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“Emma Cordelia Carstairs. Exactly the person I was looking for.”
Emma looked up from another painfully boring report by Cameron Ashdown. Only to see Jace Herondale —The current co-head of FBI— himself drop a bundle of files on her table with a serious look on his face. And she knew something big is about to happen, because Agent Herondale usually was a person with an easygoing smirk that screamed trouble on his face.
When Emma was new to the whole secret assassin slash crime investigator thing, she admittedly had a tiny crush on Jace. Like- who doesn't? He was everything a new young agent would look up to be. Confident, smart, easygoing and kind. But he obviously was very much taken. By a certain fierce redhead who was like a big sister to Emma. But as she flipped through the files Jace dropped on to her, Emma really wanted to yeet herself out of the damn window. Top one was a file. A file full of gruesome details Emma spent years trying to forget. Of the deaths of Ty's twin sister, Livia Blackthorn. And her childhood best friend, Julian Blackthorn.
She closed the file and looked at Jace. And took a deep breath to steady herself before asking,
“Why? Why now? Why me?”
Agent Herondale just silently gestured her to continue with the next file. And while she opened the file, he pulled out a stapled bunch of papers from the previous file. And placed it beside the file she was looking at.
The second file was the track record of a serial killer. And the report on the top of it was about the murder of Annabel Blackthorn. The girlfriend of Malcom Fade, who was killed by Emma after proving he's the murderer of her parents. And on the paper Jace placed beside it was a report about how Annabel was suspected to have a connection with Julian and Livvy's deaths. But the case was dropped due to lack of evidences.
As she flipped through the second file, Jace showed her all the reports in the stapled file he had. And there was only one connection between those two reports. All the people who were killed by this killer, have some connection to Livvy and Jules's deaths.
“What the-?”
“You see the connection. Don't you?”
“Obviously yes. But why would someone kill the suspects of Livvy's case? And even if someone do so, why are you telling me about this? This person clearly is making our work easier.”
Jace took the file from her hand and placed it back on the desk. He looked like one of Ty's pet lizards crawled down his pant. (It ones happened to Diego and Emma learned a bunch of extremely colorful Spanish words on that day.)
“ By the angel, Alec is gonna kill me for this. Alright Emma, Look at the first incident. Annabel Blackthorn, a shareholder of Blackthorn family business. The second incident, Camille Belcourt the- ”
“ -Ex girlfriend of Magnus Bane?”
Emma suggested.
“ I was going to say famous model, but okay. Then, Sebastian Morgenstern, national level shooting champion. Fourthly, Axel Mortmain, the owner of a shipping company and fifthly, Nathaniel Gray, a world class actor. Every person was killed at night with a bunch of arrows from a crossbow piercings their internal organs. And every person's hand was wrapped around with a black barbed wire. ”
Emma whistled softly.
“As much as I hate all of the above dead rich idiots, we can't let this continue. I'm in. But what's the catch?”
She asked at the same time Jace said,
“You, in fact, are the only option we have.”
“Huh? Oh.”
Of course she was the only option. FBI had half a dozen sections and their particular section, the solve-it-and-end-the-trouble section was sort of like just another Blackthorn family business. And most of others who weren't born a Blackthorn had some kind of deep connection with a Blackthorn.
Agent Keiran and Cristina were dating and living together with Mark Blackthorn. Aline Penhallow was married to Helen Blackthorn. Ash Morgenstern was dating Dru Blackthorn and Kit Herondale was engaged to Ty Blackthorn. Which left the Rosales brothers, their demo experts, and Emma. (And also Zara Dearborn. But Emma purposefully ignored thinking about her to avoid upcoming migraines.)
But Emma grew up with the Blackthorns! And Jules was her best friend. Livvy was like a sister to her. If she have to finish this case, she'll solve the mystery of Jules and Livvy's deaths as well.
Get your shit together Carstairs
“I'm in.”
************
Emma almost regretted have dinner before the mission as she inspected her surrounding. She wasn't sure what she expected to an abandoned butchering factory to look like, but she was pretty sure it's not supposed to look like it's been used few weeks ago.
