Fic: Rächen
Nov. 14th, 2011 01:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
csi_sanders1129Title: Rächen
Chapters: 1/2
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
csi_sanders1129
Genre: Drama. Pre-slash. Friendship. Mystery. Hurt/Comfort.
Ratings: T
Word Count: 4,200/9,000
Pairings/Characters: Eddie Monroe/Nick Burckhardt, Hank Griffin, Juliette Silverton, Others.
Synopsis: Eddie is diligently focusing on completing an order for a clock when he feels some sort of intrinsic fear wash over him. It comes out of nowhere and just floods his senses, making him sweaty and cold all at the same time. His vision blurs out of focus for a second and his heart speeds up, he starts to shift like he does when he’s near someone wearing red. It’s then that he knows that something is really wrong. But, what?
Comments: This is finally finished! Huzzah! This is my first foray into Grimm fandom, and my characterization is still working itself out, so there’s a little OOC-ness. Much thanks tokittycrackers for her help in getting this beast finished. OC’s are mine, NBC characters are not. Comments are awesome and I hope this is enjoyed!
Eddie is diligently focusing on completing an order for a clock when he feels some sort of intrinsic fear wash over him. It comes out of nowhere and just floods his senses, making him sweaty and cold all at the same time. His vision blurs out of focus for a second and his heart speeds up, he starts to shift like he does when he’s near someone wearing red. It’s then that he knows that something is really wrong. But, what?
He looks to the door and then out the big, bay window in front of his desk, trying to pinpoint the trouble, but he gets nothing. He looks at his phone, half expecting a call that will inform him of what’s going on, but the device remains traitorously silent, too.
So he lets the change settle over him, trying to use the weird feeling to figure out its cause, and he hits on a scent he hasn’t been near in several days. Nick. It’s Nick and Nick is in trouble. He has to be, there’s no other reason for this feeling.
He’s up and heading toward the door before that thought really even processes and he doesn’t know where he’s going exactly, but he’s going there as fast as he can.
***
All in all, he ends up outside the police station, which was certainly not his first choice of destinations. He can smell Nick everywhere around here, but he’s not sure if this is where the trouble is. A man walks out, smelling stronger of Nick’s scent than others, indicating that they probably spend a lot of time together, and he recognizes him from when Nick came barging into his home and, subsequently, into his life. Partners, then. “Hey, hey,” he starts, approaching the man while working harder than usual to keep his blutbad instincts in check. “You’re Detective… ugh, Detective Griffin, right? You work with Nick?”
“Who’s asking?” The man questions as he keeps waking away, though his eyes narrow in thinly veiled suspicion.
“I’m, I’m his….” He struggles for the right word to describe the really bizarre and unlikely relationship between Grimm and blutbad. He settles on, “friend. And I think something’s wrong.”
“With Nick?” He asks, turning to face the stranger for the first time, “why?” Recognition seems to set in then, and a hand levels on his gun. “Wait a minute, you’re the guy Nick thought kidnapped that girl…”
Eddie holds up both his hands in an I-mean-no-harm sort of gesture meant to diffuse any building tensions. “Yeah, yeah, I am. But Nick and I, he came back to apologize afterward, after you caught the guy who actually did it, I mean, obviously,” he lies, “We’re friends, I swear. He stops in to steal my coffee and bagels a couple times a week.”
Detective Griffin is clearly not convinced, but seems interested by Eddie’s claim, “and you think he’s in danger? Do you have any evidence to support that idea?”
“I just… Is he here?” Eddie pushes, since it’s not like he can explain the complexities of the blutbaden sense of smell to a civilian. “I need to talk to him. I tried calling him on the way here, but he wasn’t answering.”
“He was here earlier, but he left. Said he wasn’t feeling well and headed home, about an hour ago. Now,” the Detective responds tersely, curling a hand around Eddie’s arm to keep him from bolting with that information, “what’s this about?”
Eddie could easily break free, but he briefly entertains the thought that maybe back-up isn’t a bad idea when he doesn’t know what he’s up against. Granted, having an uninformed civilian around, one who can’t see, at that, isn’t going to help him much if something supernatural is behind this. “I don’t know, man. I just know that he’s in trouble, okay? I need to find him. Can you show me where he lives? I’ve never been there; he’s always showing up at my place.”
Detective Griffin seemed to have been starting to accept things thus far, with the causal use of Nick’s first name and the mention of phone calls, but the lack of knowledge of the whereabouts of Nick’s home causes some doubts to spring up. “I can’t tell you that. For all I know, you’re completely having me on here. Nice try, I get why you’re pissed at him, but I don’t believe you.”
While Eddie can understand the lack of trust – after all, the only time this other Detective has seen him was immediately following Nick’s accusations, and the subsequent destruction of his house as the police searched for a little girl who wasn’t there while he sat idly in a cop car – it’s still a giant pain the ass. “Look. I can find him on my own; I was hoping you could speed things up a little. He could be hurt, could be dying. I thought his partner would be watching out for him a little more than this.” He’s fully prepared to get to work now that he knows the Detective isn’t inclined to help him. “Either take me to his place or let me go.”
The hold on his arms drops, but the Detective makes no move, at first, to lead him to Nick. It’s just as Eddie’s waking away that there’s a long suffering sigh and a “Fine. Get in the car.”
