Chapter 106

"It's gotta be a potion. No human is going to just fall in love with a Hexenbiest," Rosalee said as she opened the spice shop doors for us. She didn't stop moving as she continued to add, "They aren't typically the lovable types." She climbed the wooden library ladder attached to the bookshelves and began handing Nick a few titles as she searched. "Who's the Hexenbiest?"

"Adalind Schade," Nick responded as Rosalee added another book to the growing stack in his hands.

"When did this happen?"

"I'm guessing a couple of weeks," he said, setting the books down on the counter beside him.

Rosalee paused. "That's about the same time Freddy was killed," she said softly. She climbed down from the ladder with another book in her hand. "Let me check Freddy's sales log to see if she's been here."

"Adalind was here," I exclaimed. "She was leaving the shop the day Freddy was shot." My mind went back to Freddy's reaction that I knew Adalind. Oh, my God. That's why Freddy was so freaked out. He thought I was a Hexenbiest!

"She was?" Nick asked.

"Yeah, as I was coming in, she was leaving. It all makes sense. She told me she was buying items for her party to bake dessert with, and then she said she was baking something special for the guy she was seeing."

"Well, the guy she was seeing was Hank." Nick shook his head. "That confirms she must have done something to him."

"Wait a minute." Rosalee looked at me with her big, brown eyes even wider. "So you were here the day my brother was murdered?"

I purposefully hadn't mentioned the day Freddy died to Rosalee. Crap, I should've kept my mouth shut!

"Yeah, I was," I said slowly. "I tried to save him, but I couldn't pull him away before the Skalengecks came out of the basement and shot him." Nick held my shoulders. "Rosalee, I'm so sorry. I tried everything to save him, but I couldn't."

Rosalee wiped away a few tears. "I wish you had told me sooner about this."

"I really didn't think it was something you'd want to hear. I'm sorry I mentioned it just now, to be honest."

"No, I'm glad to know Freddy wasn't alone when he died." She let out a breath. "I'm also glad someone tried to help him. So, thank you." Rosalee forced a smile, but obviously this was upsetting news.

I moved toward her and gave her a hug. What else could I do after telling her I'd witnessed her brother's murder? "I'm sorry, Rosalee." The hug seemed to take her aback. I let go quickly as I added, "Sometimes hugs help in awkward situations."

She nodded with eyes still wide. "If Adalind was here, then she must have needed something from Freddy. The sales logs are our only hope to find out what that was." She passed me another book and walked around the counter. "You guys keep looking while I check the logs."

Idly I thumbed through the book. Pages upon pages of Zaubertranks were listed with unfathomable recipes sure to illicit double, double toil and trouble. None of it made sense. Setting the book down, I leaned into Nick as I thought about Freddy Calvert again. Was that really a couple of weeks ago? So much had happened recently. Nick held me a moment and gave me a quick kiss. I looked up to catch Rosalee staring at us.

"Aren't you dating Monroe, Renée?" She eyed me with a curious scrutiny.

"Well, I was, but then Nick and I kind of fell in love," I replied with a dopey grin on my face. It was becoming so much easier to say.

She looked down at another book in her hands and her eyes shot up at me. "How long ago was that?" she asked as her eyebrows lifted. "You and Monroe looked pretty close the last few times you've been here."

This Fuchsbau really didn't need to judge me or my relationships.

"It was sudden, yes, but love happens like that sometimes."

"Not like that, it doesn't." Her reply was endemic, like there was more to it than what she was letting on. No, it was enigmatic. Wasn't endemic a disease? Why couldn't I think straight today?

"Rosalee, maybe we need to focus on the Hexenbiest and my partner," Nick chimed in.

"That's what I'm doing." Rosalee came up toward me. "Hold out your tongue," she instructed.

"What?"

"Just let me check your tongue."

I held open my mouth, sticking out my tongue.

