This is where I'm posting my four part fan fiction, Grimm Ever After. It picks up with the epilogue from the final episode, with Kelly and Diana, and also has flashbacks to seven years earlier when Kelly and the triplets first woge.
Some character notes before we begin:
Kelly Burkhardt - part zauberbiest, specifically his left arm which grants him superhuman strength and telekinesis, a handy advantage when fighting wesen, he is also still a Grimm. He is in a relationship with one of Monroe and Rosalee's daughters(see below).
Julie - fuchsbau, daughter of Monroe and Rosalee, takes after her mother, named after Eve who never took her old name back. In a relationship with Kelly (see above).
Freddy - only blutbadt son of Monroe and Rosalee, named for his late uncle, like his father he tries to fight his urges, but unlike his father, he has no history of giving in to his urges and without that regret to guide him, he may be more inclined to fall off the wagon. He is in love with Diana, and she kind of feels the same way, but they have yet to admit it to each other.
Theresa - fuchsbau, daughter of Monroe and Rosalee, named after Truble, she is a bit of a wild child compared to her siblings. She is partial to bad boys and wants to be a criminal defense lawyer like Adalind so she can protect those lost souls she's so fond of.
“Happy Birthday to you…” Everybody sang to the triplets, Freddy, Julie and Theresa. Today they were turning thirteen and the whole family had gathered at a park to celebrate. And by family, that included not only their parents, Monroe and Rosalee, but also their less formal extended family, Kelly Burkhardt and his sister Diana, and their parents Nick and Adalind. For being two families, they spent as much time together as if they were one family. They seemed to be together for every special occasion, every holiday, every birthday, and most of the ordinary occasions in between as well.
The cake was set down in front of the triplets with thirteen candles lit for the kids to blow out. “Make a wish! One, two, three!” On three, all three kids blew out their candles together.
As Freddy looked up, he noticed a girl running through the park wearing a red jacket. He found himself fixated on her. He didn’t know why, or how long he was staring, all he knew was that suddenly Kelly was lunging at him with a decrepit looking left arm clawing at him, and in his eyes, he saw the reflection of a monster with a furry face, fangs and red eyes. As Freddy lurched back, he heard his sisters scream and saw their faces get furry, red and white with black noses like a fox. Nick grabbed Kelly while Monroe held his son and the women grabbed the girls. All the kids were screaming, they couldn’t stop themselves, their parents kept telling them to calm down.
“I guess it’s time we gave them the talk.”
The adults ushered the children into the cabin that came with their rental and sat them down for a very important conversation. None of the adults seemed to know what to say, Monroe Senior was clearly flustered, Nick and Adalind didn’t seem much better, they looked to Diana. Finally, Diana decided to break the silence. “Do you remember all of those fairy tales mom and dad told us when we were little?” Kelly and the triplets nodded. “Well, they weren’t just fairy tales. The truth is, we are what those fairy tales are about, and Nick and Kelly’s ancestors wrote those stories.”
Rosalee took over at this point. “Julie, Theresa, you are Fuchsbau, like me. Freddy, you’re a Blutbad like your father. We are Wesen.”
Monroe Senior came up to his son. “I’m afraid this means no more meat for you, we gotta start the wieder blutbad diet right away.” Freddy’s heart sunk and it showed on his face and his whole body slumped.
“And what about Kelly?” Julie asked. “What about his arm and his eyes?”
This made all the grown-ups look at each other in awkward silence again. Even Diana struggled to think of an answer. Then she looked at her brother and saw how scared he was to not know what was going on, just that he seemed to be different from everyone else. This was a feeling she knew all too well. “Your hand is zauberbiest, you get that from our mother. But your eyes are Grimm, you get that from your father.”
“What does that mean?” Kelly asked.
Nick finally spoke up. “Honestly, we don’t know son. This has never really happened before. Usually Grimms don’t get along with Wesen, but I’m different, we’re different. Still, even though we all love you, we were really only prepared to explain what it was to be a Grimm or a zauberbiest, not both.”
Kelly was confused, as was everyone else. “What do we do now?”
Again, confusion among everyone. Julie sat on his left side and held his hand. Diana sat on his other side and hugged him. “We’re just going to have to play it by ear little bro.”
Seven years later…
“Kelly come on.” Diana said as she entered the trailer.
“I’m almost done.” Kelly said as he was writing in his journal.
“Let’s go.” Diana urged more this time.
“Diana!” Kelly shot back.
“Hurry up.” Diana had very little patience.
“I’m coming.” Kelly had little more patience than his sister.
“Mom and dad are waiting.” Diana said to Kelly as she went to the weapons cabinet to pick up the Staff of Zerstorer. “We’ve got wesen to kill. The triplets are coming too.”
“Yeah, what’s taking you so long?” Kelly replied as he took the staff from his sister and left the trailer.
Diana sighed and looked back at the journal, closing it with her telekinesis before walking out of the trailer. Nick was waiting outside in a van with Adalind in the passenger seat and the triplets in the back with the seats in the middle for Kelly and Diana.
“You brought the staff!” Freddy exclaimed. “Wow, this must be serious.”
“It was Diana’s idea.” Kelly replied.
“Then why isn’t she the one holding it?” Theresa asked.
Kelly shrugged. “Because I wanted it.”
“And you always get your way ‘cause you’re the baby?” Theresa teased. “I guess you need it more since her powers are stronger.”
“Hey!” Kelly shot back. “I’m both a Grimm and a zauberbiest, the only one in the world as far as we know, beat that!”
“Most powerful hexenbiest in the world, virtual goddess, booyah!” Diana said with a hand in her brother’s face. “Keep the stick little bro, I was just getting it for you anyway.”
“Need some aloe for that burn, honey?” Julie said.
Kelly was aghast. “You too?”
Nick cut them all off. “Okay kids settle down.”
“Or what old man?” Kelly asked. “You’ll turn this car around?”
Adalind tried not to laugh, but let out a little chuckle in spite of herself.
Nick glared at her. “Actually, yes. I can handle a damonfeurer and his lackeys without you kids.”
“What if they’re all damonfeurers?” Kelly asked. “Aren’t they firebreathers? This sounds like a pretty big deal to me.”
“I can round up the old gang with some fire extinguishers.” Nick said angrily.
“You mean pops, mom, Hank and Wu?” Freddy asked. “All those geezers fighting dragons with fire extinguishers? I’d pay to see that!”
“Hey, respect your elders.” Adalind said. “If it weren’t for them, none of us would be here. They saved us as often as we saved them.”
Freddy looked at his sisters. “It would be funny though.”
“Hilarious.” Theresa enthusiastically agreed.
“Shut up guys.” Julie said, hitting both of her siblings. “I think Mr. Burkhardt’s serious.”
Kelly chuckled.
“What’s so funny now?” Nick asked Kelly.
“I’m just thinking of all the years blutbaden, fuchsbau, and hexenbiests lived in fear of Grimm.” Kelly put a mock scary emphasis on the word Grimm. “Now we’re calling you Mr. Burkhardt like you’re a high school teacher.” Even Nick had to laugh at this. “But seriously, what do we know about this damonfeurer?”
“Arsonist, typical.” Nick replied. “Seems to go after abandoned buildings, but it seems like they’re usually ones inhabited by squatters.”
“So he’s killing homeless people?” Kelly asked.
“That’s the weird part.” Nick answered. “There is little evidence that the victims are still in the buildings. It seems like whoever this is, they’re taking the victims with them and using the arson to cover their tracks.”
“So how do we even know this is a damonfeurer at all?” Kelly asked.
“We got tipped off by a witness who claimed they saw someone wearing a dragon mask breathing fire at the building.” Nick answered.
“And we’re thinking the fiery breath means it’s not a mask?” Kelly asked and Nick nodded. “So where do we find this dragon we’re going to slay?”
“After some investigation, I found that they seem to have some connection to a shop that we’re driving to right now.” Just then they pulled up at a shop. It didn’t seem particularly special at all, from the outside it looked just like any other store front, the sign was in Spanish and had a skull in the middle. The door said “closed”, but Nick charged in anyway and the others followed. Inside the shop was filled with occult paraphernalia, candles, sculptures, masks, and baubles of all sorts. There was nobody inside, but then they got to the back room and found one man sitting in a chair.
“I’ve been expecting you.” The stranger said. “You can relax and put the weapons away, the ones you’re looking for aren’t here.”
Everyone looked confused. “Who are you? And how did you know we were coming?”
“My name is Manuel Ramirez, but you can call me Manny. This is my shop. I had a vision about you, and I know how this will play out, it will be easier if we don’t fight.”
“And why should we trust you?” Nick asked.
“Because I can lead you to the geiers you’re looking for.” Manny replied. “And no, you’re not looking for a damonfeurer, you’re looking for a damn fool wearing a mask I made for him.”
“You’re a vibora dorada.” Nick deduced. “Which means you killed a damonfeurer.”
“Yes, I killed one person, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to what this gang has done.” Manny replied. “The leader, who I only know as Cook, came to me, curious about what I could do. As you may or may not know, geiers eat human flesh to acquire their power, but he wanted more. He heard rumors of what my kind could do and when he found me, he insisted I make him a mask of a damonfeurer. I’m young and new, I’ve just barely begun to learn about this craft, he was my first customer, I was happy to take the job. But when I found my mark and injected my venom, I had a vision. A zauberbiest was to come to fight Cook, and I was to help him. I didn’t want to let him know because he would rather have killed me than let me help you. But I did take the first step to helping you. I not only took the face of the damonfeurer, I also took his arm to make a gauntlet to match the mask I made for Cook.”
“I thought you only made masks.” Nick said skeptically.
Manny shook his head. “The power is not just in the face, it is in the skin, all of the skin. This is the way of Xipe Totec. The practice of masks is just that it is the most recognizable body part, which makes it the easiest to focus power through. But only a fool would forget that the power of the hand is as great as the power of the head.” Manny pulled open a drawer and took out a scaly hand with the forearm encased in ornate wire mesh that seemed to fit perfectly between the scales. Manny presented it to Kelly.
Kelly took it with a look of recognition. “This bracer looks like the one I got for Christmas from the gefrienberenger six years ago after our first woges. I thought I lost it a while back. Where did you get this from?”
Manny shrugged. “He was wearing it when I took the arm. Damonfeurers have an obsession with precious metals, sometimes they even steal it. This one ran a jewelry and coin exchange, so he could have bought it off a thief who turned it in, or maybe he did manage to steal it from you himself. I believe it was the will of the gods that this bracer found its way back to you this way. In any case, I think he’s paid for his crimes now.”
“Dare I ask where the rest of him is?” Nick asked.
“I was working with geiers.” Manny said flatly. “They feasted on the remains themselves, a bonding ritual between Cook and his crew. This and the mask are all that is left of John Doe.”
“So where are these murderers?” Nick asked.
Manny put up one finger. “One more thing, before I help you, the zauberbiest needs to sign a contract.” He pulled out a piece of parchment and a knife. “You can read it if you want, but long and short it says you will only wear this gauntlet for righteous hunts and not use it against innocents, wesen or kehrseite, and obviously one special clause that you won’t use it against me.”
“I don’t think this is such a good idea.” Nick said, taking the contract and the gauntlet form his son.
Manny shrugged again. “Your funeral. They outnumber you two to one at least.”
Nick was unfazed. “I’ve done better with worse odds.”
“You won’t find them without me.” Manny reiterated.
“Why are you doing this?” Kelly asked. “Why are you betraying the geiers to help us?”
“It is the will of the gods.” Manny replied. “This damonfeurer’s spirit was split at death, the mask took the worst of his soul, the gauntlet has the best, and now Xipe Totec wants you two to fight for who shall truly inherit the power. I serve my god first before anyone else, so I just need to get you to Cook and let you two settle your differences.”
“You said you know how this will end.” Kelly pointed out.
“Yes, I did, and it ends with me leading you to Cook and the geiers.” Manny replied. “After that, it is in God’s hands, I am only a messenger.”
Adalind put her hand on Nick’s arm. “I’ll take Julie and Theresa back to the spice shop and we’ll prepare the spell that reverses the mask ceremony and make sure we have enough for both Kelly and Cook. In the meantime, it wouldn’t hurt for him to carry some extra power in this fight.”
“You’re okay with this?” Nick asked Adalind.
Adalind sighed and turned to Diana. She always seemed to know more about what was going on than anyone else. “What do you think?”
“Finally, somebody asks me for my expert opinion.” Diana said. She looked at Manny and her eyes glowed violet as she scanned him.
It kind of freaked Manny out and he woged. He saw his reflection in Nick’s eyes which freaked him out even more. He turned away and saw the same horror in Kelly’s eyes. “Both of you are Grimms? I was sure you were a zauberbiest.”
Kelly stretched his hand out, spreading his fingers wide into a claw like form and his arm appeared to wither and decay. “I’m both.”
Manny raised an eyebrow. “How did that happen?”
Adalind woged. “I’m his mother.”
“Well that is an interesting story I have to hear.” Manny said sounding impressed. “Assuming we live through all of this. Right now, how about you sign that contract as a sign of good faith?”
Diana took the contract and the gauntlet from Nick, looked them over with her purple eyes and smelled both objects. “Kelly will be fine.” She handed them to her brother. “Now go ahead and sign the contract so we can go finish off these geiers.”
Kelly cut his finger on his left hand and used it to sign his name, then handed it back to Manny. Manny did the same right below Kelly’s signature. The two signatures appeared to blend together into the shape of a claw and then disperse back into the signatures. “All set, now I will lead you to the geiers. And don’t put that gauntlet on until we get there, like I said the contract says only to use it for a righteous hunt, so it’s not in your best interests to use it before the hunt begins properly.”
Adalind got a cab for her, Julie and Theresa to go back to the spice shop, while Nick, Kelly, Diana, Freddy and Manny got in the van to drive to the location Manny gave them. Nick looked at Manny. “Remember, if anything goes wrong, I kill you myself.”
“As I said, I’m just supposed to get you to Cook and his cronies.” Manny said coldly. “After that, the future is unclear.”
“What does that mean?” Junior asked. “Whose side are you really on?”
“Nobody’s.” Manny replied. “I serve Xipe Totec and your fight is left up to you. However, regarding your threat, I’m hoping either you win or you die before you can follow through.”
“You really aren’t instilling confidence.” Junior said.
“And yet you’re still following me.” Manny replied. “I sense desperation.” That pretty much shut everyone up until they got where they were going.
Their destination was in the woods, a barn from an old farm that had fallen into ruin long ago. Once they arrived, they got out of the car and Freddy took a whiff of the air and woged. “I smell rotten flesh, I think we’re in the right place.” He continued to follow the scent and everybody followed him.
Nick looked around with a sense of familiarity. “I think I’ve been here before. I know this place.” He proceeded slowly and cautiously while Kelly and Diana trotted fearlessly ahead. Manny took his time bringing up the rear, not too slow, just not fast either. “This is a trap, isn’t it?”
Manny shrugged. “Maybe. Does it matter? Fate is written and nothing will change it.”
As they entered the barn they found the walls lined with cages with people inside. Freddy woged back to normal. “What the hell is this place? What is going on here?”
“What does it look like?” Manny replied. “I brought you to the geiers lair and there are people in cages, anybody care to take a guess?”
“These are the homeless people that are being taken from the burned down buildings. The geiers are saving them to remove their organs later.” Nick answered. “I know why I know this place now, it’s the same place where I caught some geiers operating years ago when I first found out I was a Grimm. But back then, they kept their victims tied to hospital beds to surgically remove the organs. Why is this set up different?”
One of the caged people spoke up. “Help us! They make us fight each other, the winner of the fight goes back to their cage with dinner, the loser…” His voice trailed off unable to find the strength to finish the sentence.
“...becomes dinner.” Nick answered. “Isn’t that right Manny?”
Manny nodded. “Geiers.”
“This is sick and barbaric.” Kelly said.
“This is why Grimms do what we do.” Nick said to his son. “Now let’s get these people out of here before the geiers get back.” They went around and opened the cages and let everyone out and directed them to the exit.
“Wait, where are the geiers?” Diana asked.
“Right here Grimm!” One shrieked as they entered the barn. There was a half dozen in this group and they charged at the intruders.
The bystanders ran as fast as they could while Freddy, Diana and Kelly woged and prepared to fight along with Nick. While Nick and Freddy relied on basic hand to hand combat to fight the geiers, Kelly used his staff and Diana repelled the rest with her telekinesis. As Nick finished off his opponent, he looked back to Manny. He had not woged and just stood there watching the whole thing. “This was a trap, wasn’t it?”
“How many times do I have to say I’m neutral?” Manny replied. “I just brought you here, I don’t care who wins, I’m just here to watch and congratulate the winner.”
