Jace POV

"You let her go?!" Jace yelled at Maryse as she explained to him that Clary had gone with Raphael to help with the search. It angered Jace because she was in no condition to leave the Institute and the second reason was that he still didn't trust Raphael with Clary.

"It was Luke's call to let her go or not. If he thinks he's capable to go then she can go," Maryse sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose. They were in the kitchen having a small dinner, Robert not being with them, and the Lightwood siblings, Alec having taking a break from Magnus and Catarina for a while, watching the two.

"But she's still injured, if she gets hurt, Maryse…" Jace trailed off.

"Why do you do that?" Isabelle questioned him.

"Do what?"

"Undermine her. As if she can't handle herself? I know that Clary hasn't had as much training as a regular Shadowhunter would but she can still take care of herself and if she needs help. Raphael's there with her. You act as if you're the only one that cares for her but you're not, okay. There are plenty of people that care about her but she's her own person that knows how to survive in the world," her voice shook as she spoke.

Clary was Isabelle's first real friend that was a girl. Yeah, she had other friends that were girls but Clary was different.

"She's right, I'm not siding over with Raphael but he could protect her better than you or any of us can, Jace. I think you just have to accept it like we do," Alec's voice was soft but stern.

Jace had his back to all of them, his arms crossed across his chest. Did he really do that? Undermine Clary. There were times yes but did he do it often? Jace had always looked at Clary as a fragile porcelain doll but behind the fragility was a girl that was as strong as steel. But now that he thought of it, he did undermine her and, even though he didn't like that he had to admit it, Raphael was a good body guard for Clary but that was because he was a vampire and his senses were heightened.

He released a breath and closed his eyes. Maybe they're right, you just have to accept. It's easy… just count to three and let go, he thought to himself. Jace counted to three and released another breath. He had let her go.

Clary POV

It was nice for her to be with Raphael again. Even though it had only been a few days since she last been with him and the circumstances weren't that great. He held her hand as they walked down the streets of Manhattan, searching every alley and corner for Simon or a stray Hybrid but they hadn't encounter either yet. Every time they came up short, Raphael would squeeze her hand for reassurance. It only calmed her a bit but not much. It was almost midnight when they came across something.

"Hey Raphael! I think you might want to see this," one of his vampires yelled from an alley way. The two made their way towards it and Clary almost gagged at the sight.

At the end of the alley was a body and by the looks of it, the body was a mundane. He was lying on his back, eyes open, looking up into the endless black sky that was illuminated with the lights of Manhattan signs, his mouth was open as If he were screaming for help but had no luck because his throat was ripped out. Blood pooled around the body in a deep scarlet color. She knew a Hybrid done this, she had no doubts. But Clary understood the message, another murder, like the one in front of her, was going to happen again.

"By the looks of it, it must've happen at least some hours ago, maybe while we were at that meeting." It was Elliot who spoke up as he examined the body. Clary was surprised that none of the vampires were drawn to the blood, it must've meant they were old vampires, like Elizabeth.

"We need to report this to Maryse before it happens again," Raphael looked down at Clary and then moved her out of the alley.

"Clary-," he started.

"What if Simon did that?" Clary said, interrupting him. Tears pricked at her eyes, just imagining Simon doing something so horrific just made her want to bawl her eyes out.

"He wouldn't do that."

"But what if he did? He doesn't know what's happening to him. He doesn't understand," Clary whispered; taking gasps of air. He rubbed his hands up and down her arms but it did not distract her as she continued staring at the body.

"Clary, look at me," Raphael said to her; when she did not look at him, he cupped her chin and turned her towards him. "We'll figure this out. We'll find Simon and get him back to normal and then we'll take down Lilith and her Hybrids and everything will be back to normal but you have to calm down first."

She nodded slowly and looked at the ground. She had to keep it together. If not for her than for Raphael or Simon. "Okay," she answered him. "I'll call Maryse and tell her about this."

Raphael nodded and parted away from her to go check with Elliot.

She got out her phone and dialed Maryse's number.

Raphael POV

"You find anything new?" he asked as he circled the body. Elliot shook his head. Raphael kept eyeing Clary who was talking to Maryse on the phone.

Raphael started to move around, looking closely at the scene to see if he could find anything. Now, why would this man run into an alley way? There were better hiding spots but this spot's a dead end, Raphael thought. Then, he spotted the door that was connected to an abandoned building. He went over to it and inspected the door. It was open with force, he noticed. He must've come from in here and forced himself out of the building.

"You find something?" he looked behind him and saw Clary leaning forward with her hands behind her back. She looked a hell lot more innocent than she usually did and it was a turn on but there was no time for that, well not yet.

"Yeah, I'm guessing guy over there came from in here."

"Do you think he lived here?" She stood next to him now.

