The Angel to Balance the Demon

by Lacie-Abyss

Sebastian is back to take Clary from her friends and family, offering to leave them alone if she come peacefully. Clary despises him, but will time and a change in his behavior cause her to soften up to him, or will she still choose her friends over the demon that is her brother? After COLS. COMPLETE AFTER A YEAR AND A MONTH.

20. All evil starts in the dark

Lacie: OMG IT'S CHAPTER 20 ! HI GUYS I BET YOU'RE ALL EXCITED

Clary: Of course they are! You left the last chapter at a cliff hanger!

Lacie: *sarcasm* Oh, did I ? :D

Clary: That was evil, and lots of people are asking you to update, why are you not responding to their needs?

Lacie: Well I COULD give you all a speech about stupid school giving me homework and that the one day that I don't have homework my parents decide to barking drag me to fifty million stores when I could be pleasantly typing this story, but nooooooooo, I won't put you through that misery.

Clary: Hey where's Chris?

Lacie: *leans back in her chair and plops feet up on desk* I sent him to the grocery store cause we need some food in this studio.

Clary: Chris? Buying food? At a normal store? *tries not to laugh*

Lacie: Yep. Couldn't stand another store, so I sent him :D

Clary: Oh, well while he's gone, you have guest Reviews!

Lacie: YAYYY! *tears open one even though they're virtual and are not physical paper but you know we can tear down some virtual trees*This person just says their name is guest. Guys give me a name please, I need to call you something, because its either that or I'll you My Clarts. This Clart asked when is the rest is coming, Umm…right now? ;P

Clary: Next one's another Clart . This one says 'SOON I'M GOING TO FORGET ALLLLL ABOUT JACE! What should the ship name for Chris and Clary be?!' …..What! My Jace? Forgotten?

Lacie: yayy! Thank you,(don't look at me like that Clary) As for the ship name, IDK, Chrary? Clis? Chrisary? We should vote on it, leave it in a review guys, never thought that my little story would become a ship….

Clary: cristinap-13 says 'If Chris and Clary make a manga I'll be their first fan!" YOU MY FRIEND ARE AWESOME. YOU JUST ARE

Lacie:*reads next one* GASP this Clart tells me to watch Legend of Korra! But I already do! Love Bolin! Miss Aang though :(

Clary: Greygirl's back in this one! Aww.. your welcome for mentioning you :D

Lacie: Next one is from kittyluv, hehe, kitties, *reads* Why thank you *flips hair over shoulder dramatically* I do my best to impress (jk thank you though)

Clary: pwincesslove, 1directioner, mortalxlove, and relaxing-angel all tell you that they love your story. Some of them beg you to not leave the story that way

Lacie: Why would you guys think I would end the story that way? Hell No! This things gonna go on until the end, and then maybe I'll make book 2,or part two…. Well,you'll find out why….

Clary: NO CLIFFHANGERS

Lacie: NO PROMISES . Okay, next one is from Elise. I'm really sorry if what I said offended you in any way, it's not that I was being racist it's just that in commercials on T.V, I really hate how what they mainly focus on is the fact that they're poor and hungry, when I wrote that it was just to show that the cupboards worked in magical ways, not to be rude in anyway or other, I just thought I'd show Clary doing something nice. I know Africa is not a country, don't think I said that, but I know about Africa, not as much as I'd like, but I learned more about it since then, considering that I wrote that chapter months ago. Again, sorry if that offended you.

Anywayguys, thank you so much for everything you've said, remember, I don't own TMI, but I do own Chris. Please. I fear someone taking him from me. If you see any story where someone renames him to Chris or something please tell me because I'm an attached person and I'm emotional about this. I read this fic where people kept robbing the writer's story and she was FURIOUS. So give me a heads up please!

And if I didn't respond to your review its because I do this chapter in order, first the intro, then I type up the actual chapter, which takes me a while, and then the ending, so forgive me if I was too lazy.

Enjoy!

Jace POV

As soon as his feet were firmly planted on the ground in Athens, he felt something wrong in his parabatai rune. This never happened very often, only when Alec was in deep trouble, like that time when they defeated the Greater Demon in Clary's apartment (he refused to acknowledge that Simon had been the one to save the day, and that was when he was still mundane! He couldn't think of it) and Alec had been seriously injured.

At first her thought that maybe it was just an after effect from the Portal, suddenly being on one side of the world and then landing on the other where his parabatai was, perhaps it had meant to tell him that Alec was nearby. But he couldn't be so sure.

Looking around, he saw Jocelyn right to his left, she didn't look any worse for wear, considering that it had been years since she had done any actual Shadowhunter business, but he couldn't let the years fool him. She was just as ready to attack demons as she was twenty years ago.

Taking in a quick glance around, Jace saw that they were at the base of a hill, and looking up, though he couldn't see, he imagined that the Parthenon would be there, with Atlas's army of vampires scuttling around like flies. It was dark, which would make this day all the more exciting and thrilling.

A few seconds later, Isabelle came springing out of the whirling Portal behind them. She landed bending her knees, then straightening up and blinking her eyes a few times as if batting off Portal lag.

Soon Maryse emerged, coming out as graceful as a swan, followed by Jordan and Maia. Maia stumbled a bit, grasping Jordan's forearm to balance herself, while he tripped over his own feet and smacked his face straight into the dirt at their feet. Jace restrained a smirk as Maia helped him to his feet, laughing at his clumsiness and dusting him off.

Simon jumped through a minute later, making Jace wonder what was taking him so long. Did the Daylighter chicken out? He thought as Simon came out like and on his feet like a cat jumping down from their perch.

"Everyone made it in one piece?" Simon questioned, quickly doing what appeared to be a head count.

"That's everyone." Jace insisted, wanting to get moving.

"Maryse, have you called the Clave yet?" Jocelyn asked, making her way up the hill.

