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Renard had not expected Adalind to die. He didn’t especially care that she had, except insofar as he was going to have to deal with her mother at some point and Catherine Schade was a force to be reckoned with, but he had meant it when he said he intended to keep her safe, that he believed Nick would keep her safe.
Instead, the Mellifer queen had managed to hold Nick off long enough to kill Adalind and vanish. (Renard did not think knowing her mundane identity would help. She was long gone by now.)
The question was, had the bees actually held Nick off, or had he taken to being a Grimm better than Renard had ever realized? (Hank had genuinely been held off, but that wasn’t a useful benchmark; the bees would have had no compunctions about stinging him and he didn’t have Nick’s superhuman abilities.) If Nick had intended to save Adalind and been stopped, it might be worth revealing himself, although he would have to do some creative dodging regarding his involvement in her attack on Marie. If Nick was going over to the habits of his more murderous ancestors… well, that might also make it worth revealing himself. Grimms and royals had once worked together to keep the wesen world in line, although Renard’s being a zauberbeist complicated things, depending on what Nick had taken away from his dealings with Adalind.
As had been made quite clear from this instance, however, waiting around wouldn’t solve the issue.
***
Deciding to reveal himself did not make figuring out how to do so any easier. In the end he simply summoned Nick into his office as though it was a normal debriefing. Checks on an officer’s mental state were routine in these circumstances, after all.
Nick entered Renard’s office and took his seat before the desk with visible tension.
“You’re not in any trouble, Nick,” said Renard. “I just wanted to check in with you about the incident.”
“Incident,” Nick said flatly. “A woman you tasked me with protecting died in front of me.”
“Part of the job is that sometimes you can’t protect everyone. You know everyone has bad days at work; we’re no different. You’re only human.”
Something about that phrasing hit Nick; he flinched as soon as Renard said ‘bad days.’
“Human,” Nick said.
“As far as I’ve been able to determine, Grimms are still human.”
And that got a serious reaction, as Nick’s head snapped up and his posture tensed even further, moving into the position of someone expecting a fight.
Renard rested his own hands on the desk, open and waiting. “I didn’t reveal myself to put us at odds.”
“Then why did you?”
“Because I think together we can accomplish something.”
“Or you think I let Adalind die on purpose.”
“Did you?”
Nick shrugged, but his posture relaxed minutely, no longer expecting an immediate fight. “You know what those bees actually were. Melissa warned me—said that ‘he’ was coming. You wouldn’t happen to know who that is?”
Renard rather thought Melissa had been referring to him, but he wasn’t about to say that in front of Nick. Besides, Renard wasn’t directly interested in threatening Nick. Portland was a place to grow outside the royal families. Once upon a time Grimms had worked with the royals for the good of everyone. A Grimm and a royal working together… that would be a powerful statement.
Of course, first he had to get Nick on his side.
“There are a number of people that could be. There are politics here you haven’t even begun to touch.”
“I just want to do my job,” Nick said. “Help people. Solve crimes. Protect and serve—that’s why we’re here.”
“There’s nothing stopping you from doing that as a Grimm.”
“You’d be the first one to say that.”
“And whoever you’ve been getting to teach you the whys and wherefores of our little community doesn’t count?”
“You know about that?” Nick sounded surprised.
“I know you had to have someone with you to find that beehive. Even if Hank hadn’t been stung, you wouldn’t have taken him into a fight with something he can’t perceive or understand—and you know better than to go without backup into that kind of fight. I don’t know who you’re calling on, but I know you must be calling on someone.” Depressingly honest; Renard had guesses, but he also had no way of predicting who Nick might have met while out and about. There were wesen everywhere, and while Renard had certainly heard rumors about a royal in Portland, he wasn’t yet established enough to formally announce his presence.
“He doesn’t really think of himself as the do-gooder type,” Nick said. “And he’s said he doesn’t know every creature species out there.”
“‘Creature?’” said Renard with amusement. Apparently whatever had been happening it had not included much in the way of vocabulary lessons.
“What do you call them, then?”
“The typical term is wesen.”
“And are you one of them? Is that why you know what this is?”
“I’m… complicated,” said Renard.
“I haven’t seen you change faces.”
“Like I said, complicated.” Renard’s life circumstances had conspired to force him to learn excellent control. He could woge, but it wasn’t something that happened as a matter of course—and certainly he didn’t lose it enough for any passing Grimm to just see it.
“So why reveal yourself to me now?”
Care was required here, with how honest to be, but he had to give Nick something. He knew better than to set too much store by the old saw about Grimms detecting lies, but Nick was a cop with good instincts which would have been well-supplemented when his inheritance manifested.
“Like I said, there are broader politics. In Europe, this world is ruled by a careful balance between old royalty and the Wesen Council. Here… there’s no history. No ancient structure. Some of the Council’s mandates still hold sway, but we are far from their centers of power—and of course, officially no royalty claims anywhere in America as territory.”
“That’s officially,” Nick said. “What about unofficially?”
“Unofficially there are rumors of a royal in Portland.”
Nick looked at Renard sharply. “And that would mean what, exactly? They can just set up shop here and take over?”
“That depends on you.”
“How so?”
“Whether you like it or not, Grimms have a lot of power in this world, and a lot of significance. You’re a Grimm with a badge and a gun—authority outside of the wesen world. That has even more significance.”
“Significance of what? I’m not going to take over some secret world I’ve only known about for a few weeks!”
“I’m not expecting you to. But you have the potential to prevent other people from doing so here.”
Nick stared at Renard in silence, apparently considering, then said, “And you chose now to tell me this because of Adalind. Why?”
“You know what Adalind was. You fought her. Even if the Mellifers kept you from protecting her, you’ve proven you’re not a cipher—and her death is going to attract less savory attention.” Less her death itself—although her death was going to get attributed to Nick and that would draw its own kind of attention (Reapers; he was going to have to introduce Nick to the concept)—than the fact that she’d been working for a powerful law firm on powerful plans, and Catherine Schade was terrifying when she wanted to be.
