A/N: Enjoy the chapter, guys! Two in a row. The second scene in this chapter is inspired by the artwork of Polish Tamales on tumblr. Read, review, and enjoy. (:

Cara & Michael

(Liliana Vess)

Jace and I are sitting on the couch, curled up and enjoying some sort of pasta dish that I made up off the cuff while I was cooking today.

"Did you write this down?"

"No, but I'm pretty sure I can remember it."

"You should definitely write this down."

I smile. He compliments my cooking every day. I think it's just because he can't boil water without burning it.

"I don't want you to come to the council meeting tomorrow. If that god-forsaken two-head hunk of idiocy says anything to you like what he said to Teysa, I'll kill him, and make him wish that he would have been killed by Teysa."

"Protective Jace is adorable."

"I'm not trying to be adorable, Lili. I'm serious."

"I can take care of myself, Jace."

"I'm not saying that you can't. I'm saying that that's my job."

"It's really not," I say, slightly irritated at this point.

"It really, really is. You're my girlfriend, Liliana. You're my one. You're all there is for me, all that there's ever gonna be. And I'll be damned if I let anyone take that away. Not Ruric-Thar, not Wildspeaker. No one."

I'm touched by his words. He's my one, too. I'd do anything for him, including give up my own life. Regrettably, he heard that thought flash across my mind.

"You will NOT, Liliana Vess."

"Jace, it's not your responsibility to fight my battles."

"Your battles are my battles! He won't come near you, Liliana."

"No, Jace."

His eyes are blazing, and I can tell that I've struck a nerve.

"Lili, look. The thought of losing you literally causes me physical pain. I can't hold myself together without you anymore, Liliana! If that makes me weak, then so be it. But you are what's keeping me sane at this point. You are my peace. And I will NOT willingly let you put yourself in harm's way, not if it's something I can handle. That was the whole point of Kal's sword, was it not?"

"Jace, I never intended for you to fight him off, that was not the point of me coming here."

"Liliana, we didn't expect a lot of things to happen when you came here!"

He rests his hands on my legs, so that we are sitting face to face.

"Let me help you, Lili. Let me in. I can handle this."

"Jace…"

We seem to have reached an impasse, because I'm not going to willingly let him fight Garruk off. But he's going to fight hell and high water to keep me safe. Neither one of us is willing to budge because we care too much about the other.

"Jace, I love you. I love you with everything in me, but it's not up to you to fight these battles, it's not your place to fight him off!"

"Liliana Vess, I have one simple rule, and if people follow it , then everything is okay. But that one simple rule is thus: You don't harm what's mine. And Lili, you are. You're mine. And spirits willing, you'll spend the rest of your life with me. Spirits willing, you'll be my wife one day, Liliana."

"What, Jace, I…"

His face gets blood red. He thinks he's said too much.

"It's not a proposal, Lili.. I just wanted to let you know what my intentions are."

I just smile. I don't know what to think. I'd love to be with him for the rest of my life, but his is going to be significantly shorter unless he figures out a way to gain immortality, and he will NOT deal with the demons. That I can be sure of.

"We'll figure the immortality thing out."

"Jace…"

"The fact that your thoughts didn't scream 'oh, no, nope, not even at me is more than I was hoping for."

"Jace.."

He's doing the thing where he talks too much because he's nervous he's said something wrong. I don't know how I feel about it, it's something I've never seen myself doing but I'm not going to tell him no. I'm not going to tell him yes, either, though.

"Just think about it, Liliana."

"I will."

I am committed to our relationship. I do love him, he's everything in the world to me. But I'm going to have to think about it.

"That's all I can ask of you, Lili."

(Jace Beleren)

I plant a kiss on her forehead and let the subject drop. How did we even begin to talk about this. One minute I'm complimenting her cooking and then the next minute I accidently propose to her? Well almost, anyways. I let emotions slip out, but she reacted well. Maybe it is different this time. She generally does not hide her thoughts and seems to be truly changed. As I snuggle up to her, she puts her cold feet to my stomach.

"Lili!"

She giggles. Because I'm nice and I'm an awesome boyfriend, I let her keep her feet there. Suddenly, an evil grin pops on my face, as I remember Gideon's question.

"Lili, look here for a second," I say, turning on the couch to face her.

"Sure," she turns towards me, and instinctively places her hands on my knees.

"Ok, I need you to hold still for a second."

I kiss her on the cheek and then steeled myself, what if this doesn't work? I would look like a complete fool, and either way I'm going to have to explain this to her and the fact that Gideon and I talked about this at all. I felt the intention in my mind and transferred that to my finger. I cautiously place my finger to her forehead. At the instance of contact, I felt my magic rush through her brain within a millisecond.

Lili gasped, and her nails found their way to my skin and her body convulsed, her hips bucking and her breathing became ragged. Her mouth formed an 'O', and her eyes sealed shut. Her back arched and she released my arm and fell back on the couch. She laid there, breathing heavily and the smell of sex filled the room. A few more moments passed and she relaxed, breathing normally.

"Jace…" she said, quietly.

"Yes, Lili?"

"What. The. Hell. Was. That?" she asked.

I looked at her, her eyes now filled with fire, but of lust or fury, I knew not. I told her about the training session yesterday and the talk Gideon and I had. Well, more of Gideon's dirty mouth going to work and the weird, awkward questions he should know not to ask. Throughout the entire talk she had one look and expression: pissed.

After telling her what happened, she remained silent for a few uncomfortable moments. She had her arms crossed and the expression turned to that of a child giving one the, 'I am very displeased,' look.

"Well at least you were honest about it, and I guess what Chandra and I did wasn't exactly fair," she said, looking at me.

"So…you're not mad at me? Like not even a little bit?" I asked, getting ready to protect myself.

She uncrossed her arms and gave me a very evil, seductive look. "Quite the contrary, Mr. Beleren. If you can do that with your mind, then can you do that with this?" she indicated, her hand grazing my swelling manhood.

"Uh…wait…what?" I tried to say, but she jumped on me. Our lips were connecting and our hands were finding each other's bodies. The kisses were lustful and desperate, and something about this told me she desired more. Her kisses went from my neck to my collarbone, placing gentle marks here and there. She proceeded to venture further down and suck on my collarbone before kissing my chest through my shirt. She went down my abs and stopped just before my waistline.

"Tell me Jace, tell me all the dirty little things you think when you mill," she said, before pulling on my trousers. Well, these were unexpected results.