Circa City of Bones

On Valentine's insistence, they left the children with Jocelyn's parents when they went to the Accords Hall to carry out the Circle's plan. Alexander had been crying when he was taken from his father's arms and deposited in Jonathan's crib by Granville Fairchild.

Held tenderly by his grandmother, Jocelyn's son, Jonathan, did not cry at all. His mother was nowhere to be found, his father marshaling his soldier-friends.

When the Uprising happened, Valentine abandoned his most loyal lieutenants to fight for a cause he'd stopped caring for. And when these soldier-friends returned, the Fairchild manor was burning.

Maryse ran towards the house, screaming her son's name as Robert caught up to her and held her back. The flames burned fiercely, consuming everything in sight. Valentine's final revenge against his once most loyal lieutenants, who betrayed him and laid down their weapons in front of the Clave, was complete. In death, he took with him their son, his own son and Jocelyn's parents.

Clary's sixteenth birthday was supposed to be fun. Alec did not find going to a poetry slam fun. But Clary, self sacrificing angel that she was, decided to indulge Simon's bandmate Eric (or was it Kirk? He could never tell the difference and didn't particularly care enough to start now). And being the older brother, Alec had been charged with bringing Clary home to their mother in one piece, come hell or high water. Alec just never imagined that damnation would come in the form of insufferably bad poetry featuring the poet's 'nefarious loins'.

"Is he done yet?" he whispered.

Clary gave him a scathing look and shushed him. Simon looked enraptured by the performance, well, it was either that, or he was constipated. Alec preferred to go with the former.

Five minutes later, the torment was (mercifully) over and they were heading back to the Fray's apartment in Brooklyn. Clary, being Clary, was begging Alec to take them to Pandemonium, the all ages club that he liked to frequent. Alec, being Alec and a total sucker for Clary's big, pleading green eyes, agreed.

When they got to Pandemonium, they didn't bother with the line. Alec sauntered to the front with his little sister and her bestie in tow and smiled at the bouncer who was arguing with some guy with blue hair. The bouncer smirked back at Alec, the kind of smirk that you gave someone you'd slept with. Alec gave the blue-haired guy and appreciative glance and whispered something in the bouncer's ear.

Clary looked a bit disillusioned by the time they got into the club. The blue-haired boy was standing a little apart from them. He looked like he was undressing Alec with his eyes. Alec didn't seem to mind.

"You think he's cute, don't you?" Simon asked Clary.

She flushed. "The boy with blue hair? Yeah, sure, and so does Alec."

Simon sputtered.

Alec who was barely paying attention to what they were saying, looked like he wanted to drag Blue Hair into a corner of the club and have sex. Clary snapped a finger under his nose. Alec's dark blue eyes instantly went from the beginnings of lust to annoyance as she pestered him to get them drinks.

"Absolutely not," Alec said, momentarily distracted from the hot guy. While he was lecturing them about the dangers of alcoholism, Clary saw the boy get lured away by the most beautiful girl she'd ever seen. Her hair was inky black, like Alec's, and she had the same confidence and elegance that Clary's older brother did. Once again, Clary was reminded that despite being siblings, she and Alec barely looked alike.

With a 'come hither' look on her face, the girl led the blue haired boy to one of the 'off-limits' areas of the club.

"Si," Alec said calmly. "Where's Clary?"

Simon looked up from the ground which he'd been uncomfortably staring at. His head whipped around almost comically. When they finally spotted Clary, she was heading back to them, cheeks flushed from exertion.

"Alec," she gasped. "They killed him."

"Clary, what-"

"The blue-haired boy!" she squeaked "They killed him!"

"Clary, did someone give you something to drink?" Alec asked, concerned.

"You're not listening to me, there was a girl and she took the blue-haired guy to that room over there and a blond boy went in after them and he had a knife or something-"

"And you followed them?" Alec demanded, speed walking to place Clary pointed out. "Simon, go get security. Clary, stay right here and don't move until Simon gets back."

He reached the door and pushed it open. There was nothing there. "There's no body," he said to Clary, who was right behind him despite his instructions. "And I thought I told you to stay outside."

"But Alec! Can't you see him? He's right there!"

"Who?" Alec asked, walking forward boldly. The door closed behind them. There was a strange flickering in the shadows for a moment and then he saw him materialise out of thin air. The golden boy covered in blood and ink.

Alec pushed Clary behind him so fast she had to grab onto the back of his shirt to stop herself from toppling over.

"Alec... are you...?"

"Yeah," Alec said, his voice quiet. "I'm seeing it."

The two boys stared at each other for a moment. "Who are you? Alec asked the blond.

"Not important," Blondie said cockily. "The real question is, who are you?"

A cry of pain came from Clary. Alec whirled around to see something wrapped around his sister's wrist, dragging her away from him. He caught hold of the rope - was that metal? - and pulled. A girl in a white dress fell out of the shadows.

"What do you think you're doing?" Alec said, trying to uncoil the whip from around Clary's wrist.

"Jace, they're mundanes. Why can they see us?" The girl who spoke was extremely pretty, dark-haired, dark-eyed, tall and slim as a willow branch.

The blonde boy - Jace - walked forward slowly. "Are they, though?"

"Listen, asshole," Alec said, putting a protective arm firmly around Clary's shoulders. "We don't know what you've been smoking, but we don't want any part of it. This was obviously a huge misunderstanding."

