Ava sighed, attempting to tame her hair in the mirror and then adjusted the corset she wore slightly to readjust the position of the small silver blade hidden just against her chest.

"Well don't you look sexy tonight?"

Ava jumped, snapping up and looking around for the owner of that voice only to spot Lucifer standing just behind her.

"The fuck?" Ava let out a deep breath trying to calm her heartrate back down. She then turned back around to face the mirror again. She then just shook her head giving up on her hair and letting it tumble free. "Where have you been?"

"Aw, what did you miss me, Doll?" Lucifer's voice betrayed the smile that she knew was on his face before it vanished to be replaced with a scowl. "I've been around but your mind's been too busy obsessing over the Winchesters, and their dreadful daddy issues, you haven't been able to focus on anything else."

"Aw, poor thing, are you feeling left out?" Ava sympathized sarcastically.

"Why all this sudden focus on him anyway?" Lucifer bit out and Ava moved to reach up and pull the cross pendant out from under her corset subconsciously at the mention of Dean. It felt a little heavier than normal in her palm. "And you know how much I hate that thing. Quit fiddling with it while I'm talking to you,"

"Well, aren't you just a regular sourpuss tonight," Ava rolled her eyes but then dropped the pendant to lay on top of her corset regardless when it slightly burned her palm. It was then her turn to scowl at Lucifer. "Ouch! Really?"

"Hey Ava, you about ready?" King's voice called through the shut door distracting both Ava and Lucifer.

"Yeah, just about," Ava called back giving herself one last glance in the mirror before looking over at Lucifer scowl still in place. "Do not distract me from this hunt tonight. I can't lose any focus with Sam being in the mix too. I won't see him hurt because you distracted me."

"Again, worry over a Winchester," Lucifer said with a petulant hiss.

"What the fuck is your problem with the Winchesters?" Ava hissed out lowering her voice hearing a scuff of one of the men's boots just outside the bathroom door. "You're acting like a child!"

"Because they distract you!" Lucifer returned with a snap.

"Why am I even arguing with you?" Ava let out a deep frustrated breath. "There is no point in this! I'm basically arguing with myself and encouraging my own insanity."

"You know better than that!" Lucifer snapped back at her. "This isn't your own insanity, and you know it. I'm just as real as your friends out there,"

"Ava, c'mon we need to get a move on," that was Sam's voice close to the door.

"I'm coming, Sam," Ava called back, before pursing her lips and turning back to Lucifer who looked just as pissed as she did. "Unless you intend to help me tonight, you had best leave me be, I don't want anyone hurt because of a distraction."

"Fine," Lucifer hissed out and she saw a glimpse of the forked tongue this time, arms crossing over her own chest. "Just don't lose focus,"

Ava shook her head and took a breath to get a grasp on her temper before she opened the door to face Sam. He hesitated where he stood just looking at her with what could have been a shocked look on his face.

"Sam?" Ava questioned after a second or two of getting no response from him. "You alright?"

"Told you you looked sexy," Lucifer's voice came from behind her.

Sam coughed with a little red tint to his face before answering. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Sam assured her. His gaze then dropped to her legs for a second. "Is that the skirt you got years ago?"

"Yep," Ava grinned. "Same one you picked out, you were right, perfect length."

"Well Perfect Length, we need to go if we're going to give ourselves a little time to scout out this club." King's voice cut in and Ava turned to look at him. "Get your shoes on and let's go,"

"Yep, sorry King," Ava moved easily around Sam grabbing said boots from the floor. "C'mon I can slip them on in the truck,"

"You're wearing your boots? Heals would look better," King questioned with a little eyebrow raised but grabbing his truck keys nonetheless. "You not have that pair I bought you a few hunts ago?"

"I still have them, they're in my bag, but I move better in these." Ava explained with a little shrug. "And since we don't know for certain what we're up against, I'd prefer not to be worried about killing myself in the heals. I'll wear them next time," Ava promised that with a smile. "But we got everything we need?"

"Yep," King confirmed shifting and giving Ava a hint of the gun tucked into his dark wash jeans. "You?"

Ava grinned with a little nod pulling out her knife slightly from where it was hidden against her chest. She then turned to Sam who also had a gun tucked into his jeans.

"Let's go then," Ava said nodding to the door. "Maybe if we're lucky we'll be done with this job before the club closes,"

"Bring the heals just in case," King said with a grin nodding to her bag. "If so I'll really take you dancing,"

"Promises, promises," Ava said with a little laugh.

Sam coughed breaking between the two when Ava said this. There was a little frown on his face and Ava flushed a little but turned grabbing her heals anyway and then turned to walk out the door King and Sam just behind her.

