Gimme Shelter – chpt 12.
By: sifi.
OOooOO
Literally minutes after they reached Spencer's room and Sam drew his ward line in an arc around the door, a knock sounded. All three men looked dubiously at each other before Sam looked out the peep hole and with a wry smile opened the door admitting Tommy CrowHawk.
"S'about time you fellah's got here," he motioned to Spencer, "This the kid?"
"Mm hm," Sam nodded, "Spencer this is,"
"Thomas CrowHawk," Reid stepped forward smiling curiously but extending his hand nonetheless, "self proclaimed guardian of the vortex, over a dozen arrests over the last twenty seven years with..."
"Yeah you're a fibbie alright..." Tom chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck, "Smart one too."
"That he is," Dean stepped forward pumping the man's hand with gusto, "So how far along are we?"
"Got my boys laying down the lines, we won't get the generators in place until near sunup though. Elf's gonna get it all hooked so we can remote start any location at any time."
"Elf?" Spencer asked.
"Yeah, short guy... pointy ears... wears a lot of green." Tom nodded easily, just enough so Spencer would know he'd probably never hear the person's real name. The old Apache turned to Dean, "We should get him out of here, we can't guarantee this place."
"Wait what?" Spencer looked a little unnerved, more because he was concerned over what would happen if anyone from the team called and he wasn't there than any sense of distrust.
"Yeah we should," Dean nodded, "Y'think?" he asked the younger hunter.
Sam nodded, "I'd love to get him somewhere easier to defend until we're ready to summon the thing to the vortex."
"Alright," Dean turned to the young Agent, "Spence, grab your bag."
"Wait where...?" he started to ask but did as he was instructed.
"Don't worry FBI man," Tom clapped him on the shoulder, "we got a nice little setup surrounded by lodestone, got a little bit of running water, and a pretty good generator for tv if it'll find a signal, and it's even close to a cell tower so you can stay in touch with Mr. Morgan and Ms. Prentiss, but mostly cause the EMF buggers the shit outta them bad energies, but then again so does the lodestone. You're gonna be fine kid." He guided the young man out of the room and toward the back door.
"You sure?" he asked getting a laugh from the old man as they headed out to the parking lot. "No seriously the human brain runs on electrochemical reactions and though it's never been proven that exposure to magnetic fields..."
"We'll take him and follow you Tom," Dean interrupted the young man with an easy arm across his shoulders and guided him toward the Impala. It may have sounded like an easy suggestion, but everyone knew it was a great deal more. He was taking full responsibility for the young mans' well being and even a new ally knew better than to try to challenge him.
OOooOO
Blood rushed, nylon tore into her flesh, a coppery glow lit deep in her eyes and her muscles strained but only for a moment before the zip-ties snapped and her hand came up around the glowing iron coming toward her face. As she rose to her feet, the iron bar bent like so much licorice away from her and back toward the pretender, her assailant's eyes bulged nearly out of their sockets.
"Call me a demon? Fool, what you've awakened could have any mere demon quaking on the ground if I so choose!" She hissed, her voice a strange slithery sound that only a small handful of living humans had ever heard.
"Wha... my god what are you?" the pretender choked falling to her knees before the enraged soul of the ancient goddess.
"I am Inanna," She cast aside the iron and grasped the woman's fists in her hands, snapping them both backwards with grotesque finality as the more slender bones of the forearms ruptured like dried twigs through her flesh. "I am the Goddess of Love." She continued to introduce her self through the pretender's screams and grasped her by the throat, "I am the Goddess of Battle." She walked across the cabin, motion out the window catching her attention as a swarm of locust raced at the simple panes of glass and burst through it, "I am the mother of Marduk, King of the Gods." She braced the woman against the wall then slammed down atop her shoulders with enough force to snap her clavicles, femurs, shatter several ribs and explode several vertebrae while severing many nerves that emerged from her spine. "I am the Goddess of the heavens." Blood trickled from her mouth betraying the explosion, shearing and rupturing of internal organs as well, "And I am Enki's One and Only Queen! There never has been another and there never will be another."
