CHAPTER 12 IS HEEEEEEEERRRRRREEEEEE!

Just wanted to let you know...

"Go get inside!" Clary said shoving on Jordan's chest, he didn't stumble back a step though she was pushing with all the strength she had.

"You have to come with us!" He went to grab her arm but she moved away before he could.

Knowing she would get nowhere with Jordan, not with his eyes gleaming with protective instincts, she turned to her best friend. "Maia, you have to go," Clary sent Maia a pleading look; she would know Clary could handle this. She would know she was strong enough.

Or was she?

Trying not to give that nagging question much thought, she pleaded with her friend. "I promise I'll be fine. Go get Jordan to safety, you two can't handle this." Maia looked at Clary hard. "You have to listen to me, I can do this." She grabbed Maia's slim shoulders and stared deep into her eyes. "Trust me," She squeezed her shoulders affectionately, forgetting for the moment the twisting in her stomach at the thought of Maia's betrayal, needing her more than she ever had before. "Please, I can do this."

Maia stared at her for another moment before hesitatingly nodding. "You better live, Clary Adele Fray." She poked her in the shoulder as she took Jordan by the arm. "You better live or I'll kill you."

Clary smiled and hugged Maia tight. "I will," She pushed her back to a shell shocked Jordan, who was looking at her like he had never seen her before. "Go and tell Alec to hurry." Maia nodded and dragged Jordan up the decks stairs, who must have been really shocked because he let Clary's side, no questions asked.

Now, a week ago if you had told Clary she would be facing a creature made purely of fire she would have laughed and looked at you as if you had a bolt loose or two.

A week ago, Clary would have stared, paralyzed and open mouthed, and just screamed. But that was the old Clary, the new Clary ran right toward where Jace had fallen sidestepping the large heated creature on her way. She dropped to her knees next to him and used all her strength to roll him over.

His face was peaceful, his blonde curls laid around his head like a halo and blood ran from a small cut above his forehead near his hairline. She couldn't help but notice how beautiful he was. She searched his torso for any sign of burning but she found none. Actually, when she placed her hand on his leather jacket she hissed from how cold it was, a sheen of ice crusted over the black leather of his jacket. She looked to see that the skin of her palm had turned a tender red. That didn't make any sense—

The creature screeched a sound so horrible that it made Clary throw her hands to her ears. It was an awful noise, like sharp nails on a chalkboard. She turned to see that he, if it was a he, had found her. Clary found her heart beating faster, her mind screaming for her to run from the oncoming danger but her feet wouldn't let her leave. It towered over her, the top of its blazing head soaring above the pine tree they were under. Its horn's were thick and curled and it looked to be a huge skeleton that had been lit a flame; large wings sprouted from its spine adding to its overall demonic qualities. It looked like Clary's version of the devil.

"Jace," She shook him softly using his freezing leather jacket to do so. "Jace!" She shook him harder as she looked over her shoulder at the devil, which was towering over both of them. Clary feared that his fire would spread and alight the poor pine that Jace had collided with.

Why do all these creatures have to be so big, Clary thought helplessly.

It wasn't until she felt a slight heat that she realized the creature was leaning down, its arm outstretching toward her. "Jace!"

She wrapped both her arms under his back, crushing his body to hers. She could feel every hard ridge and contour of his stomach and chest. The situation, on any other occasion, would have been extremely embarrassing for her; but this was life and death, there was no time for embarrassment, plus she didn't want to think about how nice he felt against her.

She watched as he slowly dragged his eyelids open, his golden eyes were dull and slowly lighting back up with its usual mischief. "Clary?" He mumbled in a low husky tone before everything seemed to come back to him. His eyes shot open but he was just a little too late, because as he went to wrap his arms around her tiny waist something beat him to it.

She was lifted from Jace, her arms ripped from his torso, almost pulling her shoulders from their sockets; and as she let out a scream he grabbed onto her wrists trying to hold her but he was still lying on his back and had just woken up from being knocked unconscious. She was surprised he could have reacted so fast, but his actions proved to be in vain. The creature let out another screech and yanked on Clary's torso with a sharp tug, Jace was ripped from her grip almost dislodging her shoulders yet again.

