Disclaimer: Not mine. They belong to smarter and richer people than I.

Chapter 21

October 27, 2005

Sam looked at the stone and felt his vision go hazy.

There are more of us, it read.

Fuck.

Jay's face went white and he was pretty sure that his wasn't much better.

"There are more of us? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Jay breathed.

"How many of us are out there?" he whispered himself.

"This is not good, Buddy. Not good at all." Jay cast a scared look over the ledge towards the falls and his eyes went even rounder. "We better get going, that storm looks like it's coming in fast."

Sam turned to face the ledge and felt his own eyes widen. Where twenty minutes ago there had been dark clouds blowing in, there were now pitch-black clouds roiling in from over the mountains. They were moving fast, and there was the distinct feeling of ozone in the air. They were in for a massive electrical storm and they were a long way from the safety of the car.

"Dean, Jess, we should get going," he called out, gesturing to the heavy storm clouds.

"Geez," Jess muttered as she came up beside him as he stood. He'd already flipped the stone back over. "Those clouds are coming in fast aren't they? They didn't say anything about a storm on the weather forecast."

"Yeah, we need to get back to the car. Jay, what's the fastest way back to the parking lot?"

"If we keep going up the trail we were on, eventually we'll come to a switchback that will take us to the main trail. The main one will be easier going and faster because it's not so narrow and overgrown. That would be our best bet. Hopefully we can get down the switchback before the weather hits."

"Well let's get going then." Dean grunted as he hefted the hiking pack back onto his shoulders. "I definitely don't want to be under the trees when the lighting starts."

"Sorry Jess, looks like we won't be getting up close and personal with the waterfall," he told her as he swung her pack onto his back, wincing slightly when he heard a faint metallic clink from within.

"Don't worry about it, Baby. That looks like one hell of a storm headed our way." She shuddered and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and gave a gentle squeeze.

"It'll be fine – I promise."

He spoke the words, but he didn't believe them. Those clouds were like nothing he'd ever seen before. They were so dark they were nearly purple, and they were writhing as if they were alive and in tremendous pain. Just then, he saw a chain of purple and green lightning snake through the cloud mass, lighting it up from within.

"Come on guys, we gotta get back." He let Dean take the front of the line, and he took up the back, noticing Dean's squared shoulders and the way he was looking left and right. So he wasn't just being paranoid. Dean felt something too. Something wasn't right.

Once they were back from the ledge and making their way through the trees, the light dimmed considerably. It was almost as if it were an instant twilight – where it was dark, but it wasn't, and the shadows moved if your eyes strayed. It was fucking creepy as hell and the hairs on the back of his neck rose.

There was a scraping of gravel behind them and they all whirled around at the sound. There was a man standing on the path that had been empty a moment ago.

"Where you going kids?" The stranger smiled and Sam felt his heart freeze in his chest. He pushed Jess behind him and swallowed hard. "Daddy's home."

There was a glint of gold in the man's eyes as he smiled at them. He was dark haired, looked as if he hadn't shaved in a couple days, and he was smiling at them as if they were happy meals and he was starving. A good looking man, he was perfectly rumpled in the pale slacks and grey suit jacket he was wearing. A man of money and means, it was apparent he was used to getting his own way with or without the demon riding him. The guy gave a short chuckle that sent rivers of panic down his spine and Sam pulled the Glock from the back of his jeans and leveled it on the stranger's chest. Jess screamed as she saw the weapon in his hand, and then Dean was beside him with a shotgun in each hand. Jess screamed again.

The demon gave Dean a brief once-over, gave another soft chuckle that made Dean grit his teeth, then the demon turned back to face him, dismissing Dean's presence completely.

"Shut her up will you?" the demon asked him, not hiding his enjoyment. Jay grabbed Jess and pulled her back more, using both Winchesters as a wall between the blonde and the grinning demon.

"Sam! What's going on?" she cried, struggling against Jay's hold on her.

"Yeah Sammy, tell her what's going on," the demon smirked. "Jay, nice to see you too," he nodded at the surfer.

