Disclaimer; I do not own Supernatural nor Criminal Minds, I'm just playing in their sandbox.
A/N: The good news is, I've figured out what kind of 'voice' Anna should have. The bad news is, I've upped the ratings because of it. It only took me four chapters to get the voice...sorry.
Hotchner sent Anna with Derek to the last crime scene; a back lot outside a club. Anna sent her books with the group headed for the station, but brought her backpack with her. She had been silent for most of the plane ride, simply listening as they'd discussed the case. Derek had kept an eye on her in case something else happened, and noticed that sometimes her fingers twitched like she was writing something and he wondered if she had wanted to take notes.
The parking lot was still taped off, but the body had been removed, leaving behind the bloody stain and the symbol that had so intrigued Anna. "Satanists," their police escort spat.
"Actually," Anna said, "this isn't the work of a Satanist. There's no Dark Alter, no inverted cross." She produced a camera from her backpack and gestured to the symbol, "This is Pagan, actually."
"There's a difference?" The cop said.
"Yes," Anna said, "a true Satanist tends to be focused, if not obsessed, with Lucifer, the Pit, demons and things of that nature. Some of them even want to be possessed. What you are thinking of, I call Satanic 'Light' because most of them don't believe that what they're doing has a result. They just like to dress in black, smoke pot, drink beer and play loud rock music. The Satanic 'Light' cult may reference blood, human sacrifice and what have you, but most of them don't have the guts to do it. A true Satanist doesn't think twice." She snapped a picture, "There are less than fifty true Satanists on the North American continent, to the best of my knowledge. Twenty of them are already doing time for murder. Five of them have a commune in Colorado, and the others are living normal lives. You wouldn't know to walk past them that on certain nights, like All Hallows, they get together and hold Black Mass and wait for instructions on how to set Lucifer free."
Anna knelt and pointed at one of the clear portions, "Those are Pagan symbols. It's not Witchcraft and it isn't Satanic. These men were chosen as sacrifices to give power to an old deity. I don't know which one, or what ritual, though. I'd bet dollars to donuts that it's lunar based, and the unsub isn't done yet."
"Wait, you said they want to set Lucifer free," Derek said.
Anna nodded as she snapped another picture, "They do," she said. "I researched it years ago after," she paused, swallowing, "after I realized how badly my dad had been affected by my mom's death. He believes a demon killed her," she flicked a glance over at Derek, "and he's been hunting 'it' ever since. Most demons are confined to Hell, according to the lore, some get out every year and posses people, but others are waiting for one of the gates to be opened to they can escape. When that happens, a deal will be made and, quote unquote, 'The Righteous Man' will sell his soul. When his time runs out and he goes to Hell, he'll spill the blood of an innocent, breaking the First Seal. There are over six hundred Seals keeping Lucifer in his cage, they are also holding back the strongest of the Demons. When the First is broken, the demons have to break sixty-five more. When the Sixty-Six Seals are broken, Lucifer will walk the Earth and it will be the Apocalypse."
Anna stood and began to circle the symbol, "Your dad," Derek began.
"Is not the unsub and therefore not open to discussion," Anna replied, glancing at him. Her green eyes darkened and her genial nature faded to show him the steel underneath. Then she smiled, "Sorry, my dad and I," she looked back down and trailed of, kneeling. "Morgan, look at this."
Morgan walked over and knelt beside her, staring at the white granules that formed a curved line, just thick enough to see, but thin enough that he would have overlooked it. "What is it?" The officer asked, coming over to look.
Anna pointed, "Do you know, was there a ring of salt around the body when it was found?"
"To the best of my knowledge, no," the officer replied.
Anna stared at the faded line, biting her lip. Then she stood and pulled a small notebook from her back pocket and a pen from her front pocket and she began to write. "What?" Derek asked.
"Someone put down a salt line," Anna said, "and it was broken. I don't know if that's relevant, but if the unsub did it, he might be a little more unhinged than I thought. Salt is used to ward off demons and spirits, among other things. It represents purity."
Derek glanced down at her paper and frowned, "What language is that?"
Anna flicked a glance up at him, "It's Monday," she said, "on Mondays I practice Sanskrit." She sounded like it was the most normal thing in the world. "If the salt line wasn't made by the unsub, then someone had reason to believe there was something, probably a spirit, after them." Her cell phone went off again, the same ringtone as before. "Excuse me," she said, and answered the phone, "Let me guess," she said, stepping away, "Dean's finally found the proof that you were switched at birth and you're really Sasquatch, right?"
"She's," the officer began, then faltered as Derrick gave him a hard look.
"Agent Campbell," Derek said, "is an occult specialist, as such; she has a unique insight into these cases."
Anna wandered back over, "Ok," she said, "we don't have to worry about the salt. That's related to something else."
"Something else," the officer repeated.
"Ever hear about the Legend of Sal's Diner?" Anna asked.
"Of course," the officer said, "I used to go there after baseball games when I was a kid. People said it was built on hallowed ground that every business ever built there would fail because the spirits would object. It burned down when I was eighteen, killed six adults and three kids."
"Before the diner, it was an empty field," Anna said with a nod, "back in the twenties, it was a speakeasy that the cops burned down, killing everyone inside. Keep going back, you'll find a different business was put up, and every twenty years, if there was a business, it burned down. Usually with everyone inside killed." She sighed, "Someone tried to stop it, no names for the Fed, but I would bet that if we looked, about three weeks ago, someone reported a grave desecration at the local cemetery. In the old plots, from back when this was just a little cow town with more people on Boot Hill than lived in the buildings."
"How did you know that?" The officer said, "I was the first responder for that."
"Salt and burn," Anna replied, "someone deluded themselves into believing that it was a ghost that attacked on cycle. Salt the bones and burn them and no more ghost." She grinned at Derek, "The fun part is digging up the grave."
"You've," Derek began.
Anna waggled her finger at him, "I neither confirm nor deny," She said with a grin, "and my juvie records were sealed, so don't ask that tech chick, Garcia, right? Her, don't ask her to look it up." She glanced at her watch and hissed, "Is there somewhere I can get a bottle of water around here?"
"There's a gas station on the corner," the officer began.
"You shouldn't go anywhere alone," Derek cut him off.
Anna crossed her arms, "Derek, I just need a bottle of water."
"You can wait until we get to the station," Derek replied.
"No, I can't," Anna said.
"Why, are you taking medicine?" Derek retorted.
"That's between my doctor and me. Now, you can let me go get a drink from the corner and I'll leave you alone to look at the crime scene, or I'll stand here and I will talk. A lot. And I'll ask questions. There is no way you'll be able to concentrate. You'd have to gag and handcuff me, and even then I'll hum, and I'm tone deaf. If it makes you feel better, I know that you can see the gas station from the squad car, perhaps Officer Mitchell would consent to stand by the car and keep an eye on me while letting me have the privacy I, as a citizen of America, have the right to request." Anna stepped into Derek's space, green eyes locked in on his, "I can make your life miserable, Agent Morgan, with very little effort. Is that worth a bottle of water?"
Derek stared back, unable to look away, even though he knew, he knew Hotch would skin him if he let Anna wander off alone. The look he'd gotten when Hotch sent her to the crime scene with him had been distinctly clear on that factor. Still, he'd come here to see if he could find the clues to stop a killer. "Officer Mitchell," he said, stepping back and looking away, "do you mind keeping an eye on her?"
"Sure," Mitchell replied, confused.
Anna chuckled, "Don't mind Agent Morgan," she said, "he's afraid Agent Hotchner will cut his balls off if something happens to me because I'm the newest agent to the team." She strolled away, humming loudly, and very off-key.