Dean stared at the extended hand like it was a foreign object. The delicate, freshly manicured hand wasn't at all what he had expected. Sam looked from Dean to Shane who was looking at Dean, obviously amused by his confusion. He quickly extended his hand and took Shane's, shaking it gently.
"Hi, I'm Sam," he said before gesturing at Dean, "Don't mind my brother. He's rude."
Shane smiled, "Hi, Sam. Hi, Rude. It's nice to meet you."
Dean smiled and pushed himself off the car. "So you're a hunter." He asked giving her the once over trying to hold back a laugh as he moved away from the car and into the abandoned street.
Shane nodded and followed Dean away from the car. "Something funny?" She asked. Sam remained were he was, watching the two with amusement.
"Yeah, something's funny," Dean replied, "You're bite sized."
"Really," Shane cocked her head staring at her newly acquired cousin turned adversary. "I could take you." She mused.
Dean let out a loud laugh as he looked over at Sam, "You hear this Sammy boy. She could tak…" But before he could finish the sentence he felt his head being snapped backwards by a hard punch to the jaw. He stumbled backwards stunned by the blow as he tried to shake off the pain emulating from his mouth. "What was that for!" He yelled at Shane who stood with her arms crossed, a smile on her lips.
"For being a smart ass." She replied.
Dean would hear Sam laughing and shot him a look that said 'shut up or I'll kick your ass' but the look didn't stifle Sam's amusement.
"Anyway," Shane cut in, "You wanna so this or what?"
Dean looked at her and shrugged. "I'll be back." She replied. Dean watched her walk away and envisioned himself running up behind her and tackling her to the ground, possibly given her a jab to the kidneys but then he composed himself and remembered that he didn't hit females unless they were demons, corporeal ghosts, or possessed. Aside from that fact, he also saw himself somewhat in Shane. The cockiness at least and he had a soft spot towards it. He knew why he viewed the world so cynically and figured if Shane did so for the same reason, then she must be masking a whole lot of hurt. He absently rubbed his jaw as he headed back over to the Impala and rested on the hood. He could see that Sam was still giggling slightly.
"Dude, you just got sucker punched by a girl." He grinned.
Dean shot him the same look as earlier as Shane head back over and tossed a manila folder onto the hood of the Impala. Sam walked over, placing himself strategically between Dean and Shane, and reached for the folder. Inside was a variety of news clippings and internet searches neatly printed, stapled and highlighted in the appropriate places. Sam mentally compared it to his fathers mess of a journal and concluded that either the girl had severe OCD and had to everything neat and orderly or she hadn't been a hunter for that long.
"By the way," Dean said remembering that he hadn't actually introducing himself to Shane, "It's Dean, not Rude."
"Could've fooled me" Shane smirked.
Dean shook his head, "So, what do we have?"
"There's a local legend." Shane began, "Saying that these woods are haunted by a creature named Asinaedo. In Latin it's very loosely translated into 'she who devours'. Legend has it, she used to lore local farmers out here, mark their skin," she pointed to a picture of a crudely drawn pentagram, "with that image, kill them, eat them, leaving behind only the part of the body containing the symbol." Shane paused to allowed the brothers to take all the information in. Then she continued, "Something like a hundred years ago a local priest came across this box." She flipped through the papers before revealing an illustrated image of a wooden box, no bigger than a shoebox with a cross etched on top. "He managed to trap the Asinaedo inside the box therefore cutting off its powers. Unfortunately, the townspeople caught him before he could finish the ceremony and being the wonderfully opened minded people they are, assumed the priest was the one behind all the killings and they burned him alive. They buried him and the box in those woods. Gotta love small towns right?"
Dean shot Sam a look, remembering their run in with the Benders and then looked at Shane and grinned, "My thoughts exactly." Then he looked back at the folder, "So, if the thing is trapped in a box then what's the problem? Is old priesty having some revenging killings?"
Shane shook her head, "No, because the ceremony wasn't complete, the Asinaedo has the opportunity to escape," She pointed to the newspaper clippings, "Every full moon, she can re-corporealize herself and have an all-you-can-eat-buffet."
Sam flipped through the articles and noticed that the dates when back more than thirty years, "This has been going on for 30 years?" He asked.
"Try 100," Shane replied, "The cops chalk it up to a Satanic Serial killer who apparently is over the age of 100. Talk about aging well. They know the history of the town and they just don't wanna admit that they fucked up."
