When Clary stirred awake from her sleep, her body felt strangely heavy. She rolled over slightly, and winced in pain. Her chest and back throbbed, and she rubbed them in protest.

"Oh, you're awake," a voice said behind her. Turning around slowly so as to not trigger any more pain, Clary opened her eyes to stare into blue ones. Ash grinned and tucked a loose strand of her hair behind her ear, flinching when his hand made contact with her skin. A gasp escaped his lips as he grabbed the towel that sat on the bedside table, wet it in a bucket full of water, which also sat on the table, and put it on her forehead.

"Why won't it go down...?" Ash mumbled, his lips pressed into a firm line. Clary tilted her head slightly, which was a bad idea considering her body pain, and winced silently.

"What… do you m-mean?" she questioned, her voice barely a whisper. She tried her voice out in hopes of getting it to get louder, but her vocal cords strangely wouldn't cooperate. She saw Ash let out a small sigh, and his lips formed into a soft smile as he gently stroked her soft hair, which was in tangles.

"Ah. Well you see, you have a VERY high fever, which is very dangerous." Clary felt her eyes widen noticeably, and clasped a hand over her mouth.

"I-I don't understand...what might have caused this?" Her voice came out stronger from the anxiety, making her flinch slightly in surprise. Ash chuckled. Not a fun or amused chuckle, but a dry, low chuckle, which meant he was either very nervous, or he was so panicked that his voice would crack if he were to talk.

Ash slowly and patiently lifted the collar of her shirt, his hand tracing the two lumps that had healed slightly over the hours.

Clary, of course, understood immediately without him having to say anything, and she suppressed another gasp which was about to escape her lips, forcefully. The vampire which had bitten her was a pureblood, and their bite is the deadliest. It is like poison, except it doesn't kill you. It just turns you into a vampire after a while.

It worked differently, however, on Healers. They had to go through a series of more complicated processes to survive, for their bodies were the purest of all. If they didn't tend to it within 48 hours, they would either die, or become extremely anemic. This meant she would barely be aware, and would be too weak to do anything. The blood of a pureblood vampire would kill a Healer’s cells, which would weaken them or kill them. Neither was appealing.

The point is that he had bitten her to get enough blood out, then fed her some of his blood. That was illegal by the law in the Night World--punishable by death. Clary let herself shiver, which sent another throb of pain through her body. She gritted her teeth in an attempt to not bite her tongue, and took steady, deep breaths.

"Ash, you know how to get the blood out of my system, right?" She questioned hurriedly. She knew they had less than 5 minutes, and that was not much time at all. If they were lucky, they could make it.

Ash nodded in response, his cheeks tinted with the slightest of red. Why? Well, you got the blood out by making a small cut on the arm of the victim, and sucking the blood out. This was done by a trained human serving Healers, or a vampire, because this only had an effect on Healers.

He silently grabbed his silver knife, putting the sharp tip to her exposed wrist. He then proceeded to cut, which burned her arm painfully, but not enough to make her yelp. It was endurable, as many other pains were when a Healer had to do a 'Job.'

Thick, black blood poured out of her wrist, filling the room with the sickly scent of iron. Ash quickly put his lips to her wound, sucking silently with an obvious blush on his face. This continued for a minute before he pulled away, spitting the blood away in the sink.

When he came back, Clary had closed her eyes, her breathing steady. His hand automatically went to her forehead, where it was finally cooler to the touch. He could now rest easily, which he did, moving to lay beside her and silently fell asleep.

Clary woke with a start, and turned around briefly to glimpse at Ash's sleeping face. But when she felt around the bed to grasp his hand, the only thing she clenched was the fabric of the bed.

"Ash!" Springing up quickly, Clary jumped off the bed and put on her normal clothes; but then her arm jerked sharply when she was pulling on her blue sweater, and pain shot up her wrist.

Glancing down, Clary noticed a slight half-healed scar on her wrist, and remembered the night before; the vampire, almost dying, and Ash sucking the corrupted blood out...

Feeling blood rush to her face, she quickly shook her head to clear it and stepped out into the kitchen, catching a scent which hung stubbornly in the air. It was the scent of burning meat. Slightly puzzled, Clary walked up to the pan which sat on the stove, and stared.

Instead of meat, it was a black chunk of coal.

"Oh! Clary. Don’t worry about the chunk of coal, it was just Stella trying to cook again…" A familiar voice sounded behind her, making her flinch sharply. She'd know that voice anywhere...

"S-S-Saku-ra?" Stuttering and clinging to the stove's edge like her life depended on it, Clary silently and slowly turned to face her long-lost friend.

Her black hair with dyed pink bangs gleamed in the morning light, and Clary started to feel sick. Her head swam, making her cling to the stove even tighter; her legs felt as if they would give out any minute, and they did, eventually.

Feeling her fingers slip from their desperate grip, Clary crumpled to the wooden floor like a broken-down doll and sat still, taking shallow, unsteady breaths.

"No. No. No, No, No. You were DEAD. I SAW you die..." Sakura's eyes were as wide as saucers when she gripped Clary's shoulders and shook her gently.

"Sh...No, I didn't die, Clary....You just had another bad dream. It’s okay...." Clary clung to Sakura and sobbed, with Sakura rubbing soothing circles on her back.

"B-but it felt so real...," she managed to choke out between sobs.

"I know. I know." Sakura continued to make soothing noises, and something about her always calmed Clary, and so it did now; her sobs slowly subsiding to nothing more than silent whimpers and occasional sniffs.

"W-Where's Stella?" Sakura's lips parted to answer, but a voice answered for her.

"Someone called?" There stood Stella with her light blonde hair and fierce blue eyes, in a blue tank top and ripped jeans. Clary felt herself chuckle dryly at her friend's arrival, and freed herself from Sakura's grip, then stumbled over to Stella, hugging her shoulders tightly.

"Where is Ash?" Her golden eyes were clouded with worry, her voice strong once more.

"Who?" Stella scanned her form, worry and confusion clear on her face.

"Is this a boyfriend you haven’t told me about?" But seeing Clary's horrified and helpless expression, she added:

"Clary, are you feeling alright? Did you hit your head or something?" Flinching away from her outstretched hand, Clary quickly took a shaky step back and then another, until she collided with the familiar wooden door.

Her hands scrambled over it until she found the door knob, and without warning, bolted out the door into the towering trees of the forest.