The mood in the SUV which the Guardian had rented under a false identity was stifling to Monroe. He could sense everyone's fears, everyone's anxiety and it was making him antsy. Not that he wasn't happy to have so many with him to get Nick, but it would have been much better had they not all been stressed beyond belief. The only two who appeared calm were the regnants; the Guardian drove in determined silence while his sister sat in the front passenger seat looking out the window with nonchalant interest. But Monroe knew them to be feeling uneasy as well, even if they weren't inclined to show it.
Beside him, Holly practically shook with poorly-restrained nerves. Monroe understood both all too well. Who wouldn't be nervous about trying to infiltrate a well-guarded legitimate castle with only six people? Sitting just underneath that, however, he also sensed rage and that also made plenty of sense. Ever since having found Holly, both he and Nick had become surrogate parents for the girl. For him that dynamic had never changed but with Nick, it had slowly morphed into one of brother and sister, both of whom were protective of the other. Over the last few months or so, Holly had begun to trust in Nick a lot more; she'd begun to treat the grimm with the deference of a respected elder brother but with the familiarity of a best friend. Simply put? Nick had become pack to more than one blutbad and neither one of them were taking his abduction with much grace.
About a half mile from the main entry, Renard turned the lights off so that they wouldn't attract as much attention and the others seemed to hold their breath as though that would help to hide them from unwanted eyes. The front gates loomed large and forbidding, barring entry into the castle with ease. Before they could drive straight up to them, however, the Guardian turned right onto a side road which evidently led to the lower gardens and another, less known and therefore less guarded, entry.
According to the royals, it actually led to an underground set of tunnels which, if followed correctly, would lead you to the underground cavern that had been built for such barbaric games as The Trial. The Guardian had assured them all, including his sister whom hadn't actually argued with him all that much, that that was where both Nick and Marcie were to be found. He had smirked rather coldly when he had added, however, that there would also be near 300 other people as well. When he had explained his little quip by saying that his brother had sold tickets to tonight's fight, Monroe had seen red while Holly had softly growled in her chest. It wasn't enough for Pierre to put Nick through all this, but he also had to treat it as though it were a show to be seen on a Friday night?
The vehicle pulled off onto a dirt path, hidden beneath a willow tree where it would remain until they came back for it, then shut off.
"If we encounter anyone," the Guardian said as they all unbuckled and prepared to exit the SUV, "don't hesitate, just kill them. If they're allowed to live, they are a risk that we can't afford."
"Not to mention the fact that they will not hesitate in killing you," the sister added in a tone which hinted at both a warning and amusement. "My brother and I are worth more alive than dead, but sadly the same will not be true for the rest of you."
"Oh good," Monroe said as they slowly filed out of the truck. "That's not scary or anything."
The Guardian's answering glare was something more akin to a parent striving for patience with a trying child, which Monroe found a little insulting until he realized that, compared to the regnant, he was was child. Less than two seconds later, however, and that look morphed into one of pain. Renard curled so that he was guarding his right side, his mouth open in a cry which he wouldn't allow to escape for fear of discovery.
"Sean?" his sister asked, concern flowing freely. "What's wrong?"
Monroe shared a look with Rosalee, seeing the same apprehension and worry that he felt mirrored in her eyes before he looked back to the regnant. The sheer amount of pain that he was showing bothered Monroe for the simple fact that he knew that Renard was actually feeling what was happening to Nick. If his friend, his grimm, was in that kind of pain, Monroe was ready and willing to kill whoever was causing it. The regnant's sister, however, didn't seem to get that that was what was happening for she kept checking her brother for evident injuries. Apparently the regnant hasn't yet told his sister of this specific perk which came as a result from being bonded.
"It's Nick," Monroe answered since the regnant had yet to get his breath back. When the blonde's blue eyes sharpened on him, Monroe had to stop himself from taking a step back for good measure. "Something has happened to Nick," he clarified, "and your brother is feeling it."
"Is there any way to stop it?"
"If there is, it would be up to your brother to find it," Rosalee answered.
"Should he even come with us?" Hank chirped in. "I mean, we're not even close to Nick yet and he's already feeling the effects of the bond. What happens when he's in the same room?"
