Chapter 14
Trubel, Alysa, Lucy and Theo were quiet after leaving the gym.
Lucy's Kia was closer to them than Theo's Jeep, and as they were about four steps from the Kia, Lucy confessed, "Theo, I'm a descendant of a long line of witches and warlocks and so are the Swanigans."
"Okay, we're jumping headfirst into the deep end," Alysa commented.
"Hold up," Theo quickly requested and coming to a stop behind Lucy's Kia. The others stopped as well and faced Theo. "When you say that you are a descendant of a long line of witches and warlocks, what exactly…?"
"Theo, you know what it means for someone to be a witch or a warlock," Lucy quickly told him. "We have watched enough of those shows, and those shows, for the most part, are not far off from the truth. I'm a witch and the Swanigans are a family of witches and warlocks."
"So you can cast magic?" Theo quickly asked.
"I can, and on a few occasions, I have," Lucy replied.
"Had you ever cast magic on me?" Theo asked.
"Once, and I did it to shove you out of a path from a large group of bats that was flying out from a cave entrance," Lucy replied.
"That time is vivid in my mind, and I had always wondered how I was standing upright one moment and then lying on my back the next moment," Theo replied. "Anyway, is Willie Porter a warlock as well?"
"He is," Lucy replied. "And you should know that he didn't really hypnotize you. He had placed you under a zombie spell, and I knew that you were under a zombie spell when I saw that your eyes were fully dilated in the security video."
"Okay, but why would Willie place me under a zombie spell and then have me send you an erroneous text?" Theo asked.
"Kyle wants us broken up," Lucy replied.
"Is he trying to break us up so he could date you?" Theo questioned.
"Theo, Kyle is part of a large coven known as the Lunar Owl Coven, and recently they have been looking to recruit me," Lucy informed. "Keep in mind that I will never join the Lunar Owl Coven; however, if I would, I would be required to marry a warlock from within the coven. So my best guess as to why Kyle is attempting to break us up is because he mistakenly believes that my refusal to join the coven has something to do with my relationship with you."
"Okay, I believe I understand the situation," Theo replied. "Am I in danger from being hurt or even killed by Kyle or Willie?"
Lucy slightly cringed before saying, "I would love to say no, but I honestly don't know."
Theo nodded in an understanding manner before saying, "I truly believe that you are a goodhearted person, Lucy, and I care deeply for you in spite of what I learned about you tonight. However, until you can guarantee that Kyle or Willie or any of their coven members won't come after me, I can't be around you."
"I understand, Theo," Lucy replied. "And I love you, and I want us to be together. So I will get that guarantee that you will be safe around me."
Theo nodded with a grin before saying, "I'll be counting the minutes until it is safe for us to be together again." Theo then leaned in and gave Lucy a kiss that lasted a few seconds. When it ended, he continued, "Please don't make me wait too long."
"I won't," Lucy promised. "In fact, I will be letting Kyle know that I will never join his coven as fast as humanly possible."
"And she won't be alone when she tells him," Alysa added.
Theo gave Alysa an appreciative nod and a grin before gesturing towards his Jeep and saying, "I'm going home and let you take care of what you need to take care of."
Lucy nodded while saying, "Goodnight. I love you."
"I love you," Theo replied with a grin.
"Goodnight," Alysa told Theo.
"Goodnight," Theo echoed and then exchanged a wave with Trubel.
As Theo walked away, Trubel, Alysa and Lucy continued to their respective doors.
The conversation was light as Lucy drove Alysa and Trubel to Alysa's pickup.
Once Lucy said her goodnight to Alysa and Trubel, Lucy made her way to the front door. Alysa and Trubel climbed into Alysa's pickup.
Across town, Monte and Austin were enjoying themselves at Bald Eagle nightclub and flirting with women who were only a few years older than them.
The boyfriend to one of the women walked in, and when he saw that Monte was sweet talking his girlfriend, he quickly and aggressively stepped in.
Monte turned on the charm towards the boyfriend, which angered the boyfriend further, and while in a blind rage and in swift movements, the boyfriend busted a long neck bottle against the counter-bar and slit Montes's throat.
With a shocked expression on his face, Monte clinched his throat, dropped to his knees, fell face first onto the floor, and quickly drifted off into his death.
