A/N: Well here it is guys! Next chapter. This is (I think) the longest of the four chapters *yes, only one more to go after this :( * and probably (maybe) the one with the most action. So enjoy folks! Standard warnings of bad language and fist fighting are applied. :p Oh, and I may have horrendous spelling errors. Sorry bout that! Pm me if you find any and I'll try and fix it up for you guys.
Disclaimer: Still don't own the characters. Kripke hasn't put them on the market yet :(
Dean slowed as he reached the end of the block, straining to hear any noise that might indicate where his little demon princess might be hiding. He heard a dog barking in the distance, and crickets coming from the hill off to his right. No footsteps, or any other indication that he wasn't the only one on the street. Groaning, Dean smacked his hand against the wooden fence in frustration.
"What the hell am I even doing here?" Shaking his head, Dean turned around and started jogging back towards the house, back to Sam. He shouldn't have left Sam alone…
At least, that was what he was thinking just before he was being tossed sideways and slammed into the passenger side door of a blue minivan parked beside the curb, rocking the vehicle from the hit. Dean slid down, butt landing on the curb of the side walk, head leaning against the van, trying to clear the white and black dots from his vision. God, his shoulder hurt.
Freaking minivans.
A shadow loomed over, and Dean felt hands pulling him off the ground and pinning him to the car. "Shouldn't have left your brother, Dean." The petite girl hissed between clenched teeth as she lifted Dean up by his collar, his toes barely touching the pavement. "Not after he gets down with Sam. Pity, I'd love to see the smug bastard get what's coming to him. Antichrist my ass." Dean grunted, and moved his hand slowly towards the inside of his pocket. "Well sweetheart, as much as this has been an endearing conversation, I got places to be, people to see and a brother to save." Dean had uncapped the flask and flung the contents in the demons face and watched as steam sizzled off her face, her voice a high pitched shrill as she dropped Dean and covered her face in her hands, screaming as her skin blistered from the contact with the holy water.
Dean wasted no time grabbing his shotgun from the sidewalk and taking off as fast as he could back where he should never have taken off from. Hold on Sammy, I'm coming.
Blood trickled down from several cuts along the left side of Sam's face, glass having sliced his skin with little difficulty. It slid down his face and dripped down from his chin, darkening his shirt collar a dull rusty brown.
A hand lay clamped around his throat, more so to keep him in place than trying to suffocate him, but it was unappreciated all the same. Sam well knew the man holding him could just as easily snap his neck if he so desired.
Sam threw a telekinetic blast, the hand disappearing from his throat as the man was pushed back a half dozen feet. The dark haired man straightened, tugged at the bottom of his green long-sleeved shirt as if to straighten it, and greeted Sam with a wide smile. "Hello Samuel."
There was no mistaking who that was; even if the last time Sam saw him he was in a different body. "Nikolai." Sam greeted evenly, his skin prickling like needles by the demon's very presence.
"Oh, you do remember me!" The demon clapped his hands together loudly; his eyes never leaving Sam's darkening features. "How very flattering. I was hoping I had left an impression the last time we encountered one another." Sam huffed, remembering indeed the 'impression' Nikolai had left; a four inch scar on his right shoulder blade.
"You come here to shoot the breeze, Nikolai? I've got better things to do." Sam took a step back as the demon moved closer, closing the distance between the two.
"Sam, I'm hurt. We had so much fun the last time we got together." The demon smiled, lips pulled back over a row of perfect teeth. The demon stepped forward again, and Sam matched his step by moving backwards, his back towards the house once again.
The demon stopped, shoving his hands in his pockets and letting out an agitated sigh. "Always on the defensive, Sam. No sense of fun." Nikolai suddenly grinned. "Now your brother on the other hand…" Sam snarled, throwing the demon telekinetically across the lawn, hearing a loud 'thud' as the demon landed.
Nikolai let out a barking laugh, picking himself off the ground and dusting himself off, apparently pleased by the outburst. "You may not be fun kid, but you sure are feisty. Suicidally feisty, but I like that." The wind was picking up, the breeze chilly in the fall air, causing Goosebumps to rise on Sam's arms. The street lights started flickering for a few moments before exploding, raining glass down on the street, leaving only the carpool light on, and the moon's glow to illuminate the Carlyle's sprawling lawn.