"I'm fine," the Guardian snapped, clearly annoyed that he was being discussed but not consulted. His voice had thickened as though he were only partially human at that moment and when he looked up his eyes were blood red. He straightened, standing up, and daring them all to tell him that he couldn't come. "We're wasting time standing here," he announced, stating the obvious.
He waited for nothing more to be said, striding off towards the entrance. His sister gave his retreating back a look that was part exasperation, part anger, part resignation but she, too, followed. Slowly but surely they all trickled after the regnant, as silent in their movements as they could be, until at last Monroe was the only one left standing. With a final look around him, he sighed. "I guess that settles that then."
In spite of what he had said, Nick was not the first one to attack. That certainly made it easier but his was not the first move; Nick realistically knew that he was at a disadvantage against the other man. The weeks of fights may have honed his skills in combat but the injuries, the brands, he had received as a result would make it harder for him to keep up. The ankle injury alone was going to become a problem sooner rather than later as it was weak and unable to do much more than help keep him upright and walking. Dancing around in a ring, dodging, or even kicking, would not be feasible for long.
Sergio swung wide with the blade in his hand, clearly aiming for Nick's head and missing completely when he ducked under it and landed a hard right to the other grimm's ribcage. They jumped apart from one another with Sergio giving Nick a smile of excitement as Nick struggled to right himself in a decent amount of time. It sickened Nick a little to find that Sergio was actually enjoying this but he wasn't given much of a chance to dwell on that because no sooner had they split than Sergio was coming back.
Rather than aim for Nick's head, he went lower, going for the torso which was harder to dodge. Nick made it out of the way but barely and followed it up with another duck under it as Sergio once again went for his head, ending with a punch to Sergio's face.
From there, things were done or not done by instinct. His punch did little more than giving him time to grab Sergio's hands before the other man was elbowing him in the face. Nick stumbled away, dazed by the blow and trying to get his mind and body cooperating with one another again. It happened but not through his doing. Instead, it came when agonizing pain tore its way through his right side. He looked down to find that Sergio had stabbed him; the wound wasn't too deep but it was deep enough to seriously slow him down and weaken him. With a smile Sergio pulled the sword free and Nick heard himself cry out with the pain.
The crowd around them cheered louder than before, urging Sergio to finish him off. The other grimm turned around in a circle, absorbing their temporary adoration. When he faced Nick it was with a wide smile on his face. "What do you say, Nick? Should I give them what they want?"
Nick charged the man, doing his best to ignore the pain and weakness in his own body as he sidestepped the thrust that was aimed for his stomach and grabbed the sword hand, using the momentum to throw the man to the ground, twisting the wrist hard enough to break it. Rather than pick up the sword which had fallen from the now limp hand, Nick chose to throw it out of the ring, aiming for a bit of wall. No sooner had that been accomplished than the tearing agony was back and as Nick curled in to protect his wounded side, Sergio rolled out from his reach.
With both of them hampered by an injury, Nick had thought that things would be a bit more even. Then it started raining knives. They varied in size and smoothness but the crowd was unmistakably throwing them, encouraging them to kill one another. Not surprisingly, Sergio smiled, elated at the action. Bending down, he picked one up, smirking even more when it resembled something more like a scalpel than a knife, and then prepared for more.
Nick on the other hand, wasn't sure how much more he could do. The more blood that dripped and drained out of him, the less energy he had to fight. As it was, he felt that he was barely able to stand up. Yet, he refused to give in, to yield. With a yell of pure defiance - defiance of his waning energy, defiance of his body's limitations, defiance of all that has happened to him since he'd been taken - Nick charged towards Sergio once more.
This time he wasn't as successful because Sergio was ready and waiting. Rearing back, he kicked Nick in the chest, knocking him to the ground while simultaneously taking the wind out of him. Sergio pounced on him, almost literally, pinning him to the ground. Beneath him, Nick could feel one of the man knives and he slowly tried to reach for it as Sergio's hand closed about his throat. His left hand went up to Sergio's face, attempting to take out one of his eyes, while his right continued to grab for the knife. In response, Sergio jumped onto Nick's right side, cause Nick to cry out in agony and more blood to flow.
