Ruby nearly broke the motel room door as she threw it open, then rushed inside. She cursed and kicked a trash can across the room before Sam could even cross the threshold. Digging through a medical bag, she found a container of salve and exhaled with relief. Her leather jacket had been ruined less than a half hour ago when a demon threw a moderately-corrosive potion on her. Since then she had been trying with all her willpower to not explode in frustration.

She'd been experimenting with incorporating grenade-like thrown potions into their bag of combat tricks. It had been her latest attempt at creating a ranged anti-demon weapon. The first few attempts had worked well for when a demon was running and Sam wasn't available to grab it with his powers. She'd been able to tag the demon with a potion and it would be rolling on the ground in agony in under a minute. The best part was that the potion also temporarily prevented smoking out.

Unfortunately, that night's demon must have been a former baseball player with hands as gentle as feathers while he was a human because he had caught the damn bottle and hurled it right back at her. Ruby had managed to duck and her jacket protected her flesh from the potion, but on the drive back to the motel it had become clear that something was wrong. She had abandoned her jacket in the alley where the fight had broken out, but it was dark and they hadn't seen the trace amount of liquid that had soaked through to her outer shirt.

By the time they had reached the motel room she had discarded the button-up outer shirt and a hole had started eating through the back of her tank top. The skin covering her left shoulder blade and central back was turning an angry red. She threw Sam the healing salve and took out a small knife.

"A knife?" Sam asked.

He hovered around her with concern, but wasn't sure what she was doing, let alone how to help. She didn't reply, instead she slid the knife under the shirt and began cutting off her tank top. After cutting the right strap and side, she carefully peeled the shirt off so as not to get potion residue on any other part of her body.

Sam stopped hovering and sat on the side of his bed. He turned away from Ruby in an attempt to give her some privacy. He could feel his ears turn ever-so-slightly pink. Her bra was tossed to the ground just inside his field of view.

"Holy fuck! Now is not the time for chivalry!" she shouted when she noticed him pointedly looking away from her. "Get my back with that salve before this shit burns my ward."

He turned to look at her cautiously. She was standing two feet from him, facing away. She was completely topless and held her breasts cupped in her hands. The redness on her back looked fierce and was almost blistering.

Sam took a small scoop of the salve and gingerly rubbed it onto a portion of the red patch on her skin. Ruby groaned a little, then took a half step backward, closer to him. As he rubbed the salve over more of her back she leaned into his touch. He felt her take a deep breath and release it slowly.

He could see that the redness in her skin was fading where he applied the salve. She had relaxed visibly. Her shoulders lowered and the muscles in her neck started to loosen. He started massaging the left side of her back around the quickly-fading injury, trying to work in the remaining salve and ease the tension in her muscles. She took another half step back, standing between Sam's thighs next to the bed.

Her arms were held up slightly as she cupped her breasts, revealing the sides of her torso. From Sam's angle he could see the side and lower curve of her left breast. He felt flush. That awkward, familiar warmth started growing in his gut. He rolled his eyes upward and closed them trying to regain his composure. His hand slid a little too far along her rib cage and his fingertips grazed the side of her impossibly-soft breast. His eyes snapped open, startled by what he'd just done.

The soft skin of her chest slid under his shock-frozen hands as Ruby slowly turned around without stepping away from him. She didn't look upset or like she was about to tease him. Instead her eyes glinted mischievously back at his own, and then traveled down to stare candidly at his lips. She took another deep breath that made her chest expand and contract in his touch. Her arms lowered, then her delicate hands released her breasts and settled on Sam's shoulders. Her thumb reached up and stroked the side of his neck, tracing his jugular.

He shuddered subtly at her touch and he became painfully aware of his own body. His heart was pounding, sending a flush through him. And of course there was the fact that his pants were getting tighter by the second. He swallowed and licked his lips as anticipation began drowning out his anxiety.

He slid his hands along her waist and then upward to caress her breasts. She pressed forward, even closer to him. She pushed his legs closer together, climbed on top of his thighs, and straddled him. Gentle warmth radiated from her flesh, but it was nothing compared to the heat that was sitting on his lap.

