Forbidden

Chapter 19: Leave It To Beavers

Monroe looked down at Nick's bag and grabbed a crossbow quickly, avoiding the subject. He said some fancy words in German and Paityn huffed. "You guys are getting serious." 

"Our ancestors used all this stuff. I figure it's about time we learn." Nick said as he grabbed a small mace.

"Dude, you guys have guns," Monroe said. 

"We also have police badges, we can't shoot everyone." Paityn sighed. 

"I tried to pepper spray a kid a few days ago, turns out he was a Skalengeck. No effect." Nick said. 

"A Skalengeck. Probably enjoyed it. This would've done the trick, how are you guys going to explain this to Hank?" Monroe asked. 

"I have no idea." Nick grabbed two arrows. "Check this out, the first arrow is meant to slow the attacker down, you fill it with Hellebore extract." 

"According to one of the books, that's supposed to act like a tranquilizer agent. If that doesn't work..." She motioned to Nick.

"You have the second bolt. Filled with Hemlock." Nick handed him the second one and Monroe sniffed it, disgusted. 

He fidgeted with the crossbow for a moment. "You know these were specifically designed to kill Blutbaden? I suppose I should take that as a backhanded compliment." Monroe fired it without an arrow. 

"Let's give it a try," Nick said. 

Monroe let Nick go first. He hung up what looked like a squash from a tree. Nick held it up with one hand while Monroe was teaching him how to shoot the arrow. 

"Slowly squeeze," Monroe said. 

"Same thing as a gun. He's got this." Paityn said. Nick shot and destroyed the apparent honeydew. 

"Not bad," Monroe said. "Paityn your turn." Nick handed the bow to Paityn and she reloaded it. She took a deep breath and shot, destroying the second honeydew. 

"Atta girl," Monroe kneeled and grabbed a spiked bat. "Anyone down for some Kanabo?" Monroe began walking to more Honeydew that was hung up. 

This time Paityn went first. She swung and destroyed it. She then dropped it and cheered, "Home run!" while Monroe and Nick laughed. 

~~~

The following day, as Paityn ate her breakfast, she got a phone call. 

"We got a case Paityn. Get ready." Nick had said. Paityn shoveled the rest of the food into her face and got ready, her shirt beginning to stretch against her smallish baby bump. When she arrived at the crime scene, Hank and Nick were waiting for her. 

"What's the deal?" Paityn asked. Nick and Hank motioned to their heads for her to follow them so she did. Wu met them. 

"Hey, so we didn't get a name from the 911 call, but whoever it was, saw the whole thing go down," Wu said. 

"Did we I.D. our victim?" Paityn asked.

" According to the wallet, Robert Grosszahn, not that the picture helps." Wu brought them over to the body lying on the floor, covered waist up in concrete. Paityn winced. 

"Imagine drowning in concrete. It's thick, so it's like choking but it's also probably hardening at the same time because of the oxygen trying to force its way into the lungs." Paityn said. 

Nick and Hank both gave her a look of horror and confusion. She just shrugged. Nick nodded slowly and backed up grabbing his phone. 

"This is Nick Burkhardt I'm gonna need an I.D. on our 911 caller. Yeah, the witness at the Gladstone Bridge construction site, thank you." and hung up.