"Yes, our time was done a while ago, and while we waited I made the call." Maryse answered, following Jocelyn, the others right on their tails. "Shouldn't be long before they appear, which makes our first objective to find Alec and see how he faired."

They all advanced upward, making no sound whatsoever. As they approached the crest of the hill, Jace applied one more night vision rune on his bare wrist.

He saw a throng of vampires, stationed at various points throughout the top of the hill, surveying the area. Jace felt a prickle go through his skin. The vampires didn't concern him one bit, it was just his natural instincts to feel cautious around this number of Downworlders. He forced his hand to not hover over where he kept his seraph blades, not wanting to add any tension to people who were supposed to help him. Looking in his peripheral vision, he saw Jocelyn, Maryse, and Isabelle restrain themselves too, though Izzy did it a bit better.

As they came within ten feet from the first vampire, a tall, black haired, Italian looking guy who didn't look a day over nineteen, though everyone knew better, the vampire slowly turned his gaze towards them, as if trying to give off the impression that he didn't care about them at all. His eyes were first fastened on Maryse, who gave off the most authoritative energy out of all of them. Maryse was just about to speak, when the vampire's lazy gaze went through all of them, and widened as they settled on Simon.

A surprised look of awe appeared on his face, before he instantly concealed it behind a look that seemed nonchalant. A strode over to them, cutting past them to Simon.

Jace's felt amused as the Italian vampire bowed to Simon, as Simon's eyes darted at everyone, conveying the same message to every eye he met What the hell is going on?!

The vampire straightened, giving Simon a smile, and said, "Welcome to Athens, Daylighter, Lord Atlas has informed me of your arrival, and had told me to extend his humblest of welcomes."

Simon fiddles with his fingers, and Maia hid a smile behind her mouth.

"Uuuugh… Thanks?" He looked around at everyone, desperately seeking a way out. Clearly being a leader was not his thing.

You made such big talk though Simon… Jace internally chided. He noticed that Maryse was inspecting her nails, not seeming to notice the situation.

Seeing that this was all on him, Simon cleared his throat, "I mean, thank you. It's an honor to receive the help, and ugh, stuff, from Atlas. He's, a, a pretty awesome dude."

"Anyway, how's it going here? What have you digged up?" he asked immediately, getting straight to the point. Nodding his head to the house ahead of them, Simon addressed, "Is this it?"

The vampire nodded, "This is their safe house, but there is no door."

"Oh, there's a door." Jocelyn affirmed, "It's just hidden. I can feel the magic radiating off of it."

"We can feel it too," Jordan said. Maia and he stared at the house intensely, like they were ready to pounce on it. "The scent of it is in the air, it's some heavy stuff. How did Magnus get through all of this?"

"Magnus has years of practice, he knows what he's doing." Jocelyn waved off. "Well? Are they in there?"

The vampire walked back to the house, having the group follow him into the Parthenon. Jace stepped between two columns, peering at it.

This is where she's been in the past two weeks…..

"No madam, a few hours ago, before the sunset, one of ours reported seeing them outside in the city, underground of course." He added before any of them could question how a vampire who wasn't Simon could be up and about in broad daylight.

"They're out in the city?" Isabelle asked, looking out and at the expanse of buildings that shown with night lights. "Then what are you guys doing here? Why aren't you down there?"

The vampire frowned at Isabelle's accusing tone, "We've already sent half of our team to investigate. If all abandoned this place they would find it easy to slip in and get away. We are not fools in what we do."

Simon quickly interjected before Isabelle could blow a fuse, "That was good thinking. Really appreciate it, so, where have you guys spread out?"

While the vampire instructed exactly where their forces were located below, Jace wandered away from them, standing at the edge of the Parthenon in absentmindedly. He walked aimlessly; as if an invisible chord were pulling him along and he only had to follow the gravity in which his body moved in.

He felt a slight tug in his parabatai rune again, tugging him out to the city.

Alec, he thought, Where's Alec?

Feeling a bit apprehensive, he confronted the vampire who was still talking, He kept his body loose and calm, not showing a bit of tension, but he could feel his nerves and seriousness in his eyes, and he knew full well that everyone else could see it too.

"Where's Alec? The Shadowhunter that was sent earlier today, I thought he'd be here." He gave another look at the Parthenon. Had it been any other day, he would've spent more time observing the architecture of the old building, but now was not the time.

"I was actually wondering the exact same thing." Maryse added, "He was supposed to be here."

"Shadowhunter?" the vampire inquired, "Oh, the tall boy. He kept his distance from us mostly. Not a talker," he pointed his chin towards the edge of the hill, where it started sloping down. "He walked in that direction a moment ago. As to where he is now, I don't, and neither do the rest of us, know."

Walking in the direction that he had indicated, Jace and the others trekked down the hill, in search of Alec. Maia and Jordan stayed by the Parthenon, saying that they had to meet up with the rest of the werewolves who were going to help them, though they looked uncomfortable. Two werewolves in the midst of a clan of vampires? Jace could hear the growls and sound of tearing flesh already.

They were halfway down the hill when they stopped. There was no one to be found.

"Damn vampire," Jace cursed, ignoring Simon's look, "I swear if he lied…."

"He didn't lie." Simon said. "Trust me, these guys are so loyal to Atlas they'd lick the bottom of his shoe clean if he asked of it. I told Atlas specifically that I didn't want any fights between us."

Maryse looked concerned, raking her eyes across the landscape, "Isabelle, do you have your cellphone." Iz nodded. "Contact your brother immediately."

Izzy dialed away, putting the phone to her ear and listening intently. Jace swore he felt his rune throb again, but knew it was just his nerves this time.

"He's not answering," Isabelle stressed. She redialed again, only to come up with the same result. "Maybe he saw Clary?" she suggested positively, "Maybe that's why he's not answering?"

