The wesen community of Portland had hunkered down and carefully watched the new Grimm, and many talked softly, whispered in quiet corners, afraid what would happen. They trusted their own Grimm, but the new one was deadly. Very dangerous and deadly.

Not that Nick Burkhardt wasn't all that, too, but he at least asked questions, tried to help, and didn't go into a situation with the intent to be the last one standing.

No one cared for the schakal who had died at the hands of the newarrival, but the few who had caught a glimpse of her had been terrified. She was the nightmare of their childhood stories and the terror that was part of their heritage. She was who they feared and always would.

Monroe had had a lot of visitors in the past few days. Holly had demanded if there was anything she could do, fight the other Grimm, stake out her place, give her a warning to leave them alone. Monroe had calmed her down and told the young blutbad to keep her head down.

"This isn't her territory!" she growled.

"No, it isn't, but it's also not your fight, Holly."

"I can defend what's mine!"

Monroe smiled a little at that. Holly wasn't a wieder and she refused to curb her instincts that badly. She claimed she was part of the forest, part of the wilderness in and around Portland. She could control herself to a degree that she didn't react to red or tore apart what she deemed dangerous, but she was a true blutbad, fierceness and all.

"Let Nick handle it. Just keep out of her way, okay? This Grimm isn't a piece of cake to deal with. She will kill you without a second thought."

The young woman growled, but aside from a slight glow of red in her eyes she didn't change in any way.

X

Roddy and Drew had been speechless when they had found out about who the new Grimm was. The reinigen had been drawn between panic and a determination Monroe had seen in many of the more timid wesen when it came to a threat lately. All who had been in contact with Nick seemed to develop some backbone after a while. Drew, who was a klaustreich and more of a predator, had looked afraid nevertheless.

While those two rarely met up with Nick in any capacity, their relationship with the Grimm made them a target. Both were music students at the Hamlin Institute and there was no way they could simply take some time off. Monroe hoped that Kelly wasn't going after every single one of Nick's friends.

It would only serve to piss off the Grimm even more than he already was.

X

Frank had called him and they had talked. About what had happened, about Nick, about what his suddenly alive mother meant for all of them.

"I almost crapped my pants," had been Monroe's honest answer. "That is one Grimm I really don't want to deal with again!"

No one wanted to. But if she returned for them, they would be ready to face her. Nick was their Grimm and Portland was his territory in a way, too. He had friends here, good friend, loyal friends, and Frank had told Monroe in no uncertain terms that he would protect not simply his own family, but also their Grimm.

X

Word had spread throughout the network, from maushertz to schwanensee, from lausenschlange to reinigen. Even the bad elements had cowed a little and whenever Kelly Burkhardt appeared anywhere, asking questions, only the slow remained behind; or those who couldn't care less who paid them for information.

Frank in turn had done his own investigation into the mysterious woman who was their Grimm's mother and while there was little to no information, he at least got the confirmation that she was Kelly Burkhardt. Whatever had drawn her out of hiding, she was here now, disrupting the protected city, and the jagerbar wondered how long their local Guardian would sit back and watch her do it.

When he caught glimpses of hexenbiester in the woman's vicinity it became clear that the regnant was indeed not happy.

He simply hoped the fall-out wouldn't hurt their own Grimm too badly.

XX X X XX X X

Marie Kessler's grave was a simple headstone on almost bare ground. Flowers spoke of someone who had recently visited and Kelly suspected it had been Nick. Who else would give a dead Grimm this honor? Around her tall trees rose into the afternoon sky. Graves dotted the forest-like area, in no apparent order, giving the whole graveyard a less than structured appearance. In a way it was more appealing than the rows upon rows somewhere else.

She bowed her head briefly, then studied the simply gray stone. A name and two years. Birth and death. A Grimm lived dangerously. Each confrontation with a wesen might be the last. They had been trained by their father and they had had a lot of battle experience. They had been good; feared. But Marie had been slowly losing another battle. Cancer had eaten her up and Kelly knew that before the fatal diagnosis, too much else had come and gone and died in her sister's life.

She was largely responsible for a lot. Like losing the man she loved. Nick had told her about Farley Kolt, about the engagement that Marie had blown off to take care of the orphaned child. She could have lived her life with her nephew and a husband, but Marie had realized that with Kelly's death, the Grimm duties on her shoulders had doubled.

And a wesen husband would have complicated matters.

"I'm sorry, sis," she murmured. "I never wanted this. I did what I had to do and I never told you. I knew you would have kept the secret. Even if it would have broken your heart seeing Nick suffer."

She couldn't undo what she had done. A lot of decisions in her life had been wrong. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, a saying went. It was no more true than with a Grimm's life.

Nick was different. He looked closer, he asked questions, he had chosen to follow police procedure. He was an officer of the law with an edge. A Grimm edge.

"You raised him well," she continued. "He's a handsome young man with a big heart and a conscience our father never trained us to have. I see now that he is what our ancestors were so many centuries ago. I wish I understood your decision to ask the regnant for aid. You sold your life for his protection."

There was no answer, of course. Everything was silent around her, only the wind in the trees a soft whisper in her ears.

