Okay, so, if you skipped past the songs in the last chapter, I really recommend you listen to them. Especially Be Calm. It's a brilliant song that explains Claire's feelings towards Madi at this point. I just listened to it myself and Claire was so brilliant for picking it.

Also, I've found a new place to host Madi's playlist that actually meets my standards. It's on a site called Spotify and the playlist is called 'Straight Up Verdantian'. So, if you have any song suggestions for Miss Verdantia and Miss Icanthya, tell me about it.

~ THEMESONGS ~

February Air ~ LIGHTS

(it's my super Madi and Jace song)

.M.I.W.

7. Of the Angsty Variety

Well, I was going to go with Jace to tell Maryse about the dead Shadowhunter body, but then I kind of realized that Maryse hated me. She seemed like the messenger-shooting type. To be honest, between me and Jace, I didn't want to be the messenger she shot.

Hey, don't hate me for at least trying to delay my death here.

That was when I found Clary going to a dress shop to be fitted for her dress for Jocelyn's wedding.

"I hope this doesn't take long." Clary sighed, holding a copper colored dress out. "Everyone else should be on their way."

"Clary, it's fine." I said, walking forward. I held her shoulders in order to steer her towards the dressing rooms. "I'll fill people in when they come. Trust me, I've played traffic officer before."

She sighed and nodded, walking into the dressing room and closing the door behind her. I leaned on the wall near the dressing rooms, debating on whether or not to slip into a glamour. I glanced around the room, and found my hopes dashed when I saw a woman near the back of the store.

"So, where did you go after you left here last time?" Clary asked conversationally.

I looked out the window, watching the people walk past the shop. "Ever heard of the Vampire Academy book series?"

"Barely." She answered, her voice slightly muffled for a second. "I think Isabelle has some of them in her room."

"Well, that was one place, and let me tell you. Vampires in that world? Absolute cakewalk. I think I polished off about thirty before having to call it a quits. Then I got some downtime –"

I heard her scoff, and narrowed my eyes. "Well, as much downtime as a natural talent like me can get. This world was based in some old English setting. I was doing some personal protection stuff for a wizard. The book was called Howl's Moving Castle. Also easy. After that I decided I should drop by for a visit."

The light tinkle of the bell on the shop door made me turn around. Inside walked a girl that was probably my age, maybe younger. She had dark skin and her hair was in corkscrew curls. As soon as her brown eyes met mine, she eyed me suspiciously. I arched an eyebrow in return, then glanced at the other two people walked into the shop behind her.

The first was Claire, who gave me the classic 'sup nod'. And the second made me smile. Waves of recognition washed through me as soon as I saw my Jewish vampire wonder-boy.

"Simon Lewis." I said, quickly walking towards him. He smiled back as I reached forward to give him a hug. That won me no favors from the girl I didn't know, might I add. "I can't believe I didn't see you as much last time I was in town. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to ditch you."

"It's fine." He shrugged when I pulled back. "I heard you had some demon issues you had to get after."

"Vampires, demons, evil sorceresses." I sighed. "What can ya do?"

"Simon?" Clary called. "Simon, is that you?"

Simon shrugged helplessly to us, and walked towards Clary's dressing room.

I looked at Claire. "How'd it go?" I asked her.

She waved her hand disdainfully. "Fine. Easy. I actually need to talk to you about something…"

The girl who had walked in first was still glaring at me. I was beginning to get annoyed, and looked back at her, effectively cutting off whatever Claire was going to say. The other girl didn't back down from my stare, making me decide she couldn't be that bad if she had some backbone, so I held out my hand.

"Madison Verdantia," I introduced myself, "Rouge. Traveling hunter of all things unspeakable and blasphemous. Who are you?"

She shook my hand firmly. "Maia." She answered. "Werewolf."

"Oh, I knew I remembered you from somewhere." I said agreeably. "I fought in Alincante too."

"Did you?" She noted. "I didn't see you."

I actually choked on a laugh at that, and let go of her hand immediately after. "Oh, well, knowing me," I mused, "I guess it was like I wasn't there. I was kind of busy saving the Lightwoods' youngest son, then I killed a few demons, got run through by Valentine's sword. You understand how these things go."

"Wait, Max is alive?" Claire asked in surprise.

I looked back at her and shrugged. "He was so cute, I had to do something."

Maia didn't say anything after that, taking to sitting on the floor. Simon came back a few minutes later, and sat with her. She pulled out a DS and the two began to nerd it out.

I leaned back against the wall of the store, folding my arms across my chest, and looked at Claire. "What did you say you needed?"

"I need weapons." She admitted. "I don't want to be out on the action."

"Sure, sure." I agreed. "Actually, I was just thinking that too. I bet if I asked Jace nicely enough, or beat him in a spar, he'd give you a seraph."