"I called him earlier too," Simon included, "He wouldn't answer then either."

Maryse ran a hand through her hair, and yanked it up into a tall ponytail. "Alec is a full grown Shadowhunter, he can depend on himself." Her words sounded sure, but the nervous gesture of picking at her hair told otherwise. She was a worried mother.

"Maryse," Jocelyn's voice sounded from behind a few upturned boulders and ruins, "I think you have to come here and see this."

They all trudged forward to where Jocelyn was kneeling on the ground, investigating something that was almost so tucked underneath a boulder that it looked like someone in their haste had just kicked it under and hoped that no one would look that way.

Getting close, the object came into view. A broken stele, snapped in two, it's feint glow slightly illuminating the shadow underneath.

"A stele?" Simon asked. "What's it doing here?"

"It was just recently broken," Maryse commented, "It still glows."

"That's not Alec's, though, this one looks older, not up to date." Isabelle added.

Jocelyn drew a sharp intake of breath, before calmly taking the remnants of the stele straightening out her back.

Maryse gave it another look, "Why do those seem familiar…"

"Because they are." Jocelyn said grimly, "These are steles from back when we were in the Circle. These are part of Valentine's special collection." She said Valentine's name like it was the name of an old neighbor, not like it was her ex-husband. Jace thought it was hard to picture this strong women as what she saw. A widow. But if these were Valentine's, then that could only mean that…..

"Jonathan was here." Jocelyn gripped the already broken stele in her hand, gripping them so hard he thought he saw a feint trickle of blood come out of the side of her hand from where the broken edges probably cut into her palm.

"But, if he was here, then Alec….." Isabelle trailed off. She didn't have to say it.

It was already on everyone's mind.

Clary POV

"How fast can they get here?" Clary chewed on her finger nails, guilt and desperation gnawing at her nerves. She felt like she would throw up, going along with this plan. She didn't want to hurt anyone, in fact, she'd throw herself facedown into the dirt before the Clave if it meant preventing anything happening. But if she did that, then the Clave would get Chris, and that was enough to make her want to do something about it.

But it wasn't just that. The Clave was coming, and that was like a match to her odious feelings towards them. Clary hadn't been a Shadowhunter for long, but she knew who the Clave was. The Law is hard, but it is the Law. Too hard. She felt something inside of her wanting to show the Clave who was better. She wanted them to feel bad, the only problem was, she didn't know whether she wanted it, or if the little demon inside her head who was whispering deep within her conscious wanted it.

"Remember the charm I used to get us back home instantly?"

"The one you never seem to have when we absolutely need it?" Clary scolded, remembering that as they had ran away from the Parthenon and gone back into the city, Chris had explained that he had stupidly left it in the wardrobe of his room.

"That's the one." Chris gave her a pointed look, "Every one of my Demon Shadowhunters has one. One call from me, and they'll use it instantly."

"Well? Get to calling." Clary ignored the icy hand named 'betrayal' as she said it. She couldn't help but think about how not even a few weeks ago, she had questioned Chris as to whether or not he would use his Demon Shadowhunters in a war against the people she cared for. Now she was the one telling him to make the call. Clearing her throat, shaking off her remorse and also getting rid of dust that seemed to coat the inside of her mouth. They were in an abandoned building, sealed off by the city for later demolition, and were currently in a dusty room with drawn moth eaten curtains and draped furniture that smelled like must and dirt. The air felt thick with grime, but there had been nowhere else to go on such short notice.

Walking away from Chris to give him room to talk on a cellphone that he had taken from a waitress without her noticing, she walked towards a sheet covered couch, where Alec's body had been laid. She didn't know what she had done. It was all instinct, in the spur of the moment, she just couldn't NOT do anything.

She watched the even rise and fall of his chest, glad to know that he was breathing properly. Kneeling down before him, she checked on his head injury. Not wanting to just let him bleed, but not wanting him to wake up immediately either, she had insisted to do some basic first aid, no iratzes. Given that they didn't have much, Clary had quickly snuck into a restaurant and looked for their first aid kit, which was in the kitchen.

Now, Alec had bandages wrapped around his head, matting down the hair on his forehead like a sweat band. The room they were in was dark, it was night in evening in Athens now, for the sun set early, and they hadn't risked having any lights made, so Clary relied on her heightened sight to see. Carefully turning his head, she saw that the gauze behind there had been stained red with his blood, and she gently unwrapped her handiwork to replace them. Checking his cut, she saw that the wound had stopped bleeding, but he was going to have a killer headache and a huge bump when he woke up.

She stayed kneeling, watching as Alec's eyes fluttered underneath the lids, trapped in some sort of dream. His skin was so pale, compared to him, Clary might as well have a nice tan.

"Yes, that is my task for you. You know what to do." Chris hung up the cellphone, pulling out the battery. So even he knew that phones could be tracked.

He turned to see her, and upon seeing her fretting over Alec -was his head comfortable? What would hurt less? Does he need some water?- he trudged over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I know you're feeling guilty, but you shouldn't."

"Why shouldn't I," she replied glumly, "I just came out and attacked him, do you know how bad that is?"

"Were you two close?" he asked.

"Well, no…" the only thing they had to build even a descent friendship over was their shared worry and love for Jace, and Clary knew that connection was frail as it was.

"Then you owe nothing to him." He tried to calm her.

"That doesn't mean I can just smash his head open!" Clary urged. Alec rustled slightly, and she drew back, walking to the opposite side of the room, Chris in tow. Leaning her back against the wall, she looked up at the ceiling and tried to explain the tangle of inarticulate feelings that were fighting within her. "It's not that, it's that, I thought Alec and I were, not friends, but, a little more than acquaintances."

"Are you trying to explain the matter of your relationship with him, or…"

"No!" She snapped, trying to find the words, "I mean, if that had been Isabelle, or Simon, or even, or even," she meant to say Jace, but she couldn't bring herself to even think of it, "Or even Luke, would I have done the same thing? Just lunge out and attack?"

