Interlude

"What in the Angel's name happened to him?"

Jocelyn was not in a mood to answer any questions Maryse had for her. She was too busy keeping her hands on Robert's bleeding shoulder. She didn't care that his ex-wife was showing concern right now. She reached into her back pocket and grabbed her stele, drawing it along his skin to draw the healing rune. He groaned softly and looked over at her with a weak smile.

"Thank you," he whispered as he sat up. He held his should as he did before looking down at the dagger. "They got away."

"You were a bit more important than looking for my children." Jocelyn said though it felt very automatic to say. Her children were more important than her comrade. Five years since she had seen them. Five years since she walked into her daughter's room to find her walking through her full body mirror and staring back just in time for Jocelyn to see her thought to be dead son smiling at her.

"No need to lie to me Joyce." Robert said, seeing right through her lie. "I'm a father remember? I know what it means to have your children torn from you."

Maryse bit her lip at his words. Instead she focused on Jocelyn. "Clary, you saw her?"

"And Jonathon as well," she answered and stood up, bringing Robert with her. "Come along, I'm sure the council will want a report."

:::

"Why are you making that face?" She asked her voice more of a growl than words. Her hand, so small and dainty, is wrapped around his neck. The afterglow only added the allure of her. Her skin was glistening with sweat, her lips were red, pouty and bitten from their kisses. Her mane of red hair hung over her shoulder and he wanted to run his hands through them. He knew they would feel like silken knots between his fingers. He felt pressure as she squeezed. She growled out his name and it only made him moan. "Answer me, Julian."

"You're beautiful," he whispered and then leaned up, letting their lips brush together. "A Valkyrie come to end my life and yet she ends up in my bed, naked above me," he grabbed her breasts as if to prove a point. "I know you'll end me. Your beautiful face will turn vicious and your nails will one day sink into my skin and rip away my flesh until you've found my heart."

"Why are you being so poetic?" Clary asked. "Why are you making your death sound as pleasurable as our sessions?"

"Because like our session, my darling mistress, I will gain pleasure from it, because you've gained pleasure from it. I want you to hold my heart in your hearts, blood staining your slender fingers."

Clary frowned. "Don't be an idiot," she said as she yanked him up by his hair. "I don't plan on killing you Julian Blackthorn."

Julian blinked. "You don't?"

"I happen to like you, Jules. Enough to make you my lover, remember?"

He laughed. "Of course."

"You moron," she chastised. "Planning a poetic death when I have no intentions of ending you."

He smirked and flipped them over. The shocked look in her emerald eyes sent arousal through him. He cupped her cheek, the grin on his face predatory. "So lovely," he cooed and bitten her bottom lip. "How do you want it, Clarissa? Hard, bruising and wild or delicate and passionate?"

She shook her head. "Surprise me."

:::

"You saw them?" Emma Carstairs breathed out. "You saw them!?"

"Yes we did." Jocelyn said though she was almost certain the girl was going to repeat the question.

"You saw them?"

"She just said yes Emma." Olivia Blackthorn said with a frown marring her face. "But you didn't say you saw Julian."

"No."

Olivia sighed. "I see," she said.

"Thank you so much, Mrs. Graymark." Tiberius Blackthorn said with a smile.

"Thank you? Thank you!? Are you guys kidding me? She didn't do anything!" Emma snapped with a frown. "My best friend - your brother! - is in their clutches and you're saying thank you!?"

"Emma," Robert said with a frown. "That's enough. Jocelyn has every right to be caught off guard."

"Yea because those two sociopaths are her children." Emma said nastily. "I swear they did something to him. He was fine before she showed up. Then he went crazy. He started obsessing over that girl."

Tiberius made a sound. "A beauty he would call her," he said, remembering how Julian called Clary a beauty. How he said he wanted to capture her on any canvas he could. His brother's former room was filled with portraits of Clary. Her eyes, the color of her hair, the way she stood in battle. He had often drawn her sad, as the way he had remembered her before her reappearance.

"More like a pedophile," snarled Emma. "What would a twenty-one year old want with a seventeen year old?"

"Sexual things," Alec muttered. "I mean, he is a boy. If I was straight, I'm pretty sure I'd follow in Julian's place."

Jace shook his head. "Don't be rude."

Jocelyn shook her head at them.

"We simply came to inform you that we saw them," Robert said. "We still don't know where they are or why they decided to attract us by killing that man."

"I hope you find her," Emma's eyes were bright with angry. "So I can kill that harpy."

:::

Alec paused as he stepped into his apartment. He had long since moved out of the Institute. But he hasn't moved in with Magnus as the assumed. He and Magnus hasn't spoken in the last five years. He frowned, focusing on the presence in the room. He found what he was looking for sitting on the couch, a tumbler of bourbon in his hands.

"Don't worry Alexander," Jonathon smiled warmly at him. "I simply came to see how you were doing."

Alec sighed. "Let me guess, we need to talk?"

Jonathon smiled. "You guessed it, little angel."

"If you'd stop undressing me with your eyes, we could."

"That's never stopped us before."

Alec didn't falter like he had hoped. He simply walked towards him. "What do you want to talk about?"

Jonathon hummed. "Have you given my offer a thought?"

"To join you?" Alec seethed. "To 'burn the world'?"

Jonathon grinned. "Of course. You would rule beside me, my King."

"And your sister?"

"Well she would be Queen of course," Jonathon said as an afterthought. "But she wants nothing to do with the Shadowhunting world once we do. She would rather rule the mundanes, the wicked little harpy. Europe is calling her name and she and her lover would waste no time with the lycans."

"Lycans?" Alec choked. "What else are you not telling me!?"

Jonathon grinned. "I'm sorry darling, but that's all I can say. Since you're still loyal to the Clave."

Alec growled. "I may wear their marks," he said slowly and then walked towards him. He straddled the blonde, tugging at his hair. "But I don't owe them loyalty."

"Just my brother, his werewolf lover and your sister." Jonathon said and grabbed Alec's hips. "Don't worry Alexander, they will be spared my wrath. Simply because they are your kin."

Alec leaned forward. "Promise?"

Jonathon smiled. "I swear it."

"I still don't believe you." Alec sighed.

"You never do," said the blonde before he gave the raven haired male a bruising kiss. "But it makes the sex more fun."