The gunshot rang through the air so loud that a flock of birds in a nearby tree cawed and took off into the sky. Thunder rumbled as if responding to the sound, and dark gray clouds blocked out the sun.

"Damn," Bella said under her breath. Her eyes squinted, just able to make out the small hole next to the head on the distant target. Pushing her deep brown curls out of the way, she aimed once more and held her wrist slightly to give herself a better shot. The gun sounded again, but this time she hit the target right between the eyes.

A small smile crept onto her face.

"That's more like it," she said. There were plenty of holes in the abdomen of the dummy, she could hit the target, but she was more concerned with killing it from a distance.

"Bella!" a woman's voice called from the house behind her. Standing on the back porch was Sheila, a stout older woman with graying brown hair and bright green eyes. She was one of her caretakers. "I've got some lunch ready, why don't you come on in and grab some?"

The girl in question clicked the safety on the pistol and hustled up the small hill the to the house. A couple of rain drops landed on the t-shirt she was wearing so she picked up the pace.

"Looks like a bad storm is coming," Bella commented, hiking up the porch steps until her bare feet touched the aging wood.

"Mmhmm." Sheila's eyes locked on the girl's feet. Bella stopped walking immediately, a sheepish smile creeping onto her face. It was no secret Bella liked to be barefoot a lot when she was home, but Sheila didn't appreciate having to clean up dirty footprints all over the place. The girl made her way over to the place mat just outside the back door and dusted off her feet to the best of her abilities. "I swear sometimes I wonder if you were raised in a barn."

"Aw, come on Sheila. I've been doing my best to keep the dirt of the floor," Bella said, following her inside.

"You are 22 years old, I thought that little habit of yours would end once you stopped being a teenager."

"Nope, sorry."

Sheila rolled her eyes she entered the kitchen. Sitting at the dining room table, just on the other side of the kitchen, was Sheila's husband Laurence. His head recently shaved by his wife and and brown eyes locked on the the shotgun he was polishing.

"You clean your feet little one?" he asked, not even bothering to look up.

"Yes, sir," Bella answered, settling down into the chair across from him where a medium sized, leather bound book sat.

"Your shot still good?"

"Yes, sir," she repeated, opening up the book to the page she had been on. Laurence made a sort of grunt, as if to acknowledge her statement.

"I think you need to stop giving her gun time," Sheila said as she entered the room. She placed a few plates down and ignored Bella's devastated look. "She needs to be practicing her craft more."

"Sheila dear-"

"But I have been practicing! Look," Bella gazed around the room until she spotted a wilting plant. She uttered a small phrase in Latin and within seconds the plant picked itself up, completely blooming.

Sheila didn't seem as impressed as Laurence, "That's a nice parlor trick dear."

"I think that's pretty nifty," Laurence said gruffly as he cleaned the inside of the shotgun.

"It's nice for gardening but what are you going to do when a demon attacks you? Things ain't been the same since those damn Winchester boys opened that Hell Gate."

"I'm sure they were only doing what they thought was right-" Bella tried. Sheila held up a hand. Bella heard enough about the Winchesters from Sheila on an almost weekly basis, but she still didn't think they were all that bad. She knew them when she was younger, when John used to stay with them on hunts. It was a different time though. They had all been younger then.

"I've heard all about the way those boys hunt from Bobby Singer," Sheila left the room once more only to come back with a plate full of sandwiches. "They are reckless and too codependent for their own good. I swear, whatever John did to those boys made them into mindless soldiers."

Bella didn't bother arguing with Sheila. She'd learned over the years that the woman was as stubborn as an ox and once she set her mind about something, it was difficult to change it.

"I'm sure they're just fine," Laurence said, stopping his current task to take a giant bite out of one of his wife's sandwiches. "But not as fine as these sandwiches."

Bella smiled up at the older man, thankful that he changed the subject. Sheila didn't try to pursue the conversation, sitting down next to her husband.

"They are pretty good," Bella said, biting her own sandwich. A light 'meow' called her attention to the floor just as a cat jumped onto her lap. "Oh! Hey there Asher," Bella said with a smile. Asher, her familiar, was a medium sized domestic cat mixed with two exotic breed. His was an orange-ish tint with black stripes and his eyes were a bright yellow-green.

"That cat has been outside all day, watchin' you from the trees," Laurence said. He wasn't a big fan of Asher, mostly because he was allergic to cats and used that as an excuse to not have any. Unfortunately for him, Asher's breed was hypoallergenic. "Damn thing is like a monkey the way it jumps around," he mumbled.

