Edited: October 24th, 2016

Chapter 19

The rain was coming down hard when I parked the Blue Beetle on the street leading to Zero. Of all the clubs on Chicago, Zero was the one least talked about, and the most infamous. You could easily find a club for every minority, majority, ideology, and orientation in Chicago. Zero was a club that catered for all four, sprinkled with practically every fetish and kink known to mankind, and possibly a few others as well. If you found your way to Zero, you found your way into sensual ecstasy, so I had heard.

The place unnerved me personally, because I knew who ran it. It was a front for the White Court of vampires, for Lara and her operations. To me, Zero hadn't been a club for sexual freedom, it was a mirrored cage that painted a disconcerting view of what a world ruled by the White Court would be. Emotionless, unfulfilling, and hungry.

Zero limits.

Zero inhibitions.

Zero restraint.

Zero fulfillment.

It had made for a grimm reminder of what the White Court really was, despite how human they appeared. That is, until the Grimm had decided to show the vampires what the world they would create was like, and how very powerless they were to stop them. I didn't even need to see inside the building to know that the Grimm had destroyed Zero, and any unfortunate soul trapped inside.

Severe and traumatizing events leave a 'stain' in the energy of the world, a black mark that anyone with sufficient awareness can feel. It's a dark feeling that gets under your skin and can drive a person mad if it's strong enough. These 'auras' are, consciously or not, avoided by people, whether they acknowledge it or not. It's an animal fear that tells us that going near it will only cause trouble.

And parking in front of Zero? I felt a wave of despair and terror settle over me, like a heavy Chicago snow, muffling my every thought and instinct. The Grimm had hit Zero hard and fast. I shuddered at the image of those first few terrifying minutes and what it had done to the people inside.

"Jesus," I muttered as I put the Beetle in park.

Thomas grunted, "You can feel it too, huh?"

"The overwhelming sensation of death and horror that is literally seeping out of every corner of this godforsaken place?"

"Yeah, that."

We got out of the Beetle and rushed through the rain to the building. The club had what looked like a fire-exit door at the bottom of a stairway, a story below street level in the side of a downtown building. The key word was had. That heavy door had been ripped clean off its hinges, and was embedded in the nearby wall. There were faint rust stains splattered across the stairs. I recognized them for what they were, bloodstains. In the general panic to escape, it would've been easy for the Grimm to slaughter everyone in sight.

How the hell had Lara managed to keep this covered up?

We approached Zero and I saw that there was police tape plastered across the door and inside. Within the threshold, a guard was leaning against the wall so you could only see him if you approached the door, which the tape would discourage.

The gears clicked.

Lara had let the cops in, but she must have pulled some serious strings to keep this hush hush from the media. A club like Zero being wiped off the face of the earth would attract a lot of attention, if only for all the rich clientele lost in the process. Her pull in the mortal world was even greater than I had suspected.

"Guess we should be thankful they were clearing it out," Thomas said.

Or the explanation was far less sinister.

"Wait, what?" I asked.

My brother glanced at me, "Zero changes location every couple of years. Lara was making plans to move uptown in a month or two and had crews dismantling it. If the attack had hit sooner, there'd be no way to cover up the fallout."

"So, what? The attack was just really good timing?"

"For a measure of good."

We got inside, and the guard stood up. Thomas flashed his ID for the man to see, and once he got a good look, he motioned for us to move forward. The stairway walls were covered in white plastic sheets. Given the bloodstains on the stairs, I was very grateful for the plastic, obvious as it was.

Zero itself looked no better.

The last time I had been there, it had been a dark place filled with flashing strobe lights, dangling cages, and protruding balconies high along the walls. It had been a maze of walkways, sex, and everything in between. Now, it had none of that.

The walkways had been stripped away, leaving a wide open room about the size of your average basketball court, and slightly shorter. The balconies had been torn down and temporary interior walls covered the stairways that connected them to the ground floor. Industrial lights filled the club with their harsh glow, and all the tiles and paneling had been ripped up. A disco ball of all things, was all that hung from the ceilings. Cardboard boxes had been packed in the corner to our immediate right, and I didn't want to know what they were filled with.

