Okay, so what if it were the other way around, what if Jace had been the one Jocelyn took with her? Both should have the same personalities – but if Jace was the one being introduced to the Shadowhunter world? Just curious to see what happens. Mwua! Please R&R.

"You've got to be kidding me." Jace heard the bouncer at the door say.

Jace craned his neck to see what the commotion was. He saw a boy with electric blue hair that stuck up like the tendrils of a startled octopus and eyes that were a little too bright green to be natural. It reminded Jace of the colour of anti-freeze.

"Aww come on." He heard the boy say to the bouncer, hefting a wooden beam pointed at the end. "It's part of my costume."

The bouncer did not look impressed and he raised an eyebrow. "Which is what?"

"I'm a vampire hunter." The boy bent the beam. "It's fake. Foam rubber. See?"

Jace's best friend Simon leaned around Jace, trying to see what was going on.

"Guess he's working extra hard to get laid." Jace murmured.

Simon rolled his eyes. "You know ... just because girls flock around you doesn't mean nobody else can get any action when you're around. The sun doesn't rise and set with you, you know."

Jace chuckled lightly. "Suuuure. You keep telling yourself that."

Inside, the club was full of dry ice smoke. Coloured lights played over the dance floor, turning it into a multicoloured fairyland of blues and acid greens, hot pinks and golds.

Jace was grinding with a girl on the dance floor, passing a grin to Simon who was having less luck. But that was the way it always was. Jace would usually have to set Simon up with a girl, play wing man, and Simon would just mess it up with his gawky awkwardness. But Simon never seemed to mind.

The girl turned in Jace's arms and planted a kiss. Then she moved away.

"I have to go and get a drink ... I'll be right back." She winked and then left.

Simon edged in to Jace.

"Sometimes I really hate you. You've known her for like five minutes and she's all over you." Simon grumbled.

Jace chuckled. "Maybe we should find somebody for you. Tonight Simon ... you become a man, like me."

Simon sighed. "Sounds great."

Jace was glancing around while dancing. He was probably one of the few who could actually dance here. Everyone else was just swaying back and forth with the occasional lunging as if they'd dropped a contact.

"So," Simon said. "pretty good music, eh?"

Jace's eyes stopped when he saw a gorgeous dark haired girl in a billowing white dress and he paused.

"I, for one." Simon went on. "am enjoying myself immensely."

This was unlikely. Simon as always stuck out in the club like a sore thumb, in jeans and an old T-shirt which said made in Brooklyn across the front. Jace and Simon had always seemed the most unlikely pair of friends. Jace was the popular heart throb of the school ... and Simon the chess club president. He wasn't, but Jace always thought he should be.

"Mmm-Hmm." Jace said absently, eyes locked on the girl as she was sweeping towards the dance floor. He suddenly thought of ditching the girl he'd been dancing with and going to this girl. He thought he could probably give Simon the other girl. He knew Simon only came with him because he liked it here ... the least he could do was see to it that Simon got some make out time.

But that changed because he saw the weird kid from earlier with the blue hair walking up to her, and then the two crept off together, going towards the door with NO ADMITANCE – STORAGE. Jace felt a little deflated, and thought about wandering over to steal her from the boy.

"Meanwhile," Simon added. "I wanted to tell you that lately I've been cross dressing. Also, I'm sleeping with your Mom. I thought you should know."

The dark haired girl and the boy had reached the door and together they slipped inside. There was nothing strange about a couple sneaking off to the dark corners of the club to make out. What was strange is that it seemed that the two were being followed by two black clad people. Jace leaned up on his tip toes to get a better view. Not that he was short, but with the dancers jumping about they kept blocking his view.

He made out a dark haired boy and a red haired girl. Were they sneaking in as well to make out? Was it some kind of foursome? But he caught the flash of silver in the red-heads hand. A knife.

"Simon!" Jace shouted, seizing Simon's arm.

"What?" Simon looked alarmed. "I'm not really sleeping with your Mom. Not that she isn't an attractive woman for her age-"

"Not that!" Jace chided and then he pointed. "Do you see those two?"

Simon squinted, the shrugged. "I don't see anything?"

"Over there in the storage room ... that weird kid was going in with a girl-"

"Oh. The one you didn't think was going to get laid. Guess you were wrong."

"That's not the point. There are two people following behind them. One of them pulled a knife."

"Are you sure?" Simon stared harder, shaking his head. "I still don't see anyone."

"I'm sure."

Suddenly all business, Simon squared his shoulders. "I'll get one of those security guards. You stay here." He strode away, pushing through the crowd.