***
Eddie’s got the location figured out about halfway there, but finding the right direction would’ve taken time he didn’t want to waste. The unmarked car pulls up in front of Nick’s place, and he’s suddenly assaulted with a new scent, one intermingled with Nick’s to a more extreme degree than Detective Griffin. The scent is female, and it’s everywhere, and for some reason, this development does not please Eddie in the slightest.
So, he’s not surprised to find the house occupied when they pull up outside. “Looks like Juliette’s home,” Detective Griffin – Hank – says, spotting the woman in the window, “let’s go see if I’m crazy for listening to you or not.”
Eddie stays a few paces back as they approach, unsure about why Nick never mentioned the girl. He’s sure they’re together, but does she know about what he is? He’s not sure Nick would appreciate any further overlapping of his life as a cop and his life as a Grimm.
“Juliette,” Hank greets when the door opens, “how are you?” Short pleasantries are exchanged, and she lets them both inside. “Nick’s friend,” his emphasis on the word suggests that he’s still not quite convinced, “was looking for him, has he come back?”
“Isn’t he with you?” Juliette counters, looking genuinely confused by the question. “He’s on shift tonight, right?”
The conversation continues on, and then they’re both asking Eddie questions about his suspicions, but he can’t answer. In sifting through the array of smells – Nick, Juliette, the scents of many animals that cling to her, Hank, the lingering traces of Marie, the plethora of scented cleaning items – he hits on one that unnerves him far more than the strange feeling that got him here.
Blood.
Nick’s blood.
It’s not much, but it’s more than any mundane injury would amount to. It’s mingled with the scent of fear and anger and he’s walking through the house like he knows every inch of it trying to find the source.
“Hey!” Hank is shouting, and they’re both following after him. “Where are you going? Get back here!”
He’s still not listening, can’t hear anything but the pulse of his own blood echoing in his ears as he focuses on the metallic scent of Nick’s blood in the air and the not so fantastic feelings that accompany it. Eddie finds signs of a struggle and a small pool of blood on the back steps, with a few stray drops leading to the street. There, he finds the lingering stench of burned rubber and exhaust.
Someone took Nick.
“What’s going on?” Hank asks, when they find him standing stock still at the edge of the road.
Mixed in with the overwhelming scent of Nick’s blood, he hits on something else that’s disturbingly familiar. Wolfsbane. And beneath that is the muddled scent of Blutbaden. If he’s not mistaken, he knows who they are.
“Don’t follow me.” He warns, and then he’s off.
***
He follows the scent of blood and blutbaden deep into the woods. Nick’s captors seem to have found a sheltered cabin of their own in which to enact their revenge, but at least Eddie is totally aware of their motives.
As he nears their hideaway, he can clearly scent several members of his family. They are all far from reformed and definitely not happy with his continued fraternization with the enemy. Whether they’re doing this for his safety - because, to them, a Grimm is a Grimm and Grimm’s are dangerous heathens who kill creatures like blutbaden indiscriminately – or if this is solely about avenging grandfathers and great-grandmothers, he isn’t sure. Either way, they’re not hurting Nick without a fight.
He barges in without any semblance of stealth – if they took Nick, they had to have known he’d figure it out – and is not at all surprised by the betrayed looks they’re all shooting at him. “Ah, and the prodigal son returns,” his older brother, James, snarks at him. His younger sister, Dana, shakes her head at him in clear disappointment as he shoves by them.
“How could you do this to us?” His father, David, booms at him when he walks into the next room of the small cabin. It’s there in that windowless room that he finds Nick, passed out and tied up. Wrists bound behind his back so tight that he can smell fresh blood from those wounds alone, legs tied to the chair, gagged, blindfolded. They really didn’t want Nick getting away. Blood is drying on his face, from where it dripped from a congealed would on his scalp just over a blackened eye.
“I think the better question is what the hell were you thinking, kidnapping a Grimm and a detective? Like that’s just going to blow over.” He’s shifting back and forth, trying to reign himself in. His fingers curl and uncurl into fists, claws protracting and retracting as he moves. He’s tense in a way he can’t remember ever being before, not with the urge to attack the easy prey that is presently Nick, but rather to fiercely protect him. “Let him go and I’ll try to talk him out of going after you for this.”
“Now, Edward,” a surprising voice says, emerging from the only other room in the cabin. His grandmother, Lila, looks stern and angry as always. His mother, Jen, accompanies her and she, too, does not look pleased with his choices. “Certainly you aren’t trying to protect this filthy, little butcher from the revenge he so deserves?”
“We’ve been trying to decide whether to chase him down like the animal he is or to do what his kind did to grandfather,” James says, coming up behind Eddie and blocking him into the room. “Chop off his hands and feet, and then his head. See how he likes that torture. Chasing him might be too easy, what with the head injury; I’m leaning toward the second option, myself.”
Eddie is entirely shifted now. The red of Nick’s blood as it drips onto the floor should be turning him into even more of a beast, one that’s ready to kill for more blood, but all its doing is fueling the rage against his family. But maybe that’s because to him, right now, they are the enemy. “You’re not killing him.”
“Why are you doing this?” Dana questions, a hand settling on his shoulder as if she hasn’t completely disowned his presence within the family. “You know what he is, what his kind have done to us!”