"Dancing? Now that almost sounds like a date," Lucifer's voice almost caught her off guard enough to jump. "No wonder, little brother Winchester didn't like that much,"

Ava shook her head climbing into King's truck that they had brought for the case instead of her jeep and slid to the center. She then was joined by King to her left and Sam to her right.

There were a few moments of terse silence between them all as Ava moved to pull on her boots and King drove them to the club they were headed to. Soon enough King had found them a place to park and all three looked up and over the building itself before moving to climb out.

"Looks packed," Ava observed after a second. "This is going to be fun,"

"Well, not getting anything done sitting here," King said after a second. "Let's go,"

"Yep," Ava said turning to slide out behind Sam who as he slid out of the truck turned back to offer her a helping hand out. "Thank you,"

"Welcome."

"Be careful in here," Ava caught Sam's arm at the entrance to the club before they truly stepped inside. King went on ahead of them but something in Ava's gut made her stop Sam. "I know you're capable of handling yourself but just, if this is witches,"

"You sound so much like Dean," Sam cut her off with a little laugh. "I'll be fine. You be careful, you're small enough to get lost in here."

"Ha, if you lose me, find the bar." Ava joked as both showed the bouncer their fake IDs. "Let's go,"

Sam nodded and both paused to look at the layout of the club. It was a large building with an upper floor balcony all the way around the room. Just on the opposite side of the floor from them was large antique looking bar. It reminded Ava of the old western saloons and she laughed a little under her breath thinking the place really lived up to its name.

After a moment or two more Sam looked at Ava and grinned before nodding out to the dance floor indicating that's where he'd be. Ava grinned and waved towards the bar indicating that's where she was headed.

Ava made her way slowly towards the bar, skirting around the dance floor trying to spot where King might have ended up.

Finally making it to her destination she was lucky enough to find an empty chair to sit on and turn to maybe spot King or Sam. One of the bartenders instantly noticed her and stepped down leaning over the bar to try and speak to her over the loud music playing.

"Hey pretty lady, what can I get you?" he grinned brightly and Ava laughed a little.

"Just a water for now?" Ava said leaning in herself to be heard. "Waiting for a friend to really start drinking,"

"Shame on him for making you wait!" he said before grabbing her a glass of water.

"Who said it's a he?" Ava questioned with an eyebrow raised taking her glass.

"Who am I to judge?" he said with a little shrug then offered a hand to shake. "Brian, you are?"

"Ava," Ava said taking the hand to shake.

"So, you got me curious, is it a he or a she?" Brian questioned curiosity obviously written on his face. "Not that I'm judging,"

"Guess you'll find out soon," Ava said before taking a little drink of her water. "But looks like you have other customers waiting,"

"I'll have to come back and check on you then," Brian said with a cheeky grin and then turned to step on down the bar to the other customers.

Ava shook her head turning her seat to look out across the club to try and spot where the other two had gotten off to. After a moment, she spotted King on the upper balcony leaning against the railing looking over the club from there. He spotted her and then nodded out to the dance floor towards something.

Ava turned her attention in that direction only to spot Sam. He honestly wasn't too hard to spot, standing taller than most people in the club, but what Ava noticed most was woman that was dancing with him.

The woman was a very tall dirty blonde, and was practically plastered to his front. Ava watched them a sudden pang of suspicion hitting her hard. She stood up, maybe to go cut in between them, gut telling her she needed to but suddenly someone else was standing just in front of her.

"Leaving so soon, are we?" there was a wicked smile on his face.

"Derek," Ava gritted out frustrated now that she had lost sight of Sam, and standing up to leave. "What do you want?"

Derek's smile didn't fade but he did grab Ava's arm when she tried to walk around him and forced her around to look at him. She slammed back into the bar hard, knocking the breath out of her momentarily. Derek then leaned up into her space pinning her to the counter.

"What the fuck?" Ava questioned angrily. "Get off me! I'm busy!"

"No, darling you're not," Derek hissed out gripping her chin and forcing her to look at him, right into his solid black eyes.

"You're not Derek," Ava gritted out.

"No, I'm not." The demon laughed darkly pressing in a little closer to Ava hand dropping from her chin to her neck squeezing a little. "Not anymore, little boy hunter is gone."

"Hey!" someone else shouted and Ava recognized the voice of Brian. "Get off her!"

"Brian, just stay out of this. I'm fine." Ava called out to him not once turning her gaze from Derek.

"Of course you are," the demon pressed his nose against her neck at this and took a deep breath as she tried to jerk away. "I would never hurt Lucifer's-"

Before the demon could finish his sentence though there was a surge of heat that flew through Ava's body and then a little flash of light. Next thing she knew was Derek was standing a few steps away holding a hand that was smoking and she was panting heavily as though she'd just run a marathon.

