Ain't No Rest for the Wicked

Jace wandered around the institute aimlessly as he thought to himself. Alec and Isabelle where around the building somewhere but he didn't know where.

The large building was eerily quiet as the blonde haired shadowhunter walked throught the corridors passing paintings of various people. Some alive some dead. Jace passed several doors until he came to a stop outside one door that was all too familiar to him

Clary's room. A room that he passes everyday and no matter how many times he has done it the empty feeling that hollows his body everytime he passes never stops.

He missed her. He missed her a lot.

"JACE!" It was Alec that pulled his attention away from the red haired girl.

---

Maria walked around the coven to restless to sleep. While the others slept soundly her mind was racing with the new news she had recieved from her leader.

There was a new vampire getting around.  A vampire that didn't have a coven. A vampire that seemed to prefer the company of humans.  This vampire was differnet to all she knew. This mew vampire was a day lighter.  He was able to walk in the sun and not burn.

Maria would do anything to be able to walk in the sub again. Instead she is confined to darkness. Stalking under the shadow of the moon.

"Maria..." came the deep voice of Lorcan one of the few vampires in her coven he liked. Lorcan was the same age as Maria both mentally and physically. The two had been turned a week between each other.

"Lorcan... what are you..."

"I can hear your thinking... this nee vampire... Simon has your thoughts going a million miles an hour." The dark haired female looked down. "That and the constant tapping of your shoes is making havoc on my sensitive ears."

"Sorry but..."

"I know... he is a daylighter... you know what Ignatius said... tonight you can go after him... no sooner..."

"I know but..."

"Maria please get some rest... you need it." Looking down the vampired  nodded her head before listening to Lorcan as he walked off returning to sleep. Slowly she followed after him.

Simon was acting strange, he had been for quite sometime now. That was the conclusion that Ella had come to as of late. While she hadn't been living with her mother and younger brother for very long now, she and her mother didn't exactly see eye to eye so, when her grandparents offered to pay for her to attend this private school upstate she took them up on their offer almost immediately. When she wasn't away at school for ten months out of the year, she made sure that she was home as little as she possibly could be.

Though, as of recently, even though she wasn't exactly home 24/7, she was able to pick up on her brother's sudden change in behavior. There was certainly something off about him. He was jumpy sometimes...more on edge, and spent a hell of a lot of time being rather secretive. She knew that, more often than not, he was spending time with Clary, but that didn't really explain his sudden change in behavior at all. If anything, Clary seemed to be a staple in Simon's life. The two had been friends since they were six and, even though Ella wasn't there to witness it as often as she used to be, she knew that her brother was still constantly pining over the redhead.

As she exited her room, having decided that she wanted a cup of coffee or maybe tea...yeah, tea sounded good actually, her brother nearly ran her over as he started toward's the front door. "Where're you off to in such a rush?" She crossed her arms, punctuating her words with a raised eyebrow.

---

Simon was horrible at this. Not so much the whole being a vampire thing. The real problem was keeping it all a secret from his mother and sister Ella who suddenly seemed to be around much more than she used to be. Just his luck too. He didn't have to worry about Rebecca, who had a family of her own, and Ella had never really been much of a concern, seeing as she was normally off doing her own thing, avoiding their mother, or away at school for ten months out of the year, but that didn't seem to be the case anymore. Of course it wasn't. Now, on top of keeping this from his mother, Simon had to worry about his sister snooping around his room when he wasn't home. That was freaking great. Just plain wonderful.

As he exited his room, being sure to close the door behind him, he hoped that Ella would respect his privacy and that she wouldn't go snooping around in there, he nearly ran right into said sister as he started towards the front door. The last thing he needed right now was for his sister to find the stash of blood he kept in there. He was planning on meeting up with Clary, they were actually meeting up with Isabella and Alec at Taki's, no Jace as far as he knew, though now it seemed as though a session of twenty questions was about to begin. That was always how it was with Ella though. It was never a simple question and answer, it was question after question after question. "Just getting lunch with Clary." He said nonchalantly, giving his shoulders a shrug as he silently prayed that she'd just take that for an answer and leave him be.

"Jace, you need to move on from her," Alec stated as the two males walked down the corridors of the Institute. Anger began to simmer inside the blonde haired Shadowhunter,  it was so easy for someone to say move on, forget them, but in reality it's so much harder.

"She was nothing more then an annoying brat anyway," before Jace could stop himself his fist had collided with Alec's jaw.

