Gimme Shelter – Chapter 10

By: sifi

OOooOO

Bell Rock, Arizona.

"So what are those things again?" Sam asked crouching low with the 50 lb sack of specially blended salts, herbs and minerals over his shoulder as Dean levered up the first of the sandstone boulders that marked the innermost boundaries of this vortex.

"Boulders Sam... big honkin' boulders..." the elder brother's voice strained under the weight of the marker while the lever bent precariously, "Hurry up!" he grunted, "Next one... YOU'RE lifting!" he strained.

Bitch bitch bitch, and you call ME a whiner? Sam huffed, maybe if you were a little taller and worked out a little more instead of doing twelve ounce curls you could handle it. Or are ya just getting' old? He thought but bit his tongue. With my luck he'll get distracted and drop the damned thing on me. "Levering Archimedes, give me one long enough and a fulcrum big enough I can move the world," he muttered continuing the line along the rut they'd dug.

"Whatever." Dean rolled his eyes there you go genius, Archimedes... you think I don't know who he was don't cha? Y'know you really can be holier than thou sometimes. Got so damned big cause you had to have a place to store that big squishy brain of yours... freakin' sasquatch, and he was just about to open his mouth when a series of heads bobbed along the ridge line up by the road, "Awww shit Sam, we got company."

Sam quickly finished this part of the line so Dean wouldn't have to raise the boulder up again which meant he wouldn't have to hear about it again.

"Go, go,go, go!" Dean urged hotly as his little brother raced to a cluster of low rocks about fifty yards out and leaped behind them.

Just as the group started moving down a gently sloping grade Dean jerked the bo he was using as a lever out from under the boulder and ran with it leaping behind the set of rocks and landing on Sam in the process, just as they rounded the bend to approach the first vortex marker.

"Ow mother ffffuu....shit! Damnit Dean!" Sam hissed throwing the older man off him so he could curl around the stabbing pain in his low belly.

"Son of a bitch! What the hell are these guys doing out here? Shouldn't they be hacking someone's e-mail?" he scowled scrambling to look at the three FBI agents accompanied by two local officers. "No way we're moving."

"Good." Sam groaned trying to pant through the pain.

"Quit being such a baby." Dean scowled, "I didn't hit you that hard."

Sam's gaze lit with fire, y'got me right in the jewels you son of a bitch... c'mon tell me you didn't do it on purpose! TELL ME! He wanted to scream it right into Dean's ear and the only reason he bothered to control his rising temper was because of those five interlopers. "Screw it... what the hell man? I mean what can they do besides get us for littering?" He started to roll away from Dean as if he was about to get to his feet.

"Oh no you don't! Get DOWN here!" he grasped Sam around the back of the neck and swept the younger mans' left arm out from under him, then held him tight and hissed into his ear, "You've been giving me shit all day ass hole ... now we stay DOWN until they're gone do you understand me!?"

Breathless Sam nodded as the pain in his crotch dulled to a throbbing ache full of hot embers, "Tell me about the things." He bargained and didn't buy his big brothers, 'I don't know what you're talking about' face.

"The fen things... that live in these things."

Dean shook his head and glanced at the three agents. The larger man looked like he'd most likely played football, probably how he got his ride, the woman looked like she could throw-down with the best of 'em, but the one that really caught his eye was the kid. He cant' be more than twenty three, twenty four... I thought they have age restrictions... probably a consultant or something. "I thought these guys were supposed to have some meat on 'em? That kid's scrawnier than you were at 13 dude." He noted the red finally making its way back down Sam's face and neck and shook his head, his anger turning back on himself for being so careless, "Sorry man, you know I didn't mean to hit you let alone in the nuts."

Slowly the younger man nodded, "I know... think it's the vortices getting to us?"

Dean nodded watching the younger man, "That plus." He sighed, "We haven't slept in close to 30 hours there's less than10 hours for Imdugud to find that bitch and rip her heart out!" he growled then motioned to the markers, "And this is the second one we've been to today, the tats are for keeping demons out not bad energy."

"Damnit!"

"What?" Sam asked finally able to turn and peer at the group. The blonde haired young man crouched at the trough and fingered the concoction, "Don't break the line, don't break the line."

"It's not done anyway we still have to go back and finish it." Dean muttered as the young man followed the line moving away from the other four, the two senior seeming agents were ardently discussing things with the local police, and the woman was taking notes while the man seemed to be pointing to markings and graffiti on the rocks.