All through the cabin the locusts waited, thousands sitting or hopping patiently on the floor with thousands more hovering in the air while outside, as if the cabin was enclosed in a bell jar Imdugud stood with a passel of sidhe. She could see the small warriors pounding on the barrier, trying to break the wards that had hidden her from them and kept them incapable of rendering aid. Imdugud threw spires of air that was hot enough to raise the temperature in the cabin nearly twenty degrees, and yet still not hot enough to burn through the wards.
With the threat neutralized in a flood of blood from arteries severed by the explosive rupture of the femoral bones and various organs, Inanna raised her hand and waved dismissively at the demi-god. He stopped and stood panting for his exertions craning for a look as she grasped the woman by the throat and tossed her easily into the wall of waiting insects barely taking a moment to watch them begin to feast.
Spying the door the warrior goddess moved through the cabin heedless of the injuries to her vessel and made her way out into the night toward those who sought her.
"Where is my king?" She asked.
Without missing a beat Imdugud answered, "He and Marduk are preparing to kill or banish the wraith created by your captor." He motioned to her, "My queen we cannot pass the barrier, you must come through it, I will take you to your men."
"Your swarm is hungry Pazuzu, let them feast," She used his Assyrian name then emerged from the boundary of the ward and caressed his cheek as the sidhe warrior Mustardseed wrapped his arms around her leg and kissed her kneecap. She smiled and grasped his shoulder gently, "Thank you my friend." Then turned her attention back to Imdugud, "Tell me since I am arisen... what of Lamashtu and my son? Has she been slain yet for what she did to him?" She asked allowing the sidhe warrior to draw her down to her knees where his mate MilkThistle and several of her ladies quickly adorned the queen in appropriate battle raiment's. MilkThistle herself strode up the woman's thighs and held a stone cup up to her lips.
"The filth hides where I cannot catch her scent, she is near a month with his child already, time moves far too quickly. Even the angels are beginning to fret."
"And well they should!" She nodded, "And what is Cernunnos doing about this? Her raping of my son made a travesty of his every gift!" her voice may have been low but her face was filled with fury.
"He is moving through the population one by one to try and find her," Imdugud nodded watching as another cup of whatever brew they were feeding her was pressed to her lips and another female flipped up her skirt then pulled it down behind herself as she disappeared between the woman's legs.
Seconds later the vessel of the ancient goddess cried out in agony and half collapsed sending the sidhe into another frenzy of activity even as what little color had been left on her face drained.
"My queen?" the demi-god winced then asked softly as she shooed the diminutive people away and looked like she was about to try to stand, and then most certainly fall if I am correct. Reading his cue easily, the ancient Assyrian rose and guided her to her feet, "Your vessel has needs. Your mate has been mad for you. Let me take you to him so I can continue my hunt."
Exhausted she nodded allowing the ancient being to hoist her into his arms. "Open the way sidhe." He instructed, once more following Mustardseed behind the veil, in spite of his allegiance to Dean and Sam and their souls, no demon was allowed to walk unaccompanied through even the gardens on the outer rim of the underworld.
OOooOO
Oh no... don't tell me it got in... Spencer thought while trying to peer into a darkened corner of the trailer, "Uh guys... I think it got in, and it's bigger."
Attention flew in the direction of his gaze where a sizeable bit of air began to shimmer faintly.
"Hooollleeee hell..." CrowHawk breathed.
"Nah...that's just the veil between worlds," Dean explained clapping the young man on the shoulder though his eyes betrayed his hope and its equal part fear as he neared it.
In the span of another breath it was easy to see that there was something very large carrying someone, are those wings? What the hell is that? Lemme see its face... Spencer tried to will his eyes to get a clear vision as the person being carried was returned to their feet and suddenly the enormous seemed merely man-sized. Oooh there's smaller ones... they don't have wings... an actual barrier between worlds? Can this really be real? How different is it than the multiverse theory... that suggests a kind of membrane separates the universes. Maybe I'm still in the hospital and this is all just one really crazy drugged up dream... it's gotta be, if this was really real I think I might be scared out of my mind. He nodded to himself and watched the scene unfold as the now-man-sized apparition walked with a supportive arm around the woman's waist through the shimmering curtain to materialize into the trailer. They were followed by a handful of very short men and women.
