![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/GrimmTidings50.jpg\" "\\"Grimm")
<\/a><\/p>\nThen\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n Slowing to a stop at the intersection, Celine swallowed against the tears, the pain, the anger. He wanted a fucking divorce\u2014<\/p>\n It\u2019s never enough to say I\u2019m sorry\u2026<\/em> It\u2019s never enough to say I care\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n Theory of a Deadman. \u201cWe\u2019re Not Meant to Be\u201d. Also known as \u201cone of the absolute last songs she needed to hear\u201d.<\/p>\n Cutting her gaze to the radio, she stared at it in disbelief. She couldn\u2019t believe that song was on. Jamming the power button with her finger, she turned the radio off, plunging the car into silence.<\/p>\n A divorce.<\/p>\n Gavin wanted a divorce\u2026<\/p>\n She needed to breathe. Fuck. Usually coming up into the Knobs made it easier for her to think, but she couldn\u2019t think\u2014<\/p>\n A sharp, broken scream cut through the night.<\/p>\n Celine stiffened, slanting her eyes out the passenger window. Squinting her eyes, she searched the night. Dark, so fucking dark\u2014<\/p>\n Just go home. You need to go home and work things out with Gavin,<\/em> she told herself.<\/p>\n But she heard it again\u2014another scream. Fainter. Weaker. Off in the dark parking lot of a closed bar, she thought she saw shadows\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The woman had been screaming, all right.<\/p>\n And Celine understood why as the pain tore through every last millimeter of her body\u2014pain unlike anything she\u2019d ever felt.<\/p>\n They held her down with hands so strong and so cruel.<\/p>\n And their eyes\u2014there was a madness in them. Madness, and a lack of\u2026human.<\/p>\n One of them came at her again\u2014she jerked a knee up, even though it hurt so fucking bad to move\u2014<\/p>\n He laughed and backhanded her. She blacked out, and when she woke up, he was already done with her. Numb, she stared at the broken body off to the side. The woman she\u2019d heard screaming. Dead. She\u2019d tried to help\u2026and she was going to die\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re a fun little piece. I don\u2019t think we should kill you yet,\u201d somebody muttered. It was the one she\u2019d tried to rack earlier. He was crouching by her. He reached down, fisted a hand in her hair and jerked her up.<\/p>\n She bit back a scream.<\/p>\n Fought the urge to beg. She had to live, damn it.<\/p>\n She couldn\u2019t die\u2026 <\/em>She had to get back to Gavin\u2026 As the man grabbed her breast, she couldn\u2019t stop herself from fighting. Get back to Gavin\u2026 <\/em>That was the one thing in her mind.<\/p>\n Curling her hand into a fist, she struck.<\/p>\n As she punched him in the gut, there was a brilliant flash of light.<\/p>\n It almost blinded her\u2014or it might have been the way the bastard bellowed and punched her in the temple, knocking her to the ground.<\/p>\n Then there was only darkness\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cShit.\u201d Mandy stared down at the broken body of the woman at their feet. She was still alive. Barely.<\/p>\n \u201cShe shouldn\u2019t be here,\u201d Will muttered, shaking his head.<\/p>\n \u201cDid you see her fighting him?\u201d Mandy knelt down by the woman, grimacing at the blood spilling out from under her head. \u201cShe\u2019s bleeding like crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s dying.\u201d<\/p>\n The woman\u2019s lashes fluttered and Will found himself staring in to desperate eyes.<\/p>\n \u201cHelp\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n And then Mandy looked at him. \u201cShe\u2019s a fighter, Will.\u201d<\/p>\n Kneeling down, he cupped the woman\u2019s head in his hands. \u201cShe can\u2019t survive these wounds,\u201d he said quietly. \u201cAnd they are too severe for me to heal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen bring her over.\u201d Mandy stared at him, her eyes pleading. \u201cShe fought<\/em> fucking parasei<\/em>. They raped her, and she still fought.\u201d<\/p>\n Mandy was his student. She was also his weakness. As she continued to watch him with those pleading eyes, he wavered. The woman was<\/em> strong. And something had<\/em> led him here, directly here. There were parasei, and other demons, everywhere.<\/p>\n Perhaps he was here for this woman\u2026<\/p>\n She could handle the journey one had to take to go from human to Grimm. He knew that in a way only he could know.<\/p>\n Shifting his gaze down to her, he pushed into the woman\u2019s fading mind and offered her the choice. He\u2019d never done it with one so close to death, with one who had no idea what he was\u2026what they<\/em> were.<\/p>\n Even angels make mistakes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe whole damn city is infested,\u201d Celine muttered as she followed her trainer into a crowded mall south of Cincinnati. It was in Kentucky, and being so close to home made her heart ache.<\/p>\n The good news\u2014judging by how many fricking demons there were, she was going to have her hands too full to think for a while.