Perhaps more disturbingly, the walls were practically painted in tape up plastic sheets, and several areas of the floor were cordoned off with police tape. I could see chalk outlines were bodies had fallen in the attack, and chunks of concrete had been gouged out from the ground.

"What are we looking for exactly?" Thomas asked while I surveyed the room.

"Another Blackstone," I explained. "Right now, those things seem to be how the Grimm are popping up. I don't think there's one here, but if there is, we'll want to find it and destroy it."

Thomas nodded and walked off, "And if we can't find it, we're meeting up at Marcone's castle?"

I frowned, "I wouldn't call it a castle, just… a really big bunker."

"Aren't bunkers usually underground?"

"Sometimes. The old World War II ones aren't."

"This isn't World War II."

I scowled, "Just look for the stupid stone."

"Aye aye sir," Thomas gave a mock salute and disappeared up the stairs.

I let out a sigh and started to scour the ground floor. I didn't dare open my Sight in Zero, the amount of emotional baggage this place had would likely leave me drooling in a straitjacket for the rest of my life. So I was left to investigate this the old-fashioned way. I held out my left hand, the side of your body that absorbs energy, and walked forward to the nearest crime scene.

There was a ladder leaning on its side by the wall, its bottom half bent at an odd angle. I looked from it to the chalk outline. There was another dark stain on the ground where the man had fallen from the ladder onto the ground. A couple dozen furrows surrounded the blood stain, where the Grimm had probably mauled him. What a way to go.

I didn't sense anything particularly unusual, so I moved onto the next crime scene. A few years of PI work exposes a guy to a lot of nasty things. You either learned to roll with the punches after a while, or you got out of it as fast as you could. Maybe if I'd seen the original bodies, my stomach would be twisting itself into knots. But this was child's play compared to some supernatural attacks I'd dealt with.

The next two crime scenes didn't cough up anything new either, just more disturbing ideas of what the Grimm had done. The attack had been fast and brutal, a lot of people had been cut down before they even knew what was going on. Which begged the question; where were the Grimm now?

I looked up at where the stairs that Thomas had vanished into, and felt a lump form in my throat. "Thomas?"

No answer.

My hand creaked as it tightened around my staff, and I took a wary step towards the stairway, "Thomas, you there?"

I waited five eternal seconds, my heart thudding against my ribcage, before I started to gather my will. I took a cautious step forward, and reached into my coat for my blasting rod. If Thomas had gone quiet, then that could only mean…

"What is it Harry?" Thomas demanded, emerging from the stairway with an irritated expression on his face.

It could only mean that I was being a paranoid idiot. I let out a sigh of relief and released my will. The Grimm were dangerous, sure. But nothing we'd seen from them suggested they were particularly intelligent. They might lay a trap or two, but animals in the wild did that all the time, and not several days in advance for an enemy that may or may not show up at all. I had just gotten riled up by the energy surrounding Zero, that was all.

I tried to look bored and not at all paranoid, "Just wondering where you went. It just occurred to me that splitting up might not be the best idea, if there are Grimm running around."

Thomas raised a brow, "You really think I can't handle myself?"

"Oh no, you could handle a few fine," I assured him. "But, these things love to attack in numbers. Splitting up is a bad idea."

My brother shrugged, "Fine. But if you're so worried about it, why split everyone up in the first place? Especially since you were just going to summon Toot-Toot."

We walked to the left of the club as I said, "I didn't, technically. Everyone went off in pairs. Pyrrha with Murphy and Butters with the Alphas. It's better than sitting around doing nothing, and until we figure out what's going on in Pyrrha's skull, all we can do is search and try to shut these portals."

"So why not call Molly then?" Thomas asked. "She's got more experience with this than the White Council does, or hell, call up your boss. This would be right up her alley."

