She's My Parabatai

Chapter 14

"Clary!" A voice shouted to me. "Clary, wake up!" I opened my eyes to see my brother standing before me. His green eyes were wide and boyish. His hair was long, longer than I had seen it in a long time. Sebastian was seven, I knew because that was the year he wouldn't let my mother cut his hair. "Father's home!"

I remembered this. Father had left on a mission a week ago. I didn't know what it entailed, I was only six at the time. He returned in the middle of the night; Sebastian had been the first of us to find out he was home; he had tried to climb into our mother's bed after a nightmare only to find our Father sleeping there as well.

I jumped out of bed and followed my brother as we ran into the kitchen where my parents had now gotten up and were beginning to make breakfast together.

"Daddy!" I squealed as I ran towards him. He knelt down and I flung myself into his arms.

"Clarissa." He smiled as he held me close.

"I missed you, Daddy," I said. As a little girl I was so attached to my father.

He kissed my forehead. "I missed you too, Clarissa. You've been a good girl for your mother, haven't you?" I nodded excitedly. I knew what was coming.

I stood back from my father as he stood up to rummage through his bag on the counter. He handed Sebastian and I both a box. Our father always brought back presents for the two of us when he went on extended missions.

Sebastian opened his first. Inside was a book, a big, fresh new book. "Wow," my brother said in amazement. It was a book on heroes of all kinds, mythological ones like King Arthur and real mundanes as well. Sebastian had a fascination with heroes when he was a child.

Inside my box was another small porcelain box. Carefully, I opened it and a soft chime of music came out. Closing the box, I found that the music stopped. I opened it again to let the entire tune play.

"It's what mundanes call a music box," my father explained. The music stopped. "Just turn the dial on the side here and-" he turned it a couple of times and the music began again.

"Thank you, Daddy!" I exclaimed. It had to have been my favorite thing my father ever bought for me.

There was a knock at the door. My mother opened it to find little Isabelle standing there. "Clary! Sebastian!" Her child-like voice squeaked. "Are you ready to go?"

I was confused, this isn't what happened that day. The four of us had spent the day together, Izzy had never shown up.

I set the music box down on the counter and looked to my mother as she spoke. She suddenly looked ten years older. "Of course! You three were going to Alicante today weren't you?"

"That's right!" Izzy said. I looked at her. She was sixteen again. "We're meeting Mark and Helen, they're visiting relatives."

"Well have fun you three," my mom ushered us out the door. I barely even had a chance to glance at my father as the door shut behind me.

I turned and reopened the door, suddenly finding it dark inside the house. It was nighttime now. I turned on the lights and screamed.

My father lay dead and bloody on the floor. I backed up into somebody. Turning, I noticed it was Izzy.

"The Morning Stars will go out...one by one," she said. But it wasn't her voice. It was a deep, dark voice. Almost one of a demon. Her lips curled into a wicked smile. "One down, three to go."

Suddenly there was a knife in her hands. She stabbed Sebastian in the throat. Blood splattered, and he fell down, choking on his own blood. It was over in a few seconds.

"Two," Izzy counted.

I heard footsteps as my mother walked into the room. I wanted to scream at her to leave but no sound left my mouth.

Izzy's whip curled around my mother's neck, choking her. With brutal strength, Isabelle flung my mother across the room. I heard a sickening crack and she hit the floor.

"One left." Izzy was smiling. "Poor little girl, I thought you could protect yourself? How can you do that when you just let me kill your entire family?"

I had been screaming at myself to move but I stood frozen in the same place. I couldn't even scream.

Izzy walked up to me a whispered in my ear with the dark, cold voice. "You're weak. Always have been, always will be. And that's why you're going to die." She plunged the bloody dagger into my chest.

I woke with a start in cold sweat. It was just a dream, a nightmare. It hadn't been the first since my father died but I had been the first in a few days at least.

I pulled my knees to my chest, expecting my door to open any second. Izzy always knew when something was wrong.

The longer I stared at my door, the longer it became evident that she wasn't coming. I regretted yelling at her, I had regretted it the second the words left my mouth. Izzy and I didn't fight. We were always on the same page. Since my father's death something had shifted between us.

I glanced at the clock. It was three am. But there was no way I was going back to sleep. A part of me felt like I would slip back into that nightmare.

I dressed and quietly made my way to the training room, using a witch stone as my guide. I closed the door behind me and began sparring with a punching bag.

I punched the bag wrong and cursed as pain flared in my hand.

"That looks like it hurts," a voice said from the doorway. He was lucky I had decided not to practice my dagger throwing.

"You don't want to mess with me right now," I warned him. I was not in the mood to talk to anyone, much less Jace Herondale. Why else was I sparring in the training room at 3am?

"I think I do," Jace pushed. "Messing with you is always fun."

"Leave me the fuck alone, Jace," I told him.

He was steadily making his way towards me so that now he was standing a few feet away. "What's wrong? Little girl had a bad dream?"

I threw my hand at him in a punch but he caught my wrist. I tried with my other hand and he caught that one as well.

"Clary," he said. I struggled to get my wrists out of his grasp. "Clary, stop."

I tasted salt and realized that I was crying. By the Angel, I just had to cry in front of Jace of all people. But I had reached my breaking point.

I was too weak to protest as Jace pulled me closer to him. Close enough that my tears wet the soft fabric of his shirt.

"I know what you're going through, Clary," he said softly. "I lost my parents too, I was alone. You feel alone but you have so many people. Your mom, Sebastian, Izzy. God, what I would have killed to have known Alec like I do now when I was ten. You have people that care about you. You just have to let him."

"I hate you," I told him.

"I know." I could practically feel him smirking. I pulled back a small amount, just enough that I could see the smirk on his face and I stared at his golden eyes. Then, they got closer and closer to me.

I didn't have time to comprehend anything because the next second Jace was kissing me. And for some reason I was kissing him back. 

Author's Note: I'm back! Sorry for not updating! College has sucked all the time out of my life but I'm finally on summer break so expect updates more frequently! Two more chapters are already done and edited so I'll be posting those soon. (Thank you blacksapphirerose for editing them and putting up with the Clace XD) 

What do you guys feel about the Clace? Do you like it? I wasn't so sure on putting it in or not and then this chapter just kinda happened. Let me know! And thanks for reading!