"Run," Lucifer's voice jerked her out of her shock and she turned on heal and immediately ran for an exit.

She didn't stop till she was in the parking lot huffing to catch her breath, leaning up against King's truck. She looked back to see if anyone had followed her to spot no one and then turned back to spot Lucifer standing in front of her arms crossed.

"What the fuck was that?" Ava demanded once she'd caught enough of her breath. "What the fuck did you just do?"

"I didn't do anything," Lucifer said his voice just as tight as her own. "You did that purely on your own. You're waking up quicker than I previously thought you might."

"Excuse me?" Ava said standing up straight now. "Waking up quicker than you thought I might? What the fuck am I waking up from?" Ava's voice was now an angry hiss so as to not be overheard. "And why did he just say something about not hurting Lucifer's something?"

"Come out, come out, where ever you are," there was a voice from behind her then a scape of metal on metal where Ava assumed he now had a knife with him.

"Run," Lucifer advised again before disappearing.

Just as Ava went to run again she was grabbed from behind by a fist in her hair. Her head was then jerked backwards then she cried out in pain as she felt a knife cut cleanly across her back from her shoulder and down through the middle of her shoulder blades.

"That wasn't very nice, was it?" Derek's voice was hot in her ear. He then moved his knife up to his mouth where he flicked his tongue out and traced across it gathering her blood. "Just as sweet as I always thought an An-"

There was then a deep and dangerous sounding growl that cut Derek off. Both looked up when they heard the soft padding of a dog's feet only to spot two of the most horrifying creatures Ava had honestly ever seen headed towards them.

They were possibly dogs just by shape but instead of skin and fur there was a mix of bones and bare rotting muscle tissue. They had six eyes instead of two and they were glowing bright red fixed intently on the pair of them. Their twin growls showed their sharp white teeth that were stained with what could have very possibly been blood and they stood almost to Ava's chest at full height.

"Juliet, how nice of you to join us," Derek said with a devilish grin appearing on his face as he watched the creatures approach. "And you brought a friend,"

Ava jerked a little in his grasp as he in turn ran the knife over her shoulder and down her chest before pausing at the top of her corset. The knife paused only for a moment before moving downwards ticking off each of the clasp holding the clothing together before landing on her hip where there was only skin. Ava then hissed when there was a sharp bite of the blade cutting into skin and cutting across her hip.

"You shouldn't be marking up what doesn't belong to you," someone else said stepping out of the darkness behind Juliet and her friend.

"Crowley," Derek said now moving the blade to rest just against her thigh. "How did I know you would show up to protect her? Not even yours and you protect her like she is,"

"You have no idea what you're playing with, Maggot." Crowley bit out in a dark voice Ava had never heard from him before. "You need to let her go, and disappear,"

"Oh, but why?" Derek questioned pushing the blade little tighter against her leg. An inch further and he was in danger of nicking a very important vein. If he cut her femoral artery she was in major trouble. "Azazel wants her, and I see no reason not to deliver."

"Azazel doesn't know what he's getting into either." Crowley informed him coldly. "None of you do."

"And you do?" Derek questioned tilting his head to the side.

"More than you'll ever know,"

He was paying more attention to Crowley than her, so Ava shifted, knowing either way she was getting cut again but trying to keep it from being deadly. Derek shifted himself, angling the knife out more towards her outer thigh than her inner thigh, and that's when she moved.

She jerked quickly surprising him. His hand had been loose in her hair and with the surprise didn't have time to tighten it when she moved slamming her head into his ear to make him loose balance and stumble. As he stumbled though Ava felt the knife slip a little before it was cutting thought her leg. She stumbled forward out of his loosened grasp and then basically collapsed as her leg refused to hold her up any longer.

Once she was in the clear though, Crowley snapped his fingers and both Juliet and the other hound pounced on Derek.

Ava flipped over and pulled herself back against the tire well of King's truck out of the way of the hounds who were working to pull Derek apart limb from limb. She froze watching the carnage with a pale face and only moved when she jerked as a splash of blood hit her face.

After a few moments, there was nothing left of Derek beyond a large pool of blood where he once was. Both hounds then turned to Ava blood dripping from their muzzles and began to wag their tails and step towards her. Ava involuntarily shifted to push herself back before she realized there wasn't anywhere left to go.

"You can see them?" Crowley's voice was light and curious and caused her to flinch then jerk her head to face him.

"What are they?" Ava questioned her voice pitched high. "What the fuck is going on? I don't, I don't understand any of this!"

