Ch. 10 Confession
Dean sat on the barstool, spinning the ring in his right hand. Sam and Kale were next to him discussing, or trying to discuss, the case in the noisy bar. It was only 10 a.m., but they were in Vegas; The city that never sleeps, Dean thought, or stops drinking, or gambling. He could hear the dinging of the slot machines and the jingle of falling coins that someone had just won. Laughter and music filled the short auditory gaps between the incessant cracking of billiard balls.
Despite all the distractions surrounding him, Dean kept his eye fixed on the slim brunette at the bar. Riley had gone to get drinks and was having quite the time working her way through the thick crowd surrounding the entertainment at the bar. She pushed past a group of young guys who obviously didn't know their limit. The shortest one of the bunch made a pass at her, and when she ignored him he went straight to groping. He didn't. Dean's muscles tensed, ready to teach the punk a lesson.
He heard a loud smack and hushed murmers of the other bar goers who were witness to Riley's retort. That's my girl. A lopsided grin spread across his face. He'll have a nice shiner to remind him how to treat the ladies. While she was a small thing, she knew how to pack a punch. One that hurt. Even though he would never admit it, Dean's arm still stung from where she'd hit him earlier: Riley's patience had been pushed a little too far by his relentless teasing of the awkward situation that he and Kale had walked in on earlier.
How dare they, those little punks, Dean thought brusquely. Thinking they can hit on anything with breasts that walks by. Someone needs to show them what the real world is like. And I do love teaching pervs a good, violent lesson...
"Can you believe that guy?" Riley set the four bottles on the table. "The nerve of some men. They think they can touch anyone and not have to suffer the consequences." She took a long swig out of the amber bottle.
"You sure put him in his place," Dean agreed hoarsely, hoping his voice didn't give his emotions away.
Inside, Dean could feel his anger mounting. He hurriedly reached for the beer Riley had set on the table and took a long swig. Much as he wanted to push his way toward the intoxicated pervs at the bar and take a swing at the lot of them for laying a hand on Riley, he knew starting a fight and getting kicked out of the bar was hardly a covert move. Then he and his fellow hunters would just have to find another bar, where they'd have to set up all their papers and research again, and probably still have to deal with the same kind of drunken assholes anyway. So instead, Dean gulped down the rest of his lager, fuming silently until the potent brew could work its way through his veins extinguishing the fire in his blood.
Riley watched him pensively unable to block out the waves of anger emanating from him. Dean could almost hear her mind ticking away, realizing exactly why he was reacting like he was. Before he had time to get embarrassed over the repercussions of Riley's analysis, however, Riley politely changed the subject. "So what'd I miss?"
"Not much." Sam reached for the bottle closest to him and handed the remaining bottle to Kale. "Kale was just telling me that all the victims were having nightmares in the days leading up to their deaths."
"All four vics lived in the same neighborhood too," Kale added. He shut the laptop, giving him an unobstructed view of the other hunters. "They didn't know each other, and everyone but Benji and the Caseys lived alone."
"We searched the houses for EMF, but we didn't find anything," Dean supplemented.
"According to the case flies, witnesses reported that two of the victims, Marissa and Carl, were acting crazy, talking to things that weren't there, screaming and running around just before they died." Riley flipped through the photos of the case files she'd taken with her phone.
"So you guys didn't find anything unusual at the houses?" Sam questioned. "No sulfur?"
"No. There was nothing. If that demon from the hospital was there, we would have found something." Dean scooted his seat forward, allowing a tipsy blonde in a miniskirt to pass behind him. "But at the O'Shea home, the girl. What was her name?" Dean snapped his fingers as he searched through his memories. "Kaylee! She said something when she found out that her brother wasn't home. 'Did the bad man get him?'"
"Do you think she knows something?"
"We didn't get a chance to talk to her. The mom rushed us out before we could ask any questions."
"Dean, we have to talk to that girl."
"I don't think we're going to be able to. We beat the real LVPD to her house." Kale reminded. "If we show up again, we'll be spending the night in a small cell with twenty other guys."
"Riley and I can go then. She hasn't seen us yet. We can at least ask her to let us talk to her daughter. It's worth a shot."
"You'd better have some Jedi mind tricks up your sleeve, because she won't give you long. She'll already be on the edge." Dean couldn't see how his brother's gift with people could win over the grieving mother's better judgment.
Riley stopped listening to the debate over the child and tuned in to her own. Is it worth it? She thought. She'd kept her secret for so long, but she couldn't see how she could solve this case without revealing it. I can't let innocent people die just to protect myself. "Sam, can I talk to you for a minute?" She headed for bar's entrance.
"Sure," Sam said, a little confused. He turned and followed Riley out the door. Dean looked to Kale for an explanation. He shrugged his shoulders and downed the rest of his beer.
- - - - -
Sam stepped out into the parking lot of the bar. It was decorated with cars and an overflowing dumpster.
