Disclaimer: If any of them were mine, I'd be on a deserted island with Dean and Cas. Mmmm... yummy angel eye candy…

20. Nightmares

Dean was leaning against the counter of the blood-sucker's kitchen. He was holding a plate of food in his hand as he glared at the back of Sam's head where he sat at the dining room table next to Esme and across from Carlisle. If he wasn't so pissed, he would appreciate the good food Esme had prepared for them – if Esme weren't a blood-sucking vampire to boot. How the hell had he been rail-roaded into coming here? Oh, that's right… Sam. His baby brother knew all the tricks into getting whatever he wanted out of him, including threatening to come to the vampire mansion by himself. So of course Dean had to come here too. There hadn't been a choice in the matter.

And now Leah and Embry were on the deck on the other side of the glass southern wall, peering into the living room with pissed off wolf faces. Esme had invited them in, telling them that they could stay in their wolf state if that made them more comfortable, to which Leah had snarled a series of profanities at her. Dean wasn't sure what she was saying of course, but she sounded like a sailor on shore leave to him. So the wolf guards were outside, on the other side of a plate glass wall, and giving Sam a mutinous look through the window for forcing them to be there. Sam had told them they didn't have to come to the Cullen's, that they would be perfectly safe, but Embry had a look in his eyes that said clearly that he wanted to tear Sam a new one for doing this to them.

They couldn't even give the wolves a ride to the Cullen's because Leah wouldn't phase. He didn't understand why not until Embry gestured to his back leg where a pair of shorts was tied to it, and Dean looked at Leah's leg and there was nothing there. Cuz… oh yeah, her clothes got shredded when she'd wolfed out going after Alpha-Douche earlier.

And that thought made him angry too, because he and Leah had been interrupted earlier and there was no chance of picking things up as long as they were in the Creep-tastic mansion. Fucking Sam!

So they had driven to the Munster house, and waited at the bottom of the driveway for the wolves to run out of the trees and trot alongside the car up the driveway. And Dean felt guilty that Leah felt she had to be here to watch out for them. That she was gonna go deep behind enemy lines to watch his ass in case fucking Jasper or whoever else tried to take a bite out of it. Because when a Quileute made a deal, they stuck by it. And they had been ordered to go where the idiot hunters went.

So while Sam was having a delightful conversation with the parents of this fucked up family, he was leaning against the kitchen counter where no one could come up behind him and he could see everyone else. Alice and Emmett were playing Call of Duty on the Xbox, and Jasper and Rosalie were at Bella's house guarding Charlie. Dean would give the Cullens one thing, they weren't leaving Charlie's safety out of the question in this whole mess. They seemed pretty dedicated to keeping as many people safe from the fallout as possible.

The 'talk' during the hike from the clearing to the car, and the drive from the woods to the Cullen's had been catastrophic – a full out shouting match for nearly an hour between the two brothers. Dean did not like how chummy Sam was getting with the vampires, and he wasn't afraid to tell his kid brother so. There had been yelling and shouting and pushing and spit flying and Dean had almost hauled off and punched the kid but backed off when Sammy's face hardened, bracing for the impact. Disgusted with himself as much as the situation, Dean had threatened to just drive them to a motel and be done with it, until Sam had threatened that he would just call Carlisle to come pick him up, saying this as he pulled the small piece of paper out of his pocket that the vamps had given him before they went off on the scent trail.

Little fucker.

So Dean glared a hole into the back of Sam's head as he told the Cullens about Lenore's family, and how they'd come across them. He told them about Demi-Gods and shape-shifters, and nearly every other hunt they'd ever been on, from bugs to Wendigos and everything in between.

And the part that was getting to him the most was how comfortable Sam was with them. Almost as if he were sitting at Bobby's table instead of the vampire's.

Little fucker.

