Chapter 1: The Hunt
You had been waiting in the car for hours and your limbs felt numb. The rain pounded heavily against the roof of the Impala and the windcreen wipers swished back and forth furiously in an attempt to keep the multitude of raindrops at bay. Bolts of lightning pierced the night sky, revealing an old farmhouse in the distance. You stretched your arms and legs trying to get rid of the stiffness in them. An ominous feeling crept up your spine making you shiver. You zipped up your leather jacket and rubbed your arms to warm up a little. Deep down, however, you knew that your uneasiness had nothing to do with the inclement weather or your torpid limbs. The idle waiting made you restless. You wanted the hunt to begin finally.
John was sitting next to you, his right hand resting on the top of the steering wheel. His fingers were drumming against the leather cover impatiently. The two of you waited in absolute silence, your eyes glued to the house in the distance, looking for any sign of movement inside.
When John got a call from Bobby at dawn about the location of the demon, he was sceptical initially. But after Bobby sent over the evidence – hundreds of newspaper articles, police reports and eyewitness accounts on unusual events, suspicious accidents and disturbing vanishings in the area, results of weeks of meticulous research - John sat down and went through everything. By the time you arrived back from the nearby gas station after filling up on gas and groceries, the walls of your motel room were plastered with maps, photos, newspaper clippings and various notes. You placed the 'do not disturb' sign on the doorknob immediately.
By early evening John made up his mind and decided to track down the demon right away. If the evidence was correct – and everything pointed in that direction – then you have found the hiding place of one of the most powerful and dangerous demons out there, the one John has been hunting for for years. The traces of demonic activity were clear from the documents, not too obvious for the authorities to pick up on, but more than enough for an experienced hunter to connect the dots. It had to be the demon you were looking for. The idea thrilled and frightened you at the same time.
By dusk you arrived at the specified location and decided to wait and explore the surrounding area before launching the attack. The next farm was several miles away so you didn't have to worry about uninvited guests or eyewitnesses. Still, John tried to arrange for back-up from Dean and Sam, but they were chasing a ghost in another state and he didn't want to wait until morning and risk the demon slipping away. The boys agreed to join you as soon as they could.
John broke the silence in the car. He sounded raspy from not talking for a while.
"All right, I'm going in. Stay here and wait for my signal." he ordered without removing his eyes from the house.
"John, I can come with you and help." you offered, searching for his eyes.
"We've been through this already, Y/N. I'm going in and you wait in the car until I give you a signal that it's safe in there. If you don't hear back from me after 15 minutes, you call Dean and Sam but do not come after me alone."
"They are at least an hour-drive away from here! You could be dead by then!" you argued.
"The demon will not kill me. If it captures me, it will use me as bait to lure the boys here. You need to wait for them in the car." John's voice was calm but there was an edge to it now.
"I want to hunt with you! I'm ready for this!" you pressed further, getting more desperate.
"It's too dangerous, Y/N. I need you to stand guard here in case the demon tries to escape or has spies lurking out here." he said simply, unmoved by your argument.
"At least take the Colt with you. You cannot go in there unarmed!" you pleaded in a softer tone.
"If the demon gets its hands on the Colt, we won't stand a chance. The boys can use it as a last resort in case anything happens to me. We will proceed according to my plan and that's the end of it!" John snapped brushing off your concerns.
"But John..." you started but he cut you off, losing his temper now.
"No! This is a direct order, Y/N! I'm not arguing on this!" John commanded. His tone left no doubt that he wasn't going to change his mind.
"This is not fair!" you burst out petulantly, frustrated that he wouldn't listen. You removed your eyes from your step-father and folded your arms in front of your chest in protest. You were tired of him handling you like a child.
It had been five years since John Winchester adopted you after your parents died in a car accident when you were 16 years old. John was a close friend of your parents and while he often moved around the country, they kept in touch over the years. Your parents named John as your guardian in their will, and he fulfilled their last wish without question, welcoming you to his family with open arms.
