Grimm Reckoning

Sean dressed quickly, ate her breakfast and would have been out the door in ten minutes if she hadn't stopped him just as he was getting into his car.

"I'm sorry, Liliana. I shouldn't have slept so long. I'm late. I have to go."

"Sean, there is some advice I would give you." She fiddled with her skirts. This was a very tricky situation.

"Something important?" He gave her his full attention despite his impatience to get going.

She nodded, but wasn't sure what else to say.

"Is it related to the mauvais dentes? Are you afraid he'll come back? I can have an officer posted outside your house."

"No, no. I'm not worried. Marnassier will be dead before the sun sets. I made sure of that."

Sean shook his head and laughed a little. "Remind me never to make you angry, little spider."

She grinned. "I will." Then she could not delay any longer. "It is someone else who has made me angry that concerns me now."

"Who?"

"The jackal who hurt you." Liliana touched his face where the bruises and scrapes still showed, although faded already by the venom in his system. Marnassier had left new marks on his face in their place. She felt proud when she saw those. He had earned them defending her.

"Kimura is locked up, and will stay that way."

"You know the dragon's tongue sent him?"

"I saw the tattoos."

"He knows about you and some other things that you would not want known, and …" Liliana stumbled to a stop and fiddled with her skirts again.

Sean's lifted her chin up. "Why is this difficult for you? Is it because he hurt me?"

"That is why he made me angry, but no. As you said, I am in a delicate position."

"Ah, this has something to do with Nick."

"Nick will want to speak with Kimura. If I were advising Nick, I would tell Nick it was a good idea, he would learn things he wants to know."

"But you're advising me. And the things Nick wants to know I don't want known."

Liliana sighed in relief and nodded.

Sean leaned down and kissed her. "I know how hard this is for you."

"I wish you had told Nick who you were before Juliette was poisoned. Now, it will be far more difficult."

Sean sighed. "There's no point in thinking about what should have been. I'll deal with the situation as it is."

Liliana looked into Kimura's future while Sean drove to work. The jackal would not live long enough for Nick to speak to him.

She felt guilty that she had helped to thwart her friend's attempt to get more information about his father's death. But it would have been a betrayal of her prince not to warn him. The two men's goals were completely at odds in this case. Just as she had chosen to protect Nick over Marnassier, friend over family, she had chosen to help Sean over Nick, lover over friend.

Liliana remembered being very certain of which side she would fight on if the prince and the Grimm became enemies. Now, she wasn't nearly so certain.

Men came to replace Liliana's window an hour after the prince left. He must have made the phone calls on his way to work, and even then, the men must have owed him a favor or something. She couldn't imagine any other way to get workmen out on such short notice.

She watched the men work with her human eyes and watched Nick and Kelly with her fourth eyes.

Another truck pulled up in front of her house, surprising her. She really should get better about watching her own house with her fourth eyes. Nasty surprises were getting all too frequent.

Two burly men came to her door while the other two men were still finishing her new window.

"We've got a delivery for Miss Liliana?"

"I am Liliana, but I did not order anything to be delivered."

"There's a note, but it's in French." He handed it to her.

"J'espère que vous ne me dérange pas." Signed "Votre prince sombre." Liliana read it and smiled. Some surprises were not so bad. "No, my prince, I do not mind."

The delivery man rolled his eyes, clearly thinking she was crazy for talking to herself. "What did you bring?" she asked the man.

"A bed."

"But I already have a bed."

He shrugged. "I was told to do whatever you want me to do with your existing bed, and to put this one in its place."

"Show me this bed."

The man took her out to the truck and showed her a queen sized bed, solid oak with beautiful hand carving on the headboard of oak leaves and a spider's web. The mattress was so thick she would have to jump a little to get into it. It came with a full set of soft sheets and pillows and a brilliant teal velvet comforter.

Her old bed had been solidly built, but very utilitarian. And very small. She giggled a little as she considered how close she and Sean came to breaking it last night.

"You can take my bed and do what you like with it," she told the burly delivery man. "This one is much better." How Sean found such a beautiful bed, ordered it, and got it delivered all in a single day, she had no idea. But there was an old saying about gift horses and their mouths, which Liliana was content to heed.

She looked forward in time and saw that her prince would come by after work to help her try the bed out. She spent the rest of the afternoon smiling to herself.