They were silent for a few seconds, with each making Clary feel more and more unsure of herself.

Finally, Chris spoke, "Why did you hurt him?"

She was so lost in her own self regret that she replayed his words in her mind, "What?"

"You say you attacked him, but why? Not that I wouldn't have, in fact, at that moment, I was debating whether or not to tackle him." He admitted, a crooked smile on his face. "That was my thunder, and you stole it."

"I don't know." She answered bluntly. "I heard the word 'Clave' and I suddenly got tunnel-visioned. Alec was supposed to find you, get you. I…" she trailed off, her voice weak.

She closed her eyes. "They were coming for you, and I didn't want that."

Her hands had gone cold and clammy at her sides, fingers slightly twitching with her erratic heartbeat, when the suddenly felt hot and nice. Chris had grabbed her hand, pressed the back of it to his lips. Pulling her forward, she didn't push away when he tugged her into an embrace, his chin resting in her head, rubbing soothing circles with his thumbs on her lower back which felt so good.

As much as she didn't want to get back into motion, she pulled away, saying, "We should leave. Now. They probably don't know what's going on, and Alec said the Clave wasn't here yet, we still have some time. The Demon Shadowhunters should be a distraction, we could leave, without the house."

"Leave?" Chris queried, "You mean, find a way to support ourselves?"

"Well," Clary stuttered, feeling like this was right, "How else did they find us?"

Chris gave a pensive look. "The house. They must have tracked it, but I must have used over fifty spells, it would only take a Warlock of the highest of capabilities-"

Clary groaned, Magnus immediately coming into picture. If anyone had capabilities, it was him.

"They had their ways." She offered as an explanation, "But yeah, we should get going. Someone will notice that Alec is missing sooner or later. We'll have to take him back to the hill and-"

This time Chris interrupted her, "Too risky, I say we leave him here."

Clary gaped at him, "Here? In this place? He'll die from dust inhalation!"

He waved her off, "He'll be fine, out of all the things to die from." Giving her another look, "Stop feeling guilty, you don't need to do anything else for him."

"But Chris," she persisted, "Before I attacked him, he said that I had to come with him. He was trying to save me." And she knew well why. Of course everyone thought that she was Chris's prisoner, which was why he was looking for her.

"Clary," Chris looked at her, his dark eyes like still orbs sinking into her, "The Clave thinks you're a prisoner that I'm keeping hold of. Knowing them, they'll think I'm using you, hurting you, finding ways to use you as an advantage to me."

He continued, "I don't want this to happen, but if they get us, they'll punish me, and leave you be."

"What do you mean by this?" Clary caught something he was trying to say.

He breathed in, raking his hair through his snow white hair, "I mean, if they catch us, I want you to tell them that I have been using you. I want you to tell them that you've been my prisoner, that I've kept you incarcerated this whole time, and that I've been blackmailing you that if you didn't do as I said, I'd hurt you and your family."

Clary froze. Pretend, to be a prisoner? Fake that everything that has been happening to her, learning to use her demonic traits, actually getting along with her brother who'd she'd despised not two weeks ago, that it never happened?

In the dark room, half of Chris's face was in shadow, looking like a charcoal drawing that she would have died to draw. Even through the dark, she saw Chris look at her with eyes that held much more pain that she'd given him credit for. He looked like he'd just been through hell and back, but kept all the pain and anguish mentally and emotionally.

She felt something in the back of her mind click, and she clenched her fists, her nails carving half moons into her palms.

Chris finished, "If they ask you why you attacked Alec, tell them it was because I ordered you to."

She closed her eyes, drew in a breath, which was surprisingly fluid, and not shaky, and opened her eyes again.

"I'll do that," she agreed, "If we get caught."

Chris eyed her, as if trying to read her mind, trying to interpret what was going in that bizarre, mental mind of hers. It didn't matter how long he tried to figure it out, even if he had tortured her to admit it, even she wouldn't know what she was thinking. She was acting, something she had always done. Everyone always lectured Clary for acting without thinking ahead, but she couldn't help it. She thought with her heart first, and right now, her heart was damn straight about what it wanted.

"We should go now." She said again, heading towards the door of the musty room. She gave Alec one more look, and, hesitantly, she drew a weak iratze on his forearm, using his stele which she took from his weapons belt. It would wake him up later, maybe a few minutes, and heal most of what she had done.

Drawing back, she turned to Chris. "Okay, now we can go." But before she was even finished speaking, he had caught her wrist, and with a wild pull, he pulled her in for a hard, brisk kiss. His hands snaked through her hair, pulling her up possessively, almost biting her lip in the action.

She was too stunned to react in any way, she was just barely deciding to return his affection when he pulled back, neither of them were out of breath, but Clary could feel both of their heart rates beat like thunder underneath their skin.

"What was that for?" she asked, feeling a bit light headed.

"Can't I kiss someone for good luck?"

"You don't just go around kissing people," she teased.

"That's because my luck is the best and I'll only give it to people I know who I want to give luck to."

"So I'm the first?" she chided.

"Actually, you're the third." He smirked.

Clary tsked. "Kissing daddy doesn't count."

He gave her a playful tug on her hair. "Now I think we should leave."

"I've been saying that for some time now…"

"Timing is key, and now is the perfect time." He boasted.

Giving Alec's form one last look, and adjusting his head one last time, she finally stepped over the threshold of the room they were exiting.

They applied more glamours, weaving through the vacant hallways of the old building and avoiding some crumbling stairs. They were on the third story window, and before Clary could dash down a hallway where she saw some safer looking stairs, Chris stopped in front of some tattered curtains, small shafts of moonlight filtering through, illuminating their feet.

