Chapter 113
I was in my car and on the road before I even stopped to think. As if my MP3 player knew my plan, Lenny Kravitz played through my stereo as I broke the speed limit.
"No one can live for me.
No one can see the things I see.
I walk this road.
No one can tell me how to be.
It's my destiny…"
It was my destiny to fight the good fight. I'd lost my real family and my heritage, but now I needed to start reclaiming my birthright. My recklessness was pushing me onward as I followed my GPS to Forest Park. I briefly pulled out my cell and called Rosalee.
"I'm heading to the ruins to help Nick," I said when she answered. "Please, keep Monroe calm for me. Make sure he stays there with you."
"Uhh… okay," she sighed, but she sounded conflicted.
"Thank you, Rosalee," I said as I turned on Northwest Thurman Street. "Thank you for everything."
Before I could drop the phone on the seat beside me, it rang in my hand. Monroe. He hadn't wasted any time. I pushed the silent button. If I answered, then it would just be slew of growling mixed with lectures. Thank goodness he didn't have a car or he would've skipped the phone call and just came after me. Honestly I wouldn't put it past him if he hot-footed it. I shook my head. Hopefully Rosalee could keep him there with her long enough for Nick and me to kill the Bitch Witch.
It was a ten minute drive to Forest Park. I made it there in six. Hastily, I parked my car and dashed through the wooded area, following the signs to the ruins. Damn this tight skirt. I wasn't dressed for running, yet again. And these heels! I should've worn jeans and sneakers. But then again, I hadn't planned on running in the woods tonight, either.
Loud voices and commotion caught my ears up ahead. I ducked down as I spotted Nick and Adalind.
"I think it's time we settle our differences... violently." Nick's voice was as cold as the temperature outside.
Adalind had a woge and growled as she leapt out at Nick. They began attacking one another. I couldn't handle it! My recklessness told to me to intervene. The Bitch Witch dealt a forceful punch into Nick's chest, and he fell backward against a pile of stones. Just as she was about to advance on him, I hurled toward her, knocking her down hard as we tumbled to the ground, fighting for control. She hit her head on a protruding rock, giving me the advantage. My skirt ripped up the sides as I sat on top of her while pinning her shoulders with my knees and holding her arms tightly. Adalind looked up at me, surprised and disoriented.
"I can take it from here," Nick's voice said behind me.
"Oh, please, let me," I sneered. The woge was talking through me again.
"No!" Adalind cried out.
I'd never seen such terror in anyone's face as was Adalind's, which was hard to say since her current woge was pretty terrifying to begin with. I smiled down at her as the recklessness was begging me to continue. She forced her arms free from my grip and pushed hard against me, throwing me off balance. I tried to stay in control, but Adalind wrestled enough to break free, and I was thrown against the dirt.
Nick was prepared as she tried to stagger upright and took her down effortlessly. He fastened Adalind back on the ground with his legs as she tried once again to regain herself. I dusted myself off as I got up. My chest ached where she'd pushed me. Adalind struggled against Nick, but he was much stronger and she retracted. The fright on her face was priceless. She whimpered lightly as she looked at us both.
"I told you it wasn't going to end well," I practically spat out over Adalind as she watched Nick's every move. Suddenly Nick kissed her hard on the lips. My heart jumped out. What was he doing? Adalind tried to dodge his kiss, but he was relentless. She bit her teeth into Nick's lip.
"Aah!" Nick cried out, but her bite muffled his groans.
He pulled back as his lip stretched, but Adalind held on with her teeth clenched firmly. I understood now. Nick was clever. Oh, so clever! He was bleeding, and Adalind was taking the blood without even realizing it. Nick let off her quickly. I ran over to him while holding him tightly. Adalind's eyes widened. She held a shaking hand to her mouth, touching the blood that had smeared. Her face paled. Oh, she knew.
"What have you done?" the Bitch Witch gasped, but then she unexpectedly looked like she was seething in pain.
A cloudy mist came from within her in the form of the Hexenbiest. It was like a ghost. I gripped Nick tighter as the ghostly figure screamed and writhed from above Adalind's body. I'd never seen anything like this! It drifted upward into the sky above us and evaporated. All that remained was Adalind's lifeless body lying on the ground.
"Did we just watch her spirit come out of her?" I questioned.
"I have no idea." Nick swallowed hard, still looking up.
