Disclaimer: See… well, any other story I've written.

Author's Note: Thanks to all who reviewed, mucho appreciation. Hope you like this next chapter, now that it's getting into the hunt more. Still not much action, but it's coming.

Chapter 3: Hooking Up

When he came to a second later he was on his back, looking up as Yates was getting ready to drive a third pool cue axe-style into his chest.

Only he appeared to have some difficulty. He pulled his hands forward… but the cue stayed put. Both Sam and Yates gaped, and the drunk man spun in time to catch the butt of the cue in the chin. Yates' eyes rolled back into his head and he sagged to the floor.

Sam took Dean's hand and his brother hoisted him to his feet. Together they faced the remaining men.

They had no need. The security guards finally decided to show up, glancing almost lazily between each group of men and the two on the floor. The music had finally stopped, and everyone seemed to be watching them.

"Enough!" the biggest guard shouted needlessly. Sam winced as his headache, forgotten during the fight but aggravated by the blow, exploded under his skull. "All of you out!"

Sam shrugged, dropping his fists and catching Anya's eye. Dean seemed to be trying hard not to laugh as they were both escorted from the club. Two guards stalked their every step until they had gone ten feet from the club. Sam heaved a sigh of relief. Until Dean's laughter burst, and he doubled over, near hysterics.

Sam rolled his eyes, before wincing and putting a hand to where the cue had hit him. At least it had only been a glancing blow; he would probably be dead if it hadn't.

Dean was still laughing as Sam walked off on him, but the older man straightened and followed, still chuckling.

"Figures you'd be the one to get into a fight, Sammy," Dean teased. "See, I am doing you some good after all."

They reached the Impala and Sam leaned against the car, pulling his hand away from the growing bump. There was a touch of blood on his hand.

"How hard did he hit you?" Dean asked, suddenly all serious now that he had seen the blood. He returned from the trunk, carrying a flashlight and their first-aid kit.

"Not hard enough," Sam answered dryly. He spied two guys literally being thrown out of the Jiggly Room and pushed Dean away before he could get started. "Not here, Dean. Not unless you want a rematch."

Dean shrugged and actually started for the club. Sam groaned in exasperation and grabbed Dean's jacket, shoving him towards the driver's side door.

"Dude, we're not fighting them. Get in the goddamn car!"

Dean chuckled again as he opened his door. Sam glanced around before copying. "So care to tell me what it was all about?" the older hunter asked as he started the engine and pulled away from the street.

"Some guy was hitting on Anya," Sam muttered, watching as Yates was thrown from the club as the Impala passed the door.

"Anya?" Dean asked, confused. "You mean you were actually picking up?"

Sam turned to his brother. "What? No. Dean, Anya and Ash Jackson, they're here, in town. They have been for two weeks."

Dean frowned. "Those hunters who… who helped you…" He trailed off, appearing to be having difficulty getting the words out, and Sam grinned.

"Come on, dude, you can say it. The hunters who helped me rescue you. You damsel you."

Dean actually growled and looked set to hit his little brother before he thought better of it. "Whatever dude. But she was there? How'd she get in… Was she working there?"

Sam nodded. "And Ash was watching from outside. Anyway, the guy who hit me with the cue, he was a son of bitch drunk who wanted her to dance for him. He got violent, I sent him away. He hit me with a bottle as I was coming out… and I think you probably saw the rest. Nice timing, by the way. You couldn't have jumped in before he hit me in the head?" His now bleeding, throbbing head.

"I was trying. Nice fighting by the way." And he was completely serious about it. "So, where are Ash and Anya staying?"

"Sleep-Easy," Sam told him. "Next right. Room nine."

Dean took the turn and a few minutes later they were parked in the motel parking-lot. A slow drizzle had begun, and the brother's hitched their jackets until they were under the covering. Sam picked the lock and a moment later they were waiting in Ash and Anya's motel room.

In the end the brothers had to wait almost three hours before Anya and Ash returned to their motel room. Dean took the time to patch Sam up, and then began wandering around the room. Sam watched him, telling him off when he began to look through what looked like Anya's private bag. What he was searching for, Sam didn't want to know.