Not an existential threat to Renard, especially if he could get Nick on his side, but threatening enough to pose a true challenge to get rid of or defend against.
“From these royals?”
“Probably not on its own, but the fact that you were involved? Someone is going to come here to take your measure and there are limits to what I can do to protect you from that.”
“But you have enough power to do something.”
“I’m your captain, Nick. It’s my job to do something to protect you. And someone has to keep the law on the other side. Someone who knows what they are and can arrest them for it.”
“Someone like me.”
“You’ve already fought a Reaper once. There will be others.”
"I take it this is an organization?"
"Something like that. In some respects they're more like a monastic order." And they had fallen far from their original purpose at this point. The original Reapers would have been thrilled to see someone like Nick coming back into existence.
“Grimm reapers,” Nick said. “Is this world based on bad puns?”
“Actually, it’s the other way around. Death as the Grim Reaper comes from the organization.”
Nick looked like he wasn’t sure how to respond to that.
“Go home,” said Renard. “Process it through. Let’s talk again in a day or two after you’ve had some time to think about it and we can try working together.”
***
Nick left the captain’s office with no idea what to think about anything. It had not escaped his notice that Renard had never said what he was, just that he was something important—although he had implied he might be the royal that had been rumored to be in Portland. Nick had zero idea what to do with that information, because he didn’t have any kind of political background. The books in the trailer weren’t really helpful with that; they were primarily descriptions and monster names.
Well, maybe not monster names. Monroe was pretty not-monstrous, after all, and part of being a cop meant Nick was preferentially running into the monstrous ones. (He wasn’t sure where the Mellifers fell on the monster spectrum. They’d been murdering people, but it sounded like they were some kind of vigilantes, not people after power for themselves or killing for the sake of it. He still had to figure out what Melissa Wincroft had meant by ‘clarions,’ and who ‘he’ was. Unfortunately, with the Mellifer queen in the wind, it wasn’t like Nick could just ask if she meant the captain.)
Monroe just looked resigned when Nick showed up on his doorstep.
“I need information on politics,” Nick said.
Monroe blinked, visibly surprised, then stepped back to let Nick into the house. “What kind of politics?” he asked.
“My captain is something. Or at least he knows about this world—he knows I’m a Grimm. He knows what a Grimm is.”
“Your police captain is one of us?”
“I don’t know. He never actually said. He said some things about a royal in Portland, but he didn’t go into detail.”
“A royal? And you think he’s it?”
“He seemed like he was implying that.”
“I hadn’t even heard rumors.” Monroe took a seat on the sofa, looking back at Nick. “The thing you need to know is that the royal families are cruel. Tyrannical. They rule Europe with an iron fist. There’s a bit of a counterbalancing force with the Council—the Wesen Council, they’re not people you want to notice you either—but mostly they rule unchallenged.”
“All of Europe, without anybody noticing?” It was kind of astonishing how much this stuff seemed to stay under the table, but perhaps not that astonishing in the end. They had centuries of practice, it sounded like.
“They have an enforcement arm called the Verrat. Also nasty people whose attention you don’t want to draw. But they don’t come here—people come here to get away from them.”
“And now what, they’re noticing?”
“It wouldn’t surprise me. There’s not really a central government over here. And it would need to be crazy powerful to stand up to them.”
“So what does it mean if there's a royal in Portland?”
“If he’s working as your police captain, he’s not acting with the backing of the royal families.”
That… actually fit. Renard had been captain for far longer than Nick had been a Grimm. He hadn’t come up via political favors, either; he had worked for his position the old-fashioned way. He wasn’t from Portland—he’d immigrated from Europe in his twenties—but he’d certainly made his home there. So if he was a royal, whatever he was up to was concentrated in Portland.
“He said I have significance,” said Nick. “He said that he thinks together we can accomplish something.”
Monroe’s eyes widened and he focused intently on Nick. “That’s really old-world. Like, millennia ago old-world.”
“You know what he wants?”
“Back in the day the royals and the Grimms used to work together to keep order. They kept each other in check—royals made the laws and Grimms enforced them, but they weren’t tyrannical about it. Then something happened and the Grimms went off the leash, started killing indiscriminately, became the nightmare monsters everyone knows them as.”
Nick wondered what had happened. Aunt Marie hadn’t seemed to buy into the idea that he was supposed to just kill indiscriminately—she’d said he needed to stop the bad ones, specifically. But then, a lot of change could happen in millennia, and he could see just from the books he’d started so far that his ancestors had been quite indiscriminate in their hunts.
“And the royals went just as off the rails tyrannical claiming it was about stopping rogue Grimms?” Nick said, because he could see where this was going.
“Yeah, that.”
“So you think, what, the captain wants to return to the old days with me?”
“A Grimm and a royal, working together… it’s the stuff legends are made of. It would be a beacon for the wesen community.”
“And a target, I bet.”
“Oh, absolutely. If you were around reminding everyone what once was, what should be…”
Nick winced. The captain had told him to take time to process, but Nick hadn’t imagined that the goals of this endeavor would involve starting a revolution. He didn’t like the idea of being a leader in that kind of monarchy, but he also didn’t like the idea of these European royals showing up and causing trouble.
It was still on his mind when he went home, where he found himself having to do his best not to explain what was on his mind to Juliette. This, too, was becoming a routine, and he wondered about the merits of just telling her what was going on. He’d have to get Monroe to participate—this whole thing was too much to explain without evidence—which would mean convincing Monroe that it was a good idea, but the other option was continuing to deal with what was rapidly coming to look like something that would take over his life. (It was probably Not Done to tell your human partner about this—Marie had implied as much—but if he was going to be a leader in some kind of political revolution, maybe he could make sure whatever came after didn’t have rules like that.)
And then Juliette was kidnapped by the Ziegevolk and the decision was taken out of Nick’s hands entirely.