Sam wished that Dean would stop trying to burn a hole in the back of his head. He could feel his brother back there, leaning aggressively against the counter and just watching everything. Scowling and grinding his teeth and being utterly Dean. So Sam did his best to ignore him, devouring the dinner Esme had made for them. She'd gone grocery shopping just for them, to make them the lunch she'd packed them and things for if they agreed to come back after the blood-trail. She was just so thrilled and happy that they came – invited the wolves in and everything, even though her very nature dictated that they were primal enemies. And Sam also pushed aside his feelings of unease. The vampires still made him wary. Not so much the Doc and Esme, but the others did – and Sam was all too aware of Emmett and Alice 'casually' playing a video game in the next room. The mistrust was thick between them, and only an idiot could miss that.

Sam told Carlisle everything he knew about Demi-Gods, Lenore, shape-shifters and everything else they'd ever encountered. Carlisle and his wife asked intricate questions, genuinely interested in the varying topics. He had hoped that once the conversation got going, Dean would eventually join in, whether with a snarky statement or an all out insult – it didn't matter as long as he spoke with them. But for once in his life, big brother was completely silent – other than the teeth grinding.

Come on Dean, they're not so bad. Just give them a fucking chance. He silently pleaded with his brother.

Sam had been shocked at the way the wolves had torn apart the vampire earlier. He hadn't really considered how the wolves would fight a vampire before, and the show he'd gotten earlier had rocked him to the core. The violence and utter destruction they had reaped upon the vampire was trying to claw its way through his brain now. The tearing and the gouging and the ripping limb-from-limb… And he hadn't missed all the blood draining from his brother's face at the sight.

So perhaps Sam's plan of convincing Dean to go vamp wasn't the best course of action, but it was all they had right now. He tried to reason with himself on why it was still the best idea they had to work with. The wolf-pack knew how to fight vampires, probably took a lot of deaths in their history to learn how to take them out. The hellhounds would never have had an encounter with a vampire – why would they? They wouldn't know that they had to go for the throat. All the corpses they'd found ravaged by hellhounds had their vitals shredded – that was how a hellhound killed its victim. Shredding at a vampire's vitals would do squat. And hopefully the increased strength and speed of a vampire would keep it from getting that bad in the first place. Hell... maybe a vampire could even see a hellhound as they were technically dead anyway. And they were hunters, they knew how to keep the beasts at bay – goofer dust, salt, Devil's Shoestring… They could hold out until Lilith came for them herself and they would kill her.

Somehow.

"So what's the deal with the Volturi anyway?" Sam asked the doc.

Carlisle seemed to withdraw a bit at the question. If he could get any paler, he undoubtedly would. "What do you mean?"

"Come on Doc, we know they're on their way here." Sam chided him.

"Well, Alice saw them deciding to come here. We can only guess that it's because of the mess in Seattle. The most important rule we have – the only rule, really – is to keep the secret. Victoria's newborns are drawing the attention of the humans, and since we've been successfully hiding for centuries, they do not want the attention."

"But you're afraid of them personally though." Sam rested his elbows on the table and leaned forward in an effort to put them at ease. The Cullens seemed to respond better to those who seemed to accept them for what they are. No doubt that was why they were willing to risk their lives for Bella.

Carlisle raised an eyebrow at him. "How...?"

"We bugged your office." Sam shrugged, not bothering to look apologetic. What was the point? They had already poisoned them and nearly killed their son – why bother feeling guilty about a little eavesdropping?

"So that's how you... Very clever of you boys. Very clever."

"So what's the deal?" He asked, noticing with his peripheral vision that Dean was paying a bit more attention now.

"The Volturi know about Bella and Edward." The doc started. "They decreed that Bella is a liability to our kind in her human state. They gave Edward an ultimatum, to change her or kill her."

Sam took in a sharp breath. He figured it was bad, but that was beyond fucked up. "So Bella is okay with that?" Sam's eyebrow shot up into his hair.

"She wanted to be changed before the whole mess came about. Edward wouldn't hear of it. He doesn't want this life for her, and he thinks that if he can stay a step ahead of the Volturi, then he won't be forced to turn her. With them coming here, they will stop in to check up on her and there's no way around that."