“Not him,” Eddie defends. His attention is fixed on his father, who is clearly unaware of the threat he is presently posing by being between he and Nick, and Eddie hasn’t missed that he’s been edging closer and closer to the chair. “Get away from him. I ripped a reaper’s arm off to protect someone he cared about, what do you think I’ll do for him? And I won’t be stopped just because it’s you standing there.”
His grandmother lets out a howl at that confession. “You’re a traitor. You’re defending him and he’s killed our kind!”
“Fine, yes, he’s killed a blutbad, but he was on a spree – there wasn’t another option.” Eddie counters, as there are limits to what can be condoned even amongst the most beastly of his kind; things that risk the exposure of their kind are highly frowned upon. He’s moving forward himself now, intent to stop his father’s steady progress toward his presently vulnerable friend, but one of the other’s lands a well-aimed blow to the small of his back, the weakest point on their bodies, and he goes down in a howling, writhing mass of fur and anger at the low blow. “If you touch him, I swear…”
James is over him then, wrapping his hands tight with bonds he can’t easily break even with the extra strength that being shifted offers him. He growls and tries to kick enough to throw his brother off of him, but his sister steps in to keep him still and before he knows it, he’s effectively restrained, too.
“You know, Eddie,” James starts, as they lay the still unconscious Nick out on the floor just in front of him. They cut the ropes binding him, but only to retie them so they can get at wrists and ankles, and he’s sans blindfold and gag now, too – presumably so he can see what’s coming at him and so they can hear him scream. “When we first saw you with the Grimm, we thought you were just luring him in, preparing to catch him before you told us about your find. Maybe to redeem yourself for your poor choices in walking away from what you truly are. Maybe fattening up the scrawny, little heathen before you made your move.” A knife comes out, then. They could certainly do it with claws, but apparently they’re opting for mimicking what was done to grandfather all those years ago. “When we realized you had no such intention, we knew we had to step in. For your own good, Eddie. He’d only turn on you.”
Eddie’s shaking, with rage and an inexplicable fear of harm coming to Nick. “He wouldn’t. Nick trusts me. He left me alone with his aunt, the Grimm in his family before him, to protect her when she was sick.”
“So he used you, then. As a glorified guard dog.” His mother pipes in. “You don’t mean anything to him. And you’re a fool to think otherwise.”
“Well. Then I guess I’m a fool,” he responds, he knows better than to think that what she says is true.
James is preparing yet another undoubtedly witty comment regarding Eddie’s loyalties when a groan from Nick disrupts him. All eyes land on the injured detective and “Oh, good, this’ll be even more fun now that he’s awake,” is now his brother’s response.
Nick winces and his eyes open, just barely, but he looks unfocused and disoriented. “…what? Where am I?” His voice is rough and dry, and the words come out slurred. His bump to the head must’ve been pretty bad, Eddie thinks, if he’s that out of it. “What’s goin’ on?”
“Not much,” James continues, hovering over Nick as he and their father finish restraining arms and legs that are starting to move as their captive gains a little bit more coherency. “Just gonna kill you.”
The squirming really picks up then, and Eddie sees Nick’s eyes blow wide in response, can hear his heart racing and smell the fresh blood that comes from his head wound as a result of his sharp movements. “Blutbad,” Nick decides, though he’s clearly confused about this observation. “Why do you look like Eddie?”
“Eddie?” James laughs, yet another nefarious idea forming in his mind, “Eddie’s the one who brought you here. You didn’t think he’d give up the chance to avenge our family, did you, Grimm?” While this is clearly an attempt to prove to him that Nick’s not his ally, Eddie’s almost afraid of what Nick’s delirium induced response is. He wants to shout out that he’d never betray Nick, but his father is beside him now, covering his mouth to keep him quiet.
“You’re lying.” Nick doesn’t hesitate to defend him. Immediately following this statement, however, comes one hell of a coughing fit that reminds Eddie that Nick had just gone home sick when he was grabbed. “Eddie wouldn’t.”
“Fine,” his brother says, curling his fingers into blood-matted hair and pulling enough to earn an awful sort of choked noise that Eddie never wants to hear Nick make again. “He didn’t bring you here, but it’s because of him we found you.”
Eddie has had enough, though. He bites down on the hand that’s preventing him from talking and his father pulls away with a frustrated growl. “Get off of him!” He roars, struggling against his own bonds when his brother doesn’t release his hold on Nick’s hair.
Another coughing fit interrupts Nick’s hopeful, “Eddie?” but his face reflects pure fear when he sees the loyal blutbad tied up before him.
“Enough!” His grandma declares, sick of their back and forth conversation. “Just get on with it already. I’m all for dragging it out, but preferably sooner rather than later, blood needs to be shed.”
“With pleasure,” James answers, now brandishing the knife threateningly in front of Nick’s face. “Where should I start? Hands or feet? His head is definitely last – we can’t have him missing the good parts.”
A new level of rage is pulsing through Eddie and he feels his claws extending further than they ever have before, his teeth longer, just at the mere threat of violence. When his brother settles the blade over Nick’s wrist at his grandmother’s suggestion, all he can see is red.
Nick’s squirming and trying to fight, but the knife slices into skin, over the wounds from his earlier bindings, pulling fresh blood to the surface. It drips down to the ground and Eddie knows that when enough of it is spilled, animal instincts will kick in and the rest of his blutbaden family won’t be able to control themselves and nothing will stop them from killing Nick, then. Nick shouts in protest as the knife digs deeper, but he’s cut off when he starts coughing again. Eddie hears the knife grate against bone and his stomach rolls in protest as the thought registers. He needs to act.