"This building's abandoned, why would he live in here for?" Just after he finished his sentence, they two heard something shift inside and then something falling to the ground. Clary and Raphael looked at each other.

"Clary…" Raphael trailed off.

"I'm going in with you, Raphael," her voice was stern but her eyes were hesitant.

"If you get hurt in there, Clary, I don't know what I'll do," He touched her cheek gently.

"I can take care of myself," she reassured. But Raphael knew in the back of his mind that he was gonna regret taking her with him.

Clary POV

"We stay together till we need to split up," Raphael was giving orders quickly, "When we do split up, you see any of those Hybrids, you take those bastards down but if it's Simon, try to get him down without any kind of harm that will hurt him majorly." He then turned towards Clary," You stick close to me and don't wander off." In the tone he used on her, she felt like a child.

"Yes, sir," Clary playfully saluted him and got a small smile.

"Let's go."

Raphael gently pried the door open and everyone piled in. Clary took his hand and they started to walk through a hallway. By the looks of the building, it was an old run-down apartment. But it still didn't make sense why that man would live there. The floors looked like they would give away any minute, the wallpaper was peeling off the wall and dust cover the area like snow.

They reached a set of stairs at the end of the hallway.

"We should spilt up. A group goes upstairs and another down here," Raphael said and they started to move into two groups as if they had done this before.

"We'll check down here, you can go up," Elliot offered and Raphael nodded. He tugged her hand gently and walked up the stairs carefully. The stairs creaked under her weight and it made her heart beat faster. When they made it to the first level, three vampires volunteered to look through the rooms themselves while the rest kept going up. Raphael only nodded. And the process continued. Three vampires would take a level and the rest would go up. At last, Clary, Raphael and two other vampires made it to the top floor.

"You two go down the hall to the last rooms, Clary and I will look around here," Raphael said and the two vampires dashed down the hall. The two then went to the first door and opened it, seeing inside if there was anyone and then continuing to the next. Then they reached a two way when they looked through the first six doors.

"Which way do you think we should go through first?" she asked.

"Which way to you prefer?" he looked down at her. Clary looked left and right and decided to take the right turn. She just felt a tug or instinct to take the right but she brushed it away. They checked the rooms and came up short.

"This was useless," Raphael let go of her hand to rub his face. She was going to say something to him when she spotted something behind him. It was a smear of blood on the far end wall. She started to walk towards it.

"Raphael do you see that?" she asked as she continued to walk towards it. Clary turned around and her eyes widened. He wasn't there. "Raphael?" she called out. Clary looked around, feeling the panic rise up. "Raphael!" There was no answer. He disappeared.

She turned towards the wall again, the smear was still there but Raphael wasn't. Maybe he went to check on the others? She tried to reassure herself but why would he go without her?

Clary continued to slowly walk towards the wall, may as well check this out since I'm here.

When she was standing right in front of the smear, she turned her head and saw the door to the apartment room was slightly ajar. It must've come from in there. She slowly opened the door and peered inside and she almost threw up at the scene before her.

Simon was on top of a woman, tearing her open.

She screamed.

Magnus POV

Maryse had called him and Catarina to go with them to the scene. In all of his life, this era had to be where he had seen the most dead bodies, this one none to pleasant to his warlock eyes.

"Where are they?" Isabelle looked around to see if anyone from Raphael's group was around.

"Did they ditch this place?" Alec asked as he leaned against the side of the building. Magnus just shrugged and looked at the profile of the dead man.

"Male, late forties, I'm thinking he's homeless," Maryse said out loud.

"Homeless?" Magnus questioned.

"I'm not entirely sure but if he had a family, they should be looking for him now and the police should be around, this is New York after all," she had a point.

"Ugh," Catarina muttered as she made her way to Magnus's side. She sighed, "I wish Ragnor was here, he could've solved this by now." He knew that Catarina had some feeling towards his late friend. Ragnor, and it saddened him that she didn't have the same feelings towards another man than what she had with Ragnor.

"Me too," he whispered and that's when he felt it. Like a surge of air pushed against him. As if something, or someone, had gone through another dimension or another something. He couldn't put his finger on it. "Did you feel that?"

"Yeah, I think it came from inside that building," Catarina pointed to the building that Alec was still leaning against.

"Something passes through something in there, I just don't know what," he said as he walked towards the door to the building.

"Is something wrong, Magnus," Alec asked.

"I think… I think they're in here," Magnus said to him and everyone looked at the building.

Before anyone could say something, a scream ripped its way through the night.

"That's Clary!" it was Jace who had said it, after so long of being quiet.

Then another scream, the same one, was heard again and again and again.

Hey guys, sorry for the late update, something's going on with my laptop for some reason. It keeps exiting everything and, as the idiot that i am, i don't save my stories so i have to keep rewriting them. But i go this one up and i hope you guys like it. I think that's all that i have to say so I'll see you guys later :D BYE!