live with his own parents?"

For a fleeting moment Isabelle looked uncomfortable. Ash looked at Isabelle, and even though from where she stood Ash would not be able to see the other girl's face; she seemed able to read her perfectly, like one might read the pages of a book. So Ash answered, "Because they're dead."

Clary's mouth opened in surprise, "Did they die in an accident?"

It was Isabelle who answered this time, "His mother died when he was born. His father was murdered when he was 10. Jace saw the whole thing."

"Oh." Clary's voice was small, "Was it… demons?"

Isabelle got to her feet, "Look, I'd better let everyone know you've woken up. They've been waiting for you to open your eyes for three days. Oh, and there's soap in the bathroom," she added, "you might want to clean up a little. You smell."

"Oh Isabelle, you sure know how to flatter our guests!" Ash patted Isabelle's shoulder lightly. Isabelle smacked the back of her head.

Clary glared at Isabelle, "Thanks a lot."

"Anytime."

Isabelle's clothes looked ridiculous. Clary had to roll the legs on the jeans up several times before she stopped tripping on them, and the plunging neckline only emphasized her lack of what Eric would have called a 'rack'.

She walked out. Isabelle had left, but Ash was trying to climb the wall using the pattern of bricks sticking out of it. She must have heard Clary, because her head turned as Clary stepped to the foot of the hospital bed. She picked up her Sketchers, which someone had placed at the foot of the bed. "I thought I told Isabelle those jeans wouldn't fit you." Ash had abandoned her attempt to climb up the wall and was now looking Clary over in the same way Clary would look at something or someone she was going to draw. "Follow me. I think I could find you some jeans that would actually fit you."

Ash was taller than Clary by an inch or two, so she was also short. But she looked taller than she actually was because she carried her pride in her step, her shoulders set low and her head held high, she took wide steps. She was someone Clary would like to draw at some point, but what caught her eyes were the backs of her legs, warped skin.

They reached what Clary supposed was Ash's room. It was the brightest room she'd seen so far. The carpet was orange and the walls orange, yellow, red, and pink striped. There were stacks of books everywhere and bookshelves stuffed to the breaking point with fictions. One whole wall was a shelf its self. Clary saw Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games Trilogy, The Divergent Trilogy, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians just to name a few of the many books in the room. There were posters of musical groups and singers including P!nk, Lorde, Of Monsters and Men, Imagine Dragons, Florence and the Machine, Adele, Bastille, and One Republic.

"Sit." Ash gestured to the bed and started shifting boxes with different labels around in her closet. About 5 minutes later she had a box that had Shorts, Jeans, Cut-offs scrawled onto the side in sharpie. She pulled out a few pairs of jeans and denim shorts and one pair of cut-offs.

"Here, I think these'll fit. There's a bathroom across the hall if you want to try them on." Clary loaded the jeans into her arms. "Oh, and here's a t-shirt. It might fit." She threw Clary a black t-shirt.

"Thanks." Clary walked across the hall to the bathroom and changed. Ash's old clothes fit much better, but the shirt still was a little loose at the top. The first pair of jeans fit. The shirt said in plain print 'Boys in books are just better.' Ash's clothes smelled like wood smoke and lemons.

She looked across the hall. Ash was no longer in her room. Clary set the leftover jeans on the bed and set off to find Isabelle or Ash.

*************************Ash's P.O.V************************

The music flowed off the strings in a beautiful way that seemed so impossible to her mind. She no longer struggled to read the music that had once frustrated her so much. It was now just like reading words from a book. She knew the language of music that her mother had taught her from the age of three. The air smelled like rosin and metal and wood. The way it always did when she played her violin. The song finished with a quick jerk of her bow. She pulled another sheet of music out at random. It read FLIGHT OF THE BUMBLEBEE. Ash remembered the few times she'd played it with Jace, him playing the piano part. The first time they'd only had one copy of the song with both parts on it. After fifteen minutes of him saying it was too high up resting on the top of the piano and her saying it was too low on the piano stand, they'd finally tried her sitting on the piano bench. It was disastrous. She'd nearly poked out his eye with the tip of her bow and he'd accidentally pushed her off the bench while trying to reach the other side of the key board. Eventually she just sat on a stool behind him. It had worked much better despite the fact that he got angry at the piano and just started banging on the keys halfway through.

She was now about a quarter of the way through the through the song. She pulled back quickly on the bow and heard a snap. Something hit her cheek like a whip.

He set down her bow. "Shit." She hated it when the strings snapped.

With a sigh, she put away her violin and loosened the bow. She put her violin back in her room and walked to the kitchen.

When she got to the kitchen, she scribbled a note and set it on the table. The note read, going to town, Dinner suggestions or shopping lists here. She left half the page blank and headed back to her room. As soon as Ash got there, she grabbed seven demonology books and opened up the second and sixth to where she'd stuck in a page of note book paper. She took out a page and started to scribble down notes.

She unconsciously started whispering an old rhyme her mother would recite to her when she was little,

Black for hunting through the night

For death and mourning the color's white

Gold for a bride in her wedding gown

And red to call enchantment down.

White silk when our bodies burn,

Blue banners when the lost return.

Flame for the birth of a Nephilim,

And to wash away our sins.

Gray for knowledge best untold,

Bone for those who don't grow old.

Saffron lights the victory march,

Green will mend our broken hearts.

Silver for the demon towers,

And bronze to summon wicked powers.

She whispered it to herself over and over. She'd never thought of white as a wedding color, but apparently mundanes did. Ash had passed by a bridal store with her mother when they'd first moved to New York. She'd thought it was a sad looking store. She'd never lived in the city. Her family had moved to the beautiful countryside, where they could teach Ash to fight without having to worry about mundanes seeing them. She'd chopped the wood for the fires and cut and carried logs out of the nearby woods. It was only natural that her weapon of choice would be an axe. The tool that she had mastered when they still lived in Idris. They'd only moved so Ash would learn to keep her mouth shut about the shadow world near mundanes. That was before her parents had been killed. Now she would avenge their deaths.

I am soooo sorry if you've been wating for this! I'll try to right more often. HAPPY SPRING! J No more cold weather! I'm in shorts and a t-shirt right now! (no, seriously; I am!) - IADS