Terra laughed gleefully. "Drives like a dream, doesn't she?" she purred, taking a hand off the steering wheel to stroke the car's dash. "Yeah yeah, just don't crash it okay?" Dean whined, gripping his door with white knuckles. "I can't believe you talked me into letting you drive..."
"Quit bitching, you're sucking the fun out of it!" she scolded, cranking up the volume on the radio. The opening notes of a Led Zeppelin song began to play, and Terra started to hum with the music. Dean gaped at her. "No freaking way!" he exclaimed. She looked at him from the corner of her eye. "What, you don't like Travelling Riverside Blues?" she said incredulously. He shook his head and chuckled. "Are you kidding me? It's gotta be my all time favorite song! I'm just shocked that a girl like you has good taste in music. You're pretty awesome."
She tried her hardest not to blush, but she could feel her cheeks heating at his compliment. "Oh.. um, thanks." Quickly changing the subject seemed to be the best way to distract him before he embarrassed her further, so she tossed out the first thing that came to mind. "Anyway, you said we'd talk, so start talking. I need answers." Dean sucked in a breath and let it whoosh back out. "Like what?" he mumbled, and she tossed him an irritated glance. "You really have to ask? Let's start with this truck, that tried to turn me into roadkill pancakes. What do you and Little Brother have to do with it? And why did you flip your shit when I mentioned it running me off the highway?"
"Well... Sam and I, we're kind of like- well I guess you could say we're like undercover cops," he began, but Terra cut in before he could continue. "Cops that specialize in the supernatural crap," she added matter-of-factly. Dean choked in surprise, turning to her so fast that he almost got whiplash. "What?!"
"Cut the shit, Dean, don't play dumb with me. I'm not completely naive. The whole phantom truck thing isn't exactly my first rodeo. Hey, the windows are down, so I'd suggest closing your mouth before you catch flies or something... Damn, you look like you've seen a ghost," she said, chuckling at her own joke. Dean shook his head in disbelief and slowly pressed his fingers to his temples. "Fine, you got me. We're hunters. I got a call from an old- friend of mine. She told me about the car accidents, and how both guys had mentioned seeing some freaky disappearing truck about a week before their deaths. Up until now, we had thought the pattern was some sort of racial targeting," he said, shooting a pointed glance at her cream-colored hands resting on the steering wheel. "But clearly, you break the pattern."
Oh man, Sam's going to wring my neck when he finds out that I told her all this... "Hey look, there's the place where I pulled over when I found you, it was right over there," he pointed out. Terra maneuvered the Impala over to the shoulder and got out, proceeding to search for her baby, her silver '81 Harley. "Please let her be okay..."
A glint of light about thirty feet away caught her eye, and she broke into a run. The pain in her leg around the stitches was bothering her pretty badly, but she pushed on anyway. She reached her Harley lying on the ground and breathed a sigh of relief. Aside from a few minor dents and scratches, it seemed to be okay. By the time Dean had reached her, she had already stood it upright and was attempting to get it to start. After a few tries, the motor purred back to life, and she hopped on with a grin on her face.
"Later, loser," she said to Dean with a wink, and then took off. Within seconds, she was gone. "What the hell!" Dean shouted, running back to the Impala and throwing it into gear. He was incredulous that she would just take off by herself like that when she was in danger. His grip on the steering wheel was turning his knuckles white as he crossed his fingers, hoping that he could find her before the ghost did.
Dean was still scouring the area looking for Terra when his cell phone started ringing. "What?!" he barked into the receiver. "Jeez, what crawled up your ass?" Sam replied from the other end. "Bite me," Dean snapped. Sam was quiet for a minute. "Where are you?" he asked carefully. "Looking for Terra. I took her to get her motorcycle and then she pulled a Houdini on me," Dean replied.
"I still don't get what your thing is for this chick," Sam sighed. "Anyway, I went to see Cassie to see what I could find out about this thing. Apparently the truck showed up in front of her house last night, flashing the lights and revving the engine. It marked her and her mom too." He paused. "There's a story behind all this. When Cassie's mom was younger, segregation and racism was still a big thing. She was seeing this man named Cyrus Dorian. A white guy. But then she fell in love with Cassie's father and left Cyrus for him. The Cyrus dude got pissed off, and burned down the church that they were supposed to be married in, not knowing that Cassie's parents had decided to elope instead. There was a kid's choir practice going on inside the church when he lit it up... none of them made it out in time. Then the guy went and attacked Cassie's dad Martin, but two of Martin's friends backed him up. They killed Cyrus and shoved his truck with his body inside into the swamp. So I'm thinking we go find the body and burn it, getting rid of the ghost. Then you can stop worrying about the girl," he added hopefully.
"I'm choosing to ignore that last part. But you do have a point, it would be better to just put Cyrus's spirit to rest. It only strikes at night though. And, well, I got no sleep last night. I'm pretty beat, I'm going back to the motel to rest up. I'll catch up with you later." Dean snapped his phone shut before Sam could protest.
