Sue was alone in the bedroom. She immediately noticed that Jace was right. She was such a coward. Tears welled up in her, but as always, she didn't let them fall. She would show him how brave she was. Firmly, she pulled herself together and made her way out of the room and back to the crowd. She couldn't see Jace, but she didn't want to. She needed Isabelle. A perfect proof for her loyalty. She saw her dancing with a fearie near the bar.

"Isabelle, do you have your stele with you?", she asked right away, when she approached her. Isabelle looked confused and just nodded.

"Can I borrow it?", Sue continued, which made Isabelle look even more suspicious. She sighed, gave the fearie a nod and he made his way to the bar.

"I thought you couldn't use our runes.", she stated when they were back in the little bedroom.

"It's true. But I can use my own runes with your stele.", she explained and showed her the white rune on the back of her hand. Isabelle's eyes went wide.

"Jace and Alec really haven't told me everything. What does it do?"

"It's something like your Iratze, I think. Are you good at it? Drawing runes?", she asked her. Isabelle just nodded proudly.

"Let me handle this. Which rune do you want?", she asked while flipping out the stele from somewhere in her dress. Sue didn't want to know where she had stored it. She got out her phone and showed Isabelle the rune she had photographed from the book. Isabelle took a quick look and nodded.

"No problem. This looks easy. Where should I draw it?"

Sue thought about this for a second. She remembered Jace's words.

"Draw it on my neck.", she decided and pulled down her clothes to free the delicate skin on her neck. Sue started to like Isabelle, because she didn't try to change her mind or even ask what this rune did and just started to draw the rune. It hurt a lot more than drawing it on the back of her hand. But it was still nothing compared to the pain the Nephilim runes had caused her. So, no problem for her. When Isabelle had finished, she took a step back and looked at her expectantly. Sue waited on something to happen, but she was disappointed.

"What does it do?", Isabelle finally asked.

"Honestly? I don't know. The book doesn't tell. I don't feel a difference."

"Maybe it's a rune, which is only activated when a certain situation pops up. This is the case with a lot of our runes."

"Yeah. That's true.", Sue agreed slowly and caressed the rune, lost in thought. Damn it. She was frustrated that this wouldn't show Jace that she certainly wasn't a coward. Maybe she could show him otherwise.

"Let's head back. I really need a drink right now. Thank you so much, Isabelle. I am glad you came tonight."

Sue gave her an honest smile and both girls got back to the main room. The party was getting fuller and louder. Sue made her way to the bar with Isabelle and they ordered some drinks. Sue ordered something heavy, even as she wasn't the best drinker. The shot went down fast and made her stomach coil. But it also made everything less intensive. Exactly what she needed right now.

"There you are again. I thought this guy had abducted you or something."

She turned around and the guy with the green eyes was standing in front of her.

"No, I am too much of a badass. He wouldn't stand a chance.", she lied and smiled at him. He smiled back. Then he bowed down to her ear because the music almost drowned every conversation.

"What's your name? I am Eli,"

"Sue.", she simply said.

"Do you want to dance?"

She nodded and immediately they made their way to the middle of the dance floor. She looked back at Isabelle. The tall girl looked troubled. What was wrong? Didn't anybody allow her to have a good time? Eli offered her his hand and without thinking, she took it. In this moment a cold pain ran through her neck and she stumbled away from Eli. What the fuck has this been?

"Everything alright?", he asked worried. She just nodded and wanted to steady herself on his shoulder, but again, as soon as she touched him, the pain was there again. It wasn't a very bad pain, but enough to not be ignored easily. Now she realized that the rune had begun to emit pain as soon as she had been standing beside him. But why? Was he some kind of supernatural being, which was triggered by this rune? In this moment his hand took her upper arm. The pain came back.

"I am sorry, Eli. I cannot dance now. Please. I need to get back to my friend.", she said and wanted to leave the dancefloor, but his grip just tightened. Couldn't men just for once get the hint? This had never happened to her before, but she had seen it enough times with her girlfriends. Confused she looked up at him. What she saw, made her take a sharp breath. His look had changed. It wasn't no longer sympathetic, but cruel. Her neck went colder and helped her sharpen her mind.

"You are not going anywhere. We are leaving now.", he simply stated and simultaneously she felt a sharp object at her stomach from his other hand. She looked down and saw a dagger. What the fuck was going on here?

"Who are you?", was all she managed to ask.

"Nothing for you to worry about. Now, get moving. And no word to anyone or you are dead."

