Walking home after my night out last night, I came to a dead stop outside my loft. "What the-" I frowned. There was smashed glass from the windows, but not a sound to be heard. I ran up the steps. "Mom? Clary?" I shouted. I heard a crash from upstairs, and I bolted up there, hoping to find my mother or sister, or even my mom's boyfriend, Luke. Instead, I found a dark haired girl, standing in my charred bedroom, cursing at the broken chair she tripped over. She sported several inky black tattoos and rather revealing clothes.
"Who the hell are you?" I demanded. Her head snapped up.
"I'm Isabelle, you're Samara Fray?" she asked quickly.
"Uh yeah, why are you in my house?"
"Your sister, Clary mentioned you and I came to find you to bring you to safety," she replied, pulling the curtains back and peering outside.
"Clary? Safety? What happened?" I asked. Looking around wildly, I took in the sight of my burned down home and my chest tightened.
"Look we aren't safe here, come with me and I can explain on the way, but we need to get out of the house." Her words were laced with concern and she kept looking out the window.
"Give me a reason to trust you," I said crossing my arms. I didn't even know if this girl knew where Clary was, let alone if she was trying to help me.
"Are you willing to risk your mother and Clary by not coming with me?" she challenged.
After a moment of thought, I heeded and allowed her to lead the way. Isabelle kept a fast pace as she led me through the streets of New York. I hesitated when she walked up to an old abandoned church. "Uh, I'm not going in there, no."
Isabelle was having none of it though and pulled me through the large doors by my wrist. She walked briskly through the first room, which was full of screens and tablets and all things technological, and up some steps into a section that held two boys, a bed and, my sister.
"Jace! I found her!" Isabelle called, she then turned to me, "This is Jace, and that, is my brother Alec." I turned to her brother and felt a strange pull towards him, like an invisible string. It was gone as quickly as it came but the flicker of surprise that crossed his face told me that I wasn't the only one who experienced it. He recomposed himself before anybody else noticed.
"Oh good, there's two of them," the tall dark haired boy, Alec, said sarcastically, rolling his eyes while I raised an amused eyebrow. It seemed I was not the only one that Clary irritated.
"Samara Fray, at you're service," I gave a mock bow before ignoring him and turning to the blonde, Jace his name was, and Clary, "Dude, somebody fill me in?"
"Well, I ran into your sister here last night at Pandemonium, and found out she has the sight. She was attacked by a demon back at your loft after your mother was taken, where I saved her and brought her back here. She woke up, mentioned you, and I got Isabelle to track you down, and now you're here," Jace brushed over everything like it wasn't a big deal, and to him, I suppose it wasn't.
I nodded, absorbing the information. So my mother was missing. "Uh-huh, okay. One question though," Jace nodded for me to continue, "Demon?"
"Ah, yeah well you see, we're Shadowhunters - half angel, half human, we protect the mundanes from demons. Everything you ever heard about is true, vampires, werewolves, faeries, all of it, they're called Downworlders," Jace explained carefully.
I shrugged, "Okay, so why am I here?"
"What no more questions? No stop tricking me, no you're lying, get me out of here?" Alec fired from the corner, "Your sister had plenty."
"Incase you hadn't noticed, we're different people," I glared but kept my voice level and calm, "And I have no reason to believe that you lot dragged me all the way out here to then lie to me. So I'll ask again, why am I here?"
Alec looked slightly taken aback but didn't say anything while Isabelle snickered.
"Apparently our mother hid some cup from some guy and everyone in this Downworld thinks we either have it or know where it is," Clary muttered, clearly irritated, "but we don't and all I care about is finding Mom."
I saw Alec roll his eyes again and even Jace looked like he was getting a little fed up.
"Clary, look, I get that you want to find Mom, and I do too, but I doubt these guys, some of whom clearly would rather not be talking to us right now, would have gone through all this trouble of saving you and finding me, if this cup wasn't important. Obviously neither of us know where it is, but the least we can do is try to help." I was always the more rational one of the two of us, but trying to reason with Clary was somewhat difficult.
"This cup can control demons and create new Shadowhunters, and that guy wants to wipe out the entire Downworld, so yeah its important," Alec muttered.
