Grimm: A Novel In The Nate Temple Supernatural Thriller Series (The Temple Chronicles Book 3) (23 page)

Then I waited for a response to my whistle, shrugging my shoulders a few times for warmth, scanning the skies as I ran through my plan one last time.

Chapter 23

I
listened as the last of my gang finally gained entrance to the brownstone. The second the door closed, I heard a sharp crack of wings snapping in close to a body, a rush of wind, and then a pair of boots landed softly beside me. I thought I heard a second click of boots, but it was faint, almost inaudible. I turned and held out my hand, neutrally studying the air beside Raego, thankful he had already accomplished his mission.

My insurance policy. Delivered by my trusty weredragon pal.

Raego gripped my hand. “We’re secure. No willpower. Only able to observe.”

“You’re sure?” He nodded. “You didn’t harm them, right? That’s not the intention. I just need an impartial witness.” I thought about that. “Well, as impartial as possible. They obviously aren’t going to be happy about this, but hopefully they will understand by the end.” I added. Raego grunted doubtfully.

“No harm. Just control.” He studied me thoughtfully. “Ballsy move.”

“You did as commanded.” I warned in a growl. “I’ll take responsibility.” Raego watched me intently, wisely not saying anything, his face a mask.

With that, he turned and began walking towards the brownstone. I followed him, trying to ignore the queasy flip-flopping motion in my stomach. Misha was no doubt watching the building from the rooftops. Raego rarely went anywhere these days without his red weredragon for a bodyguard. Being the leader of the dragon nation – the Obsidian Son – and the only black dragon in existence made a lot of dragon hunters grow dollar signs in their eyes when they saw Raego. And if Misha was here, I could safely assume that my friend Tory was roaming the streets in plain clothes, watching out for
her
.

I smiled at the unlikely union. Not the girl on girl part. The dragon on human part.

Well, technically Tory was more than just a human – being able to crush cars like beer cans kind of eliminated her from the human crowd. And she was an ex-cop, meaning she wasn’t what you would call a
people person
, so perhaps meeting Misha was a better fit for her in the long run anyway.

We walked through the front door, following the voices heard from the back room. I idly thumbed the satchel at my side, slightly nervous. I was figuratively turning on a giant bat symbol to illuminate the skies and taunt the Grimms. Only it wouldn’t be a bat symbol. To them, it would feel more like a cloud-sized depiction of a wizard humping a Grimm from behind.

But I needed to bait them, so it was necessary.

I think.

I shook off my doubts. Anything was better than being drawn into a fight on ground where I wasn’t ready. I found everyone in the office, and silently went to work, not even needing magic for this next part. It was a ritual. Even Indie could have done it as long as she could follow directions. That was the scary part about rituals. They were predesigned to perform a supernatural function, and as long as the ritual was performed correctly,
anyone
could use it. It was only if the ritual was botched – which I had done the first time, in this very room – that things went downhill, and it was good to have a wizard nearby.

I had already performed this ritual before, and had been not-so-gently informed of what I had done wrong, so I was able to correctly prepare everything in only a few minutes. Then, rather than letting everyone hear what I was about to say, I decided to say it only in my mind. I called out a True Name.

Three times.

The air beside Raego shifted unnaturally a bit. I frowned but didn’t say anything. Useful to know.

A silver comet slammed down into the center of the ring before me, instantly zipping around in circles, agitated at the confinement, moving too fast to get a clear look at the creature’s shape other than to determine that it was made of blinding silver light. Everyone stared at the circle after taking a few steps back and shielding their eyes from the pearlescent light.

I folded my arms. “Are you quite finished yet?” I asked.

The figure halted, revealing a twelve-inch tall action figure of a quicksilver playboy bunny. My Barbie doll.

Her hair, teeth, skin, and even the irises of her eyes, all glowed with mercurial light. Because she was entirely naked. Which let me know all was right with the world.

She glared up at me. “Maker,” she spat. “Release me or die.”

“Hi, Barbie. I just want to pick you up and squeeze your tiny face!” I clapped. I felt the murderous gaze of every feminine pair of eyes hit me like bolts of lightning, but I stoically ignored them.

“I will let you touch mine if I can touch yours,” she cooed, grinning murderously.

I shivered. “No, thanks.” My gaze pointedly rose to acknowledge the group. “Group, meet Barbie. Barbie, meet Group.” The sprite whirled with a hiss, craning her neck to see the large number of people here.

“You dare let them hear my name?” She shrieked.

“No. I spoke it in my mind. That’s just our little secret. Listen, you helped me out by telling me about the Grimms. Now I need your help.”

“I know. I reminded you of this yesterday. You have come to die.”

“So… oh,” I stammered, realizing I didn’t have to persuade her and that she was already on board. But I wasn’t really on board with the dying part. I had a different plan. I fast-forwarded my sales pitch. “I’m going to need you to-”

“This is tiring.” She mumbled, interrupting me. I scowled back. If she would just let me finish my sentence… Suddenly a six-foot tall pinup version of the same sprite now occupied the ring, causing my friends to jump back a step in surprise. She rolled her shoulders, which did very nice things to her unclothed frame, earning pleased sounds from the men present in the room and arctic stares from the women. She shot Gunnar and Alucard a dark wink, and then turned to face me. “Let me out and I will aid you.”

