Disclaimer: Kripke – You're killing me man. I gotta wait how long for a new episode?

14. Revelations

To say that his first glimpse of Leah hadn't been a giant sucker punch to the gut would be an outright lie. Dirt streaked, dressed for gym class and picking debris out of her untidy, close shorn hair – she was a far cry from the over-processed bar-fly that was his usual prey. Leah was not an impossible beauty like Rosalie, or held a classic loveliness like Esme, but she possessed a rare and wild beauty that was all her own. Tall and lean muscled, she looked like one of those marathon runners you saw on TV that ran thirty miles as if it were jog around the block. That was the other thing about her that threw him. He liked petite women with soft curves and she was built like an athlete – all firm and angular. She was the pure human embodiment of the grace and power that was a wolf and he had been speechless. And after hearing her story – knowing deep down she'd never told anyone her thoughts before – he couldn't help but admire her. She was strong, she was determined, and she was going to give out as many jabs as she got, because there was nothing in her that told her to lie down and take it.

Dean wondered if this was similar to what Sam had felt for Madison. Leah was a woman who could deal with the crazy that was his life. She ran with the supernatural, could walk both lines and fit in either world but belonged to neither. And Dean didn't doubt that Leah would be unafraid to call him on all his bullshit – she'd called him on the chest staring thing. He hadn't meant to. It was just that even though she was small-chested, they were just so damn perky. And the no bra thing? Nice.

It was too bad that he met her weeks before his expiration date. He couldn't even pinpoint the attraction, because she was so far from what he normally sought. If he were to be asked about it, he would try to joke and say it was just because of her animal magnetism. Hell – that may be what it was – but it felt so strong. He felt her with every sense he had, and he couldn't help himself when he grabbed her just before she ran off. He had been so close and had been c-blocked by a wolf cry.

She wasn't far from him now. Her silver coat was glinting in the coming dawn. The wolf howl had been to alert her that Esme was taking Bella home for a few hours sleep before they had to lay the scent trail up the mountain. Edward was still too weak to carry her, although he and Jasper were recovering more quickly than the hunters had ever experienced. He guessed it was because of the animal blood they lived off of. Not only did the animal blood make them less aggressive towards each other and gave them those freak-tastic eyes, but it also seemed to reduce the damage of the poison. He wondered idly what would happen if they shot them full of dead deer blood. Emmett was starting to stir now. The double dose of Dead Man's Blood was finally starting to wear off enough that Rosalie stopped casting the brothers death-stares whenever they crossed her line of sight.

After Esme had taken off with Bella, Edward started to approach him. Leah took a crouched stance, baring her teeth and snarling her fury at the copper-headed snake. Dean recalled the vampire hissing the word 'outcast' at her, and he felt a renewed surge of anger at the kid at that term. Dean didn't know anything about Leah when he'd first called her that, but the term hurled at her stung him just like Jake's punch to the jaw. So much so that he had pulled his knife and was ready to go another round with the mind-reading fucknut. He'd been an outcast his whole life. Even with his own family, he didn't fit in – not really. Sam had run off, then Dad. He was an outcast. He was broken. And Edward was a dick who could reach into your mind and find the words that would hurt you most.

"May I speak with you?" Edward asked him politely, ignoring Leah and her pissed off growling. Dean scanned the clearing looking for Sam. He could see his brother up near the rocks talking to the fortune-teller. Sam's wolf guard was several yards away from them, watching the two with undivided attention. It looked funny to see Sam so close next to Alice. She barely came up to his ribcage, and had to have her head tilted all the way back to look at him, as if she were in the front row at the theater.

Dean turned back to the vamp and scowled. "You're a dick and I think you owe someone an apology." Leah turned her head and snarled at him.

Okay… chivalry won't do me any favors with her.

But Edward turned to Leah and said, "Leah, I'm sorry I said those unkind things to you earlier. Please accept my apology with my assurance that it will never happen again."

Lay it on thick don't you asshole. Dean let that one out from behind the mental blocks. You don't fool me you pretentious bastard. And you sure as hell don't fool her.

"Leah," Edward ignored Dean's mental barrage, "I'd like a private word with the human if you don't mind."

Leah snarled something that Dean assumed was 'eat shit and die douchenozzle.'

"It will only be a moment. You don't have to go far."

