Grimm Tidings: Grimm's Circle, Book 6 (12 page)

She felt a weird tickle on her spine, then heard a voice. Rob whoever. How had he gotten here so fast?

“Do you think you can control yourself enough to go help him?” Will asked.

“There’s plenty of other things I can kill, right?”

That was all she heard before that weird tickle danced down her spine again. He was gone—the weird, freaky Grimm.

Shoving her feet into her boots, she laced them up and shoved her blades into the sheathes on the sides before turning to her weapons trunk.

Knives, gun—actually, she grabbed the modified holster Finn had rigged up for her, similar to the one he loved so much. Two guns now, and extra ammo. More knives, then her bladed staff.

“Ready?”

She turned and saw Will in the doorway. “I’m loaded for bear. Or demon.” Nervously, she stroked a hand down her staff as she crossed to him. “What’s going on? Jacob can handle himself.”

“Not when he bites off more than he can chew—on purpose.” The hard, icy look on Will’s face as he skimmed a look over her didn’t do anything to settle the jittery feeling in her gut.

Recalling something from her dreams, she asked softly, “Did he used to bite off more than he could chew a lot?”

“Generally, no. A hell of a scrapper, he was. But you know what chances a mortal has against a demon. There have been a few times, yes. Now is one—we have to go.”

Chapter Nine

Jacob was pretty sure he’d live through this mess. It was going to require a blessed amount of luck, and quite a lot of time spent in stasis—he suspected he was missing a kidney, or at least part of one. Organs were a bitch to regenerate.

Blood was flowing just a little too freely—his own—and he’d found something he hadn’t expected. Humans. They’d been a complication, an unwelcome one. He’d needed to see to their safety and the only way to do that was to keep them silent so they didn’t distract him, and
out of the way
. He’d shoved them into a deep, dark sleep, another extension of his gift. He might have pushed too hard—they could easily sleep for the next forty-eight hours.

If he survived, they’d be all right.
If
. He had an easy position to defend, his back to the room he’d found them in, and he could pick off the demons two or three at a time as they tried to rush him. Fools—they would have been wiser to put the mortals in an open room, instead of tucking them into some small place at the end of a hall.

Their bad luck. Bad thing about parasei—even these louts, old as some of them were, they’d only been in this world a few decades, if that. They didn’t live long enough to gain much in the way of strategic skill and most of the brain power was devoted to pain, chaos…death.

Two more peered around the corner, tried to come at him. He held still, waiting. Although he still had a dozen or so knives, he wasn’t about to throw them if he didn’t have to. The swords would do for now.

There might even be light at the end of the tunnel. Might—he’d sensed something just seconds ago, that weird prickle along his spine. The presence of a Grimm—a strong one, old. Too old to be Celine, thank God. This was too much for her—

Oh, hell. In his peripheral vision, he saw something. Fuck holding on to the knives. He drew two in one hand and sent them flying. As the demons fell, Rob dropped from the ceiling.

Jacob stared at the other Grimm, his lip curled. “I must be in dire straights if
you
were sent.”

“Maybe I was sent to collect your rotted carcass and I just arrived too soon.” Rob smiled, striding forward. A body blocked his way and he stepped on it—not
over
it the way many would have. He gave it a glance, a faint frown on his face as if he’d only just noticed it. “I can always leave and come back, you stupid old git.”

“You’re here. You might as well make yourself useful.” Jacob gave him a once-over. “You don’t even have weapons.”

“I don’t need them.” Rob cracked his neck, first one way, then the other. As several more of the parasei started to rush them, he sank to a crouch. A mean smile came and went. “This is going to be fun.”

Adrenaline crashed through Jacob, hard, fast. If he hadn’t been fighting for going on thirty minutes, then he might have echoed Rob’s thoughts—one thing they had in common. They both had a mad love for the fight.

As the parasei struck, an eerie, animalistic howl echoed through the house. In another forty-five seconds, three more parasei were dead and Rob had blood dripping from his fingers. It was almost the same shade of red as his eyes.