Sam barely had time to shift position before Nikolai was right in front of him, a kick aiming directly for his ribs. Sam deflected the blow, which felt like trying to stop a wreaking ball from mowing down a house, before Sam was throwing his own punch.
One thing that Sam had learned about demons was that they never really tried fighting. Most used their telekinetic abilities to incapacitate their opponents, never engaging in physical confrontations. They had no reason to in order to beat a human. Fighting skills for them was minimal because of that very reason. So many hunters hadn't actually been in a hand to hand free-for-all brawl with a demon. Not a high level one, that's for sure, and if they had, they would have lost - of that Sam was sure.
Sam ducked down to avoid a hit, and heard bricks shattering under Nikolai's hand. Sam tried a kick to the demon's side, but Nikolai caught his foot. Sam's eyes widened, before he felt his leg being yanked hard, causing him to lose his balance and land hard on his back, the air forcibly removed from his lungs. Dazed, Sam felt a weight descend on his chest and cried out as two ribs on his left side shifted out of alignment. Nikolai removed his foot and aimed for Sam's sternum.
"HEY!" A shout had Sam whipping his head to the side, his vision catching up with him a second later, and watched Dean pulling the trigger on his loaded shotgun. The gun fired, the round hitting Nikolai in the face and down his left side. Dean hissed a warning towards his brother's attacker. "Nobody screws with my brother."
Nikolai howled, grabbing his face in both hands, staggering backwards to lean against the side of the house, steam escaping between his fingers. Sam pulled himself up, and felt the air charge around him just as the demon's thoughts filtered into his mind.
Sam moved swiftly in front of his brother, watching his brother flinch from his movements in his peripheral vision and felt the pressure of the demon's telekinetic attack. It felt like fire licking his skin and a wreaking ball being thrown into him – repeatedly. His was being pushed back, his heels digging into the ground to stop from being slammed into his brother. I'm going to kill you both! Nikolai's voice roared in his mind, causing Sam to groan from the increasing pressure inside his head.
"Dean." Sam gritted out between clenched teeth. "Go to the car, now." Sam could feel Dean hesitate, and Sam's limited patience snapped. "NOW!"
Dean gave him a long look, one Sam wasn't quite able to identify before taking off towards the Impala, looking over his shoulder as he did so.
Sam shut his eyes and focused his attention on the demon at hand, who was snarling and screaming obscenities at Sam, Dean, and the human race in general. That was, until Sam's fist smashed into the demon's face. When all else fails, do what Dean would do.
Sam grinned at the thought.
Sam pinned Nikolai to the wall with his arm across the demon's throat, trying to forget the continual shivers that ran up and down his arms.
Nikolai laughed, a hacking, howling laugh that sounded like nails on a chalkboard. "You and I Sam, we're so much alike. Look at you. You're practically one of us, but you don't seize the potential. Instead you hold on to that shred of humanity you call a brother and turn your head the other way. This is what you were born to be Sam; a leader, a fighter, and a destroyer. It's only a matter of time until you come around." Sam's arm increased the pressure, the demon's words cut off with a gurgle.
"I'm not like you, Nikolai. Because I have what you never had; hope," Sam chuckled breathlessly, "and you never had a pain in the ass older brother to look out for you." Before Nikolai could answer, Sam grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and sent him flying, hearing the satisfying 'crack' as the demon hit the oak tree on the corner of the lot, the tree groaning as it toppled over.
Sam was sprinting across the lawn toward the Impala across the road before the first branches of the tree had touched the grass of the Carlyle's lawn.
Dean heard a loud groan before he had pulled the key from his jacket pocket, twisting around on the sidewalk to see where the sound had come from. He watched slack jawed as the rather large oak tree in the front lawn topple over, the top of the tree actually landing and thus crushing the Carlyle's roof and resting in what was once their living room.
"Holy crap." Dean was pulled away from the felled tree when footsteps alerted him to another presence. Dean could just make out the tall, dirty and bloody figure that was Sam before he lowered the shotgun and unlocked the driver door. "Took you long enough." He said aloud as Sam reached the car. "I'm not in the mood for more freaking party tricks tonight." The door creaked as he opened it, and a hand suddenly shot out, wrapping around his bicep and pulled him away from the car. "Sam, what the hell?" Dean shrugged off Sam's grip, noting that Sam seemed a little off balance when he did so.
