Hey Folks! I have some questions: Why is the world didn't the Auphe just create a gate inside of Cal's friends in the fourth book? Why doesn't Grimm use this technique on anyone now? Is this a trick unique to Cal? Also, Cal knew how to shut gates in the fourth book (eighteen of them at a time in fact), so where the heck did that talent go in book seven?
I have many more questions, but let's start with those. Any answers for me?
Disclaimer: All Characters in the following story belong to Rob Thurman, I just fuck with their lives.
Warning: Contain language, violence, and the mention of rape.
Grimm
The world seemed such a different place after the battle- or more aptly 'shit show'- with Janus.
I moved through the night quickly and quietly. Invisible: a shadow at midnight. Such darkness was not found in the city that never sleeps, but out here in the wilderness the dim light of the moon and the pale distant twinkling of stars were the only light. I cut through the trees smoothly like a shark taking in all the details with my new and improved senses. Letting the Auphe, who I had deemed Legolas just to piss it off, loose in me that night had left me heightened in many ways. The darkness was not an impenetrable wall, but a thin veil, one I could easily peer through. Peek-a-boo. Finally, dear old daddy gave me a super sense actually worth having. The super sniffer wasn't exactly comic book worthy. Hell, it was another reason, besides sheer laziness, that I couldn't go to college. Someone with a super sniffer stuck in a dorm with hundreds of other 18 year old dudes who never learned to do laundry? Talk about your poor life decisions.
I fancied myself an apex predator, but right now I was being hunted by something far more dangerous than myself, and didn't my bruised and battered ego just love to admit that?
My hand tightened slightly on my black matte combat knife. The rough handle fit in my grip like the hand of an old friend. How have you been my dearest compadre? I felt a savage smile tug at the corners of my lips as the Auphe in me pulled at its choke chain.
Down boy.
Prophetic thought as it turned out. Unfortunately, all of me went down as a heavy boot came in contact with the middle of my back. I flew forward and managed to catch myself on my hands before I got a face full of dirt. Well, that was graceful.
My hand clenched on the handle of my beloved knife (Nothing short of a beheading could've pried that pretty pointy thing from my hand). I rolled quickly anticipating the next blow of the heavy boot, which landed where my head had been only a split second before. I delivered a kick of my own at the kneecaps of my attacker. He jumped back to avoid the blow, which left me time to get back to my feet.
"Thanks for the dirt bath; it helps me to camouflage my pasty ass. I shine like the goddamn moon out here." I snarled as my knife flew through the air. Impossibly fast, and glinting in the dim light of the empty heavens: unstoppable. Or perhaps not so much, a tanned hand moved even faster to catch mine and twist my wrist in such a way that the knife dropped easily from my fingers.
Seems like it didn't take a beheading after all… what a shame. A beheading would've been much less embarrassing.
My attacker however, didn't seem to care about my wounded pride. I blocked his first few blows, but he was good. Much better than me, and faster too. I saw a flash of dirty blonde hair tied in a ponytail and then I was once again eating dirt.
I groaned and just let myself lie there for a moment soaking in the total humiliation and god only knew what else from the nasty dirt I was currently nose deep in.
"Don't complain Cal. I was merely completing your costume. Now that your face is covered maybe you won't shine out like a lighthouse." Older brothers: the cruelest of all creatures.
"Thanks for the charity you ass. You don't even want to know what it smells like down here to someone with a supped up sniffer." I rolled over and looked up at Nik, silhouetted by the star speckled sky.
"If you were really so sensitive to smells one would think you would pick yourself up off the couch to do laundry every once in a while... or perhaps even wash the dishes before they grow new life forms for you to ingest." The words were harsh, but the hand that gripped mine and pulled me up was gentle.
I opened my mouth to reply with something that would have surely have gotten my ass in some deep shit, but was interrupted by the acerbic tones of the third party in this little sparring exercise.
"Now, now Niko I am certain that Cal is just trying to 'go green' as they say, and what could possibly be greener than living off the mold spawned by your own food?"
Goodfellow swaggered- of course he did, walking was so plebian after all- over swinging his sword carelessly from his hand. It pin wheeled lazily in the air occasionally flaring bright with reflected moonlight. He had come with Niko and I to play a little game of the violent variety to the edge of the city. Nothing made Saturday night like a little knife-play. Somewhere inside me the Auphe shook its chains restlessly. There is no substitute for blood. Warm, red, delicious… and that was enough of that. I shook myself internally to try and halt my, err, 'poetic' inner dialogue. That was enough input from my internal Legolas tonight.
I scowled at Robin as I half-heartedly scrubbed the dirt from my face "Yeah, yeah you criticize me, but at least I grow my own mold. How much do you pay for those skeezy cheeses stinking up your refrigerator?"
