"You can't be serious."

"Hank." Nick began, wondering if it was still possible to back out of this case. "This may come as a surprise to you, but I'm not a playboy, and I don't have a lot of flings. I legitimately do not know what that thing is supposed to be."

It had been a case like any other. At least, in the beginning.

Then they'd discovered that the link which tied together the missing girls was that they had all been workers in the sex trade industry.

And now suddenly, Nick was learning way more about the fetishistic underbelly of Portland than he'd been ready to absorb when he'd woken up that morning.

"Oh my God, you really have no idea?" Hank was grinning at him, standing there holding that thing in his hand. It was a string that looked like a scaled down version of one of those telephone wires they put up near airports with all the orange balls on it to warn the planes away. "Nick, I- I'm learning about this- this whole new side to you, man. You can wrap your head around the goriest stuff, but when it comes to sex, you are adorably naive."

"And what makes you such an expert?" Nick muttered, looking away. He just wasn't really as outgoing when it came to flirting as Hank was. He'd seen Hank meet a girl's eye across a crowded room and go home with her that evening. It was baffling.

"Uh, hello?" Hank's eyebrows arched at him. Nick had been trying to watch his facade face as much as possible- he could keep it up indefinitely, if he really tried. "Four ex-wives? Four failed marriages? You really think I never thought to blame it on being too tame in the sack?"

So maybe he was a little bit naive- that wasn't a bad thing, it just meant he hadn't yet gotten bored enough in bed with a partner that he felt it was necessary.

Maybe it was a little bit of a bad thing. That was because he hadn't spent long enough with any of them to get that far, after all.

"Okay, this conversation has strayed deep into territory it can't be rescued from." he shook his head, trying to put that depressing thought to the side. Hank was chuckling.

"Sex crimes, my man." he set the- whatever it was- aside. "You're going to have to learn somehow. You'll see a lot here in Portland when it comes to cases involving hinky stuff. Better to be well-versed than clueless."

When the high-end escort they had convinced to talk to them walked in two minutes later and Nick took one good look at her, he wanted to smack Hank upside the head.

There were upsides to being well-versed, he supposed, but one of the downsides was that from the second Hank saw a pretty lady hitting on him, he was hooked.

Under any other circumstances, Nick would have wished them his blessing and gotten lost for an hour or two so the long lost soulmates could bond for a while.

But not when the escort was a Geier.

x

The hardest part of the case was finding enough evidence to support his theory fast enough to save Hank.

When he'd tried to explain to Hank that the reason he didn't want his partner fooling around with the escort was because something about the girl just gave him the creeps, Hank had gotten all defensive.

"Come on, man, just because she gets paid for what she does, that doesn't make her any worse than any other lady out there." he'd protested, and Nick would have been tempted to smack himself in the head if it hadn't been throbbing so badly. "Besides, Elysia's not interested in me being her client. We're going out for dinner on Friday."

For the first time, Nick found himself wondering if the reason why his ancestors had killed so many people was out of sheer frustration with them for not being able to see the bigger picture.

x

Nick had started off simply trying to find a paper trail, or some kind of evidence that the missing girls had been connected to Elysia. If not enough to put her in a holding cell, then maybe enough to shove under Hank's nose to try and get him to call off the date.

By Wednesday, Nick was so desperate that he resorted to telling Hank that he was going to follow a lead and that he shouldn't wait up. And then he'd buttoned up his coat and started literally following his lead- the only lead he had. Tailing the escort on foot.

A Geier could be good, he reasoned. After all, he had seen plenty of so-called 'evil by nature' people who were good. But when Elysia smiled, her teeth were bloody, just like the splatter that dripped from her hands. And what seeped into the ground from her boots.

It wasn't very hard to follow her. The blood wasn't real- it was just a psychic impression that was left behind, a stain on the world where she walked, and it faded within moments- but those moments were long enough for him to use it to determine which direction she'd gone every single time he lost sight of her.

It really did feel like cheating, sometimes. The advantages that he'd been given at birth made it so much easier for him to do things like this.

They don't call it cheating when a Siegbarste joins a football team, he reminded himself. They call it natural talent.

He snorted. It hadn't sounded any more believable when he'd heard it on the hive, either.

Nick kept notes of all the places where she stopped for longer. Most of them were boutiques, there was two salons- one for hair and the other one for nails- and then there was a stop at a restaurant for lunch, which Nick forewent in order to keep an eye on her.

And then she finished up her shopping and headed home.

Nick was frustrated. Sitting there, watching her front door, waiting for her to come back out. But she never did.

