Chapter 8

"Seems like too nice a town for whatever that weirdo ass said was going on." Dean couldn't help but comment on something since the drive had been silent. He could make out the sullen expression on Isabella's face as she looked out the window at the passing scenery.

Isabella opted to not say anything. She hadn't said anything at all beyond what politeness dictated. The same was extended to her by Angela except there was warmth in there and it perplexed Isabella greatly. She had done a lot of things to incite retaliation and fights and succeeded with Dean but Angela refused to be drawn in. She didn't get it and in the end retreated into herself. She would do the job and then leave.

Angela though commented, "Usually it is the nice towns that attract trouble. It's sad really." She studied the town with a critical eye as she mulled over what the Host told her and Sam about the possibility of a witch doing this.

According to the Host, it was a spell that was making people lose their senses. Briefly she wondered if it was that demon that caused strange and unusual trouble earlier and she could tell that Sam thought the same thing. She would have discussed it but the whole thing with Isabella left it off for the morning and breakfast went by without a hitch. Dean thought it was the demon too but given that the Host said it was a spell that demons would have trouble casting… it left her thinking.

She mulled over it the whole trip there and didn't mind when Dean put on his music but it seemed after a short time it just wasn't worth it. He switched it off and the rest of the trip was silent. She tried to make it up to everyone by using her empath and sent soothing waves to everyone and it worked a little but the silence was still deafening.

"I hear ya Angie," Dean said as he made a turn down a street. "So how are we gonna do this?"

"No idea," Angela replied as she looked around. She observed the people and the surroundings. "Witches blend in pretty well."

Dean made a slight sound as Sam nodded in agreement. He drove by the center of town and noticed the fountain. "I can say one thing. This town has interesting tastes." He continued to drive past the fountain and through town. He pulled up at a motel that had fairly reasonable prices near the outskirts of town and for once wasn't that seedy like some of the others they had stayed in. "Well this looks good. Anyone object?" He looked at everyone for any sign of dissent and found himself tensing for anything Isabella might say.

"Let's get the rooms," Angela said as she got out of the car. "This will work." She surveyed around before following Dean into the lobby.

"Hello, we'd like a couple of rooms please," Dean said with a smile at the brunette sitting at the desk staring at him with a smile. When she didn't do anything he repeated his request and again got no response. He frowned a bit and was going to start yelling at her.

"Dean," Angela said as she put her hand on his arm. "I think I know what's the problem." She gave a look at him.

Dean nodded since he wasn't sure what was going on. "Okay Angie."

Angela smiled and then turned towards the brunette. She then began signing their request. Dean nearly blinked in surprise when the brunette became animated and signed back. He watched as the two women talked and the brunette went to work at her computer. It was in short order that they received the keys to the rooms with the brunette signing and Angela ended up laughing a bit and signing back and took the receipt.

Once they were outside, Dean asked, "What the hell was that all about?"

"She was deaf."

"I know that since you did your finger waving thing," Dean replied as he waved his fingers. "How did you know that she was deaf?"

"It was obvious she couldn't hear you," Angela pointed out. She took in Dean's expectant face and sighed and continued, "I noticed her posture. Something fell before we walked in and she didn't flinch and then you almost started waving at her. By the way, she said that you were cute and funny."

Whatever Dean was going to say, it died when he heard that. He ignored Sam's eye roll and Isabella's slight muttering when he replied, "She… said that?"

Angela chuckled a bit and then signed the words that the brunette signed and said the words, "Cute and funny." She put her hand in her jacket pocket and pulled out the receipt. She handed it over to him. "She asked me to give you this."

Dean took the slip of paper and saw what the girl had written. He looked at Angela, "Seriously?"

Angela couldn't help it and signed as she said, "You might want to learn a little bit of sign. The rest should be easy." She gave a slight waggle of her brows and almost laughed when Dean nearly blushed at her implication.

Dean was speechless as Angela walked by him to heft her gear into the room she and Isabella were sharing. He finally said, "You really need to…"

"Don't try Dean. I know where your mind goes," she said before Dean could get anything out. "Learn sign."

Dean looked at Sam and wasn't reassured by the look Sam gave him as his little brother hoisted his bag on his shoulder and went to the room that was to be theirs. He sighed as he put the receipt in his jacket pocket. He might have a prospect later.