Once everyone had time to register what had happened, most of the women and a few men screamed or called out in horror.
Austin, along with the men who weren't shell-shocked by the incident, tackled the boyfriend and disarmed him of the busted bottle.
Austin was then yanked away from the boyfriend as he started pounding on the boyfriend.
The bartender had dialed nine-one-one and was reporting the incident.
Across town, in front of Alysa's apartment building, Alysa parked her pickup in the closest available space. Once Trubel and Alysa got out of the pickup, they exchanged goodbyes, and went their respective ways.
After Trubel climbed onto her bike and put on her helmet, she brought the bike to life and rode away.
Trubel drove straight to My Corner of Hell and found a good place to watch the comings and goings of the people at the nightclub from the roof to a nearby building. Trubel's motorcycle was parked in the alley of the building she was using,
Once Trubel was in position on the roof, she used a pair of binoculars to watch the door.
As the minutes slowly passed, Trubel watched as the people went in and came out.
In Portland, Oregon, Nick and Erica found the mansion and then found a spot off the road and out of view as they waited for Jonas and his back up to arrive. However, instead of waiting at the vehicle, they found a place to watch the comings and goings of the people at the mansion.
In Twin Falls, around 8:50 P.M., Dwight was notified about Monte's death and then left the nightclub with two of his bodyguards.
Trubel's attention piqued when she saw the three leaving; however, when she saw that the two with Dwight were Hundjägers, she turned her focus back to the door.
In Portland, Oregon, Judge Tillis, the judge who issued Jonas's search warrant for the mansion was also a Klaustreich and a silent partner to the others, so once Jonas left with his signed searched warrant, Judge Tillis warned the others to move the abducted girls to their secondary location.
Nick and Erica closely watched as three men rushed from the house and to the three-vehicle garage.
Each man unlocked, opened and rushed into his respective garage bay. After engines roar to life within moments of each other, flatbed trucks back out of the garage and were then parked in a single file in front of the house. On each of the flatbeds was one large cubicle object that was completely concealed by a canvas cover.
The drivers jumped out of their respective trucks, pulled back the canvas slightly, which exposed a large cage, opened the cage door and unrolled a ladder.
"They're on the move to abandon the house," Erica quickly whispered, as if what was happening wasn't obvious. "Someone must've tipped them off that we were coming."
"Yeah, and I don't believe that Jonas is the tipster, so someone within his group must be," Nick replied.
"I'm calling Jonas and let him know what's going on and find out who all he informed about this?" Erica whispered as she pulled out her phone.
Seconds after she dialed the number, Erica continued into the phone, "Jonas, hi. Nick and I are on site and watching the house, and then suddenly the people inside are scrambling to abandon the house. So I think there's a mole in your ranks."
"I just left Judge Tillis's house with a signed warrant, so I hadn't had time to gather my team," Jonas replied. "Are you sure you and Burthardt didn't get spotted?"
"Even if we were spotted, Jonas, I doubt that they would react to our presence like this," Erica replied. "So, I hate to think this, but if you, me, Nick and Judge Tillis are the only four who knew the whereabouts of the abducted girls, then Judge Tillis has to be the mole."
"Yeah, well, you had better collect damn good evidence on Judge Tillis before accusing him of that," Jonas quickly replied. "Meanwhile, are you and Burthardt able to keep tabs on them?"
"We'll keep tabs on them and I'll call you every few minutes to keep you updated," Erica replied. "Bye."
As Erica went to put her phone away, Nick told her, "If they get those girls in those cages and allowed to leave, we won't be able to follow without being seen." Nick pulled out his phone. "So they can't be allowed to leave."
"Nick, there is unknown number of people inside, so I hope you are not suggesting that we take them on by ourselves," Erica replied.
"We won't have to," Nick replied before scrolling through his contact and stopping on the number labeled Home. "We just need to trap them in the house and Diana, without physically leaving home, can do that; although, she will have to astral project to us."
As Nick pressed the button to dial, Erica replied, "You know, the more I hear about what Diana can do, the more I hope that Diana never turns towards the dark-side."
"You and me both," Nick replied just as Adalind picked up.
"Nick, hey," Adalind began. "How much longer will you be?"
