chapter five

"He's trying to raise an army."

     Nearly four hours later and after Damien almost wore himself out entirely after studying for Hodge's classes, Jace and Clary returned. He was notified by the front door of the Institute slamming shut, and, with a sigh, he knew he should probably check and make sure everything was alright, as after the last time Clary was found, she had been attacked by the Ravener, bleeding in the foyer.

     Damien sprinted down the stairs, not because he was in a rush, but because he simply enjoyed running up and down stairs. Half of his cardio training was doing stairs and running around the Institute. It gave him something new to look at, rather than just running circles.

     He found them in the kitchen, Izzy cooking up something for dinner, and, for once, it didn't smell wretched, although Damien sarcastically wrinkled his nose. He hadn't even noticed the stranger now currently standing in the room until his voice piped up, squeaking, "hi, I'm Simon!" taking Damien off-guard.

     Damien whirled his head around to see the mundane, and his eyes immediately darted to Jace, who shrugged. Why was Jace bringing in so many mundanes? He didn't know, and he wasn't sure Jace knew either. "Damien," he greeted to Simon, not wanting to be rude. There were a lot of Shadowhunters who thought that their race was superior to the human race, which Damien morally disagreed with.

     "I already yelled at Jace, so don't bother," Isabelle told Damien, who nodded his head.

     "Gotcha," Damien said. "Although, at this point, I'm not even surprised."

     "Hey," Jace protested sarcastically. "I can't help that I attract mundanes."

     "Hodge is going to kill you," Isabelle stated, waving the spoon that she was stirring her soup with.

     Damien sat down at the end of one of the long tables, Jace finally sitting down across from him. After finally examining the room, Damien noticed that Alec was nowhere to be seen, but it would be too obvious if Damien sat up to go look for him, so, he stayed put.

     "Izzy, I had to bring him," Jace explained. "I saw the men who killed mine and Damien's fathers." Damien's heart plummeted into his stomach.

     "You saw Blackwell?" he demanded, now speaking so fast he was hardly audible. "Where?"

     "Slow down, hot-sauce," Jace replied. "At Clary's mom's boyfriend's house."

     Izzy looked towards Simon. "I don't suppose he's one of them?"

     Both Damien and Jace shook their heads fiercely. "Of course not," Jace said. "Do you think he'd be alive now if he were?"

     Isabelle shrugged her shoulders. "I suppose not," she said simply.

     Damien wanted to ask more questions, but didn't allow himself to ask in front of Simon and Clary, who didn't know him whatsoever. Isabelle dropped a piece of fish on the floor as if it was second nature. Church happily pranced over to the dead fish, devouring it. Damien gagged as Jace said "No wonder he brought us here. I can't believe you've been stuffing him with fish again. He's looking distinctly podgy."

     Damien casted a sarcastic glare towards Jace. "How dare you," he joked. "Church, don't listen to him." The cat, unsurprisingly, was only paying attention to the dead fish that resided on the floor still.

     "I made soup if any of you want something to eat," Isabelle announced, disregarding the mess she had made in the kitchen. Ingredients were strewn everywhere, looking Asia more bits and pieces were on the counter rather than in the soup itself.

     "If you ever learned to cook, maybe I would want to eat it," Jace mumbled, though Isabelle shot a glare towards him, waving her spoon around angrily.

     "What did you say?" she demanded, resulting in a snort from Damien.

     Damien cleared his throat, unable to keep the smile from residing on his face. "I said I'm getting a snack to eat," Jace lied, followed by a scoff from Isabelle.

     "That's what I thought you said." Damien's eyes trickled over to the mundane-Simon-his eyes locked on Isabelle. Damien wish he could have told him beforehand that he didn't have a chance.

     As Jace was searching through the fridge, Clary stood up from the table, most likely seeing where Hodge was. "Simon, are you coming?" she asked.

     "Where are you going?" Simon replied, though, Damien noticed that Simon's eyes weren't averted from Isabelle.

     "To find Hodge," Clary told him, crossing her arms against her chest.

     Simon shook his head. "I'm gonna stay here," he said. Damien winced as he said it, clearly not paying attention to the fact that everyone knew why Simon didn't want to leave. "I'm hungry."

     Unable to find anything that seemed good, Jace closed the refrigerator door disappointedly. "I'm coming. Simon, don't eat the soup." And with that, the two were gone.

     Isabelle set the spoon onto the counter. "Dami, can you test this for me?" she offered. Damien, with another sarcastic look of disgust on his face, gave a slight sigh.

     "Fine, but if it's awful, I'm spitting it back into the pot," he stated. He pushed himself up from the table, stepping towards the large pot on the stove after taking a small spoon out from one of the drawers. Reluctantly, he took a spoonful of soup and put it into his mouth, immediately spitting it back out. "You put way too much salt in it. My tongue feels like falling apart."

     Isabelle threw the spoon into the sink. "Screw it, I'm ordering take-out. Want anything?" Damien wasn't sure who the question was directed to, though both him and Simon answered simultaneously.

     "Yes," they said, basically immediately.

     With a sigh, Isabelle picked up the phone, dialing the number for the restaurant. She knew their orders by heart now, because they refused to eat her cooking when Maryse was away. Oh, how Damien missed her cooking then. "Dami, go tell Alec that the food is almost here. You know how he takes forever to come downstairs," Isabelle ordered.

     With a sigh, Damien stood up from the table. He knew she was just trying to help, but whenever Maryse was gone, she tended to take over her mother's duties. "Don't make the Mundie too uncomfortable while I'm gone," he whispered half-jokingly to Isabelle.

     Church, as usual, followed Damien. Church was like a leach to Damien, though Damien knew it was because he was the only one who actually payed attention to the cat besides Hodge. He wasn't complaining. Well, mostly.