I shuddered, "Yeah, I considered that, right up until we landed in Lea's manor. Something was… off about her."

My brother sent me a quizzical expression.

"Off more than usual," I amended. "When she looked in Pyrrha's head she… I dunno, freaked out, almost. I think the Fae might already know about what's going on. And if they do, then that means my boss won't be in the summoning mood. She'd probably string me up by my entrails if I did. I'd rather not risk it."

That seemed to ease Thomas's concerns, as he nodded, "Alright, fine. But what about Molly?"

We hit the stairs and I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose, "I called her before we went to Edinburgh. I tried again at Billy and Georgias. All I got was voicemail, so she's preoccupied."

"Or Mab is... keeping her out of contact..." Thomas said. His voice trailed off and we looked at each other.

I swallowed and said, "You don't think that Mab...ya know."

"Dragged Pyrrha here and flung her at you?" Thomas said.

I cursed and slammed my staff against the ground, "Son of a bitch, it makes sense. The only one here with anything to gain from breaking dimensions like that is Mab. She brought Pyrrha here to-."

My train of thought was promptly derailed by a furry black shape that seemed to fall from the ceiling and shake the ground when it landed. Thomas and I went dead silent as the Grimm slowly rose and swung its head around to glare at us. I recognized it as a Beowolf, but not the kind I had fought at the UC.

This guy was built like a truck, thich limbs and a torso wide as a tree. Shards of bone jutted from its arms and shoulders in perfect symmetry and it had razorlike bonegrowths running along its back. Its face was the most startling difference, a snout much longer and broader with fangs the size of steak knives. A harsh red glow emanated from its skull-like face, where its eyes would be, and from deep within its throat. The beast looked like it was on fire from the inside out, even emanating some sorta black smoke from its fur. Whatever this thing was, it was obviously different from the Grimm at the UC.

Its eyes focused on Thomas, then me. It snarled, and a dull grey tongue wrapped around its fangs. Saliva dripped from its teeth to the floor, and it began to prowl towards us with clear intentions.

"Yeah, no," I said, pointing my staff at it, and gathering my will.

'Forzare!'

Energy lanced from my staff toward the Grimm in a rolling cloud of unseen force. The cloud hit with the force of a truck and… And the Grimm dug its claws into the ground and weathered the blow. Oh don't get me wrong, it still went skidding back a good dozen feet or so, and its skull visibly cracked under the strain. But it left ten thick gashes in the concrete floor and the moment my spell faded, the Grimm lunged at us.

Thomas met the Grimm mid-jump, body checking it with his shoulder. Now, White Court Vampires are not the strongest of the big three (or is it two now?), or even when compared against the supernatural world in general. They're plotters and schemers through and through, but when I say they're weaker, I mean in a relative sense. No normal human can match a White Court in a physical confrontation, and Thomas had been holding back against Pyrrha. I don't know who would've won between those two, but I did know this; Thomas was going to kick that wolf's ass.

The two tumbled through the air, and Thomas disentangled himself from the beast and made a perfect landing ten feet away. The Grimm shattered concrete when it hit the floor, digging shards of bone into the ground to slow itself. It was already standing before it had completely stopped, and roared at Thomas. It was a skin-crawling noise, more like a lion's bellow than a wolf's howl.

Thomas didn't give two shits though, and pulled his saber from under his coat, along with his Desert Eagle. Too impractical in human hands, but like I've said, my half-brother is far from human. He wielded that oversized hand cannon like a pea-shooter, and went full gun-kata on the Grimm.

It slashed at him with its claws, blows that would decapitate him. My brother, his eyes glowing silver, effortlessly dodged its swipes and waited for an opening. He found it when they reached one of the crime scenes. Thomas ducked under the tape and the Grimm barreled into it. Its size made the tape a non-issue for the most part, but it was enough to slow the beast.

Thomas lunged forward, drawing his saber across the Grimms hindquarters, and planting the barrel of his pistol against its back. It barked three times, leaving large glowing wounds in the Beowolf's hide. The Beowolf fell onto the ground and twisted around remarkably fast, claws extended and mouth wide open.