***
It started with a homicide. On one level Nick appreciated the distraction—not that he ever wanted anyone to get murdered, but it meant that he had something to focus his attention. There was a murder to solve, a criminal to catch, someone to chase down. This was his job, which he was very good at. He reported to the captain as normal, Hank’s presence preventing any further discussion of Grimm matters—although there was a strange tension in the air between Nick and Renard, something electric that Nick could feel across his skin. It persisted as he moved around the station; some part of him was always hyperaware of where Renard was. From the way he kept catching Renard’s eye, Nick suspected the feeling was mutual.
Fortunately Hank didn’t seem to notice this new tension. Nick had no idea how he would explain it.
As much as the case had been a relief, it was even more of one to get out into the field.
Until he saw the B&B owner turn into something he didn’t recognize.
***
Renard found it surprisingly difficult to concentrate the next day. He had given enough information in his conversation with Nick that Nick would have no trouble ferreting out the rest once he talked to whoever his contact was, and until Nick came back there was nothing Renard could do but wait. Pressuring the Grimm would be counterproductive, not when he needed Nick fully on his side if this was to be the kind of relationship he was envisioning.
But he couldn’t stop himself from watching Nick. Renard could feel Nick moving around the station and there was a strange kind of electricity in the air when they were meeting. The sole saving grace of the situation was that Nick definitely felt it too—Renard kept catching Nick watching him.
So of course it was in that moment that the Reaper showed up. Renard refused to see him right away. What the Reaper wanted was not something Renard was inclined to give, and it was very much a question of wesen business rather than police. He wanted to meet the Reaper as the royal in Portland, not as a police captain. (Bastard though Renard may be, royal blood still carried the day, especially here with no one legitimate to gainsay him. This was the perfect place to set up his own place of power and ideally a restoration of the millennia-old ways of doing things. But that also meant he had to actually deal with the Reaper.)
Other than the Reaper’s visit, the day passed without further incident.
Which said nothing about the night.
Renard had asked Wu to take the Reaper’s information for a reason. He needed to take the Reaper out now, before this out-of-town visitor could topple Renard’s delicately balanced situation. Under other circumstances, Renard might not have acted so hastily. Might have let things settle, might have let the Reaper live with a message for the others. Killing him outright would, after all, only piss off those who had sent him, and would ensure further visitors.
Unfortunately, given Renard’s intention to use Nick to bring back the oldest traditions, further visitors were inevitable. It would be better to weaken their forces by encouraging more to come before they realized there was a need to come in force. (That it might serve to encourage Nick to Renard’s side was also a consideration. If more Reapers came to Portland to kill Nick, quietly staying out of it would be removed from the list of options—and Renard’s offer would hopefully be the best of the ones that were left.)
The Reaper was surprisingly easy to kill, all things considered, but then Renard had cheated and distracted him by posturing.
Disposing of the body was harder. Renard definitely did not want to leave anything loose that might be traced back to him, which meant a thorough cleaning of the scene and the unfortunate loss of his blood-spattered shirt.
It was a bit concerning, though, to discover that the Reaper had been transporting the sorts of toads Ziegevolk used to enhance their abilities. Renard had no idea what that was about, but he definitely didn’t want any Ziegevolk turning up in his city.
Though Nick wouldn’t have any problems going after the kind of Ziegevolk that would work with Reapers. There was no chance that whatever that plan involved was any kind of aboveboard.
***
Because nothing was ever a coincidence in Portland, Renard came in the next morning to find Nick already waiting for him. Nick being here so early had to be a way to talk to Renard without Hank, which meant this was very likely wesen-related.
As soon as the door closed, Nick opened with, “Billy Capra is a Ziegevolk.”
Some of Renard’s reaction must have shown on his face, because Nick immediately grew more intent.
“What?” Nick asked.
“Since you’re not asking me what you saw, I assume someone explained what they do. Did your source mention anything about toads?”
“Yeah,” said Nick. “The ones with toads are herders. I didn’t get a clear description of what that means.”
“The ones that kidnap women versus the ones that just have one-night stands. Breeders just like the sex.” And hadn’t that caused problems in the past, because wesen bred true when interbreeding with humans; it was where the myths about changelings had come from. Generally speaking there was an expectation, laid down by the Council, of being careful when you slept with humans—most apothecaries carried more effective birth control than could be found in a regular drugstore—but not all Ziegevolk felt particularly bound by those mandates, and none less so than the herders. If there was a herder in town operating out of a romantic B&B, the potential problems went far beyond the women he had undoubtedly kidnapped.
“Kidnap women?” Nick repeated.
“There’s a reason someone is needed to keep order among the community,” said Renard. “Without a firm hand on the reins, not everyone is going to be willing to go against their nature. Sometimes that results in serial rape.” Really, if one wanted to get technical, most Ziegevolk were rapists, but there were always some that picked up their one night stands more ethically. (These ones were usually more conventionally charming than the ones who got by on their pheromones, who tended to be arrogant and unpleasant.)
“So I should be looking for missing women,” said Nick.
“Missing women who were found impregnated, if he’s a herder.”
“Lovely.”
“Yeah, well, welcome to the wesen world. Listen, be careful going after him. I met a Reaper last night who was carrying toads. If this Capra was buying off or willing to work with Reapers, there’s potentially more at play than just regular Ziegevolk sex drive.”
“A Reaper?” Nick said. “And you didn’t think to lead with that?”
“I told you there would be others. I took care of it for the time being, but that’s only buying time. Right now there’s a man out there with who knows how many kidnapped women and it’s entirely possible he’s part of something bigger. Focus on that for now.”
“Not a problem,” said Nick. “But we will talk later.”
“Of course.” Not that he was any too sure what to say. Nick’s mysterious information source had probably explained at least the basics of the old-style relationship between royals and Grimms, but Nick wasn’t ready to accept being an enforcement arm for a monarchy yet, even one limited to a single city and purely wesen crimes. This wasn’t the old world. Wesen were fairly assimilated these days, especially in America. The role of a royal was more to keep the assimilation intact than to maintain a separate system for things the legal system was perfectly capable of handling—or at least, that was what it should be. And in Renard’s case, it also gave him an advantage in getting his family to back off and leave Portland to him, but that wasn’t something he could use to get Nick on his side.
Although once Nick learned more about the current reigning royalty, it was entirely possible the idea of keeping them out of Portland would be enough of a draw on its own.