Sam looked horrible. Blood coated the whole left side of his face, three slash marks across his right cheek from the demon and a couple of spectacular bruises beginning to darken all along his jaw line and one near his left eye. Not to mention that Sam had an arm wrapped protectively around his abdomen. Cracked ribs, potentially broken one's with Sam's luck.
"I'm driving." Sam stated quietly, but there was a hint of authority in that tone. One that Dean was quickly finding disconcerting. They rarely gave each other orders, least of all Sam. It wasn't in Dean's genetic makeup to let his little brother take the reins so thoroughly.
Dean baulked at the idea. "Who died and made you boss?"
A quiet pause, before Sam answered, "You did." Then Dean was gently pushed back and Sam eased himself into the driver's seat, the Impala roaring to life, the headlights illuminating the road before them. "Get in." Sam asked, restraining himself from physically forcing his stubborn pig-headed brother into the passenger seat.
Dean muttered a string of curses, but trudged back over to the passenger side door, before climbing in and heatedly slamming the door to express his dislike of the idea. Sam gunned it, the Impala throwing Dean back into his seat as the car accelerated quickly, giving a new meaning to the term, 'burn rubber'.
It took Dean all of ten seconds between cursing his brother and everything else that had gone wrong tonight before he realized that there wasn't a key in the ignition.
"What the - ?"
"Sorry," Sam sounded a little sheepish, "didn't want to wait for you to pass me the keys. I wanted to get the hell out of here." Dean merely shook his head, and looked out the passenger window. They certainly had a lot to talk about when they got out of here.
Dean took one last glance at the once pristine lawn, and physically shuddered as they past the man Sam had been fighting earlier; his black eyes staring straight at them, as were the other four pairs of eyes behind him, all deep pools of black watching as the car sped past them.
Another sharp turn and Dean found himself sliding across the seat right into the passenger door. "Slow the hell down man! Take it easy on her." He grunted as he pushed himself back from the door. Sam smirked but didn't slow down. Dean was losing his patience with his suddenly non-communicative brother.
"What the fuck is going on Sam? Who the hell were they? And what the hell is going on with you? You neglect to mention to me that you've developed a case of the Superman Syndrome? What the fuck was that back there?" Okay, so his patience had worn thin quite a while ago, but hey, nobody was telling him anything, and he'd be damned if he was going to be kept out of the loop – especially if it concerned Sam.
Sam shifted in his seat, grimacing as the movement irritated cracked ribs. He glanced at his brother, receiving an intense stare, one that expected him to divulge his secrets. Not all of them, big brother. Some things, I have to keep to myself.
Dean waited, meeting Sam's still golden eyes before he returned his gaze to the road in front of them. Sam's eyes still unnerved him a little – though the intensity behind them had dimmed, which made Sam seem a little less predatory than back at the Carlyle's house, they still freaked him out. It wasn't natural.
"What's going on, that's easy – we were ambushed. Lilith set up a trap; one that we fell for, hook line and sinker." Sam answered calmly, running a hand through his dark and somewhat blood tussled hair before placing it back on the steering wheel.
Before Dean could answer, Sam began explaining the night's events. "Those demons back there? They're just Lilith's foot soldiers, sort of speak. They were nothing but meat and brawn. There wasn't much brain power between the four of them. And there were more than just those four. There were at least a dozen within that block, but they were waiting for orders. They wouldn't step in unless they were needed." Sam was tight lipped, and Dean really hated the fact he was having to pull facts out of his brother like pulling teeth.
Dean was surprised by that. "There was more than four? How the hell would you know that?"
Sam just gave him a knowing look.
"Nevermind, I don't want to know." Dean sighed. This night was just getting worse and worse. "Who was that guy? Nick something or other." Dean waved his hand dismissively, watching his brother for a reaction. Sam's eyes narrowed and his hands clenched tightly around the steering wheel till his hands turned white.
"Nikolai. A demon I've come across once before a couple of months back."
"And? You guys chums now? Going out to the country club while I was gone?" Sam glared at him.
