Grimm Consequences (6 page)

She lifted a hand and cupped my cheek. “I wish I could remember. But I wasn't frightened that day. That much I know.” She heaved a frustrated sigh. “I don't understand all this crazy Reaper shit that's going on, Nate. But I'm trying.”

“Tess, you never have to be afraid of me. I'll never harm you—I swear it.”

“Scared of
you,
spooky?” She tossed a saucy grin over her shoulder as she opened the car door.
“As if,”
she scoffed. “Besides, it's
me
. I don't scare easily.”

I watched her walk up to the house, her hips swaying in that seductive way she had when she wanted me to follow. “I hope you're right, sweetheart,” I murmured as I threw off my seat belt to go after her. “I hope you're right.”

“You look beautiful.”

Tess struggled with the hem of the little black dress she wore, shimmying her hips a bit as she worked to cover her thighs. She paused long enough to send an irritated glance my way. “I feel like an idiot in this dress.”

I was grinning as I took her hand and pulled it through the crook of my arm. “Come on, sweetheart,” I said, my voice a little gruff with growing desire as I led her toward the restaurant. “You keep doing that with your hips, we're never going to make it to dinner.”

She sent a sidelong glance my way, her lips curving into a smile. “Yeah?”

I groaned as her eyes took on the particular light that alerted me to the fact that I was going to be a
very
happy man. But before I could reply, Gran appeared, grinning from ear to ear, her boyfriend Eddie Fox in tow.

“Oh, my darling! Look at you!” She took Tess's face in her hands. “My beautiful girl—the Assistant Director of the FMA.”

Tess tried to smile, but it was rather smooshed and distorted by Gran's enthusiastic affection.

“Shall we head inside, ladies?” Eddie asked, gesturing toward the door. As I started to follow Gran and Tess, Eddie took hold of my elbow, urging me to hang back. “I got a call earlier. You need anything, Nate, you just let me know.”

I gave him a terse nod. “Thanks, Eddie.”

As we entered, Eddie shook hands with the maître d', no doubt slipping him a C-note when he bent forward to quietly give him instructions for the evening. I had to hand it to Nicky and the people who worked for him—they knew how to accomplish more with a charming word and a smile than most men could manage upon threat of violence.

“We won't be bothered tonight,” Eddie assured me as we joined the ladies in a perfectly situated table with a view of the door. “Anybody tries to start something, it'll be taken care of.”

I didn't have the heart to tell Eddie that what was coming for me wasn't something he and his associates could handle. But it was still good to know that Nicky and his people would have my back even when Nicky wasn't in town—although I'd never doubted that for a second.

I tried to enjoy dinner that night, but I only half listened to conversations, too distracted by the uneasy feeling that weighed down on me. I could feel Demetrius nearby, knew he was lurking somewhere, waiting to pounce, but couldn't do a damned thing about it. I couldn't combat an enemy who was too chicken-shit to face me like a man.

We were just polishing off dessert when I happened to glance up and see the bastard sitting at a table across the room. When I caught his gaze, he lifted a glass of red wine in salute, that typically smug smirk of his taking on an even darker tone. It was then I noticed the others. I slowly surveyed the room, searching among the shadows, seeing their faces coming into focus as they moved in, preparing for a strike.

“Get the women out of here,” I barked at Eddie. Tess and Eddie were on their feet in an instant, ready for a fight, but I grabbed Tess's arm and forcibly shoved her into Eddie's hold. “Now.”

Her face immediately went stormy, but she must've read the danger in my expression and let Eddie usher her out the door at a pace that raised more than one eyebrow from the other patrons.

Attempting to mask my concern, I nonchalantly threw a few hundreds onto the table to cover our bill, all the while taking head count of the Reapers scattered around the room. They weren't there for me, I realized. They weren't the Judges come to take me in for my penance. They were there for the humans who filled the restaurant. And with over a dozen Reapers waiting to harvest human souls, whatever was coming was going to be big.

My stomach plummeted as I did another kind of head count. There weren't just humans in the building. There were at least thirty Tales sprinkled in among them—enough to keep me busy for quite a while and leave Tess unprotected if things went south.

“Everybody out!” I snatched my FMA badge from my suit pocket and raised it in the air, knowing the enchantment would make it look like Chicago PD to the humans. When everyone just stared at me with startled inaction, I barked, “Now, people! Move your asses!”

The few people sitting nearest the door bolted to safety. The rest of them never had a chance. I smelled the stench of gas a split second before the explosion ripped through the restaurant, blowing out the windows with the force of the blast and igniting everything—and everyone—in its path.

