Chapter three – "Fresh Blood"
"Hear the cry of War
Louder than before
With his sword in hand
to control the land
Crushing metal strikes
on this frightening night
Fall onto your knees
For the Phantom Lord!"
Jennifer stared out the window.
"Are you okay girl?" John pinched her arm. "You haven't moved in three hours."
"I am tired."
"Why don't you get some sleep then?" he rubbed the back of her head, "Lie down and close your eyes for a bit. I'll wake you up when we get there."
"How can I sleep with this music on this loud?" Jennifer rubbed her forehead.
John smiled. "That hurts my feelings."
"Why would it?"
John shrugged: "I don't know. It's just something you say."
He pulled the cassette tape out of the radio and jammed in another one.
"Better?"
"Close your eyes and I'll kiss you,
Tomorrow I'll miss you,
Remember I'll always be true!
And then while I'm away,
I'll write home every day,
And I'll send all my loving to you."
Jennifer smiled: "Better,"
Two hours later, the car stopped at a small cabin.
"Jenny, we're there." John softly nudged the girl.
Jennifer shot up and unbuckled her seat belt.
"Whoa- You want to come with us?" John asked surprise.
Jennifer tilted her head. "You wanted to leave me in the car?"
John sighed and nodded. "Okay, I understand. But it can be dangerous."
"You're with me." Jennifer said, reassured.
John smiled and got out of the car, gesturing for her to follow him.
Jennifer smiled and climbed out of the big pick-up.
He walked to the trunk and opened a bag in the back. The thing was stuffed with knives.
He searched for a while and found a long, thin one. It was too thin to be called a real dagger, but too thick to be a stiletto. He gave it to her and Jennifer unsheathed the blade.
"A real hunter's knife." John smiled. "Blessed, pure iron. The pommel is made of silver."
Jennifer held it up in the light, it was engraved. There was a small pentagram and initials.
M.C.
"Mary Campbell." She whispered. "This was Mary's knife."
"She was a hunter too. Before we got married." John smiled.
Jennifer looked him in the eyes. "I know. I know everything about Mary."
She sheathed the knife and secured it between her belt with a small rope. They walked to Sam and Dean, who were pulling a whole arsenal out of their trunk.
"Are we taking her with us on gigs too now?" Dean complained. Sam punched him.
John shrugged. "I can't just leave her in the car like that. Plus, she might be useful."
Dean snorted.
They entered the small cabin, shotguns cocked and Jennifer armed with the knife.
Dean used his flashlight to search the room. "Looks like the maid didn't come in today." He saw a journal on the desk and opened it.
Sam kneeled at the back door. "There's some salt here."
"You mean like 'protection against Demons salt' or 'oops I spilled the popcorn salt'?" Dean asked, still paging through the journal.
John chuckled. Jennifer just stood there in the corner her knife raised, looking around suspiciously.
"It's clearly a ring." Sam said.
John left the room to search the rest of the house, Jennifer followed him.
"This thing looks a lot like dads Journal." Dean said, paging through the thing, "Except it dates back to the sixties."
"SON OF A BITCH!" John shouted in the other room.
"Dad?" Dean yelled. He tucked the Journal under his arm before he scurried of to the other room, Sam on his heels.
"What's wrong?" Sam asked.
John was standing in a small study, with an empty, wooden case in his hands. "Daniel Elkins, is an old hunter. I called him a few days ago asking him about the Colt, thinking he had it, but he said he didn't have it. He told me it wasn't real."
"But it isn't here dad," Dean said.
"But this is the case. See?" John handed him the wooden case. It had a small pentagram drawn in the corner and the initials 'S.C.'.
"Samuel Colt." Dean said.
John nodded.
"Hey, take a look at this," Sam kneeled on the floor, pointing his flashlight on a puddle of blood.
"Did you find anything?" John asked.
"Yeah- scratches on the floor." He turned around, "Give me a piece of paper."
