Chapter 52

It was the most awkward dinner I'd ever had. The three of us sat around the crude table in an equally crude dining area. To my left was my vindictively wicked grandmother the Grimm, and to my right was the annoyingly nice Nick the Grimm. And then there was me; the half-breed who was as grim as one could be. Poor Monroe was stuck on the couch. Thank goodness she didn't throw him outside like the trash. My appetite was gone, and my stomach twisted in knots as I gazed at my grandmother. My blood relative. Ignorance was definitely bliss.

"Here, this'll warm ya up." My grandmother passed me a pot of something that looked like stew.

"Is it vegetarian?" I asked hesitantly.

"Oh, yeah."

I added some of the concoction to my plate and passed it over to Nick, who added a small amount to his. Corn, peas, and cabbage were laid out on the table. Those were safe, too. I avoided the fried chicken. My stomach dared me to eat anything, but I needed to keep up my strength in case my grandmother decided that Monroe was too much of an abomination to be allowed to stick around. I couldn't depend on Nick.

I took a spoonful of the stew. It tasted quite…gamey. "What's in this?" I asked.

"The usual. Carrots, potatoes, and meat."

"Meat?" I dropped my spoon. "I'm sorry. I thought you said it was vegetarian."

"It is. It has vegetables in it." My grandmother smirked my way. Oh, that was low.

"What kind of meat did I just have?"

"It's a rabbit stew."

My stomach tried to expel, but I held it back.

"Renee, are you okay?" asked Nick. "You look a little green."

"I'm fine." I scooted my plate away. "Just really full all of a sudden." Strength or not, I was done with food tonight. Nick kept eating. I pushed on my practiced calm to keep from cringing.

"So, how's everythin' in Louisville?" asked my grandmother.

"It's great. I love it there." I wasn't about to let this woman know where I really lived. If she thought I still lived in Louisville, so much the better.

"And Nick, I didn't ask... How long have you been able to see?"

"Five months," Nick said, but he was giving me a puzzled look. It must have been due to my answer about Louisville. Please, Nick, just go with me on this.

"Ah, so this must be interestin' to finally see what your family has taught you."

"Oh. Actually, I just learned about all this five months ago. My parents died when I was a kid, and my aunt... Well, she never mentioned our family history until I began seeing things."

My grandmother's face was sullen. "So, you're like Renée, not knowin' 'bout your family history until much later."

Nick nodded. "But my aunt left me quite a bit of history and books before she died."

"That's important. You can't fight 'em if you don't know anythin' 'bout 'em."

I looked at my grandmother, repressing the urge to say something about the good Wesen, but it would only fall on deaf ears.

"And do you two have jobs?" she asked. It was an odd question, but maybe in her time you didn't work, you hunted. Oh, what a life to live.

"Yes, I'm a trainer, and Nick works for the Louisville police department." Nick flashed me a look, but I continued, "Right, Nick?"

Nick looked like I'd just declared him to be a flying purple cow. "Uhh... yeah. I'm a detective... for the Louisville PD." He said the words slowly, not losing my gaze. Come on, Nick. Just follow along.

"Oh, a detective!" she gushed. "That must be beneficial to apprehend Wesen." She clasped her hands, like that was the best thing in the world. She turned to me. "So, Renée… What do you... train?"

"I'm in Finance. I train employees for different positions within the banking industry."

"I suppose that's a good job, too." It was like I'd told her I was working at McDonald's.

Dinner dragged on, and I maintained my calm. Once it was finally over, I made a plate for Monroe as my grandmother glared. "He has to eat something. And he's vegetarian," I said, "like I am." I added a bit harshly.

"Well, if he must," she replied with a sigh.

I wanted to say, 'Look, lady. You want a hungry Blutbad in your house, be my guest. But don't blame me if he decides to eat what he can find.' I held my tongue, hard as it was, and loaded the plate with veggies.

"Oh, thank God. My stomach was touching my ribs, man." Monroe took the plate eagerly and dug in as I sat beside him. My grandmother was off in the other room with Nick, going over some Grimm history. I opted out.

"Dammit, some of this is cooked in bacon grease." Monroe shook his head. "At least the peas are safe. Not that it's a balanced meal by any stretch of the imagination."

