"Another fairy?" Sam asked his voice suffused with disbelief.
"'M'fraid so." Sasha replied ruefully.
"Seriously, dude, I thought you fairy's were supposed to be all pixy dust and rainbow farts what's it with the randomly deciding to kill people?" Dean asked fixing his boyfriend with a inquisitive look.
"We are usually pretty cheerful as a whole," Sasha replied ignoring the pixy dust and rainbows comment, "but we live a lot longer than humans so that just gives us more time to snap and go homicidal."
"You two having any thoughts about going on a rampage?" Dean asked first looking at Sasha then Collyn in the rearview mirror.
"Dean!" Sam gasped.
"Keep me on a regular diet of Dean Sex and I'll let the populace live." Sasha replied a small grin on his face.
"I make no promises." Collyn replied holding a straight face for nearly thirty seconds before cracking up at the looks of shock surrounding him. Sam was slightly amazed at the smart ass remark from the banshee. He'd been with them for barely two days and he was already slipping into the habit of wisecracks and jabs.
"So who do we think's doing this?" Sam asked shifting a little in his seat.
"You heard the activity so far?" Sasha asked glancing over his shoulder at the younger Winchester.
"Yeah, Dean caught me up, animal mutilations and missing teenagers."
"Near the river." Dean interjected.
"Yeah, at the lock, is that important?"
"If it's who I'm thinking it is then yeah the river is most definitely important." Sam wracked his brain for a moment trying to come up with violent water faye but couldn't bring one to mind that fit perfectly.
"A lot of river fairies in the stories either drown people or save them? I don't remember anyone doing animal mutilations not even kelpies." Sam finally admitted.
"Well the animal mutilations could be part of the fairy's m.o. or they could be provocation. Either way I'm thinking Jenny Greenteeth."
"Hear that, Sammy? A chick who kills people, ain't human, and has green chompers: sounds right up your alley don't it?" Dean asked smirking into the rear view mirror. Dean never could go long without bringing up his previous track record with women: demons, werewolves, and women in white all had either went after Sam or vice versa.
"That's rich coming from the resident Incubus Happy Meal." Sam replied pleased when he saw his older brother's jaw clench slightly.
"Well I guess when you spend as much time around monsters as we do you're bound to start getting a few funny notions." Dean replied concedeing.
"Did you just call me a monster?" Sasha asked a tiny look of hurt edging into his features.
"Or me?" Collyn asked from the backseat.
"No! You two ain't human but you aren't monsters, I checked the 'other' category on you a long time ago." He replied glancing at his lover. "And I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt, small fry, prove me right." He added looking at Collyn over his shoulder.
"What about me?" Sam finally asked.
"Huh?"
"Where do I fit into your little scatter plot?" Sam asked again.
"You're a little brother that's always fell somewhere between human and monster." Dean replied dancing around the question slightly.
"Yeah, how many little brothers can do this?" Sam asked before lifting Sasha a few inches from his seat with his mind.
"Hey, hands…er…mind of the incubus!" Dean shouted trying to push his boyfriend back into the seat. Sam allowed Sasha to sink back into the seat having proved his point. "Granted that makes you a special breed of annoying," Dean replied, "still doesn't change that your Sammy and you'll always be Sammy…." Sam could hear the unspoken "even when you're yellow eyed and humping my leg," and he prayed no one else could.
"Now could we change the conversation? We have a bitch with green teeth to find and introduce to some iron." Dean said his voice holding an edge of command.
"Are we sure this is a Jenny Greenteeth?" Sam asked instantly following his brother's lead.
"As sure as we ever are on the first day of a hunt," Sasha replied "We'll dig around the county library for a few hours then I and you will go see if we can smell what it is."
"Can't forget banshee boy back there," Dean added, "he's got a fairy sniffing nose too." There was a time when this would have been said with a hint of irritation. For a while after Dean and Sam had teamed up with Sasha leaving Dean the only hunter in the trio without any power Dean had felt slightly inadequate…especially with both Sasha and Sam treating him like the damsel in distress. He'd proven to them that he didn't need demon powers to keep his ass out of the fire. There had been a time when Sasha was insistent about turning him into an incubus as well…that situation had been less simple to defuse.