"Laura," Dean gasped, nearly choking on her name as he moved quickly to her, taking her out of the newly arrived male's possession. "Oh my God... what'd she do to you?" he asked gently cradling her face in his hands. "I'll kill her... so help me God I'll..."
"Shhh, she's been fed to the swarm my king." Ina whispered into his ear before gracing him with a gentle smile and caressing his cheek with one hand.
The other reached to Sam and caressed his cheek before sliding around his neck and drawing him down for a kiss, "My son..." she pressed her mouth to his, lingering for a long moment that felt more than just a little awkward for those assembled in the suddenly very cramped trailer, "What she has done to you...she will pay my son, this I vow." She nodded and once more favored him with a long strong kiss.
"Hey," Dean's hand fell to her shoulder and turned her away from his brother with an oddly amused smile, "Watch it there runt, I know you have good taste," he said to the younger man, "But don't push it."
Sam gave a quick shake of his head, dispelling the haze that seemed to engulf his senses ever since that kiss on the Road To Dead. "Sorry," He half smirked, "father."
"Are they speaking an actual language?" Spencer asked looking between CrowHawk and the newly arrived male.
"Who?" Imdugud asked leaning against the wall and enjoying the show.
"All of them?" Reid motioned to everyone but himself and CrowHawk.
"Oh yeah," Imdugud nodded but said nothing else.
At the same time the queen's hand closed on Dean's throat and she lifted him off the floor driving him back to the far end of the trailer taking everyone by surprise.
"I told you once before that I would never again tolerate your infidelity! And yet you have gone against my wishes!" She stormed pressing him into the wall even as Sam tried to get her to release him.
Reid made to stand or protest but the demi-god, with an easy hand on his shoulder, kept him in his chair. "She'd never hurt him."
Swallowing hard he looked up, "Uhm, is it just me or are there about half a dozen very small midgets..."
"It's not just you... and they're not midgets, they're sidhe."
"That was five thousand years ago..." Dean choked, "I barely remember breakfast!" he gagged as her grip tightened and his face began to turn magenta.
Sam had a grip on her arm but couldn't pull her off his brother,"Ina! Stop it! The vessel is fragile!" he reminded her while ignoring his brother's frown of disapproval and ducking under her arm.
"I'm sorry," Dean apologized, "I was hurt."
Tears slid down her face as she released him and bowed her head against his chest, "No my king, I am the one who failed. I was gifted with your child and I failed to save it."
"Aww here we go," the Assyrian approached the trio and knelt before them, "The fault lies with me, I failed in my duties and I will avenge the assassination." He turned his eyes to Laura, "You will leave me with two kings and a queen to return to?"
She nodded leaning into Dean's embrace.
"Then I'm off to continue the hunt!" he grinned rising to his feet once more. He turned to face Spencer, jack-knifed out of his host for a split second, just long enough to give the young man a glimpse of his true nature before he laughed and headed out the door.
Sam shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose, Dean wrapped his arms around Laura and chuckled with his lips against her brow, Reid shook his head and appeared to be glancing through a catalog inside his mind, and CrowHawk just stood shaking his head, mystified.
Meanwhile the sidhe finished making the bed and began to demand attention.
Dean slid his arm more snugly around the exhausted woman and gently tilted her head toward his, "I promise," he whispered then brushed her lips with his, "Never again."
Her hand circled behind his head, gently squeezing his neck while her lips possessed his and her free hand slid down his front to gently cradle him, "Everything you are... is mine." She spoke into his mouth.
"Yes my queen." He grinned blushing deeply as the other three men blushed and looked away then returned to examining the map on the dining table while he maneuvered her into the bedroom and with the sidhe's help began to get her cleaned up.
OOooOO
A few hours later Dean emerged from the rear compartment that cordoned off the bedroom and bathroom, looking pale and just a little green, there were still splatters of blood here and there on his arms as he plopped into a chair beside Sam.
All three men had been watching a DVD waiting for word from Tommy's friend Elf that everything was in place.
From across the 'living room' CrowHawk handed over a bottle of whiskey and watched the older brother chug several quick swallows.
"That bad huh?" Sam asked.
"There's some things even a God doesn't wanna know about."
"She gonna be okay?"
"One way or another she will," he nodded slowly.
"And will you...?" Sam asked, the look on his face finishing the question between them.
