Tessa Gray-

She was not normally one to snoop, but if there were ever a time to break that standard it was now. Carefully, Tessa tip-toed through the shadows of the hallways, trying her hardest not to be heard. Each creak of the floorboard sent a drip of sweat down her forehead, the soundless echo of empty rooms making it seem all the louder. She knew what she was planning to do was a major invasion of their hostess's privacy, and it would be beyond mortifying to be caught, but something kept drawing her back to those charcoal images. When she noticed that Clary never bothered to retrieve the sketchbook from that table in the library, her plan was set in stone.

Reaching the thick wooden doors of the library, made her heart give a small shudder of relief. Just as the door had creaked an inch open, Tessa heard the sound of footsteps galloping towards her. She threw herself through the doors and pressed them close, just barely before whoever it was passed right by.

Blood pulsing from the exhilaration, she pondered whether or not to feed her curiosity and see what the commotion was, but on the other hand it would raise questions she desired not to answer.

Such as what she was doing rummaging through the institute, like a thief in the dead of night.

Besides, she could see her target still lying on the table where it was left. The soft feel of its leather between her fingers, made the hair on her arms pickle up and a strong sense of deja-vu washed over her.

Clarissa Herondale

The rough engraving made her hesitate in guilt before she flipped to a random page.

Again her eyes lost themselves in each picture, and in turn they tugged at her deepest heartstrings. The innermost dream of every reader is to fall into the stories they love so much, and every image positively drew her in.

Tessa flipped page after page, soaking in the delicate shading and bold curve of every line.

Dandelions growing in the shade of a concrete bench.

The room fell darker, shadows seemed to coil at her feet, and a soft floral smell tickled her nose. She turned the page.

A rugged looking wolf, with graying hair slept in the soft grass of a meadow. A lady in trousers and a loose green shirt leaned against him, hiding the face of the beast with her long red hair. Both looked content, but the sky was above was swirling with dark clouds.

She felt her body relax with a deep peace. Yet, not a joyful kind, but similar to the calm you feel when realizing that anxiety hastens not the future, and whatever happens will happen in its own time.

Murky water and debris swirled around. The vantage point of this picture, was the sight of a person sinking underneath it. Their own hand barely visible in front of their face. Black dust collecting on the surface, and slowly sinking down…

Fear. The peace was gone, and anxiety tied her stomach in knots. Her breath sped up, but felt smothered, and her vision wavered. Quickly she flipped the page again, and was blindingly attacked.

An angel, beaten and weak, was coiled pathetically in a circle of sharply painted runes. Each rune spoke of dark things, words unspeakable to a human tongue, but visibly exuding misery and entrapment. Yet still, his beauty radiated beyond the picture, and could obviously not be justified by graphite and charcoal alone. Scars or not. Terrified or not. Wings sheared off his back. He was powerful. The angel contained a strength that was not his alone, and set his weary figure alight with heavenly fire.

A voice. Quiet, and humble breezed across the cusp of her ear.

Ithuriel…

The book flung out of her hands, and her body shook with the ghost pains of when the angel inhabited her skin. Memories bright and sharp. Will, Magnus, Mortmain. Clocks ticking, automations screeching, skin tingling. Burning, fire, heat, scorching heat.

Hands grasped her shoulders.

Tessa sat up taking in a long ragged gasp of air, it felt like she had been dreaming. Light trickled in from the windows, and she had obviously been in the library a lot, longer than she thought. Looking up, squinting through the warm orange light was Henry. Red hair, wide smile, oily hands. Grounding her in her own memories once more. Plain old, loony, Henry.

"Looks like a young lady was doing some digging on our host. Normally I'd oppose to this, I know I would hate it if someone was snooping on my notes, but you look like a person who just stumbled upon a ghost." He bent down to pick up the sketchbook that had fallen off her lap, and had only just barely thumbed a page open before she swatted it out of his hands.

"Don't! There is some kind of magic attached to it. I've been stuck in it for hours." Tessa reclined back in her seat. She felt a little shaky.

Henry pressed his lips in a hard line. "Dark magic?"

"No. Maybe? I don't know. It's nothing like I've ever felt before, but it didn't seem inherently evil... Just so vivid, it was surreal."

He nodded his head as if he understood. Quite frankly, she had never seen Henry so aware. Without his lab and a project to dote on, he was almost as alert as a normal human. Even with this sudden switch, though, he still had that faraway look in his eye she had learned to associate with him. It was like he was just a little bit closer. "Go up and get some rest, Tessa. The others should be rising soon, and I'd wager my money Will is already lurking around somewhere. I will tell Charlotte and we will keep an eye on Mrs. Herondale. Go sleep." Henry gave a friendly pat on her shoulder before leaving the room.

Tessa was quick to heed Henry's advice. Whatever spell she had been under must have fed off her own energy, because she felt utterly depleted. Hours passed, and it was long into the afternoon before a peculiar noise roused her. It sounded like rain, but from the intense sunlight pouring into her room it was obviously not.

Somewhat in a daze from the deep sleep she was in, it took a few moments before enough strength filled her limbs to make them move. Even then, Tessa felt like her gate was similar to that of an automation's. The sound of rain persisted, and the curiosity became too much not to investigate. Stepping out of her room, it didn't take long before she found the source. At the end of the hall, all of her friends were gathered in one of the bedrooms, Cecily's she believed; and their gazes were filled with wonder as they stared into a smaller adjoining chamber. Excited chatter filled the air, along with… was that steam?

"Tessa, come look at this!" Cecily exclaimed when she finally noticed her arrival. "Clary says it's called a shower. It's rain you can bath in! In your house!"

