The Mortal Instruments | Shadowhunters

03. The Ravener

Even with the other girl's headstart, it was laughably easy to track down Clary. When they got to the apartment building the girl had entered, there were already police sirens wailing, and getting closer.

"What's the possibility that those police cars are for us?" Jace wondered outloud.

"Even though we just arrived?" Daphne sighed. "I wouldn't even be surprised."

There was loud banging from the upper floors, sounds of a fight going on. "On second thought," Daphne raised an eyebrow. "It seems possible it might actually be our new friend Clary the police are actually after."

"Please don't call her our friend," Jace groaned as they raced up the stairs. When they got to the room where the noises came from, where the door was already open. A mess lay inside the apartment- belongings scattered on the floor, furniture askew and many items carelessly flung aside. The entire apartment was in disarray, but they didn't have time to look through the things, as their primary focus was on the demon that lay before them.

Daphne summoned her seraph blade, and Jace grabbed his bone-handled knife as well. But the ravener was already twitching and spasming uncontrollably on the floor. It slowly rolled off, revealing a body that had been trapped underneath. Clary. 

For a brief moment, Daphne worried the girl was dead. 

Shit, Hodge is going to be so annoyed with us—

And then Clary let out a loud gasp for air, as she scrambled back away from the demon, trying to catch her breath. Her eyes were terrified and unfocused, and she hadn't seen the two fo them yet, but she had almost reached the door, when the Ravener demon's sting shot out and got her in the back of her neck. Daphne cursed, not having been fast or close enough to stop the demon, but quickly threw her blade in a swift motion, the weapon thudding into the demon's throat with a wet thwack. Handle sticking out, the demon's eyes lolled back, before it collapsed, turning into ash, and then nothing after that. 

Clary fell to the floor, eyes rolled back, unconscious. Jace had a small look of alarm on his face, as he knelt down next to the girl's body. "Ravener poison. We should get her back to the Institute quickly." He shook his head. "Poor mundie; ravener poison is a pain."

"Most poisons tend to be." Daphne agreed, kneeling over to scoop up her weapon.

"Not bad." Jace couldn't help but whistle as he stood up. "The little girl came close to killing the demon all on her own, without any prior training." There was a hint of grudging respect in his voice.

"What did I say?" Daphne shrugged. "It's the Shadowhunter blood in her."

Jace shrugged, looking down at the unconscious body beneath him. "We should probably hurry and get her out of here," he said, not sounding all that into it.

Daphne shrugged. "Alright then, let's hurry and grab her body and go."

Jace looked rather amused. "You sound like a serial killer."

"Under a different context, you and I are serial killers." Daphne pointed out.

"True," Jace mused. "And serial killer sounds just as badass as demon hunter, if not more."

"I can start calling you my serial killer partner instead, if you'd like." Daphne suggested.

"I might take you up on that," Jace said. "Though, it's a little disappointing the prey we hunt rarely leave a body behind."

"Oh yeah," Daphne remembered. "Since we can't really be caught for murder if there's no body. So then we wouldn't really be credited as serial killers."