Dean shook his head and took another series of chugs, "I don't know... she'll let it kill her before she stops trying to heal though."
"What happened?" Spencer asked then noting the 'where do I start' look on the older hunters' face shook his head, "I mean I do know some pretty capable doctors... whatever's wrong... that level of hemorrhaging... she won't be able to..."
"Thanks Spence." Dean nodded but didn't give him any information, just like he didn't give him the items the stalker had given them.
J. J.'s the only other person who calls me Spence...seriously, is this real or am I dreaming? He wondered again as a male of the sidhe approached the older brother.
"The women have done what they can for now. They say if she rests and doesn't overtax herself then its possible they may finally be able to get the womb to knit." He shifted from foot to foot for a second then looked up into Dean's eyes, "They did not think you would be able to, do...what you ... needed to do... you know, to help."
"S'amazing what we can do," he paused glancing at the other men, "for the ones we love isn't it?" Dean nodded, "She sleeping?"
Mustardseed nodded, "They gave her a draught. Unless the queen rises again she should sleep at least until morning."
"Good," Dean nodded.
"Do you actually understand what they're saying?" Spencer asked.
"It took a while but yeah." Sam nodded as Dean cracked open a beer and chugged it hard.
"Can you...? What language is that exactly?" he asked.
Sam smiled, shared a look with his brother and faced the young agent, "It is the language of the First Ones."
Spencer shook his head then nodded his understanding, "You're not going to tell me..."
"I just did. But no."
He took a deep breath feeling so deeply out of his element but still finding an unusual joy in the discovery of the truth of so many myths that he couldn't help but wonder as he looked around the room, at the faces of the men there, "Am I dreaming this?" he asked.
Sam reached off to the side and gave a solid pinch to the kid's forearm.
"OW!"
"Nope, not dreaming." He smiled good naturedly with a shake of his head and passed over another beer.
A second later, he turned and met the young man's eyes, "Don't worry, as soon as you get back to your real life you can put all this on the back burner... you don't have to reconcile it right away."
"And on a positive note... long as you can stay away from anything supernatural you'll probably eventually convince yourself it WAS a dream." Dean added taking one last series of slugs from the bottle before passing it down to Sam who sent it on a circuit around the room.
OOooOO
"You sure you'll be alright on your own?" Dean asked mopping her sweat soaked forehead.
"Yeah," she nodded looking around at the sidhe, "they're barely willing to let me get up to go to the bathroom."
"Good." He nodded leaning forward to rub his temple against hers, "The trailer is secure, as soon as we kill this thing we'll go get a room at the Red Roof Inn and get you some good rest okay?" He smiled, "I'll even hustle us up enough money for some room service and maybe a couple massages okay?"
She bit her lips tight and nodded, trying to hold back the pain that made her want to scream and kill and die all at once.
"Go, be safe, look after each other," she swept his cheek with the back of her hand, "I love you both."
"Just as long as you don't want to be married to us both." He smiled softly.
She smiled and shook her head, "That would be really not right."
"Glad we agree. Anything else I've got he can have... gladly, with pleasure... just..."
She cupped his cheek, "It's not like that. He remembers what it was like to be part of each of us when HIS soul was conceived, he remembers the love that created him... and like we all do, he craves it."
He squinted curiously at her then looked at Sam who was going over the plan again with Spencer, "He what?"
"Some other time, for now you have a young man to save. Go sweetie, and when you get back you can tell me the story."
OOooOO
It was nearly three a.m. when they each reached their destinations, Tommy at Airport Mesa, Elf at Cathedral Rock, Sam at Boynton Canyon and Dean and Spencer at Bell Rock, where the energy signature extended the furthest, ensuring that it was the largest vortex in the area.
"You do know I'm not really wild about this plan right?" Spencer confided, "It's one thing to know this wraith wants to attach itself to me for whatever malicious purposes it has in mind, but to actually let it do it and hope we don't fry me in the bargain, I'm not sure I like this."
"It's okay, I'm not going to let anything happen to you, I promise."
"So tell me again..." Spencer nodded, "We've got our unsub returning... well in this case to the place its energy was drawn from?" He walked the circumference of the ring, noting wires criss crossing the diameter of the vortex, and moving beside the hunter making sure they were all connected then tracing the lines back to the generator. "The thoughtform that was drawn from here was like a larva, and the wraith in this stage of the game is sorta the pupa... then what it attaches itself to me it becomes an adult?"
