Author's Note: Newsflash! I still don't own these characters! Ok, so it's not so newsworthy...read, enjoy and, please, review. :)
Chapter 9
Sometimes the most simple of ideas, like dinner, could become complicated. Sam went back to the information he'd gathered on hangover cures that insisted that mineral rich foods, like pickles and canned fish, should be consumed. The suggestion got him double blank stares and Meranda might have even turned a little green before Dean shot the idea down completely.
After much debate, it was finally decided that Meranda and Dean would ride to the next town over – just five miles north – and pick up some burgers. They discussed all going together and just eating there, but once it was mentioned that there would more than likely be a barrage of offending aromas, the vote for take out was unanimous.
As the Impala roared to life, Sam began returning Bobby's call without bothering to listen to the voicemail. It rang twice before Bobby's voice came over the line.
"Hey Sam! I was beginning to think we were gonna play phone tag."
"One round of it anyway...looks like I win," Sam said, chuckling. "Anything new?"
"Well, I think so...it wasn't out there like we normally see it, so it took a bit more tracking than usual. I've been working on it for about two months now. I've found movement of what I believe to be a succubus. I've tracked her through Arizona into Texas and I think she's made her way into Oklahoma, but she might be just outside of it in one of the bordering states."
"Oklahoma? Where exactly?"
"Well, that's the thing. I've only been able to narrow it down to about a fifty mile radius. But the center of it is in a place called Cimmaron."
Sam immediately began pulling up maps of Oklahoma and plugging in this name. In seconds he was looking at three different views of a town just minutes east from where they were sitting.
"We're right near there...but we haven't seen or heard anything. What have you found?"
"She's a tricky bitch, I'll give her that. She's been killing men every hundred miles or so and she's spacing them out with enough time between them that you'd only see a pattern if you happened to be looking for one. She's been bouncing around all over the place too, but if you follow her path, she's been heading east for awhile now. It's almost like she's taking a break or something, because she's not really moved much other than that fifty mile radius for quite some time."
"Huh...a succubus...and refresh me again on what we'd be looking for?"
"A woman, almost always very attractive, hypnotizes their victims, eats men's souls like bon bons...ringing any bells?"
Sam was silent for a moment and with Bobby on the other end of the line, a moment is just enough to draw attention.
"What is it kid? You seen something that might fit the description?"
Sam hesitated again weighing what he should say, but knowing that he was going to have to come clean to Bobby or face the inquisition. He takes in a deep breath before starting.
"I'm not really sure. Dean's kinda been seeing this girl since we got here."
"Hell, that's nothin' new. When is he not tryin' his best to mark the territory?"
Sam hesitated again. "It's just different this time. The first night he was with her, he was acting like a love struck school girl…and when he's around her, it's like he can't take his eyes off her." Sam stopped there, debating whether or not to embarrass himself by telling him more.
"Are you saying that you think Dean is in love? That's enough all by itself to make this girl suspect," Bobby said jokingly.
Sam took another deep breath. "That's not all…I think, um…well, I may have reason to believe that uh…"
"Spit it out, boy!"
"I think she may have uh…gotten us drunk…and um…well, I think we might have both been with her last night…" Sam cringed when he said it, waiting to hear what jokes were going to be made at his expense.
It was Bobby's turn to be silent. He was busy wondering if this was enough to make him as worried for the boys as he suddenly felt.
"Bobby?" Sam almost wondered if Bobby had the phone muted so that he couldn't hear him laughing. He listened hard and could hear Bobby breathing so he guessed not, but he still felt the heat rising in his face.
"I'm trying to figure out how we can know for sure. I'd ask if you two are tired, but if you tied one and played romper room with this girl, you'd be tired anyway. I don't reckon you could tell me if you think you're more tired than you would be despite the circumstances?"
Sam gave it serious thought. "Honestly, I'm feeling better now that the hangover's almost gone, and Dean was fairly spry when he left with Meranda right before I called you."
"Meranda? That her name?"
"Yeah…why?"
"Nothing, but I will do myself a little checking on it…you know, just in case." Bobby paused a moment before continuing. "Describe her to me."
"Yeah, 'cause that's not weird or anything."
"Just tell me what she looks like!"
Sam sighed deeply. He had to wonder sometimes if Bobby just liked messing with him the way Dean did.
"Okay…she's about my height, maybe a little shorter. She's got really long brown hair...it's straight...kinda shiny. She's got these pretty greenish-blue eyes that kinda stand out. They're kinda…bright. I guess you'd say."
Bobby cut him off before he could go any further. "I'm gonna ask you a question and I want you to answer me honestly, okay?"
"Sure Bobby, what?"
"Do you have feelings for her?"
Sam laughed, "What?"
"Just answer the question," Bobby said calmly. "Think about it…hard…and tell me the truth."
Hearing a hint of urgency in Bobby's voice, Sam knew that he needed to do what he was being asked. So that's what he did. He rolled the idea around in his mind, asking questions that were all followed up with their own question: And if Dean weren't in the picture? The answers were frightening.
"What if I'm confusing 'being attracted to' with 'having feelings for'?" Sam asked.
"Oh Christ on a cracker! What the fuck, son?"
"What do you mean? I just told you I think I'm attracted to her…I mean, I find her attractive…I just want to know if there's a way that I might be confusing that with having feelings for her." Sam insisted.
"The fact that you aren't sure of that makes me uncomfortable," Bobby admitted.
"Bobby, really…if she were a succubus, don't you think she'd have us both falling all over ourselves and not just Dean? I mean, especially after last night?" The last sentence was whispered, as if he thought the walls were listening in. "I don't wanna confuse a small town nymphomaniac with a soul sucking demon. If Dean really has feelings for this girl and she's human, how well do you think cutting her with silver to see how she reacts is gonna go over?"
Bobby paused before answering with a heavy sigh, "I'm not saying I have all the answers here…I'm just saying that we need to remember that we don't have them all and not let our guard down anymore than we need to."
"Well…is there something we need to be doing in the meantime? I mean, other than waiting for her to eat our souls?" Sam said half-joking.
"Just watch her. Everything I find says basically the same thing – they hypnotize men with their beauty and, depending on how hungry they are, will either feed on their souls slowly or eat the entire thing like a fat kid left to guard the cupcakes. The slow approach leaves the victims tired all the time and if more than one person is on their menu, they tend to get jealous…not only of each other, but everyone."
Sam thought these things over and remembered the casual way Dean was about everything. He was fairly certain that Meranda probably wasn't the succubus, because Dean wasn't that good at pretending he wasn't pissed. Then another thought occurred to him.
"Wait, by definition isn't a succubus a demon? Wouldn't the regular demon tests work? Our windows and door are salted and she had no problem with it."
"I'm afraid that that's where things get a little fuzzy on the fact-o-meter. See, they're referred to as both demons and as evil spirits. But there's also theories that point to possible hybrids – half succubus and half human. Some lore says that the powers and weaknesses of the hybrids are unknown, some say that each one is different…but a few say they have all the abilities of the succubus with a human's immunity to everything that would harm a demon."
"Shit! How do we deal with that?"
"We've gotta find it first. Start listening out for missing persons, look for couples that just do not go together. If you see a couple and think, 'He must be rich to be hittin' that', watch that bitch, 'cause chances are she's the one. The fact that the entire area is so rural is probably the only thing on our side."
"Can you send me the radius you've narrowed it to? I wanna make sure that we know how far to keep our eyes open."
After talking Bobby through the steps to scan the map and email it, Sam told him they would keep him informed, and asked that he do the same. Bobby, of course, said that he would.