We drew our attention back to Adalind. "Is she really… dead?" I asked aloud.
"Maybe so." Nick moved toward her, leaning in.
I stayed right behind him. "Well, ding dong." I murmured. If she was dead then I might start singing.
before I could break out the tune, Adalind sucked in a hard breath as we both jolted back in surprise. She opened her eyes and gasped more loudly.
"Oh, no," she mumbled as she managed to stand, looking at us with a dreadful expression on her face. "You killed me."
"You don't look so dead," Nick replied and I nodded agreeably.
"I'm nothing now." Her expression was like a scared child. "I don't have any powers. You've taken everything." She stared at us, her voice quavering. "I'm just like everybody else." She began to cry. "I'm nothing."
"You're gonna be less than that in a minute," my woge retorted as I marched forward. The Bitch Witch was about to wish she'd stayed dead after I was done with her.
Adalind's eyes grew wide at my words, but then all at once Nick caught my arm, jerking me back.
"I think we've done enough to her tonight," he said while holding me firmly.
A small sigh of relief escaped her as I glowered in her direction. "Go," I ordered, pointing off into the woods. "If I ever see your face again, mark my words, I'll be the last person you ever see."
Her face paled and she silently nodded, wasting no time. We stood motionless as she took off. Nick spun me toward him, his body tense as he stared at my face. He was giving me the WTF look. I blinked quickly a few times. My eyes must've been glowing fiercely.
"Why did you let her go?" I questioned him. "We had her… and…" I held my head. My woge was drifting away, leaving me light-headed.
"Are you okay?" he asked, ignoring my question as he looked me up and down. "Why did you follow me out here?"
"I'm fine." I dropped my hand as I pushed on my practiced calm to settle myself. "I couldn't let you do this on your own. I figured between the both us we could get our blood inside her."
Nick shook his head. "You shouldn't have risked yourself like that."
"I would've risked everything to keep you safe." I wrapped my arms around him. "But, what you did was brilliant. You are so incredible!" As I kissed him, the metallic taste of blood hit my tongue and I managed to pull away, wiping at my mouth.
"Renée, we can't… this isn't real," said Nick gravely as he continued to hold me. He touched his finger to his lips then looked at me with sad eyes.
"I know," I replied. "But it just feels… so right."
"I know it does," he breathed out, pulling me in close to him, and wrapping his arms around me in a tight embrace.
As Nick continued to hold me in the silence of the ruins, I hummed Maroon 5's 'Daylight.'
Here I am waiting, I'll have to leave soon.
Why am I holdin' on?
We knew this day would come, we knew it all along.
And when the daylight comes, I'll have to go,
But, tonight I'm 'gonna hold you so close.
'Cause in the daylight, we'll be on our own,
But tonight I need to hold you so close…"
I didn't want to let him go, but all this… it wasn't real. After tonight we'd be back to how it was before… Back to our natures, back to…
"I don't want us going back to hating each other," I said in his ear.
"Maybe we won't," Nick replied gently. "Maybe we'll remember how good we worked together after it's over."
I rested my head on his shoulder. "What if we're back to just snapping at each other because of the Grimm-Waldgeist thing? Or worse, we hate each other even more because of this?" I looked up at him. "I don't want go back to that."
"Then we promise each other now, no matter what happens, we remember the positive things."
I nodded slowly as I leaned in to kiss him again, but then stepped back. Oh, God, how difficult it was to stop. I bit my lip in frustration, losing myself in those blue-green eyes of his. My hand brushed against his cheek, his five o'clock shadow rough against my fingers.
"Dammit, this isn't easy," he replied as he let me go completely. "But we've got to focus."
I closed my eyes. No, Nick was right. I had to be stronger than this. Monroe's brown eyes were what I really wanted to gaze into, not Nick's.
He cleared his throat. "Let's head back."
I nodded as my eyes reopened. "Did Adalind say anything more about the key?" I asked him as we walked forward.
"No," he replied. "She just asked if I had it."
"There's more than one key," I told him. "I asked her if she knew what it did, but she didn't know. What she did tell me, however, was there's a total of seven."
"Seven?" Nick turned toward me. "Seven keys? And they're all like that one?"
I nodded. "So the others must have the rest of the map, maybe?"
"Must be." Nick shook his head. "Whatever this map leads to, if they want it, then it must go to something pretty big."
