Chapitre 15: Chapter 12
"What the hell is that?!" Menace exclaimed, stepping back with her hands covering her nose as Rosalee stepped out of the other room, holding a perfume bottle that smelled like nothing she had ever smelled before.
Even Nick, Hank, and Wu, all groan in disgust upon smelling the scent. It was putrid, so potent that it almost made Menace puke.
It smells like, if you mix all the rotten flesh you can find, whether it be animal or human, and leave it hanging open for months.
It smells of death...
"Okay, here. Don't spray this until you have to, and only on his clothes and not on his skin." Rosalee explained, handing the perfume bottle to Nick, who took it but made sure that it was an arm's length away from his face.
If they didn't need it, he would've thrown it out.
"And you need to wear this." Rosalee continued, walking to her husband and handing him an object to block his nose from getting a direct smell of the perfume. He would be the one they're gonna spray it on after all.
"You ready?" Nick asked, looking at Monroe.
"Can we get this over with?" he responded, taking the perfume bottle Nick was handing him as the others started leaving the shop.
"I feel like my brain is on fire." Menace muttered as she got on her bike, sliding the helmet into her head, before putting the keys in the ignition.
"I knew it would be unordinary, but I didn't expect that smell at all," Hank commented, blowing his nose on a handkerchief before getting inside the car.
Wu followed him, opening the door in the backseat as Nick went over to the driver's side.
They waited for Monroe to step out of the shop, and when he did, they were off to the planned location. The park.
They all waited for it to get dark before stepping out into the open. They walked to a clear space and had Monroe prepared.
"All right. This is good enough." Nick started, looking at Monroe.
"Okay, can you hold this, please?" Monroe breathed out, handing the perfume bottle to Wu, who took it reluctantly, making sure to hold it an arm's length away from his face just like Nick did at the shop, waiting impatiently as Monroe put on the object that Rosalee gave him to stuff his nose. "You guys might want to, you know, clear," he stated, taking back the perfume from Wu's hand.
Nick, Hank, Wu, and Menace all step away from Monroe as he starts spraying the Parfum de la Mort on his clothes. His head pulls back repulsively as if he still can smell it even through the stuff on his nose.
The others grimace at the putrid smell, and Menace even gags. Covering her nose with her hand and stepping further away from the others.
"Oh, my god. I can feel how bad this stuff smells." Monroe grimaced as he started to lie down on the cold soil.
"Time to go," Nick ordered, walking away from Monroe along with the others.
Each of them hides in different places to wait for the Wesen responsible for all the boneless victims.
They waited for a few more minutes in the darkness. All waiting in anticipation and caution. Looking out for Monroe who remains lying on the ground completely still, acting like a real victim close to their death.
It didn't take that long. A man came out of the shadow, walking cautiously towards Monroe, and stopping a few times. Tilting his head from side to side as if sniffing the air.
Menace pulls out the gun Meisner gave him. Nick and Hank did the same. All oblivious to the fact that one of them is missing.
But then the guy stopped when he was a few steps away from Monroe. He sniffed the air before he started stepping back, walking away as if he didn't see Monroe at all.
When he disappeared out of sight, they all stepped out, walking towards each other, and holstering back their guns.
"Was that him?" Hank asked, confused about what he had just seen.
"I don't know," Nick answered, hands on his hips.
"Monroe was just in front of him. He ignored him and left. Why?" Menace asked, looking at Monroe's figure who remained still on the ground.
"He didn't take the bait," Hank stated, also glancing at Monroe.
"Maybe something spooked him."
Menace looked around, noticing that Wu wasn't with them anymore. She glances at where she saw him hide, just a few trees away from hers, but sees nothing. Not even a silhouette.
"Guys. Where's Wu?" she asked, earning the two men's attention. They looked around just like Menace did, but neither saw the officer.
"We better find out," Nick stated, walking past Hank and Menace as they all started to go on separate ways in search of Wu.
Menace looked every corner for where Wu might've disappeared to, but she didn't see any sign of him.
