Eleven
Sam had quickly explained to Bobby what happened; how Dean and Reggie were missing, presumably taken by the ghouls. Now he sat in the motel room anxiously waiting for the man to arrive. Bobby had promised Sam that he had the information needed to get Dean and Reggie back safely but had refused to give anything to Sam until he got to Bridgewater.
"I don't want you runnin' in there half-cocked and get all three of ya killed," Bobby had stated. "Just wait there at the motel. I'll be there soon."
Sam stood at the window, looking out into the parking lot, too restless to sit down. Flurries had begun to fall as the sun began to rise over the horizon. Dean had been missing for only a few hours, but it seemed more like days. He'd gotten so used to his brother being around again and, despite whatever they may have said to each other in the last several months since Dean had come back from hell, Sam didn't want to go back to life without him.
"Where are you Bobby?" Sam muttered to himself.
As if in answer, headlights flooded the motel parking lot, and Sam recognized Bobby's beat up 1971 Chevelle as it pulled up alongside the Impala. He was through the door and out in the lot before the man even had a chance to turn off his car.
"Bobby."
"Hey Sam," Bobby replied, nodding at him solemnly. "Been waitin' by the door, I see." He moved around to the trunk of the Chevelle and Sam followed him. "You need to relax, kid. If you aren't focused you're gonna make mistakes and that ain't gonna help any of us."
"I'm focused," Sam snapped. He grabbed a heavy bag out of Bobby's hand and started back to the room.
"I know you're worried about 'em. I am too, but we have to take this one step at a time. We can't rush anythin' or we'll all end up dead." Bobby dropped a heavy metal box onto the dining table and opened the lid. Sam stared at the contents, confused.
"What are all these?" he asked, picking up a small vial filled with an opaque liquid.
"Essential oils, mostly. I use 'em for rituals and protection spells." Bobby took the vial out of Sam's hand and placed it back in the box. He withdrew another bottle, this one larger than the others, filled with a light amber colored liquid. "Put that on the middle of your forehead over your third eye," he instructed, handing the bottle to Sam and closing the box.
Sam unscrewed the lid and sniffed the contents. He winced back from the strong, bitter smell emanating from the bottle. "Gross. What is that?"
"It's Myrrh Oil. It's to open your eyes to the charms and shields these bastards use to hide behind. Just dab a few drops on your finger and rub it in. You'll get used to the smell in a bit."
Sam did as he was told and handed the bottle back to Bobby. After the hunter had tilted back his ball cap and rubbed his own forehead with the oil, he slipped the bottle into the breast pocket of the blue vest he was wearing. Bobby pulled the bag Sam had carried in up onto one of the chairs and began sorting through it, pulling out various long-handled blades.
"Start loadin' up on any blade you can carry. Bullets only slow 'em down, not kill 'em."
"So what are the knives for?" Sam asked, picking up a large curved sickle.
"Well, they're kinda like vampires, you gotta remove the head from the body. But unlike vampires, that don't kill 'em. You gotta douse the body in blessed Kyphi oil and burn it." Bobby pulled out a large canteen and handed it to Sam.
"Kyphi oil?"
"Egyptian oil normally used for aid with trances, but ghouls use it to create more ghouls. They mix it with lilies, chrysanthemum petals, and fresh human blood and once ingested, it turns a normal person into a ghoul. If it's blessed by an Egyptian High Priestess, though, the oil becomes like acid to their skin. It's the only thing that will destroy 'em."
Sam shook the canteen and heard the fluid sloshing around inside. He unscrewed the cap and took a whiff. "It smells nice, kind of like cinnamon rolls," Sam said. He put the canteen down on the table and picked up another knife, this one with a white pearl handle. "If ghouls are made, can they be unmade?
Bobby shook his head. "The process is irreversible. Once you ingest the potion, you change. There ain't no comin' back from that." Bobby turned to Sam and sighed. "Now, I'm guessin' you three were snoopin' around, tryin' to find a nice deserted place that these suckers might be holed up in?"
"Well, yeah. This empty house just outside of town. It's about twenty minutes from here."
Bobby shook his head. "If ya'd just waited for me to call, ya wouldn't be in this mess right now," he barked.
Sam gaped at him, confounded.
"That's where they got your scent."
"What are you talking about? The place was empty, Bobby. No one's been there for years."
"It wasn't empty, you idjit! It was cloaked. They were there, probably followin' you around, as you snooped behind musty old curtains and inside the rotted pantries. How long after you showed up at this house did the shit hit the fan?"
"Well, that night is when Dean almost went home with one," Sam replied. He gaped at Bobby as the realization hit him. "They were waiting for us at the bar!"
"I know this is gonna be hard, Sam, but I want you to sit down and tell me everythin' that's happened since we last talked," Bobby instructed, pulling the empty dining chair out and pushing Sam's stunned body into it. Sam nodded at him and began to talk.
"Wakey wakey, Reggie," a soft voice cooed.
Reggie's eyes fluttered open, blinking against the glare of the bright lights above her head. She felt someone grab a clump of her hair, which still hung loose around her shoulders, and raise her head so that Reggie was now staring into the scarlet eyes of one of the two women who had attacked her in the bathroom at Madison's Bar. The muscles in Reggie's arms screamed, burning from her weight. She was suspended from the ceiling, her hands chained above her head.
"There you are," the woman purred. "Having pleasant dreams, I hope?"
"I was actually. I dreamt I killed your skanky ass," Reggie spat.
Her head rocked back as she was hit across the face, the woman moving so fast, Reggie hadn't even seen her raise her hand.