"What's up, Riley?" He squinted as his eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness of the Nevada sun.
"Alright, Sam. I'll be honest with you."
"Wait. Honest about what?"
"Honest about my pa—"
"Well, well, well. So it is true." A voice called out from behind the dumpster. The two hunters tensed, alert and ready for anything. "The boy-King finally found his better half." A tall blonde in a leather jacket and knee-high boots emerged from the shadow of the bar.
"'Boy-King?' What are you talking about? Who are you?" Riley scanned the blonde for weapons, a force of habit from her training, and tried to get a read on her.
"Keeping your blushing bride in the dark? Now that doesn't sound like a healthy relationship to me. If I were you, I'd make sure you get a pre-nup before you tie the knot."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh, c'mon Sammy. Surely ol' Yellow Eyes told you about her." Riley backed away from the blonde's approach. "The queen that would stand at your side as you lead his demon army."
"Do you know her, Sam?" Why can't I get a read on her?
Sam let out a sigh. "Riley, this is Ruby." He quickly checked to make sure they were alone in the parking lot. "She's a demon, but she's on our side."
Shock and horror seeped into Riley's hazel eyes. She reached for the emergency canister of holy water hidden in her belt buckle. There was a hiss as the sacred liquid touched the demon's skin. "Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus –."
"Ow, that smarts." Ruby turned back toward the couple. Her black eyes returned to normal with a single blink. "Guess that means we won't be going out on a girl's day anytime soon. And I was so looking forward to getting a pedicure."
"Riley, it's okay." Sam tried to calm her before they garnered more attention from passersby. "She's here to help us."
"A demon!" Riley tried to keep her voice down. A homeless man in the alley across the street came out to the sidewalk to get a better look at source of all the commotion. "How can you trust a demon?"
Ruby snorted. "Because I know the things you hunters don't. Things you need to know to win this war." Ruby grabbed a strand of Riley's hair, twirling it around her finger. "And I know that you have some things you need to share with the class."
Riley fumed. Glaring into the now-green eyes of the deviant demon, she gracefully pulled her hair out of her grasp. "I was just about to, but you interrupted."
"Oh, then by all means." Ruby stepped back and gestured melodramatically towards the tall man with concern strewn across his face.
"Sam." Riley took a deep breath. "My parents, they both died in a fire when I was six months old."
"You –You're one of us too?!" Sam ran a hand through his hair. "Do you have any… abilities?"
"I have one that may help us with the little girl. If we can get the mother to let us talk to her, I might be able to see what she knows."
"But how?"
"By…." Riley hesitated, then hurried to finish her thought, to expel the anxiety rapidly building up inside of her. " By reading her mind. But I can only get the information if we ask her the right questions. She has to be thinking about this 'bad man' in order for me to see him."
"That's great! We can do that."
Riley was taken aback by his reaction. All this time she'd feared the worst, but Sam actually understood. He hadn't sent her to the nearest asylum or tried to exterminate her. His reaction was pure joy.
"What do you think you're doing? You can't stop there." Riley had almost forgotten about the prying demon leaning up against the graffiti covered bar wall. "That's not all you can do and you know it," Ruby whispered in the female hunter's ear.
"What do you mean?" Riley's relief was short-lived. Uneasiness flooded her heart and quickly spread throughout her limbs. My dream.
"You don't think Azazel would just pick your average telepath to be queen, do you? Even if you do have some empathic tendencies, there's much more to you than that." Ruby circled behind her. "You don't have as much natural talent as Sam here, but you do have your own arsenal at your disposal. And it's a damn good one."
"I don't know what you mean." She spoke so quietly that Sam could hardly hear her.
"Let's just say you could save some demons a hell of a lot of time." She pushed a dark sack into Riley's hand. "Don't lose that. You'll need it if you want to live long enough to find out what the hype's all about."
"What—" Riley turned to question Ruby about the sack, but she was gone. "Well, that was different. She like that all the time?"
"Pretty much, yeah. Anyways, Ruby gave me and Dean…"
But Riley had tuned out. She looked back at the dumpster where Ruby had materialized from. Now, two figures stared back at her. A tall man stood beside a woman with eyes the color of the sea; their hands interlocked. Riley's heart caught in her throat. It's her.
"Riley, you okay?" Sam followed her gaze to the dumpster and looked back to her.
"What? I'm sorry, what were you saying?" She had lifted her eyes away from the pair for only a second, but when she looked back they were gone.
"I was saying that Ruby gave Dean and me bags like this to keep a demon off our trail. Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah. I'm fine. Let's head back in before they start to worry about us."
Before heading back into bar, she took one last look at the dumpster. The couple was there again, but this time they were closer to the bar's entrance. They were covered in flames, but through the blazes their faces were filled with anger and resentment.
How could you do this to us, Riley? The ghostly whisper caused the hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end. It's all your fault.
She hastily entered the crowded room before she could hear anymore.