Hey guys! This was done for a prompt on Dreamwidth requesting more hurt/comfort fics with Nick/Renard. This pairing rules the world! :P
Summary: Nick gets taken, Renard comes to his rescue. Revelations and mixed feelings follow.
Ashes and Embers.
"You what?" He shouted, unable to control the intense wave of rage that swept through him.
"Sir, I'm sorry." Adiland's voice was trembling with fear but Renard heard only disobedience. She had dared to leave the post assigned to her, and now Nick had disappeared. "Sir, he had seemed fine, well into his ritual of drinking himself to oblivion and I thought …" she trailed off, unable to even form coherent excuses and apologies. Not that Renard was actually interested in listening to them. He clicked the phone shut and stood up in one fluid motion.
Dealing with disloyal subordinates could wait. He had a Grimm to find…hopefully before it was too late. Refusing to dwell further on that thought he made his way out of the office.
He woke up with a gasp, the splash of cold water jolting him into consciousness. Spluttering, he tried to move, only to discover that he was bound to a chair. Classic.
Nick looked around, taking in his surroundings. He hadn't been expecting the Hilton, but anything would be better than this. The narrow tunnel, ankle deep water and the noises of rats scurrying alongside the filthy walls suggested that they were in an underground sewer. Oh well, kidnapping must not really be that much of a lucrative business as the movies made it seem.
"Welcome back to the land of the living." A raspy, heavily accented voice called out… Russian? French? Probably French. Nick glanced around, trying to find the source, but failing to see much in the semi darkness. He stopped shaking his head and closed his eyes, hoping for the wave of nausea to pass and the world to straighten itself. Right, he had almost forgotten about the get to know you present his kidnappers had dealt out to him. Head wounds were also not just blood caked on the side of your face, it seemed. Hollywood seriously needed some time in the field.
"Not so dangerous are you now, Grimm?" This time the voice was directly next to his ear. Nick sighed his shoulders sagging; there went his hopes that this little tete-a-tete was un-Grimm related. Just his luck. The sound of a match being struck resonated throughout the tunnel, and a lamp was lighted, providing some degree of illumination. Enough for Nick to make out the man standing right in front of him. Tall, muscular, hair slicked back, clothes dirty and at least three days old. Nick craned his neck slowly, intending to figure out just what kind of creature he would have to placate and give the 'I'm-not-going-to-kill-you-if-you-don't-do-anything-wrong' speech.
However his voice failed him as he took in the scaly skin, small eyes, large nose and the menacing grin which dominated the face, giving the man, the reaper, a manic almost crazy look. Nick blinked; he looked so much like who had attacked his aunt that night, the face he saw frequently in his nightmares. Except that this one was missing an ear.
"Reaper!" Nick hadn't quite meant to growl and certainly not that venomously, well okay maybe he did, but even he could tell that bad mouthing your captor wasn't a good idea when you were bound to a chair, completely at his mercy. But then the guy had probably had his aunt killed… he was entitled right?
"Yes Grimm." The sadistic smile was still etched on his face. "Now that we are past the introductions, let's get down to talking business." He circled Nick as he talked and the detective could make out the outline of at least three other men in the shadows. Probably reapers too… Or maybe something worse, exactly how many creatures were there anyway?
"Business?" Nick inquired, hoping to stall for time, while discreetly fiddling his hands bound behind the back of the chair, hoping to loosen the knots a little so he could break free. "What do you want from me?"
The reaper stopped right in front of him again, forcing Nick to crane his neck to look up at him again. Nick had a sinking feeling in his gut that this man was really enjoying the whole I'm-taller-than-you-'cause-you're-bound-to-a-chair routine. He bent down and Nick drew back a little, God the guy smelled.
"You don't get to ask the questions here pretty boy." He snarled at him, and Nick had to hold his breathe in order to stop himself from throwing up. Reaper or not, personal hygiene wasn't something anyone should overlook. But then, the guy lived in a bloody sewer. "No wonder the King likes you, pretty little thing that you are."
All those sessions in front of the mirror paid off as Nick kept his surprise: (what king?); and indignation: (who was he calling little, he was a cop Goddamit!); from showing through. "And you're sure bringing me here was a smart move, then?" he said carefully. "The king won't be happy when he finds out about this, would he?" No need to tell him that he didn't have a clue what he was talking about. And besides a supposed alliance with some king was better than appealing to Mr. Reaper of the Sewers' sympathy here, right?
