Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural and if I did, Bobby, Balthazar, and Gabriel wouldn't have died. The only thing I do own is the characters I made up. I've been getting ideas all around from the shows I watch to the books I read. Anyways anyone of the characters is up to fair game with a disclaimer except mine.


PROLOGUE

"Echo 1 to Echo 2, over."

"Echo 2 to Echo 1," Paul paused and then continued, "Seriously why didn't we come up with better names?"

"Echo 2, we were trying to but somebody was off in the swamps in North Carolina going after one of those demons!"

"Of course Ky-Echo 1," Paul quickly changed before he finished what he was originally going to say.

Hell have no scorn than a maddened woman, he thought wryly. Kylie didn't look it but she had a mean streak in her a mile long. And having known her as well as he had, he knew that she generally meant no harm. Pissing her off however was a different story and it wasn't just the anger that had her feared by many on her team, it was the stages. Swiveling his wide gray eyes up to the thing they had been looking for, he prepared two rounds of silver bullets in the chamber and could only sympathize with the pour suckers. They didn't ask to be who they were and yet they were cursed to be huge beasts that couldn't control the urge to attack people at the dead of night on a full moon.

"Echo 1 to Echo 2, target locked in sight. Are you going to shoot? Over."

Paul paused observing the beasts more. He would like to say that he was a simple guy that had his head filled to the capacity with learning about what made the monsters tick. The knowledge was a deadly thing and he could just hear his mother if she were here.

She would have been saying, "Now Paul I didn't bring you into this world so that you could act impulsively. Every choice you make has a decision and no matter what you decide, make sure it is the one that is right and that you won't regret it because with them comes the actions and you have to stick by them no matter what. I am not raising a hooligan in this house. You and your sister will not make any bad mistakes as long as I'm in your life."

Just because he could imagine what she would say didn't mean he followed it all the time. He made mistakes but he tried to follow what his mother wished of him. Shaking his head, he turned to the beasts in their prime of eating and stared mesmerized as they snacked on the victim of bad circumstances. Poor bugger, Paul thought. He could have chosen any other night to go for a run but it was tonight that a run in the woods had resulted in such an end to him that he doubted his soul would rest in peace for this one. The sounds of grinding filled the forest area as one of the mangily beasts started snapping pieces of the ribcage to get into the meaty part on the inside and Paul took his aim and fired.

The first one went down with a strangled yelp and the other one must have known what was going on and quickly made a run for it. Shots rang out at several other locations surrounding the poor thing but somehow it made an escape and was able to outsmart them. Paul shouldered the rifle and turned to the source of the argument and rolled his eyes heavenward.

Surely Damon and Patrick couldn't be getting into it too soon!

"The mock. The horror. I see that you two are still disagreeing with each other," Paul commented making them jump.

"For a boisterous fellow you sure know how to sneak up on people," Damon mumbled darkly.

Paul just grinned.

The Secret Society of Hunters Association or SSOHA for short was basically a secret society of the best hunters they could find. The majority were middle aged but there were a bunch of members in their twenties and with an exception of Kylie who was seventeen, they allowed it because of how good she was. The society had different chain of commands each different from the next group and each as secret from each other as the next. As long as the other group did what they were supposed to do, it wasn't questioned by anyone in a different one. As Damon was the next in line having their leader being the one that scoured over every resource available in order to locate the supernatural, lots of fights broke out amongst them. Not ones that Paul himself committed himself of being a part of but they were hectic so there were always distractions to keep them from fighting for too long and if that didn't work there was always the next monster.

The members either went by aliases or didn't give out a full name which suited the society just fine. As long as they weren't wanted in several states and knew how to con their way into getting what they needed, they weren't questioned what they put down into the papers. The society also happened to be Paul's home for a number of years. Other members joined for a number of different reasons whether it was to escape an abusive home or being on the run from a family that didn't care enough, everyone had their issues that were kept under lock and key. The members normally had anywhere from five to twenty members in their division depending on what they did. In the one he resided, there were twelve. First there were the Jacobson twins, Eric and Casey. There was Damon and Patrick, Kylie, Shawn, Jason, Zachary, himself, and Hailey. The only common thing about himself and the other seven was that the last names weren't disclosed. The boss didn't come out on actual missions. When he did, you could tell that it was going to be a bad day. Then there should have been two more but one had been involved in an unfortunate accident during one of their missions and Joden never was the same. He still was technically in their division but he was hardly around that he could hardly even be considered a member nowadays.

"We all have our many talents," Paul commented as though he was talking about the weather and Damon shrugged.

"I keep telling ya that it isn't natural though," Patrick continued with a groan. He turned and glared at Paul who only looked bored with the hostile intent to intimidate him. "You should've shot the first one when you were first asked! No hesitating or are you sad because he's a newfound cousin?"