"Guys! Over here!" Menace heard Nick shout after a few minutes. She rushed to where she heard his voice and arrived when Hank did. Wu's wallet, along with his badge is in Nick's hand.
"He got him. I think he's got, Wu." Nick stated.
"That means he came in from this way." Hank started, pointing to the way he just came from. "He's headed that way," he added, pointing at the road ahead of them.
Then they went down the road, running.
"There's the van!" Menace blurted after they came out of the corner, just in time to see the revving van with Wu lying unconscious on the road.
"Police!" Nick shouted, pulling out his gun and pointing it at the van. Hank does the same, while Menace rushes to Wu's side.
She lets them run after the culprit and remains beside Wu. She carefully pressed two of her fingers on Wu's neck and let out a sigh of relief when she felt a pulse in there.
He was bleeding in the forehead, and his body was cold. Though not as cold as the dead.
That might've been the reason why the guy ignored Monroe. He might've smelled Wu. After all, the smell of the perfume will never win against the smell of a true near-death situation.
How Wu got such a wound is a wonder, but for now, they have a Wesen situation that needs to be taken care of.
Menace called for an ambulance, not leaving Wu's side, and entrusting the whole Wesen situation to Hank and Nick.
Then there was a loud thud sound and a screeching noise of a wheel skidding to a stop.
"Where are they?" Menace lifted her head to look at Monroe, trying to stop herself from gagging at the smell. She then pointed to where Nick and Hank went, watching as he ran after them.
"Everything okay here?" Menace lifts her head once again, this time to see Nick and Hank standing in front of her. The Wesen is out of sight.
"He's breathing, but his body is cold. There's also a large cut on his forehead, but it's not bleeding that much anymore." She explains as Nick crouches beside her to check on Wu.
"What happened to the Wesen?" she asked, peeking over their backs to see if Monroe got the guy.
"He got run over. Have you called the ambulance?" Hank replied to which Menace nodded.
It didn't take that long for the paramedics to come, and once they did, Menace excused herself. Nick didn't even need to ask where she was going. He already knows and he's already used to it.
He knew that the only reason Menace would leave while in a case, would be another summon from Meisner.
Menace doesn't even use the shop as her home anymore, since she mostly stays at the HW, whether to sleep or to train. She's practically never away from Meisner's side, even though Nick doesn't like the situation at all. After all, Trubel was already like that, now Menace is turning into another soldier of his.
∆
"Okay, so, where are we again?" Menace asked as she watched Meisner step out of the car he parked on a deserted road.
She and Trubel followed suit, stepping out of the car as Meisner started heading towards a house with a huge tree standing in the middle of the lawn. There was also a tractor on the left and more potted plants near closed doors and windows.
The moment Meisner stepped closer to the house, the lights outside all lit up. He then turns to Menace and Trubel, with the latter handing him a flashlight.
"You two check the back. I'll check inside."
Menace and Trubel did what they were told, proceeding to the back of the house, which led to a thick dark forest. If you check the road, you'll think the place is part of the civilization, but the forest says otherwise.
"Are you gonna tell me now what we're doing here?" Menace speaks up, looking around and making sure no one is lurking in the shadows, while glancing at Trubel for a moment, waiting for her answer.
"This is one of our safe houses. Two of our members stay here on guard of someone valuable." Trubel briefly answered, looking at Menace and stopping in her tracks.
"Behind you!" Menace shouted upon seeing movement in the shadow behind Trubel.
Trubel wasn't fast enough to dodge, taking a blow on the face from the man wearing a sleeveless shirt, with arms covered with tattoos of snakes slithering from the shoulder down to the back of his hands.
Menace tried to run to her aide, but she stopped when another man tried to jump her when she took a step. They were fortunate that both men didn't have guns on them because if they did, they would've been dead the moment they stepped inside the forest. Badly wounded, if not dead.
"You okay there, Trubel?" she asked, glancing in Trubel's direction momentarily, as she took on a fighting stance.
"I'm fine. You?" Trubel asked back, wiping the blood on the corner of her lips.