"Hardly. Just before I took off, Bobby and I were on a hunt, kind of a favor to another hunter Bobby knew. Asked for my help before I took off." Sam sighed, shifting in his seat as he tried to find the right words. "There was supposed to be a pair of Black Dogs in the area. We didn't even get to finish before we were ambushed." Sam was silent for a moment. Then - "Nikolai was a part of that group. They beat Bobby to hell right in front of me. The demons enjoying every hit they dished out." Dean's eyes widened. He'd had no idea that this had even occurred. Bobby hadn't said he'd even been on hunts with Sam, being that he had said Sam had taken off pretty fast after he had been dragged down to Hell. Guess Sam wasn't the only one keeping secrets.
A thought suddenly occurred to Dean.
"It happened back then, didn't it? You goin' all Terminator on their asses." A shy smile tugged at the corners of Sam's mouth.
"Yeah, you could say that. I just… snapped and then the demons were backing away. All of them, except Nikolai." Sam hissed the name, hatred easily picked up from the bitter tone of voice.
"Nikolai is unique. He's not like the other demons - not like the usual ones anyways." Sam murmured quietly, eyes sliding over to make eye contact with Dean, before gazing back out the window. Dean shifted in his seat, sitting straighter and angling his body towards Sam, indicating that he had his full attention. The somewhat bumpy road gave way to smooth pavement as they hit the highway heading out of Far Banks.
Sam let out a long sigh, and then continued on with his story. "He was human once. Was just like any other guy – except he had 'gifts'." Uh oh. Dean so didn't want to know where this was going, but already knowing where it was headed. It was like Sam had read his mind.
"Yes Dean, he was just like me; a psychic. Apparently took to burning villages and ripping apart roadways with his mind. That is, until he was caught and killed by the people in his village for his crimes. Spending a couple of centuries in Hell certainly didn't do him any favours."
"Why would you think..?" Dean trailed off, just as Sam picked up the unanswered question. "Because he was psychic in life, those abilities carried on into Hell, where it warped him and twisted him into what he is now. He's a hybrid Dean, just like I am." Dean swore his mind stopped like a broken record player. Sam must have misspoken.
"A what? Hybrid? The hell is a hybrid Sam? Have you started sprouting extra feet and a tail while I haven't been looking? You're just… you Sam. Sure you might have grown to be an even bigger pain in my ass, but really a Hybrid?" A nervous chuckle didn't sway Sam from giving Dean a knowing look. You've no idea, Dean.
"It's just a term that I've used to categorize them - demons." Sam clarified when Dean raised an eyebrow. And one to describe the freak that I am was left unsaid. "Nikolai was a strong person in life, with abilities that are not considered the norm and was killed for it. He burned in hell for centuries, making him a sincerely pissed off demon once he got out. Gifted in life, and now gifted after death… well, you know what I mean." Sam tapered off, suddenly finding the rear-view mirror very fascinating.
"Well that's all fine and dandy Sam, but if you haven't realized, you're not a demon. Just a little supercharged for who knows why. Or how, for that matter. Look, we'll figure out what's going on with you and we'll – what's wrong?" Dean could see Sam's jaw clenching, his eyes focused intensely on the rear-view mirror.
"We've got company."
Dean turned around in his seat, watching the SUV turn its high-beams on from the back window, no more than twenty feet behind them.
"Where the hell did that come from?" Dean shouted, turning his head away from the piercing lights.
"Guess they're ready for round two." Sam answered dryly; his foot increasing the pressure on the gas peddle.
"Freaking demons." Dean muttered, opening the glove box and retrieving his Colt 1911. He checked the rounds, and then deftly loaded it.
"You think you can take out the tires, Dean?" Sam asked quietly. Dean's head shot up, and scrutinized Sam's features. Sam was pale, burgeoning on translucent. Shivers wracked his frame, and his breathing was off. Alarm bells were going off in Dean's head. Why hadn't he noticed his brother deteriorating beside him till now?
"Sam? You up for this man?" He could see Sam hesitate, and that hesitation caused more worry than the freaky shit that had already gone down tonight.
"Dean, look. I haven't exactly practiced this," Sam indicated himself with a wave of his hand, "psychic stuff at all." Watching Dean raise an eyebrow, Sam let out a mirthless laugh. "Okay, most of it I haven't practiced. But yeah, I can do this." Dean nodded.
"I've got it man. It's like shooting fish in a barrel." Sam shot him an incredulous look.
