Grim Judgment

by Jennifer Reinfried

  “Right. So what, you guys are like superheroes?” Emma asked.

  Shawn laughed as he dodged around a large truck’s side mirror. “I guess you could call us that.”

  —-

  “Will you hurry up?” Mari scowled at Shawn as they walked.

  “Sorry, sorry.” Shawn scurried forward and caught up with small group. “I just...I’m sorry, it’s just...there’s so much to see here. I’ve never been in a city other than Redborough, and even then, I could only see for a few hours at a time, through the mask’s lenses.” He trailed his gaze across countless buildings and passersby, a jubilant grin stuck on his face as he tried to soak in each and every detail they came across.

  “I’d rather see Redborough,” Mari said. “Boston is so...eh.”

  “I absolutely love it.” Shawn slowed down to stare at a puffy grey dog frozen half-stride behind its owner.

  “You’re doing it again.”

  “Sorry!” He hurried forward and fell into step with her. His cheeks warmed as he saw Emma glance back at him from where she walked with Isaac, close enough to catch if they ran, far ahead enough to keep an eye on. She threw him a smile, and he cleared his throat.

  “We need to hurry, Need to get on the road and check in with Duncan.” Aaron quickened his pace.

  “They better be safe,” Mari said quietly.

  “They’re fine. If they weren’t, they’d have called.” Shawn stared at a bright food truck, its sides screaming about the delicious tacos served from within.

  “Not if they were fucking dead, Shawn.”

  Mari stopped and faced him. “If anything happened to them...”

  Aaron pulled up as well, a frown on his face. “Hey. If something happened, it isn’t anyone’s fault. I’m sure they’re fine.” He turned and whistled at Emma and Isaac, who paused, watching them.

  “And if Jaxon flipped out? Killed them all? How is that not our fault?” She began to walk away from them, but Shawn reached out and stopped her.

  “We all know Jaxon’s strength, his power. But he’s my brother. I know him. He wouldn’t just kill people that are trying to help him, to help us, for something out of their control. He wouldn’t.” Shawn’s voice cracked, but he kept going. “He’s not a bad person. He’s just angry. So am I, for what happened to us, but you don’t see me exacting revenge on everyone around me.”

  “Sure. We know.” Aaron didn’t take his eyes off the criminals.

  “Right.” Mari rolled her eyes. “Because you two are the same person.” She shook herself, then started walking again. “The more time we waste, the less time I have before my hold on time breaks.”

  Shawn started forward, uncomfortable.

  “Van’s on the next street.” Aaron fell into silence, and the others followed suit, only calling out to Emma and Isaac to turn left when they reached the intersection.

  Shawn scuffed his feet, his face hot. We should have never taken judgment into our own hands. Or would Jax have done so regardless after Julie’s murder?

  “Hold up.” Aaron jogged forward, joining the criminals and stopping them at the white van the Synths had used to get to Boston. He pulled keys from his pocket. “We should hurry. Mari’s sweating.”

  She glared at him and tossed blonde hair over one shoulder. “I’ve got it.” Irritation lined her words.

  “Gee, I’m sorry.”

  Mari rolled her eyes, but smiled at Aaron.

  Shawn watched Emma start toward the van to prepare for Mari’s release, when a thought hit him. “Wait.” His voice was soft, but everyone paused and looked at him. “Mari, a moment?”

  She blinked. Instead of complying, she stepped next to Emma, who was standing next to Aaron, one hand on the side of the van. “Come here.” Mari gestured Shawn closer. The moment he was close enough, she clamped one hand on his shoulder and the other on Emma’s wrist. The world fluttered with a burst of noise, then was quiet again.

  “What the—” Shawn looked around.

  “Aaron knew what you wanted to do before we even got to Boston.” Mari glanced over at the blond man, who waved.

  Emma turned, shrugging Aaron’s hand from her bicep. “What the fuck?” Her eyes widened in fear as she took in Isaac’s frozen face. She backed into Aaron in a panic, gasped, and whirled toward Shawn. “What are you doing?” Her voice wavered.

  Swallowing his hurt, ignoring the flutters in his stomach, Shawn took a step toward her. Even distraught she looks fantastic. His mind jumped to how it had felt to kiss her soft lips, to run his fingers through her layered waves of ash brown hair.