Easing them away from the window, Chris peered through them, before signaling her to approach him. There was large tree in front of the window, blocking any outside view to this side of the building. Unfortunately, the tree nearest tree branches that scratched the brick walls of the edifice looked to fragile and thin to even support Clary's weight. But Clary hadn't thought about using the branches.

Slipping the glass panel up, Clary slid one foot in, and then the other, until she was perched on the window sill outside. Without looking behind her first, she jumped, immediately bending her knees. The wind soared in her ears, and she felt the sensation of weightlessness in her stomach for a second before her body made touched the ground.

Rolling to swallow the shock of the impact, she came up into a crouch, not a scratch on her. Two seconds later, Chris appeared right next to her, but instead of rolling, he had simply landed on his bent knees, not hurt in the least.

They checked the area around them, checking to see if they were seen, and advanced, Chris talking to her in hushed tones.

"The Demon Shadowhunters should be there any second," they swerved towards a dark looking park, where low trees and almost lack of lights would obscure them. "They'll be distracted in the meantime, and they'll have everyone go there in order to face them off."

"They won't kill anyone, will they?" Clary feared her choice suddenly, feeling more guilt add onto the already mass producing pile.

"I told them to hold them off, to defend themselves, but to certainly not kill anyone."

She felt slightly better. Slightly.

Clary had been ahead of him, she watching in front of them while he watched their back. They had their seraph blades in front of them, unlit, and relied on their keen acute eyesight so that they wouldn't trip over their own feet. Not that it mattered, with all the training she had done with Chris, plus her demonic abilities, she would have never felt any more confident in her capability than if she had spent her whole life in practice for this.

Rounding a corner, she felt the hair on her neck prick before she actually stopped dead in her tracks, made a U-turn, pulling Chris with her.

Chris raised an eyebrow, intuitive enough to know to not speak.

Shadowhunters, she mouthed.

Quietly, he paced back to where they had been, Clary on his tail, looking behind them.

Up ahead, a group of Shadowhunters, all dressed in gear, were just outside of a motel, chatting amongst each other nonchalantly. Rune were etched up and down their bare forearms, making Clary feel naked with her runeless skin. She had Alec's stele, but she felt dirty using it. Like it was some sort of spoil of war that she was claiming.

Calmly, Clary looked around her, and her pulse quickened with every second. There were Shadowhunters everywhere. Not that they'd been there the whole time, but ones that were just coming into the park, from all directions, as if someone had told them to meet in this one place.

They'd picked the wrong park to sneak in through.

Chris had noticed as well, and he frowned. His gaze traveled all over, coming up with a way to escape this. There was no way, in every path, there was at least one Nephilim within a twenty meter radius, and Clary though she knew she could handle it, she didn't like the odds of all of these guys against two of them.

So no way on the ground, but…..

Her eyes traveled upward, and she was slightly pleased to see that Chris was doing the exact same thing. There were many trees all around the park, and many of them were close together, creating a sort of canopy that darkened the night even more.

Without a word, both of them grasped a tree trunk, and used their strength to climb soundlessly up. They climbed as high as they could, stopping until they were practically perching on branches as thin as her wrist. They crept forward, edging from tree to tree. Luckily for them, the night was rather windy, so any leaves that happened to fall could be misplaced for a gust to have pushed it down, or any slight swaying could be shrugged off as well.

What really concerned Clary though, was their shadows. The moon wasn't full, but it was light enough that the ground caused shadows, and Chris and she were a bit too large to be misplaced for a couple of squirrels.

Testing a rather flimsy looking branch, Clary pressed down on it with her toe as hard as she dared before actually standing on it. She was a bit higher than Chris, given her smaller advantage, and the branches here were as wide as three of her fingers. She concentrated on making her body as light as possible, imagining she was a bird in flight, while taking glimpses of the scene below her.

The Shadowhunters were conversing underneath witchlight, about what though, she didn't know. They were about halfway across the park now, and Clary was getting the hang off stepping from branch to branch. Her eyes immediately picked out the best branches, deciding which ones were most likely to hold her, and could hop from tree to tree with no problem.

Chris was two trees behind, as he kept checking below them more periodically, and she was at a tree edge where the distance between this one the next was farther off. Staying within the cover of the branches, she looked down. Two Shadowhunters, illuminated by the feint green of their seraph blades, were in deep conversation with each other. Clary strained her ears to listen.

"The Clave is driving itself insane, looking for these two. Though it would get me punished to say this, I think it would be better if those two just disappeared and never came back!" One admitted.

The other didn't look too convinced, "I think that the Clave is worried that another Circle will break out. With Valentine's two children on the loose, who knows what'll happen?"

"Whatever the case, I don't see the big deal about it. I mean, they're two kids, why do they need all of us to track them down? I bet that within the night, we'll have them both locked under key." They scoffed.

"Mercy isn't one of the Clave's motto's. Those two will be lucky if they get a quick and clean death. With what's been going on, I doubt those two will ever know what's coming to them."

Death? To both of them? Clary was confused, wasn't she the 'kidnapped' one? To them, it should seem like was taken, stolen, though she hadn't been, why would they want to kill her? Surely those two Shadowhunters were mistaken.

She was so out of it, that when she leaped to the next branch, she barely saw the bird in the branch until the last moment. Twisting to land on another branch, the bird suddenly flew up, its flapping wings hitting her in the face and blocking her vision so that she hit the branch too hard for it to hold. With a fearful crack, the bark split, and she was falling, her arms extended, trying to catch another branch before it was too late. She caught one, her fingers straining under the weight from the fall, her arms feeling like they were going to be pulled out of their sockets for a few seconds before the shock went away.

Nothing happened nothing happened nothing happened, she prayed, trying to mentally convince anyone around, it was just a squirrel, just a squirrel!

However, something like that couldn't be ignored.