"Clary!" Jace jumped to his feet and wavered, putting a hand to his head, he fell back to his knees.

Clary was aware of how cold she was as goose bumps erupted on her skin underneath her long sleeved shirt and coat. The creature was made of fire and yet his touch was as cold as ice, the whole thing should have been impossible.

Clary screamed before pushing against the creature's hold only to withdraw with a hiss, much like what happened when she touched Jace's jacket though this string was much worse. The tips of her fingers were tinted a light purple and her palms were pale, turning transparent. It had given her the beginning of frost bite from a mere touch; but when she had stood next to the creature before she had, had to jump back from the enormous heat. Almost, like the creature had a shield of heat around its icy cold body. It was impossible.

She was surprised she was still using that word after the very long week she had.

A howl sounded from below and Clary looked down to see Alec charging toward a fallen Jace; his head was bowed, his curls falling around his face, and was still trying to get to his feet as Alec tossed him a pen-like object. Clary wondered if it was another light sword, but thought otherwise when Jace traced it along his skin, turning his skin a charred black. She went to yell for him to stop but she knew he couldn't hear her. At least, not right now and she had bigger things to worry about than the fact that Jace got off on burning himself. She watched with fearful eyes as Jace pointed up toward her, she saw Alec's mouth drop open. Her gaze followed her ears to where the howling had come from to see Maia's body, quaking and her bones splitting. Her eyes were glowing as she leaped forward only to be held back by Jordan. Simon was nowhere in sight.

Suddenly, the feeling of bubbling frustration filled her stomach, she knew exactly why this thing was here, for a book she didn't even own. And as her frustration turned to rage she knew she was going to do something really. . .

She started thrashing against the creature, her arms burning whenever it touched the creature's icy flame. "I don't know where your damn book is! Just leave me and my friends alone!"

Stupid.

The creature started to shake her around violently, her head whipped back and forth like a rag doll, and when it stopped she knew it had given her some form of whip lash. As it brought her closer to its face she felt that intense heat again like when she had been around the fire with Maia and Simon before. A light sweat broke out on her skin, feeling the heat like one would around a camp fire and it was growing stronger. So, its flame was cold but the air around it was hot? The mythical being opened its mouth, still bringing her closer; it looked like a portal straight into hell as the flames crashed into each other.

Was it going to eat her?

She screamed and pushed against its hold again, not caring how she lost feeling immediately when her flesh touched the flames.

"Hey, Fire Crotch!" Clary whipped her head away from the creature's open mouth to the ground, the creature paused and followed her gaze to Simon, who held a brown leather book above his head; his hair was disheveled and his glasses were endearingly skewed. "Looking for this?" It screeched again and then Clary felt her stomach drop to her feet as she was suddenly falling. The air whipping her hair up and she heard a handful of people scream her name.

So, here she was falling to her death. She thought about how many times her life has been threatened.

More in this week than in her entire life, it was like some sort of new record.

She felt the ground meet her body . . . hard, but she realized with a start she wasn't sprawled across the soft, snowy covered grass but Jace. He had tried to catch her but his arms hadn't been strong enough to stop the momentum of her fall added to her weight. Her face was smashed into his hard shoulder and their legs were all tangled. Finding her legs somewhere in the mess of his, she pulled them out from Jace's and pushed herself above him.

He had finally caught his breath that she had no doubt knocked out of him and was looking up at her, his eyes scanning over her face as if he was memorizing every inch. They were doing things to her brain cells, making her thoughts foggy. "Thanks." She uttered.

"No problem," Jace smirked. "All in the job description." Clary laughed as she lifted herself off of him although she really didn't want to. But seeing as there was a giant winged skeleton on fire after Simon she figured she had too.

Simon, Clary thought whipping around to see Simon inching toward the deck waving the book wildly at fiery demon. Alec was in front of him shooting arrow after arrow, like a never ending machine, but they just lit on fire and turned to ash before even reaching the beast without leaving a mark at all.