I raised my hand and gestured at him, looking back to my sister, "There you go." I turned to Isabelle and Jace, "So what can we do?"
Before anyone could answer, Clary's phone started ringing and Isabelle led Alec from the room.
"Simon," she breathed, before answering.
Despite it not being set to speaker, I could still hear Simon; he had a tendency to shout into the phone.
"How come you haven't answered your phone in two days?"
"Things are... all ripped apart," she replied.
"Where are you? Find My Friends says your phone is in an abandoned church on Deighton. I'm outside."
Clary ran to the window and looked down. "I see you," she sighed.
"I don't see you."
"Give me five minutes. I have to get dressed."
It was really only then that I noticed she only had a very large, loose t-shirt on and I snorted.
"Dressed? What are you doing undressed in an abandoned church? Clary, is there... is there a meth problem we have to talk about?"
"Simon, just give me five minutes, okay?" With that, Clary hung up and walked back to Jace who was still sat on the bed, looking over Clary's sketches. "Um, what, uh... what happened to my clothes?"
Jace smirked, "Demon venom. Remember? Isabelle left you these." He pointed to some black, leather looking things, trying to keep his face straight. When Clary picked up the clothes I saw why and tried to contain my laughter.
"You're kidding, right?" If she thought this was a joke, Clary was not amused.
"She's very comfortable with her body," Jace shrugged, his mouth twitching up at the corners.
I followed Jace out while Clary got dressed after she accused him of tattooing her, and he led me down through the tech room Isabelle brought me in through, which I was informed was actually called the Op Center. Clary ran down after us and caught up very quickly. I snorted again, taking in what she was wearing.
"You're not gonna kill Simon, are you?" Clary all but begged.
"Protect the humans, kill the demons. You'll get it eventually," Jace answered without looking at her.
He pushed open the door and I saw a very worried looking Simon at the bottom of the church steps.
"So, why can't Simon see you?" Clary asked.
"Wait, Simon can't see you?" I interrupted.
Jace shook his head and looked at me, pulling up his t-shirt a fraction, revealing a kind of tattoo - the same ones I had seen on Isabelle. "This is a glamour, a rune that makes me invisible to mundanes. It's a shame, really, 'cause... well, denying them all this." He waved his hands over his body.
"Yeah, dreadful it would have been if I'd never met you," I replied sarcastically. If I'd never met him, it would be because nobody took my mother and nobody was after us.
Simon ran forward, shrugging off his jacket and throwing it around Clary's shoulders. "What do you have on, Clary? Let me take you home," It was as if he'd only just noticed me when he tacked onto the end, "You too Sam."
"I don't think I have one anymore, or anybody left," Clary whispered.
I coughed and pointed at my self with over dramatic hand gestures but neither of them even looked at me. Jace on the other hand chuckled and I just threw my hands up in the air, "Really?"
While Simon was asking what she meant, and Clary was about to explain, and Jace had turned back to watch Clary, I spotted a man creeping around the shadows. I flicked Jace hard in the back of his head and he turned to glare at me but I nodded my head to the trees and his eyes widened.
"Clary and Samara Fairchild!" He shouted at us.
Jace leapt up and wrapped an arm around the attacker's neck before plunging a glowing sword - which he'd pulled out of nowhere - into his stomach.
"Jace!" Clary ran from Simon's arms leaving him looking around, utterly confused. My sister pointed to the body now by her feet, "Is he dead?"
"Is who dead?" Simon asked incredulously. I realised he couldn't see the body either.
"Could you deglamourize, or whatever, so my best friend doesn't think I'm losing my mind?" Clary turned on Jace.
The Shadowhunter obliged and lifted his shirt, tracing the rune with a glowing metal cylinder resembling a thick pencil. Simon jumped back in surprise at both Jace and the dead man materialising, "Um... what is happening?"
"Yeah, we don't have the luxury right now, kid. Everyone back inside," Jace started walking back inside but turned back when Simon started asking more questions.
"Clary, who is this? Your meth dealer?"
"I've seen him before. At the police station," Clary ignored Simon and pointed at the body.
"He's a member of the Circle. Clary, he's here for you," Jace was getting more frustrated by the minute.