Dean was admiring a gun that had been left out when they heard a car pull up. Placing the weapon under Ash's pillow, the older brother sat down on the same bed while Sam, shaking his head, took a chair, sitting on it backwards. He couldn't wait to see their expression.

Waiting in silence, they heard footsteps approach, and then suddenly stop. And then someone growled. Sam was willing to bet it had been Anya. Then the feet started again, and the door slammed open.

"Sam Winchester!" Anya cried. "First you come into our job, then try and protect me when I certainly don't need it! Then you start a fight, and destroy the place I'm working! And then you go and break into my motel!"

Silence followed, in which Dean was very obviously trying not to laugh. Sam was more than a little stunned.

"Ah, have you met my brother Dean? The guy with me?" he asked after a moment, wondering where her outburst had come from. She just pursed her lips, but Sam chose to ignore it. "Hey, Ash," he greeted to the guy who came in behind his twin sister, shutting the door.

Ash smiled. "Hey Sam. Hey Dean. Glad to see you both in one piece after your… encounter." The flick of his eyes towards his sister told he meant with her.

"What are you doing here?" Anya asked.

"Waiting for you two," Dean stated the obvious.

"What happened to coming in the morning?" she asked. Sam made a show of checking his watch.

"It is morning," he told her. "Besides, we should get started on this case. Twenty people have disappeared so far. And four heads are better than two."

"Sounds good to me," Ash said as Anya opened her mouth. Dean got the idea he did it a lot. But she didn't seem to mind, and they both took a seat. "What have you got so far?" he asked.

Dean shook his head. "Not much. As you probably guessed, we figured out that most of them disappeared after being in one of three places. And that each place was owned by Mahone." He looked at Sam before shrugging. "That's about as far as we got."

"I tried getting the police files but they're protected by a lot more than they should be," the younger man continued. "Basically we found out as much as we did from the articles that were published."

Ash and Anya had taken seats by then. The brother nodded. "Yeah, don't worry, there wasn't much in them. It seems either the police didn't look into it very hard, or didn't get very far with it. And it took me a day to get into them as well. They were well protected. But we were pretty sure that would mean that this was a purely human thing."

"So why'd you stick around so long?" Sam asked.

Ash shrugged. "The fact that Laura Jennings was found sacrificed. I mean, she disappeared here… I dunno, it seemed to be related."

"So what have you got?" Dean asked, nodding in agreement to the younger guy's comment. "Anything more than we do?"

The twins shared a look. "Not really," Anya told them. "We've been trying to get close to Mahone. We searched the bar, and the coffee shop, but haven't been able to get into the club yet, besides working there. We didn't find anything at the other two. He barely even goes to either place. And we've cased his house. It's huge, and really empty. Though we haven't gone in there either."

Dean nodded. "Me and Sam'll see what we can do," he said out loud, ignoring Anya's pointed glare at his comment. "Besides that I don't think there's much we can do. I suppose we get in and try to find something."

"Who died and made you boss?" Anya suddenly broke in, glaring. Dean turned to stare at her, grinning condescendingly.

"You're joking right?" the older man asked. "I mean, you and –."

Sam cut him off before he dug his own grave. Not a pleasant thought in their line of work. "I think what Dean means is that we both need to find out what you know. The only people who can do that are you two. And we need to have seen what you have if we're going to be equals in this case."

That seemed to placate Anya, and Dean simply shrugged, knowing his little brother was trying to keep the peace. Sam nodded before continuing with Dean's line of reason.

"So, me and Anya will take the club, Dean, you and Ash go look at the coffee shop and the bar."

"Whoa," Dean interrupted, sitting up. "How come you and Anya are taking the club? Seeing as it's Mahone's fave, it's going to be more dangerous."

Sam nodded. "But it's still really early in the morning, and only an hour or so after closing. No one's going to expect someone then. Besides, Anya has to go, cause she knows the layout. And you're not going with her."

The older Winchester frowned. "Why not?"

"Cause you two don't exactly get along like a house on fire," Ash explained for Sam. "We've been in this room for maybe ten minutes and she's already close to killing you."

Anya opened her mouth as if to disagree before pausing and then closing it. She shrugged with a grin. "So when are we doing all this?" she asked instead.