Dean sneered at the monster and cocked one shotgun single handed by holding the slide and giving the gun a sharp snap. "Stay back Jessica." Dean demanded, speaking sharply and cutting off her protest mid-squeak.

"Come on boys!" the demon cajoled. "You know those weapons won't kill me."

Dean fired off a round of rock salt right at the demon's chest. Sam could just make out Dean saying, "No, but it will fuckin' hurt though," over Jessica's renewed screaming.

The demon clutched at his chest. He turned a steely gaze on Dean, his eyes flashed a dangerous gold, and he cast a hand out at Dean and he went sailing into a tree trunk. Jess screamed again, and Jay dropped his hold on her to pick up the shotgun Dean had dropped when he went flying. Dean was a fighter to the core though. He'd kept a grip on the second shot gun and struggled to get up, using the shotgun as a crutch to lever himself back to a standing position.

"Put the gun down Jay," the demon said softly. "You don't want to hurt yourself."

"You sonofabitch!" Jay cursed. "You're the reason Melissa's dead!" he spat.

"Hey, I didn't push her over the edge. She did that on her own. It's not my fault she was a digging little bitch. Besides, what do you care about her?"

"She was my sister!"

"You found out yesterday that she was your sister, and now you're all family vengeance?" The demon actually laughed at him, and it made Sam's skin crawl.

"You bastard," Sam hissed, "You killed our mother you sonofabitch, didn't you!"

"Wrong place, wrong time. It was nothing personal, but she did interrupt me."

Dean and Jay both shot a round of rock-salt at him, and he doubled over slightly before casting hands out at the both of them, flinging them several yard to roll to a stop in the dirt.

"Jess! Stay back!" he growled at her when she went to run to Dean and Jay.

"Sam! What going on?" she cried.

"Aren't you gonna tell her Sammy?" the demon mocked him, turning an interested gaze on Jessica. "Aren't you gonna tell her all about what's going on here?"

"You sonofabitch! Don't you fucking talk to her!"

"You don't give me orders, Kid." He shot a hand at Jess and she gripped her throat, gasping and choking.

"Leave her alone!" he and Jay shouted together. He fired off a useless round at the demon while Jay scrambled to his feet and cast a hand towards the demon.

The demon turned his head slowly towards the scared surfer. His eyes turned completely yellow and he dropped his hand. Jess fell to her knees, gulping down huge mouthfuls of air.

"Jess!" He dropped down beside her, gripping her tight.

"Sam," she choked, clinging to him. "What's going on? What is this guy?"

But whatever hurried conversation they could have had was cut off as the demon took a determined and menacing step towards Jay. "You'd try to use the gifts I gave you against me, Boy?" It came out as a malevolent whisper, and Sam shot back to his feet and leveled the Glock on the demon.

"Stay where you are!" he bellowed, looking down the length of the barrel for all the help the iron round would do him.

Yellow Eyes flicked a hand at him and Sam went hurtling through the air, crashing into a boulder on the side of the trail. The air in his lungs rushed out of him, and he had no breath to scream with as the demon shot a hand towards Jay, who was standing on the darkened pathway, arm outstretched before him. The demon gave a tiny flick of his wrist, and Jay's head snapped to the side. The crack of the vertebrae shattering was heard over the rising wind, and Sam's 'NO!' could not get past his vocal chords as there was no air inside him to make any sounds at all.

It was just like his dream. He'd thought it had happened at night because of the darkness, but it was the storm clouds the demon rode in on that made it appear so. Everything happened in slow motion. He saw the look of surprise and fear in Jay's eyes as his head was snapped to the side. He saw the instant that his life ended as the light in his eyes went out. He saw Jay's knees buckle and his body sink to the ground, looking like a marionette with strings cut cruelly out from above him. He saw him crumple and fold in on himself. And he heard Jess and Dean scream, 'NO!' as Jay's face met the dirt of the trail, and his eyes drifted mostly shut, with only a thin sliver of brown showing.