"Let's take care of this fast, and see if our hot boss is doing well," Menace stated, grinning as she pulled out a tactical knife strap in the back of her waist, silently cursing herself for forgetting her gun in the car.
"You're the only one who finds him hot though," Trubel replied, doing the same thing, but instead of a tactical knife, she pulled out a bolo strapped on her thigh. Twirling it on her hand, egging the enemy in front of her with a playful smirk.
Both men then woge. The one in front of Trubel woge into what looks like a snake. The face shifted into greenish-gray scales with sharp fangs, a forked tongue, and slit pupils. Head void of hair that was thick earlier. A Lausenschlange. Then the one in front of Menace woge into what looks like a dung beetle. With loose hair, a flat, shield-like, plated exoskeleton, which is brown, forms over his forehead, nose, and in between and below his eyes, and extends back over their ears before rejoining near a ridge-like border above their head. A Kackenkopf.
Menace dodged the fist coming from her left. Before the man can pull his arm back, she stabs him below the armpit, pulling the knife out quickly as the man screams in pain. Blood squirted all over him and the grass-covered ground. She watches as the man falls to his knees, losing blood as fast as water gushes out of a faucet.
With a few more groans, the man lies still on the ground.
Menace turns to see how Trubel is doing, just in time to see her swinging her bolo wide, cutting the Wesen's head clean off his neck.
"Let's go." the latter said, heading first back to the house with Menace following right behind her.
There was a loud commotion inside when they got near. They both stepped inside to see Meisner lying down on the floor, topless. His clothes wrapped on both his hands keeping them close together.
The Wesen in front of him didn't notice the two of them entering the house. He was holding a piece of a chair leg, ready to hit Meisner with it, but before he could, Trubel cut off his hand. The man whipped around to look at her, and the moment he did, Trubel stabbed him in the stomach, twisting the bolo before pulling it out. The man woge back to his human face, falling with a thud on the wooden floor.
Menace scrunches her nose upon smelling the scent of rotten flesh. She watches as Meisner stands up, grinning as she looks down at his toned body. Tattoos decorated both his arms in intricate way of shapes.
Their eyes meet as Meisner looks at her. No one pulls away as they stare at each other, a shirt on his hands.
"Sorry, we're late. We had to make sure there were only three of them." Trubel chimed in, noticing the stare the two of them were giving each other.
"There are two more?" Meisner asked, finally looking away from Menace's eyes.
"There were," Menace answered this time, walking past Trubel and stopping in front of Meisner.
They once again stare into each other's eyes, with Meisner waiting for her to say something.
"You have a bizarre way of fighting, you know." She muttered, slightly gracing her palm against Meisner's hard-toned abdomen, before walking past him without letting the other reply.
She heard a low growl coming from him, and to say that she was satisfied with the effect she had on him was an understatement. They were so absorbed in each other's antics that they almost forgot Trubel was in the same room until she cleared her throat.
"They took Diana." Meisner started, putting on his shirt. Pushing the thought of Menace's warm skin against his, in the back of his mind.
"Yeah, I figured," Trubel replied, shaking her head.
"We're gonna need fingerprints," Meisner said, closing the buttons of his shirt.
They both watch as Trubel grabbed the cut-off arm of the guy she just killed that was still holding onto the chair leg, lifting it and showing it to the both of them.
"I'll get the other two on the way out," Trubel added, walking back out of the house, and leaving the two of them inside.
Meisner glances at Menace, shaking his head upon seeing her leaning on the countertop with her arms folded across her chest. The latter just gave him another grin, watching as he leaned down and picked up a crumbled photo. She pushes herself off the countertop and looks down at his hand.
Her forehead creased upon seeing a black-and-white photo of a beautiful young girl, resembling someone familiar yet she couldn't remember where she saw her.
"You know you still have to tell me what's going on here, right?" she started, her arms still folded across her chest as she met Meisner's gaze.
"For now, I can tell you that things are about to get ugly," he replied, turning her back on her.
∆
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone