A heavy metal door was the last in the hall. All the other doors had been weak press-board wood that led to small offices. Both men took a position on either side of the door and Dean slowly pushed it open. Concrete floor and corrugated steel walls formed what looked like a factory floor. Large machinery hulked silently in the shadows.

Dean ghosted silently to the right while Sam moved along the wall to the left. James stood uncertainly at the door not sure what to do. A syringe in his hand he put the second needle into his vest pocket. He prayed he wouldn't jab himself with it. Figuring the two men had the sides covered, he tried to move quietly up the center. He wanted to see what was going on without being seen himself.

Hearing a whimper from just in front of him, he dropped to the ground behind some beast of a machine. Peeking slowly around the edge he saw the back of an extremely large man. Broad and thick with muscles like a linebacker, the man was grabbing and pulling at something James couldn't see. Ducking back behind the machine James struggled not to let his ragged breathing make a sound. The man was a GIANT! What on earth did James think he could accomplish against that kind of enemy? The tiny tube of dead man's blood in his hand looked so small and pathetic, just like James.

"I know you're there. I can smell the warmth of your flesh. Come out or I snap her neck and drink her dry." The giant said. Did he see me? Did I just screw up this whole thing? Shear panic flooded James. Her! He had a hostage What do I do? Give myself up for her? He couldn't bear to see another person die.

Before he could decide to move he heard Dean's voice. "Hurt her and you'll be lucky if all I do is kill you." The menace in the man's voice was cold and terrifying. There was no doubt in James' mind that this man could and would tear the giant to pieces if he had to.

"She'll still be dead." taunted the vampire. James risked another glance around the machine. Dean stood just outside of the shadows, knife in hand and eyes locked with the vampire. The giant had a girl in front of him. Child really. She was maybe 12 years old, but so weak and pale she looked younger. One hand was cupped around her throat and jaw. The other fisted in her hair. He shook her slightly to add emphasis to his words. "Care to live with her death on your hands?" he sneered and another weak whimper escaped the child. Keeping his eyes on Dean he bent down to the child's neck and licked just behind her ear. His fangs played lightly on the skin there.

Dean clenched his jaw and held up his hands in surrender. "All right. Fine. Just let the girl go."

"Drop it and kick it away." ordered the vamp still hunched over the child. Dean moved very slowly, keeping his eyes on the vampire. He set the blade on the ground but before he could kick it away the vampire spun away, yanking the girl by her hair and throat with him. James was left looking at his back again. "Stop right there!" he roared. Sam stopped dead from where he had tried to come up from behind the vamp taking advantage of Dean's distraction. "Drop it!" A mew of pain came from the child. James couldn't see what he had done to her to cause it. A scrape of metal on stone and Sam placed his blade on the ground too. "You damn fools think you can sneak up on me?" His eyes darted between both Sam and Dean trying to keep them both in sight. "I can smell the heat of your blood! Now me and this pretty thing," the girl made another piteous mew, "are gonna back up nice and easy. If you try and follow, all you'll find of her is entrails." He took a slow step backwards. One more and he would trip over James.

This would have to be it. It had to work. He may only get one shot at this. James stood up, took one step into the aisle, and plunged the syringe into the vampire's back. Roaring with pain and anger, the vampire whirled around to face James, the girl falling to the ground momentarily forgotten.

James scrambled away from the enraged creature. The vampire grabbed him by the front of his shirt and THREW him through the air and into Sam who had stooped to retrieve his blade. Luckily for James he hadn't gotten a hold of it yet or James might have been skewered on it. James scrambled to get off Sam, but Sam had taken a pretty bad blow and was decidedly dazed by it. Blinking owlishly he rolled over on his hands and knees but when he tried to stand he wobbled back down to the ground.

Dean picked up his knife and charged the vampire, making a target of himself again to give Sam a chance to get back on his feet. He brought the knife down in a chopping motion toward the vamp's neck. The vampire brought up his left arm to deflect the blow and batted Dean away with his right Dean struck the edge of a machine hard and went down in a crumple.

The vampire bore down on James, fury in every step. James grabbed up Sam's fallen blade and held it uncertainly before him. How long was it gonna take for the dead man's blood to have an effect? He took a few steps away from Sam and backed away from the vampire. This was it. He was done for. He never should have gotten involved. Never should have followed the two men. Movement behind the vampire caught his eye for a second. The child had made her way to Dean's side and was shaking him, trying to rouse him. Maybe he could stall for time. Maybe the girl still had a chance to get away. He waved the blade at the giant hoping to keep him at bay.

