Sam had woken early the next day, retrieving coffee for himself and his brother. When he entered their room again, Dean rolled over with a groggy look of confusion on his face as he tried to focus his eyes on Sam. As soon as he saw the cup of coffee, he perked up and snatched it away from his brother.
"Well, good morning to you too." Sam muttered as he sat himself down at a small table where his laptop was set up.
"Would you rather me not have coffee?" Dean grumbled after taking a few sips.
Sam could only try to stifle a laugh as he began to research Meredith again.
"Sam, you know that's not going to help you any if you are looking up what I think you're looking up." He noted as he wandered over to the table as well.
"You never know. I just feel like there's something someone isn't telling us." He was referring to Mercy.
Dean thought for a moment as he sipped at his coffee, it was way too early in the morning for this.
"I doubt she was telling us everything. I mean, I didn't even get her number." He laughed before he noticed a note had slid soundlessly beneath the door. He tilted his head and stared at it for a moment.
"What?" Sam asked before following his brother's gaze down toward the tan carpet. Dean walked toward the small piece of paper and all it said, in neat cursive handwriting, was 'Breakfast, Cole home, half hour'. He looked over to Sam with a smile on his face.
"Looks like we get to go have breakfast with Ms. Cole." He waved the paper back and forth, Sam rolling his eyes as he closed his laptop.
The boys had managed to get ready and out of the room before lunch time, having moseyed up the path toward Mercy's somewhat large home.
"I wonder why she wants to eat breakfast with us." Sam muttered to no one in particular as they rang the bell. Footsteps soon followed and the door swung open, revealing Mercy dressed in a pastel flowery printed bell sleeve blouse that was untied at the collar, letting it hang open revealing her collar bone. A flowy white layered skirt scraped the ground barely revealing the sandals she was wearing. Her hair was tied into a bun, tendrils of her brown hair draping her face.
"Good morning, gentlemen. I'm glad to see you accepted my invitation." She said as she swept to the side and allowed them to enter. Sam and Dean followed her prompting into the house, but Sam noticed that none of the curtains were open allowing in the sunlight. It was odd, most people opened there curtains or blinds, maybe even their windows, on a nice day like this. She led them to her living room where she served them coffee in nice little tea cups and had muffins, croissants, and other breakfast items laid out before them.
"So, you must be wondering why I requested you." Mercy said after having taking a couple sips of her morning coffee. She seemed to look oddly tired to Sam. Dean had been so focused on her looks that it took him awhile to notice the windows, as well as her current state.
"Well, it was a very nice gesture, but we are wondering why." Sam soon spoke up after examining her for a moment. She could feel the tension in the room building, they were beginning to question her. Mercy knew this had to have been a mistake, but she needed to find out more about why they were here. She breathed a small sigh and gave a smile, taking in the smell of the hunters before her. Most hunters smelled alike - cheap hotel rooms, leather seats, and blood.
"I know what you two are. Hunters, to be exact." She began, the two of them immediately forgetting the hunger they had developed. "Yes, that's right. I know what you are, I know there are spooky things that go bump in the night, but what I don't know is exactly why you two are here."
Dean cleared his throat and thought for a moment, removing all thoughts of how pretty she was from his mind rather quickly - he was in business mode now.
"Well, that escalated quickly." He said bluntly as he leaned forward onto his knees. "We're here because we heard about something here in town. But, before we give you any information, how do you know about this stuff?"
"Let's just say it's the family business to know." She responded, a brow raised as she eyed him for a moment.
Sam looked at her in slight understanding, although there was a bit of confusion thrown in there as well.
"We heard about a vampire that was killing people here." Sam interjected after a few moments, breaking the silence that had been created.
Mercy looked shocked at the idea that a vampire was in town killing people.
"I can assure you that there is no vampire in this town killing people." She responded, truth blatantly written upon her face. At least, partial truth.
"So, there's not vampire then?" Sam asked, this led to another moment of silence. Mercy had tilted her head and looked off to the side down at the floor.