"Ho shit!" Dean huffed barely remembering to check his volume as the kid seemed to take flight with a yelp that got the attention of the other four. Dean made to get up but Sam yanked him back down.

Both hunters hissed as the young man came to rest with a sharp bony sounding 'thunk' bent backwards over a boulder with one arm stuck up against the bole of a saguaro cactus.

"Reid!?" they heard the larger man shout.

"Spencer!" the woman called as all four converged on the young unconscious man. Beneath his head a line of red ran down the sandstone, and between the cactus and the rock both Sam and Dean watched as a dark gray shadow seemed to break out from other darkness and disappear uncomfortably close to the young agent.

"They GOT it what's the matter with you!" he hissed as Dean slowly returned to the ground.

"He's just a kid."

Sam tapped his chest and pointed, "Did you see that?" he asked with wide surprised eyes.

"Son of a bitch," Dean groaned watching for signs of the shadow emerging from some other direction but there was nothing, "Yeah. We're gonna hafta go pay a visit Sammy, make sure it didn't attach itself to him."

Sam arched his eyebrow at his brother, "How? The last thing either of us needs is to hop back on the FBI radar, especially after Henricksen got us OFF it."

Dean dropped his head and looked over to Sam feeling the sting of having lost that particular newly acquired ally. "That's one more we owe Lilith for... so is Nancy, and the deputy, and the... countless freakin' others whose lives that bitch has ruined." He nodded leaning his back against the rock and looking at his little brother, "We might have to take a different approach on this one Sammy."

"You don't mean..." Sam shook his head, a look of dread on his face.

"Yeah," Dean nodded, "We might have to use the truth. Sorta."

"Shit." Sam sighed then peered back around.

Both men turned and sat cross legged, facing each other so they could more easily watch what was happening at the vortex.

"Looks like they're calling an ambulance, we're not going anywhere for a while."

Sam nodded, "So tell me about those creatures."

Dean shuddered, "The Foenwyn... fugly little pixie-rat lookin things... freakin' bastards!"

"Pixie-rats?"

OOooOO

She held up one of the pictures, wagging it angrily in front of Laura's face, "Come ON I know you're in there somewhere FIGHT! Fight this thing! I can't give you peace if you don't help me get this thing out of you!" She screamed then shaking wiped the sweat from her brow.

"There is no demon in me." Laura panted shaking her head and working hard to hold back the tears as the picture of the man she loved literally driving himself home inside another woman drew her eyes to it.

Her head snapped back as the woman's fist connected once again. She'd long ago lost the ability to focus with the left eye for all the swelling, and at this moment wished her vision was just as blurry on the right. It was one thing to know he'd bedded someone else, something entirely different to see it. Is it sick that even seeing this I wish it was ME in that picture? She wondered as the next punch popped her jaw and a glut of blood exploded into her mouth.

"Help me help you!" the pretender screamed into her face.

Laura huffed a chuckle and looked around at the floor, the pentagram drawn and the five extra symbols, each one tucked into a crotch of the star. She hadn't used those symbols in over a year, almost two, and except for that one time, she'd never used them before then either. Ingwaz, The Lucky Hand, The Dog... you learned real good didn't cha? But how? Did you follow me in? Did you watch from outside a window? Did you see the hell hounds trying to defend their mistress? Did you see the igigi eat the demon and her dogs?

With her senses reeling and consciousness tenuous Laura chuckled and let her head roll down, the sound bubbling out of her throat deep and ominous, "Why would you choose this?" She asked just above a whisper, "Why would you choose to leave your job, your life and become a hunter?"

The woman pulled up a chair and sat before the emissary then reconnected the battery to her hand oblivious to the spasms, grunts and whines that poured out into the cabin, "Do you know how many people I've seen make deals with that bitch? How many people whose fortune's changed only to have it all ripped away a decade to the minute later?" She asked.

Clenching her jaw to keep from biting her tongue off Laura made some kind of sound that could have been, "Uh,uh."

"Dozens, maybe even upwards of fifty. I tended bar at Ernie's since before I was legal to drink myself."

She sat back and took the cable off her hand for a moment's rest. Slowly blood seeped from Laura's nose, plinking off her chin onto her chest while the water in the tub continued to go from pink to crimson. I won't last much longer... I have to hold on, they'll come. They'll find out where we are and they'll come.