Leah glanced at Sam's wolf further up the clearing. Dean wished he could hear what they were saying to each other, knowing that whatever they said, the mind-reader heard every word. She snapped something at Edward, before trotting several yards away and staring at the leech like her greatest desire was to sink her teeth into his spleen.

"What do you want?" Dean asked brusquely.

"I just want to fill you in on the plan for tomorrow."

"And that is?" Dean asked sarcastically.

"Tomorrow, I will lead Bella into the mountains. Part way up, we will meet up with Jacob, who will carry her the rest of the way to hide her trail so they won't find her up there."

"And when it comes time to fight, where will you be?"

Edward huffed and looked out into the trees. "I will be with Bella and Seth while my family fights down here."

"Pussy whipped ain't cha?" Dean smirked. It really didn't matter to him where the fucker was, just so long as he wasn't fighting next to him.

Edward gritted his teeth and took a deep, unnecessary breath. "It is for her own protection."

"You know what woulda been the best thing you coulda done to protect her?" Dean didn't wait for a response. "If you had walked away from her the moment you first saw her. What were you fucking thinking to get involved with a human girl? How old are you anyway? Old enough to fucking know better I'll bet."

"It's not that simple." Edward growled. "I tried to leave once. It didn't work out for either of us."

"That's what happens when you brainwash people." Dean spat at him.

"I never brainwashed her!" Edward hissed. "I didn't know how bad it would have gotten for her when I left."

"I heard she started to come around with all the time she was spending with Jake. She could have had a semi-normal life with him."

"Werewolves are dangerous."

"So are vampires. And technically, they ain't weres." Dean jerked his thumb over his shoulder at Leah.

"They're still dangerous."

"Can you honestly tell me you've never thought of biting her?"

"I love her." He insisted.

Yep, you wanted to bite her. "Yeah – I thought as much." He sneered.

"Bella and I are none of your business." Edward growled.

"And funny enough, we're all here because of you two."

"No one is keeping you here. You're free to leave when ever you want."

"And I'm free to stay here and continue to piss you off." Dean grinned at him. Suddenly Leah was standing beside him, her teeth bared slightly at the vampire. An ominous growl was building in her throat.

Edward frowned at him, but glanced off in Sam and Alice' direction. He smirked, and Dean didn't like the look of that smirk one bit. It sent an urge down his spine that demanded he wipe that look off the idiot's face. Dean glanced in the same direction, and saw Sam stalking towards him with his wolf in tow. There was a deep furrow in his brother's forehead that was usually reserved for him when he pissed the kid off. Dean wondered what had been said between Sam and the shrimp to put that look of irritation there.

"Excuse me." Edward smirked again and started to walk away. "I need to talk to my sister." Dean didn't miss the appraising look the vamp gave Sam as they passed, and he didn't miss the dark look that Sam shot Eddie.

"What's all that about?" Dean asked his brother, nodding after Edward's retreating back.

"Nothing." Sam frowned. "Just stick close together – okay?"

"Oookaaay." Dean said slowly, curious as to why Sam was hovering over him.

"And stick close to your wolf."

Dean snorted in laughter and backed up a step to get some of his personal space back. "No problem there. My wolf is a fox." He said proudly, fanning himself and ginning at Leah who trotted up to Sam's wolf. Dean wondered what the two wolves were talking about.

"Dawn's coming. Let's get back to the car and try to get some sleep before they bring Bella back."

"Why do we need to hang around? They're making the scent trail tomorrow." Dean's forehead scrunched up wondering why Sam thought they had to stick around for that. They weren't running – not now.

"We're going with them to add to the scent trail. We hike up with them until they meet up with Jake, then we come back down the way we went up. Only on the way down, we lay a bit of a blood trail."

"A blood trail?" Dean cocked an eyebrow at his brother. Yeah, that's a great idea. Let's just chum the waters Sam.

"Jasper says that the newborns will be wild at the scent of human blood. They won't be able to focus on anything but the blood and we'll be able to cut them down easier because they'll be in such a frenzy."

"Just like sharks who'll swim miles because they caught the smell of blood in the water." So we really are chumming the waters. Great.

"Exactly."

"You know there's a problem with that though. The Cullens aren't immune to human blood. Leah said that Jasper has a control issue, and Eddie wants to bite Bella from time to time."

"The other vamps won't be up there with us, and Jasper said that as long as we put on our amulets when we get back and aren't openly bleeding around them, they can control themselves."