There was only one important thing that Liliana had to do today. She had given her word to a Grimm. She had to keep it.

When the workmen left her house, she left as well.

She caught a cab to Nick's house, told him to come back in two hours and twenty-seven minutes, jumped up on the roof and lay down comfortably in a crook where two roof sections met near the front porch, but on the backward slope, so she wouldn't be visible from the street.

She watched a bit, to catch up with the events of the day. She saw Nick and Kelly kill Marnassier, and felt oddly sad. He was a horrible man, but he had been her sister's husband since long before Liliana was born. He had been family. She felt very sad for Isabella, who had raised three children with that awful man. Now, her children had no father.

Liliana picked up the phone that Sean had given her that she could take where ever she went. She searched the world for her sister. She found Isabella in a hotel in Vienna.

She dialed the number. "Zimmer 423 bitte," she told the man who answered. The phone clicked and then rang again.

Isabella's voice said. "Hello, little siter. It has been a long time."

"I am sorry I did not call sooner, Isabella." Liliana's human eyes looked up at the stars on a rare cloudless Portland night. Her fourth eyes looked at her sister as easily as if they were in the same room.

"Your number has been the same for three decades, Liliana. You are not the only one at fault. I see you have a new phone now, though." Isabella was dressed impeccably in a pale peach-colored dress that, no doubt, had some designer label on it. She sat, legs crossed on a small chair on a tiny balcony with a view that overlooked the city.

"Marnassier is dead."

Liliana saw her close all her eyes for a moment and bow her head. "I saw him die before he left Europe." She looked up again, all eyes open, hard and cold.

"You could have stopped him."

"You tried to warn him, and you saw how he repaid your kindness." Her eyes flashed and narrowed with anger.

Liliana smiled a little. "Did you see my mate throw him through a window?"

Isabella chuckled. "I did, little sister. He is quite magnificent. I would be happy for you, but …"

Liliana nodded. "But you know that by tomorrow night, another woman will own his heart and mind."

"I am so sorry, Liliana."

"It is not his fault."

They were both silent for a time, each mourning her loss in her own way.

Liliana had a disturbing thought that Isabella might wish to avenge her former mate. "Will you hunt the Grimm who killed Marnassier?" she asked Isabella.

"You mean Grimms?"

"Yes."

"You made certain there were two. If there had been only one, Marnassier would still live."

"Yes." Liliana didn't know what she would do if Isabella could not forgive her. "And the Grimm would be dead. He is my friend."

Isabella shook her head with a small smile. "Only you, little sister, would name a Grimm friend."

Liliana let her breath out. Isabella was not angry. "Not only me. Many of the wesen of Portland name him friend. He has earned it by risking his life to protect wesen. He brings us justice. He killed two reapers at once by himself to protect some eisbibers. If he were not already deeply in love, I would have claimed his heart and made him my mate. I love him."

Isabella chuckled. "And I worried that you would choose a mate who was not fierce enough."

Liliana smiled. It felt good to hear the pride and surprise in her sister's voice. "I worried that you had chosen a mate who would be cruel to you."

"It seems that only one of us was right." Isabella's lips twisted with irony. She blinked her human eyes a few times. They watered a little, but Isabella wouldn't allow the tears to fall. "I mourned the loss of my mate over a decade ago. Your Grimm is not my enemy, nor is his mother."

The last tension left Liliana's shoulders.

A young woman with sandy blonde hair, the same color as Marnassier's, came and sat on the balcony next to Isabella's chair and leaned against her legs. Liliana's sister stroked the girl's hair gently.

The girl rocked and hummed a little, her many eyes wandering in different directions. Her feet were bare and her pretty yellow dress was wrinkled.

"Oh!" Liliana said. "I had not seen Ariadne in so long. She was just a little girl. She is beautiful." Liliana didn't comment on the fact that the girl clearly had not recovered from the mind wandering that afflicted many spinnesehen when their fourth eyes opened. All of her eyes had been open for over a decade and the girl's mind had still not found its way back to any semblance of normal functioning. She might never be able to function on her own, or, with patience and a lot of help, she might.

It had taken Liliana more than fifteen years to be able to function anything like other people did after her fourth eyes opened. Her second mother had never given up on her. That had made the difference in the end.

Isabella smiled proudly. "She is beautiful, isn't she." Isabella spoke to the girl. "Look who is on the phone, Ari. It is your aunt Liliana."