There was blood. Everywhere. And pieces of flesh that were not from any sort of animals. And barbed wires. Covered in rust and blood. She thought in disgust about how this so-called killer killed their victims. Not just with arrows that pierced the internal organs. But also with barbed wires that ripped their flesh off.
During her trainings, Emma saw her share of gruesome crime scenes. But nothing was similar to this. But the real question was, where is that psychopath?
“Hello there officer! I guess you followed my clues to the place I wanted you to.”
What the-
Emma barely had enough time to lift Cortana, her family heirloom and her sword, to block the path of an arrow which was about to impale her thigh. And judging from the angle of the arrow, the archer was somewhere up the catwalk at the side of the building.
Hmmm.. Not bad at strategies then
“ Enough hide and seek. Show yourself oh you crazy fool!!”
The words just left her lips before the figure of a man dressed in black just like Emma's gear jumped down from the catwalk. Just like she predicted. He was wearing a black mask that covered the lower half of his face. Leaving only a mop of brown hair and a pair of teal eyes open to be judged.
Well then. Two can play the game. She thought before giving up the idea of lowering her own half mask that left her eyes and hair visible.
Emma was trained to judge her enemy while dragging the conversation as far as possible. Because her gift was to annoy people to the point in which they'll forget about keeping secrets.
But there was something about this guy that unsettled her. Like he wasn't quite here. Like he's a machine being controlled by someone else. Like he's in a fight with himself behind that confident voice and smart eyes that were both familiar and completely strange at the same time.
He was a killer. Alright. But what is this thing about him that unsettled her?
Emma asked herself for the tenth time in the fifteen seconds they spent judging each other.
He was judging her in a way that made her shiver. Like she's a complicate puzzle and he's trying to understand her. Or like she's a drawing and he's trying to figure out the exactly what shade should he paint her hair with.
Paint.
“You are not the person I was expecting.”
He said. His voice unexpectedly Los Angeles-y at the moment that he almost reminded her of-
Hold the hell up Carstairs. You are not getting distracted in the middle of a mission.
She scolded herself internally. Like she always did. Ever since- Ugh. It was as if she could not think about anything, or anyone else today except for him.
She regretted getting distracted when he swept a feet under her and tackled her to the ground. Somehow managing to knock Cortana out of her hand. It hurt more than anything. Cortana wasn't just her sword. It was like a part of herself.
“ Not the sword.”
She grunted while flipping him and maneuvering herself at the same time so she's on the top of him with her knees on either side of the guy. Her hands pinning his ones to the ground.
And half a second later Emma realized her mistake. She forgot his legs! But rather than using it as his advantage, the guy was staring into her eyes. Again she was unsettled by how similar those eyes were to the-
“ Tie me up! ”
He said. Voice strained with unnamed emotions that danced behind those green tinted windows that are called eyes. All her life Emma never knew of a killer who willingly gave up.(Unless that person is truly out of their mind.)
“ Tempting. But give me a- never mind. ”
Emma pulled a pair of handcuffs from inside of her jacket and cuffed him to the nearest pole.
“ Pull my mask down. But stay as far from me as possible. "
Then almost as if an after thought, he added " please. "
Since she never listened to that small voice in the back of her head, Emma pulled his mask down using the tip of Cortana. And stumbled at least a good half a foot away from him. Not out of fear. But out of shock. Because of the impossibility of the truth in front of her.
It's been years. They've both changed. But she would know that face anywhere. Who did hurt you Jules? She wanted to ask. Who did this to you? Who dare take the sweet compassionate boy and turn him into a coldblooded murderer?
Because the man- no. The boy was in front of her was Julian Blackthorn. And professionalism be damned, there was no way she'll hurt him. Much less kill. And she made a different call.
And if she haven't done that years ago, there would be no Julian Blackthorn to sit in front of the bonfire. No one to tell sweet stories to their children. No one to kiss her after a busy day of the FBI.