Thomas whipped his sword in an upwards motion, severing the Beowolfs hand from its arm, while at the same time, shoving his other hand in its open mouth and hammering the trigger. One loud bang later, and the back of the Grimm's skull shattered, and it immediately started to dissolve.

"Yuk," Thomas wiped the black goop off his arm and saber, as the Grimm faded into nothing. He sent me a look once he was clean, and said, "Thanks for the help Harry. Really appreciated."

"You had it handled. Besides, you were too close for me to get in a shot, I didn't want to fry you."

My brother opened his mouth for a retort, when the ground shook again. Three more Beowolves hit the floor, one behind my brother, and two to my left and right. They all took after the deceased, and looked none too pleased with us.

I saw Thomas close his eyes and take a deep breath. The Grimm began to growl, a low rumbling from the center of their chest that shook the air. Once again, I tightened my grip on my staff and started gathering my will. If it was just me and the Grimm, I could've tapped into the Mantle of the Winter Knight and frozen the monsters solid. But with Thomas directly in front of me, I was limited in exactly what I could do. To my shock, I realized that was exactly what the Grimm were counting on.

"Hells Bells…" I muttered under my breath.

And the Grimm lunged.

I brought up my shield in a dome around me, that both beowolves bounced off of with a hollow 'boing!'. Thomas whirled around and kicked the third into the nearest, then jumped after it. I didn't see how the fight unfolded from there, as my problem was two-fold. The closer of the two Grimm was circling around me, dragging its claws along my shield, looking for a weakness of some kind. It wasn't going to find any yet, but I knew I couldn't keep my shield up forever.

The second one looked between me and to the sound of fighting between Thomas and the third Beowolf. It turned its back on me and started prowling towards my brother while he was distracted.

Shit.

"Thomas, heads up!" I shouted.

My brother threw the Beowolf over his shoulder at the one sneaking up at him. The two monsters rolled across the floor and into the nearest wall. Well, that was one way to deal with it.

I dropped my shield and thrust my staff at the last one standing and shouted 'Forzare!'

The Grimm was launched across the room and crashed into its packmates, knocking them onto the floor again. I didn't give them a chance to get up, tapping into my Mantle and grasping the icy tendrils of Winter within. Frost formed along my staff and the floor, and the air temperature dropped twenty degrees in seconds. I barely even registered it as I pointed my staff at the wolves, and snarled, 'Infriga!'

A miniature blizzard whipped through the air and engulfed all three Beowolves in ice, freezing them to the wall, a thick fog of frost billowing behind it. It only took a moment, before three large blocks had taken their place. Inside, I watched as the Beowolves eyes rotated in their sockets, helpless to escape, and then… The Grimm just dissolved, evaporating within seconds to leave a hollow shell in their wake.

The frost began to blanket the room, quickly obscuring visibility. I lowered my staff and let out a weary sigh, "Thomas, you alright?"
"I'm fine. Took a little off the tank, but nothing serious." he said, though I couldn't exactly pinpoint him through the fog.

"Right, well, we should head out of here, call in some backup. We found trouble, and I don't wanna run up against it alone."

My brother let out a pent up breath, "Right, I guess-"

The air shook, and Thomas made a startled noise. I raised my staff, "Thomas!?"

No response, and I couldn't see shit through the fog! I ground my teeth and snarled, 'Ventas servitas!'

A gale force wind suddenly picked up and carried the fog away, clearing the room within seconds. Just in time for a big black fist to plow into me and send me careening through the air into the cardboard boxes by the exit. If instinct hadn't forced me to raise my shield at the last moment, my chest would've been reduced to a pulpy mess. Instead, I just 'oofed!' when I crashed, and sent boxes flying. Most of them were half empty with styrofoam peanuts, thankfully. The other half were filled adult toys and objects I don't feel comfortable sharing. Lets just say there was a lot of poking with things in places that should not be poked.