And all he could do was reach a hand out to him from his own spot on the ground, no breath to yell to the guy who he had led to his death by asking him to come up here in the first place.

Dean was back on his feet and charging at the demon, and Yellow Eyes batted him away easily.

Dean tumbled end over end and rolled into a group of ferns before he came to a stop. Getting on all fours and shaking his head, "You sonofabitch!" he snarled from his place on the ground. "I'll fucking kill you!"

The demon actually laughed at that statement. He held a hand over his lean stomach and laughed the laughter that had haunted Sam's nightmares for months. "You think I've never heard those words before, Kid?" He strode over the few feet and gripped Dean by the front of his shirt and punched him in the mouth as hard as he could. The heavy sound of flesh hitting flesh reverberated through his skull as he watched the blood spurt from Dean's mouth. "And I'm still here!" the demon shouted, slugging Dean in the face again.

"Let him go," Sam wheezed, pulling air into his lungs like burning liquid fire that ate the thin lining of the organs. Jess, frozen from fear, came to his side and dropped next to him, trying to help him to his feet.

"Make me," the demon threw another punch at Dean's head.

"Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus," he chanted. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen. They were supposed to lure him into a Key of Solomon, strip him of his powers, and then send the bastard back to hell where he belongs. Exorcising a demon out in the open was insanity.

"You'd try to exorcise me?" Fist cocked mid-air, Yellow Eyes quirked an eyebrow and he couldn't tell whether the demon was pissed or amused.

"Omnis satanica potestas,"

"Ungrateful little bastard aren't you?" He dropped the front of Dean's shirt and took a few casual steps towards him. His brother slumped, spitting a wad of blood to the ground before shakily finding his feet.

"Omnis incursio," He continued, his back burning from when he'd slammed into the boulder. He didn't look at Jessica from her perch under his arm, holding him up. He didn't need to look at her to know the expression of horror on her face as he chanted in Latin at a man who could withstand bullets and throw and kill people with a thought.

"Infernalis adversarii," he could make out Dean coming up to stand beside him, shotgun pointed at the demon. Dean stooped next to Jay and picked up the second shotgun, handing it to him as he continued the exorcism.

"Omnis legio," He leveled the shotgun on the demon.

Yellow Eyes started laughing again. "You seriously think I'm gonna stand here and let you send me back to Hell?" With a twist of the wrist, an unseen hand was around his throat and he was clawing at his neck in a vain attempt at drawing breath.

"Sam!" Dean bellowed, firing another round of rock-salt at the demon. It was enough for the spell to break and he gulped down air like a man dying of thirst gulps down water.

"I'm getting tired of all this," Yellow Eyes muttered, snapping his fingers and instantly there was the sound of scuffling dirt, vicious snarling, and the feeling of pure evil pacing irritably next to the demon.

Jessica let out an ear piercing scream, hands to her mouth and staring at the spot where deep furrows in the dirt were being scraped up by invisible claws.

"Sam, what is that?" she screamed.

The bottom to his stomach dropped out and he fought not to be sick. "Do you see it?" he asked, praying the word was 'no' and she was just reacting to the bad vibes around them.

"Oh, she sees it alright," the demon smirked.

"You sonofabitch! You put a hit out on her!" he snarled.

"What are we dealing with Sammy?" Dean shouted, the shotgun roving from the demon to the empty, growling air next to him. Yellow Eyes put a hand out like he was petting the animal's head. And Sam knew what he should have known all along. The beast from the alleyway dreams, the monster he fought in Dreamland, the creature that killed Wilson…

"Hellhound," he whispered, "It's a fucking Hellhound."

"Oh fuck," Dean blanched, tightening his grip on the shotgun.

"Sam…" Jess's voice quavered in fear and he pushed her behind him.

"Let them go," he tried to reason with the demon.

What the fuck is wrong with me? Reasoning with a demon?

"It's me you want… Let them go."

"Oh, it's definitely you that I want Kid. You're my favorite." Yellow Eyes smiled benevolently at him. "But I hold all the cards. You want off this mountain, it will cost you."

"What do you want?" Dean demanded.