"That's true," Sasha admitted, "it might help having an extra pair of hand in case she gets a hold of Dean."
"I can…"
"Take care of yourself, I know, but the Greenteeth are strong and they like drowning pretty boys. I'm just saying it'll help to have an extra set of arms if she decides to play Dunk the Dean."
"Damn it! You mean little bit's stronger than I am?"
"As a rule most fairies can lift five to ten times their bodyweight." Sasha replied apologetically.
"I swear if you fairy freaks give me an inferiority complex you're paying for the psychiatrist!" Dean grumbled.
"Dean don't pout." Sam said exasperatedly.
"I'm not pouting." Dean replied angrily.
"Yes you are, and when you pout it makes your bottom lip sticks out and we end up with me sitting in a rest stop for half an hour while you two go and defile the bathroom."
"Sam, it's a rest stop, the bathrooms are defiled long before we ever get there." Dean replied before switching to a smirk, "besides at least this time you'll have company in the car." Sam suddenly became aware of the banshee sitting beside him listening quietly to their grousing. He wasn't sure how munch of the conversation Collyn actually understood with his rather feeble knowledge of sex and poor grasp of modern slang. Sammy glanced over at the silent teenager and knew he understood enough judging from the small blush across his cheeks.
"So how did a Greenteeth end up in Kentucky anyway?" Sam asked rapidly changing the subject yet again.
"You'd be surprised how many fairies ended up here," Sasha replied. "Every single immigrant that came through Elis Island wasn't human and that's just the faye who act human. This area was settled mostly by the Irish and Scottish so of course fairies settled here too."
"I have a random question? If all the fairy's live in that little world of yours then why are they always running around here causing trouble?"
"Well for one most fairies enjoy human companionship but the ones who are causing trouble are usually solitary or no longer welcome home."
"Solitary?" Sam asked avoiding the obviously touch subject of banishment.
"There are trooping fairies and solitary fairies, the trooping fairies live in communities like the banshee and the incubi and the solitary fairies tend to live by themselves here like the lutin and Greenteeth, both can go the Fayelands but they choose to stay here."
"Why?"
"Well we all started out here. Fairies and humans evolved side by side but when the demon's started showing up we fled into another plane."
"Wait a minute, you mean there were cave fairies?" Dean asked smirking again.
"Most likely, we don't really know, no one remembers what life was like before the demons showed up."
"I guess that means you don't know where they came from?" Sam asked.
"Hell. It's another dimension just like the Fayelands. The demons are evil and want nothing more than to cause destruction, which is why they started coming to earth to wreak havoc, I'd say it was more fun than destroying each other at home." Sasha replied.
"My people say that the demon's destroyed their home and were twisted by it. So they came here to take the human world but for some reason they can't stay here so they decided to destroy the humans and their world out of spite." Collyn added.
"That makes sense," Sasha replied, "I wonder why they can't live here?"
"Maybe they can't stand the atmosphere?"
"They've lost the ability to reproduce on their own, a curse from the goddess, so they don't have the numbers to outright take over the world." Collyn replied.
"Wow, maybe we should listen to the banshee more they seem to be pretty sharp as far as demons are concerned." Sasha said looking back at the teenager.
"We just have our stories that are passed along." Collyn replied blushing a bit.
"So that's why the demons are always buying souls and why Azazel was playing his little game, it's the only way to make new demons." Sam said his brow furrowed in thought.
"We're almost there." Dean interrupted. They had been driving for half an hour through bucolic scenery.
"Where the Bluegrass Kisses the Mountains?" Sam read from a sign on the side of the road. "That's a romantic notion for a small southern town."
"Not every small town is filled with temperamental rednecks. I've been to some that are really charming." Sasha responded taking in the scenery of the tiny town.
"Charming? What are you a post card?" Dean asked smirking. "I'll shoot the first person who says 'you got a pretty mouth boy'."
"But you do have a pretty mouth." Sasha replied his thumb itching to stroke the bow shaped curve of his lover's lips.
"You say 'squeal like a pig' and I'll cap you right here in the car." Dean growled unable to stop blush from creeping across his face.
"I don't think we're driving into the set of Deliverance." Sam interrupted, "looks more like Wrong Turn country to me, lets deal with this and get out."