"But you haven't changed her though."

"The Volturi are reasonable most of the time. We are certain that they will accept the timeline we give them. It would be easier for Bella to disappear after she finished high school and left for college. It would draw less attention to all of us – which is the ultimate goal for the Volturi."

"So you turn her," Dean cut in angrily, "...she fakes a car accident or something and then what? Her and Eddie ride off into the sunset or something? What about her family, huh? What about Charlie? Has anyone stopped to give a crap about him?"

Carlisle turned sympathetic eyes on Dean. "Of course we have. This is not an easy life and it is why Edward is fighting so hard against all of this. He hopes that if he prolongs it long enough, Bella will change her mind – that she'll want to stay human."

"And what do you want?" Dean sneered.

"We want our family to be safe and happy." Esme said simply. "If that means Bella being human or vampire, then so be it."

"Why do the Volturi even care anyway? She can't be the only human that knows about you guys." Sam cut in before Dean could lash out at Esme – Sam had to admit that he was honestly becoming a little attached to the kind woman.

"When Bella went to Volterra in the spring to stop Edward from making a terrible mistake..." Carlisle started.

"The whole suicide/cliff diving thing?" He cut in.

"Yes, that… Anyway, when she went to Volterra, she came into contact with Aro – one of the leaders. He took a particular interest in her as she was immune to his powers, just like she is immune to Edward's. She was also immune to Jane, who is one of their primary assets. To tell you how remarkable that is... I just can't put it into words." Carlisle shook his head in disbelief. "Aro wants nothing more than to add to his own power by bringing in the most talented of our kind. He is curious what would become of Bella if she were turned, and if he could have use of her. He also covets Alice dearly. He had not met her before then, and had no knowledge of her existence as I haven't been back to Volterra in centuries. You can imagine what he would do if he had the power of prophecy at his disposal."

"So they're checking in with you to make sure that Bella's heart doesn't beat anymore, and to try and do a little recruiting?" Dean snapped.

"In so many words... Yes."

"So why don't you guys just gank the Guard that's coming here, and take off where they can't find you?" Dean gave the doc a look that plainly said they were idiots for not thinking of that themselves.

"Because..." Alice came skipping into the room, "...they're the Guard."

Dean jumped a little at her sudden nearness. "And what the hell does that have to do with anything? Shoot them full of Dead-man's blood, rip their freaking heads off and you're in the clear."

Alice put her hands on her hips and glared icicles at him. "Do you know what happens when a criminal kills a police officer, Brainiac?" She didn't wait for an answer as she charged forward. "You suddenly have ten cops and they're all gunning for your ass. That's what will happen if the Guard are killed while they are here. And there's no way to hide or outrun these guys because they are immortal and can spend the rest of eternity looking for you."

"The world's a big place, what do you mean you can't hide?" Sam asked.

"Demetri." She shrugged. "He's the best tracker in the world. He can hone in on your brainwaves from anywhere in the world. The only one that he probably couldn't find would be Bella as she seems to keep everyone out of her head, but that just means that Demetri could just focus on Edward to find her."

"So kill this Demetri douche and make a run for it." Dean snapped.

"Hello?" Alice scowled and waved at him. "Have you been paying attention? Immortal? The rest of our immortal lives spent on the run and constantly looking over our shoulder."

"Isn't that worth keeping Bella human?"

"Not when she wants to be one of us. The only one opposed to this is Edward."

"Why is Edward fighting so hard anyway? Shouldn't he want her to be like you guys?"

Sam found it a little amusing to see Dean and Alice nearly toe to toe arguing with each other. Like Dean was arguing with an extremely annoying, tiny person instead of an extremely annoying, tiny vampire.

"He's worried about her soul." Carlisle cut in, getting up from the table and wrapping an arm around Alice's small shoulders and putting some space much needed space between her and the older hunter.

Sam started at that. "What about her soul?" His heart started hammering in his chest and he was sure the Cullens could hear it.

What does her soul have to do with anything?

"Edward is convinced that we are soulless monsters." Carlisle turned sad eyes on them. "I can't convince him otherwise, and he is terrified for Bella's immortal soul."

They don't have a soul? Sam's mind was reeling. They have to have their soul.

"But you think that you have a soul… right Doc?" Sam tried to keep the tremor out of his voice. If they lost their souls when they turned, then Dean's would still be hell bound while his body lived out eternity as a vampire. The thought of that made his stomach churn and a cold sweat broke out on his skin… and Esme was looking at him now and there was concern in her beautiful features and Sam fought to regain his rampaging heartbeat.

"Of course we do." Alice scrunched her face at him in disgust. "We couldn't live as we do and be soulless. Edward just doesn't believe it."

"Maybe 'cuz your douchebag brother is actually right about something." Dean shot back.

"You are a complete asshole. Do you know that about yourself?" She glared at him.

"I take pride in knowing that about myself, Sweetheart."

"Well hurray for you." Alice rolled her eyes. The pixie let out a huff. Turning towards Carlisle, Alice said, "I'm going to go to Charlie's and take Rosalie's spot on guard."

"Ice Bitch is coming home?" Dean muttered. "Joy."

"That's my woman you're talking about!" Emmett's voice came booming from the living room where he hadn't left his game.

"Sorry." Dean called back. "Ice Queen sound better?"

"Try Ice Princess. It suits her more."

And if Sam were a little less pre-occupied with the whole vampires-don't-know-if-they-have-souls thing, he might have noticed the corners of Dean's mouth turning up slightly at Emmett's joke.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Alice took off pretty quick after that. Dean, disgusted and annoyed by the whole situation, said, "Hey Sammy. You ready to get out of here and find a motel?"

"You're more than welcome to stay here. We have plenty of room." Esme offered.

"Thanks Esme, but..."

"That sounds great Esme. Thank you." Sam interrupted him and Dean felt his blood pressure rise.

Little fucker. He cursed. He could in no uncertain terms, leave Sam here alone – and the last thing he wanted was to have a sleep over at the Cullen's house. This was officially the worst night of his life.

Okay, not the worst – Sam dying had been the worst. And Dad dying. And Mom...

"I need some air." Dean muttered darkly as he turned for the glass door that led to the deck.

"You sure you don't want to challenge the Call of Duty master to a game, Chump?" Emmett called over the back of the sofa, waving a controller at him.

Dean shook his head. "That's okay. I'll kick your ass later." And he wasn't talking about some stupid video game.

Fucking vampires.

Dean strode out through the glass door out to the deck. Embry was sitting there in the cold night air but there was no sign of Leah and there were none of the wispy Leah tendrils floating in his stomach so he instinctively knew she wasn't around. "Where's Leah, Dude?" He asked the giant wolf. He just nodded off towards the trees, and Dean sat down on the edge of the deck next to him. "So she didn't feel like hanging around Leech-Central either did she?" Dean mused, looking off into the trees and wondering how far away she was and what she was doing. "Can't say I blame her." He muttered. "I'm sorry that Sam forced our hands on this… er, paws… whatever. I didn't want to come here either, but I couldn't let him come here alone. And I'm sorry that that means you're stuck here too."

Dean huffed and watched as his breath clouded in front of him. How could it be so cold here? It was freaking summer! He didn't even want to imagine what it was like on the mountain for Jake, Bella and Edward. He grinned evilly to himself, hoping that Jake was keeping Bella warm.

Again, he idly wondered about the connection he felt for the wolf pack. Not Alpha-Douche of course – Dickhead had a target on his hairy ass. But the others? Yeah… he felt some sort of connection there that he couldn't explain to himself. Perhaps it was the way they fought – like it was their duty. They'd even called themselves 'The Protectors', so maybe that had something to do with it. They protected their people and the people of Forks and most of them had no idea of the danger they were being spared because of the wolves. Washington was the fucking Vampire Superhighway apparently.

And he pushed away the terror as the image of the wolves tearing into the vampire earlier cropped up and started running circles in his mind. He swallowed back the dinner he'd had as it threatened to rise. He could feel his heart rate kick up a notch and Embry's shaggy head turned to look at him questioningly as he could undoubtedly hear it from where he was next to him.

Dean abruptly got up. "I gotta get something outta the car." He said as an excuse and headed off towards the Impala.

He rummaged around in the trunk, grabbing a bottle of mouthwash and swirling the burning liquid around in his mouth before spitting the contents into Esme's rose bushes. At least it got the foul taste out of his mouth from nearly puking like a little kid at the amusement park.

He pulled the machetes and the quivers of arrows out of the trunk, along with all the knives, the whet stone, and the bottle of left over Dead Man's blood. If they were stuck here because of his idiot brother, he might as well tend to the arsenal. Hunter's Handbook rule number one – make sure your piece is in perfect fucking working order. And the Winchester arsenal was always perfectly maintained. So he took the weapons back to the deck and sat next to Embry while he sharpened and dipped everything. Those fuckers weren't gonna know what hit them.

He couldn't go back in. Just the sight of Sammy at the table still talking to Carlisle and Esme, and later playing a video game against Emmett – it was too much for him to take. His little brother was being friendly with vampires. Exactly when did the world tip on its axis?

Ice Princess eventually came home. She just glared daggers at him as she passed on her way into the house. The daggers were for both him and Embry no doubt, not to mention the arsenal that surrounded them. She gave a disgruntled look to Emmett at his greeting of 'Hey Babe,' when she walked into the house, and that look was most likely directed at Sam who was sitting in an armchair with the controller in his hand and giving Emmett a run for his money.

"It's fucking freezing out here man." Dean groused as he blew into his hands to warm them up some. "I guess that fur coat has some uses, huh?" Embry just gave him a sad and bored look before he looked back in the giant plate glass window at Sam so close to the leeches. If was funny that Dean was getting so used to the wolves that he could tell that Embry was frowning at his brother. "Don't ask me where he gets it." Dean shook his head. "I'd have been quite happy to blow them all to pieces." He muttered. "Of course, if we had just blown in here and killed them all, we probably wouldn't have met you guys. I guess that's worth the aggravation of meeting Alice." Dean so rarely said anything of emotional consequence that he took himself by surprise by his statement. Embry just rolled his eyes at him. "Leah coming back anytime soon?" He asked, because she was the one he really meant in his last statement. The wolf shrugged his massive shoulders.

Damn.

He leaned his head against the railing post next to him. He was cold and he was tired and he wanted a hot shower and a warm bed. And he wasn't going to get any of that because there was no way he was going back inside that house unless one of the vamps attacked Sam. So it looked like he was going to be spending the night on the freezing deck before he had to go fight off the Newborn invasion in the morning. Just. Fucking. Peachy.

He must have drifted off to sleep for a minute because he was suddenly jerking his head up off his chest. Embry nudged him in the arm with his giant head and nodded off towards the Impala. "Gotta watch out for Sammy." He mumbled sleepily. The wolf rolled his eyes at him, nudged him pretty hard in the shoulder with his giant head and nodded towards the car again. "You'll keep an eye out?" Embry turned his body around so that he was lying on the deck with his face an inch away from the glass. "You yell for me if anything happens. Okay?" Embry nodded and Dean pried his frozen ass off the decking and gathered up all the weapons and headed back to the car.

He was strapped down on a frozen metal table and there were demons surrounding him. All of them were gloating and laughing, wielding knives honed from shards of ice as they hacked and carved at him. Singing sick renditions of Christmas carols as they flayed the skin from his naked body, relishing in the screams coming from his mouth. He'd always been told that Hell was lakes of fire and brimstone. He was in hell – he was certain of that because no matter how much pain the demons were inflicting on him, he miraculously healed moments later so the torture could go on and on and on. But there was no fire, no brimstone. Just ice and a deep cold so raw it burned his skin.