"No one was speaking to you, Sparky. You have no value to me." The demon narrowed his eyes at Dean, dismissing him yet again.

"What do you want?" Jess whispered shakily, still eyeing the dirt next to the stranger, and the large footprints forming in the dirt.

Yellow Eyes gave her a good once-over. Sam's skin crawled as the demon gazed at her and stroked his stubbled chin. "Come here Jessica," he beckoned with a crooked finger.

He held his free arm out, keeping her behind him and keeping the shotgun leveled on the demon's chest with the other. "Leave her out of this. It's between you and me!"

"You think so do you, Kid?" There was a crushing vice around his head and he fell to his knees, gripping the sides of his skull as white-hot pain engulfed him.

"SAM!" Jess and Dean both screamed. Dean went to shoot the demon again but Yellow Eyes grabbed the gun with unseen hands and tossed it into the ferns lining the path.

"SAM!" Jess screamed again, dropping next to him and trying to pull his hands away from his ears as everything went white.

The pain lessened for a moment so that he could hear what the demon had to say.

"This is between whoever I want to make it between, and the sooner you learn that, the better. You don't make demands of me you little shit – you make deals. Jessica, come here!"

Unabashed fear filled her eyes as she scrambled to her feet to do what the demon asked of her. He reached for his girlfriend to stop her, but the pain was so bad he could hardly move. Dean managed to get a grip on her wrist and tried to pull her back, but she yanked herself free and made her way to the demon, giving a wide berth to the snarling space next to him.

"Jess, no…" he grunted around the feeling of a hot iron poker thrust through his ears.

"That's better," Yellow Eyes cooed, extending a hand to her and drawing her close. "See how easy this is when you play along?" The demon raised her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles.

"Stop hurting him," she begged him, tears falling down her cheeks.

"Done. Give a little, get a little. That's how it works in my world." The demon gave her a charming smile and the blinding pain in his head receded to a dull ache. He slumped slightly from relief before staggering to his feet with the help of Dean and the remaining shotgun he'd dropped by his knees.

"What do you want?" he gasped, leaning heavily on Dean as he fought to regain his equilibrium.

The demon gave Jess a lewd glance. "Currently?" he chuckled.

Jess shuddered and Dean shouted, "Leave her alone you sick bastard!" The empty air next to the demon and Jess vibrated with malice and Jessica cringed.

"Jessica Moore, I'll make you a deal." Yellow Eyes ran a finger down the line of her jaw and Jess closed her eyes, another tear leaking down her cheek. "I don't normally degrade myself with bedding humans – but for you – I might make an exception."

"Jess! No!"

Yellow Eyes ignored him as he put a finger under her chin and forced her to look at him. "One night with me, and you all go free. You won't get another offer other than a guaranteed and painful death."

"Jess…" he croaked, "Don't do it! He's lying!"

"I make a deal, I have to stick to it. Those are the rules you know." He pulled Jessica to him, wrapping arms around her, her back pressed into his chest as he held her almost tenderly. The demon shot him a wicked glace over Jessica's shaking shoulders. "I almost made the same deal to your mother once you know. You Winchesters certainly like your women beautiful." The demon ran the tip of his nose over the soft curve of Jessica's ear, making her shudder again. "I see something of Mary in you my dear," he whispered lovingly to her. "She was an exceptional woman – strong and fierce."

"You don't talk about our mother you bastard!" Dean hissed.

The demon gave Dean another amused look. "You know Dean… I almost hope you live long enough to figure everything out."

"I'm gonna kill you for doing this to our family," Dean whispered with deadly promise.

"This isn't our first conversation Kid, and this isn't the first time you've threatened to kill me. The only reason you're alive is because I haven't killed you yet. Think on that."

Dean's face scrunched up in thought, trying to figure out the demon's words.

They've met before? A hunt they'd been on maybe?

"What's he talking about Dean?"

"I've got no fucking idea. Demons lie to mess with you."