<\/p>\n \u201cWhich is why we are here,\u201d Jacob said, his voice flat, level. Just as always. He was a cool, icy son of a bitch, one who showed absolutely no emotion. Ever. In the past nine months, she\u2019d never once heard him raise his voice, never seen him angry, never seen him laugh, never seen him smile.<\/p>\n Not that I really care<\/em>, she told herself. But it was hard to get booted to another trainer when she couldn\u2019t piss him off. And she wanted to get booted. Again. And again. Until they gave up on her and let her go.<\/p>\n She never should have agreed to this\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cWatch for groups of them. We need to see who they are targeting,\u201d Jacob said quietly. \u201cAnd keep yourself cloaked.\u201d<\/p>\n She rolled her eyes. \u201cYes, master.\u201d She wasn\u2019t new<\/em> at this. But she didn\u2019t bother pointing that out because it wouldn\u2019t do any good. Cloaking herself kept her unseen by human\u2014and demon\u2014eyes. Demons. It had only been a few years ago when she hadn\u2019t even known they existed. And now she fought and killed them. Now she was a reluctant guardian angel in a paranormal army.<\/p>\n It was disconcerting, even now, to see the demons. She eyed one that wore the body of a girl who was probably barely out of her teenaged years. She\u2019d have to be adult\u2014or mostly. Stripped of her innocence in some way. Jaded. Demons couldn\u2019t inhabit all bodies. They could only enter with an invitation, although the invitation wasn\u2019t always worded so clearly.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t like people would just go, Hello, demon. Yes, you can take over my body, even though it\u2019s going to end up killing me<\/em>\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n It happened slowly. Insidiously. Through random, reckless wishes and careless words and cruelty. That was what drew the demons near. And then seductive whisperings\u2026<\/p>\n Wouldn\u2019t you like to be strong?<\/em><\/p>\n Wouldn\u2019t you like to stay young forever?<\/em><\/p>\n Wouldn\u2019t you like to fuck like a sex god?<\/em><\/p>\n By the time a person realized things weren\u2019t right, it was very often too late. Once a demon had fully settled inside a mortal body, they possessed<\/em> it, completely. The only way to end a possession was through the death of the mortal coil.<\/p>\n Kids, and a few select other people, were protected against demonic invasions. They still possessed an innocence demons couldn\u2019t break. The stronger-willed were a harder lot for demons to take over as well.<\/p>\n Next to her, Jacob slowed and took a slow study of the crowd. \u201cWhat do you see?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYoung people,\u201d Celine murmured, scowling as another demon with a pretty, barely adult face strutted past.<\/p>\n \u201cMore than that, please.\u201d<\/p>\n She sighed, skimming a hand back over her hair. \u201cA lot of demons in here\u2014twenty, easy. And almost every one I\u2019ve seen is young. That\u2019s weird.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe young don\u2019t keep their innocence the way they used to.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey shouldn\u2019t all <\/em>be young.\u201d She paused as she watched a guy coming out of Hot Topic. He was dressed all in blank, including his lipstick. A girl came up to him. Demon clung to the girl. The boy took one look at her and spun on his wheel, heading the other direction as fast as his long, skinny legs could carry him. Smart boy<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cHe sees the demon in her,\u201d Jacob said, noticing her attention on the boy before shifting his elsewhere. \u201cMany do. They don\u2019t fully realize what<\/em> they see, but they see something. The smart ones steer clear.\u201d<\/p>\n Which means we\u2019ve got a lot of fools around us<\/em>. Of course, she wasn\u2019t surprised by that.<\/p>\n She knew what a demon dressed in mortal clothing looked like though. She knew it intimately. She\u2019d seen it\u2026felt it. Hurt from it. Died from it.<\/p>\n That madness, that blackness, that evil<\/em> had been the last thing she\u2019d ever seen\u2026until it was too late.<\/p>\n Too late to go back to her life\u2026too late for everything.<\/p>\n Once more, the fury started to whisper in her blood. And once more, she fed it, nurtured it. \u201cAre we here to walk around or kill things?\u201d she demanded.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have no patience.\u201d Jacob continued to walk.<\/p>\n And that was about all the answer she\u2019d get from him too. She thought about just leaving<\/em>. She could find a few demons of her own to kill. But he was better at it. If she wanted to kill more than one or two at a time, she should stick with him.<\/p>\n Shit.<\/em><\/p>\n So she\u2019d stay with him. But she wasn\u2019t playing the good little pupil bit anymore. As her mind started to drift, she let it. It circled, back to the past\u2026back to when her life had been something\u2026more<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Excerpt<\/a>…<\/p>\n Preorder<\/p>\n Samhain<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Amazon<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0BN<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"