“Just to clarify, I do not consider killing me to be an aid.” She frowned, but nodded.

I didn’t even hesitate. There was no room around that agreement. Sure she had helped me out before, a few times even, but there was this one time she had also threatened to sex me to death.

It’s really not as weird as it sounds. Sex was her thing. She fed off of it. A succubus of some kind. But I trusted her. So I scuffed the ring with my foot and let her out of her cage.

She instantly crouched, flung her fists up, and what looked like life-sized duplicates of Wolverine’s Adamantium claws shot out the back of her wrist. She let out a deadly hiss, preparing to pounce and
snicker-snack
me to pieces with a ‘
Hey, Bub’
thrown in for good measure. Shouts filled the room as I tensed to defend myself.

But nothing happened.

She suddenly cackled with unabashed glee as she sheathed the claws. “Your face…”

Listen, creatures like her don’t giggle. They cackle. Trust me.

I had been ready to clobber her with a giant-sized fly swatter of magic, and was reconsidering my decision to hold back. I was panting, and every woman in the room seemed suddenly pleased with the sprite they had recently scowled at. Women.

She walked past me, patting me on the shoulder with a demure wink.

My pants tightened a bit by default. I didn’t know if she exuded some kind of pheromone or what, but it was impossible to ignore. I expected Indie to start shooting me with her hunting pistol, but instead she seemed to be having a similar reaction. She wasn’t even looking my way, eyes locked on the sprite. I wrapped my power about me like a cloak, feeling a sudden drop in the euphoria. But still…

A naked chick stood a few feet away, walking around with such a blatant disregard that it really should have been a crime. She stopped before my friends, who stood at attention like kids in front of a teacher at the first day of school, waiting to be picked as the favorite student. “What a delightful platter you have brought me to nibble on, Nathaniel…” She hummed erotically.

“Not platter. Friends. Warriors all.” She eyed Raego, who stared back with obvious interest, but his faint grin looked like a totally natural response to a beautiful naked woman standing before him, not influenced by her magic. He was, after all, well acquainted with mind magic. Dragons used a similar power. He stared deep into her eyes, and nodded back with a hungry smile. The sprite of death-by-sex, one who had literally carried hundreds if not thousands of men to their deaths aboard the eternal train of climax,
blushed
.

Well.

Okay.

I was a regular matchmaker. They
were
both shapeshifters… I stopped that train of thought quickly.

I cleared my throat. “I need you to show them what happened to start all this. Who we are up against, and why. A few years ago when we first met should help out too. You can leave out certain… details that are irrelevant to the Grimms.” I added, silently and very obviously hinting at what I thought should be left out.

“You should have placed that limit on me before you freed me.” She murmured, shooting one last look at Raego, who was still smiling at her.

She turned back to my friends. “Alright, children. Sit. Let me show you a story…” My friends complied, sitting in couches, on the ground, against a wall, wherever was comfortable. The sprite bowed her head, closed her eyes, and breathed deeply for a moment, murmuring softly under her breath. Then she began to whirl in a slow ballet, or martial arts form, and the air suddenly thickened with fog. Then the fog began to shift and sway, coalescing into shapes, forms, landscapes, seasons, and instruments of death.

It was a war.

She showed us a story. One I hadn’t known.

Her words filled the air like the voice of an angel over the swirling world of fog before us. I couldn’t see her, or my friends, or even the room. It was as if she took us some place up in the clouds. As she spoke, those clouds pantomimed her story with crude figures, most forms of life unfinished, mere shapes representing a concept. A werewolf was obviously a werewolf, but if you looked closely there were no defining characteristics to distinguish it from another wolf, unless the character was essential to the story. Then it gained a few more details – just enough to catch our attention. I sat back and listened. A part of me was amazed at the magic, but the majority was amazed by the story itself, watching the dancing fog as I listened to her words.

Chapter 24

D
uring the Crusades, there existed a special group of seven holy warriors who participated in the sack of Constantinople. It was said these men were filled with Holy Fire, and were unstoppable, but they disappeared shortly after the battle without explanation to their commanders. They were known as the
Decapitares
, or ‘ones who decapitate.’ They considered themselves judge, jury, and executioner, and didn’t fit well among the other Crusaders. So they disappeared without a trace. This was the first time in recorded history that the so-called
Grimms
entered the world stage on an official level.

“But their origins go back further. Before that they were merely a group of supernaturals gifted with the ability to see through glamour. Any kind of glamour. They could look at you,” she pointed at Gunnar, “and recognize you as a werewolf, or you,” she pointed at Alucard, “and see you were a Master Vampire. They couldn’t control it. Even worse, they were defenseless people, with no offensive power to balance out their vision. When they saw through someone’s glamour the supernatural person in their gaze saw their eyes turn entirely black as a warning.

“One of them wisely realized that this ability made them targets, and in order to survive with such a dangerous power they needed to watch out for each other. His last name was Grimm, and at some point the others inevitably adopted his name as a tribute to that man who saved them from eradication. They hid their powers as best they could, banding together for protection.

“After a time, these new Grimms convinced themselves – and then preached to the masses – that the reason their eyes turned black was proof that the accused were demons. That the change of eye color was a direct result of these seemingly normal people seeing a reflection of their dark, stained souls shone back at them. And that the
Grimms
were the only warning readily available to reveal these monsters for what they truly were. People believed them.