"It reminds me of home." Collyn said watching fields of corn pass by the car. Sam wrapped his arm around the younger man and gave him a small squeeze. They drove around town for almost half an hour looking for a descent hotel…or any hotel at all to stay in, finally they found a large motel near the outskirts that appeared cater to cross country truckers. Sasha, Sam, and Collyn sat in the car while Dean ran inside to procure a double and single room. They unloaded their things and carried it up the flight of stairs to their room. To Sam and Sasha's chagrin the motel offered nothing in the way of an internet connection which meant all their research would have to be carried out in the local library.
"I can't believe I can't even get a signal on the satellite modem here." Sam muttered grumpily as he stepped out of the Impala in front of the small library. Collyn followed him and Dean leaned out the window.
"We're in a valley surrounded by mountains, it's really no wonder, we'll have to stick to land lines on this trip." Sasha replied leaning across Dean's lap to be heard more easily.
"You too go in there and dig through the local history for anything odd and we'll do the usual bit." Dean said pulling his head back in the window. "You need to start teaching little bit the research bit anyway…now I have three clue hounds…I'll never have to read a book again." Dean said an unusually bright smile lighting his features.
"Aw…but I just bought a copy of The Gay Kama Sutra last week." Sasha said disappointedly. Dean turned to look at him with a startled look on his face while Sam winced and tried to rub the memory from his mind.
"Never have to do hunter research." Dean amended before pulling away from the library leaving the two youngest hunters standing on the empty sidewalk. Sam lead Collyn into the library and found out that all the towns past newspapers were still stored on microfilm…this was going to take longer than he'd hoped. He requested all the newspapers going back as far as they had and sat down. He gave Collyn a crash course in the microfilm machine and told him what to look for in the papers: unusual deaths or occurrences especially near the lock.
88
Dean and Sasha pulled up in front of the local police department, barely a two blocks from the library. In a small town like this one they couldn't try pulling local boys or even state police really, but the two missing teenagers gave them license to pretend to be federal marshals following some bizarre serial killer. Dean opened the center console of the Impala and riffled through their cache forged IDs pulling out his and Sasha's federal marshals. The IDs were really pains sometimes after each use of a federal marshal persona they had to get a new one to avoid detection the same went for the other IDs after every third use except for the fish and game…no one ever paid attention to them.
They tucked the marshal badges into their breast pockets and walked into the station. Dean was used to small town, he usually preferred them, but this police station was too rustic for his tastes. There was one portly officer on duty sitting with his feet on the desk and snoring noisily. Dean didn't know whether to be disgruntled at the laxity for the communities' sake or to be pleased because this made his job easier. His decision was made when Sasha kicked viciously at the wheels of the chair sending it tilting and throwing its rotund occupant sprawling into the floor. The officer started awake with a bellow and reached for his gun.
"Pull that gun on me and I'll have you busted down to crossing guard, lieutenant!" Sasha bellowed in a deep commanding voice laced with contempt. Dean had never heard his boyfriend use such a tone and it sent a trill of fear and excitement down his spine.
"Who do you think you are?" The officer shouted his brow furrowing in indignation.
"Alexander Declan, federal marshal, there are missing kid in this town and you're taking a nap!" The man's expression went from belligerent to sheepish as he stood to get a better look at the man shouting at him.
"Kids go missing around here all the time. They run off to the big cities and disappear." The man grunted fixing Sasha's fire engine hair with a judgmental look.
"Do kids normally go missing near the river where animal mutilations have been occurring?" Dean asked putting a hard edge on his voice.
"Kids probably did it before they skipped town."
"This is very alarming. We want to see the case file on the mutilations and the disappearances…and you better believe internal affairs will be hearing about your department, Lt. Riddle!" Sasha nearly spat the last words glaring at the officer. Granted acting like outraged feds kept the man on his toes but the anger wasn't completely shammed seeing the man sleeping while teenagers were missing stuck in Sasha's throat. The cop grunted something under his breath impetuously before pulling a slender file from a cabinet and pushing it into Sasha's hands. Sasha opened the file and flicked through it, his temper ratcheted up another notch at the shoddy detective work.
