I was on a roll with this story, so here's a new chapter already. Enjoy!

Chapter 16

New Orleans, Louisiana – six days after arrival

Bella PoV

"Charlie, we gotta get outta here today," I say to my sister. Yes, now I consider Charlie my sister. We're so much more than friends or comrades in arms. After all we went through in the fairy realm, and after these past six days, she is most definitely my sister.

Rowena had seen right through our subterfuge and captured us the second we stepped out of her fake Hoodoo shop. I had managed to toss the bag that held the shackles, though, so she didn't get her mitts on that. She also still has no idea why we were here, and for whatever reason, not one of her spells were working on either one of us. That of course furthered her idea that we were there to kill her. Neither of us ever admitted it, but Rowena had been around for a few centuries, so she'd seen just about everything there was to see, and could see through any lie.

But she isn't even able to use good ol' fashioned torture on us. Everything she's tried to hit us with or pour down our throats just bounced off of us as if we're in a bubble. The downside is, we haven't eaten or drank much of anything. One of her minions is in charge of keeping us alive until she figures out our plan, so he brings us food, but even he is blocked by whatever is protecting us. I've found out that only if I will it with all my strength, he's able to get through and at least pour some water into our mouths before being flung back by the elastic barrier around us. The weaker I get, the harder it is to let him in; it's quite the dichotomy.

"You've said that every day since we got here," Charlie retorts, bringing me back to the present. "Why is today the day?"

"Because if we don't get out of here, we're going to die, Charlie. I don't know what it is that's keeping her from harming us, but it's also keeping us from getting fed or taking in much water when that guy comes. We need to get out, and we need to get out now."

"Stupid sparkling blood sucker," Rowena hisses as she comes into the room, flicking her wrist to slam the door closed. Her words have my attention. She's holding a bloody rag against her neck. We watch as she opens up her spell book and starts reading some incantation. As we eye her, she pulls the rag away from her neck and I see a bite mark that I'd know anywhere. "Why were his eyes violet, though?" she whispers. A violet eyed vampire? Probably wearing blue contacts over the red, I figure.

When she finishes the incantation, this clear but slightly iridescent liquid oozes out of the bite and she wipes it away with a new rag. Must be venom. I never saw the venom come out of my body as Castiel burned it out, but I'd bet dollars to donuts that's what she was using the spell for… to remove the venom. "Helps being a witch sometimes," she gloats. "Is that recognition I see in yer eyes, dearie? Ye know what did this."

"Vampire," I replied. "Though they're technically not vampires."

She rolls her eyes. "Shows what you know. They're undead, have red eyes and drink blood. That's the very definition of a vampire."

"Shows what you know," I echo. "They're actually called Children of Diaman and are not from this realm."

This piques her interest. "Realm? What do ye know of the other realms?"

"Been to one," I clip. "The Fairy realm to be exact."

Rowena's eyebrows lift in surprised interest. "Ye've been to the fairy realm… and lived to tell the tale. Ye seem immune to all me spells and torture methods. And, ye don't register in me senses. If I couldn't see ye with me own eyes, I'd never know ye were there. When ye were in the fairy realm, did ye happen upon a powerful sorceress called Medlina?"

I smirk. "Sure did. Torched that bitch."

She's instantly seething. "Medlina was to be my ticket out of this hellish realm! What are you?!"

"Just a sweet innocent girl from Phoenix," I reply. Honestly that's all I knew I was. Before the Cullens I was just an innocent and debilitatingly naïve girl. With the Cullens I remained that girl for a long time. Honestly, I can't say I truly lost that naïveté until the Fairy Realm. Sure I'd been with the boys for a little while and had beheaded Victoria, but the horrors I witnessed while in that horrid place cured me of any innocence still left in my bones, save my virginity, which I happily gave to Dean as soon as we got back to the bunker after that adventure.

"Damn you!" Rowena yells and pounds her fists against the force field that surrounds us. "Whatever you are, you're still starving to death. All I need to is bide my time and you'll simply wither away. Better than any torture I could conjure up anyway." And then she disappears again.

