Chapter 1

"Closed door… I don't believe I'm here again!" she thought while taking a step towards the closed door in front of her. A knock was heard and a man's voice answered "Come in!"

She opened hesitantly the door and saw him sitting by the desk. "So… I'm here, what did you want?"

"Please, Emily, take a sit, can I offer you something?"

"Cut the crap and get to the point… please!" she said sarcastically raising an eyebrow.

"Still as hot tempered as I remember?" he answered amused by her attitude. She responded with a smirk and sat down on the chair without answering. She tapped her slim fingers on the desk and stared at him, "I'm waiting…"

"Right to the point it is…. I need you to do something for me." He said sighing.

"Why can't you take care of your own dirty work?" she replied with a sarcastic smile, but he ignored her.

"I need you to protect someone, can you do it?"

"Depends… who is he?"

"Who…what, who cares?"

"I do!"

"Fine! He is a Grimm." He said and looked at her intensely waiting for her reaction.

"A Grimm?" she almost screamed at him. "A Grimm? Are you serious?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

"Nah, you never had a sense of humor…" she said with a serious look on her face.

He ignored her once again and continued "He is important to us."

"Not to me! I'm a L…" she went to say but he cut her off.

"I know what you are, but still you're not above us all! It affects you too!"

"I told you I'm done with all these shit!" she exclaimed and stood up heading for the door.

He watched her retrieving back and spoke softly "You don't have a choice you know... its either you or… "

"Or what?"

"He dies!"

She hesitated for a second and looked at him behind her shoulder. "Like he has a chance if I'm here?"

"It wasn't you fault, you know!" he said with a sigh.

A moment passed before answering, when finally she sighed and said "What's his name?"

He smiled in content and replied "Burkhardt, Nick Burkhardt."

"Consider it done." She said bluntly and left the room closing the door behind her with a thud.

Next morning…

Nick Burkhardt exited happily from the jewellery store. While walking a camera click made him stop in his tracks

"Hank, what are you doing?" he asked while holding a small, blue box with a ring inside.

"Adjusting the new equipment and taking a picture of you, while you are still young and innocent" he replied with a smile.

"Oh I'm getting married only once not four times" he stated jokingly and walked towards their car.

"Oh you are a happily ever after guy." Hank said at him and at that moment a group of women passing by, caught Nick's attention. His stare lingered especially upon a petit brunette woman, who also stared back at him smiling. Just before Hank disappeared in his car, he gave Nick a teasing look "Detective what are you looking at? You just bought a ring" he said, causing Nick to turn briefly to look him. But when his stare returned back to the brunette, the sight took him by surprise. The woman was surrounded by a bright white light and her eyes were a pure gold, fiery color. Within a blink of an eye, the woman was back to normal. He was left there staring at her back as she was walking away when he heard Hank's voice yelling for him "Are you coming or what?" He shook his head in order to get his thoughts straight again and got in the car. At that moment the police radio in the car was calling for buck up in a crime scene. Apparently someone was killed in the forest.

Nick and his partner responded at the call and went to check out the crime scene. It wasn't a pretty sight. The victim was sliced into peaces to the point of unrecognizable. The only thing they could find was a girl's shoe and a pink I-pod still playing the song "Sweet Dreams". The odd thing in that crime scene was that, even though the M O was indicating an animal attack, the only foot print they found was that of a boot.

Not being able to find anything else from there, Nick and Hank went back at the precinct.

"Seems it is the same with what happened a month ago in Mon Sen. Creek Falls" Hank said while they were entering the precinct.

"Yes you're right. Now, until we get the DNA results I'll get the files of violent predators in the area."

"Better search beyond the metro!" Hank suggested.

"Absolutely! And we should take a look at that other attack from a few months ago, you said."

"Well you'll be busy. I'll take the I-pod for prints, back in a minute!" Hank replied and turned left, heading for the forensics. Nick agreed with a movement of his head and continued his way to his desk. But as he was walking he looked at a guy in handcuffs, who was sitting on chair across the room. The man looked back and once again, just for a split of a second Nick thought that the guys face turned into some sort of a snake's face with a long tongue and very small and sharp teeth. The surprise of the sight made him to stare at that guy and therefore miss the fact that officer Wu, a co worker of his, was walking towards him on a collision course. At the end the collision wasn't avoided and Nick bumped into Wu, who said ironically "Sorry Nick I guess I should have wore my airbag today." And after that he continued his way. Leaving Nick behind with a raised hand saying his sorry. He took a quick peek of the, now normal, guy and went to his desk.

