CHAPTER FOURTEEN. THE THRILLING ADVENTURES OF A (MAYBE) TEENAGE VAMPIRE: THE SEQUEL
"YOUR HYPOCHONDRIAC IS SHOWING."
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When Wren awoke, her mind was in a confused haze. She looked around the dark room in confusion, trying to piece together where she was. Upon remembering that she was in a guest room in Magnus Bane's apartment, she sat up in the extremely comfortable bed. A part of her wanted to lay back down and let sleep take her again but she fought that urge.
Instead, she clapped her hands twice, successfully turning the lights back on. She quickly readjusted to the brightness of the room before pulling the comforter back. She pushed herself to the edge of the bed, her feet dangling over the soft carpet before they settled onto the ground. She looked around and grabbed her phone.
It was still dark outside so she figured that she probably hadn't slept for long. Her phone was on the verge of dying so she put it on power saving mode. She'd have to inquire about a charger later on after all of this was over.
She pulled her sneakers back on before walking to the door. She pulled it open and walked out of the room and back out into the hallway, walking in the direction of the living room and sighing when she came out into it. As she looked around, she saw that Luke was no longer on the couch and Clary wasn't there. Jace, however, was sat in the living room.
"Hey, where's Luke and Clary?" She asked. Jace looked over at her as she walked up.
"In one of the guest bedrooms," he replied.
"Is Luke okay?" She asked next and he nodded.
"He's fine," the blond replied. Wren sighed in relief and nodded.
"Great, that's great," she muttered.
She took a seat in one of the chairs. "Did you, have a nice nap?" Jace questioned with a smug smile.
"Nope. Kept having dreams about demons trying to kill me," she answered honestly.
"Welcome to my reality," Jace said.
"How do you do it? Fight demons all the time. It must be exhausting," she said.
He shrugged, "I'm a Shadowhunter. It's what we're trained to do. I can't afford to get exhausted."
Wren didn't like that answer so she asked another question. "Do you ever get scared?" She asked.
"Nope," he replied.
She raised an eyebrow. "Do you ever take breaks?" She asked next.
"I don't have time to take breaks," he answered.
"But with everything that you do and everything that you deal with, you should probably take breaks. You know, take some time to ourself and relax," Wren continued.
"Like I said, we don't have time to take breaks," he repeated.
"You should make time. For your mental health," the blonde said.
"My mental health?" He questioned.
"Yes, your mental health. You know you should worry about you mental health just as much as your physical one," she replied and he scoffed.
"I have more important things to worry about," he said, standing up.
"More important?" She scoffed before shaking her head. "Whatever," she muttered. This wasn't her problem nor her concern. Break away from the Shadow World. She stood up from the chair. "I should go home," she informed.
Jace stood up as well and nodded. "Let me walk you," he suggested, and she shook her head.
"No, I'll be fine. Seriously," she replied, which caused him to shake his head.
"It's dangerous out there," he told her. "It's always been dangerous out there and I've been fine. Tell Clary I went home and that I'll text her when I get there," Wren said. She sent the blond a smile before beginning to walk to the door.
"Wait," Jace grabbed her arm and turned her back around. "At least let me teach you something," he said. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.
"I don't know what you're getting at but I'm not into you. Like, at all," she said.
"What? No, no. That's not what I meant," he clarified and she faintly blushed in embarrassment.
"Good, because you're not exactly my type. No offense," she said.
He did look mildly offended. That must have been a shot to his ego.
"Not your type? What does that mean? You like women or something?" The words seemed to just blurt out of his mouth. Wren let out an incredulous laugh and he began to backtrack. "Not that there's anything wrong with that."
"So, in order for a girl to not be into you, they have to be a lesbian?" Wren asked him.
He shook his head, "Not necessarily, it's just, I-I... uh."
Wren waited expectantly for his answer but he froze. That was probably a first for him and she rolled her eyes. "Not that it's any of your business but yeah, I like women. I also like men, just not you. Are we done here?"
