Grimm Tidings: Grimm's Circle, Book 6

Dedication

For my family…my guy and our kids. Always.

Prologue

“You can chase death a little too closely.”

Death was no stranger to the Grimm—men and women who dealt with the demons who managed to cross over into the mortal world.

The three men stood there, staring down over the edge of the building into the alley below, watching the bloody, brutal battle taking place. Will—their leader—watched the woman closely. Few others knew him by any other name. Their leader was rather closed-mouthed, especially about himself.

“Who is chasing death? Finn?” The blond at Will’s side cocked his head as he studied the Grimm with a knack for fire and fondness for firearms. “Or the baby Grimm?”

“Is it hard to figure out, Rob?” Will murmured.

Rob smirked in response.

No. It wasn’t hard, not for anybody with eyes. Finn fought like a hellion, but he fought like a hellion with a focus.

The woman, though…

“She doesn’t seem to care if she lives or dies,” Rob murmured. “As long as she kills things.” His eyes—the strangest eyes—glowed red in the dark, a sign he was either pissed off or amused. Neither boded well. Rob was the dangerous sort when he was pissed. When he was amused… Hell. He was the dangerous sort no matter what.

But he’d been the most dangerous when he’d chased his own death hundreds of years earlier.

The other man, Jacob, stood with his hands linked loosely at his back. His eyes were a cool, flinty gray and although they were nowhere near as odd as Rob’s, they were still unsettling. As he stared at the duo fighting in the alley below, he eyed the woman’s technique—it was flawless. She knew how to fight. She was green, but that was to be expected. She was still young—he could feel it.

He knew her name. Celine. A lovely name—graceful. It suited her.

Most of the Grimm this side of the Atlantic knew who she was. She’d crossed over nearly four years earlier and she’d gone through more trainers in those four years than any ten Grimm usually went through in the same time frame combined.

Sometimes new ones went through a rough patch and needed an adjustment period. Just not such an extensive one.

It wasn’t that she was a bad student. She learned fast, she trained hard and once she’d figured out what she was supposed to be doing, no demon put in front of her stood a chance.

Grimms were made to kill demons and she did it very, very well.

She just might become a legend among them. A legend among legends…strange, that.

If she survived.

That was a big
if
.

Her fight wasn’t about the mission. She hadn’t become the whirlwind he saw before him because she cared all that much about what they were doing. It was, to her, a means to an end. She fought like there was no tomorrow, because she didn’t
want
a tomorrow.

She fought because she wanted to die. It was all but etched upon her skin. Her problem was that she was just too damn good at what she did.

But sooner or later, that luck would run out. And as he watched, it almost happened—too fast for any of them to even stop it, considering how far away they stood.

A silver flash caught the faint light as a demon came up behind her. If it weren’t for her trainer, Finn, she would have been toast. Finn was pyrokinetic and he used that handy little talent for fire to eliminate the other demons who managed to surround them. As the flames ripped through the alley like an inferno, Finn stormed up to Celine, his face tight and angry.

Celine didn’t look like she appreciated the save.

“Will, what do you expect us to do with her?” Jacob slanted a look at Rob. “And are you actually expecting the two of us to work together with her?”

“No. But one of you will be the one to get through to her.” A faint smile curled Will’s lips and the simple silver disc at his neck glowed. “It will be one of you—because there aren’t many left who have the experience to guide her. She’s gone through most of the others I thought could help her. So it’s down to one of you.”

“Down to one of us?” Rob stroked a finger across one eyebrow. “So did you save the best for last or hope like hell you wouldn’t need one of us?”

Will’s mouth twisted in a humorless smile. “To be honest, I never thought it would be one of you. But today I…had a feeling.”

A feeling. Yes, Will’s feelings were another thing of legend. He had “feelings” and cities rose and fell, saints wept and angels bled.

The Grimm, usually. They
were
angels—of the guardian variety. And they could bleed. It wasn’t unusual for one of Will’s feelings to lead to bloodshed. The Grimm were a tough lot and they could heal just about anything short of losing their heads, which, all things considered, was a good thing.

“So this feeling,” Jacob asked, “did it say which one of us, or are we here just to see if you can have us both manage to be in the same hemisphere without killing each other?”

“You’ve both been in the same hemisphere for six years now and you haven’t killed each other,” Will chuckled. “No. I wasn’t sure which one. You’ll both be connected to something that’s coming up for her. I don’t know how. I can’t see that clearly. But I suspect the one who can help her will feel it.”

“That girl down there needs serious guidance, Will. Everybody knows what a mess she is, but you’re moving down the food chain.” The glow in Rob’s eyes glinted hotter, redder, as he crouched down, almost animal-like, one hand gripping the edge of the building. “I’m the biggest head case among a party of head cases. And that one?” He nodded at Jacob. “This chit’s problem is that she can’t stop living in the past, right? She’s only been one of us a few years. Jacob though? He’s still dragging his chains after close to two hundred years.”

“Will, bear in mind, if you expect me to work with that imbecile, I’m likely to use any chains I might carry to strangle him.” Jacob had worked with Rob. Once. Nearly one hundred and fifty years ago. It had ended in a bloodbath—for them. Not the demons. Jacob had spent nearly two weeks in stasis, the healing sleep a Grimm needed when the damage was too extensive. Rob had needed a few days of downtime himself, even though he was somewhat older than Jacob.