I brushed something feathery out of my face, and blinked my eyes until the room stopped dancing in my vision. When it settled down, I saw the Grimm that had attacked me, and was holding Thomas in its left hand.

It was twice the size of the Beowolves, easy, and had the basic shape of a Gorilla, if Satan took time out of his day to design one, that is. It had sledgehammer-sized fists, bigger than my chest, and was covered in plates of bone that acted as a sort of makeshift armor. Like all Grimm, it had a white bone mask, though this one was much smaller than the usual Grimms. Oh, and its mouth was lined with razor sharp teeth of course.

Glowing red eyes glared at me from under that mask, filled with an actual emotion. Hate. This thing hated me with an absolute soul-searing passion. It wanted nothing more than to crush me into a Dresden-sized pancake, and yet it didn't. I looked past it at the wall of ice and felt a chill not at all related to the temperature.

This Grimm understood what I was capable of, saw that its sneak attack hadn't killed me, not for lack of trying mind you, and it was holding onto my brother to keep me off it. As insurance. Stars and Stones, this thing was smart enough to pull a friggen hostage situation on me!

I had underestimated the Grimm. They weren't just animals capable of some intelligent decisions. They were, to some degree, a malevolent, powerful, and most of all, intelligent force. And now one of them had my brother in its oversized hands.

Thomas for his part, looked more pissed than worried about the oversized gorilla clutching him. His left arm was pinned to his chest, and the right still held his pistol. He hadn't used it yet, and I could understand why. With animals, big game tend to have a hide thick enough to repel most small arms fire, and while Grimm weren't animals and a Desert Eagle could only generously be described as 'small', the risk wouldn't be worth it as long as he was trapped in its grasp.

I slowly pushed myself up from the boxes, careful not to touch anything that might give me an STD, and faced the Grimm. It let out a snort and a low growl rumbled from its chest. That seemed to be a thing with them. I returned its growl with a glare and growl of my own.

"I'm going to warn you once, Kiddie Kong. Put. My brother. Down. Now. Or this'll get real ugly, real fast."

I wasn't entirely sure if it could understand what I was saying, but the tone of my voice probably tipped it off. Gorilla Grimm reared up on its hind legs and bellowed at me. The entire room shook at its voice, and I'll admit, I took a step back out of instinct. Something that big making that much noise tends to make the brain go into full 'get the hell out of here' mode.

I didn't though, because I'm an idiot like that, and because of Thomas. Who saw his opportunity and seized it.

He jammed the barrel of his gun against its hand, and fired the last rounds into its hand. The gorilla was still roaring, but it was much angrier, and released Thomas on instinct. My brother rolled out of the line of fire, and I sighted the Grimm with my blasting rod. I grabbed onto the smoldering anger that seeing the monster with my brother had created, and forced it all into my spell.

'Fuego! I snarled.

When it comes to the supernatural, fire is the go to weapon in most situations. It's a natural cleansing power, and most beings in the supernatural world have a healthy respect for it. Obviously, this makes it a very potent form of offensive magic, one that I happen to have a lot of experience with. It only stood to reason that something as dark and evil as the Grimm wouldn't stand fire.

Turns out I was right.

A wave of fire rippled through the air and slammed into the Grimms shoulder, spinning it like a top and setting its fur ablaze. The Grimm roared in unholy rage and charged at me, rolling forward on its four oversized limbs. So now I had half a ton of pure eldritch rage barreling down on me, and it was on fire. Nice one Dresden.

I stumbled out of the boxes and started running to the left, raising my shield as a protective barrier. The Grimm crossed the distance between us in seconds, and slammed its shoulder against my shield. Ripples of blue energy danced along the dome, but my shield held. The force of the impact, however, knocked me off my feet and sent me rolling across the floor until I hit the wall. Something might've cracked, but I couldn't tell.

The ground started to shake again, and I heard Thomas's voice call out,"Harry!"