When you found out your step-father was a hunter, you wanted to follow in his footsteps. At first John didn't want to hear any of it, he had other plans for you: live a normal life, go to university, get a proper job. But when he saw how adamant you were, willing to find another hunter if he wasn't going to teach you, he gave in. And you were eager to learn and John taught you everything he could about ghosts, demons and other creatures of the dark. Soon enough you became a decent hunter and while you still had a lot to learn, John could see that you were a natural at it. You may not have been born a Winchester, but you turned out to be as fearless a hunter as your step-father and step-brothers.
You looked up to John and were grateful to him for taking you in and raising you as his own child. He always treated you with love and respect and was surprisingly affectionate and caring with you, a side of him he rarely showed his own sons. No wonder Dean and Sam were jealous of the bond the two of you shared and therefore it was more convenient for all of you to hunt separately. Still, your relationship with John had been ambiguous lately. You found it more and more difficult to submit to his controlling nature and tried to challenge him, leading to heated arguments between the two of you every now and then.
"Wait for me in the car and stick to the plan." John instructed. "Are we clear?" His voice cut through the sound of the rain.
"Yes, sir!" you responded in a sullen tone, keeping your gaze forward at the house in the distance.
"Y/N, listen to me." John said with a loud sigh. His voice sounded gentler now. "I'm doing this to protect you. You may not be my daughter by birth, but I love you as if you were my own child. If anything happened to you...I don't know what I would do."
You looked up at him and saw the unconditional love in his eyes. You knew he was right, but his overprotectiveness annoyed you still. He gave you a reassuring smile and you felt your anger starting to dissipate. You nodded silently returning the smile.
"I know. I love you too, John." It has always been hard for you to call him "Dad", but he didn't seem to mind.
"I will be back before you know it. Keep your head up..." he started his usual pep talk line to cheer you up.
"...and your powder dry." you finished the sentence with a wry chuckle.
"That's my girl." he murmured proudly.
John reached out and caressed your cheek with his thumb. The warmth in his eyes made you feel safe and you have already regretted raising your voice at him earlier. You loved John and were ready to do whatever he asked of you.
He gave you a conspiratorial wink and removed his hand from your face. You missed the comfort of his touch already. He got out of the car and pulled his leather jacket closer around his body to protect him from the rain. He ran up to the house and glanced back at the car one last time before disappearing inside the building.
You started the timer on your phone. The wait felt impossibly long as if time had slowed down. There seemed to be no movement inside or around the building. After a couple of minutes you started to worry. It wasn't a big house, two floors and about five or six rooms, John must have searched it from top the bottom by now. But there was still no sign of him. You kept your eyes firmly on the house ready to act as soon as the time was up. The timer went off, the familiar ringtone startling you. There was still no sign of John and this could mean only one thing: something was wrong.
You turned off the timer and opened your phone book to dial Dean, as John had instructed. But before tapping on his name, your finger stopped mid-air. You looked up at the house once more and saw the shadow of a man standing in one of the windows. It was a tall, dark figure, who was clearly looking in your direction. You felt a sudden pull towards him, as if his presence had drawn you to the house. You couldn't make out his face from this distance. A loud crack of thunder broke your reverie and the shadow vanished from the window.
You were weighing your options for a minute. If it was John, it was the signal for you to join him. If it was the demon, it meant John was in trouble and the demon was trying to lure you into a trap. Either way, you didn't have time to wait for your step-brothers. You had no choice but to go in and find out what was going on.
You opened the glove compartment and took out the Colt. John would have been against the idea, but you felt completely vulnerable going in without a weapon. You opened the door of the car and stepped out into the rain. You put the car keys in your front pocket and tucked the Colt in the waistband of your jeans behind your back, pulling your leather jacket over it. Your boots sank into the mud as you made your way to the house through the front yard. You were soaked from the rain already and brushed a strand of wet hair out of your face.