Of course he wasn't going to find out what he needed on the first day, Nick reasoned, and finally headed back to check in with Hank and try to convince him again.

When Hank looked up to find Nick standing, he grinned and held up a slip of paper.

"I've got it." were the first words out of his mouth.

x

The first victim, Natalie Kellson, had been- by all accounts- particularly lewd. She'd hit on anything with something dangling between two legs. Including, according to her mother, her own older brother.

"Musai can't help themselves." her mother had protested with that breathless sort of fluttery voice that Nick supposed was meant to be attractive. "When puberty strikes, whoever's closest is the target of their most powerful desires. Jason understood that, I made sure to raise him to know how to handle it when her becoming started to fuel her libido."

Jason, as well, had been calm and composed. He'd patiently explained to them that his baby sister had been a tail chaser since she was barely thirteen, and she'd seemed more driven by it than he ever had at that age. When the time had come for her to leave home, she'd fallen into the trade of prostitution not as a grudging way to make money, but more as an excuse to fall into bed with whoever would take her as often as possible.

Which left the question- if she had been the first victim, and the first victim was usually the most important, what did that mean for the investigation?

x

Everything, it turned out.

Sye Dunther had been the focus of Natalie's attentions back in middle school. Her first 'boyfriend', and when her brother had rebuked her, he had been the first person she'd turned her charms on.

At such a young age, his mind had been able to somewhat adapt to the Musai's kiss to the point where he hadn't devolved into a desperate frenzy. What he had done, though, was track her down for years until he could find her again, desperate to touch the sun, desperate to experience that first rapture all over again.

But Natalie had been at the peak of her libido when her becoming had first changed her. When they'd come together again, and she was all too happy to play along, it hadn't been the experience Sye had remembered. That he'd been dreaming of all those years.

He'd been taking more and more girls, thinking that maybe if he just added a harem to that fantasy, then reality would be able to live up to it.

When Hank and Nick had arrested Sye, Natalie had nearly scratched their eyes out to try and make them let him go. While it might have been hell for the other girls, it had been a dream come true for her.

Sye had gone to the station to be processed. Natalie had gone to the hospital in a straightjacket, where the doctors discovered that her overactive sex drive was due to a serotonin imbalance that was easily treatable.

For how lucky they were to have found everyone alive, Nick couldn't help but think that if he hadn't spent that day chasing around a dead end lead, they might have found them even sooner.

x

Friday came too soon.

Nick hadn't been able to convince Hank to drop the date. Every time he tried, Hank just laughed at him for being so naive and promising him that he would be careful.

Nick had been forced to watch Hank pulling on his coat, heading home half an hour early to prepare for his date. He hadn't realized that he'd been glaring at the door until a hand had landed on his shoulder.

"Come on, man. It's not a good idea."

Nick sighed. If there was one good thing about Sergeant Wu, it was that he was such a physically affectionate guy that he was giving Nick a lot of practice at getting used to clamping down on his immediate reaction when someone touched him.

"What's not?" he asked, wondering if Wu could tell that he wanted to stalk Hank and Elysia to dinner to make sure nothing bad happened.

"Making your partner your partner. It never ends well."

Nick's first reaction was what? Immediately followed by what.

"This isn't jealousy, it's worry." Nick almost snapped at him. Hank was his friend. He didn't really want to sleep with him. His relationship with Hank consisted of beers and jokes and bad movies, and if he slept over, it was always on the couch.

Wu raised an eyebrow at him.

"Hank can take care of himself, man. Have you even seen him when he gets going?"

Nick gritted his teeth. Rubbed at the bridge of his nose.

"I have." he muttered, bitterly. "Wu- I just- Hank gets his heart broken so often. And I don't think this girl has any good intentions."

"So, what's the problem? Just tell him." Wu looked confused for a second. "You've got the best instincts of anyone here. If she's giving you the heebie-jeebies, there's probably something to it."

"Hank won't listen." Nick stated, flatly. "You know the case we were just on? The sex worker case?"

"Yeah?" Wu was watching him, perplexed.

"I'm not really well versed in that world, and now every time I try to warn him, he thinks I'm being harsh on Elysia because she's an escort and I'm too sweet and naive. But I'm not- I'm not trying to get him to stop because of her job-" he was getting desperate now, trying to find the words to explain- "Wu, that girl, that Natalie girl? She doesn't weird me out even half this bad."

When he looked up, Wu was frowning. His brows furrowed, just watching Nick.

Then, he rolled his shoulders back and straightened up.

"You sure you're right about this?" he asked, faintly. Nick grimaced.

"No." he muttered. "But I just- I'm just worried."