He pushed her towards the end of the dancefloor, always cautious that the dagger was well hidden between them. Sue looked back at the bar. She couldn't see Isabelle. Her eyes continued to search for the one person who could help her. But he wasn't at the bar nor somewhere else to be seen. Panic rose inside her. What would happen if this guy would take her away from her friends? What did he want to do with her? They had already left the living room, on their way to the stairway. There were still a lot of folks sitting and standing around, but she didn't know anyone. She didn't know if they could help her or would help her. As she noticed there was no one in front of the building, her panic grew and grew. Her heart almost skipped some beats, it was so fast. She tried to remember her training as a shadowhunter and how to disarm an enemy, but she didn't see a way in which she didn't end up bloody on the streets. They were now in front of the building. She noticed a figure standing a few meters away from them, under the light of a streetlamp. She knew the stature. Jace. She couldn't help but to draw in a shuddered breath. His eyes met hers for a split second and she knew that he understood exactly what was going on. She felt the dagger through her clothes and faintly shook her head. Don't come near. It's dangerous. Luckily Eli didn't notice Jace as he was heading with her in the opposite direction towards a dark alley. Damn it. Why did she always end up in dark alleys?

"Now, keep going. Don't try anything. They are waiting."

"Who is waiting? Want do you want from me?"

Her voice sounded quite high from the panic in it. He didn't answer and just pulled her along. She didn't dare to look behind her to see if Jace was following. It just had to be like that. They were now in the middle of the alley and she tried to get more space between her and the dagger of his.

"Wait.", she said out of breath and slowed down.

"I'm cold. Let me get my cape around me.", she suggested and reached for the ends of her cape. He gave an annoyed sound and expanded the distance of the dagger to her stomach just a little. In this moment everything happened so fast. She just felt Jace's presence and made a step back to escape Eli's grip. Then she saw a dark shape – Jace – attacking Eli from behind. But Eli was fast as well. He turned around and pulled her with him. She felt a sharp pain in her stomach, then Eli let go of her and fell down with his attacker. They were so fast; she could hardly keep track on who was who. With Jace's hair being black they even looked alike in all this blur. Nevertheless, she tried to help him. She gathered the knife, which somehow, he left on the street in front of her. It was bloody, but she didn't care right now. For a moment, Jace got the upper hand and pushed Eli away from him. Sue just knew he felt her presence and tossed the knife to him. With a fluent movement, he caught it and was ready to use it on Eli. With the same fluent movement, Sue drew her bow from behind her back and got an arrow ready to fly. She noticed her hands shook a little. From fear or the pain in her stomach, she didn't know. Maybe both. Eli looked from one to the other and you could see he was calculating his chances. In this moment his eyes changed and transformed to catlike pupils. His calculation of the situation seemed to get a bad result, because the next moment he turned around and made a run for it. He was extremely fast, but Sue let go of the arrow and it found its target. Eli cried out as the arrow hit him in his thigh. Nevertheless, he continued to run and the next moment he was gone around the next corner. Jace didn't make a move to run after him, but instead immediately came over to Sue. She still had her arms up, holding the bow. Slowly and carefully, he took the bow from her and his gaze scanned her whole appearance, ending at her eyes.

"Are you hurt?", he simply asked. In this moment she knew it was over and all the adrenalines left her body. She felt that her legs would leave her and grasped his shoulders.

"I think it's just the shock.", she managed to say and added: "Can we go back to Magnus' place? I just want to sit down for a minute."

He didn't answer but laid an arm around her hip to stabilize her. Unfortunately, it hurt like hell. Sue cried out and looked at him with a puzzled face. Why did it hurt so bad? He loosened his grip and his free hand moved under her cape to her stomach. Right to the spot where it hurt the most. She took a sharp breath. His eyes widened, when he moved back his hand. It was red. Completely red from blood. Was that her blood?

"Fuck.", she said out loud and her legs gave out for good. But Jace caught her and let her down carefully. He opened her cape, and a pretty nasty stab wound came to light. She started to breath faster, but Jace took her face between his hands and made her look into his eyes.

"Don't worry, I have an idea.", he exclaimed and took out his stele. Then he took her hand in his. She noticed that the rune had vanished. She trusted him blindly and let him redraw the rune. The moment he had finished with the new one, a warm feeling went through her body and the pain receded. She let out a relieving breath. He opened up her cape again and pushed her green top up to have a look at the wound.

"It's gone. It's possible that it's still a little sore for a while, but you'll be ok."

"Thank you so much, Jace. You saved my life. Again.", she said carefully. Then she laid her hand on his, which was still on her stomach.

"Don't worry about it. It's my duty. We need to tell Magnus and the others about what happened.", he answered somewhat distant and helped her up. It was his right to be distant. She had fucked up. But this is what she had wanted, wasn't it?