Suddenly, shouts were going off, the two Shadowhunters below her were screaming, calling to others to come. She could hear people climbing trees, but she didn't dare look down. Getting back onto the branch, she quickly located Chris, who had joined her tree, and they swiftly flew through the branches, ignoring any that got caught in her hair. A swish of air past by her cheek and she knew that arrows were being aimed their way.

They had reached the edge of the trees, not much higher up than three stories, and Clary could hear Shadowhunters behind her.

Placing her seraph blade between her teeth, she jumped out of the tree, Chris close to her, and instead of running away, when they had the chance, they both faced the oncoming group.

Doing a head count, Clary counted about thirty.

This should be fun….. she lit her blade.

Jordan POV

Jordan had no idea what was going on.

Yeah, he knew that Clary had been kidnapped a few weeks ago by her evil brother, (which brought up a picture of Sebastian except with less hair and a scar on his check while Clary screamed like a damsel in distress but he wouldn't share that with anyone) and he had told Jace and Simon that if there was anything they could do to help to call them.

What he didn't mean, was to call him so that they could all have a small vacation to Greece.

From what he could gather, Sebastian was here, and they needed an army to catch him. That army consisting of vampires, werewolves, and Shadowhunters. (He'd learned later on that there was no way that they would ever ask the Fairy Folk for help) All they had to do was sit still and attack anything that came their way. Simple right?

When Simon had called him, he and Maia had been in the middle of an awesome make-out session. She had convinced him to watch this chick flick with her, and along the way he got bored, so by using his amazing skills, he got her attention away from the screen, and towards him. Then Simon called, and he was tempted to let the phone ring. Maia, however, insisted on answering, and because of that, here they were, awaiting for a pack of werewolves to arrive so that they could all kick butt and go home.

Jordan was currently positioned close to the center of the Parthenon, in front of a pretty modern house that was just there.

"Why don't we go inside instead of just waiting out here?" he asked Maia, almost whining.

"Because there's no door, stupid." Maia retorted.

"Then why did they build a nice looking house in the middle of this broken down place if there's no door?" he played with one of her hair curls.

She swatted him away. Meaning she wasn't in the mood. Damn it Simon. "This house wasn't built here. Weren't you listening? It's the one Sebastian used to pop up everywhere. You should really pay attention more when we're at meetings."

"It's not my fault they get all technical with their terms and stuff, saying things like 'The propriety of the situation' and 'By speculating the causes,' it all just gets so weird and I kind of zone out." He admitted.

"This is why you were failing in school."

"And this is why we're together, you're the smart one, and I'm the-"

"Stupid, doofus, idiot, ignorant, dense, slow, dull-witted, vapid, and less intelligent one?" she sneered.

"I was going to say stronger, muscular, bigger, but you know," he held his chest as if he were in pain, "If that's how you feel then okay."

Maia looked at him teasingly, giving him a shove away from her. They walked around the Parthenon, getting an angle from all sides. They mostly veered away from the vampires. He knew they weren't by any means supposed to be fighting each other, but he didn't like their numbers.

"Where did Simon and the others go off to?" he asked.

"They went looking for Alec," she answered, putting a stray strand of hair behind her ear. She started walking around the edge of the hill, looking down the slope. Following her lead, he scanned the wooded areas below, trying to pick out any moving figures. They were waiting for the pack of werewolves to arrive, which they would in any minute.

Looking in the opposite direction as Maia, Jordan wasn't looking, but didn't have to, when he sensed others approaching.

"Over there!" Maia jogged the right, Jordan close behind, as a group of about fifteen werewolves appeared in the dark of the night.

The leader of the group was obvious to point out. He was tall, almost six foot ten, with grey eyes and sand blonde hair. A scare running from his temple to the corner of his lip on the left side of his face shone underneath the moonlight, and judging by the way his hair was fixed, he was quite proud of it. He had a muscular build, and was wearing a body hugging green T-shirt with camo pants and boots.

He smiled to Maia, a look that was all too cocky, and a little too flirtatious for Jordan to handle. To his pleasure, Maia didn't smile back.

"Are you Greg?" she asked.

He smiled again, showing off his greek accent, "Yes, I am Greg, short for Gregorior. I was told to meet with someone from the Praetor Lupus, but I wasn't told it would be such a beautiful and gorgeous women." He hadn't known him for thirty seconds yet Jordan already wanted to punch his teeth in.

"Oh, will if you consider my boyfriend to be a 'beautiful and gorgeous women', then I guess I can't stop you from having an opinion." She taunted devilishly. That's my girl! Jordan internally celebrated, though he was called a woman, apparently.

"Excuse me? Boyfriend." His eyes finally set on Jordan, who stood behind Maia this entire time.

He gave a mock salute, "Yep, boyfriend, werewolf, member of the Praetor Lupus, but you know, who cares?"

Greg's jaw clenched noticeably, but no one brought it up.

Feeling like everything was settled, Jordan acknowledged the rest of the pack, ignoring the fact the Greg was their leader. "Okay guys, we'll need you to spread out, you three," he said pointing to a tall blonde and two guys with the same brown curly hair, "Go through surveillance on the north. You five, go to the south, there are less eyes there, you two, I want you circling the perimeter. The two of you, the west, and the last of you the east. Every ten minutes switch positions, I want fresh eyes at all times."

They all spread out, including Greg, who went with the people going west, which was opposite of where Jordan and Maia were. He felt like he just won something and no one was congratulating him.

"Stop smiling." Maia said, "You look like an idiot."

He wrapped his arm across her shoulders, "A protectful idiot. Next time a guy flirts with you like that, I don't care who he is, I give you permission to kick him where it hurts."

"Any guy?" she questioned.

"Any guy." He affirmed.

"So if you happen to not get your arm off of me in the next three seconds I have permission to…" she trailed off.

He caught himself. "Except me, of course." He kissed her forehead, "I have a ticket because of the fact that I love you and junk."