At the generator Dean leaned down, primed the pump and booted up the miniature computer, "Yep about like that, except sometimes they don't attach themselves to anyone and they can be mistaken for ghosts, which is how the whole death omen thing started...you saw it and yeah you were gonna die... but not from anything other than IT."
"I can't believe SGA got it so pretty darned right." Reid shook his head.
"Someone on that staff knows something ..." he turned to the younger man, "Look Spence, whatever this thing wants you for, you can bet it's not good. I have a feeling it wants to free other entities in there and if that happens I promise you, no good will come from it."
"I do understand. I'm not sure how I feel about all this being real but it's hard to deny looking into the face of an Assyrian Demi-God. The one that brought your... Laura back. He either IS Pazuzu or he's a very talented illusionist."
Dean smiled shakily wondering why he was so willing to let this boy see so much, and I don't think it's cause hiding it would be too hard... he WANTS the truth even if he has to rearrange his reality for it. "We call him Imdugud."
"His Babylonian name," Spencer nodded. "How is it that a couple regular guys and a girl find themselves, if I'm not mistaken and believe me I'm not, with subservient allies like an Assyrian demi-god and a cadre of faerie folk?" He asked looking deep into Dean's eyes, "Who are you?"
"They're not..."
"He knelt in front of the three of you. You said, 'That was five thousand years ago, I barely remember breakfast.' You called her 'my queen.' The sidhe tend to her, even the males, that one your brother called Mustardseed... like handmaidens. Now either you guys did 'em a really big favor... or more likely considering the deference shown... there's some kind of ...other thing..." he let the question hang a bit.
Dean shook his head, "We're not getting into this, you go ahead and think what you want, draw whatever conclusions that ginormous brain of yours wants, the only things you need to know are these; one, there's freaky supernatural shit out there and it usually likes to hurt people. Two, there's also folks out there doing their damnedest to stop them."
"It's some kind of bloodline thing isn't it?" he asked nodding his understanding.
"Yes!" Dean smiled clapping him in on the shoulder, "That's exactly it! It's a bloodline thing." Returning to the business at hand he pointed to the ring, "Look if I thought for a second that you'd be able to control me if that thing got ... well not that it could..." he thought for a second wondering if the seal would keep a wraith out, "Huh, we'll have to check that out. Anyway, point is, you've checked the layout yourself, you know Elf and his buddies set this thing up to act like one of those big static generators."
"A Van De Graaff generator yes," the young man nodded, "It squirmed away from you from the stun gun is that because it has both..."
"That's cause I didn't have a large enough field to force enough charge, fast enough into the thing."
"And why the setup for all the vortices? Just for precaution?"
"You ask a lot of questions."
"That's how we learn."
Dean laughed, "Man my brother used to drive me crazy when we were kids, 'Why's this happen?', 'what makes that do that?'..." When's dad coming home? Why don't we have a mom? Why'd God take her away? His smile faltered.
"I remind you of him a little."
"A lot," Dean nodded, "When things were different," before there were universes to save, before he was made a living blow up doll for a demonic she-bitch that wants to set Lucifer himself loose on the world in a human body that had its soul stripped... before I ever met an angel or went to hell and saw myself go darkside... "I'm sorry man... I never should have allowed you to see the truth let alone showed it to you myself."
Spencer couldn't say what caused the older man's mood to shift so suddenly or so thoroughly, though he was certain it had a great deal to do with his little brother and the course of their lives but he shook his head, "No, Dave... or whatever your real name is... I'd rather have to find a way to reconcile the truth than to have it hidden from me intentionally. Besides," he smirked, "how exactly were you planning on getting this thing without my cooperation?"
"Good point." Dean shoved his worries down deep and locked them away for the time being. There'd be plenty of time to face them once they had the wraith down. "Okay, so... you ready to take a nap?" He asked handing over his flask.
"Smells like whiskey?" he questioned and took a small sip.
"It is,"
He took a larger slug then handed it back, "I don't see how that's..." He was unconscious a second later with Dean slinging him over his shoulder and setting him down in the middle of the grid.