She could lie, but she knew seasoned hunters were good at detecting that sort of thing.
Dean leaned a little further in and was eyeing her from across the table as she sat in her arm chair.
"What do you know?" He asked as he looked deep into her with his eyes.
"I know the vampire in town isn't killing people." She soon let loose looking at them with a stern look. "They don't drink human blood."
Sam and Dean looked at one another for a moment, almost as if they were speaking to one another telepathically. They were not sure if they could believe her, but it was a lot to take in this early in the morning too.
"So, you're telling us, that there is a vampire in town and they don't kill people. Correct?" Sam asked.
"Yes."
"How do you know?" Dean soon chimed in.
"I just know, okay?" She jabbed back at them, her lips pursing a little.
"So, I'm gonna take a guess and say this vampire is some friend of yours and you're not willing to give them up. Or, maybe you don't actually know they're killing people and they are telling you they aren't. Which is it?" Dean spoke swiftly as if trying to get her to break.
"None of the above." Mercy growled back, her eyes narrowing.
"I see." Sam muttered, his mouth partially open and his eyes narrowed at her. He knew who the vampire was, he had figured it out. It was Mercy Cole. He knew there was something about her that wasn't quite right, they had even been given the condensed version of the towns history - if it was the correct history anyway.
"You're the vampire." He said aloud, Dean pulling himself back having not come to that conclusion yet himself.
He looked from Sam to Mercy quickly as he was calculating moves he should make in his head depending on her reaction.
Mercy was still and cold at this answer, her teeth were clenched.
"Yes." She finally responded, her jaw stiff as she gave her answer. "I am. What? Going to kill me now?"
"Why shouldn't we? We were told you were killing people here in town." Dean said.
"I don't know who told you that, but no one has died here from anything other than bad health or old age."
"Dean, we can't rule out what she's saying. We don't even know who gave us that tip in the first place."
Dean sighed and leaned back in his seat, but he still had an edge to him as if he were ready to pounce at any moment.
"I don't drink human blood. I did one time a long, long time ago. But that was it." She said as she looked down to the floor, almost as if she were remembering that day with a sense of remorse.
"If you want us to believe you, we need you to tell us the truth." Sam said in a calm tone. That was what Sam was good at, he was always so calm and caring for those around him.
"I only told you part of the story of Meredith, the rest of it is really long."
"We have time." Dean muttered.
"The year was 1850, Meredith, Alabama." She began, "The main house was a large Victorian home painted pastel blue and white. It sat amongst large oak trees and a stone path led from the front steps, went around a circular pond, and down through the middle of the town that had sprung up around the home. Farmers and other blue collar workers had found themselves traveling from far and wide to be able to live on the large property that was made open to them. They didn't have to pay a single penny to move there either. William Jansen, the owner of the property, was fulfilling his wife's dying wish - to create a place where people could come and live with no worries or cares. Everyone would share what they produced and live happily together. Mr. Jansen lived with his two adult children, Thomas and Noah, along with their wives. He had a large, loving family who were supporting him in making Meredith a possibility."
"Now, after some time, Mr. Jansen had passed away leaving the estate to his sons and their families. They did a wonderful job running the town. I was born in 1861, so I am quite old compared to you two. My father, Elijah Cole, had moved to the town with his wife, my mother, Alexandria Cole. At the time they had moved to Meredith they had already had my oldest brother, Josiah. He was followed by three other boys and then myself. Having several older brothers, I turned out to be quite the tom boy. Anyway, by the time I was 9, several things had happened in Meredith that I didn't know about until much later. "
"Noah Jansen had married a very beautiful woman and she just seemed to never age, then he began to stop aging. His brother and his wife followed suit. None of them ever had children that we knew of, but their family seemed to grow. This was kept quiet by the townsfolk because they were offered such a good opportunity by living in the town. Soon, strange rules were developed, such as never being out after dark; if you received an injury, it needed to be treated immediately and then you were to return home until you were well. There were more, but my memory is a little fuzzy on those details. After some time, people noticed that some of their neighbors had gone missing. This was a small town, so it was too noticeable if someone just disappeared. We were all told that they had decided to seek opportunity elsewhere and moved, but we knew better. These people were our friends, some were even family at this point. By the time I was 9, a lot of the people were unhappy with the situation and expressed this to the Jansen family - it wasn't well received."