“That will have to wait.” Kelly said. “I don’t see the mask on any of these guys.”
Manny looked around at the geiers’ faces. “Yeah, Cook’s not here, but I’m sure he will be, along with the other half of his crew.”
Nick pulled out his phone and made a call. “Adalind, have you and the girls made any progress on the mask reversal ceremony?”
“Yeah, we’re ready.” Adalind replied. “Where are you? We’ll meet you.”
“Ping my phone.” Nick said. “Or one of the kids. We’re at a barn in the woods.”
“What’s going on right now?” Adalind asked.
“We found the squatters from the burned-out buildings and got them out, they’re safe now.” Nick replied. “We ran into some geiers, but not all of them, which means Cook and his mask still hasn’t shown up yet and we’re going to need help, so get here as soon as you can.”
“We’re on our way.” Adalind replied.
Kelly looked a little confused. “Why do we need them to help us with the mask? Can’t we just get Manny to do it?”
Without breaking his gaze with his son, Nick simply said “Manny can we count on you to help us if things go south?”
“Nope, not a chance.” Manny said without skipping a beat.
“There you go.” Nick replied.
While they waited for Adalind and the girls, Nick called Hank and Wu to pick up the victims. There were a lot, so Monroe and Rosalee brought their vehicles too and Bud and his kids even offered to help with the transportation.
“Thanks for the help guys.” Kelly said to Bud’s kids. “Do you want to stick around for the main event?”
The eisbibers woged in fear. “W-w-we really gotta get these people back to town. Best to leave the fighting to the pros, right?”
Diana laughed. “He’s just messing with you. Nobody expects you to be here when the fighting starts.”
The eisbibers relaxed and their woges reversed. “Whew, what a relief. Don’t do that, you know eisbibers have sensitive hearts. You could have killed us!” They got in their cars and drove off.
Diana punched her brother. “He’s right, don’t do that, jerk.”
They waited patiently for the girls and the geiers, unsure of which would come first, but making sure they were prepared either way. They heard footsteps, and hoped for the best, but what came through the door was not the best at all. Cook led the other half of the gang into the barn. “What the hell happened here?”
Cook’s underlings charged the hunters and engaged them. One made the mistake of going after Kelly who promptly impaled him with his staff, making him the first casualty of this batch. Seeing Kelly as the strongest, Cook looked at him. “You’re mine.” He put on his mask and woged. It was exceptionally weird because mostly he woged as a geier, but his face was a damonfeurer. It got even weirder when he breathed fire. Kelly held up his left hand, woged and repelled the fire using his own telekinesis. It wasn’t as strong as Diana’s, but strong enough to stop the fire. As Cook looked through the fire to see Kelly he saw his eyes. “Grimm! And a zauberbiest?”
“Wait, there’s more.” Kelly put on the damonfeurer gauntlet.
Cook was surprised. “Where did you get that?” Then he noticed Manny in the shadows by the wall. “You! We had a contract!”
“And so does he.” Manny replied, woging as he spoke. “Now we see which one is truly worthy of the blessings of Xipe Totec. Let the games begin!”
The others were all preoccupied with their opponents. Even Diana was struggling, her opponent managed to get a hold of the staff stuck in her cohort and evened her odds with the hexenbiest. Nick and Freddy were going all out with their opponents, clearly stronger than the first wave. Kelly was on his own.
Cook threw a few punches, Kelly blocked and countered. They went back and forth for a few rounds, tried a few kicks, nothing changed. Desperate, Cook tried breathing fire again, Kelly dodged the attack. They went around like this for a few more rounds and before Kelly knew it, they were surrounded by a circle of fire. “Nowhere to run now Grimm! It ends now!”
“Yes it does.” Kelly held his hand out pantomiming holding a ball, and conjured a fireball, then threw it at Cook, knocking him into the wall of fire.
Meanwhile, Diana managed to get a hold of the staff and turned it against the geier. As she looked toward her brother she screamed. “Kelly!” Using all of her power she extinguished the flames. She rushed to hug Kelly. “Are you okay, bro?”
“Get away from me!” Kelly screamed lunging at her. He grabbed his left arm and tried to pull it back. He fell to the ground.
Just then Adalind and Julie entered the barn. “What’s happening?”
“Something’s wrong with the gauntlet.” Diana told Adalind.
Adalind rushed to her son’s side. “It’s okay, I’m here, I’ll make it all right.” She pulled out the incantation to fix the gauntlet. Before she could begin reading it, Kelly grabbed it and burned it. Then pushed his mother away. He tried to pull his hand back and screamed in pain.
“It’s all right, I have a copy too.” Julie ran to Kelly. She held his face and looked him in the eye and woged. “It’s me babe.”
Kelly looked at her and growled.
Freddy came after Kelly still fully woged. “Don’t you dare hurt my sister!” The two boys started fighting.
Nick looked at Manny. “Do something!”
“What do you want?” Manny replied.
Nick grabbed a hold of Manny. “You know damn well what I want, fix my son!”
“I told you, this is the will of Xipe Totec.” Manny replied. “I will not interfere.”
“That’s my son you son of a bitch!” Nick screamed. “Do something!”
“Or what?” Manny goaded Nick. “You’ll kill me? I can’t help him if I’m dead you need me alive, you won’t dare hurt me if your dear baby boy has to pay the price.”
Kelly shoved Freddy hard and he flew into the wall. Julie tried to get through to Kelly again. “Fight it Kelly! For me!” She rushed over to him and kissed him. As she pulled away, Kelly looked at his hand, it had returned to normal.
Kelly looked closer at his arm and realized he was still wearing the bracer. “Wait, what happened to the gauntlet?”
“Hmm… you must have absorbed it.” Manny noted. “That’s never happened before. Of course, we usually only use the face, and we never make them for Grimms or zauberbiests. It could be any combination of factors. Most unexpected and intriguing. I must see how this plays out.”
“You won’t see much from a prison cell.” Nick said getting his handcuffs ready. “You’re under arrest for murder.”
“What makes you think I’ll go quietly?” Manny said slyly.
“The fact that you are outnumbered by two Grimms, two hexenbiests, a fuchsbau and a blutbad as soon as Freddy comes to.” Nick answered.
“Okay, you got me.” Manny conceded, finally woging back to normal.
Freddy got up, as it turns out he wasn’t really knocked out at all and he was still angry and woged. He looked back and forth from Kelly to Manny and charged. It wasn’t quite clear who he was aiming for.
Diana stopped him. She grabbed a hold of him and forced his woge to reverse using her powers. She held his limp form. “A little help here please.”
Theresa finally caught up to everyone. “Sorry, there was one more geier out there I had to deal with. Is everybody okay?” She went to Diana to help carry her brother out.
As they left the barn, Diana noticed two gold coins on the ground next to Cook’s body. “Wait.” She reached down to pick them up.
“What is it?” Theresa asked.
“Oh nothing.” Diana said, not quite sure why she couldn’t be honest with her friend about what she found.
Seven years earlier…
“Show us a full woge.” Monroe said.
“Is that all you got?” Nick added.
“Yes!” Kelly replied. “No matter how hard I try it’s only my arm. I’m sorry.” Kelly began to cry.
Nick hugged his son. “It’s okay son. You don’t have to be sorry, you’re not doing anything wrong. We just want to know the full extent of your woge. We just want to know what we’re dealing with so we can help you. I love you son.”
“Hey Nick, maybe we should give him a moment.” Monroe said. “This can be very hard to take in, just let him relax for a moment, okay.”
Nick nodded. “I’ll be here for you when you need me.” He walked away with Monroe.
After a while, Julie approached Kelly. “So how are you dealing with all of this?”
“Okay, I guess.” Kelly replied. “I mean, I don’t even really know what I am, let alone how I’m supposed to feel.”
They were both quiet for a moment, then Julie spoke. “The others said they saw their worst selves in your eyes when they woged, but I wasn’t scared by what I saw at all. I saw something beautiful in your eyes, not a monster.”
Kelly blushed a little and stuttered as he tried to reply to her. “Of course, you are beautiful, no matter what you look like, you could never be a monster in my eyes.”
Julie blushed a little too. She took Kelly’s left hand in hers. She looked him in the eye and woged. “Still beautiful.”
“Still beautiful.” Kelly echoed, woging his hand.
Julie took his hand and rubbed it against her face, then leaned in to kiss him. Kelly couldn’t help but kiss her back.
Seven years later…
Back at home alone, Diana took the coins out to look at them again. They had strange symbols on them, like crooked crosses. She couldn’t seem to break her gaze, and she became overcome with a vision. She saw herself dressed in the finest silk dress she’d ever worn, heading out to a balcony, looking out over a crowd of people. They all looked at her, cheering her name, crying out in praise.
“Yes, my people, adore me.” Diana said to them. “Worship me!”
(05-10-2017, 11:21 PM)ZauberGrimm Wrote: [ -> ]This is where I'm posting my four part fan fiction, Grimm Ever After. It picks up with the epilogue from the final episode, with Kelly and Diana, and also has flashbacks to seven years earlier when Kelly and the triplets first woge.
Some character notes before we begin:
Kelly Burkhardt - part zauberbiest, specifically his left arm which grants him superhuman strength and telekinesis, a handy advantage when fighting wesen, he is also still a Grimm. He is in a relationship with one of Monroe and Rosalee's daughters(see below).
I hope questions are allowed.
Do you see zauberbiest as having spirit in them? If so, why is it only in one part of his body?
He's only part zauberbiest, and while they only gave one example of part anything on the show (Sean Renard) it was pretty clear that part zauberbiests don't get full body woges, which is why Renard's whole face doesn't go all wrinkly skull like full zauberbiests and hexenbiests do, just his eye and one side of his mouth, part of his cheek, etc. Also, it shows he's more Grimm than zauberbiest, I don't want to draw too much away from what he really is. Yes I see zauberbiest as having spririt in them, but as I said, he's a mix of zauberbiest and Grimm, which has probably never happened before, so I feel creative liberties can be taken because who knows what the results of that particular mix would be until it becomes canon? In the second and fourth parts, I'll build on this and while it may not answer your questions I hope it will still help make sense of this anyway.
“Are we there yet?” Theresa said from the back seat wedged between her brother and sister.
“For the fourth time, no!” Monroe said more agitated than the last time his kids asked. It was just a few days after their thirteenth birthday and first woge.
“Why do we even have to go on this stupid camping trip anyway?” Theresa asked. They were very modern urban kids and this would be their first time anywhere without cell phone reception.
“We’re going on a very special camping trip where your mom and I can teach you about what it means to be wesen, and let you run around and be free to be yourselves-or rather your other selves-for a little while without causing any trouble to any kehrseite.”
“Why do you have to keep speaking in German?” Theresa asked.
“Because English is a little too limited to explain all of this.” Monroe answered flatly. Right about then they pulled into a parking lot at the edge of a forest. “Okay, now we’re here.”
“And just where is here?” Theresa asked. “It looks like nowhere to me.”
“Yeah.” Both her siblings agreed, holding their phones up. “No bars.”
Monroe took their phones. “We don’t need phones out here, we’re getting in touch with our inner wesen this weekend.”
“Am I gonna make this take longer?” Kelly asked. “Because if so, I’m sure I could get home somehow.”
“Nice try kid.” Rosalee said grabbing Kelly by the shoulder. “But your parents have trusted us to give you a basic rundown of being wesen, which, somewhat to our surprise, you are.”
“How are you surprised by me being wesen?” Kelly asked.
“Because your father is not wesen, but your mother is, and that means you had a fifty-fifty chance of being wesen yourself.” Rosalee answered. “We were less prepared for you being both wesen and Grimm.”
“What does all of this mean anyway?” Julie asked as she moved closer to Kelly.
Monroe looked around. “Let’s walk and talk okay kids? I’ll tell you on the way to the campsite.” The kids nodded and followed their parents into the woods. “Once upon a time there was a big bad wolf, a clever sneaky fox, a fire breathing dragon, and an ugly wrinkled witch who made a lot of trouble for everyone around them. Everybody hated them because of what they did, and sometimes they deserved it, other times they blamed the people they were troubling for starting it first. When they realized everyone was coming after them, they hid themselves in the forms of humans that looked nothing like what they really were and continued to live among them other people without any fear. But then there was one person who saw through their disguise and realized what kind of monsters they really were. This man went by the name of Grimm, and he hunted them all down and killed them all, and the rest of the people lived happily ever after. As for the families of the beasts, they lived in fear and ran as far away as they could from the Grimm and tried to find a safe place to live. Those beasts were known as the wesen. That’s what we are. Freddy and I are blutbaden, the big bad wolves, Julie, Theresa, you and your mom are fuchsbau, the clever sneaky foxes. Kelly, you come from the witches and the Grimms. Normally, the Grimms hunt us, but Nick didn’t know what he was doing when he met me, and luckily, I was trying to avoid violence so our curiosity got the best of us and I ended up teaching him about our world and we ended up being friends, and then he ended up having a kid with a hexenbiest and now here we are. Now for the most part we are human, but we are also something not human and we need to maintain a certain balance between the two, but the first step is accepting what you are. So, now that we’re here in the middle of nowhere, far away from anyone who will be seriously freaked out by all this, let’s get our woge on.” Monroe and Rosalee looked at each other and rolled their heads, woging. “Your turn kids. One, two, three, GO!”
They all took a deep breath and followed their parents lead and woged. Freddy and Theresa made the mistake of looking Kelly in the eye. “Dude, your eyes are so creepy.”
“You’ll get used to that.” Rosalee said.
“All right everybody, smell the air.” Monroe demonstrated by inhaling sharply. “What does everybody smell?”
“I think I smell rabbits.” Freddy said hungrily.
“Yes, and that reaction is why we don’t have pets.” Monroe pointed out. “Okay, now normally we want to hold back, but just this once, so we can understand ourselves, let the hunt begin!”
Seven years later…
Monroe got up in the middle of the night, he was having trouble sleeping. He went out to the kitchen to get a drink when he smelled something unusual. He followed the smell out back, and found a trail of blood. It was light and would have been unnoticeable to anyone else, but it was fresh enough that the smell was strong to his nose. He followed it out to the shed and found the perpetrator. It was his son eating a raw side of pork, in full woge. “Freddy! What the hell is going on here?”
“Dad, I can explain.” Freddy stuttered. “This isn’t what it looks like.”
“Really?” Monroe said skeptically. “Because it looks like you fell off the vegan wagon. I think we need to talk.”
Meanwhile, across town, Kelly was having his own problems. He was having a nightmare, but it was more than a nightmare. A damonfeurer was hunting him. “Who are you? What do you want from me?”
“I think you know.” The damonfeurer replied. “What I want is something you cannot give me. My spirit cannot rest. I died so that you could steal my power. Now we’re bound together.”
“That’s not my fault I didn’t choose this.”
“You chose to wear my skin!”
“I didn’t know this would happen!”
“But you should have! You shouldn’t have used the power you didn’t understand. Now you will pay the price!” The damonfeurer grabbed Kelly by the throat.
“Kelly!” Julie gasped “Stop!”
Kelly woke up to realize he was strangling his girlfriend with his left hand, woged to damonfeurer. He grabbed it with his other hand and pulled himself back. “Oh my god! Julie are you okay?”
Julie took a moment to catch her breath. “I’m okay. What the hell is going on?”
Kelly looked at his hand, which had now returned to normal. “I think I need to call our moms.”
There was an emergency meeting at the spice shop, Monroe, Freddy, Kelly, Julie, Rosalee, Adalind and Nick all met in the middle of the night. Monroe was trying to keep his son calm while Rosalee was talking to Adalind and Nick about Kelly. “He absorbed the gauntlet? How did that happen?”
“I think it might have been like when the jinnamuru xunte blinded me and my hearing was permanently enhanced.” Nick hypothesized. “Or when the cracher-mortel turned me into a zombie and I don’t need to breathe.”
“Wait, you don’t need to breathe?” Rosalee said. “When did we realize that?”
“When we had that run in with the nereids, I think.” Nick said.
Adalind clarified. “I was afraid he was suffering from apnea, but despite episodes at night, he’s fine in the morning.”
“Apparently, what doesn’t kill a Grimm makes us stronger.” Nick said.
“Or it could be from my side.” Adalind said. “Like when I used the verfluchte zwillingsschwester. Hexenbiests and zauberbiests have all kinds of powers, including the ability to take on other forms, so he may have inherited something from me that allowed him to absorb this power differently from the way a human would.”
“And when I used it, it worked differently on me because I’m a Grimm.” Nick added.
“Maybe it’s both.” Rosalee said. “Being mixed may have given him a little bit of both of you and given him a new power.”
“Is there any way we can fix this?” Kelly asked. “What about the ceremonia de disgracia?”