"Yeah. A couple of fish in a two-ton car, moving at 80 miles an hour." Sam deadpanned.
Dean's cocky grin was all Sam could see before Dean rolled down the window and stuck his head out, trying to line up a shot.
The cold air blew past Dean, forcing his hair to whip around his forehead in a fury of prickly fingers. His body up to his ribcage was hanging out the passenger window, desperately trying to line up a shot with the SUV's front tire.
"Sam move –" The car drifted farther to the left, moving into the oncoming lane as the car behind them tried to get ahead of the Impala. "- to the left." Shaking his head, Dean once again took aim. Before he could get the shot off, however, the car rammed into the Impala's bumper, forcing Dean to crash into the door jam, his ribs taking the brunt of the force. "Son of a -" Dean hissed between clenched teeth. He was beyond pissed now. Nobody messed with his baby!
"You're going down now, bitch." Dean growled, aiming once again for the front tire. Pulling back on the trigger, Dean watched as the tire popped, then shredded. Bits and pieces of rubber flying everywhere before the SUV fishtailed, swerving all across the road before coming to rest in a ditch on the opposite side of the road.
Pulling himself back into the car, Dean settled the gun on the bench seat beside him just as Sam eased his foot off the gas.
"That was so freaking awesome. I can't believe that-" Dean was suddenly cut off as a set of headlights lighted up the interior of the car.
"Holy sh – Car Sam, there's a car; SAM THE CAR!" Dean pointed frantically at the oncoming car, all the while searching for the 'holy shit' handles that somehow didn't exist.
"I SEE THE FUCKING CAR!" Sam shouted, yanking on the wheel to pull them back onto the right side of the road. It didn't seem to matter as the car careened towards them.
"Hold on!" Sam yelled, hitting the brakes to slow down. Dean would have gone face first through the front shield window, had it not been for Sam's arm in front of his chest keeping him in his seat.
He cringed as he heard the squeal of tires as Sam cranked the wheel to the right, forcing the Impala to slide. Dean wasn't sure when the mantra of Not the Pala, not the Pala, entered his thoughts, but it was somewhere around the time when he could see the other vehicles grill pass by the passenger window on the driver's side.
Sam pulled the car out of the slide and manoeuvred down a side road that Dean hadn't even seen, tires kicking up rocks and dust as the other car narrowly missed them. Dean mentally cringed, trying to tally the amount of work he was going to have to do on his baby when and if they survived. Sam would be lucky if he was able to touch the steering wheel after tonight.
"Jesus Sam, are you trying to kill us? This isn't the fucking NASCAR." Dean hedged out as the bumpy road caused him to bounce and rock all over the place, sliding around on the bench seat like it was a crazy carpet.
Sam grunted, but decelerated as they moved farther on the dirt road. Dean's hands were slick with sweat. Holy hell, he never wanted to do that again. Unless of course he was the one driving. That kid was never seeing the driver's seat again.
Taking a few breaths to calm down, Dean glanced at his brother and stared; he had just realised how bad Sam's hands were shaking on the wheel, shivers racing up and down his arms. His face was almost bloodless, his breaths coming in near pants as he pulled oxygen into starved lungs.
"Sam?" Are you alright? What's going on with you?
"I'm fine Dean, alright?" Dean wanted to argue that Sam was pulling lies out of his ass, and he was most certainly not fine, but found himself sliding in his seat as Sam pulled a quick U-turn as soon as the road allowed him to do so. The car came to a lurching stop, the engine cut off and Dean found himself cringing at the sound of the car's brakes. Those were going to have to be changed, among other things…
"Why are we waiting here Sam?" Dean asked tersely, ready to throttle his brother if he didn't get a straight answer. All of this round-a-bout cryptic answers he'd been getting all night were really starting to piss him off. Didn't anyone speak plain English anymore?
Headlights bore down on the car, and Dean heard the driver's side door creak open as Sam stepped out. Dean made to follow, grabbing the door handle and pulling back… but the door didn't budge. Sam's door slammed shut, and all of the door locks clicked into place simultaneously.
"Sam! Let me out of the car now!" Dean hissed, yanking on the handle while throwing his shoulder into the door, but the door wouldn't budge.
"Just stay put." Sam replied coolly, his eyes that intense gold color as they locked on to Dean; intense and afraid all at the same time.