As I turned away from him I caught the edge of a green-eyed glare, "It is exotic cheese prepared by the very finest of chefs you philistine." He muttered under his breath momentarily halting the spinning of his sword. He opened his mouth to wax on poetically no doubt about how much of an utter heathen I was when I felt it. The cold twist of my gut as though someone had plunged a hand into me to play cat's cradle with my unlucky intestines.
"Gate."
It was almost like a summons. The air began to bleed gray the moment after I said it. The tarnished silver circle grew devouring both empty space and forest indiscriminately and through it he came bearing a grin as grim as his namesake. The air vibrated with a vicious snarl that I wouldn't have known was mine if I hadn't felt it thrum in my chest. Brother dearest was not alone. A veritable swarm of his Auphe/human/snake mutts came slithering through the portal.
Unworthy. My red-eyed inner Legolas snarled. The choke chain keeping him in check loosened and the monster took advantage of my sudden weakness to battle for control of my body.
The mutts immediately went after Goodfellow and Niko snarling like rabid dogs and fighting with even less finesse. The two of them could handle those flunkies, I needed to focus on the big bad. Grimm's red eyes shone with savage glee as he strolled over to me his Auphe teeth bared and looking like hundreds of hypodermic needles. However, I would bet my ass that his mouth was far from sterile.
"Well hello there Snow White. How have you been?" Said one psychopath to the other.
"Snow White? Thanks for playing, but no dice. There is not a chance in hell I'm responding to that nickname." I snarled as I switched the knife to my other hand and pulled my Glock so fast it was all the same movement. Not fast enough apparently. He disappeared and reappeared before I had a chance to get a single shot off.
"Hair black as coal, skin white as snow" His metal clawed hand gripped my face puncturing my cheeks and cutting through my flesh like it was warm butter as he pulled my face closer "lips red as blood" he muttered so close I could feel his dank breath flutter by my ear. My knife sliced through the air aimed for the lower part of the abdomen where an Auphe kept its heart, but he was too quick for me. I felt the knife meet the briefest resistance of flesh before he was gone again.
Goddamn that party trick was getting old. Well he wasn't the only traveler here. Not by a long shot. The game was on.
Grimm and I danced through the fight. Reappearing, disappearing. The slash of a knife, the pop of my gun, and always the sullied silver that was proof of our shared heritage. The night was filled with dark laughter. His, mine, ours it was impossible to tell.
"Well if cross gender nicknames are what the kids are all about these days then I will do my best to keep up with the times Zelda." I grinned as I slashed at him again. I missed and caught his claws to my forearm for my troubles. He laughed and spun away ready to disappear, but I was tired of the dance. I searched inside me for a power I hadn't used in a long time and found it in a big way. I slammed his gate shut in his face, and grinned at the look of surprise on his face.
"Oh? Did I teach you a new trick? Twelve years of gating and you seriously hadn't figured that one out?" I taunted. I took advantage of Grimm's momentary surprise to plunge my knife into his gut, and damn it still not fast enough to get his heart. My knife pieced the flesh directly to the right of it slicing through him easily. It was good to have proof that Grimm really was mortal as blood so dark red it was tinged black gushed through the hole I'd put in dear old Grimm.
"Oh Cal-i-ban you really are fun. How I love our game." He said in voice that held hungry interest and amusement rather than pain. Goddamn it this guy was one tough son of a bitch. "But stabbing me like that… you really are a naughty boy. I think it is time I broke you in to the family business."
A boot connected with my chest and sent my flying into a nearby tree. I'd be feeling that tomorrow.
"Cal!" I heard Niko call and I risked a glance over to see him kick one of the mutts off the end of his sword and behead another that had appeared behind him. Our eyes connected briefly and I saw something in his eyes. Fear. Niko was almost never afraid, and if he was it was never on his own behalf. I didn't think it was now either. Did he know something I hadn't yet realized?
My moment of distraction cost me. Grimm was instantly in my face. He was closer than close and his steely grip had me pinned irrevocably to the tree at my back. Nothing else for it. I built a gate, or at least I tried to. It was shut instantly in my face. He was so smart, so fast, so strong, and more so all those things than I thought I could ever be. It took him seconds to take my trick and use it on me. I probably couldn't take Grimm. Hell, I knew I couldn't take Grimm, but fuck if I was going to give up and roll over for this blonde asshole.
"Stop stealing my moves Zelda." I snarled attempting to hide how shaken I was as I tried to bring my knee to his groin. He blocked me and used his hips to pin my legs outside of his forcing me even harder into the tree. He smiled happily, his needle teeth reflecting moonlight as assuredly as my pasty hide did.
His metal claws pricked my collarbone and cut me open from neck to belt shredding my entire shirt and the skin beneath it. I hissed quietly and tried to jerk my knife up and give him some artificial claw marks of his own. His free hand mercilessly pinned my wrist to the tree and his blood-drenched claws tore the knife from my grip and plunged it through my other wrist pinning it to the tree. Damn. Damn. Damn. I thought as blood gushed down my hand instantly coating the tree in warmth and red and pooling at our feet. I tried desperately to keep the pain from registering in my eyes. I didn't want to give the bastard the satisfaction.
