CHAPTER EIGHT

CAL

We pulled up to a farm in New Mexico a day later, or what used to be a farm. The land was all yellowed thrush and dehydrated dirt. I didn't know what kind of farm it had been once upon a time. Cattle? Wheat? Corn, what the hell did they grow out here in the desert anyway? I curbed the question before I voiced it aloud. Niko would give me a historical run down of New Mexico and the lucrative profession once practiced therein the moment I asked, no matter how idle the question might have been.

It was flat, sprawling, and boring. The only hill in sight had obviously been where the residence's house had once stood. Now it was nothing but charred remains and a reservoir of solid concrete formally the foundation. I stared down the hole into the basement, toeing pieces of glass and wood over the edge as Niko chatted with the peris behind me. I was allowed near the Assembly apparently. Maybe because Ishiah was here with them or maybe because they weren't as frightened of me being hardened badasses.

They were pretty impressive, I had to say. Not every one of them was broad and well-muscled like Ishiah and the majority of the Cheris clan, but all of them seemed to know their niche in combative life. Niko explained that the Assembly was a selected council from various different clans, who aspired to protect and help their people thrive. Whatever, they found the bad guys screwing up the peris' lives and killed them; that was what I took away from that. Apparently this was just the State's Assembly too, there were others in different countries kinda like the werewolf mafias. Everyone seemed to have some means of governing their kin, save the Auphe. Free-for-all murder was their forte.

"How many survivors?" Niko asked Ishiah. The Assembly had set up camp on this farm, spanning an acre of it with how many there were. Portable tents and even a few mobile homes littered the otherwise desolate land, though all of them seemed to want a good distance between their bed and this scorched house. Grimm seemed to have stirred them up quite a bit and his scent lingered. Ishiah was standing with us at the mouth of the basement, reading Niko in and exchanging subtle affections with Goodfellow.

They had greeted each other with a kiss, which I thought was kinda great only because I could see several uncomfortable sneers from those that were looking on when we arrived. Ish and Robin were a screwed up, yet somehow functional, match and I appreciated any and all efforts to stick it to uptight tradition. The Assembly, regardless to being all peris, was a little more varying than the other clans I'd met. Some of the feathered marines didn't even seem to care that I was there. Some of them clenched their sphincters when Ishiah started speaking to Niko as if he were an equal. And some, like the two swarthy-skinned peris just a few steps behind Ishiah seemed to regard my boss with a level of respect even though he was what they called clanless.

"There were five," Ishiah explained. "Unfortunately, there were fifteen taken. The Inquoia and Xenothe clans are neighbors to each other, just a few miles apart. Physically, they resemble Native American humans so they often play the part."

"Reservations and casinos then?" I asked. A solid wing slammed me in the back of my head and I had to jut my arms out to keep from falling face first into the sunken in foundation. Niko grabbed the back of my jacket as an added precaution.

"Prejudices aside, the Xenothe clan did live on a reservation and were rather devout to the old traditions," Ishiah groused, giving me a scathing glare for my remark. I decided to blame it on the voices in my head; sometimes they just got out. "They were…rattled by Grimm's children visiting, as was the Inquoia, but at least the Inquoia are a bit worldlier. The females from the Xenothe didn't survive, either from taking their own lives or due to the tortures of Grimm. Those that have survived are Inquoia, but aren't of sound mind; they can't even recount the events."

"They're here?" Niko inquired. They were most definitely here, the dead ones at least. Grimm's scent wasn't just sprinkled over this house. Most of the smells swirling around here were gasoline and burnt wood, but I could still get a taste of that bastard. I glanced behind me at the largest tent in the camp. It looked like one of those wedding banquet type tents. I'd seen when we were coming in that it was currently being used as a morgue. However the captive peris got here, they weren't dropped off in good condition. From the upturned earth at the bottom of the hill, they were excavated. Some were probably pulled from the ashes as well. Regardless, Grimm's stink was definitely on them; it was like he wanted me to sniff it out.

"I'm going to suggest you let me be liaison, if you have any questions for the survivors that were taken to the local clan. If they knew Cal was here I don't think they would take well to it," Ishiah said. He had the decency to cast an apologetic look at me as if I cared what these yahoos thought of me. "I've already asked them as much as I could without fruition. Only two of the mothers of the Inquoia clan are coherent enough to speak."

