"Where is he?" Dean paced in front of the air conditioner. Sammy was on the bed watching a history program. Dean had gotten a couple of hours sleep then showered and prepared himself for a night of beer, breasts and acting as bait. The only flaw to his plan was that he intended for his father to have his back. When whatever it was came for Dean, John would be there to stop it. But he could only do that if he came back to the motel and touched base. He was lousy at his new cell phone and every time Dean called it a voice said "out of service" and he knew John had forgotten to charge it again.

"He checked in when you were asleep. He's fine," Sam assured him.

"Right..." Dean hadn't told Sammy of his plan in case his brother worried, but he really would have liked to have been woken up so they could have discussed tonight. It was dusk, Dean was quickly losing his hours of operation.

"Okay I'm going," he announced finally. "Tell Dad to call me as soon as he's back, okay?"

"Why, what's up?"

"Nothing I just want to hear about the tox results," he lied. "That will really influence what we're looking for."

"Oh." Sammy looked at him like he knew he was lying.

"Night bro." Dean ignored the intentional stare down and ruffled his kid-brother's hair on his way out. He took a deep breath once he was back in the heat. "You got this Dean." He felt deeply invested in this case, and he told himself it was professional pride, and nothing to do with the blonde he hoped to meet again on the beer soaked sand.

Clarissa found him in the crowds as if she'd been looking for him. In fact, Dean was certain she had been by the way her face lit up almost with relief when she spotted him and cut through the masses to get to him. He had been avoiding her—sort of. He didn't want her to be around when he made his way to the pissing shack, but he couldn't deny the surge he felt in his chest when he saw her making her way toward him. He'd just make sure to shake her before anything dangerous happened.

"You've found something," she said at once, those sharp eyes seeming to pierce right through him. She crossed her tanned arms over her stomach and waited for an answer. He tried not to look down at her thin cotton tank that didn't leave much to the imagination.

"What, no," he said reflexively and realized he'd probably just sunk himself. Her face turned into a scowl.

"Don't lie to me! You know I have as much at stake here as you do!"

"Hey calm down." He tried but to no avail.

"What is it?"

"It's...just a hunch, nothing really."

"Spill."

"Fine," he sighed and glanced back up the beach, away from the beach house grill. "I heard rumours about some shady stuff behind the 'Lime Sherberts.' Over there. She looked back over her shoulder at the cool treats stand."

"You're still lying. Dean, I thought you understood how serious I am about this. If you aren't going to help me, I'll go it alone." She shoved past him. He told himself to let her go but something (probably hormones) got in his way and he'd caught her arm before he realized.

"It's thin," he began.

"I'll take anything at the moment."

"The grill over there, it's a good place to let out a leak without being seen by the crowds. And it's central to the all the places where the other people disappeared."

Her eyes went wide and she glanced between the bar where she'd admitted to getting sick in and the shack. They were close.

"Jimmy probably came out when he knew I was going to be a while. No one could have seen him back there from here. You think he was grabbed there?"

"Yeah."

"But then, how would they get him somewhere? There's nothing but open beach or the boardwalk. Once they left behind there, there would be no more cover."

Dean wanted to add that it would be possible if Jimmy left willingly, but he didn't say it knowing her reaction would be harsh. "That's what I plan to find out tonight."

"What? You're going to go back there aren't you?"

"Only way to find out the truth."

"Then I'm going with you."

"No you aren't."

"Yes I am! If you think I'm going to sit on the sidelines and-"

"Clarissa," he interrupted. "You can't go with me because you don't fit the profile. It was only young men taken, and they were all alone. If you go with me, the person doing this probably won't make a move."

"Oh," she calmed. "Then I'll hide and watch."

"They might see you."

"Dean, Jimmy was no push over, he was a hell of a lot bigger than you."

"Thanks."

"What I'm saying is if he was overpowered, you will be too, and then I'll be left alone again, and you'll be gone just like Jimmy. I'll find somewhere to hide, I won't let you do this alone."

Every instinct screamed at Dean not to give in to those blazing eyes, but he couldn't help that he smile or that his hand came up to squeeze her shoulder.

"Looks like there's no talking you out of it. Okay, let's do this."

Dean stumbled over to the shack, gripping the grimy back wall with one hand while trying to undo his zipper with the other. He ignored the fact Clarissa was hiding in watch when he pulled out and took a long piss against the side of the building.

Though he was pretending to be intoxicated, he was stone cold sober, and his ears and eyes were sharp, waiting for the predator. What did come to him when he was doing up his jeans again, was not we he expected.

"Hello handsome."

