She's My Parabatai

Chapter 5

"We should start by searching that Lovelace's room," Jace suggested.

"Why?" I asked. "Sebastian already ruled him out as a suspect."

"It's the nice ones you always gotta watch out for," Jace said. "How much do we really know about him? What if its just a front? What if he really is the one doing this? That Lovelace that my great whatever knew, I remember something about her betraying the London Institute. George could have it in him."

I decided not to mention the fact that George wasn't actually of Lovelace descent because he had been adopted. But... he did have a point about it always being the quiet ones. "Fine, we go to George's room first."

"Isabelle," a deep voice said from the corridor. The three of us turned to see a man standing there: Robert Lightwood. "Neither you or your brother reported what happened with Magnus this morning." Crap. We were caught.

"Right! Sorry, we forgot," Izzy said. "Um, I'll come with you now!" She followed her dad off, turning her head towards me to mouth 'sorry.' She was leaving me alone with Jace Herondale.

"And then there were two," Jace commented. "Come on, we have a lot of rooms to search." Following after the blond, I found myself surprised that he hadn't made some sarcastic comment to me.

We entered George's room to find that it was as sparse as mine had been when I arrived. The only thing that was out of place was a suitcase on the bed. I supposed he hadn't had the chance to unpack yet.

Jace unzipped the suitcase as I walked around the room opening drawers making sure there was nothing there. I glanced at Jace and couldn't help but thinking that we were invading the Ascended's privacy. But it had to be done.

"No vampire fangs here," the blond said zipping back up the suitcase. "The rest of the Ascended's rooms are in this hallway. We can split them up between the two of us."

I nodded and entered the room across the hallway. It looked like a girl's room with a frilly bedsheet and clothes thrown around. It was a complete mess. I delicately walked through the room, picking up clothes and checking inside pockets. I then made sure I put them back exactly like I found them. It took forever.

"You done yet?" Jace's voice floated from the doorway. I was just finishing up the room, checking in the closet. "I already checked the other four."

"How did you manage that already?" I knew I had taken a while but not that long. I closed the closest door and tip-toed around all the clothes on the floor.

"Because they weren't a mess like this room," Jace shrugged. "But no vampire fangs."

I nodded. "I didn't find them in here either." I voiced a thought I had had halfway through looking through the room. "Why would someone hide them in their own room? Wouldn't they hide them someplace else?"

Jace shook his head. "Whoever took them...they want to show it off as some sort of trophy. They wouldn't just leave them around some place for someone else to find."

"Then they must have it on them," I concluded. "We've searched all the Ascended's' rooms."

Jace shook his head. "We haven't checked everybody's yet," he said as he started walking down the corridor. I followed after him.

"Didn't we decide it had to be an Ascended? Who's left?" I questioned. Was there someone else living here that no one had mentioned before?

Jace didn't say anything. Then, I realized where he was going. "Jace!" I shouted. I ran in front of him to stop him. "Sebastian didn't do it! You were there when he cleared himself!"

The blonde crossed his arms. "I never agreed that he was in the clear."

I stared him down...or up. He was taller then me. "Sebastian didn't do it," I repeated, more forcefully this time.

"Then let me check his room. Prove his innocence."

I sighed, frustrated. "Fine! If this is the only way you can get it through your thick skull that my brother didn't kill the vampire!"

Jace chuckled at my outburst and pushed past me, walking further down the hallway until he reached Sebastian's room. I stood in the doorway as he began going through my brother's things. He wasn't very careful and started throwing stuff around.

It took ten minutes before Jace was satisfied that the vampire fangs weren't in Sebastian's room. He started walking over to me, out of the room. "See? I told you Sebastian didn't do it."

Suddenly the wood creaked underneath Jace's feet. One panel of wood sounded different than the others. The shadowhunter stopped and tapped the wood with his foot. It sounded odd. He knelt down and knocked on it. A hollow sound echoed.

"It's hollow," Jace said. "There's something underneath here." I held my breath as he removed the panel of wood.

My heart stopped as he pulled out a small leather pouch. When he turned it upside down to empty it two white teeth fell into his hand. The vampire fangs.

"That's impossible..." There was no why Sebastian could have done it. I didn't believe it.

Jace put the fangs back in the bag and placed the bag back in the secret compartment. He replaced the wood panel. He quickly stood up, grabbing my wrist. "Come with me." I was still too shell-shocked to argue.

Before I knew it we were entering my room. Jace closed the door behind us and locked it.

I looked at him. "Are you happy now? Proving that my brother is a liar as well as a murderer?" I could feel myself fighting back tears. After everything that had happened recently I couldn't take this too.

"Clary-" Jace started but I cut him off.

"That was a rhetorical question. Of course you're happy! You suspected Sebastian instantly! Oh look, Jace was right again," I laughed dryly.

"Clary, shut up!" Jace hissed. "Sebastian didn't do it!"

I stared at him. "What?" Now I was confused. "We just found the fangs in his room."

"It's too easy," he told me.

"But you said if we find the fangs we find the killer-"

"Actually, you said that, if you remember correctly," Jace pointed out.

"But you agree-"

"Actually, I didn't." Jace had gotten me very confused. "All this? It's too easy. Find the fangs, find the killer. Obviously, the real killer would have realized we were going to think that. They had to think of something else." Finally, I was catching on.

"So... they hid the fangs in someone else's room." I looked at Jace as I realized something. "They're trying to pit us against each other."

Jace nodded. "If we're fighting amongst ourselves we'll be too preoccupied to notice them."

"So what were the vampire fangs then? A distraction?" I asked.

"Most likely," he agreed.

"Then the question is...what were they distracting us from?"