1832 - The Good And The Bad Medicine

Story by Meilean

Rated: T

A/N: I strongly recommend reading "A Broken Heart Is Hard To Heal" first, to understand the events which happened before this story. For all who don't want to read it first, see the Summary of the Broken Heart story below (it can only give you an overview of the events to understand this story).

Disclaimer: All Supernatural belongs to Kripke and the Brotherhood belongs to Ridley C. James

About The Brotherhood: It is an organization of hunters of the supernatural that is said to reach back to the time of King Arthur and the Knights of the round table. It is led by three people: The Guardian, The Knight, and The Scholar. A fourth one, an important person to that so-called Triad, is the Advisor (often someone who knows about witchcraft, hoodoo, or something similar). To become a member of the Brotherhood you have to show your loyalty to the Brotherhood and your will to fight against all supernatural powers that threaten innocent lives. As a sign to be a member you will be given a silver ring by The Guardian, sometimes another Triad member.

Summary of what happened in 'A Broken Heart is Hard to Heal' (Spoiler-alarm!):

Cole Tanner is 17-years-old and lives with his uncle, The Guardian of the Brotherhood, and his family in the lonely west of Wyoming in 1831. New settlers arrive and Cole falls in love with Carolyn (a settler's daughter). A Shapeshifter shows up and kills some people. In a tragic turn of events, the Shifter kills his love in front of him and he nearly gets killed too. His uncle Wade Wilmington - The Guardian and Mike Campbell - The Knight - save him at the last second. Cole is grieving badly. Mike wants to tell him that he is now pretty sure that he might be his real father but he finds no fitting moment. To keep Cole from losing himself, he decides to take him with him back to Liberty, Missouri, to the Brotherhood headquarters to train him.

Intro - Lady Rowena And A Brawl for Cole

January the 8th, 1832 - Liberty, Clay County, Missouri

It was freezing cold outside when Rowena silently slipped back inside the barn with the cup of water she had gathered from the trough outside. She closed the door after her. The small red-haired woman spread a black cloth over one of the wooden boxes of the barn. The Baphomet symbol, which was a goat head inside a pentagram, had been painted on it in white color. The witch took a copper bowl out of her bag together with some ingredients and placed the bowl in the middle of the pentagram. A black linen sack had its place next to the bowl. She prepared the ingredients and added them in a precise order into the bowl. If she wanted to be accepted under Maddalena's coven she had to bring her witch bag to perfection.

She turned to the tied-down man on the chair, who desperately tried to free himself. The gag suppressed his shouts for help. It had been easy to make him follow her. She had offered him what every man longed for and like all other men he had taken her bait. Smiling in excitement she started talking to her victim with a heavy Scottish accent. "Don't waste your energy, you can feel honored to serve as a vessel to free the world from these evil creatures of hell."

Rowena enlightened the candles she had placed on every spike of the pentagram on her summoning altar - one by one in a clockwise cycle - ignoring the struggling of the gagged man. It is showtime. She lit the ingredients in the bowl. A bluish-purple flame flashed and kept burning. Rowena began to talk in a sing-song. "Te invoco a profundus inferni…"

With a gust of wind out of nowhere, all the candles were blown out. The glass of the oil lamp cracked to her right and the flame was blown out as well. As fast as it had appeared the wind was gone. In pitch-black darkness Rowena fumbled for a match, the box still in her hands. She enlightened one of the candles again to inspect her experiment. The man's eyes had turned completely black and he grinned evilly. "What do you think you are doing, witch?"

"Well I summoned you and I will destroy you, that is the plan so far. If it doesn't work I will send you back to hell where you have come from."

The demon struggled against the restraints while Rowena studied her test object. She realized pretty fast that she was in no way a talent for tying down people. The demon freed himself from the rope easily and got up from the chair. Inspecting the devil's trap, he started to smile deviously. "Well, witch, I think you have to learn a bit more about devil's traps. The demon crossed the line of the pentagram which had been colored to the floor by Rowena before.