"Alright." Dean shrugged. "Let's go get a little shut-eye."

They started the long hike back down to the car. They could go faster now with the sky lightening and they didn't need to move so stealthily anymore. Plus, they told the wolves where the car was parked and the two animagii cut through the woods in a direct line and had them back to the car in less than forty minutes. There wasn't much said between the two brothers, although Sam continued to hulk over him the whole way. Dean didn't miss the look of worried concern on his brother's face when Sam had left Alice. There wasn't much that Dean missed when it came to his kid brother. Something about that conversation was bothering him and Dean was going to find out exactly what that was once they reached the privacy of the car.

Earlier:

Sam watched his brother walk into the woods with the silver wolf. He had enjoyed watching the wolf lunge at Edward, and had been disappointed when the large wolf t-boned him mid-air. There was something about Edward that just crawled and prickled under his skin. Sam had done his research before they had hiked up here. He knew the Cullens didn't have any history of violent deaths following them – Edward and his mind-reading, and Alice and her visions were just unnerving. He'd heard lore about vampires with extra abilities, he'd just never come across any other than the run of the mill bloodthirsty parasite.

Except Lenore.

Lenore and her clan had intrigued him. They easily could have killed him when they jumped him. Instead, they tried to reason with him and let him go on good faith and he'd been unable to protect them from that vengeful bastard Gordon Walker. There were a lot of things that Sam regretted doing in his life. First and foremost was leaving Jessica alone that weekend. Second was turning his back on Jake back at Cold Oaks and letting that bastard knife him in the back. If Sam had just killed him like he should have, none of this would be happening now. Dean wouldn't be looking at an eternity as Hell's shiny new toy that all the demons were going to want a shot at playing with.

Those were his biggest regrets – killing Jake and that psychopath Gordon didn't even register.

Carlisle intrigued him too. Obviously the head of the family, the good doctor exuded a calmness and a compassion that Sam had seldom come across before. He could have let his family attack them head on. Eventually, the numbers would have worked against him and Dean and they would have been overwhelmed – especially once the wolf pack arrived. But Sam sensed that Carlisle's influence held the others back in lieu of a full out attack and possible death. He meant it when he'd said he didn't want bloodshed. The Cullens were trying to make the best of a bad situation. Like Lenore, they were trying to live above what had happened to them. They didn't hunt people – only animals – even if they found it disgusting.

Sam prayed for Lenore.

He prayed that there was more to life than just living up to the monster within. Because there was a monster inside of him. A darkness that whispered to him in the night – called his name and begged him to come home. And then there was Ruby. The demoness who would appear out of nowhere to tell him he has what it takes to kill Lilith once and for all if he'd only let her teach him…

And Lilith.

The bitch holding his brother's contract. The demon who could end everything if they could only find her. Find her and kill her if they only knew how and they hadn't had a whiff of her in weeks even if they knew how to ice the bitch in the first place. The bitch was off the radar and Ruby was no help and Bela stole the Colt and now that skank was roasting in hell and Sam found it hard to feel bad for her because she had screwed them over too many times to evoke much sympathy. And they had helped her! That irked him to the core because they had helped her and she screwed them over anyway. And they still would have helped her out of her demon deal if she'd asked for it. They could have used the Colt to hunt down and kill Lilith and then Bela and Dean would both be free and Sam wouldn't have to be up in this fucking mountain range trying to save a foolish human girl and her vampire In-Laws when the only real concern running through his head was how to save his brother.

All this flitted through his brain as he watched the head vampire walking towards him with his wife beside him. Physically, Esme wasn't much more than her mid-twenties. She just had a demeanor that screamed mini-van and soccer-mom. Sam's wolf was a silent shadow behind him, never coming near and never straying far and he tensed as the vampires approached. They halted a respectful several yards away.

"May we have a word?" Carlisle asked. Esme was twisting her fingers around themselves nervously.

"Sure," he nodded. "Go ahead."

"Your brother…" Carlisle halted, seemingly uncertain on how to go on. Sam didn't say anything, just raised an eyebrow in the air and waited. "…No one in my family will harm you in any way. The threat your brother made to us isn't necessary. We will do all in our power to ensure your safe return to your friends."