Something had woken Dean from his nap. The motel room curtains were drawn, so he had to strain his eyes to try to see in the darkness. Someone- or something- was sitting at the edge of his bed. He could feel it watching him, and it was making his skin crawl. He scrambled to sit up, fumbling for the gun that he had stashed under his pillow, holding his breath. A voice came out of the dark just as his fingers closed around the handle of his pistol.
"Chill out, spaz. It's just me," a female voice said softly. "Terra? Thank god you're okay," Dean said, exhaling and flopping back down on the pillow and trying to calm his frantic heartbeat. She was swamped with a wave of guilt brought on by the relief in his voice. I shouldn't even be here, and it damn sure shouldn't make a difference to him whether I am or not... why can't I just stay away? I'll only end up hurting him. I need to just go somewhere far, far away, leaving Dean Winchester and his immensely good looks a million miles behind me. "I don't think God had much to do with it," she mumbled, pushing away from the bed and standing up.
Dean reached out to turn on a small lamp on the bedside table, filling the room with dim incandescent light. Through still-sleepy eyes, he could see her pacing the floor a few feet away, looking like a caged animal. Actually, with her dark glossy hair and lean but strong body, she reminded him a little bit of a panther. The sudden tension in her seemed to be charging the air with an electric feel, and suddenly it felt too awkward for Dean to be sitting on the bed. He stood and leaned against the wall by the window, waiting for her to explain her mood.
"I shouldn't be here," Terra finally muttered. "I was going to leave. That would be the right thing to do... I had a course set for Miami. I just couldn't bring myself to take off, though, and I don't know why." She shoved her hands through her thick dark hair in exasperation. Dean couldn't take it anymore, her behavior was making him anxious. He strode over and stood in her way, placing firm hands on her shoulders to hold her still. "You could have died, do you realize that? You're in danger, damnit!"
Her pacing came to a halt and she seemed to calm down pretty quickly. Cocking her head to the side, she regarded him bemusedly. "You were... scared." It was more of a statement than a question, really. He scoffed in response. "Scared? Sweetie, I've seen things your nightmares wouldn't dare to touch." Who the hell does this girl think she is? "I barely know you, why would I be scared? I just didn't want you to end up dead after I saved your ass."
Terra placed a gentle hand against the side of his face, feeling the soft scratch of the stubble on his cheek under her palm. "I see right through that tough guy shit. Just so you know. Thank you for saving me, though. I really appreciate it. Who knows what might've happened to me if you hadn't." Before he could react, she pushed herself up on tiptoe and swiftly dropped a kiss on his cheek. "I really do have to go now, though." She only made it halfway to the door before Dean was in her path again.
"Why are you just dying to take off?" Dean demanded. "No more bullshit Terra. Tell me."
Terra shook her head, lip trembling. "I'm sorry. I- I can't. It's complicated, Dean. All I can say is, you probably would've been better off if you had just left me on the side of the road to die. I can bring you nothing but trouble. I can't get attached and I can't stick around. I have to-"
"What the hell do you mean, would've been better off? I can't just let someone die, for any reason! Stop it with the suicide mission shit, you're not a damn Kamikaze pilot." His eyes bore a look of intensity that sent chills creeping down the back of her neck. "Damn it, you stop it!" she cried. "Quit it with the smoldering looks and the trying to keep me around, all I am is bad news! Quit being someone that I want to be around! Please, just let me go!"
With mercurial speed, Dean's lips crashed on to Terra's and he kissed her, roughly but brief. He pulled back, his face hesitant, as if he was afraid that she'd either bolt or slap him. "Damn you," she said, her voice low and husky and slightly breathless. Then her hand moved to the back of his neck to pull his head back down to hers for another lip-lock. She kissed him fiercely, stars dancing behind her closed lids. His hands migrated up to her waist, holding on to her curvy hips as he backed her up against the wall.
Red flags and warning bells were blaring in her mind, but the fire burning in her stomach and licking its way to every corner of her body, lighting her up, just felt too good to stop. She ignored her conscience and moved to press herself flush against his hard, well muscled body. His lips left hers, trailing down to her neck. She let her fingers roam around his torso until she found the buttons on his shirt, hastily undoing them one by one. His shirt hit the floor, other articles of clothing following suit. She traced his V-lines down his hips, daring herself to go lower... and lower. Dean made a low noise in the back of his throat, then he lifted her up and hooked her legs around his waist, carrying her to the bed and laying her down on it. His lips smashed into hers again, and she reached up to fist a hand in his sandy colored hair and pull him even closer, arching her back so that there was no space between them, only skin on skin. His hands slid down her soft skin to grip her thighs and tug them open, moving himself between them just as a shrill noise pierced through the room.
Dean groaned, realizing it was his cell phone screaming out the ringtone reserved for his brother. He shot Terra an apologetic look as he pushed off the bed and went in search of his phone.
"Dude, you seriously have the worst timing!" he complained. "Dean," Sam said impatiently."Where the hell are you? Sun's going down, we gotta get moving now." Dean looked down, taking in his lack of clothing. "Uhh, I'm a little busy, Sammy..." Dean turned to explain the situation to Terra, but found himself facing an empty room. She was gone, as were her clothes. Dean struck out, slamming his fist into the wall. "Shit! Sam, I gotta go. Meet me at the swamp in twenty minutes."