"Well, that is what familiars do," Bella said. She scratched under his chin and received a purr-like sound in return. She set him down on the floor and said, "No table scraps for you mister." The cat looked up at her, understanding every word she was saying and sneezed in response before leaving the room.

"Damn cats…" Laurence mumbled. "Don't see why I can't have my dog."

"We have had this argument ever since Asher came into the picture Laurence. No. We can't have that kind of responsibility-"

"But-"

"No," Sheila said with finality. Her husband's expression dropped, almost as though he were a child, and Bella almost laughed.

"Anyways," Bella said. "Any jobs?"

"Not recently. The last monster to walk through this area was that werewolf a week or so ago. Nothin' since then."

"Nothing on a… Bigger scale?" Bella said nonchalantly, chewing the chunk of sandwich that was in her mouth. Sheila's and Laurence's eyes fell on her and she almost immediately regretted asking the question. Most of the hunts Bella went on were local, within driving distance of their home. It was rare she traveled to other states, and when she did, it was with usually with Laurence. In that case her job revolved around research for the hunt. Other than that though, she didn't really do a lot of killing monsters.

"No," Sheila said, trying to drop the subject.

"You sure? I mean, I could use the practice-"

"No," Sheila said once more.

"Well, I dunno, I think I heard of a Siren over in Ohio-" Laurence tried.

The look Sheila shot him shut him up immediately and said, "She's not ready. Maybe in a couple more months when she's practiced her craft more. But not now."

"Not even if you guys came with me? I wouldn't mind."

"Bella," Sheila warned.

Before the girl could fight for her cause, an old western ringtone chimed from her pocket, vibrating wildly.

"Excuse me," Bella said, pushing away from the table and leaving her seat. She stuck her hand into the pocket of her jean shorts and fished out her phone. "Hold on," she said into the phone. Bella crossed the living room and walked outside onto the front porch. When the door was closed completely she finally put the phone into her ear. "Alright."

"Hello darlin'…" a breathy voice said from the other end.

"Kate?" she questioned, "You alright? You sound like you've been running a marathon…"

"Somethin' like that," she said. "Came across some hunters."

Bella immediately became concerned, "Kate… What did you do?"

"Nothin' you're thinkin' of. They think I'm someone else."

"Like who?"

"There's a bad man 'round here. He's been snatchin' up young girls and turnin' them into vamps. I was trying to hunt him down ma-self to help out the hunters that might have caught wind of him but… They seem to think it's me."

"Where are you?" Bella asked, pulling out the pen she'd been using for notes earlier and holding her palm open.

"Maine," she breathed, "Trenton, Maine."

"Give me a few hours. Make sure you stay out of sight and away from the hunters. I'll call you when I get there."

"Already ahead of you dear."

Bella ended the call and watched as the steady rain turned into a downpour, hoping her friend would remain safe until she got there.

Sneaking out of the house wasn't something that was completely foreign to Bella. Usually it was just to walk around in the woods, help develop her senses or practice some magic. But now she was tip toeing out the door with her spellbook in her lightly packed satchel with Asher at her heels. She never went anywhere without him.

The rain was still coming down when she walked through the front door and down to the garage where her old Pontiac GTO sat patiently. She bit her lip as she slowly eased the door open, Asher jumping in elegantly and sitting in the passenger seat, his collar making a slight tinkling sound as his tag bounced around. Bella pulled herself in and stopped herself before she put the keys in the ignition.

She considered the amount of noise the old muscle car would make if she turned it on and decided against it. Instead she placed the key in the ignition, hearing the steady beep of the car telling her it wasn't actually on, and put it in neutral. Bella climbed outside of the car, went around the front and pushed it enough so that it started to roll down the hill. Rushing back in, she guided the machinery until it was a good distance from the house and turned it on. The roar of the engine scared her, but she was pretty sure that the sound wouldn't carry. Or at least she hoped it wouldn't.

Slowly but surely she turned the car around and made her way towards Maine. She typed the directions from Vermont to Maine into her phone's GPS, and when she saw the 5 hours on the screen she let out a sigh.

"Just hold on Kate," Bella whispered, grip tightening on the wheel.

Asher watched the road with her for the first hour and a half before he let out a yawn and moved to her lap where he curled up into a ball. Bella tried not to think about how tired she'd be and instead focused on the music playing softly from her iPod. She thought about Kate not making it through the night and her foot pressed on the gas a little harder. She wasn't going to let that happen.