Crowley moved then to sit down beside her against the truck tire. "They are my hellhounds, and you honestly shouldn't be able to see them at all. They're invisible to the human eye,"

"Then why can I see them?" Ava questioned calming down a little with Crowley sitting next to her.

"I have a theory, but that isn't important just yet." Cowley confessed after a moment and reached a hand out as one of the hounds walked over to them.

After a moment, Ava mimicked the movement and reached a hand out for the other hound who happily butted their forehead against her palm. Ava didn't move for a second, studying the hound in front of her now. It didn't look anything like the hounds from before, it looked just like a large midnight black wolf with six red eyes now. Far less intimidating than the skull creature from before.

"They look different now," Ava commented reaching up and scratching behind the hound's ears softly. For that she got a tail thump and the hound moved around to lay curled up against Ava's other side. "More like a wolf, a big wolf but just,"

"There is no longer any danger," Crowley said with a shrug.

"Thank you for that by the way," Ava nodded hesitantly towards the blood stain. She then shifted to allow the hound to lay its large head in her lap. "How did you even know I was here?"

"Juliet here, keeps pretty close tabs on you since we met." Crowley nodded to the hound whose head was in her lap. "She's always liked you. Fortunate thing that, Love, seeing as you seem to stay in too much trouble."

Ava grinned at that winding her hand in Juliet's fur absently, before she let out a little huff and then leaned her head against Crowley's shoulder. He tensed a little before glancing at her and then relaxing when she closed her eyes.

"Your adrenaline high is wearing off, Love." Crowley said matter-of-factly. "We should probably attempt to find your friends before you pass out from blood loss."

"Yeah, probably." Ava agreed tiredly, she suddenly felt like she hadn't slept in months, a bone deep exhaustion settling in. She then jumped and giggled slightly when she felt a little ghost of a touch on her hip. She looked down to spot Juliet licking the wound there gently. "Er thank you,"

"Ava!" someone shouted and she snapped around to blink at who it was shouting.

Sam was heading her way King just on his heels. Beside her Crowley vanished and then Juliet was gone as well.

"What happened to you?" Sam questioned putting himself down on her level to figure out why she wasn't standing, before laying a hand on her leg to balance himself on his heels. He then jerked his hand away when he felt wetness of the blood on her thigh. "Oh shit, Ava is this your blood?"

"Yeah, it's a little complicated." Ava blinked focusing on Sam and pushing herself up a little more, then looked over at King. "I'm guessing the witches are taken are of?"

"Yes," King confirmed with a nod, but worry clouded his face. "I thought you were just behind us, I didn't realize you were in trouble."

"It's okay," Ava said then reached up asking for help to her feet. "I'll explain more when we get back to the room, please?"

"Sure," King said and Sam and King both pulled Ava to her feet and helped her into the truck.

Once they stumbled back into the room, King set Ava down on the edge of the closet bed before turning to grab his first aid kit out of the truck. Sam in turn was inspecting the deep gash on her leg, then moved to the one across her back.

"The one on your leg is going to need stitches." Sam informed her and she nodded again too tired to argue with him but leaned back into him when he finally sat still. "Ava, are you okay?"

"You remember that thing we don't really talk about, but causes weird shit to happen?" Ava questioned after a second while King was still gone.

"Yes?" Sam said this slightly uncertain but wanting an answer.

"Well, it sorta happened tonight and I'm still processing what happened myself." Ava admitted after a second thinking back to what had happened. "But you said stiches, in that case left hand side of my duffle is some whiskey, please grab it for me."

"I don't know that-" Sam started to protest.

"If you are sticking a needle in my skin repeatedly, I get to drink a little alcohol," Ava cut him off with a gentle push in that direction.

Just as she said this King stepped back inside the room with the first aid kit and tossed her a bottle of pills.

"You're gonna need those," he informed her. "Alright, so what's the damage?"

"Stitches," Ava informed him popping the cap on the Vicodin and then taking the bottle of whiskey from Sam's hand and tossing two pills back. She followed with a quick swallow of the alcohol.

"Fun times," King said dryly before stepping over and pulling out what he needed to stich Ava's leg up. He then gently cleaned out the cut before he went to stich the skin together. "So, what happened back there?"

"I'll explain, ouch, when you're not, ouch, piercing my skin with what feels like a blunt needle." Ava muttered out fighting to keep herself still even with King's free hand on her leg to hold it still.

King laughed a little at this and concentrated on his task at hand.

Eight neat little stitches and two hours later, found Ava lounging back on the bed listening to King snore loudly from the couch to her left and Sam snoring slightly to her right. She was admittedly supposed to be asleep, and she was really tired but the information Derek had given her was bothering her some.