"That's real nice of you Doc. Excuse me." Sam said shortly and started to walk away, feeling like shit because Dean had made a very real threat to these people and it wasn't as if he could just rescind it. If he and his brother didn't make it out of here, Caleb would make good on that threat. There was nothing that would stand in his way to get his vengeance on this family, or the wolves for that matter. Caleb would keep hunting until he'd killed them all, or was killed in the process because that was just the way he was wired. When Sam had said 'precautions' earlier, he meant more along the lines of anyone gets too close and they get a dose of poison for their trouble. He hadn't wanted anyone else dragged into this mess.

"Please!" Esme whispered, darting up and laying a cold hand on his elbow. The wolf snarled as Sam turned and yanked his arm out of her grasp. Her face flooded with hurt as she pulled her hand back and crossed her arms protectively across her chest. He felt a fresh wave of fuck-I'm-an-ass wash over him. How the hell could a vampire be so mommy-esque? Physically, she wasn't much older than he was and she made him feel as if she'd caught him stealing quarters from her purse. He had pulled away because she had taken him by surprise and she was so freaking cold – not because he was disgusted by her.

The wolf was still snarling and Sam waved a hand at him distractedly. "It's okay…She didn't mean anything by it." He turned back to Esme. "I'm sorry I reacted that way. I wasn't expecting that."

"Please," she pleaded, starting to reach out to him again before stopping mid-air and pulling her hands back to grip her own elbows. "This is my family. I'm sure you understand the need to do whatever is necessary to protect your family from harm. I know you have the wolves for protection, and they will look out for you during the fight because for centuries they have been the natural protectors of this area. But Carlisle and I would like to be near you as well. The newborns will head straight for you, and you will need as many of us as can be spared from the perimeter to keep you safe. Our children and the rest of the wolves will circle in on them once they enter the clearing, but you and your brother will be in the most danger."

"Thank you Mrs. Cullen." Sam said respectfully. He was actually touched at the genuine concern in her words. "My brother and I are no strangers to impossible odds – trust me – we can look out for ourselves. And we'll have plenty of arrows to slow down the newborns when they arrive. Just make sure that you and your family don't cut yourselves on poisoned arrowheads. We need everyone fighting if we're gonna get this thing done."

She bit her bottom lip and nodded her head, accepting his quasi-apology. They all looked to the left as Jasper and Alice made their way over to the group. Jasper was still leaning on Alice slightly, but was a lot better then he'd been earlier. The fact that he was recovering so fast upset Sam. It had been less than an hour since the guy was shot and he should still be writhing useless on the ground, not walking around using his girlfriend as a crutch. The newcomers stopped next to their 'parents' and Sam felt Jasper and Alice both giving him the once-over.

"Something you want?" Sam quirked an eyebrow at the rangy vampire, channeling his inner Dean.

"Yes." Jasper nodded at him. His voice was stronger now, not the gasping death rattle that it had been earlier. "Tomorrow, Edward is going to lead Bella into the mountains to lay a scent trail for the newborns to follow here. He'll meet up with Jacob partway, where Jacob will carry her the rest of the way to conceal her scent."

"So?" Sam asked belligerently. Jasper creeped him the hell out and having him so near had Sam wishing he could pull the machete from its sheath on his back.

"We want you to go with them to add to the scent trail. When the newborns enter the clearing, they will see you there and head straight for you, ignoring the rest of us who will close in on them and fence them in." Jasper was looking straight into Sam's eyes while he spoke, and Sam was not going to give him the pleasure of looking away first.

"Okay, but the wolves come with us." Sam jerked his thumb over his shoulder at his wolf-guard who had come nearer when the young couple approached. Sam could feel the animosity that the wolf had for the vampires. He was practically vibrating with it.

"That's fine," Alice chipped in, "so long as they aren't walking over your trail after you lay it." She turned her head to address the wolf when a low growl escaped his muzzle. "Just walk out to the sides at about ten yards. Honestly, we aren't going to attack the humans. If they insist on being here, we want to use them to their full advantage."

"What does that mean? Our full advantage?" Sam shot back at her angrily.

"Once Bella leaves with Jacob and you and your brother come back down the mountain, we want you to leave a blood trail to excite the newborns."

"A blood trail?" Sam could feel his eyebrow shoot up into his hairline.

"Not a lot." Jasper qualified. "Just a few drops here and there. It will make them go blood-crazy and they will be less concerned about the threat that will encircle them. We'll be able to mow them down with hardly a scratch."