I had just enough time to dematerialize out of the way and onto the street to protect Tess from the shards of glass, metal, and brick that burst outward, slicing into the soft flesh of anyone unlucky enough to be in the blast radius. Car alarms set off by the explosion rang in my ears, screams of pain and dismay and sorrow filled the air as the wounded cried out, called to loved ones, pleaded for help.

Tess was already on her phone, calling in backup from the FMA, rushing to the nearest victim to see where she could help. My back burned with the pain of embedded shrapnel, but Tess had been spared any injuries. Assured she was okay for the moment, I turned to Eddie and Gran. “You two all right?”

“Yeah, we're good,” Eddie assured me, seeing that Gran was too shocked to respond. “What the hell happened?”

“Gas leak,” I said, my voice clipped as I searched the chaos, knowing gas might've caused the actual explosion, but the leak was no accident. Several of the Reapers strolled out of the restaurant grasping the souls of the victims as they made their way through the dead and dying outside on the sidewalk.

They were detached, unconcerned. It was just a job to them, ferrying the souls on to the next plane of existence. There was no compassion, no tenderness. They jerked soul after soul from the bodies, not giving a shit how traumatic the extraction might be to the recently departed. Good God—had
I
been that cruel? Sadly, I knew the answer to that question, as much as I hated to admit it.

My first directive rang out in my head. I glanced at Tess as she tried to help a woman whose thigh was bleeding profusely from a horrific wound. I thought about ignoring my directive in order to stay with Tess, but there could be no reprieve for the Tales inside the restaurant, even if I'd hoped to grant them one. They were gone, their deaths swift—if they were lucky. But if I left their souls too long, they'd become ghosts, left to wander among the living, never at peace.

I let out a string of ripe curses as more directives started rolling in, bombarding my psyche and calling me forward to do my duty. “I gotta go,” I told Eddie grudgingly. “Keep an eye on Red.”

I didn't wait for his affirmation before I went into the blaze to claim those who were lost. The stench of seared flesh assaulted me as I plucked the first soul from the pile of cinder that had once been a Tale. He'd only been in the Here and Now for a little over a year. He still gripped the hand of his wife, their palms fused together by melted flesh. I took her soul, too, keeping them together.

Fire trucks had swarmed the building by the time I returned for the next round. I searched the crowd before going back in, looking for Tess's face. She was barking out orders to the FMA team that had just arrived, explaining the makeshift triage system. She must've felt my gaze on her, for her head snapped around and she gave me a sad smile, then a terse nod, sending me on my way.

The next pickup was a young Tale family. I felt my throat tighten as I gently lifted the soul of the three-year-old boy from his mother's arms. I took the mother then, too, hoping she could lessen the boy's fear as we journeyed to the other side. The father and twelve-year-old daughter were next. The daughter was a feisty one—giving me attitude about where I was taking them, complaining about having to miss a party that weekend for her friend Jenny Connolly, arguing the whole way. Almost made me wonder what Tess had been like as a preteen.

I actually came up short when that thought hit me.
Daughters?
Was I seriously thinking about what it would be like to have kids with Tess at a time like this? Hell, was I seriously thinking about having
kids
?

I picked up the pace, searching for Tess in the crowd after each trip, reassuring myself that she was fine. The flames had been tamed to a smolder in the ruined building by the time I returned for the last two souls. It was growing dark now and emergency crews were setting up portable lights so that they could continue to work the scene. But this time when I searched the crowd, I didn't see Tess, couldn't sense her nearby.

Panic made my gut clench. I snatched my cell from my suit pocket and dialed hers, but it went straight to voice mail. I tried Eddie next, then Gran. But I was unable to reach any of them. My panic increasing with each second, I searched for anyone else I recognized. I suddenly caught sight of yellow ringlets and bolted toward Trish Muffet, who was talking with one of the FMA Investigators, that new kid. . . . What was his name? McCain.

“Where's Red?” I demanded without preamble.

Trish gave me a quizzical look. “She's not here? I just saw her a second ago talking to some guy.”

“Maybe she went with one of the ambulances,” McCain suggested.

The fist of panic squeezing my gut got a little tighter. “She wouldn't have gone without letting me know. Who was she talking to?”

Shit.
There were two more souls waiting for transfer. If I waited much longer, they'd be lost. But I shoved the directive away.

“What did he look like, this guy?” I asked. “Was he human? Tale?”

Trish and McCain exchanged a look before Trish said, “Neither. I mean . . . I honestly thought it was you, Nate. He was kind of shadowy, indistinct to me, like you are sometimes.”

