A/N: Sorry again about the delays, but in case you're wondering, my thesis is looking good so far (80 pages, hell yeah!). Anyway, here's the next chapter, the long awaited chapter in which you finally get to the bottom of what's wrong with Ty. Lyrics are from that wonderful song by the Rolling Stones "Paint it Black." Please review. This chapter's really important and I really want it just right.

Chapter Seven: Black

I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colors anymore I want them to turn black
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes
I see a line of cars and they're all painted black
With flowers and my love both never to come back
I see people turn their heads and quickly look away
Like a new born baby it just happens every day
I look inside myself and see my heart is black
I see my red door and it has been painted black
Maybe then Ill fade away and not have to face the facts
Its not easy facin' up when your whole world is black

When Dean woke up a few hours later, he swiftly became aware that he was alone in the hotel bed. Dean sat up, blinking the sleep from his eyes and surveyed the room. Light was streaming in through the windows and Ty was nowhere in sight. Dean cocked his head to one side, listening for the sounds of the shower maybe, but the room was completely silent. Dean's brow furrowed slightly as he wondered where she might have gone. Getting out of bed and pulling his clothes back on, Dean quickly double-checked to make sure she wasn't somewhere out of sight before deciding to go see if maybe she had gone to see Sam.

Dean shut the door behind him and pocketed his key before moving down the hall to the room he'd left for Sam and Alex. Reaching the door, he tried the handle and found it open. Frowning slightly at his brother's carelessness, Dean pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Inside the room, Dean found Sam looking through some papers while Alex reclined on the couch, watching the television. Both turned their faces towards him when he entered, near identical questioning expressions on their faces.

"Seen Ty?" Dean asked without any preamble.

Sam shook his head, "She's not with you?"

Alex snorted, causing Dean's head to whip around to glare at him.

"What?" he snapped.

"Nothing." Alex said with raised eyebrows, turning back to the TV, "Just can't believe you managed to lose her is all."

"Hey, shut it, smart ass." Dean growled, "And stay the hell away from Ty, too."

"Yeah, I think I got that memo." Alex replied, rolling his eyes, "But, for the record, she came onto me."

Dean didn't reply, but continued to try to burn a hole in the back of Alex's skull with the force of his glare. Sam cleared his throat loudly, hoping to break the tension. In the few hours that he'd been alone with Alex, the younger hunter had grudgingly offered up some more information about himself and Sam was inclined to give him a little slack, especially considering the Ty situation. He didn't seem like a bad guy and it wasn't his fault that he'd gotten caught up in this mess with the female hunter.

"You know, Alex has done some pretty good research here. Maybe we should just call Ty, see where she is, and get started on this. If Alex's pattern is right, this thing is going to try something again soon." Sam warned.

"Fine. I'll call her." Dean agreed, digging his phone out of his pocket and heading back out of the room.

Sam sent an apologetic look in Alex's direction before getting up to follow his brother. Alex just shrugged, seemingly unconcerned. Sam had to give the younger hunter one thing, he was an even tougher nut to crack than Dean.

The longer the phone rang, the more aggravated Dean became. Where the hell was she? Why would she just disappear like that? Why the hell wasn't she answering her phone?

On the sixth ring, Ty finally picked up, "Hello?"

"Where the hell are you?" Dean demanded.

"Well, good morning, sweetheart." Ty snorted sarcastically, "I'm just outside. Chill out."

"Fine. Stay put. I'll be down in a second." Dean said quickly, his tone clipped, before he hung up abruptly without waiting for her response.

"Is she okay?" Sam asked from behind him.

"Fine." Dean snapped for the third time in the past few minutes as he hurried down the hallway to the stairwell.

Sam hurried after him, concerned about Dean's sudden mood, but knowing Dean would never explain it. Besides, Sam was fairly convinced it has something to do with Ty and, knowing the pair like he did, he was sure that the problem would probably reveal itself soon in the form of some kind of heated argument.