"Don't talk about her like that!" He growled harshly wathing as a ribbon of blood trailed down the dark haired boys lip before spinning and storming off.

---

Maria lay in silence waiting for the sun to set. The brown haired vampire was desperate to get out of her home and search for this Simon Lewis.

Ignatius had told her that she was to find him and bring him back to the coven. No vampire should remain living with humans. The only human they should be seen with is one they are feeding from.

Maria's thoughts wondered away from Ignatius instructions. Instead she began to form an image of what she thought the  new vampire may look like.

Dark hair, dark eyes, tall, skinny....

Her thoughts swirled with combinations of looks that would suit the name Simon.

[I'm sooo tired right now...work was insane today. ]

Ella gave her brother a weird look. "It's nearly 5:00 at night..." She said slowly. She could tell that her questions and scrutinizing words were getting to her brother. She wouldn't be at all surprised if he started getting defensive or snapped at her. She doubted that he wanted to stand there and answer a ton of different questions that she posed, and she normally wouldn't care what her brother did with his life, but Simon had just been acting so strange lately. Part of her wanted to joke and say how she thought that she was the weird child, but something told her that he wasn't really in a joking mood. Not with her anyway.

But now his stories weren't adding up. He always came up with excuses, not that spending time with Clary was an excuse because he was almost always with her, but there were just certain aspects of what he was telling her that just didn't make sense. And it wasn't like this was the first time it had happened either. Ella hadn't been home very long, but she'd been home long enough to pick up on Simon's change in demeanor and secretiveness.

---

"We're getting a late lunch." Simon responded quickly, maybe even a little too quickly. That was something that he mentally cursed himself for doing. Ella was smart, she wouldn't let that one slide, and he could tell quite clearly based off of the expression on her face, that she wasn't going to let him leave until she got out of this conversation what she wanted. That was just how his sister was. He was honestly starting to think that he'd much rather her be away at school. Things were a hell of a lot easier when she was.

"Well, can I come? I really don't want to sit here and eat dinner with mom. Things are already awkward and tense when we're all home." Simon knew what she was talking about. He knew that Ella and their mother didn't really see eye to eye, and though he tried making excuses to not sit down for dinner with his mother and sister, it was one thing that he couldn't weasel is way out of. So, he usually sat there, pushing food around on his plate that he never actually ended up eating, however, if he wasn't home for dinner at all, then he wouldn't have to worry about it. But that didn't mean that he wanted Ella tagging along with him.

Sure, Taki's served mundane foods, but that wasn't the problem. Isabella, who he actually got on pretty well with now, and Alec, who still didn't really like Clary very much at all, were meeting he and Clary there. And he knew that Ella would ask why she'd never met those two. She'd probably have another twenty questions to ask then too.

"No!" He said much too quickly again. "I mean...uh, I don't think you'll like where we're going...?"

[oh, that's no good ]
Jace had locked himself away from Alec and Isabelle, he sat in his room staring at the floor, the blonde haired Shadowhunter wasn't sure how much time had passed since his incident with Alec. Jace would never normally hit Alec, Alec was his brother, he meant so much to him but since everything with Clary Jace had become bitter. His mood had soured and he was easily angered at the smallest things. Groaning he buried his face in his hands before flinging himself back on his bed.

A gentle knock on the door caused him to yell out, "What?"

"Don't want me open the door," Isabelle's voice came through the wooden door, it was hard and filled with annoyance and anger. Sighing the blonde got to his feet walking to the door and pulling it open.

"Can I help you?"

"Yes! You can explain why you hit Alec."

"I didn't mean to... It was an accident, he was talking about Clary..." a scoff left the brown haired girls lips as she rolled her eyes. "What?!" Jace snapped. The brunette shook her head before grabbing the collar of his jacket and pulling him out of his room and down the corridor.

"Alec!" she called, automatically he appeared in the hallway. "We're leaving," nodding his head he fell instep with his sister knowing exactly where she was heading.

Clary and Simon.

---

Maria felt the sun dipping further in the sky, her body became alive, her senses became more alert to everything around her. Her legs became restless with anticipation for what she was to do. She just needed to find out where he was. Ignatius was sure to know that. She was excited but nervous at the same time. This was the first time Ignatius has sent her out on her own to fulfil a duty.

The brown haired vampire had no desire to let the elder down, having seen the power he posses when he is mad. Maria had watched a member of the coven be ripped apart with such ease for disobeying an order, another locked in a cemented room and starved for a month for not completing a duty. Maria had no desire to be inflicted with such torture. She would complete this, and she would complete this tonight.

