Phase One (Book One: Experiment Series TMI)✔

.CHAPTER TWO.

I'm already starting to regret the idea of receiving my freedom.

I asked for a life of peace.

Not a burning city that could be the start of war.

"Valentine,"
Jace said, his face a deathly pale as he stared down at the city.

Through the layers of smoke, I could almost glimpse the narrow city streets, blurred with running figures, tiny black ants darting desperately to and fro- but when I looked again and there was nothing, nothing but thick clouds of black vapor and the smell of fire and smoke.

"You think Valentine did this?" Clary choked out. "It looks like a fire. Maybe it started on its own-"

"The North Gate is open." Jace pointed towards something a normal person would barely be able to make out, given the distance and the smoke.
But I did.

"It's never left open. And the demon towers have lost their light. The wards must be down." He said, drawing out a seraph blade from his belt amd clutching it so tightly, his knuckles turned white. "I have to get over there."

A look of dread passed Clary's features. "Simon-" she said.

Who the heck is Simon?

"They'll have evacuated him from the Gard. Don't worry, Clary. He's probably
better off than most down there. The demons aren't likely to bother him. They tend to leave Downworlders alone." Jace assured her, his voice surprisingly gentle.

"I'm sorry," Clary whispered. "The Lightwoods - Alec - Isabelle -"

"Jahoel," Jace said, and the angel blade flared up, bright as daylight in his left hand, which I now saw was bandaged.

"Clary, I want you to stay here with Francine. I'll come back for you both." The anger that had been in his eyes since they'd left the manor had evaporated. He was all soldier now.

Clary shook her head, though I was completely fine with staying back. "No. I want to go with you." she protested.

"Clary-" He broke off, stiffening all over as did I. A heavy, rhythmic pounding, and laid over that, a sound like the crackling of an enormous bonfire.

"Werewolves." Jace and I said at the same time, staring past Clary. Streaming over the nearest hill like a spreading shadow, illuminated here and there with fierce bright eyes.

A pack of wolves- more than a pack.
There must have been hundreds of them, even a thousand. Their barking and baying had been the sound like a fire, and it rose up into the night, brittle and harsh.

Suddenly, I felt this alien urge to kill. Kill anything living in my path. My finger tips started to itch uncontrollably. Mortified, I looked down to see my tips morphing into cruel wolf claws. I curled them around my sword hilt, hiding them from sight.

Maybe it was a reaction from being surrounded by so many werewolves. Whatever it was, nobody can know.

Nobody can know my secret.

Jace swore once.

Suddenly he pulled Clary tightly against him, his free arm wrapped around her, and with his other hand he raised Jahoel high over their heads. The light of the blade was blinding. I gritted her teeth, shielding my eyes with one hand.