Paul rolled his eyes.

Crossing his arms, he quickly replied, "We've talked about this before. I'm the one with the sarcasm remember?"

Patrick only continued to glare heatedly at him until Damon interrupted with a long sigh.

"Let's just tell the boss that we got ONE of the two so that he doesn't freak out. We should have gotten both but since somebody didn't want to involve themselves in the whole planning process, you were out of the loop. AGAIN. This makes it what, four in a row now?"

Paul glared at him now.

"I was doing something that our boss had sent me on remember? It's not my fault he thinks I'm the only one fit to do it."

"Still what am I going to do with you? You are soon going to be a liability and some people are starting to doubt your loyalty to the cause," Damon added intrusively.

"What?" He seriously didn't know that. They only went on about it since the dawn of time that he was not to be trusted. They knew as much about him as he knew about every single one of them and yet they were the ones complaining about him. "I've been on this division longer than you have-"

"Yeah and guess where that got us?" Eric added in spitefully. "Didn't you used to be in charge? The boss was appointed because of mistakes like this."

He didn't know that but Paul wasn't going to correct his mistake. Seriously what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them. He ignored the jabs that they sent his way knowing it wouldn't stop even though he proved himself trustworthy again and again. They were naturally wary of someone who was given passes onto the more serious missions. Anyone in the society could kill a full grown werewolf, that was common knowledge. By the time the member spent twelve months there, they could take on not only the usual demons and werewolves but malevolent spirits and shift shapers. It was after two years on board that everyone should know how to tackle the mid level to hard tasks that simply wasn't given until then. After three years some got to get individual missions depending on their skill levels but not having any knowledge of what Paul could actually do let alone his real age, others spat at the fact he already had the opportunity not only to go on solo missions but the leeway to take on his own whenever he seen fit.

Some had stated it was because the head of the whole association knew Paul well but they weren't sure if they were grasping with straws at that one or simply reinstituting that he was someone that wasn't only far from being trusted but should be cast out for these suspicious acts.

"He put Damon in charge because I'm not here a lot of the time," Paul simply answered without showing any hint of emotion at it. Emotion made a person weak and downright sappy. It clouded their judgment and allowed them to be set up for failure. "As for the boss, he's in the position he's in because he's qualified."

Kylie seemed hesitant.

"You sure it wasn't because of something else. Missy-"

"Is not anyone's concern anymore, isn't she?" Paul interrupted and Kylie kindly stood down. Shaking his head like what he was saying was long and boring in comparison, he brought out a book of matches and gave a grin that didn't reach his eyes. "Who's up for flamboyant?"

Nobody answered this time.

They failed to get the first one but the second one would pop up sooner or later and they would pop that sucker back to where it belonged. Paul was already wrapping things up by burning the corpses and Kylie turned her back to the whole thing. How anybody could do any of this stuff was either crazy or didn't have a heart.

She didn't want to say that Paul was crazy but it seemed his heart had shattered since the incident involving Missy.

Missy.

Kylie frowned having not been around for the time that Missy was a member. What she heard though was that Missy was a real sweetheart in a bad situation and had been cast out on the street by family for reasons unknown. Not having anywhere to go, she somehow met Paul and had done what no other was able to do. According to various people who told her about Missy, Kylie assumed that Missy didn't stop annoying the poor kid until he gave in. Not one had told her that. They explained that Missy and Paul had both had their differences but he had shown her kindness that was rare of him and continuously protected her even when they were a part of the team. Nobody would tell her how old they were and she could only assume that at least one person knew how old Paul really was here because if not, then that would be a really good mystery since he never talked about himself to anyone.

Anyways, Missy had soon went up in the ladder of achievement too fast for a girl of her personality but in between all the bullshit known as life and missions, she had met Joden who really seemed to fall in love with her. Part of Kylie was shocked that Paul would just let the girl go because as much as he lacked emotions and the ability to show what he felt, he seemingly taken quite an interest in the girl and to step aside and let that slip away.

Kylie frowned.

That was the most painful love of all in her opinion. But something told her that even if the love was unacquainted, it was losing her permanently in the most permanent finalizing way that brought along a new kind of apathy. How many times did somebody lose another? Quite a lot in Kylie's opinion but the problem had always been that nobody could even recount what happened that day. Missy and Paul were in enemy territory taking on some demon and the rest was sealed. She imagined the only ones that knew what happened were there that day and one of them was silenced forever.

"He is a little overzealous about the pyro kinetics but it really does have to be done." Shawn stood before her and nodding to show that she heard, she wondered if it was too late to possibly put in a resignation letter or at least get put with the people less likely to tear each other's throats out at any given opportunity just to get better treatment.