"Yes, I believe I'll definitely be making a report." Sasha grunted as he took down the names and addresses of the people listed in the file. There were no crime scene photos and the descriptions given were sadly inadequate.
"Come on, Remington, we'll have to start fresh on this one." Sasha said folding the scrap of paper and tucking it in his pocket while fixing the police officer with one more scathing look before turning on his heel and walking out the door. Dean followed behind trying not to let his utter surprise show on his face.
88
Sam and Collyn had been scanning ancient papers for nearly half an hour before they even came across news about the building of the locks. Sam's head was beginning to throb with frustration: the early papers were little more than gossip rags and social trackers. Little if any news was put into the newspaper. He was nearly ready to give up and try another avenue of investigation when Collyn tugged on his elbow and pointed to the micro-viewer's screen. The headline at the top of the screen read Six Killed in Accident at Lock Thirteen. Sam sighed, it was sad when the things they fought began becoming trite and predictable. Sam hit a combination of buttons to print the slide and went to retrieve it from the librarian who demanded an outrageous twenty-five cents for the printed page.
When he returned to the micro-viewers Sam left Collyn to continue pouring over the early papers whilst he went into another room to begin pouring over the last years papers still stored in plastic sheaths. All the animal mutilations and disappearances had indeed occurred in the area around lock 13. He photo copied the recent papers and started searching through earlier ones but found nothing. When he passed the reference desk the librarian tapped a short pile of papers lieing at her elbow.
"We haven't had someone print off this many pages before. I can't really charge you five dollars in good conscience so I'm knocking the price down to a dime a page for your research, but don't tell anyone." She whispered conspirationally as she handed him the stack of papers with the price jotted in the top corner. Sam handed her two dollars and gave her a wide grin. The older woman blushed slightly as he carried the stack of papers back to the room where Collyn still sat. He sat down in a chair beside the banshee and began pouring over the stack of papers they boy had printed. Collyn wasn't half bad at research, he'd covered fifty years while Sam was riffling through a years worth of papers.
"After the original accident I checked a couple more years all the way through but the only things that happened all happened at the same time so I just started checking papers from that time of the year." Collyn explained never taking his eyes from the machine. Considering this was his first hunter research and his first time using the technology the banshee was catching on fairly quickly. Sam grinned at the teenager who looked away from the screen long enough to smile back and blush before returning to his work.
Sam began pouring over the printed pages: there seemed to be a string of incidents bridging between the first accident while the loch was being built in 1842. Most of the occurrences were relatively small involving more animal mutilations up until 1930 when the old lock was replaced with the modern concrete contrivances: after that the severity escalated meaning more dead animals and every few years missing people. Collyn had found a pattern of sorts every seven years in the late winter or early spring there would be animals torn to shreds or children missing near the lock. The last incident had been in 2001 when a family found their Great Pyrenees lying on the river bank with its intestines strung around the body. Sam took a deep breath and swallowed hard he'd seen some awful things but his imagination coupled with the graphic account in the newspaper caused his stomach to flip.
"I can't find anything else." Collyn said removing the roll of film from the viewer and dropping it back into its canister.
"I think we have enough to go on…of course the only common link that we've found is the lock and seven years." Sam said feeling rather irritated that their only clues could be any manner of monster.
"All of the animals were white." Collyn added as he gather up the film cartridges.
"What?"
"Well there were holes, I'm assuming the animals killed then weren't found or weren't pets, but the accounts where the animals descriptions were listed they were all white. White cats, dogs, one goat, two cows, and one year there was an albino doe found dismembered." Sam could have kicked himself for missing that little detail, he'd read each article but hadn't bothered to keep track of what colour the animals were. White was most definitely a clue: white animals were often attributed with various mystical powers in folk lore.
"Good call," he said patting Collyn on the shoulder when what he really wanted to do was kiss his cheek. "Looks like we have more to go on than I thought."
"One thing though…."
"What's that?"
"An angry Greenteeth wouldn't care what colour animal they slaughtered and they wouldn't wait seven years to do it." Collyn replied simply as he headed towards the door.