I blinked a few times and looked up. The gorilla was charging again, the entire left side of its shoulder and face still on fire. It should've been completely engulfed by now, but for some reason, the fire was taking its sweet ass time to burn the monster.

I struggled to get my legs under me, even with the Winter Mantle, I had not been prepared to be launched clear across the room twice in a row. My response was taking too long, and I might have died then and there, if it weren't for my brother.

Thomas came falling from the sky, eyes blazing white hot, and his saber flickered through the air as he hit the Grimm. It sank to the hilt in the creatures right shoulder, and Thomas's sudden impact threw it off course. The Grimm barreled through the wall to my right, spilling debris everywhere, and igniting sheets of plastic and paper that had covered the wall. The construction site had been a tinder box waiting to go off, which was why I'd been trying to avoid using fire. There was no guarantee that burning Zero down would destroy the Blackstone, and we still didn't know where it was.

Of course, now that was a bit of a background issue. My body was my own again, and I staggered to the hole the two had made. The sounds of the two clashing shook the building. The Grimm roared in furious rage, and I heard Thomas's pistol bark several times. I peeked past the wall and watched the insanity unfold.

Thomas slid between the Grimms legs, slashing at it with his saber to no avail, and popping up on the opposite side. The Grimm twisted around way faster than it should've, using its forearm as a sledgehammer. Thomas ducked, barely avoiding having his head knocked off. The Grimms arm slammed into the wall with the force of an artillery cannon, and the building shook.

My brother yelled and shoved his saber through the palm of its open hand, forcing it to the hilt. He used his free hand to open fire on the Grimms face, emptying his Desert Eagle at its face. I watched the monsters head rock back from the blow, and felt a moment of elation. That had to do it, even the Grimm hadn't been able to tank bullets that easily.

The gorilla sagged for a moment, and the fire on its shoulder finally puttered out…

And then it promptly ripped its arm free of the wall and wrapped one oversized hand around Thomas's head.

"Shit!"

The gorilla slowly brought its head around to look at my brother. The mask on its face had been shattered, and its left eye was a dying cinder in its socket. But the Grimm was still very much alive, and its jaws quivered with anger. It opened its mouth and unleashed a deafening roar in my brothers face, covering it in Grimm Spittle.

'Infriga!' I yelled, and promptly froze the Grimms right arm to the floor. It looked at its arm in surprise.

Thomas kicked his leg up into the beasty's face, and I think I saw a tooth chip. It released him in surprise, and snarled at my brother. The backhand sent him flying back out of the hole and crashing to the floor. He didn't get back up.

"Thomas!" I ran to my brothers side, confident that I had bought us time with that freezing maneuver. I'd once abandoned someone to handle a supernatural monster once before, and they'd paid with their life. I wouldn't make that mistake again, not with my brother at risk.

By the time I reached him though, he was already pushing himself back up. His right arm was hanging at an odd angle, and the entire side of his face resembled a Jackson Pollock painting, but he looked alive.

He swung his head around to look at me, drunkenly, and slurred, "Heeeey Harry….did we wiiiiin?"

I heard a low crack, and the ground began to shake again. I looked at the hole, and saw the Grimm come padding out, its arm still encased in ice, but shattered. Now it was a sharpened stake of snow and ice. The Grimm looked at it's frozen arm and then at me, and snarled.

"Hells bells," I muttered.

I stood up and channeled the Mantle of the Winter Knight. The Grimm recognized what I was doing, and didn't bother to roar. It just jumped. It jumped over forty feet in a single bound, to get at me.

God I hate my life.

'Infriga!'

I didn't have time to make the spell focused or controlled, so I wound up unleashing an uncontrolled burst of steaming white frost. I swear that doesn't normally happen to me.

It hit the Grimm hard though, and most of the ceiling behind it. Stalagmites formed in an instant, and ice embraced the monster in its cold arms, freezing it mid jump. The block hit the ground a moment later, with its prize sealed inside.

