Love & Revenge

Chapter 6- "I Wish I Could Forget...."

 Chapter 6- "I Wish I Could Forget...."

Jace stood in the hall, pondering. After about a minute, he finally decided what to do. "Hey, Hodge. I think I'll actually take you up on that offer.

"Great! Just come over here, Jace." Hodge motioned over to him. Jace came and stood next to Hodge, who was finishing setting up some punching dummies in the spare practice room. "What do you need advice about?" he asked.

"Girls." Jace crossed his arms. Hodge laughed.

"Girls? Jace, getting girls is just as easy as slaying a ravener demon. Well, at least in your case. I was never one who was good with girls. That was always Val—" Hodge's neck tattoo burned as he said the name "Valentine." Jace looked up with concern, but Hodge waved him off. "Anyway, what's the matter with you, Jace? You always have girls! Ah! Wait......is there one in particular that's getting you down? Is she that good?" Hodge put a hand on Jace's shoulder and looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah. She's just.....perfect. There's no other way to describe her. She's exactly what I always dreamed for in a girl. But....."

"But...?" Hodge asked, raising the other eyebrow.

"She has feelings for someone else..." Jace said, his voice trailing off.

"By the way you look, you know who it is. Jace, you'll feel better if you tell me. Come on," Hodge smiled at Jace. Isabelle's words echoed in Jace's mind. "Don't tell anyone." Jace smirked. I can trust Hodge, plus, Hodge doesn't know it's Clary.

"Okay....She.." Jace sighed. "She's.." Jace couldn't believe how difficult it was to get it out. "She's in love with Alec." When he said it out loud it truly was a punch to the stomach.

"Oh! Oh! Ouch, that's gotta hurt! I mean— Alec?" Hodge was laughing so hard that he could barely keep talking. "Alec? As in Lightwood? Your parabatai, Alexander Lightwood?"

"Yes, Hodge. That Alec." Even though Hodge didn't know that they were talking about Clary, it felt all the same in embarrassment.

"Okay, okay. I know I'm being mean. But Jace, why is this bothering you? So what, a pretty girl you like actually likes your brother. There are other girls out there that you'll like, trust me."

"No! It's just that C— she's basically pining over him and he doesn't even notice! It's like he's blind to the wavelength called 'love!'"

"Well, no, actually. Though it may seem like Alec is blind to love when it concerns him, he's actually not. He always thinks that it's a ploy or a trick. Every girl that the two of you have ever met likes you, Jace, not Alec. That's why he might not be picking up on this girl's feelings. He's gotten so use to being ignored that romantic love just kinda...shut down for him." Hodge shook his head and frowned.

"So it's sorta my fault?" Jace bit his lip.

"Yes, and no. You can't help that you're the one girls automatically gravitate towards, but it also doesn't help that you've always outranked your brother and shined a little bit brighter than he does."

"But that's what getting me! If— this girl.... likes Alec instead of me, what did he do to get noticed? What does my brother have that I don't?!" Jace had to keep his voice down so that Clary and Alec wouldn't hear him through the walls. He waited for Hodge's answer but it never came. "Hodge?" Jace asked him. Finally he spoke.

"Alec is exactly what you can never be: the shadow to a shining star. I was in the same position in my parabatai relationship. There will always be a dark to a light. The unnoticed to the recognized. That's one thing that you can never be. And if this girl likes the shadow to your light, then she will never love as more than a friend." Hodge's words hit Jace like a slap to the face. "I'm sorry, Jace."

"No, no. Thank you, Hodge. You put everything into perspective. I just....I just wish that I could forget I ever found out." Jace's mind took flash images of what he remembered: the drawing, his dream, Isabelle's panicked face, Alec and Clary sword fighting in the training room. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't even notice Hodge's face take on a new expression.

"Maybe you can, Jace." Hodge smiled at him.

"How?" Jace asked, his interest peaked.

"Well, someone that I know is very good at making serums and formulas. And lucky for me, he came and dropped off one of his newest creations to me last night. But lucky for you, it so happens to be a memory serum." Hodge turned around and opened a panel on the floor with his stele. When he turned back around to Jace, he was holding a syringe with a blue liquid inside.

"Hodge?" Jace backed up a bit.

"Don't worry, Jace. Everything that happened within the last forty-eight hours will seem like a bad dream." Hodge came towards him, the long needle gleaming in the light.

"Hodge? Why are you doing this?" Jace was beginning to panic.

"Well, Jace. It's what you wished for. There are ways to forget." With those last words, he lunged at Jace and stuck the needle into his neck. As soon as the serum's effects set in, Jace's vision began blackening at the edges. The last thing he saw was Hodge smiling evilly down at him before his world went dark.

I'm sorry about how many chapters are about Jace, I just want to get some things out of the way first. Also I'm sorry about how short this chapter was. Oh, and if anyone has any concerns about Magnus....well, I'll get to that later.