Chapter 109
Adalind smiled her beautiful, artificial smile as she walked into JCafé. Only a few patrons were having lunch today, and fortunately they were far away from our usual spot.
I stood from the table as she approached. "Adalind! Glad you could make it!" This time I greeted her back with an artificial smile of my own.
I reached my hand out to her and she gingerly took it. The cold chill hit me hard, running clear up my arm. Oh, wow. So, that's what my Uncle Walden had meant. Adalind's eyes went wide, retracting her hand quickly, but I kept my face smooth. I'd felt that before. I thought it was just cold hands, but no… Adalind's hands had felt that cold once before. And then there was Nurse Wretched… That was more than just a bad bedside manner. But why didn't I feel that at her party? We settled in our chairs and a waitress came by. We both ordered hot teas.
"How are you?" I asked almost too sweetly. "Work going well today?"
"Actually I was off work today, but I wanted to see you," Adalind replied, tugging at the edge of her blue blouse. "I'm so glad you invited me to lunch. I needed the break. I have so many things planned tonight." The waitress returned with our mugs and I took a sip, warming my hands from the icy touch of the Bitch Witch.
"Yeah, I'm working from home today actually," I replied. "I was poring over books all night. Didn't get any sleep at all."
"Aww, that's too bad." She cast me a disingenuous look of concern and took a drink from her mug. "So how are you and that new guy doing?" She changed back to her artificial smile. "Things still going well?" I wanted to rip that stupid smile right off her stupid face.
"Great actually. I might ask the same thing about you and Detective Griffin."
Adalind froze like a deer in the headlights as her artificial smile faded into a hard line. "What do you mean?" she asked. Her blue eyes bore into my own.
"Oh, Nick tells me that you and Hank are sweethearts now. Did you bake him some apple tarts to make that work in your favor, too?" My smile never wavered.
"No, it wasn't tarts." Her lips curved into a smug grin as she took another generous sip from her mug. "What I baked up for him was much more… potent."
"So, why Hank?" I narrowed my eyes at her. "What's your end game here?"
"Nick has something I want, and if he wants his partner to live he'll comply," she replied with a wicked smirk.
"And that is…?"
"There's a key. It belonged to Nick's Aunt Marie. You know, his late aunt?" she taunted. "If he gives me the key, then his partner won't be harmed."
That green key with the hidden map. Where the map led was still a mystery, but I was working on it.
"That's not going to happen," I simply replied with my own grin.
"Pity. Poor Hank doesn't stand a chance then," she said matter-of-factly, taking another sip of tea and looking smugger by the minute. Why did villains always say the word 'pity'?
"What does the key have to do with putting me and Nick together?" I asked. The waitress came back to take our food orders and I shooed her away.
"That's for more long term plans," Adalind replied when the waitress had left. God, she was vague. I was going to have to initiate Plan B.
"How's that tea taste, Adalind?" I smirked.
She looked down at her mug and then her blue eyes flashed back up at me. "Fine… why?"
I pulled out a glass vial of green liquid from my jacket pocket and held it up for her to see.
"What's that?" she asked while her eyes looked intently at the bottle.
My grin was sly as I stared at her. "The antidote…"
Her eyes jerked back at me. "To what?"
"To the Zaubertrank you just drank, Miss Schade." I laughed as I recalled the Indiana Jones scene in Temple of Doom. Wow, I'd watched one too many movies. "So, tell me…" I leaned back. "How do you like them apples?"
Adalind gaped at her mug in her hands as her eyes shot back up. "What did you give me?!"
"Ever heard of a Zaubertrank called Versteinerter Holz?" Adalind nearly gulped at my words, setting her mug down firmly on the table as the liquid sloshed inside. "It doesn't take much and it works very slowly at first, but just like petrified wood, it hardens you from the inside out. Kind of befitting for someone like you, wouldn't you agree?"
I was completely bluffing, but I'd read about it while sifting through all those Zaubertranks last night. Let her think I'd poisoned her. It served her right.
