Chapter Three

~Adalind Schade~

Nick Burkhardt, Grimm and detective extraordinaire, was moving into her townhouse.

And if that wasn't enough to ruin her mood for the next decade, Nick Burkhardt had decided to leave his stupid, oversized boxes laying around the living room. Because he was moving into her home and taking too much of his things with him and Adalind didn't know what to do with that exactly.

She walked towards the kitchen, planning on making herself something to chew on while Nick bloody Burkhardt hung the rest of his clothes in her closet. Her foot kicked over a stack of boxes accidentally and Adalind knelt to pick up the single item that had slid off the top. It was Nick's wallet and the boxes, to her great displeasure, were completely empty.

"Could you throw away the empty boxes, please?" Adalind called towards her bedroom while turning his wallet over in her hands, there was dried blood on one side and she wondered why he hadn't at least cleaned it off if he was going to keep it.

She heard what sounded suspiciously like an empty box being hurreled at her bedroom wall but she ignored it, curiosity getting the better of her when she saw the lamented edge of a picture sticking from the side. "Yeah, in a minute."

She rolled her eyes, "By please I mean now."

Her fingers finally pulled the picture loose from the dried blood and, to her great shock, found her own smiling face looking back at her. She remembered that day, she was in New York, it was the one good day she spent with her mother as a teenager without being barated or embarrassed of doing something wrong. She'd gotten to be a normal girl and that was a memory she treasured. She had been looking for this picture for a few weeks, planning in sticking it into her single photo album.

She heard him stumbling past the boxes he'd thrown into the hall and quickly shoved the wallet and her picture aside, quickly climbing to her feet. It was funny actually, how could a Grimm be so loud and clumsy? Maybe they all made a mistake and he was some unfortunate creature that they couldn't remember.

Nick came into the room, he'd abandoned his jacked a long time ago and was sweating through his shirt but didn't seem to mind. Adalind scrunched up her nose in disgust, he was definitely a Grimm then.

"How many people know you're the Grimm, anyways?" Adalind asked, sitting back against her couch. She crossed her legs over the cushion next to hers, inclining her head back to look at Burkhardt. "I noticed the two humans in your hospital room."

"Hank and Juliette are the only non-Wesen who know I'm a Grimm." He took a large gulp of water, a streak of liquid flowing away from his lips and down his jaw, disappearing into the collar of his shirt. Adalind scolded herself for following its descent.

Adalind groaned, of course, he would be stupid enough to expose the biggest secret in the world to an outsider, a human no less. What an idiot. "I thought it was obvious that your identity should be kept a secret."

"I tried to keep it a secret." He bit out."But something made it difficult."

She waved her hand away, like she was swatting an annoying fly. Which wasn't far from the truth. "You can stop glaring, I know you mean my sparkling personality."

"You drugged Hank," Nick accused, pointing his finger at her like that would hurt her in some way. "You almost killed him."

"Boo hoo, he enjoyed himself." She sure hadn't, Hank was nice but he wasn't her type. Not with the divorces or the string of constant calls into the department. It had been a job, like her dayjob, both working the cops in a way.

"Yes, I'm sure his favourite part was being comatosed. Or maybe it was sleeping in his car outside your house for a few weeks." Nick finally took a seat, tired of towering over her and failing at intimidating her.

"I'll send him an apology card," her fingers played with a loose strand of blonde hair.

"Hank saw a suspect woge, he thought he was going insane, what was I supposed to do?" he asked, it almost sounded like a plea. Like she was supposed to give him an alternative to what he had already done. Was she supposed to reverse time to undo his stupidity?

Adalind shrugged, "What about Juliette?"

"She was there when a Wesen came to kill me, I killed him and she saw him woge." he pressed his back into the couch and Adalind bit her lip to keep from shouting at him about nasty sweat stains. He looked like a kicked puppy.

"Wow, you're terrible at keeping secrets." she snorted and Nick looked at her, shocked about the undignified sound. Clearing her throat, she sat up straighter and leaned towards him. "Something else is bothering me."

"Well that's a shame." Nick ran his fingers through his hair and Adalind noticed his arms. Cords of muscle moving gently, but powerfully, under the fabric of his sleeve. She ripped her eyes away with a scowl.

What the hell was happening to her?

"I'm serious," Adalind bit out, refusing to look at him and give him the satisfaction of seeing the light blush on her cheeks.

"What is it?" he sounded like he couldn't care less but humoured her anyways.

"Why are you carrying around a bloody picture of me?" she demanded. "Do you have some sick wall of wesen you've killed? Or tried to kill?"

"No," his eyes snapped to hers and he looked horrified enough the Adalind didn't question him. "I took it from your photo album the last time I was here," to rescue hank before she could sleep with him. "I thought I could use it to defeat you."

"'Defeat', you're acting like I'm a comic book villain." Talking as if Grimm's were the heroes in her stories. "And how is my picture supposed to do that?"

