Chapter twelve
Collette dropped to her knees, her heart pounding in her chest. She carefully reached out her hand intending to pick up Nikki's hand in her own. She hesitated for a moment wondering if there would be any danger in touching the hand of a woman who was just killed by a lightning strike. After a brief pause, she decided she didn't care and took Nikki's hand in her own. It was still warm to the touch. Collette closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing thoughts. She knew that she would have to find a way to explain to Nikki's sister Gail what had happened. The task seemed daunting, and Collette's mind was jumbled with possible explanations and apologies.
Juliette didn't know what to do or say. There was a part of her that felt guilty, but there was another part of her that blamed both Nick and Adalind for the circumstances that left Nikki dead. She looked over to see that Nick had gotten to his feet. Just looking at him made her sick. The smell of burning flesh and hair assaulting her nostrils also wasn't helping matters.
She glanced over at Hank who still had his gun drawn, though he was pointing it at the ground. She put her hands together mimicking his stance. She formed her fingers into the shape of a gun like a child would. She raised her hand to aim it at Nick and Hank lifted his gun to do the same. Hank's hands visibly trembled. With panic in his eyes he shouted, "I can't control the gun, Nick!"
Nick attempted to get out of the line of sight of the Glock, but after stepping one way and then another, watching the Glock follow his movements, he gave up.
Juliette allowed him the few seconds to see that she was serious before she asked, "Where is she, Nick?"
Rather than look at her to reply he kept his eyes on Hank's gun, "Go to hell."
Juliette took a deep breath and carefully stared down her own finger and then dropped her thumb as a child would to signal they were firing their pretend gun. Hank pulled the trigger, the shot echoed through the region scaring birds that were in nearby trees into the air. The bullet ripped through Nick's flesh, shattering his collarbone. The force of the impact sent him crashing to the ground. Blood rushed from the wound, pooling around him like a crimson halo. With every breath, he felt a searing pain radiating from his shoulder, pulsing through his entire body. It was a primal, visceral pain that threatened to overwhelm him. He could feel the warmth of his blood spreading on the ground underneath him. His breathing was heavy and labored, making the occasional guttural grunt in pain. Hank wanted to run over to provide some sort of aid, but he was frozen where he stood with his gun still aimed downward at Nick ready to fire a second shot.
Juliette asked again louder and with more authority in her voice, "Where is she, Nick?!"
Before anything more could be said, a sound that Juliette had been ignoring was becoming too loud to disregard. An approaching engine. It audibly shifted gears and she knew in that moment that it was a motorcycle. By itself, innocuous, but she felt she recognized it. She turned her head back and could see the headlight getting closer and brighter.
Trubel only had a couple of seconds to calculate what was transpiring and decided she could never go head to head with Juliette and survive. So she pulled back on the throttle and gained as much speed as the motorcycle could accelerate with the distance she had. With a reckless disregard for her own safety, she shifted her weight and twisted the handles, causing the bike to crash onto its side and slide along the pavement. Sparks flew in its wake as it careened towards Juliette, who was momentarily caught off guard at the truly unexpected maneuver. Trubel allowed her body to go limp, she fell off the seat and rolled several times on the street.
Juliette didn't have time to react, the cycle collided with the back of her legs flipping her backwards, landing her face first hard on the ground.
Trubel stood up clutching her arm, her face a smattering of scrapes and cuts from the spill onto the road. She ran towards the group, saw Nick on the ground obviously injured with Hank standing over him. He'd only just brought his gun under control. He shouted to her, "The Staff! It's around here somewhere!"
Trubel didn't need any more prompting. She knew what Hank meant. Get the Staff to Nick right away. She looked around on the ground and found it poking out from underneath the parked SUV. The bed sheets were still wrapped around it, but were shredded and burned, barely hanging on. She grabbed the Staff and threw it to Hank who caught it and dropped it onto Nick who caught it in his free hand.
For the first time since he'd owned it, he used it like a proper walking stick. He levered it on the ground to pull himself up onto his feet.
Collette, who had been caught between mourning the loss of her cohort and watching events unfold, shook herself out of her reverie, stood up and trotted over to Juliette. She bent down and grabbed Juliette by her arms and pulled her up with all her strength while shouting, "We have to get out of here!"
Juliette was barely coherent. She muttered something that Collette couldn't fully understand. The only word that she could make out was perhaps the word, "Kelly," though she couldn't be certain.
Collette slung Juliette's arm over her shoulder and walked as fast as she could to the abandoned car that Nikki had left running.
Hank glanced over at Nick and gestured at the women with his hand as if to say, 'Should we try to stop them?' But Nick shook his head. He was still recovering from a gunshot wound, Trubel was obviously not a hundred percent and there were a lot of injured Hexenbiests who needed medical attention. Collette is still formidable even without the help of Juliette and it wasn't worth the risk to engage her for the time being.
Nick instructed Hank to go and help any Hexenbiests who were capable of walking and help bring them to a central location. While Hank did that, Nick asked Trubel to help him walk while he recovered and the Staff slowly healed his wound. He wanted to locate Heather. Once he found her on the ground, he knelt down next to her. Her jaw appeared to be broken, she was bleeding badly from her temple and her ear. She was unconscious, but alive. He placed her hand on the Staff and asked Trubel to also grab a hold.