She bit her lower lip, laced her fingers around the back of his head and leaned in. Their lips met softly at first, deceptively chaste. He inhaled sharply at the surprise that he was actually kissing Ruby. Happily taking advantage of his vulnerability, she parted her lips, tongue diving in for a deep, ravenous kiss.

Her enthusiasm overcame his shock. His ability to reason and worry melted away against his overwhelming desire. They kissed recklessly. Teeth bumped into teeth and tongues fought for dominance. Ruby bit his lower lip, causing his eyes to briefly lose focus and he squeezed her tighter. With one hand he grabbed her nape and the other gripped her waist. He bit her lip in turn and tugged, making her legs clench. The hand on her neck slid down to her chest, stopping to massage her right breast.

Her fingers moved down his chest and peeled off his shirt. They barely stopped kissing long enough to allow the shirt to be removed. Ruby leaned closer to bite his ear, breathing warmly before she descended to his neck. She kissed, sucked, and nibbled the flesh below his jaw. Sam let out a small moan, then grabbed her hips, pulling her closer to him. Her breasts pressed into his torso and her crotch slid up against the unmistakable bulge in his jeans. She smiled as she arched her spine backward to look him in the eyes.

She slowed down, looking at him like he was a cross between a work of art and prey. They both breathed heavily. Gripping his shoulders for stability, she pulled herself up so that her crotch was directly against his clothed erection. She gently straddled him through their jeans. Ruby kept eye contact the whole time, daring him to do something about it. He knew that she was getting off by teasing him, but that only made him want her more.

After a few good rubs, she leaned in to suck on his earlobe. Her fingertips traced along his abs down to his jeans and she unbuttoned his pants. Exhaling warm breath into his ear she gripped the zipper.

"You wanna go?" It was pure seduction and he felt his heart skip a beat.

Sam answered with action. He grabbed Ruby. One arm reached across her back, the other supported her ass. Lifting her, he stood and threw her onto the bed. She landed on her back, breasts jiggling slightly from the impact. She didn't move to get up. Instead clutching the sheets in her hands, she braced herself and waited to see what he was going to do.

Sam knelt onto the bed between her legs, then slowed his pace. He had the fleeting idea that he would drag everything out and torment her as best he could, but when he looked down at her he really just wanted to savor the experience. He climbed on top of her, but stopped at her chest. He gently licked her left nipple, kissed the tender flesh of the breast, then switched to the right side. His soft warm kisses moved downward. He paused briefly at the red scar he'd sewn up only a few months earlier, then kissed it too. He descended down her stomach to the top edge of her barely exposed black cotton panties.

Leaning back into a sitting position, Sam pulled off her jeans and panties in a single motion. Her legs had been lift up near his head as he removed her clothes, and he caught her left leg in his hand before it could fall back to the bed. He kissed her calf, then bit it before placing the leg onto the bed. He sliding his hands along her from ankle to upper thigh, spreading her legs. He leaned down and began kissing her inner thigh.

Without rising from between her legs, Sam glanced up at Ruby's face. She was looking across the length of her body at him. He admired the small hills of her hip bones, the way her breasts heaved, and her dark, hungry eyes. Even completely bare and exposed she radiated a strength that he revered.

His hands slid up her legs, spreading them wider. His thumbs gently pulled her open to him. Leaning in, he exhaled warmly, adding to the heat before softly kissing her clit. The touch made Ruby tense and hum quietly in pure anticipation.

Excited by her reaction, he licked and sucked at her tender flesh. She writhed against the bed. He could taste her wetness. Without missing a beat, he slid a finger into her. She clenched around him as he massaged her from the inside. After a few seconds, he pulled his finger out briefly and then inserted two fingers. She moaned as he pressed in knuckles-deep, caressing her until he found that sweet spot. She moaned loudly and tore the bedding that she had been gripping when she came. Her back arched up, but he held her hips in place as he continued eating her out until she finished. He removed his fingers as he thoughtfully kissed her most sensitive flesh. Sam crawled up her body and stole a long, penetrating kiss from her lips.