Swiftly traversing the stairs and crossing the hotel lobby, Dean and Sam exited the front doors to find Ty in the parking lot, fussing over a black motorcycle. She looked up when she saw them, a wide smile parting her lips.

"Hey, guys! Isn't she beautiful?"

"What the hell?" Dean demanded, stopping in his tracks. He gestured quickly at the bike, "Where the heck did this come from?"

Ty eyes slide sideways, "I...uh...borrowed it."

Sam took a quick step back from his brother, knowing what kind of reaction that revelation was going to cause.

"You did what?!" Dean yelled, hands tightening into fists at his side.

"Keep it down, will you?" Ty requested, glancing around furtively and patting the air in front of her with her hands.

"Why? Because you decided to steal a freaking motorcycle?" Dean fumed, "Do you have any idea what being on the lam means? Low freaking profile mean anything to you?"

"Oh, right. Like the Impala's inconspicuous." Ty scoffed.

Dean's eyes flashed with anger and he took a heavy step forward, leveling a finger at Ty's face, "You leave her out of this."

"Look, I just wanted to have a little fun. Have a little joy ride and then I'll return it. It'll be fine." Ty explained. With that she turned back to the bike, kneeling to glance at the motor and grumbling under her breath, "Who shoved a stick up your ass?"

The muscle in Dean's jaw jumped. He leaped forward, grabbing Ty's arm and yanking her up and around to face him. He opened his mouth to yell something else that might hopefully get it into her thick skull that she simply could not pull this shit in the middle of a hunt. But before he could form any words, Alex appeared through the front doors.

"Uh...the police just got a call if anyone's interested." he announced.

Dean released Ty with a low growl and stalked off towards the Impala. Alex shrugged again before following him to get his truck.

"Coming, Ty?" Sam asked.

Ty shook her head and patted the bike, "I'll follow you."

Sam nodded and headed over to the Impala. He watched Ty as he opened the door and climbed in. She straddled the bike and revved the engine. Sam wondered how'd she gotten the keys and when exactly she'd become a thief as Dean pulled out and began to follow Alex. It was just another thing to add to the list of unusual behaviors Ty had exhibited lately. Frowning, Sam wondered how much longer he could wait or whether he should just tell Dean about his apprehension. Shaking his head to himself, he resolved to hold out just a little longer.

Sam lost track of Ty in the rearview as they progressed through town. He looked around for her, but there was no sign of her behind them and he could see the police lights up ahead. Sam thought maybe she'd gotten caught at a light or something, so he reached for his phone. Strangely, Ty didn't answer.

"Now where is she?" Dean demanded.

"She's not answering her phone." Sam shook his head.

The boys both caught sight of Alex standing outside of his truck and gesturing at them, spreading his hands questioningly.

"Whatever. We don't have time to wait for her. Let's go." Dean said, grabbing a fake ID out of the glove box and heading towards the crime scene.

Sam followed quickly as his brother stalked towards the crime scene, frankly a little concerned about how Dean's girl troubles might affect his hunting.

"What's the plan, guys?" Alex asked, falling in step with them as they walked by.

"Plan is you wait here." Dean replied immediately.

Alex began to protest, but Dean cut him off quickly, hardly hesitating in his movement, "I call the shots, remember?"

Alex paused, frowned, crossed his arms over his chest and glared after Dean, "I hope it's a trap."

Dean ignored him. As he and Sam moved into the chaotic scene of squad cars, flashing lights and police tape, he picked out the most likely candidate for officer-in-charge and headed for him.

"Hey, boys!" he greeted with a fake smile, "U.S. marshal Walker. This is my partner Norris. Heard you boys could use some help on this one."

The officer Dean had pegged as the guy in charge frowned as Dean and Sam flashed their badges, "U.S. marshals?"

Dean held up his hands in an unobtrusive gesture, "Hey, don't worry about any of that jurisdiction crap. It's your show, we're just here to help."

The officer continued to frown, but shrugged and held out his hand to shake Dean and Sam's, "Sergeant Thompson. You boys want to help, you may as well come take a look at this."

