Title: The Mortal Instruments: City of Forsaken Hearts

Chapter 1: Lost

Authors Note: Its been awhile since I've started a new story – but I absolutely cannot get The Mortal Instruments out of my head and since its going to be forever until Heavenly Fire, this is my interpretation of what happens after City of Lost Souls. Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoy and I hear from you!

Disclaimer: I do not own The Mortal Instruments or any of its characters. All respectful material belongs to Cassandra Clare – including the universe created for this story.

He just wasn't in the Christmas mood.

Alec stuffed his hands into the thick leather jacket, the cold nipped at his blistering cheeks while he moved gracefully away from the institution. Call him a scrouge, but he just couldn't handle hanging around all the love contained in that one room before. He had been doing pretty damn well too. He had been tolerating Clary and Jace or Isabella and Simon in small doses. He had stopped needing to leave the room, or feel that suffocating feeling when people really in love are intoxicating the atmosphere with their gooey feelings.

It wasn't like they were that bad. Well. Jace was always bad – but that was just Jace. Clary this. Clary that. Clary. Clary. Clary. He hadn't cared before, it wasn't like that anymore. His feelings towards Jace strictly came from being his parabatai. It was like all of this brightly shinning happiness radiating out of him.

And then there was Alec, trying to fool everyone that he wasn't one damn bit miserable about …him. He really preferred not to think of his name. It would make him start to think about maybe more of this was his fault than what he wanted to admit. He might start remembering nights in paris, long days in venice, getting tossed out of Egypt.

Nothing good came from walking down memory lane.

His breath came out in a sold crisp puff as he stuck his hands further into his pockets and stalked farther away from the institute. Christmas was for being merry, for being joyful around those you loved. He figured he was doing everyone a favor by turning his back from them and letting them have their boyant Christmas cheer without his gloom and doom attitude bringing it down. Isabella was bugging him about a Christmas list, and he didn't want to get into it right now. There was really only one Christmas present he wanted this year and it wasn't something you could wrap and place under the tree.

Well, you could but he doubted their mother would appreciate it. And he doubted his temperamental warlock would want to be wrapped up with a gigantic bow on his head. Alec wasn't completely unable to compromise though. If he couldn't have a warlock…maybe he'd just settle for a vampire.

Besides, best to forget that he didn't have a warlock anymore. It put a sour taste on his tongue to know that was his fault. Magnus wasn't his anymore.

He shook his head. He didn't want to think about that - didn't want to think about him. Instead he turned his attentions towards something a little more...productive. Maureen had stolen Camille's life from him, and he was still pretty pissed about that. To make matters worse, she was a loose canon as he ever saw one. A thirteen year old vampire girl who had no fathomable clue the rules she was supposed to abide by. Not that he hadn't tried to warn her, but she had gotten pretty defensive, and things had gotten a bit…dicy. Truth be told he hadn't expected Mareen to be that big of a challenge. She was a thirteen year old newly turned vamp for Christsake. When he had lunged at her though…she had fought back with a vengeance. He wasn't about to forget just how close it came to her fangs grazing his neck.

Wouldn't that be ironic? He gets dumped by his immortal boyfriend for trying to turn him mortal so they can stay together and in the same night he winds up immortal. Fucking perfect.

He glanced up at the worn out, formidable building that was a lost remnant to the cathederal period. This particular hotel had been vacant for over a hundred years. It was a known, prime location for vamps. His fingers twisted against his stele as he walked boldly through the front set of doors, not remembering quite when he had become so reckless, so like…Jace .

"Nice. Its like a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree," Simon appreciated the bare branches at the top of the mammoth christmas tree they had brought into Luke's home. Clary had been trying to give it an artistic spin to make the top seem…less pitiful, but he didn't see anything working.

"Don't diss my tree," she frowned, standing up on the ladder as she tried to twist a few of the lower branches upward, as if that was going to make a difference.

"Maybe you could paint a new tree and pull it out with your powers," he suggested with a smirk.

Clary returned a companionable sneer from where she stood up on the ladder. Honestly she had been about to give up, but then Simon had to make the Charlie Brown comment and now there was no way in hell she was giving in until the top of the tree looked perfect and he admitted it, even if she had to shove his face into the finely placed branches.

She could hear her mother boiling the hot chocolate from the kitchen, Luke was rummaging through the fridge. It was hard to believe things could be quite so…normal. It felt normal at least, more normal than her life had been over six months ago. Simon grinned from below as he made a second hand comment on how the tree was now leaning too far to the left.