"I've got no reason to lie," Yellow Eyes murmured, gliding deft fingers down the length of Jessica's arm. She was hugging herself, and the demon's hand ended up circled around her waist, holding her firmly against him. "Everything I want is in my grasp."

"Omnis congregatio et secta diabolica," he hissed.

"One more word, Sam, and I'll snap her neck just to hear the crack," Yellow Eyes threatened, pressing a kiss to Jessica's throat and eliciting a sobbing gasp from the blonde. The invisible mass next to them gave a sharp snarl and Jess cowered at the sound, the tears flowing freely and he was powerless to help her.

"Jess…"

I did this to her…

"So how about it Jessica?" the demon purred, nuzzling her neck. "One night and you all walk away. People have sold more to me than that and gotten less out of the bargain. Or is your virtue worth more than your life and theirs?" he mocked her.

"Don't do it Jessica," Dean pleaded when all that Sam was capable of was opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water. He was trying to convey his thoughts with his eyes, because the giant lump of emotion lodged in his throat wouldn't permit him to speak.

He shook his head dumbly, Don't do it Jess. Don't do it.

Her head dipped forward, the tangled curls obscuring her face. Her shoulders were shaking, and he could see the tears as they fell and splashed onto the dirt trail by her feet.

"We all go free?" Her voice shook and his heart broke.

"Jessica, don't…" he choked out.

"Safe and sound," Yellow Eyes promised, eyes glinting gold before turning back to the meat puppet's dark eyes. He was back to running the tip of his nose along the shell of her ear, one arm still firm around her and holding her fast to him.

"No…" Dean whispered.

"Deals are sealed with a kiss, Sweetheart," the demon smirked, nipping almost playfully at her earlobe and she shuddered again.

Jess lifted her head and gave them both a forlorn look. "I'm sorry, Sam," she mouthed to him before her head dropped again.

The demon beamed a grin of triumph at him, a look that made his stomach churn and his broken heart shatter even more. The demon placed his hands gently on her shoulders to turn her towards him to seal the deal, when Jess suddenly snapped her head back and smashed the back of her head into the demon's borrowed nose.

"Bitch!" he shouted, but Jess had already whirled around and gripped him by the shoulders, ramming her knee into his groin with every ounce of force her five-foot-eleven frame had.

There was a horrific snarl from the Hellhound at his master's anger, and Dean, more on the ball than he was at the moment, snatched the shotgun out of his hands and started firing rounds at the beast they could only see from the rising dust on the trail.

Jess was still driving her knee into the demon's groin over and over, keeping him unable to fling her with his mojo because of the pain she was inflicting on him. Guess that was a sensitive spot for demons too.

"SAM!" Dean bellowed, "Finish the exorcism!"

"In nomine et virtute," he shouted, diving for the ferns for the second shotgun. How many rounds were left in each? Eight rounds a gun… how many were already fired off…?

"Domini Nostri Jesu Christi," he rolled up onto one knee and fired a round of salt at the Hellhound when Dean's chamber clicked on empty. It gave Dean a moment for his fast fingers to slam more cartridges he'd had in his pocket, into the chamber.

"Eradicare et effugare a Dei Ecclesia," he shouted. Between the two of them they were managing to keep the Hellhound back from Jess and the demon. Yellow Eyes made a grab at her, but she managed to dance back, and the demon lost his balance and fell to one knee. Jess lashed out with a foot square to the demon's face, snapping his head back and making the Hellhound wail for the master it couldn't get to. Jess was screaming wildly as she kicked at the demon again and again, aiming for any vulnerable spot she could land a blow on. Every ounce of fear and rage that had built up in her in the past ten minutes was gushing forth, and his gentle and sweet girlfriend was fighting like a woman possessed.

"Ab animabus ad imaginem." Dean was reloaded and continued firing at the Hellhound while he refilled his own weapon. Beastie was getting pissed.

"Dei conditis." Yellow Eyes started convulsing on the ground, his body writhing from the pain of the ritual ripping him from the guy he was wearing, and still Jess kicked him over and over. Rage and fear fueled her, and she was crying as she was screaming, aiming blows at the demons face, stomach and groin. He wondered if there was anyone nearby that would hear all the gun fire and come to investigate, although the sight of the storm clouds overhead likely had everyone scrambling to get back to the safety of their vehicles.