From the sparkle of intimidation in Claire's eyes, I realized that maybe seraph blades weren't her thing. Even though I thought they were the sexiest accessories a girl could have, maybe they just weren't everyone's cup of tea.

Psh. I know, right? Ridiculous.

"Or some throwing knives?" I suggested.

"Um… I think I actually might be better with a whip." Claire said. "Like, it could be something I can take to other worlds in case this isn't the last –"

"I take my seraph blades everywhere." I frowned. Well, not technically everywhere, because they weren't on my person at this particular moment, but you get the idea.

"Yes, but not everyone's you. I kind of like the idea of looking…"

She faded off under my stare. I continued to look at her, slowly arching an eyebrow. "Looking…?" I prompted.

She shrugged coolly. "Normal?"

"I look normal!" I snapped.

"Yeah, sure." Claire agreed sarcastically. "One out of ten times, sure. The rest you look like… Well, you look like you, Hollywood."

Of course I looked like me. What did she mean by that? I look normal. Ten times out of ten, I do! She was obviously off today. I wouldn't press it.

I rolled my eyes, looking at the front door of the shop when I heard the bell tinkle in someone else's arrival.

It was Jocelyn, and Luke coming in right behind her. I'd only seen the two of them a couple of times – but even then, the max collective time I'd spent talking to them was about five minutes. Claire turned around just as they came in.

"Hey, guys." Jocelyn said politely, then looked at Claire in slight confusion.

I decided to make the introduction. "Hey, Ms. Fairchild and Mr. Garroway. This is Claire Icanthya. She's from Scotland's Institute."

Claire nodded politely to them, and Jocelyn was immediately whisked away to try on her wedding dress. Everyone stood (or sat) in a companionable silence after that. Well, until Simon broke it.

"Luke," Simon asked, "have you heard of a vampire named Camille?"

Luke whistled lowly, making me turn to the conversation. "Camille Belcourt?" I asked.

Both boys gave me a look in surprise, which I shrugged off. "She's old, right? Wasn't she the head in New York for a while?"

"By the time I took over the downtown pack from the previous leader, she had put Raphael in charge." Luke replied. "I don't think anyone knew where she'd gone exactly. But she's something of a legend. An extraordinarily old vampire, like Madi said. Famously cruel and cunning. She could give the Fair Folk a run for their money."

I nodded to Claire, smirking, which made her smile slightly in return.

"Have you seen her?" Simon asked both me and Luke.

I shrugged, Luke answered. "Don't think I have, no. Why the curiosity?"

"Raphael… mentioned her." Simon said stiffly. Oh crap. I thought.

Luke frowned. "You've seen Raphael lately."

Ding-ding!

My surprise somewhat deepened when I saw Jace walk into the store. For some reason, he looked quite a bit worse than the last time I'd seen him. There were dark circles under his eyes, and he looked like he wanted to murder somebody. When he saw me, though, he nodded in greeting.

"Have you guys seen Clary?" Jace asked.

"She's changing." I answered. "What do you need?"

"Clary." He said flatly. The response made be bristle in annoyance. If he knew what was good for him (which, by this point, I'm sure he did), he would know not to talk to me like that.

Before I was about to bite his head off, Luke quickly intervened. "She's helping Jocelyn in the back. You're welcome to wait with us, though."

Clary walked into the room as if she had been summoned, making the moment feel all the more cliché. She was wearing a copper dress, and her hair was styled up with a bunch of sparkly pins. She really did look beautiful, once again a beautiful that annoyed me somewhat. Jealousy? Possibly.

She reached for her hair nervously. "I don't know," she admitted, "Karyn got her hands on me and did my hair, but I'm not sure about the sparkles –"

She dropped off when she saw Jace, both of them sharing a look that was somewhat adorable. I could admit that. But also sad, desperate. I could see that in Jace, mostly. He looked at Clary like he had lost her, which I realized he felt like he might have. But he didn't, which was definitely more than I can say when it came to Meliorn.

Yes, excuse me for still being slightly not over it.

Finally, he cleared his throat. "You look beautiful."

Clary frowned. "Jace, is everything all right? I thought you couldn't come because of a Conclave meeting."

"Umm… right, yeah." Jace said quickly. "I was just… looking for Madi. They wanted her there too. Do you have my jacket from yesterday?"

Clary pointed to the black leather hunting jacket on the chair next to the dressing rooms. "It's over there. I was going to bring it to you after –"

He walked towards it and picked it up. "Well, now you don't have to. I've got training this afternoon, so I'd better head out. Madi, do you want to get in on that too?"

I didn't say anything. I felt like I was in the middle of crossfire and my only place for refuge was being thrown under a moving bus. Meaning if I took any side, I would be dead.

"Training?" Clary asked. "We trained yesterday –"

"Some of us have to train every day, Clary." He said, almost with a passive-aggressive rudeness. It made my blood boil. He began to walk towards the door. "I've got to go."

