Grimm: A Novel In The Nate Temple Supernatural Thriller Series (The Temple Chronicles Book 3) (35 page)

“Distress calls are not typically made by mistake.”

“Well,
who
called you? I’d like to hire them. I call you guys all the time and you never answer. This person sounds handy if they can get you guys to actually show up and do your jobs.” I muttered.

He flexed his fists. “I’m not at liberty to specify. A friend. That’s all you need to know.” He answered cryptically.

“Well, how am I supposed to help you with knowledge like that? You want me to prove that this imaginary person is not here?” I waited a breath. “See the problem?”

He merely stared back. “Someone important to…
me
called for my help.” His eyes grew thoughtful. “I think.”

“We’re down to
I think
, now?” I asked in astonishment.

“The transmission was garbled.”

I let him stew on that. “So you round up an army and attack the Dragon Lord’s home? Really subtle, Jafar. It’s amazing we…
you
people haven’t caused a war recently. But then again, that could change.” I muttered, shaking my head, trying to intimidate him with consequences and get them out of here. I saw Raego approaching in human form. He nodded discreetly. So I took a gamble.

“Scan the area. If your
friend
is here, you should be able to sense them. And before you get too pushy, I know you could break through any wards preventing it.” I rolled my eyes. “So you get to do it from here. Outside.”

“What if she’s been moved?”

She
, I thought to myself, suddenly wary about exactly what Raego had done for
Operation White Knight
. “I’m the only other person with the ability to
Shadow Walk
, and I only just arrived.” I muttered. “Had a disagreement with the local werewolf pack that made me fashionably late. Speaking of which, he’s the new Alpha.” I pointed at Gunnar, now back in his nude human form after having briefly shifted to wolf and back again.

He was also still liberally painted with blood from his fight.

He didn’t smile or move in any way whatsoever other than to stare down the Justice.

Jafar blinked. I smiled. “All that blood almost lets you imagine the screams of the recently deceased Alpha. Cool.” I let that sink in for a second or two. “So now you have managed to piss off the only Maker in existence, the Dragon Lord, and the local Alpha of the St. Louis werewolf pack. Because you
think
you got a distress call from a…
friend
. And our response was to defend Raego’s home, and then offer you the opportunity to take a look around.” I added softly. “We could have done much worse. Still could.” I added as an afterthought.

Jafar growled, snapping a finger at a nearby Justice. He instantly shook his head. “No sign of her, Sir.”

Jafar’s face purpled. “This isn’t over.” He promised. “I
know
you’re involved.”

I shrugged. “You keep saying that. One of these days I’ll actually believe you.” He took a threatening step closer and I smiled, holding out my arms in invitation. “You’re not the scariest thing I’ve run across today, Jafar. Not even close.”

Jafar watched me, and without another word, every single Justice
Shadow Walked
out of existence, leaving us all alone.

“Well, that could have gone worse. Thanks, Nate. Gunnar.” Raego muttered.

“I’m just glad no one died.” Blank faces stared back at me. “No one
died
, right?”

Raego shook his head, but still didn’t look pleased. “They attacked my house, Nate.” He growled. “For something I did for you.”

“I know.” I admitted, not hiding my guilt. “How did it happen?” I asked carefully.

“She’s clever.” He muttered under his breath. I stared at him, not pleased to hear his defensive answer. “It’s been resolved. Tory’s on duty now.” He promised, pointing at the house, where apparently Tory was now watching over
Operation White Knight
.

I nodded. “Good.” We didn’t have time to get in a tussle with the Justices. Not yet.

“Let’s part ways. I’ll get back with you soon. Right now I have a few things to take care of. I need to go bake a cake.”

“A cake.” Raego answered flatly.

“Yes. After dinner, things are likely to get…
interesting
.” He didn’t even respond.

I turned away, Gunnar stepping up beside me. I spotted Misha speaking sternly with her two daughters, now in human form. They looked efficiently chastised. Then Misha let out a dazzling smile and wrapped them up in a group hug, murmuring to their heads. Her eyes shone with pride despite her previous scolding. I smiled, preparing to open a gateway out of there when a dragon let out a ferocious roar behind me. I whirled to see every single dragon staring at the tree line.

Which was suddenly filled with ten Grimms.

Without a word, they began to advance.

Then advance faster. I glanced at Gunnar with a groan, but he had already shifted back to wolf form and was growling territorially. Raego’s face drained. “You were saying something about after dinner, Nate?”

“How god damn hard can it be to bake a cake?” I muttered. Raego frowned at me, no doubt wondering if I was still sane. I didn’t elaborate. “Let’s do this.” And we were suddenly running to meet the Grimms as the dragons on the roof launched into the sky with peals of dinosaur-volume cries.

It really was too bad that the Justices had already fled. We really could have used some cannon fodder about now, and them being attacked might have even forced them to team up with me.

But, it just wasn’t meant to be.

And just maybe, neither was my survival.

Or my cake.

Chapter 36

I
heard a piercing howl as Gunnar entered the fray.

I tipped an imaginary hat at Misha – now a giant red dragon – as she swooped down to incinerate a lone Grimm sneaking up to the side of the house. His scream was most satisfying.

Then a black blur slammed into her side, hammering her onto the roof of the mansion just over my shoulder. Tile and concrete exploded from the force of the impact, and a billow of fire erupted like someone had let loose the largest Molotov cocktail ever.

But I didn’t have time to watch.

The air abruptly throbbed, sending me, and all my people to their knees. The air felt thick, soupy, and then it was abruptly gone and everyone climbed back to his or her feet, glancing back at me like it was my fault. I shrugged, and my whips of controlled fire and ice manifested as extensions of my hands – and my mind.

