Dawn – chpt 14.
By: sifi.
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THE NIGHT BEFORE LAST... The Twilight Bar and Grill in Fort Dodge Iowa...
She reached her hand out, laying her fingertips on the man's throat, feeling for a pulse while red ran into her eyes and a voice she knew far too well rattled on madly in the back of her head, They're so pretty when they're colored in aren't they sis? They're so much more vibrant now... remember I had... "Shhhhzzhuddup... ooo're not 'ere..." she swept her tongue through her mouth and spat a golf ball sized glut of blood onto the floor. "Hey?" she shoved at the man's head as a strange sensation seemed to crawl into her.
Heat, brought as if by some pipeline all its own almost seemed as if it was burrowing through the floor, coming straight at her in fact, Sis... you may not wanna hear from me, but unless you wanna wind up a charcoal briquette, I suggest you shag your worthless ass out this hole.
She shook her head and fought the chuckle, all the decades, all the lifetimes she'd managed to stave off the insanity that plagued her brother life after life after life, and now that she'd won his freedom, she feared falling to the same fate. I could just lay here and if the joint goes up, just breathe in the smoke till it kills me... 'c'mon! insanity's not so bad it's even kinda liberating... if you just learn to let go and roll with the punches...'
"Son of a bitch..." she pushed herself to all fours still feeling that heat almost as if it was attached to her, seeping into her somehow, drawing on something inside. "Alright," she grunted finally on her knees as she slapped the man's cheeks trying to rouse him.
Around them lay five bodies, all of whom she knew for a fact were dead. Two had escaped apparently, and the other three, she figured she'd been wrong about. None of the men who'd attacked them were possessed, she knew that now, at least not in the traditional way, but they certainly had been used.
I don't have time for this, I have to get that moon down and the cone up, her breath caught in her throat as tears of desperation and pain filmed her eyes. There wasn't a part of her body that didn't hurt. She'd been laying in a puddle of blood that could only be her own, Musta torn some of Shep's handiwork... and her left hand with all those sausage fingers that had only been dislocated by the blonde haired bitch that had tortured both her and Dean, were hugely puffy again, and she was fairly certain, mostly broken now.
The 'whuff' and crackle that presaged an almost deafening explosion from the kitchen, sent her sprawling over the one man who'd tried to help her.
"Son of a bitch," she forced her pains to the side and grasped the guy's collar with her good hand making a bee-line for the front door as the two lanterns, one on either side exploded, spewing glass straight at her as the cords erupted into blue flames that quickly bit into the old dry wood walls.
Behind them, blocking the way to the back door bright yellow flames pawed out from the kitchen, scratching at the walls opposite it. That's not an option... she thought looking down at the man who it seemed was starting to rouse in her grip.
She knelt down, grinding her teeth against the pain and shook him, "Wake up! The place is on fire we have to get out of here!"
Thank God for the human response to fire! His eyes popped open and quickly took in the impending doom.
"Panic later... on your feet now!" she ordered grasping him by the shirtfront and pulling him to his feet. Her right arm wrapped around his waist and she pulled him toward the front door where the flames were still thin enough to see through.
"What happened?" he shouted above the rising rush of noise and coughed as the air started to become dangerously hot.
She rammed her shoulder at the door and bounced back into the room, "Damnit!"
Draping her good hand with her sleeve she reached for the deadbolt and stared disbelieving as it spun uselessly on its axis.
Fury flared, deadening her pain as she turned without thought and spun into a back kick that finally opened the door. Oh that's not right... a heavy feeling hit her belly as a crack reverberated through her skeleton. A second later, when she set her foot down the ankle gave out.
"I gotcha," he grabbed her firmly and dragged her out into the refreshing and moist night air.
In the parking lot they stood stunned as the bar erupted into flames behind them. Not a single soul was nearby, no sirens could be heard, no other cars, no gawkers, nothing.
"Thank God..." she pressed the remote and opened her car doors at the same time he did his own car.
"I'm driving," she said.
He looked at her incredulous, "You aren't in any shape to drive sweetheart... you look in a mirror lately?"
She shook her head and sighed, "Get to a hospital and have yourself checked out, I have somewhere to be," she lowered herself into her car and started the engine watching the man try for a moment to think of an argument before turning back toward his car.