So he fought against his restraints, strained against them futilely, screaming with the pain he couldn't keep in any longer. Hadn't been able to keep up the macho facade long in the first place as the first demon to hack into him ripped out his kidney and bit into it, licking its rotting lips as the blood ran rivulets down its chin and he squeezed the organ between festering fingers over Dean's face so his own blood splashed on his face and ran into his wide open and screaming mouth. And after that all the demons were ripping him open and fighting for organs, his intestines were strewn all over the frozen floor and the demons were feeding off him like in all the fucking zombie movies he'd ever seen. And all he could do was scream out his agony and pray for a death that would never come because the frozen wasteland he was in was a special spot in Hell and there would be no death to save him from the eternity of torture that was his due for selling his soul.

The demons backed off for a minute again so his body would regenerate, a bare minute of respite before the never ending torture would resume and all the break did was give him a moment to pray to God or whoever might be listening to just kill him now. End the pain and finish him off and let him fucking die already because the pain was too much to bear.

The lead demon – the one that had fed off his kidney – smiled at him, advancing slowly and raising his ice dagger high above his head. Dean knew where the dagger was going to land even before it pierced him in the center of the chest, cartilage and bone shattering, lungs rupturing and his mouth filling with blood as he started to drown in his own fluids, and still he screamed. Blood bubbling up past his lips and running down his cheeks and pooling on the frozen table slab. And he couldn't breathe anymore, suffocating and drowning to a chorus of laughing demons and howling hellhounds that were dancing back and forth in his periphery.

Please God... if you're out there just kill me now.

The lead demon was advancing on him again, when he froze, shock and horror written on his ugly face as he suddenly turned and ran, and all the other demons ran off too as an angel came swooping in on a blast of cold air, brandishing a flaming sword that had the demons running for their worthless lives. And Dean had never been one to believe in angels but he did now because there she was, white dress and sweeping white wings and she was hacking and hewing at the demons too stupid or too slow to run when they had the chance as she burned her way through them, standing as an indestructible wall between him and the demons. She was glowing and ethereal and Dean had to close his eyes to keep them from burning out of his head because there was no way he was worthy of looking at the celestial creature with his lowly mortal eyes.

The angel swung her sword and shattered the shackles that were holding him to the table. He instinctively flung his arms over his face to avoid looking at her, hiding behind arms that would never protect him from her if she wanted to smite him back to the Stone Age for daring to look upon her. Strong, hot hands grabbed his wrists, but he kept his eyes shut tight, turning his face away.

"Dean," she said forcefully, "...look at me."

He shook his head no, eyes squeezed tight.

"Dean." She demanded. "You're safe. Open your eyes." He wouldn't though, and she let go of his wrists and placed her hot hands on the sides of his face, forcing his head to turn towards her and all her grace and all her power. "Open your eyes Dean."

And the tone in her voice would not be disobeyed so he cracked an eye open, ready to shut them again quick if they burst into flame. The frozen hell was gone, so was the table he'd been strapped to and all the blood that had been splattered across the floor and he was in the Impala and the angel that had taken Leah's form was crouched on top of him in the front seat, holding his face and concern and worry marring her beautiful features – an ethereal glow still surrounding her head even though she was in human form and her wings were safely furled and hidden from his view.

"It's over." She whispered, and Dean wrapped his arms tightly around her, buried his face in her neck to breathe her in and got ready for whoever was out there to smite the ever loving fuck out of him for daring to latch onto the angel that had come to save him.

She'd been pissed about having to come to the blood-sucker mansion. It wasn't Dean's fault – it was purely his brother's idea. For whatever god forsaken reason, the younger hunter seemed to be taking a shine to the vamps. Embry had gone on watch duty so that she could go off to vent a little steam. Quil was running wolf and offered to bring her some stuff from her house if she'd meet him at the border of the Cullen land. He was totally coming through for her on the cousin front today.