"Most of my friends don't know about you, or what you are, I thought if I could show them your face and tell them you're a Hexenbiest-" Nick started.

She cut him off, throwing her hair over her shoulder as she fell back into the couch. "Then they would be too afraid to approach me and you wouldn't have to worry as much about me killing them."

"How did you find that picture, anyways?" Nick asked. Like she didn't have a right to look through whatever he had decided to bring into her home. Especially if those things had her face plastered all over them.

"I went looking through your things," Adalind deadpanned. "You know, that's probably how we ended up like this." She gestured between them, their invisible bond. Tying their lives together through dark magic.

He looked confused again and Adalind wondered if that was a look she would have to get used to until they broke the bond between them, "What do you mean?"

"From what I know about this from my mom," which wasn't much but it wasn't like she could call and ask for a referral when the person sitting next to her was a Grimm."The spell works by connecting two people. Whoever did it probably saw my picture, assumed you were keeping it out of sentiment and decided I was the best candidate."

"Sentiment?"

"Like a girlfriend or a wife or a sister, someone who would care enough to be okay with being the sole thing keeping you alive." she said pointedly, reminding him not so subtly that she was that person and he had better not get any ideas.

"I'm keeping you alive too," his back straightened and he moved forward, his chest pushing her leg off the couch when he stopped in front of her face. "Sweetheart."

"Don't call me that," she had meant to come off harsh and unyielding, Adalind didn't like nicknames. No matter how sarcastically they were said. But instead it came out breathy and low, like she was having a hard time pushing words between her suddenly dry lips. "I don't like pet names, Burkhardt."

Despite looking sweaty and gross, he smelled amazing. Like sunshine. And even with the foot of space between them, she could feel his warmth radiating from his skin. Adalind distantly wondered if all Grimms were like this, or if it was just her Grimm that was a personal heater. Her skin felt heated and her throat was parched.

"Or what?" he grinned devilishly, fingers drumming on the couch, above her head. Adalind couldn't remember seeing his hand move there. "Darling."

"I'll make you stop." she threatened.

"That right, princess?" Her fingers curled into his shirt and she yanked him forward.

Her nose brushed his and his hand dropped to knot in the curls spread over the couch cushion under her head. Idly playing with the edges of her hair. "I said stop calling me names."

"Make me." he growled and she didn't know why but the sound fit him like a tailored glove. His green eyes were dark and his tongue swiped at his lower lip, her eyes watching him like a wolf hunting her prey. "Kitten."

And then she was killing him. Or maybe she was kissing him.

She didn't know. All she knew was that this is what being devoured by fire felt like.

Searing pleasure from where his lips swallowed her sighs, they were soft and firm and tasted like lemon. He was made up of hard edges, hard strokes of his tongue as he begged her for entrance into her mouth, the sharp bone of his jaw digging into her palm as she held his face. Adalind parted her lips and he plunged inside, unthinkingly her legs wrapped around his waist and pulled him down.

His fingers dug into the hair at the base of her neck, knotting in the strands as he held her face firmly to his. Adalind couldn't breathe without inhaling his scent and, oh was he devine. Her tongue danced with his as he explored the confines of her mouth. His left hand dropped from above her head, sliding under the small of her back to draw her closer. Pull her closer.

Nick's hips rolled against her and she could feel how hard he felt, even through the layers of denim between them. His arm tightened around her and his fingers held her hair in a deathgrip. He kissed her for dear life and death, and she kissed him for everything inbetween.

His lips fell away and she whimpered in protest, wet lips touched the point where her jaw met her throat. He trailed slowly down her neck, nipping at the skin and soothing it with kitten licks. Nick's hips continued to move, slowly, torturously against her.

Then it all cleared away.

She yanked at his hair until his face came away from her neck, his lips bruised and eyes black. Adalind gasped at the eternal darkness staring back at her, she remembered when those eyes last looked at her. She had seen herself reflected in them as the monster everyone saw her as, but this time there was no rotting corpse, no eye sockets and no gaping teeth or white hair. All she could see was herself surrounded by a pale silvery light.

Her fingers slowly rose, thumbs skimming the skin under his eyes as she stared at herself in wonder. But the image didn't change. It was just her, the way she saw herself. Blonde hair, blue eyes, pink cheeks full of life.

"Nick?" she croaked, her throat tight. "God, what are we doing?"

He blinked and the blackness cleared away, Nick surged up, ripping himself from her and moving clear across the room. "What did we just do?"

"I don't know."

"I have to talk to Monroe." And with that he grabbed his jacket, glanced her way for a split second before the door was slamming behind him.

To be continued...

I'm dedicating this chapter to blue-azul-acero for being a great reviewer and taking such a liking to this story.

I'd like to apologize about how slow this story is probably going to get updated. While I love the Grimm fandom, this story and will do my absolute best to update- I have several other stories and I always end up with a lot of work from university.

I do hope that doesn't put you off from following!