She was still a little wobbly on her feet but could walk slowly beside him. They started to walk back to Magnus' place. Sue felt so many things at once. She was still shaking from what just had happened, she felt relief, that she was ok, and she had the unbelievable strong urge to be near Jace, to tell him how she felt. Because now, she knew how she felt. She had fallen for him – even if she didn't want to. Now or never, she thought, took a deep breath and wanted to say something, but in the same moment Jace addressed her as well.

"You are the most stubborn-"

"I want to be serious-"

"What?"

"What?"

They both had to chuckle. A few moments passed by and then out of a feeling, Sue grabbed his neck and slowly pulled him down to kiss him. Their lips met in a soft caress. First, he seemed to be surprised, but then he laid his arms around her and held her close, while the kiss deepened. After what felt like a long time, they parted, but stayed close.

"So, there needs to be an assassin coming after you, for you to realize you want to be with me?", he teased.

"I think this made it pretty clear to me. Life is short, and you need to be as happy as you can. Even if this means taking the risk of being hurt again."

"Again?"

She sighed and looked over his shoulder. He still held her close. She needed to tell him. If she wanted this to work out, she needed to tell him. Again, all the romance novels had taught her a lesson.

"I was with somebody after I arrived here with Magnus years ago. We wanted to get married. But shortly before the wedding he cheated on me. He said he wasn't sure about loving me. But I was sure about loving him and that made it very hard to get over it. He couldn't let me go, but he also couldn't love me. It was the worst feeling ever. Even worse than the pain from the runes or anything else I have ever felt. I said to myself: Sue, no one will ever hurt you that much again, so you will never feel like this again. Well, I will stay true to my word. I will kick your ass if you ever break my heart, Nephilim."

With the last sentence, she looked up at him and poked a finger on his chest. She tried to smile but failed, when she saw his face. He looked sad and just took her hand into his.

"I won't. Because I know exactly how shitty you felt. You know, Clary and I… it was similar. It's a pain in the ass to be at the wrong end of a one-way relationship."

"True.", was all she could add.

He looked at her for another moment and kissed her again. Sue's heart could finally fully appreciate the feeling. It fluttered and pumped incredibly warm and tingling blood all over her body.

"Where is he? Let me kick his ass!", suddenly a voice said and Jace and Sue broke apart to see who had spoken. It was Isabelle approaching them, her whip ready in her right hand and behind her Magnus and Alec. Isabelle's eyes went big, when she saw all the blood on Sue's clothes. Sue acted immediately.

"Don't worry, Izzy. Yes, it's my blood, but I am already healed."

"Thank god! Where is he? What did he do to you? I've just seen him dancing with you and in the next moment, you were gone. I searched everywhere and I couldn't find either Magnus, Alec nor Jace! I thought I was already too late."

While talking she hugged Sue tightly, which caused Sue to almost fall over. She needed to talk about personal space at one point. When she had her feet on the ground again, she saw all three looking at her expectantly.

"He's gone. He stabbed me.", Sue said dryly and shrugged.

"He did what?", Magnus said and came over to examine her. She knew the procedure and lifted her shirt to show him the already healed wound. He shook his head at her.

"I told you to have an eye on her!", he said to Jace, who flinched and didn't even know what to say.

"Jace rescued me! … Again.", she added and took Jace's hand. Magnus just raised a brow to that gesture.

"Alec, let's head in this direction. Sue shot him with an arrow. Maybe we can get a hint, who's behind this.", Jace suggested and Alec nodded in agreement.

"He said, he wanted to bring me to "them"", Sue explained, and it was in this moment she realized what could have happened. A cold shiver ran down her back. Then she remembered the eyes.

"I am not sure about following him. He had catlike eyes. I think he was a warlock."

"A warlock?", Magnus said surprised. He came over to her.

"Show me.", he just said and held out his hand to her. She took his hand and placed it at her temple. She tried to call to mind how Eli had looked like. There were thoughts about him speaking to her and then the moment his eyes changed to cat's eyes. Immediately Magnus let go. She opened her eyes to see him losing all the colour in his face.

"Magnus? What is it?", Alec asked his boyfriend and made a step in his direction.

"Are you sure he looked like this?", Magnus asked urgently. She just nodded. What did that mean?

"I know him. Why didn't I see him on the party? He wasn't supposed to be there! He shouldn't even be in this dimension!"

Slowly Sue came over to Magnus. Alec had already taken Magnus' hand. He was visibly upset. She gently placed a hand on his forearm.

"Magnus, you need to tell us what you know. Maybe we can figure out, what's going on."

He looked down at her and sighed.

"Not here. Let's head back to the apartment. I need a drink first."

"I have a bad feeling about this.", Isabelle said, but followed all of them back to the apartment.