Liz grabbed onto her sisters arm and drug her down a side street. They were both panting and out of breath, but they were dangerously low on salt round and didn't have much of a choice.

"Liz, we have to go back. One possessed mom!" Liz continued to pull her sister along with her to the house they had established as a base. Her mind was racing even faster than her legs. It didn't make sense, didn't add up. "Liz!" Her sister forced her to come to a complete stop. "I'm not leaving mom like that!" Liz turned on her little sister, eyes flashing.

"Joanna Beth, don't take that tone with me." A small part in the back of her mind told her she sounded just like her mother in that moment. "Things aren't adding up, now we need to get some place safe and figure out what's going here before we get our asses in some serious trouble."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't have time to explain now."

"Give me the short version."

"You are so stubborn." She sighed in exasperation at her sister. "Mom has an anti-possession charm Jo. We all do. We were standing right beside her when we saw, or thought we saw, that demon jump in her. That's not possible. Now get your ass moving and we'll talk when it's safe." Realization dawned on her sister's face and Liz turned from her. "Now Jo. No telling where those people may be hiding." Liz felt herself tense until Jo nodded and began moving. The eldest Harvelle daughter sighed. She wasn't ready to tell her sister that the amulet Balthazar had given her allowed Liz to see the true faces of demons. She'd known from the moment she arrived in this town that demons were not involved, but everything had happened with her mother so fast she hadn't had time to tell anyone else what she knew.

The young hunters navigated the maze of cars and neighborhoods until they were sure no one was following them. When Liz called the all clear they slipped down an alley way on into a two story home, stepping carefully over the previously laid down salt lines as they did so. They made their way into the basement where they were met with the anxious faces of 14 terrified people. Liz spared them a glance before grabbing her sister and dragging her into a back corner of the basement where they could speak more privately.

"So what do you think is going on?" Liz was shaking her head before Jo had even finished her statement.

"I don't know, but this place has just felt off since we got here. These people have been shooting at each other with regular guns, and the bodies aren't getting back up. If these were demons, do you think they'd just lay there? And then mom getting "possessed" when we know she can't be. And I know that paranoid old shit Rufus wouldn't be running around without some form of protection, giving the circumstances of the state of the world." Jo was nodding along with everything she said.

"You're right. None of that adds up. But what can make us see things that aren't really happening? Gjinn can, but we're not exactly in a fairytale dreamland. I've never run across anything else with this kind of juice before."

Liz stared silently at her sister. She couldn't for the life of her figure out what could be doing this. She'd never run across anything like it before. The more she thought about it the more she only saw one way to figure out what was going on. "I don't know what it is Jo, but I think I have an idea." Her sister just looked at her with a curious expression. "I'm going to find mom, let her take me down and back to her camp. Then I'm going to try and reason with her." Jo's eyes widened.

"You can't do that! They could kill you!" Liz shook her head.

"If mom thinks I'm possessed she'll just keep me there until she can exercise the demon. I'll be fine as long as she's the one who finds me. I'll just make certain it is her that finds me." Jo just sighed.

"If you think it'll be okay . . . but I'm going with you." Liz sighed. She knew that was coming.

"Jo, you can't. These people here," she gestured out towards the people moving about in the basement, "are scared. They need someone who at least has a chance of figuring this out here with them. They think its demons and that we can protect them from them, and at the very least that keeps them calm. I need you here." Jo looked ready to argue with her sister, but she swept her eyes over the crowd moving around them and she gave Liz a tight nod. "Thank you Jo."

Liz was tied down to a chair, Rufus and her mother standing on either side of her. The room was small, and Liz could feel the iron chains on her wrist digging into the flesh of her wrist. "Mom, you need to listen to me." Ellen narrowed her eyes at her eldest daughter.

"Shut your mouth you black eyed bitch." Liz sighed. "You're going to get out of my daughter right now." Rufus then began the Latin exorcism and her mother's eyes widened when half way through the girl before her was not reacting at all to the words being spoken.

"Mom, that isn't going to do anything, I want you to lift up my shirt and look at my back. My anti-possession tattoo is still intact on my back. It's still there. I can't be possessed. You know that. Just like I know that even though I'm seeing black eyes on you and Rufus it can't be real." Rufus went around behind her and lifted her shirt.

"Ellen, come look at this." Her mother walked around behind her and gasped.

"How can that be Rufus?" Liz heard Rufus shrug behind her.

"Rufus, mom, I've known from the beginning that this wasn't a demon problem." Liz decided it was now or never. It was time to come clean about the amulet and get everyone on the right track. "The amulet, the one I have that let me see hell hounds?" She looked at her mother when she said this; Ellen nodded signaling that she did in fact remember. "It also allows me to see the true face of demons. I was going to warn you that this wasn't a demon problem but everything happened so fast I never got the chance."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Rufus seemed aggravated that he wasn't in the loop on what was going on.

"Not many people do Rufus, but I know that amulet my daughter is talking about. And if holy water aint burnin' her and her tattoo is still fully intact, there's no way she's possessed." Her mother moved to remove her chains. "Let's get these off and figure out what's going on here." The door opened behind her mother and Liz felt her breath catch in her through.

"Him. His face!" With her free hand she pointed at the man who had entered the room behind her mother. "He's . . . not a demon. He's covered in red, it's like blood. What the hell are you?" He smiled at her.

"How is it, little human girl, that you can see my face. Very interesting." He reached down and felt a ring on his finger. Liz gasped.

"War. You're war!" She accused as she rose to her feet. Finally free and able to stand at eye level with the man. Suddenly the actions of everyone in the town were making sense. There were no demons. There were only scared and confused people, killing each other over a hallucination created by the monster before her.