"What have they said?" The question hung on my lips too since Ishiah gave a dramatic pause, but I let Niko handle this. I was just the bloodhound on this mission; track and tree the prick.

"Nothing that makes sense. One mother described the Bae as three times their size and with mouths that encompass half their faces, from your descriptions that is hardly accurate. She was even less helpful when describing Grimm and claims that they were stolen away by another male half-Auphe beast, who left them for dead and spirited away her daughter and a few others."

"Another half-Auphe," I commented. As chilling as the thought might be, I couldn't find it in myself to fear the rumor of a crazy woman. "We're popping up all over the place, aren't we?"

"Like dandelions in the springtime," Robin added with a nice dollop of sarcasm. Fitting that he compared us to weeds though.

"The other said that the injured were dragged here by a monster. He sunk his claws into their ankles and brought them up the hill, while the others scattered. The rest mutter random syllables in trepidation. There is no solid evidence of what happened, but we came here to see what we might find." Ishiah motioned to the burned building in front of us. "We found this; three bodies decidedly not peri all but ashes and bones with in and three peri bodies buried recently outside."

Robin harrumphed as he gazed back at the tent where the dead lay. "I somehow doubt Grimm was partial to burial rites."

That was true; Grimm would sooner eat the meat off the peris' bones before he would waste time digging a hole in the ground to dump them in. So if not Grimm, then who? "Wait, are we seriously entertaining the thought that another half-Auphe is out there?" I cut in. "'Cause even I wouldn't waste my time on that shit."

"Cal," Niko sighed.

"What? I don't owe them anything. They'll end up part of the ground eventually anyway. They just might feed a few raccoons before hand."

"As devastatingly uncouth as the boy is, he's right," Robin defended and crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned back on his heels. "A half-Auphe, even the most compassionate of one, wouldn't spend the time to make graves for these peris. We have to assume this is something else. Actually, I'm begging to assume this is something else, because, praise be to Zeus and Hera, I cannot tend to another Auphe hybrid." He was referring to Cassie with that most compassionate half-Auphe line and I was proud of him for realizing she would pass them by all the same as a casualty of war. Hell, Robin probably wouldn't put the effort in. None of us would, lest it was a loved one.

"I assume it was Nova," one of the formally silent peris piped up. Now that I had a voice to add to a physical description and given the fact that he hadn't attacked me himself for my earlier comments, I decided to take note of him. He looked in his early thirties, but that meant zilch when it came to peris. His skin was scared a lighter color around his neck and chin that looked to have been a gruesome hack or burn, while the rest of him was a dusky light brown. Ishiah wasn't lying when he said these clans looked like Native Americans. Their features even matched with square jaws and proud noses, sloping dark eyes and thick black hair. The one who hadn't spoke even had those wizened frown lines around his mouth that made it look like he would spout off inspirational words about finding one's animal spirit any second. These two – we had probably already been told, though I wasn't paying attention – had to be Assembly members from one of the effected clans.

"Nova," Niko repeated to urge more of an explanation.

Tanto nodded and stepped forward as if that gave him the floor. "Nova is a young peri from our clan. Head-strong and brazen, but in many ways naïve and curious. She was taken with her mother and cousins, but she is the last left unaccounted for. A…saner assumption of the events might be that the mothers and daughters escaped here and Nova took her fallen kin into the house to be tended to. She is a brave fledgling. She would have the heart to survive this Grimm and the compassion to show her clansmen a proper burial."

"So where is she now?" I asked. That story seemed as far-fetched as the boogeyman dragging them to their deaths in a deserted hutch on a swamp. The peri slid his eyes to the collapsed house and frowned. I didn't press any further; at least the guy was realistic. Nova and her brave soul were probably buried under all that rubble…unless she was the one that tossed on the gasoline.

"That is our task, not yours," he finally replied. I shrugged to acknowledge that that was fine by me. Our task had been made clear to us upon meeting the Assembly and their priority was the same as mine, currently: find Grimm and kill him. I was right on board with that. Of course, they also wanted me to track down the Bae hives in search of their clansmen, but they emphasized that Niko and I hadn't been hired to charge in and scoop the peris out. They wanted me to locate, not evacuate. Apparently, I wasn't a good enough half-Auphe to be trusted in a cavern full of hysterical winged females.

