City of All Things Ruined - A Mortal Instruments Fan Fiction (COMPLETED)

Chapter 59

CHAPTER 59 - HANDCUFFS

JACE

 I couldn’t sleep at all.

When I heard Clary screaming, I stopped working completely – I mean my mind stopped working. I was just stood, frozen, for a good ten seconds when I could have been helping her, stuck like a deer in the headlights.

Clary looked so scared when I saw her. She’s brave, nearly fearless, but to see her screaming and crying alone in her room, I nearly snapped. Not wanting to pry, I didn’t ask much more about her dream, but I know it must have been bad to have this kind of reaction from her.

 She fell asleep almost as soon as I laid down next to her, and I love that I have that effect on her – calming, I mean.

 About ten minutes after she had fallen asleep, I circled my index finger and thumb around her wrist and lifted it, and I nearly broke down at the sight. In each of her palms, there were four crescent shape nail-marks that had torn through the skin, and blood was caked around the wounds.

So as not to wake her, I quietly lifted her hand to my lips, and kissed her hand gently. I don’t really know why I did it, but I heard Clary sigh contentedly in her sleep, so I repeated the action on alternating palms for a good half an hour.

She was an angel, both in sleep and out.

 Sometimes, I think that I never should have followed her the first time I saw her in Pandemonium: I could have spared her so much pain and suffering.

 On the other hand, if I hadn’t had followed her, I wouldn’t even know her, and I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have Clary. She means the world to me, and as much as I wish I hadn’t dragged her into all this, I’m happy that I did, like the selfish bastard I am.

 “Jace...?” Clary mumbles, her eyes fluttering beneath her eyelids, a sign she was awake, but too tired to get up.

 “Yeah?” I answer quietly, mentally kicking myself as Clary winces at the volume of my voice.

 “Are you mad at me?” She mumbled, arcing her back upwards and stretching her hands above her head.

 “Clary, why would I be mad at you?” I answer confusedly.

 Clary sighed beside me, then rubbed her eyes with the back of her injured hands, “You thought I was kissing Sebastian back at Devils Dice,”

Oh.

I can tell that she remembers the feeling of being around me, but she's still talking like I don't know anything about her, like she doesn't FULLY remember me.

 I decide to choose my words carefully. “Um, I know you were kissing him back, but I understand that the demon blood gives you... kinda... mood swings, so its perfectly understandable.”

Clary bit her lip, then said “I swear, I was just kissing him back to keep him occupied. Who do you think let you out of the cupboard?”

Again, oh. I hadn't really thought of that.

“And about my mood swings,” Clary said, lifting herself into a sitting position, her head resting against the headboard, “if I look like I’m about to do something crazy, I give you permission to restrain me,”

“You mean like... handcuffs?” I wink at her, and she rolls her eyes at me as I begin to sultrily wiggle my eyebrows. I can tell she thinks I'm joking, and I kind of am, but I'm kind of not...

FOCUS JACE.

 “You are SUCH a boy!” Clary laughs under my suggestive gaze.

“Well that’s a relief,” I reply in mocking sarcasm, “It’s good to know that after 18 years of life, someone finally discovers my secret identity...”