Chapter 2:
"Either of you move an inch, I will send a bullet into his heart," Cat snapped. "Feds carry a Glock .23 or .45 caliber Smith and Wesson. You're carrying a nine millimeter," she said, nodding to the second one, who was staring at her, wide-eyed.
"I have to ask, who are you that you would know that from a glimpse in our holsters," Dean pointed out.
"I asked first," Cat said sweetly, but with a jab of the gun that made Dean cringe. "So who are you?"
"Just…take it easy," the second one said, his hands up in a calm-down position. "We're not here to hurt anyone. Just put the gun down and—."
"Bull," Cat snarled. "Who the hell are you guys?"
"I'm Sam, this is Dean. We just—."
"Wait…. What's your last name?" Cat snapped.
Sam blinked at her. "Winchester."
Cat moved her jaw around, thinking for a second. Then she let Dean go. He quickly darted away from her and to his brother, slightly in front of him, and had his gun out and pointed at her, narrowed eyes glaring at her. It was obvious he thought she was dangerous, and Cat didn't try to tell him otherwise.
"We answered, now it's your turn," Dean snapped. "Who the hell are you?"
"You didn't buy Amy Lee?" Cat asked.
Dean smirked. "No," he said.
She let out a shadow of a smile as she put the gun back in her jacket. "Catalina Wynter. You can call me Cat. So, Sam and Dean Winchester. Never had the pleasure."
Sam blinked. "You're a hunter," Sam stated.
"Damn straight. You can put your gun away now. I did," Cat pointed out.
Dean hesitated before replacing the gun slowly into his pocket.
"Huh," Cat murmured, narrowing her eyes.
"What?" Dean asked.
She pointed at him. "You were on the news. Slaughtered that girl in St. Louis. Faked your own death. That's why I knew your face."
Dean looked a little angry. "Well if you're a hunter you'll know that my brother and I don't do that sort of stuff. We stop the things that do. That was a shapeshifter. That was how I faked my death. Silver bullet to his heart, body was left there, cops thought he was me. When they realized I was alive…well it was downhill from there. Now I have a warrant out on my ass, which is a pain, but we deal."
"Sloppy on your part," Cat smirked.
His eyes narrowed dangerously. "Hey, I do my job and I do it well. Period. Speaking of, we've got this covered, so you can skip on back to California, Amy Lee. We got work to do."
Cat looked to Sam. "He always so full of testosterone?" she asked, motioning to Dean with a thumb.
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Dean snapped.
"It means that I could handle this too. So what makes you think I'm going to just hand over this job?"
"Look, you threaten my life, accuse me of being a monster, and continue to piss me off," Dean said loudly, only six inches away from her by now. "There was another hunter that did that, and he's dead now."
Cat froze and she backed up a step. "What'd you just say?" she whispered. Dean looked away, as if angry at himself for saying what he'd said.
"It wasn't like that," Sam said quickly. "Gordon was a vampire. He—."
"Gordon…Walker?" Cat asked, her eyes widening. "A vamp turned Gordon?"
"Yea, and he took two girls heads off with his bare hands, killed a guy, turned another girl, and tried to kill us several times, so it wasn't really like we had a choice," Sam told her.
"Wow," Cat said, letting out a breath. "Well that's irony for you." Sam nodded slowly. "So you guys were really at ground zero when the Gate opened?" she asked.
Dean nodded once. "You gonna push my buttons on that one too?"
Cat rolled her eyes. "Relax. I'm not Walker. I know you guys did the best you could to stop it."
Dean blinked, surprised. "Well that's a refreshing change of pace."
"You're surprised?" Cat asked.
"Actually…yea. Very," Dean replied.
"We've run into a few other hunters and they all blamed us," Sam told her.
"That's cause people can be morons," Cat said. "Answer me this. If Harvelle and Singer back your story up, and the only other ones at the scene were Azazel and Jake what's-his-face, and Azazel and Jake kicked the bucket, why was the gate closed after only a few hundred demons?"
The two brothers just stared at her for a few moments.
"Exactly. So you didn't do it on purpose. You tried to stop it. Did a pretty damn good job too, since there were only four of you there. So it seems a bit hypocritical of other hunters to blame you when they weren't even there to help."
There was some more silence. "Uh, thanks," Sam said quietly. "Appreciate that."
"Look, I…I usually work alone. It's not often I run into other hunters. Maybe I was a little…aggressive."
Dean glared at her. "You think?" he asked.
Cat rolled her eyes again. "So what do you guys have so far?"
After a hesitation, Sam replied. "Four girls ravaged, hearts missing," he said. "Ages eighteen to twenty-six. One survivor because some guy happened to come by that had a gun. That was two nights ago. The last attack was a month ago. Sounds like werewolf. The bar is the best lead we have so far."
"Same here," Cat replied. "I was going to check out the crime scene first, then hit the bar. You in?"
Dean looked back to her. "Give us a minute," he said, an annoyed glare in his eyes.
"Take your time," Cat said with a shrug.