Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural but I do own…hold on a second I'm thinking…

"Dean, I got something on those symbols." Sam said after hours of scouring the internet for anything resembling the symbols on the corpses.

"Finally." Dean said putting aside the crime scene he and Jack were scrutinizing. He walked from the bed to stand behind Sam at the table.

"You can do the research next time then." Sam glowered at him. He was not in the mood, staring at a computer for hours on end looking for a needle in a haystack and all he got was a 'finally'?

"Don't get your panties in a twist." Dean said. "What did ya find?"

"Its used in an ancient transmutation ritual." Sam said sitting back in his chair so Dean could see the page.

"Transmutation? Like shape shifting?" Jack asked joining them.

"Sort of, think less animalistic and more demonic." Sam said.

Dean's phone rang and he stepped back to answer it.

"Why the full moon?" Jack asked filling Dean's place behind Sam.

"Throughout history lunar cycles have been seen as symbols of death and rebirth. Here it's like the death of the practitioners human side and the birth of something more." Sam explained.

"Hey, Bobby." Dean said into the phone when he read the caller i.d.

"Hey, I got the skinny on the symbols in the pictures you sent me." Bobby started.

"Transmutation, we know." Dean interrupted.

"Why the hell'd you ask me if you already knew?" Bobby said mildly.

"Didn't know it before we asked you." Dean said.

"Alright," Bobby said, then he chuckled into the phone. "Do me a favor and tell your brother something for me."

"What?" Dean asked.

"Tell me he's got a great singing voice." Bobby said snickering. Dean yelped a surprised laugh which he covered up with a cough.

"I'll, uh, tell him." Dean said fighting for composure before he hung up.

"What?" Sam asked with a raised eyebrow. Dean gave him an innocent smile.

"Nothing." He said. Jack narrowed her eyes at him.

"I didn't do anything." Dean said catching the look.

"Do you believe your own bull shit?" She drawled.

"Sometimes." He replied with a shit eating smile.

"If that was what I think it was you're dead on so many levels." Jack said dead serious. Him and that damn camcorder.

"Do I want to know?" Sam asked looking between t hem confused.

"No." Jack said patting his shoulder sympathetically. She turned her attention back to the webpage.

"Does it say anything about exactly what our killer is trying to turn himself into?" She asked Sam.

"Yeah, it should." Sam said and started scrolling down.

"That does not look good." He said. Dean looked at the rendering on the page and groaned.

"Wonderful." He said pursing his lips. "See, this is why I say people are crazy. What sane person would want to turn into that?" He pointed at the screen. 'That' was a cross between a hell hound and a person, like Sasquach on evil steroids, only not as pretty.

"Look at it this way, once crazy turns into this you'll understand him a lot better." Jack said furrowing her brow.

"No way is this son of a bitch getting that far." Dean said.

Just then they heard the sirens.

"That's never good for us." Sam said looking towards the door.

"Lets go see." Dean said putting on his jacket.

They caught up to the sounds of sirens in the car, following the police to the edge of the woods, where there was an ambulance and several other cop cars waiting. Sitting in the ambulance was a man and a woman dressed in running clothes, the woman crying while a cop took down their statement.

"This isn't right." Jack said.

"Maybe it was something separate." Dean said though he didn't believe his words any more than they did.

"But the full moon's not for another day." Sam said.

"Come on." Dean said popping open t he glove compartment to get the badge he'd used the other day and the ones he'd made up for Sam and Jack.

"We're going to the crime scene?" Sam asked looking a t Dean like he was crazy.

"Yeah, keep your head down Jack, don't need them asking any questions about us." Dean said tossing her badge to her. She nodded and popped the collar of her leather jacket to obscure a bit more of her face.

After Dean stepped out of the car the first person he saw was Officer Bradley and he made a beeline for the man with Sam and Jack in tow.

"Officer Bradley." Dean said approaching the man. "What have we got here?"

"Oh Detective Morgan, you came just in time, I was going to call you but you didn't leave a number to reach you at. I was just going to call your offices." Officer Bradley told him. He looked at Sam and Jack standing unobtrusively behind Dean.

"Yeah, sorry 'bout that." Dean said thankful for their good timing. "These are my colleagues, Stephen's and Klein."

"Pleased to meet you." He said, his eyes lingering for a second on Jack frowning.

"Did they find another body?" Dean asked him.

"A severed head." Bradley said giving Dean his full attention again.

"Male or female?" Sam asked.

"Female." He said. "We're going to run her description through missing persons and see what comes up."

"All the victims have been hikers or hitchers so far, right?" Sam asked.

"Yes sir." Bradley answered.

"She probably won't be reported missing yet then." Sam pointed out.

"Yeah but we have to follow protocol." Bradley said shrugging.

"Can we see the crime scene?" Jack asked, looking towards the direction that people were bustling back and forth from.

"Sure, follow me." Bradley said.

He glanced at Jack as he led them into the wooded area.

