2. Chapter 2 (1/2)

it was around 12:30 when clary and isabelle came through the door. the party had ended around 12, and everyone was gone, except jace, simon, magnus, and alec. jace gasped at the sight of them, and rushed to help, the others at his heels.

they were both dressed in clubbing clothes, clary in a strapless, backless, skintight green dress that reached the tops of her thighs, and isabelle in a short, skin-tight white dress and black thigh-high socks, but clary was limping, her left leg covered in blood with a large black… stinger/claw-like thing sticking out the top of her thigh. there was a large cut on her stomach, that was gushing blood, and she had several large cuts covering the expanse of her body. there was a laceration cut on her hairline, that made blood pour down the right side of her face. isabelle, on the other hand was unharmed other than a cut on her right shoulder. isabelle was holding the arm clary had wrapped around the isabelle's neck, and had her other arm around clary's waist.

clary collapsed, falling onto her right side,before rolling onto her back, her left leg raised slightly, so it wouldn't hit the ground. isabelle knelt by her leg, while sebastian and jonathan knelt by her head, looking her over.

"what the hell happened? are you alright?"

jace was about to make a somewhat witty, but mostly concerned remark about how she looked like a million bucks, when she surprised everyone by laughing. "are you… kidding… that was… the most… fun… i've had in… forever."

she continued to laugh, pausing to groan a few times, before she gasped, her back arching up off the floor, before slowly going back, her eyes fluttering closed.

sebastian shook her slightly, but when nothing happened, jonathan slapped her cheeks lightly, saying her name loudly. she groaned. "not so hard, jon!"

he moved back an inch. "sorry. our telepathy wasn't working so i had to make sure you were still alive."

huh?

"sorry… i can't keep it up… when my energy is so… low. it's almost impossible for me to… be able to concentrate on fighting… the poison in my blood… keep the glamour around us… and make a portal… all the while keeping up… the telepathy. my mind can't focus… on projecting so many things at… once. i should've… explained that earlier."

sebastian shook his head. "who cares about that right now. we need to heal you."

they turned towards her leg to see several fading iratzes, which weren't working. alec shook his head. "i've been trying the whole time you guys were talking. nothing's working."

magnus pushed his way through kneeling by her torso, and laying a hand on her chest and forehead. "the poison is spreading at an irregularly fast rate. too fast. it'll reach her heart in a matter of minutes."

he flicked his finger, and the stinger/ claw yanked itself from her leg, and flew across the room, and into the trash can. jace

aced himself for the scream of pain, but it never came, replaced with a loud groan, and the gritting of teeth. he was surprised. he was sure she would have screamed, especially with the amount of pain she must have been feeling. he looked at her carefully, noting the tears in her eyes that were threatening to spill, and the way she seemed to be putting all of her energy into not letting them. she was trying to be strong, he realized. at the moment she was allowed to be at her most vulnerable, she was trying to be strong. most likely for her

others, but it was extraordinary nonetheless.

he watched as magnus pushed sebastian and jonathan back gently, moving to her head. he turned back towards them for a moment. "i have to extract the poison. i understand if you won't leave, but you need to stay back."

they moved back to the stairs, within watching distance, but safe from harm. magnus sighed, before his hands started to glow blue. he raised them over the crown of her head, moving slowly. when he reached her ribs, clary's back arched off the floor as far as it could go, her head thrown back, and her eyes snapping open, her mouth open as she gasped for air. she snapped her mouth shut, letting out a loud closed-mouth scream, opening her mouth occasionally to catch her

eath, letting out a moan. when he passed over her leg, she fell back against the floor, her upper body writhing. her legs seemed to be paralyzed, starting from where he kept his hand over her leg. he stayed there for about 4 minutes as she continued writhing, uncontrollably.

suddenly, he swiped his hand up her body, and she stilled for a moment, before lurching to the side, retching up black blood for almost two minutes straight, before she stopped, coughing and sputtering. she glanced at the blood that now made a large puddle in front of her. it bubbled and sizzled, tendrils of smoke rising into the air above it. she snapped her fingers and it was gone, the marble under it undamaged. she collapsed again, her head hitting the marble floors with a loud smack! they rushed forward as magnus sat down slowly, his face covered in a thin layer of sweat, his eyelids drooping.

alec went to magnus, lending him some of his strength, as the others went to clary, who was now unconscious. jon lifted her into his arms, as the others crowded around. all of her wounds were still there, but she was sleeping peacefully, which meant that her body was free of poison.

magnus stood up, some of his energy returned. "the wounds won't heal with an iratze. she'll have to heal the mundane way."

he waved his hand, and bandages appeared wrapped around her forehead, arms, thigh, and waist. jonathan and sebastian walked up the stairs, isabelle trailing behind them.

everyone else sat down in the living room, in a daze. jace was trying to decide whether this was all just a dream, or if that really had just happened. he was ripped from his reverie when they came back down the steps, isabelle ahead of them.

she nodded at them. "she's fine. she probably won't wake up until around 6 p.m tomorrow though.''

alec stood up. "that's good and all, but do you mind telling us exactly what the hell happened?"