Dean and Sam exchanged a look, both picking up on the note of disbelief in the sergeant's tone before following after him as he led them inside the cordoned-off residence.

"No real sign of forced entry." the sergeant explained as he opened the door, "But inside you can see the place is trashed. Clear signs of a struggle. In fact, we've even got a gun with the victim. He fired it twice at whoever or whatever came at him."

"Whatever?" Sam questioned.

The sergeant just shrugged and gestured for the boys to proceed him into the den. Dean and Sam exchanged another look before they stepped past the sergeant into the room. The walls and furniture all around the room were splattered with blood. The couch was overturned and across it was the victim's body. From the position of the body, it looked like he had backed into it, falling back on it. The gun the sergeant had mentioned was on the ground, just below the victim's hand. However, the most obvious thing about the whole scene was that the victim's chest had been ripped open, his heart torn out.

Sam coughed and covered his mouth, glancing away for a second. Dean's eyes widened for a second as he took in the gore. This was a little more gruesome than he'd anticipated. Maybe that Alex kid was right for once, maybe this thing had gotten bored.

"Any idea who did this?" Sam asked.

The sergeant shook his head, "There's two bullet holes in this wall, but whatever he was shooting at, he must've missed. CSI guys haven't found any sign of the...uh...heart yet either."

"Any of the neighbors see anything?" Dean asked.

"I got guys asking around now."

"Mind if we take a quick look around?"

"Be my guest." the sergeant shrugged, "CSI's done, we're just waiting for the morgue guys to come pick up the victim."

With that the sergeant began to retreat towards the door.

"Sergeant," Sam called before he left, "the victim, what's his name?"

"Benjamin Durton."

Sam nodded and the sergeant left, leaving the two hunters to pick through the scene on their own. Dean made his way across the room to the opposite wall where a window was open. He bent over the windowsill, taking a closer look at the residue mixed in with the blood splatters, marring the paint.

"Sulfur?" Sam asked.

Inspecting the window, Dean nodded, "Sulfur. It's our guy."

Frowning, Sam crossed the room, careful to step over the bloody spots, and moved over to a computer sitting on a desk against the opposite wall. The screen was black, but when Sam touched the mouse with a sleeve-covered hand, the screen came on, displaying an open Word document. Quickly glancing through the page displayed, Sam decided it looked like some kind of fictional work. However, the last sentence caught his attention.

He read out loud so Dean would hear, "And the monster said to the hunters, 'Come and get me.'"

"What?" Dean asked, pausing in his survey of the crime scene to shoot Sam a confused look.

"That's the last line on this page." Sam explained.

"Think it wrote that?" Dean asked.

Sam paused, then decided to operate on a hunch and grabbed the keyboard with both sleeved hands and turned it over, shaking it. A yellowish dust fell out and piled on the table. Glancing from the traces of sulfur over to his brother, Sam nodded, "Yeah. And I think it's talking to us."

Dean scoffed, "Nah. Probably just made the rookie."

"Well, either way, I'd say the element of surprise is out the window." Sam said, carefully placing the keyboard back down and straightening.

"Yeah, well, maybe we don't need it." Dean replied, emerging from the other side of the overturned couch with a matchbook.

Dean held the matchbook out to Sam, who took it and turned it over. Sam's eyes widened and he looked quickly up at Dean in surprise, "This is our hotel."

Dean nodded, his mouth a grim line, "Right under our noses."

Sam pocketed the matchbook and, by silent agreement, both boys carefully maneuvered their way back towards the door. Two county morgue workers entered just as Sam and Dean were leaving, the boys standing back to make room for them to enter.

"Well, boys?" the sergeant asked as Sam and Dean moved away from the house.

Dean opened his mouth to reply, but Sam cut him off before he could do so, knowing by the look on his face that Dean was about to make some smart ass remark most likely insulting the intelligence of the local police officers, "Crazy stuff. You think it's linked to the other deaths recently?"

The sergeant glanced around at the other officers nearby and lowered his voice before he answered, "There's nothing that outright says so, but it's just too weird to be unrelated, don't you think?"