Ruby was completely riled up and reached down, undoing the remainder of Sam's pant zipper. She pushed down both his jeans and underwear in an almost desperate gesture. He kicked off the clothes without getting up, then leaned down, pressing against her. He rubbed his hard cock against her incredibly sensitive clit a few times while kissing her. Wanting to entice him more, Ruby bit his lip playfully.

He pulled backward slightly, to line up her pussy with the tip of his dick. He had wanted to draw out the moment, but she was so wet and he was so eager that his head started to slide into her. He looked into her alluring, dark eyes, and she locked his gaze. She chewed her lower lip and stroked her right nipple without breaking eye contact.

Sam had reached his limit. He just wanted to fuck her, taking her as hard as he could. She moaned loudly and tore the sheets even more as he pushed into her. He only entered a few inches at first, then pulled out slightly before thrusting fully into her. She felt overwhelmed, spread wide around him. She cried out. With every thrust she was overcome, feeling his raw power. She felt like he was going to break her at the seams, but she found her hands had gripped his body, pulling him deeper into her. She tried to take him in as much as possible.

Trying to push even deeper, he used one hand to brace Ruby's shoulder, which prevented her from sliding backward with each powerful thrust. He pressed deeper inside of her, earning louder moans. As he thrust, he rubbed against her sensitive clit. Ruby could feel that beautiful blend of pleasures clouding her other senses. A familiar tingling grew in her, and she only wanted more. Sam had also started losing himself in the sensation of her tight, supple pussy. He gave into instinct, and thought of nothing beyond chasing a deeper high.

Ruby's lower back was lifted off the bed several inches, allowing Sam a better angle to push even deeper. He was too consumed with the raising heat of his building orgasm to notice that Ruby hadn't lifted herself off the bed. For a fleeting second she was surprised that her ass had been picked up while Sam's hands were by her head, but Sam's even deeper thrusts pushed her over the top and she couldn't think at all. She came hard—again—and let out a loud quivering moan that bordered on speaking in tongues. She clenched and pulsed around Sam, pushing him over the edge. The sound and feeling of Ruby's orgasm proved too much. Sam thrust in as deeply as he could, coming longer and harder than he had thought possible.

They were both panting for air, skin flush and sweaty. He pulled out of her, still a little lightheaded. A slight groan escaped him as he realised that her wonderful tightness was going to leave him sore in a few minutes. Sam rolled onto his back next to the completely blissed-out Ruby.

"Did I just sell my soul?" Sam asked as his head started clearing a bit.

"I don't remember you buying anything."

Ruby rolled to the edge of the bed and started reaching around on the floor trying to find her panties. Sam was momentarily transfixed watching the way her spine curved, hips accentuated—but he snapped out of it.

"Wait a second." It started sinking into Sam's mind what they'd actually done.

Ruby stopped with her black cotton thong slipped half way up her left leg and turned to face him. "You wanna go again?" She raised an eyebrow and smirked.

Sam was a little dumbfounded. He'd been planning on talking in an attempt to mitigate the awkwardness of the one-time lapse in judgment. Yes, he found her attractive. Yes, he admired her as a person. But she was his partner on the job and it was a mess to mix in feelings. As soon as he thought that he felt like a hypocrite. He'd been emotionally invested in every other person he'd ever worked with, but this was different. In the past, they had all cared for him in return, but with Ruby…. He wasn't sure what she was capable of feeling.

"No—I mean, maybe—but that wasn't what I was getting at," he managed despite being flustered. "It's just—I mean— Seriously? This isn't going to be an 'Oh my god, we shouldn't have done that. Let's not,' kind of thing?" He'd pantomimed the regretful statements.

"Wow. Tell a girl how you really feel." She wasn't actually offended. Sam was just being awkward. Actually, she found it oddly endearing. "You can put this one in the same column with drunken mistakes and one-night stands if you want, but this doesn't have to be weird and it doesn't have to be a one-time thing. You know, it might be good to occasionally work off some steam outside of a fight to the death."

