Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters you are familiar with (unless you've been following this story, in which case, I own one of them.)

Sorry it's taken so long, had a lot of craziness with work/uni/life/ideas rolling around in my almost empty head =D

Hope you enjoy.

*

"Like the band?" The three men all stared at Maryla in shock. She'd never said anything so silly in her life, and realized it as soon as the words were out of her mouth, "Sorry. That was idiotic. I'm just really tired."

Dean pulled her in to his arms again, and refused to let go.

"Isn't Lilith associated with incubi, and succubi?" Maryla said, before Dean could start talking. Again the men stared at her, "What? That was not a stupid comment! There are these two demons in ancient texts called Lilu and Lilitu, Lilu was the father or something and was an incubus, Lilitu was a succubus." she blurted out.

"OK. That's reassuring." Dean said snarkily. Maryla elbowed him weakly.

"Why would she be coming after you? She doesn't even know who you are?" Bobby said.

"That's true. But maybe she's heard about the new girl hanging around with the Winchesters, and isn't liking what she's heard. How do you know all this stuff, anyway, I thought you said you weren't researching any more?" Sam aimed the last part at Maryla, who sighed.

"I'm not. Cultural anthropology, Studies in the Supernatural. Figured it was an easy A." She yawned, and leaned in to Dean a bit more.

"Oh. Right." Sam said, glancing at Bobby as Maryla fell asleep in Dean's arms, something that hadn't happened in a long time, with the exception of earlier that night. Something weird was definitely going on between his older brother and his ex-girlfriend.

*

The plan, that had taken Bobby and Sam three days to convince Dean to go through with, and even then he'd only agreed because Maryla had woken up and told him that he had two choices, one: he could go through with the plan and save her, or two: he could watch her die and bury her again, only this time she was pretty certain she wouldn't be coming back.

And so Dean agreed, and had had his trademark 'I'm worried about someone I care about' scowl on his face ever since.

"Doesn't your face hurt?" he jumped a little, and looked down to see Maryla looking up at him from the bed, having just woken up.

"What?" he asked, hearing Sam come in, but ignoring it.

"From all the scowling? You never used to scowl this much. Doesn't it make your face hurt?" She continued. Sam guffawed, until Dean shot him a look.

"It's almost time." The younger Winchester reverted to what Maryla had always called his 'Serious Sam' voice.

"We'll be right outside." Dean assured Maryla, who rolled her eyes tiredly.

"Yeah. OK. Fine. Can we get this over with, so I can get well and go home?" She asked, flopping back on to her pillow and mumbling something no one could quite make out.

*

Dean thought that he was the first one who heard it. But really it was Maryla who heard it first. It was the noise she had been dreading going to sleep for for the past month at least. A little creeping sound that shouldn't mean anything to anyone. Unless you were a hunter. She should have figured it out herself, the signs were so obvious if she'd had the strength to she'd have whacked her head against a wall. The loss of strength, the crazy sex dreams about him, the subconscious desire to not go to sleep. If she hadn't been pretending to be asleep, she would have given an exasperated sigh.

Instead, she felt a hand coming on to her shoulder, turning her over, hearing the same rasping that had been plaguing her for weeks. And she wondered if it would be easier to just give up, let the thing kill her, and go back to the pool party with Cliff Burton. Which despite what she'd said earlier, was actually pretty much what she had been doing the last couple of months.

As soon as she thought it, she dismissed it, albeit ruefully. Sodding Castiel and his sodding first words to her. If it hadn't been for those, she would've killed herself as soon as she dug herself out of her grave. And sodding Archangels with their stupid plans and convincing tones that could make anyone do any damn thing they wanted.

God, life was supposed to be so easy. She was supposed to waltz in and take the world by storm, not die at nineteen, only to be brought back five years later, because... well, because some one had it in mind that she could be useful. Or they just had a really sick sense of humour.

*

Sam was too absorbed in trying to read the expression on his older brother's face to notice anything out of the ordinary. He'd never seen Dean this emotional. Not even at Maryla's funeral, even then he'd shown no emotion, rather than what everyone knew he was going through. Now he looked a cross between terrified, and something Sam couldn't quite analyze.

Dean, on the other hand, was listening so intently, he could have sworn he could hear Maryla's heartbeat. Something he'd never thought he'd ever hear again. Partially because she'd died, and partially because they'd dug her back up after the funeral and given her a proper hunters funeral. The sound of the match lighting up had haunted him for weeks.

Bobby was the first to react. He shifted slightly, as he heard the crazy girl's breathing change. Silently, he signalled to the two brothers to be ready, then burst in to the room, exorcism on the tip of his tongue. To his surprise, Dean beat him to it.

It was over in seconds. The thing literally just poofed. Well, it was a bit more dramatic, it turned it's shrieking gaze on the three, fighting for a way to avoid the exorcism, and then it poofed.

Bobby and Sam were still staring at Dean in surprise a few moments later. The oldest Winchester shrugged it off, and turned to the red haired girl who had helped him learn it, and without whom he'd never been able to get it quite right.

And he felt his heart stop. And not in a good way. From the way she looked, she wasn't even breathing.

"What? Did we take too long? Bobby, what's going on?" he jumped across the bed, taking Maryla in his arms, not knowing what to do.

"I... I dunno, Dean." Bobby said, flipping through the pages of the book he was holding, trying to find the answer so that they wouldn't lose her again.

Then Dean heard it. She was mumbling something.

"What's she saying?" Sam asked, coming round to Bobby's side.

"I know. I know, it wasn't supposed to go like this. I just... You have to leave them alone." she murmured, in a voice so quiet, only Dean could really hear her.

"Mari." he began, but stopped as she said something that surprised him.

"Azazel." she murmured, "I don't care. You're going to have to go through me to get to the Winchesters. So you can either take the deal, or I send you back where you belong. Just give them a year of peace."

Dean stared at her in shock. That was what she'd meant about dying by her own choice.

"Mari?" Bobby said, a lot louder than Dean had said it. Her eyes flew open, and locked on to Dean's. The pair stared at each other for a few moments, then returned their attention to the world around them.