"Nah, really?" Dean mumbled under his breath, turning his back on Sam and the sergeant.

Sam glared at his back before quickly speaking to cover up his brother's comment, "Do you think we could take a look at the case files on the other deaths?"

"You'll have to come down to the station." the sergeant said, seeming relieved that Sam seemed to agree with him about the string of deaths, "Come find me and I'll pull them for you. I'll be there the rest of the day working on this one."

"Thanks." Sam said, "We'll stop by later."

"Yeah, thanks." Dean echoed with barely disguised sarcasm.

Sam elbowed him once they were a safe distance past the patrol cars. Dean, of course, glared at him for doing so and punched him in the shoulder.

"Ow!" Sam exclaimed, clamping a hand over the abused area, "Jerk!"

Dean refrained from reminding Sam that he was a bitch since Alex was giving them a skeptical look.

"Find anything?" Alex asked, still brooding.

"Ask nicely or you'll never know." Dean replied with the same snarky tone.

Alex's look darkened and Sam prepared to jump in between them, silently wishing that his brother had the sense not to pick a fight a few hundred feet from a whole cadre of police.

"What the hell happened in there, please?" Alex growled.

Dean continued to glare at him for a while minute in which Sam watched them both carefully before he shifted his weight to his heels, flashed Alex a fake grin and said, "Now that wasn't so hard, was it?"

"There was a guy with his heart ripped out and a matchbook from our hotel." Sam said quickly before the two could antagonize each other any more.

"Heart ripped out?" Alex said, making a face, "That's new."

"There was also something on the guy's computer that pretty much said, 'come and get me.'" Sam added.

"See anything like that before that you forgot to mention, rookie?" Dean demanded.

Struck, Alex actually ignored Dean's tone and just shook his head, "No. Not really. I mean, I got the distinct impression that it knew someone was on to it. It was like it didn't even care, wasn't really even trying to cover its tracks. But nothing that obvious." Alex blinked and looked up at the Winchesters, "The cops see it?"

"It was tagged onto some story the guy had on the computer, so I doubt they picked up on it." Dean shrugged, turning to go back to the Impala, "And where the hell is Ty?"

Sam and Alex both looked after Dean as he stomped back to the Impala.

"Just leave it." Sam told Alex with a shake of his head.

"He always like that?" Alex asked.

"No." Sam denied, "Not always. But then, she's not usually like this either."

Alex raised his eyebrow in silent question, but Sam shook his head again. Alex shrugged and heaved a sigh, resigned to be kept in the dark still. He moved around the truck to climb back into the driver's seat.

"Sam!" Dean yelled, leaning out the window of the Impala, "Shag ass already!"

"Bite me." Sam grumbled under his breath.

Mentally, he also told himself that he really needed to get this all worked out. It was hard enough hunting a demon on a killing spree without having to deal with a moody brother and his screwed up girlfriend.

Back at the hotel, Dean first attempted to wait for Ty to return his numerous calls in Sam and Alex's room. He blew off steam by pestering Sam and bothering Alex, trying to rouse him into a fight. When neither would take the bait, he stalked back to his own room, throwing pillows and couch cushions around the room angrily while he listened to his phone continuing to ring, unanswered. Finally, unable to stand the confines of his room anymore, Dean headed down the stairs. He figured that maybe going outside and making sure that his baby's fluid levels were all good would distract him for a little while. Unfortunately, no sooner had he opened the hood than the sounds of a motorcycle entering the parking lot drew his attention. Jerking upright to see if it was Ty, Dean banged his head against the hood with a resounding thud.

"Son of a bitch!" he swore, touching the back of his head gingerly with his hand. Dean rubbed his head as he glanced across the parking lot to see a blonde on a black motorcycle pulling up to him, "Great. Now I've got a pain in the head and a pain in the ass."

"Hey, baby." Ty greeted him with a wide grin as she parked the bike and reclined on the seat.

"Stow it. Where the hell have you been?"