Now.
“I’ve warned you,” Eddie growls out in a voice that doesn’t sound like his own. His claws break through his restraints as if they’re not even there and he’s shoving his brother away before the others have even realized he’s free. He snaps the restraints holding Nick down in seconds, eyes darting around the room to make sure everyone stays away as he pulls his friend in close so he’s more easily protected. “You’ll get him over my dead body.”
James is stumbling back to his feet on the other side of the room, swaying where he stands and picking the remnants of the wooden chair Nick had been tied to out of his clothes. “How’d he get out?” His brother asks, clearly surprised by Eddie’s actions. “There’s no way he broke those ties.”
Eddie curls himself around the Grimm, a defensive posture if ever one did exist. Nick’s grabbing at him, in the midst of another coughing fit with all the sudden movements, and Eddie is emitting a constant, low growling noise that demands no one come any closer.
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me! Don’t think we’ll spare him just because you’re pretending he’s your mate.” Grandma scoffs, as if she can’t believe he’d dare to do something so outlandish. A blutbad and a Grimm? Impossible.
Now that this suggestion has been posed, five pairs of eyes turn toward Eddie and Nick. “I don’t think he’s pretending.” David counters.
To his own credit, Eddie had been starting to come to the same conclusion. It certainly explains his easy loyalty to Nick and why he knew Nick was in trouble and why Juliette’s presence disturbed him so much. If Nick’s supposed to be his mate, then it explains why he’s not attacking him despite the blood and why he’s willing to go after his own family to protect him. What he doesn’t understand is how he’s going to get them out of this mess. There are rules protecting mates – they’re stupidly difficult to find and generally seen as off-limits as a result – but he’s pretty sure his family is willing to place killing a Grimm over the sanctity of those rules.
“Is it true?” Dana asks, directing the question at Eddie, who’s the only one who can actually answer it.
Eddie’s still in crazy protective mode, so his only response is a quiet, “mine,” before he reverts to his low, warning growls.
Nick, who’s still delirious and concussed and losing a fair amount of blood, is trying to follow the conversation and figure out what the hell is going on. “Wait, I’m what?” His query, however, is ignored, as the only person who’d be inclined to answer him is still intently focused on the five threats surrounding them.
“No way are you joining up with a Grimm, Eddie,” James protests. “It completely dishonors all blutbaden, everything that’s been done to us by their kind. It’s not happening.”
“You know we don’t get a say in who our mates are,” Dana defends. She, at least, seems willing to honor the unwritten rules, and she backs off a respectable distance in order to further prove this to Eddie. “If the Grimm’s his mate then the Grimm’s his mate and we can’t touch him.”
James laughs at that, “Oh? Watch me.” He lunges forward, shifted himself now and swings. His claws graze Nick’s chest, tearing his shirt and drawing more blood along the thin, red lines left in the wake of the attack. James slams into both of them, knocking them backwards, but Eddie’s up and retaliating in no time.
A fight breaks out between the two brothers, blows are exchanged and blood is drawn. Eddie’s hyper-extended claws prove to be a very helpful side-effect of the threat against Nick, making his work that much easier. He dodges a blow hurtling toward his face and it glances harmlessly off his shoulder so he swipes at James’ stomach, leaving some claw marks of his own. He keeps his back to the wall and away from his family, so they can’t down him with another blow to the back again. Dana’s shouting at them to stop, but neither of them are registering it, can’t, won’t, not until the fight’s over. Eddie really wants it over fast - Nick still needs protecting, no way to know whose side his mom and dad will be on and chances are Grandma’s not giving up her hatred of Grimm’s anytime soon, either. James is coming at him again, but with a final, enraged lunge, Eddie gets his hands around his brother’s neck and holds on. It only takes a few minutes to knock him out that way, and the bloody claw marks left in his neck only offer Eddie a sense of sickening vindication as he lets the other blutbad crash to the floor. The wolf inside him seems somewhat appeased by the temporary elimination of a threat but does not seem satisfied that James was not permanently eliminated as a risk to Nick’s wellbeing.
Dana moves to check on James, but Eddie is all focused on Nick. He’s passed out again, whether from his earlier injuries or new ones, or some combination of the two. The sight of Nick unmoving on the ground and marred with fresh blood is enough to make him semi-coherent, capable of speech once again. “I had to protect him,” he says, in his own defense as his eyes the rest of his family warily. “He’s mine.”
“We could use this to our advantage,” his father suggests. “Imagine if we could control a Grimm, the power we’d have.”
That spurs another growl from Eddie. “Yeah, that’s not happening, either.”
“Dad,” Dana pipes in, once she’s sure her oldest brother is not too badly injured. “I’d suggest you stop pushing that idea if you don’t want to experience what James just did. Just a thought.”
“I would agree with that,” their mother adds, an arm curling around her husband’s to pull him away enough so that they aren’t seen as threats. David gives in with a disappointed huff, but Eddie suspects he’ll try to bring up the idea again later if given the chance. He is, however, surprised to note that their begrudging grandmother respectively backs off, as well, though she does so with a rather irritated scowl on her face.
“Take him and go,” David says. “Before your brother wakes up.”
