A Hidden World

Chapter 4

The picture

Jace

I hadn't managed to keep Clary inside but the least I could do was to go with her. I offered her a ride so we could be quickly back but she wanted to walk. I tried to convince her that that was a bad idea but she didn't listen. It was like talking to a wall, she was unwilling to hear anything about demons and I didn't blame her.

The first time I saw a demon was at the age of 12, when I got my first marks. My father thought it was the perfect time to meet my first one and of course attempt to kill it. It was a small one, the size of an 8 year old kid. At first I thought it was indeed a small child because physically it was similar to a human being.

As looked closer and beyond the glamour I could see that it was a monster. It had deadly red eyes and its fangs were long enough to see them from a quite a distance. It was walking towards me when I raised my blade and without waiting, my father's approval of what I was doing, I killed it. It was an instinct that made my hand with blade to stroke the creature's throat, leaving it to bleed till death came for him.

When a demon dies it turns to ashes and disappears, from our world at least. When I saw those first ashes, an incredible feeling overwhelmed me that moment. A feeling so addictive that the same week I started going out at nights, without my parents knowing, just to see those ashes again and feel the excitement all over again. I felt important and as my father had taught me we were important. We came from the Angels and that alone made as greater than every other being on earth.

We were walking along the main street for a while not talking to each other. She seemed tired and sleepy but didn't complain at all. She was brave, I could see that from the way she behaved and talked. She wasn't like other human girls. I was captivated by her.

She was beautiful with her red hair and pale skin that made her hair glow like fire, but it wasn't her appearance that had captivated me. It was something more. A feeling about her that made me want to know everything about her.

I couldn't explain it, it was the first time I felt like this for a girl and I knew I had to be careful. Falling for a human was against the law and if I remembered well, that meant ripping your marks off.

"We are almost there." She said getting me out of my thoughts.

"Mmm?"

"I said we are almost there." She said again looking at me with a shy smile. Apparently she had noticed me looking at her.

"Good thought we have to hurry, we don't want Isabelle to lock us outside."

"What? No, keys?" she said with a smirk smile on her that made me smile.

"Unfortunately, no." I had forgotten my keys when we left and at that instant I also realised I left without getting prepared at all. This wasn't me. I was always prepared no matter what and now I had left like that, not bothering at all to grab some knifes just in case.

I looked at my belt to see two seraph blades. That should be enough; I thought but didn't believe it. If we would run again to those demons those knifes wouldn't do anything. I hope we didn't.

I didn't say anything, not to worry her, but we had to move faster. Demons came out only at night, especially after midnight.

"There it is." She pointed to me a big house with a white fence. The neighbourhood was quite which didn't surprise me since it was almost 11:30pm.

Her house was simply decorated and made you feel welcome, compared to our house.

"Ok, ...I am going to get my things." She said and left me at the main floor as she went upstairs.

"Wait." I said not wanting her to be alone. "I am coming to check."

"Fine." She let a sigh as she pointed out the rest of the house for me to check and her room.

The room had a light shade of green colour that matched her purple comforter. The bed was across the window between her desk and the door. Her dresser and closet was at the other side. I went to the window to make sure we weren't followed but the only thing I could see was the moon's luminous light that entered the room and made everything look like silver.

I turned to look at her just to found out that she was staring at me.

"Is there something wrong?" I asked wondering why she looked so fascinated.

"I want to draw you." She whispered mostly to herself and blushed as she realised she had spoken aloud. "Am... nothing. I mean I ... I am going to... get my things..." she said and went to her closet as her cheeks turned red again.

"You draw?" I said and saw at the desk beside me a sketchbook.

"Don't." But it was too late. I was turning the pages admiring her drawings when I came across with something familiar. It was a picture of a well known scenery to me. It was Idris. She must have noticed how my face looked at that moment because she said..

"I know, they are awful." with a sad face.

"No, not at all." and it was true. Her pictures were breathtaking, they looked almost alive. "It's just...." I didn't know how to bring this up.

There was a drawing of Idris picturing the Moira Forest. Something wasn't right; she couldn't have seen this place. Idris was only known by shadowhunters and of course the access to humans was forbidden.

"It's this picture." I paused to see her standing next to me, smelling her scent. She smelled sweet like strawberries.

"It's so beautiful and familiar.." I had to lie, "where is this place again?"

"I don't know." She shrugged. "I mean.... " she said as I raised my eyebrows at her "I saw it in my dream and it was in my head all day and I just had to draw it."

"Well, I know where it is." I looked at her ready to find a guilty look on her face, saying she was lying but she was looking at me confused.

"It's the Moira Forest and it's in Idris."

"Idris?"

"Yes, where we come from."

"Who we?"

"I and the rest of my kind." She still looked confused and but she tried to hide it.

"Yea.... I am sure I have seen pictures of it.... or on tv...."

"No, you don't understand. Clary I am not human and..." she jerked away from me. "Don't be afraid of me." I said as I had startled her now. "Let me explain to you.." But that moment I heard a piercing noise coming from outside making me shiver. That wasn't good. My phone started to vibrate as I looked the caller ID and recognized Alec's number.

"Jace don't come here! Do you hear me?! Stay where you are!" he said shouting at me.

"Calm down Alec. What happened? Are you ok?"

"Demons everywhere, all around the house. They are looking for her."

"What?" I said, feeling foolish that I had left them alone and shot Clary a look.

"Don't worry we drew runes all over the house, they can't get in."

"That's crazy! Don't they know that they are at a shadowhunter's house?" Nothing made sense. Why were demons at my house, a shadowhunter's house? They must knew that they were doomed. If the Lightwoods were there we.... but again maybe they knew that they weren't there so ...... but why they want Clary? She is just a human. It couldn't be the demon that threw her into the pool. This was a massive attack. There was something else.

"I'm coming." I said not wanting to leave them alone.

"No, really Jace we are fine. Besides in a few hours the light will come up and they would have to leave. You should though be careful... they may truck her scent and..."

"Or.." I said, as another blustering sound came, closer this time "it is a distraction." I looked outside to find a black shape coming towards the house and knew it was a demon.

That moment the doorbell rang and I turned to see that Clary was already gone.

"Damn, Clary." I said dropping the phone down, hearing Alec's voice shouting something to me, and running downstairs.