"No offense sweetheart," Dean flipped the manila folder shut and looked at Shane smugly, "If you got all this figured out, and you're such a great hunter," He paused clasping his hand onto Sam's shoulder, "Then what do you need us for?"
"Well," Shane said returning the smug look, "The ceremony to destroy this bitch needs three people to be performed correctly and it's not like I can pick up the phone and call two of my old cheerleading buddies to come give me a hand sending a demon back to hell."
"You have cheerleading buddies." Dean grinned dumbly.
"Sarcasm," Shane deadpanned, "Anyway, so I called Uncle John and he directed me towards you two."
Dean flinched at the word 'Uncle' before his fathers name. Between talking about demons, ceremonies and getting punched in the face he had almost forgot that this girl was supposedly related to him.
"Wait," Sam's voice interrupted Dean's thoughts, "If you need three people to perform this ceremony then how was the priest able to do it?"
"You religious?" Shane asked.
Sam shrugged his shoulders, "I guess," He honestly wasn't sure anymore.
"You know about the Holy Trinity?" Sam nodded, "Well, the priest was a religious instrument because he was ordained and therefore he could act as the Holy Trinity himself." Sam was still confused but he nodded anyway. "Now, I'm sure all of us here are sinners therefore we need a little extra help. Each of us will act as a metaphoric point of the Holy Trinity."
"I get to be God!" Dean called out which earned him a sharp jab in the ribs from Sam.
Shane laughed. Dean was pleased; he had obviously started to grow on the girl. Even though he wasn't scared he just wasn't in the mood to get punched anymore by his own cousin. The word was thought with less bitterness now. Maybe she was starting to grow on him too.
Twenty minutes later Dean, Sam and Shane found themselves trekking through the woods searching for the box containing the Asinaedo. Both Sam and Dean swept the surrounding area with EMF meters hoping that the box would give off a reading.
"This is ridiculous." Dean stopped short and threw up his arms, "These woods are huge. Don't you think we should split up, cover more ground?"
"Yeah, 'cause that always goes well in scary movies." Shane muttered as she continued to look around.
"Couldn't you have found the box and then had us meet you here." Dean protested.
"I did the hard work," Shane rebutted, "All I'm asking is for you to walk your ass into some woods and find a box."
Before the two could continue their banter they heard Sam's voice in the distance, "Guys! Over here!"
Dean had been so focused on fighting with Shane that he hadn't even noticed that Sam wasn't standing with them anymore. He looked at Shane and then began to jog towards Sam's voice as Shane quickly followed suit.
Sam was standing next to a small rock formation that could easily pass for a makeshift grave-marker. His EMF meter was sounding like crazy as he switched it off and glanced up, "I think I found it."
Shane nodded and began to unload her bag. She pulled out a leather bound book and a bottle of holy water.
"Light packer?" Dean smirked.
"It's all I need." Shane replied as she stood up and began shouting orders. "Dean, you stand here. Sam, over here." She placed each brother cattycorner of the stone formation and then sprinkled some holy water between them. She then took her place at the other end, in order to form the trinity and sprinkled the remaining holy water between her and the brothers. "She's not gonna be happy." She warned then, receiving understanding nods. "I say a phrase, you repeat." She explained. Again, she received the nods.
As she began the ceremony she felt the wind grow cold around her but she didn't stop. After she was about five lines in she felt the ground begin to shake. Shit, was her first thought, she's awake. But, before she could react she felt the book being ripped from her hands as an invisible hand forced her to the ground. "Shane!" She heard someone shout but she wasn't sure who. Everything sounded quieter and she felt her head begin to throb. And then it stopped.
Sam watched as the book was turn from Shane's hands. He tried to run towards her but he found that his feet weren't listening to what his brain told them to do. He looked over at Dean and found him in the same predicament. He looked back at Shane who was now on the ground staring upwards, her breathing appearing to be labored. "Shane!" He yelled as she closed her eyes.
"Shit!" Dean yelled as he tried to force his legs to move. But it was to no avail. Sam watched as his brother was hurled forward by the same invisible hand that had taken down Shane. Dean's head connected with the rock formation in front of him with a loud thud. Before Sam even had a chance to call out his brother's name he found himself being flung backwards, connected with a tree and landing in a heap.