"An hour or two hopefully; however, I do need Diana's help to make that happen," Nick replied.
"What do you need her to do?" Adalind asked.
"I need her to astral project to me and then trap a group of people in a house until my backup can get here," Nick replied. "Otherwise, these people could flee in the night with abducted teenage girls, and we'll never see those girls again."
"Okay," Adalind replied. "Diana will be there shortly. Love you. Bye."
"Love you. Bye," Nick replied before putting his phone away.
Nick and Erica turned back towards the house. The truck drivers were fidgeting near their respective trucks as they waited.
Within a short time after Nick had hung up from Adalind, Diana appeared behind Nick and Erica, and even though Diana was just an astral projecting spirit, she appeared fully corporeal.
"Nick," Diana quietly announced. "I'm here." Erica slightly jumped from being startled and momentarily woged. Nick slightly jumped as well before he and Erica could face Diana's astral projecting spirit. Diana amusingly grinned as she continued to say, "Sorry. It's hard not to scare people when I appear behind them."
"It's fine," Nick assured her. While making corresponding hand gestures, he continued to say, "Anyway, I need you to change your appearance and then entered the house over there and trap everyone inside the house."
"But, Nick, changing my appearance will limit what I can do while astral projecting," Diana slightly whined.
"Diana, the adults in the house are going to be arrested for kidnapping several teenage girls, and to avoid any future retaliation against you, I don't want any of them to see what you actually look like," Nick quickly told her. "And all I want you to do is trap them in the house until the uniform cops can get here, and I don't want you to do any more than that. Okay."
"Okay," Diana replied.
"Diana, you can make people sleep, can't you?" Erica questioned.
"Yes," Diana said with a slight grin "Who do you want to go to sleep?"
"Those three men who are not in the house," Erica replied.
"Okay, Diana, the three things I want you to do are change your appearance, put those three men outside the house to sleep and trap the remaining people in the house until the uniform cops can get here," Nick told her. "I don't want you to do anything more."
Diana nodded before growing in height and aging at a rapid pace.
"Are you making yourself look like someone?" Erica asked.
Diana shook her head before saying, "It takes less magic to make myself look much older than it does to change into someone else, so I'm just making myself look older."
"I'm glad that you only have that ability as an astral projecting spirit," Nick told her.
Diana shrugged and frowned slightly as if she thought otherwise.
Seconds later, when Diana's features stopped growing and aging, she stood 5'9" and looked to be in her mid-forties.
"Okay, I'm ready," Diana announced in an adult sounding voice.
"Okay," Nick replied. "You know what I want you to do."
Diana nodded before moving towards the house.
"Is that how tall Diana will be after she's done growing?" Erica whispered to Nick.
Nick shrugged before saying, "I think that is how tall she would like to be after she's done growing. But since her dad is tall, she might get that tall."
The three drivers saw Diana as she approached, and before they could react to her presence, she waved her hand and commanded, "Sleep."
As if fainted where they stood, the drivers dropped to the ground.
Diana continued to the house and because of her being an astral projecting spirit, she passed through the door and stopped in the large foyer.
"What the…" one of the six men uttered as Diana gazed over the foyer and up the steps to the second floor.
"Who are you?" a second man demanded to know as twenty-one teenage girls between the ages of sixteen and nineteen years old were being escorted to the steps on the second floor by three women. The teenage girls were chained to one another to form three groups of seven.
When the three women and teenage girls saw Diana, they stayed at the top of the steps.
"Who I am is not for anyone here to know," Diana began while looking towards the second man. "But if you need to call me something, then call me… Pff, Misty."
"I don't know why you're here, Misty, but you had better leave now and forget about us and this house," the second man continued.
"I'm not leaving here, and neither is anyone else," Diana replied before waving her right hand around over her head.
When nothing obvious happened, the second man imitated Diana's movement and asked, "What was this?"
"It was me creating a magical barrier and blocking doors and windows," Diana replied. "As I said, no one is leaving."
"We'll see about that," a third man said as he moved towards the door.
Diana, the five remaining men, the three woman and the teenage girls watched as the man reached for the doorknob, but got stopped by an invisible barrier that was an inch from the doorknob. He then attempted to touch the door in a few places and was also stopped by the invisible barrier.
"There's an invisible wall just an inch away from the door," the third man informed.