So that’s what Eddie does.
Chapters: 1/2
Author:
csi_sanders1129Genre: Drama. Pre-slash. Friendship. Mystery. Hurt/Comfort.
Ratings: T
Word Count: 4,200/9,000
Pairings/Characters: Eddie Monroe/Nick Burckhardt, Hank Griffin, Juliette Silverton, Others.
Synopsis: Eddie is diligently focusing on completing an order for a clock when he feels some sort of intrinsic fear wash over him. It comes out of nowhere and just floods his senses, making him sweaty and cold all at the same time. His vision blurs out of focus for a second and his heart speeds up, he starts to shift like he does when he’s near someone wearing red. It’s then that he knows that something is really wrong. But, what?
Comments: This is finally finished! Huzzah! This is my first foray into Grimm fandom, and my characterization is still working itself out, so there’s a little OOC-ness. Much thanks to
kittycrackers for her help in getting this beast finished. OC’s are mine, NBC characters are not. Comments are awesome and I hope this is enjoyed!Eddie is diligently focusing on completing an order for a clock when he feels some sort of intrinsic fear wash over him. It comes out of nowhere and just floods his senses, making him sweaty and cold all at the same time. His vision blurs out of focus for a second and his heart speeds up, he starts to shift like he does when he’s near someone wearing red. It’s then that he knows that something is really wrong. But, what?
He looks to the door and then out the big, bay window in front of his desk, trying to pinpoint the trouble, but he gets nothing. He looks at his phone, half expecting a call that will inform him of what’s going on, but the device remains traitorously silent, too.
So he lets the change settle over him, trying to use the weird feeling to figure out its cause, and he hits on a scent he hasn’t been near in several days. Nick. It’s Nick and Nick is in trouble. He has to be, there’s no other reason for this feeling.
He’s up and heading toward the door before that thought really even processes and he doesn’t know where he’s going exactly, but he’s going there as fast as he can.
***
All in all, he ends up outside the police station, which was certainly not his first choice of destinations. He can smell Nick everywhere around here, but he’s not sure if this is where the trouble is. A man walks out, smelling stronger of Nick’s scent than others, indicating that they probably spend a lot of time together, and he recognizes him from when Nick came barging into his home and, subsequently, into his life. Partners, then. “Hey, hey,” he starts, approaching the man while working harder than usual to keep his blutbad instincts in check. “You’re Detective… ugh, Detective Griffin, right? You work with Nick?”
“Who’s asking?” The man questions as he keeps waking away, though his eyes narrow in thinly veiled suspicion.
“I’m, I’m his….” He struggles for the right word to describe the really bizarre and unlikely relationship between Grimm and blutbad. He settles on, “friend. And I think something’s wrong.”
“With Nick?” He asks, turning to face the stranger for the first time, “why?” Recognition seems to set in then, and a hand levels on his gun. “Wait a minute, you’re the guy Nick thought kidnapped that girl…”
Eddie holds up both his hands in an I-mean-no-harm sort of gesture meant to diffuse any building tensions. “Yeah, yeah, I am. But Nick and I, he came back to apologize afterward, after you caught the guy who actually did it, I mean, obviously,” he lies, “We’re friends, I swear. He stops in to steal my coffee and bagels a couple times a week.”
Detective Griffin is clearly not convinced, but seems interested by Eddie’s claim, “and you think he’s in danger? Do you have any evidence to support that idea?”
“I just… Is he here?” Eddie pushes, since it’s not like he can explain the complexities of the blutbaden sense of smell to a civilian. “I need to talk to him. I tried calling him on the way here, but he wasn’t answering.”
“He was here earlier, but he left. Said he wasn’t feeling well and headed home, about an hour ago. Now,” the Detective responds tersely, curling a hand around Eddie’s arm to keep him from bolting with that information, “what’s this about?”
Eddie could easily break free, but he briefly entertains the thought that maybe back-up isn’t a bad idea when he doesn’t know what he’s up against. Granted, having an uninformed civilian around, one who can’t see, at that, isn’t going to help him much if something supernatural is behind this. “I don’t know, man. I just know that he’s in trouble, okay? I need to find him. Can you show me where he lives? I’ve never been there; he’s always showing up at my place.”
Detective Griffin seemed to have been starting to accept things thus far, with the causal use of Nick’s first name and the mention of phone calls, but the lack of knowledge of the whereabouts of Nick’s home causes some doubts to spring up. “I can’t tell you that. For all I know, you’re completely having me on here. Nice try, I get why you’re pissed at him, but I don’t believe you.”
While Eddie can understand the lack of trust – after all, the only time this other Detective has seen him was immediately following Nick’s accusations, and the subsequent destruction of his house as the police searched for a little girl who wasn’t there while he sat idly in a cop car – it’s still a giant pain the ass. “Look. I can find him on my own; I was hoping you could speed things up a little. He could be hurt, could be dying. I thought his partner would be watching out for him a little more than this.” He’s fully prepared to get to work now that he knows the Detective isn’t inclined to help him. “Either take me to his place or let me go.”
The hold on his arms drops, but the Detective makes no move, at first, to lead him to Nick. It’s just as Eddie’s waking away that there’s a long suffering sigh and a “Fine. Get in the car.”
