Disclaimer: Supernatural and every character associated with it belongs to the CW and Eric Kripke.
Gray had to admit the tiny town of Eros was not as dead he'd originally thought. While it was no Las Vegas, there was still some fun to be had if he dramatically lowered his expectations. A couple of women, neglected by their husbands and attracted to his bad boy vibe, practically threw themselves at him whenever they saw him, drinks at the two bars in the town were cheap, and the alcohol fuelled fights that inevitably arose quelled his demonic rage enough to keep him from tearing anyone's head off and drawing attention to his meat puppet and attracting his employer's ire. It was an unexciting existence, but boring was worlds better than hell any day. At least here, no one was flaying him with a flame chain whip or ripping his lungs out. Still, he wished his only lead in finding the Emily girl wasn't waiting on an old biddy's phone to ring.
When the phone in question rang and the caller turned out to be the elusive Emily Avis Raines, Gray couldn't have been more vindicated. That the call turned out to be more informative than he'd hoped, was the icing on the cake.
He'd learnt from the call that Emily had brothers; Dean and Sam. Unfortunately, he'd not gotten their last name; he supposed it was not Avis or Raines. Not having that information was not ideal but at least he now knew more than he had before. He knew she had family helping her, and doing quite a good job of it, though he didn't know whether it was by design or dumb luck. He wondered how Emily had found them or maybe they had found her; either way their existence was annoying and probably dangerous for him.
The reason she had called Cece was because the one called Dean had been electrocuted and had suffered a heart attack and doctors had predicted his life expectancy to be weeks. The girl and the other brother were desperate to save him. Cece had promised to call back after making enquiries. And make inquiries she had. Gray had been surprised; for a recluse who rarely received any phone calls, the woman sure had many contacts she could hit up.
She had ultimately told Emily about a guy called Roy LeGrange who was some sort of miracle healer in Chambers, Nebraska. Gray didn't know how far away from the place Emily and her brothers were so he couldn't take the chance of driving and getting there too late. He'd have to get there in his smoke form and find a suitable meat puppet on arrival. However, there was the question of what to do with his current meat suit in the meantime. Nathan Wood was a fighter, and the minute he gained control of his body, he'd make a run for it, and Gray's boss wouldn't like that. So Gray grabbed heavy duty chains, and power walked himself and his meat puppet to a partially collapsed old well he'd accidentally stumbled upon on the edge of the town. He carefully picked his way as far inside as he could. He chained himself up, levitated the keys out of reach, then had Nathan Wood knock himself out by hitting his head extremely hard against the wall. The hit drew blood and for a moment Gray worried the man might bleed out and die if he left him. But the blood flow stopped quickly. Gray was sure he'd be back soon enough so he was not worried about Nathan starving or dying of thirst.
When he was sure he'd thought of everything, Gray left Nathan Wood's body in a gleeful burst of black smoke. He was basically powerless in this form, but he liked it. In this form he couldn't be killed, well, he could, but only by a very powerful demon and there weren't many of those topside. He mostly liked this form because he was free, limitless and could will himself almost anywhere. Unfortunately, as it turned out, he couldn't will himself into Roy LeGrange's church. Gray had learnt early on that churches where the faithful actually had faith were impossible to breach, and evidently, the people who attended Roy's church were true believers. So Gray hovered on the outskirts of the town. He ended up possessing Kevin Hawkins, a tiny rotund man with a large polished forehead, a beaming smile that hid a deep unacknowledged sadness, and half moon glasses that reminded Gray of a librarian from the Dickensian era. No one could look at Kevin and imagine him a threat. Unfortunately, the man also had a car older than the trojan horse. It even needed pushing at one point. Gray had never been more upset about a piece of machinery as he was about that car.
Even possessing someone, Gray couldn't get in through the church door or more accurately the church flap. So he sat in his newly acquired excuse of a car and watched the arrivals and the determined lone protestor who everyone was ignoring. He was beginning to reconsider his decision to come here when the low rumble of a car caught his ear and made him look up. A black muscle car came up the muddy trail and parked a ways off from his junker. It was an impressive machine, and he hadn't seen a vehicle like it in this awful place so he was curious to see who stepped out. The left door opened quickly and a tall young man got out and raced round to the right side whose door opened slowly to reveal another young man. This one too was tall, though not as tall as the first, and he looked a little under the weather. He rudely shrugged away the other's help and the two shuffled off. Then movement in the back of the black car caught Gray's eye. The door opened and a girl with a look between annoyance and disgust emerged from the car.
Even though he had come here hoping to find her, he couldn't believe it when he saw the girl. His quarry. She looked a little different in person. In the picture he'd stolen, her hair was dead straight and had purple streaks, and as the picture was a close up of five kids, he hadn't been able to gauge how tall she was. Well, she was tall, almost 5'9 if he had to hazard a guess, her hair was hanging in a braid behind her back, but from the wayward strands that had escaped, he could tell it was curly and not straight, and the purple streaks were gone. Also, her face had lost the baby fat that had still been evident in the photo. She was a beautiful girl. Gray felt an unsettling twinge of an emotion he couldn't describe. He knew it wasn't lust. That was an emotion all demons were intimate with and never unsettled by; this one, whatever it was, was new to him.
He knew he couldn't grab her, there were too many faithful and hence powerful and dangerous witnesses around, and his car was not exactly getaway car material. Besides, he wasn't supposed to kill the girl himself. He just had to get a reaver to do that. He knew he had to bide his time, choose a better moment than this. Maybe when the three were alone. He wasn't worried about the men, who he was sure were the brothers she'd mentioned to her grandmother. They looked like they could handle themselves, yes, even the sick one, but Gray was a demon, and even though he was a lower tier demon, and was currently possessing the least imposing meat puppet that had ever lived, he was still more powerful than any human. He dropped his hand from the car door handle, and sat back to wait.
About forty minutes later, the three siblings burst out of the tent with the previously ill one looking impossibly robust and inexplicably irate. Before Gray could turn the key of his car, the black muscle car had roared away. Gray had no choice but to leave his meat-suit and follow the vehicle in his bodiless form. He was disconcerted when he couldn't breach the car, meaning it was somehow demon-proofed. That was when he started to see his quarry as possibly dangerous.
He was surprised when they drove to a hospital. He hurriedly possessed an aide in a bid to get information. He'd only just managed to get his meat puppet in position to eavesdrop when the siblings stormed out. Gray was annoyed when he had to abandon yet another meat suit in order to follow them in his smoke form. They drove to the swimming club and at the entrance, the taller man and Emily got out of the car which peeled off without them. Gray hoped he could get to the girl in this location.
He didn't. When he heard that time had stopped when the jogger died, he knew there was a reaper in the town. He booked it out of the meat puppet he was possessing and out of the club. Hell no! No way was he, a lower level demon, facing a reaper because of this Emily girl. While reapers were technically just soul escorts, their touch was capable of killing just about anything. Gray wasn't so sure whether they could kill a demon, but he was not going to volunteer as a test subject. He'd find another way to get Emily. She had promised she'd visit her grandmother. He'd get her then.
He willed himself back to the well in Eros, to find Nathan Wood awake and diligently hitting the chain at his feet with a rock trying to break it. Gray was impressed. The man really was resourceful and determined. He also tried to resist the repossession, but was unsuccessful. Gray smiled with Nathan's lips. Yes, he liked this meat puppet so much better.