It certainly was an interesting turn of affairs since they really didn't know who the witch could be… if it was a witch. Dean was on the phone with Bobby while Sam was on his laptop. He was saying, "Well have you ever heard of some guy called the Host?"

Never heard of the guy. How do you know if this guy is legit?

"Angie's word good enough?"

And ya wouldn't be asking me if ya weren't sure.

"I trust her but I don't trust him. He gives us the location but nothing to go on and we had to ignore other stuff going on. And we are going off of Angie's cluster map thingie."

Well that fella Christian said that the order was working overtime to contain that. His words. Said that they were to clear a path for you guys.

"So they know something and not telling?"

Sounds like it.

"Dicks," Dean muttered looking annoyed. He looked over at Sam who was trying to no eavesdrop too much. "So did Fang Boy ever say anything else?" It was too much to hope for since that vampire was a stickler for rules. He was the Head Captain of the guard at Roslyn.

Just that they were told to take of that and you'd figure out the rest. Didn't sound too happy to be telling me that.

Dean nodded since that pretty much said that this was a big thing. "Okay thanks Bobby. Let us know if you find anything else."

I'll check into this Host. And stick with the cluster thingie. If anything Angie's on the right scent.

Dean hung up the phone and held it in his hand. He looked over at his brother and said, "Go ahead and say it even though I don't want to hear it."

Sam had been tapping the keys but not pressing them. He was looking at Angela's map pieced from what he could remember. Also he was looking into the general history of the town and came up with some pretty interesting things about the place. He knew that Dean would have taken the first opportunity to talk to Bobby about everything. He didn't blame his brother in the least about that since he wasn't so sure about this Host guy. He said, "You're right."

"What?"

"You're right to ask Bobby about it."

Dean paused a moment to make sure that he heard right. "You're actually agreeing with me on this?"

"Yeah. That and I trust Angie's cluster map."

Dean blinked a moment and then said, "Okay. So were you able to figure anything out?"

Sam brought up the research he had done. He reported, "Well the town is unusual in that there is a large amount of people that are either deaf/hard of hearing, blind and a few physical disabilities. They call the town New Harmony because people from all over live and work here."

"Everyone getting along? That's crazy in of itself," Dean replied as he bent to take a look.

"Not really considering that they all have something in common. Even the people who aren't disabled are much nicer and some even have family that are…" Sam made a motion at the laptop. It was a bit strange but it made sense now with the receptionist being deaf. He continued, "Plus I found that there were two deaths under suspicious circumstances, one being local law enforcement and the other the town drunk. Both were found with their throats slashed and they were drained of their blood… All of it."

Dean looked at Sam, "Thinking demons?"

"Or vampires," Sam offered. It wasn't too farfetched of an idea and he voice it, "They don't necessarily have to bite the victim… at least not the ones that are sophisticated."

Dean couldn't argue with that. He had been around vampires that still drank blood but they got it through more modern means like blood banks and he knew that Angela kept a supply just in case something happened to her. She never mentioned it but he knew that Sam knew about it and partly it was because of Sam that she started making sure that she had something just in case. That was one good thing he could say about the current relationship between the two of them: Sam was persistent when it came to her health and she took it under consideration every time.

Looking at the article Dean said, "So we look into the possibility that whatever this town is the center of…"

"Could be that it is a blood ritual," Sam said as he shrugged his shoulders. They had possibilities and while the Host's suggestion of a witch made sense, there were other possibilities that needed to be explored. "Might be our witch."

"Then I guess we better get a little investigating done," Dean said as he turned away from the laptop and went to look for the suits to get them into the morgue. "You wanna let Angie know?"

"She's actually out exploring the town… with Isabella," Sam replied feeling a little uncomfortable. He cleared his throat slightly at that since they really hadn't talked about Isabella's role in things so far and not to mention she just brushed everyone off and went off on her own unless Angela said she was going with her.

Dean thought about it for a moment. Granted he didn't like the brat, he knew that she was in for the long haul at least for this job. Besides it seemed that Angela had her own way of handling things. He half expected her to kick the brat's ass but it turned out that didn't happen. He did hear the kid stomp and fume over the fact that she was stuck with a bunch of crazies and they didn't fight back. Both he and Sam knew that meant that Angela's way of handling it turned out to be more of what she had been doing in the first place. He replied, "Okay then. Can't argue with it; it's Angie's way."