***
Eddie’s got the location figured out about halfway there, but finding the right direction would’ve taken time he didn’t want to waste. The unmarked car pulls up in front of Nick’s place, and he’s suddenly assaulted with a new scent, one intermingled with Nick’s to a more extreme degree than Detective Griffin. The scent is female, and it’s everywhere, and for some reason, this development does not please Eddie in the slightest.
So, he’s not surprised to find the house occupied when they pull up outside. “Looks like Juliette’s home,” Detective Griffin – Hank – says, spotting the woman in the window, “let’s go see if I’m crazy for listening to you or not.”
Eddie stays a few paces back as they approach, unsure about why Nick never mentioned the girl. He’s sure they’re together, but does she know about what he is? He’s not sure Nick would appreciate any further overlapping of his life as a cop and his life as a Grimm.
“Juliette,” Hank greets when the door opens, “how are you?” Short pleasantries are exchanged, and she lets them both inside. “Nick’s friend,” his emphasis on the word suggests that he’s still not quite convinced, “was looking for him, has he come back?”
“Isn’t he with you?” Juliette counters, looking genuinely confused by the question. “He’s on shift tonight, right?”
The conversation continues on, and then they’re both asking Eddie questions about his suspicions, but he can’t answer. In sifting through the array of smells – Nick, Juliette, the scents of many animals that cling to her, Hank, the lingering traces of Marie, the plethora of scented cleaning items – he hits on one that unnerves him far more than the strange feeling that got him here.
Blood.
Nick’s blood.
It’s not much, but it’s more than any mundane injury would amount to. It’s mingled with the scent of fear and anger and he’s walking through the house like he knows every inch of it trying to find the source.
“Hey!” Hank is shouting, and they’re both following after him. “Where are you going? Get back here!”
He’s still not listening, can’t hear anything but the pulse of his own blood echoing in his ears as he focuses on the metallic scent of Nick’s blood in the air and the not so fantastic feelings that accompany it. Eddie finds signs of a struggle and a small pool of blood on the back steps, with a few stray drops leading to the street. There, he finds the lingering stench of burned rubber and exhaust.
Someone took Nick.
“What’s going on?” Hank asks, when they find him standing stock still at the edge of the road.
Mixed in with the overwhelming scent of Nick’s blood, he hits on something else that’s disturbingly familiar. Wolfsbane. And beneath that is the muddled scent of Blutbaden. If he’s not mistaken, he knows who they are.
“Don’t follow me.” He warns, and then he’s off.
***
He follows the scent of blood and blutbaden deep into the woods. Nick’s captors seem to have found a sheltered cabin of their own in which to enact their revenge, but at least Eddie is totally aware of their motives.
As he nears their hideaway, he can clearly scent several members of his family. They are all far from reformed and definitely not happy with his continued fraternization with the enemy. Whether they’re doing this for his safety - because, to them, a Grimm is a Grimm and Grimm’s are dangerous heathens who kill creatures like blutbaden indiscriminately – or if this is solely about avenging grandfathers and great-grandmothers, he isn’t sure. Either way, they’re not hurting Nick without a fight.
He barges in without any semblance of stealth – if they took Nick, they had to have known he’d figure it out – and is not at all surprised by the betrayed looks they’re all shooting at him. “Ah, and the prodigal son returns,” his older brother, James, snarks at him. His younger sister, Dana, shakes her head at him in clear disappointment as he shoves by them.
“How could you do this to us?” His father, David, booms at him when he walks into the next room of the small cabin. It’s there in that windowless room that he finds Nick, passed out and tied up. Wrists bound behind his back so tight that he can smell fresh blood from those wounds alone, legs tied to the chair, gagged, blindfolded. They really didn’t want Nick getting away. Blood is drying on his face, from where it dripped from a congealed would on his scalp just over a blackened eye.
“I think the better question is what the hell were you thinking, kidnapping a Grimm and a detective? Like that’s just going to blow over.” He’s shifting back and forth, trying to reign himself in. His fingers curl and uncurl into fists, claws protracting and retracting as he moves. He’s tense in a way he can’t remember ever being before, not with the urge to attack the easy prey that is presently Nick, but rather to fiercely protect him. “Let him go and I’ll try to talk him out of going after you for this.”
“Now, Edward,” a surprising voice says, emerging from the only other room in the cabin. His grandmother, Lila, looks stern and angry as always. His mother, Jen, accompanies her and she, too, does not look pleased with his choices. “Certainly you aren’t trying to protect this filthy, little butcher from the revenge he so deserves?”
“We’ve been trying to decide whether to chase him down like the animal he is or to do what his kind did to grandfather,” James says, coming up behind Eddie and blocking him into the room. “Chop off his hands and feet, and then his head. See how he likes that torture. Chasing him might be too easy, what with the head injury; I’m leaning toward the second option, myself.”
Eddie is entirely shifted now. The red of Nick’s blood as it drips onto the floor should be turning him into even more of a beast, one that’s ready to kill for more blood, but all its doing is fueling the rage against his family. But maybe that’s because to him, right now, they are the enemy. “You’re not killing him.”
“Why are you doing this?” Dana questions, a hand settling on his shoulder as if she hasn’t completely disowned his presence within the family. “You know what he is, what his kind have done to us!”
