Moving swiflty on, just a little motel room explainer between Sam and Lenore. Next chapter will get things moving faster again.

Cheers

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Chapter 12

Sam watched as the truck pulled up the driveway in front of them and Dean and Lenore got out. He noticed how Dean hung back near the truck, not wanting to be anywhere near the priest and brother whose shirt was now soaked in the older man's blood.

"Car's gone, she must have taken it." Lenore bent down beside Sam. "I'll help you lift him, Dean and I can sit in the flat bed." She put her hands under the old man's knees and Sam took his weight, resting his head on his shoulders. Dean opened the back door of the double cab and then wandered off round the back of the truck. Sam realised something else in that moment, Dean couldn't look at him and Sam wasn't sure if it was because of what he'd become or the blood that now drenched Sam's shirt. They got the priest into the back of the truck and Lenore pulled an old jacket out of it. Sam thought it was to cover the priest but she handed it to him.

"You'd better lose that shirt." Sam tore the blood soaked shirt off and shrugged the jacket on zipping it all the way up, hiding any stains on his chest. Lenore examined him. "Better. We should go."

"What about your man?" Lenore picked up the machete. "She drained him he's as good as dead." She walked over and knelt down, putting her arms round her fallen companion. She kissed him briefly on the forehead, then knelt back and swiftly finished the job. She wiped what little blood had spilled on the blade off on the grass and returned handing it back to Sam. He didn't miss the meaning in her next words.

"Sometimes it's the only way."

She walked to the back of the truck and Sam watched as Dean helped her up and then climbed in beside her. Lenore covered them with a blanket to try and shelter them from the daylight. Sam wanted to be the one helping Dean, it hurt him that he couldn't comfort the brother, sighing he got in and started the truck, then headed out for the nearest hospital.

o-o-o-o-o-o

They had got Father Thomas to the hospital and Bobby had decided to wait with him and get himself checked over at the same time. Sam knew that his chest wound was bothering him. Sam had offered to stay but was grateful when Bobby chased him off. "You need to be with Dean, I call if I need ya." Sam could see the tears in his eyes and put his hand on Bobby's shoulder. "We'll fix this, somehow we'll fix this." Sam was surprised by the conviction he heard in his own voice. "If anyone can it would be us. I'll research our vamp with a reflection while I'm here; keep my mind of'a things."

Sam waited until they were settled and then took Dean and Lenore back to the motel room. It was five days since he'd last been here but felt like it had been a lifetime ago. Dean had a death grip on Lenore's hand almost as if letting her go would cast him adrift in some bleak nightmare. She was his anchor at the moment, his guide through this darkness and it was obvious he was scared to lose her.

Sam noticed how pale and agitated his brother was. He needs to feed. He was glad he had sought out Lenore's help to find Dean because at this moment he was unable to help him in the way that she could because she had been were Dean was now. Sam sighed again, helplessness washing into him. He quickly pushed it away.

Lenore broke Dean's grip on her when they entered the motel room. "It's ok; you're safe here for now."

She walked over to Sam. "We need to talk." Sam wasn't really listening to her; he was watching Dean standing there, a lost look on his face that tore Sam's heart. Dean must have felt Sam's eyes on him, broke himself from his silent reverie. Walking across the room he picked up his duffle and headed for the bathroom. Sam instantly tried to think what weapons his brother might have in there, worried by how he was acting. He stepped towards him but Dean stopped him with a hand. "I just want to wash this off." He held up his hands that were still covered in Kate's blood. "I'm fine." He finally looked up into Sam's face. "I promise, I'm fine." He turned and walked in the bathroom and Sam relaxed slightly as he heard the shower.

He walked over and sat down heavily on the bed. Lenore sat down beside him. "I think I can help. Dean gave me a name; I spoke to Bobby and asked him to research it for me. Her name's Helena. I don't recognise it but I remember something a vampire once told me, something about the ones like her, the ones that can pass more as humans, that have reflections and the sunlight doesn't bother them, they can have children, well the men can sire them at least. They are all pure blood lines, no human blood in them at all."

"How does that work? Who told you that? Can you go to them, ask them?" Lenore touched his hand.

"Slowly there Sam, you'll give yourself an aneurism." She laughed softly then grew serious again. "They are born vampires, the fathers were born vampires and the mothers are turned while they're pregnant. It kills all the human blood in the baby. These vampires age just like humans but much, much slower. A hundred years to you is like ten to them. They can die too. They need to feed on human blood, for some reason it has to be human. If they stop they wither, Dean told me that's how she appeared when she came to him the first time, withered." Sam gave a small shiver at the thought. "By that stage it's usually all over, but something in Dean's blood revived her, I just don't know what."

"I do."

Both Sam and Lenore looked up. Dean was standing looking more like Dean now. Cleansed of all the blood, back in his trademark jeans, t-shirt and overshirt combination. The only thing that was out of place was his eyes. His eyes were dead, the light behind them gone and Sam struggled not to cast his mind back to a year ago, the image of his brother bloody on the floor etched into his memory. His eyes had looked the same then. Dead and soulless.

"Seems my little spell downstairs left a mark on me, which in turn did something to my blood, tainted it. A piece of my soul that did quite come out the way it went in. It reacted with holy ground, she said she heard it, it called to her."

Sam sat opened mouth. There it was, something else that his brother had deemed not important enough to share with him and as usual look where they ended up. He shook his head.

"I know, I screwed up, I shoulda said. Who knew? This vampire you mentioned can we go to it, see what it says? See if it can help?"

Something in Lenore's eyes told him the answer to that was a no.

"He's dead. He was my sire, the one that turned me. Your father shot him. It was Luthor."