Sam didn't say anything either. You couldn't really and they both knew how she liked to handle things. She did the same to them on occasion. He just nodded in agreement and went to work on their plan. He just hoped things were going to be too bad and looking at Sasha who had opted to stay with them looked the same as well.


The town was too much like 'Leave it to Beaver' land for Isabella's tastes with all the nice houses that were well kept. It made it seem like it was a fantasy and she knew that in reality, life wasn't like this place. The world was a mean and nasty place. It took her parents from her so one could hardly blame her for her outlook on life.

She had no idea why she felt the need to tell Angela that they were murdered. No doubt she could have found out that piece of information from the databases. It wasn't like it was restricted to members of the order… unless there was a reason for that. What irked her was how Angela worded the knowledge of her family and how did she know what her mother liked?

The only she could do was muse and run to the end of her chain and bark. Angela wasn't going to rise to the bait of anything she said and she wasn't going to try with the Winchesters since no doubt Dean would leap to Sam's defense. Sam was more like Angela and even then he had an extra leash on him to keep him quiet. The best thing to do was to get the job done and then get out of Dodge.

At the moment she was exploring the town and looking for any signs of the supernatural. She thought this whole place was a sign of the supernatural. There were too many people that were too happy for their own good. What did they have to be happy about? She grumbled as she walked along while trying not to look too conspicuous. She didn't even know what she was looking for. All they had was that the Host said they were dealing with a powerful spell caster and most likely it was a witch since there wasn't much anything else that fit the criteria… unless you were a thing that knew how to cast a spell or two but for the most part it was simple stuff. She would know since she had tried it once or twice.

Sighing, Isabella looked around. She had pretty much ditched Angela to go off on her own but it wasn't so much as ditching as being told that they were splitting up. She really thought Angela was off her rocker for giving her so much leeway in what she was to do. Most others wouldn't let her out of their sight. They didn't like working with her and the feeling was very mutual. This one was puzzling and it had her frustrated. She sighed as she tried to divert her thoughts from thinking about it too much and looked around.

She wandered by what passed for the library and noticed various people out. She saw people signing, canes for the blind, a few walkers and wheelchairs and some people that appeared normal. They all looked happy about their lot in life. Maybe they were happy but Isabella found it a bit unusual. People being people surely they had their disappointments and sometimes they showed. She shook her head as she went towards the building.

Her phone rang and she picked it up by putting the hands free set in her ear. "Hello."

How do you like working with Absolution?

Isabella made a slight face and rolled her eyes as she replied, "You know the answer to that and this is sarcasm when I say that I'm just here for your own amusement."

No doubt that is true. Seriously though, the order is at its wit end with you. Some have called for you to be removed.

"That wouldn't be the first time."

And you and I both know that you like being in the order. Very much like your parents.

"And the only reason I let you get away with talking about them is because I don't want to end up on your bad side." Isabella looked around and started walking away so as not to be overheard.

You and the others are afraid of me and what I can do. There is one that isn't so squeamish.

"Let me guess, your girlfriend," Isabella retorted, her voice thick with sarcasm. She looked in a general direction and noticed what looked like to be an argument. It looked like it because the two parties involved were definitely upset. The look like was because they were both signing at each other. One was moving their mouth and she could barely hear a voice. So one was talking and the other was replying with their hands. That just made things easy.

You know who I mean. Absolution is one that knows the score even when she isn't sure about what is going on.

"And this is your doing."

You two are more alike than you can see and I'm sure she sees it.

"We're nothing alike so don't even try," Isabella warned.

You'll see. Follow her lead in whatever you are doing. Not all her kind are bad you know.

"Preaching to the choir Seer," Isabella replied. It was definitely an argument and something didn't feel right about it. "I gotta go."

Just keep my words in mind. There is a purpose to everything that is done in the order. Even Absolution knows this and she is more vocal about the majority being dicks than you.

Isabella frowned at that. Certainly not with what she had seen. For the most part it was this calm acceptance that was fed upon with kindness and it killed. "Whatever."