The Bitch Witch leaned in swiftly and had a woge right in my face, but this time I was prepared. I merely laughed, which took her off guard.
"I guess that's why they say beauty is only skin deep," I quipped with a grin.
"I can make the antidote on my own," she retorted while smoothing down her hair. "That's not going to be a problem."
"Right, but you and I know that it takes at least three hours or more to brew it. In that amount of time your arms will be paralyzed by then," I explained, but she already knew that. She was testing me, and I had a darn good memory.
Adalind clenched her fists as tiny beads of sweat blossomed above her brow. "What do you want?"
"I want answers, Hexenbiest," I said quietly. I held the glass vial in my hand, shaking it slightly. "If I get the answers I want, you get this in return."
Scope mouthwash was almost exactly the same color the book had described the antidote to look like. At least her breath would be minty fresh when she discovered I had duped her.
She eyed the bottle again and then looked back at me. "What do you want to know?" She sat up straighter, more attentive. I had her full attention now. I put the Scope back in my pocket.
"Well, first of all, how much do you know about me?"
"How much do I know?" she laughed. "Well, I know that you're half Grimm and half Waldgeist," she whispered with a smirk. "But it seems you've already figured those two things out on your own. Funny, I knew you'd uncover your Grimm side, what with Nick and all, but the Waldgeist side… Now that was a surprise. I must admit, when I saw your necklace bearing their symbol, I had to hold back quite a bit." She tilted her head slightly with curiosity gleaming in her eyes. "So, where did you get that anyway?"
"I'm asking the questions here," I responded quickly. "At your party… I touched you… And you…"
"I what?" Her lips curved into a grin. "Felt normal?" she cackled to the point I thought her face would turn green and a pair of flying monkeys might swoop into the café at any moment. "That's a neat little party trick you have, but you see, there's a spell to prevent it from working. Didn't you hear?" My face flushed hot at her words. "Sadly, it doesn't last long, but it's good for a couple of hours; long enough for a party, for instance. My girlfriends and I got a hoot out of you trying to touch us; running around looking at watches and reaching for our arms."
"So all of them were…?"
She nodded. "You're a hot commodity, Renée," Adalind said as she continued smirking. "I know my girlfriends wanted a piece of you. They were a tad jealous you were already spoken for, but it was such fun to show you off."
"Spoken for?"
"Well, yes." She folded her arms on the table. "There are plans for you. Plans for Nick, too."
Those stupid Hexenbiests. That stupid party. And I was in a room full of them. My uncle's warnings about all the tortures Waldgeists had suffered came back to mind. Luckily, I wasn't killed right there. But apparently someone had more power than they had. Their plans must be more important… or more gruesome. Should I be relieved or more worried? I needed answers, for sure.
"Who are you working for?" I gave her a hard stare as I rotated my mug in my hands. "I know these plans aren't something you came up with on your own."
"There are higher powers involved that you wouldn't even begin to understand."
"Higher Royal powers?" I asked with a scowl.
"Well, look at you, hitting the books." Adalind's eyes widened, but then they glinted at me. "It's more than just that."
"Enlighten me," I encouraged. "It would be in your best interest." I pulled out the glass vial once more. My woge was working overtime.
"Doesn't matter, really. He's been keeping a close watch on you and your dear detective for some time now." Adalind tried to look smug again, but the vial in my hand had her a bit antsy.
"How close?"
"Close enough to have met Nick… a few times," she laughed.
Well, that answered the question if there was a Royal in Portland. Was it someone Nick already knew? That still wasn't much to go by since Detective Sexy probably had many connections. The Royal was closer than we thought.
"Okay, let's try this again." My eyes locked with hers. "Who's the Royal you're working for? And I need a name this time."
"I'd rather die than give that name to you."
"And that's what's going to happen if you don't." I shook the vial again. "Well, you won't die in this state. You'll just wish you were."
"He'll get what he wants. He always does. So it doesn't matter what you do to me."
"And what does he want?"
She crossed her arms as she leaned back. "Right now? Just the key."
"What do you know about the key?" I asked.
