CHAPTER TWO

Jace rolled his shoulder as he watched her leave the apartment in a hurry. The necklace he stole made a slight jingle around his neck. The necklace was meant for her.

She changed a lot during the last two years. Her face looked less round, her waist smaller, her scent however hasn't changed. He promised his brother he wouldn't pursue her. That he would wait to see if she was still the same person or at the very least a tolerable person before he would date her. She has a fragile mind. He didn't want to press his luck and turn her mad with his efforts.

Shadowhunters have co existed with mundanes for centuries but Clary gave up half of herself to save others, and without consulting with him first. He lost her because of her stupidity. If he had more time, he would have found a different way. Maybe.

He padded over towards the counter to check out the takeout food Alec bought. It looked amazing compared to the snakes and viva la boar he caught in the Amazon. I guess society has its perks. He grabbed his chopsticks and went to sit down when he spotted a set of keys laying on the couch. Clary's? There were house keys, discount tags to the grocery store, and a college ID tag. So, Clary moved out and went to school.

Isabelle bounced on the seat next to him "You're so quiet, what are you thinking? Are you still mad at her?"

Jace handed her the keys. "She came in and I thought she was an illusion." He laughed. "I havn't seen her in years and here she was, in the first few minutes I step into New York, she's already yelling at me about sleeping with other woman." He stabbed at his chicken with one of his chopsticks. "What would you think?"

Isabelle placed a hand on his arm. "I call it progress. You can start by delivering her keys back. She's probably headed to a bookstore. 'Senshi no Ojo' or whatever just came out. It's on her digital link."

"digital link? I thought she said she had to work?"

Izzy looked at the phone for the time. "It's too early. She usually works nights. I'll show you the rest when you get back. It's easy."

! # !

Clary lied. She didn't have to go to work today. It was her day off, so she was wandering around downtown. Simon will be walking into a fun night, Clary thought as she drifted into a book store. A dark shadow appeared to her right, but when she turned there was nothing there. She rubbed at her eyes tiredly. Well at least now I know Isabelle has a brother and a nephew. That's more family than what I have.

Clary looked at all the books in front of her. The manga she picked up was new; it sparked her interest with the words "half blood warrior princess". Clary went up to the register to pay for it. The cashier at the counter was tapping away on her phone, scowling at a text message.

"Hi." Clary said trying to get her attention.

The woman with blood red lips glanced at her in annoyance and then did a double take. "Hi." She said slightly hesitant. She instantly forgot about her phone and gave Clary her full attention.

"I just have this one book." Clary said pushing the book towards the lady.

The woman reached out and grabbed one of Clary's hands instead. The look in her eyes was full of adoration. "I'm Vee from Manhattan, I wanted to thank you for saving my sister during the… " she trailed off seeing Clary's blank look. "Let me know if you need anything in the future. Now take your book and have a great day Miss Clary."

Clary 's eyes glazed over and she slid the book back into her arms. "I'll have a great day." She heard herself say.

Clary blinked a couple times when she was outside. Where am I? Oh the book store. Did I even pay for the book? She looked down at the glossy cover. I must have, I was at the counter.

Clary's stomach grumbled. Next stop was for food.

! # !

It didn't take long for her to find a seat at Hippo Hungrys. She was sitting at the end of the long counter, near the T.V., eating a club wrap.

A brunette reporter came on set: - In recent events, a woman claims she met an angel today. A shadow pushed her out of the way from a drunk driver that swerved on the sidewalk. She was seconds away from death. She claimed the person who saved her disappeared from the scene right after; therefore it must have been an angel. Are angels really out there among us?–

Clary scoffed at the reporter. The woman beside Clary clicked her tongue. She was heavy set woman but was picking at her salad slowly. She looked over at Clary. "You don't believe in angels honey? I've seen some crazy things before. Stuff I could never explain. I think they're out there."

"I don't know. I thought it was funny how she said it. It was like there are aliens among us." Clary said finishing off her wrap.

The woman put her fork down to take a sip of ice tea. "Super humans, half breeds, spirits of god's will. They all put goodness in our hearts. Someone has to."

Clary looked down at her book. She wondered what it would be like to be a super human. Clary put money down for her meal and looked up to see a figure in the reflection of the T.v. standing behind her. She turned around but no one was there.

When she put her wallet away, she looked up to find Jace suddenly next to her, munching on some toast. "Lucifer was an angel, see how well that went. His children are all crazy. Well-" He paused in thought. "-at least the ones he didn't eat."

Clary must have stared too long at him because he guided her outside.

She took a chance and gave him a sideways glance. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh right, you left your apartment keys at Isabelle's place." Jace pulled out a set of keys from his pocket and waved it in front of her face.

Clary let the keys fall into her hands. "Huh." She said "You tracked me down just for these? I would have figured it out sooner or later."

His eyes had a spark to it, but it could have easily been the last of the failing autumn light, "I just wanted to stretch." He said as he moved closer. "I haven't been home in a few years. It would be futile to stay cooped up in the apartment, when you have all of this." Jace was close enough to bump shoulders with hers if he wanted to. Clary didn't seem to mind the close contact. Jace on the other hand had to restrain himself from touching her hair by her ear.

Clary's phone chirped. She automatically reached for her phone and took a step away from him. It was a reminder alarm that she had to go workout. "Do you go to school out of state?" Clary said changing the subject.

"No, I travel a lot for work. It's a lot of night shifts."

Clary laughed and nodded. "Yeah, I know how that feels. I'm a student security guard that is on night shift. It helps brings my tuition down by 50%. Don't judge me, it's not as bad as it seems." Clary said scrolling through her link to see if her posts had any reviews. She loved putting her work on display. she had quite a small fan club, it's not much but that's all that counts in her book. People were noticing her work.

"I think it fits you." Jace said. Clary looked up from her phone.

"You do?" Clary exclaimed. "Here I thought you were going to say something about me being short and how red heads brings the demons out at night. Blah blah blah".

Jace scowled as she started playing on her phone again. "Size doesn't matter if you're trained correctly." And I pray she doesn't bring the demons out to play. There's nothing left in her blood to attract her to the demons attention.

"I have to go. Try to be less scary, and welcome back to New York." She said as she started walking away; throwing a wave over her shoulder. What did she mean by that?