Finally, after about forty-five more minutes of thinking things over she finally gave up setting her bottle of whiskey to the side and slipped down into the bed carefully as not to disturb the stitches. She had just gotten settled and on the verge of sleep when she heard something else.

It was quiet at first, but then there was a flash of light followed by a deep rumble of thunder loud enough to feel like it shook the building. It was only a second or two more before the lightning strikes again forcing another loud clap of thunder to roll through.

Ava jerked back up, eyes now wide and breathing slightly more rapid. It was only a few seconds more before another lightning strike and consequential thunder roll smacked Ava in the chest like a physical blow causing her to squeak a little.

"Of all the fucking nights, really?" Ava muttered under her breath cursing at her own bad luck for a moment. "If I believed there was a God, I'd be cussing your righteous ass out right now, I hope you know,"

As though to spite this statement, another sharp crack of thunder rolled through causing her to jump slightly and almost fall out of bed.

"Ava?" Sam's voice caught her off guard after the last roll of thunder and that time she did jump hard enough to topple out of bed and land with a little thud on the floor. "Hey, er you okay?"

She then took a deep breath willing her voice to stay steady enough to answer him. "Yep, I'm good, sorry didn't mean to wake you."

As her luck would have it though, as she managed this statement out another loud clap of thunder rumbled through the building. This time it was loud enough that the windows rattled in their frames and then the rain started to pelt the windows.

"You're not that great at lying, Ava,"

Sam's voice quite a bit closer caught her off guard, and she looked up to see his hazy outline standing just at the end of the bed in the dark. She hadn't even heard him get up and move.

"You're not okay," Sam said before moving and reaching down to pull her back up off the floor easily. "You're shaking...because of the storm?"

Ava hesitated a little too long to answer and there was another really loud clap of thunder that rolled though that made her jump right into Sam. He didn't protest, question now answered, but hesitantly wrapped her up in a hug that seemed to help ground her.

"I fucking hate storms." She hissed out nose buried in his chest. "I hate them."

"Okay, come on let's just," Sam was cut off by another loud clap of thunder and Ava jumped fisting her hands up in his night shirt. "Okay, come on let's get back to bed before we wake King up."

"He'll sleep through the whole damn storm," Ava explained after a second voice shaking a little. "Says they help him sleep, damn bastard."

Sam snorted out a little laugh at that running a hand up and down her arm to attempt to calm her down some. It worked for all of a minute before more thunder rumbled through causing Ava to jump again, and Sam grinned glad she couldn't see it in the dark.

"So, you mean to tell me big bad hunter, the Ava Singer, who looks death in the face and winks, multiple times a week, is afraid of storms?" Sam questioned lightly trying to change her focus from just the storm.

She huffed out a nervous laugh. "Shut up, Sam, Mr. I hate clowns,"

"Hey, clowns are creepy as hell, and you can't deny it." Sam defended himself lightly but was happier that Ava had laughed a little. "But come on, we're not standing here though this whole storm."

Ava didn't protest much allowing him to maneuver them back into her bed, and curled right up into his space as soon as they were settled. She settled curled on her side with her back against his side and her head pillowed on his arm that had been flung across the pillows to accommodate her being in his space.

"Sorry about this," Ava muttered after a second then jumped at another round of thunder. "I'm usually better at handling them than this."

"You've had a pretty long night," Sam shrugged not seeming to be bothered in the least. "But can I ask, why storms?"

Ava hesitated seeming to be thinking about how she wanted to answer. "It's like, this really bad memory that I can't quite remember," she paused again before letting out a deep breath. "I know that doesn't make any sense,"

"Maybe it's just a memory you've just blocked out because it was too traumatic?" Sam suggested with a shrug. "They say people do that all the time,"

"Maybe," Ava said her voice starting to drop a little feeling a little safer there with Sam lying next to her. "Thanks Sam, sorry I woke you up."

"It's fine," Sam assured her easily. "I'm just impressed that you're still awake with two Vicodin and how much whiskey in your system?"

"I was going to sleep before this damn storm hit out of nowhere," Ava muttered spitefully with a huff. "Me and my luck,"

"Well sounds like it's almost over now," Sam said his own voice dropping off and Ava smiled a little.

"Go back to sleep Sam," Ava said and was met with a snore of answer.

She huffed out a laugh settling in a little further and curling her legs up. Sam was right it sounded like the storm was just about out of power as the thunder now sounded distant and the lightening had stopped.

Letting out a little sigh of relief Ava closed her eyes and allowed the alcohol and pills still floating in her system lull her back off to sleep.


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