“Not him,” Eddie defends. His attention is fixed on his father, who is clearly unaware of the threat he is presently posing by being between he and Nick, and Eddie hasn’t missed that he’s been edging closer and closer to the chair. “Get away from him. I ripped a reaper’s arm off to protect someone he cared about, what do you think I’ll do for him? And I won’t be stopped just because it’s you standing there.”
His grandmother lets out a howl at that confession. “You’re a traitor. You’re defending him and he’s killed our kind!”
“Fine, yes, he’s killed a blutbad, but he was on a spree – there wasn’t another option.” Eddie counters, as there are limits to what can be condoned even amongst the most beastly of his kind; things that risk the exposure of their kind are highly frowned upon. He’s moving forward himself now, intent to stop his father’s steady progress toward his presently vulnerable friend, but one of the other’s lands a well-aimed blow to the small of his back, the weakest point on their bodies, and he goes down in a howling, writhing mass of fur and anger at the low blow. “If you touch him, I swear…”
James is over him then, wrapping his hands tight with bonds he can’t easily break even with the extra strength that being shifted offers him. He growls and tries to kick enough to throw his brother off of him, but his sister steps in to keep him still and before he knows it, he’s effectively restrained, too.
“You know, Eddie,” James starts, as they lay the still unconscious Nick out on the floor just in front of him. They cut the ropes binding him, but only to retie them so they can get at wrists and ankles, and he’s sans blindfold and gag now, too – presumably so he can see what’s coming at him and so they can hear him scream. “When we first saw you with the Grimm, we thought you were just luring him in, preparing to catch him before you told us about your find. Maybe to redeem yourself for your poor choices in walking away from what you truly are. Maybe fattening up the scrawny, little heathen before you made your move.” A knife comes out, then. They could certainly do it with claws, but apparently they’re opting for mimicking what was done to grandfather all those years ago. “When we realized you had no such intention, we knew we had to step in. For your own good, Eddie. He’d only turn on you.”
Eddie’s shaking, with rage and an inexplicable fear of harm coming to Nick. “He wouldn’t. Nick trusts me. He left me alone with his aunt, the Grimm in his family before him, to protect her when she was sick.”
“So he used you, then. As a glorified guard dog.” His mother pipes in. “You don’t mean anything to him. And you’re a fool to think otherwise.”
“Well. Then I guess I’m a fool,” he responds, he knows better than to think that what she says is true.
James is preparing yet another undoubtedly witty comment regarding Eddie’s loyalties when a groan from Nick disrupts him. All eyes land on the injured detective and “Oh, good, this’ll be even more fun now that he’s awake,” is now his brother’s response.
Nick winces and his eyes open, just barely, but he looks unfocused and disoriented. “…what? Where am I?” His voice is rough and dry, and the words come out slurred. His bump to the head must’ve been pretty bad, Eddie thinks, if he’s that out of it. “What’s goin’ on?”
“Not much,” James continues, hovering over Nick as he and their father finish restraining arms and legs that are starting to move as their captive gains a little bit more coherency. “Just gonna kill you.”
The squirming really picks up then, and Eddie sees Nick’s eyes blow wide in response, can hear his heart racing and smell the fresh blood that comes from his head wound as a result of his sharp movements. “Blutbad,” Nick decides, though he’s clearly confused about this observation. “Why do you look like Eddie?”
“Eddie?” James laughs, yet another nefarious idea forming in his mind, “Eddie’s the one who brought you here. You didn’t think he’d give up the chance to avenge our family, did you, Grimm?” While this is clearly an attempt to prove to him that Nick’s not his ally, Eddie’s almost afraid of what Nick’s delirium induced response is. He wants to shout out that he’d never betray Nick, but his father is beside him now, covering his mouth to keep him quiet.
“You’re lying.” Nick doesn’t hesitate to defend him. Immediately following this statement, however, comes one hell of a coughing fit that reminds Eddie that Nick had just gone home sick when he was grabbed. “Eddie wouldn’t.”
“Fine,” his brother says, curling his fingers into blood-matted hair and pulling enough to earn an awful sort of choked noise that Eddie never wants to hear Nick make again. “He didn’t bring you here, but it’s because of him we found you.”
Eddie has had enough, though. He bites down on the hand that’s preventing him from talking and his father pulls away with a frustrated growl. “Get off of him!” He roars, struggling against his own bonds when his brother doesn’t release his hold on Nick’s hair.
Another coughing fit interrupts Nick’s hopeful, “Eddie?” but his face reflects pure fear when he sees the loyal blutbad tied up before him.
“Enough!” His grandma declares, sick of their back and forth conversation. “Just get on with it already. I’m all for dragging it out, but preferably sooner rather than later, blood needs to be shed.”
“With pleasure,” James answers, now brandishing the knife threateningly in front of Nick’s face. “Where should I start? Hands or feet? His head is definitely last – we can’t have him missing the good parts.”
A new level of rage is pulsing through Eddie and he feels his claws extending further than they ever have before, his teeth longer, just at the mere threat of violence. When his brother settles the blade over Nick’s wrist at his grandmother’s suggestion, all he can see is red.
Nick’s squirming and trying to fight, but the knife slices into skin, over the wounds from his earlier bindings, pulling fresh blood to the surface. It drips down to the ground and Eddie knows that when enough of it is spilled, animal instincts will kick in and the rest of his blutbaden family won’t be able to control themselves and nothing will stop them from killing Nick, then. Nick shouts in protest as the knife digs deeper, but he’s cut off when he starts coughing again. Eddie hears the knife grate against bone and his stomach rolls in protest as the thought registers. He needs to act.