“We already tried it, remember?” Julie said. “It isn’t working because we can’t remove it now that it’s gone when you woge. That’s why we’re talking about you absorbing it.”
Kelly was rubbing his head. “Sorry, I can’t think straight with these nightmares interrupting my sleep.”
Julie sat with Kelly trying to help him feel better. Monroe joined them. “I’ve been talking with Freddy, and we think it would be good if we go camping. You know, like when they first woged.”
“You mean we take us out to the middle of nowhere to get away from everybody so we can’t hurt anybody?” Kelly said.
“Yeah.” Monroe replied. “I figured I was pretty clear on that.”
Nick sighed. “Until we figure this out, I don’t know what else to do.”
“I’m going too.” Julie said. “I was looking through mom’s books and I think I’ve at least narrowed down the most relevant texts. I want to be near Kelly if I make a breakthrough that can help.”
Monroe winced. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea, honey. This could be dangerous, it should probably be just me and the boys.”
“My brother and my boyfriend.” Julie said much more serious and assertive now. “Two of the most important men in my life. I’m not going to do anything but worry about them here, I need to be with them now.”
“It’s probably not good that you’re outnumbered out there Monroe.” Rosalee said. “Maybe Julie should go along.”
Monroe looked around at everybody, but nobody seemed to be arguing for him. “Fine, help me get them in the car.”
After Monroe and Julie left with Kelly and Freddy, the others continued to discuss what they were going to do. “Is there anything we can do to help with either of them?” Nick asked.
Rosalee shook her head. “The best thing really is what Monroe is doing. Freddy is just going through some growing pains, it’s normal for a blutbad. This was his first hunt in seven years, I think he just got overwhelmed and now Monroe needs to help him get back on track. It’s not easy for their kind, you know?”
“Kelly is dealing with brand new problems.” Adalind added. “I don’t know if there’s anything we can do for him that Monroe and Julie aren’t already doing. The only thing I can think of is to talk to the vibora dorada that did this and see if he knows anything.”
“I’ll take you down to the jail when it opens later this morning.” Nick said to Adalind. “Do you know what to ask him?”
Adalind shook her head. “I’ll start with ‘fix my son’ and go from there.”
“Works for me.” Nick replied. “What about you Rosalee?”
Rosalee shrugged. “I’m just gonna try to get some rest before opening time and then when it’s not busy in the shop I’ll double check my books for anything Julie might have missed.”
Meanwhile, across town, Diana was waking up to the siren call of the coins. She had tried to sleep, and she got enough rest to face the day, but all she could think of was the coins. It was all she could do to get herself dressed, and she ate a light breakfast, all so she could get back to the coins. Why did she care so much about these coins? “What do you want?” She found herself actually asking the inanimate objects.
As if they were answering her, she had a vision. Much like the last vision she had, she was looking out off a balcony to see throngs of adoring subjects bowing down to her. She turned to see a throne and felt drawn to it. Slowly she stepped up to the throne, ready to sit in it. There was a shadowy figure that emerged from behind it, stepping forward to meet Diana. Before she could see who it was, A voice snapped her out of the vision and awoke.
“Hello, Diana sweetie.” It was her father, Sean. “How was your first hunt with Nick and Kelly?”
Diana turned back to her father and embraced him in a hug. “Hi daddy! The hunt was interesting, at first we thought we were going after a damonfeurer, but then it turned out it was actually a geier wearing a mask made by a vibora dorada who made a matching glove for Kelly, and then they had this big fight.”
Sean whistled. “Sounds like I missed a lot. Since you’re not crying I take it we didn’t lose anybody and our side won.”
Diana smiled. “Yes, of course, was there any doubt?”
“No, of course, if I can count on the Burkhardts for anything, it’s winning a fight against wesen.” Sean’s eye was taken to the table where one of the coins was still sitting. He picked it up and recognized it immediately. “Where did you get this?”
Diana was shocked to see her dad holding one of the coins, mentally scolding herself for leaving it where he could find it. “I found it next to the leader of the geiers, I think it fell out of his pocket. I don’t suppose you know what it is?”
“Yes.” Sean replied firmly. “It’s a Coin of Zakynthos. These are very rare and very valuable to the right people. It’s been a while since I last saw one of these, and last time there were three. Are you sure this was the only one?”
Diana carefully slipped the other coin in her pocket with her palm so her father wouldn’t notice. “Nope, just the one.”
Sean looked at her skeptically, but he didn’t like doubting his daughter. “Hmm, I still think I should look into this. I’ll hold onto this one for safe keeping. Tell me more about this family outing.”
Meanwhile, just outside of Portland, Monroe pulled into a familiar parking lot and got everybody out to face their day. The first thing they did was set up two tents and a camp fire, which Julie used to heat up a tea kettle to make her signature raspberry infusion blend while her father took care of the boys.
“All right, morning pilates.” Monroe said to the boys. “First up, side plank!” Monroe demonstrated and made it clear that the boys should follow his lead, propping themselves up on their left-hand side. They proceeded through a series of exercises and poses.
After they completed their arm set, Julie joined them. “Tea break anyone?”
“Yes please.” Kelly answered, taking a cup of tea that she offered. As he brought up his left hand to take the other side of the cup, his hand trembled. “I guess the workout was a little harder on me than I thought.”
“Maybe you should take a break, Kelly.” Monroe said with a great deal of concern.
“No, I’m good.” Kelly protested.
“No.” Monroe said more forcefully this time. “You did good, but we’re done for now, Julie can take care of you for a bit while I focus on Freddy for some one on one time.”
“Do I get to hunt now?” Freddy said woging slightly. “I smell rabbits. And something else fresh I think. It’s been a while.”
“No!” Monroe said, pointing his finger at his son so sternly that he woged back. “No hunting this trip! We are going to forage for edible herbs, roots and berries.” He grabbed his son by the shoulder and walked him onto the woods, eliciting a groan from the younger blutbad.
“So, we get some alone time now?” Kelly said as seductively as he could manage. “It would be a shame to waste this romantic setting.” He went in for the kiss.
Julie stopped him with a finger to his lips. “Nice try, Casanova, but I’m not forgetting about what happened last night that quickly.”
“You know that wasn’t me.” Kelly said.
“Yes, I do.” Julie said. “And that’s the problem, we need to fix your hand one way or another before we do anything else. I love you babe, but we gotta keep our priorities straight.”
Kelly looked crestfallen. “Okay what do you have planned for me now?”
“Finish your tea, and then meditation.” Julie said.
“Nap time!” Kelly replied.
Julie shook her head. “You have to take this seriously, Kelly. You’ve absorbed a spirit, or at least part of one. Do you understand how bad this is?”
“He’s haunting my dreams, yes this is bad.” Kelly replied.
“It’s more than that.” Julie pleaded. “Spirits can take possession of your body, and it can get really bad with this particular method. The soul of that damonfeurer is attached through the skin, which would normally be removed through the ceremonia de desgracia, but since your body absorbed it, that won’t work.”
“Have you found anything in the books about what we do now?” Kelly said, taking another sip of tea.
Julie shook her head. “The closest I could find was that when our parents had to deal with this sort of thing, the victim went completely insane and they had to kill him before they could fix him.”
Kelly’s eyes went wide. “Let’s call that plan Z.”
Julie took Kelly’s hand. “Grimms are different, you may be able to fight this. The stories your dad told about the times he got affected by wesen, they affected him different because he was a grimm and like he said, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, so you may be able to beat it too. However, as I read through those cases, your dad had to put up a fight, even when he wasn’t sure what he was fighting.”
“And I’m going to fight it by sitting with my eyes closed?” Kelly replied skeptically.
“You’re going to shut out the outside world and focus on your internal struggle.” Julie corrected. She took the tea cup from Kelly. “Assume the position.”
Kelly sighed as he did what he was told. “Can’t I just forage with Freddy?”
“Let’s call that plan Y.” Julie said. She started tapping a beat on the ground and hummed to help get Kelly into his trance.
Kelly found himself in the same place as his dream earlier and the damonfeurer was back. “We meet again.”
“And we will continue to meet because we are bound together.” The damonfeurer replied. “Until you do the right thing and break the bond.”
“How do I do that?” Kelly asked.
“You know.” The damonfeurer replied coldly. “There is only one end to this misery, the end of everything.”
“No, that is not happening.” Kelly replied defiantly.
“Then I will haunt you until you change your mind.” The damonfeurer countered. “I will use your hand, my hand, our hand, to take away everyone you hold dear, and we’ll see how much will you have to live when you have nothing left to live for.”
“No, I won’t let you!” Kelly screamed back.
“Not your choice.” The damonfeurer said. “Open your eyes.”
Kelly woke up to find Julie, Freddy and Monroe using all their might to tie down Kelly’s hand. “Oh my god! What happened?”
“It’s okay, we got this.” Julie answered.
“Yeah, no big deal, your possessed hand just tried to kill us, but after two blutbaden and a fuchsbau worked together, we managed to tie it down.” Freddy said. “Nothing to worry about here.”
“He’s going through meat withdrawal.” Julie tried her best to reassure Kelly.
Meanwhile, at the jail, Nick and Adalind were meeting with Manny. Theresa had tagged along as well, once she figured out what was going on. Theresa was interning for Adalind and wanted to know a bit more about wesen cases.
Manny was walked out to them in hand cuffs. Nick took him form the guard. “I got it from here.”
Manny got to the point with his visitors. “I’m guessing this is about your son and the gauntlet I made for him.”
“Did you have another vision?” Nick asked.
“No.” Manny said. “I just can’t think of any other reason why you would need to see me without an attorney present.”
“Actually, for the record, I am an attorney.” Adalind corrected. “But you were right the first time.”
“I can help.” Manny confirmed. “But I will need to see him.”
“We’re not letting you out.” Nick said.
“Then bring him to me.” Manny said.
“Why should we trust you?” Nick asked.
“Because you don’t have a choice.” Manny said. “If you did, you wouldn’t be here now. Besides, I may not have had a vision, but the contract I made your son sign connected us and I do get the sense that he’s in trouble and if I don’t balance him out, it will have an adverse effect on me.”
“You’ve had a real change of heart since last night.” Nick said.
Manny shrugged. “The will of Xipe Totec, sometimes he wants chaos, sometimes he wants order. He is a fickle master and I am but a servant. Look you may not like that answer, but the fact is if he isn’t better by the time you get him here to see me, you’ll need me to fix him, and he’ll be bad enough you’ll let me do anything to save him, and you know I’m right or you wouldn’t be here.”
“What exactly are you going to do him?” Nick asked.
“I will settle the spirit inside him.” Manny answered.
“What does that mean?” Adalind asked.
“Exactly what it sounds like.” Manny replied. “Look, if you think I can just give you some magic answer to undo what was done, there isn’t anything you could possibly do beyond the ceremonia de desgracia, and his condition has gone past that. All that’s left is, for lack of a better way of putting it, an emergency clause in the contract. The contract connects us, which means if there is any way for anyone to do anything about this situation other than killing him, it means I have to step in, and if I don’t, I pay the price too.”
“And what is that price?” Nick asked.
Manny sighed. “He will lose his mind, and I will share the madness. The contract means I have to suffer the same consequences.”
“Why would you do this if you knew this would happen?” Nick asked.
“I didn’t know.” Manny answered. “At the time, I thought this was going to work out better than this, I didn’t know he’d absorb the gauntlet, that had never happened before. Until that happened, I figured I could control him with the ceremonia de desgracia, or that I’d have the same deal with Cook if it had gone the other way. Honestly, I didn’t even want to get involved with Cook, he made me do this. I prayed for guidance and your son was my answer. Now our fates are intertwined and I have to fix it. We have to fix it.”
“Nick, he’s right, we don’t have a choice here.” Adalind said. “We have to get Kelly and bring him here to set things right.”
Meanwhile, across town Diana had just finished giving the details on her first hunt with Kelly and the triplets. Sean Renard was not terribly surprised by any of what she said, it all seemed routine to him at this point, there was only one point that caught his interest. “The leader of the geiers had the coin, that explains a lot.”
“Why?” Diana asked. “What is it about these coins?”
“They are a rare and ancient treasure.” Sean explained. “Legend has it they are cursed and drive their owners mad. If it’s true, then the leader of the geiers wasn’t in his right mind. It’s a good thing we got it away from him, now we can put it somewhere safe so nobody else gets hurt. I’m still concerned about where the other coins went. Whoever has the other two could be as dangerous as the geiers were, or worse.”
“Worse?” Diana asked. “How could it make someone worse than a skin wearing cannibal?”
“It all depends on how bad the individual was to begin with.” Sean answered. “The coins seem to magnify one’s worst traits. Greed, wrath, pride, any sin seems to become more under the influence of the coin. A long time ago, before you were born, I had three coins and they made me feel like I could take over the world, and I almost did.”
“What happened?” Diana asked.
“Nick took them away.” Sean explained. “From there I don’t know where they went. But it was all for the best. The coins don’t give you any power, they just bring out the worst in you. Ultimately, they do nothing but bring one’s downfall because of how irrational you act under their influence.” Sean put the coin away in his pocket, then decided to change the subject. “Speaking of an object’s influence driving you mad, how is Kelly handling that glove the vibora dorada gave him?”
Diana shook her head. “I haven’t had a chance to talk to him since we got back, I hope he’s okay. He did seem a little off after he killed the geier. Maybe I should check on him.” She picked up her phone to call her brother.
Kelly could not answer his phone because he was otherwise occupied. He was stuck in the woods with one hand tied down, wrestling with his visions of a damonfeurer spirit haunting him and living in growing fear of his friend dealing with urges that came naturally and may have been even harder to fight.
It was Freddy’s turn to keep an eye on Kelly while Monroe and Julie took a break to prepare lunch. His hunger for meat was getting to him, and thinking about Kelly’s situation wasn’t helping. “It’s all your fault you know.”
“What exactly do you mean by that?” Kelly asked.
“Grimms hunting wesen.” Freddy replied. “We take care of our own business just fine without you getting in our way. You know, this is why my kind have to hide our urges. If it weren’t for fear of Grimms hunting us, we blutbaden could hunt to our hearts content. But my father went vegan so he wouldn’t have to fear being killed by a Grimm.”
“That’s just hunger talking.” Kelly said. “Your dad stopped hunting before he met my dad because he didn’t want to kill anymore, it was his own choice, enough blood on his hands. He lives with regret and he wanted better for you.”
“It was because of Grimms!” Freddy said. “Weder wesen only exist because we live in fear of Grimms! Every tradition we have to hide ourselves is to protect ourselves from our only true enemy, the Grimms! If it weren’t for you and your kind we could hunt freely! Why do you think I joined the hunt this time? If I have to be your dog, better to be off the chain, even if only for a little while.” He got closer and sniffed Kelly. “It wasn’t until I tasted the freedom of a bloodhunt that I truly understood what I was missing. And it’s all your fault I can’t have it.”
Kelly knew from his friend’s tone and behavior that he wasn’t in his right mind and didn’t mean what he said, but it still hurt him. This was poor timing, that they would both be dealing with such rage at the same time. Kelly could see his arm woge, struggling to get free, clawing at the bindings. “If you really meant any of that, if that’s how you really feel, cut me free and we’ll settle this once and for all.”
Freddy took one look at Kelly’s bound hand and cut it with one slash of his claws. “Bring it Grimm!”
Kelly lifted his hand, woged to damonfeurer. He didn’t want to hurt his friend, but a voice in his head told him to go for it anyway. He knew the inner voice was the damonfeurer and he shouldn’t listen to it, but it was so loud he couldn’t help himself. “It’s on!”
Just like that, they started brawling savagely. There was no rhyme or reason or style, and definitely no discipline. Both buys had given in to their instincts completely. Mostly they punched or clawed at each other, sometimes Freddy tried to bite, occasionally they would throw a kick if it worked in the moment. It almost looked like a wolf and a giant lizard were mauling each other, and it’s what they felt and almost saw it themselves. Freddy threw Kelly and howled. After that it was just a blur of two berserkers who only managed to not kill each other because they were so evenly matched.
Monroe and Julie finally heard the ruckus and intervened. Monroe took Freddy and Julie took Kelly. “Calm down! What are you thinking?”
“He started it!” Both boys said in unison, pointing at each other while their woges reversed.
“I don’t care who started it!” Monroe said as dad like as he possibly could. “You two are going to hug it out and calm the hell down! I know you are both under a lot of pressure, but the point of this trip was to relax, not give in to your worst instincts.”
“But it felt so good dad.” Freddy pleaded. “You keep trying to get me to channel all my energy into clock repair like you, but it isn’t enough for me. I haven’t felt so alive as I did fighting Kelly or the geiers since I that first hunt when I was a kid.”