A roar echoed throughout the cavern, reminding Nick a lot of what Sean sounded like when angered. As it was improbable that Sean was here, Nick put it down to one of the wesen currently in attendance, possibly even Pierre himself, cheering Sergio on. His vision greying out, his oxygen supply dwindling, Nick reacted on instinct and brought the knife, finally in hand, up and into Sergio's sternum. As the man's grip slackened and he began to fall, Nick whispered the only thing he could think of to say. "Payback's a bitch."
And then, all energy fled out of Nick and he could no longer hold Sergio up. Just as he expected the other grimm's weight to settle upon him, there was suddenly nothing there and he was staring up at the cavern ceiling, listening as everyone and their mother seemed to scream once. As the world started to fade, Nick swore he could feel the bond singing in the back of his mind, telling him that Sean was in the room with him. Nick slipped into the world of unconsciousness knowing that he was safe because Sean was standing over him, guarding him.
Sean was pissed. No, scratch that, he was beyond that. By the time he had arrived in the cave, Sean had reached a deeper level of anger, one that lay buried in the back of his soul, so cold that it bordered absolute zero and so strong that it rivaled the power of the sun. It had been building for decades, gathering more and more to it the longer it survived and right now it was ready to spill forth and devour all in its path. He hadn't been all that surprised by the scene that he walked in on when he'd entered but it still took his breath away to see Nick on the ground with Sergio on top of him, struggling to breathe, to live, and blood slowly leaking from a wound on his side.
Whatever tenuous hold Sean had had on his more feral side had been completely broken by that sight. Without thought, he shifted into the regnant, roaring his fury and dragging all attention to him - all but that of Nick and his attacker. He ran forwards and gathered Sergio up into his clawed hand before throwing him right at his brother's wide-eyed face. And that was when everyone truly started to scream. He smiled at their unnecessary panic; he wasn't here for them, after all. Instead he kept his gaze on the one he was there to kill.
Pierre rose slowly from his stone throne. He ignored all around him as they pushed their way around so they could escape, instead keeping a firm hold on the doctor's arm so that she couldn't run or escape. His gaze was intense, his smile almost ferocious, as he came down out of the arena, dragging the unwilling häijy with him.
Sensing the blutbadden were near, Sean turned to look down at them. "Take Nick. Get him to Providence. I'll meet you there when I'm done."
Rumbling, loud and deep, echoed through the cavern. "Oh come now, brother, do you think it will be as easy as that?" Pierre tossed the doctor to the ground where she scrambled out of the way, out of Sean's line of sight. Before long, the bronze-orange regnant that was his brother stood before him. His wings stretched wide as though stretching them before being tucked in towards his body. "You and me, we have done this dance many a time and each time, you have come out the worse for it."
"Maybe," Sean said, neither confirming nor denying the fact, "but this time I'm not alone."
"Hello little brother." With her usual swagger and sense for dramatic timing, Justine walked up in regnant form, standing shoulder to shoulder with him. "I'm told that you have a nasty habit of stealing other people's lovers. You know, you should really give that up before it gets you into trouble."
Pierre's amused grin turned into a scornful sneer. "Save us both some time and energy, dear sister, and don't pretend that you care about what happens to me."
Justine's laugh was deep, throaty. "Oh I wasn't warning you for you. I was trying to give you a chance to repent or something as close to that as you could come. It would be a lot of work to take care of you and I would like to save myself the trouble if I could."
"I have no need or desire to repent of anything that I have done." He cocked his head as though unable to comprehend why they should think otherwise. "I have done nothing wrong."
"Well, that settles it then," Sean said, satisfied.
He struck first, hitting his brother across the face with a clawed hand, immediately going for the neck with the opening. Before he could reach his target, Pierre swung his head back again, hiding the neck from view. "Is that all you've got?" he asked, practically laughing. He looked between Sean and Justine then asked, "What, are you both going to go one on one with me?"
"No," they both answered, if in different tones of voice. While Justine charged Pierre, Sean lashed out with his tail, catching his brother's left leg with the spiked tip of it. It bedded itself somewhat deep in Pierre's leg, tearing a great gash in the flesh as Sean pulled the tail back. Justine's attack had been ineffectual and she now lay on ground, momentarily unconscious.
"There," Pierre said with satisfaction and pain in his voice, "that evens things out a bit." He looked back towards his leg then amended, "Well, almost."
"I'm going to pay you back for everything that you have ever done to me, to our mother, to Justine, and to Nick," Sean promised with no little amount of promise in his voice.