I could hear Goodfellow and Niko both calling my name now. They were trying to fight their way through a horde of monsters that wouldn't cease. The feet between us may has well have been an ocean. They weren't going to be able to reach me. I needed to end this fight and fast before I passed out from blood loss. The gush from my wrist let me know he had hit something important. I had to stop the blood flow within minutes unless I wanted to be pushing up daises with dear old Abby soon.
I raised my leg and moved my heel behind him since his hips still pinned me and kicked out at his knee. I felt him give slightly and fought to break free, but he recovered to quickly pinning me again almost instantly. He smiled again, and it wasn't sinister or sarcastic, it was happy.
"Let's have some fun Snow White" I felt his hips nudge mine again and felt him hard through his jeans. Realization flashed through me like lightening. He had said he was going to break me in. He meant that literally. I felt his claws tear off my belt and then deftly pop the button open on his black jeans. No. No, no, no. Everything within me rebelled. I must have said it out loud because he answered me.
"No?" He repeated in a voice that poorly imitated mine. "Is now really the time to play hard to get?" Grimm added in a voice full of mock sweetness, an emotion I was certain he had never felt.
I felt his claws tear the button of my jeans as he nudged his hips insistently against mine once more.
"Don't you want to know how the succubi feel? Purely academic of course"
His hips dug even further into mine. His hardness, proof that he got off on my pain, gouged painfully into me as he ran his tongue through the blood splattered across my cheek. I felt his chest thrum against mine not in a growl, but in a contented purr, and God it was so much worse.
No. I thought again. My brain seemed frozen. I was stuck on repeat too busy fighting through the denial and horror to plan. I reacted with pure instinct. Run. My bodydemanded. Run.
Before I could even think of the motion my fist was connecting with that horrible grinning mouth. A spray of red speckled his face as my knuckles split on his needle teeth. I created a gate before he could stop me and appeared behind Nik. I grabbed him around the waste and dove for Robin already beginning to glow sliver. For the split second before we disappeared I heard Grimm laugh out a sentence. He didn't mind that his prey had escaped. He could always find me and do whatever he wanted to me, and he knew it. He knew that he was bigger, stronger, and faster. Why rush if you could take your prey at any time? The point of this ambush hadn't been to take any lives, but to deliver a message, and deliver a message he had.
His final words before the silver had gobbled the three of us up: "No running Snow White. There is no little cottage in the woods where I cannot find you. Won't you be a part of Grimm's fairy tale?"
The three of us landed in a heap on our apartment floor. Niko was up instantly and despite being slightly nauseous from the gate ran to our medical supply cabinet to grab something to stop my bleeding. Both him and Goodfellow suffered only minor claw marks. They could handle the minions, it was the big bad that was the trouble.
Oh and what trouble he was.
I couldn't stop the shudder that crept down my spine and freed the half hysterical thoughts boiling in my head. It was like déjà vu in the worst way possible. What was it with the Auphe and rape? Hadn't I just dealt with those Auphe bitches trying to do the exact same thing to me? I had escaped that fate because of my friends, because of my brother, because of skill, determination, and a shit load of luck. None of those things would be enough to stop Grimm. Apparently I was desired all around, and Goodfellow thought himself a stud. I felt the black laughter tug at my chest trying to fight its way out, but quashed it. I couldn't give into the madness or I'd never pull myself out again.
I felt Robin's hand squeeze my shoulder firmly enough to pull me out of my thoughts, but gently enough not to hurt. I realized that Niko was tightly bandaging my wrist to quell the flow of blood. When had he gotten back over here? I thought dazedly.
"Kid…" Goodfellow trailed off. There were no words for this. There were no words, and he knew it too. I kept my eyes focused on Niko's hands as the worked quickly and efficiently to cover all my bleeding gashes with gauze only the barest shade whiter than me. I couldn't look up. I couldn't stand to see the sympathy in Goodfellow's eyes, hearing it in his voice was enough.
It was more than enough goddamn it.
My hands reflexively clenched. Niko's larger and darker skinned hand skimmed gently over mine and carefully pried my hand open.
"Don't clench your hand. You'll worsen the bleeding." He said so quietly that if our apartment hadn't been dead silent I wouldn't have heard it. I nodded my assent numbly.
Abruptly Niko stood and ran his hands quickly over his face before his fist lashed out and cratered our wall in a momentary, but spectacular loss of control.
"Fuck." He cursed harshly and that is when I realized that I was well and truly fucked in all the ways there were to be fucked. I bit back the dark laughter that pressed at my rib cage again and dropped my forehead to my blood covered knees.
"Fuck." I echoed my big brother.
Tell me your favorite Leandros series quote... and your predictions for book 8. I'm wildly curious.