Now.
“I’ve warned you,” Eddie growls out in a voice that doesn’t sound like his own. His claws break through his restraints as if they’re not even there and he’s shoving his brother away before the others have even realized he’s free. He snaps the restraints holding Nick down in seconds, eyes darting around the room to make sure everyone stays away as he pulls his friend in close so he’s more easily protected. “You’ll get him over my dead body.”
James is stumbling back to his feet on the other side of the room, swaying where he stands and picking the remnants of the wooden chair Nick had been tied to out of his clothes. “How’d he get out?” His brother asks, clearly surprised by Eddie’s actions. “There’s no way he broke those ties.”
Eddie curls himself around the Grimm, a defensive posture if ever one did exist. Nick’s grabbing at him, in the midst of another coughing fit with all the sudden movements, and Eddie is emitting a constant, low growling noise that demands no one come any closer.
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me! Don’t think we’ll spare him just because you’re pretending he’s your mate.” Grandma scoffs, as if she can’t believe he’d dare to do something so outlandish. A blutbad and a Grimm? Impossible.
Now that this suggestion has been posed, five pairs of eyes turn toward Eddie and Nick. “I don’t think he’s pretending.” David counters.
To his own credit, Eddie had been starting to come to the same conclusion. It certainly explains his easy loyalty to Nick and why he knew Nick was in trouble and why Juliette’s presence disturbed him so much. If Nick’s supposed to be his mate, then it explains why he’s not attacking him despite the blood and why he’s willing to go after his own family to protect him. What he doesn’t understand is how he’s going to get them out of this mess. There are rules protecting mates – they’re stupidly difficult to find and generally seen as off-limits as a result – but he’s pretty sure his family is willing to place killing a Grimm over the sanctity of those rules.
“Is it true?” Dana asks, directing the question at Eddie, who’s the only one who can actually answer it.
Eddie’s still in crazy protective mode, so his only response is a quiet, “mine,” before he reverts to his low, warning growls.
Nick, who’s still delirious and concussed and losing a fair amount of blood, is trying to follow the conversation and figure out what the hell is going on. “Wait, I’m what?” His query, however, is ignored, as the only person who’d be inclined to answer him is still intently focused on the five threats surrounding them.
“No way are you joining up with a Grimm, Eddie,” James protests. “It completely dishonors all blutbaden, everything that’s been done to us by their kind. It’s not happening.”
“You know we don’t get a say in who our mates are,” Dana defends. She, at least, seems willing to honor the unwritten rules, and she backs off a respectable distance in order to further prove this to Eddie. “If the Grimm’s his mate then the Grimm’s his mate and we can’t touch him.”
James laughs at that, “Oh? Watch me.” He lunges forward, shifted himself now and swings. His claws graze Nick’s chest, tearing his shirt and drawing more blood along the thin, red lines left in the wake of the attack. James slams into both of them, knocking them backwards, but Eddie’s up and retaliating in no time.
A fight breaks out between the two brothers, blows are exchanged and blood is drawn. Eddie’s hyper-extended claws prove to be a very helpful side-effect of the threat against Nick, making his work that much easier. He dodges a blow hurtling toward his face and it glances harmlessly off his shoulder so he swipes at James’ stomach, leaving some claw marks of his own. He keeps his back to the wall and away from his family, so they can’t down him with another blow to the back again. Dana’s shouting at them to stop, but neither of them are registering it, can’t, won’t, not until the fight’s over. Eddie really wants it over fast - Nick still needs protecting, no way to know whose side his mom and dad will be on and chances are Grandma’s not giving up her hatred of Grimm’s anytime soon, either. James is coming at him again, but with a final, enraged lunge, Eddie gets his hands around his brother’s neck and holds on. It only takes a few minutes to knock him out that way, and the bloody claw marks left in his neck only offer Eddie a sense of sickening vindication as he lets the other blutbad crash to the floor. The wolf inside him seems somewhat appeased by the temporary elimination of a threat but does not seem satisfied that James was not permanently eliminated as a risk to Nick’s wellbeing.
Dana moves to check on James, but Eddie is all focused on Nick. He’s passed out again, whether from his earlier injuries or new ones, or some combination of the two. The sight of Nick unmoving on the ground and marred with fresh blood is enough to make him semi-coherent, capable of speech once again. “I had to protect him,” he says, in his own defense as his eyes the rest of his family warily. “He’s mine.”
“We could use this to our advantage,” his father suggests. “Imagine if we could control a Grimm, the power we’d have.”
That spurs another growl from Eddie. “Yeah, that’s not happening, either.”
“Dad,” Dana pipes in, once she’s sure her oldest brother is not too badly injured. “I’d suggest you stop pushing that idea if you don’t want to experience what James just did. Just a thought.”
“I would agree with that,” their mother adds, an arm curling around her husband’s to pull him away enough so that they aren’t seen as threats. David gives in with a disappointed huff, but Eddie suspects he’ll try to bring up the idea again later if given the chance. He is, however, surprised to note that their begrudging grandmother respectively backs off, as well, though she does so with a rather irritated scowl on her face.
“Take him and go,” David says. “Before your brother wakes up.”
So that’s what Eddie does.
