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City of Vicissitude	By : BlankPoofTheory Category: M through R > Mortal Instruments (series) > Mortal Instruments (series) Views: 12420 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own the Mortal Instruments series and make nothing for my writing. This is merely for my amusement, all rights and ownership go to Cassandra Claire.

Chapter List
- 1-City of Vicissitude
- 1
“Clary, you don’t have to do this.” Luke was pleading now as Clary was hastily packing her large duffle bag previously only used for vacations to the old farm house.
“Luke,” Clary voice softened as she stopped with a tank top still in hand, “Mom is in a coma. You heard the doctors; they don’t think she is going to wake up any time soon. I just turned 18 and found out there is a whole world of magic and demons and supernatural creatures around me. Not to mention I have a brother! I need to be trained, figure out how to live in this new world and to keep myself safe. You have enough going on here; taking care of my mother as well as the bookstore.” Clary shoved the tank top into the duffel bag then looked around to see if she was missing anything.
“You don’t even know your brother.” Luke protested
“No I don’t, and neither do you. What I do know is that he has grown up training his whole life. Mom tried to hide me from this world and look, it came after us anyways. Maybe if she had trained me…” Clary’s eyes had begun to water as she trailed off into her own thoughts, unable to finish.
“There was nothing that you could have done to change things, even if you had been trained. Your mom was trained how to battle demons and she hadn’t stood a chance against this. Your mom was in a car accident Clary, there was nothing supernatural about it, and no amount of training can protect you from everything.” Luke moved to put his hand on Clary’s shoulder to comfort her as he had done since she was a small child but Clary took a step back shaking her head.
“I need to learn more about who I am Luke. Mom hid me from this world and once I turned 18 her magic spells wouldn’t work anymore. Now it is my turn to decide what I want to do with my life, and I want to be trained. You helped me get in touch with the Lightwoods that run the institute here and Hodge was able to locate my brother, but you can’t train me, you’re a werewolf.” Luke recoiled at the way she stressed the word, like she was bitter that he had never told her. “Jonathan will be here in a few minutes to pick me up, now can you please let me finish packing.”
Luke made no movement to block Clary as she went back to furiously packing, seeming to have suddenly remembered a few more items that she needed to bring along with her. “But Clary, we don’t know anything about your brother. I know you never got to meet your father, but Valentine was a sadistic man. We all thought that Jonathan burned along with Valentine in the fire. None of us know what happened to him once Valentine died and Jocelyn left with you. We don’t know what he is like.”
Clary looked as if she finally had decided she was finished with packing and started to struggle with the zipper of the bag. It was overfilled with clothes and she was having a hard time getting the zipper to pull. “The Lightwoods seemed to think it would be a good idea for me to go and train with him. They said that one of their kids had been training with Jonathan since he was 16. Clearly he can’t be so bad.”
Luke knew he was running out of time and Clary already had her mind made up. “What if your mom wakes up and you are not here for her?” It was a low blow and he knew saying it. But it might be the only thing that he could say to make her stay. In truth he wanted her around. Jocelyn never wanted Clary to be a part of the Shadowhunter world, and she had always made Luke promise not to reveal the world to her. Luke never fully agreed, he felt that Clary should know the real world around her, but Jocelyn assured him that when Clary was old enough, and the spell wore off, Clary would know about the real world. But as the years had gone by, Jocelyn had always chosen to put a fresh spell on Clary once the old one had begun to wear off, always claiming that Clary was not ready yet. It was always Jocelyn that was not ready. Even now as Jocelyn was in a coma and Clary has turned of age that the spell would no longer work on her, Luke still clung to the idea of trying to do what Jocelyn would have wanted. Clary leaving with her brother that everyone thought was dead would not be what Jocelyn would have wanted.
Clary had remained silent while finishing up on pulling the zipper shut. She now turned to face Luke, holding back tears that were threatening to spill over. “I have to go Luke, if mom wakes up you can get a hold of me; you know I would be back in an instant. Take good care of her.” That was it then, there would be no talking Clary out of this.
Clary struggled but picked up her large duffel bag, slinging it onto her shoulder for support and began toward the front room where she would sit and await the arrival of her brother. It did not take long before there was a knock at the front door. Clary jumped slightly, it was one thing to wait for the arrival of her unknown brother and another for him to actually be there. Clary opened the door and looked upon the unfamiliar face.
