They went back to her motel.
There was absolutely no way Ali was going to go to theirs, not when there were two of them against her, not when she knew every way out, every hiding spot, and every weapon's cache in her own room. Dean had seemed annoyed, again, by her insisting, but Sam had agreed pretty easily so his brother had had no choice but come along, even if he didn't like it.
Her room was typical, with disgusting decor and furniture that had seen better days. It was serviceable, though, and that was all Ali asked for. Serviceable and clean. She led the Winchesters inside, watching them as they looked around, taking in the lime green walls and scuffed nightstand. Dean turned to look at her.
"Nice digs."
She just rolled her eyes and propped her hands on denim clad hips. "Well?"
"Well, what?" Dean crossed his arms over his chest, eyes narrowed, obstinate expression on his face.
"Come on. We're not going through this stupid dance again. We're here, we're alone, so spill."
"Why do we have to go first?"
Sam and Ali both rolled their eyes now before Sam sat on the edge of the bed in the room, looking up at her with those big, brown eyes. It made Ali shift a little, less combative. Sam wasn't a dick like Dean could be. She felt more comfortable around him—even if she knew it was a false comfort. He was still a hunter, for all the fact that he seemed like a giant, overgrown small animal in need of being taken care of.
"We heard about the attacks and decided to come and check it out. People disappearing, found with their throats ripped out? Yeah, it sounded like something we needed to check out. We got into town two or three days ago. We went to the morgue, checked the victims out. They died by exsanguination, which definitely made it our thing. We looked at the area all the people had disappeared from and found the parameters of this thing's hunting grounds. We waited until we saw it, and confirmed who it was, and then followed it into the warehouse."
Impressed despite herself, Ali nodded, mouth pursed with thought. They were good, she had to admit that. It wasn't surprising, considering they'd been in the life during all of theirs, but receiving confirmation of it was more than a little nice, she guessed. It made her trust the both of them just a little more.
"How did you 'confirm' your vamp really was one?" she asked, watching the both of them shrewdly.
Dean glanced at his brother, who nodded. He turned to her then, smile more like a smirk than anything else. He laughed a bit, eyebrows arching high.
"Well, there was some idiot girl who, we thought, was going to be his next Happy Meal."
It took a second to set in before Ali was laughing, leaning forward slightly with massive amounts of amusement coursing through her body. She looked at the both of them and laughed again, head shaking.
"Oh my god. You thought that thing was hunting me?"
"Wasn't he?" Dean shot back, angry now, she could tell, because she was making fun of them. It didn't decrease her humor though. Not in the least.
"As if. I was using myself as bait."
"You were—" Dean stopped and licked his lips, hand scrubbing over his face. "You were using yourself as bait?"
"Ali, that's really dangerous," Sam interjected. "Seriously. You don't do that when you don't have backup. What happens if things go wrong and something happens? There's no one there to get you out of the fire."
She shrugged, peeling off black leather to reveal the loose, lightweight gray sweater she'd been wearing beneath it. "If anything happens, then it happens. I don't have the luxury of a partner in this. I'm flying solo and so if I go down trying to take out some evil son of a bitch, then so be it. At least I'm going down fighting."
Both the brothers seemed appeased with this, even if they were still concerned about the fact that she'd been using herself as a trap. It was dangerous, she knew that, but she had no other choice. The world was limited when there was only you and whatever you carried, without the possibility of another gun coming in to help you. You did what you had to do.
"So what do you know?"
"We think it's a new leech." Dean took over the storytelling now, walking while Sam sat, arms behind his back. His eyes swept the floor. "The people disappearing are all kids, really, eighteen to twenty three. Fit. Pretty, you could say." Ali snorted a little and was quelled by a look. "We think this bastard is stealing kids close to how old it was when it was human and is trying to make a nest. And doing a bang up job of it."
"You think he's trying to and is killing them on accident."
"Don't you?"
"Maybe, maybe not."
"C'mon, Blondie, stop being so cryptic and give up the goods."
"We agreed to help each other," Sam added.
Ali looked at them and sighed. She didn't like this. She didn't like working with other people, even if it was the Winchesters. Whenever she did partner up, it was begrudgingly. She should trust them, she knew. They'd been there those long years ago. It was because of them that she had had something to get her out of the hole that had been blasted into her life when her parents had been massacred and her siblings taken. She had enrolled in karate, insisted on learning how to shoot a gun, and spent hours upon hours researching everything she could about the things that went bump in the night.
Until she met Rhett Michaels and her life had truly begun.
"Yeah, okay. I'm thinking the same thing you all are. New vamp, left alone for whatever reason. Trying to fill the void by making more of its own kind and failing. It makes sense. A new one wouldn't be able to make new bloodsuckers—the temptation of the blood in the beginning would be too much."
"How did you find out about all of this? No one mentioned another fed being on the scene when we asked to see the bodies."
She laughed. "That's because I wasn't trying to be a fed. Said I was another cop from a few states over and had something similar and wanted to see if there were any ties. I found you get more of the story faster when you pose as a colleague instead of Big Brother. Cops are more likely to talk shop—"
"With one of their own instead of a fed. Yeah, we get it. How'd you track it down?"
"Pretty much the same way you did. Figured out what its snatch zone was and then persuaded it to come."