"Oh, well, I was following you guys when I saw this place with this really cool jacket in the window and when I went in they had these great boots..." Ty began.

Dean couldn't believe his ears, "You blew off a hunt to buy shoes?"

"No, I blew off a hunt to buy really cute boots." Ty corrected, lifting her leg and looking down at the black, leather boots she'd purchased with approval.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Acting weird, stealing motorcycles, blowing off hunts."

"You are so off base." Ty snapped, dismounting the motorcycle and heading away from him, towards the hotel.

"Then, by all means, set me straight." Dean challenged, following her.

"Sorry, Dean." Ty answered flippantly, walking backwards to face him, "No time. I was gonna go meet Alex and maybe go for a spin on my bike."

Dean snagged Ty around the waist to halt her progress and propelled her into the wall of the hotel building, "Stop doing that! Stop acting like you don't care and using other guys to piss me off."

"Why, Dean? Does it make you jealous?" Ty asked, raising an eyebrow.

Dean paused, closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he responded, knowing that if he didn't, he'd lose it.

"Just tell me why you're doing this? Are you pissed at me about something? What?"

Ty pretended to think about it, "Pissed at you? Hmmm, not that I know of. Although you are being kind of an ass."

"Cut the crap! Seriously, just tell me what's up." Dean would have almost been pleading if it weren't for the angry growl still in his voice.

"Nothing, Dean. I just...I don't know. I figured there were three of you and even if the demon was still there, three of you can handle an exorcism, can't you?"

"Not the point." Dean protested.

"Yeah, I know." Ty agreed before he could say anymore. She gave him a level stare, her face finally taking a serious caste, "The point is that I died, Dean. I died. So why shouldn't I have fun now?"

Dean looked away at her words, the guilt that still lingered over that particular episode rearing its head once again. He tried to think of something to say to her but nothing was coming to mind. So, the sight of his brother walking out of the hotel doors was actually quite a relief.

"Sam?" Dean said, trying to seem like he was more startled than relieved.

"Dean? Ty!" Sam exclaimed upon seeing her.

"Yeah, that's the three of us." Ty agreed, slipping past Dean. She glanced back over her shoulder at him, "I'm going up to our room."

With that she flounced past Sam and back inside. Sam glanced after her, then back to his brother.

Sam shifted uncomfortably before venturing, "Dude, do you think Ty's acting kind of...?"

"Whorey?" Dean supplied, "Yeah."

Sam paused, debating about whether or not he should voice his concerns now that Dean seemed to be open to the idea that Ty wasn't exactly as she should be.

"Uh...Dean?" he finally began.

"Yeah." Dean asked, still staring in the direction Ty had gone.

"You get the feeling that maybe something's...I don't know, not right with Ty?" Sam asked, choosing his words carefully.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked, turning to look at his brother.

Dean had his own worries about Ty, but if his brother had insight on the situation, he wanted to hear it before he confessed his own insecurities.

"Well, I was...uh...thinking that Ty's been kind of weird ever since that thing with the yellow-eyed demon happened and...well..."

"Spit it out, Sam." Dean ordered, frowning.

"What if the Ty it brought back isn't all our Ty? What if..."

Dean's frown deepened, "What if what, Sam? What if she's evil? Is that what you're trying to say? What if I have to kill her?"

"No! Well, I just..."

"No, Sam." Dean said with finality, "No. If something like that were wrong, I'd know, okay? Yeah, she's screwed up. But it's not that."

"Dean..." Sam protested.

"I said no, Sam!" Dean snapped.

Without waiting for a response, Dean moved gruffly past Sam and back inside as well. Sam looked after him for a moment, trying to decide whether he should go after him or go and get the journal out of the car like he'd planned. Finally, he decided that going after Dean would only lead to more arguing at present and he might as well get back to work on spying on all the other hotel guests with Alex. The kid was very gung ho, but not particularly subtle so Sam didn't think leaving him to flush out a suspect on his own was a great idea. So with a weary sigh, Sam trudged towards the Impala, wishing he hadn't said anything.