  Jaxon’s voice cut through his memories, harsh and relentless: She works for Vance. She was sent to infiltrate us, to expose us, to kill us. She never cared about you. Shawn’s face fell into a hard frown. “How could you?” His voice was level and hard, his eyes narrow.

  “Shawn,” Emma breathed. She slowly approached him. He could sense Aaron and Mari as they began to move forward but he stopped them with a short, harsh gesture.

  Emma’s eyes flicked toward them as they moved.

  “Ignore them,” Shawn said. “Answer me.” He reached out and gripped her by the shoulders. “Tell me why. Tell me why you used me. I did nothing to you. I cared about you.” His anger was rising, the emotion of the last months of his life all coming to a head in his chest.

  “It...yes you did, Shawn.” Her eyebrows came down in a flat line. “You tried to kill someone that I cared about. That person sent me in for information, nothing more. I wasn’t there to hurt anyone.”

  Shawn glanced over his shoulder at Aaron, who simply nodded, but sported an odd, confused look on his face. He turned back to her and released his grip. Only when she reached up and massaged her arms did he realize how tight his hold had been.

  Emma gave him a curious look. “You know I’m telling the truth.”

  “You used me.” Shawn ignored her, intent on getting the answers he was seeking.

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake, yes, that’s how it started out.” Emma threw a hand in the air with exasperation. “Vance wanted to find out who attacked him. Yes, I worked for him back then. Yes he chose me to attempt an infiltration on you three. No, I wasn’t sent to kill anyone. No, I didn’t have anything to do with Cassie’s death. Anything else?”

  Aaron still said nothing. Shawn felt frustration boil within him. Had Jax truly overexaggerated? Was his urge for revenge so great that he’d lie to get his way? “And Isaac?”

  Emma’s face flexed slightly. “What about Isaac?”

  “She loves him,” Aaron said suddenly from behind Shawn.

  “Fuck you.” Emma stared at Aaron in anger. “You don’t know anything about me.”

  “She’s loved him for many years. They worked together for Vance. He got her a dog, a pit bull, named her Laska. She didn’t know what Laska meant until Jaxon revealed the meaning of the word in Allie’s Diner the night after you two...” Aaron stopped and closed his mouth, and a short, awkward silence ensued. Emma just glared at him, her mouth open slightly.

  Even though the words hurt, Shawn said, “What else?” in a quiet voice.

  Aaron cleared his throat, then continued. “She didn’t know Isaac loved her back until that moment. She was on her way to confront him when Alex attacked. Hurt them. Killed the dog, almost killed Isaac. She called you because she had overheard you and Jaxon talking about how you knew Grim, and thought you would send him to help her. She didn’t know you were Grim.”

  “Stop it! What the fuck?” Emma started to back away from the three of them, away from the van, until her backside bumped into a man on the sidewalk, a baguette halfway to his mouth, frozen before he could savor a bite.

  Aaron continued. “Alex killed Cassie. Took Emma to the mental institution where Cassie was held. They were there with Vance employee, Marcus, who got in Alex’s way to ensure Emma got out alive, but couldn’t save Cassie. Alex is to blame. She didn’t want to hurt Cassie, Jaxon, or you.”

  Shawn looked down at his feet
. “Did she...” He couldn’t bring himself to finish the question.

  “Yes.” Aaron’s answer was barely audible.

  That single word uttered cut through Shawn’s resolve and crumbled his angry exterior. He raised a hand to his forehead, then slipped his fingers through the mop of brown hair on his head. If he had gone through with Jaxon’s plan with the list of Vance employees, Emma would have been killed. She wasn’t innocent, but she wasn’t nearly as awful as his brother had tried to convince him she was. She had not been sent to hurt them, or to kill Cassie. What do I do? How do I pass judgment on someone like her? A criminal. A Vance employee. Someone I care about. What the fuck do I do?

  “Did I what?” Emma’s voice cut open his thoughts and he turned his focus back to her.

  “Come here,” he said in a quiet voice, before he could stop himself.

  “No.” Her eyes widened once more, and her body tensed as if she were about to run. “Did I what? What did I do?”

  “Cared about him.” Aaron offered. “He wanted to know if you ever cared about him.”