“I know son.” Monroe said. “I have been there, but you can’t give in to that. Trust me, you’ll end up hurting someone you care about. Whatever got you going with Kelly, you’d never forgive yourself if you killed him.”
“Actually, it may not be such a bad idea for us to spar.” Kelly said in his friend’s defense. “I need to stay in fighting shape, and I’m not sure if it’s the damonfeurer in me, or the Grimm, but it actually felt pretty good to fight with Freddy. Care to go a few more rounds buddy?”
“Oh hell yeah!” Freddy replied.
“Wait! Let me think about this.” Monroe said and paused for a moment. “This is dangerous, at full strength you two could very easily kill each other. On the other hand, under controlled circumstances, it’s probably better that you two get this out of your system with each other than take it out on innocent people. So, okay, until we can come up with a better long term solution, you two can fight. But, Julie and I are going to watch and if it looks like you two are going too far, we step in and call off the fight. This means standard UFC MMA rules, no lethal force, now techniques that could actually kill your opponent. If you think you can keep it sporting, then go at it.”
The boys nodded and charged in on each other again.
Meanwhile at the jail, Theresa had stayed behind to talk to Manny by herself after Nick and Adlaind left to get Kelly. “What do you want?” Manny asked her when they were alone.
“I want to know more about what you do.” Theresa said. “Why exactly do you, you know, skin people? And make masks and gloves out of them?”
“Same reason you ask the question.” Manny replied. “It’s our nature. Fuchsbau like to know about dirty little secrets so they can use them to their own advantage, vibora dorada collect skins because it makes us feel powerful. It started with Xipe Totec, the original golden viper. He had the ability to paralyze his victims with his venom, one of the few ways to keep a wesen woged until he took the skin off. He learned that he could take the power of his victims this way, and he taught his descendants to use this same power to overcome others and rule the Aztec Empire. We built that empire with the fear of others being sacrificed to us. But then the madness set in, with power came the lost souls and the emperors became unstable with the voices in their heads. Finally, the vibora dorada learned we needed to limit the use of our power, we were afraid to give it up altogether, it had become too much a part of us, our culture, but we also knew if we used it recklessly, we would crumble like the empire before us. It was a cautionary tale we knew too well was true. That’s why we have the contract, to hold ourselves responsible so that we do not abuse the power of the skins. When Santeria began, our ways were hidden among the mix of faiths and traditions so that we could survive the changing times. Most of us truly believe in the tenants of the faith, truth be told, the entire religion is built around keeping ourselves in line. I truly believed it was God’s will to help the geiers as it was to help the zauberbiest.”
“So how did things turn out so bad if it was God’s will?” Theresa asked. “How does your faith justify that?”
Manny shrugged. “The lord works in mysterious ways, we don’t know that this story has reached its end. Perhaps we still have a role to play to make things right, there could be a happy ending yet to come.”
“There better be a happy ending to this story.” Theresa said, her eyes woging. “Because that zauberbiest is my sister’s boyfriend and he’s like a brother to me and if you don’t fix this, I’ll make sure you pay if I have to do it myself.”
Manny laughed. “It’s cute that you care about him so much that you think you can threaten me. But like I said, the contract binds us, and if I fail, there won’t be enough left of me for you or the Grimm or anyone else who cares about him to do anything to me. You can’t do worse than to put the fear of god in me, because I’m already there.”
Nick and Adalind reached the camp site and saw Monroe and Julie sitting watching the boys fight with each other. “What the hell is going on here?” Nick asked Monroe furiously.
Monroe was startled. “Oh, hey Nick. Relax, they’re just sparring. They are both dealing with some rage and need to work it out, and we stumbled on this as the most effective way of fixing the situation, at least for now. Freddy is going to need to get a handle on himself, but hopefully this will tire him out and make that easier. What I’m really worried about is if we don’t fix Kelly first, he might kill Freddy. Have you made any progress on that?”
“Yeah.” Adalind answered. “That’s why we’re here, we need to take Kelly back. Manny says he can help, but they need to meet face to face.”
“How come he didn’t step up when you arrested him?” Julie asked. “What’s with his change of heart now?”
“We asked the same question.” Nick replied. “Apparently, he situation has escalated and he didn’t realize how bad it was at first. But now, it seems he knows that it’s getting worse for Kelly because it’s getting worse for him too and he needs to fix it for his own sake.”
“Nothing motivates like self-preservation.” Adalind commented. “Believe me I know, I’ve been there.”
“Great.” Monroe turned to the boys and whistled. “Time out!”
Freddy woged back to normal, exhausted. Kelly was in the middle of a swipe and couldn’t seem to stop himself. Freddy braced for impact, but it never came. Just inches away from Freddy, Kelly’s claw stopped in Julie’s grip. As she held Kelly back she kissed him, confident she could handle him. Kelly reversed his woge as Julie pulled away. “Easy tiger.” She whispered in his ear, then turned to his parents. “Okay, he’s all ready for you.”
Adalind looked at Julie with an icy stare, not at all happy with the way the fuchsbau settled her son. Nick noticed the tension and stepped between the two women to grab his son by the hand. “Time to go son.”
After Sean left Diana, she wasted no time pulling her remaining coin out of her pocket and admiring it again. She knew what the coin was now, but she had a hard time resisting its will. She went out to a bar that was a known hotspot for wesen. By the time she got the bartender’s attention she already had a free drink. She looked around and noticed she had the attention of just about everybody in the place, and it wasn’t just her appearance. She knew there was more to this coin than just a curse. “Just needs a witch’s touch.”
Back at the jail, Nick, Adalind, Julie, and Monroe brought Kelly to meet with Manny. Theresa was waiting for them. “He’s ready and waiting for you.”
Manny was brought out to see them. “We meet again.”
“Let’s just get this over with.” Kelly said.
“Sit.” Manny gestured with his hands out on the table. Kelly did as directed. Manny took Kelly’s hands, and the latter felt a surge flow through him.
The next thing Kelly knew he was back in his dream state facing the damonfeurer. But this time, Manny was there too. “What’s going on?”
“Mediation.” Manny said. “Or an exorcism. It’s a matter of perspective.”
“You!” The damonfeurer screamed at Manny. “You killed me! Now what do you want?”
“To apologize.” Manny replied.
The damonfeurer laughed. “Apologize? What good does that do me? You killed me, in the most savage and barbaric way imaginable. You poisoned and paralyzed me and my last memory was you stripping the skin off my face and severing my arm. The next thing I know I’m being split between the two, actually being somehow in two places at once as my soul was divided by your cruel ritual, my only solace being in the belief I could destroy both of the people who took my remains. At least in that battle I was able to kill one, but I’m still stuck with this one. I must destroy him to be free. But first, I will destroy you for doing this to me.”
“Or I can do something else to put you at peace.” Manny said.
The damonfeurer scoffed. “How? And what makes you think I even want your help? You’ve done enough.”
“For starters, what’s your name?” Manny asked.
“You killed me and didn’t even know my name?” The damonfeurer bellowed. “Why should I give you the satisfaction of knowing me now?”
“What is your name?” Manny repeated.
“Armand Eberhart. Why does it matter to you now?”
“Armand, this is Kelly Burkhardt, and he had nothing to do with your death.”
“Burkhardt!” Armand screamed. “Dammit, that’s the name of the man who killed my grandfather!”
“I thought Eberhart sounded familiar.” Kelly said. “Your grandfather kidnapped my father’s then girlfriend Juliette. He wasn’t so innocent himself, and now I’m not sure how innocent you are. How did you get my bracer?”
Suddenly Armand was taken aback. “I found it. I just couldn’t help myself, so I took it.”
“You stole it from, didn’t you?” Kelly accused. “Thief!”
“That’s hardly enough reason for me to die!” Armand countered.
“Enough out of you two!” Manny said putting his hands up between the two. “You stole from him when you didn’t know who he was, and taking away what I did, that’s all he did to you. This is all my fault, but you’re stuck with each other, can you at least forgive each other?”
Kelly sighed. “I trust if you had lived to meet me, we could have resolved this peacefully. I forgive you for stealing my bracer. I kind of wish I knew when, but it hardly matters now, I just want this to be over.”
Manny turned from Kelly to Armand. “And you?”
Armand let out a sound between a sigh and a growl. “Him I can forgive. You I cannot.”
“Then punish me and spare him.” Manny exposed himself for Armand to take him on. Armand took the bait and attacked Manny. Manny didn’t do much to stop him, other than to grab him in a bear hug, which held him close and made Manny more vulnerable. Strangely the ground seemed to rise up around the two of them until they were both buried alive. The mound turned scaly and it spread around until the entire dreamscape was damonfeurer scales, and then it consumed Kelly as well.
Both Kelly and Manny gasped as they came out of their trance. “What the hell was that?”
“I took his spirit.” Manny explained. “Or at least part of it. I left some of his essence in you so you can continue to use the power. But as for his consciousness, his ghost, what’s still in you is trapped somewhere you won’t have to worry about except the occasional mild nightmare. The brunt of him I carry myself and I will deal with him, and he is trapped in me as he is within you, the only difference is he can never awaken within you again, and I can keep him trapped within me so he can’t hurt anyone. I am the only one he wants now.”
“What’s the catch?” Nick asked.
“What do you mean?” Manny tried to play coy.
Adalind didn’t buy it. “We all know there is a catch, spill it.”
“The contract still binds us.” Many answered. “You have to protect me, if I die anyway other than natural causes, meaning the damonfeurer finally gets his revenge on me, then the remnant in Kelly reawakens and he has to deal with the ghost himself again. So, death penalty is off the table and if I don’t get out of prison, you gotta make sure I’m at least safe inside.”
“Fair enough.” Nick, Adalind, and Kelly said in unison.
Seven years earlier…
Monroe, Rosalee, their kids, and Kelly sat around a fire cooking the rabbits they caught during their hunt that day. “Okay kids, normally wieder blutbaden keep a strict vegan diet, but just this once, cheat day, because that rabbit meat smells so good.” He took two out of the fire and handed one to his son. “Good job today.”
Freddy took the rabbit. “Why do we avoid eating meat?”
Monroe swallowed his first bite. “Because it brings out the worst in us. We have a killer instinct and it’s dangerous for us to indulge. Meat is murder. It’s not so bad when it’s just a rabbit, but then you start aiming bigger, like deer, and then people.”
“People?” Freddy asked appalled. “Why would we kill people?”
“Because it’s what we do.” Monroe answered. “Grimm hunt wesen because we hunt people. It’s our instinct, and it’s bad. We hurt innocent people, and if we don’t stop ourselves, we hurt people we care about. And that is why after tonight’s barbecue, we go vegan and it is salads from now on.”
“Why don’t they have to go vegan?” Freddy asked pointing to his sisters and Kelly.
“Because they don’t have the same temptations as us.” Monroe explained. “Fuchsbau aren’t killers and zauberbiests and Grimm aren’t inclined to murder innocents, and meat doesn’t trigger bloodlust in them. We have to work harder than they do to behave ourselves.”
Freddy frowned. “That’s not fair, meat tastes so good.”
Monroe rubbed his son’s shoulder. “I know son, I know.”
Freddy looked at Kelly and Julie and made a mental note to talk to them later. After they finished their meal and cleaned up, Freddy confronted Kelly. “What’s going on between you and Julie? Is aw you two out during the hunt, you went off on your own. And during dinner the way you look at each other…”
Kelly blushed. “She’s my girlfriend, I guess.”
“You guess?” Freddy asked. “If you’re dating my sister you’d better be sure.”
“Look, I like her and she likes me, but there’s a lot going on right now and we’re trying to figure it out.” Kelly explained. “It’s just nice to have someone who understands. We make things easier for each other, do you know what I mean?”
Freddy paused in thought for a moment. “Actually, I do. Kelly, what’s up with your sister? Is she seeing anybody?”
Kelly laughed. “I don’t know if anybody is good enough for her royal highness. Wait, let me rephrase that, nobody is good enough for daddy’s little princess. Renard scares the crap out of everybody who comes anywhere near her, so Rapunzel is woefully single. Do you like her?”
Freddy wasn’t sure how to answer. “Maybe.”
Kelly clapped Freddy on the shoulder. “A word of advice my friend, don’t bother unless you’ve got enough courage to face both her and her father. She needs a man brave enough to save the princess from the evil wizard who keeps her prisoner.”
Seven years later…
Diana was still at the bar, totally drunk and she hadn’t had to spend a penny. The whole bar was enraptured by her, and she was sure she could get them to do whatever she wanted, even lead them into war. She was careful not to display the secret to her charm, lest someone try to take it from her. She excused herself from the crowd of admirers to go to the bathroom. Inside the bathroom, she pulled out the coin once again, it reflected the purple glow in her eyes. “Now that I have my army, the next step is to get back your twin. Then, Portland is mine, and then maybe the whole world. Others may have failed, but others aren’t as powerful as me.”
Freddy nervously approached the Renard’s front door. He rang the doorbell and waited, hoping it would be Diana who answered. He was disappointed to see the door open to reveal Sean. “Hello Mr. Renard, is Diana home?”
Sean just stared at Freddy for a moment. “No, I’m afraid she’s not home right now, she’s on a date.”
Freddy’s heart sank. “Kelly told me she wasn’t dating yet.”
“it’s her first date.” Sean said. “Kelly also told his parents about your little crush and they passed it along to me.”
Freddy was so embarrassed he almost woged. “So, does she already know?”
“No.” Sean said. “And she never will. You do realize she’s a princess? Not just my little princess, like some dads say about their girls, she’s an actual Austrian princess of House Kronenberg, the most powerful Hexenbiest in the world, the daughter of a high-powered attorney and a police captain who once held the office of Mayor of Portland. Do you really think she would ever date the weder blutbad son of a tea merchant and a clock repairman?”
“I didn’t think about it like that.” Freddy hung his head in shame, but then he remembered what Kelly said. “But I think it’s up to her, and it wouldn’t hurt to try.”
“You think it wouldn’t hurt?” Sean woged. “Are you sure about that?”
Freddy woged in response.
Sean cut Freddy off before he could say anything. “I may only be half wesen, but I’m still twice the man you’ll ever be. Go home little boy, or I’ll huff and puff and blow your house down.”
Freddy woged back to normal and turned to go back to the car where his father was waiting for him. “How did it go son?” Freddy just slumped in his seat. “That bad huh? Sorry son, at least you tried.”
Meanwhile, back in the Renard house, Diana came down the stairs. “Who was that daddy?”
Sean shook his head. “Just a solicitor.”
Diana sighed. “I was hoping it was Freddy.”
Sean shrugged. “What can I say? If a boy doesn’t have the guts to come talk to you himself, he doesn’t deserve you.”
Seven years later…
Kelly woke up feeling great. He whistled as he got out of bed and went to the kitchen for breakfast. Julie was there drinking her tea and poured him some. “Thank you.” Kelly said as he took the cup from Julie.
“I take it another night with no nightmares?” Julie said.
“Yeah, Manny really came through.” Kelly replied. “I will remember him when he’s up for parole.”
“He hasn’t been convicted yet.” Julie said. “There’s no evidence, so there is no guarantee that the charges will stick.”
“Actually, I heard that when they checked Manny’s shop they found the bones of Armand Eberhart’s arm, so the case is getting stronger.” Kelly replied. “I know, I have mixed emotions too, he helped me out of a tight spot, but he also got me into it. Give me a few more wesen hunts with this new arm to make up my mind about whether he was worth the trouble.” Julie gave him a glare. “I said I’m thinking about it. Besides, you can’t say you’re happy with what he did to me.”
Julie shrugged. “Our family is big on forgiveness. I mean think about it, my mom was a drug addict and my dad still won’t talk about what he did that made him go vegan in the first place, and your parents were such a hot mess they didn’t even fall in love until after you were born, they were bitter enemies right up until then. Our family legacy has been twenty-six years of second chances, it would be a shame to end that now.”
Kelly started to get suspicious. “Why are you acting so defensive of Manny?”
“Theresa.” Julie confessed. “She’s sweet on him and she’s been visiting him and she’s convinced me he’s not so bad. He’s just another wesen struggling with his instincts. Besides, you know he has you under contract so we have to protect him. Like it or not, we’re stuck with him.”
“I have to protect his life, that doesn’t mean I can’t let him stew for a while in jail to get the point not to screw with people like this.” Kelly corrected. “But you’re right, we’ll let the justice system teach him a lesson and then give him a fresh start, because that’s what we do.”
Julie kissed Kelly. “That’s all I ask sweetie.”
Just then, there was a knock at the door. Kelly went to get it. It was Diana. “Hello sis, what brings you here?”
“Just checking up on my little bro.” Diana replied with a kiss on the cheek. “How are you holding up after, you know?”