"Don't you already know what it does?" she asked with a brazen tone. I flinched slightly. "Oh, so you don't," she smirked. "Well, there's more than one… seven actually. That key of Nick's is needed to complete the set, so to speak, but that's all I know."
"What does it open?"
"I don't know that either." I kept watch of her eyes. Was she lying? No, surprisingly, she seemed to be telling me the truth.
"Well, he's not getting it, so that's off the table."
"Then Hank is going to have to die," she replied with feigned remorse.
"What does the key have to do with the long term plans for Nick and me?" I asked.
"That's separate from the key."
"How so?"
"Well, you won't be able to break this Zaubertrank, so I wouldn't worry too much about that. Just go off and have a nice family, like your parents did." She laughed and I narrowed my eyes at her.
How dare she laugh like this was funny! I opened the vial, tilting it like I was going to empty it on the floor. She stopped laughing and had another woge. I put the cork back in. It wasn't so funny now, was it?
"Okay," Adalind said as she retracted, "Most of the Royals are against hybrids, but the one here in Portland feels a few Waldgeist-Grimms in his corner would be an advantage. So he made sure your parents fell in love, much like he's ensuring that you and Nick follow suit."
I let out a gasp. My parents were under a Zaubertrank? Holy crap! This wasn't right at all. And now they were trying to get more hybrid babies from me and Nick? They were using us like lab rats! I shook my head at the realization. I didn't know much about the Royal families, but this rogue Royal was going to be a big, royal pain in our ass.
"So, why did he let allow my parents to be killed if he needed them?" My dad's letter had revealed most of this answer, but maybe she knew something more, like who killed them.
"I don't know all the details, but basically he couldn't protect them like he thought he could. They'd left the area he had jurisdiction over, so they were vulnerable. The other Royal families managed to get inside information as to what he was planning and… they halted his plans," she shrugged.
Halted his plans? That was a mild way to put decapitation and murder.
I let out a sigh. "So the other Royals killed them?"
"Through the Verrat, yes," she replied matter-of-factly. "The Verrat is always happy to dispense of inter-species relationships given the opportunity, especially one like your parents had that posed a threat. But the Reapers got to your mother first. They're happy to chop off the head of a Grimm at any opportunity."
I stifled a shudder. Now she was just trying to get a rise out of me. She wasn't going to get that satisfaction.
"Who killed them? What were their names?"
Adalind shrugged indifferently. "There are many of them out there, Renée. Hard to keep track."
"Do you know who killed them?" I repeated firmly as my eyes narrowed. "Yes or no?"
She pressed her lips together and cleared her throat. "No, I don't know."
"So, what does this Royal think Nick and I are going to do? Just pick up where my parents left off?"
"He has you both rooted here in Portland, so as long as you stay in the area, you're protected." She flashed her artificial smile. "I recommend you buy a nice house in the suburbs and raise your family here. I'd hate to see that pretty head of yours get sliced off your neck." Her sarcasm was oozing as much as her woge Hexenbiest face had been.
Was that why Reapers were after me in Louisville? Perhaps they were already aware that Mr. Royal Pain was up to no good again. Were they planning on finishing me off while I was out of some jurisdiction of Mr. Royal Pain? Maybe I was safer here than I thought.
"So, what's stopping us from just breaking the Zaubertrank?"
"This spell is strong, and you're not going to find much about it."
"Well, I'm already aware of the schwarzherz," I replied, mirroring her smugness.
"That's only part of it. The schwarzherz just creates the initial bond, but once you've cemented that bond, the spell is locked in for good. He's really cute, so you shouldn't be too disappointed about being with him forever."
He was more than cute. Nick Burkhardt was friggin' hot. Detective Sexy was permeating through my brain, but then I focused myself.
"Cemented the bond?" I asked.
"Oh, don't play coy with me. You know what I'm referring to."
I looked down at my hands. She meant sex. I kept my head down a moment longer then stared back at Adalind in defeat. I'd let her think we'd gone all the way. Fortunately, we hadn't. Actually it was because of her that we hadn't last night. In a way she had saved us and the Bitch Witch didn't even know it.