[Yeah, it was crazy, haha. I'm just gonna combine Simon and Ella's post for the time being since they're kind of just going back and fourth ]

Ella sent another strange look her brother's way. He really was acting strange, and he'd responded far too quickly for her not to find his behavior to be at least somewhat suspicious. Clearly there was a reason why Simon didn't want her tagging along with him and Clary. She didn't know what that reason was, but she was determined to find out. She could be persistent as hell when she wanted to be, though some might consider her an annoyance for doing so.

"Are you sure that you're not just saying that so I won't come with you?" She asked, punctuating her words with a raised eyebrow. "Are you ashamed to be related to me? Are you embarrassed to be seen out in public with me or something, because I'm pretty sure that you're the weird one in this family." Her tone was light and teasing, though she did wonder why he didn't want her going with him. There was obviously a reason for it.

"What? No, I just---do you really want to be seen out in public with me? I thought you deemed that social suicide or something a while back." Simon said, giving his shoulders a slight shrug. It was the best excuse that he could come up with. He knew that answering a question with a question, though socratic in nature, wasn't the type of response that his sister was hoping for. She was probably hoping that he'd give in and spill the beans or something, but he wasn't going to. Not yet anyway.

"A girl can change her mind." Ella countered, still not moving from where she was standing. She wasn't going to back down on this. She didn't necessarily want to go with her brother and Clary to whatever restaurant they were going to, if they even were grabbing a bite to eat somewhere, though it would be nice to avoid her mother for as long as she possibly could that evening, she was simply being a pain in the ass. This was something that she took pride in doing.

After a few moments of silence, Simon let out a sigh of defeat. "Alright, fine. You can come." He knew that he wasn't getting anywhere with this conversation. At least, with his sister with him, he knew that she wouldn't have the opportunity to snoop around his room or anything like that.

[Haha Alrighty then ]

"Where are you taking me?" Jace asked as he tried to manoeuvre out of the raven haired girls grasp, she still had a tight hold on his ear. Isabelle remained silent as the three walked out into the night. It wasn't until they were a few meters from the Institute that she let go of his ear and allowed him to walk by himself normally. "Geez Isabelle," he growled rubbing his now throbbing ear as he stretched out his back that had been hunched over uncomfortably. Isabelle didn't answer Jace instead the three of them rounded the corner and the blonde haired shadow hunter saw where he was.

She stood casually dressed in a pair of ripped skinny jeans and a black bomber jacket her attention was in her phone. She suddenly looked up and caught sight of Isabelle, Alec and himself. A hesitant smile spread across her face as she looked over the siblings but it faded slightly when her eyes landed on Jace.

"Are you kidding me!" Jace growled stepping forward and grabbing Isabelle's upper arm.

"No I'm not Jace, you need to get over his phase you're going through." she snapped back before walking toward the red head. Hesitantly the blonde haired shadow hunter followed her. Clary greeted everyone warmly before inviting them to enter the restaurant together.

---

Maria slid the golden cuff bracelet over her wrist as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. Spinning smiled feeling alive. Her dark hair was pinned back into a half undo while she curled the rest causing it to cascade down her back. Her nails were painted black and her make up was perfect. Turning she walked out of her room heading toward Ignatius to find out what she needed to know about the vampire she was to collect.

Several wolf whistles and cheers rose from the males in the coven when she walked past them but she simply ignored them and entered into the room where she knew Ignatius would be waiting for her.

"Master," she spoke bowing gently before the elder. He stood dressed in black robes, his dark hair pulled back into a low ponytail, his skin pale and sunken like he hand't eaten for centuries. He wore a solum look on his face, his eyes followed her movements waiting for her to stop.

"Maria," he countered, "Are you ready for your task."

"I am."

"Very well, the vampire that you seek is sharing meal with friends at the Fay Inn." Maria nodded her head, she knew where it was she had passed it many times on her nightly walks. "But be careful he is in the presence of three four shadow hunters."

"I understand," was all she said knowing that she would have to be sly and try to corner him away from the others in order not to be noticed. Ignatius nodded his head and with that the dark haired vampire turned and exited the room walking through the building into the night.