While they waited, Nick brought her up to speed with what had transpired since she had flown to Europe. She then explained to him that because the Wesen Council was making Hexenbiests aware of the power thefts and Juliette seem to be implicated, Hadrian's Wall caught wind of it and reached out to her about it. She got back as quickly as she could. It was Samantha who told her where she could find Nick.
Heather woke up after a few minutes, healed enough by the Staff to regain consciousness, but she was still badly injured and in a great deal of pain. Tears formed in her eyes and Nick reached down and took her hand in his own and told her to squeeze as hard as she needed to until the pain subsided. At this instruction she Woged, revealing her corpse like visage. Then she squeezed his hand in hers and if he hadn't been a Grimm it likely would have broken some bones. He winced, but maintained his grip.
After a couple of minutes the pain became more tolerable and she released her grasp and removed her Woge. When she was able to stand, Nick asked her to help him by helping to keep calm the Hexenbiests who didn't speak English while he tried to heal them.
He did his best to heal multiple people at the same time when it was practical to do so and healed them one by one when there was no other option. However, three of the Hexenbiests' injuries were too severe. Their lives extinguished by the grievous harm inflicted upon them. Nick wasn't sure if the Staff simply couldn't resurrect a deceased person by design or if perhaps the accidental power theft they'd done months prior had left it unable to perform such a task. The thought also occurred to him that perhaps it could resurrect people and he simply didn't know how to make it do so.
As Hexenbiests made it to their feet and felt rejuvenated, Nick sent them out to look for Wu and Malcolm. In the chaos, he wasn't sure what had happened to them. When their bodies were located and brought back to him, they had both taken severe blows to the head. Wu from being sent flying into a tree and Malcolm from being sent tumbling down a street. He used the Staff on both of them. He attempted to ignore the staring of the recovered Hexenbiests as he did so, but Johanna was drilling into him with her eyes. It was like he could feel heat coming off of her. After attempting to ignore it for a few moments, he finally raised his head and stared back at her, widening his eyes and raising his eyebrows. He couldn't speak German, but he hoped his facial expression conveyed the message he was trying to communicate.
Rather than back off, she continued to stare him down, then said, "Kein einzelner Mensch sollte solch eine Macht haben."
Rather than translate what was said, Heather opted to step in front of Johanna, breaking the stare-down, and said to her, "Entschuldigung, aber wir sollten dankbar sein, dass dieser Mann uns hilft. Seine Macht mag groß sein, aber es scheint, dass er ein gutes Herz hat."
A few of the Hexenbiest women gave Johanna a dirty look.
Nick asked, "Is there something I should know?"
Heather shook her head, "Johanna had concerns that you have such a powerful item. Consider the matter resolved."
Nick chose to ignore the interaction for the time being. There were more important matters to think about, like what to do about the dead bodies. But it was Malcolm who provided the solution without even being asked. Once he was conscious and lucid, he took out his phone, placed a call, and simply said he needed a cleanup crew and provided the address. It reminded Nick that he was allying himself with a mercenary who has likely made phone calls like that in the past. He made a mental note to keep an eye on Malcolm.
Hank approached Nick just as he finished healing up the injured and informed him that he had just spoken with Captain Renard and provided him a full update on the situation. Renard had kept the area clear of other police, knowing that they'd just get in the way or be injured or killed by Hexenbiests.
Nick, through Heather, asked the women to stay outside the house just in case Juliette, Collette, or any of their Coven returned. He and Hank were going to search the premises.
The first floor was a lot of nothing. Though Nick expected that. He and Hank climbed the stairs knowing there was likely no one else in the house, but they tread carefully on the off chance they were mistaken. And, in fact, they were mistaken.
They went into each room and found all but one room stripped. The mattresses were bare. The closets contained a few scattered clothes hangers.
There was one closet that had a bit more than they expected, however, when they found Manon crouched down in as tight a ball as her frame would allow. When the door opened, she screamed and blindly lashed out with her hands in what Nick knew was an obvious attempt to use her abilities to push him back. He tensed up, unsure if anything would happen, and again, nothing did.
Manon opened her eyes and saw Nick standing over her with a look of disappointment and perhaps a bit of disgust at finding her hiding in a closet. She felt a twinge of guilt and then a surge of defiance. She stood up and, though Nick hadn't said anything, she spoke as though she were replying to an accusation he had made, "No, I did try to help." At Nick's expression of skepticism, she said loudly, "I did!"
Manon gestured at him with her hand, attempting to make a mild use of her abilities on him, "Not only do my powers not work on you. I saw Juliette and Collette try as well and failed. At first, I thought, that's great, I can help. But when I tried to use my powers on them, nothing happened. Somehow, I think we're all immune from each other. I would have maybe thought it was because we all used the Siphon together and perhaps that somehow bonded us." She pointed at him, "But why are you immune?"
Nick shook his head, "I'm not completely immune. One of your cohorts showed up, and she was able to use her abilities on me with no problem. Took me by surprise."