She grinned at me. "So, like I was saying, you two are locked in. I'll look for the wedding invitations in the mail."
Oh, her smugness was too much to handle. My woge was pleading with me to take her down right in the café, but I held back. I couldn't right now. She needed to go back to Mr. Royal Pain and let him know that Nick and I had sealed the deal. He had to think his dubious plan was working.
"What was this Zaubertrank called that you gave us, anyway?"
"Divinement Amoureux."
I translated the French. "Divinely in love."
"Sweet, isn't it?" The Bitch Witch held out her open palm. "Now if you'll hand me that vial I'll be on my way."
"I'm not finished yet," I glared at her. "Why did you try to kill Nick's aunt?"
"She knew more than we wanted Nick to find out about. We couldn't have her giving all our secrets away."
"So, was that the Royal's doing, too?"
"Of course," Adalind simply replied.
"Is he someone Nick works with?" I asked.
"I already told you I'm not divulging that information. Besides, he'd kill me if I did, so either way I'd be dead."
"That might not be a bad thing. You know, I've heard there are a few statues in the museum in New York that are thought to be victims of Versteinerter Holz. You might look fetching behind glass."
The Bitch Witch shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "It would be better than what he would do to me," she gravely replied. Clearly I wasn't going to get a name out of her. "Have I answered all your questions now?"
"No, but we're at an impasse, and I have things I need to do." I handed her the vial of Scope. She opened it eagerly and drank it down, but then her eyes popped open as she spit out the remains in her mug, coughing as she went.
She shook the vial at me. "What's the meaning of this?" A few patrons looked over at our table from her elevated tone.
"Keep your voice down," I hissed.
"Where's the real antidote?" Adalind demanded, her face contorting into another woge.
"There isn't one," I chuckled. The worry mounted on her face. Oh, yeah. Be afraid, be very afraid. I took a moment to savor her fear. "Much like there isn't a Zaubertrank in your tea," I finally added.
The Bitch Witch leapt out at me, seething, but then paused inches from my face and controlled herself.
"That's right. You wouldn't want to harm the baby factory over here." I encircled my stomach for effect. "I'm sure your boss might kill you for that one, too."
"Oh, if it wasn't for him you would be dead right now." The words came out of her mouth with a vile force. "So dead."
"It's not as amusing when the tables are turned, huh?" I rose from my chair and laid down cash for our teas. "Fortunately, I'm not as evil as you are, and I wouldn't dream of poisoning you. If I was going to kill you, I'd do it without magic." I let an evil smirk pass my lips. "But I did enjoy washing that lying mouth of yours out with Scope. The tea is on me. Have a good day." I turned to walk out, humming The Eagles' 'Witchy Woman' as I went.
"I have to get home, too." I glanced back toward Adalind's Wicked Witch of the West grin. "I have dinner plans later with Hank. He's gonna love what I'm cooking tonight. Let your boyfriend know about the key. He might decide Hank is worth saving."
I shook my head at her. "You realize that this isn't going to end well, right?"
"That's what I'm planning on." Another artificial smile curved up on her lips as I turned and walked out the door. I dashed to my car and drove back toward the spice shop. We needed to prepare for war!
A/N: Whew okay! So a little more info about Renée's family and plans for the love sick Grimms. We're skipping up a bit that they know a Royal lives in Portland. They're still not sure who it is though.
Loved writing this chapter. Was actually one of my earlier chapters I wrote, so I'm happy to finally share it in the story. Tricking Adalind was a fun twist.
My hubby laughed at my line about villains saying "Pity." He said that's not always true. So this weekend we went to see Iron Man 3, and sure enough the bad guy had a line and said "Pity." I tugged at his arm and said, "See, I told you so!" LOL! - Sorry, just had to share.
My hubby also asked once why I write author's notes on every chapter. I dunno. It's my little soapbox, so I hope it doesn't annoy anyone. I figure you guys can always skip them if you want to. lol!