***
Nick had to admit that this experience was definitely giving some merit to Renard’s implied offer. Aunt Marie’s directive had been ‘stop the bad ones’ and this particular Ziegevolk definitely qualified as one of the bad ones—and there was no way a human cop would have caught what was going on quickly enough to get evidence for following Billy Capra.
Then again, a human cop probably wouldn’t have had his girlfriend targeted, either. Monroe had agreed to help out by following Capra into a bar, only for Capra to duck back out of the bar and head off into the night. Nick had rejoined Hank for a debrief and gone home, only to find that Juliette wasn’t there. Wasn’t anywhere. Nick had no proof it was Capra, but there were no signs of a struggle and he was certain Juliette wouldn’t just disappear on her own.
Nick called Renard as soon as he realized what had happened. The problem was, he still had no idea where Capra was keeping the girls. Presumably in the Bramble Haus somewhere, but it was a B&B with people going in and out all the time. Wherever he was keeping the girls would have be hidden if it was on site, and that meant going charging in there looking for it wouldn’t help.
Not that this meant Renard hadn’t had to enlist Hank in sitting on Nick because Juliette had been kidnapped because of this, not because Nick was a cop but because he was a Grimm—this had to be connected to the Reaper Renard had… fought?… who’d been carrying toads.
Which Renard agreed with and had promised to help—had said this was his city and this sort of thing could not be allowed—but that didn’t make Nick feel any less like he wanted to go pin Capra down until the Ziegevolk divulged where he’d hidden Juliette.
The lack of any evidence they could convincingly point to for the rest of the precinct, who had taken Juliette’s presumed kidnapping as the same kind of personal affront they would take the loss of any cop’s partner, did not help. Capra was the obvious suspect simply because he was the one Nick was currently investigating, but there wasn’t anything they could point to besides the Reaper carrying toads. Which was fairly strong circumstantial evidence, but only if you knew what the deal was with the toads, which wasn’t exactly something Nick could explain.
And so Nick found himself in Renard’s office with the curtains over the windows drawn, pacing angrily.
“Nick,” said Renard. “We’ll find her.”
“We are sitting on crucial information which is not being used!”
“What do you want me to do, Nick? Tell them that she was kidnapped by someone who can emit pheromones that enchant women and that’s why there were no signs of struggle? I made sure everyone on the investigative team is a straight male, asexual, or a lesbian. He won’t be able to affect them, but that’s the best I can do until we turn up something.”
That brought Nick up short. “I didn’t realize sexual orientation was relevant.”
“Because to you it isn’t. Grimms aren’t entirely immune, but you wouldn't lose your judgment. At worst it’s like having had a couple of drinks. It’ll give you one hell of a hangover if you inhale too much of it, but that’s it. For humans, pheromones cannot override biology—although if a human is even slightly bisexual they’re vulnerable to any Ziegevolk. Historically, many of the Grimms’ human allies have been asexual. They make useful lures for any species that uses sexuality in predation.”
Nick blinked. “Grimms have human allies?” he asked.
“Kehrsite—although that’s any human that knows about wesen. Common wisdom is that they can’t handle it.”
Which brought a different concern to the fore. “And what am I going to tell Juliette once we find her? Who knows what she’s seen by now!”
Renard rose from the desk to put a restraining hand on Nick’s shoulder. “You’ll make a choice. Tell her the truth, or convince her it was all in her head.”
Unthinkingly, Nick leaned into Renard’s touch, taking comfort from the captain’s calm. He might not trust the mysterious political figure it was becoming apparent Renard was, but his captain… he had trusted his captain for years. Renard clearly knew more about all of this than Nick did, if Nick could trust his words. But in this particular case, Nick thought he probably could. Regardless of supernatural circumstances, this was a subordinate’s family member kidnapped. That meant something among cops.
Aunt Marie had told him to leave Juliette, that this world was dangerous for her. This was already showing true—Nick was certain Capra hadn’t made him as a Grimm during their actual interactions, but Reapers showing up with toads was too big a coincidence. Juliette had been targeted because of what he was.
“Aunt Marie told me I had to leave her,” said Nick. “Because it was dangerous to her.”
Renard squeezed Nick’s shoulder and Nick took a deliberately slow breath, relaxing further into the touch.
“People do have human partners,” said Renard. “Wesen breed true with humans; there are whole wesen families with a human parent or grandparent.”
“But not Grimms.”
“It is possible that a Grimm’s partners are in more danger, yes. But every cop in this room has family members at risk just for being related to cops. If you operate more like a cop than a hunter among the wesen, there’s no reason she has to be at more risk.”
“Except she doesn’t know she has to be careful of things like magic pheromones.”
“So tell her the truth and see how she takes it.” Renard used his grip on Nick’s shoulder to guide Nick to a chair and push down. Nick sat mechanically. Renard took the other chair, leaning forward to look at Nick intently.
“You have a choice here,” Renard said quietly. “You can leave her or tell her the truth. If it doesn’t take, there are ways to make her forget the revelation. But humans often handle it better than most people think.” He paused. “And whatever game is being played here, we can protect her from it.”
“We?” Nick asked.
“You’re still one of my people. And I did say I wanted us to work together, but you’re in no shape to discuss that right now.” Renard took one of Nick’s hands in both of his. Nick was startled by how electric the contact was. It hadn’t felt like this when Renard touched his shoulder, but now… Nick could feel something, some undercurrent, passing between them.
A knock at the door had them springing apart as Hank came into the room. “We have something,” he said. “Three women from out of town have gone missing since Capra opened the Bramble Haus. I found clusters in three other cities. The good news is that all of those women were found alive, so he’s not a serial killer.”
There was a lot of ground between ‘not a serial killer’ and ‘safe to be around,’ and from the way Hank was looking at Nick, Nick was certain there was something he wasn’t saying.
“What else?” Nick said.
“14 of 17 were found pregnant,” Hank admitted.