Sam thought it over. It was a good idea, and it wasn't as if he and his brother were squeamish about spilling their own blood. "Alright. But if my brother and I are going to be such huge targets for this incoming army…" he looked at Carlisle and Esme, "…then you two will definitely be at ground zero with us."

Esme bit her lip and nodded. "Of course. Thank you."

"You okay with that?" He asked his guard. The wolf just grinned a fierce wolfy-grin and Sam took that to mean he was all onboard with the idea.

"I'd like a word with the human alone if you all don't mind." Alice chirped happily, looking pointedly at the wolf. Sam didn't like the sound of it at all. To him it was as pleasant as fingernails down a chalkboard.

The wolf growled at her as the rest of the Cullens walked away – Esme claiming she was going to take Bella home while Jasper had a hand on Carlisle's shoulder for support. The wolf let out a howl into the early dawn light, sending a shiver down Sam's spine at the noise so close to him. He then walked up and stood next to Sam, teeth bared at the tiny vampire. It was the closest the wolf had come to Sam the entire time he'd been shadowing him.

"You don't have to go far." She said to the beast, rolling her eyes.

Sam caught movement at the edge of the clearing. It was Dean and the silver wolf coming back. Esme shouted out to him that she was taking Bella home and would be back soon. And then Edward made a beeline right for his brother.

"I swear I won't lay a finger on your human." Alice said exasperatingly at the wolf. "If I come within a foot of him, please, rip me to pieces." She said dryly with another eye-roll. The wolf eyed her critically, before trotting several yards away and sitting down but staring menacingly at the fortune-teller.

"Thank you. This will only take a minute." Alice looked up at Sam then, and he felt a wave of foreboding wash over him. It was the way she was looking up at him… Intense-like. And it was the slow smile that crept across her elfin features. "Aahhh… I see now." She whispered triumphantly and a fresh wave of panic took him. "It's you. You're shielding him. That's why I didn't see you two coming earlier – you're a blind spot like the wolves."

"What are you talking about?" He asked angrily. "Shielding who from what?" Though he had an idea… Probably knew the whole time because he was a freak that way.

"Your brother. I can't see you, but I can see him."

Sam glanced over at his brother talking to Edward. They were arguing and Dean's wolf was several yards away from him. The smile continued to grow on Alice's face.

"What are you Sam?" She whispered, her eyes alight. He scowled at her, not daring to say a word. "Ohhh… There is something different about you."

And Sam knew what it was.

The demon blood.

The blood that Azazel fed him as a baby. The blood that had earned Mary Winchester her death and had pushed John Winchester over the edge, taking him and his sons on a lifelong mission for vengeance. The dirty secret he still kept hidden from his brother out of guilt and shame.

The monster that lurked in his veins.

The one that whispered to him in the night.

Sam's heart started pounding in his chest. Beat right through your ribcage kind of pounding and Alice smiled victoriously at the sound of it.

"Get that wolf over by my brother. Now!" Sam snapped at his wolf. He saw the silver wolf dart to his brother's side, baring his teeth at the mind-reader. "You two planned this didn't you!" He accused her as his wolf was next to him now and snarling at the petite fucking bloodsucker.

"Edward and I just wanted to see what would happen if we separated you." She smiled sweetly as Sam pushed past her and started stalking towards his brother, his wolf following him.

"If you want to go back there and rip her apart… Be my guest." Sam muttered to the animal.

Sam scowled at Edward as the vampire smirked at him in passing. And Sam knew that Edward heard everything that happened between him and Alice because she couldn't block her thoughts from him, nor at that moment, did she want to. They had orchestrated the whole thing and Sam felt sick to his stomach that the curse he never asked for was interfering with his life in even more ways.

Stupid fucking Yellow-Eyed Demon. Wish I could raise you from the dead just to fucking kill you again you sonofabitch. He thought angrily.

"What's all that about?" Dean frowned as he looked at him. Sam felt as if the work 'Freak' was flashing across his forehead.

"Nothing." He lied and a look crossed his brother's face. The look that said you're not fooling me. "Just stick close together – okay?" Sam did not want Alice 'watching his brother' – not wanting her to see into Dean's near future and his coming death sentence.

"Oookaaay." Dean backed up a step and Sam realized that he was hovering over him – shielding him, as the clairvoyant called it. He had to stop doing that. Dean analyzed every facial tick and eyebrow twitch, and if Sam didn't get it together, Dean was going to call him out on the whole 'nothing' bit.

