A/N Again, huge thanks to FictionalNutter for beta reading.

I'd love to hear what you think about this little story ;)

Chapter 2

The door was opened by a petite blonde. She must have been busy in the kitchen when they knocked, because her blue track suit was spotted with flour. She looked at the brothers with surprise, apparently waiting for them to speak.

"Uh, hi!" Sam started. "You're Sophie, aren't you? I'm Sam, this is my brother, Dean. We're Chad's cousins."

"Chad never mentioned you." She eyed at them suspiciously.

"He didn't?" Dean masterfully feigned a mixture of surprise, anger and hurt. "I know we haven't seen each other for ages, but come on! All those holidays we've spent together, the pranks we've pulled on our neighbors, you can't just forget such things! Right, Sammy?"

Sam cast his brother a warning glance and took over. "We haven't kept in touch much these days, but as soon as we heard about Chad's disappearance, we knew we had to come."

Sophie nodded and moved back, giving them enough space so that they could come inside.

"Come in. It's really nice to meet you. I'm sorry if I'm not too hospitable, it's just that..." she stopped, sending them a sad, shy smile. As a matter of fact, Sam could easily see that the smile was directed mainly at his brother. It didn't even surprise him that much. Dean had always attracted attention of the opposite sex, regardless of their age, occupation... in fact, at least from time to time, he attracted attention of his own sex as well. Dean has just had that something, which Sam wasn't able to define, that, wherever he went in, made all the people look at him with interest. Sometimes it helped in their work, sometimes it pissed Sam off, but in most cases it just brought a warm smile to his face, an inexplicable gush of affection towards his big hero brother.

"So, could you tell us something more? We just know he went into the forest and never came back" Sam asked, hoping he didn't sound too insensitive.

"Yes, it was two weeks ago." Sophie sighed heavily, sitting down in the big red chair. After a second she reminded herself about her guests and pointed them to the couch on the other side of a little coffee table. "Chad went on a hunt."

"Hunt? Chad was a hunter?" asked Dean with surprise.

"Oh, come on, Dean" Sam interfered, hoping he was correct in his interpretation of what he had heard earlier, as well as of the decoration of the room. "Chad wouldn't hurt a living thing. Bloodless hunt. Photography."

"Exactly." This time Sophie smiled directly at him. "He left in the early evening. He wanted to find a quite rare species of bird, which is active mainly in the night." She stopped for a moment, fixing her gaze on the walls that were full of the pictures of various specimen of the Alaskan flora and fauna. "He went out and never came back." She blinked quickly, trying to get rid of the tears gathering in her eyes. "They said he was killed by a bear," she added quietly.

"But you don't believe it," Sam guessed.

Sophie shook her head. "Chad had a rifle. He didn't like the idea of shooting to an animal, but he usually carried it for safety, especially in the night. Besides, he knew this forest, knew how to behave in it, what to expect..."

"So he wouldn't let Yogi Bear surprise him?" Dean smiled slightly at her.

Sam cast his brother another warning glance, but, to his relief, Sophie laughed gently, so he went on. "Where exactly did he plan to take the photos?"

"Near the lake."

Sam and Dean exchanged knowing glances. At the same moment Sophie looked at the clock and jumped from her seat.

"Oh my, I completely forgot!" She circled the table and approached Dean. She leaned down, so close to him that he could feel her warm breath on his cheek. She put her left hand on his shoulder, and stretched her right hand, moving it behind his back. He felt a soft touch on his ribs, smiled dreamily, and then Sophie moved back, triumphantly raising a red bowl covered with a checkered cloth. "Pizza dough! It was supposed to sit for about half an hour in the warmth, but because of you it has been there much longer." She met Dean's disappointed expression with a loud laugh, carefree and slightly mischievous at the same time, and for a moment she looked like a little girl, happy with a prank she pulled on her parents.

"Pizza you say?" Dean suddenly realized how hungry he was.

Sam, foreseeing his brother's plan, interfered quickly. "We won't bother you any longer..."

"No, no, you've got to stay for dinner!" Sophie protested vigorously.

"We don't want to be a nuisance." Dean sounded extremely insincere.