Ella knew that it wouldn't take her very long to get her brother to give in. She could be extremely persistent when she wanted to be, and this was one of those instances of overly-persistentness. She knew that she was kind of being a pain in the ass, but she was curious. Simon had been acting strange, and she was determined to figure out why that was. Sure, she highly doubted that he would have agreed to let her come with him if he'd joined some super secret cult or something and he was heading to one of the meetings, but maybe if she spent some more time with him, she could get to the bottom of this. That was her logic behind all of this anyway.

"I knew you'd give in." She said smugly as she moved out of the way and finally let him walk past her. She headed into her room to grab her shoes, though not before receiving a warning look from her brother. She simply rolled her eyes and continued into her room, slipping on her shoes before walking out, a smile on her face. "Alright, where are we headed?"

---

Simon knew that this whole conversation would drag on forever if he didn't do something about it so, to save himself the time and energy, he caved. He knew his sister, and he knew that she could be as persistent as hell when she wanted to be, so he knew better than to argue with her for too long. The direction, and end, of the conversation was a clear one, so he figured that it wasn't even worth his while to argue with her for too long. "I only gave in because you wouldn't have given up until I did." He said, shooting a look his sister's way as she headed into her bedroom, probably to put on some shoes.

Letting out a sigh, he waited for her to come out. Part of him was tempted to just leave without her, but he doubted that that would end well for him. She was just as conniving as she was persistent, so he was sure that she'd come up with some crazy story to tell their mother if he did leave without her, and he really didn't feel like dealing with that right now. He already had enough on his plate, like keeping his mother and nosy sister from finding out that he was a vampire. Yep, that was definitely pretty important.

"Just to get a bite to eat with Clary, like I said." He said as he started out the door. "Two of our friends are supposed to be meeting us there too." He guessed he could say that he and Isabelle were friends, he didn't know about Alec, though he supposed that the shadowhunter liked him more than he liked Clary, and he was still under the impression that Jace wasn't coming. He kind of hoped that he wasn't. He knew that things would be a little awkward, even if Clary and the others tried to make sure that it wasn't, it was just bound to happen.

"And, before you ask, no, you don't know them." That earned him a glare, though there was no smug or snarky comment this time around. He hoped that things would stay that way. It didn't take too long to get to the restaurant, there were no delays for any of the trains or anything like that, so, before he knew it, they had arrived. "Try not to embarrass me, alright?" He told Ella as they entered the restaurant. "Me? Embarrass you? I can't believe you'd even suggest something like that!" Simon knew that she was smirking without even looking at her. Definitely conniving and persistent.

Jace sat at one of the tables with the three others, he sat in silence while Isabelle and Clary were lost in a discussion. Time was dragging for the blonde haired shadow hunter, all he wanted to do was leave. He wanted to go anywhere, anywhere was better then where he was now.

"So who are we waiting on?" he asked not intending his words to sound as rude as they did but he was bored and slightly irritated at the fact that Isabelle had caused him to suffer this. She knew what she was doing and he wanted to hit her.

Clary stammered before speaking, "Simon, he shouldn't be too much longer."

---

Maria walked through the street, tuning she came to the place where Simon was meant to have been. Turning she went to walk in when she was suddenly bumped by someone. A strange feeling spread through her body.

"Sorry," she apologised as she turned to look at whoever it was she had just hit. A small smile spread across her face when she saw a rather cute looking guy. He seemed just as sorry as she was. Before he spoke she heard a voice calling behind her.

"Simon!" it was a female voice, turning she saw a red haired girl calling to him a wide smile spread across her face. Around her sat three others, two males and one female. The marking on their skin told her that these were the three Ignatius had warned her about. Turning back to the dark haired male she smiled finally knowing who Simon was and what he looked like.

@ zima.

@ Bangarang!
Is this still going?

@ Bangarang!
[It is. I've just been busy with finals the last couple of days...I'll be finished next Tuesday and then I'll be on more, but I'll try to post tonight if I can.]

[That's totally fine I completely understand ]

Ella knew exactly what her brother was thinking. He was probably already regretting bringing her along and thinking about how conniving and persistent she could be. It wasn't that hard to figure out and, even though she hadn't been around very much until recently, she liked to think that she knew her brother pretty well. Of course, she didn't realize just how much had actually happened as of late. Sure, she'd noticed her brother's strange behavior, but she would never suspect what was actually going on with him. Usually the first thing a person thinks of when a family member or friend starts acting a bit off was drugs or maybe even alcohol, but vampirism wasn't included on that list now, was it? "Don't embarrass me." Simon repeated moments before Ella heard a familiar voice shout her brother's name. Following the direction that the voice had come from, she spotted Clary seated at a table with three other people, two guys and one girl. She didn't recognize any of them. "I guess you're right, I don't know them." She said, following Simon over to the table.