My wrists and ankles have been rubbed raw by the shackles she was able to get us into before this force field kicked in. When she captured us, she'd knocked us both out with some of what she said was goofer dust, back when we thought we were simply buying some of the required items on our list from a sweet Creole woman. I'd seen a hint of red hair poking out from underneath a wig and her Creole accent was a bit too thick, and she'd called us Lassies. I'd tried to get us out of there before she could catch us, but we weren't fast enough.

"How many days has it been?" Charlie asks, her voice hoarse with thirst.

"Six, I think," I answer, my voice equally scratchy, especially after my little tirade aimed at Rowena.

"Why haven't the boys found us?"

I shrug as much as I can in my restraints. "For all we know, they've been captured, too, and are being kept elsewhere. I think our best bet is to get that vampire in here."

"What? Our wrists and ankles are rubbed bloody and you want to draw a blood drinker into here? Are you crazy?"

"Do you have any better ideas?" I retort. She huffs but doesn't reply, which tells me that no, she doesn't have any better ideas.

"Hey, sparkly vampire, if you're still nearby, you should be able to hear me. Rowena, the red headed witch, didn't smell like burnt vampire, so I doubt she killed you, just somehow got you off of her. If you can let us out of here, I'll give you damn near anything you want, short of our blood, and what's within my power to give. Seriously. Name your price."

Within a few seconds, I hear wood being smashed to smithereens, and loud footsteps approaching. The door flung open and there stood a tall, lanky vampire. "All I want is that witch's blood," he said. "You saying her name tipped me off to her location. Witches don't have a scent, so I couldn't track her. But you just got me exactly what I wanted.

"The name's Garrett. How may I be of service? And how do you know what I am?"

"Well, a few weeks ago, I'd have shown you a bite scar on my wrist from one of your kind, but it's gone now. Touched by an Angel. Literally. Oh, and the name's Remi and that's Charlie."

"Are you witches, too?" he asks. "I can't smell you at all."

I shake my head vigorously. "No, I've got some kind of force field around me right now, which may be blocking my scent from you, but no, I'm not a witch at all. I'm a hunter, actually." He hisses at me. "Slow your roll, Garrett. I'm not going to kill you. If you can help get us out of here, I'll owe you for the rest of my life."

His eyes narrow, but he approaches. I muster up as much strength as I can to will the force field away and hope he can get us out of these damn restraints. "What is this made of?" he asks as he pokes at the field.

"No idea," I answer. "Didn't even know I had it until she tried to torture us." As he gets closer, I get a better look at his eyes. "Your eyes are purple," I comment. "But you don't appear to be wearing contacts."

"That's cuz I feast on only two things, m'lady. Witches and Demons. And with Demons, only ones that have already killed their meat suits."

"Well that gives me even less reason to add you to my list of things to hunt. If you're not hurting humans, then you're okay in my book." My level of trust in him sky rockets, and I can feel the force field dropping away. Finally.

"You know any other vampires that don't hurt humans?" he asks as he breaks the chains away from the wall.

"Yes," I answer simply. "They drank from animals. Or drink, rather. I'm sure they haven't changed their diet since I last saw them."

"That wouldn't happen to be Carlisle Cullen's coven, would it?" He took my silence as a yes. "Are you the human that Edward fell for?"

"Guilty," I confess. "But I'm not his mate. He was manipulating me."

"Ah yes, the enchanting with the eyes. Easier to do when they're not red, I'll tell you that. That couldn't be all, though. You said you had a bite. Was he using the venom to sway you, too?" Garrett's smart. I describe the whole story to him as he frees us from the shackles and he agrees that my course of action was correct. "If I ever get wind of the Cullens being nearby, I'll be sure to let you know. I'd bet you'd rather not run into them any time soon, eh?"

I nod. "All of them but Jasper and Rosalie, actually."