She turned to walk away but his grip on her upper arm, which she hadn't realized he was still holding, tightened slightly. She turned back face him, with a raised eyebrow.
His hand trailed down her arm until it reached her hand, which he closed into a fist.
"You know how to punch?" He questioned, changing the subject as quickly as he could.
"Yeah?" She answered in confusion.
"Do you know how to punch properly?" He reiterated.
"Where are you going with this?" She questioned, growing impatient.
He moved around her body. He then began giving her instructions on how to stand, how to pivot, and how to have power behind a punch. A right hook to be specific. Because apparently, the hook is a powerful punch with knockout power. When he was done showing her the basics and after a few test runs without using full power, Jace asked her to punch him for real.
"You want me to punch you in the face?" She questioned incredulously.
"I want you to try," he said smugly.
"Is this really necessary?" She asked. She just wanted to go home.
"Until you can learn how to properly defend yourself, you can at least know how to punch," he said.
"Right, because if a demon shows up, punching it in the face will do me good," she replied sarcastically.
In the short amount of time that she had known the blond, she was becoming comfortable with him. It was a little concerning because she never grew comfortable around people this quickly. But she felt as though she could trust him, he hadn't given her a reason not to. And so, she was being sarcastic and not hiding her annoyance towards him. Jace only smiled.
"Punch 'em hard enough and you could disorient them enough to run," he said. She narrowed her eyes disbelievingly. There's no way that was true. "Just try it," Jace said. And so she did. She swung her right fist at his face and he dodged it. "Try again," he said. She tried again. And again, and again, until she finally managed to land a punch to his face. A very very hard punch. One that he hadn't been expecting.
Jace's head whipped to the side with such force, it made Wren jump. The blond groaned in pain and she was quick to spew apologies. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hit you that hard. I didn't think I'd actually touch you. I'm sorry," she rambled. He was shaking his head as he clutched his pained face.
"Nope. It's good. That, that was good," he said. He then groaned again, "By the Angel. How are you that strong?"
She shrugged her shoulders, "Years of gymnastics, maybe?"
"You know, I-I think you're good. Punching wise." He finally let go of his face and looked at her. His face looked relatively fine. It probably wouldn't bruise with the healing rune that she assumed he had on his body. "Good job," the blond said.
"Thanks, I guess," Wren replied unsurely.
"I'm not even going to ask," Magnus spoke from where he stood across the room. The two turned to face him.
"How long have you been there?" Jace asked.
"Long enough to see Songbird here punch you in the face," Magnus replied with a snicker.
"I let her do that," Jace defended.
"Sure you did," Magnus said, chuckling as he began walking away.
Wren turned back to Jace. "I'm gonna go now," she informed.
"Yeah, okay," he said.
The blonde made her way to the front door again and out of Magnus' apartment.
••••
Wren got home safe and sound and sent Clary a text. She didn't try to go back to sleep, instead opting to catch up on the schoolwork that she had forgotten about. College hadn't even crossed her mind amidst the craziness that's been going on. She was only taking three classes online and she was regretting doing that. She should've taken a gap year like she had wanted.
Luckily for her, the classes she was taking weren't anything too difficult or that required too much work. Maybe it was the universe knowing that she was going to get pulled into this bullshit.
Many hours had passed before she finally finished and submitted all of her assignments. She was in the middle of doing her next assigned reading assignment when she heard her house phone ringing from the living room. She sighed, getting up from her bed and walking out of the door. She walked into the living room and looked down at the phone. Seeing the familiar number, pressed the answer button, holding the phone to her face. "Hello?" She spoke.
"Where have you been? I've been calling and texting you all day?" Simon questioned on the other end.
"I've been catching up on schoolwork. My phone's on silence. Did you seriously call my house phone to get ahold of me?" She replied.
"Yeah! You weren't answering and I thought something happened to you. The last time I saw you, you were sleeping at Magnus'. I didn't know if you left or not," he answered quickly.