That was horrifying, especially since Juliette wouldn’t have any way of knowing she’d been essentially drugged, but Nick pushed that thought to the side for the moment. He had already known what Ziegevolk did to their victims; he had already known that rape was on the table. He would just have to find Juliette before it got to that point, or hope that whatever leverage they were hoping to use her for required her unharmed.
“Any progress on finding Juliette?” asked Renard. “Or any of the other kidnapped women?”
“He has to be keeping them inside somewhere,” said Hank. “There wasn’t time for him to take her anywhere else, and it’s home ground. We just need something we can use for a warrant—because wherever he’s using, it has to be a hidden room. There’s nowhere else.”
“See if you can figure out what window Faith Collins broke. If we find that, that’s enough for a search warrant.”
Hank nodded, looked sympathetically at Nick, and left to continue the work. Ordinarily he wouldn’t have stood for shouldering Nick out of the way like this, but Renard had implied he was going to be keeping Nick from flying off the handle. Which he was, after a fashion, but there was more to it than that.
“If they weren’t staking out the place, we could handle this ourselves,” said Renard. “Being seen, unfortunately, would be a problem.”
“More of what you want from me?” Nick’s voice was bitter.
“I want to keep order in Portland,” said Renard. “I want to make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen again.”
“Is that all?” Nick asked. “Or are there politics involved? Was she kidnapped for politics?”
“I doubt it was just politics, not if Capra has been kidnapping women all over the place. But someone approaching him with an offer of money or rare frogs to kidnap one specific woman, especially if they played up how very pretty Juliette is… that’s viable. Especially if they didn’t mention that she’s a Grimm’s girlfriend. There’s no way Billy Capra is playing deep enough games to know that. Most people don’t even know there’s a Grimm in Portland yet, although rumors are spreading.”
Nick elected not to comment on Renard’s assessment of Juliette’s appearance. “On Mellifers’ wings, no doubt,” he said instead.
“That is what they exist for. If you’d killed Melissa Wincroft they’d have fled Portland and you’d never have seen them again, but now they’re here and they’ll probably want to help you further.”
“With information.”
“They’re very informative.”
The door to the office opened again, with Hank looking excited. “We’ve got something!” he said. “Sanchez went in posing as prospective guest looking for somewhere to spend his honeymoon and he found the broken window. Warrant’s on its way.”
***
The actual rescue turned out to be surprisingly anticlimactic. Nick had not been allowed to participate in the actual breaking-down-doors part, but as soon as the scene was secure he raced into the building with EMS just behind him. They were led to a hidden room in the basement which officers were ventilating gas from—apparently Capra had been keeping the girls drugged. Juliette was in one of those cages, but other than being woozy from the gas, EMS pronounced her unharmed. Nick was relieved to be able to bring her home and settle her into bed.
“It was the weirdest thing,” she said once she was a little more conscious. “I thought I saw him turn into a goat. Or something like a goat. I know there were hallucinogens in there but it felt so real… you think I’m crazy, don’t you.”
“I think you’re very perceptive and you’ve also had a stressful experience,” said Nick. “How about if you sleep now, and if it still feels real in the morning we can talk about it more?”
She acquiesced to this and was soon asleep, but Nick knew it wasn’t over. Juliette was perceptive, and that was why she’d be able to tell it wasn’t just a hallucination. (And on a personal level, he didn’t like the idea of gaslighting her like that.)
A quiet knock on the door distracted Nick from his thoughts and he went downstairs to find Renard standing on the doorstep. Nick invited him in immediately, going to the living room to sit down.
“Juliette’s asleep upstairs,” said Nick. “What’s wrong?”
“There are more Reapers in town,” said Renard. “And now they know that kidnapping Juliette is a way to you. We’re going to have to guard her for the time being—with people who know wesen. Preferably who are wesen, if you’re not there.”
“I’m not arguing that, but it’s not a long-term solution.” The only people he knew who were capable of fighting in that situation were Monroe, Renard, and himself. Monroe would probably help out, but they needed a way to end this.
“I know. But you’re not going to like my long-term solution.”
“Try me.”
“We handle this the wesen way. Grimm and Royal, working in tandem.”
Nick didn’t like that idea, mainly because it had longer-term repercussions—and from the sound of things, would involve outright killing the Reapers in Portland, probably with a bladed weapon of some kind. Of course, as soon as he found these people they would be trying to kill him, so there was a strong argument that this incident, at least, would be self-defense, but longer-term it was a step towards certain crimes being decided by a counterbalance of Renard and Nick rather than any sort of due process.
On the other hand, he wasn’t sure what kind of due process one could apply to the kind of people who came to a city for the express purpose of murdering someone with a scythe and also had supernatural powers. Not that he’d never arrested and imprisoned wesen, but that had been for crimes that were at least explicable without getting into the supernatural-powers thing.
But the fact remained that there was no other way to save Juliette.
“Fine,” said Nick. “How do we do that, exactly?”
“We take it in shifts tonight and you see if whoever’s been giving you information—I assume they’re a predator of some kind—is willing to guard her while we go confront the Reapers.”
“He probably will be. But we have one more problem: Juliette remembers Capra turning into a goat. And she doesn’t think it was the drugs, even if she’s worried I’ll think she’s crazy.”
“Telling her what’s going on will probably make her safer,” said Renard. “If you need me to woge for a demonstration I can.”
That was a new piece of information—whatever else Renard was, he was something that could woge. Nick didn’t ask what kind. If this became necessary, he’d see it when Juliette saw it.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“Right now you should get some sleep. You’ve had a long day. I’ll wake you once it’s your turn.”
“Guest room is up the stairs on the left,” said Nick.
After he had shown Renard the guest room and taken a quick shower, he practically collapsed into bed beside Juliette. The day had indeed been far too trying.
***
Juliette’s first thought as she came awake was that there was another strange man beside her and she was ready to panic before she realized she recognized Nick’s police captain—Renard, she thought his name was? Nick usually just referred to him as ‘the captain.’
“Ah, good, you’re awake,” said Renard.
“Where’s Nick?” she asked. “And why are you here?”