"If they're willing to kill a man for your key, I'm guessing so." I shook my head. "We should've made her tell us who she was working for."
"I can question people at the station, but I can't just beat up a woman in the woods and make her talk. As a cop, there are things I just can't do."
"Nick, this goes beyond the law. Monroe told me about the Mellifers. You let her go once before, and you saw what happened tonight. Even without her powers, she's still deadly."
"Well, I can't risk losing my badge even if she is. But I don't think she'll try anything now that she knows she can't win."
"I hope you're right, Nick." I sighed in frustration. "God, I hope you're right."
As we approached our cars, I took one more look at the man I loved because of that stupid witch. I was feeling better, but I still needed an antidote, and fast.
Nick opened the door to his truck. His cell phone rang inside and he fumbled around the car seat to retrieve it. "Burkhardt," he answered. Nick turned his head toward me. It had to be Monroe.
I held my arms as his eyes turned steel gray. Crap, I could hear Monroe's grated tone from where I was standing.
"She's fine," Nick assured him. "We're both fine." He leaned against his truck, shaking his head at me.
Oh, boy. I was going to get more than a lecture tonight.
There was a long pause on Nick's end as he closed his eyes. Monroe was probably taking his time to yell and berate my decisions. While I couldn't make out the words, I was picking up the yelling part just fine.
"Is Hank okay?" Nick managed to finally find a break in the conversation to ask. "Hank woke up, he's fine," he said in my direction.
I let out a relieved sigh. Thank goodness!
"We're heading back now," he told Monroe. "We'll talk more when we get there." Nick shoved his phone in his pocket, looking up at me. "So, you left and didn't tell Monroe?" His tone was incredulous.
"If I had, do you think he would've let me leave?"
"Of course not."
"Exactly," I replied as I got into my car.
Nick shook his head at me as I closed the door.
I followed Nick back to Adalind's as I hummed Robert Palmer's 'Bad Case of Lovin' You.' And, boy, did I. Hopefully, unlike the song, there was something that would cure it. Nick should've let me take care of Adalind. Tonight she was the one with luck on her side.
(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)
Monroe and Rosalee were waiting outside when we pulled up to the condo. As I stepped out of the car, Monroe wasted no time and was right on me.
"What the hell, Renée!" he yelled as I stood facing the inferno of red in his eyes. He sniffed me, growling as he clenched his fists. "Why do you smell like Nick… again?" He took another breath through his nose. "And his blood, too?"
I closed my car door. "I'm sorry, but let's not do this right now, okay?"
Monroe backed off, but his glare remained firmly in place.
"Where's the Hexenbiest?" Rosalee asked with concern as Monroe removed his eyes from me and focused on Nick.
Nick briefly described what happened at the ruins, including Adalind getting away scot free.
Monroe gestured his arms out wide. "And you just let her run off?"
I gave Nick a 'See, I'm not the only one who thinks you should've taken her out' look, which he ignored.
"She said she was nothing," Nick replied simply with a shrug. "I killed the Hexenbiest, apparently, although I was a little shocked at what that actually looked like." He turned back to Adalind's building. "Where's Hank?"
Monroe cleared his throat. "Well, he was kinda wondering what we were doing in Adalind's bedroom, so, uh, we got him some water and…" Rosalee shot Monroe a look. "Yeah, well, now he's getting dressed to leave, so we decided to, you know, just wait out here, instead of in there."
What kind of crazy story could they have come up with? Monroe was usually a bad liar, so Rosalee must have come up with something good.
"I really don't want Hank seeing me here, so let's head back to the spice shop," Nick decided. "We still have another antidote to figure out."
"I have to stop by my house for the tarts," I reminded him. "We'll meet you back there."
"Don't take too long," Nick replied, grinning at me. Monroe cast him an intimidating glare, and Nick's grin quickly faded. "I mean, hurry up so we can fix this," he corrected himself.
"That better be what you meant," Monroe muttered as he opened my passenger side door.
A/N: So Renée and Nick took down Adalind, but Nick wouldn't let Renée finish what she started. Ah well...
Skipping ahead with more info for Nick about the seven keys.
Been listening to "Daylight" quite a bit and even though that song came out well past my timeline, I used it anyway. Maybe Renée and Nick will be able to get along after this. Guess we'll see.
4 more chapters today - 7 more in total to go!