Shocked, Rowena took a few steps backward until she bumped into the small box she had used as a summoning table. The demon she had released from hell was fast with her, hands on her throat and threatened to strangle her. Blindly she searched behind her back. She knew there was only this one chance. Her fingers finally got a hold of the small cotton sack. She pushed the black sack inside the man's half-opened shirt and prayed.

He started coughing, letting his hands slide from Rowena's throat. Then the demon began to regurgitate a black liquid with the smell of sulfur. He went to his knees, struggling for air. With a rattling last breath, he tried to reach the witch's plaid skirt but failed as Rowena stepped aside, still interested in watching the result of her witch bag.

"That did not go as I had planned, but it worked. And you are absolutely right, honey, I should work on my demon trap skills." She turned to collect her belongings and left the barn humming.

*** The Wild West Triad - prequel ***

Today was a special day. A day Cole Tanner had long waited for. The events in October had changed everything. Now he just wanted to forget and when it would be only for a few hours. He wanted this day to finally end, at best without noticing it.

The dark-haired had chosen the table in the farthest corner of the saloon. He poured the rest of the whiskey bottle into his glass, hoping that he would soon reach the enticing state of oblivion. Unfortunately, the giant which now claimed a seat at his table unbidden, saw things very differently.

"We have something to discuss, Tanner," the guy started impolitely.

Sighing, Cole closed briefly his eyes. Opening them again, he gave the asshole a gaze that said exactly how much he wished for company, right now. "You took the wrong day for whatever you decided you have to discuss with me. Would you mind leaving my table?"

The giant jerked up from his seat across from him, pushing his chair back with a scratching noise. Surprisingly fast, he reached over the table, gripping Tanner's collar to drag him up with him. "Ok, jackass, I don't know why you are sitting here in the corner and decided to drink yourself to death but it suits my plan to beat the shit out of you for messing with my little brother at the poker table. Maybe now you know what I have to discuss with you."

Cole gave him a smug grin with a sarcastic answer."Wow, I hadn't thought you knew this many words, dumbass."

Cole didn't see the punch coming and the impact took his sight from him for a few seconds. But even boozed up he was not defenseless.

The next swing of the guy was easy to elude and the giant stumbled toward the table. He needed a moment to turn to Cole again, which was a bad mistake. Cole's uppercut surprised his opponent. Not feeling anything at all through his intoxication he punched as hard as he could. He gave a damn if he was hurting himself.

Cole watched the mountain of a man crash backward onto the table which broke under the impact. Cole felt dizzy for a moment. He knew this feeling, it happened from time to time and it was not the influence of alcohol. The concussion he had three months ago still had aftereffects.

Suddenly, he was grabbed from behind. Two other guys, obviously Giant's buddies, dragged him with them to the third one. He remembered his ugly face from the poker game. A nasty scar ran across his left eye though he was not as tall as his brother. Cole had forgotten the real name of Giant's brother.

Evil grinning at him, Scarface was sure to have the upper hand and started to beat the shit out of Cole, who was held in place by the others. His new best buddy stopped beating him to take a breath. Mistakes in fights seemed to be genetic in their family. Cole needed a moment himself to keep back from throwing up but used the two assholes which were holding him as pillars. Throwing his lower body and legs into the air he got a scissors-hold at Scarfaces throat, trying to strangle him.

The two goons dropped him and he ended up with Scarface on the floor in a tackling match. Cole managed to throw a few bad punches at him, feeling the asshole's blood splatter to his cheeks before a shot echoed through the saloon to stop every movement.

Mike Campbell had entered and shot into the air with his rifle to get attention. "Ok, gentlemen, that's enough. Get your asses out. I'll take my buddy with me. I assume you do the same and we all forget about this."

A/N: So how did you like Rowena's appearance, did I write her well? I don't know when I can publish again. I try weekly. The story is 5 chapters long right now but I will add 5 more, I assume. So tell me if you liked it and feed the muse. Feel free to give me feedback, and advice if you find any language problems. I try really hard to let you enjoy the story without some odd words or grammar.