“Are you referring to having my body commandeered by a damonfeurer by way of vibora dorada?” Kelly asked almost sarcastically. “Great. In fact, I was just headed up to the trailer to add my story to the books. I figured this was new enough we needed a record just in case this ever happens again. I know I wish we had a record to help me through it, but zauberbiest Grimm hybrids are lacking coverage, so I have a lot of writing to do. A Grimm’s work is never done.”
“Mind if I tag along?” Diana asked.
“Sure, never been a problem before.” Kelly answered. “Do you want to come too honey?”
Julie shook her head. “I’d love to check out your old dusty books, but unfortunately I’ve got a study date with some old dusty books of my own.” With a kiss goodbye, Kelly and Julie went their separate ways for the day.
Soon the Schade siblings were at the trailer in the woods where they kept everything they inherited from the Grimms of the past. For Kelly, this was his favorite part of being a Grimm, looking through the records and adding to it, since he had such unique circumstances. Not only was he the first to be born part wesen, he was also the first to be raised alongside wesen. As far as he could tell from the records, he was the first Grimm in recorded history who was on such good terms with wesen as opposed to just hunting them. He felt it was his duty to make sure future generations knew coexistence was possible.
Diana was always curious about everything their family had gathered over the years. This probably came from being a hexenbiest, they had a natural interest in anything unusual, one could never be certain of where power could lie. This trailer was full of texts, weapons, chemicals that varied from medicines to poisons, and much more than most people ever imagined existed, all to even the odds with wesen. Diana never felt bored here, but today she was set on finding one thing. She was impatient, feeling the draw of a force beyond her, so she used her powers to scry for exactly what she needed. While her brother was busy writing about his experience with the vibora dorada, she found the book with information on the coins of Zakynthos and casually turned the page as if she just happened to notice this page for the first time. “Hey Kelly, look at this.”
“Just a minute sis.” Kelly said as he finished writing. “What is it?” He looked at the page she pointed out for him. “The Coins of Zakynthos. I remember dad telling me about how he got a hold of these back before I was born. They had passed through the hands of several wesen, many of whom were killed over the coins. Your dad had them at one point, but then my dad got them from him and then grandma took them back to Europe to try to dispose of them, but apparently, she got waylaid and she hid them instead.”
“I think my dad has one.” Diana slipped in as casually as she could.
“Sean has one?” Kelly asked. “Are you sure?”
Diana nodded. “Yeah. When you went camping with Monroe and Freddy, my dad visited me to find out how the hunt went and I saw him playing with this coin.” She pointed to the illustration. “I recognize that symbol there.”
Kelly read the entry. “It says here the coins were made in ancient Greece, imprinted with the head of a lion on one side and this symbol which despite looking like a Nazi swastika, was once a symbol of good luck. Supposedly they give the holder influence over others, but all we know for sure is that it history has recorded them passing through the hands of tyrants and megalomaniacs who, if the legends were true, used the coins to rally their troops to their cause, and then went mad with power before losing everything including the coins. Yeah, nobody should have these, not even your dad. I’m not saying I don’t like Sean, I’m just saying I don’t want him building an tyrannical totalitarian empire in Portland terrorizing my friends and losing his mind and becoming a madman. Well more of a madman than he already is. It’s just not our family way to let things like that happen.”
Diana was slightly offended by the way her brother was talking about her father, but her desire for the coin was greater, she needed to stay focused. “I agree. If this really is the coin, we need to get it away from him.”
“And then what, I wonder?” Kelly asked. “Whoever has them goes mad, except Grimm seem to have immunity as per usual, but probably not enough that I want to test it too much. We need to get them to Zakynthos and burn them.”
This made Diana nervous, she could actually feel it in her pocket where she kept her coin. “One step at a time. We need to get into his house and get the coin.”
Kelly shook his head. “It may not be that simple. It seems like the people who have these coins are addicted to them and refuse to give them up. This probably goes double for your dad since he already lost three coins once because he didn’t keep them close. If he has just one, he’s probably guarding it like Gollum guarded the One Ring. I have no idea how we’re going to get it from him, but we will need to be sure of where it is before we even try to get it, because we’ll only have one chance.”
Diana got that nervous feeling again. “Maybe I should try to get it alone.”
Kelly shook his head again. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea either.” Just then, Kelly’s phone rang and he answered it. “Burkhardt here, hello?”
“Yeah, Kelly we got a hot one here.” It was Wu. “I know you’ve been out on medical leave, but I think we need your particular expertise on this one.”
“Wesen?” Kelly asked rhetorically.
“Yup.” Wu confirmed.
“What kind?” Kelly asked, again knowing the answer before he asked.
“Well that’s what we need you to figure out.” Wu clarified. “Are you up for it?”
“Yeah I’ll be right there.” Kelly replied ending the call. “Maybe you will have to handle the coins on your own. It seems my emergency leave of absence from the Portland Police Department is over.”
“A Grimm’s work is never done.” Diana sighed and they went back to the car and drove back to town.
After Diana was dropped off at home, Kelly went to the address Wu texted him. To his surprise it was Eberhardt’s coin exchange, which seemed very fishy to Kelly right now. “So, what happened here?”
“We got a call about a robbery.” Wu answered. “The weird thing is, the store is full of valuables that have been sitting here since the owner died over a week ago, but after checking inventory, nothing seemed to be missing. It seems like they were looking for something. The question is what?”
“My guess is the Coins of Zakynthos.” Kelly said.
Wu’s brow furrowed. “I remember reading about those in your dad’s books. After he and Hank finally read me in, he let me visit the trailer and I binged. That was one of the few entries that wasn’t about a wesen so it kind of stuck out. Why do you think they have anything to do with this? Other than, obviously we are in a coin exchange, so it’s probably coins.”
“They are very valuable coins.” Kelly explained. “So valuable the owner would have wanted to keep them secret, they wouldn’t have been recorded on the inventory and wherever they were being kept was probably not anything we would notice if we didn’t think to look for it. That, and also, I got a tip that one of those coins is in Portland, and it would probably make anyone else who knew about it think to look for others.”
“Do you want to check the bodies in the morgue or does it matter at this point?” Wu asked.
Kelly nodded. “I need to examine the bodies to see if there are any signs that might give away the type of wesen that did this. But first, I’m going to look around here and see if there are any other clues to anything else about this case. If I’m right this could be a really big problem, so I’m leaving no stone unturned.”
Kelly started looking around. Just as Wu said, the place had been ransacked but there were no voids suggesting anything was actually missing. He checked the back room and found a lot of copper, mostly wires, but some were baubles or containers. Inside a few small containers he found gold nuggets that he recognized from books as unbezahlbars, the product of seltenvogel that could be removed without hurting the wesen, though there was no guarantee that these had been procured that way. There were larger containers that contained glowing blue sheets. Nobody else had bothered to look because they didn’t know, but these were gluhenvolk skins and that meant wesen had definitely died. In the corner, there was what appeared to be a giant rabbit foot, but Kelly knew the proportions meant this was willahara. Kelly couldn’t be sure if Eberhardt had killed all of these wesen himself or if he had just traded for them, but whether he committed murder or merely condoned it, Kelly felt less guilty about the damonfeurer’s death. He still wasn’t sure if he could forgive Manny for doing the deed, but he had to consider that he might have done the same thing, but perhaps Manny had brought something good out of it. As the thought crossed his mind, he looked at his hand and thought about whether he was so different from Eberhardt collecting wesen trophies.
“I didn’t see any big clues.” Kelly reported back to Wu. “But I’ve got to say, for all the valuables hidden in the back as well as still sitting out here, somebody is looking for something specific to just leave all of this behind. I didn’t see any signs the coins were even here to begin with, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t what they were looking for.”
“Off the morgue now?” Wu asked. Kelly nodded and they were on their way.
They got to the morgue and checked the bodies. Kelly didn’t really pay much attention to the coroner’s report, he was looking for something they wouldn’t know to look for. He looked over the body and there were wounds, but unfortunately, they weren’t at all specific enough. There were claw marks, but Kelly didn’t have enough experience to narrow down which wesen’s claws would leave them from the many possibilities. There were bite marks as well, but they didn’t give away much more than the claw marks. The bite marks looked narrow, so it seemed more likely it was the beak of a bird like wesen, but there were still too many to narrow it down. It could have been a geier, or a desperate seltenvogel. Kelly remembered when his father told him his story about the coins, there was a steinadler involved.
“Sorry Wu.” Kelly said. “I can’t figure anything out for sure. It looks like it might be something bird-like, but there’s still too many. I’m going back to the trailer to see if I can narrow down by MO.”
“You do the leg work, I do the paperwork, as per usual.” Wu said. “We each do what we do best.”
With that, Kelly went back to the trailer to look through the books. He leafed through several pages, trying to focus on the bird-like wesen, but it seemed like there were more than he ever noticed before, now that he was trying to single one out. He lost track of time, but got snapped back to reality when he heard a knock at the trailer door. It was the triplets. “What are you guys doing here?”
“You weren’t answering your phone, Wu said you were up here.” Julie answered.
“Reception isn’t that great out here.” Kelly looked at his phone, it said three missed calls. “Sorry, I was just really focused on this case. I thought I narrowed it down to bird like wesen, but that doesn’t seem to help. It’s still looking for a needle in a haystack.”
“Have you considered hexenbiests or zauberbiests?” Theresa asked. “Word has been going around that one or the other or both are trying to start a gang and they’re looking for the coins of Zakynthos.”
“Did Wu tell you about my theory when he told you where I was?” Kelly asked.
Freddy shook his head. “He didn’t have to. Some of our friends told us the rumors. Apparently, whoever it is knows us well enough to not talk to us directly, but they don’t know who we know and here and there a few have let slip a few details to people they didn’t know would tell us.”
“Manny even told me about recruitment in the jail.” Theresa added. “Someone talked to him because they knew we put him away. This isn’t just a Grimm versus wesen problem, it’s personal.”
“Does Manny know because he’s joining their cause?” Kelly asked.
“He’s not sure.” Theresa answered. “He doesn’t want to fight us, but he also knows he may be able to get some info from the inside if he doesn’t burn his bridges.”
“Unfortunately, I think we already know who it is.” Kelly said with a sigh. “Diana told me Renard has a coin. All signs point to him now.”
Julie interjected. “Except, if he knows to keep his people from letting us know about his plans, why would he seek out people who have a beef with us? Wouldn’t it be too big of a risk to draw attention with someone who might have a personal vendetta? It would seem to me he should avoid anything that would attract attention from the only people he doesn’t want a conflict with.”
Kelly took a moment to think about this. “How do we want to play this? We need to get to Renard’s coin without this turning into a fight, because well, he kind of scares the crap out of all of us, which is why we need to get the coin away from him.”
“But we can’t get the coin from him because we’re scared of how powerful it will make him.” Freddy reiterated. “Quite the conundrum.”
“You’re going to have to go to his place with Diana.” Julie said. “Maybe I can go with you as a plus one, if we’re really daring we might all be able to tag along, but the more people we add the more attention we might draw. You have the easiest way to get in because you are family.”
“Weird.” Kelly furrowed his brow. “Diana was suggesting the same thing earlier today when she told me about his coin. But then she changed her mind when I pointed out we needed to have an endgame plan of what to do with the coin since it needs to be destroyed in Zakynthos in Greece.”
“One step at a time.” Julie said. “Get in, get the coin and we’ll figure out the next step once you have it.”
“But what if evil gets me before I get back?” Kelly asked. “I mean, it sounds paranoid, but I did just go through it about a week ago, so forgive me for thinking it’s a valid concern.”
“Leave your phone on speaker.” Freddy said. “We’ll listen from just outside and if anything goes wrong, we move in.”
“You three are my back up?” Kelly asked.
“Yes.” Freddy said. “At this point Renard will have all of the other police and wesen under his thumb. You can’t count on ordinary kehrseite, so it’s us or Bud’s family.”
Kelly rolled his eyes. “Okay then, it’s you guys. I’ll call Diana and see if she still wants a family get together.”
That evening, Kelly and Diana had dinner with Sean Renard at his house. “To what do I owe the pleasure of the company of my favorite children of Portland?” Sean asked.
Diana jumped to answer her father’s question. “I spend so much time with Kelly and his family, I really thought it was high time we spent some more quality time with you. I feel bad, it’s so unfair that Mr. Burkhardt gets to have us all to himself and you get left out. I just felt like you were kind of left out and it wasn’t right.”
Sean smiled at Diana. “You always were such a sweet girl. Always thinking of how to make your family happy.” He turned to Kelly. “And you are a good brother to Diana. Almost as good as you are a cop. I heard you caught a robbery turned murder case. How’s that going?”
Kelly almost choked. “I didn’t know we were going to talk business, I thought it was family night.”
“Pardon me.” Sean apologized. “I just get so caught up in work, I forget what else to talk about. Oh, I know, Diana told me about your unusual encounter with a vibora dorada. Tell me, how are you doing after all that?”
Kelly nearly choked again. “Better now, but it was kind of touch and go. I… kind of got possessed by a spirit.”
“That I understand.” Sean replied. “Did your father ever tell you about when I was possessed by Jack the Ripper?”
“No, I don’t think we got around to that one.” Kelly said. “Sounds interesting though. Do tell.”
“I almost died in the line of duty, but lucky for me, my mother was in town and fixed the situation as only a hexenbiest can. But it seems there’s always a price to pay, and my price was that something came back from the dead with me, specifically the Ripper. Eventually, the whole gang got together and managed an exorcism. Still, even with a happy ending, the experience was still miserable. I imagine you could say the same yourself?”
“Yes, unfortunately.” Kelly said. “Fortunately, what doesn’t kill a Grimm, makes us stronger.”
Sean laughed. “Lucky you then.”
Kelly laughed too. “Excuse me, Captain Renard.”
“Oh please, we’re not at work, you can call me Sean.”
“Sean.” Kelly corrected. “I’m afraid I need to us the restroom.”
“Down the hall on the left.” Sean pointed in the direction of the bathroom.
Kelly went down the hall, then listened to be sure that Diana did her part to keep her father busy. Kelly tried to look around the house outside of Sean’s view. He tried his best to be quiet and not draw attention, but he knew he also had to be quick, he only had so much time before Sean caught on anyway. He eventually got to Sean’s bedroom and looked around. He couldn’t check every spot, he needed to hit the most likely locations. He checked the closet, the drawers, and a jewelry box that Kelly could only assume was for cuff links. Nothing anywhere in the room. Kelly gave up and turned to leave and was stunned to see Sean standing in the doorway. Kelly tried to look innocent. “This isn’t the bathroom, now is it? You meant my other left, I have a poor sense of direction.”
“Looking for this?” Sean said holding up the coin. “Did you think I’d be stupid enough to leave it out where anybody could find it?”
Kelly still tried to play dumb. “I didn’t know you were a coin collector. That would have been some interesting dinner conversation. I have all the state quarters, a Susan B. Anthony silver dollar, a Sacagawea gold dollar and a buffalo head nickel. I haven’t gotten into international denominations.”
“Relax, Burkhardt.” Renard tried to reassure Kelly. “I know you weren’t responsible for this. It was my daughter that put you up to this.” He turned to see Diana right behind him but wasn’t surprised at all. “You wanted to complete your collection, didn’t you?”
Diana tried to sound as sweet and innocent as she could. “Daddy, I would never steal anything from you, I’m your little girl.”
Sean was not buying it. “Cut the crap honey. I know the coins never travel alone, where there’s one, there’s more. I needed to see if you were worthy of keeping the one you had.”
Diana’s eyes started glowing violet. “Are you going to try to take it back?”
Renard shrugged casually. “I don’t know. Are you going to take mine? Or could we rule together?”
“What do you mean?” Diana asked.
Renard sweetened up to his daughter. “Sweetie, we both know you’re the most powerful, you deserve to rule with or without the coins, but the coins are giving us an edge here. I wouldn’t dare even think about ruling without you by my side. These coins just bring out the truth in ourselves, the truth we deny because it’s what society demands of us, to accept living in the shadows when we should stand in the light, be the light. All you have to do is show me your coin.”
Diana’s eyes dimmed as she held out her hand and showed her coin. Sean casually took it from her. “And that is how you use the power of the coins of Zakynthos. You can have this back when you prove you are truly worthy and not just a lucky amateur.” He turned back to Kelly. “So, Burkhardt, the question is, will you and your motley crew be with us or are you foolish enough to remain against us?”
Kelly couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “Come on Diana, you’re not actually going along with this?”
“He’s my dad.” Diana said weakly.
Kelly looked back to Sean. He was so angry he woged, his arm withering into his natural zauberbiest form. “I won’t let you use my sister like this!” He made a mad grab for the coins that was half an attack as well.