So he brought her a change of clothes and some food in a paper bag that he carried in his teeth. Told her that her mom was worried about them and wanted to know what was going on. He wouldn't tell her of course – there were some things that the Elder's Council just didn't need to know about. So Leah had taken the bag back to Leech Manor so that Embry could have a bite to eat as well.

Sam wasn't running tonight. Last heard, he'd gone home to Emily, and good riddance asshole was the only thing running through her mind on that one. She'd been pissed about him and Jared and Paul sneaking up on them earlier by walking as human and staying downwind until the last moment when Jared and Paul phased back and Sam had sauntered out of the woods looking for a fight. And she knew without question that as the two idiots rolled around in the dirt fighting, that if she jumped in, Sam would phase and then Dean would likely be forced to kill him because Sam was being a bigger idiot than usual. As much as she hated the dick, she didn't want him dead even though he was severely pissing her off. The asshat was stepping way outside his boundaries. So she'd been stuck on the sidelines, growling her heart out to no avail. There was a smug touch of pride though at the fact that Dean had been holding his own against her Alpha. He was human… and he had held his own.

What a wolf he'd make. She thought wistfully.

Before long she was back at the Cullen's back deck. Embry was lying on the deck watching the younger hunter sleeping on the sofa. How on earth he could walk in there and fall asleep on their sofa – she didn't know. She deposited the paper bag on the deck next to Embry's nose, and he smiled as the smell of her mom's famous blueberry-banana muffins wafted out to him.

She knew that Dean was sleeping in the car, so she hunkered down on the deck next to Embry as he nudged her clothes to the side and scarfed down the food she'd brought him. It wasn't much, but it was better than stuff that reeked of leeches. It was a good thing that the humans didn't have senses as finely tuned as hers, otherwise they'd have been gagging on the meal mommy-vamp made them. She frowned at the human sleeping on the sofa. Because of him, she was stuck out here when she could think of better places to be spending the night…

Lee? Do you mind? I'm eating here. Embry rolled his eyes.

Sorry. It's been awhile.

And I thought Jared was bad.

Man, this sucks. She groused. I really don't want to be here.

You think I do?

Hey, he's your human. Mine wanted to lock him up in a motel room.

Yeah, just when I thought the little fucker was a good guy, he pulls a stunt like this one.

What's his deal anyway? He's all, 'let's be friends with the vampires' now.

Hell if I know.

She was silent a moment before asking, Do you wanna take turns on watch? She offered. I'll go first, I'm still a little wired.

You're the best Lee. Don't let anyone tell ya different. Embry yawned and laid his head on his forepaws.

You say that now, tomorrow you'll be calling me a bitch behind my back again.

Okay, so I'll call you a bitch to your face then. He smirked.

Jerk.

Bitch.

Embry was asleep pretty quickly. Going all out all last night and all day on little sleep was rough. At least they had their wolf stamina to keep them sharp. The humans were coasting on fumes alone and it was no wonder they'd crashed.

Not a single vampire entered the living room where Sam slept. Leah guessed they were staying out of there on purpose because of him. If she didn't hate them so much she probably would have thought that was really considerate of them. As it was, she was currently parking her ass on their frozen deck and grumbling to herself about the weather. At least she had it better than Seth. It was a real storm up there and he'd been complaining about what was going on in the tent with Edward, Bella and Jake.

Leah didn't even want to picture that kind of threesome.

An hour passed, putting it near one in the morning by her reckoning when she heard it. A sharp cry coming from the Impala that was quickly swallowed up by the growing winds. She perked up her ears and she heard it again. It was definitely Dean, and she tore over to the car to rip apart whatever bloodsucker got to him right underneath her nose.

There was no one there. She peered into the window and she could see and hear Dean in the car. He was thrashing around but it was really strange the way he was doing it – like his hands were tied to something cuz it looked like he was pulling against restraints. His chest arched out and his legs were kicking and the fucking screaming was sending shivers dancing down her spine because what on earth would make this man cry out like that?