The monster lunged at James, one hand grabbing his neck, the other on the wrist holding the blade. He reared his head back giving James full view of his many sharp teeth before sinking them into James' body. James cried out in pain and struggled against him. He hadn't ripped out James' throat mostly because he had his hand on it slowly choking James. Or it would be choking him if James had still been human and needed to breathe. As the vampire tore at the tendons in his collarbone, James pulled the second syringe from his vest. Realizing something wasn't right about his victim the vamp pulled back to look at James. His eyes were glassy and unfocused. Was the dead man's blood finally having an effect on him?

"What... what are you?"

"Good question, but not one I have time for." James gasped out and plunged the second vial into the vamp's chest. The mountain of a monster folded to the ground releasing James who staggered against the wall to keep his balance.

As the vampire sunk to his knees his head suddenly fell off. That's an odd reaction to dead man's blood, James thought dazedly.

"Hey, man, you okay?" Someone said to him. Tall Guy, what was his name?, was looking at him worriedly. The ground was starting to tilt under James' feet and he wondered if he was going into shock. That would explain why he hadn't noticed Sam take off the vamp's head, Dean's blade in his hands. Dean himself was in the background with both hands braced on the machine he had landed against. The girl had both arms around his waist.

James looked at Sam who seemed to be going in and out of focus. "I think I'm gonna be sick." he told him.

Sam gave him a sympathetic smile. "Just breathe deep. I'll get that shoulder patched up. Doesn't look too bad, it's not even bleeding that hard." James nodded his thanks as Sam bound the cuts in his shoulder. The cuts didn't bleed that hard because he was low on blood and hadn't eaten since his lunch break, but Sam didn't need to know that. James could see Dean slipping his coat over the girl's slight frame.

"Is it over? Is it done?" James asked Sam, cringing a little at the catch in his voice. His courage was just about tapped out and all he wanted was to go home and hide for a week.

"Yeah I think so. Me and Dean will make a last sweep of the area, but I think that was the last of them."

James looked at his bandaged shoulder. "He bit me." It was such a bestial attack. Was he destined to be that one day? Just an animal? Could he hang on to humanity and avoid becoming a monster? Was it possible for him to stay a person?

Mistaking the reason for James' shocked statement, Sam tried to comfort him. "Most vampire lore is BS. You can't become one just from a bite. You have to bite back or have vamp blood pored into your mouth or something like that. You'll be okay."

James nodded weakly. So that's how it happened all that time ago. He bit the evil back and that had infected him. His mind was still reeling as he worried about what he might become. Maybe he should tell these men. Maybe they could help. He was a monster after all.

"Look," Sam continued. "You mind taking the girl to the hospital? And when the police come, do us a favor and don't mention us. Do yourself a favor too and don't mention vampires. They may lock you up in an asylum if you go talking about monsters. Just say you saw this girl getting beat up and chased off the thugs." Sam looked hard at James' shocked face. "You saved her life, you know that, right? Help her a little more and get her back to her family."

"Uh... uh okay..." Saved her life? I guess I kinda did. Scared out of his mind the whole time, but he did it. Managed to get between the evil and the victim. It might not make up for not being able to save Ava, but maybe it could make up for being a monster.

Work on Saturday was different. By then everyone had heard about the little girl who James had saved. Thomas was telling everyone how his 'best friend Jay' was a hero and if he had his way would have people believing he had been there too. Liz was happy to announce that it was the wonderful training of Big-Mart that gave him the strength of character required to save the child.

James was very uncomfortable with all the attention. Someone hiding under an assumed name and disguising what he was couldn't afford that. He hid in the back freezer room of the meat department draining off what blood he could from the carcasses that came in to be processed. Maybe it was time to move on. Get out of this town. It was a scary thought, but he faced down evil and saved the girl. Uprooting paled in comparison.

He shoved the jug of blood under the counter as he heard the freezer door open. Liz walked in. "Jay, I'm so thrilled to have caught you for a moment." She had never been 'thrilled' to see him before. "I'd like to find out what day would be good for you. I know you prefer night shifts, but we can gather more people during the afternoon hours. I was thinking maybe a half hour speech, then time for press pictures..."

James looked a bit stunned. "Good day for what?"

"Oh! They haven't told you yet? The Big-Mart family wants to recognize your heroic deeds. We would like you to give a small speech on how Big-Mart helped you become the type of person who can do such a wonderful things!" Liz was all smiles, as if this was some great honor to work minimum wage and put up with micro managing petty tyrants.

Making up his mind he suddenly grinned at Liz. "Liz, I quit." He took off his vest with the name tag that read 'Jay', laid it on the counter, picked up his 'tomato juice' and walked out the door. Sure he was scared to start over again, but he knew he could do it. He could be what he was, and still be human. And if he couldn't, there were people out there who could take care of that too. It was a morbid thought, but for some reason it comforted him. Let's see how many monsters I can take care of, before I need to be taken care of. James smiled.

End

A/N Well? What did you think? I had some help this time so thank you to my kind new beta Avalion773.

Until next time! FauxFoxx