88
Dean and Sasha had just spent two long hours interviewing people from the police file. On the list were three teenagers who'd come across the shredded and dismembered bodies of cats and dogs on the tracks along with the families of the two missing kids. The teenagers each gave slightly different stories and the last claimed that he had heard a rustling in the bushes right after they found the gory scene. All they could gather from the three accounts was that there was white fur and blood everywhere and that the kid claiming to hear rustling had ended up hurling in the bushes. All they had left was to talk to the families of the missing teenagers…this was always Dean's least favourite part. The families always looked at officers, or hunters posing as officers, with such hope in their eyes and Dean could count on his hands how many times they'd found missing people alive…and those times they were being stored for a midnight snack.
In these situations Sam and Sasha were always optimistic and tried to give the family some hope, but Dean was a realist and refused to give the families false hope. It took some time to find addresses on these unfamiliar roads but they finally found the first of the address listed on a small house in the middle of town. Dean pulled the Impala in behind a recent model family car and stepped out. He and Sasha stepped out of the car and Dean let Sasha take the lead. With his stunning good looks, open face, and congenial demeanor the incubus was nearly Sam's equal when it came to dealing with grieving families. Dean felt he was at least as handsome as Sammy but his apparent lack of emotions and usually taciturn personality made him better suited to the role of bad cop…which most likely wouldn't be needed. Sasha knocked on the door and a small plump woman with dark bags under her eyes opened it.
"Hello?" She said looking tiredly at the two young men on her door step.
"Mrs. Crowe, I'm Alexander Declan and this is Dane Remington we're federal marshals investigating the recent disappearances." Sasha said fixing her with a concerned look
"Oh of course, come in." She said opening the screen door and gesturing towards the house. "I'm sorry everything is such a mess I've been so worried about Benji that I haven't cleaned much." Dean couldn't see much of a mess besides the pile of spent tissues barely covering a empty liquor bottle in the trash. This woman was definitely worried about her son. The woman slumped into a recliner while Dean and Sasha sat side by side on the couch, she was trying to act alert but her exhaustion showed on her features.
"Mrs. Crowe…"
"Esme, please," she interrupted. "Everyone who's been here has called me Mrs. Crowe and I went to high school with most of them."
"Esme, how long had Benji been gone?"
"Almost a week and a half now." She replied sighing heavily.
"Where was he going last time you saw him?" Dean asked trying to mimic the soft soothing tone that Sasha and Sam used so often.
"He said he was going to the river with friend. I didn't pay it any mind Benji's such a strong swimmer and that old river is so sluggish. That night he didn't make it home by curfew but I thought he may have gotten distracted so I went to bed. I woke up the next morning and he still hadn't come home or called so I called the police." Sasha nodded sympathetically as a small tear squeezed out of the corner of the woman's eye.
"Do you mind if we see Benji's room, it may help with the investigation?"
"No one else has asked to see his room." The woman responded a look of consternation crossing her face. Sasha didn't respond but Dean saw the incubus' jaw muscles clench. The lieutenant had said teens ran away to the big cities all the time, why the hell didn't the police check his room to see if he'd packed to leave?
"It may help with our investigation." Dean said apologetically.
"Of course anything to help bring my boy home." The woman said hoisting herself from the recliner, she lead the hunters down a darkened hall to an open door. SShe stepped back and let the men inside the room. Dean noted that it was cleaner than any teenaged boy's room he'd ever seen including his own.
"We'll poke around here and see if we can find anything." Sasha said to the woman who simply nodded and trudged back down the hall like a zombie. As soon as she had walked away Sasha half closed the bedroom door so he could look at the back. A poster of a shirtless teen star was taped to the back of the door and surrounded by rainbow flag stickers.
"How'd you know that would be there?" Dean asked trying not to be taken aback. He had no right to judge a teenage boy who was most likely dead when he was sleeping with a male sex demon…er sex demon/fairy half-breed.
"I'm sure his mother knew it was there but teenagers usually put their girly poster…or boy posters on the back of the door, it gives them some small amount of privacy. Sasha explained dazzling Dean with his grasp of adolescent psychology.
"Why'd you check?"
"I thought the boy might be gay, room was too clean for a straight boy." Sasha said shrugging his shoulders.
"You never know, his mom might clean it." Dean interjected playing devil's advocate.
"Nope, teenage boys don't let their mom's near their rooms."