"And a little Faerie Folk medicine," he mumbled then moved to the generator and kept his eyes on the unconscious FBI agent. "I won't let anything happen kid, don't you worry." He nodded and dialed the others one by one.
OOooOO
It wasn't the first time Tommy CrowHawk had ever seen one of the vortices act up. In fact it usually happened at Halloween simply because the veil between worlds was thinnest at that time of year. Sometimes they'd start to spiral around Beltane whenever local kitchen witches decided to have a spring orgy and call it a 'ceremony', but that was a rare occurrence if for no other reason than the fights that usually broke out. After nearly seventy years he still couldn't figure out how people who did their research and knew the history of these energetic centers could be so stupid.
Energy moved in veins of blue-white through a serpentine tube of what anyone would have said looked a lot like heat shimmer, or perhaps a ring of water but for perhaps the first time in his life Tommy CrowHawk could have sworn he saw something within the energy. Shapes, faces, maybe even eyes. His every hair stood on end and his eyes narrowed as the shadows deep inside motioned to him. There were faces and figures in there and though he'd never noticed it before, he was pretty sure they wanted something from him, or wanted to show him something. Considering what he'd already seen this night he wasn't sure he could handle much more but still his feet carried him forward.
Nearing the edge of the ring he leaned forward a slim-ish shadow of an upside down teardrop with pinched and pointed features seemed to glare at him, eyes look kinda like ... rats eyes. As he leaned closer so preoccupied with the pointy faced creature he failed to notice the swirling masses that seemed to fight the currents and eddy's and as his hand reached up toward that face nearing the tenuous membrane made by the sealing ring his cell rang. As his body fell, his hand breeched the barrier creating a conduit for the creatures within the phone abruptly ceased.
OOooOO
"Sam? Are you there?"
"Yeah I'm here Dean what's up?"
"I can't get in touch with CrowHawk, I just needed to make sure you were... still... you know." He could almost see Dean shrugging sheepishly.
"On line?" he suggested.
"Yeah! You are aren't you?"
"Yep, generator's up and running I'm just waiting for the signal to throw the switch. How's Spencer?"
"Out cold but fine. The sleep draught hit the kid like a ton of bricks. I'm gonna see if I can get in touch with Elf. Keep your phone on and your eyes open."
"Will do." Sam nodded and felt his eyes bulge wide, "Dean! Wait!"
But it was too late. The elder hunter had already disconnected the line at almost exactly the same time Sam's Boynton Canyon vortex began to shimmer, its increase in activity marked by the occasional flare of lightning picking into the nothingness.
It'll wait. I don't know how we're gonna be able to see this thing if it hops from Bell Rock all the way over here, without light to see the shadow it's like finding a needle in a haystack blindfolded. Man. This is ridiculous. Reaching down by the generator he slid the camper's spotlight out of its nook and looked around for the right place to mount it. Just off to the right there were a couple of tightly wedged boulders that looked like they had a good 'V' to wedge it in.
Glancing around from the energy field, off toward the direction he knew his big brother was in, he shook his head moving behind the boulders, looking for hand and foot holds. At the same moment within the ring of spinning energy several different kinds of faces, some of them those upside down teardrop shaped rat-like ones, and others distinctly more disturbing for their similarity to human features in spite of the pasty doughy color and the eyes like school glue and milk, and again even more still, bundles of ricocheting energy that were thoughtforms yet to be summoned. All of them looking, searching for a way out, looking for that living thing they sensed, that coppery soul light that made them hungry and angry for their very state of lack.
From behind the boulders Sam levered himself up and wedged one foot between them, and his other held his balance as he held the lantern pressed between his chest and the rocks while he emptied his jacket pockets and shrugged it off to make a pseudo platform to rest the lantern on. Sweat poured down his face as he stuffed the jacket into the crotch of the rocks then pressed the light source down deep until some of the plastic of the base cracked but the piece of equipment held firm. From his vantage there was no way he could have seen the rage and fear moving through that milieu of faces when he switched the light on and angled it into the wall of shimmering energy driving those very creatures anywhere else in their darkened world between worlds.
His feet hit the ground by the third ring, "Did you get in touch with him?" he asked noting Dean's name on the screen.