The two unfamiliar peris retreated after they said their piece. Receding into the ensemble behind us. Ishiah decided to join them without a word, and, after a moment's glance toward us, Robin followed his lover. I figured the puck would be better suited in slipping through the Assembly to find out all the information they weren't telling us, so I didn't question him leaving me and Niko at the edge of the collapsed basement. Of which me and Niko hopped down into once we were alone. We searched the remains for clues, but came up with nothing, except to find further proof that the farm house didn't suffer from faulty wiring or a stove left on. We found a half melted gas container and little bits of melted red plastic here and there. The fire had been set on purpose and my guess was that whoever survived had done so to cover their tracks on top of rightfully incinerating the few Bae stuck inside. I saw the charred pieces the Assembly pulled out as we walked up to the house; by the fangs and claws they were most definitely Bae.

The back of the house was still slightly erect. Showing the blackened framing of what was once stairs leading to a second floor that was now a giant skylight. Several bits of wall and furniture littered the only floor left, toppled over or burnt to a crisp. Still nothing on the clues side of things though. I gave up after a while and strolled over to a couch that had been ejected from the house when the stove went up. I flopped down and watched my brother continue to pick through. I wrinkled my nose when my sudden weight on the furniture kicked up the scent of a peri. No surprise there, if they entered the house one of them probably rested here. I didn't like it. The scent caused my mind to play tricks on me. Like when I smell teriyaki in the kitchen and my mouth starts watering for steak seasoned in the sauce only to come out and find Niko sautéing tofu or vegetables. I smelled a peri, but my brain made that peri smell like Cassie.

Yet your mouth waters all the same.

Hell, yeah it does. I didn't care what part of me was in control we both desired her. Auphe and human, alike. I had a feeling even if I lost all my humanity for good I would still ache for her. Maybe that had something to do with her Claiming me as her mate previously. I wondered if Caliban would have bowed to Castiella? Or did he just desire her for the same purpose Grimm took the succubae? To create a new strength, a new weapon.

Every king needs a queen. She would have followed me to the ends of the earth. She would have stood by me as I took the world as mine. Her love was a weakness, but it could be such a strength. If only…

The wistful thought made me smile. Even the devil on my shoulder missed her. And he was right to an extent. She had proven that she could lose to the Auphe if pushed far enough. And if we were both pushed; well, goodbye world as we knew it. Not that it mattered anyway. I pushed off the couch and walked several yards from the house and the camp. Closing my eyes, I let my body search for nightmares instead of faded dreams. Come out, come out, wherever you are, little Bae. Uncle Cal wants to play.

"Cal?" Niko questioned. I wasn't startled by him suddenly being at my side; he always did that.

"Nothing," I admitted as well as confirmed. I knew he wouldn't find anything in the house and I couldn't sense anything close by. "Any ideas?"

"We may have to drive around and see if we can sniff them out. There are some caves, Ishiah, mentioned just north of here. We can start there."

I let off a sigh as Niko headed back toward the car. I'd been hoping for a better plan than cruise around until a way point popped up, but what else could we do? We had to at least pretend we were looking for the lost peris and the Bae, or else these feathered-bastards weren't going to pay up. And if I wasn't going to get some bloodshed I better have been getting some green.

Less than three days later, filled with squeaky hotel 'beds' and dank barren caves all over the southern mid-west, I was faced with a conundrum. Who had taken over Niko's brain and should I kill them?

There were a very few times I distrusted my brother's judgment. The main distrust was his unwavering loyalty to the monstrosity that was his little brother, but that wasn't the issue here. The issue was his new naïve trust in the Vigil. We hadn't trusted them when we thought they were just meek humans on watch to make sure some paien didn't make the world go boom. Now that we knew their ploy, what they were capable of, one would assume that garnered less trust, but one word from them through Promise and we were back on the road, trucking northeast toward home.

I wasn't sad to say goodbye to the shifty-eyed Assembly or our pointless task of tracking a peri that was more than likely deader than fried chicken. I was inwardly relieved to escape the constant disapproving looks and idle hands itching to unsheathe weapons upon me, especially because the word the Vigil gave was 'Grimm'. My problem, if I had one at all, was that we were giving merit to the Vigil's word. If Grimm was back in the NYC, he was there for a reason. I would have assumed the reason would be me, but maybe that was Robin's narcissism rubbing off. I was smack dab in the middle of flat lands and tornado alley, though, following a trail Grimm left for me, ergo why would he even be in New York? Did he want to take the city while the king was away or was it the Vigil leading us home?

