Chapter 4

Clary burst through the door with a surge of adrenaline, speeding up as Jace gripped her hand tightly and began to pull her behind him. They were in the parking lot, running toward an idling black SUV.

"Not that they can see us," said Jace lightly, his deep breaths betraying his calm tone, "but we really need to get this car out of here before they put the whole place under lockdown." Clary nodded, running after him as fast as she could. He was faster than her—he had about 11 inches of height on her—but she was trying desperately to catch up. Given the circumstances, Clary decided not to ask Jace why exactly no one could see them.

They made it to the car, Jace sliding effortlessly behind the wheel as Clary fumbled with the passenger door. He started the car and stepped on the gas pedal just as Clary was making it through the door. She flew onto the seat and the door slammed shut behind her, leaving her strewn across the passenger seat and breathing heavily, glaring at Jace.

"I'm sorry but I don't really have time for you to be delicate," said Jace tersely without even looking at Clary's face, accelerating rapidly toward the now closing gate. Clary decided, based on the velocity with which Jace was driving, that it would be a good time to put her seat belt on.

Jace swerved around the gate just as it was about to swing closed, denting the side of the car and sending them into a tailspin. There were about a dozen security guards running out of the gate and after them, but all Clary could see was the blur of green as the world spun around them. She was glad that she had put her seat belt on, as Jace accelerated out of the spin before they had even stopped, straightening the car out and almost mowing down one security guard. He jumped out of the way just in time. Clary had a feeling that Jace wouldn't have stopped.

"We need to disappear," shouted Jace over the wailing sirens that had started. There were several police cars pulling out of the compound and Clary nodded her agreement, waiting for Jace to continue.

"Any ideas?" he asked, surprising her with the question.

"Excuse me?" asked Clary scathingly, her voice rising in pitch as she grew more frantic. Jace looked confused and Clary continued. "You mean to tell me that you intended to break me out of prison but you had no idea what to do next?"

"Well I didn't exactly plan on the alarm going off!" said Jace, getting defensive, eyebrows furrowed at her accusatory tone.

"Why would that not be a part of the plan? You expected to break me out of a high security juvenile detention hall and really thought that we would get out with out a fuss?" Clary had moved beyond her franticness and had arrived a pure disgust. Jace was gripping the steering wheel tightly, eyes hardened. Clary sighed and tried to think of somewhere they could disappear.

"Pandemonium," said Clary before she had the chance to think better of it, "do you know where it is?" Jace looked surprised but Clary didn't falter. If he wasn't going to plan ahead of time, he had damn well better listen to her ideas. She half expected him to laugh in her face at the absolute ridiculousness of hiding a teen felon in a teen bar, but he didn't.

"Pandemonium it is." Jace spun the car around to face the opposite direction, sending a couple of police cars flying into the wrong intersection. It was clear that the people driving the cars weren't exactly geared for a car chase. They probably weren't even real police officers, just overworked and underpaid jailers.

As Jace continued to accelerate, the scenery began to change, morphing from a monotonous blur of trees into the clear sign of the outskirts. They were near the city.

Clary felt a momentary leap of joy at being near her home again, but that joy was quickly overshadowed by the realization that it wasn't really home any more. Not for her. Clary felt tears welling in her eyes but quickly blinked them away, turning her head slightly so that Jace couldn't see.

"So what was going to be the plan?" asked Clary as she cleared her throat. She needed to stop thinking about the past—if she started that, she would end up wallowing in a hole of pity that she would never be able to climb back out of.

Jace looked mildly startled by the break in the silence, but covered it nicely with the now familiar cocky grin.

"I was thinking we could go to a party," he said, eyes twinkling. Clary studied him closely, narrowing her eyes—she could never tell when he was kidding. There was an almost dark humor in his tone that Clary couldn't quite understand. He didn't say anything else and she still didn't know if he was serious. The sirens had stopped a while ago. Apparently Jace's driving was fairly decent when it came to getting away from cops.

Clary rubbed her head gingerly. He wasn't as good at making said getting away a smooth ride. However, she couldn't help but wonder where he was from. If he'd grown up in the city, it seemed odd to her that he would have learned how to drive.

She was about to ask him how exactly he had learned how to drive when the traffic started to slow.

"What's going on?" asked Clary, craning her neck trying to see around the cars, hoping desperately that it was just a bout of late night traffic. She cringed internally as she realized the absurdity of that thought—there was no such thing as late night traffic.

