She's My Parabatai

Chapter 10

My hand flew to my dagger hidden under my dress. I wasn't exactly equipped to fight a vampire but it would have to do.

I didn't understand though, Javier was alive and well when we left him. Someone must have snuck in there right after we left and killed him.

"We didn't kill Javier!" I shouted across the street, trying to buy time. I had seen Izzy dialing a number behind her back on her phone. "He was alive when we left! It must have been someone else."

"Liar!" The blonde vampire hissed. "He had one of your runes on his chest! Just like Miles!"

Then...the killer had been at the party. Izzy and I probably walked right past him and didn't realize.

"You won't live to see this end of this night, shadowhunters!" The vampire threatened. "Attack!" The horde of vampire immediately descended upon us.

Wordlessly, Izzy and I turned and ran in the other direction. We weren't generally afraid to fight vampires, but there was just way too many of them for the two of us to take on alone.

"Clary," Izzy breathed and tossed me a wooden stake. I noticed that she also held one. She must have been hiding them under her dress or in her purse. Probably smarter than a dagger.

I could feel the vampires gaining on us, it wouldn't be long before we had to fight.

"Duck!" A voice shouted and Izzy and I did the sensible thing, we ducked. Half a second later a stake hurled over our heads, puncturing the front running vampire in the heart. As the vampire died the others halted.

As I got to my feet I noticed Jace standing before us. Of course, it had to be him. Izzy and I stood with him. The vampires had caught up now, there would be no more running away. The three of us would have to do.

Then, they charged. I struck the first one that lunged at me in the heart, ripping out the stake fast as another one came at me. I impaled that one as well.

"Where are Alec and Sebastian?" Izzy questioned Jace as she stabbed a vampire.

"On their way," he said as he threw a lighter at a vampire. It went up in flames and fortunately it was near two others and they lit up as well.

That was enough of a distraction to let us turn and run again. When Alec and Sebastian joined us, we would be able to take them.

Looking up ahead I noticed the institute wasn't far, a couple blocks at most. We were almost there. The vampires couldn't follow us inside and that also meant...

An arrow flew by me and pierced one of the vampires in the heart. Looking at the roof of the buildings I noticed Alec standing there with his bow.

"Clary!" Sebastian's voice shouted. My brother was running towards us. He held two blades in his hands, one shorter than the other.

I reached my hand out as he tossed me Heosphoros. I smiled as I gripped the hilt. Now we were talking.

The vampires descended upon us again and I slashed out at the nearest one with my blade. The vampire shrieked as the blade burned him. Heosphoros was an angelic blade, it burned vampires. It was enough to light the vampire up in flames.

"Clary!" Izzy shouted. She had lost her stake and was only fighting with her whip. Which was not doing her much good when faced with a horde of vampires.

She held a vampire off with her whip but another was descending fast upon her. I threw my last dagger and stake at the same time.

The silver dagger impaled itself in the vampire's shoulder. It wasn't the best shot I could have made but it served its purpose: distracting the vampire long enough for Izzy to kill him.

Izzy caught the stake and while the vampire was pulling out the dagger she stabbed him in the heart.

"Enough!" A voice shouted. The vampires all stopped. The five of us stopped as well, but we didn't put our weapons away, we were still ready.

Coming through the crowd was the blonde vampire from earlier. "You've killed enough of my kind, I'm putting a stop to this."

"What did you expect? You sent a horde after us. We're shadowhunters, of course we're going to fight," I told her.

"You have murdered two of mine in cold blood," the vampire replied. "I had every right to send my vampires after you."

"We didn't kill anybody!" I snapped. "Especially not Javier. He was helping us catch whoever killed Miles, giving us information."

"No? The two of you just happened to exit the same room that he was found dead in seconds later." Her reasoning did make a lot of sense...if I didn't know that Izzy and I didn't murder Javier.

"It had to be someone else," Izzy backed me up. "Someone slipped into the room after we left. Or was already in there."

"Why should I believe you? What have you shadowhunters ever brought us than death?" I didn't really have an answer for the vampire. All we really did was kill them. "I knew I never should have entrusted you shadowhunters in finding this killer when he is obviously one of your own."

"If the killer is a shadowhunter then it is our business to handle," Jace spoke up. "They will be punished according to Clave law."

The blond vampire narrowed her eyes. She was probably wondering if crossing the Clave was worth it or not. "You have two days. Find the killer within two days and you Nephilim may punish him as you see fit. If not...I will take matters into my own hands." Without waiting for an answer she turned and left the way she came, taking the surviving vampires with her. A few hissed at us as they passed but all followed.

I looked to the bodies of the fallen vampires, the ones who had not burned. I set to stabbing them with my blade. Burning the bodies was a lot easier than moving and burying them.

When I was finished I looked to Jace, he was lighting the last vampire with a seraph blade. Questions burned in my mind. The one at the forefront being, how had he gotten there so fast? He obviously hadn't been at the Institute like Alec and Sebastian were otherwise he would have arrived at the same time as them. Was he the one that killed Javier? Did he really kill Miles? Javier did say blond hair and a hood....Jace's jacket had a hood. It could just be coincidence but after my conversation with Sebastian I wasn't so sure.

"Who's checking who out now?" Jace smirked. I wanted to throw my other dagger at him but then remembered I had thrown it at the vampire in the fight.

"I'm not checking you out," I told him. "I was just wondering how you got there so fast."

Jace shrugged. "I was in the neighborhood when Izzy called. I tracked Izzy's phone and then called Alec for backup." I caught Sebastian's eye. He didn't seem convinced either. I knew he still suspected Jace.

"I think you all owe me an apology," my brother spoke up. "Obviously I didn't kill this Javier, ask Alec, I was at the Institute."

"I'm sorry, Sebastian, we never should have doubted you." I was happy when Izzy was the first to speak. Finally, she was backing me up in this.

Alec mumbled some sort of an apology but Jace remained silent until Izzy nudged him. "Fine, whatever, I'm sorry."

I simply smiled at Sebastian happy I didn't have to pretend to the others that I suspected him anymore. "Clary...aren't you going to apologize to your brother? I mean he is your own flesh and blood?" Jace commented...and I was caught. "Wait, you told him didn't you?"

"I-"

"I can't believe you!" He shouted. "We had a deal!"

"What are you guys talking about?" Sebastian asked confused. And of course he was, I had never told him we were only pretending to suspect him, as far as he knew I had really thought he was the murderer.

"Obviously we need to talk about whatever this is," Alec pointed out. "I know a place we can go, somewhere we won't be overheard."