Dean opened Elkins' Journal and ripped out the last, empty page. "Here,"
Sam pulled a pencil out of his pocket en started scratching the marks into the paper. After he was finished, he peeled it off the ground (it was sticky because of all the blood) and handed it to Dean.
"Three letters, six digits. That's the location and combination of a post office box, right?" he mumbled to himself.
"Yeah." John said. "Show me. Maybe he felt something was coming and left the Colt there."
John grabbed the case and waved the boys to come along.
"Where are we going?" Sam asked.
"To find the post office box." John didn't even turn around. Jennifer and Dean followed him without question. Sam opened his mouth, closed it again, shrugged and followed too.
The box was found quickly. The office was closed.
Dean quickly picked the lock and John worked on the office box while Sam dismantled the security system.
"It's down-" he whispered.
"I don't understand why we couldn't just wait until tomorrow." Jennifer asked confused.
John and Dean looked up from the lock simultaneously and then at each other.
"I don't know," John shrugged.
"It's just…" Dean smiled.
Sam laughed: "That's not the way we do things,"
Jennifer shrugged.
The box clicked open.
"It's just a letter," Dean said.
"Don't sound too disappointed." John looked at the name written on it. Well it wasn't a name, it were initials.
"J.W." Sam said, "Could it be…?"
"Of course." John said. "He taught me everything I know about hunting."
"Should we open it?" Jennifer asked, she tilted her head, reaching out for the letter.
John pulled it back. "Hold your horses girl, we need to get out of here first."
"I can't hold the system back forever," Sam smiled, typed in another code and grabbed his bag. "Ready?"
Dean shut the box and John stuffed the letter in his pocket.
Back in Johns motel room, John quickly unfolded the letter.
If you're reading this, I am already dead.
I do have the Colt and I am sorry I lied to you about it.
The Colt will be in a locker behind my book shelve. The combination is 13-66-14.
If it isn't, it is gone.
I have six bullets left.
-Daniel.
"Son of a bitch." John swore again.
"Where is it now?" Sam asked.
"Our strongest lead are the Vampires, but we'll never find their nest." John rubbed his eyes.
"Whoa," Dean said, "Hold on, Vampires? You never mentioned them."
"I thought that they were extinct. I thought others and Elkins had wiped them out. I was wrong." John admitted. "Most of the Vampire lore is crap. A cross won't repel them, sunlight doesn't kill them. Neither will a stake to the heart. But the bloodlust, that part is true. They need fresh, human blood to survive. They were once people, so you won't know it's a Vampire until it is too late."
"How do we kill them?" Jennifer asked from her chair.
"We chop their heads off."
Dean rubbed his face: "How will we find the nest?"
As a reply, John pulled a radio out of his bag and started tuning it to the police broadcast station.
"11-80 on Elm Street, vehicles requested."
"Copy that."
"We're going to listen to the police broadcast?" Dean asked.
"Isn't that illegal?" Sam raised an eyebrow.
John shrugged. "The Vampires will have to feed one moment, so there will be a body count."
"Unit 22, let me confirm. Mile marker 41, abandoned car. You need a workup?"
"Copy that. Possible 207, better get forensics out here."
"That's it." John got up and grabbed his coat.
Jennifer jumped up and grabbed the knife John had given her.
"You're not coming."
Jennifer looked John in the eyes.
"Hell I am."
This was Jennifer. The free will the Demon gave her was speaking, and not the Demon who whispered information in her ear.
John frowned, a little taken aback by her sudden spirit, but didn't have time for a discussion. "You follow my lead, stay as close to me as you can and follow all my orders. Copy that?"
"Copy that." She said.
John walked to Sam and Dean and slapped their legs as he calls their names. "Sam- Dean- let's go."
Dean groaned.
"What happened?" Sam was awake immediately.
"I picked up a police call" John threw the boy's jackets on their beds. "A couple called 9-1-1, they found a body in the streets. When the police arrived everyone was missing. This is the Vampires."