He had white hair and eyes as dark as onyx. He was tall and muscular, with dark runes poking out from beneath his long sleeves. Clary had seen some of the marks before on the Lightwood children, her mom had been clever with how well her own marks had been disguised. Clary did not yet have any marks of her own; something that she hoped would change with her new life living with Jonathan.
“Hello Clarissa, so good to finally meet you.” Jonathan was nothing but polite to Clary, but never even looked past her toward Luke who was still hoping that Clary would change her mind. “Are you ready to go? Here, let me go ahead and carry that for you, it looks heavy.” Jonathan took the bag from Clary with ease, like it was full of nothing more than marshmallows.
“Thank you.” Clary managed, it was all a little overwhelming for her but she had made up her mind and this was what she really wanted to do. She would not let herself entertain the possibility of going back now. “I’m ready when you are.” Clary said with a forced smile.
“Goodbye Luke, I’ll be in touch.” Clary said looking back over her shoulder as she walked out the door. She followed Jonathan eager to begin her new life. He stopped in the middle of her yard, beaming down on her like he had won a secret prize.
“Hold my hand dear sister and close your eyes.” Clary was confused but took Jonathan’s hand in her own and shut her eyes tight.
“You can open them now.” She felt the whisper against her neck, tickling the small red strands of hair that had fallen from her messy bun. Clary opened her eyes and gasped. She had not even felt like she had moved but suddenly she was standing inside a house, hand still tightly locked in her brother’s. He was still leaning close to her, smiling at her reaction.
“Where are we?” Clary asked still disoriented at the change of scenery.
“We are in one of our father’s houses. It travels through different cities but is never exactly in one place at any one time. Here let me show you to your room.” Jonathan’s hand released from Clary’s as he walked away. Clary followed him, taking in as much of her surroundings as she could. He stopped in front of a door, located on the first floor of the side of a large living area. There had been no windows so far as Clary could see.
Jonathan opened the door revealing a small bed with a simple dresser and mirror. There were no other furnishings inside the room but there was a small bathroom connected to the room. Clary thought, at least I won’t have to share a bathroom.
“I’ll just leave you to get settled in, if there is anything that you require, don’t hesitate to ask.” With that Jonathan left her to unpack her things in peace. There were no windows in this room either and Clary began to wonder how she would ever be able to tell the time without being able to see the sun. Maybe the house used to belong to vampires. It was strange for Clary to think about such things; a few weeks ago Clary thought vampires were just stupid stories thought up by movie directors to make money. I mean seriously, who comes up with a sparkly guy as the hero? But now Clary knew the truth, there were real vampires in the world, and werewolves, and demons, and angels, and who knows what else. It was enough to make Clary’s head spin.
For all the packing that Clary had done, her belongings hardly took up any space in the dresser. At least she had remembered to bring along some of her art supplies. Clary settled into her room and made it as much her own as she could. Once she was finished she decided she should leave the small space of her new room and venture into the rest of the house.
Clary made her way into the kitchen which was just off of the living area she had seen earlier. Jonathan was there at the island sipping a clear liquid from a small glass. There was one ice cube in the glass which would clink along the side as he took a sip. “All settled?” He asked setting the glass down on the table.
“Yes, thank you.” Clary said, coming to sit in one of the high top chairs. “Where exactly are we?” The question had been nagging at Clary since she arrived.
“We are actually near Venice at the moment, but by morning we will be somewhere else entirely.” Jonathan was studying Clary closely. He had never before met his baby sister though he had heard about her as well as his mother. He was not surprised that his sister had the Fairchild red hair, and striking green eyes. She was short as well; he seemed to tower over her. But her short stature should make her good at moving quickly around her prey. He just hoped that she was fast.
“Oh don’t scare her too much Sebastian, all of this is new to her remember.” Said a new voice from above. Upstairs on the landing was another boy, he looked to Clary to be about her age, perhaps a little older. He had golden hair and golden eyes. One look and Clary could tell that he was nothing less than a god in human form. The boy grabbed a hold of the railing and flung himself over the side, landing a few feet away from Clary with the grace of a lion. Clary gasped with shock as well as surprise.
“Right you tell me not to scare her while you jump off a landing, great way to take your own advice.” Said Jonathan smiling to himself before taking another sip from his glass.
“What was that, that you called him?” Clary asked the newest member to the party. He sauntered over and took a seat at the island next to Clary.
“I called him Sebastian, that is kinda his name you know. Why, what do you call him?”
“Sebastian? So you’re not my brother?” Clary’s head whipped back around to the newcomer. “Are you Jonathan? Are you my brother?”