As she backed out of the parking spot she lowered the window, "Sit in your car for a while, make sure you don't go into shock... better yet, call 911 and wait for the paramedics," she suggested then rolled the window up. She got halfway to the road before she swung her car backward beside the man's and rolled down her window again.
"You saved my life," she nodded meeting his eyes, "Thank you," and drove away before he could gather his wits enough to ask questions she couldn't answer.
--
PRESENT...
Between the ringing in her head and the buzzing she wasn't sure which was worse once consciousness returned. Warmth dripped down her face and she knew she'd opened the scalp wound from the bar.
"Uh... shhhh...t..." she lifted her head fully off the steering wheel and looked up at the arch that delineated Bobby's driveway. Just a little ways ahead through a grouping of trees she could see the Impala, and two other cars parked near the house.
What the hell? she thought remembering the sputtering of her cars' engine as she turned onto the side road that led to Singer's Auto Salvage, and then blinding white pain as her head bounced off the steering wheel as if she'd run into something, So much for airbags... Please don't tell me... she shook her head, pushing the door open and stumbling out, her cantaloupe sized ankle wrenched under her weight sending her to the ground one more time where sharp quartz stones bit into her palms sending shockwaves of lightning up her left arm. Please tell me you just clunked out baby... please... she thought with limited coherence, not really certain why she was wishing for such a thing but knowing just the same it was terribly important.
'Upsadaisy sis... c'mon now you're almost there... let us in,' Morgan's voice taunted, 'little pigs little pigs let us in... we got a surpriiiiiiise for you...' it sing-songed.
"Noh," she shook her head, forcing herself to her feet when her knees proved too sensitive to tolerate the sharp rocks.
Taking care to lean hard on the car, she hobbled to the front bumper, sliding along the fender to the nose. With a deep breath she closed her eyes and slid her hand forward then watched her fingers bend faintly back against the barrier.
A gasp tore free first, unleashing behind it silent sobs. Water washed down her face and her whole body gave up trying to keep her on her feet.
Leaning against the heat of the driver's side tire with her knees to her chest, the line of stitches down her torso pulling and pinching, she curled her right arm over her knees, laid her head on her forearm and cried, It's too late... I failed.
--
"So you all are trying to tell me that it's not bad enough we got an army of Hell's demons unleashed onto the world, but we got an army of demons unleashed from an entirely different universe to go up against as well?" Mercy snarled looking at all five men, one by one, unsure whether to be furious or laugh at their insanity.
"Pretty much," Bobby nodded.
"And you KNEW about this and didn't think it was important to tell anyone about this little detail?" her voice was hard and angry, accusing each of them.
"Now Mercy..." Bobby started.
"Oh no! You don't 'Now Mercy' me!... of ALL the damned hunters out there! Of ALL the handful of us sick unfortunate deluded wannabe martyrs... ME! You don't tell!? Why?" she demanded.
"Because we didn't have enough information to answer any of the questions we knew were gonna come," Sam half shrugged.
"That's not good enough!" she yelled, "Do you have any idea how this is gonna look to what few of us even have enough faith to come here this weekend? To run the risk of being caught in the same house as YOU! With what's been said about you for the last two years Sam... I tried, I tried so hard to tell people, the few hunters that would listen, or even pretend to listen that, 'no it's not his fault, he's a pawn, we don't know the whole story, I've known the kid all my life...' and now you tell me you've been sitting on this for over a YEAR! Letting these ig..its run riot all over our plane of existence feeding off the human race! What the hell kind of a reaction did you expect!" she screamed furiously at the young hunter.
"Mercy, please... you have to understand..." Tom tried to reason.
"What Tom?! What is it that I have to understand? Everyone that we know has been sitting stunned wondering what the hell's been going on when demonic behavior starts to change, when THEY start whispering about a war coming... we thought we were already AT war!"
"We ARE!" Dean's voice boomed through the room as he stood up to face the woman, "The only difference is that there's one more front than we thought, and if you were half the hunter I've always thought you were you'd sit down, shut the hell up and understand that if we'd shared what little we have known for the last year that none of it would have made a damned bit of difference, quite possibly except to get MORE of us killed!"