"We can't just let them go," the dark-haired girl said. "Hodge -"

At that precise moment, the door opened. Simon poked his curly head in. "Guys?" He said, pushing it further to show them the bouncer Alec had smiled at earlier. "Everything all right in here?"

Alec blinked. The whip slithered away from Clary's hand to curl around the dark haired girl's.

"They can't see us," Jace said. "I suggest you say that the little girl was mistaken and leave quietly." There was no indication that Simon or the bouncer had heard him.

Clary was shaking. "They're not here, I'm sorry, I think by the time we got back here, they escaped."

"Your friend said you saw them kill someone," the bouncer mused. "I hope you weren't lying kid, or I'd have to ban you. Your brother, too, and wouldn't that be a shame?" his eyes raked up Alec's body. "He's such a valued patron here at Pandemonium.

"There's no blood or body," Alec said, studiously ignoring him. "Whatever happened here, they cleaned up really well. Is there a history of gang violence or something here?"

"Not that I know of, Blue Eyes," came the swift reply, "and I know most of what happens in this club."

The dark-haired girl snickered. Alec glared at her and then looked at Jace contemplatively.

"I'm taking my sister home." Alec said finally, steering Clary towards the door.

"Will do. Unless you're going to call the cops," the bouncer added dubiously.

Alec placated him with a, "Nah, if it is some kind of gang war, the last thing we want is to draw attention to ourselves."

"Understood."

"Come on, Simon. Let's go."

"What was that all about?" Simon asked, looking back into the empty room.

"Tell you later," Clary took his hand and dragged him along with her and Alec.

The director had been running them ragged for weeks, now, getting the script ready, the casting done and the rehearsal timings finalized for the performance in the beginning of October. Set design had barely started, costumes hadn't even been looked at, everything was very rudimentary, and it seemed like they would never be ready for opening night. To top it all off, the apartment was a fiasco when Alec got back from rehearsals, which wasn't all that unusual, but this time it was messy enough to make him stop in his tracks.

"What the... Mom?" He called out cautiously. "Clary?"

A weird black goo was contracting into itself in the middle of the living room, right next to the couch that was in bits and pieces. A curtain of red hair was splayed across the floor.

"Oh my go- CLARY!" He exclaimed, running up to his unconscious sister, kneeling beside her fallen form and then pulling her onto his lap. Alec tapped the side of her cheek gently. "Clary, wake up," he begged desperately.

She was breathing so shallowly he was sure she would stop any moment.

He felt blood on his hand and withdrew it from behind her neck. He felt his heart stop. Hospital. He needed to get her medical attention, pronto. Alec quickly lifted her small body up in is arms and was just about to exit the apartment when a gold and black blur got in his way.

"You!" Alec snarled, recognising him instantly from Pandemonium. If he hadn't been carrying Clary, he would have introduced the boy to one of his punches, or even better, one of his kicks.

"I got here as fast as I could, I didn't know the demons would come after you guys like this - " Jace started.

"What the fuck are you talking about? You know what, I don't care. Unless you're the one who did this to her because so help me god if you did you'd better be gone by the time I get back," he snarled, roughly shouldering Jace out of the way.

"Woah, listen up, dude, I'm here to help," Jace said defensively.

"Help?" Alec half-shouted, carrying Clary down the stairs. "She needs to get to a hospital. She has a neck injury. She's bleeding. From her neck. Do you know how dangerous neck injuries can be?"

"A hospital won't know how to - this is a demon bite." Jace said, pushing her head forward to bare the back of her neck, ignoring Alec's cry of alarm and letting him move away. "We need to get her to the Institute."

"Listen up, buddy, I don't have time for you're cultist mumbo-jumbo right now, my sister-"

"- will die if you don't listen to me, you hard-headed idiot!" Jace cut him off. "She's dying! From demon venom! I mean, come on, she must have told you what she saw at the club."

"She was hallucinating," Alec snapped impatiently.

"Oh, and you were too? Are you hallucinating me right now? Trust me, I'm too pretty to come from anyone's imagination."

Alec had the distinctive urge to punch the narcissist in the face, but his arms were carrying his sister out the door. A police car pulled up in front of the brownstone. He sighed in relief. "Oh, thank god, Officer. One of the neighbours must have called you. I need to get my sister to the hospital now, she's been attacked-"

The policeman snarled. Alec stumbled backward, barely keeping a hold on Clary as Jace practically flew forward and stabbed the cop in the abdomen with a glowing sword. As Jace yanked out his sword, the policeman exploded into black goo - which looked exactly like the one that was in the apartment upstairs.

"Holy crap," Alec said weakly as Jace finished off the other cop / demonic creature.

"Believe me now?" Jace asked, wiping his blade on the grass.

"You just killed a cop," Alec said, appalled.

"That wasn't a cop."

Alec rolled his eyes. "Someday, Simon, my sister is going to realise that you've had the hots for her since the two of you met and she'll date you. I can't imagine her not feeling the same way."

"Wow, wait a minute, I did NOT have the-"

"Right, I might be talking about another six year old with puppy dog eyes who use to trail after Clary in first grade."

Simon sighed.

"You know, you're a good guy, Simon. Any girl would be lucky to have you. Even if it's not Clary."