"Straight away," Dean told her. She groaned.

"Can't I get some sleep first? Unlike some people, I've had to work all night."

"You'll be right," Dean declared cheerfully. Sam gave him a stern look before explaining better.

"No one will be expecting us now. It's maybe half an hour after the club closed, an hour or so until full light. No one's about. And it'll give us more time during the day, to figure out where to go next."

Anya nodded. "You're right," she admitted. "But I am changing first." And she got up immediately and disappeared into the bathroom.

Dean whistled quietly. "I'd forgotten how uptight she is," he muttered. Ash shook his head, but it wasn't angrily.

"No, she isn't. She can and will admit when she's wrong. She just doesn't like people telling her she can't hunt. It's a man's thing, and most hunters we've met have little room in their heads for a female hunter, one who does more than be bait."

Dean frowned. "How did you two even get into hunting, anyway?" he asked, staring at the bathroom door.

"Family tradition," Ash answered. "Our family's been hunters for the past one hundred years."

"Oh," Dean remarked with surprise. "Well there you go."

Anya chose that moment to come back in, changed and ready. She crossed to her bag, the one Dean had been looking through, and pulled out a gun, tucking it behind her back.

"Let's boot," she announced. Dean nodded, swinging his legs off Ash's bed. He grinned and pulled the gun out from where he had hidden it.

"This gun is sweet. Can I borrow it?"

Sam peered at the dark building from across the street. Anya sat beside him in the driver's seat of her and Ash's red Ford. The Jiggly Room was quiet, empty, and kind of creepy. Though Anya was the only one who had admitted that out loud.

"So how long do you think we should wait here?" Anya asked softly. Sam shrugged.

"Long enough to know no one's around to see us sneak through the back exit," he suggested with only the slightest hint of a question. "Haven't seen any movement though. Wanna see if we can get in?"

She shrugged back at him. "May as well." She sighed. "Come on then, let's go."

She opened the door, and he winced as it creaked. Shaking his head, and realizing the Impala sounded just as bad, he followed, placing the gun in the small of his back.

They crossed the road and entered an alleyway that ran behind the club. Anya had informed him there was a door the girls used to enter. Not that they were going in that way. There was a window a few paces down that didn't shut properly. It would open enough from the outside for Anya to slip through, and then she could open it for him.

"So why didn't you try this before, with Ash?" he asked while keeping a lookout. Anya slid gracefully through the window and landed with barely a sound.

"This room isn't used a lot. It's taken me a while to search the whole place. I only found this window the other day. And we've been busy with other stuff."

She had opened the window enough for Sam to climb through with considerably less grace than Anya had. He stumbled across a few boxes, and she shushed him, then ignored the glare he gave her before continuing.

"Besides," she shrugged. "When I found it, I almost got caught. I had to lie that I got lost on the way to the toilet. Now be quiet."

He rolled his eyes at her order – she had grown since he last saw her. Then she had been the one taking his orders. But he let her lead as she opened the door, peeking her head out the door and looking both ways.

"Come on. Mahone's office is this way."

Five minutes later they had found what Anya called Mahone's office, on the second story. Sam frowned as he entered, taking in the disarray and chaos. "How the hell does he run three successful businesses? This place is a mess."

She shrugged. "Who knows? He's not exactly smart either. More sadistic than anything else. But he likes the idea, I think. I don't know. But come on. Now we're here, we should actually get to work."

Dean picked the lock to the back door of the coffee shop while Ash kept a lookout. The younger man had already disabled the alarm from the outside, in a matter of seconds that had left Dean feeling slightly jealous.

"You going inside or what?" the younger hunter asked irritably as Dean paused after unlocking the door. "You know, before someone comes along to see us breaking into a well-liked coffee shop."

Dean rolled his eyes at Ash but slipped through the door, not far in front of his companion. Ash closed the door behind them with a soft tap.

"Right, so which way?" Dean asked, looking up and down. Ash gestured to the right and Dean led off, grabbing his gun out at the shivers that passed over him.

"Really think you need that?" Ash asked disdainfully.

"Really think I won't?" Dean shot back quietly. He pushed open a door and looked in on a sterile office. It looked like it had never been used. "Is this Mahone's office?" he asked, just to make sure.