"I understand the psychic link. I know it can happen if the regnant and the Grimm match. I know what's in the books and we always wondered what it would be like, to have a wesen bonded to us. You remember those long nights reading?" She smiled sadly. "Fairy tales that were gruesomely true, more stories that no one had ever seen before, and creatures the world would think of as fantasy and myth. For us it was harsh reality and I know my life tainted my view of things. Did you know about the blutbad before you passed?"

Kelly stopped, feeling her throat constrict with emotions she never really showed. She had been on her own, without the man she had loved so badly, without her son who had been the center of their lives. Reed had been someone special. She had fallen in love with him before she had known he was a Grimm, too. Marie had teased her mercilessly about her lovestruck behavior, but she had been happy for Kelly.

And Marie in turn had found her own love in Farley. Only to lose it when fate had delivered a terrible blow.

Maybe she should look for the steinadler one day, ask him about Marie. Maybe it would catch her up some more on a life she never lived.

"I wish I could be the mother he had missed, but I'm not. He's not the child I had to leave behind eighteen years ago. He grew into a formidable man and he will be a powerful Grimm one day. You did well, Marie. I thank you for everything you did."

Kelly bowed her head again and turned, walking over the uneven ground, around roots arching out of the hard-packed earth, around trees and bushes, then suddenly stopped. Not far from her, in the shadow of a redwood, stood a man in a priest's uniform. He was utterly non-descript, with a bland face, pale, neither young nor old, the eyes a watery blue. His hair was neither stylish nor old-fashioned and his hands were clasped in front of him in a loose way.

She didn't know what had made her stop, especially since her wesen sense wasn't ringing. Not even a slight tremor gave her an idea whether this was a wesen or not. Still… the way he studied her she knew he was aware of who and what she was.

"Who are you?" she asked quietly, keeping a good distance to him.

If the priest was a dangerous wesen she was outside immediate striking distance of every predator she knew of in the wesen world. If he was something else, she might be in trouble.

"You came to visit your sister," he said, voice soft and quiet and very calm. It was almost soothing.

"If you know who I am it would be polite to introduce yourself."

His smile was barely there. "My name wouldn't help you in knowing me."

So he was a wesen.

"What do you want?"

The priest didn't move, just watched her. "Nothing at all. I have no quarrel with you, Grimm. I merely wanted to make sure peace remained on this holy ground."

"You shadowed me in your master's name?" she translated.

"I serve only one."

"And his name isn't praised in your sermons."

Now the smile grew just a tiny amount. "There is no praise needed for the one who protects."

Kelly raked her brain to find something that would fit this unassuming man. She was trying to pierce through his façade, but not a single flicker showed. He wasn't a hexenbiest, so what else served royalty?

"He is looking for you, Grimm."

"Your protector?"

"Your son."

She froze. "You know Nick?"

"We never met. My servitude to him is in shadows and silence and without his knowledge."

Something her father had told her tickled her memories. Something passed down by generations, only vaguely referenced here or there. Something no one had been able to draw because no Grimm had ever seen the wesen's true nature up close and personal.

"You are an unfassbar."

He tilted his head a little. "So you have heard of my kind."

Kelly stared at him, shocked that the confirmation was this easy. She still saw no wesen, but if this was an unfassbar, she was looking at a wesen that no Grimm had ever seen without its façade firmly in place. A creature that served royalty like a hexenbiest but in a more discrete and secretive manner. Their loyalty was legendary. They were incredibly hard to track and disappeared before anyone would see them. Legend had it they were ferocious killing machines, set on a task by their master and acting without questions.
"Heard, but never seen."

"No one has."

"Then why show yourself to me?"

"I have no reason to hide."

"And no reason to stop me? Or has your master decided on my fate?"

The watery blue eyes never showed an emotion. "My presence here is one of a watcher, not an executioner of his will. As I said before, your son is looking for you. I believe you should go to his home."

"And if I don't, you will?"

No smile; nothing at all. "I'm merely observing."

Kelly didn't move, studying the unfassbar. The priest without a name turned and started to walk away. His movements were lithe, soundless, and his feet left minimal tracks on the ground.

She didn't follow, just watched.

And then he had disappeared between the trees.

Kelly took a different route out of the cemetery, mind still reeling.

XX X X X X XX XX X X X

She finally found her way back to her son's home. It wasn't the house Marie had lived and raised him in. Nick had told her that he had moved here, that there were wesen living around him who knew who and what he was, who had actually come to his housewarming party, and that a lausenschlange had helped him get the house at a reasonable price. A lausenschlange whose brother had been a murder victim throughout one of Nick's cases.

Yes, her son's life was… nothing like anything she could have imagined.

And nothing she could easily accept. Over three decades as a Grimm wouldn't let her.

The lights were on. Nick was home. She sensed no wesen with him, though Renard didn't really register on her senses when he had his shields fully in place. Like the unfassbar he suppressed his true nature to a degree that even emotional surges had him appear human if he didn't consciously drop the pretense.

She walked up the stairs, silently, almost like a shadow, keeping her senses peeled.

Nothing moved.

Nothing seemed wrong.

She carefully checked whether the door was locked and found it was. A smile crossed Kelly's lips; approval.

She rang the door bell and waited.

tbc...