“You were targeted—we thought it would be a good idea to guard you until we make sure he wasn’t working with anyone. Nick is making breakfast; he was hoping to be finished before you were awake. I gather breakfast in bed is traditional after being kidnapped.” Renard’s voice was wry on his last sentence, inviting her to share the joke.
“I certainly won’t say no to it…” She sat up slowly and leaned against the headboard, taking inventory of her body as she did so. Surprisingly, she actually was hungry. She was also still very tired despite having slept the whole night, but as much adrenaline as was produced by a kidnapping would have some longer-term effects so that wasn't really surprising.
“The man who took you is in custody,” said Renard. “But as I said, he might have been working with others. All the women who were held captive with you were taken to the hospital; they’re going to be fine.”
“Thank you,” she said. She appreciated his directness—she would always prefer to know what was going on. Much better than leaving her to imagine the worst. She gave him a small smile, which he returned. It did something for his face; the few times she’d seen him before he’d always looked so serious. The smile softened his face and made her heartbeat quicken just a little.
Well. That was inconvenient. Not that she and Nick had never taken others to bed with them, because they absolutely had, and there was a standing arrangement that they could do whatever as long as they discussed it afterwards (open communication being key to a healthy relationship and why Nick’s sudden turn to the evasive over the last month or so worried her—not that he was having an affair, but that he was trying to protect her from something dangerous by leaving her in the dark... which now that she thought of it she wondered if that was related to being 'targeted'), but sleeping with Nick’s boss seemed like a bad idea on multiple levels.
“At some point I’m going to want your statement,” said Renard, breaking through her mental wandering, “but that doesn’t have to happen right now.”
“That might be difficult. I think my memory is still a little blurry.” It had to be blurry. She still thought she remembered her kidnapper turning into a goat. Sleep hadn’t removed that memory. That had to be a product of the hallucinatory gas… but it still felt so real.
“Nick mentioned you thought you’d seen someone turn into a goat.”
“I suppose you think I’m crazy too.”
“I don’t think Nick thinks you’re crazy. But why don’t you tell me exactly what you saw.”
“It must have been when you were storming the house… he was bringing us food and we heard the sounds coming from upstairs and he just… changed. His face got red and furry and he got horns and his whole body shifted. He was still upright, still two-legged, but he was something else too.” She shook her head. “It had to be the gas.”
“It wasn’t.” Nick came into the room with a tray containing pancakes, orange juice, bacon, and a little container of syrup, which he set down on her lap. It smelled wonderful, but Juliette was distracted by Nick’s statement.
“What do you mean, it wasn’t?”
Nick looked at Renard. “I’m not really sure where to start…”
“With this.” Renard looked back at Juliette. “Remember that this is still me. Just me.” And his face shifted into something other, something with strange red patches and dead-looking skin and a closed eye. Juliette froze, staring. She wasn’t drugged right now. She was still tired, but there was this thing right in front of her, that Nick’s police captain was doing. The same man who’d been so nice to her a minute ago and who Nick had been saying for ages was one of the better, more supportive captains on the force.
After another few seconds the strange skin disappeared and he was back to looking like an ordinary police captain.
Juliette looked at Nick, who was looking at her anxiously.
“Can you do that?” she asked.
“No,” said Nick. “I can see it even when they’re not deliberately showing it to people, but I don’t transform.”
“Have you always been able to do that?” was the only thing Juliette could think to say.
Nick shook his head. “Only since Aunt Marie came to visit.”
Nick’s secretiveness the last few months. He had started seeing this and he hadn’t mentioned it to her. She supposed she understood that. She had been hesitant to admit to seeing this as well. If all the crazy stuff in Marie’s trailer was indicative of something real…
“Why did your aunt have all those weapons in with the books?” Juliette asked cautiously.
Nick and Renard looked sideways at each other again.
“Oh, just tell me!” said Juliette.
“The ones who can transform, like me, are called wesen,” said Renard. “What Nick is, that’s called a Grimm. He’s stronger, faster, fast enough to fight the supernatural with handheld weapons.”
Which was probably helpful for a cop if the supernatural was committing crimes, which it probably was if they were normal people most of the time.
“And what does that make me?” Juliette asked.
“A human,” said Nick.
“Well, technically now you’re a kehrsite,” said Renard, “but that’s just the word for a human who knows.”
Judging by the look Nick gave Renard, he hadn’t known that either.
“You said I was targeted…” said Juliette. “That wasn’t because I’m involved with a cop, was it.” She had just been thinking that Nick's secretiveness was about protecting her from something dangerous. This fit the bill nicely.
“No,” said Renard. “It was because you’re involved with a Grimm. I met someone who I thought was giving Capra his orders.”
“We’re going to take care of it,” said Nick. “But a friend of mine is going to stay here for the day to protect you while we do.”
Juliette wasn’t sure what to say to that, so she didn’t say anything, just watched them. Nick seemed a lot less certain than Renard—but if Renard had been born this way presumably he’d known about it longer.
“You should eat,” said Renard quietly. “All this shock to the system isn’t good on an empty stomach.”
Juliette looked down at the tray in her lap. She had completely forgotten about it in the wake of the revelations, but suddenly she was starving. She cut into the pancakes and took a bite. Much better than most of Nick’s cooking; apparently kidnapping recovery merited a bit more effort.
“After you find out who did this…” she said.
“We’ll talk more about it then,” said Renard. “We just want to actually have answers first.”
***
Nick walked slightly behind Renard as they went to confront the Reapers. Why this was in a back alleyway he had no idea; possibly it was just to be ominous. People who went around calling themselves Grimm Reapers and killing people with scythes were probably melodramatic like that, even if they were the origins of the whole ‘Grim Reaper’ death stereotype thing. Renard had told Nick to stay slightly behind him unless there was a fight—apparently that positioning would communicate to the Reapers that Nick was standing with Renard as his Grimm—as would the mace Nick was carrying. (Renard was carrying a sword, because apparently being royal also came with being trained on outdated, skill-heavy weapons.) Not that Nick was thrilled about advertising that without having a deeper understanding of the political consequences or even the political players, but here and now the only people who would see it were the Reapers.