His shotgun loaded, "Ac pretioso divini." Yellow Eyes' body started jerking to and fro like a fish on a giant hook and Jess jumped back.

"This isn't over!" the demon bellowed, dark smoke starting to erupt from his mouth.

"Agni sanguine redemptis!" he shouted over the roar of the demon and the howl of the Hellhound as its master was ejected from the stolen body and shot into the sky, devoured by the purple clouds. A flash of purple and green lightning lit up the cloud and he only had a millisecond of relief that the demon was gone, only to have it dashed as the Hellhound leapt at Dean in its anger. The Hellhound hadn't been around for the first part of the ritual, and it was still fucking here. There was no one to control the beast, and there was no way they could say the exorcism again to send the beast back to hell. There weren't many salt-rounds left, and there wasn't anything else they had that would have any effect.

They were fucked.

"Dean!" he shouted as his brother was knocked off his feet, shotgun still in one hand by some miracle. The growling and snarling reached a fever pitch as Dean struggled with a creature he couldn't see. His arms were holding the shotgun above him as he lay on his back, using the weapon as a brace as if the gun was lodged under the beast's throat and keeping the deadly jaws back from his face. He couldn't even fire his own shotgun at the creature, because the spray might hit Dean. The salt wouldn't kill his brother, but it would hurt him bad enough to prevent him from fighting as well.

So he ran up, swinging the end of the shotgun like a club at a spot just above where Dean's braced hands were. He felt the impact vibrate up his arms, and the invisible mass howled. There was a smashing blow that landed in the middle of his chest, and he soared backwards, landing heavily on his hip. There was a bellow of pain from Dean and he saw a bright red gash open up on his brother's shoulder, the t-shirt he was wearing torn to strips.

He started to scramble to his feet when he saw her coming. Jessica, wielding a four foot long piece of deadfall, ran for Dean, screaming a battle-cry a thousand years out of place. She swung the club just above Dean's face, grunting when it hit home and the Hellhound howled his rage. Jess used the momentum to swing again, and Dean brought the shotgun up and fired into space, another howl filling the air. At that close of a range, there would be no scatter-field.

Jess screamed again, leaping into the air and bringing the branch down in an overhand arc, pointy end down. There was an ear-drum shattering howl of pain, and the point of the deadfall was lodged into the soft loam at the edge of the path. The branch quivered and shook, and there were more howls from the beast, and a thick dark substance started leaking out onto the dirt.

Jess backed up, wide-eyed and shaking as she looked at the quivering staff. There was a deep pool of the dark substance welling up around the branch a foot in the air, and then it started to run over the body of the Hellhound to show a bloody outline of the beast's belly. Deep furrows were being ripped up where paws would be, and the beast was struggling against the pole that had pinioned it to the ground.

"We gotta go," he whispered, stunned beyond belief that Jessica – his Angel – had just speared a fucking Hellhound to the ground. He grabbed her elbow, pulling on her as she stood transfixed. "Jess, now!"

He managed to turn her away from the welling blood, remembering that she could see the damn thing where he couldn't. He gripped Dean's wrist and yanked him to his feet and he stumbled a step before regaining his balance. They snatched up the packs and shotguns, slinging them over their shoulders and watching the dirt fly from around the tree bole wedged in the dirt. Dean wrapped a hand around Jess's elbow, pulling her away from the sight she couldn't turn away from on her own.

She turned her wide, blue, fear filled eyes to him, searching his face for God knows what. "We've gotta run," she whispered, still stealing glances at the quivering spear and the writhing animal spitted on it.

"Dean," he said as calmly as he could. "Run."

A/N: I found the exorcism I used on Wikipedia. They had several and most of them were really long. But Witness!Meg said that fifty words of Latin sooner and she'd still be alive, and this one was forty-seven, so there you go. Hope you enjoyed ;D