The last time I saw the Shadowhunters was three weeks ago, when I demanded them to leave me alone. They have been true to their word, but I sense that they never really lost track of me ever since the events at the shipyard. Someone has been watching me, I can feel it.

"You'll like him. He's a really nice guy." Julia, my coworker says as she sits in front of me, eating her club sandwich.

"What did you say he does?" I look down at my bowl of soup, stirring it mindlessly.

"He's doing his doctoral residence at the New York Hospital.”

"Why would you think he'll like me?"

"Because he said you were hot." I laughed at Julia's words. The last thing I want right now is to go on a date, but a distraction from everything would be nice.

"Ok. I'll go on a date with him."

I stare at the mirror blankly, unimpressed by my reflection. I tried to dress up for the blind date but nothing seems to phase me. I look at my watch, 7:45. Andy, Artie, I couldn't remember his name, was picking me up at 8. I looked good, the short blue dress paired with a blazer and heels is my go-to first date outfit. It says, 'I look classy but I'm not trying to hard' and my red lip adds a tad bit of sexiness.

The time was now 9:10pm and my date has yet to come. With a sigh, I accept the fact that he stood me up and left my apartment. The air was chilly and my blazer was barely enough to keep me warm. With a sunken heart, I walk down the street, trying to distract myself from my bruised ego.

Long walks in the back alleys of New York City always gives me peace. I like seeing dodgy strangers hidden in the shadows and I suppose I like the danger of being in an unsafe environment. I guess it's part of what made me want to become a journalist.

 I'm walking down a dimly lit street when I hear quick footsteps coming from behind me. I turn around to see who it is and a man wearing all black with a hood is walking fairly close to me. I increase my walk and so does he. With my heart racing, I turn the corner and bump into another hooded figure. Three more hooded figures jump down from the rooftop of a building and they surround me. I reach into my purse to grab my hand gun and shoot it to the sky. It doesn't seem to phase them because they continue to approach me.

 "Stay back or I swear to god I'll shoot you dead." I say while I aim my gun towards one of them, my hand is shaking.

 "A gun will not harm us Nephilim." One of them hisses. Nephilim? These men are from the shadow world.

"What do you want?" I scream at them.

"You seem to have caused quite a stir in the Downworld. Our leader has taken an interest to you ever since you decided to investigate his after-hours activities. Now he wants you for himself. The strange, long lost Shadowhunter princess."

Fear has now taken over my body. My adrenaline is skyrocketing and nothing around me seems real. When I was young my fathers enrolled me in Teak Kwon Do and forced me to learn how to use a baton. Living in New York City has made me aware of the dangers a single woman faces in everyday life, especially walking alone in the dark. I always carry two weapons in my purse with me at all times, a handgun and my baton.

I take out my baton from my bag and hold it to my side, ready to go down fighting. One of the men jumps towards me and with a quick side step, I swing at his head. I wasn't quick enough however because a moment later I was thrown over one man's shoulder, the wind has been knocked out of me and I'm too weak to fight. 

"Let the girl go vampire." I hear a male voice say. There was a commotion behind me and the vampires were soon knocked out. I was lying face first on the road, unable to move because of the pain on my shoulder. A blonde boy from the shipyard squats beside me and flips me over gently. I cry out in pain as he looks at my shoulder, tracing my tender skin.

"Your shoulder is a bit bruised. Nothing a healing rune can’t fix." He whispers. He takes out a silver want looking device and runs it over the tattoo on my forearm. The tattoo glows red and I feel the pain on my shoulder slowly disappear.

With a load groan, I stand up and brush the dirt off my dress. The boy watches me intensely as I fiddle with my blazer and reach for my neck. I sigh in relief when I feel my lucky necklace still dangling in my neck.

"Thank you for saving my life. Again." I smile at him coyly.

"You like finding trouble, don't you?" He says dryly, almost annoyed. Is he annoyed at me? For what?

"I wasn't trying to find trouble, I was minding my own business." My voice becomes defensive and my words come out harsher than I intend.