"Jasper Whitlock?" Garrett queries. I simply nod in answer. I don't feel like bringing up my recent visit with Jasper just yet. Garrett doesn't need to know all my secrets.

"Bella, did it not occur to you just how easily he was able to get into the force field?" Charlie asks, staying as far from Garrett as she can get in this little room.

"He just said he doesn't kill humans, Charlie. He only feeds from witches and demons. We're neither of those, so we're safe. Out of curiosity, Garrett, why witches and demons?"

"Well, you'd be surprised what the hell-bond can do to their blood. Gives it an extra tang. Plus my wife was possessed by a demon. She killed my two children and then she was killed by a witch. Guess I hold a grudge." That's terrible. I feel for him.

"That doesn't explain why he was able to break into it when no one else has been," Charlie retorts.

"It does, actually," I tell her. "I trust him. I'd imagine the boys would have been able to get through it easily, too. As soon as he told me he only drinks from witches and demons, my trust level went up, and the force field went away. I have no idea why I suddenly have a force field, or don't have a scent, or why I can control Crowley, but as long as these things work in our favor, I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth."

"If only we had that force field against Medlina," Charlie adds. "We could have fended off a lot more attacks with that on our side." I nod, agreeing with her.

"Alright, Garrett. I think Rowena is somewhere nearby, but our plan is to trap and kill her, so if you want the honors, by all means. We just need to burn her body to ash and then lock it up in an old urn that we've procured."

"Your scent is back," he says. I notice his eyes darken a bit. "You're still safe from me, Remi, but just to let you know… you smell fucking amazing."

I can't help but laugh. "You're not the first vampire to tell me that, though maybe in not those exact words."

I tell Garrett about Sam and Dean and that he needs to let me do all the talking. The boys, Dean especially, are shoot first ask questions later kind of guys. Not that they'll have wolf-spit covered machetes at the ready, I'd rather they don't attempt to attack my new friend before I've had a chance to explain. Garrett agrees to help us trap her and then he'll kill her, after which we'll destroy her remains. Then I'm considering calling on Crowley just so Garrett can have him, too. But then again, maybe I should milk my ability to control the Demon King for as long as I can.

Charlie and I are weak from hunger and thirst, and from not being able to move much for the past six days. Garrett has to practically carry us down the street as we give him directions to the hotel.

When we do reach the hotel doors, I realize we don't have our room keys any more. They were in our bags which we ditched just before Rowena captured us. We take the elevator up to the floor and Garrett carries us to our door. He then steps further down the hall, knowing I have to explain him to the boys. I knock on the door, hoping at least one of the guys is here. I'm sure they're out of their minds with worry about us and have been scouring the city. The door is thrown open by a very disheveled Dean. He hasn't shaved and from the look of him hasn't changed his clothes in the last six days. "Dean, I'm so happy to see you. Rowena—" And I'm cut off by a splash of water in my face.

Dean PoV

Six days earlier

Sam's and my first stop is at a butcher shop to see about getting some animal blood. I was relieved as hell to learn we didn't have to sacrifice a person or draw a crap ton of blood out of our own bodies to make this work. The first one we stop at tells us to take a hike, same for the second, third and fourth shops. Finally, the fifth time is the charm. The butcher sighs and nods, pointing his head towards the back room. "Just don't tell anyone where you got it, huh?" he asks.

"Um, why?" Sam counters.

"You don't look like the Hoodoo type, but you never can tell in this day and age. I don't want nothin' to do with that stuff. So whatever spell you're casting, leave my shop out of it. Unless of course you're just making blood sausage, in which case I got all kinds of pork and cattle blood. Pick your poison."

"Um, we'll take all your pork blood," Sam says. "And yes, we are making blood sausage. No what was it, Hoodoo? Yeah, we're not into that crap."

Hoodoo and its commercial counterpart, Voodoo had gotten more popular in the past few years. Most people had no idea what they were doing and just thought it was "fun." The real Hoodoo users were very, very different.

