The motel room was predictably decorated in horribly bad taste, but otherwise passed muster. The sickly yellow-green colored wallpaper and matching comforters was one of the uglier prints Sam had ever seen, but the carpet was a nice inoffensive beige color. It was definitely better than the seedy motels they had been to where all they had were so-called honeymoon suites.
Sam dropped his duffel onto his bed and headed into the bathroom before his brother could hog it. Dean set about getting their gear into place and then flopped down onto his bed.
"Sam!" Dean yelled.
"Get out here! I need to use the bathroom"
"God Dean, you'd think you were 5! I'm coming" Sam yelled back, washing his hands.
"Hurry! This wallpaper is gonna sear my eyes out!"
Sam snorted and opened the door.
"Your royal fussiness, the bathroom is free," Sam announced, stepping into the room.
Dean sniffed disdainfully and marched past him, shutting the door,
Sam laughed and walked over to sit on the edge of his bed, letting his body flop back. He closed his eyes, just to rest them for a moment.
Suddenly, the skin on his arms erupted in goosebumps, sending waves of cold prickling across his shoulders and back. He sucked in a surprised breath of air. A scene flashed behind his closed eyelids. It was the bone woods again. This time the figure was standing in front of him, its intense eyes boring into him, the same feeling of tension making the air crackle in his lungs. This time though, he somehow knew that the feeling was emanating from this figure. He stepped forward curiously, and the figure suddenly raised its hand. He jerked to a stop and the hand slowly descended to rest on his brow. At first, a blissful warmth, like golden summer, soaked through his skull, prompting an inarticulate moan of longing, then suddenly, the same searing pain ripped through his head. He gasped, his eyelids flying open, hands coming up to clutch his head, scrambling to sit up. He sat there panting for a bit, eyes wide and confused. He lowered his hands. The pain had faded as fast as it had come.
Dean opened the door.
"Dude, I think that is one of the ugliest tiling jobs I've…"
Dean trailed off as he got a good look at Sam's face.
"What is it? What's going on?" Dean demanded, rushing over to crouch on the floor beside Sam.
"I…Dean…I saw…I had a vision!" Sam stumbled on his words, still shaking off the effects.
"What do you mean?" Dean said warily, "I thought those were gone!"
"I don't know Dean, this was nothing like the ones before. This one didn't hurt until I saw that guy, same as the other time!" Sam froze as he realized what he had said.
"Last time?" Dean's tone turned dangerous.
"This isn't the first?"
Sam looked away for a moment, hesitating, before turning back to look Dean resolutely in the eye.
"That dream I had in the car, it was the same, I just didn't realize it at the time."
Dean locked gazes with Sam for a minute, searching for something before nodding minutely and sitting back on his heels.
"Tell me about it,"
Sam sighed.
"They were a little different. The first time I was looking for something but I didn't know what. I was running through a white forest in white mist and I saw someone. They turned around and all I saw were their eyes. That's when my head started to hurt,"
Dean nodded his head as he listened, furrowing his brow.
"The second time I was awake. I had just closed my eyes when I saw the same forest and the same figure. This time I walked towards it and it put its hand on my head. That's when my head started to hurt this time. See it was when I saw that person both times!"
Sam got up to pace.
Dean watched Sam with a worried gaze then sighed and got up.
"You're right, those don't sound at all like your normal visions, they're much too vague. Your visions always gave specifics and they were always about the other special kids. Anyways the demon's dead,"
"That's what I'm worried about," Sam replied, rotating to face Dean.
"Different might not be a good thing. Actually considering who we're talking about it's a pretty good bet that it's very, very bad,"
Sam sighed and sat back down, grimacing in agreement.
"Too bad there's no lore on freaky demon induced visions," Dean said wistfully.
"No kidding," Sam replied, dropping his head into his hands.
"This is all we need,"
"Did you recognize the person in your vision?" Dean asked.
"No, " Sam replied, sighing gustily. "It was more of an impression of a face, I can't even remember the color of the eyes, just that they were intense. I think they were light colored though. They seemed too bright to be brown."
"Huh, well unless you see something what we can use, I guess there's not a whole lot we can do," Dean said standing up. "Anyways, look on the bright side. No brain melting migraines,"
Sam huffed a weary laugh. "Yeah, always looking on the bright side, I can deal with that,"
Sam and Dean grew more and more tense as they approached their destination. Sam was so taut he was practically vibrating.
"You know," Sam said suddenly.
"It's a pretty good bet that this girl that Cas told us about has something to do with my visions. Its too much of a coincidence for them to suddenly show up again out of nowhere just as we get this tip about the new player in town,"
"Huh," Dean said noncommittally. "Sounds plausible. But we still don't know why they're different. Though that might be even more of a reason to think she 's involved. 'unknown powers' and all that,"
"Do you think she's sending them?" Sam asked
"I dunno man but it kinda makes sense,"
"Maybe," Sam replied.
"Well now's our chance to find out," Dean announced as they pulled into the vast parking lot of one of a long row of identical warehouses.
"Oh come on!" groused Dean. "You'd think someone would come up with somewhere more original! I mean an abandoned warehouse? Nothing good ever happens in an abandoned warehouse!"
"Just be grateful its not another abandoned farmhouse. Or maybe you'd like a haunted orchard instead?" Sam teased.