"You were looking for trouble when you decided to walk around a bad part of the city at night. 

"Were you following me?"

"I needed to make sure that you're safe."

"Have you been fallowing me for three weeks?"

"Like I said. You need to be protected. If I wasn't fallowing you those vampires would have taken you to their leader and you would be dead like those other women."

"Thank you." He seems to be taken aback with my words because his eyes widen slightly before clearing his throats and returning to a stoic composure. 

"We need to take you back to the institute for your safety." His tone became emotionless, like he's protecting himself from something. He seems so familiar, but where have I seen him before?

 The institute was a good 20-minute walk away and he didn't say a word the whole time. I occasionally stole glances at him from the corner of my eye and his eyes would flick away from me. I felt him staring but I didn't say anything. My feet become sore after 10 minutes of walking in stilettos and I stop to take them off. Massaging my feet, I look at the boy, who was staring at me again, without a single emotion on his face. He rolls his eyes, sighs, and throws me over his shoulder. I shriek in surprise but he continues to walk, completely unaffected by my weight on his left shoulder.

"What do you think you're doing?" I yell in anger as I claw at his back, trying to get him to put me down.

"We don't have time for you to stop and rest princess. We need to get you to the institute before the rest of the vampire clan come for you." He is walking even faster now, I hold my breast trying to prevent them from popping out of my bra. The faster he walks, the more my boobs bounced, and he walks so fast that they are almost hitting my face. I giggle at the thought, which causes him to look over his shoulder and groan.

 The Shadowhunters all gather around at a monitor screen looking at the security footage of my encounter with the vampires. I notice how beautiful they all were, with their runes that covered their skin, their tight black clothes and their seemingly perfect hair. The blond boy's hair still looks perfectly gelled after fighting those vampires, while mine are frizzy and stuck on parts of my face. 

"Do you always have the baton with you?" The girl with beautiful black hair asks, I think her name is Isabelle.

"Yeah. It's for self-defense." I mumble as I look down at my feet dangling from the table.

"Good technique." She smiles at me and I smile back. The blonde boy rolls his eyes and steps in between me and Isabelle.

"She could have gotten hurt. You should have stayed here when we first discovered that you were alive."  He looks at me angrily. He's scolding me like a child. What the hell? I feel anger build up in my stomach and I jump off the table to look at him right in the eye.

"I am not some artifact you discovered blonde boy! I do what I want and I will not let those vampire creatures intimidate me." I try to look as intimidating as I could but I know that my 5-foot frame is no match to his muscular build. He looks down at me with his arms crossed, purses his lips, and he smiles ever so slightly. He then nods at me and walks away without saying a word.

 Jace watched Y/N the moment she left the institute the first time. There was no way in hell he would lose track of her again. He spied on her day and night, only leaving her when she slept and came back the next morning before she woke up. He hid behind shadows and used tall buildings to watch her from afar. He felt like a voyeur, watching her go about her day innocently, completely oblivious at the men that gawked at her everywhere she went. She's beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful woman Jace has ever seen. He noticed how she walked with confidence, how she played with her brown hair when she got nervous, and how her large eyes bugged out when she's excited. She's wonderful and yet she doesn't know it, which made her even more wonderful in his eyes.

When she waited for her date to arrive, Jace could see her through her living room window. She waited for over an hour and he almost knocked on her door to take her away. The look of disappointment on her face sent daggers to his heart. It angered him seeing her walk alone in the bad part of town, but it made him even more angry when Alec called and distracted him. The 5-minute phone call was long enough for the vampires to attack her. He heard the gun shot and bolted towards her direction right way, leaping from one roof to another. He's never been terrified his entire life.

Jace wanted to touch her so badly, all he wanted to do was caress her face and tell her that she would be ok. That he would never leave her again and would protect her with his life. But he couldn't. She couldn't remember him and he barely knows her. But he knew, he knew in his heart that he needed to keep her safe, she wouldn’t have been separated from her family if he just left her alone all those years ago. It’s because of him that she’s in this position and he owes it to her to keep her safe. Even if it causes her to hate him.