"And stick close to your wolf." He demanded. If the wolves were a blind spot for the evil little pixie, then he'd have them cover his brother's ass too.

"No problem there. My wolf is a fox." Dean said while smiling at his wolf and fanning himself.

What? That's a girl? And Sam took a good look at the silver wolf. She was definitely smaller than the others, and sleeker too. And it only stood to reason that Dean had already started trying to work his mojo on the girl.

So Sam started filling in his brother about tomorrows plans, and trying to get him out of the clearing and back to the car. He just wanted to put some space between them and the vampires. The wolves led the way when they told them where the car was parked, and Sam had to keep stopping, just so that he wasn't lurking over his older brother the whole way back.

"Baby, you never looked so good." Dean sighed when the dirt road came into view and the car became visible just up the trail. They would just have to sleep in the car – it wouldn't be a first. Because of the early hour, there would be no motel to admit them and they had cleared their room out the night before because they had been planning on hightailing it to Bobby's after they'd kidnapped Bella.

Dean turned to look at the wolves. "We're gonna…" he jerked his thumb at the car, "…Uhh… Where… umm…" Sam shook his head. If Dean was going to ask the chick wolf to get in there with them – he was gonna go sleep in the woods.

Apparently the silver wolf was thinking along the same lines as him because she rolled her eyes, and walked into the ferns hedging the woods. Turning on the spot to trample the vegetation, she curled up on the ground and tucked her tail over her nose. Sam's wolf did the same in the ferns on the other side of the road. If something came from either direction, the wolves would know.

Dean shrugged and unlocked the doors. Tradition from the last couple years stated that Dean slept in the front seat while he got he back. It felt good to get into the car and lay down across the seat, even if the seat was a couple feet too short for him. He hoped that if he feigned sleep quickly enough, than Dean wouldn't ask him any questions about his conversation with Alice.

He shouldn't have gotten his hopes up.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"So…" Dean drawled sleepily from the front seat. "You gonna tell me what you and Madam Cleo's midget were talking about?"

"Dean…" Sam huffed. "I just want to get some sleep. Alright?"

"Well something crawled up your ass and died. I just wanna know what."

"It's nothing."

"The hell it's nothing. You were pretty pissed when you walked away from Tinkerbell." He smirked over the bench seat. "And you've been practically standing on me since you mowed her over." He added. "And what's with the whole 'stay near your wolf' bit?" Dean made his voice go deep and Vader-y in his mocking of his brother.

"Will you just drop it?" Sam said exasperatedly.

"Not 'til you tell me what's going down. I deserve to know." And Dean lost all lightness in his voice. He wanted to know what happened to put the mind-reading fuck into such a good mood.

Sam sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers. "She can see you."

"Of course she can see me. She has eyes."

"No dude. I mean, she can see you." Sam stressed.

That sunk in. "Oh." He said stupidly. That sucked. "Well… what about you?"

Sam shook his head, refusing to look up. "She doesn't see me. She doesn't see the wolves either so stay close to one of us. We're Alice-proof and I don't want her watching you."

"Why can't she see you?" Dean asked softly, having his suspicions that it had something to do with Yellow Eyes' psychic mumbo-jumbo.

"Don't know. She just can't." Sam huffed angrily, half turning on the back seat – like that was going to make a difference.

"You're still lying to me Sammy."

"Fuck Dean!" He exploded. "I don't know alright!" Sam growled in frustration and raked a hand through his shaggy hair. He sat up and leaned forward to drape his arms over the seat. Dean sat up more to get some of his space back now that Sasquatch was encroaching on it. "It's probably something to do with Azazel. One of his 'Special Kids'." Sam made quotation marks in the air and sneered. "Just another way how he fucked up my life. How he fucked up our lives!"

Dean backed up against the door frame. Sam and Yellow-Eyes-angry just didn't mix well and Dean wanted to put a few more inches between him and his brother incase a fist went flying. Because if Sam damaged the Impala, there was gonna be hell to pay. Dean winced a bit at that stupid saying but Sam misconstrued it as coming from what he'd just yelled.

"Look – I'm sorry man. She got under my skin, okay?" Sam apologized, thumping heavily against the back seat as he lay back down.

"It's alright Sammy. Don't worry about it. Let's just get some sleep. In the morning we'll go into town and get something to eat, and we'll go from there. Okay?"

"Yeah… Whatever man." And Sam rolled over and buried his face into the cold leather of the backseat.