Apparently it wasn't a very smart question as it earned him a stinging back handed slap. Blinking away the stars that seem to swim in front of his eyes, Nick resolutely made up his mind to stick to his earlier decision of not aggravating the sadistic reaper.
"The King needs a wake-up call, and we're going to give it to him." The reaper growled, once again his face just inches away from Nick's. "We gave him his chance to maintain the order by turning you in to us, but he refused. Placed a bloody guard duty on you too, the nerve!"
"Now look here." Nick started, head still reeling from the blow. "I am not like the other Grimms you've heard about, I don't kill unless it's a last resort. My aunt…" He was silenced by yet another punch, this one to the gut. He felt the entire air whoosh out of him as he doubled over in pain, bile rising up his throat.
"Your Aunt!" The reaper let out an enraged shout. Grabbing a handful of Nick's hair he wrenched his head up so that Nick was staring at him through the tears clouding his vision. "Your aunt was a fucking murderer!" he said through clenched teeth, spitting on Nick's face before letting go and backing off so suddenly that Nick's world tilted once more.
"Do you know how many of us she killed?" Nick was trying his best to keep up with the ranting of the reaper who had taken to pacing in front of him. "Let's ask my friends here, shall we?" He looked up to see another man step out of the shadows. A glance at his shifted form told him it was a blutbad, though he appeared to be quite young, maybe only in his late teens or early twenties.
"Rene, care to share with our Grimm here what happened to your family?" the reaper encouraged the blutbad forward. Nick looked at him wearily. The blutbad- Rene- walked towards him slowly, coming to a halt just a few feet in front of him. Nick could tell he was no more than a boy, who had been living in the wild for so long, the clothes he wore hung loosely around his thin lanky frame. Empathy towards the youth filled Nick's heart… until he dared to look in his eyes. For someone so young, the eyes were so full of malice and intense raw anger and hatred, that just looking into them made Nick swallow nervously.
"Rene here was 11, when one day he returned home from school to find his baby brother dead on the porch." The reaper's voice filtered through the haze that was clouding Nick's mind. "What did you find when you went inside Rene?" The reaper edged the blutbad on.
"My père was lying in his own blood in the hall" the blutbad snarled, suddenly gripping Nick's collar and jerking his head up. "And my mother was lying beside him a knife jutting out of her chest!" He lifted Nick up, chair and all, and hurled him across the tunnel. Nick, still bound to the chair, hit the wall and crumpled down to the ground, unable to stop the shout which ripped from his throat as his head collided with the ground. But before he could regain his balance, he was hurled from the ground again; this time his mind noted hazily by a geier. Great.
"Let's just get around to kill him already." The geier said, running a clawed finger over the gash on Nick's head which was bleeding freely again. "Enough foreplay already." He smiled sweetly at him, before licking the finger coated in his blood clean.
"Not so fast." Another voice rang out. "The woman had a large supply of weapons and written material which she used to take with her wherever she went." Nick could make out the blurry figure of a fuchsbau walking towards him. The geier holding him up set him down and stepped back. The back of the chair had broken on contact with the wall and Nick winced as the splinters dug into his back.
"You tell us where you've hidden the stash, and you get an easy death." The fuchsbau bent down and said softly. Nick's head swam with desperate ideas. His hands were still tied at the back, his vision was getting blurry; even if he managed to free himself of the restraints he wouldn't be able to take on a blutbad, a geier and a fuchsbau on his own, not to mention that sadistic Reaper. No one knew where he was, and even Monroe was out of town for the weekend. At least there was no more Juliette to worry after him. There was no way on this side of hell that he was getting out of this shit hole alive. Not quite the spectacular bang he had dreamed of going out with ever since he had been rookie cop, but least by getting murdered he would ensure that someone investigate his death: these guys didn't look the clever type who would know how to properly dispose of a body… Mustering up all the resolve he had left he put on the best dazzling smile he could manage, the one which had had girls and guys swooning over him before Juliette had come along and looked the fuchsbau straight in the eye.
"Go fuck yourself."
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Updates will be daily, but I can get very happy if there are lots of reviews and post two chapters in one day. :P