The rest of the day passed and the only thing the two detectives could find about the case was the victim's identity, she was Silvia Oster a university student. Since there was nothing more for them to do at that point they decided to return home.

"And don't forget it's the big night Romeo!" Hank teased his friend a little longer as they were exiting the building. Nick gave him a desperate look and walked away.

Nick had already reached his house. He parked the car and headed to the door. Went inside when he realized that something was odd. The lights were all off and nothing could be heard. "Juliet?" he asked for his fiancé with who he lives together. No one answered. He headed to the kitchen when he saw a bold woman slicing a tomato. She turned and looked at him. When she saw him a big smile appeared on her face.

"Aunt Marie! What are you doing here?" He said happily to see his aunt again after a long time.

"Oh Nick! How nice to see you again! I missed you!" she said and stood up from her chair to hug him. As she did she whispered in his ear "We need to talk!" so that Juliet couldn't hear her.

After the nice dinner that Juliet and Aunt Marie prepared and after they talked about how thing have been for all of them, aunt Marie asked Nick to go for a walk. He, curious as he was about what his aunt has said earlier, said yes and so they went out.

"How bad is it?" Nick finally asked Marie after a few minutes of silent walking.

"The cancer? About two months, or two days, who knows? Listen there are so many things I need to tell you…" she started but Nick interrupted her, "Why didn't you come here sooner? Ella knows?"

"Leave your sister out of this I don't want her to leave everything there and travel back just for me! Besides I couldn't come sooner…"

"Why?" Nick persisted even more frustrated.

"Just listen to me…" Marie turned to face him, causing him to stop walking. "… There are things you don't know…" she continued and now her breath was faster, "…things about your family." Finally concluded.

"My family? You're my family!" Nick replied and tried to understand.

"Have you been seeing strange things? Things that you can't explain?" Marie asked strictly. The question stroke Nick as a lightning, he remembered the woman and the guy in handcuffs and looked down without answering.

"Oh I knew it! This is all happening so much faster that I anticipated! When it happened to me, it knocked me on my ass, I couldn't move for a week!"

"What are you talking about?" Nick asked now worried and maybe a little frightened.

"The misfortune of our family is already passing to you, I'm so sorry. I know you love Juliet but you have to end it and never see her again. It's just too dangerous!"

"What?" now Nicks emotions were all mixed up he couldn't understand whether he felt worry are frustration about what he was listening. But at that moment he saw the eyes of his aunt move from him and target something behind him and the worried but also sad expression on her face transformed in a serious and combating one, "Oh my God! He is here!"

"Who?" Nick asked and turned toward the spot she was looking. It was a green car parked at the corner. He turned to look at Marie once again and saw her drawing a small sword out of her cane. Before he had a chance to react though, a greenish humanoid creature appeared. It was big and the only thing that came out of it was a constant growl. It attacked Marie and she dodged him like a professional fighter, but it stroke again and knocked her down. At that moment, Nick, who was behind the creature at that moment through himself at it but with no result, since it was able to knock him down as well with ease. As it had them both knocked down and Marie was also unconscious it draws out a small scythe and turned to Marie. Nick tried to reach his gun but before he could do so, a white light appeared and the woman from the morning was standing right in front of him. She just appeared out of nowhere. The bright light made the creature turn around and gave the woman the chance to grab it's neck. The scene that followed was beyond reason. The bright light reappeared but as Nick was looking at the woman's back, it looked like as if the light was coming out of wings. She hold the creature for a minute or so when it made a scream and it's eyes went grey. She let go of its neck and the now lifeless corpse fell on the ground. She stared at it for a second and turned to look at Nick, smiled at him as she had done this morning and with a blink of an eye she was gone, the same way she had came. Nick was now in shock. The only thing that dragged him out of oblivion was the still body of his Aunt Marie.