32

Dean pulled the Impala up the driveway as he saw a young man step out of the front door and onto the porch, apparently forewarned of Dean's arrival by the rumbling growl of the car's engine. Dean cut the car off, sliding the keys into the pocket of his jeans and a 9mm into the waistband of his jeans before tucking the back of his brown leather jacket over the gun. He got out of the car and walked up toward the house as Hunter came down off the porch with his arms crossed tightly against his chest and a frown on his face.

Dean wanted to hit him without a single word spoken, both for attacking Kya earlier and for all the shit he had gone through in that damn book, but he figured assault without provocation was probably a bad thing.

"Who the hell are you?" Hunter demanded.

"Dean Winchester," Dean said, not bothering to offer his hand in greeting. "I'm a friend of Kya's."

"What do you want?" Hunter asked, his eyes narrowed.

"Well, I came to tell you your game is up. The book is a pile of charred paper and nobody else is going to die for your vengeance vendetta."

"You burned my father's book?" Hunter yelled. "Wait, how the hell did you get out of it?"

"I'm just that talented," Dean countered, easing back a few steps in case Hunter wanted to go at it.

Hunter looked around, his fists clenching at his sides. "Where's your little blonde friend?"

"Probably toasting your Uncle's bones right about now," Dean replied. "Extra charred."

"You bastard," Hunter said in a low voice. "This won't stop me. This town is going to pay for what they did to my family!"

"And you're delusional," Dean told him. "Ever think about a straitjacket?"

Hunter swung at him and Dean ducked the punch, coming back up with one of his own aimed right for Hunter's gut. Hunter hit the ground on his back, clutching at his stomach while he glared up at Dean.

"My father was murdered by those idiots," he growled. "They deserve to die."

"I don't think that decision is yours to make," Dean shot back. "It sucks what happened, but you've got to get over this vengeance trip man. All that blood is on your hands and now you want to go and add more?"

"Gallons of it," Hunter snarled. "And I didn't kill anybody so what the hell are you gonna do about it? That book did all the work for me and the police won't believe your crazy ass story about a killer book and ghosts."

"No," Dean said. "They won't. But you were the one who stole it and that's pretty illegal. And I'm sure I can come up with something else inventive enough to get you thrown into your very own cement cell."

"I don't think so," Hunter told him, climbing back to his feet.

Dean smirked. "Well then you shouldn't think."

Dean blocked another punch that Hunter threw at him and pushed him back. Hunter stumbled but came forward again, tackling Dean to the ground. Dean went down onto his back and grunted as the gun dug into his lower back. He was glad he had put the safety on it or else he might be missing a part of his ass.

Dean's head snapped sharply to the side as Hunter's fist collided with his jaw and he reached up his own fist in retaliation, hitting the delusional maniac in the temple. The blow was glancing and didn't do much damage since Hunter moved his head and Dean's vision was slightly blurred from the hit to his own face.

"You fucking bastard," Hunter snarled, hitting Dean again. "I'm going to bring this town to its knees, starting with you."

"Whatever you say," Dean grumbled, shoving the heel of his hand into Hunter's jaw hard enough to snap his head back.

With the distraction Dean kicked Hunter off of him and brought the heel of his boot down into the man's gut before climbing back to his feet. He withdrew the gun from his waistband and clicked the safety off, leveling it at Hunter.

"That's enough of Fight Club," Dean said coldly. "I wouldn't move if I were you."

"What are you gonna do?" Hunter spat with a laugh. "Shoot me? Murder me?"

"I'm thinking about it," Dean told him honestly.

Hunter shook his head. "You aren't going to do shit."

Dean checked his watch. It had been at least an hour since they had all split up. Sam and Kya should be just about finished with their part of the deal and Dean was supposed to call and check in with them. He was five minutes late checking in.

He stopped thinking as Hunter's eyes shifted behind him for a half a second before returning to Dean. Dean felt the presence of somebody behind him but as soon as he turned he felt the pin prick of something sharp sinking into his neck.

Dean grunted as his fingers dropped the gun and he grabbed at the small object embedded deeply into the skin of his neck. He stumbled, dropping to his knees as the world tilted violently around him and his vision began to dim at the edges. He fell over completely, a blurry shape outlined above him just before his world went dark.