Another rumble trembled through the cave as his brother laughed at that. "But you don't even know what I did to your precious grimm."
"Maybe not," Sean conceded. "But I felt enough of it to have a good idea." He flicked his tail, catching the brand which lay in the East fire pit. "And whatever else I'm missing, I can make up as I go along."
"Well then," Pierre said, sounding amused, as though this were all simply a game. He spread his wings wide in invitation. "Come and get me if you can."
When Holly had first entered the cave, she had stopped dead in her tracks. The Guardian had told them what to expect but it was one thing to be told and a completely different thing to see it for yourself. The place was ginormous, the stone almost warm as it surrounded her. For a second she stopped to admire it all, then her attention was grabbed by something else - body, motionless, lying underneath what appeared to be a rather large, black, and pissed dragon. She had been told that a regnant would look like that but, again, seeing is believing. Her mind had kicked in then, telling her precisely who that body was and she was running over to him. She heard four other sets of feet running behind her but the minute she got a good look at her friend, her older brother really, she stopped paying attention to anything that was being said or done and focused solely on the man on the ground.
Nick was pale, even for him, and what wasn't had her averting her eyes. She didn't want to see the scars that he bore, scars that he hadn't had before he'd been taken. Instead, she paid attention to the wound in his side, realizing that this was what the Guardian had felt when they'd all been outside. Holly stripped off the flannel shirt that she'd had on and pressed it to Nick's side, refusing to wince when he groaned in response. No amount of sympathy or pity would help him now, only what needed to be done.
"Nick, ah man," she absently heard Monroe whisper as the older blutbad reached them both. "What did they do to him?"
"I'm afraid that's an irrelevant question at the moment," some woman answered, inserting herself into Holly's place and pushing her out of the way. "Right now, we need to find a way to secure this bandage and get him out of her, as the Guardian has commanded."
Sensing that these people were familiar with the newcomer, Holly refrained from woging and snapping at the woman but just barely. Her territorial issues would do nothing to help Nick right now. "I'll go see if there's anything we can use to get Nick out of here faster," she offered since she knew that she wasn't needed there.
"Don't bother," the woman answered matter of factly, "there won't be anything. They usually dragged whomever couldn't walk out." Holly looked down at Nick, frowning. Had they done that to Nick? If so, how many times? The woman looked up from her patient. "Monroe, Detective Griffin, you're going to have to carry him out."
"Won't that do more damage to the wound in his side?" Hank asked, sounding logical and yet unsure.
"Probably but if we wait for someone better able to do it, it'll do more harm than good." Woging just enough for a claw to appear on her hand, the woman tore a hole in her lovely dress then proceeded to tear off a thick strip. She started to wrap it around Nick's torso, presumably to hold Holly's shirt in place over the stab wound, instructing, "Be as careful as you can be of his right ankle, it's injured."
"What part of him isn't?" Monroe retorted with the perfect mixture of sarcasm and horror that was Monroe.
Holly agreed, if silently, with the older blutbad's assessment. Where there weren't scars there were bruises. Each of them seemed to vary in age but none looked fully healed. He definitely looked more rugged, more like what she'd been told of a seasoned grimm now, that was for sure.
"I think there's a spot under his chin which is fine," the woman answered sarcastically, amazing Holly with her ability to joke at this precise moment. "There," she said, announcing that she was finished with the bandaging, "that will have to do."
"Are you sure about this?" Monroe asked, still sounding skeptical.
"Not really, no," the woman answered with complete honesty. She sounded resigned, as though this was not something that she wanted to do. "But we really don't have a choice. We have to get Nick out of here before the regnants decide that they need more space and I don't really want infection to set into his injuries."
"Perhaps I can help?"
They all jumped at the sound of the new voice, all of them woging except for Hank and the woman. From what Holly had been told of them, the man that had entered unnoticed was a jägerbar. He too was in full woge but he was the only one who appeared to be relaxed out of all of them. He was tall, sturdily built, and he stood with his arms across his chest and his focus on the unknown woman.
"Why?" she asked in challenge.
At this intimation that the stranger was partly known, the tension in the small group eased somewhat. With the exception of the jägerbar, those who had woged went back to their human form, still remaining tense and ready to defend in case it was necessary.