"Do you know how many people I've seen stand up to that bitch of a demon?" She asked.

"Hu,huh...m,m,mmany?" She stuttered watching sweat droplets fall and splatter on her thighs.

"Just one." She said and poked her in the chest, "You." Then leaned back again. "I have no idea what your bargain was with her or why you went after her the way you did, but I watched you and I knew, like a flash of light what I had to do with the rest of my life."

And isn't it ironic, don't cha think... c'mon Alanis... sing it with me... it's like rayeeaaaaaiiinnn on your wedding day! It's a free riiiiiiiiiide when you've already paid... well fuck me backwards... maybe later, after the hemorrhaging stops. I made a monster.

She leaned forward smiling brightly into the emissary's face, "You're my inspiration. After you left the old Tool and Die shop, I went in and copied down the symbols so I'd know what they meant, including the binding link you'd ripped into her skin to keep the demon in there. But," she looked around conspiratorially, "Do you know I'd never hit another human being until that night? I mean she was already dead, and you did a real good job beating the shit out of her y'know? But still I had to practice y'know? I had to learn how much force it would take to break bones from the little ones to the big thigh bones. The ribs were easy, the smaller bones in the forearms weren't so hard but the upper arm bones, and the thigh bones," She nodded with wide eyes, "I tried to break them in a different place than you did but I couldn't get the leverage, they were too strong! How did you do it?" she asked then shrugged, "just between you and me?"

Laura shook her head, "You don't want to know."

She leaned back and smiled then put the cable back on her captives hand, "You used something, see I couldn't watch everything, there was like smoke getting in the way y'know? So I missed some stuff, but you used something... what was it? Another demon? A golem?"

Clenching her jaw and fighting the urge to puke then pass out the emissary shook her head and watched the woman draw on a pair of heavy rubber gloves. It was all me baby, she thought watching the woman's expression turn into a deep frown as one by one she held up a dozen pictures of Dean with the woman from the other night. Each new image was punctuated with a vicious punch whether to the face or the body didn't matter. After a time Laura didn't feel anything anymore.

OOooOO

"They're gonna keep you over night, you know it's just a precaution." Morgan smiled at Reid's bedside.

"You were out for almost a half hour and you've got half a dozen staples in the back of your head," Emily added. "We're having a sample of that powder you found analyzed. In the meantime Morgan and I are going to finish up with the local police around here, talk to the folks at the Sedona Center for Spiritual Healing and then go talk with Tommy CrowHawk. We should have a solid 'rule out' by morning." She filled him in on their progress.

"It looked like rock salt, bits of metal... I think there was some lye or lime, and probably white phosphorous in there too judging by the tingling I'm still feeling on my fingers." Spencer shook his head gently, his eyes flicking up to the corner by the door and a shadow that seemed to almost, breathe, "And there were some plant components in there, it really didn't look like something that could... unless it was cut with something," he frowned slightly dazed and seeming confused.

Derek and Emily shared a concerned look, "Look when they let you out of here Hotch wants you to take a couple extra days, make it a nice four day weekend y'know?" Derek explained then suggested, "Maybe head on up to Nevada, see your mom."

"I don't need to," Spencer started to protest and pushed himself up but a blinding set of sparklers behind his eyes stopped him, "Wow, I don't think I've ever had a concussion before." Noting the amused expressions on his the faces of his colleagues and considering everything he had suffered already in the last couple years alone told them in no uncertain terms, "I don't like it."

Derek and Emily smiled easily, the older man leaning forward to pat Reid's shoulder, glancing over his own as the boy's eyes flicked once more to the ceiling, "Take my advice, take advantage of the time off."

"It's good advice." Prentiss concurred and handed over some basic notes, "Here, keep yourself occupied but stay in bed. We'll be back later with whatever else we can dig up."

Spencer nodded and flashed them a tight smile that Derek recognized, "Give us a sec will ya?"

"Sure." She nodded leaving the men alone.

Spencer looked into Morgan's eyes reading the curious concern on his face and shook his head instantly regretting it, "I don't know," he answered before Derek could ask, "I don't know what happened. One second I was looking at some of the drawings on the rocks and the next I was flying through the air... and landing really hard really fast." Only it wasn't like a real landing, it was more like getting SLAMMED down... but there was nothing there. If I tell you this will you think I'm crazy? AM I?Am I... is this the beginning of my break? There IS a hereditary propensity for...