He looked at Jacob and smiled. “I thought you could use a bit of a break, there. We’ll split the next round.”

“Show-off,” Jacob muttered.

Rob cocked his head, listening. “They’re regrouping—they didn’t expect you’d get reinforcements this late in the game.” Red eyes glinted as he looked at Jacob. “They’ll have more of a surprise in a bit. You must have landed yourself in a right mess. You’ve got Will coming.”

“Will…?”

The brilliant flash of light came, but it was muted.

Jacob closed his eyes, briefly wondered if he could just fall down now. He felt rather cold now and—

“A right mess doesn’t even touch it, Jacob, and no. You
cannot
fall down. Celine, you stay in here.”

Celine
—

Spinning around, he opened his eyes. Pain forgotten, blood loss forgotten, he stormed across the floor. Celine watched him, her eyes neutral, as he came to a stop in front of Will. “This entire place is flooded with parasei,” Jacob growled. “I miscalculated—she shouldn’t be here. Take her back.”

“
You
shouldn’t have come in so blindly,” Will replied. “No. I won’t take her back. We finish the job.”

Jacob snapped, “She’s not ready for this—”

“That’s not for you to decide,” Celine said.

“I’m not speaking to you,” he bit off, tossing her a glance.

“Too fucking bad—if you’re discussing
me
, you can damn well include
me
in the conversation. I won’t be left in the dark.”
 

She shucked the long coat she wore, revealing a tooled strip of leather that rode low around her hips. It held two guns, carried extra ammo and somehow managed to look bloody sexy—
keep your mind where it needs to be,
he told himself. She had her knives to go with the guns, as well as her staff, and it still wasn’t enough.

“There are plenty of things you like keeping me in the dark over,” Celine said, obviously unaware of his preoccupation. “This isn’t going to be one of them.”

Caught off guard, he jerked his eyes up, stared at her. “In the dark? Over what?”

Behind him, Will moved away. Vaguely, he was aware of Will crowding Rob away from the door. It was oddly quiet in the house. Regrouping? Calling for more numbers? Fuck, he hoped not…

Curling his free hand into a fist, he stared at the ground. “In the dark over what, Celine?”

“Dreams have power, do they, Jacob?”

Slowly, he lifted his head, met her eyes. “Nothing happened in those dreams that you didn’t
want
. It doesn’t work that way.”

The smile on her lips was a bitter one. “Interesting argument. We’ll finish it if we live through this.” She went to push past him and he caught her arm.

“
You
are not staying here,” he said, tempted to shake her.

“Yes. I am.”

“You want to die—for
good
? You aren’t up to this yet. Listen to reason!”

Celine jerked back. “It’s for me to decide, Jacob.
Not
you.” She raked him over with a scathing look. “You’re as pale as a corpse and you think
I’m
not up to it? You stupid son of a bitch.”

“Stupid?” He gripped her arm and turned, shoving her toward Will. Fear for her overwhelmed his mind, made it hard to think. They had dozens of demons trapped in this small space with them, four helpless humans, and Celine wanted to throw her neck out there? Careless as she was with it? “Will, get her out of here!”

“No. Children, we haven’t the time for this.”

Celine shoved away from him. “Don’t worry, Jacob. I’ll stay good and out of your way—that’s where you obviously want me, right? Unless, of course, we’re
dreaming
.”

“Stay with them,” Will said, pushing his way between Celine and Jacob. He glared at Celine and pointed to the humans. “You’ve got those pistols Finn is also so fond of—use them, but your job is to keep the humans safe. Stay with them or so help me, God, I’ll freeze your arse to this spot.”

Celine curled her lip. “This spot suits me fine.” She wanted to hit Jacob. Then she wanted to make him lie down. He looked awful—

“Turn around,” Will growled.

“Bugger off.” Jacob went to storm away but—well, hell, it looked like he froze in mid-step.