"He's with the people who took my mother," she shot back.
"Our mother," I muttered, but of course, was ignored.
"Right, and your little best friend here led him right to you. He's here to capture or kill you." Jace argued, a frown spreading across his features. I could tell he was loosing his patience very quickly.
"There's a dead body there, we have to call Luke," Simon spoke up again.
"We can't trust Luke, Simon. We can't." I frowned at Clary's words, wondering what had happened. Luke had practically raised us alongside our mom and I would have said we could trust him with our lives. Clearly, my sister thought differently.
Jace stepped forward, "Clary, I need to keep you safe. I promise you, I promise I am going to help you find your mother. But you're one of us. You're a Shadowhunter." He held out his hand for Clary to take.
Simon mirrored Jace's movements and moved closer to her, "What are you talking about? Clary... you don't know this guy, all right? Come with me. I can get us help."
Clary didn't move and I gave up, walking back inside.
"Where's your sister?" Isabelle came up to me.
I shrugged, "Outside with Simon and Jace."
"Who's Simon?"
"Her mundane best friend."
"Right," Isabelle was sitting at a computer and I leaned against the desk, watching curiously until Alec storming in told me that my sister had returned and brought Simon with her.
"What's going on here? Why is there a mundane in the Institute?" He asked angrily.
Jace explained that a Circle member had followed Simon to the Institute to get to Clary and I, and as if reminding him that I was still here, Alec whipped his head around to glare at me. I just shrugged, throwing my hands up with an exasperated don't look at me, I don't know what's going on here face.
I listened as Jace and Alec explained what the Circle was and that Jace's father had died because of them.
"...And since the revolt we've been forbidden to even hear about the Circle."
"But, how is that even possible? It's your history," Clary argued.
Jace scoffed, "Says the girl who didn't know she was a Shadowhunter?"
"Well now the only person who knows the truth is missing, so I don't care about your rules or what's forbidden, I'm... there's got to be someone out there who can tell us why they've taken my mother." Clary was never the best at empathising, or thinking about others, or the repercussions of her actions.
"Our mother," I interjected frustrated that she kept forgetting that I lost Mom too, "and Clary, we know why they've taken her, and breaking the rules isn't going to get her back, it'll only cause more chaos." I was getting really sick of her selfishness.
Alec pointed at me in agreement.
"There is a way, you coming?" Jace walked away and Clary and Simon followed. I rolled my eyes and looked to Alec and Isabelle.
"Am I invisible?" I asked before following the others.
Jace held out his hand, stopping Simon in his tracks. "No, no, no. Not you."
"Hey, we're a package deal," Clary protested, and Simon agreed.
"There are runes all over the training room floor that would kill your mundie boyfriend," Jace rolled his eyes.
Her eyes widened, "He's not my..."
"I'm not, like... we're, uh, just friends," Simon stuttered
"Best friends," Clary corrected. I tried to hide my smirk at her friend zoning him and clearly Jace found it amusing too, but made much less of an effort to hide it.
"Yeah, and I'm tough. I can handle runes. So, uh, bring on the runes." It came out like a question, and then, "What exactly are runes?"
"They give Shadowhunters our demon-fighting powers," Isabelle stepped up from behind me, and Simon's jaw dropped.
"So hot," he murmured. Jace cleared his throat warningly and glared at Simon. "The rune," he muttered, "the rune."
"Don't worry, I'll watch the best friend, I was just about to make some breakfast anyway," She offered.
Jace sucked in a breath and jokingly said, "On second thought, the runes might be a little less lethal."
Isabelle laughed and introduced herself and Alec to Simon.
"Jace, if anything happens to him-" Clary started.
"Oh my god Clary, what are they going to do? He'll be fine," I pushed Jace and Clary to walk on in front of me, "Come on, lets go."
Jace introduced us to Hodge Starkweather, the tutor and trainer, and he explained that our mother was in the Circle, and all about the Mortal Cup - what it could do and how our mother stole it. Clary ran off, Jace in tow, and so I wandered over to a wall of weapons and ran my fingers along a few of them. I saw a beautiful bow with a quiver of arrows and several of what Jace had called seraph blades.
"You shouldn't touch what isn't yours," A voice came from close behind me.