Ariel rolled to the side bearly avoiding the large claw. She slashed at the beast with her sword. Two severed legs collapsed to the ground and disappeared in a wisp of smoke.

The small shadowhunter leaped toward the lower of the two heads as the body bobbed to the side with the missing legs. The sword made a large gash in the neck but the demon swung around to face her.

The other head seemed oblivious to the head that bangled to the side. A bit of drool fell to the ground and sizzled in the grass as the last head licked its lips eyeing the girl.

Her brown eyes stayed focused on the remaining head. She crouched low on the rock where she had landed. Ariel flung her dagger like a javelin with all of her might.

The demon's hiss sounded much like a laugh as it watched the dagger sail by and land with a clatter on the sidewalk nearby. It just had time to turn back around as Ariel let out a loud scream as she leap into the air, her sword easily sliced through the remaining neck. The shadowhunter turned around as the demon disappeared in a puff of smoke just as the legs had done.

Ariel glance to the large rock overhang when she heard clapping. Jace, Alec, and Magnus stood where they had watched the whole battle. "That was great, except where you missed the total decapitation of the first head."

"Maybe that was on purpose," Ariel countered as she rolled her eyes. Jace shook his head as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Alec walked over and picked up the dagger on the sidewalk. "The whole destraction thing was good thinking though, even you have to admit that," he said as he came back over to stand between his paraboti and the warlock.

"Just a few more times and you will be ready to come hunting with us." Ariel's smile faltered. "I appreciate the help with training, but its still not the same."

"What do you mean its not the same. The demons look pretty real to me."

"They look real, but they smell different."

"Smell?" Jace questioned as he wrinkled his nose.

"I can smell the magic."

Magnus nodded as the three boys closed in around Ariel, "I have heard of werewolves being able to sniff out a wizard by his magic's smell." The wizard put his finger to his nose, and inhaled a deep breath, "What does my magic smell like?"

Ariel thought for a moment and even closed her eyes. "It's kind of tart, but I can't really match it to any thing in particular."

"What do demons smell like?" Jace asked

"Same as what you smell, just about ten times stronger." This comment made both shadowhunters wrinkle their noses. They could each recall the horrible smell of ichor after killing a demon at close range.

Jace sniffed the air several times as he began to glance around the park. "Are you trying to smell the magic?" Ariel questioned.

Jace shook his head as he slowly turned in a full circle. He finally came to a stop and pointed across the street. "Let's go," he said and started off.

"Where are you going?" Alec called.

"I smell fried chicken," the hunter replied without glancing behind him. At the mention of food the others sniffed too. Sure enough a wonderful aroma filled the air. The other three quickly followed behind.

Ariel glanced down at her phone for what had to be the hundreth time. She heard a throat clear and glanced up to see Hodge staring at her with his hands on his hips. His eyebrows were raised as if he was expecting a reply. "Did you just ask me a question?"

Hodge rolled his eyes and replied, "I don't know why you are here."

"Sorry," Ariel mumbled as she slumped in her chair. She really tried to pay better attention for the rest of class.

"Thad still hasn't returned your texts?" Isabelle questioned as they filed out to the library.

"No," Ariel answered as she looked at her phone again.

"Maybe you should try calling him again. He may just be busy," Clary added as she came on her other side.

"It's just not like him to not call or text for three days."

"I could call Luke and see if he has heard from him."

"No, I'll call Matt. He gets done with band practice in an hour."

Ariel plopped down under the large weeping willow that grew next to the fountain. She unzipped the pocket on her cargo pants and pulled out her phone. She checked for any missed calls as she never heard it ringing if she had her headphones on. No calls. She looked at her texts. Still nothing.

She heaved a sigh as she scrolled through her contacts, until she stopped on Matt. She pressed call and waited. She was just about to hang up when she heard a voice on the other side.

"Hello," she heard a hoarse voice.

"Matt, is that you?" she questioned slowly.

There was a long pause before the other person answered. The voice was a little raspy but better. "Ariel? Yea, its me. Sorry, but we were hunting a fairie that pilfered some tools from the shop. I was just finishing the change when you called." His voice was getting better as he talked.

"Have you talked toThad since he left for his grandma's?"

"No...he hasn't called you either?"

"No."

Ariel heard Matt and some of the other werewolves talking. Then Matt spoke to her, "It's not like Thad to not check-in. Maybe we should call his Grandma."

"Do you have her number?"

"Luke keeps an emergency contact for all of us. Let me get her number from Luke's office, and I'll call you back."

Ariel nodded then spoke, "That would be great."

Ariel laid her phone down on the soft grass and leaned back against the trunk of the tree. She tilted her head back so she could see the puffy white clouds high up in the sky. She whispered a silent prayer as she closed her eyes.

Her eyes opened when she heard clacks and voices coming from around the corner. Ariel snagged her phone from the grass and hopped up. Soft grunts and more clacks could be heard.

A small smile crossed her lips as she saw Jace and Max sparing with a wooden training swords. Ariel watched as Max swung at Jace, who easily dodged his swing but tumbled into the grass and feigned holding his injured side. Jacw then lightly swung his own sword.

Max blocked by pushing the sword down to the ground. Then the small boy tried to jump over the swords in a surprise attack.

His foot caught the edge of the sword and he tumbled forward taking Jace down with him. Jace's eyes widened in actual surprise. "Wow, that was a good move."

"Don't make fun of me," grumbled Max as he pushed off of Jace.

"You didn't do that on purpose?" The boy straightened his glasses as he shook his head. "Well, I thought it was a good sneak attack." The young boy narrowed his gray eyes as if trying to judge if Jace was telling the truth.

