jace

After seeing Dylan with the redhead, I sunk deeper into a depression. Even working at Lark__ house did nothing to distract me. I simply went through the motions. Fortunately, Lark was especially tired and slept most of the day, so she never noticed my bad mood. Harlow wasn__ as oblivious as we washed dishes after dinner. __hat__ up, stinky pup?_ I rolled my eyes at her nickname for me. __othing._ __he doesn__ want to deal with the leaves,_ Jace said from behind us. Our ten year old brother crossed his arms like Dad often did when suspicious. __ee, she got spooked last night and bailed on raking the leaves. They ended up blowing around the yard and now she__ trying to get out of raking them again._ __hat__ not it._ __ure, it is,_ he said, his dark hair covering his narrowed eyes. __hat else could it be?_ Grumpy, I decided to punish him. __t__ about a sexy guy._ Jace__ face twisted into horror. __ww!_ he cried, running out of the room. Harlow and I laughed at the sound of him telling on me to Mom. __n a few years, girls will be all he thinks about,_ I said, returning to the dishes. Harlow leaned her head against my shoulder. __exy guy, huh?_ __houldn__ you be getting ready for your fight?_ Harlow glanced at the clock. __eah. When I get back, I want to hear about the sexy guy making you sigh so much._ As my sister dressed to go, I finished the dishes and struggled to stop sighing. I was still grumpy when Dad got home. In this living room, he told Harlow to be careful. She said something and laughed. When Harlow started fighting at the Thunderdome, she called herself Joy and hid it from our parents. She didn__ think they__ approve and she was right. Harlow and I were naïve to assume they wouldn__ find out long before she told them the truth though. Dad might be a pastor, but he learned about the Lord in prison. As a member of the Reapers, Dad had eyes and ears all over Ellsberg. He likely knew Harlow was fighting before she threw her first punch. Entering the kitchen, Dad smiled at me. __top talking about cute boys around your brother. He has a sensitive gag reflex._ I laughed as he got himself a beer and joined me at the sink. __om said we have leftovers. Mind warming them up for me?_ Shaking my head, I filled a plate and set it in the microwave. __re you okay?_ Dad asked, frowning at me. __ou look worn down._ __ had a long day._ __ou sure that__ it?_ We watched each other and I remembered the first time he asked if I was okay. Five years earlier when I was brought to this house and met my new family. I didn__ remember a lot from that day besides thinking these people were too good to be true. I figured they__ wait until Kirk was gone then hurt me. I couldn__ remember when I knew Dad was a good man who loved me. Not like my real dad loved me. Tad felt the kind of love a person died to protect. I saw the love in his eyes as he waited for his food to finish warming. __ wish I was stronger._ __o do I,_ he said softly. __veryone does. They just don__ admit it. That__ what makes you so brave. You can admit your fears._ Even thinking he was full of shit, I smiled. __hanks, Dad._ Taking his plate out of the microwave, he inhaled. __om makes the best meatloaf._ __ made it._ Grinning, Dad nudged me with his hip. __f you make this meatloaf for the boy you__e hung up on, you__l own him._ ____l remember that.

Demons," drawled the blond boy, tracing the word on the air with his finger. "Religiously defined as hell's denizens, the servants of Satan, but understood here, for the purposes of the Clave, to be any malevolent spirit whose origin is outside our own home dimension -

As long as I can dream, I will dream of you.

Guys don't let other guys keep calling other guys. Okay that came out wrong.

A parabatai. Like he was. And Jace knew, too, what that faded rune meant: a parabatai whose other half was dead. He felt his sympathy leap toward Brother Zachariah, as he imagined himself without Alec, with only that faded rune to remind him where once he had been bonded to someone who knew all the best and worst parts of his soul.

Yes, she's bleeding to death upstairs, but I thought I'd avoid telling you right away, because I like to draw the suspense out.

And next time you're planning to injure yourself to get me attention, just remember that a little sweet talk works wonders.

We had and incident. I took care of it.""Really." Jace's voice dripped sarcasm. "Do you even know how to use that knife, Clarissa? Without poking a hole in yourself or any innocent bystanders?

I wish you'd stop desperately trying to get my attention like this," he said. "It's become embarrassing.""Sarcasm is the last refuge of the imaginatively bankrupt," she told him."I can't help it. I use my rapier wit to hide my inner pain.

Sarcasm is the last refuge of the imaginatively bankrupt.

Sed lex dura lex," said Jace automatically. "The Law is hard, but it is the Law.

