Chapter Eight - Trap

Dean heard talking as he walked along the catwalk over the huge warehouse; he slowed and crept closer, abruptly stopping when he saw Sammy with the vampires below him. From the distance he could barely make out his brother's shape, but from the size and what the vamps were saying, he knew it was him. Those evil fangs were discussing which one would take the first bite. A shiver ran its course through his body and settled in his gut clenched tight, and he swore if they harmed his brother, they would all pay. He would kill them all.

Dean knew he couldn't wait for his dad, any delay kept the threat active, a heartbeat away from fruition. He couldn't risk them hurting Sam. With steely determination he pulled an arrow from his quiver and placed it in the crossbow. Taking on so many at once was going to be tricky. The crossbow was not an easy weapon to use. A long bow and arrow were generally a lot more accurate, but they also required using both hands at once; with experience you could handle a crossbow with one hand and he was glad he'd spent all those long hours perfecting his technique. He would need all the skill he could muster to overcome these vampires and save his brother. Sammy's life depended on him, and he would not fail him again.

He counted a total of six vampires. If he could drop some of them before the others realized their danger, then he had a chance at success. Luckily vampires don't make a lot of noise when they die, just a poof of dust. He watched and waited for his chance, if he could only get a few of them separated away from the rest.

Opportunity came when two of them got up and walked into the other room. From his perch on the catwalk he could get a shot at them. The problem would be getting two accurate shots off in quick succession before they could sound the alarm. He focused on staying cool and calm, relying on his training to steel his trembling nerves. His family was depending on him. He moved into position and knelt down. He laid two additional arrows by his feet, one extra for insurance. With steady hands he let loose the first arrow and before it met its target, he'd loaded the second arrow and was ready to fire again. As the first vampire dusted, the second arrow was spiraling toward its target, expertly finding its mark. They never knew what hit them as the dust cleared, only four more to go.

He needed to get down closer to their hideout so he threw the crossbow across his back and started down the ladder to the floor of the warehouse. As soon as he reached the floor, he pulled the crossbow back and loaded another arrow. Sam was sitting against the wall with his hands tied behind his back. His hair was tousled and he looked like he might have a few bruises, but all in all he looked unharmed and alert. Dean was relieved it didn't appear they had tried to feed on him yet.

He was looking for his next shot when suddenly a new vampire appeared behind him. He turned and fired. The vamp erupted in dust but in the melee the others were alerted to his presence. This was not going the way he planned. He rapidly reloaded and got one more, which left three. He tried to reload, but one of them was upon him, their inhuman speed too much for one lone hunter.

The vamp knocked the crossbow out of his hands and Dean scuffled with him as its fangs hovered over his neck. As he struggled to break free, the vamp's fangs scratched his neck, inching closer to bloody victory; with an adrenalin rush Dean used a martial arts move his dad had taught him to slip from the vamp's grasp. He reached into the quiver on his back and pulled out an arrow, forcefully plunging it into the vamp's heart. It's a lot easier with a bow, but it works either way, two more to go.

He turned and they were gone. He knew they wouldn't give up so easily and were still around somewhere, but he couldn't spot them. He ran for the crossbow and reloaded. He held it out in front of him and circled around looking. He had no idea which direction they would attack from, he just knew they would attack. He made his way over to Sam, pulled a hunting knife out of the sheath on his belt and cut his bindings.

"Dean, they killed June."

"I know, Sammy. You all right?" He ran his hand through his brother's hair, pushing his head from side to side to get a good look at him. The kid had some superficial scrapes and light bruising, but looked to be in basically good shape, not much worse off than his most brutal soccer game.

"Yeah, I'm good."

"Stay behind me. We've got to get out of here."

They were headed for the door when suddenly one of the vampires swept over them and knocked Dean to the ground. He landed with a grunt and the crossbow went flying again. Dean jumped up and kicked the vamp in the gut as it lurched at him sending it crashing to the floor. He grabbed a stake out of his bag, jumped on the vamp before it had a chance to rise and staked him. Before he could regain his own footing, the last vampire grabbed him from behind. This fang was exceptionally strong and he ripped the bag of stakes and the quiver of arrows off of Dean's shoulder and threw them across the room. He picked Dean up like he was a rag doll, held him over his head in victory before throwing him forcefully to the concrete floor.

Dean landed hard, his chest taking the full force when he didn't have time to brace his fall, and had the wind knocked out of him. He laid there for a second simply trying to catch his breath; he knew his ribs had suffered major damage and any movement sent waves of pain shooting through his body. Whether bruised or cracked, they were hurting bad, making the simple act of breathing painful. As he stumbled to his feet, the vampire calmly waited to finish him off, taunting him with vile descriptions of how he would feast on all the Winchesters.

"The hell you will," Dean spat out.

Dean stood there defenseless with no weapons at his disposal as the fang approached; all he had to protect himself was his martial arts training, but you need to be able to really move to take advantage and he was hurt and this vamp was very experienced. He braced for the confrontation when suddenly the vampire disintegrated in a cloud of dust. As the dust dispersed there was Sam holding the crossbow.

His weary eyes sparked as pride in his kid brother reinvigorated him. A cocky smirk emerged on his lips. "Nice shot, bro. Now, what say we blow this joint?"

They headed toward the door again. Sam handed the crossbow back to Dean and he quickly reloaded and held it out in front of them. They had almost made it to the door when they heard a loud cackling. They turned to see the head vampire standing there.

"You don't really think it would be that easy do you?"

"Uh, yeah, we did," Dean retorted with a sneer. "It's not so hard besting you evil sons of bitches."

Suddenly, they were surrounded by vampires. It all had been an elaborate trap and now the fangs had two Winchesters.