"He's the only one that doesn't care about jobs at least," Kylie replied a little honestly.

Maybe she could tell her dear mother that she was sorry. She was so sorry that she didn't trust her when she had talked about the demons in her head. She idly thought about the last days where her mother would continue screaming at her about how demons were eating her brain and yet nobody thought it was serious. It was only three months after living on her own that she discovered the truth. Demons, warlocks, and vampires were not a myth and her mother most likely died from a parasitical demon. She was never able to forgive herself after that and not only did she agree that monsters were all evil natured, not deserving of life, she knew a part of her was just letting the grief talk. She never properly grieved for her after all.

Shawn snorted bringing her back to the here and now.

"If you really want to talk about Paul then you should know this. He's dangerous. Me and Joden, we knew him long before you two got acquainted and he's not the innocent little wall flower you keep picturing him as-"

"I know that," Kylie defended herself.

"No you seriously don't." Shawn sighed and continued after casting a glare towards the topic of their conversation. "You have no idea who you are messing with and the sooner to begin to realize that, the better it will be for you. He's not a psycho but he's done things that would make your skin crawl. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that there is something lethal in the way the boss trusts him. I've been here eight years and never have I gotten into the position to handle any dangerous task on my own. He's been year five and he's done a lot more than someone like him should be capable of."

Kylie stood rooted to the spot in shock at that. Everyone she knew wouldn't tell her anything and even Shawn who thought it would be better to warn her wouldn't say anything on why Paul was to be taken cautiously. Nobody would say and she needed more than that to feed her growing curiosity.

"Why is it that I ask one thing and I get told something totally different?" She asked astounded. "You act like he had Missy killed on purpose but at least he didn't murder his father in pure hatred!"

Shawn just shrugged.

"You listen too much to what other people say. Maybe you should spend less time with the gossip of the day and instead think about what they don't tell ya. Remember I've been in this business longer than you and I may have been older when I joined than you were but I know that as long as you have the knowledge that you know, you won't ever understand."

Kylie frowned.

"What is that supposed to mean?" She narrowed her eyes at the thought. She had more than enough experience. Didn't she stop every petty little form of rebelling before it got out of control?

"You were a victim of circumstance." Shawn said with a sigh. "I understand that and I wish you weren't but as it is, that is why you joined. You had nothing left and you learned the truth. Yeah you were a little younger than most of us but you also realized at a quicker pace what you could do instead of going out there for petty revenge. So I'm saying that as long as you have no idea what it's like to have the shameful guilt caused by having had blood on your hands, you will never have to understand the majority of us."

Kylie snorted and flipped a strand of strawberry blonde hair behind her ear. The same color that had been similar to Missy's whose was only a shade or two darker. Of course they could say that though, she thought. They had no idea what it felt to know that some of them were going to die and the family would worry not knowing the truth. Sometimes her job sucked.

"You were just saying that Paul was not to be trusted and now you're saying that I could never understand him basically," She swiveled to make sure he wasn't listening in because no matter how much she liked to know, it still felt wrong talking about somebody like this especially knowing that he had yet to gain their trust.

"Well you don't know as much as we know," Shawn stated none too kindly. "See we don't know what brought him here. He of course lived on the streets when he was found and I don't know about you but the thought of that poor mongrel on the streets has me pitying the poor souls that tried to take advantage of that kid. He's not weak and those who think that are already putting him at a disadvantage. Remember to tread carefully around him. I am not going to repeat it. Joden did and so did Missy. Those poor sods didn't see where that got them, now did it?"

Kylie was contemplating it when a rustle sounded from behind her and before Shawn could voice his warnings, the one hundred and eighty pound monster was on her trying to tear through to make her his next meal. Kylie struggled no matter how futile it seemed and saw an opening to strike the gigantic beast in the stomach with the heel of her foot.

The shot rang out and Kylie gave a loud shriek as the thing fall on her. She was fine, blood from the monster's fatal wound dripped onto her but other than that she was indeed better than most. She wasn't going to turn into a werewolf nor was she a big shred of kibble bits. She rushed out from under that thing as soon as it was lifted none too gently and eased the tremendous weight.

She turned to stare at her savior and knew for the most obvious reasons why Shawn had to have been wrong. There was no way that anybody that could go through saving as many people as they could stood a chance to be a threat when it came down to it. Even though he didn't look as though anything bothered him and anyone who had a habit of getting under his skin turned up lost or dead. She paused in her thoughts as sudden points Shawn had made to her began to ring true. It didn't help that Paul's cold gray eyes met her with the optimum of all boredom. Did he ever show how scared he was or how angry he was? For once she really wished she could know what he was thinking and suddenly she began to see why so many had been frustrated with him throughout.