It was at first almost as if he hadn't wanted to kiss her. His mouth was hard on hers, unyielding; then he put both arms around her and pulled her against him. His lips softened. She could feel the rapid beat of his heart, taste the sweetness of apples still on his mouth. She wound her hands into his hair, as she'd wanted to do since the first time she'd seen him. His hair curled around her fingers, silky and fine. Her heart was hammering, and there was a rushing sound in her ears, like beating wings

Do you remember,_ he said, __hen we first met and I told you I was ninety percent sure putting a rune on you wouldn__ kill you__nd you slapped me in the face and told me it was for the other ten percent?_ Clary nodded.__ always figured a demon would kill me,_ he said. __ rogue Downworlder. A battle. But I realized then that I just might die if I didn__ get to kiss you, and soon._ Clary licked her dry lips. __ell, you did,_ she said. __iss me, I mean.__e reached up and took a curl of her hair between his fingers. He was close enough that she could feel the warmth of his body, smell his soap and skin and hair.__ot enough,_ he said, letting her hair slip through his fingers. __f I kiss you all day every day for the rest of my life, it won__ be enough.

While this is all very amusing, the kiss that will free the girl is the kiss that she most desires,_ she said. __nly that and nothing more.__ace__ heart started to pound. He met the Queen__ eyes with his own. __hy are you doing this?__ __esire is not always lessened by disgust_And as my words bind my magic, so you can know the truth. If she doesn__ desire your kiss, she won__ be free.___ou don__ have to do this, Clary, it__ a trick__ (Simon)...Isabelle sounded exasperated. __ho cares, anyway? It__ just a kiss.___hat__ right,_ Jace said. Clary looked up, then finally, and her wide green eyes rested on him. He moved toward her... and put his hand on her shoulder, turning her to face him_ He could feel the tension in his own body, the effort of holding back, of not pulling her against him and taking this one chance, however dangerous and stupid and unwise, and kissing her the way he had thought he would never, in his life, be able to kiss her again. __t__ just a kiss,_ he said, and heard the roughness in his own voice, and wondered if she heard it, too.Not that it mattered__here was no way to hide it. It was too much. He had never wanted like this before... She understood him, laughed when he laughed, saw through the defenses he put up to what was underneath. There was no Jace Wayland more real than the one he saw in her eyes when she looked at him_ All he knew was that whatever he had to owe to Hell or Heaven for this chance, he was going to make it count.He...whispered in her ear. __ou can close your eyes and think of England, if you like,_ he said.Her eyes fluttered shut, her lashes coppery lines against her pale, fragile skin. ____e never even been to England,_ she said, and the softness, the anxiety in her voice almost undid him. He had never kissed a girl without knowing she wanted it too, usually more than he did, and this was Clary, and he didn__ know what she wanted. Her eyes were still closed, but she shivered, and leaned into him _ barely, but it was permission enough.His mouth came down on hers. And that was it. All the self-control he__ exerted over the past weeks went, like water crashing through a broken dam. Her arms came up around his neck and he pulled her against him_ His hands flattened against her back... and she was up on the tips of her toes, kissing him as fiercely as he was kissing her... He clung to her more tightly, knotting his hands in her hair, trying to tell her, with the press of his mouth on hers, all the things he could never say out loud...His hands slid down to her waist... he had no idea what he would have done or said next, if it would have been something he could never have pretended away or taken back, but he heard a soft hiss of laughter _ the Faerie Queen _ in his ears, and it jolted him back to reality. He pulled away from Clary before he it was too late, unlocking her hands from around his neck and stepping back... Clary was staring at him. Her lips were parted, her hands still open. Her eyes were wide. Behind her, Alec and Isabelle were gaping at them; Simon looked as if he was about to throw up....If there had ever been any hope that he could have come to think of Clary as just his sister, this _ what had just happened between them _ had exploded it into a thousand pieces... He tried to read Clary__ face _ did she feel the same? _ I know you felt it, he said to her with his eyes, and it was half bitter triumph and half pleading. I know you felt it, too_She glanced away from him... He whirled on the Queen. __as that good enough?_ he demanded. __id that entertain you?__he Queen gave him a look: special and secretive and shared between the two of them. __e are quite entertained," she said. __ut not, I think, so much as the both of you.

Ugh," he said after a few swallows. "Dead blood." Jace's eyebrows went up. " Isn't all blood dead?" "The longer the animal whose blood I'm drinking has been dead, the worse the blood tastes," Simon explained. "Fresh is better." "But you've never drunk fresh blood. Have you?" Simon raised his own eyebrows in response. "Well, aside from mine, of course," Jace said. "And I'm sure my blood is fan-tastic.

I think,_ Jace said, __hat you don__ want to tell your secrets, so you decided to break up with Alec because...

I may not believe in sin,_ he said, __ut I do feel guilt. We Shadowhunters live by a code, and that code isn__ flexible. Honor, fault, penance, those are real to us, and they have nothing to do with religion and everything to do with who we are. This is who I am, Clary," he said desperately.

Jace broke off the kiss and stepped back with an exhale; before Clary could say anything, a chorus of sarcastic applause broke out from the nearby hill. Simon, Isabelle, and Alec waved at them. Jace bowed while Clary stepped back slightly sheepishly, hooking her thumbs into the belt of her jeansJace sighed. "Shall we join our annoying, voyeuristic friends?""Unfortunately, that's the only kind of friends we have.