Dean gripped the steering wheel harder and pressed on the gas pedal with more pressure as the engine of the Impala roared and their speed picked up. They pulled up at the curb of the farmhouse in record time; Dean cut the engine quickly, and practically flew from the car to the trunk. He got to the weapons but then stopped, looking at them, frustration apparent in his eyes. How the hell were they supposed to kill this thing?
"Sam!" he shouted, "What're we gonna use on this?"
Sam rushed to the trunk and looked at the weapons. What had he read about it? Just shoot it. Kill it again. "Hand guns," he nodded, pulling one out of the trunk and putting in the back waistband of his jeans.
Dean wasn't buying it. "Hand guns?"
Sam nodded again, more vehemently this time. "Kill it again, it'll die."
"You're sure?" Dean asked warily, but placed his hand gun in the same place Sam had anyway. He knew he was wasting precious time.
"Pretty darn," Sam responded. At least he thought he was sure.
He had to be, because just then a shriek could be heard from insidethe house, followed by a loud crash. The Winchester brothers headed for the house at a sprint and flung open the door. There was no one on the ground floor, so they headed up the stairs, guns now out of their waistbands and at the ready. Classic hunter stance. Suddenly there was an unmistakable screech, like the noise a chair makes when being pushed back too hard and too fast on a wooden floor. The sound came from the right so Dean stepped forward and shoved the door open.
"JanJan?" came Delilah's voice, quavering.
Then Dean saw it. The dog, looking every bit his part of being dug up from the grave, was bearing down on Delilah.
"N-no, please. G-good doggy."
Before she could finish the sentence that Sam recognized all to well from his vision, Dean stepped into the room, aimed, and sent a bullet right into the dog's side. It was enough to puncture a lung, and it should have been enough to kill him, but the dog did not crumple to the ground like Dean expected. Wide-eyed but still level headed enough to remember his purpose; he motioned for Delilah to get behind him. The zombie-dog was whimpering and attending to its wound, which gave Delilah the time to do as Dean said.
"T-thank you mister," she replied shakily.
"Call me Dean, Kid, I've never been much of a 'mister'," he nodded with a faint smile to reassure her.
A noise from the room instantly snapped Dean's attention back to the dog, which was now getting back on its feet and bearingits teeth at Dean. A menacing growl escaped Pepper's mouth and it was now sauntering towards both brothers and Delilah. Dean pulled the trigger and sunk another bullet into the dog's head this time. Once again, it just whimpered before becoming steely and pissed off again.
"Sam!" Dean demanded of his baby brother, "Just kill it again?" he paused, looking in disbelief at Sam, "It'll die? That did not go as planned!"
Sam gulped as the three of them scooted down the hallway. Just when Sam was about to throw a new suggestion on the table, Delilah spoke up.
"Uh…JanJan has some weird b-books in his room, m-maybe those would help?" she offered, still shaking.
Sam nodded and Dean followed them, waiting for the zombie dog to attack again. They made it into the room and slammed the door shut behind them. With the door acting as a barricade, it would at least buy them a little time. When they turned around to find the books, they found Janus muttering viciously, in what sounded remarkably like Latin to Sam, with his eyes trained intently on the book in his hands. How a 13 year old knew Latin that well was a mystery to Sam, but he wasn't about to put thought into it now. He just lowered his gun despite a grunt of disapproval from Dean and took a step in the direction of Janus, who only just realized he was no longer alone.
"Janus, put the book down."
Janus just glared briefly at Sam and then continued to read. Sam tried to take the book by force, but that only ended up with Janus giving both him and Dean Death stares. The next thing they knew there were footsteps and growls growing louder and louder. But before anything else happened, Delilah set her jaw, charged at her brother, and took the book while he looked on, purely shocked. Nobody knew what they expected now, after all, they hadn't been expecting the last turn of events,but it wasn't what happened.
It all happened simultaneously. Delilah broke down in tears with the book tight in her grasp; Janus fell to the ground and covered his face in his hands, just now realizing what a horrible thing he had done, and the zombie dog busted through the door. Dean took aim and shot again. Delilah sobbed harder and moved her hands to her ears, scrunching her eyes shut at the loud BAM that emitted from Dean's gun as another bullet got sent through the dog's head.
"Sam…" Dean said, backing away and picking up a sobbing Delilah so that he could move her to a safer position and so that the book would fall out of her lap and onto the floor, within reach of Sam.
"I know! I'm looking," Sam growled back, diving for the book, picking it up,flipping through the pages, and looking for whatever it was that would send this thing back to where it came from.
Meanwhile the dog recovered from Dean's 3rd shot and was bearing down on him once more.
"Shit…Sam, come on, I'm not seeing a huge time window here, Pepper is pissed." As soon as the words left his mouth, the zombie dog lunged, sinking it's teeth into Dean's leg.
