Grimm: The Killing Time Read Online Free PDF Page A

of those do you think are Wesen? A fifth? A quarter? More? There’s no way to know. They can see each other for what they are, and you can see them, but ordinary humans like me can’t. When I first leaned about Wesen, I was pretty paranoid. I kept looking at people and wondering, ‘Is he one? Is she?’ It started driving me crazy after a while.”
    “Why didn’t you ever say anything to me about it?”
    Hank shrugged. “You adjusted. I figured I would, too. And I did. You know what helped? I realized the reason Wesen hide from humans isn’t so that they can prey on us more effectively—although admittedly that’s what some do. It’s because they know how humans would react and what they would do if they ever learned the truth.”
    Nick thought about his ancestors’ attitude toward Wesen. They’d lived in very different times, when prejudice, racism and classism were far more prevalent than they were today. But however enlightened the modern world might be, Nick knew the majority of the human race wasn’t ready to accept the existence of Wesen. Maybe one day it would be different, but for now, it was a good thing they could hide so effectively.
    They drove in silence after that for a time, Nick gazing out the passenger window and watching the city go by. Eventually Hank broke the silence.
    “Something’s bugging you. I can tell.”
    Nick smiled. Sometimes he wondered how he’d ever managed to keep his being a Grimm secret from Hank.
    “It’s just a little strange to get a call like that, you know? From Beverly, I mean.”
    “You talking about getting asked to break up a bar fight? I admit, it’s not the usual sort of thing highly skilled and devastatingly handsome homicide detectives like us do.”
    “That’s not it. I’m a Grimm. The Wesen think of my kind as cold-hearted killers, almost monsters. You’ve seen how they react when they realize what I am.”
    “Yeah. Some of them are pretty damned scared.”
    Nick nodded. “I was never comfortable with that, but it proved useful sometimes. But I’ve been, for lack of a better word, ‘out’ as a Grimm for a while now, and some of the Wesen in town—like Beverly—are starting to treat me differently. Like a… I don’t know exactly.”
    “A protector,” Hank said. “Someone they can turn to when they’re in trouble.”
    “Yeah. I mean, that’s a good thing, right? But for some reason, it makes me a little uncomfortable.”
    “That’s because you’re too modest. You need to accept the whole hero thing, maybe get yourself a tricked-out Grimm-mobile.”
    “It’s not modesty. I don’t know what it is.”
    “Maybe it’s a Grimm thing. You know, like with cats and dogs.”
    Nick frowned. “I’m afraid you lost me there.”
    “Dogs and cats don’t get along in general, right? It’s an instinct thing. In the wild they’re competing predators. Maybe you’re not comfortable with Wesen reacting positively to you because deep down, the Grimm part of you expects them to be afraid. Who knows? Maybe it even
wants
them to be.”
    “Great. So you’re saying I
am
a monster.”
    “I’m saying that whatever else is going on, you’re a man named Nick Burkhardt, and you get to make your own choices about who you want to be.” He smiled. “Besides, my family had both cats and dogs when I was growing up, and they got along well enough. It just takes some adjustment.”
    “I suppose. But what if—”
    Nick’s phone rang then, and he removed it from his pocket and answered it.
    “Burkhardt.”
    “Wu here. I know you guys are working that liquor-store homicide, but I’ve got something strange over by the community college. And since you and Hank kind of specialize in strange, I figured you’d want to come check it out.”
    Nick glanced at Hank.
    “Give me the details.”

CHAPTER THREE
    “Maybe you should slow down, honey. You don’t want to make yourself sick.”
    Rich Webber stood in the kitchen, leaning against the counter, a bottle