---

Simon really hoped that Ella wouldn't embarrass him or anything like that. Having his sister around was like dealing with a toddler sometimes. Actually, scratch that, a toddler was more well-behaved than Ella was on most occasions. And that was usually when she was on her best behavior too. Alright, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but his sister was pretty bad most of the time! Simon often wondered if that was why their mother had sent her off to school upstate. Maybe it was a boarding school or reform school or something. He didn't really know, but he wouldn't be surprised if that ended up being the case.

After repeating his earlier words, and sending a warning look his sister's way, he didn't get much else in before hearing Clary call his name. Following the sound of her voice, he spotted her seated at a table with three others. He frowned when he realized that there was an extra person there. Jace. Isabella hadn't mentioned that she was bringing him along, though, guessing by the rather sour expression on the shadow hunter's face, this wasn't really where he'd planned on spending his afternoon either. Walking over to the table with Ella in tow, he smiled, giving Clary a hug when she stood. "Hey."

Jace suppressed the urge to roll his eyes when Simon wrapped his arms around Clary. This was going to be a long night. He cursed Isabelle for forcing him along. He would much rather be back home in the solitude of his room preferably losing himself in his music or even practising something that didn't need to be perfected. The blonde sat down in a booth in the corner trying to stay out of any of the conversations that would arise.

However every now and again his blue eyes would trail over to the new girl who sat with them. She too sat in silence watching everyone. She was pretty wavy brown hair, darker eyes and she had a kind smile with a cheekiness that flashed across her features every now and again. Simon and Clary were lost in a deep conversation with Alec and Isabelle, automatically Jace zoned out.

---

Maria stood over by the bar her eyes floating over to the curly haired vampire that was nestled comfortably close to the red haired female while the other sat in silence. Maria watched as they all talked waiting for a moment where the male would leave her company and she could jump on him and talk to him.

"Hey there gorgeous, can I get you a drink," the dark haired vampire rolled her eyes before turning to look at the male with bright blue hair, several piercings and tattoos covered his chest peaking though his plaid shirt.

"No thanks," was all she said hoping he would get the hint and go away, but he was persistent. in he end she decided to allow him to buy her one drink.

Ella honestly wasn't at all surprised that the only person there that she recognized was Clary. She wasn't home very often, so of course she wouldn't really know if her brother had made any new friends while she was gone. They honestly didn't seem like the type of people that Simon would normally hang around with though, and Ella was beginning to wonder where he'd met them. Clary seemed to know them as well, as she carried a conversation on with her brother and the darker haired boy and girl.

They seemed to leave the blonde entirely out of the conversation though, something that she thought was a bit strange. She stole a glance over to him. He wasn't bad looking, and, seeing as her brother didn't seem to be bringing her into the conversation anytime soon, or introducing her to the three friends that she didn't know, she decided to strike up a conversation with him. Or, she was going to attempt to do so anyway. She saw no harm in it. She wasn't embarrassing Simon. Yet. "I'm Simon's sister Ella." Might as well introduce herself seeing as her brother wasn't going to do it.

---

Simon noticed that Ella had decided to strike up a conversation with Jace. He didn't know if that was a good or bad thing. Maybe it was neither nor. Either way, at least, hopefully, that meant that his sister would be too busy talking to him that he wouldn't be eavesdropping on his conversations or trying to embarrass him, both of which had the potential of being bad. Not that they'd be talking about his recent vampire status or anything like that in front of his sister, but, knowing Ella, she'd use something that she heard against him because she could be evil and conniving when she wanted to be. That was why a part of him didn't like that she was talking to the blonde shadowhunter. It was obvious that Jace didn't exactly like him, so this had the potential of being disastrous.

Glancing around the restaurant, he noticed the brunette that had bumped into him earlier, or maybe he'd bumped into her, standing over by the bar. He realized that he hadn't exactly said anything back to her when she apologize, Clary had shouted and caught his attention, so he'd gotten a bit distracted. Feeling bad, he decided to go talk to her, hopefully make things right if he needed to. "I'll be right back." He stood, walking over to where she stood, trying to think of what he could say to her. He wasn't really good with this kind of thing at all.

[Sorry for disappearing on you! Hopefully we can pick this back up ]