Niko seemed convinced of the second, but his conviction was more that the Vigil were calling mayday and asking for us to save them from the red-eyed monster that was my second cousin sixteen times removed. Cold trails and breeding caves void of life (though, not short on dead bodies), apparently meant to Niko that Grimm was toying with me to keep me occupied and his real target was my territory not my life. I begged to disagree, minus the begging part.

The caves were blood covered slaughter houses, not torture chambers. Grimm or the Bae or both did away with every peri we came across. Considering how many it took to create one Harbinger for the Auphe, most of those peris were probably killed because they were useless; couldn't produce. If Grimm had been leaving me messages it would have been coated in a different paint. It would have shown a tableau of slow, painful, relished deaths. It would have shown me how much fun it was to cut down the weak. It didn't. Grimm was just doing some spring cleaning a season early.

Explaining that to Niko would probably have him lecture again. He wasn't too comfortable when I attempted to explain the rules of the game either. The kills we found in the underground nurseries were necessity. Erasing a failure so no one would notice. Dusting off the ceiling fan in case your guests looked up. He'd given up on the peris and quickly, which only meant one thing…he found something better. This wasn't a message to me. This wasn't a purposeful cold trail. If he hadn't met us up in Wyoming, I doubt he would have even realized I'd been gone from New York.

No, if he was there. If he was in my city, he wasn't there for me. And he wasn't there for Promise, though I knew that was also in the back of Niko's head. Grimm had already allowed that condition to the game. If he touched my family I was out and for some reason he paid heed to that. He was having too much fun yanking around on my provincial chain, thinking that one day he would draw me in close enough that I would bring him his slippers like a good dog.

Bring me in close enough and I'll bite right through your spine. Crack open your head and watch that little brain unravel.

That was for a later date. A last roll of the dice somewhere down the road. For now, I drilled intense rays of disturbed disbelief into the side of my brother's head. "Stop staring at me like I will sprout a second head."

"Just wondering when those bastards implanted a brain-altering-pod-person microchip in your head," I countered. "Was it when I was stuck in their little prison cell strapped to my bed and surrounded by an electrical field that would make me jolt like a squirrel on a bug zapper anytime I tried to gate?" A tiny little smirk appeared on Niko's face, not that I could get offended. I painted a pretty hilarious image there. "Seriously though, what is with the sudden reliance on the Vigil?"

"Short answer?" Niko asked, but didn't wait for me to respond. "Better friend than foe."

And there it was, the Niko logic. He was stupid for not wording it like that during my intervention, but I got it now. The Vigil, as an organization, have proven themselves to be cunning, resourceful, determined sons a bitches, among other adjectives. They had the government behind them and human law at their side. The paien liked to believe they were above both, but for some reason most tried to appear to abide by human standards.

The Vigil was the biggest government conspiracy, considering how well they were hiding the paien and hiding from the paien. From militant to pharmaceutical, their reach was probably on par with my black market cupcake dealer and our former second-string healer who relocated to the land of the rising sun. Niko knew that, like the Auphe, if the Vigil wanted me dead it would have been done by now; attempted, at least. Our little scheme of blackmailing them into submission would only last as long as it took for more paien to figure them out on their own. And the more buildings exploding in NYC the more the supernatural community will take notice of the slumbering giant.

That was where Niko's theory came in. Help the Vigil out a couple of times and maybe they would see us as a potential ally, instead of the little brother time bomb and his keeper. Niko was making us valuable with as little effort as possible. Plus, let's face it, Mickey the rat could have rung us to say Grimm was at the local KFC having a bucket of deep-fried, minimum-wage, employee legs and thighs and we would probably still hop in the El Dorado and drive through the night.

"Just don't make this a habit," I grumbled, relenting for now. "Goodfellow exaggerates most of the time, but those scrubs really did chaff. I don't want to be donning a straitjacket style for the spring, yeah?"

We traveled in silence for about a half hour, since we were puck-less that wasn't so odd. Robin decided to stay with Ishiah until we 'came back'. I doubted either of us expected we would go back to that pointless job, but whether the Assembly thought we would or not, they sent us off with tidings of Godspeed and good hunting. They wanted Grimm six feet under too. They also hadn't paid us anymore than reimbursements for gas and lodging so far, which all and all was pretty considerate of them.