Renard had not been wrong about the way it would affect them. There were two people waiting for them in the alley, both carrying the scythes, and they visibly did a double-take as they saw Nick.
“You made a mistake coming after my city,” said Renard. “And my Grimm, and my kehrsite.”
Kehrsite was the word for someone who knew, Renard had said. Juliette hadn’t been a kehrsite at the time… and Renard was somehow claiming her along with Nick? There had to be some kind of implication there.
“We came to this city chasing a Grimm who had killed our people,” said one of the Reapers. “We are not out of bounds.”
“The oldest rules were never revoked,” said Renard. “Only suspended as the balance shifted. You order was founded in its wake—but you do not have the right to come here where the suspension is in abeyance.”
“You have not announced this,” said the other Reaper. “You leave rumors and expect us to follow them.”
“I expect you to know who you’re supposed to bow down to.”
“If you’ve betrayed our ways,” said the first one, “it isn’t you.”
“So your order has fallen so low you would forget the purpose for which it was first formed then? You would forget that you were there to protect us all in the wake of the first pacts gone wrong?”
“You think it’s possible for them to go right? We were all brought low when the old ways ended! Someone has to ensure that it never comes to that again.”
“By imitating what brought them down?” Renard shifted into a fighting stance. Nick did as well, taking his cues from Renard, and tightened his grip on the mace.
The Reapers apparently also took that as a cue, because they lunged forward, scythes in hand. Nick fought back to back with Renard, adrenaline pumping, desperate to see this ended once and for all—though he knew it would be more complicated than that. He wielded the mace against their strikes and was surprised by how well his captain wielded the sword, and also by how effective the sword was against the scythes; Nick would have thought the longer reach would have Renard at a disadvantage. Nick’s mace smashed the scythes aside with brutal efficiency and he felt a strange security having Renard at his back, until at last Renard cut the Reapers’ heads with the sword and turned to face Nick, both of them breathing heavily.
The adrenaline still pounded despite the fight’s end. Nick needed to move, to keep going. Renard dropped the sword and surged forward, pushing Nick back against the wall, and then the captain’s mouth was on Nick’s as the mace dropped from Nick’s suddenly nerveless fingers. Heat surged through him as Renard pressed further and Nick couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything except submit to it. He let out a low groan and pressed himself against Renard, who responded by deepening the kiss. Nick was caught between Renard and the wall, unable to move, which was fine because he didn’t want to.
“My Grimm,” Renard murmured into Nick’s mouth. “My Grimm.”
Nick groaned. “Please,” he whispered, feeling himself hardening. “Please…” And then his hands were on Renard’s groin and he realized the captain was just as hard as he was. He fumbled with Renard’s zipper as Renard continued to press him to the wall, continued kissing him and kissing him. Finally he succeeded and pulled Renard’s pants down just enough that Renard’s member sprang free. He ran his hands over it, stroking.
Renard groaned. “Unzip yourself,” he ordered, and Nick hastened to obey, fumbling a bit with himself as well because he couldn’t look, because Renard was still holding him to the wall, still pressed against him, still kissing him… at last he had freed himself as well and then Renard had removed one hand from Nick and started fumbling with something in his pocket. Nick heard the sound of ripping foil and then felt Renard easing into him, slick with lube. (Renard just carried lube around in his pocket? It was a barely passing thought, forgotten almost as soon as it crossed Nick’s mind, as the haze of pleasure continued.) Nick groaned again.
“Please…” he whispered.
Renard pushed forward slowly, easing his way in. It was agonizing and Nick soon found himself begging for more, for Renard to go harder, in a soft whisper. Renard just laughed and kept moving slowly, teasing, until he was fully buried inside, and then he began to thrust. Nick couldn’t think of anything but that heat, but Renard pressed against him, how very good this felt. He couldn’t scream, couldn’t make noise above a whisper, but he moaned his pleasure and Renard laughed.
“You were made to take it,” Renard said. “You were made to take me.”
Nick couldn’t argue, couldn’t find words. This had to be right. There was nothing else, just Renard looming over him, pushing, dominating, and the increasing speed, increasing force, electric heat so strong he couldn’t help but beg in whispered pleas that were more than half gasps, until with another moan Nick came, clenching all of his muscles as he did, and felt the sharp wetness of Renard’s release in response.
They stood together for a minute, breathing hard, Nick clinging to Renard’s body, before Renard stepped away and eased himself out of Nick to pull his pants back up. Nick did the same, wincing at the sticky feel of his drying semen.
“Is this going to be a problem?” Renard asked.
Nick considered. He still wasn’t thinking clearly—something about that experience had left him with more than usually fuzzy thoughts—but Juliette was just going to want details, not be upset. Professionally there was more of a question to be had.
But for all that they’d had sex against the wall of an alley on the adrenaline rush of a fight, Nick was more hoping they would have sex again than anything.
“No problem,” said Nick.
“Good. Then let’s get back.”
***
They both went back to Nick’s place, where Monroe greeted them at the door with a raised eyebrow and a speaking look—but then, Monroe would be able to smell the sex. Nick took the first round in the shower, then joined Monroe in the bedroom where Juliette had fallen asleep again.
“I guess I don’t need to ask how it went,” Monroe said.
Nick rolled his eyes. “We stopped the Reapers. But it was weird—there was something he said. That they had come after his Grimm—I expected that part—but also his kehrsite. Which Juliette wasn’t when they kidnapped her, if I’m understanding that word right, and she also isn’t his…”
But apparently it meant something, because Monroe’s eyes widened. “Really old-school, then.”
“I thought royals working with Grimms was already old-school?”
“That was later. Originally it was a royal, a Grimm, and a kehrsite. The kehrsite was supposed to keep them balanced with the humans, make sure they didn’t go too far off the rails into predator mentality.”
“So what happened?”
“There were always people who didn’t want to have to hide. A bunch of them got together and started killing off the kehrsites hoping it would drive the other two off the rails into killing the humans. It broke the tradition of having kehrsites but they didn’t actually go off the rails until like five hundred years later… and it didn’t cause massive massacres of the humans.”