I let out a sigh of relief, and whooped half heartedly, "Yeah...woo...Who's the boss? Yeah, I am...thats me…"

I promptly fell on my ass next to my brother and groaned. The fire had begun to spread from the wall to the floor and ceiling, and the smoke was starting to become noticeable. In another few minutes, the entire building would be ablaze.

Thomas's arm snapped back into place, and he winced, "Well...I guess we should get going…"

"Yeah," I muttered, and I slowly stood up, and offered Thomas a hand.

Once he got on his feet, we heard a low, sharp crack, followed by the sound of grinding ice. We both froze and slowly looked at the frozen Grimm. It hadn't evaporated, and the ice around it was slowly starting to crack.

"No, no no no!" I screamed. "That's bullshit! This isn't a comic book, you can't do that!"

Thomas grabbed me by the arm and started dragging me to the exit, "Come on, we need to go!"

The upper half of the cube exploded into a thousand shards of icy shrapnel. Gorilla Grimm roared and began pounding its hands against its chest in triumphant. I yank my arm free of Thomas's grip and glared at the Grimm.

Thomas cursed, "Harry, what're you doing?!"

The Grimm was already working on freeing its legs, slamming its fists against the ice, sending cinder block sized chunks flying with each blow. It wouldn't be long before it freed itself and came after us, and it would probably chase us through Chicago if given the chance. No way in hell I was going to let that happen.

So I reached inside to touch the gift I'd been given by the Archangel Uriel several years ago. Soulfire, the Fires of Creation itself, was an incredibly powerful source of power, that could wipe me from existence if I wasn't careful in how I used it. I'd been more sparing in how I'd used it over the years, but for this purpose, it would work just fine.

Across my staff, over seventy runes blazed to life with fire. I had several rings I'd been working on that would basically store kinetic energy from moving my arm as I walked. They would pack a real wallop and save me time and energy. But until they were done, I'd used the next best thing. Seventy-Seven of the same rune carved over and over on my staff, stored all the kinetic energy from its movements. It was an ocean of energy, just waiting to be tapped into.

I did so with glee, and poured soulfire over the concoction. The Grimm had just finished shattering the last of the ice encasing it, when I unleashed my spell on it.

'Forzare!'

Silver force shot from my staff like a cannon ball, slamming into the Grimms chest at an angle. I saw the plates on its chest crack from the blow, and the Grimm went soaring across Club Zero's main floor towards the ceiling. It shattered one of those stalactites my spell had created, and crashed into the disco ball still hanging from the ceiling. They both hit the far wall with the force of a freight train, and something snapped.

The Gorilla Grimm's sheer mass shattered the glass ball and the Blackstone hidden inside erupted into violent red energy. The entire building shook, and I felt something rumble through the floor.

I grabbed my brother by the arm, "Okay, now we go," and booked it for the stairs.

"How'd you know about the Blackstone?" Thomas asked.

I grinned at him, "Lucky guess."

We reached the bottom as Club Zero was slowly consumed by fire. The rain had let up for the moment, and the guard had vanished, probably run off once guns started going off, but it didn't matter. Blackstone was destroyed, Zero was burning to the ground, and we'd learned something about the Grimm. Someone or something was leading them, and they'd decided to start unleashing the big guns.

I glanced back at the stairs as we left the building, and felt my blood go cold. The Grimm Gorillahad dragged itself to the top of the stairs, and glowered after us both. It was still alive and very pissed off. But... it didn't make any move to come after us. Instead, I watched as the beast simply… vanished.

It didn't evaporate like Grimm do when they die, it just faded from view. What in the hell?

"Thomas," I said, walking out the door, "Did you see that?"

Something hard and metal smashed against the side of my face, and I collapsed to the floor with stars in my eyes. The Mantle can only block so much pain, and I could feel my eye already beginning to swell shut from the blow. I rolled onto my back, wincing at the sharp jabs in my skull, and saw who had delivered the strike.

Roman Torchwick shoved a switchblade into the meaty underside of my thigh, severing my connection to the Winter Mantle with Cold Iron. A dozen fractures, bruises, and sprains suddenly made their presence known in a harsh cacophony of pain, and his brother agony. I let out a strangled gasp of surprise, and the gangster smirked at me.