"You didn't see anyone? Or anything?" Morgan asked, and it looked like it might be the second time he did.

"Uh no, I kinda had this really strange sensation though, that 'my foot's asleep' feeling, except it was like my whole body." He frowned and raised his right arm a bit showing the blood freckled gauze, "they pulled seventeen saguaro cactus needles out of my arm."

"Yeowch." Morgan shook his head.

"Yeah." Spencer nodded but still looked like he wanted to say something.

"What is it Reid?"

"I think I'm hallucinating." He pointed to the ceiling behind the door, "I keep feeling like there's a shadow back there but that it's moving."

"It's probably floaters," Derek explained but looked behind the door all the way from the floor to the ceiling then moved the door back and forth, "There's a vent back here, maybe a draft from the AC's kicking the door just enough to give the illusion of movement."

Reid nodded and looked relieved, "Probably." He drew the bed table over his lap and started laying out the files Emily left.

"We'll be back later," he assured the young man, then held up his cell, "In the meantime, if you need us..."

"I will," Spencer nodded, "Thanks Morgan."

OOooOO

Boynton Canyon, Arizona (the third vortex)

"Just what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Dean turned pressing his fingers into his little brother's chest.

Sam leaned in slapping the older man's hand away, "It means if you weren't so damned reckless in the first place that it never would have happened!"

"So you're blaming me?" The look in Dean's eyes was clearly a warning that Sam recognized, but he just couldn't stop pushing the older man's buttons.

"Yeah," he nodded sick and tired of his big brother's selective memory, "I do Dean... who else do you know who would've loaded a septic system with M80's to get at a water spirit!" He shook his head as Dean smirked with the memory, "Not only did we wind up covered in shit from head to toe we're both lucky as hell we didn't wind up dead when the floor gave out!"

Dean nodded still grinning at the memory, "I was just following orders Sam we HAD to get that thing out of there so dad could kill it!"

"I don't believe you man," Sam shook his head and grasped his big brother by the shirtfront, "You never take responsibility for your actions! You almost got us KILLED!" and then he swung, his fist connecting with Dean's jaw with bone crunching force.

"Son of a bitch!" the older man frowned and as he straightened up threw a hammer fist of his own.

In mere seconds, and for the third time today they were a tangle of arms and legs with blows, holds, and kicks being traded in a volley that grew more forceful and furious with every evasion or strike.

The owner of the eyes watching from a couple dozen yards away grinned until the tall brother picked up a shovel, and the shorter one pulled a bowie knife from the back of his jeans, also for the third time this day. But this time their fight hadn't taken them to the edge of the energy field where the effects could be shrugged off. Time to step in. He thought.

Raising his gun over head, he stepped from behind the rocks and shot several rounds into the air and off to the side, "That's ENOUGH!" he hollered angrily and approached, surprising both the men he'd been watching all morning. "You two fight like an old married couple! Now do you wanna finish this or do you wanna kill each other?" he yelled tossing each of them a small white sock that had been sewn closed across the top.

"Maybe we wanna kill each other!" Dean turned frowning at the guy and feeling the contents of the tiny packet.

"Yeah." Sam agreed examining the one that had been thrown to him.

The leather faced old man laughed and tucked his six shooter into the waistband of his pants, "You boys got balls I'll say that." He stood before them both smiling and waited for them to put their respective weapons down. A second later when they did, he extended his hand, "Tommy CrowHawk. I been watching you all morning. What's a couplea hunters doin' dickin' around with the portals?"

"What are these?" Sam asked.

"Just a few odds and ends that'll help confound the energies... won't completely protect you from their influence but it'll help you be able to fight it better."

"Thanks." Dean stuck the packet into his jacket pocket and shook the man's hand, "I'm Dean, this is Sammy."

"Sam." The younger hunter corrected as his big brother smirked.

"What're you boys up to? Why all the attention to these things? This got to do with the wraith headed this way?"

Surprised the brothers nodded, "Yeah actually it does."

Tommy shook his head and led the boys back to the ring then crouched down fingering the concoction that filled the trough. "What kinda fool doesn't kill a thoughtform within twenty four hours? That's what I wanna know." He frowned then looked up at them, "Interesting mix you got here." Rubbing his fingertips together he glanced up with a smile, "Got some lye and a LOT of magnesium in here too huh?"