"No, he's off the grid Sam, this is so very not good... I want you to use the remote access, light up all three sites."
"Dean... we're all surrounded by lodestone and electrical fields..."
"But our connection is fine. No Sam, something's wrong. Light up all three of 'em then go check on them. Drive the thing to my location."
"What?! Dean no! I'll come to you, we don't even know if the seals will keep a wraith out what if it goes after you instead of Spencer? Dean? Dean!?" Sam shouted uselessly into the dead phone. "Had t'jinx it didn't cha? Damnit!" he cursed running his hand through his sweat soaked hair, "Son of a bitch." He knew Dean was right, the others had been dragged into this. He had to go check on them first.
OOooOO
Right around the same time Sam decided to try to rig up a light in Boynton Canyon, over at Cathedral Rock Elf sat back on a sandstone seat, watching the vortex come to life and growing mesmerized by it.
He could have sworn he heard the phone start to ring but it didn't matter. He turned on his generator and kept his eyes peeled for any approaching shadows. There'd been only one infra red reader and since Cathedral Rock was the second most powerful vortex next to Bell Rock he'd kept it to himself.
Reaching into his pack for his cigarettes and a bag of beef jerky Frederick Elphard McAlister could never have seen the man sized creature of darkness with its dusty flaky rolled in soot skin or its milk and school glue eyes that angled upward at the outer edges as the schade leaned down and whispered into his ear, "He's sitting on a gold mine and I'm stuck out here waiting for my turn. It's my turn," slowly he began to nod to himself.
"Damn son of a bitch who the hell's he think he is? He's the one that got all the brakes, he's the one that got to go to college, that got the offer to work at dad's company, he's the one that got the pretty wife, the good kids with good grades... 'at shoulda been mine! I'm the oldest! I shoulda be the one in control... it's MY legacy! Who the hell does he think he is!?" his voice rose and he began to pace as the dusty living slice of time and the stuff between returned to the shadows smiling.
"Got to take what's mine, it's mine... I deserve it!" it whispered on the night winds and watched him dash to his truck his face warped with unnatural fury as he peeled out onto the road.
With its obstacle eliminated the schade moved forward, turned the generator on and activated the grid. It had no desire to release either the Foenwyn or the unborn thoughtforms. It had work to do and a plan of its own that had nothing to do with this kind of hunter.
It tilted its head to the side glancing at the shadows on the ground, wondering which would take him to his objective most readily now that it was out of prison, it didn't matter, sooner or later it would get its hands on the children and when it did, it could begin to undo everything.
It took a step to the right disappearing into the shadow on the ground as if it'd jumped off a cliff. These humans were of no concern after all.
OOooOO
"Tommy!" Sam grasped him by the feet and pulled him clear of the ring watching with desperate amazement and a sick memory of just a few years ago when a literal doorway to hell had been opened, unleashing hundreds of demons onto the world. "Oh God..." he shook his head, "Not again." Then pulled his cell and dialed his big brother while he tried to rouse the old man.
Something like a ghostly balloon zipped by his face and by the very description he knew exactly what it was, "Shit! Pixie-rat is right! Son of a bitch!" he balked, rolling backwards as the thing literally charged him and seemed to bounce off his chest leaving him panting and breathless but incredibly grateful, Can't get in... that's good... that's real good! I gotta call Dean... We're gonna hafta call Shep too. It tried again and again, batting its otherworldly and immaterial self uselessly against him.
"Are you through?" he finally sniped and returned to trying to rouse CrowHawk grateful that apparently the St. Quirinis Medallion he too had been given seemed effective protection.
"Tommy c'mon man..." I wonder what our Tommy's doing right about now? The thought flitted through his head as he dialed Dean and frowned when he was unable to connect.
"Alrighty then," he groaned glancing around the area to make sure that nothing was lurking or still trying to squeeze its way through, then activated the grid. Chills shot up his spine as several things screeched in the night and over the vortex things a series of pops exploded and showered sparks over the area.
"Heh, fireworks," He ducked down, slung the older man over his shoulder in a fireman's carry and deposited him into the passenger seat of his truck then hopped behind the wheel and peeled out onto the road toward Bell Rock and his big brother.
OOooOO
Tbc.
Please R&R.
Thank You.
sifi