Sweet Little Serena (Original)

Chapter 62

Serena was worried.

After returning to the Institute, they learned that the Iron Sister's citadel had been breached, one sister dead and sister Cleophas missing.

As they suspected it to be Valentine, Aldertree had gone to Idris to meet with the Council while Alec checked with ops. The girls were going to go and find Cleophas when Izzy revealed that she knew about Clary's rune.

She felt hurt that the two girls she trusted the most, her parabatai especially, kept it from her and then she refused to work with them.

Serena was worried because the way Izzy acted was completely out of character for her, and her side of their parabatai bond felt odd. Wrong, in a way, but Izzy refused to hear or speak of it.

Serena and Clary had then gone to see Luke, who Simon and Maia had successfully recovered, and who revealed that Cleophas joined the Iron Sisters because she used to be a member of the Circle, that she could've been the one to kill the Iron Sister.

They had been inside the Jade Wolf, having convinced Luke to help them find Cleophas when the woman herself stumbled into the restaurant, bleeding.

Cleophas told quite the story about how Valentine attacked the Citadel, killed the Sister and kidnapped her, bringing her to New York before he managed to fight her way out, but Serena didn't believe her.

She didn't believe her because she saw the knife wound on Cleophas before the iratze healed her, it was self-inflicted. The angle it was at, no attacker would be able to achieve.

Clary had seen through her too, Cleophas slipping up and calling Clary, Clarissa, something only Valentine did.

Clary wanted to use Cleophas to find Valentine and get the Soul-Sword back, but Serena and Luke were instantly against it.

Serena because this was basically The Mortal Cup and Jocelyn all over again and Luke because it was plain stupid and dangerous to go after Valentine with no plan or back up.

So, the two went to make the arrangements to turn Cleophas over to the Institute.

Meanwhile, at the Institute, Izzy was desperately trying to find yin fen, but her new mission was finding a vampire, getting it straight from the source.

She'd tried to buy yin fen at a bar when Magnus intercepted her, Izzy then feeding him a lie that Aldertree had her on assignment to find the source of yin fen, since there'd been a recent spike in sales. Magnus went along with it but didn't buy it.

Izzy had then even tried to get Simon to bite her.

She'd been trying to find a vampire den when Alec almost caught her, Izzy feeding him the same lie about the special mission from Aldertree.

The withdrawal was getting to her, but she managed to hold it off while Alec talked to her about something.

He and his wife had had several conversations about what was happening with Izzy and how they needed to find out if Aldertree did anything to her. Serena hadn't wanted to ask Izzy outright because she was a Lightwood. And out of sheer pride, a Lightwood would never admit that there was something wrong. 

But Alec confronted her. 

"What are you up to?" he asked casually as Izzy closed what she was doing on the cyber desk. 

"Aldertree has me on special assignement, checking out some rogue vamp dens," Izzy lied and Alec furrowed his brows. 

"Are you ok?" Alec asked as he noted Izzy tugging at the high neck of her dress, almost as if she couldn't breathe, her skin looking slightly pale. 

"Yeah, I'm fine," Izzy dismissed as she refused to meet Alec's eyes, leaning against the desk. 

"You don't seem fine." 

Izzy sighed as she finally looked at her brother. "I'm just tired." 

Alec didn't believe it for a second. 

"You know, you're the one who told me that I'm ok, I'm just tired and I'm fine are the three most common lies, especially with women." 

"You remember that? That was when you and Serena were dating and she was scared to open up to you." 

Alec almost bought it. 

"Don't change the subject Izzy. Something's going on with you. I can see it and Serena can feel it. We just want to help." 

Izzy's expression grew annoyed. 

"I don't need your help because nothing's wrong. So why don't you and your wife mind your own business?" 

Izzy went to turn around but Alec grabbed her arm. 

"Whatever's wrong with you is affecting Serena which makes it our business," he persisted and Izzy tore her arm from Alec's grip. 

"Nothing's wrong with me!" she seethed quietly, tried to avoid drawing attention to them. "So leave me alone Alec." 

Alec only sighed as he complied with her request, going to check ops for a new hunt because he needed to vent his frustration. He just wanted to help his baby sister. 

Little did he know that she needed his help more than ever. 

Because the second Alec was gone, Izzy resumed her search for vampires, for her next fix.

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Serena found it hilariously annoying that the second you mention Clary being in trouble to her brother, he's up off his ass.

Clary had taken things into her own hands as usual, taking out Serena with a taser and knocking-out Luke before escaping the Jade Wolf with Cleophas.

When will that girl learn?!

So, after picking up Jace, who was out drinking with not one, but three Seelie girls, the trio went after them.

But both of them were beyond worried when Serena fell to the floor, clutching her ears as she tried to block out a sound that only she could hear. And this time she was certain that it was a scream.

Jace was carrying his sister as she tried to hinder the painful loudness of the scream, setting her in Luke's car as they tracked Clary.

"Cleo, you hurt her, and I'll drop you where you stand!" Luke yelled as he got out of the car, holding his gun as Clary stood in front of Cleophas.

"Wait, no!" Clary yelled.

"Clary get out of the way!" Jace yelled as he helped his sister out of the car, the girl still a bit dioriented from the screams.

"What happened to Serena?" Clary asked worriedly.

"I'm fine," the blonde persisted as she pushed her brother off her, unaware of how Cleophas was pinning her with her gaze.

"You heard the Angel's scream too, didn't you?"

Serena angled her head in confusion as she took two steps forward.

"How do you know about the scream?"

"Wait, you heard it too?" Clary asked.

"Heard what?!" Jace yelled.

"Valentine is holding an Angel captive. And Serena and Clary can hear his cries," Cleophas explained and Serena gaped as she processed the news. "To be able to hear the cry of an angel, one would have to be blessed by them. And it would appear not one, but both girls are. Serena is just more sensitive to it, almost like she's directly affected by Angel's voice itself."

"Oh, god," Serena breathed before she pushed Luke's gun down, clarity washing over her.

"What are you doing?" Jace asked.

"We have to save the Angel."