Jace was up and running, reaching them and jumping in front of Alec just as the creature swatted them both away like they weighed nothing. It was advancing on Simon and Clary watched in horror as Simon stumbled away, she knew she had to do something. She watched as Simon passed the leather bound book to Maia, whose eyes glowed a deep yellow as she used her morphed werewolf legs to push her forward and charge off the deck, toward the street where she passed it to Jordan.

They couldn't do that forever, Clary had to think of something and fast. Alec's arrows did nothing because of the heat, that seemed to radiate from its body, but the creature's touch was cold. Her green eyes wandered over the newly frozen lake, she knew it would never hold her weight but the metal dock leading out to the lake could. And she suspected it could hold the beast too. If he could melt things like fire, maybe he could distinguish like fire too. It was a long shot and dangerous but she had to try something.

"Pass it!" Clary yelled to Jordan, who nodded and threw it long, without thinking twice. She caught it with ease as the papers crinkled and wrinkled. She then turned and waved it in the air calling out to the creature, which turned and screeched out to her, its mouth opening far wider than should have been humanly possible; walking toward her she stumbled over cold, snowy sand and twigs back toward the dock.

"No, Clary!" Jace jumped forward, giving her a look that told her how stupid he thought she was being. "Not the dock!"

"C'mon, here's the book." Clary screamed, ignoring Jace as she waved the book over her head again, tentatively walking onto the dock still waving it. "Come on and get it." She whispered as she watched the creature timidly step onto the dock and as she suspected it held, slightly melting under its feet; the lights on the side popped because of the heat. The creature seemed to grin at her before rushing forward; Clary raised the book over her head and ran for the end of the dock where she launched the book out into the lake.

The creature's arm hit her stomach bringing Clary into the air before crashing back onto the slightly melted dock. The impact sent her rolling until she hit one of the popped light fixtures and stopped, she watched from where she laid as the creature let out a screech and launched itself out into the lake, breaking the ice and sinking into the water where stream began to pollute the air. The heated shield was distinguishing as the ice from the lake crawled up the creature's leg, freezing it in place. Its hands reached out toward her. She stood watching as it crawled for the dock eagerly but couldn't reach it before ice encompassed the rest of its body freezing it into place. As if sent as a prayer, the creature began to break apart, with a tumbling crash. Large chucks of ice crushed the thin layer of ice on top of the lake and disappear below the surface.

Clary could see the distinct outline of the book Simon had grabbed before it slipped slowly under the surface too. She felt like that book, sinking and slowly drowning in her own world. A world she didn't know existed until a week ago. Or maybe two, she never was good at keeping track of time.

She didn't know how long she stood staring out at the large patch of melted and crumbled lake before a hand gingerly touched her shoulder.

She turned her head to look at Alec, whose bright blue eyes seemed to be digging into her mind. His hair was sticking to his forehead from sweat making it look like black paint. "You okay?"

She stared out into the darkness again. She opened her mouth to say she was fine but she realized that would be a lie and she was done with the lies and tricks. She was done playing games. There had been enough of those from them all. It was time to start fresh; it was time to wipe the slate clean. She could see Maia and Jordan in the corner of her eye and the feeling in her chest lifted. This was what she needed to do, she needed to forgive.

"No, I'm not the slightest bit okay." She nodded her head before she turned her whole body toward him. "But I'm alive . . . we're alive," She corrected herself. "For now." Biting her lip, she furrowed her eyebrows. "We need that book."

"Why?" Simon said appearing next to Alec, his face was red and he looked a little more than just out of breath. "All that book has done is get us almost killed."

"Because whoever wants that book won't stop until they get it or we're all dead." Maia answered for her, taking her place next to him. Her hair had completely fallen out of its twisted braids and fell in tight spirals around her head. She looked like a warrior princess that Clary would have drawn.

Clary frowned and bit her lip again. "Because if someone would send their best supernatural assassins to kill a bunch of teenagers, this book must be really important." Alec nodded from beside Clary agreeing with her as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, giving her a gentle squeeze.