"How do you know?" Sam asked.
"Just follow me, okay?" John snapped.
Dean rubbed his face, still half asleep. "Vampires. It gets funnier every time I hear it."
They rushed to the crime scene. John and Jennifer in the pick-up truck and Sam and Dean in the Impala.
"You stay in the car." John said.
"Why?" Jennifer unbuckled her seat belt to get out.
"Because a police officer doesn't take a small girl with him. Trust me, for now, just stay in the car." John opened the glove compartment and picked one of the many I.D.'s and one of the many badges.
John got out of the car and talked to Sam and Dean, who were also holding badges. He talked to them, Sam seemed to protest and John walked away.
He returned five minutes later, talked to Sam and Dean again and re-entered the car.
"These are indeed Vampires." He shut the door and started the engine. "They're heading West."
"How can you know?"
John sighed annoyed and drove up the road, "Because…"
"I'm sorry for asking." Jennifer picked up the sigh and looked out the window.
"Hey, that doesn't matter," John put an arm around her to comfort her, "It's okay. I know these are Vampires because I found a fang. I know they're headed West because I talked to some witnesses and found some tracks."
Jennifer nodded quietly.
After an hour of driving, John picked up his phone.
"Hey Dean- Yeah keep close I think I we're near."
He hadn't hung up the phone for five seconds when the Impala suddenly took over Johns pick-up and made a full stop at the side of the road.
"Holy-" John braked just in time not to hit Dean's car.
Sam got out of the car and slammed the door.
"Hey- easy!" Dean got out too.
Jennifer unbuckled her seat belt and followed John.
"What the Hell was that?" he asked his youngest.
"We need to talk," Sam said, frowning angrily.
"About what," John and Sam stood chest to chest and the tempers ran high.
"About everything." Sam snapped, "Where are we going dad? What's the big deal about this gun?"
"Sam! We can Q-and-A after we killed the Vampires!" Dean interrupted his brother, who was flashing red with anger.
"Dean is right, we don't have time for this." John said.
"Last time we saw you, you said it was too dangerous to be together. Now suddenly all out of the blue you need our help! now obviously something big is going on AND WE WANT TO KNOW WHAT."
"Get back in the car." John ordered.
"No." Sam smiled, as if he was proud of himself. Denying a direct order.
"I said, 'get back in the car'." John said soft. Dangerous.
"And I said 'no'."
"Yea- okay you made you point tough guy. We're all tired. Let's talk about this later." He grabbed Sam's coat and dragged him back to the car.
"This is exactly why I left in the first place." Sam mumbled.
"What?" John asked. He raised his voice.
"You heard me," Sam snapped.
"Yeah- you left. Your brother and I, we needed you, Sam. You walked AWAY." John hit Sam on the chest. Jennifer ran forward and grabbed John's arm.
"Please." She begged. She couldn't watch this family get torn apart. It hurt her.
"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO SAID NEVER COME BACK. YOU CLOSED THAT DOOR. NOT ME" Sam roared.
Jennifer kept pulling John's sleeve. "Stop fighting. Please."
John swatted Jennifer away like he would do with a fly. He grabbed Sam's coat and Dean pulled them apart.
"Hey- HEY!" Dean stood in between his father and brother, who were, ironically enough, both taller than him.
John opened his mouth but Dean cut him off: "That means you too."
Both men marched back to their cars. Dean kneeled down at Jennifer, who was flung on the ground when John pushed her.
"Are you okay?"
Jennifer stared at the ground, avoiding eye contact, but she nodded. Dean helped her back to her feet and they separated, Jennifer to John's car, Dean to the Impala.
"I'm sorry," John apologized.
"He doesn't want to fight with you, you know that right?" Jennifer grabbed Johns hand and forced him to make eye contact with her. "He loves you."
John pulled loose, feeling confronted and awkward for the first time since he met the girl. He drove the car onto the road.
"I love him too."