"Cram it Louis, or you can go find a new tree yourself," she suggested as she twisted her hands through her red hair, piling it up on top of her head and out of her face. It was a look she had seen her mother do time and time again when she started to get frustrated with a painting. It meant it was go time, time to bring her a-game to this pathetic topped chrismtas tree.

Simon flopped onto the couch and turned on the television set, flipping through the channels until she heard the familiar chatter of an anime they both watched.

She felt her phone give a familiar vibration into her pack pocket, and left it there as she continued to play with the bristles, her fingers full of sap so she couldn't exactly answer it right now. She had a creeping feeling in the back of her head she was late for training. Which meant boyfriend or not, Jace would work her twice as hard because she needed some sense of…what was the word?

Oh. Yeah. Dislipline.

Because she was about to take that seriously when it was coming from Jace.

Simon grumbled as he reached into his pocket and yanked out his phone, he flipped it open and answered with a heartless, lethatrgic expression. "Yeah? She's here. No it rang. Maybe she's ignoring you. I'm not giving her a message," he snorted loudly, "Well this annoying bloodsucker right now is the one your asking to do a favor for, so maybe you should try again with a pleas attached to the end."

Clary rolled her eyes, "Simon stop antagonizing Jace." She met his surprised look with a raise of her eyebrows. Yeah. Right. Like she didn't totally know who he was talking to on the other line.

Simon muttered a few comments under his breath about appreciation and true friendship before glancing up at her, "Your completely humbled and well grounded boyfriend is wondering what on earth could be more tantalizing than talking to him."

She nearly rolled her eyes again, but stopped herself – mostly because he was slightly right. There were rarely things more interesting than talking to Jace, but she was trying that whole 'not increasing his ego to the point where he can't fit through a door' deal. "Tell him I'll call him back when my fingers aren't full of sap."

"She says your not that fascinating, and she'll call you back when she has nothing better to do."

"SIMON!"

"Fine. She's busy with the tree," he shook his head and at the dead tone ringing through in his ear, figured Jace was done with him. "You can't let me have a bit of fun?" he whinned.

"You could help with that superstrength of yours, you know," she retorted, trying to bend a rather large branch up. She stumbled back on the ladder and nearly kept her balance as it shook. A few months back she would have been flat on her ass, rushed to the hospital with some broken ankle. The balance rune gleamed brightly against her knuckles as she got her footing back.

She muttered an illegible curse as the door swung open, nearly shaking off the frame. She really expected Jace. Probably to taunt Simon into taking their disagreement outside – in which she'd go and tug them both by their ears, get them all full of sap and they could just sit down and talk about appropriate ways to express their feelings.

Instead it was Izzy. She didn't look pleased, though she did look radiantly beautiful as always.

"Alec's gone," her skin was pale and her eyes were deep. It had been a long time since Clary had seen that look in her eyes, not for a full two months when Jace had first gone missing.

"Isabella, I'm sure he's fine," Simon grunted as she came to stand in front of him and the television set, hands set high on her hips.

Clary leaned down from the tree, "How long has he been gone?" she questioned out of concern for Simon's bodily harm if someone didn't give Isabella the response she was looking for. She snapped her attention back to Clary and seemed grateful for the question.

"A few hours ago. I was an idiot, and bugging him about what he wanted for Christmas. He got this look in his eyes and stalked off. Now he won't answer his phone and…" she paused, her breath frigid on her tongue, "I'm just worried okay? Stop playing with that dead tree and lets go find him."

Clary's face fell a bit, "Itsnotdead," she retorted in an incoherent mutter as she climbed down the ladder.

"Alright, we'll find him," Simon jumped up, his cobalt t-shirt with dark black letting GAMERS DO IT BETTER a stark contrast against his pale skin. His hand slid easily through hers as she tugged him out the front door. Clary barely had time to shout to her mom and Luke before she disappeared out the door behind them, grabbing Jace's jacket as an afterthought.

"Does Jace know?" she caught up to them quickly, shrugging her arms through the jacket Jace had neglected to take home with him, which meant she was borrowing it for the meanwhile and hopefully not going to end up in a situation where she got blood on it.

Seriously. It had happened once. He loved her, but she had been terrified of admitting she had a huge demon rip through the sleeve and blood splattered on the inside. He might not love her quite that much.

"Yeah, he said leave him be," Isabella's eyes glinted hard as diamonds as she battered the brittle cold winds of winter, "but he's my brother, I can't do that!" she snarled and nobody dared to argue with her. What was the point? This was Isabella Lightwood after all. If she set her mind on something, she damn well was going to see it through.