They stood glaring into each others' eyes, each hunter calming their breathing, the battle of wills charging the atmosphere in the room.
"You really think I'm a good hunter?" she asked finally.
"Among the best I know," he nodded glancing around the table, purposefully not bothering to look at Gary Nelson who was now wide awake, tied to a chair in the center of the Key, with a wad of duct tape over his mouth. When he'd come around, the whole time they'd splashed him with holy water and performed a futile exorcism his mouth hadn't stopped spewing the trash he'd heard about Sam. Finally Dean had had enough and simply sealed the orifice shut stating, 'we'll figure out what to do with you later.'
"You ready to put that temper on a shelf for a while?" he asked motioning to her chair.
"You are so lucky I got a soft spot for underdogs," she muttered scowling but sat.
Dean smiled as the world seemed to tilt beneath him, his hand grasping the chair back hard as he gasped and ducked his head.
"Dean?" Sam asked.
"Be right back..." he grunted, moving unsteadily around the chairs toward the front door.
"Dean what is it?" Sam asked following closely though the man only shook his head.
Several chairs scraped the wood floor as the others rose, "No... stay here..." he held up his gun, "You'll know if we need you," then stuck it into the back of his pants and looked at his brother. Sam nodded that he too was armed.
"Where are they going?" Mercy asked watching with the guys as they crossed the front yard and moved toward the access road.
Shep shook his head as they stood at the window waiting, "Think something's up with the sidhe?" he asked glancing at Bobby.
"Don't think so, Ajax'd probably let us know... he likes 'em," he smiled then glanced at the dog who was looking at him expectantly. "Alright let's go," he said.
The dog leaped to his feet as the group turned, "Not you guys, if there's something lurking out there," he nodded at the dog, "He should be able to sense it."
Amidst grumbles the other agreed to stay behind while their host and his dog followed the Winchesters.
--
"Laura?" Dean half jogged to the end of the drive with Sam beside him.
She sat with her knees in her chest, leaning against the driver's front tire, head on her forearm.
"Hey? Laura what's wrong?" he asked lowering himself unsteadily to a crouch before her.
"Would you start it?" she asked, elbowing the car door.
"What? She clunk out on you?" he asked wanting to smile but sensing there was something more.
With her forehead still on her arm she nodded.
Dean motioned to Sam who got into the drivers' seat and started her up. "Go park it Sam I'll take a look under the hood later..." Dean nodded as she scooted forward, crossing her legs now and leaning into her good hand shaking her head and trying hard not to sob.
"Hey, talk to me," Dean frowned fingering her head up out of her hand and wincing at the few new bruises and scratches he saw, "What happened?" he leaned back and took an inventory noting the pulsing gash at her scalp, her tortured left hand and cantaloupe ankle.
She shook her head and took a shaky breath as Sam's shuffling lope brought him back with Bobby and Ajax in tow.
One look told them both she'd found some serious mischief in the last couple days as Sam crouched on her other side.
"You just can't help finding trouble can you?" he smiled gently, sliding his good arm under her left while Dean took her right with his. With a nod they lifted her to her feet, Sam wrapping his arm around her waist so she could lean on him.
"C'mon let's get you inside and you can tell us about it," he smiled as Bobby came forward to grab her around the other side.
A whine rolled from the dog as she put her right hand down for him to smell wondering what his reaction would be. They watched as his tail wagged and he licked her hand but continued to whine. As the boys took a step forward the dog barked and she pulled back.
"It ain't gonna happen guys," she grunted looked at the three men as if through water, "It's too late, I didn't get here fast enough and now it's too deep, too strong... I blew it."
"What're you talking about? What's too late?" Dean asked looking between her, his little brother and Bobby. All of them shared the same tummy shuddering feeling but none of them wanting to believe it.
"I can't cross the wards... part of it's inside me."
--
tbc.
Please R&R.
Thanks,
sifi.
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A/N... sorry about putting this up early, but I"m contemplating an extra post during the week... if anyone wants a Tues and Friday post as well as tonight's please just let me know... even if you don't say anything y'might still get it. Either way, to all who have been so wonderfully encouraging and supportive... I don't have the words to thank you enough. For your generous time, your lovely reviews, and your many many kindnesses. Thank You so much!
sifi