"Roadblock," said Jace grimly, confirming her fears. Clary sunk lower into her seat, not quite sure what to do. She looked to Jace to see what he thought, but he had already grabbed her arm again, coming at her with that cylindrical pointy thing again.

"Hey, hey," said Clary, trying to move her arm out of his reach. Last time he'd done that it had hurt like hell and hadn't really seemed to work very well. She told him as much and he just smirked, coming in closer.

"I just don't want you to get hurt," he said, whispering smoothly into her ear. Clary let her guard down for just a second, and he captured her arm, sitting back into his seat with a smirk on his face as he started carving into her arm. Clary shook her head, trying to get rid of the mental fog that he seemed to promote. She had no idea what he wanted with her, but it definitely wasn't anything romantic. She studied the symbol he was drawing closely, trying to ignore the burning sensation running up her arm.

"So is there a reason you tattoo my arm everytime we run into an issue? It doesn't seem to be working so far."

Jace flipped her off and continued working, sitting back with a smile when he finished. It seemed to her that he was very proud of something—probably not his artistic skills, judging by the unsteady lines.

"Well? You can't just burn my arm and expect me to be completely okay with it, no questions asked," said Clary indignantly, staring at him and trying to compel him to answer. He sighed and turned back to the road.

"I'll tell you everything when we discus our idea, okay?" said Jace, looking mildly concerned, like he'd said too much. Clary glared at him for another second, then settled back into her seat and kept her eyes on the road. He had kept his side of the deal—breaking her out of jail—which she didn't think he was going to be able to do. Obviously he'd invested a lot of effort into her for some reason. Clary decided that if they made it straight through the roadblock without any trouble, she'd definitely want to hear what he had to say.

Break lights flickered on and off, leading them closer and closer to the edge of the bridge. Clary was wincing every time the car moved, tension rising as they neared the block. Jace, on the other hand, seemed to relax more and more as they approached the bridge. He even turned the radio on, smirking as he dialed to a news station.

Juvenile felon has escaped…

Roadblock on the Brooklyn Bridge…

No chance of escape…

Jace outright laughed at the last one.

"Do you really find it so amusing that I'm probably going to end up in jail for the rest of my life?" snapped Clary, fed up with his flippant attitude, "if I go back there I'm never coming out. "No chance of parole if there's any funny business." Those were the judges words exactly," said Clary, using air quotes. Jace continued to smirk, just shaking her head.

"You're not going back. Calm down little red," said Jace, patting her arm. Clary seethed at the condescension, but before she could react, they were reaching the next police officer.

"Just stay calm," hissed Jace, forcing a smile onto his face as he rolled down the window on Clary's side of the car so that the officer could talk to them. Clary tensed. What was he doing? Jace placed his hand in Clary's again, this time reassuringly. She squeezed his hand in thanks.

The officer leaned his head into the car, looking at Jace and then at Clary. Her heart pounded; she thought that there was no way the officer didn't know. But he wasn't shouting, "here she is!" or "I've found her!" or anything like that. Instead he just glanced at the two of them holding hands and gave them kind of a weary smile.

"Sorry to bother you folks with all of this. Would you mind if I just checked your trunk really quickly?" asked the officer wearily. Jace shook his head and pushed a button, unlocking the doors. The officer smiled greatfully and walked to the back of the car. Clary let out a sigh of relief as Jace rolled up the window. Her eyes were wide as she stared down at the mark on her wrist, then back up at Jace. His eyes were trained on the officer searching the trunk, but Clary was looking at him in wonder.

As the officer waved them through, Clary finally relaxed. Jace didn't let go of her hand, and she didn't move away.

"I've decided something," said Clary finally, after they had crossed the bridge and were moving into the city. Jace looked at her.

"What's that?"

"I am fully willing to hear you out on whatever it is you have to say. That was amazing." Clary couldn't help the admiration that slipped into her voice as she said that, knowing full well that it would result in the smirk that appeared on Jace's face seconds later. She rolled her eyes and scoffed, but it didn't diminish the amazement she felt.

"Just you wait. This is only the beginning," his golden eyes met hers momentarily, before turning back to the road. Clary slumped against the window, hand still intertwined with Jace's. She wanted to think about how he could have possibly fooled the officer, but exhaustion overtook her and she faded into the blackness before she thought about much of anything.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think or if you have any advice :)