She got up on her hind legs and braced her forepaws against the driver's window, smacking her paw against the glass to wake him up. That didn't work so she howled and smacked the glass again.

Embry startled awake. What is it? Are we under attack?

Watch Sam. Leah commanded, beating the glass again.

This is not fucking working. She growled, pushing herself away from the car and darting back to the deck to get her clothes.

Don't you fucking look. She snarled to Embry as she phased right there on the vampire's back lawn and pulled her clothes on. They were the same ones she'd been wearing the night before, but her mom had washed them while she'd been gone all day.

Running barefoot over the gravel drive and back to the car, Dean was still thrashing and screaming as she wrenched open the passenger door. He kicked out at her as a blast of cold air shot into the car, not that it mattered because it was freaking freezing in there. But she dove into the front seat regardless because there was something definitely wrong here. She grabbed at his wrists, yelling at him to open his eyes – to look at her. He covered his face with his arms like he was bracing for a punch and the sight of that made the food she ate earlier want to make a repeat performance. She grabbed his wrists again, and reached for his face, shocked at how cold his skin was – and forced his face to turn towards her.

"Open your eyes Dean." She demanded.

Blearily and cautiously, he cracked an eye open. It was drastically out of focus, and roving around wildly. He was looking at her funny – like he could see her, but that he didn't really recognize her, and that scared the crap out of her too.

"It's over." She said to be reassuring, because she didn't like the way Dean was looking at her, like he was expecting her to hurt him. But then, he wrapped his arms around her and crushed her against him.

Leah was freaking out. Not only was Dean holding onto her like she was the last lifeboat on the Titanic, but she could feel his heart hammering in his chest as he pressed her into him like he was trying to absorb her into his body by osmosis. His face was buried in her neck, and she could feel his breath coming hard and fast against her skin and he was so fucking cold. She pressed her cheek against the top of his head, cradling him almost as he shook and tried to regain himself. The cold night air was still blowing into the car so she stretched out a foot to hook the door handle and snapped it closed.

He wasn't awake, she knew that. Knew that whatever night terror he'd been suffering from still had him in its grip and she was scared for him. This was a guy that walked up to vampires and Quileutes and took a swing at them without batting an eye – so she didn't want to know what he'd been dreaming about that caused him to scream like he was being tortured. And the screaming and the thrashing was on constant replay in her mind as she held him and he held onto her like it was a matter of life and death. Eventually, his heart rate slowed enough so that she stopped wondering if he was about to keel over from a heart attack because of it. So she just continued to stroke his head and whisper reassuring words in his ear – that he was okay, that he was safe now, and she prayed that she was warming him up some because the poor excuse of a blanket that smelled like it hadn't been out of the trunk of the car and in a washing machine in its life was not doing its job of keeping him warm. So she wiggled underneath the blanket, reassuring him again when he whimpered – fucking whimpered – at the brief loss of contact, and snuggled up to him. The cold was radiating out from him and made her shiver. How was he not suffering from Hypothermia? He was fucking freezing all over.

And she tried not to think about Lilith the Demon Queen that he had mentioned on the way back from breakfast, or whatever big bad thing she was planning that the boys had to stop her from doing. And she tried not to think about the venom in Sam's voice earlier when they were coming back down the mountain, about how he had to start doing all these crazy-ass things for himself because Dean wasn't gonna be there forever. She didn't know what all this meant, but it left a ball of black wretchedness in her chest that was gnawing at her every time she let her mind wander.

She tried to focus on Dean so that her mind wouldn't wander only it wasn't working because he was mumbling unintelligibly about Lilith and demons and Hell and God-knows what else because it was all garbled and she didn't understand any of it.

A/N: Earlier in the chapter, when Dean semi-woke up from the dream and Leah/Angel was there and he could still see her glowing? That was the car's dome light behind her head. Haha.

Happy New Year to you all, I hope you breached 2010 in one piece ;D