  Shawn shot a look at Aaron, who simply shrugged with a half-smile.

  “Of course I did.” Emma’s face changed, the fear replaced by an intense look of longing. She stepped forward cautiously. “That night...” Her eyes bounced over to Aaron and Mari, then back to Shawn’s gaze. “That night was the happiest I’d been in a long time,” she finished.

  Nothing from Aaron.

  “I wasn’t pretending,” she continued. “The Emma you know is me, it was all me.” She took another step forward and was now mere inches from him. He could smell her, longed to reach out and touch her, but stayed his hands.

  Aaron was quiet, his silence a confirmation of everything she said. Shawn’s stomach twirled as she reached her hand up and rested it lightly on his cheek.

  “It killed me to see you hurt.” She took his hand and held it to her chest, sending shivers down his body. “I tried to stop them, stop Jaxon, stop Alex, but they wouldn’t listen to anyone. They were too far gone.”

  “I was shot. Paralyzed. Terrified I was going to die. But nothing hurt more than finding out you were a spy for Vance,” Shawn whispered. He couldn’t look away from her blue eyes. “I’d rather be shot all over again than to feel that pain once more.”

  “I still care about you.” No objection came from Aaron as she spoke, but he did make an odd noise when he glanced at Isaac.

  Shawn ignored him. Dizziness washed over him as she moved even closer, her face inches from his. Shawn slowly placed a hand on her waist and, with the other, cupped her cheek. The entirety of his soul was screaming at him to stop, was chiding him, asking him what he was thinking, but all he cared about in that moment was the truth he’d heard from her. Jaxon had been wrong, had tried to trick Shawn into killing Emma, and for that, his brother was going to pay. He rested his forehead against hers.

  “We need to go. We don’t have time for this crap,” Mari said in a strained voice.

  Shawn frowned, suddenly unable to speak. She’s with Isaac. She loves Isaac. She works for Vance. Worked. What the fuck am I doing? Why can’t I get over her? Fingers squeezed his arm as Mari grabbed him. Shawn stepped away from Emma, but held onto her hand. As Aaron made a connection with Emma, the world flashed once more and was finally free of Mari’s hold.

  “The fuck?” Isaac was blinking at Emma, who, to him, had disappeared from his side and materialized a yard and a half away, holding onto Shawn.

  I was wrong, Shawn thought as Emma went to her lover’s side. It’s this. This hurts most of all. “Get in the van,” he said quietly. “We don’t have much time to get away now.”

  Mari was already in the back seat of the minivan. A short bench lay in the middle of the vehicle with just enough room for two people, which is where Emma and Isaac sat.

  “Don’t bother trying anything,” Mari quipped from her seat. “We’ll be watching from behind, and Aaron’s going to be listening to your every thought. I’ll freeze you before you can blink.”

  “We have no reason to,” Isaac said. He entered the van, hand gently holding Emma’s, and he guided her to the bench. “You just saved our lives. If that doesn’t scream, ‘trust us,’ nothing will.”

  “That’s not what I meant. I’m saying, don’t try to, I don’t know, do something criminals would do. Like shoot us.”

  Isaac laughed. “With what, dirty looks?”

  Shawn let out a short chuckle as he took his place next to Mari, directly behind Isaac. Aaron made eye contact with them quickly from the driver’s seat, then floored the accelerator, no doubt eager to put as much distance between them and Jaxon as possible.

  —-

  Jaxon hovered a few yards off the ground, surveying the damage he had created with a satisfied smile. Man, that felt good. He recalled the shockwaves, the largest he’d ever created, that crippled the surrounding area in a three block radius. All around him buildings crumbled and fell, people were tossed viciously aside in bloody smears, cars flung through the air, and street signs and lamps were torn from their stations. Now that his wrath was over, smoke lifted from multiple areas around him, and alarms sounded every which way. His thoughts slowly cleared as he glanced around. He heard faint sirens approaching, and his grin faltered.

  Oh, shit. What did I just do? Fuck, fuck, fuck. Quickly, he descended from the air, his wraiths vanishing. How many people did I just kill? I didn’t mean to...I mean...I did, but...I only wanted to hurt them, not...

  Once his feet touched cracked pavement, he blinked at the destruction around him. Maybe I did mean to. Squaring his shoulders, Jaxon began to walk.