It was a well-known fact Rob and Jacob didn’t get along. At all. It hadn’t been a joke about keeping them in different parts of the world. For a very long time, Will had done just that.

“Don’t worry. I need to bring the girl down to earth—make her accept her reality. Only one of you can do that. And I think the right one already knows who it is.”

Jacob wore a silver pendant around his neck. The other Grimm wore one like it, a silver disc, etched with wings, upswept. And right now, Jacob’s pendant was pulsing, throbbing, heating from within. The medallion wasn’t just for decoration. It served as both a reminder, a connection to what he was, who had made him—and in times like this, it could be a silent nudge.

This time, though, he hadn’t needed it. He already knew.

He’d known the moment he saw the girl she was for him.

Memory stabbed at him—he was no good at saving people. He was good at fighting and excelled at killing things. Those were his talents. Oh, and reminding people of things they’d rather forget, stripping them bare of all defenses until they had to face things they’d rather die than accept. Nothing else.

Moving to the very edge of the building, he watched as Finn finished banking the fires he’d called. The woman stood off to the side, cleaning her blades and tucking them away, looking cold and unaffected.

She wasn’t, though. Unaffected. There was pain inside her. The power inside him, that monstrous power that had almost driven him mad, pulled at him, teased him…
What lies behind the pain, let us see…

Jacob pushed it down. He wasn’t going there, not with a Grimm. Her pain was her own.

Turning, he stood with his back at the very edge of the building, the wind slamming against him. It was cold, the bitter edge of winter sharp in the air.

His eyes met Will’s silvery ones and he saw nothing there—no satisfaction, no interest, no curiosity. Not even that keen intelligence he knew existed.

“And if I can’t help her, what then?”

Something flashed in Will’s eyes. It might have been relief. But then Will lowered his lids, his gaze shifting away to linger on the woman down in the alley. “We don’t want that to happen, Jacob. It’s been a long time since we’ve lost one. Let’s not let it happen now.”

Chapter One

Then…

Slowing to a stop at the intersection, Celine swallowed against the tears, the pain, the anger. He wanted a fucking divorce—

It’s never enough to say I’m sorry…
It’s never enough to say I care…

Theory of a Deadman. “We’re Not Meant to Be”. Also known as “one of the absolute last songs she needed to hear”.

Cutting her gaze to the radio, she stared at it in disbelief. She couldn’t believe that song was on. Jamming the power button with her finger, she turned the radio off, plunging the car into silence.

A divorce.

Gavin wanted a divorce…

She needed to breathe. Fuck. Usually coming up into the Knobs made it easier for her to think, but she couldn’t think—

A sharp, broken scream cut through the night.

Celine stiffened, slanting her eyes out the passenger window. Squinting her eyes, she searched the night. Dark, so fucking dark—

Just go home. You need to go home and work things out with Gavin,
she told herself.

But she heard it again—another scream. Fainter. Weaker. Off in the dark parking lot of a closed bar, she thought she saw shadows…

The woman had been screaming, all right.

And Celine understood why as the pain tore through every last millimeter of her body—pain unlike anything she’d ever felt.

They held her down with hands so strong and so cruel.

And their eyes—there was a madness in them. Madness, and a lack of…human.

One of them came at her again—she jerked a knee up, even though it hurt so fucking bad to move—

He laughed and backhanded her. She blacked out, and when she woke up, he was already done with her. Numb, she stared at the broken body off to the side. The woman she’d heard screaming. Dead. She’d tried to help…and she was going to die…

“You’re a fun little piece. I don’t think we should kill you yet,” somebody muttered. It was the one she’d tried to rack earlier. He was crouching by her. He reached down, fisted a hand in her hair and jerked her up.

She bit back a scream.

Fought the urge to beg. She had to live, damn it.

She couldn’t die…
She had to get back to Gavin… As the man grabbed her breast, she couldn’t stop herself from fighting.
Get back to Gavin…
That was the one thing in her mind.

Curling her hand into a fist, she struck.

As she punched him in the gut, there was a brilliant flash of light.

It almost blinded her—or it might have been the way the bastard bellowed and punched her in the temple, knocking her to the ground.

Then there was only darkness…

“Shit.” Mandy stared down at the broken body of the woman at their feet. She was still alive. Barely.

“She shouldn’t be here,” Will muttered, shaking his head.

“Did you see her fighting him?” Mandy knelt down by the woman, grimacing at the blood spilling out from under her head. “She’s bleeding like crazy.”

“She’s dying.”

The woman’s lashes fluttered and Will found himself staring in to desperate eyes.

“Help…”

And then Mandy looked at him. “She’s a fighter, Will.”

Kneeling down, he cupped the woman’s head in his hands. “She can’t survive these wounds,” he said quietly. “And they are too severe for me to heal.”

“Then bring her over.” Mandy stared at him, her eyes pleading. “She
fought
fucking
parasei
. They raped her, and she still fought.”

Mandy was his student. She was also his weakness. As she continued to watch him with those pleading eyes, he wavered. The woman
was
strong. And something
had
led him here, directly here. There were parasei, and other demons, everywhere.