"You put yourself in its path like an idiot. No backup, no one to help you."
Ali shrugged, not offended in the least. "You do what you've got to do."
It made Dean's jaw clench, made him lick his lips in a habit she was beginning to see was something he had a particular affinity for, but he remained silent. Sam looked at her, mouth tilted into a slight smile.
"So, we pretty much all know the same thing."
"Except for one thing." Ali grinned, going to her jacket. She unzipped a pocket and drew out a slim piece of paper. She passed it toward Dean and leaned back against the TV stand, smile all satisfaction. He glanced down at it, frowning, before passing it to Sam.
"It's a receipt from some bar. What does that have to do with anything?"
"It's in the heart of this thing's hunting grounds. It's where it's finding most of its victims."
"How do you know that?"
"It's where it found me." Ali smiled as Dean quickly rearranged his idea of the situation and how to handle it. She watched him, watched green eyes flick from side to side, fingers running over his chin in thought. She turned her attention to Sam then. He seemed to take stock of things much quicker than his brother.
"So, we go there, see it take someone, follow it—"
"And then cut its fucking head off," Dean finished.
"That was my original plan. I don't see why it couldn't work again."
"Except that it has your scent."
Ali sighed, watching them, eyebrows high in disappointment. "You don't think I don't know how to stop that? I know how to hide my tracks, boys."
She swore she saw Dean involuntarily wince as if she had been hoping she wouldn't know about that. See? Hunters could never be trusted. A second's glance was shared between the brothers before Sam stood, seeming all the taller than he had since he'd been sitting.
"I think it would work fine again. He doesn't know about Dean and me."
"You were in that office building too."
"Yeah, but he hasn't seen us, he doesn't have our scent. He might know another two hunters are on his trail. So, we blend in, we take him down, and we move on. Simple enough."
"It always seems that easy," Ali muttered before she sighed. "I don't see another option though, not when this one definitely seems like the best alternative. So what do we do now?"
"We get a good night's sleep and go out ready to kick some ass tomorrow night when this thing climbs out from its hole."
"Sounds like a plan to me."
They exchanged phone numbers and coordinated a time to meet up before they headed toward the bar for their stakeout. She watched as they communicated by look again and had to bite her tongue to stop the irritated remark she wanted to make. Were they always going to do this? Dean toward her, face completely serious.
"One of us is staying here with you tonight."
"What? Why!" Rage was there in a finger snap. "I can take care of myself and have been doing so for years. I burned the damn stuff exactly like I was supposed to on the drive over—he doesn't have my scent anymore!"
"It's still best to make sure. We're not arguing here, Ali. We don't want you to lose your head any more than you want to."
She glared at both of them, feeling the heat in her face. And now she was being babysat? She was just as capable as them, maybe even more so because she did work alone. How dare they?
"No."
"Ali," Dean warned, almost growling.
"No. I can take care of my fucking self and don't need the two of you babysitting me for a job that's open and close. I won't let it happen."
"Too bad."
Her head throbbed and she thought was going to have an apoplexy. She was swinging before she really knew that she was, fist striking out toward's Dean face. He caught her wrist, looking at her without any trace of amusement.
"Hitting me isn't going to help anything. It's been decided. Sam is staying here with you tonight and we're meeting tomorrow, same place and same time as we just talked about. Get used to it, Blondie. We're not letting another hunter go down so you're going to have to suck it up and deal with it."
Ali inhaled through her nose, jerking her arm from his grasp. She sent another seething look their way, hands curled into fists.
"I could shoot you, you know."
"But you won't."
She and Dean glared at each other, the both of them stubborn, neither of them backing down. Dean took a step forward until they were just a breath apart, looming over her intimidatingly. In that moment, she remembered he was a hunter. Remembered he had fought vampires, werewolves, ghosts, the whole gambit. A hunter, let alone a girl smaller than him, wasn't going to scare him. She also realized that, up close, his eyes seemed to have a ring of brown around the pupil.
It was that which broke her concentration, it was that that made her tear her gaze from his and step back.
"Fine. But you're sleeping on the floor." She gave Sam a poisonous look before she turned on her heel and walked to the bathroom, closing the door with a slam. She was beat and she knew it. Dammit, but she knew it.
Having the Winchesters here was just complicating things, again, more than it was easing them. She should never have agreed to work with them. She should never have shared her information with them. She should have just said she didn't know much else and then they could have talked and she could have suggested they go their separate ways since they all knew the same thing. Do some recon. And then she could have gone back and finished what she had started before she was away to the next job, the next clue. Anything.
"Take care of her." She barely heard Dean's voice through the door, but deep voices carried, especially in such a small room. "Make sure she doesn't go anywhere and make sure she's still alive in the morning."
"Yeah, yeah. I will."
"And Sammy—have some fun, will you? It's not a shame."
"Dean—"
"No, I'm serious. The chick is smoking, even if she has an attitude bigger than Texas. Get some if you can, huh? Looks like she'd be good."
"I can hear you!" Ali called through the door, furious.
She heard Dean laugh and say goodbye to his brother before the door closed, finally, and she was left alone with Sam. Sam in the front room while she sat in the bathroom on the toilet having a temper tantrum.
At least it was Sam.