She was suggesting a friends-with-benefits-style arrangement. An alarm sounded in Sam's head. When he really was honest with himself he knew that he had feelings for Ruby. He wouldn't call it love, but maybe a slight crush. She was incredibly important to him; more important than he would ever admit to her. And he could absolutely envision himself eventually getting hurt if they started having casual sex. Ruby liked him, but he knew that a real relationship wasn't in the cards. But an impulsive and reckless desire suggested that if he knew from the beginning that it was only sex, maybe he could stop himself from wanting something more.

"Well, the offer's open," she said when he didn't immediately respond. "I'm gonna grab a burger. Want me to pick you up anything?"

He shook his head, lost in a debate between lust and emotional self-preservation. She slipped on a fresh pair of dark jeans and a The Donnas t-shirt with a torn left sleeve, then left the motel room. Sam leaned back on the bed, too deep in thought to even care that he was still naked. He wondered how many months of celibacy he would need to somehow endure before he had cooled off.

He caved four days later and never looked back.

It was only a matter of time before another hunter caught up with them. The protective wards were helpful; after all, they didn't have demons raining down as heavily as it could've been. But the wards weren't an absolute solution to their problems either. Hunters tracked prey professionally and very few relied on scrying or luck to get the job done. So when Sam and Ruby ran into one at an abandoned ranch outside of Billings, Montana, they were disappointed but not surprised.

In the two and a half months since St. Louis, Sam had made significant changes to his training regimen. He tried to balance his time between physical and psychic combat training, but he found himself using fists and weapons in a fight with decreasing frequency. Also, the psychic powers Sam was most proficient in were demon-based: exorcism, killing demons, sensing demons, having visions related to demonic activity, discerning their strength, and manipulating both their smoke and meatsuits.

He had used telekinesis on non-demonic people and objects before so he knew that his powers weren't limited to interactions with demons. But for whatever reason his non-demon-based powers were much harder to control. The three times he'd used telekinesis in the real world, it hadn't been intentional. He had moved a cabinet to help him save Dean's life over a year earlier. He had thrown the two hunters who had attacked Ruby and were planning on killing him. Then he'd nudged the conjured flower while he was high. But when he would focus intently on moving a penny even an inch in a controlled environment, it would just give him a headache. It was like his telekinesis was instinctual and incompatible with discipline. The closest thing he routinely felt to wielding his telekinesis was occasionally feeling like he had delivered a little extra force in a punch or kick.

As a result of Sam's uneven training style he was not very well-equipped to fight hunters. He was still valuable in a brawl or shootout, but so were most hunters. His real advantage was his diverse pairing with Ruby, who as a demon had weaknesses that didn't overlap with his own.

The hunter had no idea that Sam and Ruby had spent months being continuously pursued by demons, making the pair borderline paranoids in their attention to details. Sam had noticed that they were being tailed after only ten blocks in moderately dense traffic. Granted, it didn't help the hunter that his black Dodge Dakota had a North Carolina license plate in the middle of Montana. Sam subtly circled around downtown and then down the same highway that had taken into Billings that morning. He found the abandoned ranch that he had stopped by to stretch his legs after the long drive across North Dakota. The ranch seemed to be as good a place as any to have a fight and, sure enough, the hunter obliged.

The fight couldn't be called fair, but fighting fair didn't count for much with a hunter trying to kill them. Ruby teleported from shotgun into hiding before the hunter even pulled off the road. Sam played the bait, walking into a barn that barely had any walls left. He made sure the hunter saw where he went, but was careful to keep obstacles between them. The hunter drew a pistol, then silently followed him in, just as Sam ducked into hiding behind a large pile of debris. Before the hunter could look around the corner where Sam had disappeared, Ruby clicked her tongue behind him. The hunter spun, shot her in the stomach as Sam jumped out and got him in a chokehold. Ruby grabbed the hand with the gun to prevent any further injuries while Sam subdued the hunter.