“Where was she?” I grasped Trish's upper arm tighter than I'd intended, making her wince.

“Easy there, Detective,” McCain said, putting a restraining hand on my shoulder.

I eased up a little on Trish's arm and forced my voice to stay calm when I asked, “Where was she the last time you saw her?”

Trish nodded toward the barricades that had been set up to keep onlookers from entering the crime scene. “There. She'd been talking with the Ordinary policemen when the guy came up to her and . . .” She gave me a wary look. “He put his arm around her waist. I'm sorry, Nate—I had a patient with a nearly amputated leg. I was too preoccupied to notice anything was off.”

“Who was it?” McCain called after me as I bolted toward the spot where Tess had disappeared, but I didn't respond. What the hell was I supposed to say? I couldn't exactly explain my relationship to Demetrius. For all Trish and McCain knew, I was a Tale just like they were.

As soon as I was standing where Tess had last stood, I closed my eyes, reining in my panic and forcing myself to focus on her. I could feel her somewhere nearby.
Thank Christ.
I could still sense her. She was alive. And she was close. But something was blocking my ability to dematerialize to her.

If I'd had any doubts about who the man with Tess had been, this confirmed it. The son of a bitch was intentionally interfering with our connection, attaching himself to Tess to stay corporeal.

I took off in the direction toward which I felt the strongest pull, shoving through the crowds. I knew I was running headlong into a trap. My gut would've told me so even if I didn't already know it. I knew Demetrius and his games. He liked to toy with his prey. He always had. And he certainly had me by the short and curlies on this one. He knew my weakness. And he was using it against me, setting the stage for whatever bullshit punishment he had in mind for me.

Well, he could have his moment. And then I was gonna have mine.

I didn't have to go far. My connection to Tess led me to a parking lot behind a bail bonds business that was curiously blocked off by other buildings, leaving only one entrance and exit. The waning light cast eerie shadows, so much of the parking lot was obscured. Standing in the small circle of light cast by the lone street lamp was Tess. Her cheek was sporting a nasty bruise that was growing darker by the minute and her lip was swollen and bleeding. She was barefoot, I noticed, having lost her shoes—or perhaps having kicked them off to fight back.

A brief surge of pride hit me when I imagined the bruises the other guy had to be sporting. But my pride and concern were quickly supplanted by relief. I rushed forward, determined to sweep her into my arms and kiss the hell out of her, but I came to a halt when she shook her head frantically. “Stay there!” she whispered, her voice taut.
“Please
.
”

It was only then that I noticed she was trembling, barely holding it together. “It's okay, sweetheart,” I cooed, slowly edging forward. “I'm here. It's okay now.”

“Stop, goddamn it!” she yelled as I took another step forward, her eyes darting to her right.

My head snapped in the direction she'd indicated, and I saw Eddie and Gran lying on the ground, unconscious. Then I heard the hiss. It was a strangely undulating sound, almost a buzz. I squinted into the shadows, trying to make it out. My eyes widened as the thing slowly came forward, its misshapen head a cross between that of a goat and a dog. Spikes protruded down its warty back, and rancid green pus oozed from its mouth. A long, reptilian tongue slid between putrid lips to reveal a horrifying maw of jagged teeth as it licked the pus away with a wet slurping that made bile rise in the back of my throat.

But more than anything, I was worried about its claws. Each talon was a poisoned dart that it could launch at its prey, and I knew from experience how deadly those bastards could be.

“Jabberwocky,” I breathed.

“Quite a specimen, isn't he?”

I turned my head toward the sound of Demetrius's voice. He had emerged from the shadows and now stood in the pool of light with Tess, one arm encircling her waist as his other hand slid lightly down her arm. “
This
specimen, however . . .” He inhaled deeply at the curve of her neck as I'd seen him do before, dragging the sweet scent of her into his lungs.

I fisted my hands at my sides, forcing myself to stay planted where I was for fear of what an attack might mean for the people I cared about. “Get your goddamn hands off her,” I ground out, my voice echoing as my anger interfered with my ability to hold my form.

Demetrius gave me a mocking pout. “Or what? Not sure you're really in a position to make threats, Death Bringer.”

I saw Tess's brows twitch together in a slight frown at the mention of the old moniker.

“Call off the Jabberwocky,” I demanded, fighting to keep my voice even. “And let them go, Demetrius. This is between you and me.”

Demetrius heaved a dramatic sigh. “But it's really not, is it? You put all these people at risk when you disobeyed orders.”

“Just punish me and get it over with, you sadistic son of a bitch!” I spat. “I know how this works. I've been through it before.”