"You're a Hexenbiest," the first man accused and drawing his pistol. "That's how you entered without opening the door. You magically came inside."
"Very good on figuring out that I'm a Hexenbiest…" Diana was only able to get out before the second man pulled out his pistol and immediately shot at her.
The bullet passed through Diana's head and barely missed a fourth man before impacting an internal wall.
Diana frowned slightly before looking at the second man and saying, "You could have shot that man standing there. Guns are not to be played with. So put it away before you do shoot someone."
"I was aiming for you, Hexenbiest," the second man replied. "And I don't miss when I aim my gun. So how did I miss you?"
"Sorry, trade secrets," Diana replied.
The second man moved slightly closer to Diana and aimed his pistol towards her head before saying, "Perhaps my second… or third… or even my fourth shot won't miss."
"Before you shoot one of your friends, I think you can really use a time-out," Diana told him.
"A time-out?" the second man questioned.
Diana waved her hand in front of him and commanded, "Sleep."
As if fainted where he stood, the second man dropped to the ground. The pistol fell loose and laid by his hand.
Diana turned towards the others while asking, "Does anyone else need a time-out?"
"No," was the answer Diana received from the others.
"No one else needs a time-out," the first man continued as he put away his pistol.
"I'm glad to hear it," Diana replied before gesturing towards the teenage girls. "I don't know why those girls are chained together like that, but I do know it's wrong. So unchain them now."
"June, do what Misty says and unchain the girls," the first man instructed.
"Alright," the tallest of the three women replied as she moved to do so.
"So, Misty, have you come here for a reason?" the first man questioned.
"My dad's friends are on their way here now, and they don't want anyone leaving before they get here," Diana replied.
"And who is your dad?" the first man asked.
"Sorry, that's not for anyone here to know," Diana replied.
"Can you tell me who your dad's friends are?" the first man asked.
"I can, but I'm not," Diana replied. "I don't want to ruin the surprise."
"Misty, we need to leave here," one of the two remaining women replied as she walked down the stairs. "The police are planning to pay us a visit and we don't want to be here when they come."
"So you already know about the police coming?" Diana rhetorically questioned.
"We do," the woman replied as she reached the first floor.
"Then I guess I can't ruin the surprise," Diana continued.
"Your dad's friends are the police, aren't they?" the first man questioned.
"They are, and you guys should really think about getting rid of your guns before they show up," Diana replied. "Bad things could happen if you keep them."
"We'll take our chances," the first man replied.
Diana shrugged before saying, "Suit yourselves."
"Misty, we would really like to leave now," the first man continued. "So can we work out a deal? Whoever your dad is, you could simply tell him that you arrived here late."
"I won't be making any deals, and if no one wants a time-out like the man on the floor, then everyone is to go to the living room and find a seat. And behave like ladies and gentlemen."
The first man took a hard breath before saying, "Okay, everyone. We are going to do what Misty says and make ourselves comfortable in the living room."
Diana stood back and watched as everyone began entering the living room one by one. When the twenty-one teenage girls entered the living room, they sat in the floor as the adults sat on the couches and chairs. Diana stepped into the living last and just watched as everyone sat quietly.
Outside, a few minutes before (just after the second man's gunshot), Erica uttered, "Diana needs help."
"Diana is an astral projecting spirit," Nick reminded her. "Her being shot at is only going to cause them to shoot each other."
"Okay, yeah, true," Erica replied as she relaxed.
As the minutes slowly passed, Diana's appearance at home and her astral projecting appearance slowly grew pale. After thirty-five minutes Adalind noticed as to how pale Diana's physical body was becoming and called Nick.
In the mansion, as Diana stood near the entrance, one of the teenage girls asked her, "Are you okay, Misty? You're not looking so good."
"I'm good," Diana quickly claimed.
"Actually, I don't think you're good at all," the first man replied as he stood. "I think you are overextending your Hexenbiest ability and your ability is on the verge of failing." He then indicated to the four men and three women who were in the room with him. "I also think if the eight of us rushed you right now, that you won't have the strength to stop all of us."
Diana amusingly grinned before saying, "Watching all of you running into each other sounds fun to watch, but you should all know that whatever you or your friends attempt, none of you will be able to touch me."
