Grimm Consequences by Kate Serine Page B

started to follow Gran and Tess, Eddie took hold of my elbow, urging me to hang back. “I got a call earlier. You need anything, Nate, you just let me know.”
    I gave him a terse nod. “Thanks, Eddie.”
    As we entered, Eddie shook hands with the maître d’, no doubt slipping him a C-note when he bent forward to quietly give him instructions for the evening. I had to hand it to Nicky and the people who worked for him—they knew how to accomplish more with a charming word and a smile than most men could manage upon threat of violence.
    â€œWe won’t be bothered tonight,” Eddie assured me as we joined the ladies in a perfectly situated table with a view of the door. “Anybody tries to start something, it’ll be taken care of.”
    I didn’t have the heart to tell Eddie that what was coming for me wasn’t something he and his associates could handle. But it was still good to know that Nicky and his people would have my back even when Nicky wasn’t in town—although I’d never doubted that for a second.
    I tried to enjoy dinner that night, but I only half listened to conversations, too distracted by the uneasy feeling that weighed down on me. I could feel Demetrius nearby, knew he was lurking somewhere, waiting to pounce, but couldn’t do a damned thing about it. I couldn’t combat an enemy who was too chicken-shit to face me like a man.
    We were just polishing off dessert when I happened to glance up and see the bastard sitting at a table across the room. When I caught his gaze, he lifted a glass of red wine in salute, that typically smug smirk of his taking on an even darker tone. It was then I noticed the others. I slowly surveyed the room, searching among the shadows, seeing their faces coming into focus as they moved in, preparing for a strike.
    â€œGet the women out of here,” I barked at Eddie. Tess and Eddie were on their feet in an instant, ready for a fight, but I grabbed Tess’s arm and forcibly shoved her into Eddie’s hold. “Now.”
    Her face immediately went stormy, but she must’ve read the danger in my expression and let Eddie usher her out the door at a pace that raised more than one eyebrow from the other patrons.
    Attempting to mask my concern, I nonchalantly threw a few hundreds onto the table to cover our bill, all the while taking head count of the Reapers scattered around the room. They weren’t there for me, I realized. They weren’t the Judges come to take me in for my penance. They were there for the humans who filled the restaurant. And with over a dozen Reapers waiting to harvest human souls, whatever was coming was going to be big.
    My stomach plummeted as I did another kind of head count. There weren’t just humans in the building. There were at least thirty Tales sprinkled in among them—enough to keep me busy for quite a while and leave Tess unprotected if things went south.
    â€œEverybody out!” I snatched my FMA badge from my suit pocket and raised it in the air, knowing the enchantment would make it look like Chicago PD to the humans. When everyone just stared at me with startled inaction, I barked, “Now, people! Move your asses!”
    The few people sitting nearest the door bolted to safety. The rest of them never had a chance. I smelled the stench of gas a split second before the explosion ripped through the restaurant, blowing out the windows with the force of the blast and igniting everything—and everyone—in its path.
    I had just enough time to dematerialize out of the way and onto the street to protect Tess from the shards of glass, metal, and brick that burst outward, slicing into the soft flesh of anyone unlucky enough to be in the blast radius. Car alarms set off by the explosion rang in my ears, screams of pain and dismay and sorrow filled the air as the wounded cried out, called to loved ones, pleaded for help.
    Tess was already on her phone, calling