"As a rule?" Dean asked, he knew that he didn't have a normal upbringing but neither had Sasha.
"As a rule." Sasha said lifting the mattress on the bed high enough to reveal a couple of skin mags with name like Boy Toy and Meat Men. "Exactly where I hid mine from Aunt Shi."
"Would Shiara even care that you had girly magazines?" Dean asked.
"No, and I didn't really have that many girly mags, but you don't want your aunt borrowing your porn…it's creepy." Dean had always known that Sasha was indiscriminate about what gender he fed from but he'd never realized that there was a possibility that the incubus preferred men to women. Yeah of course he'd chosen Dean to mark which was basically like a diamond ring, but he figured that was because he was smokin' hot.
"Do you even like girls?"
"Of course I do."
"Do you like them more than boys?" Dean asked perturbed by the evasion.
"Dean, I like you so this is purely academic and since we're on a case I don't think we should be discussing academics." Sasha said side stepping the question again.
"Please, I know it's not important, but you always say we should know all about each other." Dean replied allowing a hint of pleading to edge his tone.
"Fine, yeah I like boys more than girls for various reason that we can discuss later, but right now we need to find this kid or kill what killed him."
"Why didn't you tell me instead of playing bi the whole time?"
"Why does it matter? Alright I thought you might freak out if you realized I was gay and only fed from women when I needed food badly. You have issues with gay people, and yeah I know you're sleeping with me, but that doesn't change that before me you were Mr. Ultra-hetero.
"I wouldn't care if you were a transvestite horse fucker," Dean growled into the incubus' ear. "You are mine and I love you." He finished fisting his hand into the back of the incubus' hair and drawing him down for a deep kiss. Halfway through the kiss the bedroom swung open revealing Esme. The two sprang apart looking abashedly at the woman.
"Not the first time I've caught two boys kissing in this room." The woman murmured a small smile on her face. "It's alright I think it's nice that you two found love in your work. I only wish Benji could meet you, he needs good male role models. I had to throw his father out of the house when he came out." The woman said a glint of anger sparkling in her eye.
"He didn't take it well?"
"No, he called Benji some awful things and threatened to kill the McAllister boy. I threw him out but he already called Dalton's parents. They didn't take it well either, the poor boy."
"Dalton McAllister was the other boy who disappeared," Dean stated.
"Yes, I figured that's who Benji was going to meet. Dalton had to sneak to see Benji, he could have come live with me if his parents would have agreed but they refused, called me a bad mother for not punishing my son for being who he was."
"Esme have you considered the possibility that Benji and Dalton ran away together?" Sasha asked.
"He wouldn't have done that we were waiting for the pictures to come back from developing. Devon McAllister had been hitting Dalton; I sent a camera with Benji so he could take pictures of the bruises. When the pictures came back I was going to take them to the social services." She replied twisting the hem of her shirt. Dean shook his head in frustration he wouldn't use his son as a punching bag just because he was gay and he doubted John Winchester would have either. If there was any situation that needed a happy ending it was this one and he was quickly becoming convinced that there wasn't one in sight.
"Thank you for your time, Esme, we're gonna try out best to find your son and his boyfriend." Dean said filling his voice with sincerity and determination. Sasha looked at his lover and was surprised by hard look in his eye.
"I just pray it was Devon, if I find out that man hurt our sons for loving each other I'll kill him myself." The woman said a dangerous look coming across her face.
"You won't have to." Dean growled beneath his breath as he walked from the room.
…
"What was that?" Sasha asked once they got back in the car.
"What was what?" Dean asked innocently.
"Dean, I've never seen you that angry. Not even when something was trying to eat Sam."
"I'm just tired of people treat their kids and other people like monsters for being gay." Dean said pushing back memories of the bar fight that had nearly ended with his being sodomized with a pool cue. Sasha seemed to sense what was on the other hunters mind because he reached out a hand to caress the smaller man's face.
"If we can find those boys we will, if we can't we'll kill whatever killed them." Sasha said trying to calm his boyfriend.
"Even if it was the father." Dean stated determinedly. Sasha flinched a little but nodded.
"Any man who would kill his son for being gay is just as much a monster as the rest we've fought."