"I would like to test that," a fifth man replied and woging into a Klaustreich.
Diana held her amused expression and position herself in front of a wall. As she opened her arms out, she told the fifth man, "Come at me and see what happens."
The fifth man went full speed towards Diana, and as he was inches from Diana, Diana stepped forward and through him. The fifth man hit the wall and knocked himself unconscious, along with cracking the drywall.
"Now that was fun to watch," Diana told the others. "So who's next? I want to see that again."
"When I saw you enter, I saw you pass through the door," the first man told Diana while putting the pieces together. "I convinced myself that what I saw couldn't have happened. Then you were shot at, but you were never hit, and now you had stepped through a person. You're a freaking ghost."
"Ooh, you're so close, but no. I'm not a ghost," Diana replied. "I am here only in spirit, though; however, my body is alive and well and safely away from here."
"Alive, maybe, but you're not well, Misty," the first man replied. "By you being here in spirit and blocking the exits from us, you are overexerting your abilities. In fact, you are already showing signs of fatigue and I'm willing to bet that there is a door or a window somewhere in the mansion that is not being blocked by you."
Diana shrugged before saying, "Maybe there is, but by the time you find it, the police will be here."
"I'm a gambling man, and I'll take that gamble," the first man replied before turning towards the adults in the room. "Spread out and check all the doors and windows. I'm certain that Misty can't be blocking them all."
The first man received nods from the adults before they left the room in a haste. The first man stared at Diana for a moment—as if to size her up—before leaving the room as well.
Diana turned towards the teenage girls and asked, "Why did these people kidnap all of you?"
"The people who kidnapped us are all Klaustreich, and they kidnap Willahara, Eisbiber, Mauzhertz, Reinigen, Sciurini and Marmotini," a nineteen-year-old woman began. "And they kidnapped us to sell us as slaves to Wesen who are just as ruthless as Klaustreich."
"What kind of Wessen are you?" Diana asked.
"I'm a Willahara," the girl replied. "Also, among the twenty-one of us, I've been here the longest. But when I got here, there were eighteen other girls here before me, and I've been told that there were others before them. They were all sold as slaves and sent to other parts of the world. In fact, I had been sold just before you showed up."
"Okay, well in a few…" Diana got out before turning quiet, as if something had grabbed her attention.
At home, Adalind was telepathically communicating with Dianna that the police cruisers were only a minute from reaching the mansion, and that Nick no longer needed her to keep the people inside.
At the mansion, seconds after Diana had turned quiet, one of the seventeen-year-old girls ask, "Misty, what is it?" When Diana didn't answer, the girl continued, "Misty, are still with us?"
"I'm still here," Diana finally replied after a moment of silence. "My mom is watching over my body, and she just telepathically told me that the police are only a minute away. So I don't need to keep everyone inside any longer. When I disappear, all of the exits will become unsealed, and once that happens, I want everyone in this room to run out of the house and into the woods. Once you enter the woods, you will be met by two police detectives. One of them will be a Grimm, but don't worry. I promise that he's not here to kill Wesen. He's only here to stop the Klaustreich from kidnapping girls ever again."
"I've heard of him," the Willahara woman replied before announcing. "We can trust this Grimm."
"Okay," the twenty teenage girls replied in an uneven chorus.
"Now go," Diana demanded just before fading quickly from everyone's sight.
When Diana disappeared, the twenty-one teenage girls dashed towards the front door. As the teenage girls were quickly leaving through the door in a single file, the four men who were unconscious were sluggishly waking up.
When the second man from the mansion saw that nineteen of the twenty-one girls had made it outside, he quickly grabbed his pistol and fired; however, in his haste, his bullet impacted the wall just above the door. The man started cursing as the door was shutting behind the last girl.
Outside, the three drivers got up quickly and started to chase the fleeing girls, but before they could catch even one of them, Nick and Erica—with their pistols aimed at two of them—identified themselves as Portland Police and ordered them to the ground.
Erica continued by telling the girls to get behind her and Nick.
One of the drivers woged into a Klaustreich, and when he looked towards Nick, shock quickly came across his face.
"Oh God, you're a Grimm," the driver uttered.
"I am," Nick replied as the sounds of police cruisers were being heard. "And now you have a choice to make. Do you want to die here, or do you want to be arrested and continue living? I'm good with either choice."