Sean woged as well and blocked the attack, palming the coins to keep them out of Kelly’s grasp. They traded blows, Kelly used everything he had, eventually changing his hand from zauberbiest to damonfeurer. “There’s the power I wanted to see.” Sean said. “If only you could use that for our cause. I’ll give you one more chance, do you want to change your mind?”
“I’m not scared of you!” Kelly screamed defiantly at Renard.
Renard laughed and reversed his woge. “I’m not the one you should be afraid of.” He stepped aside to show Diana with her eyes glowing violet again, her hands raised. She moved her hands toward the window and Kelly went flying through it.
Landing outside, Kelly heard footsteps and hoped that when he looked up he’d see his friends, but instead saw all of the wesen he suspected of the break in at Eberhardt’s coin exchange. “D, all of the above, I did not think of that.” He stood up and tried his best to fight all of them. He held up pretty well, at least for a while. When they started to overwhelm him, that’s when the triplets showed up and evened the odds to save him. “Thanks guys. What took so long?”
“Honestly, it sounded like you might have had a handle on it until we heard the glass shatter.” Freddy said.
“Are you okay?” Julie asked.
“Just a few cuts, nothing the staff can’t fix.” Kelly said, then his heart dropped as he realized what he said. “I need to get back to the trailer, if Sean has the coins, Diana and the staff, we are really screwed. On the other hand, maybe the only thing that will stop the Renards.”
As Julie and Theresa tried to help Kelly walk away, Freddy stopped. “We can’t just leave Diana here with him.”
Kelly shook his head. “I don’t like it any more than you, but I tried, she’s under the spell and so is he. If you want to stay here and try your luck with them, it’s your funeral.”
For a moment, Freddy just stared back at the window. Diana was looking at him. Once again, he was too afraid to do anything, and they all fled together.
Seven years earlier…
Julie was getting ready for her first proper date with Kelly. They were going to a concert featuring the Band of Bremen, an all wesen band that performed for a very select audience. Their family had good connections and got tickets for the show. They had been listening to the music and it was pretty good. Julie was really looking forward to it. As she walked out of her room, she ran into her brother.
“Looking good sis.” Freddy said with a smile. “Kelly is a lucky guy.”
“Thanks bro.” Julie said with a smile, but felt a little bad for him. “You know, we do have another ticket for you if you want to come.”
Freddy shook his head. “No, it’s okay, I don’t really feel like partying right now. Besides I don’t want to be a third wheel, you go and have fun with Kelly.”
Julie sat her brother down. “Listen I know you like Diana, and she will be a part of our lives, and it hurts right now, but I’m sure you’ll find somebody who will see what a great guy you are.”
Freddy smiled back at his sister. “Thanks, but I know you just have to say that because you’re my sister.”
“No, I mean it.” Julie said. “Do you really want a stuck-up princess like that anyway? You know dad never thought he’d ever find love until he found mom, and it was more or less luck. You can’t get down on yourself just because the first one doesn’t work.”
“It worked for you and Kelly.” Freddy pointed out.
“We’re young and we’re going through something right now.” Julie replied. “Time will tell if it works out for us, and time will tell if it works out for you.” There was a honk outside. “There’s my ride, good night bro.” She gave him a kiss on the cheek as she went out the door.
Seven years later…
A man approached his boss to give a report. “The Renards took the coins and started building a gang in Portland, just as predicted. They had some conflict, but it seems that they have gotten on the same page now. The Grimm got away though.”
“So, they passed the test, perhaps they are ready to rejoin House Kronenberg. I think it is time to give my cousin a call about bringing his daughter back home.” Victor said.
And now, the conclusion to this story:
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The concert was amazing, Kelly and Julie had a great time. To top off the night, they got to go back stage and meet the band. “That was awesome!” Julie exclaimed to the band and went for a hug.
“Glad you enjoyed it.” The band leader replied, embracing Julie. “So, I take it you’re Rosalee Calvert’s daughter? We were friends back in the day. I take it she’s doing well.”
“She’d doing great.” Julie confirmed. “Best mom in the whole world!”
“Do you really mean that or is that just because she got you into the show?”
Julie smiled, squinted and cocked her head to the side. “Maybe a little bit of both.”
“So, do you take after your mom?” The band leader asked.
Julie knew what he meant and woged. The band woged in return. The leader was an apgadniek, the others were a nuckelavee, a klaustreich, and a seltenvogel. They smiled at Julie, but then looked at Kelly and panicked. “Grimm!”
Kelly quickly raised his hand in front of his eyes and woged at the same time. “It’s cool, I’m one of you!”
“This is my boyfriend Kelly.” Julie reassured the band. “He won’t hurt anybody.”
“A Grimm who’s part wesen?” The leader asked. “How did that happen?”
“It’s kind of a long story.” Kelly said as they all reverted.
The band pulled out some bottles of iced tea for their guests. “Well take a seat and tell us all about it.”
Seven years later…
Sean led Diana outside to check on Kelly and the gang members waiting outside. When he saw the dead wesen and no sign of Kelly, he got out his phone and sent a group text calling up all of the wesen in his network. “Okay honey, we gotta go.” Sean and Diana got into his car and headed to the location he texted to his people.
Meanwhile, Kelly and the triplets had gotten back to the trailer and retrieved the staff. As soon as Kelly took a hold of it, all his cuts, scrapes and bruises healed. Without wasting any time, Kelly got back in the car so they could head back to Renard’s place.
“So now that we have the staff, what is our next move?” Theresa asked.
Kelly was stopped in thought now. “Usually I plan to fight the wesen and try to subdue and arrest them or else kill them, but this is the first time the latter is not an option. We need to get the coins back from Renard.”
Julie interrupted. “Wait Kelly, don’t go anywhere just yet, I have an idea.” Julie got out of the car while they were still at the trailer. She ran inside, looked around and came back out holding a box. “This is the box that the fragment of the staff was locked away in. It can only be opened with a set of keys and/or some really good lock picks. We have the keys, and this seems to be the most secure container, so once we get the coins, lock them in here and then split up the keys between us so no single one of us can open it and abuse the coins without the consent and cooperation of the others. Hopefully, at least one of us will have the sense to stop the others in any case.”
“Okay, now we have something of a plan.” Kelly said. “Does anybody else have any thoughts about what we need to finish this job?”
Everyone shook their head. “Staff of Zerstorer, box of seven keys, coins of Zakynthos, mask from vibora dorada. I think we’ve exhausted the list of known magical tools at our disposal. Unless you can remember a good recipe for a spell or zaubertrank, this is as good as it gets.”
Kelly shook his head. “Magic was really Diana’s specialty, so I guess we need to get her back.” With all of that settled, Kelly started the car to return to Sean’s house.
Meanwhile, Sean was preparing to address his followers. In a warehouse on the edge of town, half the wesen in Portland were gathered to hear the words of Sean Renard, the half that were the most prone to violence, those with pack mentality, those who were just waiting for a leader to unite them. Many of them were children of the Black Claw, once a powerful wesen organization that was crushed, but those were too young to participate had grown up with a sense of vengeance, just waiting for a second bite at the apple. Renard had connected with many over the years, Diana had doubled the number in just a week. “Twenty years ago, I had a chance to run this town the way it should be, a town where wesen would be in charge. That dream was lost due to forces beyond my control, but now we have a force beyond that on our side.” Sean brought Diana out to stand next to him in front of everybody. “My daughter, Diana, is the most powerful hexenbiest there has ever been. I stand before you not to put your faith in me alone to run Portland, I ask you to put your faith in this dynasty, our legacy of a town, the first own in the history of the world, where wesen openly control the city, and kehrseite respect us, revere us, bow down to us and live in fear of us!” With each of these declarations, the crowd cheered louder. “But there is still one standing in our way.” “A Grimm, Diana’s brother, Kelly Burkhardt, could be our greatest ally, but he chooses to stand against us, as Grimms do. He must be found and he must be stopped. I implore you, seek out this young man and bring him to me!”
Most of the wesen charged out of the building to look for Kelly. However, there were three individuals in the crowd that came forward approaching Sean and Diana. “Sean Renard, please come with us.”
“And just why should I follow you anywhere?” Sean said, still hyped by the coins and uninterested in following anyone.
The strangers managed to bring up the only authority high enough to get Renard’s attention even under his spell. “We represent House Kronenberg. The king requests your attendance in Austria.”
“What king?” Sean snapped back. “To my knowledge, he’s been long dead. What need do I have of forgotten powers when I have the potential to build my own realm right here?”
“King Viktor thinks your ambitions are too small. Sure, you can have Portland, have all of America if you want, but first, the princess has a role to play in the restoration of an empire. The seven houses need her and if you cooperate, this half of the world will be yours in the name of the empire!”
“That does sound tempting.” Sean replied. “If I thought that fool Viktor had any influence worth my notice. He’s only king because he’s the last legitimate heir, but with no heir of his own, Diana and I have more claim of the throne than he does.”
“Where do you think the coins of Zakynthos came from?” The leader of the trio said.
This caught Sean’s attention. “What about the coins?”
“Three coins passed through this town over two decades ago. Two came back, Viktor has the third. He allowed the other two coins to come back here. He had sent them to a damonfeurer to deliver to you, but when he hoarded them for himself, he hired a vibora dorada and some geiers to get the coins back and make sure they got to you. Of course, they loused it up too, but fortunately, Diana was the next to get her hands on them. Now that they are in the right hands, it is simply a matter of getting those hands in the right place. Please, Herr Renard, come with us. We can do his the easy way, or the hard way.” The three woged, one was a hundjager, one was a nuckelavee, and the speaker was a mauvais dentes.
It was the mauvais dentes that really got Sean’s attention. Perhaps Diana could take all three wesen, but when it came to his own daughter, he wasn’t sure he could bring himself to risk her against someone who was brave enough to approach them like this assuming they knew what they were up against. “Fine, I guess it couldn’t hurt to have a little family reunion.”
Meanwhile, Kelly and the triplets returned to Renard’s house but nobody was there. They looked around in every corner of the house and outside, but no sign of them. Freddy smelled the air. “Diana’s scent is weak, she’s not here. Sean’s gone too.”
They heard a car pull up into the driveway and everybody went to check on the newcomer. It was Nick and Adalind. “Mom, dad, what are you doing here.”
Adalind was holding her phone. “I just got a message from Sean saying he was taking Diana for a trip back to Austria. I tried to reach him to ask what the hell was going on but he won’t answer. What the hell is going on?”
Kelly was as shocked as his mother. “I don’t know why they went to Austria, but I know they have the coins of Zakynthos. Does that tell you anything about what is going on?”
“I thought my mom got rid of those things.” Nick said.
“You’re assuming those were the only three that still existed.” Adalind said. “Even if she did dispose of them, someone could have found more.”
“Either way, this is not good.” Nick said. “No good comes from those coins. I saw an old film in my aunt’s trailer once, Hitler had them. So, you know, if someone is taking the coins to eastern Europe, historically that doesn’t go well.”
“But why Austria?” Kelly asked.
“The Royals.” Nick said. “Renard is part of House Kronenberg of Austria. If they’re on a power trip, there’s nowhere more fitting than the family castle.”
“Do you think they are already on their way there?” Adalind asked.
“We can check the airport.” Nick said. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if they were already on a private jet.”
“How would Renard get a private jet on such short notice?” Kelly asked.
“If the Royals are involved, it may not be as short notice as we think.” Nick said suspiciously.
They all got back in their cars and went to the airport. No sign of Sean or Diana anywhere. Freddy woged just enough to smell around. He separated from the others to check around outside. He couldn’t get past security to the runway and he had to come back. “I didn’t get much, but I know Diana’s scent and there is just enough I know she was here within a few hours, but they didn’t come in the airport, they went straight out. I guess they did take a private jet.”
“Well, we don’t quite have those connections, so we’re going to have to fly commercial.” Nick said. He went to the ticket counter and purchased six tickets to Vienna. “There go all my frequent flyer miles. But we have to do this, I have a bad feeling about Diana.”
“Me too.” Kelly agreed. “Apparently, she got the coins from Cook, which explains his weird behavior as the leader of the geiers. I didn’t know about the coins, but after I killed him, she found them, I guess I knocked them out of his pocket or his hand or something. Anyway, ever since she’s been under their spell, and somehow Sean got a hold of one of them and apparently, he knows how to use them better than she does, because he talked her into giving up the one she still had. I saw the whole thing and she’s not herself. I don’t know much about these coins but I don’t like this at all.”
Adalind and Freddy looked worried. Nick tried to reassure everyone. “We’re going to figure out some way to fix this and bring her home.” Even he wasn’t entirely sure of his words, but he wanted to be right this time more than ever.
While Kelly and the others waited for their plane, Sean and Diana were already well on their way. Their wesen escort seemed to be keeping a close eye on them, but Diana was not easily intimidated. She tried to break the ice with the mauvais dentes. “You know my name is Diana, but I don’t know your name, may I ask what it is?”
The mauvais dentes glared at her as if the stare could make her leave him alone, but he was surprised to see a complete lack of fear in her eyes, just a pure innocence as she continued to smile at him, waiting patiently for his answer. It quite disarmed him and he found himself answering her. “Zimmerman. Hans Zimmerman.”
“Okay Hans, may I call you Hans?” Diana asked, still sweet and innocent, Hans nodded in reply to her question. She moved closer to him. “How exactly do you fit into all of this?”
“I am the current leader of the verrat.” Hans answered. “I answer only to the Royals, and that includes your uncle, and he wants you to come home. From what we know about you, I am very interested myself, but his majesty wants to save the questions and demonstrations for when he can meet with you, and what the king wants the king gets.”
Diana frowned slightly. “Well he may not want there to be any questions but that doesn’t mean I can’t give any answers. You seem to know all about me and my parents, what about the rest of my family? Did you know that my brother is a Grimm and he’s part zauberbiest?”
Hans looked at her giving ever so slight a hint of with just a touch of mild surprise. “I heard that, but I find it hard to believe.”
“Oh, it’s true.” Diana added. “His left hand is the only part that woges. He doesn’t have a lot of power, but he makes up for it with his Grimm abilities. And we’re friends with two fuchsbau and a blutbad, wieder blutbad actually, though he kind of fell off the wagon, but he tries. They’re triplets. Yeah, we’re an interesting bunch. Oh, and then there’s the eisbibers, and some yaguarate and even an aswang. And also, are you ready for this, a primal lycanthrope! Have you even heard of one of those? Very mixed, hard to believe the common thread is a Grimm, but somehow we make it work.” Diana stopped, noticing Hans wasn’t paying attention. “You’re not really a people person, are you?”
Meanwhile, Kelly and the others finally got their ride to Austria. They all sat in one row, the triplets on one side and the Burkhardt-Schades on the other. Kelly and Julie sat on the aisle so they could talk to each other. Freddy was right next to Julie, and she could tell he was uneasy, they all could. “We’re all worried about Diana, but you seem to be a little more on edge. Are you still suffering meat withdrawal, or is this, you know, your other problem?”
Freddy sighed. “It’s all the same problem.”
Julie took her brother’s hand. “It’s okay.”
Kelly overheard. “What’s going on?”
Julie looked at Kelly, then back at Freddy. After a long pause, Freddy nodded and Julie turned back to Kelly. “Freddy is in love with Diana, but he’s afraid he’s not good enough.”
“Oh that?” Kelly said. “Yeah we talked about it years ago. Why haven’t you ever stepped up and told her how you feel?”
Freddy sighed. “I tried once, but…Sean…”
Kelly shook his head. “I told you man, you gotta be brave enough for both of them. He is scary, he even scares me sometimes. I tell you, if it weren’t for the fact that my ever-loving sister has him wrapped around her little finger, there’s probably about a dozen times I think he would have killed me. But that’s Sean, you can’t let him get between you and Diana. Now, more than ever, you gotta be there for her. I’ll let you in on a secret, she likes you too.”
Freddy was shocked so much he soft woged. “What?”
“It’s true.” Kelly echoed. “I kind of let her know you had a thing for her and she just said if you really wanted her you needed to man up.”
“And you’re just telling me this now?” Freddy exclaimed.
Kelly shrugged. “I already went between you two once, I’m not a cupiditas or anything like that, I was just going to let you figure it out on your own when you were ready.”
“But now?” Freddy echoed.
Kelly turned and looked his best friend dead in the eye. “Now I need you to be frikkin’ ready.”
While the Grimm gang was still in the air, Hans was escorting Sean and Diana into Castle Kronenberg. The front door was opened for them by servants and proceeded into the inner sanctum and the throne room. Sitting upon the throne was none other than Viktor von Konigsburg, having his wine glass refilled. He took a sip as he noticed his family enter. “Sean, Diana! It has been all too long. Why you were knee high the last time I saw you Diana. How have you been?”
Sean cut him off. “Dispense with the pleasantries Viktor, and get off my throne.”
