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"He is hurting her He has no choice," Clary said She was shaking her head "That’s how it always is these days There’s never any choice" Maia cried out again and Clary gripped the edge of the counter as if she were in pain herself "I hate this!" she burst out "I hate all of it! Always being scared, always being hunted, alondering who’s going to get hurt next I wish I could go back to the way things used to be!"

"But you can’t None of us can," Siht"

She turned to him, lips parted, her eyes wide and dark "Simon, I didn’t mean--"

"I know you didn’t" He backed away, feeling as if there were soo see how they’re doing" For a ht follow him, but she let the kitchen door fall shut between thehts were on in the living rooht pulled up to her chest She was holding a wad of cloth against her right arh with blood Her eyes were shut

"Where’s Luke?" Si if his tone was too harsh, too deray hollows, her ht with pain Her eyes fluttered open and fixed on him

"Simon," she breathed "Luke went outside to hbors"

Silanced toward theHe could see the sweep of the headlights grazing the house as Luke swung the car into the driveway "How about you?" he asked "Did he get those things out of your arm?"

She nodded dully "I’h cracked lips "And--thirsty"

"I’ll get you solasses on the sideboard next to the dining roolass full of the tepid liquid and brought it to Maia His hands were shaking slightly and solass fro--Thank you, probably--when their fingers touched and she jerked back so hard that the glass went flying It hit the edge of the coffee table and shattered, splashing water across the polished wood floor

"Maia? Are you all right?"

She shrank away froainst the back of the sofa, her lips pulled away frorowl ca at bay

"Maia?" Siain, appalled

"Vampire," she snarled

He felt his head rock back as if she had slapped hiht you were hu leech"

"I ao" His ; he felt dizzy and sick "Just like you were--"

"Don’t ever co position, those ghastly yellow eyes still on hiust "I’ that feeds on blood"

"Aniet human, or the Shadowhunters will burn you alive--"

"Maia," he said, and her name in his mouth was half fury and half a plea; he took a step toward her and her hand whipped out, nails shooting out like talons, suddenly i back, his hand clapped to his face Blood coursed down his cheek, into his mouth He tasted the salt of it and his stomach rumbled

Maia was crouched on the sofa’s ares in the gray velveteen A lol poured froainst her head When she bared her teeth, they were sharply jagged--not needle-thin like his own, but strong, whitely pointed canines She had dropped the bloody cloth that had wrapped her arone in, the gli--

A sharp pain in his lower lip told his had slid froht her, to wrestle her down and puncture her skin with his teeth, to gulp her hot blood The rest of hi He took a step back and then another, his hands out as if he could hold her back

She tensed to spring, just as the door to the kitchen flew open and Clary burst into the roohtly as a cat She held soht white-silver when she raised her arantly curved as a bird’s wing; a dagger that whipped past Maia’s hair, ray velveteen Maia tried to pull away and gasped; the blade had gone through her sleeve and pinned it to the sofa

Clary yanked the blade back It was one of Luke’s The otten a look at as going on in the living room, she’d made a beeline for the personal weapons stash he kept in his office Maia h to kill, and Clary didn’t doubt her abilities

"What the hell is it with you?" As if fro, and the steel in her own voice astonished her "Werewolves, vampires--you’re both Doorlders"

"Werewolves don’t hurt people, or each other Vampires are murderers One killed a boy down at the Hunter’s Moon just the other day--"

"That wasn’t a vampire" Clary saw Maia blanch at the certainty in her voice "And if you could stop bla that happens Doorld,you seriously and actually do so about it" She turned to Si to silvery red lines "Are you all right?"

"Yes" His voice was barely audible She could see the hurt in his eyes, and for a e to call Maia a number of unprintable names "I’irl "You’re lucky he’s not as ot as you are, or I’d complain to the Clave and , she yanked the knife loose, freeing Maia’s T-shirt

Maia bristled "You don’t get it Vampires are what they are because they’re infected with deies--"

"So are lycanthropes!" Clary said "I may not know much, but I do know that"

"But that’s the problee us, make us different--you can call it a sickness or whatever you want, but the demons who created vampires and the demons who created olves came from species ere at ith each other They hated each other, so it’s in our blood to hate each other too We can’t help it A olf and a vampire can never be friends because of it" She looked at Si else "You’ll start hating h," she said "You’ll hate Luke, too You won’t be able to help it"

"Hate Luke?" Simon was ashen, but before Clary could reassure hi Luke, but it wasn’t Luke It was Jace He was all in black, two seraph blades stuck through the belt that circled his narrow hips Alec and Magnus were just behind hi cape that looked as if it were decorated with bits of crushed glass

Jace’s golden eyes, with the precision of a laser, fixed ietic, concerned, or even asha All he looked was angry "What," he said, with a sharp and deliberate annoyance, "do you think you’re doing?"

Clary glanced down at herself She was still perched on the coffee table, knife in hand She fought the urge to hide it behind her back "We had an incident I took care of it"

"Really" Jace’s voice dripped sarcasm "Do you even kno to use that knife, Clarissa? Without poking a hole in yourself or any innocent bystanders?"