Dean awoke to see golden sunshine filtering through the window. For a moment he thought he must have fallen asleep in another state, as Washington hadn't seen the sun since Christ was a cowboy. Then he saw a piece of paper lodged under the windshield wiper, and his first thought was who would give me a ticket way the hell out here? Then he remembered what had happened last night, what was gonna happen today and what was going down tomorrow morning. Groaning, he rubbed his hand over his face and pulled his phone out of his pocket. It was turned off and when he switched it on, 'five missed called' flashed across the screen. Fuck.

This ain't gonna be good, he thought and dialed Caleb's number.

"Deuce!" Caleb's voice filled his ear on the first ring.

"Mornin' Sunshine." Dean croaked sleepily into the cell.

"What happened to scheduled check-ins you dickhead?" Caleb growled. "I was nearly gonna book a flight up there."

"You'd never get a machete past airport security." Dean yawned. "Will you forgive me if I tell you I was with a chick last night and it slipped my mind?"

"A girl? Tell me it was the human who started the whole mess because if you tell me you're tapping a corpse…"

"Eewww! Gross Dude!" Sammy opened his eyes blearily at his brother's raised voice. "Not one of the vamps you sick shit! One of the wolves!"

"That is not making me feel any better man. Bestiality? That's fucked up."

"You're an ass first thing in the morning. You know that Damien?"

"Although I've woken up to my fair share of Coyote Uglies." Caleb ignored him, carrying on with the banter because it was just what they did.

Dean laughed sleepily. "Hey – remember that bar in Jacksonville? The truck-stop waitress with the funny rash?"

"I couldn't get out of there fast enough."

"My wolf body-guard is smoking when she's human, man. Fucking unbelievable." Dean looked out the window to see her still curled up in a furry ball in the ferns.

"Deuce…she ain't human. Tell me you didn't sleep with her."

"I didn't sleep with her. I got c-blocked."

Caleb laughed at that. "The runt walk in on you two?"

"No. Some shit was going down."

Caleb sighed. "I can't talk you out of fighting with these guys, can I?"

"We'll be alright man. Don't worry about it. But… ahhh… Listen man. About that call last night…"

"The one where you told me to annihilate everyone if you bought it?"

"Yeah… Look… The wolves hate the vampires as much as we do. They can't help what fate fucked them over with. Take them off the hit list alright?"

"You sure about that? Or are you just getting soft because you wanna rub wolf girl's belly?"

Dean snorted. "I wouldn't stop there." Sam rolled his eyes at his brother, stretching as much as he could in the confines of the car. "We gotta get going Damien. We'll be in touch later… just don't expect hourly updates."

"If I don't hear from you every few hours I will book a flight right the fuck up there. I'll hire a goddamn charter plane if I have to."

"You can't bail on Ethan and Eli until the job's done. Those are the rules."

"Don't go quoting the rules to me. I taught you the rules."

"And you screwed them around so that I always got the shit detail while you were sitting pretty somewhere."

"Being older has its advantages."

"You know where you can shove your advantages, right old man?"

"Just promise me you'll be careful."

"I'll hold Sam's hand when I cross the street. Satisfied?" Dean rolled his eyes.

"Asshole."

"I learned from the best." And Dean snapped his phone shut because he and Damien didn't do the whole 'goodbye' thing.

"What's on the window?" Sam nodded towards the windshield.

"Don't know. Just a sec." Dean opened his door and nearly fell out. His bones creaking and protesting as he righted himself. He cursed about getting too old to be sleeping in the car and he winced a bit. Another two weeks and none of that would matter.

The wolves darted up at the noise of the door opening, and it was a little unnerving for first thing in the morning. He caught himself before jumping like a startled rabbit though and managed to cough out a 'mornin' while reaching for the paper. He flipped it open and in elegant flowing script you just didn't see these days,

Good morning. I hope you've rested well.

Edward and Bella will begin to lay the trail

at noon. I hope you still plan to be there.

-Carlisle

"Like we won't fucking be there." Dean scoffed. Then realization set in. "That bloodsucker touched my car?" Dean looked at his baby in horror, imagining cold dead hands running their fingers over the glossy paint of the hood. "That fucker touched my car!"

A/N: Sorry guys, long chapter without much action, but some things had to be set in motion. Forgive me? And one word for last nights episode. It's 'Wow.'