"In October of 1871, one of the most horrific memories of mine was made. I was out in the field with a friend of mine, Jonathan, when my mother ran and snatched me up. I heard blood curdling screams coming from all around. Jonathan had ran off after I was taken away and I didn't see him for a long time after that. My mother shoved me under the floorboards of our house in a safe area, but not before I noticed there was blood outside and inside our home. I remember it all as a blur, bodies everywhere, people panicking and screaming. My mother hid in the crawl space with me and when the commotion died down we quickly made our escape on one of our horses. We never looked back. My father and three of my brothers died that night. My mother, myself, and my oldest brother who was off at law school in the northeast were spared by sheer luck.
In that time, my mother became bent on revenge having found out what had happened. She found a group of vampire hunters in the west and they took us in, fed us, trained us, they became like a second family."
"Then, one day, when I was 25, my mother was injured while we were raiding a vampire nest. The town closest to us was one like Meredith - held under the control of vampires. The doctor wouldn't treat her because he was being funded, and threatened, by the vampires and had gotten word to him before we made it there. No one would treat her and there was nowhere else to go nearby. She suffered for two weeks as infection set in. She died not long after. Me, being strong willed as I was, let all my anger, hatred, and sadness brew for awhile. I found myself back in Alabama and quite full of whiskey. I was going to go back to the source of the problem that was our lives. But, seeing as I was drunk, I didn't make it very far. I entered town and kicked down the door to the main house and, unfortunately for me, found that it was still a full nest. They captured me and instead of killing me, because that would be too easy on me, they decided to do something even worse. They turned me. So, here I am now. I am living where the main house used to be, I drink animal blood to survive, and I have a very lucrative job appraising supernatural artifacts."
When Mercy was finally done telling her story, she looked over at the boys who had been very quiet through the whole thing. It was something she hated reliving.
"Wow." Sam muttered as he looked to her, sincerity filling his eyes. "So, you used to be a hunter, like us?"
"Yes. I did. But, I did something stupid and all of that was taken away from me."
Dean remained somewhat quiet and contemplative about the whole situation. He usually wasn't this quiet. Upon hearing what she had to say, it made him reflect on who they were and what they were doing with their lives. It just reassured him of what the outcomes of their job could be. It was either you died doing what you could to save others or you died becoming what you were used to killing. There was no old age for them. Even if Mercy had "lived" this long, it wasn't really living. She had been killed a long time ago, she was just stuck roaming the Earth as what she loathed the most.
"I don't kill people. I only killed one person and that is something I have to live with for the rest of my eternity." She said solemnly.
"Who did you kill?" Dean asked suddenly.
Mercy looked up at Dean, she didn't anticipate being asked that.
"One of my friends, the man I loved, Jonathan." She said, reminiscing. "He was six years older than myself when the town was ravaged and he disappeared. We met again when I was 18, he had taken up hunting as well and we ran into one another. We spent every so often together, but it wasn't that much. Our time was fleeting, I guess."
She stopped and closed her eyes for a moment, her teeth clenching.
"Sorry." She cleared her throat. "After I was captured and turned, I woke up chained in a cellar and there he was. He had been beaten and captured as well. I think he had found out what I had done and was coming after me. I was a vampire who was refusing to eat, so I looked horrible. He urged me to feed. To feed on him. He begged and pleaded for a long time. Finally, he said that it was either me that killed him or the vampires upstairs - I knew they would keep him for weeks before finally ending it. I was the fastest way out because no one else was coming, no one else wanted to come with him. He approached me and that was the end. All I could do was sit there and hold him until they came down to release me, thinking I had finally decided to join them. I didn't. I slaughtered them." Her voice was cold and full of malice. "I slaughtered them and I enjoyed every minute of it."