Clary saw a smirk from Sebastian, the one she had thought was Jonathan. She did not like the idea of being made fun of, but there was something else that she felt. It was slight disappointment, the lion-like one, the one that was possibly her brother was mildly attractive, and now she felt a tinge of disappointment.
It was Sebastian that answered Clary’s questions. “His name is Jonathan but he goes by Jace. He is not your brother, well, at least he is not the son of Valentine Morgenstern and Jocelyn. I am that Jonathan but I go by Sebastian, it’s a long story, perhaps for another time. Jace is my kind of adopted brother, which I guess makes him sort of your brother as well.”
Clary’s head seemed to be spinning with all the new information. So the one she had met was her brother, but he went by the name Sebastian, and she had an adoptive brother, who was also named Jonathan but who went by Jace. “So, you’re not my brother?” Clary said looking at Jace.
“No, not really, but Sebastian has been talking about you non-stop for the past month so I feel like I know you in the way that he does.”
“But we have only met today, Jon-er-Sebastian and I that is. What could he have possibly had to say about me?” Jace’s eyebrows rose at Sebastian, and they exchanged a conversation of sorts merely through facial expressions.
“I think it’s time for my baby sister to eat some dinner and then off to bed. There will be a long day of training tomorrow.” Clearly the time for answers was not going to be tonight. Dinner was quiet and Clary kept stealing looks at both Jace and Sebastian. Clary was battling with herself over some feelings of homesickness; this was not exactly what she had imagined when she first had decided upon going to live with her brother. Now she would be sharing a house with two men that seemed to already have an unspoken bond, one they did not want to let her in on.
Clary retired to bed hoping that tomorrow would be a better day. She was excited to get to her first day of training but also she was hoping to get more answers. Having no windows and no idea of what time it was really messing with Clary, though she was pretty much sent to bed, she was not yet feeling tired. She took out a sketch pad and one of her favorite drawing pencils and began to sketch, hoping to tire herself out.
Jace’s brilliant golden eyes could not leave Clary’s mind and she found herself sketching eyes all over the paper. She looked down and was mesmerized by her own drawings; the eyes seemed to shine through the paper, cutting straight into her skull. She just stared at the paper transfixed on the eyes.
Clary gasped and dropped the paper when she looked up and saw the eyes from the paper come to life, still staring straight into her. Jace was standing in the doorway, leaning against the frame, hands in his pockets staring at her. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you, I just wanted to check up on you and I saw that you were drawing and it fascinated me. Then you just kind of stared at your drawing and I was about to say something and you looked up. What had you so transfixed?”
“Nothing.” Clary said feeling her cheeks heat up as the blush ran over her face. Jace’s eyebrow raised.
“Nothing? Looked like you were pretty into ‘nothing’ to me. Let me see.” Jace strode over to the bed, silently as any cat Clary had ever known. He sat down on the side of the bed, Clary had grabbed for the fallen pad but was beaten to it by Jace’s swift movements. She had never seen anyone move that fast before. Jace looked at the drawings then to Clary, then back at the paper, confusion stretching across his face.
“Eyes? You were drawing and staring at eyes?” His confusion and disappointment was clear. He was expecting something else based on her blush and vague answer, eyes were not exactly the first thing he would have guessed her to have been drawing.
“Yes, I was drawing eyes. Your eyes to be exact. They are a very interesting color, I don’t believe I have ever met anyone with golden eyes like yours before and the image wouldn’t leave me so I figured I would draw it, to get it out of my mind.” Clary said keeping her gaze low, but looking up and meeting the golden eyes that had plagued her when she finished her thought.
Golden eyes gazed into green ones. Jace had not said anything he simply peered into her eyes, not realizing before how brilliant her green eyes were. They caught his attention like none other before. “These are the eyes you could not get out of your head?” Jace had lowered his voice to just above a whisper. Jace was sitting so close to Clary she could smell him; it was like sunshine and copper.
“Yes.” Clary could barely even hear her own voice it was so low and shaky. Her eyes flitted away from his, looking down at his full lips, she thought for a moment they must be soft to touch. Clary caught herself quickly and returned her gaze but not quick enough for Jace not to have noticed. One side of his mouth crept up into a sly smile. Jace leaned in, turning at the last moment toward Clary’s ear so he could whisper something before getting up and leaving, shutting the door behind him.
Clary exhaled loudly, her breath had caught when he had leaned forward and only now did she release it, thinking of Jace’s parting words. “Maybe tonight you will dream of my eyes, I know I will dream of yours.”
- 1
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City of Vicissitude