City Of Ashes

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.Jace leaped forward, sweeping his weapon at the nearest of the demons.In the light of the seraph blade, the demon's appearance was unpleasantly visible: dead-white, scaled skin, a black hole for a mouth, bulging, toadlike eyes, and arms that ended in tentacles where hands should have been.It lashed out now with 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 demon's wrist and its tentacled appendage flew through the air.The tentacle tip came to rest at Clary's feet, still twitching.It was gray-white, tipped with blood-red suckers.Inside each sucker was a cluster of tiny, needle-sharp teeth.Simon made a gagging noise.Clary was inclined to agree.She kicked at the spasming clot of tentacles, sending it rolling across the dirty grass.When she looked up, she saw that Jace had knocked the injured demon down and they were tumbling together 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 remaining tentacles—not to mention the black blood spraying from its severed wrist.Clary hesitated—should she go 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 demon lunging straight at her.There was no time to reach for the seraph blade at her belt, no time to remember and shout out its name.She threw her hands out and the demon struck her, knocking her backward.She went down with a cry, hitting her shoulder painfully against the uneven ground.Slick tentacles rasped against her skin.One braceleted her arm, squeezing painfully; the other whipped forward, wrapping her throat.She grabbed frantically at her neck, trying to pull the lashing, flexible limb away from her windpipe.Already her lungs were aching.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 demon was in a half crouch, staring 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 from her fingers.She'd never held an angel 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 demon skittered backward, tentacles waving, almost as if it were—but this wasn't possible— afraid of her.She saw Simon, running toward her, a length of what looked like steel pipe in his hand; behind him, Jace was getting to his knees.She couldn't see the demon he'd been fighting; perhaps he'd killed it.As for the second Raum demon, its mouth was open and it was making a distressed, hooting noise, like a monstrous owl.Abruptly, it turned and, with tentacles waving, dashed toward the bank and leaped into the river.A gush of blackish water splashed upward, and then the demon was gone, vanishing 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 demon blood."What—happened?" he demanded between gasps for breath."I don't know," Clary admitted."It came at me—I tried to fight it off but it was too fast—and then it just left.Like it saw something that scared it.""Are you all right?" It was Simon, skidding to a stop in front of her, not panting—he didn't breathe anymore, she reminded herself—but anxious, clutching 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." Simon looked as if the recollection surprised him."I guess 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 from Jace.She pushed past the two of them, heading 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 from the skin, working as gingerly as she could, she saw that across his shoulder was a cluster of circular red wounds where a tentacle had gripped him.Each was oozing a mixture of blood and blackish fluid.She sucked in her breath."We have to get him inside."Magnus was waiting for them on the front porch when Simon and Jace carried Luke, slumped between them, up the stairs.Having finished with Maia, Magnus had put her to bed in Luke's room, so they set Luke down on the sofa where she'd been lying and let Magnus go to work on him."Will he be all right?" Clary demanded, hovering around the couch as Magnus summoned blue fire that shimmered between his hands."He'll be fine.Raum poison is a little more complex than a Drevak sting, but nothing I can't handle." Magnus motioned her away."At least not if you get back and let me work."Reluctantly, she sank down into an armchair.Jace and Alec were over by the window, heads close together.Jace was gesturing with his hands.She guessed he was explaining to Alec what had happened with the demons.Simon, looking uncomfortable, was leaning against the wall beside the kitchen door.He seemed lost in thought.Not wanting to look at Luke's slack gray face and sunken eyes, Clary let her gaze rest on Simon, gauging the ways in which he looked both familiar and very alien.Without the glasses, 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 temples and the sharply angled cheekbones.Even his hair seemed darker, in stark contrast to the white of his skin.She remembered looking at the crowd in Raphael's hotel, wondering why there didn't seem to be any ugly or unattractive vampires.Maybe there was some rule about not making vampires out of the physically unappealing, she'd thought then, but now she wondered if the vampirism itself wasn't transformative, smoothing 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.She realized then that Simon was staring back at her, his dark eyes wide.Snapping out of her reverie, she turned back to see Magnus getting to his feet.The blue light was gone [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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