Jace turned in time to see the red head slip through the door, her companion right on her heels. Jace looked around; Simon was still trying to shove his way across the dance floor, but he wasn't making much progress. Even if he yelled yelled now, no one would hear him, and by the time Simon got back something terrible might already have happened. Jace grinned suddenly. If he saved the raven haired beauty from a knife fight, he'd probably get more than just her number. He slipped through the crowd, narrowly avoiding the first girl he had danced with. He slipped inside.

For a moment he thought it was abandoned. He didn't see any sign of the people in here.

He took a step forwards, tangling his feet in electrical wires. He bent down to free his sneaker from the cables – and heard voices. A girls laugh. A boy answering sharply. When he straightened up, he saw them.

It was as if they had sprung into existence between one blink of an eye and the next. There was the dark haired girl he had thought needed saving. The red head and the dark haired boy were standing beside her.

The red head was standing with her hands in her pockets, facing the blue haired punk boy who had been tied to a pillar with what looked like piano wire. The boys face was pulled tight with pain and fear.

Jace's heart hammered in his chest, thinking that perhaps the girl didn't need saving after all. He ducked behind the nearest pillar, peering out from behind it. He watched as the red haired girl paced back and forth, arms crossed over her chest.

"So," The red head said. "you still haven't told me if there are any other of your kind here."

Your kind? Jace wondered what she was talking about. Had he stumbled into some kind of drug war?

"I don't know what you're talking about." The punk-kid's tone was plain but surly.

"He means demons," Said the dark haired boy, speaking for the first time. "You know what a demon is, don't you?"

The punk-kid turned his face away, his mouth working.

"Demons," Drawled the red-head, tracing the word on the air with her slender finger, her hair catching the light and blazing like fire. "Religiously defined as hell's denizens, the servants of Satan, but for the purposes of the Clave, to be any malevolent spirit whose origin is outside our own home dimension-"

"That's enough, Clary." The dark haired girl said.

"Isabelle's right," Agreed the taller boy. "Nobody here needs a lesson in semantics – or demonology."

They're crazy, Jace thought, Actually crazy.

Clary looked at the demon calmly. Then she shrugged. "Isabelle and Alec think I talk too much." She confided mockingly. "Do you think I talk too much?"

The blue-haired boy didn't reply. Then he said: "I could give you information." He looked at Clary. "I know where Valentine is."

Clary glanced back at Alec, who shrugged. "Valentine is in the ground," Clary said, tossing her head sending her hair spilling backwards from her shoulder. "The thing's just toying with us."

Isabelle set her hand on her hip. "Kill it, Clary." She said. "It's not going to tell us anything."

Clary raised her hand and Jace saw the dim light spark off the knife she was holding. It was oddly translucent, the blade clear as crystal, sharp as a shard of glass, the hilt set with red stones.

The blue-haired boy gasped. "Valentine is back!" he protested. "All the Infernal Worlds know it – I now it – I can tell you where he is-"

Rage suddenly flared in Clary's green eyes. "By the angel, every time we capture one of you bastards, you claim you know where Valentine is. This is getting ridiculous." Clary turned the knife in her hand, the edge sparking like a line of fire. "Say hi to him on your way down to hell!"

Jace suddenly jumped up. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Clary whirled, so startled that the knife dropped from her hand and clattered against the concrete. Everyone turned and looked utterly surprised, even the captive boy.

"What's this?" The dark haired boy demanded.

"Are you people on drugs?" Jace demanded.

The three looked at one another.

"You can see us?" Clary asked.

"I'm not blind." Jace said.

This seemed to amuse Clary. "Oh yes you are. You just don't know it yet." She sighed as if weary of him. "You'd better get out of here. If you know what's good for you."

"No way." Jace's voice was firm. "If I leave here you'll kill that guy."

"That's true." Clary said as if it were a big confession. "What do you care I kill him or not?"

This seemed to stump Jace. "B-because. You just can't go around killing people."

"You're right." Clary said, smiling. "You can't go around killing people." She turned to the boy tied up to the pillar. "But I'm afraid this one isn't exactly a person. It may look like a person and talk like a person, and sometimes even bleed like a person. But the truth is it's a monster-"

"Clary," Isabelle warned. "That's enough."

"The men in white coats need you guys back." Jace said, rolling his eyes. "I've called the police. They'll be here any second."

"He's lying." Alec said, though doubt showed on his face. "Clary, do you-"

He never got to finish his sentence. The blue-haired boy broke free of his restraints, and with a yowling cry threw himself at Clary. They fell to the ground and rolled together. Jace backed up suddenly and uncertain of what to do. His leg caught on a loop of wire and he tumbled back, hitting the ground knocking the air from his lungs.