Maia was just about to respond when a blur appear to them. At first Jordan thought it was some sort of bird, before he recognized the blur as a body in fast motion.

Simon.

"Hey man what's up?" Jordan asked, but Simon immediately started talking.

"Alec's been taken. We found a broken stele and we know that it's Sebastian's. Everyone's freaking out." His tone was serious, and judging by the fast pace at which he spoke, he must have already figured out something that has to be done.

"Wait, Sebastian's stele was broken? How do you know Alec is okay and he managed to get Sebastian somehow?" Maia asked, trying to look on the bright side.

Simon shook his head, "Alec would have told us by now, and he's not answering. Hasn't been for some time now. We've already tracked him, and Jace and the others are on it are already on their way to look for him, I just need to tell something to the vampires. Have your guys gotten here yet?"

Jordan had to give Simon props. Upon looking at him, you wouldn't think Simon could handle any sort of leadership or commanding power, but he was hlding out just fine. "Yeah, they got here like a minute ago."

He nodded, "Great."

"Wait, Simon. What are you going to tell them?" Jordan asked, curious as to what he wanted to say.

"Oh you know, your average spreading out the troops, giving them commands, that sort of thing. You know, everyone always told me playing those computer games would be of no use to me. Well you know what, they're liars. Nothing could have prepared me more for this than those hours of playing war games." Simon chided.

Maia laughed, "Well in their point of view, they never saw you having to command a bunch of vampires."

"Hey, I'm leader material! If you look up authority in the dictionary you'll see a huge picture of me with a lightsaber and R2-D2 behind me." He joked, then walked up to the Parthenon, and walking to its center, jumped onto the roof of the house with an agility that resembled a cat. This is why vampires and werewolves have this natural hatred that Jordan and Simon don't share. Vampires are like cats, always hissing at the dogs and baring at their teeth. If you picture a cat hissing at you, then picture a vampire baring their fangs, you'd be surprised at the resemblance. And then the werewolves were, well, dogs. No picture needed to relate those two. And like dogs and cats, they fought. Jordan, Maia, and Simon though, still held their humanness, which was why they didn't hate each other.

Simon cleared his throat and placing his fingers between his lips, he whistled loud and clear.

Why can't I do that? He wondered absently.

"Hey everyone listen up!" he started. Nice way to get their attention, Jordan teased, watching as everyone turned their heads towards the skinny kid on top of the house in the middle of the Parthenon. "You all know why you're here, and if you expect some sort of speech from me, well, I don't know what to tell you, fight hard, many of you might not even want to be here, some of you might only be here because you want a fight."

A voice from somewhere yelled, "Hell yeah I am!"

Simon chuckled, "Anyway, I don't know when or what we're fighting against, it could be nothing, and I may have called you all here for nothing-"

A round of boo's rang up, and Simon held his palms out to quiet them.

"But either way, you should all remain vigilant. Who knows how long we'll have to wait here. In the meantime, I want everyone in positions, and umm… yeah that's, that's it. Good luck everyone." He ended that with what sounded like a question more than what should have been a cheerful support.

When Simon climbed back down, Jordan punched him in the arm playfully, yet with strength. Cause it's a guy thing. "You sounded like you were in school and giving a presentation. 'And, yeah… that's it.'"

Simon punched him back, harder, and with his vampire strength. "As if you could have done it any better."

Maia rolled her eyes. "I'm gonna walk around. Be right back." She kissed his cheek and walked away.

He smiled arrogantly at Simon, continuing their conversation, "I bet I could. In fact after I finished it, everyone would be screaming in excitement."

"The word is 'horror', they'd be screaming in horror at your atrocious words."

"Whatever," he chuckled, "they'd be screaming."

Just as the words slipped past, a scream broke through the otherwise calm air. Jordan's senses sharpened and he resisted the urge to growl. He knew that scream.

Simon tensed as well, "Please tell me you planed that….."

"No." his voice was half human half raspy, canine growl. Maia, where was Maia?

He turned around to look in the direction she had walked off, when all hell broke loose.

Demon Shadowhunters were appearing out of nowhere, stepping through small Portals surrounding the house. The second the stepped on ground, they lunged at the nearest vampire. Sounds of battle echoed, and Jordan could feel his lips roll back and his teeth were bared.

As he ran after where he heard Maia scream, a shadow passed by his peripheral vision, and he went toppling down.

Jace POV (once again)

There were two abandoned buildings, side by side, ready to be torn down by mundanes. They had split up, Isabelle and Jace went to search one building, and Maryse and Jocelyn had gone to search another. Though Maryse had been reluctant, saying that they shouldn't separate.

"What if Jonathan is there, there's a better chance to capture him if we all stay in one group." She commanded.

"I doubt he'll still be here," Jace argued, though he wished he was still here. Could make their job a lot easier. "The faster we finish this the better, trust me, he's not here." Whether Jace liked it or not, he could somewhat understand Sebastian's moves.

So they had split, Isabelle climbed in through a first story window, kicking in the already cracked glass and slipping inside. They had checked every dusty and mucked up room, climbed over crumbling stairs, and soon had made it to the third floor. He coughed. This place was really messing with his eyes and throat. A naïve voice in his mind whispered to him that perhaps Sebastian was still here, and that he was using the dust in the building against him.

How ridiculous, he thought to himself, Now I'm just driving myself crazy. I don't know which is more ludicrous, this theory, or the duck migration one.

Definitely this one.

Almost all of the doors in the building had been removed from their hinges, resting next to the empty doorway. All except one that was still firmly placed. It was ajar, and in the dark, Jace couldn't guess what was beyond it. Resolving to taking out his witchlight, he pulled it out, making it glow faintly. Isabelle was next to him, and she slowly uncoiled her electrum whip, and nudged the door with her toe, making it open inward.