Sam shrugged, "We needed something caustic to amplify the effect of the salt..."

Tommy stood up after wiping his fingers in the dirt, "And the magnesium to burn hot enough to melt the iron to form the binding ring." He nodded and smiled impressed, "That's pretty damned brilliant."

"Thank you." Sam sighed glad to find someone who would openly appreciate what he'd come up with.

"Do you know which one it belongs to or is that why you're ringing them all?" the old Apache asked.

"That's why we're ringing them all." Dean nodded.

Tommy shrugged and motioned them to walk with him a bit, "You fellahs need to simmer down a bit take a break and fill me in... hey you guys now a hunter named Bobby Singer?"

"Mighta heard of him...up in Nebraska?"

"North Dakota? Or was it Minnesota?" they tried to play dumb and got a hearty chuckle.

"I owe that boy, he helped me bust down and old summoning effigy up in Flagstaff a few years back. I hope he got a good price for that amulet we found though...be a shame if he didn't. You see him, you boys tell him CrowHawk says 'hey'."

They stood letting the residual effects of the vortex leech out of them while they chugged down a couple bottles of water at the guardian's car and explained the rest of their plan.

Before the boys returned to their work, and Tommy went to get what may be needed to fry the wraith if it came down to it, they exchanged numbers and finalized a loose plan.

"A lot of it's gonna depend on the kid, since it didn't kill him outright it might be planning on using him, and if that's the case he could be in serious trouble." Dean explained.

"If the thing attached itself to him, if he'll believe us, if we can even get in to see him," Sam sighed, "Maybe we can prevent any more deaths... IF he's willing to help."

"That's a lotta 'IF's'" Tommy nodded and sighed, "I expect those fibbies to be out to see me at some time today... whenever something happens out here I'm on the short list."

Dean nodded and smirked, "Yeah, I know that feeling."

Moments later, with their tempers cooled the boys returned to their work while their new possible ally left to attend to the business the FBI was going to bring to his door.

OOooOO

Imdugud took a look around, turning this way and that trying to determine which way the stalker had taken Laura. His heart burned with fury at the audacious pretender, and plenty of loathing for his self. He'd failed to protect her, even after she'd donned the amulet granting him permission to protect their offspring. The next king was in my care and I failed... I will not fail either of them again! He vowed and in spite of the fact that it was daytime, ducked behind a tree and unfolded his natural form from within his host. A scant second later cloaked in a hot breath of southern wind, the bringer of pestilence and plague launched himself into the air, his multi layered stony wings throwing gusts of drying heat to the ground as he sought to regain the scent of the wounded queen.

OOooOO

Every cough and sputter stuck like spears in her lungs and abdomen as water exploded from her throat, simply out of reflex.

"I said leave this woman be!" The pretender shouted and started spewing more butchered latin that sounded like otherworldly mumbo jumbo as she pressed Laura deep into the bathtub full of salt water.

"There's no demon..." she sputtered and gasped again as she was brought up for a split second then shoved under again.

She'd tried kicking, she'd tried getting her bound legs around this bitch's neck in the hopes that she could snap it quickly but from the instant she was pulled from the chair her opportunities had been slim, and with her arms bound behind her, chances at leverage were even narrower. So instead of fighting, she conserved her energies and sought stillness. It was something to focus on besides the heartbreak of having seen those pictures of her man tasting another woman, filling her. The long straining line of him arching back while he loosed himself deep within her. It should have been me. He shouldn't have had to turn to someone else, if I'd been there maybe I could have eased him. Stillness was something to focus on instead of her quickly waning hope. It was something to focus on beside the hugely growing possibility that he might choose to continue on in his life with Sam at his side and leave her to fend for herself. And it was something to focus on beside the fact that at this moment she'd never felt more desolate.

As the pretender's hand pushed down against her chest and she looked up through the shimmering pink water once again, the only reason she didn't simply breathe the fluid in was the only other need she had, no matter what may happen when all was said and done, he did seem glad that I still wanted him... as if I could choose any other... there was no way she was going to let this psychopath gain access to the men she considered HERS. And so, for them and to honor her need to protect them, she practiced stillness.

OOooOO

Tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks.

Sifi.