TMI; The Herondale Secret

Chapter fifteen

I just sit there staring at him, with my eyebrows raised. He looks back at me, as if waiting for me to tell him my life story. Not going to happen!

I get up and walk over to the window. I position myself and sit in the window sill and stare out at the night sky. It's still spitting outside but most of it has cleared. There are no stars to look at and the sky is just black, so I don't know the point of why I even came over here. I guess to avoid Jace's unspoken questions, which are inevitable.

I hear footsteps approaching me from behind, which is obviously Jace. He stops next to me, on the other side of the window sill and leans against the frame.

"What do you want, Jace?" I ask

"I want you to tell me the truth. I want to know what's bothering you," he says.

"Well, pull up a chair, we could be here all night," I say sarcastically. Jace walks over to the desk in the corner of the room, walks back over to the window sill and places the chair across from me. He takes a seat, making himself comfortable and rests his feet on the window sill in front of me.

"I was kidding. You know that, right?" I say, cause he either didn't hear the sarcasm (unlikely) or he just ignored it.

"I know, but you're going to tell me anyway," he says and it wasn't a request. I sigh and decide it can't hurt for him to know a little about me.

"I don't know where to start!" I say telling the truth.

"Just start from the beginning," he says, happy I've actually given in.

"Well, when a mummy and a daddy love each other very much..." I start being a smart ass, but Jace cuts me off.

"Ok! Ok! Enough, I've already had the 'Birds and the Bee's' lesson," he says and I smirk. "Ok, how about, who are your parents?"

"I don't know for sure. I dumped of the doorstep of a orphanage when I was born," I start.  "I lived there for anly a month before I was adopted  a mundane family in New Orleans. They didn't care for me much at all. I was neglected and abused when I as young. I ran away at the age of about 7. I was picked up by some travelling shadowhunters in town. They took me in and might as well have adopted me. They taught my how to fight, protect myself and everything about the shadow world. They really cared for me. I was as spoiled as anything, as they didn't have any children of their own. I felt at home for the first time in my life."

"When I was about 14, they were sent on a major assignment for the Clave." I continue "They were sent to neutralize an enemy of theirs in New Orleans, which was the whole reason they were there in the first place. They were sent in undercover for a while, to observe them for the Clave. They were meant to handle the threat then and there but they found me and returned home before they could get close."

"Why didn't they send in the New Orleans shadowhunters?" Jace asks, confused.

"Because there aren't any." I say. "They were chased out and killed just less than 100 years ago, by an army of vampires. Anyway, they returned when I was 14 to finish the job. These particular vampires were extremely dangerous. Their leader was sired by one of the original vampires, and he happened to be in town. The originals are dangerous, but this particular one is a monster. He is what they call a hybrid; half vampire and half werewolf."

"They tried to go in there, storm their compound and neutralize the threat by themselves. They didn't know the original was there.They were slaughtered. They never even stood a chance."

"Oh, that's awful!" Jace says.

"That's not even the worst part. The Clave knew he was there and they knew exactly who he was. They sent them in there anyway.They never sent anyone to try to stop them and any messages. They set them up to fail. They set them up to die!" My voice is really shaky and tears are running down my face and onto the wooden window sill.

Jace moves out of his chair and sits next to me in the window sill. He puts his arm around my shoulder and I lean my head on his and continue crying. I have never cried in front of anyone since the night they told my adoptive parents died. I was a wreck. I didn't stop crying for weeks. When i finally did, I became a stone hard rock. I didn't show emotions at all. I shut out everyone and shielded my self from ever being hurt again. I adopted a sarcastic attitude as a shield, though it came naturally.

"I feel so alone all the time," I say sitting up straight and wiping away my tears. "I shut everyone out because I was afraid of being hurt again. I could never live with the pain."

"You're not alone though," Jace says looking at me with a weak smile. "You have all of us now. Me, Clary, Alec, Isabel, Maryse. All of us. And you could have a family out there."

"Both of my parents are dead. But I have half brother, if I'm right about who my parents are. But he probably won't believe me if I told him." I say.

"Well, can you contact him?" Jace asks. "You never know, he might already know and could be looking for you."

"He's not believe me," I say. "I can only imagine what he would say if I told him. He would probably call me crazy."

"He might not too," he says. "If both of your parents are dead, then one of his is too, if not both. I'm sure he would love to have a little sister to annoy the hell out of. Come on, what's his name?"

I take a deep breath and look straight at Jace debating with myself whether or not I should tell him. Telling him win out in the end.

"His name is Jonathan Herondale," I say and I squeeze my eyes shut.