They stripped the unconscious hunter naked and checked him for tattoo, brands, or any other sort of magical markings. He had an anti-possession tattoo of a different design than the one on Sam's left shoulder. Sam pointed to the tattoo and shrugged in suggestion, but Ruby looked less-than-thrilled by the idea of possessing him for intel. They tied him to a large support column in the middle of barn, turning his hands palm outward before binding him to leave his wrists ominously exposed. They placed a cloth bag over his head, then waited for him to wake up.

Ruby volunteered to play bad cop. When he stirred awake, she removed the bag from the man's head while Sam stood silently behind the column. Sam didn't want to take the lead on the interrogation, even if he was a hunter instead of a civilian. But that didn't mean that Sam could just leave Ruby alone with their captive and pretend like the unpleasantness wasn't happening. He wouldn't allow himself to imagine that he was better than that because in their desperation he really wasn't. Maybe when he was younger he would have been appalled at the idea of torturing a human for information, but at that point the prisoner's humanity mattered less than their culpability. The man before him was a seasoned hunter after all; he should have known the risks of the job.

Ruby didn't have a particular aversion to hurting humans that she didn't already have a vested interest in, especially if it was to her advantage, but she knew Sam was uncomfortable with the concept. Since Sam had to watch, she tried to start easy on the hunter.

"What's your name?" she asked, arms crossed in front of her, knife prominently displayed on her belt. She waited a few seconds, but he didn't say anything. "Fine. I had hoped that he could just have a little chat and part ways, but if you're going to be difficult, then I have to be difficult too."

She drew her knife and dragged it along the hunter's right arm. He cringed, holding in a cry as a line of blood quickly formed. The cut didn't cross any major veins or go deep enough to be a serious health risk, but it did venture into the nerve-dense skin near the inside of the wrist. She moved the knife over a few inches, about ready to take another drag, then looked the hunter in the eyes.

"I'm not… going to tell you anything." His voice shook at first, but he regained his composure.

She sliced up and down his arms and stomach for fifteen minutes without success before deciding to switch techniques. She may have been hellspawn, but she wasn't one of the Torquean caste, skilled in torture. Also, he was stubborn; she definitely had to give the hunter that.

Ruby stepped back to grab a bottle of brown liquid from her duffel bag a few feet away. The hunter looked around the barn, turning his body as best he could to see behind him, but his bindings restricted his range of motion. Even so, Sam silently leaned away from his field of view. The reason for the quick check of his surrounds became clear when the hunter began reciting an exorcism incantation. He had waited until Ruby was too far to reach him and the barn appeared empty except for the two of them. Ruby collapsed to the ground at the incantation. In a second Sam was standing next to the hunter, one hand gripping the man's hair, the other holding a knife to his throat.

The hunter immediately stopped the exorcism. "So you aren't a demon." It seemed he was more eager to talk to Sam.

"I'm just a human," Sam replied as he moved his knife a quarter of an inch away from the hunter's neck.

"Bullshit."

"I don't want to hurt you." The hunter opened his mouth, but Sam continued, "But I will in a heartbeat if you push me."

The hunter paused while Sam circled around in front of him. Sam put his knife back into its sheath, then walked over to Ruby. She was on her hands and knees, trying to shake off the painful disorientation of the attempted exorcism. Sam offered her a hand up, which she accepted. She shot the hunter a vicious glare before dusting off her pants.

"Tell us what we want to know and we'll let you go," Sam offered in a tone that was calmer and colder than he had expected.

"Don't try to play me like that, boy. You killed good people, my friends. I'd rather die than help you." The hunter spat on the ground.

Sam wanted to rub the bridge of his nose in annoyance, but didn't want to his frustration to be misperceived as weakness. "If you're talking about the two hunters in Philadelphia, they tried to kill me—"

"I tried to kill you," the hunter aptly pointed out.

Sam's jaw clenched as he tried to think of how to respond. Suddenly, he had been put on the defensive. The hunter had struck the nerve more than he had realized. Sam knew that his natural aversion to ruthlessness toward his enemies was waning, forcing him to make a more conscious effort to moderate himself. The idea that he might let that bleed into his gentler everyday demeanor worried him. So the suggestion that his reasoning might be consistent with needlessly killing a prisoner was disconcerting.