The house must have seen better days, but now it looked completely abandoned and in dire need of an urgent renovation. There were several tiles missing from the roof, the paint was peeling off the walls in large chunks and most of the windows were broken in. The old wooden floor creaked under your feet through the sound of the storm as you stepped on the porch. You went up to the front door and pushed it open cautiously. It was dark inside but you could make out a door on the opposite end of the corridor. It was slightly ajar and a flickering light filtered through the opening.
You sneaked along the hallway and upon reaching the door, took a deep breath, pushed it open and stepped inside. There were at least two dozens of candles scattered around the room, casting an eerie light on everything. The space was sparsely furnished, a thick layer of dust covering everything. In the middle of the room, there was a man sitting on a chair, limp and unconscious, his head hanging down to his chest. Your heart sank to your stomach when you recognized him.
"John!" you shouted and ran to him.
You knelt down next to your step-father and shook his shoulder to wake him up. His mouth was covered by duct tape and his hands were tied behind his back with a rope. You peeled off the tape from his mouth eliciting a groan from him as the sticky film tore at his skin.
"Y/N..." John whispered in a faint voice, opening his eyes slowly.
"Are you all right?" you asked him with concern and looked for signs of injury on his body. There was blood and dirt smeared on his face and he had a cut on his upper lip, but otherwise seemed to be unharmed. You glanced around the room searching for his captor but saw nobody there.
You tried to remove the rope from around his wrists but it was tied too firmly. You were about to retrieve your knife from the sheath on your belt when you heard the creaking noise of the door being shut and a deep, rich voice coming from behind you.
"Good evening, Y/N! We were expecting you and are delighted that you could join us."
You stood up abruptly and turned around to face the man standing at the other side of the room. He was medium height and average build, probably in his mid- to late 50s. His short, dark hair was combed back from his face and he was wearing grey trousers and a light shirt. His most striking feature was his eyes: they had yellow irises and glowed dangerously in the dim light of the room.
"The youngest Winchester, John's only daughter. You are even more stunning than I remembered." the man growled and looked you up and down appraisingly. His voice made all the hairs stand up on your back.
You recognized him instantly. Bobby's intel was right: he was the demon you had been searching for and he was standing only a couple of steps away from you, eyeing you with a devilish grin on his smug face. You had never fought a demon on your own before and your chances were pretty slim even if you had. You knew your only option was to outsmart him somehow, but a demon of his caliber was highly intelligent and perceptive and could not be fooled easily. Still, with John being tied up, you had to try, or both of you were as good as dead.
"Oh, forgive me, you must be freezing." The man motioned towards the fireplace and the logs were engulfed in flames within seconds, filling the room with an orange glow. You felt the warmth of the fire immediately.
"I have kept an eye on you for some time now. I'm a great admirer of yours, you know." the said with a mischievous smile dancing on his lips.
Pieces of the endless lessons John taught you on fighting demons started coming back to you and your hunter instincts kicked in. You had to make him talk to find out his intentions and get him to reveal any kind of information you could use to your advantage. You stood up straight and gathered the courage to speak up.
"Why do you have my father tied to a chair?"
"It's all John's fault." the man shrugged sardonically. "He got a little too excited to see me again so I had no choice but to restrain him."
"Let him go." you commanded. You felt the blood drumming in your ears.
"And why should I do that? The great demon hunter, John Winchester. He has a reserved seat in the deepest circle of hell. All the perished demons cannot wait to get their hands on him. Oh, no, sorry, they have claws actually." he replied casually.
"I'm sure we can make a deal." Your voice sounded more confident this time.
"Y/N, no!" John protested, struggling against the rope.
"Look at that, a little hunter in the making, willing to bargain for his step-daddy's life. How touching." the man mused in an overly sugary tone. He stepped one step closer to you but you instinctively stepped one step back away from him. He acknowledged your move with a chuckle.