"Sam…" Pleading, begging. Dean shifted his gaze from Sam to the approaching vehicle, not even a hundred feet away, and picking up speed…
Sam moved swiftly to stand just eight or nine feet away from the car, the Impala's headlights shining on the back of Sam's legs as he rooted himself to the spot, arms crossed against his chest, seemingly bored and not at all aware that a 2,000 pound vehicle was barrelling down the road towards them. Sixty feet…fifty feet… forty.
"Sam! Get the hell out of the way!" Dean screamed, now mercilessly throwing himself at the car door, clawing at the door handle, trying to rip it off its hinges in his desperate bid to get to Sam.
Thirty feet…
Dean watched helplessly as the car roared closer, headlights nearly blinding him. His heart was pounding in his chest, air being pulled ineffectively into his lungs as the gravel road spit up dirt and rocks as the car flew towards his brother.
Sam shifted his feet, spreading them shoulder length apart, hands dropping down to rest against his sides as the car came within twenty feet, the faces of the two demons in the front seat glaring back at him, the driver grinning maliciously.
Sam glared back, his golden eyes smouldering as he watched the approaching car speeding towards them. This ends here.
Waiting till the car was close enough, roughly fifteen feet away, Sam flicked out his hand, as if swatting at a fly, and watched as the vehicle flew backwards, front end smashed in as if hitting a brick wall. The car landed 10 yards away, flipping over twice before exploding in a shower of glass, sparks, and fire, followed by unearthly shrills that filled the night sky.
Dazedly, Sam watched the car burn, the flames dancing across the bits of metal in an incomprehensible dance. Sam felt oddly drained; exhausted would be a better description of his current condition. Curiously, he found the ground suddenly shifting beneath his feet followed by his vision greying at the edges while black spots blinked in and out of focus in front of his eyes. It wasn't long after that the ground rushed up to meet him.
Dean was sitting in incomprehensible shock, hand comically poised to pull the handle back and open the door. He could only stare out the window as he watched the front of the other car shatter as if smashing into an invisible wall, before it went sailing backwards, belly up, before careening with the field and exploding into flames while bouncing off the ground from the sheer strength of the force it had collided with.
"Holy…." Dean was captivated by the flickering orange flames as they engulfed the mangled pretzel of the SUV. The demons undoubtedly escaped, but they wouldn't be following them for a while, unless they found a cluster of hosts in which to possess.
Movement in front of the headlights had Dean's head snapping up just in time to see Sam stumble, his knees beginning to buckle. "Sam!" Dean cried out, just as he grasped the handle and yanked, surprised and concerned when the door opened, just in time to see Sam collapse hard to the ground.
Dean yanked himself out of the car and moved swiftly to Sam's side, unsure if exhaustion, pain, or an attack of some kind had knocked Sam down. Kneeling down in front of his brother, Dean placed his hand on Sam's shoulder and gave it a gentle shake while calling his name.
"Sammy?"
No answer. Not even a twitch.
"Sammy come on man, I need you awake. Sam?" Sam's head bobbed with the gentle rocking motion of Dean's hand on his arm, but there was no reaction. Dean let out a deep breath, and placed two fingers under Sam's jaw to feel for the carotid artery. He felt the steady beat of blood pulsing beneath his fingers and released another deep breath. Glancing back quickly at the car not half a dozen feet away, Dean steeled himself to getting them both the hell out of here.
"Sorry kiddo, but we gotta book." Dean pulled Sam into a sitting position and slipped his hands under Sam's arms and started to drag Sam back to the car. Dean groaned from the strain of pulling 200 plus pounds of little brother. "What the hell have you been eating? You weigh a freaking ton. No more girly coffees and donuts for you, Sam." Dean snarked as he managed to get his brother situated in the car and in a relatively comfortable position before slamming the door shut and racing around to the other side.
Pulling out his keys, Dean shoved them into the ignition and felt the jolt of the car coming back to life. Glancing once more at his unconscious brother in the seat next to him, Dean put the car into drive and hit the gas.
"Hold on Sam."
A/N: Alrighty, who's ready for some angsty conversation between the boys! *raises hand* Wait till the next chapter to see just how much trouble Sam's in and what the boys are going to do now. Thanks for reading guys!