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Jace had been right; the truck was idling Clary s Luke would never have left the car door open and the keys in the ignition like that unless so the truck, frowning "Bring that witchlight closer" He knelt down in the grass, running his fingers lightly over it Fronized: a sraved all over with delicate runes A Sensor Jace ran it over the grass and it obliged with a series of loud clicking noises, like a Geiger counter gone berserk "Definite de up heavy traces"

"Could that be left over from the demon who attacked Maia?" Sih There’s been ht" Jace rose to his feet, all business "Maybe you two should go back inside Send Alec out here He’s dealt with this sort of thing before"

"Jace--" Clary was furious all over again She broke off as soht her eye It was a flicker of movement, across the street, down by the ce about thetoo quick, too elongated to be hu "Look! By the water!"

Jace’s gaze followed hers and he sucked in his breath Then he was running, and they were running after hirass that bordered the waterfront The witchlight swung in Clary’s hand as she ran, lighting bits of the riverbank with haphazard illumination: a patch of weeds there, a jut of broken concrete that nearly tripped her up, a heap of trash and broken glass--and then, as they caure of a h the two dark, hu over him blocked his face from her view He was on his back, so close to the water that she wondered for a panickedto drown hih perfectly circular lipless ravelly riverbank His face was slack and gray

"Raum demons," Jace whispered

Sis that attacked Maia--?"

"No These are et behind him "You two, stay back" He raised his seraph blade "Israfiel!" he cried, and there was a sudden hot burst of light as it blazed up Jace leaped forward, sweeping his weapon at the nearest of the deht of the seraph blade, the demon’s appearance was unpleasantly visible: dead-white, scaled skin, a black hole for a , toadlike eyes, and arms that ended in tentacles where hands should have been It lashed out noith those tentacles, whipping them toward Jace with incredible speed

But Jace was faster There was a nasty snick sort of noise as Israfiel sheared through the deh the air The tentacle tip caray-white, tipped with blood-red suckers Inside each sucker was a cluster of tiny, needle-sharp teeth

Siree She kicked at the spasrass When she looked up, she saw that Jace had knocked the injured deether across the rocks at the river’s edge The glow of Jace’s seraph blade sent elegant arcs of light shattering across the water as he writhed and twisted to avoid the creature’s re froo to Luke or run to help Jace?--and in that moment of hesitation she heard Simon shout, "Clary, watch out!" and turned to see the second deht at her

There was no time to reach for the seraph blade at her belt, no time to remember and shout out its na her backward She went doith a cry, hitting her shoulder painfully against the uneven ground Slick tentacles rasped against her skin One braceleted her ar her throat

She grabbed frantically at her neck, trying to pull the lashing, flexible li She kicked and twisted--

And suddenly the pressure was gone; the thing was off her She sucked in a whistling breath and rolled to her knees The de at her with black, pupil-less eyes Getting ready to lunge again? She grabbed for her blade, spat: "Nakir," and a spear of light shot froel knife before The hilt of it trembled and vibrated in her hand; it felt alive "NAKIR!" she cried, staggering to her feet, the blade outstretched and pointed at the Raum demon

To her surprise, the de, almost as if it were--but this wasn’t possible--afraid of her She saw Sith of what looked like steel pipe in his hand; behind hi to his knees She couldn’t see the de; perhaps he’d killed it As for the second Rau a distressed, hooting noise, like a , dashed toward the bank and leaped into the river A gush of blackish water splashed upward, and then the de beneath the river’s surface without even a telltale spray of bubbles to mark its place

Jace reached her side just as it vanished He was bent over, panting, smeared with black deasps for breath

"I don’t know," Clary adht it off but it was too fast--and then it just left Like it saw soht?" It was Si--he didn’t breathe any a thick length of pipe in his hand

"Where did you get that?" Jace demanded

"I wrenched it off the side of a telephone pole" Siuess you can do anything when your adrenaline is up"

"Or when you have the unholy strength of the damned," Jace said

"Oh, shut up, both of you," snapped Clary, earning herself a martyred look from Simon and a leer fro for the riverbank "Or have you forgotten about Luke?"

Luke was still unconscious, but breathing He was as pale as Maia had been, and his sleeve was torn across the shoulder When Clary drew the blood-stiffened fabric away froerly as she could, she saw that across his shoulder was a cluster of circular red wounds where a tentacle had gripped hi a mixture of blood and blackish fluid She sucked in her breath "We have to get hi for them on the front porch when Simon and Jace carried Luke, slu finished with Maia, Magnus had put her to bed in Luke’s roo and let Magnus go to work on hiht?" Clary denus summoned blue fire that shimmered between his hands

"He’ll be fine Rau, but nothing I can’t handle" Magnus et back and let me work"

Reluctantly, she sank down into an arether Jace was gesturing with his hands She guessed he was explaining to Alec what had happened with the deainst the wall beside the kitchen door He seeray face and sunken eyes, Clary let her gaze rest on Si the ways in which he looked both falasses, his eyes seemed twice their size, and very dark, more black than brown His skin was pale and smooth as white marble, traced with darker veins at the teled cheekbones Even his hair seemed darker, in stark contrast to the white of his skin She re why there didn’t seely or unattractive va vaht then, but now she wondered if the va out blotched skin, adding color and luster to eyes and hair Perhaps it was an evolutionary advantage to the species Good looks could only help vampires lure their prey