As soon as he left, I saw Clary look at me like I like I was the cause of her problems and had all of the solutions all at the same time. Like she expected me to do something.

I was stock still. If I moved, I had a distinct feeling that she would take it two ways. That I had betrayed her and she would never talk to me again, or she would be relieved.

Neither risk outweighed either reward.

When I still didn't move, she began to yank out the pins in her hair.

Luke immediately came to be comforting good-guy. "Clary, what are you doing?"

"My hair." Clary snapped. "I'm not wearing it like this. It looks stupid."

Finally it clicked, and I looked at Claire. "Would you mind keeping an eye on her?" I asked.

Claire shrugged, and I began to stride towards the door. I gripped the cool metal door, seeing Clary looking at me.

"I'll make him wish he never asked me to train." I told her, before leaving the store.

.M.I.W.

"Jace. Fucking. Lightwood!" I yelled sharply as soon as I rounded the next corner and saw him walking down the street.

He paused as soon as he heard me, then turned around slowly. "I knew you'd want to train." He said as I reached him.

I glared up at him, feeling my annoyance bubble over. Before thinking of anything intelligent to do, I reached up and shoved his solidly toned chest, making him stumble back a few steps. "What the hell is wrong with you?" I demanded.

"You seem to already know the answer to that!" He snapped back. "I can't even look at her without thinking of those dreams –"

"Then why don't you talk to her about it?" I retorted. "That poor girl obviously doesn't realize that you don't deserve her. She could help if you talk to her –"

"It's more difficult than that –"

"No, it's not, Jace. You may be able to get away with it with her, but treating her like she's nothing is not going to get anywhere with me."

"I'm not trying to." He said lowly. "This is just hard, okay? These problems – they're not normal."

I swear my eyebrows at that point shot up to my hairline. I laughed – I actually laughed – at what he'd just said. "Are you serious?" I demanded. "Are you actually serious? Did you really just say that?"

I wasn't really sure what it was, but I think I kind of snapped at that point. I mean, sleeping had kind of been out of my life for the past couple of days I'd been here now. And, yes, I had been a little more than jumpy lately. And, naturally, when you're awake when even Church is asleep, you kind of begin to think of all of the horrible things that come with the prophecy of dying.

So… yes. I do think I was experiencing a bit of a mental breakdown.

"In case you haven't really noticed, I'm kind of dying. Soon." I clarified. "Like, in this world, I'm going to be killed. In your arms, I'm going to die. That's not normal, Jace. That's not normal for your average – and trust me, I used to be average – mundane to know. In fact, I don't think anyone knows when they're going to die. I travel worlds to get where I am. Worlds. Worlds that shouldn't even exist to me, but do. No one from my old life knows what I'm doing. My friends? I haven't talked to them in months, even though to them it's only been days. My parents? I'm pretty sure they're plotting to send me to some asylum because I've become such a distant, cagey freak, leaping out of my skin at a door closing. Or a doctor, because I keep puking up blood because I'm so stressed from hiding my secrets from them – which, my blood thing? That's another thing to add to the list."

Jace's eyes widened.

"From where I'm standing, you're pretty normal to me, Lightwood." I said. "In fact, I can stretch to say your life is pretty good. You have a family that understands what you are and loves you anyway, a couple of best friends that have your back, you're not hideous and even look sexier after a fight, and you have a super-hot plus one that is completely in love with you. That's a hell of a lot more than I can amount to."

I walked away after that, debating on whether or not to pull up a portal and go somewhere. Just for a little while to blow off steam. I could practice…

"Madi, wait."

I glared at Jace as he fell in step beside me. He stuck his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "I'm sorry." He said. "I didn't think of it that way –"

"No one does." I informed him. "Not really. I'm the sidekick. Sidekicks don't have stories."

It was true. I'm the one that arrives conveniently and helps, cracks a couple of jokes, is an overall ass, then leaves. Jesus, no wonder why Meliorn stopped caring. He didn't know anything about me. And I was blind enough to say I loved him? What was wrong with me?

I suddenly had a very fierce desire to kill something.

Maybe someone…

A certain fellow of demonic persuasion.

Don't know yet? I'll give you a hint.

He likes to use his pet names, and is (if I do say so myself) one sharp-dressed individual.

Yes. If you guessed Belial, you'd be correct!

.M.I.W.

Oh snap! Madi is summoning Belial for a second time. Willingly. We're hitting the big leagues now!

Wow, nobody commented on the last chapter. Were we really that slow? Come on, guys! D:

ShoutOuts ~

Nyx's Pinky Girl: Agreed. Everything is going to be brilliant now haha.

BookNinja15: Awesome! I'm so glad you liked this chapter. Claire is going to have more amazing parts in this story.