Dean knew what that level of hatred felt like, he spent years of his life hunting the thing that had killed his family. He spent decades killing monsters, so did Sam. They both knew.
"I'm sorry that happened to you. Did he have any family?" Sam asked.
Mercy looked from Sam to Dean, taking a moment to remember Jonathan's face. She could see him clear as day, she could see him looking at her right now because Dean was almost an identical image of what Jonathan Winchester would have looked like as he had gotten older.
"He had siblings who made it out of the town also, went on to have families of their own. His family line is still kicking it seems." She said as she looked off to the side.
"It must be strange getting to see their descendants." Dean noted.
She looked over to Dean, her eyes were filled with sadness as she examined him. Mercy looking at Dean this way made him feel like there was something more to Jonathan, something related to them.
"What was his last name?" He soon asked.
Mercy hesitated before saying, "It's not important."
"So, you've said you haven't had human blood since then. We received this saying there was a vampire here threatening people." Sam said as he handed over a folded piece of paper over the coffee table to Mercy. She examined it and the handwriting seemed familiar, but she just couldn't place it.
"I know this handwriting for some reason, but I'm not quite sure where I have seen it before." She noted as he continued to look at it. She brought the paper to her nose and she noticed a smell of roses. It had obviously been sprayed with something because there was something artificial about the smell as well.
"It smells like roses. It must have been sprayed to cover up their scent." She said as she examined it once more before handing it back to Sam.
"Sounds like someone wanted us to do their dirty work." Dean stated bluntly as he looked over to her sternly. "Do you have any enemies?"
Mercy simply laughed at this, a smile spread across her face revealing her white teeth. But, it was the type of smile that didn't convey happiness, it was as if she couldn't believe they were dumb enough o ask that question. It was as if they should have realized she had enemies.
"I'm a vampire. I was a hunter. I appraise supernatural artifacts for large sums of money. I am very sure that I have enemies." She responded looking at them as if they should have gathered all of that for themselves.
Dean thought she really had some nerve responding like that, it reminded him of himself. He could only chuckle lightly and shake his head in disbelief.
"If someone is after you, then it's not safe here for you." Sam chimed in after a few moments of thought.
"Where is safe for me?" She asked and looked at him, her head titled slightly to the side with her eyes narrowed. "I haven't lived this long without learning that nowhere is safe for creatures like me."
She seemed so blunt about this. Sam noticed that she didn't seem to have genuine emotions as far as happiness was concerned, even when they first met she had a fake, corporate smile on her face. The way she looked at people even felt predatory at times.
"If you think of anything, you know where you can find us." Dean said as he stood, realizing it was probably time to go.
"You don't have to stay. I am sure I can handle this myself." She responded as she crossed her arms.
"You say that, but we are involved in this whether you like it or not." He responded rather firmly.
"If you insist. I can at least make sure your stay is a pleasant one. You can either stay at the inn or you can stay in my home."
The brothers looked at one another before looking around her home. There was something about staying with a vampire that left Dean a little uncomfortable - he was trying to be more open to the idea of monsters still being a little human.
"We can stay at the inn. Thank you, though. We don't want to cause you any trouble." Sam said politely as he also stood up. Mercy nodded in understanding and walked them to the door.
"I hope we don't see each other in worse circumstances." She said, a lack of emotion written on her face. The goodbye she gave them was a little odd, but Sam was figuring it was the best she could do. He had a theory he was working through in his head and he would bring it up to Dean later.
[[I hope everyone has enjoyed my second chapter. I will post as often as I can! Please feel free to leave comments and such. I love Supernatural, so if anyone has any suggestions on other fanfiction I can read myself, please let me know! Feel free to message me if you would like to chat any!]]
