Chapter 4

Dean returned to the room and was quiet.

"Ivy coming?" Sam asked. He was silently hoping she wasn't because he knew that they wouldn't be able to hide the tension between them from Dean, and that would be bad.

"Yeah, think so." said Dean.

"Dean, what's up?" Sam asked.

"Nothing man." Dean answered.

"Don't give me that crap. I know it's not nothing. You come back from seeing Ivy and you're all brooding and quiet. You still have feelings for her don't you?" Sam needed to know, he needed to know how lightly he was going to have to tread on this new ground he found himself on.

"I'm not going to talk about this Sam." Sam knew Dean well enough to know, that equaled a yes. OK, well, then he was just going to have to back off and not let anything like what happened earlier happen again.

There was a knock on the door and Dean headed off to the bathroom. "Get that Sammy, I'll be right back."

Sam walked over and opened the door. As he looked at the woman standing before him he felt his breath catch in his lungs. 'Stop Sam, you can't do this. Dean still loves her. You need to respect that.' he thought to himself.

"Sam? You going to let me in?" Ivy said, her voice bringing Sam out of his thoughts.

"Umm, yeah, come on in." he said.

"Where's Dean?" she asked. She was hoping her and Sam might get a chance to talk about what happened.

"Bathroom." he said.

"Oh. We need to talk about earlier." she said.

"Yeah, we do. But first we need to get this job taken care of." Sam said, avoiding her gaze.

"Dean said he wanted to go to the nest in the morning? I can tell you everything we need to know about these vamps." said Ivy

"Okay, hit us with it." Dean said, emerging from the bathroom. Ivy knew what he was doing. He was going to immerse himself in the hunt to avoid the personal issue at hand. She could feel the bricks of the wall being placed one by one.

"Well, seems there are about 14 of them. I have some other news too. Seems they are what's left of a coven that was led by a vampire that your father killed." she said, watching them for their reactions.

"Luther's coven?" Sam asked, while rubbing his neck. He was not liking this, not at all.

"Yes." Ivy answered.

"Wonderful, just great." said Dean.

"What's wrong?" said Ivy.

"Kate." said Sam.

"Kate? The coven leader Kate?" said Ivy.

"Yeah. She has it out for us. She vowed that she would get revenge after Luther was killed." said Dean.

"And we don't doubt that she will try to make good on that promise." said Sam.

"Well, you two don't like this now, you're not going to be any happier with what I have to tell you next." said Ivy.

"It gets better?" said Dean.

"It seems that the hunters have become the hunted. She's been tracking the two of you for months." Ivy said.

"How do you know this?" asked Dean.

"I figured out a pattern between where I've tracked them and where you two have been. It wasn't a complete accident that we all ended up here." she said.

"You've been tracking us?" said Dean. She could hear the anger rising in his voice. "How?"

"Dean, did you forget who I learned tracking from? The same man who taught you two to cover your tracks. I know the signs of a Winchester hunt." she said.

"Fair enough." he said.

"So, Kate's been tracking us? How did she find us?" said Sam.

"Apparently, that nest you saved had one that wasn't happy with just cows blood. He has become a part of Kate's coven and he told her about the incident and where it was. Kate picked up your scent and has been tracking it ever since." she said.

"This brings about a whole new set of complications then. We can't just go to where the nest is. She already knows we're here." Sam said.

"We have to bring them to us." said Dean. "Sam, you go with Ivy and I want the two of you to scour every word of research you can find. We have to come up with a solid plan to trap them. I do not want to be caught off guard."

What are you going to do?" asked Sam.

"I'm going to head to the local funeral home and stock up on some dead man's blood. I have a feeling we are going to need it." Dean said and he walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Ivy and Sam heard the Impala roar to life and Dean pull out of the gravel parking lot of the motel. They were alone.