Isabelle had been very quiet ever since they found the broken stele on the hill. She hadn't spoken much, and her eyes were dim, as if she was only using enough energy to keep her moving forward. It slightly concerned him, though he knew why she was like this. Alec was Isabelle's brother, as Max was. The idea that Sebastian had taken her other brother was probably going round and around her mind right now. She was most definitely thinking of ways she would make him pay for everything he had ever done. But now, what was important was finding Alec first.

The room pretty much reflected the state of the rest of the edifice. A bunch of furniture loitered the space, covered in dirty beige sheets that once had been white.

Lying on one of the covered couches, was Alec, a white strip of gauze wrapped across his head.

Isabelle immediately went up to her brother, pulling out her stele in case he needed an iratze. Izzy's fingers lifted the gauze carefully, looking for where his wound was. Jace noticed that the white bandage was stained red from behind.

"It's behind his head. Sebastian must have knocked him out by hitting him there." Jace removed the gauze as Isabelle drew an iratze on his collar bone. Immediately, Alec's skin went from a pale tone to a healthier shade. Isabelle had turned his head, so that she could inspect the wound, and Jace could already see it closing up into nothing.

Alec opened his eyes slowly, as if it were hard to open them.

"Hey, what are you guys doing here?" he slurred.

"Oh god." Isabelle assaulted him in a hug. Alec grunted, having just woken up, but he gradually raised his arms to hug his sister back.

"Iz, what's wrong?" he questioned, his tone becoming serious. "Did something happen?"

"Did something happen!" Izzy pulled back, her face screwed up as she tried to appear angry, but she was only trying to conceal her relief, "You had me so scared!"

"What?" Alec appeared to be confused, and before Isabelle could either hug him again or start screaming, Jace asked, "Do you know where you are?"

Alec seemed to take in his surroundings for the first time. His nose wrinkled as if he was about to sneeze, and reseated himself properly on the couch. Isabelle sat with him, and Jace remained standing.

"What is this place?" Alec grumbled, coughing into his wrist. "Feels like a bunch of grime was shoved down my throat."

"We're in an abandoned building, it's ready for demolition, and you happen to sleeping on one of their extravagant couches. Any idea how you got here?" Jace pushed him.

"Jace we don't have time for interrogations." Isabelle sighed, "We should get going. Mom's probably on her way here now."

"Mom's here?" Alec looked shocked. "How long have I been out?"

"Not too long, but long enough for stuff to happen." Jace answered, already heading for the door. "You were knocked out by Sebastian, and dragged here for the Angel knows what reason. My guess is that he used you as a distraction for us, to get our attention away from him while we looked for you, and it worked. We haven't been here too long, either, we should get going though. Since he can't use the house anymore he'll be on foot, and if he's got Clary, it'll be a lot harder to run as fast as he usually can. We can find him."

His mind was already ahead of him. Alec hadn't been in here too long, and Sebastian had either dragged him here, then fixed him, which made no sense to Jace; why would Sebastian care about Alec's health? He had to believe it was Clary's doing. Since Alec was taken, Sebastian knew they were here, meaning he was taking every precaution. He had to get out of the city, but through where?

Alec and Isabelle quickly walked to catch up to him, and Alec talked to him, jarring his thoughts, "Wait, Jace. You said Sebastian knocked me out?"

"Yeah. You were a distraction, that's the only thing I can think of, no offense, but you're not necessarily important to him." Jace said explained.

"But, Jace that's-"

"I said no offense Alec, no need to get touchy on how valuable you are. You're an amazing best friend and everything, heck you're my brother and parabatai. But to Sebastian? You're just a pawn he can shove around." Leaping down a broken set of stairs, Jace advanced full speed ahead. "You're like the empty bag of chips that you know has nothing but you put it in front of someone so that they think there's chips, but really there's nothing."

"Jace, Sebastian didn't attack me." Alec revealed.

He stopped walking, making Isabelle almost run into him.

Turning, he spoke, "What?"

Alec's blue eyes looked like raw truth. Serious and harmful, yet true. "Sebastian didn't attack me. It was Clary."

Lacie: Well, that's the end of this chapter.

Clary: you. Took. Too. Long.

Chris: *walks in with an armful of plastic grocery bags* what did I miss.

Lacie: Chapter 20

Chris: we're that far in already?

Clary: she took too long. She need to be punished!

Lacie: I'm sorry! I just, I just, I got lazy….

Chris: That's not good. You need to remind yourself of why you type in the first place

Lacie: I'm sorry everyone! I'm so sorrryy! I'm ashamed. But hey, I know it's been like two weeks, but at least it hasn't been a month!

Clary: you need to pay for this

Lacie: how?

Clary: You should get me noodles. Like right now. Ramen noodles.

Chris: Actually that was on the list, I got some right here *holds up cup noodles*

Clary: MARUCHAN! OMG HEAT THAT BAD BOY UP

Lacie: How was grocery shopping?

Chris: It was alright. I had no idea what everything was though, and these two girls kept following me around the store

Clary: O-o do tell

Chris: Jealous?

Clary: no. just tell

Chris: There isn't anything to tell. They followed me. Asked me if I had a girlfriend, to which I said yes.

Clary: You don't have a girlfriend…..

Clary:…

Clary:….wait

Clary: BARKING CHRIS We ARE NOT DATING

Chris: I showed them a picture too ;)

Clary: STOP TAKING PICTURE S OF ME WHILE IM SLEEPING GOSHDANGIT

Lacie: Actually that was me. I needed something to bribe you with

Clary: bribe me for what?

Lacie; I haven't decided yet :) Anyway, guys I'm sorry again, but hopefully you guys enjoyed this chapter. Please review! Thought you might not want to… but do it anyway! You're spending you're time reading this, what does it cost you to just click that smexy button that says 'review'?

Chris: Clary stop trying to get pictures of me. I don't have any bad angles ;)