Viktor raised his eyebrows. “Your throne? Know your place cousin, this is my house.”
“For now.” Sean noted. “But not for long. You went through a lot of trouble to get us here, just what the hell is this all about?”
Viktor’s smile faded into a more serious expression. “Very well, down to business. The coins of Zakynthos represent influence, influence which belongs to the Seven Royal Houses. This house has fallen to me, but since I do not have an heir of my own, it is imperative that I secure the throne with an heir from this family, someone who is powerful and there is no one more powerful in our family, or any of the seven houses, possibly the whole world, as our dear Diana. She is of royal blood and in addition to the political power that holds, she has the power of a hexenbiest, stronger than any other in the world. If she were in charge, House Kronenberg would certainly be the strongest of the Seven Houses, and all of the wesen would fall in line under a wesen queen. We might even be able to pull ourselves out of obscurity and return to the grandeur that royalty once was instead of being a forgotten relic in the democratic era. Your father had the right idea, she is important. Her place is here. Unfortunately, there have been a lot of road blocks for me. After the whole disaster with Black Claw twenty years ago, we lost a lot of support and I had to rebuild. I have been struggling ever since just to hold together what is left of our house and garner support from the wesen community without minor rebellions tearing us apart from the inside. It was only just this past year that I finally located the coins of Zakynthos that Kelly Burkhardt brought to Europe just before her death. She intended to take them back to Zakynthos and smite them in the very fires that made them, but the aforementioned conflicts were already brewing and cut off her passage. The best she could do was secure them with the Gnomes of Zurich. They hid the coins in their vaults so well it took every resource I had to unearth them. Leave it to the Swiss bankers to have such greed for gold coins that they would hoard them away rather than risk using them and exposing them to theft. Of course, that was probably why she went to them in the first place, smart move. Anyway, now that we have them it means we have the influence we need to restore the glory of our house. The only thing that would make this better is if we had the treasure of the Templars. I know someone found it, would you know anything about that?”
Even under the spell of the coins, Diana knew the staff was too great to bring into this. “No, we know nothing at all. Right daddy?”
“Nope, sorry.” Sean concurred. “If I did, do you think I would have still been living in Portland?”
Meanwhile, Kelly was collecting the staff from luggage claim. He had tried to take it as carry-on, but it was too long to be accepted. They were all nervous about such a powerful item being lost in the airlines, but the staff seemed to be beyond such a fate and returned to its master. “Let’s go.”
“I’ll lead the way.” Adalind said. “I know House Kronenberg better than I like and I wish I’d never have to go back there. But I’d do anything for my family so we’re going to get Diana back even if I have to climb down into the bowels of hell to do it.”
“Is it really that bad mom?” Kelly asked.
Adalind nodded. “I can get you to the front gate, after that there really isn’t a way to prepare for what comes next. It is literally hexenbiest proof.” She sighed and it was clear she had just considered a new threat to Diana’s well-being.
“We’ll get her mom.” Kelly reassured her. “I promise.”
“And we’ll take care of Kelly.” Julie added.
“Everyone is coming home.” Freddy added.
Adalind smiled a weak smile. “Thanks, but if you really want to make me feel better, don’t just say it do it. I need my babies.”
Sometime later the gate guards at Castle Kronenberg saw an unfamiliar van pull up. They checked in with the driver. “What business do you have with the master of the house?”
“I’m here to see my daughter, Princess Diana Schade-Renard.” Adalind answered.
“I’m sorry ma’am, but you are not permitted to enter the grounds.” The guard replied.
“Funny, a couple decades ago you wouldn’t let me leave this place.” Adalind said. “Times sure have changed.”
“Ma’am, I’m sorry you came all this way, but you have to turn around and leave.” The guard repeated.
“Look, can you at least tell me if my daughter is here?” Adalind said.
“Ma’am, for the last time, please go!” The guard woged into a hunjager. “You’re not welcome here.” Adalind woged too in response, then Nick poked his head over from the passenger seat, and the hundjager recoiled in fear, but quickly regained composure. “Grimm! You’re definitely not welcome here!”
Others began to approach and Nick got the hint they were outnumbered. “We tried honey, I guess she’s not here.” They put the van in reverse and pulled back from the castle. When they were sure they were out of hearing range of the guards, Nick commented, “I hope we bought the kids enough time.”
Kelly and the triplets had left the van and crept around the wall while his parents distracted the guards. In the cover of night, they climbed over the outer wall and made their way to the main building. The hard part was finding a way into the castle. There were no windows on the ground floor and the only door was the front which was guarded. They quietly crept up on the guards. The guards could smell someone coming and woged to get a better scent and prepare to fight, but the triplets were a step ahead and woged and took the guards out first. They entered the castle and expected it should be easier now, they would soon find they were wrong.
As soon as they entered, they found the castle to be somewhat of a labyrinth. It was deceiving, as it appeared at first to be straightforward, but then at the first turn, it seemed like they were about to enter an endless hall with infinite turns. It happened gradually like an optical illusion. “I think we’re lost.”
Kelly tried his trump card. “The staff knows where Diana is.” He held the staff out and it pointed in her direction. He started off in the direction it pulled me. Just when it seemed like they were making progress, a door slammed shut behind him, cutting him off from the triplets. “Julie!”
“We’re okay!” Julie shouted back. “At least I think we are. The door cut us off, we can’t get to you. Just keep going and get Diana, we’ll find another way.”
Kelly was hesitant. “I don’t know if we should split up, I think that’s what they want.”
“Listen, they probably already know we’re here by now.” Julie said. “Our best bet is to get Diana and if any of us get in trouble before that, she can get us out. You need to get to her and trust we’ll all be reunited in the end.”
Kelly was still hesitant, he didn’t want to leave Julie. “I love you Julie.”
“I love you too Kelly.” Julie replied. “Now go get our girl.”
While Kelly continued to follow the staff, the triplets back tracked to the last intersection in the hall. “We need to try to get back to where Kelly was headed, but the question is which route will get us there? The most direct route may be another trap. Let’s split up, each take a different route, that will increase the odds at least one of us actually gets to Kelly or Diana.” They put their hands together like a team getting ready for the big game, an unspoken promise to work together even when apart. Silently, they counted to three and ran off in separate directions, Julie taking the most direct route, Freddy heading in the opposite direction, and Theresa went even farther back to the next intersection to try and find yet another route.
Theresa found her first intersection with only one turn, in roughly the same direction that her sister and Kelly had gone. Trusting that it was her best bet, she took the turn. The path twisted around and around and Theresa felt she was lost. She finally stopped and looked around trying to get her bearings and figure out where to go next. She started to panic and woged. She caught a whiff of something and turned just in time to fend off an attacker. As she turned to look at her assailant, she saw it was a vibora dorada.
“Are you lost? Maybe I can help you find your way.”
“Somehow I don’t believe you are the help I need.”
“Such a pretty face. I can’t wait to add it to my collection.” He moved in to bite Theresa.
Theresa dodged the attack and countered. “Too bad you already blew the element of surprise.”
“Surprise is for amateurs, all I need is venom, and maybe a mask.” He reached into a pocket and pulled out the mask of a damonfeurer and put it on his face. He blew fire at Theresa, but she started running away in a circle around him to throw herself out of range of the fire.
“I know what you’re doing, you know what I’ve been through and you’re playing on my experience with the hope it will throw me off. But you made one mistake.” She closed in on the vibora dorada, getting too close for his fire, knowing he couldn’t use his venom with his mask on. She used her momentum to throw him into the wall, pushing him to the side toward the flames and throwing a killing blow. “You aren’t Manny.”
Across the castle, it was Freddy’s turn. A rather large man stood in the hallway, as if waiting specifically for Freddy. “You’re going the wrong way.”
“How do you know where I’m going?” Freddy asked.
“It doesn’t matter, if you’re here in front of me, you went the wrong way.” The stranger woged into a bauerschwein.
Freddy woged in response. “Here we go again, a battle for the ages. Are you here to avenge someone in particular, or just the general blutbad bauerschwein feud?”
“It doesn’t matter, as long as you die.”
Freddy sighed. “How unoriginal.”
The two started fighting and Freddy was surprised how strong his opponent was. “Damn vegan diet!”
“You’re so weak, you’re hardly the challenge I expected. If you were anything but a blutbad you wouldn’t even be worthy to die by my hand!”
They went a few more rounds, each blow pushing Freddy a little closer to the edge. Finally, he snapped, he took in a breath that went through his nose and he couldn’t help but catch the scent of bauerschwein blood, and he went into a frenzy. “Enough playing with my food!” He tore into the bauerschwein and the next thing he knew was the taste of pork in his mouth and a dead body in front of him. “Well, that was a setback, and I am going to pay for that I am sure. But Diana needs me, so one problem at a time.”
In yet another part of the castle, it was Julie who would face the next challenge. She found herself in a room with a high ceiling. For some reason she couldn’t put her finger on, she felt compelled to look up, and no sooner did she do so then a geier jumped down on her. She woged and defended herself. Both had talons and scratched at each other, they started biting at each other too. The geier seemed to take this a little more seriously, because it seemed she actually want to eat Julie. Throughout the fight, the geier never said a word, it just shrieked and continued to bite. It was almost as if this particular individual had been starved to the point of madness specifically to attack intruders. Julie saw a window and tried to angle towards it. She slammed her own back into the wall right below the window and used the momentum to throw the geier over her through the window. “Too bad you can’t fly like a real vulture.”
Kelly had been marching straight forward toward Diana, but his path still had one more obstacle. A man holding a scythe stood directly in the middle of the hall, blocking Kelly’s way. “Wait you don’t even have to woge, I know this one, Hasslich, Grim Reaper, right?”
The stranger responded by woging and saying one word. “Decapitare.”
“Well, I have a trick prepared for you, and are you going to love this, just watch.” Holding the staff in his left hand, Kelly woged and as his hand changed, the staff also changed into a scythe. “This is the same scythe that was used by one of yours to try and kill my father and his aunt twenty-six years ago. That guy failed and we kept this as a trophy. I’m not so good with my zauberbiest powers, but I made sure to practice the hell out of this one trick, just so that when it came my time to deal with one of you, I’d be prepared to summon my scythe. It’s kind of all I’ve got, so now it’s just going to be a straight up duel. Are you ready? I know I am!”
Kelly made the come here gesture with his hand and moved in to the attack he invited. They clashed blades, with Kelly starting on the defensive. He was feigning weakness to wear out his opponent, and it seemed to work. Hasslich were not known for intelligence, although a Reaper should have been on the higher end of the scale. Kelly was a little disappointed in this case, his enemy relied on his advantage of size and brute strength assuming he had a definitive advantage and that his best tactic was to hit Kelly as hard as possible and keep him down. Kelly continued to play this angle waiting for the hasslich to go in for the kill. Then it happened, Kelly appeared to slip and his scythe went to the side out of range for defense or offense. The Reaper took the opportunity to slice directly at Kelly’s head, and this was his opportunity for the final counter-attack. Kelly swayed with the Reaper’s scythe and continued his momentum to spin around swing his scythe full circle right through the Hasslich’s neck.
“And that’s why they call me decapitare!” Kelly reverted his transformation and the scythe became the staff again. Kelly resumed following the staff to Diana.
Diana had been trying on dresses for her coronation and thought she had found just the right one and returned to show the king. “Perfect!” Viktor said. “Just like you my dear!”
“How about the tiara?” Diana asked. “Does it match, or is it too much?”
“Nothing is too much for a princess like you.” Viktor reassured her.
It was about this time that there was a knock at the door and Kelly burst in. “Diana! There you are, I’ve been looking all over for you. Have you seen the triplets?”
Most of the people in the room looked shocked, but Viktor was surprisingly calm. “Welcome! Kelly Burkhardt, I presume. I’ve been expecting you.”
Kelly was confused right now. “Really? Because security felt a little tight.”
“Well, I couldn’t make it easy for you.” Viktor said. “I needed to be sure you were worthy.”
“All right you lost me.” Kelly said as he set the staff on its end. “What exactly is going on here?”
“You and your sister are very special.” Viktor began. “You have a great destiny. You should know of this because of that staff. Zerstorer wanted you and your sister when you were children. This is because she is meant to rule the world, and you are to be her protector. You both have the great and powerful magic of hexenbiests, but what truly makes you special is that you are each also from the two greatest bloodlines in the world, Diana is a Royal, you are a Grimm. Grimms used to work for the Royals, so destiny calls for the most powerful Royal, one who actually has power beyond human imagination, and to be guarded by the only worthy warrior that could comprehend this power. You Kelly, are the only Grimm who is part zauberbiest. However little that power may be within you, it connects you inextricably to Diana. Any other Grimm would hate Diana and treat her as an abomination. But not you her kin in every way. You will protct your dear sister from any threat, wouldn’t you? And that is why you are to be the knight to protect the queen. You see, the second coin wasn’t for Sean, it was for you. You two shall be the legacy of House Kronenberg, the Royal Hexenbiest and the Grimm Zauberbiest. You are destined to inherit the world, and if I cannot leave behind a child of my own to rule in my stead, then I couldn’t be prouder than to leave my legacy in the hands of the chosen ones, the gods among men!”
“But what if we don’t want to?” Kelly said. “What if we just want to go back to Portland and hunt wesen?”
Viktor laughed. “You can’t escape your destiny. Diana will be queen no matter what. If she does not claim her throne here in Austria, then the kingdom shall form around her in Portland, and either way, your loyalty will bring you to serve in her court. Of course, I prefer the grandeur of introducing her to the world as my heir, so I’ll tell you what, one last trial. If you can defeat my champion in combat, you may go and face your destiny as you choose. Fail, and she is mine. Hans, you’re up.”
Without waiting for Kelly’s response, Hans woged and approached him. Kelly tried to fight with the staff, but the mauvais dentes grabbed a hold of the staff and held tight, wrestling with the Grimm to remove it from his grasp. Kelly struggled trying his best to hold on to the staff. He woged, and when he felt like his zauberbiest strength wasn’t enough, he woged over again to his damonfeurer hand. Even at maximum strength, Kelly was struggling against Hans. He tried to bite Kelly’s hand, forcing him to let go with his stronger hand giving Hans an opportunity to use both hands to pry the grip of the remaining hand from the staff. Kelly panicked for a second fearing what Hans was going to do, then Kelly was surprised to see Hans throw the staff toward Diana. “No weapons, we fight hand to hand like men!”
“Fight like men?” Kelly couldn’t help but note the irony. “You’re not quite a man, and I’m just barely more than you, but sure whatever.” Kelly was not intimidated by Hans’s display of strength from before, he knew strength was not everything. Hans came at Kelly with claws and fangs bared. Kelly knew the fangs were the worst and made sure to dodge and keep away from them. As Kelly bobbed and weaved around Hans’s head, he threw punches from behind and kicking as low as possible, doing as much damage as he could without risking himself. Hans was more used to being able to overpower his enemies with natural strength and couldn’t adapt as fast as Kelly, the only thing keeping him going was his own endurance and adrenaline, and with each blow it was more of the latter and less of the former.
Eventually, Julie and Theresa caught up and entered the room. Seeing Kelly, they leapt to his aid but were cut off by the hundjager and the nuckelavee that had accompanied Hans to retrieve Diana and Sean from Portland. The girls were each forced into a duel as they all fought their way around the throne room.
Viktor sat back in the throne and laughed at the entertainment.
Diana watched nervously, hoping her friends would be victorious. She felt wrong, deep down she wanted to help, but something was holding her back, she couldn’t figure out why. She had never felt this way before, so helpless, not since she was a child and zerstorer had come for her and Kelly. That was the only time she had ever felt so paralyzed with fear as she did now. She knew this was not the way things were supposed to be, she had always been so strong, so powerful, she didn’t have to do anything she didn’t want to do, she didn’t have to tolerate anyone who did her wrong. She loved her family and nobody messed with them because she would make them pay ten times over. And yet somehow, right now, she was little more than a doll, looking pretty and yet completely useless. She was so sad she wanted to cry, but no tears came, she was so powerless she couldn’t even cry as her friends fought for their lives.
Freddy was the last to the party, running in to witness the carnage. He looked in one direction and saw his sisters fighting for their lives, to the other side his best friend wasn’t faring much better. In between, he saw Diana standing there watching all of this, stock still. He could tell something was wrong. “Diana! Snap out of it! Help us!” He ran toward her, but was stopped by Renard.
Renard was holding the staff. “You weren’t good enough for her back then, and you aren’t good enough for her now.” He woged and struck out at Freddy.