"And powerful." Jace said suddenly beside Clary. Now, the old Clary would have jumped but she kind of just expected it.

"And placed in the wrong hands..." Maia trailed off letting them all finish that sentence their own way.

"What book?" Jordan asked clearly confused.

"Murlog's." Simon answered with a shrug.

"Who?"

"Well, we," He looked from Clary to Maia. "Really don't know who he is."

"So, wait, wait, wait," He waved his hands in front of him and looked like he was trying to understand. "What?"

"Looks like we have a lot to explain to you, man." Alec laid an arm on Jordan's shoulder with a laugh.

"So this guy, Besmic," Jordan looked at Clary, who nodded; her hair tangling further around her head. "Wants this book-"

"Murlog's." Simon cut him off.

"Murlog's book?" He finished and Clary again nodded.

"And you don't own or even knew this book existed until this week?" Again she nodded. "And you guys have really been fighting these creatures." The group all nodded. "And you do that for a living?" Alec nodded and Jace just stared. He rubbed his hands on his forehead, his face astounded. "So you've been getting a lot done in my absence."

Maia laughed. "Yes we have."

He looked at each of them for a moment his gaze lingering on Maia before stopping on Clary. "Now you all have to go find and retrieve this book?" Everyone nodded again and waited for his reaction. "Well," Jordan clapped his hands together smiling at the group of dirt covered and bloody teens. "Who's up for an early road trip?"

"Wouldn't it be a late road trip technically?" Simon gestured to the darkness around them. And Clary found herself laughing and soon Jordan, Alec and Maia all joined in. Jace snorted, in contempt, which was as close to laughing at a joke of Simon's.

Ever.

"You really are an idiot!" Maia huffed as Simon stuck out his tongue at her, his glasses were frosted from the transformation from the biting cold air of the outside to the warm inside air.

Clary turned to Jordan. "Are you sure you want to come?" She raised a hand before he could talk. "Keep in mind the moment you say yes there is no going back." She stared at him softly. "You could die."

"Isn't there no going back now?" Jordan raised an eyebrow at her, she thought she might burst in jealousy. "Besides where ever Maia goes," He wrapped an arm around her. "I go too."

Clary smiled, glancing at their gang of misfits. Suddenly the Island of Misfit toys came into her mind from Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. "There will be no changing your mind, will there." She hadn't said it as a question because the way Jordan was staring at Maia, she had no doubt she was saying a statement.

"Nope," Jordan detangled himself from Maia and took Clary's hand. "Besides someone's gotta look out for you, Clare."

"She already has a whole team for that." Maia gestured to herself and the others.

"She has me! What more could she need?" Simon exclaimed.

"She would need an entire, highly trained, army." Jace said with a smirk as Simon threw him a scowl. "But you're in luck because I'm here. The real hero, you'll never need anything more. I'm both entertaining, good looking and trained; I'm the whole package."

"Well I think we all know there are never enough people to protect, Clary." Alec, ignored Jace and shared a laugh at Clary's expense with Maia as she smiled. "You obviously attract danger from what I've heard and seen."

"That's exactly why you shouldn't come." Clary said. "I don't need more blood on my hands." She looked at them each individually lingering on Jace. "None of you are going to budge are you?"

Simon lifted his fist and placed it in the center of the group. "All for one and one for all."

"We're going to have to come up with a better motivational phrase." Simon rolled his eyes at Maia, who smiled and laid her fist in the circle too.

"I'm in." Jordan laid his fist next to Maia's.

"It's not just a job anymore," Alec dropped his fist next to Simon's looking right at Clary. "I'm in this for you." He smiled. "That's what friends do, right?" It was a rhetorical question.

"Well, seeing as you're going to need my graceful fight skills and impeccable good looks," Jace smiled and dropped his hand next to Alec's. "I'm in."

They all looked at Clary and she never felt so lucky to have a group of friends like them. Smiling and biting her lip she spoke. "Well then pack your bags," Clary jammed her fist in-between Jordan's and Jace's. "We've got a book to find."

Review, Please!