After acquiring the blood, we stop in just about every seedy area we can find in the entire French quarter and can't find hide nor hair of Rowena. Using the box that Crowley gave us is a last resort as she'll know as soon as we open it. We only want to use it when we're already close to where she is. We head towards the rendezvous point but the girls aren't there. Checking my watch I see we're a bit early, so we find a bench and wait.

And wait. And wait some more. They never show. "Sam, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Well you're probably thinking one of two things," he replies. "Either Rowena got the drop on them and has them, or Crowley played us and did something with them."

"Great. Now I'm thinking both things. Thanks, Sammy."

"Let's at least check back at the hotel," he suggested. "Maybe they forgot about the rendezvous, or got sick of waiting for us, or maybe they couldn't make it here because they'd be spotted. I dunno. I can think of a bunch of different perfectly valid reasons for why they're not here that have nothing to do with Rowena or Crowley being involved."

I couldn't argue with his logic, though I knew luck was not on our sides when it came to this kind of stuff. If they didn't make the meet up, then they were captured by something, probably Rowena or Crowley.

Back at the hotel, the girls weren't there. There wasn't any sign that they'd been there at all since we all left together. "Okay, so we know the general area they were hitting up, right? Let's go see if we can find a trail of any kind," Sammy suggests. At least he's being logical and helpful. All I can do is think the worst. Even if it wasn't Rowena that took them. There are plenty of other monsters out there, and I'm talking about the human ones.

I damn myself to hell all over again for letting those two off on their own. One of us should have gone with them. Or better yet, I should have paired up with Bella and Sam with Charlie. That would have made sense. Then again, they claim to be all badass and skilled after the fairy realm. Maybe I should give them the benefit of the doubt and hope they're onto Rowena's trail and don't want to give away their position by calling us or texting, or sending a smoke signal or dammit, any kind of communication whatsoever!

We head in the direction they went and start asking if anyone has seen them. I have a recent photo of the two of them on my phone from when we were eating waffles the other morning. After asking about nine people, we finally get a hit. "Yeah, I saw them. They asked me about where they could find some goofer dust. I pointed them down that way. There's an old creole lady that sells that stuff down there," a man said, pointing down the street. "I never saw them come back out, though."

Running down the street, something catches my eye just outside the shop door. It's Bella's backpack. Charlie's is not far from it. "Sam, look." I grab them and see she did manage to get some iron shackles and even got the markings carved into one of the sets. "They must have done this in case they ran into Rowena before we could all do the engraving together."

"Smart girls," Sam comments.

"Yeah, but what good did it do them? They're still missing. And I know Bella wouldn't just drop this bag unless she knew having it with her would do more harm than good." This points to the fact that Rowena has them, and we just have to hope that she hasn't killed them yet.

"Should we check inside the shop?" Sam asks, nodding his head at the door. We head inside and look around, seeing nothing to indicate the girls were even in here.

"Can I help you?" a woman asks from behind the counter. She's got a very stereotypical witch doctor get up on.

"Yeah, our girlfriends came down this way earlier, and we've lost track of them. Any chance you saw two young women in here a bit ago? One has short purple hair, the other red with the side shaved," Sam describes.

"I'm sorry, lad. No one's been here that looks like that. I did see a pair of lasses walk by a bit ago, but I didn't get a good enough look to see if they had the hair ye're describing."

"Thanks for your time." We head out of the store and pause in the street. "Since when do creole women have Scottish accents?"

"Dude, that was her!" We run back in the store, but she's long gone.

"Let's think about this," Sam starts before I can go running off on a rampage throughout New Orleans. "If Rowena does have them, then she probably wants to keep them alive until she's completed her spell, right? The more souls she harvests, the better her chances are of killing Crowley. And if she can take out a few hunters along with him, it'll only serve her better."

He has a point. "So if she does have them, she's keeping them alive. Most likely," I add.

"I mean, it's better to think of this than the alternative. We need to keep our heads. It won't do us any good for her to capture us, too. We need to lay low and see if we can find them without drawing attention to ourselves.