When Dean got back to the hotel room, Ty was sitting on the bed, one foot resting across the other knee as she unzipped her new tall, black boots. She looked up when Dean entered, but her face was unreadable. Looking at her and considering her words, Dean crossed the room quickly. He wasn't about to say that he was sorry since he still thought that during a hunt was a shitty time to go shopping, but he couldn't exactly stay mad at her now either. So, he settled for lifting her from the bed slightly so that he could take her spot on it, then pulling her into his lap so that he could kiss her. Ty immediately began kissing him back, one hand splaying across his chest and the other tangling in the hair on the back of his head as she changed her position so that she was straddling his lap. After a few minutes of heated kisses that neither seemed willing to break off for longer than it took to refill their lungs, Ty pushed Dean's jacket off his arms along with his shirt. Dean shook the material free of his arms, then returned his hands to Ty's sides. Ty smiled against his lips, shaking her head slightly as she took his hands off of her and directed him to hold his arms up. Grasping the hem of his undershirt, she swiftly pulled it off him and tossed it onto the ground with his other clothes. That accomplished, she repeated the action with her own shirt. Dean, meanwhile, scooted backward on the bed until he head reached the pillows, pulling Ty with him. Ty grinned down at him from her seated position on top of him and began to move her hips.

Looking up at her, Dean wasn't sure what was wrong with him. Here he was, pinned to a bed by a girl he actually liked, the movement of her hips grinding down on him making his jeans uncomfortably tight, and all he could think about was that there was something wrong with the situation, with this girl. What could be wrong? He spent most of his time when he wasn't fighting evil trying to get into exactly this position. Dean shook the nagging thoughts out of his head and reached up, grabbing Ty's arms and pulling her down to him. Smashing his lips against hers so that she wouldn't know about the strange hesitation that was pulling at him, he reached around her back to unhook her bra, the last piece of clothing she still had on her torso.

"Dean?" Ty questioned, pulling away from his mouth so that she could plant open mouthed kisses on his neck.

"Yeah?" Dean grunted in response, brow furrowing as her movements complicated the task of undressing her.

"What's wrong?" Ty asked without looking up at him or pausing in her ministrations.

Dean, however, did pause. He swore to himself about perceptive women as he let his hands fall back to his sides.

"Nothing." he lied, "Why?"

Now Ty pulled away, returning to a sitting position and looking down at him, "Well, because usually you're more of a take charge kind of guy and I'm doing all the work here. If you're not up for this..."

Dean reacted quickly, grabbing Ty by the upper arms and practically throwing her back onto the bed, swiftly reversing their positions as he pulled her under him.

"Babe, the day I'm not up for this you might want to try poking me with a stick." he quipped, flashing that grin of his that he knew made girls, Ty included, melt.

Ty responded with a devilish grin. That look on her face, although not an unusual expression for Ty, for some reason caused that voice of doubt in Dean's mind to start shouting at him again. Dean frowned in frustration at his inability to shake it.

"I was wondering about one thing though." Dean said, looking away.

"And what's that?" Ty asked, squirming a little under Dean's weight.

Dean fixed his gaze back on Ty's face, locking eyes with her. Dean hesitated for a moment, just staring into her eyes, but the seed of doubt had already been planted and apparently would not be ignored no matter how hard he tried.

"Christo." he whispered.

Their gazes still locked, Ty cringed, then froze and suddenly Dean was staring into a dark abyss instead of Ty's blue orbs. Shock coursed through Dean's system and he found that he wasn't moving, either, just continuing to stare at eyes as black as night. A myriad of emotions washed over him and he opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying to get out some words.

"Way to break the mood, Dean." Ty accused with an aggravated sigh.

Dean scrambled back away from Ty, practically falling off the bed in his haste. Regaining his footing, he stared at Ty, wishing that it was just his imagination that she was still looking at him with the eyes of a demon. A million thoughts raced through his brain, but the only words that managed to make it out of his mouth were, "Damn it, Sam!"