He heard Isabelle shrieking. Jace rolled over, and saw the blue-haired boy was sitting on Clary, blood gleaming on his razor-like claws.

Isabelle and Alec were running over. The punk boy was bringing his claws down, and Clary brought her arms up to protect her head. The boys claws raked over her arms sending a spatter of blood. Isabelle brandished her whip, whirling it around and striking the blue-haired boy in the back. The punk-kid fell away.

Clary was fast, and she rolled, grasping the knife from the ground. She sank the knife deep into the boys chest sending a spray of blackish liquid around the hilt. The boy collapsed to the floor, gurgling and twisting. Glowering, Clary stood. Her dark shirt was darker in some places, damp with blood. She bent down and yanked the knife out, slicked with black blood.

The blue haired boy growled.

"So be it …" he hissed. "The Forsaken will take you all!"

Clary grimaced, leering down at the boy. His body was crumpling away, getting smaller and smaller and then he was gone completely.

Jace meanwhile had untangled his foot from the wiring. He scrambled to his feet, backing away.

Isabelle gave a flick of her wrist and her whip coiled around his wrist and then she jerked it tight. Jace gasped with surprise, and a sharp pain ran up his wrist.

"Stupid little mundie," Isabelle said between her teeth. "You could have gotten Clary killed."

"Just who do you people think you are? Vigilante killers? The police-"

"The police aren't usually interested unless you can produce a body." Clary said, cradling her injured arm. She picked her way over the cable strewn floor towards Jace. Alec followed behind her, face twisted into a scowl.

Jace glanced at the spot where the boy had vanished, unable to think of anything to say. There wasn't even a trace of blood. Nothing.

"They return to their dimension when they die." Clary said. "In case you were wondering."

"Clary." Alec hissed. "Be careful."

Clary drew in nearer, her face flecked with blood. Jace thought she was pretty in a strange sort of way. He'd never really been much into red heads. But there was something to her. She looked at him intently, eye locking with his, like a predator measuring up its prey. Her hair blazed in the dim light.

"It's a little late for that." Clary said. "He can see us. He already knows too much."

Jace swallowed, feeling a little threatened.

"What should we do with him?" Isabelle demanded.

"Let him go." Clary said quietly.

Isabelle shot her a surprised and almost angry look, but didn't argue. The whip slithered away.

Jace rubbed his sore wrist and wondered what he would need to do to get out of here.

"Maybe we should bring him back with us." Alec said. "I bet Hodge would like to talk to him."

"No way are we brining him back to the Institute." Isabelle said. "He's a mundie."

Clary smiled. "Or is he?"

Jace liked her tone less than Isabelle's snapping or Alec's anger. There was something odd lying beneath it that unsettled him.

"Have you had dealings with demon, little boy? Walked with warlocks, talked with the Night Children? Have you-"

"Hey who are you calling little, shorty." Jace snapped haughtily. "And I have no idea what you're talking about." Don't you? A voice echoed in the back of his mind. You saw that boy vanish into thin air. Clary isn't crazy – you just wish she was. "I don't believe in demons. Or what ever else you psychos are-"

"Jace?" It was Simon's voice.

Jace whirled around. Simon was standing by the storage room door. One of the burly bouncers had been stamping hands at the door was beside him.

"Are you okay?" Simon asked, peering around. "Why are you in here by yourself? What happened to the guys – the ones with the knives?"

Jace turned to the three. Clary was grinning broadly and she shrugged. Jace sighed. He was the only one who could see them.

"Sorry. I made a mistake." Jace said, feeling like an idiot.

"We'll be lucky if they ever let us in the club ever again." Simon said, slumping forwards. "That was a really embarrassing mistake."

Jace tried hailing a cab but it drove away.

"What happened to you?" Simon asked.

"I don't think there were people with knives. I think I just imagined it. I'm going utterly insane."

"No way." Simon raised his hand, but yet another cab whizzed by him, spraying dirty water. "I saw your face. You looked seriously freaked out. I've never seen you like that."

Jace looked down at his arm, braceletted by the red line from Isabelle's whip. Not a ghost, he thought grimly, something weirder than even that.

"It was just a mistake." Jace sighed, but he wondered why he wasn't telling Simon the truth. He was his best friend after all. Maybe it was the fact that there was something daunting about what had happened. The black blood bubbling up around the hilt of Clary knife. What she had said to him. The expression on her face.

"It doesn't matter." Jace said. "I mean you don't even like it in that club." He raised his hand and finally a cab screeched to a stop. "Finally. Some goodluck."

Simon leaned forwards to the cabbie. "We're going to Brooklyn."

Then the two boys slumped back into the cab. Simon looked at Jace.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" Simon said.

"Yeah. I know." Jace said.