Sensing that Sam was uncomfortable, the hunter decided to take an attempt at another jab. "You know how it is. You used to be one of us, for fuck's sake! You don't get to play that pity crap on me. You're a damned monster! You can go fuck yourself!"

"Fine. I'm done trying to coax this shit out of you like a fucking human," Ruby said, thoroughly tired of the hunter. She had been frustrated by the exorcism assault and her failed attempt to break him, but his verbal attack on Sam put her over the edge. She knew that that encounter would trouble Sam for a long time. She walked up to the hunter and dragged her knife across his anti-possession tattoo, then sat down on the ground. "You came here to fight a monster. Prepare to get your soul reamed hard by one."

Before Sam or the hunter could say anything, smoke poured out of Ruby's body and dove into the hunter. She hadn't been a fan of the idea of possession when Sam had wordlessly suggested it earlier. Demons could generally overpower humans for control of a body, but hunters were often strong-willed and emotionally scarred, resulting in an unpleasant experience all around. Furthermore, she liked her female body and the thought of letting it slowly die on the ground while she dug through some guy offended her. She'd wanted to make the physical torture work, but in her fury she decided to tear his soul a new one in the process of taking the information they sought.

Sam caught her body before its head hit the ground. He lowered it down gently, then watched the hunter's body. It twitched and spasmed, eyes wide staring at nothing in particular. After a minute or two, Ruby's cloud flew out of the hunter's body, which immediately went limp. She returned to her body, sat up, and looked at Sam. Her expression was flat in a way that worried him.

"His name is Nelson Reed," Ruby explained. "He's a hunter out of Charlotte, North Carolina. There's a bar there that's a local hangout for hunters. One of the waitresses is Clare, who claims to have visions. He knows six other hunters who go to that bar, including the two in Philly."

"Why are they coming after me?" Sam asked.

"You know how I used to joke that you were the antichrist? Turns out Clare thinks it's true. She's been preaching about the coming end times or something." Ruby grabbed her knife and looked at it thoughtfully.

"Seriously? What is it with these mission-from-God hunters?" Sam ran his fingers through his hair.

"He is from North Carolina." Sam just stared at her, confused, so she added, "Give me a second to take care of this guy and then I can spend days telling you all about my feelings on the Confederacy."

"You know the Civil War ended like 150 years ago."

She didn't reply to his observation; she was too busy staring at the hunter. Her eyes narrowed and she chewed her lip absentmindedly.

"I know we were gonna wipe his memory and dump him, but I really want to kill him." She couldn't decided if she was asking for permission or just prefacing her next murder.

"Killing another one of Clare's hunters is just going to just piss them off at us even more. If we spare them maybe they'll see it as a sign of goodwill," Sam suggested. He could tell she was on a ledge and needed talking back from acting out of a rage he didn't fully understand. "There's something you're not telling me?"

Ruby continued to glare at the unconscious hunter. She knew that killing the hunter would not only upset his hunter pals further, but more importantly it would hurt Sam. If she killed the hunter Sam would be more likely to take his words to heart.

"He's done things." She pursed her lips. "If I told you, you might let me kill him. But they happened years ago and don't affect us."

Sam watched her for a moment, unsure of what she'd do. If she made a move to kill the hunter, he wasn't sure that he'd try to stop her. He didn't like that she was leaving him in the dark, but in the end he trusted her. She sighed and started preparing the spell.

Ruby wiped the hunter's memory for the last month. It was fairly complicated, taking thirty minutes to perform. When she had initially mentioned the spell to Sam, he'd been hoping that they could weaponize it somehow, but it proved too involved and the risks associated with a misfire could be devastating.

They left the hunter wrapped in a blanket in front of a church-run homeless shelter. Ruby had been uncharacteristically quiet on the drive to the shelter. Walking back to the Impala after dropping the body, Sam put his arm around her. To his surprise, she didn't pull away. Instead she reached over and held onto the side of his jacket. He gave her a comforting squeeze and gently kissed the top of her head before they wordlessly climbed into the car.