     Damien found Alec in the training room, bow and arrow in his hands. The bow was loaded, Alec focusing hard on the target in front of him. "Alec," Damien greeted. Alec, being thrown off his concentration, turned, accidentally letting his arrow loose towards Damien. Thankfully, Damien ducked just as Alec gasped. "Sorry, that was totally on me."

     Alec used his arm to wipe sweat off of his forehead. "You scared the hell out of me," he breathed. Damien walked over to the wall in which the arrow was now sticking out of and pulled it free before handing it back to Alec. "Thank you."

     "Unsurprisingly, Izzy's soup tasted like ass, so she ordered Chinese," Damien told him. "Wanted to tell you to come and eat with us." 

     Alec nodded his head. "I'll be down in a second." As if on cue, the doorbell rang, indicating the food was there. "Or right now." Damien gave him a smile. 

     As they entered the kitchen, the aroma that filled the room was of the deep fried, salty Chinese food that currently sat on the kitchen table. The New York Institute did in fact have a formal dining room, but since the only people who ever occupied the Institute were the Lightwoods plus Damien and Jace, it hardly ever got used. 

     Jace, Clary, and Hodge stepped into the room after Damien and Alec. "Dinner time," Isabelle announced. "Don't worry, I threw out the soup. And ordered Chinese." 

     "I might be able to eat a bite or two," Hodge stated as he sat down a few seats down from Simon, who was staring at Isabelle. Damien sat down across from Simon, next to Alec. 

      Damien took a bite out of an egg roll, his body relaxing as Jace and Clary retold what happened. "I think it's kind of romantic," Isabelle said before taking a bite. "The whole business about Clary's mother being married to Valentine."

     Damien shook his head. "It'd be even more romantic if Valentine wasn't a monster," Damien replied, "no offense, Clary."

     "None taken," she mumbled in response. 

     "Anyways," Isabelle continued, "so now he's back from the dead, and he's come looking for her. Maybe he wants to get back together." It took every ounce of restraint Damien had not to spit his food out everywhere in result of a chuckle.

     "That's gross," Jace told him,  but before Damien could defend himself, Alec began speaking.

     "I highly doubt he sent a Ravener demon to her house because he wants to 'get back together.'" Alec sent a sarcastic glance of disgust towards Damien and Jace.

     "It wouldn't be my move," Jace admitted. "First the candy and flowers, then the apology letters, then the ravenous demon hordes. In that order." 

     "Jace, now is not the time," Damien stated. Everyone, well, everyone except Isabelle, guessed what Valentine's true intentions were. Not his exact intentions, but something along the lines of destroying everything they cared about. At least, that's what happened last time. "We know that Valentine thinks Clary's mother has the Cup, and we can guess why he wants to use it so badly."

     "To make an army," Alec finished. Damien glanced towards Simon, whose face was laced with confusion.

     "Hodge, didn't you say you could use the Cup to make Shadowhunters?" Clary asked. 

     Damien responded before Hodge could. "Yes, but it hasn't worked in ages. Most Mundanes don't survive."

     Hodge nodded his head. "He would use the army to attack the Clave as well as Downworlders," he told them. "When he was in the Circle, that was his plan, at least. He would have sacrificed his own son for his cause." A chill ran through Damien's spine. That must've been the reason Valentine sent Blackwell and the others to his home all of those years ago. To...get rid of him before he grew up. 

     "He had a son?" Alec asked.

     "I was speaking figuratively," Hodge replied almost instantly, resulting in Damien raising an eyebrow. 

     "I propose the best thing to do is to find Clary's mother before Valentine does," Jace stated. 

     Hodge shook his head. "You all are not doing anything. This is up to the Clave." 

     Damien scoffed. "The Clave won't do anything. They're too scared of Valentine to even believe he's back," he protested.

     "Hodge is right," Alec agreed. "Valentine is too dangerous. We're good Shadowhunters, but Valentine has had much more experience than any of us combined. Just look at the army it took to bring him down." With a sigh, Damien had to nod his head. Though he didn't want to believe so, he knew Alec was right, and despite Damien's want for revenge, it wasn't worth even more death and destruction Valentine had already caused. 

     "The Silent Brothers," Damien suddenly blurted as they came into his head. "You guys said how you weren't able to retrieve the memories inside Clary's head? Silent Brothers can help with that." 

     Jace shuddered, clearly afraid of the Silent Brothers. Almost every Shadowhunter was. 

     Simon seemed to be having trouble wrapping his head around everything, though he was doing better than Damien would have suspected. "Silent Brothers?" Simon asked.

     "The Silent Brothers are archivists," Hodge answered. "Their powers are of the mind, not the body."

     "That means they can read minds?" Simon exclaimed, his jaw dropping open with awe. 

     Jace was suddenly aware that Simon was still there, listening to their conversation, which, according to the Clave, wasn't even legal. "Why are you still here?" Jace snapped. "The Institute is only sworn to shelter Shadowhunters, not Mundanes." 

     Isabelle stood up. "I'll show him out," she said. Damien's eyes followed the two as Isabelle carried out what she said she would, Damien giving Simon a small wave. Not to be mean, but because he simply felt bad. Damien unexpectedly gave a yawn.

     "It's like seven pm, why are you tired?" Alec questioned. There wasn't any sort of judgement, just curiosity. 

     Damien shrugged his shoulders, as he honestly didn't know why. It couldn't be because of all of his training, or the demon hunting, as he did it every day. "If the Silent Brothers are coming, I'm going to hide in my room all night anyways," he said in a joking way, though he wasn't entirely sure he was joking. If he was afraid of anything, it was the Silent Brothers.