We head back to the hotel and call Bobby. I was going to call the cell phone company and activate the GPS in the girls' phones, but their phones are in the bags. Lot of good that'll do us. Relaying that to Bobby, he says our only chance is to search for them the old fashioned way. "Rowena wants to keep a low profile, too. Probably why she was in disguise when you saw her at that shop. Too bad you didn't make her then, probably could have saved a lot of time. Idjits."

"Not the time, Bobby. What do you suggest?"

"Well, Sam's right about Rowena probably keeping the girls alive until her spell is done. How'd you even come on this case? I haven't seen any kinds of omens or odd deaths in that area at all. Well, no more odd than is normal for New Orleans."

"Crowley put us onto it," I answer, cringing, knowing he's going to lay into me for taking a case from the King of Hell."

"I take it back, you're not idjits. You're absolute morons! Why in the hell would you take his case?!"

"Rowena is his mother," Sam bellows into the phone. "Plus, for whatever reason, Bella can control him."

"What?"

"Yeah, Bobby. It was amazing. She had him running errands all over the place. And by all over the place I mean Egypt and Minnesota. He showed up with pizzas from a place down the street and then she told him to go get this consecrated iron urn from some pharaoh's tomb in Egypt and stop at her favorite ice cream shop on the way. And he did all of it. He knew he was being controlled, but it was like he couldn't do anything about it."

"Well, that's new," Bobby asserted. "Any idea why?"

"Bella has a theory that it may have to do with the spell she used to kill Abaddon. She had to cut herself and cut the demon and their blood mixed a bit during the incantation. She thinks she must have taken in some of Abaddon's blood and that's why she suddenly has control over a demon. We're not entirely sure."

"Well, I think you need to lay low, like Sam said and just do some searching. They're smart girls. They can figure out how to stay alive until you find them or until they can escape."

Six days have gone by and we've heard hide nor hair of the girls. We did spot a couple demons roaming about. They were on patrol for Crowley, but even they didn't have any idea where Rowena was. Apparently whatever hovel she's holed up in is warded against demons. And angels, too. We even call Castiel to do a search. I thought he could at least find Charlie since she doesn't have the angel warding tattoos yet, but somehow she's hidden from him, too. We're up shit creek without a paddle and no way of finding the girls. All we can do is hope that they make it out on their own.

In the evening, Sammy and I are in the hotel room, poring over our map of the city. We've marked off the areas that we've searched, and circled the next areas that a witch could most likely hide in. Just before we head out on our next crusade, we hear a knock at the door.

I hope it's Bella and Charlie, but I can't be sure. Grabbing a my knives and a flask of holy water, I approach the door.

"Dean! I'm so happy to see you. Rowena—" I cut her off with a splash of holy water in the face.

She wipes away the water and glares at me. "Holy water? Seriously? You know I can't be possessed, right?" She taps at her shoulder, indicating the tattoos."

"Better safe than sorry, Doll Face," I tell her, holding out the silver blade.

"You've got to be kidding me." The look on my face tells her I'm far from joking. Charlie, get over here, we have to prove to Dean that we're us. Before Charlie can utter anything, I've splashed her with holy water.

"What the fuck, Dean? Warn a girl next time. Jesus."

Bella takes the silver blade and cuts her arm as I indicate. Charlie follow's suit. Then is the iron blade. Soon, I pull them both into the room, confident that these are our girls.

"Where were you? How did you get away? Why didn't you contact us?"

"Rowena made us at her fake hoodoo shop. I guess she was expecting some hunters to come after her, and figured we were them. She doesn't know about you two yet, though, so we've got that going for us. Our new friend Garrett got us out, I'll explain that in a moment. And we didn't contact you because we couldn't. Our phones were in the bags we ditched, and there were no means of communication in the room we were in. She had us shackled up against a wall in some warehouse or something."