The girl made no response, but her fourth eyes shifted direction until they looked back at Liliana.

Liliana waved and smiled at her niece, knowing the girl could see her lying on Nick's roof half way round the world, even if the young spinnesehen girl's mind could not necessarily process a proper response.

Ariadne waved her hand in a random direction, then went back to rocking and humming. The girl was sane, but lost inside the maze of her own visions.

"I still live in the same house," Liliana told Isabella. Others might not understand the jump in subject, but she knew her sister would.

"Your house is small." Isabella gestured at the lovely view from her balcony. Liliana could see that the hotel room was itself, very small, and a bit shabby. It was way below her sister's usual standards. Isabella had never had a job of her own that Liliana knew of. Marnassier had supported them both in lavish style. Liliana wondered how Isabella supported herself now, especially since Ariadne would require a great deal of attention.

"I have beaver friends. They could finish my attic into a very nice guest room in a few days."

"It would cost a lot of money."

"I have a lot of money."

Her sister blinked a few times, clearly surprised by that information. "Perhaps we will visit."

"I know it will be hard on Ariadne to travel. But Portland is a good place. Very green. Lots of trees. And the Grimm here is kind. He protects, rather than threatens. We have family here, too, among the lowans." Liliana considered how to get her sister and her niece to come and stay with her. Isabella would never come if she thought it was so Liliana could help her and Ariadne. She was too proud. But, if Isabella thought it was so she could help her little sister, … "The trap my mate must spring will not hurt only him. I will need a friend soon."

"Or a sister."

"Yes."

She saw Isabella nod. "We will come."

Liliana nodded and smiled. "Good."

She hung up the phone as Monroe's car pulled up with Rosalee and Kelly Burkhardt in the back.

Liliana sent a quick text to Nick. "You have nothing to hide. Give the feds what they ask for."

Monroe, Kelly and Rosalee talked for a while, then Rosalee hugged Kelly.

Rosalee was right. That was a smile, a small one, but real. Liliana had become quite adept at reading the subtle facial expressions of people who hid their emotions habitually.

Rosalee and Monroe drove away as Kelly opened the door to go into Nick's house.

Liliana dropped down lightly to perch on the railing on the front porch. Her movements were nearly silent, but Kelly whirled around with a knife in her hand.

Liliana stayed tense, ready to spring back to the roof if the Grimm tried to kill her.

"You," the Grimm in black said. She let the door fall shut. Her knees bent, read to spring.

"I gave you my word that I would answer your questions if you let me save Sean Renard's life. Ask, and I will answer."

Kelly Burkhardt didn't put the knife away, but she looked less inclined to spring forward and stab Liliana. "Nick told me his captain had a close shave. You saved him?"

Liliana nodded. "Thank you for not shooting me. I do not think I could have succeeded with a crossbow bolt in my flesh."

Kelly didn't exactly smile, but her expression lightened. "I got the impression you still would have tried."

"You were correct."

"Does Nick know you're in love with his captain?"

Liliana shook her head. "No, but it was Nick's advice that gave our relationship a chance. I have never been very good with relationships. Nick advised me to give it time to develop, to take a chance and see where it led me."

"You're one of Nick's wesen friends, then, like the blutbad and the fuchsbau." It was more statement than question. Kelly put the knife in her jacket pocket, and leaned at ease against the wall next to Nick's front door, where she could watch both Liliana and the street.

Liliana nodded confirmation. "Nick has many friends among the wesen of Portland, reinegen, seltenvogel, jagerbar. The lowans respect him. The eisbibers adore him. He has earned our trust."

"Have you earned his?"

"Did you know that men beat Monroe badly, as a warning not to associate with a Grimm?"

Kelly shook her head. "What happened?"

"Monroe is a free wolf. He does not let his instincts or anything else but his own principles dictate his actions. He was not about to let someone else dictate who his friends could be. He shared beer with Nick at his home that same evening."

"Brave."

"Monroe has saved Nick's life more than once. I have saved Nick's life more than once. Nick is the most powerful Grimm alive, capable of defeating a lowan ring champion, or two reapers at once, or a two-hundred-year-old mauvais dentes assassin, because he has the one thing no other Grimm has, wesen allies."

"It wasn't you who helped him defeat the mauvais dentes."

"I told Nick to take you with him to fight Marnassier. I knew that if he fought alone, Nick would die."