Watch yourself little Rivain. There are some things that are hidden and don't get revealed unless circumstances put it in the position to be revealed.

Isabella rolled her eyes at that as she said her goodbyes and hung up. She had a lot of that growing up in the order so to speak. After her parents died another family that served took her in and she grew up in the life. It was all she wanted and she liked the order even though she didn't agree with a few things and she stubbornly didn't want to admit that she and Angela agreed on the same things they disliked. That was not something she was willing to step on at the moment.

She approached the pair when the one who was primarily signing said out loud in a strained voice, "Don't talk to me again."

Normally it would have been something not to get too upset over. Even Isabella knew that when someone told you not to talk to them again it was something that was with the heat of the moment. IT didn't take a genius to figure that out. What happened next surprised her.

The one who had been told not to talk to the other one again, she opened her mouth. All that came out was the hissing of air. No sound came out. She tried again to talk and nothing came out. She ended up choking on her own air and her face started turning blue since she kept trying to speak and was choking on her air. The other one had forgotten her anger and was scared and making sounds. Isabella jumped in and tried to calm the more terrified of the two down. She took the scared woman into an embrace and looked around.

Suddenly a car horn sounded and there was the nasty crunch of vehicles upon impact. Isabella looked up and saw the cars collided. Someone was shouting and bleeding from a head injury. The other was looking around not sure of what was going on. People were shouting and others were looking around… The only other time Isabella could remember seeing people like this was when the bomb explosion at the train station in Spain occurred and that was just normal human crap terrorist. It wasn't supernatural but given the situation at the time she was sent there and she was fluent in Spanish. The people looked the same, like they were in shock.

There was something off though. The weeping woman was a part of it and Isabella could sense it. She never could explain it but she had a knack for sniffing out things that belonged to the supernatural. Mostly it had to do with her ability to sniff out the vamps. Other monsters were never really explored and of course her own kind identified each other by scents. It was hard for a shifter to fool the lycanthropes and that was something that could be taken to the bank.

Right now Isabella felt like she was right back in Spain and helping deal with the injured. For a brief moment she wished that Angela was there. She hated to admit it but the older woman had a calming presence about her and it made anything remotely bad seem like it was going to work out. She was, as Sam said, a good person… even for a stinking vamp.

It was nasty work trying to pry the woman she had managed to calm down and go to where the crashed vehicles were. The weeping woman was sitting on the pavement and her friend who had said those things was trying to comfort her and apologizing in sign language. It was amazing to see people actually forget their problems when faced with tragedy. She saw it in Spain and she was seeing it now as people were trying to help and those that couldn't, they stayed out of the way.

The emergency services were on their way and she started looking in on the one with a head injury. He was looking around and asking where everything was. Isabella did what she could to try and make sure nothing serious was going on. She checked his eyes for pupil reaction and was startled when he grabbed her and ran his hands over her arms and then her face. She blinked and tried to be reassuring as he moaned, "I can't see."

"I can't feel my legs."

The moans began to blend together as other crap was starting to happen. It was like one piece of chaos was drawn to another. It had Isabella looking around as the EMTs were running to and from people and trying to alleviate pain. The man she was holding gripped her tight and asked, "Is God punishing me for not seeing the good things in front of me?"

Isabella was not inclined to be a religious person and she had no idea what to say. She looked at the man and the blood coming from his head injury. The man was clearly concussed and he had a bleeder. She finally said, "I don't know… but it's gonna be okay. The EMT is here now and they're gonna take care of you."

"Don't leave me, please."

Isabella had moved to let the EMTs in when the man grabbed her jacket. She paused and looked at the EMT and she was given a nod. She looked at the poor man and said, "I'll stay."

It was that way until she saw the man to the hospital. The ER was filled with patients, some seemed to have suffered bloody accidents and others were dazed and confused. Isabella had seen nothing like it and her senses were going off indicating something supernatural. She sighed and knew she was going to have to let the Winchesters in on this. As she reached for her cell phone, she paused and looked up. She saw something down the hall and by all accounts she knew that whoever it was they weren't supposed to be there. Looking around, she subtly took off to follow.


A/N: Sam and Dean follow their own lead and still not sure about the Host and Isabella gets an eyeful about something that is terribly wrong in New Harmony. Keep watching for more Hear No Evil, See No Evil...