Bad Moon Rising
Chapter 1
A/N: This fic takes place after Season 13, episode 6. It will deviate from there based on events in the fic, but I will be pulling certain events into the fic because the events of Season 13 are not suspended, just changed. Think of it as a divergent timeline.
The creature woke with a gasp and flinched away from the blinding nimbus of light pouring down on it. Afterimages danced against the backs of its eyelids and it snarled at the radiant being glaring down at it.
"You've been brought here for one reason. You are tasked with destroying Sam and Dean Winchester. Nothing in this dimension has succeeded thus far. Perhaps you will fare better."
"What? What are you talking about?" The creature brought up an arm to shield its eyes from the blinding light and tried to squint past the nimbus, but it couldn't see anything but white.
"The Winchesters! Kill the Winchesters! Destroy them so they can't come back. Ever. Do that and I will return you to your home."
"Home? Who are you? Where am I?"
"The answers to these questions matter not. You have one purpose. Destroy the Winchesters. Do that and you may go home."
"Who are these Winchesters? What have they done to deserve destruction? Where would I even find them?"
"Nest. Feed. Kill. They will come to you."
Before the creature could ask more questions, the light flared, piercing through arm and eyelids to spike into the creature's brain, rendering it insensate.
Dean Winchester punched a button on the bunker intercom, blasting Creedence Clearwater through every air-tight, echoing chamber in the building. In his room, Sam jerked out of a sound sleep and swore as the familiar lyrics pounded into his skull.
I see a bad moon a-rising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightnin'
I see bad times today
Don't go 'round tonight
It's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise
"Damnit, Dean! I had just gotten to sleep!"
The music drowned him out and as a general rule, his voice didn't carry through steel walls anyway. Cursing and muttering as the music drilled into his head, he pulled a tee shirt on and lurched toward the door. The smell of freshly cooked bacon hit his nose as he stumbled into the corridor. In the distance, he heard Dean's cheerful rumble singing along to the lyrics and he briefly entertained a fantasy of wrapping fingers around his brother's throat and strangling him to death.
"Why did someone write a song about the impending apocalypse? You stopped that from happening." Castiel came up from behind him with a quizzical tilt to his head. Sam groaned, his head pounding too much to explain the song to the angel. He rubbed at his red, bloodshot eyes and stalked down the corridor to the kitchen.
Dean danced in place as he assembled a monstrosity of toast, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato and enough bacon to bring on a cardiac event. When Sam killed the music from the panel on the wall, he kept singing and dancing as though nothing had changed. He picked up his monstrosity and turned with a grin on his face.
"Sam! Good! You're awake."
"Now I am. It's two in the morning. Bad enough you're awake. You had to drag us up with you?"
"Uh...I don't actually sleep," Cas said, staring the obvious. Again. Sam shot him an annoyed glower but ground his teeth on a scathing retort.
"I found a case."
Dean carried his heart attack on a plate to the kitchen table where a laptop sat open to a news article.
"Vampire nest, as close as I can tell. The news is reporting the fangs as implants. Calling it a cult initiation thing."
Sam scowled, but sat in front of the computer, intrigued by the article's headline. Vampire Cult at Center of Human Trafficking Ring.
"The article says everyone was found dead. It sounds like a hunter already got there."
Dean squished his sandwich together, squeezing tomato-soaked mayonnaise out of the sides, and took a big bite. His eyes gleamed as he chewed.
"I thought that, too," he said with a full mouth. Sam ignored the crumbs of toast that splattered on the table as he skimmed the rest of the article. Dean only swallowed part of his bite before he went on.
"But if it was a hunter, he was sloppy. Shoulda burned the bodies, at least. So, I called up Tammy, that hunter we met down in Dallas three years ago. Thought I'd ask her to check it out, see if she could find the hunter, explain his mistake and show him the ropes." Dean took another bite of his sandwich and grinned as he chewed. Sam sighed and glared at him over the top of the laptop.
"So how is this a case for us? Tammy can handle it and we should be looking for Jack. Or did you forget he's still out there?"
Dean wiped toast crumbs from his lips and set the sandwich down.
"Well, Tammy already checked it out. If it's a hunter, it's not a human one. Someone jumped her. She doesn't remember much more than that, but she woke up the next morning on the side of the road with a weird set of fang marks in her neck."
"Weird? Weird how?"
Dean picked up his phone, opened a photo and handed it to Sam. It showed Tammy's neck from chin to collarbone with a neat pair of holes in the flesh, surrounded by a livid red hickey. Sam scowled at it.
"That's, like, some movie monster shit right there!" Dean said as he slapped the table. Cas moved up behind Sam to examine the picture.
"That's not a vampire bite," Cas said. "There aren't enough punctures."
"No, there aren't," Sam said, zooming the phone in on the bite. "Normally, I'd think this is a human imitating a movie vampire, but…"
"But...there's a hickey," Dean said, grinning with triumph.
"Yeah. A hickey. You don't see those in the movies, so a movie imitator wouldn't do that." Sam touched the phone screen over the puncture wounds, as though he might be able to feel them through the glass. "We've seen something like this before, but that was a shapeshifter turning into movie monsters. This...somehow, I don't think that's what this is."
"Neither do I." Dean took a bite of his sandwich. "We don't have any leads on Jack and I'm going stir crazy in this bunker. Tammy's spooked and needs the help. Let's check it out."
"Fine," Sam said with a sigh, "but I'm sleeping on the drive down there."
"Awesome."