Rosalee shook her head. "Nick, please let me see your tongue, too." She inspected Nick's the same way she had mine. "This is worse than I thought. The Hexenbiest has done more than just affect your partner."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You guys aren't in love. We have two potions going on here." Nick and I both gaped at her. Rosalee went back to the sales log and showed us what she meant. "These are two shopping lists that were written the day my brother died. Both lists include ingredients that are used in very powerful Zaubertranks."

"But we…" I shook my head adamantly. "I know what I feel."

"You feel the effects of the Zaubertrank," Rosalee merely replied.

The craziness of it all, and how quickly it had perpetuated definitely sounded like a love potion. The small voice in my brain pushed through the haze. 'You don't really feel it. You love Monroe… Monroe.' The filing cabinets in my brain were jammed, and I held my head while the rest of my brain fought with the logic. No, I also loved Nick. Oh, this was too much.

Nick turned to me. "You said Adalind baked something for her party, too?"

I nodded. "But it doesn't make sense. You weren't at that party, so whatever I ate wouldn't have affected you." I thought about the apple tarts. She was pushing me to eat them, and no one else at that party had any. It had to be something in those damn tarts!

"She could've given Nick something else with the Zaubertrank in it." Rosalee shook her head. "We can figure out what you both ate later," she said, directing her attention to the shopping lists. "Fortunately for you two, the love potion she gave you isn't the dangerous one."

"Dangerous?" I gulped.

"The other one, how dangerous is it?" Nick asked hesitantly.

"Unfortunately for your partner, we need to find the antidote fast because with these ingredients his is from deeply in love to deeply dead."

Nick and I looked one another with eyes wide.

"How do we cure that?" Nick stammered out as he looked back at Rosalee.

"I'm not sure we can." Rosalee shook her head while pressing her fingers into her temple. "It depends on how far along the emotional and physical relationship has gone." She looked back up at Nick. "Too far and he's… Well, we may not be able to reverse it." I knew what she really wanted to say.

Nick looked pretty shaken. "Okay… Well, we have to do something," he stressed.

"There might be an antidote, but it would take me a while to find it. First I would have to find out which Zaubertrank uses these ingredients."

"Then let's find the Zaubertrank." I reached for one of the books on the table thumbing through. "Wait a minute. What am I looking for?"

Rosalee wrote down the ingredients from the log for both Nick and me. "Read through the Zaubertranks on each page, and if it contains these three ingredients then let me know."

I nodded. Needle in a haystack work… My favorite.

"So, is there an antidote to ours?" Nick asked, looking lovingly in my direction.

I still couldn't believe it could be anything but actual love.

"Yours might be treatable, but I'd need to know what other ingredients were used besides these to be sure." She pointed to the sales log. "The ones listed here are minor ingredients. Fortunately the ones used on your partner are major ones, so there should only be one Zaubertrank that contains them. Yours may uncover several Zaubertranks with just these two ingredients alone. If we guess, and I give you the wrong antidote, then it could be fatal."

"How can we figure out the rest of the ingredients?" Nick asked.

"The best way would be to test whatever you both took the Zaubertrank from. But she could have mixed it in anything you ate, so I'm afraid there's no way to know for sure." Just gave us both a frown. "I'm sorry, but it's just to risky to guess."

"I think I still have what she put mine in," I said, looking up from the book.

"Really?" Her face brightened. "Then we may be able to reverse yours. But this one for Nick's partner takes precedence. We don't have much time."

I should've declined taking those tarts from Adalind. No wonder my love was getting worse. I kept thawing the damn things out and eating them. I thought about Monroe. Oh, Monroe! What must he think?! We'd get a cure and it would all be fine.

I looked over at Detective Sexy. God, he was handsome though. Maybe Rosalee was wrong and we really were in love. I sure felt complete alteration for that man. No, that wasn't it. Adoration. That's what I meant. Whatever it was, I loved him. I sighed aloud as I went back to the book. For now we had to help Detective Swagger.

A/N: So this was a mixture of the Grimm story mode and a discovery with what's going on with Nick and Renée. Both seemed a bit shocked at the news, huh?

1 more chapter for now. Hope you guys are liking it. There's still much more story to tell!