"How did you know that? What are you?"

"I am spinnesehen. That is how I knew."

"Spinnesehen are extinct."

Liliana smiled sadly. "Almost. There are only three of us left." Liliana looked Kelly in the eyes for just a moment with all of hers. "I am trusting you not to tell the verrat where to find me. I watch your son's back. I keep him alive. I believe that is important to you, so you will keep my secret."

"No one will find out about you from me," Kelly swore.

Liliana half bowed, still perched on the railing. "I believe you." She could see with her third eyes that Kelly spoke the truth.

"What do you know about the coins?" the Grimm asked her.

"I know that Nick took them from Farley Kolt, and he keeps them hidden in his trailer with his Grimm things, in his cupboard of weapons, behind the box that holds the elephant gun."

Kelly tensed. "Who have you told?"

"Only you, and only because I saw that you already knew. Nick showed them to you yesterday. I do not tell Nick's secrets to anyone."

"How can I be sure of that?"

"Do you know why the verrat have worked so hard to kill off every spinnesehen they could find?"

Kelly shook her head. "What has that got to do with what I asked you?"

"We know everyone's secrets. It is our nature that things that are hidden from others are not hidden from us. The verrat, and the royals they serve, do not like that they cannot hide anything from us. No one likes it, but royals like it least. Secrets are their life's blood."

Kelly's hand slipped almost casually into the pocket where her small, but deadly knife was hidden.

Liliana wasn't fooled. "I know the secrets of many dangerous people. I would not tell you Nick's secrets. I would not tell anyone Nick's secrets. That is spinnesehen honor. By that same honor, I will not tell Nick your secret."

Kelly tensed. Inside her pocket, Kelly's knuckles went white around the knife as she tightened her grip, preparing to strike. "What secret?"

Liliana sighed, and prepared to leap away. People were always threatening her when she tried to make friends with them. She must be doing it wrong. "I love your son, Kelly Burkhardt. I protect him. Is your secret more important than Nick's life?"

She loosened her grip on the knife, but challenged Liliana with words. "Nick fights as well as I do. As if he'd been doing it all his life. Why does he need you?"

"Nick has only been a Grimm for about a year. Who do you think taught him to fight?"

Kelly didn't need to answer that question. Liliana had gotten her blade on Kelly's throat before the experienced, battle-scarred Grimm could stop her. She narrowed her eyes at the slender spider girl. "What secret do you think I'm hiding?" the Grimm asked.

"You have not been honest with Nick about what you intend to do with the coins, or where you have been, and who you serve. I wish that you really were going to destroy those coins. The world would be far better off without them."

"Do you intend to tell him?" She still handled the knife in her pocket, but now it looked more like a nervous habit, and less like a threat. The weapon was Kelly's comfort, as silken materials were Liliana's.

"I will keep your secrets just as I keep his."

"What secrets does Nick have?"

Liliana smiled. "His biggest secret is that he has several wesen allies who aid him."

"Which I already know."

Liliana smiled wider.

"Which is why you told me that when I asked a nosey question about Nick's secrets." Kelly smiled a little, herself.

Liliana asked, "Have I answered all the questions you wanted to ask me?"

"Yeah. You've done what you said you would." Kelly straightened up from where she had been leaning against the wall.

"Stay away from the windows," Liliana told her, as she hopped back into the yard, still facing Kelly, using her second eyes to see where she landed.

Kelly's brows drew together in confusion.

"The FBI will start watching Nick's house soon." Liliana's lips twisted a little in amusement. "They believe he might have had something to do with the killing of a man today who murdered two FBI agents."

Kelly chuckled. "I can't imagine why they would think that."

Despite the fact that Kelly meant the exact opposite of what she said, Liliana understood her perfectly. Liliana was getting better at communication, she realized. She had been doing so much of it with Sean and Nick, Monroe, Rosalee and Phoebe, the practice had helped her improve without her noticing.

She walked to the door of the cab just as it pulled in front of Nick's house.

"Tomorrow, evening, just before you tell Nick that you must leave, tell him these words, "He knows, and is already doing what is needed."

"Who knows? About what?"

"It will make sense tomorrow, when you are ready to tell Nick you're leaving."

"I'm not planning on leaving."

Liliana smiled sadly. "You will be."

She got in the cab and went home. Sean had only one more night while his will was his own. He had to work late, but she intended to spend whatever time she could with him.