I wasn’t sure how many dragons were currently in town, but I did know that Raego’s operation was global, so it was likely he had only a skeleton force here. Which wouldn’t be good for our odds. Then again, these punks could duplicate anything we could do, so it was almost counter-productive to have too many Freaks available.

Grimms exploded into new forms – dragons, a few werewolves, and a true berserker of a man. The last plucked up a tree with one hand, tore it out of the ground like a weed, and threw it at the house where it shattered the front door.

Body met body in heavy impacts, claws, and scales.

It was chaos.

Bolts of fire filled the sky. But not just fire. Lightning, Ice, Earth, and metal spears of gleaming silver. All weapons of the various Skittles bag of dragons fighting to defend their territory. Each color of dragon had a unique specialty and flavor of power.

Lightning shattered from one blue dragon’s snout, lancing another green dragon from the sky. As if on cue, several more dazzling bolts of lightning shot from two other blue dragons, aimed at the first. The Grimms were learning quickly, I just didn’t know friend from foe. Two quicksilver spears tagged the two dragons in the wings, sending them down to the earth with roars like thunder. I noticed that the two downed dragons seemed to have large chains around their throats, and then it hit me.

The amulets.

I yelled into the night, using my power to amplify my voice. “Look for the amulets! Means they are a Grimm, and not a friendly.” Obviously, no one answered me. And it wouldn’t have mattered if they had.

A pair of humans suddenly appeared out of thin air on either side of me, lunging to grapple me to the ground. But they stepped in direct striking range of my whips. I twirled the whips in a circle, managing to catch one of them by the ankle and send him flying towards the second floor of the house with major freezer burn. He screamed, and his foot dropped a few paces away as the body sailed away. A dragon with a chain around his neck swooped down at the last second to catch him, helping him land gently. One Grimm waited for him, suddenly kneeling over the body. Fucking Ichabod, bringing them back to life.

But I was too busy at the moment to do anything about him.

The remaining Grimm duplicated my whips of power, sending one at my face. I blocked it with my own. A coruscation of sparks exploded on impact, blinding both of us. I reacted first, even as I sensed his other fiery whip crackling towards my face. I imagined a pulsing body of water – vaguely humanoid and flipping off the Grimm where I had been standing as I simultaneously
Shadow Walked
thirty yards away. I reappeared facing the Grimm’s side from a safe distance. His face was morphed into a triumphant smile, too caught up in the moment to realize it was just a doppleganger made of water. His napalm whip – a duplicate of my own raced towards the watery figure, pulsating with several thousand degrees of heat. See, it was more like lava than fire, and since he was copying me blindly, he hadn’t thought of cause and effect.

I smiled.

The tip of his whip connected with the water, instantly superheating it.

The explosion of steam instantly melted the front of his body and sent him sailing off into the lawn, a smoking, screaming, wet mess to cool in a snow bank. I didn’t gloat, but turned to see Ichabod no longer kneeling over the body of the first attacker, but rather helping him to his feet instead.

I snarled.

I had to take him out or it didn’t matter how many we took down.

A werewolf launched out from behind a bush, hungrily snapping his jaws at my neck. Two hundred pounds of white fur – previously camouflaged by the snow – hit him like a truck, eliciting a yelp of pain. Gunnar bobbed his head at me, and the two wolves squared off. I began to run towards Ichabod, intent on murdering him quickly.

War raged around me, but I tuned it out, focusing on the man who stood silently watching me with sad, resolute eyes. Which gave me pause, slowing my steps. He looked over my shoulder, a mere flicker of his eyes.

So quickly that no one else would have even noticed it unless staring at him like I had been. I whirled, rolling to the side as a set of jaws clamped down on the earth where I had been standing. A werewolf I hadn’t seen yelped as he struck his snout into the earth and flipped ass over teakettle. A dozen more stood behind him, growling and snapping at each other, forming a loose line.

And…

Son of a bitch
.

They had Ashley.

Gunnar tore the throat out of his opponent, and was just standing to full height again, nose sniffing the air, suddenly interested in something familiar. His glacier-like eyes discovered the werewolves, and Ashley, and he stilled for a heartbeat. Then he was suddenly by my side, pacing back and forth, snapping, snarling, whining, and quivering with barely restrained impatience, hackles lifted until they made him look twice his normal size. His lips were pulled back in a permanent curl, but he obviously noticed the same thing I did.

There was nothing we could do. One move on our part and Ashley died.

Because werewolves gripped each of her arms in powerful jaws.

A shaggy, wood colored wolf stepped forward, chain gleaming around his throat.

He watched us, intelligent eyes waiting for us to make a move. We didn’t. My eyes instantly darted to a fierce battle just beyond the werewolves.

Two small red dragons were battling on the ground with another larger red silver dragon wearing the familiar Amulet.

Misha’s daughters.

The two adolescent dragons fought like a pack, harrowing, and darting in for quick slashes and bites while the other distracted the silver monstrosity, dodging his silver spray of molten metal. But after a few seconds, the silver dragon suddenly spun and latched onto the leg of one of the smaller red dragons, and I heard a scream the likes of which I never wanted to hear again.

Their mother, Misha, diving to rescue her babies.

The giant red comet of motherly rage slammed into the silver dragon, pummeling it into the ground and knocking her offspring free from the attacker’s jaws. The wounded dragonling limped to safety, her sister jumping in front of her to keep her safe as two more blue dragons dove to help the silver dragon battle Misha.

The two assailants roared, and let loose bolts of lightning directly into Misha’s side. Her body arced up with a million volts of power and I managed to meet her eyes.

My.

Heart.

Stopped.

For an eternity we stared at each other, neither able to move or look away. I saw a single tear, and then her eyes closed, and her body crashed to the ground, twitching. The Grimm dragons launched themselves up into the air, unconcerned with the dragonlings now racing to their mother’s side.