"You know nothing about me." you answered coldly. You felt bile rise in your throat.
"Oh, please, don't insult my intelligence, Y/N. I know everything about you. Every wild hope, dark wish and dirty little secret you try to keep hidden in your soul." His voice was smooth and calculating, sending goosebumps down your spine. "But I can see other things too. I see how you look at John. And how he looks at you." he added with a suggestive smirk.
"Who are you?" you probed ignoring his comment.
"I have many names. But I think you know the answer to your question already." he answered darkly.
"Azazel." you stated rather than asked, narrowing your eyes at him.
"Smart girl! Pleased to make your acquaintance, Y/N." His eyes were twinkling with mirth and he bowed ceremoniously in front of you. "You have no idea how long I have been waiting to finally meet you."
"I don't have time to chit-chat. What do you want?" you urged him.
"My, my, are we getting impatient? If I hadn't known that you weren't her biological father, I would think she takes after you, John." Azazel grinned cruelly, gesturing towards your step-father.
"Leave her alone you miserable piece of shit, or I will..." John barked at him but the demon held up his index finger, effectively silencing him.
"Or you will what, John? You aren't in the position to make threats. Your step-daughter is about to bargain for your life so if I were you, I would keep my big mouth shut." he reprimanded with a stern expression."Besides, we have a score, you and I, which needs to be settled. Did you really think I would let you hide her? That you could keep her away from me?" His eyes were now burning with rage.
"Don't mind John. Your business is with me." you coaxed the demon. You had no idea what he was referring to but didn't have time to dwell on it. You needed his complete attention on you. You were trying to find a solution to disarm him but couldn't think of anything. If you took out the Colt now, he would snatch it from you right away. You had to set him a trap, but had no clue how.
"That's right, little hunter." Azazel praised, clearly pleased with your reply. "So, are you willing to make a trade for your step-daddy's life?"
"Yes. What do you want?" you demanded.
"You." he growled without thinking.
"What?" you asked bewildered, furrowing your brow at him.
"I want you...to join me." The words were rolling off his tongue slowly.
"Seriously? You want me to cross over to the dark side?" you challenged with a snort.
"Why not? Does it sound that bad?" Azazel seemed offended by your lack of enthusiasm. "Just imagine the power you would have. You could get whatever you want. Or whoever you want. Make them submit to your will." His voice was dangerously alluring. "John doesn't take you seriously, he never has. He will not let you reach your full potential. But I can help you with that. I can make all your desires come true."
The demon's remark hit a nerve and you found yourself considering his offer. You couldn't deny that there was some truth in his words. A small truth, but it was there, ringing in your ears. Azazel knew exactly how to push your buttons. The blood froze in your veins when realization hit you. He could indeed see inside you, like he had said before.
"Y/N, I'm not letting you sell your soul to him. Not for me!" John shouted frantically.
"John's just trying to protect you, isn't this what he's telling you all the time?" Azazel pushed further, sensing your hesitation. "That it's too dangerous for you to take risks or hunt alone. Well, the truth is, he is afraid of you and of what you are capable of. Because he knows about your ancestry. Has he told you the truth about your parents?"
You narrowed your eyes at him.
"The truth? What truth?" you asked sceptically.
"I can't believe John never said anything about this to you." Azazel replied smoothly, shaking his head. He let his words hang in the air for a while. "It's time for you to know the truth, little hunter. You're not going to like what you hear, but you deserve to know it."
"Deserve to know what?" you echoed impatiently. Your palms were sweaty and you felt your heart clench in your chest.
Azazel stared at you dramatically, prolonging the moment on purpose to increase the tension. When he spoke again, his voice was cold as ice.
"That your parents didn't die in that car crash accidentally."
Your eyes widened in shock.
"What do you mean it wasn't an accident? Their car slipped on an icy road!" you insisted.
"Oh, no, littler hunter, it didn't. Your parents were murdered."