Alice loved to hunt. She had been raised hunting demons for the most part. Small fry as far as the Smith family incorporated were concerned, but it was what she, her grandmother and sister had specialized in before everything went to hell.

In spite of this, demon hunts were not what she enjoyed the most. Alice liked monster hunts more than anything. She loved tracking, and closing in on a target. She loved the chase. She loved the thrill of combat and the high that accompanied a kill. The unrestrained brutality in a life or death exchange was delicious, and the feeling of emerging victorious from battle was almost better than sex.

So naturally, the last thing Alice wanted was an overprotective idiot holding her back while she was trying to annihilate something.

"Dean, what are you doing?!" she hissed in a harsh, enraged whisper as he shoved his way in front of her.

"Stay back," he ordered.

"No, it's right there!" Alice said, gesturing wildly at the ugly son of a bitch they were chasing through the sewers of Nashville. Half bull and half man, it towered over even Sam, and had to crawl on all four of its twisted limbs through the narrow catacombs beneath the city. A minotaur had no place anywhere near civilization, where it terrorized children by virtue of its inherent ugliness, and raped women in droves.

"What are you gonna do, wrestle it into submission?" Dean snorted quietly, peeking around the bend to make sure the beast was still oblivious to their presence.

"No, I'm gonna stab it," Alice said, raising her bronze xiphos. It was a traditional double-edged, one-handed greek shortsword, and Alice loved the thing. It was quickly climbing her list of favorite weapons, and she was itching to use it in the field.

"How about I stab it, and you cover me?" Dean suggested softly, his fingers curling more tightly around the hilt of his own xiphos. They had stolen three of the weapons from a local museum, and Dean's looked like it actually may have seen battle before. It had been polished and put on display, but Alice couldn't miss the nicks on the edge that came from the blade smashing against bone.

"What, are you afraid the rats are gonna sneak up and take you from behind?" Alice snapped.

"Look, in case you hadn't noticed, you're kind of this thing's type," Dean shot back. "I'm not letting it get near you."

"Oh, how incredibly sweet of you," Alice rolled her eyes. She tried to shove past him, but he pushed her back with one arm, peering around the corner again.

"Dean, if I don't get to off this thing, I'll go for you instead," she warned.

"Yeah, well I'll gladly take a few bruises to keep that thing's hooves off you," Dean said absently.

Alice wasn't amused.

"Dean Winchester, this is entirely unprofessional!" she said loudly.

Dean turned to her, shushing her urgently.

"If you think I won't strangle you because you're hot, you got another thing coming," Alice went on, practically yelling now.

"What are you doing, you're gonna, bring the thing down on-"

Dean cut off, realizing what she was doing.

"God damn it Alice!"

Behind them, a roar echoed through the sewers, shaking slimy algae loose from the low ceiling and sending it raining down on Alice and Dean. If he wouldn't let her go to the Minotaur, Alice would have to bring it to her.

"Stay behind me!" Dean barked, stepping in front of Alice and blocking her way completely.

"OH MY GOD YOU ABSOLUTE DICK!" Alice cried in frustration, stomping her foot like an insolent child.

The beast bellowed again, closer this time. Dean tensed, and Alice punched him in the back half-heartedly.

"This isn't cute, Alice, knock it off!" Dean shouted at her.

"You're not being cute either, asshole!" Alice yelled in his ear, clawing at him in an attempt to make him move. Dean held her back for a few more seconds, but as a shifter, she was the stronger of the pair, and Dean was soon on his ass in the dank, filth-ridden tunnel.

Alice rounded the corner furiously, adrenaline pumping through her veins, more than ready to finally bleed this thing...

...to find that Sam had already done the job for her.

"Gah!" she shrieked, planting the xiphos in the Minotaur's corpse in her rage.

"Dean, I got it," Sam called around the corner.

"Oh, good," Dean said. He emerged, grimacing and soaked. Alice whirled around to face him, her fury written all over her face.

"Never. Do. That. Again," she growled.

"Or what, you'll toss me into more sewage?" Dean snapped, gesturing at his wet clothes.

Enraged past words, Alice started throttling him. He fought back, and they tumbled to the ground, each trying to choke the other.

Sam rolled his eyes.

"Get a room, you two," he muttered, wiping his blade clean on the Minotaur's thick chest fur.