"Help you with something?" She asked.

"Sorry, but aren't you a little young to be a detective?" He asked.

"Botox." Jack said. Bradley looked like he wasn't sure if she was being sarcastic or not. She smiled when she heard Sam mutter 'smartass' under his breath.

"How far in did you find the body?" Dean asked.

"Its pretty deep inside, about two miles." Bradley said.

The closer they got the more people they saw. Cops, a guy taking crime scene photos and a crime scene tech putting the severed in a bag. Dean didn't like there being this many people around, too much opportunity to fuck up and get caught in a lie.

"Listen," He said stepping in front of Officer Bradley to stop him. "I'd prefer to keep a low profile here, don't want to get that interoffice rivalry thing going. So why don't you just stow the intro's for now."

"They'll want to know why three strangers are poking around the crime scene." Officer Bradley said sounding unsure.

"Let me worry about that." Dean said giving a confident smile, like he told cops what to d o every day. He wished, he still got a kick out of it when one of them called him 'Sir'.

"Alright." Officer Bradley said biting his lower lip, clearly uncertain of this course of action.

Dean patted him on the shoulder and walked ahead of him to edge around the small piece of woods they had taped off.

"More blood on the ground." Sam murmured as they circled the area with watchful eyes.

"Did you get a look at the head. The sever was rougher too, fast. Not neat like the last two." Jack said nodding towards the man holding the bag carrying the head.

"Not as rough as the first either though." Dean pointed out. "And the smell is fresher, incense."

"We need to mark where this is and come back tonight." Sam said looking around trees that looked much the same all around.

"Well, we're about three miles North of where the last body was found, they're all the same distance apart from each other." Dean said, he chewed the inside of his mouth while he figured the coordinates the way his dad taught him to.

"You got a pen and paper, Geek Boy?" He asked Sam.

"I failed to bring them, jerk." Sam said sarcastically.

"I thought you were a boy scout." Dean said jokingly.

"Write it on your hand." Jack said handing him a chewed up pen from her pocket.


They waited till midnight to return to the woods, armed to the teeth. The next night was the full moon and it looked like their gut was hurrying his ritual up, probably because of the bodies turning up. They were all upset about another person dieing while they were in town, all eager to put the hurtin on this mother fucker.

"I'm going to beat this guy worse then I beat you in Tucson." Jack muttered glaring at the spot of the brutal ritual.

"Hey, you didn't beat me, you beat the demon. Now way I'd go down like that." Dean said defensively.

"My ass, we beat the piss out of you Dean, admit it." Sam said.

"Shut up." Dean said. Jack and Sam traded looks behind his back.

"When we get back we should see if there's any property here in the woods, something at the center of all this." Jack said.

"Nothing was on the map." Dean said.

"Still, we should." She said. She couldn't shake this feeling in her stomach, that something was wrong. She knew these woods, there were old places that no one lived in anymore, but she couldn't for the life of her remember where.

They panned out and started looking over the ground with their flashlights, looking for something the killer might have left behind. If he was rushing he might get sloppy, was the logical thought. They were so intent on their individual searches that they didn't notice moving further and further away from each other. Dean looked up frequently but as long as he saw the lights from Sam or Jack's flashlights he assumed they were alright.


Sam had a bad feeling in his gut, something telling him to turn back and go home. The feeling was nagging at him, distracting him from his search. Finally he gave up and started in the direction of the nearest light, ready to tell Dean and Jack that this was all wrong and hoping they took his word for it.


Jack felt like she was being watched, at first she dismissed it, but soon she was certain of it. She took the gun from her jacket silently and thumbed off the safety. She kept her outward calm but studied the woods from under her eyelashes.

There, she thought as a shadow moved almost invisibly. She straightened a little and turned off her flashlight, immediately falling back behind a tree she'd been standing in front of. She watched, muscles tense.

"Boo." The whisper came from behind her and she spun squeezing the trigger once before her head was hit with something hard and heavy. Her vision went white from the impact for a second and then everything went black.


"Sam! Jack!" Dean shouted when he heard the shot. He saw one light hurrying towards him and he ran to it.

"Dean! Jack! Dean where are you guys?" Sam was shouting.

'"Sammy." Dean caught up with him, they had their guns drawn and were looking behind each other for trouble.

"Did you fire that shot?" Dean asked tensely.

"No, have you seen Jack?" Sam asked. Dean shook his head getting more and more pissed by the second.

"I've got a really bad feeling Dean." Sam said looking worried.

"Vision?" Dean asked.

"No." Sam answered.

"Shot came from over there." Dean said pointing his flashlight on the opposite direction they were standing in. "Let's go."

"Stay by me." Dean told him. He wasn't losing track of anyone else tonight.

"If this guy's got Jack.." Sam started swallowing down the dread that continued to grow.

"Then he just signed his death warrant." Dean finished shining the flashlight in Sam's face till his brother nodded.

TBC……….