Before the drivers could make a choice to surrender or fight the second man made it to the door and swung it open.
Erica immediately saw the man as he stepped out with his pistol raised and fired a warning shot that missed him by only inches before impacting the wall.
"I guarantee I won't miss if I have to fire a second round," Erica quickly warned. "Now drop your weapon, lie down on your stomach and put your hands on your head."
When the man hesitated, the driver that was woged, shifted back into human appearance and announced, "I don't want to die here tonight."
As the driver moved to lie on the ground, the other two drivers followed suit.
As the sirens grew louder with each passing second, the second man finally replied, "Okay, okay. I'm surrendering."
The second man then tossed his pistol and got down onto his stomach.
As Nick and Erica kept their distance from the mansion, Nick asked to no one in particular, "How many more people inside?"
"None," the second man claimed. "I'm the last one."
"There are eight others inside," the Willahara woman replied. "Five men and three women. They are all Klaustreich."
"Thank you," Nick told the young woman.
"They won't be in there," the second man replied. "They're long gone."
"Doubtful," Nick replied.
"Fine, go inside and look if you don't believe me," the second man replied.
"My back up will be here any moment, and we will find your friends," Nick assured him.
"Good luck with that," the second man replied as Jonas's car and the police cruisers were coming into sight.
Jonas's car led the pack of cruisers, and after he came to a stop and jump out, he asked Nick, "You moved on this place without back up or having a search warrant?"
"These girls found the opportunity to escape and took it," Nick replied. "Erica and I moved on these four to protect the girls. And according to the girls, there are eight more people inside."
Jonas nodded before shouting orders for the uniform officers to take custody of the four prisoners and to form multiple teams of two to enter the mansion and search for the others.
Nick and Erica remained together, and as they searched the mansion, Erica used her heighten sense of smell while Nick used his heighten sense of hearing.
Within ten minutes, Erica—while occasionally woging in order to improve her sense of smell—tracked Klaustreich's scent to two bookcases that were pressed tightly against each other. However, the two bookcases appeared to look like one wide bookcase.
"Great! This is where the strongest scent is, but I led us to a dead-end," Erica uttered.
"I have a feeling that that's what they want us to believe," Nick replied before stepping up to the left bookcase and pulling out books.
"What are you doing?" Erica asked.
"I'm willing to bet that this mansion has a panic room, and I'm also willing to bet that that panic room is behind this bookcase," Nick replied.
Erica looked around the room before following a residual scent to a large desk. On top of the desk was a good size eagle statue on a base. However, the statue was setting on the desk at noticeable angle.
Erica would automatically clean and straighten her house when she was home, so without consciously thinking about her actions, she went to straighten out the statue.
The base of the statue was attached to the desk, but it swiveled, and when Erica moved it to where the base of the statue was parallel with the desk, a clicking sound was heard followed by the two bookcases separating by an inch.
"Did you do that?" Nick asked Erica as he faced her.
"I believe I did, and I would like to say it was intentional, but I can't," Erica replied as she joined Nick at the two bookcases. "I was straightening the statue on the desk."
Nick amusingly grinned before saying, "Your compulsion to clean and straighten everything had finally paid off."
"I don't have a compulsion to clean and straighten everything," Erica defended.
"I've seen you bite your lip to keep from saying something to housekeeping when housekeeping fails to empty a waste basket or pick something up from the floor," Nick replied.
"Well, housekeeping should be more attentive while doing their job," Erica retorted.
"Yes, well, tabling this discussion for a later time, let's find out what's behind these bookcases," Nick replied while gesturing towards the bookcases.
"Okay," Erica replied before she and Nick each grabbed a bookcase.
The bookcases were on rollers, so rolling them was easy, and once the bookcases were separated wide enough, a metal door with a small window was uncovered.
When Nick looked through the window, he saw one of the five remaining men looking back at him.
Nick then backed up a step, placed his badge to the window, announced who he was and demanded that he opened the door.
When Nick received no reply, he got on his phone and requested someone with the ability to break through a panic room door. However, a short time after Nick had put away his phone, the five men and three women inside the panic room surrendered peacefully when they realized that their capture or demise was inevitable.
To be continued.