  As he picked his way along the rubble, away from the center of the chaos, he couldn’t help but feel as if he’d done the exact same thing some time before, as if he’d been in the same situation. Anger flared and he ground to a halt as his mind recalled what that feeling of déjà vu truly meant.

  “Bitch,” he spat. He stood still for a moment, nothing moving around him other than dust settling from collapsed buildings. The cops will be here soon. Should I keep looking? Make sure I killed Emma and her curly-haired fuck buddy?

  A voice cut through the silence.

  “Jaxon?”

  He whirled toward the sound of his name and saw an unfamiliar man with dark sandy hair carefully picking his way through the destruction.

  How does he know who I am? Jaxon reached out with his mind and gripped the intruder’s spine.

  “Stop, or I kill you.”

  The man looked up, but halted. “Jaxon, they’re not dead.”

  “What? Who?”

  “Isaac and Emma.”

  What the fuck? “Who are you?”

  “A friend. I want to help you.”

  “Help me do what?”

  “Take them out. Kill them.”

  Jaxon’s eyes narrowed. “What the hell for?”

  “Because they have something I want. Something I need. And they won’t just give it to me.”

  Curious, he motioned for the man to continue, not releasing his grip on his spine.

  “I have powers. Just like you, Jax.”

  “You’re an Evo?”

  “A Synth. You don’t remember me?”

  Jaxon snorted. “Dear old Dad thought it was wise to wipe my memory after the accident at the lab.”

  “Ah.” The man nodded. “I’m sorry.”

  “So am I. I hear I caused quite an uproar.”

  “That you did. I was released the instant you went postal.”

  “What does that mean? Released? Why?”

  “If I may?” The man reached out a hand. Jaxon stared at him, but let the other come forward.

  “Know that if you try anything funny, you’ll be dead before you know you failed.”

  The man actually laughed. “Trust me. I know.” He stepped forward until he was standing in front of Jaxon. The man’s fingers were soft when they fell on Jaxon’s forearm. The stranger’s eyes went white and he shuddered. The sk
y darkened and suddenly, wraiths appeared, uncalled.

  “What the fuck?” Jaxon stumbled backward. The moment he lost contact with the man, the wraiths disappeared. “What the fuck did you just do?”

  “I was being developed as a failsafe. Ideally, they wanted me to drain the powers of the Synths in case they got out of control. Kind of the way you did. Of course, they didn’t get to perfect me before you went cuckoo, so all I can do is replicate the power when I touch a Synth, not drain them.”

  “So you can’t use my powers now that you let go of me?”

  “Correct.”

  “If you were in contact with, say, Shawn...?”

  “I’d be as strong as him.”

  Realization came to Jaxon’s mind. “And if you touch Mari, you can stop time.”

  “Bingo.”

  Jaxon glared at him. “What do they have that you want so badly, you’d risk your life to approach me?”

  The man grinned. “Emma.”

  “She’s mine. She wronged me and I plan on killing her.” Jaxon reached out with his mind again.

  “Whoa, whoa, just hear me out.” The man obviously felt Jaxon’s influence; his eyes twitched, suddenly uncertain. “She can help me do great things. You, too.”

  “What? How? And why would you help me?”

  “I want to make a deal.”

  “Which is? Hurry up, I’m running out of patience. And time.” Jaxon could hear the sirens were getting louder.

  The man took a deep breath. “Keep Emma alive for me. Let me have her. I want to chain her up somewhere and use her whenever I want, however I want. In return, I will not only kill the time stopper and help you wipe out the rest of the Synths, but I’ll do you one better: I’ll bring you Ivan Vance.”

  Vance. Jaxon blinked, staring hard at the stranger.

  “Just let me have my life, and Emma,” the man continued with a grin. “Plus, killing her would be too swift a death, if she hurt you enough to go on such a murderous rampage. Keeping her alive to succumb to me, forever, now that’s a punishment.”

  Jaxon frowned. He’s not wrong. Emma deserves it. Plus, he can wipe out the issue of Mari. While she’s still alive, it’s nearly impossible for me to get close enough to any of them. I can team up with this guy. Once Mari’s dead, I can just kill him with the rest. He reached out his hand. “Deal.”