"Easy now, Elisa. We don't want to bruise the meat," a voice from behind Reggie scolded.
A tall, slender woman strolled up beside Reggie; the same woman who had tried to pick up Dean the night before.
"Hello, hunter," she hissed.
She raised a long, thin finger up to Reggie's cheek and traced the spot where Elisa had hit her. Reggie jerked her head back, trying to get out from under the woman's icy touch. The movement caused her to swing backwards, her bare toes just barely touching the cold stone floor.
"She needs to be taught some respect," Elisa said, pouting. "We should just cut out her tongue now."
"As tempting as that may be, if we remove her tongue, we will be denied the pleasure of hearing her scream later. Now, what would be the fun in that?" a third voice, male this time, purred.
"Too true, Alexander," Elisa smirked. A figure stepped out of the shadows and Reggie grunted.
"I should have known you were one of them, Doug," Reggie spat.
"If you were a better hunter, maybe you would have," the spiky-haired man said. "You have been quite a problem for us, Reggie. Quite a problem indeed."
"Let me down and I'll show you how big a problem I really can be."
All three of the ghouls laughed, the sound flat and emotionless as it echoed off the room's stone walls.
"We might just take you up on that offer. It's been such a long time since we've had a meal with such fight in it, such fire. You are a rather unique individual, Reggie," Alexander purred as he circled her.
"Really? How so?"
Reggie tried to shift, to lessen the strain in her burning muscles, but the movement only made it worse. She winced and suddenly felt cold lips at her throat. Reggie could hear the deep intake Alexander as he inhaled. She held perfectly still, holding her own breath and waited for the pain. A second later, he pressed his lips against her neck, kissing her gently just under her jaw, then stood up straight and smiled at Reggie. Reggie could smell the rot emanating from his breath.
"We are used to our food having a particular smell, a bouquet of distinctive scents, that add to the taste of the flesh. The most delicate and delectable scent is fear. Yet here you stand…well, hang really…smelling delicious, yes, but not as delicious as you should. There is no fear coming from you. Why? Do you not fear death?"
"Doesn't everybody?"
"We don't, no. We've lived for far too long, immortal as we are, to fear death any longer," the tall woman said, coming to stand beside Alexander. "You do understand that you are going to die, don't you?"
"Of course she does, Cassandra," Elisa purred from behind them.
Cassandra cast an angry glance over her shoulder and Elisa's eyes shot to the floor. Cassandra turned back to Reggie and smiled at her, the look twisted and hungry.
"If death doesn't scare you, then what does?"
"I'm afraid…afraid…" Reggie stuttered, hitching her breath.
"Yes?" Alexander prompted.
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to kill every last one of you smelly, ugly, sons of…" Alexander grabbed Reggie's throat, choking her words off in mid sentence. He squeezed his hand, the cold hard flesh constricting around Reggie's warm throat.
"You may certainly try, pet," he hissed in her ear, before letting go. Reggie gasped for air, grimacing as she tasted the bitter, acrid flavor of death in the room. "But first, we want to perform a little experiment." He snapped his fingers and Elisa sped from the room, her movements blurred and quiet. Before the faded wooden door had a chance to close entirely, a new figure entered the room carrying what looked like a heavy black sack.
Reggie gasped as she recognized the person before her.
"Adrianne?"
The woman smiled at her, all human emotion gone from the gesture. Her blue eyes had been replaced with crimson ones.
"Adrianne is a newer addition to our little clan," Cassandra purred, flashing to Adrianne's side to assist her as she gently lowered the black bundle to the floor. "We decided she was much too precious to eat." Reggie stared at the woman who she had thought was a friend.
"It's lovely, all of it, Reggie. The only down side is I'm so hungry all the time," Adrianne groaned as she stared at Reggie, her eyes tracing every inch of her body eagerly. "It took all I had not to eat you the first day we met."
Alexander shook his head, chuckling dryly. "It's a skill, Adrianne. One you will learn to conquer in time," he stated.
Reggie realized he was holding on to another set of chains suspended from the ceiling about five feet from where she was hanging. Alexander turned to grin at Reggie and kicked the black bundle on the floor. There was a groan and the sack shifted.
"We have a little surprise for you," he purred and bent down, yanking back what Reggie now realized was just a black sheet, to reveal the half naked body of a man beneath it.
Reggie gasped and all three ghouls turned back to her, beaming. Cassandra yanked the body upright and held it there so that Adrianne could fasten the shackles dangling from the ceiling quickly around his wrists. The body groaned again and swayed from side to side like a pendulum.
"I was wondering…," Cassandra hissed as she appeared at Reggie's stunned side. "You may not fear your own death, but perhaps, you would fear someone else's?" She nodded at Alexander who stood by the newly hanging body and turned him around.
"Oh, god. Dean?" Reggie gasped. Dean's head lolled to the side and his eyes fluttered.
"He's still a little groggy from the dust we gave him, but I'm sure a little pain will bring him right around," Alexander growled and he raised one long, thin, sharp finger into the air.
"Don't touch him," Reggie snapped.
"I think you might have been right, Cassandra," Alexander chuckled, glancing at the statuesque woman. They all looked at Reggie, who was glaring at them ferociously, and laughed. "But let's be completely sure." He swiped his finger across the stretched, toned skin of Dean's stomach. Dean's eyes flashed open and he jerked backwards, crying out as the small gash began to ooze blood. Alexander licked the nail and smiled. "He tastes scrumptious."
"Don't - You - Touch - Him - Again!" Reggie screamed. All three ghouls stood watching Reggie struggle to get free, their laughter echoing off the walls.