Manon raised an eyebrow, "My apologies for questioning your skills, but how are you still alive?"
Nick walked over to a nearby window, pulled aside the curtain, and gestured outside, "I had backup."
Manon peered through the glass and saw multiple women milling around discussing things among themselves. She glanced up at Nick and back out of the window. She knew that the people she was looking at could be any kind of Wesen or even possibly Kehrseite. She knew, though, that they had to be Hexenbiests. She'd underestimated the Grimm yet again. She began to count them when her eyes noticed the bodies of the deceased Hexenbiests. She covered her mouth with her hand as the consequences of her decisions registered in her mind. Three people were dead and she was partially responsible.
When Collette had come to her with the idea of using the Siphon, it was so that they could make their group more powerful and then use their newfound power to find new avenues in life. They could stop guarding useless trinkets, a task that had been assigned to their Coven for hundreds of years. Manon had been naive enough to hope that the forced full Woge wouldn't interfere with her day-to-day life. That is until her face became disfigured.
As though Nick could somehow read her thoughts, he said, "You can't undo what was done, but you can help to prevent more people getting hurt. We need to work together."
Collette was angry. She had both fists clenched around the steering wheel, using every bit of willpower she had to keep the car under the speed limit. The last thing she needed was to be pulled over. After driving for several minutes, she found a secluded spot to park the car and shut off the ignition.
Juliette had been in the passenger seat, only half aware of what was going on. Having been thrown by Nick and then struck by Trubel's motorcycle had left her only semi-coherent. She was currently pressing her forehead against the passenger side window. The coolness of the glass felt pleasant against her skin and also helped to keep her awake.
Collette turned her head towards Juliette and said, "We need to talk about this whole mess."
Juliette didn't bother to turn her head and replied, "What?"
Collette slapped the steering wheel with her hand and said loudly, "That Staff just killed Nikki! And that Grimm seemed to think you knew it would do that."
Juliette rotated her head against the headrest of her seat to look at Collette as she replied, "I didn't know it would kill her. Nick... he had a stick that was once part of the Staff, like a broken-off piece. When someone tried to take it from him, the Stick somehow defended itself. But it didn't kill anyone. It just knocked them out. Nick was able to get the Stick restored to the Staff, and since then, I've seen other people pick it up, and nothing bad happened. I'd forgotten that it was even a concern. Let's not forget, I was in a coma for two months."
Collette pointed her finger at Juliette, "You know what, maybe we should be talking about that, too. Why were you in a coma for two months? Why did you wake up and decide you're Juliette again? Why do you care so much about killing Adalind? I was willing to take you at your word that it would be advantageous to go after Adalind first. It made sense. But there's too much going on that isn't explained."
Juliette half shrugged, "I don't know about the coma or why I was able to break free of being Eve. Though I would guess the two are somehow related. Adalind is the reason I'm a Hexenbiest. She disguised herself as me, slept with Nick, and accidentally impregnated herself. So now, they have a child together and, have since, gotten married to each other. I'm actually leaving a lot of stuff out, but that's the gist. I've lost my veterinarian practice. I've lost my house. I've lost my relationship. That woman walked away with everything I had and has gotten to live happily ever after. After everything she's done, she doesn't deserve that."
Collette rubbed her own temples out of frustration. She wasn't getting answers that were of any help. She took a moment to clench her jaw. Her teeth scraped together loud enough for Juliette to hear it. Knowing that she was likely wasting her breath, with barely controlled patience she asked, "Do you have any idea why our powers didn't work on him? At first, I thought maybe he'd gotten some sort of protection from Hexenbiests, but then Nikki didn't have the problem we did. Unless whatever protection he had maybe wore off?"
Juliette took a deep breath and blew it out through her nose, failing to hide her annoyance. "I know it makes sense to you that I would know what's going on, but I really don't."
Silence sat between them for several seconds. They heard what they recognized as the sound of water hitting the roof of their car as it began to rain. They sat for a few minutes longer, allowing the rhythm of the raindrops and the wind to ease some of the stress that had overtaken their bodies.
More calmly and far less accusatory, Collette asked, "What was up with all those Hexenbiests? I have to admit, I didn't see that coming."
Juliette let out a derisive sniff of a laugh, "I didn't either, but at the same time, I'm also not shocked. I can't stress this enough, do not underestimate him. We barely got out of there. When you think about how outnumbered we were and how we still basically fought to a standstill? It's impressive, but next time, they'll have even more warning and possibly more surprises."
Collette began running the events back over in her mind, all the Hexenbiests she'd injured, if not killed. "Maybe if we act fast, we can catch them all off guard before they can find replacements? But then, we're back to asking how do we get the Staff? Do we even bother to try again? Or will it just kill us?"
Juliette reached out and turned on the light above her so that Collette could see her half-Woged face more clearly. "Maybe we can get the Staff, maybe we can't. The Grimm won't need replacements. No one knows what all the Staff can do. But there is one thing we know for a fact it can do. It can heal. You think those Hexenbiests are injured? Nick will have them walking around and ready to fight again in minutes."
Collette put a palm out to Juliette. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that I think Nick is building an army. We're still not powerful enough to take them on."