Ariel was just about to say something when her phone began to ring. The noise startled all three of them. Ariel meet eyes with both before holding out her phone and ducking back around the corner. She quickly pressed the answer button. "Hello?"

"Hey, Ariel...it's Matt."

"Oh...yes, did you find the number?"

"Yes. Did you want me to call or did you want to call?"

Ariel caught movement from the corner of her eye. As she glanced up she saw both Jace and Max walking toward her. She motioned them away as she answered, "I can call." She lowered herself down to the edge of the fountain.

"Are you ready for the number?" Matt asked from the other side.

Ariel switched the phone to speaker then opened her note setting. "Okay, I'm ready," she said. Matt repeated the number to her and she repeated it back to him to make sure she had it correct.

"Tell Thad to call me, or let me know what is going on," Matt said.

"I will...and thanks." Ariel quickly dialed the number as soon as she had hung up with Matt.

"Hello?" answered a older woman's voice.

"Yes, can I speak with Mrs. Braun, ma'am?"

"This is she. May I ask who is calling?"

"My name is Ariel, ma'am. I'm calling to speak to your grandson Thad."

There was silence on the other end for a moment. "I'm afraid I can't help you there, my dear. My grandson doesn't live here. He lives in New York."

"Yes, ma'am, I know that but Thad is a friend of mine. Last we spoke he said he was coming to see you."

"Really...that is news to me."

"You mean Thad didn't come to see you?"

"Honey, I have not seen my grandson in three months, and have not called him for three weeks."

"Oh," was all Ariel could reply.

"Is my grandson in some kind of trouble? I can be on the next train if he needs me to straighten him out."

Ariel let out a small chuckle even as her mind spun with possible answers as to what was wrong. "No, ma'am, Thad is fine."

"You don't sound to sure, young lady."

Areil blinked her eyes and shook her head to clear her thoughts. "I'm sure he'll be fine," she muttered, "I'll have him call you when I talk to him."

"You make sure you do," Thad's grandmother was replying as Ariel was pressing end.

"Something is definetly going on she muttered. She held her ear to her phone as she listened to it ring, and ring, and ring. Thad's voicemail picked up. "Hey, Thad. It's Ariel, again. Please give me a call, when you get this."

Next she called Matt. "Thad's grandma said she hasn't seen him. He never went to see her. She said she never even called him, which is very strange. I heard him talk to her."

"That is very strange." There was silence on both ends as they each tried to come up with a logical reason. "You don't think it was a crank call, do you?"

"But if it was a crank call, wouldn't Thad still have gone to see his grandmother? He would have just gone and found out when he got there."

"Maybe he was kidnapped," Matt suggested, but then countered, "but don't kidnappers usually want something? As far as I know the pack has not gotten any ransom notes. Plus who would be an enemy of Thad's?"

"I have no idea. It could be an emeny of the pack?"

"I can't think of anyone. I can talk to Luke. See what he thinks."

"Talking to Luke would be smart. If nothing else he would want to know that one of his pack is missing. Maybe you and some of the pack can go sniff out the train station. He would have taken the train to his grandmothers. I'll see if a locating rune can help."

"How does that work?"

"I'll put the rune on the edge of the jacket he left at the institute. With any luck it will lead me to his location."

"Okay, we'll check the station. Call with anything you find."

"You too," Ariel answered as she hung up. She immediatly jumped up and ran inside.

"Did you find Thad?" Jace called from his spot on the couch. Alec and Isabelle also looked her direction.

"No. I'm going to try a locator rune." Ariel bounded up the stairs to her room before anyone else could ask her a question. She gradded Thad's jacket off the hook where it had hung since they had gotten drenched at the concert in the park. She laid the jacket on her bed and flipped open one the edges so the inside of the jacket was exposed. She wasn't sure if the ruin would fade after she found Thad, but she certainly did not want to ruin his jacket.

Ariel fished her stelle out of her pocket and quickly drew a practiced rune in the corner of the lining of Thad's jacket. She looked at it and decided that even if it didn't fade it was hardly noticable. Instantly Ariel felt an urge to go toward the door. She followed the invisible pull out the door.

"We're ordering pizza. It will be here in about an hour," Jace hollered as she was pulling the door shut. Once outside Ariel drew a speed rune. Once she felt the surge of energy she took off in the direction she felt the rune leading her.

She ran out the city and headed to the country side. Ariel slowed to a jog, then stopped all together when she crested a hill.

Her body shuddered as she realized this was the same area where Nicoli had been. This is where she had been imprisoned and tortured. She scanned the valley but there was no manor or any other houses in sight. Why did the rune bring me here?

Ariel walked to the side of road. She stood under the shade of a tree and thought for a moment. She closed her eyes and took in several deep breathes, trying to see if she could catch the scent anything. Some of Thad's pack had been trying to teach her to identify the scents of different creatures, but she could really only identify people, werewolves, some vampires, and demons of course. Ariel could not pick up any particular scent. After a long while Ariel slumped against the tree she had been standing under. Where was Thad? Why had she come here?

Ariel slowly stood and stretched after she had rested. As a one last attempt, she drew a sight rune and looked all over the hill and down into the valley. She couldn't ignore the knot she had had in the pit of her stomache since she had realized her location. Was there something still here, or was it just the memories of what had happened. Her phone buzzed and she glanced at her screen for the text. "Pizza is here. Come eat before Jace and Alec eat it all."

Ariel took one last glance around before turning to head home. She would tell the others about the rune leading her here and see if they could come up with a reason why. She hoped the pack had had better luck then she had.