"I ate… rabbit," I said in a hushed voice. "She told me the stew was vegetarian and then it had… Chloe."

"Aww, Hun." Monroe pulled me toward him. "Remember, we really aren't the same as the animals out there."

"Chloe has a cotton tail and bunny ears. It's close enough."

He held me. "It'll be all right. You didn't know."

"That woman is wicked, Monroe," I said, barely audible, but enough where Monroe would hear it.

"And here I just thought stepmothers got that title."

(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)

It was getting late, and I just wanted to get some sleep. I asked my grandmother about sleeping arrangements. The cabin wasn't very big. Was there even space for a guest room? Honestly, I was fine sleeping on the couch or on one of the chairs in the living room.

"Would you prefer we stay here or get a hotel room?" I asked.

"You must stay here tonight," my grandmother insisted. "The dog can sleep in the car," she added in an icy tone like he was my pet, Rover.

I glanced quickly at Monroe, who was obviously seething on the inside. I felt how he looked. I turned to my grandmother, who gave me a stern glare. "In the car?" I asked in disbelief.

"I'm bein' lenient for your sake, Renée. I'm holdin' back killin' him." Well, give this woman a medal! I really didn't want to stay at all, but I'd have to stay to learn all I could, including my father's side. The Wesen side.

"We'll just find a hotel and come back in the morning," I offered.

"No, you must stay. I can't have you drivin' in and out of the woods. You might be followed, and I can't risk that." So her welcome wasn't really an act of hospitality. She was worried I'd bring something else in to harm her. "There's a guest room that you and Nick can sleep in."

"Whoa, now wait a minute." Monroe stood waving his hands all over the place. "My girlfriend is not sleeping in the same bed with Nick while I'm banished to the car."

"It's fine," I said with an air of indignation. "Nick can have the guest room. Us Wesen can sleep in the car." This was why I really hated separating.

My grandmother gave me a look of exasperation. "You are more like your mother than ya know," she said with a deliberate sigh. "I'll bring ya some blankets for the car."

(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)

"You know, you don't have to sleep out here," Monroe said as we carried a few pillows and blankets toward my Malibu.

"Of course I do. I'm not sleeping in there with that biased…" I shut up there before I called her names I didn't really want to say aloud.

"Well, she is a Grimm and, you know, I'm…"

"Don't even go there, Monroe," I interrupted as we got into the car. "I don't care if you're a… Schneetmacher." Whatever a Schneetmacher was, it was the only thing I could envision that was high on the horrendous scale. "She has no right to judge you after Nick and I have both sworn that you're no threat to her."

"It's that parochial mentality, man. I'm sure she learned it from her parents and so on."

"Please don't defend her," I sighed.

"I'm not, I assure you. Besides, it wouldn't matter to a Richmond anyway. They're up there in infamy. My nana talked about the Richmond brigade way back in the day, strategically racing though the countryside and picking us off one by one. Not saying some didn't deserve it, but still."

"Great, so I'm related to a murdering Grimm task force."

"That she even let me sit on her couch was probably the most she's ever let a Blutbad do that close to her. Well, besides die. I'm sure plenty of Blutbaden have done that." He shook his head slowly as he let out a short breath.

"She mentioned something about an Endezeichen philosophy."

"Whoa, what?!" Monroe stammered. "Your grandmother is an Endezeichen-Grimm?" His eyes bulged, and the red burned brightly with fear. "That would explain their killing sprees."

"Yeah. Whatever it is, they kill all Wesen," I said. "She says she's non-practicing, but that didn't stop her from hinting that she wouldn't mind picking it back up."

Monroe's eyes were still wide and frightened. "You don't know what that is?"

"No. Chloe never mentioned it."

"It's German for terminator, and we're talking hasta la vista, Wesen, man. Endezeichen did more than just kill us. These guys made Hitler look like a peace-loving hippie. Back in the fourth crusade, death squads of Endezeichen-Grimms would take out entire villages of Wesen; lopping off heads and limbs, gouging out eyes, you name it. Then they would brand them with a sterbestunde."

"My grandmother showed us the branding symbol. But I'm not sure what that means either."