“Don’t push me, Jacob.” Will nudged Jacob’s arm. “I’m going to need every bit of energy I have. So don’t push me. Fuck…Jacob, what are you trying to do, tear yourself up so badly, you
can’t
heal?” He muttered something else—

The words sounded foreign—
ancient
—but Celine couldn’t even process that. She was too busy staring at the gaping, ragged chunk in Jacob. She could see slivers of bone, the flesh closing back in on itself…and so much bloody, raw meat.

“Oh, shit,” she whispered. “Jacob?”

“He can’t answer you,” Will said, his voice level and cool once more. The white-haired man flicked another look at the door. “Rob, where are they?”

“Still on the second floor.” He tipped his head back, a smile on his face. “They are terrified.” Red glowed in his eyes. “I like it.”

“What are they doing?”

Celine wasn’t worried about
them
. She was worried about
Jacob
. She hissed out a breath as Will ripped the shirt he wore, both above and below the gaping wound. Not that there was much shirt left in that area. Then he pushed his hands inside, right over that meaty, bloody mess. “Why…why can’t he answer me?”

“Because I froze him, just like I’ll do you if you don’t be quiet for thirty bleeding seconds,” Will said. His eyes blazed silver…and so did his hands. A strangled scream escaped Jacob and his body swayed.

Celine rushed across the floor, steadying him. His body was stiff as board, unyielding, unmoving. And his eyes were a screaming, endless hell.

Over Jacob’s shoulder, Will stared at her. “I wouldn’t let him fall, Celine,” he said quietly.

Another groan escaped Jacob.

“Why are you letting him
hurt
?” she snarled.

“Because if I don’t, I may not have the strength we need to get out of whatever trouble may be waiting.” His lashes swept down. “I have my limits.”

Abruptly, Jacob sagged. His eyes closed. “I could kill you for that, Will. That hurt.”

“Yes. But you can fight now. Easier to do when you aren’t missing half of a kidney.”

“Half…” Celine closed her eyes. Shaking her head, she eased back from Jacob. “And you think
I’m
reckless.”

“Celine—”

“No.” She didn’t look at him. She couldn’t. Her head was spinning, her gut churning and her heart ached. And if she looked at him once more, she wouldn’t be able to do what she needed. “We have a job to do. Let’s get it done.”

A low, deviant laugh filled the room. Celine saw Rob out of the corner of her eye as she settled by the humans, a gun in each hand. “They’re heading down…they don’t know you’re here yet, Will. Or Celine. All the dead bodies…they stink up the air.”

“Get ready,” Will said.

“Stay safe,” Jacob rasped, looking at her as he stripped the remains of his shirt away.

She just stared at him.

“This is going to be fun,” Rob whispered.

Chapter Ten

Will’s patch job was holding up pretty well. But Jacob knew he didn’t have much left in him.

When an ebb in the attacks came, he rested against the wall, panting. “This is hell,” he whispered.

And across from him was a blood-stained monster. One who was no longer laughing.

Rob didn’t look like he was about to fall, but he didn’t look like he was having fun anymore, either. That wasn’t a bad thing, Jacob thought. Rob had too much fun being destructive.

“Their numbers are thinning,” he said grimly. “But ours are about to thin by one too, mate.” His reddish-eyes narrowed as he studied Jacob. “You don’t have much left in you, do you?”

“No.” He slid Celine a look from under his eyes, then shot Rob a look.

Rob shook his head. “Don’t.” The grim look in his eyes faded for a brief moment, replaced by a wicked glint. “Hey, you need me here. I take her out of here, you’ll go down. Will can’t handle this on his lonesome. And we can’t leave them alive—they’ll scatter, and if these asshats get loose, spread out…?”

Jacob closed his eyes. That couldn’t happen. All sorts of fucked-up things happened out there with the demons lately. When they starting acting this cohesively, they were too big a danger.

Grief ripped through him, all but gutted him.

A hand touched his arm. “We’ll get it sorted, Jacob. You need to get yourself together.” Rob leaned in, keeping his voice low. “You’re her focus and if she sees you wavering…”