"Hey, Nik, pull off here," I asked. My mouth was watering again, but this time it was for food. Particularly mashed potatoes and a biscuit.

Niko glanced over at me, but obliged my request and smoothly slid into the exit lane. "Another nest?"

"What, no, I'm hungry and there's a KFC right off this exit." He gave me a puzzled frown, since I usually favored the simultaneous dine and refuel of gas station meals when on the road. "Don't ask," I warned and Niko shut his mouth as he took a left at the end of the ramp.

"So what's their end game?"

Niko parked the junker in a spot close enough to the exit that we could peel out without the hindrance of other cars. I didn't think we would find much trouble in a fast food chain, but some habits were hard to break. He glanced over at me again in question. Usually I didn't have to spell it out for him, usually I didn't have to say a word; maybe my lack of sleep was affecting his telekinetic connection to my brain. "The Vigil. What are they getting out of helping us?"

"They are human, Cal. I assume it is a form of atonement for what they did." What they did meaning murdering my lover and screwing around with her inner workings without permission. And judging by the bitterness in his tone, 'atonement' was another way of saying he thought they were trying to appease me so I didn't go for their throats. "I don't trust them. Just so we are clear on that. I will never trust them, but we can use them and they can believe they are using us."

I grunted and got out of the car. A bucket of original recipe was calling my name. I was just craving chicken though. There may have been a day that I had tasted human meat, but I decided long ago never to remember such a day and never to repeat it. "Seems a little flimsy."

"You think they're up to something?"

"Aren't they always?" I snorted. "Or maybe they just want Grimm taken down as much as the rest of us, but don't want to do it themselves."

Niko hummed in consideration as he fished for the cell phone I could hear buzzing in his jeans. I let him veer off to hold a private conversation when I heard, "Hey, Promise. We'll be home soon." I knew what he wanted anyway. There were a few times that Niko would toss his healthy eating habits out the window and that was when it was a car window on a long trip. It was impossible to whip up one of his nasty morning shakes without a blender and hotels usually didn't have those standard.

Lucky for him, they had grilled chicken on the menu and steamed broccoli. He rejoined me while I waited for our order to be ready. "All quiet?"

"In a manner," Niko hedged. I grabbed the bags after handing Niko the drinks and we were back on the road with me behind the wheel, a fried leg in my mouth within a minute. It was a little difficult for Niko to cut grilled chicken while driving and for some reason he refused to use his hands. Cutting his chicken also allowed him time to explain what he had meant by 'in a manner'. "Promise has confirmed that Grimm was in New York, but hasn't been spotted for almost a week."

"Too busy torching that farm house, huh?"

"Seems strange for the Vigil to call us to the city a week after the fact, unless they have information that implies he will return, which Promise couldn't confirm. They have, however, requested an audience with us. Apparently, they want to read us in on a project to see if we would be interested in aiding them."

"A project," I repeated, highly doubting they wanted a hand in making a sytrofoam replica of the solar system. "They want our help in experimenting on other paien?"

Niko scoffed. It was a soft sound that a barely heard over the groan of the El Dorado's engine. "More than likely they want us to help clean up a mess from one of their experiments." Well, that made a lot more sense. And we certainly overused their resources cleaning up our messes, so I couldn't blame them from trying to get us to scratch their backs. "In any case, I think we should hear them out. If only to laugh in their faces."

I smirked and reached for another crispy chicken leg. "We back on the road after the meet and greet?"

"We'll see what Ishiah thinks after. I told Promise we would meet with two Vigil members only and it would have to be at Sam's Diner tomorrow afternoon." I continued smirking. Niko hated Sam's Diner. It was in a sketchy part of human town, reeked of burnt grease and onions, but had the best cheeseburgers on the island. It also held some nostalgic memories for me. It was where Cassie first kissed me…and propositioned me for more which I stupidly refused.

Night seemed the best time to meet with these pricks since Nik and I could melt into the shadows so easily once we needed to get away, but maybe that was Niko's peace offering. The Vigil knew we wouldn't pull out our weapons on them by the light of day unless we had damned good reason too. Not that I even needed a weapon anymore. They pulled a gun on me or Niko and they would be vacationing in Tumulus. "Then are we driving all the way through to New York today?"

"I would prefer it. I never thought I could miss a bed."

"Bed warmer, you mean," I teased. He smacked me on the arm, but couldn't contain his little smirk.