Demetrius nodded. “Yes, yes, you have.” He
tsked,
feigning disappointment. “But, see, that's the problem. The message just
isn't getting through
.” He jabbed his temple with his index finger, emphasizing each word.

At that moment, the Judges appeared, one by one, each in a cloud of black mist, slowly taking shape but still enshrouded in shadow. Two of them rushed me in the next instant, taking hold of my arms to keep me from dematerializing to escape. Two others took hold of Tess, freeing Demetrius to shove his hands in his pockets as he swaggered toward me.

“And here you are, Death Bringer,” he drawled, “disobeying once more. There are still two dead Tales waiting for you back at the restaurant, their poor, departed souls moments away from being lost forever because you chose to disregard your orders yet again.”

“I still have time,” I shot back. “Let Red and the others go, and I'll gather the departed. Then you can do with me what you want. Just let them go, Demetrius.”

“Oh, but we
will
do whatever we want with you,” Demetrius assured me, his grin widening. He gestured casually toward the Judges holding me. They forced me to my knees, my arms twisted painfully behind my back.

I heard Tess curse a blue streak as she struggled against her captors, trying to get to me.

“Awww. . . I think she actually
loves
you, Death Bringer,” Demetrius mocked. “Can you imagine that?
You
, of all men!” He gasped theatrically, his hand coming up to cover his mouth as he glanced back and forth between Tess and me. “But wait . . . Could it be? Does she not know who you really are?”

“Nice try, asshole,” Tess hissed. “He already told me that he isn't a Tale, that he'd been a human slave who was forced to be an assassin. None of that matters to me.”

Demetrius nodded. “True. All true. And before that?” he asked, his mocking gaze locked on me even though he spoke to Tess. “Did he tell you about
before
? Did he tell you his
real
name? Why he's called
Death Bringer
?”

“Fuck you, Demetrius,” I growled.

“No?” Demetrius said to Tess when she didn't respond. “Didn't really think he was called
Nate Grimm,
did you? Oh, naive girl. I guess love really
is
blind. Well, here, let me do the honors. Tess Little, allow me to introduce you to Marius Titus Maximus, one of the most feared commanders ever to have served the Roman Empire.”

Tess's brows shot up. “Commander?”

“His enemies trembled to hear his name,” Demetrius told her, slowly circling me, “for they knew that when Maximus drew near, Death was coming for them. He was fierce, fearless. And, seemingly, immortal. His men worshipped him as a
god
.” Here Demetrius turned to me, grimacing comically. “And, I think maybe he even began to believe it. . . .” He bent forward to get a look into my eyes, which had to be burning with rage. But he merely grinned, cocking his head to one side and then the other as he contemplated the question. “Yes, I think he did. Oh, how very sad. Want to tell her what happened, my friend, or shall I? Hmm?”

I merely glared at him, fighting the urge to rip out his throat. I could have. It would've been easy. Although I couldn't dematerialize to get to Tess with the other Reapers still holding me, I could've shifted enough to get my hands around that bastard's throat. But doing so would've put Tess and her family at risk. And that wasn't a gamble I was willing to take.

“Well,”
Demetrius went on, drawing out the word in a sing-songy voice, “it turns out the great Death Bringer wasn't so invincible after all.”

I looked past him to Tess, trying to gauge her reaction, but her face was impossible to read. “I was betrayed,” I spat. “The man I trusted most, one I called my
friend,
turned out to be nothing more than a traitor. He sold out his brothers at arms to line his own pockets.” I pegged Demetrius with a murderous glare. “We were slaughtered like sheep, you son of a bitch! And for what? What did you gain, Demetrius?”

He chuckled and pulled a dramatically contrite expression. “Eternal damnation, as it turns out. But it was worth it!” Then he was up in my face again, his eyes wild as he relived his moment of triumph. “I had bested the great Death Bringer. Had brought him to his knees!”

“I survived the ambush and was sold into slavery,” I told Tess through clenched teeth.

“Oh, he was quite the prize,” Demetrius gloated. “The great commander now nothing more than a worthless slave, forced to kill for his master.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “You should've just killed me.”

“You enjoyed it,” Demetrius hissed, his spittle striking me in the face. “Don't deny it. You fed off the fear, Maximus. You
lived
for the kill. And when another assassin got lucky and took your head, your path was assured. There was never a man more born to be a Reaper than you! When I saw you come through to the afterlife, I told Benedict we
had
to have you among us.”

I hadn't heard that name in years—not since taking on my assignment with the Tales. He had recruited me when I died, had saved me from the torment that awaited me in the afterlife—only to introduce me to a new kind of hell.