Dean just grumbled incoherently glowering fiercely at Sam.
The brothers quickly sobered as Dean brought the Impala to a stop at the far edge of the lot and turned off the engine. Suddenly, a resounding crash sounding from inside the warehouse caused both brothers to go instantly on alert. They quickly opened the Impala's doors and dashed to the trunk to grab weapons. Exchanging worried glances the brothers flinched as more loud crashes emanated from the building in front of them. Suddenly Sam grabbed Dean's shoulder.
"Dean look!"
Dean looked and immediately stilled cautiously. Across the expansive parking lot the doors to the warehouse were shaking so hard they were vibrating. Suddenly they blew outward with a bang, flying completely off their hinges, and with them flew a body. The person twisted in midair and for an impossible moment looked like they were going to land on their feet, when the wind created by the explosion knocked them head over heels, sending them tumbling to the ground. Sam and Dean still hadn't moved when out of the open doorway ran another figure. At this point Sam and Dean shook off their stupor grabbed their shotguns and sprinted towards the figures.
As they neared Sam saw that the person on the ground was a girl, who was now fearfully trying to scuttle away from the figure approaching. 'A demon!' Sam realized glimpsing the black beetle-like eyes. He redoubled his speed realizing that he wasn't going to get there in time. The demon reached down and grasped the girl around her neck, easily lifting her off the ground to dangle in the air, grinning as she struggled futilely against him, her fingers clawing and the hands around her throat.
"Hey You!" Sam yelled.
As the demon turned to look Sam immediately aimed his shotgun at the demon's face and pulled the trigger. The rock salt took the demon full in the face, blinding him and causing him to drop the girl in a heap by his feet and stagger back, hands coming up to shield his face. Before Sam had a chance to give himself a mental pat on the back, two more demons pelted out of the warehouse, straight at the brothers.
Sam and Dean immediately dropped into defensive stances, so deeply ingrained they had become instinctual. Sam spared a moment to hope that the first demon didn't recover very fast before the other two were upon them.
Sam launched himself at one of the demons as Dean shot the other one full of rock salt to delay him. Sam exchanged blows with his opponent, discovering that this demon happened to have a hell of a right hook, before pulling the knife and ramming it into the demon's throat. Then he heard Dean yell and turned, yanking the knife out to see Dean and a demon closing its hands around Dean's throat. Sam lunged and buried the knife in the demon's back, watching as its mouth opened in a silent scream, releasing Dean's neck in the process, before slumping to the ground, hot lightning dancing through its limbs. Sam and Dean immediately turned to the girl and the original demon before jerking to a stop at the sight that met their eyes. The girl stood with her feet planted and had one hand raised in front of her. The demon seemed to be struggling to move, but he wasn't going anywhere. Sam took one shaky step forward, his eyes widening in recognition of the pose before he halted again with a look of incredulity. The girl closed her fist, furrowing her brow in concentration, panting slightly with exertion, and suddenly the air became heavy and charged with electricity. Sam froze and sucked in a startled breath, watching in disbelief as the girl seemed to grab the air in front of her and ripped. The demon came pouring out of its host, screaming in fury. But instead of streaming away like usual, the black smoke hung in the air in front of the girl, roiling and hissing. Then she made a gesture like she was compacting something, and the smoke immediately responded by contracting into a ball. Sam and Dean felt their jaws drop as they watched her manipulate the demon smoke. She then drew back her arm and threw it up and out into the air. It sailed like a black comet before blazing in a silent explosion of blinding white light. Sam was frozen, suddenly aware of the strange familiarity of feeling energy crackle through the air.
The brothers turned their gazes back to the girl, still frozen in shock at what they had seen, just in time to see her crumple to the ground, the feeling of pressure vanishing simultaneously. Sam cursed and darted over to her side. He reached a shaking hand down to check for her pulse, relaxing slightly when he felt the faint fluttering of her heartbeat against his fingertips.
"Dude." Dean walked up behind Sam, who turned to look at him.
"What the hell?"
"That about sums it up," Sam responded. "I think it's a safe bet to say we found her,"
Dean snorted.
"Understatement. What are we gonna do with her?"
Sam sighed and turned back to study the enigma that had suddenly fallen into their laps. She looked to be in her early twenties, tanned with long wavy chestnut locks. Sam noted with faint surprise that she was quite short, probably not much taller than five feet. Her features were sharp, almost elfin. Her cheekbones were sharply defined, and her mouth was surprisingly sensual on the round face. She was dressed in plain jeans and a tee and it was obvious that she was very fit.
"Nice!" Dean leered after apparently noticing the same things that Sam had.
"Dean!" Sam exclaimed. "Can't you keep it in your pants for one minute?"
Dean subsided after glowering good-naturedly at the back of Sam's head.
"I guess we should take her with us," Sam said doubtfully.
"Dude, that could turn out messy if she's not open to joining us,"
"Yeah but do you really think she'd be inclined to help if she wakes up tied to a chair?" Sam responded.
"Huh, good point. We can have Cas mojo her if she gets feisty," Dean chuckled.
Sam just sighed and leaned down to gingerly scoop her up, noting that she hardly weighed more than air. Dean gathered their weapons and the boys walked back to the Impala. Sam carefully set the girl in the backseat before walking around to take his place in the front. The boys drove in silence back to their motel, one eye warily on their strange cargo the entire way.