Wu hesitated. Then, he grabbed his keys off his desk.

"Monsieur Burkhardt," he began, in his faintest, most fluttery voice. "Would you do me the honor of joining me for dinner?"

Nick blinked.

Then, he nearly collapsed in relief.

"I'll grab my coat."

x

They sat at the bar on the far end of the room, watching Hank and his date in the mirror behind the bottles.

Nothing seemed wrong for the longest time. Until Hank leaned in to whisper something in her ear and she took the opportunity to sniff him.

Wu had stiffened. Nick, to his surprise, had found himself putting his hand on the Sergeant's shoulder to keep him in his seat.

"It's just something that some races do." he warned, softly. "Scenting pheromones. It doesn't mean anything."

Wu had grumbled and ordered himself another rum and coke.

x

The night had gone without a hitch.

Nick had dropped Wu off back at his house after they made sure Hank really had just returned Elysia to her place and not invited himself in for coffee. The Sergeant had been too drunk to walk straight, and Nick had needed to half-carry him upstairs to his apartment.

When Nick returned to his own home, he'd laid down and stared at the ceiling.

He'd messed up again. He had to have messed up again. There had been nothing wrong with Elysia at all.

Had his instincts steered him astray?

Paranoia. That's what this was, wasn't it? Someone new had come into Hank's life, and Nick had been paranoid of her. Paranoid of what she represented.

A blood-stained Geier, luring Hank to his death. Hank, refusing to listen to reason.

Hadn't he even thought to himself, even jokingly, that there might have been a logical reason for why his ancestors had killed so many?

Nick squeezed his eyes closed. Rubbing at them.

The headache pulsed through him, like a crown of pain stabbing into him with every heartbeat. There was something wrong with him. There was something so wrong with him.

All of this had only started when he'd begun to force himself to see people's facade faces. Maybe that was the problem. Maybe that was what was messing with him. Maybe it just wasn't his place to see their faces without the scales and horns and feathers and fur.

He would apologize to Hank the next morning. And then to Wu, for dragging him along.

And then he would stop playing around and experimenting with forcing himself to see people's facade faces. He would just relax, and let his eyes catch a break.

Nick swore that to himself just moments before he fell asleep.

x

"Hey, don't worry about it, man." Wu slapped him on the back with a grin on his lips. "I mean, hell. I was going to be heading out to a bar anyways- you gave me the excuse to go to a really classy one. Having some company wasn't too bad, either."

Nick smiled in relief and made a mental note to try and do things with Wu more often. He seemed like for all he did to keep things running around the station, he was still in that semi-lonely stage of nobody really paying him much mind in an institution where everyone wore the same uniform and he hadn't done anything noteworthy enough to be recognized for yet.

"Show me where you usually go sometime, yeah?" Nick asked, to which Wu's face lit up.

"Sure thing. You'll love it, man. They've got this mead there, the owner's brother brews it all. The stuff's sweet as honey, but it kicks like a horse."

"You two went to a bar together?" the voice from behind them sounded exhausted.

Nick turned around. Hank was standing there, dark circles under his eyes. He was shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot.

"Yeah, we did." Nick hastened to offer an explanation. "Wu kept me company, since you were going out on your big date."

"Yeah, how was that, by the way?" Wu managed to keep his voice relatively steady, and what little he failed to manage could easily be explained by a hangover.

Hank sighed.

"I just don't think it's going to work out." he admitted, finally. "It's just- I dunno, man. I guess when you were right there beside me, I couldn't see it, but the longer I spent with her alone, the more the hair on the back of my neck stood to attention. She was just kind of creepy."

"Really?" Nick's heart was racing in his chest, even as Wu shot him a significant look that he wished the Sergeant would be more discreet about. "I'm sorry if I put you off from her or something."

"Nah, you were right." Hank shrugged, moving along from the hallway into the bullpen. "Trust your instincts, right? Anyway, I don't think I'm going to see her again. Plenty more fish in the sea."

"True, that." Wu was nodding sagely. "You'll find someone else. Hell, you could give it a shot at Ben's place!" he had suddenly gotten excited. "That's the bar I was inviting Nick to, before. You could come with us, have a few drinks. Scout out the ladies."

"I could." Hank looked thoughtful. "I could use a drink, after last night."

"It's settled, then." Wu was beaming at them both. "Us three, tonight, six thirty."

"I'll be looking forward to it." Nick found himself smiling as well.

And later that night, he and Wu sat back and watched and laughed as Hank chatted up a pretty young Wildermann, and for the first time in weeks, Nick didn't even have a headache.