"Come on Kate. Pick up," Bella said into the phone, eyes on the light she was stopped at. It was about the third time she'd called her three times already and no answer. She sunk into her leather seats and let out a small groan as she listened to the ringing. "Please answer."

The ringing stopped and there was a rustling sound.

"Bella?" Kate whispered into the phone.

"Kate! Oh God I thought they got you. Where-"

"Shh… I'm in the warehouse just…" There was a small pause and a loud bang.

"Kate?"

Silence.

It was a few more seconds before Kate spoke again, "I'm in the Radford warehouse… It's next to the… Gosh darnit… It's…" Bella's heartbeat sped up the longer she listened to Kate's frantic whispers. Kate managed to say something like, "By the harbor," before the line went dead.

"Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!" Bella shouted, exiting the the call screen before going back to her GPS and typing 'Radford warehouse' into it. About five different areas came up but she zeroed in on the one closest to her and the harbor, praying that it was the right one.

It only took five minutes to get there but to Bella that could have been five minutes too late. She parked the car outside of the back entrance, Asher climbing out behind her before she could protest. He sniffed the air as Bella pulled her shotgun from the trunk, placing the strap over her head and sticking an extra knife in her boot just in case. As a last minute decision she grabbed a flask of holy water and stuffed it into her pocket.

Bella and Asher took off toward the warehouse, checking the doors carefully. They came across one that had been broken open, and when she opened it Asher shot in. She didn't call after for him, and instead watched as he paused, sniffed, and then took off again like a bat outta hell. Bella followed behind closely but checked every corner before advancing. At one point she lost him completely.

Bella tried to sense him telepathically, but nothing. She cursed under her breath and held the weapon as she walked, keeping an eye out for the hunters or, even better, Kate.

She stopped moving momentarily to get a better sense of her surroundings. It was dark, save for the occasional light here and there in the hallways, and there was no sound. For moment she thought she'd gotten the wrong warehouse but a collection of loud banging echoed through the halls and Bella shot in the direction she thought it came from.

She pushed through a pair of doors gently, still on guard. It was a much larger room and within seconds she spotted the source of the commotion. A pile of metal poles of some sort had been disturbed and many of them were scattered on the floor, but there was no sign of a living creature.

Bella looked around once more, eyes even grazing the second floor. Nothing. She didn't lower her gun though.

"Where the hell are you…" she whispered absently.

A cool piece of metal pressed against the back of her head. "Looking for someone?" a man's voice questioned. He unclicked the safety and said, "Put the gun on the floor."

Bella clenched her jaw and did as she was told, slowly pulling the strap over her head and kneeling to put the weapon onto the floor. She held up her hands once she had straightened up again.

"Kick it away," the voice demanded. She kicked the gun across the room only for it to be picked up by another man. He wasextremely tall with medium length brown hair and a sort of baby face. He held the shotgun up and pointed it straight at her. "Good. Now, who are you?"

Bella watched the other man carefully but answered, "I'm a hunter. I've been after a vamp in this area."

"I haven't seen you around," the man behind her said skeptically.

"I tend to be rather discreet when I work."

The gun pressed harder against her head.

"Name," the tall one said. Bella watched him carefully, and a part of her found him…

Asher appeared from nowhere behind the tall one. He pranced over and wound himself around the man's legs, his purring loud.

"What the-?" the tall one managed.

"Is that a cat?" the one behind her asked.

She's gone, Asher's voice rang in Bella's head. Relief washed over her, happy to hear Kate was no longer in danger. Asher continued purring until he finally said, Winchesters.

Her eyes widened, automatically locking on the features of the tall one.

"Sam?" she asked. The man's head looked from the cat to Bella.

"Do I know you?" he asked, a confused expression on his face. Bella turned around to look at the person holding her at gunpoint.

"Dean?" she asked, a small smile on her face. He was a bit shorter than Sam, but still much taller than Bella. His green eyes searching her brown ones for some sort of recognition.

Asher bounded over to rub against him too but Dean jumped back, making the cat 'meow'.

"Who…" Dean started, but stopped midway. "Bells?"

She smiled at his recognition of her.

"Wait, 'Bells'? As in Bella Rivers?" Sam's voice said from behind her.

"That's right," she said. Asher leapt into her arms as she looked to them both. "It's been awhile boys."