“And you were magnificent!” Demetrius beamed, his eyes gleaming with a disturbing zealousness. “We all envied you, wished to be you, longed for the approval that you never sought but were the first to receive.” He shook his head in awe. “Oh, the glory of the Death Bringer.” Here he turned to Tess. “So much devastation laid at his feet . . . He was swift, merciless. A virtuoso of death.”

I couldn't deny it. Not any of it. Killing was all I'd known. It was all I'd been good at, the only thing I cared about, even after death claimed me. Until robins'-egg blue eyes
saw
me in the woods of Make Believe and offered me something I'd never been able to offer myself—forgiveness.

Unfortunately, needing to plead for her forgiveness seemed to be a running theme in our relationship. I lifted my eyes and met her gaze, seeing the confusion there. But there was also pity. And some other emotion I couldn't quite place.

“I wanted to tell you,” I assured her. “I just didn't know how.”

“I know, baby,” she said, nodding. “I know.”

My throat tightened at the look she gave me, the wariness that was creeping in as she attempted to absorb what she was hearing. I could tell she was hurt that I'd withheld the rest of my story from her, that she was no longer certain of anything about me, but she had to know the rest. I
needed
her to know the rest, to love me—or leave me—knowing the whole truth. “Tess, the things I did in my lifetime . . . and after—”

“You're not that man anymore, Nate,” she interrupted. Although grateful for her insistence, I wasn't sure if she was attempting to convince me or herself.

“Awww,” Demetrius interrupted, pushing out his bottom lip in a pout. “So touching. I almost hate to interrupt. But I will.” He took hold of my jaw in a punishing grip, his face twisting with rage. “Even though you reported to me, were supposed to take orders from me, you met this bitch and suddenly started to piss on every order I gave you. You made me look like a fucking idiot over and over again!”

I frowned up at him. “Are you shitting me? All this is about you resenting Tess?” I tried to jerk my chin from his grasp, but his fingers dug in harder.

He stuck his face closer to mine, his eyes crazed with fury. “I finally had the power over you, Maximus. I was finally the one in charge. And that
whore
ruined everything!”

I blinked at Demetrius, stunned by the depth of his jealousy—and his insanity. It was no secret that he relished the job more than any of us, to the point that his madness had made him a liability, and Benedict had transferred him to the Judges. But Demetrius clearly was more unstable than anyone had realized. He was totally off his fucking nut.

“This is crazy, Demetrius,” I said, trying to keep my voice level. “You have a score to settle with me. I get that. But leave Tess out of it. She's innocent in all of this.”

“Oh, I'll settle my score with you,” Demetrius hissed. “Make no mistake about that.”

He made a casual gesture with his hand toward the shadows, summoning another Judge I hadn't seen yet. The barrel-chested wall of muscle who emerged strode toward me, rolling his shaved, square head on the block of bulk that substituted for a neck, his massive arms straining the material of his tight black T-shirt.

“Well, aren't you a big fella?” I drawled, offering him a grin that was far cockier than I felt. “Where'd they dig you up—if you'll pardon the pun.”

The first blow landed squarely on my jaw.

Over the ringing in my ears, I could hear Tess hurling a few choice words at my Judge. More disturbing was the chuffing and snorting of the Jabberwocky. Apparently, the blood and violence was making him eager for a little action.

I opened and closed my mouth a couple of times. Nope, wasn't broken. Yet. “That was a nice warm up, Junior,” I quipped with a jerk of my chin. “But could we move this along? I got places to be.”

The next blow wasn't nearly so easy to shake off. Or the next one. Through the double vision I had going on, I caught a glimpse of Tess struggling to get away from the Judges holding her, and managed to put together something resembling a grin, hoping it would assure her I was hanging in there.

“Nate!” she whimpered, her voice breaking as my captors lifted me to my feet, holding me up so Junior could get a better crack at me. His fist nailed me in the gut—once, twice. “Let him go, you bastards!”

My bones snapped as the guy's fist slammed into my ribs, sending a burst of pain through my lungs and down my spine. My knees buckled, sending me back to the ground. My captors released me, apparently figuring the fight had been knocked out of me at this point.

I groaned as Junior's size thirteen nailed me in the other side of my abdomen. With a gasp, I fell forward, landing in a heap on the asphalt. Through the pain-blurred haze, I could see Tess, latched onto her beloved face, focused on her eyes as the waves of agony crashed over me. I coughed, spewing blood from my lungs and bringing on a fresh onslaught of pure hell.