Bella holds up her hands and I see they've been rubbed raw and bloody from the shackles. "Sweetheart, we gotta get that cleaned up!"

Allow me," Castiel says as he pops in again. He touches Bella's forehead and instantly her injuries are healed, including her two new cuts from my proving she's herself. He does the same for Charlie.

"Why is one of those abominations out in the hallway?" Castiel asks me.

"What are you talking about?"

"The cold one out there." Castiel points to the door.

"Um, yeah, that'd be Garrett."

"You made friends with a damn vampire?! Bella what's the matter with you? I thought you learned!"

"Dean, just hear me out. He's not like other vampires. Trust me."

"I trust you Bella, but I just can't believe you'd befriend one of them… again… Have you learned nothing?" I grab my coat and my keys and leave the room, walking right past the Cold One in question. He looks at me but says nothing. I need some air.

I'm outside looking for a bar to go drink and Bella shows up behind me after a few minutes. "Not now, Bella," I warn.

"Yes, now, Dean," she mumbles around chewing a slice of pizza. "I haven't eaten in six days, I'm hungry. But I'm not about to let you go drink away your anger and frustration with me. Especially when it's totally unfounded. You didn't even give me a damn minute to explain why he was there."

"Okay, take a minute, then."

"He only drinks from witches and demons," she begins. "And in the case of demons, only ones that have already killed their meat suits."

"And you believe him?"

"His eyes are purple," Bella replies. "When a vampire drinks from humans, their eyes are red. Golden when they drink from animals. But Garrett's eyes are purple, and he's not wearing contacts. Even Rowena, who he bit and almost killed, noticed that his eyes were weird. That's how I know."

"Why do you trust him?"

"He had every opportunity to drain me and Charlie dry, but didn't. Even when he at first thought we were witches, he restrained himself. Even when I told him we were hunters, and by definition should have killed us just because of the threat we pose to his kind, he didn't. When he was a human, his wife was possessed by a demon. She killed his children, and then she was killed by a witch. Once he was turned, he vowed to only ever go after witches and demons. He also said the hell-bond that both monsters have makes their blood tastier or something.

"And he can help with Rowena. All we have to do is get her bound, which he can help with, considering his immeasurable strength and speed. Then he can kill her. He'll drain her dry and we can cremate her, and put every speck of ashes into that urn. He's signed on for the trip and I've even considered telling him about Crowley."

"But you can control Crowley," I rebuke. "Why would you want him dead?"

"That's why I said considered, Dean. I didn't tell him about Crowley. I'm sure he'd be itching at the chance to drain the king of Hell. But because I can control him, I kept my mouth shut. We might want to milk that for all its worth.

"Oh that reminds me. Rowena wasn't able to torture us at all."

I turn facing her again. "What do you mean?" She explains that once they woke up from whatever Rowena used to knock them out, they had an invisible force field around them that prevented Rowena from getting close to them to do anything. None of her spells worked and not even good ol' torture worked. It also meant that they couldn't get much food or water since nothing could break through the force field.

"Where do you think it came from?" I ask.

"No idea, but I'm betting it has something to do with my ability to control Crowley. I think once we gank Rowena, we need to have Bobby meet us at the bunker. I think the five of us can maybe run some tests on me and figure out what the actual fuck is going on with me. Not that I'm not grateful for this sudden protection from witches and demons, but I'd like to know where the hell it came from."

"We'll figure it out, Darlin'. I promise." I kiss her forehead and walk back into the hotel with her.

"You're not mad at me anymore?" she asks.

"No, I was never mad at you, Bella. Just upset at the situation. You were missing for six days. I'm getting awfully sick of losing you."

"I'm not going anywhere, Dean. You're stuck with me."

"Good. I like it that way."

A/N: Dean and Bella are getting closer and closer to the "I Love you" part of their relationship. But will that spell disaster and death? Or will it lead to a happily ever after? Up next will be the battle with Rowena. Garrett and Dean will butt heads a lot, which'll make for some fun writing. Thanks for reading and reviewing!