Freddy looked at Diana, and he woged defiantly in the face of her father. “It doesn’t matter if I’m good enough for her, as long as I can save my family.” He charged for the throne where Diana waited next to King Viktor. He seemed to get close, but Sean struck him down with the staff and dragged him back. Freddy didn’t care, he picked himself up, lashed out at Sean, kicked off and made another dash at the throne. Renard grabbed him again. Freddy kept clawing and trying to reach Diana. He probably could have taken Sean if he really put the effort in, but he couldn’t fight him in front of Diana, so he struggled, and got pummeled. “Diana! Please!” Sean lifted the staff and prepared to bring it down on Freddy. In one moment, Freddy realized there was one thing that scared him more than anything else, dying without telling Diana how he felt. “Diana, I love you!”
As these words reached Diana, time seemed to slow down. A tear broke through from her eye and she couldn’t take it anymore. “Stop!” She screamed so loud everyone was compelled to stop dead in their tracks. She took the staff from her father and pounded one end into the ground. A shockwave resounded through the room and Hans and his allies reverted to human form and dropped to the ground. Kelly and the triplets seemed to be unaffected. Regaining her composure, she looked around the room, her father, the king and the Verrat backed away from her without even really knowing why. She looked at Kelly. “Do what you came to do.”
Kelly stepped forward to claim the coins from those who had them. As he approached Sean and Viktor, Diana glared at them and they were compelled to surrender their coins to Kelly’s box. Diana reached down to Freddy and kissed him, touching him with the staff as she did, healing the damage her father had done to him. She looked back at her father, “I’ll decide who is worthy of me, not you.” She approached the girls with the boys in tow, healing both sisters with the staff. “We’re done here, let’s go home.” They all felt relief as they followed Diana straight out of the castle.
Sean stood up, utterly confused, but feeling little interest in consorting with his cousin. With a disgusted look at Viktor, he turned and walked out. Just before he actually left the room, Viktor stopped him. “Wait, Sean. I think you should know the truth of why I did all of this. Those three coins are not the only coins. Each of the other Houses has one. Today your children stopped this House, but the others will come for them, one by one or perhaps all at once if they can cooperate for once. But they will come.”
“And as you could see,” Sean replied to Viktor, “They will be ready.”
“They had better be.”
Diana and her friends and family were soon on their way home and back to their lives in Portland. The one really big change was that Diana and Freddy finally started dating. Freddy was still nervous so they went on some double dates with Kelly and Julie. They were happy to have finally found love and things were going quite well. The only somewhat dysfunctional one was Theresa, who was still visiting her beau in jail. When she wasn’t with Manny, she was interning with Adalind and Diana.
It wasn’t long before they were all getting together for Nick’s retirement party. “I have been on the force too long and I have seen too much. It’s time to pass the torch to the next generation.” He handed his badge to his son. “The town is all yours now, take good care of it.”
Kelly looked back at his father, flanked by Julie, Diana, Freddy, and Theresa. “Don’t worry dad, we will.”
“Kids, it’s time for Santa!” Monroe called out to his kids and to the Schade-Burkhardts.
“Aren’t we a little old for Santa, dad?” Freddy asked. “This has been a hard year for us. We know you love Christmas, but really, Santa?”
“I know it was hard to discover that you’re wesen, but now it’s time to get the best part of being a wesen!” Monroe answered his son with the biggest smile the kids had ever seen. “As you have figured out, all the fairy tales people tell their kids are real in one way or another, and we wesen are part of those stories, and Santa is no exception! Old Saint Nick was one of us, a gefrienberenger, to be exact, and they have been keeping up the tradition ever since. The gefrienberengers like the cold and stay way up at the North Pole most of the year, but once a year they migrate south at the Winter Solstice, when it gets cold enough for them to be comfortable in the temperate zone, and they celebrate by giving presents to all of the wesen children who just went through their first woge that year. Since you all had your first woge this year, we notified the gefrienberengers and one is coming to deliver each of you a special gift this year, one you’ll always remember and cherish because it came from the real Santa Claus!” There was a knock at the door. “He’s here! It’s Santa!”
“Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!” The man that entered looked like Santa Claus, but it was clear this was no costume. Wesen were usually kind of scary, but the gefrienberenger was cute and jolly, like a giant ball of white cotton stuffed in a fuzzy red robe with a matching hat. The kids couldn’t help but smile, he seemed to exude Christmas spirit. As he looked at each of the children, he got a bit of a shock when he made eye contact with Kelly. “Oh, I’ve heard about you. I’ve seen your eyes, now le me see your arm.” Kelly showed his arm, woged into zauberbiest form. “That’s a very special woge, and it deserves a very special gift.” He reached into his sack and pulled out a copper bracer with a scale pattern mesh. He helped Kelly put it on, it was just a size or two too big. “Almost perfect, but you’ll grow into it, I promise.” He winked as he reached into his sack and pulled out two wrapped boxes and handed them to Julie and Freddy. “Here’s something special for two very special kids.”
Julie opened her gift, it was a tea set, a teapot with five matching cups, all clearly handmade. “I can’t wait to make tea with this. And five cups, so I can share with my brother, sister, boyfriend and best friend.”
Freddy opened his next, it was a cuckoo clock. There was a witch and wizard that took turns stirring a cauldron while two foxes and a wolf chased each other around the cauldron. “That’s us isn’t it?”
“Ho ho ho, yes it is!” Santa replied. “I made it just for you just like each of the presents I brought for you. Genuine gefrienberenger craft!”
“What about me?” Theresa asked. “You didn’t give me anything.”
“Oh, I didn’t forget you.” Santa replied. “I got something very special for you.” He handed her a small oddly shaped present wrapped in paper with a bow.
Theresa ripped her gift open, only to be dismayed and disgusted with what she found inside. “A lump of coal? Are you saying I made the naughty list?” She was so mad she woged and threw the lump of coal against the far wall.
“And I think you just proved why you might have made the naughty list young lady!” Rosalee said. “That was not nice at all!”
“I think you should go and pick that up.” Santa said. “And take a closer look when you do.”
Theresa pouted and refused to move from her chair.
“You heard Santa.” Monroe said. “Go pick up your coal.”
With a groan, Theresa got up and stomped over to the wall and picked up the coal. As she did, she noticed a shiny glint from inside the black rock. She rubbed at it a little more and more of the gem showed through. “Is this what I think it is?”
“It’s a diamond.” Diana said showing her own diamond necklace. “Santa did the same thing to me when I was little.”
Santa joined the two girls. “Never forget about hidden treasures, that the brightest gems can hide in the darkest places and the best things can come out of the worst.”
Seven years later…
“Deck the halls with boughs of holly…” Julie sang as she decorated the house for Christmas. She had really inherited her father’s Christmas spirit.
“Fa la la la la la la la.” Kelly completed the lyric. He didn’t always feel as excited about the holidays as she did, but he loved her enough to play along. Decorating for the holidays was more than just a tree, there was also an elaborate train set, wreaths, garland, bells, balls, and enough lights to be visible from space. “Are you sure this isn’t a bit much this year?”
Julie shook her head. “I’m worried it’s not enough! How will Santa find our house if it’s not clearly marked?”
Kelly laughed and kissed Julie goodbye as he headed out to work. “I’m pretty sure every gefrienberenger from here to the north pole can see our house, I assure you we made the nice list again this year.”
“Are you sure?” Julie teased. “I’m sure we’ve been a little naughty, and maybe we can push a little further.”
Kelly smiled and kissed her one last time before heading out the door. “That offer sounds tempting, but I really need to get to work, so hold that thought until I get home okay?”
Julie sighed. “You’re right, I need to get to work too. Tis the season for peppermint and nutmeg so the spice shop is hopping.”
Kelly drove off to the precinct hoping for a normal, uneventful day, but his experience was that this would not be likely. There’s always crime, and it seemed like whenever wesen were involved, he’d catch the case, and holidays seemed to bring out the most bizarre. As he walked in, he was greeted by his first case of the day.
“Burkhardt, there’s someone here who demands to see you.” The receptionist said. “He’s waiting at your desk. He wouldn’t say what it was about just that he needed you.”
“Thanks, I’ll take it from here.” Kelly had a feeling he knew what was coming, suspicious of wesen before he even saw who it was. He went to his desk to see a young man waiting for him. The man seemed entirely unremarkable and quite timid, just sitting in the chair waiting for the detective to arrive. “Hello, I’m Detective Burkhardt, I hear you have business with me.”
“Thank you for seeing me.” The man rose and shook Kelly’s hand. “My name is Rudy and I need to report a missing person.”
“And I take it there is something special about this missing person that you need me in particular?” Kelly said, knowing full well where this was likely going and just wanted to get there fast.
“Yes, it’s Doctor Hermey.” Rudy replied.
“My dentist?” Kelly asked. “Wait, that’s right, you’re the dental hygienist, sorry I did recognize you without your scrubs and everything. What happened to doctor Hermey?”
“I don’t know.” Rudy answered. “He didn’t show up to work and I had to cancel his appointments. But this never happens, especially not this time of year, he always stays on schedule during the holidays.” Rudy got so upset he woged, his eyes got big, his ears got larger, and his skin changed color slightly, and small antlers seemed to protrude from his head, but strangest of all was his nose actually turning red and glowing.
“You’re indole gentile.” Kelly said recognizing the type of wesen. “But why is your nose red?”
Rudy covered his nose desperately. “That is a bit unusual, but every now and then one of us is born with this condition, rare bioluminescence like gluenvolk, but completely unrelated. Indole gentile are generally nice people, but they don’t like the attention this draws, so I got ostracized. Fortunately, Doctor Hermey took me in, he’s got a real soft spot for young wesen, especially the misfits. He’s a gefrienberenger, one of the few who has decided to live south of the tundra. You two first met when he gave you your first wesen Christmas.”
Kelly stopped in his tracks. “Wait, do you mean Doctor Hermey is my Santa Claus?”
Rudy nodded. “Yes, he’s the Santa for the whole Portland area, which means if we don’t find him before Christmas, it’s going to ruin the holiday for all the young wesen children who woged for the first time this year.”
Kelly nodded. “Okay, I’m on the case. Let’s go to the office and see if we can find any clues there.”
They went to the dentist office and checked for clues, but nothing seemed to come up. Kelly had an idea and called Freddy to join them. Freddy had a better sense of smell as a blutbad and sniffed around for clues. “I think I found something, and this doesn’t look good.” Freddy held up some hair that he found in the back of Doctor Hermey’s office. “Some of it is gefrienberenger, but I’m afraid most of it is wendigo.”
“Wendigo?” Kelly was surprised. “What would a wendigo want with a gefrienberenger?”
Freddy shrugged. “Cannibals probably make the naughty list, and they don’t get the coal with diamonds inside.”
“Freddy, can you follow their scent to wherever they went?” Kelly asked.
Freddy shook his head. “It’s been too long since they left, I can’t pick up their scent from here. But if you can narrow down the search parameters of where they went, I can zero in on them there.”
“Wendigos like caves, right?” Kelly deduced. “They will probably be in a cave somewhere. Let’s check the mountains.”
Kelly set up a search grid for the mountains around Portland and got all of his friends and family to help. Unfortunately, even with everyone searching high and low in the mountains they found no sign of Doctor Hermey or his captor.
“This not good.” Rudy said. “We’re running out of time. It’s almost Christmas and if we don’t find Doctor Hermey in time he won’t be able to get to all the kids on his list.”
Then the answer hit Kelly. “Wait, is there actually a list? I mean naughty and nice like in the song?”
“Of course.” Rudy replied. “Each year I help Doctor Hermey put it together. We get a list of all the nice kids who deserve presents and check it twice to remove the naughty children and put them on a list of kids we make a lower priority and give coal to them if we have time.”
“You really do that?” Kelly asked.
“The duty of the gefrienberenger is to reward wesen kids for good behavior despite their urges.” Rudy explained. “Those that give in get on the naughty list, so they know they have a year to shape up. But some kids just never learn their lesson and stay on the naughty list and never get their nice wesen gift.”
“And just how many have stayed on naughty list?” Kelly asked.
Rudy woged again. “Oh my, I should have realized it before when you said it was a wendigo. There was one, Cornelius Bumble. When he first woged, he killed some people, giving into his urges. We tried to help him reform, but in his teens, he got so scary, we took him off the list entirely, we were afraid to even go near him to give him coal.”
Kelly rushed to his computer and searched for Cornelius Bumble. “I’ve got an address. Let’s go.”
They hurried to the house listed in the system. Kelly rang the doorbell and knocked. A bearded man in a flannel shirt answered the door. “Who are you and what do you want?”
Kelly flashed his badge. “I’m Detective Burkhardt, are you Cornelius Bumble?” The man nodded. “I’m investigating the disappearance of Doctor Hermey. You came up as a person of interest, I’d like to ask you a few questions.”
The man woged into a wendigo, and as soon as he saw Kelly’s eyes, he had the usual reaction. “Grimm!”
Kelly raised his hand and woged. “And Zauberbiest. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Now will you tell us what you know about Doctor Hermey?”
Cornelius roared and attacked Kelly. Kelly fought back and was much better prepared for the fight. After a few rounds of hand to hand, Kelly threw Cornelius against the wall. Cornelius got up and tried to make another move on Kelly, but Freddy intervened and woged in front of Cornelius. “That’s right I’m like you, a wesen with a killer instinct. But I’m also friends with Kelly, which proves two points, one that we don’t have to give in to our urge to kill, and two that the Burkhardts are different from the Grimms we think we know. We don’t want to fight with you, we just want Doctor Hermey back.”
Cornelius calmed down and reverted his woge, and then surprisingly he started to cry. “I just wanted a present from Santa, but all I got was lousy coal.”
“What exactly did you do to get on the naughty list?” Kelly asked.
Cornelius was slow to answer. “I killed. But I only did it for food, I’m just so hungry. I really didn’t mean to, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t help it.”
“I know the feeling.” Freddy replied. “But it may not be too late. Is Doctor Hermey okay?”
Cornelius slowly rose and led them to a room in the back of the house. Inside was Doctor Hermey, safe and sound, crafting an odd selection of toys from wood and cloth. He turned to look at his visitors. “Kelly Burkhardt? Freddy Calvert? Rudy!” He jumped up and hugged his friend as soon as he saw him.
“Doctor Hermey!” Rudy said. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”
“Yes, I’m fine.” Doctor Hermey said. “Cornelius just wanted his due. I listened, and it seems we may have misjudged him. He was a victim of bullying and his crimes were more or less justifiable.”
“Stop.” Kelly said. “I have to arrest him for abduction, and if we want him to have any chance of getting off easy, I can’t know about anymore crimes.”
Cornelius looked very upset about the arrest and woged, though he took no action.
Freddy looked back at Cornelius. “Remember, he’s a Grimm. He could kill you, but he believes in handing wesen over to the justice system if he can, so if I were you, I’d put the fangs away and cooperate.”
Cornelius reversed his woge and Kelly took everyone down to the police station to book Cornelius and take witness statements. As he was finishing up his report, Doctor Hermey and Cornelius approached him to thank him for his help. “It seems like a Christmas miracle that you saved me. But, now we have a new problem, I don’t know how I’ll deliver all the presents to all the wesen children this Christmas. At least not alone.”
Kelly knew what Doctor Hermey was getting at. “A Grimm’s work is never done. Okay, I just have to cross the ‘t’s and dot the ‘i’s on this report and I’ll round up the gang to be Santa’s little helpers.”
That Christmas Eve, Kelly, Diana, Julie, Freddy, Theresa, their parents, and all their friends including Hank Griffin, Drew Wu, Bud Wurstner and his whole family all got in on the Christmas fun and delivered presents to kids all over Portland. They were all dressed as Santa and went through the whole ritual of gift giving with each child to keep their Christmas spirit alive. Nobody enjoyed it anywhere near as much as Monroe, who already had so much Christmas spirit he was impossible to live with. After all the gifts were presented, they got together at Monroe’s house to celebrate Christmas with Doctor Hermey and Rudy. Egg nog flowed like water and all were merry as could be.
“This is the best Christmas ever!” Monroe crowed. “I get to celebrate with the real Santa and be Santa myself. Come on Hermey, one more time for old time sake.”
Hermey sighed and woged, white whiskers blooming all over his face, his body swelling and what skin remained visible turning a festive shade of red. He looked much the same as he had years ago when he visited the kids that special Christmas Eve. “Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!”
“There’s a blizzard outside.” Bud said. “We’ll never be able to get home in this snow.”
“Maybe you won’t, but I will.” Hermy said. “The cold never bothered me.”
“But how will you find your way in that whiteout?” Monroe asked.
As if on cue, Hermey turned to his best friend. “Rudolph, with your nose so bright, won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?”
As he spoke those words everything seemed to go into a haze as Sant and Rudolph went off into the winter night. Monroe broke the silence. “Who wants more egg nog?”
Everyone shook their heads. Kelly answered for everyone. “I think we’ve had enough.”