"She's not lying." Will peeked from behind Gideon. "I had one and it was simply splendid. You know what I say, a little dirt is good for a man, but this cleaned me so deep it almost washed the grit off my soul. Maybe if we stick Gabriel in there, it will turn him into a somewhat decent human being." The supposed 'less-than-decent-human-being' glared at Will, but in a show of great restraint kept his mouth shut.

"You say you can choose the temperature of your water by turning that handle? It is that simple?" Gideon said perplexedly at someone in the shower-room. Tessa stepped forward and saw Clary standing alone in a small tiled room. It was a pale cream color, with a white tiled floor and marble counter. Next to the counter sat a flush toilet, something Henry had installed in the institute himself, though slightly different from the one she was used too, she had guess the concept was the same. It was very similar to what was attached to her own room, but the exotic feature was the smoot white tub in the back. Over it was a protruding pipe with a round disk that was spewing steaming, hot water. Clary stood next to it controlling the handle Gideon had mentioned.

"Yup. This is honestly kind of weird, I've never given someone a demonstration on how to use a shower before… I'm sorry I didn't think of it before. Most of these rooms only have a half bath, this is one of twenty or so that have a full one. Three of which are occupied now, but if you'd like, you can movie into one of the vacant ones? If you don't want to move, then the training rooms have shower stations attached.

"I am quite interested," Henry murmured. He rubbing thumb against his jaw and eying the room inquisitively. Tessa kind of hoped he would be able to recreate something like this in their own time, because it didn't sound terrible at all.

An hour later that statement still stood true. Clary had found her a room with a full bath, and supplied her with various, colorful bottles containing different kinds of soaps. It was heavenly. All the grime was off her skin, her long, brown, hair was soft and light, and the smell of cherries exuded in the room. With great reluctance Tessa finally stepped out and wrapped herself in the red towel that she had been given.

Her new room was very similar to the last, but with a few striking differences. The window in this room was significantly larger and took up a great portion of the wall, a gorgeous stained glass rose adorning the center. Red covers decorated the bed, matching the color of the rose in the window, where in the other room they had just been white. Also the furniture in general seemed to be better kept, everything was dusted, polished and primped to perfection. Tessa was silently pleased with the change, she wasn't normally one to long for luxurious things but it was certainly enjoyable for the time being.

A new set of clothes was lying on the bed waiting for her, a long, green tunic like garment, and a pair of form fitting black trousers. Both were made of soft material and while it felt strange compared to her normal wardrobe, it was comfortable as well.

Tessa was musing the differences between her time and now, when there was a sudden loud banging on her door. She opened it to see a clean but shocked looking Will standing on the other side holding a…. very perturbed looking cat.

"Will, what on earth are you doing with a cat?" There was obviously something more going on here. Something that she was missing. The cat in his arms didn't warrant the distressed look he was wearing on his face,

"Look at it! Tell me you don't recognize this beastly thing." Will thrusts the cat closer to her, almost shoving it in her face.

"Will, I-" Then it clicked.

Church.

Her head seemed to be buzzing. "I-It can't be him. He'd have to be centuries old! Cats don't live that long…"

Church started squirming in his arms. "I always thought you were possessed by some demon, this just proves my theory. It's a wonder you can walk in an institute." Will grumbled. They both looked down at the cat, still somewhat in wonder. It came as a bit of a shock when Church lashed out, catching him on the face with his claws. A string of curse words flew from his mouth, all ending in cat, and his eyes lit up like blue fire. Church leaps from the arms restraining him and took off down the hall.

"We have to follow him!" She exclaimed pushing past Will and sprinting down the hall.

"Why are we chasing after the cat! It obviously wants nothing to do with us." Will said, now running slightly ahead of her.

"If that cat is Church, it means that something even more strange is happening here. Considering the possibility that somehow that cat managed to survive a couple hundred years, and become the oldest cat in existence; what are the odds we would wind up in the same place as him? It can't just be a coincidence." Will had no reply to that, they just continued scurrying through halls and down stair cases trying not to lose sight of Church.

Finally, he started slowing down as he reached the hallway leading to the elevator. "Ugh, you blasted cat. Your fast for an old man." Will scooped the much more complacent feline up, and cradled him to his chest. Church nestled in, giving them an almost smug look. "Don't get me wrong. I still hate you." He said glaring down.

"Church." A familiar voice called from behind them.

They turned in time to see Clary coming down the hall with a slender man beside her.

Tessa's body froze with shock. It can't be… By her side, Will dropped Church at the same time the word fell from his lips.

"Jem?"

This is my favorite cliff hanger so far! There aren't a lot of answers to the questions from the previous chapter, but have no fear, you will hear more about the aftermath of that in the future. This story is somewhat slow going, but I am pretty pleased with it so far! I'm determined to get it all the way to completion, but I also don't want it to be poor quality. Speaking of quality, this chapter is unedited so there are probably several spelling/grammatical errors that I overlooked. Sometime in the future, I will go through and start combing through chapters to fix that. So if there is something you notice, please feel free to tell me! Ya'll's comments mean a lot to me and are great encouragement. 3

Flora Silverthrush- Your answer is close, but not quite. Also the TID characters will affect the story VERY much, the characters individually as well. Thank you for commenting! Your continued support means a lot!

Conan In Love Thank you!

ZaraRiverSong- I'm glad! I didn't want to just throw them into this new world and not have them question the changes in it. That seemed unrealistic to me, because I know I would be freaking out about everything!

Question- In between chapters, I am tempted to do some one-shots. If I did, what are some things you guys would like to see? ( I do not write M rated material) Not just TMI either, I've also wanted to do something for Vampire Academy too, if there are any fans out there!

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

FanOfTheWrittenArt~*