"Oh, come on, you don't think I could eat a whole pizza all by myself? You know, I'm still forgetting that I should cook only for one person now." Tears glimmered in her bright blue eyes again. "I'm sorry." She took a moment to compose herself. "Please, stay," she asked them softly. "We're almost a family, aren't we?"

Behind her back Dean sent his brother a triumphant grin. Sam felt his stomach rumble and he had to give up. He couldn't even remember when was the last time he ate a home-made pizza.

When the Winchester brothers finally got to their motel room it was already late evening. However, the home made pizza served by a beautiful young woman had left them both in pretty good moods for the remaining of the day, even though the next few hours they had spent interviewing the families of the other missing men. They didn't even argue about who will get the right to have shower first (of course it was Dean). Refreshed, they sat on one of the beds, Sam with a laptop, Dean with a beer, and decided to one more time go through all they knew. The role of the leader fell, like it usually did, on Sam.

"So, we have three missing men so far. The first one disappeared in July last year. John Rowan, twenty-two, went fishing, never came back. The next one, Charles Carlton, aged twenty-seven, a hunter, went missing during a hunt, probably near the lake."

"It was in September, right?" Dean frowned, trying to recall the earlier conversation.

"Yeah. His wife reported him missing on the fourteenth of September," confirmed Sam looking at his notes.

"She didn't look too sad though, did she?" Dean smirked.

"Yeah, she hinted something about his 'female friend'" Sam tried to ignore his brother's grin becoming wider. "I guess she was pretty mad at him, but I don't think she could be involved in his disappearance. She just didn't look the kind."

"What about the next one, the one from December? Martin Slave, if I remember well. Nice name, by the way." Dean sipped his beer.

"Thirty-four years old, in the middle of divorce, but as his mother claimed, no party was guilty, they just decided to peacefully go their separate ways. It must have been stressful for him anyway, cause she said that walks in the forest calmed him."

"This one calmed him for good." Dean smirked again, but soon went back to business. "Is it possible that he took his walks at the lake?"

"Maybe." Sam nodded. "Water is believed to calm people."

"And our cousin, Chad. Twenty-four, an amateur photographer. Engaged in the protection of birds at that goddamned lake."

"Exactly. They all went missing in the same area. We'll have to make a little trip to that lake tomorrow."

"Right. But now, tell me something more about these water nymphs. I only remember that they appear as beautiful naked girls and lure young men to join them in their life under the water." Dean's expression suggested that he didn't think it such a bad fate all in all.

"Close enough." The younger Winchester put his "Professor Sam" voice on. "The nymphs are Greek semi-goddesses living in the places like trees, rivers, rocks. They are believed to be very beneficial to the nature, and they mostly just sing and dance, and take care of their habitat. And yes, they don't wear any clothes."

"Dude, finally something interesting! I'm so fed up with ghosts, werewolfs and other fuglies." Dean smiled dreamily.

"Hey, don't forget these beauties can be very dangerous. They are invisible to women, but if a man sees them dancing and hears their songs, he would inevitably be drawn to them forever. If they like him, he could be accepted as their companion, but even then they would slowly drain his life-force out of him. If not, most of their victims go out of their minds, not able to accept the world around them any more after experiencing such divine beauty. They usually commit suicides sooner or later."

"But can you imagine what it would be like to do it with a nymph? They must be great, with such an experience..." Dean winked at his brother with a grin.

"Yeah, I can imagine. Something like being an odalisque," snorted Sam in response.

"A what?"

"A woman in a harem. A sexual slave," explained the younger Winchester patiently.

Dean seemed to be considering the idea for a moment, then shrugged, apparently still seeing mainly the bright sides of the deal. Sam shook his head with an exaggerated pity.

"Okay, so if it's a nymph, how do we deal with it?" asked Dean, back to serious.

"Good question. The only way I've read about is to destroy its dwelling place. It's easy if it's a tree, but if we're dealing with a water nymph, it would be rather hard" explained Sam, worry written on his face.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Dean decided. "First we have to make sure it is a nymph, and if yes, if it lives in the lake or maybe one of the trees."

"Yeah. So tomorrow after breakfast we head to the forest."

"Good," Dean agreed. "And now, Sammy, off to bed" he added, perfectly imitating their father's voice.

"Don't. Call. Me. Sammy!" the younger Winchester growled, knowing for sure that his request will be ignored anyway.