"Surprised, Dresden?" He asked, and laughed, twirling an iron cane in one hand. "You shouldn't be. Honestly, you humiliate me like that and expected me not to come after me? You dumbass!"

He kicked me in the ribs, I think something cracked. I curled up instinctively around the injury, and Roman laughed again. "Not so tough now, without the redhead, are you? Your vampire buddy never even saw us coming."

Thomas.

I looked up from the floor the best I could and saw my brother being held by an oversized goon in a black suit with a red tie and sunglasses. His face was bruised and there was a knife to his throat. Beside them both, the guard lay on the floor, his skull a pulpy mess. My brother's Hummer was parked in front of the alleyway, blocking any chance of an immediate escape. Hells Bells, how had he found us?

"I bet you're wondering how I found you so easy?" Torchwick asked, grinning ear to ear. He grabbed me by the collar and effortlessly hoisted me through the air and flung me at his goons feet. There were another two with the giant holding my brother. Thomas glanced at me, but didn't make a move.

I followed his lead and looked at Torchwick, "Let me guess," I growled through clenched teeth. "You've got connections?"

"Bingo!" Torchwick snapped his fingers, "I've got little birdies all over town to tell me what I need, for a fee. And when one was talking about a string bean and his pet vampire puttering around alone, well how could I resist? So I waited for you to leave so you'd walk right into my trap, and you sprung it gloriously!"

He let out a gleeful little cackle and tapped his cane against the ground. I rolled my eyes and sighed, "Right, congratulations. Is this the part where you kill me?"

Torchwick shrugged, "Eh, I thought about it, but then I decided there were better ways to make you suffer. I've got half a dozen supernatural contacts who'd love for a chance to make you suffer."

I felt overcome with a familiar sense of deja vu, and looked up at my brother. He nodded faintly. He was feeling it too, his cousin tried to pull the same bullshit on me a couple years back, it hadn't ended well then either.

The click of his cane got my attention again, and I looked back at Torchwick. His face had grown more serious, "Now, I'd say it's just business, Dresden, but really, it's not. I can't get at Ms. Nikos, not yet. But you're another, slightly less irritating thorn in my side. Taking you down will make life a hell of a lot easier for everyone in this city. So with that said…"

He stabbed a finger at the big guy holding Thomas, "Throw them both in the trunk. And make sure to gag the wizard, his voice annoys me."

The mook passed my brother off to his partners in crime. My brother went along with them almost casually. I looked up at the giant of a man as he knelt down next to me. He had bright red hair cut in a military buzz, narrow little blue eyes, and neanderthal eyebrows.

Cujo Hendricks, Johnny Marcone's personal bodyguard, winked at me, and pulled the knife from my leg. Without missing a beat, he and the other two goons pulled pistols on Torchwick, and my brother crossed the distance between the two of them in the blink of an eye. Before he even knew what was happening, Roman Torchwick found himself pinned to the ground with three guns pointed at him, and one very pissed off wizard standing over him.

The look on his face was absolutely priceless.

"Mr. Torchwick," Hendricks growled, "Mr. Marcone would like a word with you."

A/N: This took longer than expected. Again with the bullcrap at school, I was kinda swamped for a bit. Plus, I had about a dozen different ways for this chapter to go. I'd almost considered dropping Torchwick entirely, however, he needed to pop up here for later plans.

The fight scene itself was the easiest bit, as Harry's fights tend to be more of a serious of knockout blows as opposed to RWBY's frantic combat style. I enjoyed writing the Grimm as showing more intelligence, and there was some serious foreshadowing in that fight. To those concerned though, this'll be the last big fight scene for the next three or four chapters at least. Things are going to settle down now, and the plot itself is going to move forward. In the next chapter or two, Imma make you all freak the hell out.

More character interactions are to come next chapter guys, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Don't forget to review with comments or constructive criticism!