"Aw, you were concerned about me?" She inquired in a joking manner as she took a seat at the small island in her apartment.
"Yeah, I was. With everything going on, you could've been killed by a demon or a werewolf or something," he answered. His words made a warmth of happiness swell in her chest. Wren sometimes felt as though she didn't matter to her friends. Hearing him say that he was concerned for her safety reminded her that she did.
"Well, I'm fine. Totally not killed by a demon or werewolf. What's up?" She responded.
"I'm freaking out. I think I'm sick. Like, I think I'm really sick," Simon said.
"Simon, your hypochondriac is showing," Wren said with a light chuckle.
"I'm serious, Wren. I think I might be a vampire," Simon said and she sighed.
"This again?" She questioned, shaking her head.
"I know how it sounds, but you don't know what I've been going through today, okay? All signs point to vampire. I tried to tell Clary but she hung up on me before I could and now she's back to not answering my calls or texts. I wanna get answers and the only person who knows people who might have it isn't picking up," he rambled.
"Okay. Have you spoken to Luke? Maybe he knows something," Wren proposed.
"No. He's not picking up either," Simon responded.
"Well, don't start jumping to conclusions, okay? We don't know anything about vampirism and until you can get some answers, just lay low and stay home," the blonde suggested.
"I can't stay home. I-I feel like I'm suffocating. I broke my desk in half. Mom and Becky think I'm on drugs. I-I don't know what to do." Simon was on edge, which caused Wren to frown.
"Okay, you can come over to my place. We can figure all of this out and get your mind off of things. We can watch movies or something," Wren said.
"What kind of movies?" He asked.
"Whatever you want. Except one with Nicolas Cage," the blonde answered.
"What's wrong with Nicolas Cage?" Simon inquired.
"Nothing. I'm just tired of watching movies with him in them. You're way too obsessed with him, Simon," she replied.
"I'm not obsessed. It's not my fault his movies are masterpieces," he retorted.
"He has decent movies but masterpieces? I don't know about that," Wren said, leaning her head onto her hand.
"Did you just diss Nicolas Cage?" Simon questioned.
"No. I said he has decent movies, they're just not masterpieces in my eyes," she answered.
"His movies are phenomenal," he said.
"To you," she responded.
"Oh come on. Ghost Rider, Gone In 60 Seconds, National Treasure, Face/Off, Windtalkers, Kiss Of Death. All great movies," he said.
Wren chuckled lightly, "You're such a dork."
"Says you," he shot back.
"I'm cool as shit," she told him.
"Oh yeah, can you recite every Nicolas Cage movie by heart?" Simon asked, his tone dead serious. Wren pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at it before putting it back to her ear.
"You know, sometimes I wish I never met you," she stated, only for him to chuckle in response.
There was a pause on his end of the phone before he was speaking quickly again. "I actually have some stuff I wanna take care of so I'll talk to you later," he informed.
Wren's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Simon—"
"Bye."
Wren heard the dial tone before she could even respond. She pulled the phone away from her ear and put it away. She walked back into her room and picked up her cellphone. She called Clary's number. When the redhead didn't pick up, she called Luke. When Luke, didn't pick up, she called Isabelle, whose number she hadn't used since getting it after the events at the Hotel Dumort.
The blonde sighed, pulling the phone from her ear. She was concerned for Simon and wanted to get answers for him. She tried Clary again and when she didn't pick up, she opened up her laptop and began Googling all things vampires.
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I just wanted to make one thing clear, this is NOT, nor will it ever be, an Alec fanfic. Wren and Alec will NEVER have a romantic relationship so if there are people reading this book and hoping that the two will get together, they WILL NOT. Alec is GAY. He likes MEN. Point blank period.
On another note, I feel like this was implied in an earlier chapter (I feel like I had written it in but I don't remember because it was so long ago) but Wren is bisexual. Okay, bye.