"Very good. Quite the clever little thing." He spun the ring around his finger once. "But you won't make it out of this town alive.

They were running. Liz, Rufus, Ellen and Jo were running like they'd never run before. All around them the sound of gun shots echoed. Everyone in this town had lost it. It was an all-out killing spree. Bodies littered the ground around them as they ran. Liz knew where she was running; she knew who she was looking for. Suddenly Liz took a sharp right, leaving the rest of her group. She had a feeling she knew where he'd be. She took a few more turns until her destination was in sight. A cherry red mustang, she'd noticed it when she first arrived. It was very unlikely that a car like that belonged to anyone in town; this was a small town in the middle of nowhere. Liz slowed her pace and attempted to control her panting. Crouching behind an overturned suburban she kept eyes on the vehicle and waited. Sure enough before five minutes had passed she spotted him making his way over to the vehicle. She slid slowly, as close to the ground as she could, and made her way closer to War.

She was a few feet away from him. She could practically smell the death radiating off of his very being. Revulsion, strong and suffocating, wound its way through her stomach. She tightened all of her muscles and launched herself at his back, praying he didn't see her until it was too late. When she hit him he let out a startled cry, she wasted no time in celebrating that little victory. Without missing a beat she grabbed his arm and pressed it against the nearest flat surface; his car. She drew her knife and was inches away from severing his finger from the body when she felt herself flying through the air. Pain shot from her back to the rest of her body when she collided with the wall behind her. Groaning she rolled to her feet. "Very clever indeed." He smiled at her.

"Bite me." She responded through gritted teeth.

"All in due time. But for now, I think I'd like to know, how is it that you managed to see my true face? You're not an angel, nor a demon. In fact, you're nothing supernatural. There's nothing special about you." Liz dropped into a fighting stance, casting her eyes to her knife where it lay abandoned between her and War.

"Well obviously you don't know as much as you think you do." She responded. Her adrenaline was pumping. She had no idea how she was going to get the knife back, let alone get close enough to cut off his finger now that he was on his guard. From that throw she knew he was as strong, if not stronger, than any demon she'd faced before.

"I couldn't sense you approaching, and only one thing can hide from me like that. Now, obviously, you're no angel." He smiled at her again, eyes flashing with blood lust. "But that doesn't mean you don't have a bit of their magic." She flinched. "Ah, there. Now I see it. The soft glow was almost masked by your shirt. If I hadn't been looking, I would have missed it. An amulet." Liz felt her whole body freeze. It wasn't a reaction to his words, so he must have more magic than she'd thought. He approached her slowly, cat like smile still in place. When he was less than a foot away, he reached out and drew the amulet from her shirt and examined it closely. "Good craftsmanship. Oh, there's a name! Balthazar. Never heard of him before." He took his eyes off the amulet and met Liz's hard stare. "Now tell me dear Elizabeth, why would an angel give you this?"

"Because she's mine to protect." Liz released a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding when Balthazar spoke. She felt the magic holding her in place drop as the horseman turned his attention to the angel. Liz saw Balthazar pull his blade and stalk closer to War. She watched with fascination as the two battled, apparently War's magic was not affecting the angel and for that she was grateful. The battle didn't last long. In almost no time at all Balthazar had War pinned in the much the same position Liz had only moments before.

"You can't kill me!" War laughed. Balthazar just smiled down at him.

"No, but I can take your power." And with that he brought down his blade and removed the ring, and War's finger, in one motion. The horseman stumbled away, weakened exponentially at the loss of his ring. "Now leave, before I get creative and find a way to kill you. I'm sure I could figure something out, eventually, after much trial and error." The threat still hung in the air long after War had disappeared and Balthazar had turned to Liz. He tossed her the trinket and frowned at her. "These rings aren't worth your life Elizabeth." She squared her shoulders and met his eyes.

"Yes, they are. This is how we defeat Lucifer. I have no intention of dying to get them, but if I have to I will." She could see the rage grow in his eyes then and she swallowed back her fear. She would not be afraid of him. He came closed to her and leaned down enough so that his face was inches from hers.

"If I find out you ran off on your own and attempted to hunt down a horseman, alone, again, I will be the one to end you. If he hadn't of touched my amulet, if I hadn't of felt him," Balthazar shivered a little before her, "I wouldn't have known you needed me. You weren't calling for me. I couldn't have known. Can you imagine what it would be like to find your dead body and know you didn't call? That you died, and I could have stopped it, but I didn't? I will not let you do that to me. I won't carry that guilt around because you wanted to be selfish. I don't care if I have to stay by your fucking side at all times. You will not do this again. Do you hear me? Ever." Liz wanted to argue. She wanted to tell him she could do with her life what she wanted, wanted to scream that he could not force her to call on him for every little thing. Then she took a good look at his face and her breath was stolen from her. Behind the rage she saw fear. Raw, untainted fear was coursing through the angel in front of her and it took her breath away. "Are we clear?" His voice was still angry when he spoke. When she could respond she barely managed a whisper.

"Yes." As soon as she responded to him, he was gone. She blinked at the empty space in front of her and found herself unable to fully comprehend what had just happened. She had no idea Balthazar cared that much, no idea she meant so much to someone so powerful. Her heart fluttered in her chest at the thought. She took a deep breath in and realized she might be in over her head.

The people requested more sensual Balthazar scenes, and I tried to deliver. I must confess, I already had this in my head before you asked, but it's good to know you are enjoying it. I hope you guys like the writing better now, I switched to a style I'm much more comfortable with and I think it shows. I'm already working on the next installment, and that chapter is centered on Sam, Dean, and Cas.

I could use a good review or two, haven't gotten very many and I'd like to know what you guys think.