It had instead targeted that force inwards, if Nick understood the history correctly. The Grimms had turned into the hunters who wrote the journals in the trailer and the royals had become tyrannical overlords claiming they were keeping wesen safe from Grimms and humans alike. Given how long the system had apparently worked prior to that, it appeared the kehrsites had performed an important role.
“And you think Renard wants to bring it all the way back with Juliette.”
“At the very least that’s what it sounds like he told those Reapers he was doing.” Monroe paused. “Given what you smelled like when you came in here, you should probably know—it wasn’t required for the ruling triads to be lovers, but it wasn’t uncommon either.”
“What he smelled like?” came an amused voice from the bed, and Nick realized Juliette had woken up without either of them noticing.
“After we killed the Reapers, we, ah… had sex,” Nick admitted. “In a back alley against a wall.”
Juliette sat up, a look of amusement on her face. “You really know how to pick the places.”
“That was one time!” Nick said, knowing exactly what incident she was referring to. Early in their relationship he had come back from a date with a man that had involved sex in the storage room of an amusement park, with creepy clown mannequins looking on. (Nick hadn’t been expecting that location and Juliette had been incredulous when he described it to her.)
“If the Reapers are dead and you’re doing that, I think I’ll be going…” said Monroe.
Nick winced. “Sorry. And thank you. I’ll bring you some wine later… and I’ll tell you how it works out.”
“Just in general; I don’t need details.”
Nick snorted. “Don’t worry, I won’t give you details about that.”
“Well good.” Monroe left quickly, leaving Juliette to give Nick an amused look.
“He showed me his… woge.” She pronounced the unfamiliar word carefully. “He said he’s a blutbad. And he told me about some of the things you’ve fought. Those bees were actually people?”
Nick sat on the edge of the bed. “Apparently there’s some kind of power struggle going on.”
“Which it sounds like you’re joining.”
“How much of that conversation did you hear?”
“All of it,” Juliette admitted. “I was going to let you know I was awake but then you started talking and it was interesting. So you had sex against a wall in an alley with dead bodies nearby?” She sounded surprisingly matter-of-fact about it for someone who’d had less than a day to assimilate to wesen world.
“He carries lube packets in his pockets,” said Nick.
“I don’t normally,” said Renard, entering the bedroom. He was more casually dressed than Nick had ever seen him, wearing one of Nick’s T-shirts and soft pants. “I was aware of the history and wanted to be prepared.”
“What, just in case I was overcome by desire after we dealt with people trying to kill us?”
“Was I wrong?”
Juliette laughed. “He has you there. I’m feeling left out.”
Renard raised his eyebrows. “Just like that? You didn’t even have an adrenaline rush.”
“I got mine out of the way yesterday.” She shrugged. “I’m not saying let’s jump into ruling the world right away. But if I have the chance to get two attractive men into bed with me, how can I say no? We can talk about ruling the world later.”
“Are you feeling… up to that?” Nick asked cautiously.
“I’ve been lying in bed all day and I wasn’t really injured before that. I would hope I’m feeling up to it.”
Nick leaned forward to kiss Juliette. He had worried about telling her about wesen. Aunt Marie had told him he would have to leave her. But somehow he had wound up involved with someone stronger than that—someone who not only hadn’t recoiled despite her introduction to the supernatural involving being kidnapped, but who was at least open to taking a role in wesen politics even having heard that people in that role had originally been killed in order to destabilize the political situation. (He was concerned about that, but it didn’t seem like she was in any less danger from the supernatural now—and in any case, Juliette wouldn’t look kindly on him leaving to protect her now that she knew.)
Renard coughed and Nick broke the kiss, turning to look at him. Juliette beckoned.
“Come join us,” she said.
Renard did, coming to sit on the other side of the bed, and with a glance at Nick, leaned forward to kiss Juliette as well. She returned it eagerly and Renard looked spellbound when he pulled away. As well he should; Juliette was spellbinding. Nick ran a hand through Juliette’s hair and down her neck, pulling her robe away, relishing her indrawn breath at his touch, and then removed his shirt, allowing her to return the favor. She then turned towards the watching Renard and leaned forward to tug on his shirt until he removed it, leaving his chest visible as well. Renard’s chest was heavily scarred and he bared it before them almost defiantly. Juliette reached out to slide her hand over the scars and pulled him to lie down beside her. Nick laid down on the other side so she was sandwiched between them, leaving Renard to play his hands over Juliette’s breasts while Nick slid his own hand down to play at Juliette’s clitoris, feeling more than hearing her brief gasp, and smiling when she pressed her hips upward into his touch.
In contrast to the dominating position Renard had taken with Nick, here he seemed gentle, hesitant, almost worshipful. Nick understood that. It was no more than Juliette deserved. But Juliette was never content to be a passive player in bed and it did not take her long to reach first for Nick and then for Renard, pushing down at their waistbands, encouraging them to remove their pants. Encouraging them one at a time to enter her, encouraging them to touch her, to touch each other, until all three lay exhausted in the bed.
“This is only a reprieve,” Renard said quietly, after they had laid together for a time. “We’re still going to have to deal with the politics of it all.”
“So we’ll deal with the politics of it all,” Juliette said practically. “We’ll order pizza and we’ll talk about it. But this was fun. We should do it again.”
Renard looked slightly poleaxed, which was a sane and normal reaction to being confronted with Juliette in this mood, and Nick allowed his amusement to show. It wasn’t as though Nick was unconcerned about the politics, and he knew Juliette wasn’t either. But sometimes you had to rest and cope later, and if this was the reprieve he had earned—sharing his bed with both of these people, even if it brought political complications (and probably professional ones too; if this continued they were going to have to make a plan for that even if that plan wound up being ‘keep it secret’), even though he had no idea whether Renard’s actual agenda was something he wanted to play along with—he would take it for the win it was.
Because it meant that not only was he not going to lose Juliette to the supernatural, but he had a chance at whatever this was with Renard as well.
And that a lot more than he had thought he would have not two days ago.
So he’d take it.