Chapter One

The Impala's engine roared as Dean fed her a little more gas, pushing the pace as he drove them along the deserted stretch of road. There didn't seem to be much that could put a smile on his face these days, but his baby still could. With the music on and the early morning sun warming him despite the near freezing temperature outside, Dean felt better than he had in a very long time.

The ringing of Sam's cell phone put a quick halt to his mellow mood. When it rang, it was usually Amy Chandler, his nit wit brother's empathetic girlfriend. Dean preferred not to think of her as the 'girlfriend' though, if he thought of her at all. Despite Sam's best efforts, Dean still wasn't a big fan of the girl. No matter what she did or didn't do, she simply irritated the crap out of him.

The best part, for Dean at least, was that over the past year the couple had only gotten to see each other a few times each month. Amy was busy with college and of course he and Sam were always hunting, so as long as Dean didn't have to deal with her that often things worked out perfectly.

Almost perfectly. The biggest problem with Amy was that each time he was forced to think of her, he thought of her stepsister, Leah. Well, that wasn't exactly true. He thought of Leah every single day, dreamt of her every single night. That had nothing to do with Amy, but he still liked to blame her.

Two more rings. His brother hadn't shifted an inch.

"Sammy!" He looked over at Sam, who was sound asleep. His mouth hung half-open as his head lolled limply against the back of the seat making Dean laugh. What he wouldn't give for something to toss in there! He'd have to settle for giving Sam a rough slap to the side of the head for now, but he was definitely going to pick up a bag of peanuts during their next fill-up.

A resounding crack rang out as the back of Dean's hand connected with Sam's cheek. "Ow!" Jerking to an upright position, Sam cupped the side of his face, trying sooth the stinging. "What the hell was that for?" he mumbled groggily.

"Your cell phone's ringing. I didn't think you'd want to miss a call from the little witch." He gave Sam a cockeyed grin. "Sorry. I was supposed to think that and say angel."

"Ha ha, cute." Sam said, digging his phone from his coat pocket. By the time he'd found it, he'd missed the call. A quick check told him it hadn't been Amy. "Great Dean, thanks."

"Who was it? No no, let me guess. Must have been important. The president, right? Dude, sorry I made you miss it."

As Sam returned the call, he reached over to slap his brother's arm. He was going to keep in mind he owed Dean much more than that for the sore cheek he had.

"Hey Ed. It's Sam Winchester. Sorry I missed your call. How are you?"

Dean shot a worried look toward Sam. Ed Chandler, Amy's step-father, wasn't the type to call for a friendly conversation. Especially since the split between his other daughter, Leah, and Dean. The two men weren't on speaking terms at all, and although Ed remained cordial to Sam it wasn't likely he'd called to make small talk.

"What's wrong?" Dean asked. It was Leah. It had to be Leah.

Sam held up a hand as he listened carefully to what Ed was telling him. "Okay, I can see why you're worried. How long did you say it's been since you heard from her?"

If Ed was worried, then something was wrong. Dean was beginning to feel panicked. He slowed the car and pulled off on the side of the road, anxious to hear the details from Sam.

"Where was she last?" Sam was asking. There was a pause, then he said, "Got it. We'll head there now. Probably get in sometime this afternoon. We'll check around and I'll give you a call. Okay. No, believe me it's not a problem. No, not for Dean either. Bye."

"What the hell's going on?" Dean urged, his stomach already in a tight knot.

"Stay calm, okay? Ed hasn't heard from Leah all week. He says she calls him faithfully, almost always on a Monday. She's never missed a call. Being that it's Friday and no word, he's concerned and was wondering if we'd check into it. I told him we would."

Dean only needed to know which direction to head. "Where was she last?"

"New Hampshire. An area called Coos County near the White Mountains. Town called Whitefield." Sam grabbed his laptop from the backseat as Dean stepped on the gas. The car fishtailed, sending up a spray of gravel as he sped onto the road, heading northeast.

"Was she working on something?" Dean asked. His heart was racing as the thought of Leah lying helpless somewhere took hold and rooted itself deeply in his mind. It would take several hours to get to New Hampshire, even pushing the Impala at top speeds.

"He thinks so. She hadn't said much during her last call. Kept it short, sounded preoccupied so he's guessing she was. Heard of anything going on in that area? I haven't."

Dean shook his head. "No, nothing. Maybe Bobby has. Try calling him. See if he knows anything." Names were jumping around in his head as he tried to think of who else might have any information. "Or, what's his name? That hunter we met a couple of months ago. Mike or Mark something. He seemed to be on top of things."

Sam closed the laptop and watched his brother for a minute as he struggled with his coat. "Dean. Relax. Get us killed and we won't be able to help Leah if she is in trouble." He reached over and grabbed Dean's cell phone from his side pocket and handed it to him. "His name is Manny. If you don't have his number, I do. Are you cool?"

"Yeah. I'm cool. I'm sure Leah's fine. She's been hunting full time now for what, close to a year?" He hit the speed dial for Bobby. "I got Bobby, you call that Mike guy."

"I'm on it."

Sam watched his brother as he talked to their long time friend, Bobby Singer. Dean's fear for Leah was obvious, as was his love. A love he adamantly claimed no longer existed. He had walked away from a strong relationship for reasons Sam still didn't fully know and surely never would. He assumed part of it was Dean's desire to allow Leah to lead a regular life, which had proven fruitless. A few months after Dean had broken up with her, she'd sold her house and took off, searching out any experienced hunter who was willing to teach her whatever their particular skill was.

In the past year, she'd gained a pretty good reputation. She was smart, quick to learn, made quite a few kills and was, so Sam had heard many times, one of the hottest looking hunters around. He knew it had to be tearing his brother up inside, but true to form, Dean rarely let it show.

Sam made a quick call to Manny, who hadn't heard of anything going on in that area, but offered to check around and get back to them. Dean snapped his phone shut and tossed it on the seat beside him.

"Bobby said that area's got legends about a wood devil. Bigfoot type creature. He also said he heard Leah's been working with some jack off named Blake Kendall for the past few weeks. Or maybe it was Kendall Blake. Either way, what kind of name is that for a guy, huh?" He shot a questioning look at Sam, but got no answer.

Sam didn't want to encourage Dean's jealousy. It hadn't been more than six months since his brother had beaten the crap out of another hunter named Danny, who had been running his mouth about Leah in front of them. The guy had been bragging, rather loudly, that he'd had sex with her, even though his friends were insisting Danny had never even met Leah. It didn't matter to Dean one way or the other. He just dragged the guy out of the bar and started hitting him. Sam had needed the help of two other men to pull Dean off before he killed the guy.

"Think they stumbled onto a Bigfoot?" Dean continued. "What the hell kind of hunter is this Blake asshole if he can't take care of Leah? I swear to God, if he let something happen to her, he better pray that damned thing eats him. It'll be a hell of lot less painful then if I get my hands on him!"

Hoping to divert Dean's train of thought, Sam offered up another idea. "Maybe they're just up in the mountains looking. You know, there are a lot of places where cells are out of range. Maybe Leah can't call Ed for awhile because of location. I'll check with Amy and find out when she talked to Leah last. This doesn't mean anything's wrong, Dean."

"Sure. I know." But something was wrong. Leah wouldn't leave her father hanging that way. She would have told him she'd be out of touch for a while before she took off. Jesus! A mountain. She could be anywhere, how the hell was he supposed to find her and help her? He was gonna rip that Blake prick to pieces afterwards. Hopefully somebody in the area would be able to give them some helpful information. He just hoped it wasn't already too late.

TBC