As a roar tore through the cavern the jägerbar smirked, saying, "Does it really matter?" He waited a moment to see if he would receive an answer then nodded when he didn't get one, stepping forward and gathering Nick in his arms as though the grimm were nothing but a child. Nick groaned briefly as pain reached his unconscious mind. "Hush, grimm," the jägerbar cooed. "All will be well."
"That's all well and good but shouldn't we, you know, like get out of here?" Monroe intoned anxiously.
"We should," the woman said, standing up now. She eyed the newcomer, asking, "You sure you can carry him?"
"Lead the way, häijy."
Holly's brows wrinkled in confusion at that name. Was it a slur? Or was it the exotic-seeming woman's name? With a nod, the woman stood still, then seemed to melt into the most beautiful panther that Holly had ever seen. Was she wesen? Or was this something else entirely? A flick of the cat's tail was all it took before the jägerbar started to follow after her. The rest of them eyed one another, wanting to see if one of them knew that was going on. Hank was the first to raise an eyebrow, shrug and then follow. The rest of them quickly did the same as yet another roar, this one loud enough to hurt Holly's ears, rang through the mostly vacated cavern.
Sean roared in both anger and pain as Pierre tore into his left shoulder. Using his bigger size, he barreled down and pushed his brother into the closest wall he could find, smiling inwardly when some the stone seemed to break apart and shower them both. He pushed again just for good measure, forcing his brother to woge back into his human form. Then, without bothering to think of the potentials familial ties which bound him to the man, he stepped on his brother's back, breaking it with ease.
When he reared back to deliver the killing bite, he was suddenly stopped by a blow on the back of his head. He looked to find his sister, on her feet and giving him an expression of warning exasperation. "You said that I could be the one to kill him," she reminded him.
"I did, didn't I?" He hadn't realized at the time how hard it was going to be to relinquish this kill but now that it came to it, he didn't want to step away. He waned to the be the one to end Pierre's life. Yet, that promise was the main reason why Justine had agreed to join him so he reluctantly stepped back, limping on his left side thank's to his wounded shoulder, and allowed her to replace him.
Justine leaned down, her nose brushing against Pierre's cheek. Their brother jumped slightly, not moving too far thanks to the broken back. "I'm sure that our father will not agree," she rumbled in as much of a whisper as she could in full woge. "But for me, this is justice for what you did to Emeric." She tore out his jugular before he could respond, seeming to take great delight in the action.
Sean, just as eager to witness this as his sister was to be the cause, woged back into his human form, hugging his left arm close to his body. Blood smeared the joint, barely hiding the ragged teeth marks which occupied it from back to front. The pain was intense and throbbing but he refused to give in to it yet. He needed to see for himself that his brother was dead, that he wasn't going to be coming for Sean or Nick ever again.
"Come," Justine said, surprising him; he hadn't realized that he'd spaced out until she'd spoken. She had changed from her regnant form to her human one, the both of them, well three of them if you count their dead brother, naked and uncaring. "We should dress and then get your wound seen to."
"I can get it taken care of at Providence," he answered, following her out into the hall and up towards the main portion of the house.
With the confusion down below, the main house wasn't in much better shape. The servants stared at them as they passed, the security watching warily but not hindering them in the least. From what he could tell, his sister in law had vacated the premises the moment there had appeared to be trouble so all was in chaos and turmoil. Sean inwardly shrugged it off. It was better that they not be forced to meet with their newly widowed relation anyways and at least now they could grab clothes with little trouble.
Once dressed, with some towels padded around the wound in his shoulder to slow the bleeding, they took the keys to one of the many cars which Pierre kept and started heading for the hospital. Normally they would have simply stowed the clothes and flown over but with Sean's injury, that wasn't ideal. Instead, he lightly dozed as his sister drove, doing his best to conserve his energy. In spite of what the doctors at the hospital believed would happen, Sean had no intention of spending time as a patient, merely as the loved one of one, and in order to do that, he would need his strength.
"Get some rest, Sean," Justine motherly cooed as they pulled out of the drive and onto the road. "I will wake you when we arrive."
Shifting in his seat to get as comfortable as he could, Sean allowed his eyes to close and his mind to roam, knowing that, when he woke, he would be able to see Nick. And this time, he had no intention of letting the grimm out of his sight.
TBC