The groan of pain from his older brother, his hero, made Sam flip through the pages faster. Dean's sudden outburst also made Delilah's eyes grow wide and her hands go from her ears to her mouth.
"Dean!" she shouted with all her little girl might, voicing the exact sentiment on Sam's mind, "Oh gosh! Are you okay?"
By this time Dean had shot the dog again and his leg was teeth-free, but bleeding and most certainly not pain-free. He pressed on the wound and nodded to reassure Delilah once more before limping to the back of the room and continuing to tend to his wound.
"Sam, I'm not kidding, time is run-," Dean started but was cut off by Sam spouting out phrase after phrase in Latin.
A smirk crossed the elder Winchester's face accompanied by a truly Dean Statement. "That's my boy."
The zombie dog shook and yelped in his own pain as Sam continued to ramble on in Latin. After a moment, Pepper finally located the source of its most recent and most excruciating pain. With this new knowledge, the deformed zombie dog lunged for Sam this time, latching onto his arm. Half out of shock and half out of blinding pain, Sam dropped the book and fell to the ground. He drew his knees to his chest and released his right leg with force, sending his foot into the dog's chest and the zombie dog across the room.
Sam scrambled to the book ignoring his arm, flipped through the pages until he found the right one and started right where he left off. Meanwhile, Pepper recovered and was back on the prowl. This time he was headed for Delilah. Dean assumed the reasoning behind this was because she was the only one of the three of them who hadn't kicked its ass in some form or another and Janus was the one who had been controlling it in the first place. Dean abandoned all attempts at coddling his leg back to health and limped his way to Delilah who was too stunned to do anything but wail more loudly. Dean sufficiently shielded Delilah but got himself a nice claw mark acrosshis leftarm in the process. Another groan of pain emitted from his mouth, but just then the zombie dog yelped again and leapt back.
Sam shut the book and nodded to Dean. Dean raised the gun, aimed, and sunk a final bullet into Pepper's skull. He watched as the dog fell towards the floor and then POOF turned to dust, just like that. Delilah's form shook with renewed sobs and Janus' form shook with shame, but both Sam and Dean's forms visibly relaxed. All that was left was the clean up, the licking of wounds, and the good-byes. The worst was over now. Sam ripped a piece of cloth off his shirt and wrapped it around his arm wound, then turned to Dean who was pushing himself up despite the pain and limping toward Janus. Sam watched with curiosity as Dean put a hand on Janus' shoulder and the boy looked up.
"What you did was wrong, you know that? You put your sister in danger, and she really looks up to you," Dean started,"Looked up to you, I should say, I don't know how she feels now. Being a big brother is a big responsibility, I know, but you've got to take it seriously, and not put Delilah in harms way like that. Ever again. I want you to promise me that you will get rid of all those books. Every last one, and never deal with Dark Magic again. Can you promise me that?"
Sam was shocked at Dean's sudden father-like take on things, but proud nonetheless. Janus nodded meekly; Sam knew that wouldn't be good enough for Dean.
"Can you promise me that?" Dean repeated.
"I promise," Janus replied as firmly as he could.
Now that Dean was satisfied he slipped to the floor, beads of sweat threatening to slip down his forehead from endurance. This had been one hell of a hunt, and one that Dean was sure he wouldn't forget any time soon.
Janus did throw all the books away, the boys made sure of that. Janus and Delilah's aunt had taken care of Sam and Dean's wounds, accepting their story of a wild animal attack wholeheartedly. (How could she not?) Delilah had begged and begged Sam and Dean to take her with them, but after an extremely long round of " 'Pleeassee' and 'no'" she finally gave up and walked back into the embrace of her aunt looking rather downhearted.
Both Sam and Dean chuckled a little, wished Janus, Delilah, and Laura the best and headed for the Impala.
"Well Dean, I've got to say; that was some speech you gave Janus back there." Same noted, and Dean stopped in front of the car and smirked that Dean Smirk.
"Well, he needed to know the role he plays. Big Brother isn't an easy gig. Lord only knows the amount of crap you've made me put up with," he nodded jokinglybefore getting into the driver's seat of his classic baby, "When you were a kid, you never shut up. It was 'Dean, can I do this,' or 'Dean, I want this for supper'. I'm telling you man, you were one demanding little sonofa."
"Gee Dean; is it taking a toll on you?" Sam joked, but Dean didn't appreciate it one bit.
He shook his head and looked Sam in the eye. "Never," he stated simply, honestly.
That was that. Sam didn't press and Dean didn't offer. They just drove off onto the freeway of good ole' Knoxville, another one of Dean's classic rock mix tapes filling the speakers of the car. Another day, another hunt, and another small insight into the long and unwinding mystery of the Winchester boys.