Ash nodded. "Like we said, he doesn't come here much. Here or the bar."

"Are you even old enough to be in a bar?" Dean asked with a hint of a smile hidden from the younger man. Ash rolled his eyes.

"Sam treated us like kids, too, back when we were helping him save your ass. We're twenty-one. Do you think our parents would let us hunt alone if we weren't old enough?"

Dean shrugged. "Suppose not. Maybe they don't know," he suggested. "Sorry, just asking. So what are we looking for?"

Ash shook his head. "Here? Nothing. There isn't anything to look for. No reports, at least, none for Mahone. He doesn't come here. But according to Sam, you wanted to see what we'd seen." And his tone suggested that he knew Sam had just been covering for Dean's foot-in-mouth.

Dean shrugged. "All right. Suppose we go to the bar then. Will it be closed as well?"

Ash nodded. "Yeah, it will. Just. And it doesn't open until noon, so we'll have a bit of time. Not that there's much there."

"Up for any free beer?" Dean joked as they left the deserted coffee shop. Ash didn't get a chance to answer as Dean's phone rang.

"Found something, Sam?" he asked without looking at the caller id.

"Sam?" the gruff voice answered. "More than you I bet, Dean."

Dean grinned. "Hey Josh, what's up?" He ignored the comment about his skills at research. Or lack thereof, according to the older hunter.

"I've got some info for you, if you're interested."

Dean snorted. "Always, Josh, always. What have you got?"

"My contact in Vegas hooked up with some members of the cult that sacrificed Laura Jennings. Turns out they bought her off a demon."

Dean paused with his hand on the Impala's handle. Ash was looking at him with deep curiosity. "Bought? As in they paid for her so they could sacrifice her?"

"That's exactly what I mean. I did some digging, found out that in the past year there's been quite a trade in humans between demons, vampires, cults, etc. I think it's because there's less mess, less 'vanish off the face of the earth', 'oh my God what happened to them' factor."

"So did the demon take her? Or did someone sell her to the demon?" Dean asked, sharing a look with Ash over the roof.

"Don't know. I guess you'll find that out. Because I found ten instances of people who disappeared and found in supernatural circumstances being sold. Three of them from Lafayette. And I haven't finished looking yet. You have to find out a common factor for them all, I guess, and then follow it from there."

Dean felt his stomach churn. A common factor? They had already found that. Mahone. And at that exact moment Sam and Anya were checking out Mahone's stronghold.

"All right, thanks Josh. You might have been a big help," he told the other man as he got in the car, going to hang up.

"Wait, Dean. That wasn't all I found." Dean waited, holding off from turning on the car. "I was talking to some friends, about Lafayette, and they mentioned something that might be interesting. About eleven years ago, they found traces of demonic activity in Lafayette. But nothing ever came from it. Then, a year ago, there were four deaths in Lafayette. Four people basically ripped to shreds. By invisible dogs who had hounded them for days before."

Dean was sure the temperature dropped a few degrees. "Hellhounds," he whispered. "People making deals. You think that has anything to do with what's happening here?"

"The last death occurred a week before the first disappearance. Big coincidence if there's nothing between them."

Dean was silent for a moment. "Thanks Josh." He barely heard the other man respond before he had hung up. Turning to Ash he had to still his thoughts before talking.

"That was a friend of mine, the guy who sent us on this hunt. Laura Jennings was sold by a demon to the cult who sacrificed her. He found ten in total, three from here, people who were sold and then found in supernatural circumstances. And a year ago, a week before the first disappearance, four people had demonic deals paid in full. As in, with their lives."

"So why's that got your stomach in a knot?" Ash asked slowly. The older man shook his head.

"The deal bit? Don't know yet. But Laura Jennings was sold by someone who knows Lafayette. And every person who disappeared had a connection to Mahone. Me and Sam don't believe in coincidence. And Sam and Anya, they're in Mahone's club. The only place he owns that he visits. I don't know if there's anything to it, and Sam's the psychic, but I've got a bad feeling."

Wow, that was a long 'un. Sorry, for all you who like short and sweet. Still, I hope you liked the chapter. Next update tomorrow night!