"Sterbestunde translates to 'hour of death.' The Grimms would mark their kills with the brand, so there was no doubt who killed them. I can't believe any even exist anymore. This is like old, old… old world."

"That's awful!" I frowned sharply. "And my grandmother believed in that?"

"Dude, I'm not sure I wanna go back in there. I'm kinda partial to my testicles."

"What?"

"Never mind. It's just that even if she says she's given that up, I mean, she still must have that mindset. You know, you can't just decide one day that, 'Oh, maybe genocide is bad.'"

"She said she stopped when my mom died, and she began to protect the Waldgeists. Perhaps she grew a soul, I don't know. But I don't trust her."

"Makes sense why she's in hiding though. If Wesen knew where she was they'd have a field day tearing her apart. Can't say I blame them myself."

"I'm really sorry I brought you here. If I had known…"

"Look, you didn't know." Monroe reached for my arm as his brown eyes softened. "And I would've been a wreck if I'd stayed home, you know that."

"I'll get as much info as I can tomorrow, and we're headed back to Portland as soon as possible. She thinks we live in Louisville. That woman doesn't need to know that we're in Portland. I don't want her sending any of her colleagues to find you."

"Yeah, well… She sure doesn't seem too happy we're together."

"If she tries anything, you have my permission to eat her," I said with a teasing grin.

"Yeah, very funny." Monroe gave me a brief smirk. "We all know how that story ends. How about we let Nick take care of her instead."

"Either way, no one is going to hurt you."

He patted my arm. "Likewise, Hun."

Let's just get some sleep. It's been a long day, and I just need to rest and process all this information."

"Are you doing okay with this?"

"I'm just trying to understand it."

"Whoa, there. You just did it," he said, smiling at me. "I just thought that light was reflecting from other things, but that's what your grandma meant. Your eyes glow. That's kinda awesome."

"I don't feel anything."

"Every woge is different. Mine, I can feel it, but, I mean, my whole body changes. Now the eyes, that doesn't hurt."

"But you can tell you're doing it, right?" Monroe's eyes had flashed red so often I'd lost count. But I was recognizing the emotions behind the red more easily.

"Yeah. I mean, sometimes. Most times I don't, but you can force it."

"How?"

"Wow, I don't know how to describe it." He scratched his head. "I mean…" His eyes glowed red as he spoke. "I'm just thinking about it, you know?"

I tried to think about my eyes. "Anything?" I asked.

"Nope."

I tried again, this time thinking of how upset my grandmother made me feel.

"Ah, there was a flicker."

I thought about how much I loved Monroe.

"Whoa, we've got some green headlights going on now." He smiled. "What did you do?"

"Just thought about an emotion," I said with a smirk.

(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)

The temperature had dropped considerably, and the inside of my car had me shivering like I was in an icebox. I wrapped the blanket around myself tightly, reclining the seat back.

"There, just as comfy as a bed." My teeth chattered slightly as I spoke.

Monroe chuckled. "Stubborn."

"Damn right," I agreed and put a pillow behind my head. "So, do you think the attraction thing about Waldgeists and Wesen is true?" I asked, tilting my head toward Monroe.

"I'm attracted to you because of you. Not because of some silly legend thing." Monroe already knew what I was getting at. I gave him a grin. "Besides, I think I would classify as larger Wesen, so that wouldn't affect me."

"I'd hate to find out I've cast some sort of voodoo Wesen spell on you." I laughed softly.

"You've got a spell on me, but it isn't because of what you are." His eyes flashed red as he gave me a knowing look.

"Why, Mr. Monroe, I do believe your eyes are blushing."

"Then yours are green with envy," he replied. I sat up and pulled down my visor mirror. Sure enough a green luminous glow came from my eyes. It was probably the strangest thing ever.

"I guess my mom won't have to worry about what color eyes our kids might have, huh?"

"Guess not." He smiled at me. "It seems green is the dominant gene."

"I wonder if the eyes of a Blutbad-Waldgeist would be able to glow red and green."

Monroe laughed. "Not sure, but it would be pretty awesome at Christmas."


A/N: So, those little flickers of light off Renée's eyes through story two and three have been her Waldgeist side all along.