She had long dark hair swept back in tight pony tail, highlighting high, angular cheekbones, painted in a rosy shade that was clear even in the dark. Her lips were equally vivid, plump and red and she pulled them back in a wide smiled. Her belly top barely hid sizable breasts and daisy dukes were about the size of underwear.

Dean had to force his teenage mind into a calm.

"Hey," he slurred.

"Interested in a private party?" She beckoned him with a slender finger. Dean's mind raced, trying to guess what she might be. Was it possible she was just a hooker or a drug dealer? He took his chances and crossed the sands to her.

"Where to?"

"This way." She took his hand and firmly led him behind a row of beach bars and then down a less used path heading back into the main city. The beach was left behind and they moved down a dark side street. Dean's eyes raked over her body, but not out of lust, he was looking for any signs of the supernatural. He was starting to think he really had just met a prostitute.

"Where are we going?" he asked again when he saw thy were headed for a heavy door at the end of the alley.

"Just a little farther." But he halted when they got to the door, knowing if this was a trap, it would be much harder to escape once he crossed that threshold.

"I can't wait baby." He pretended, grabbing her wrist to pull her to a stop. "Here's good enough."

"Not for me." She pulled back and Dean lost his grip on her. He saw the edge in her eyes and tensed. "I hate having to carry my food."

"Shit!" He swung but she was faster and he hit the brick wall with stunning force. Blood erupted from his nose and her hand kept him pinned.

"Oh well," she purred in his ear and clamped down on his neck.

"Crap." He swore and threw an elbow back. It was a lucky shot and got her in the neck, enough to get her to back off. "Vamp?" he questioned, feeling a pang as he'd never seen one before and wasn't sure how to deal with one but she just smiled and shook her head as she wiped the blood from her mouth. He pushed off the wall but staggered, just now feeling the affects of the bite.

"What did you..."

"A paralytic," she explained. "I think enough got in to slow you down." His knees gave and his hands hit they grimy alley floor. Beside them the door opened and he saw a second woman lean out.

"Right on time," she smiled. "Oh, he's not out."

"Help me get him in." The girl grabbed his arm and was soon joined by her partner. They easily forced him through the door and he fell back to his hands and knees when they released him in the abandoned room. It looked like a store room for one of the surrounding buildings, but old and unused. Mould painted the corner of the room where Dean's hazed eyes had fallen.

"He is a handsome one, and young, lots of vitality in him."

Dean struggled to stand but a fist caught him off guard and next thing he was being shoved into a chair. His mind wandered back to the body in the morgue when she began strapping down his wrist, and he wondered if this was the chair the stiff had died in. His head lolled, he was still fighting the venom in his blood, but he caught a pair of pale faces next to him.

"Welcome to the party brother." One of them muttered, he was still awake, though restrained. He looked terrible, pale and bleeding from the neck, crimson panting the large crucifix he wore. He was a big guy though and since the other shaking victim was paler and smaller, he guessed he knew this one's name.

"Jimmy?"

"Yeah." The guy seemed surprised.

"And Doug?" He remembered the name on the photocopy this morning. Though this guy looked much more shaken, he also looked a shade livelier than he fellow, so he must have been the most recent victim.

"Y-yeah." Victims number three and four—Dean guessed number two would be showing up in the morgue tomorrow morning.

"And you?" Jimmy asked.

"Just another sucker like you two."

"Just too hot to resist," Jimmy commented. Dean said nothing, but couldn't help think of Clarissa.

"There." The woman had finished strapping him in. She hadn't noticed how he'd kept his fists balled tight so that when he relaxed his hand he'd have some slack to manoeuvre out of the restraints. "So tell me kid, why did you think I was a vamp?"

"I don't know, how 'bout the fact you bit me." His vision was wavering between dark and over bright. His head was killing him.

"What I meant, is why the Hell do you know what a vampire is? You're a hunter aren't you?"

His eyes narrowed. She stepped back and looked to her partner in alarm. "He's too young to be alone. There's probably more."

"Don't look at me," she said. "Ask him."

The woman turned back to him and in her anger her eyes turned bright blue, her irises to thin slits. Dean strained his aching brain when her hand fisted in his shirt and she came eye level with him.

"Who else is hunting us?"

"Vetala," he whispered. "That's what you are, right?"

She hissed in fury and let her hand fly. His head snapped back and he tasted fresh blood.

"Tell me who you're working with!"

"You are vetala...but I thought you worked solo," he muttered, remembering an old case of his fathers. Huh, he'd have to update that journal of his.

"Shut up smallfry and tell us who you're working with." Her hand came to his neck this time and choked off his air. He strained in the hold and felt his heart rate skyrocket.

"Enough." The other ordered and he was let go, choking. "It's too risky to keep him around, just kill him."

"Fine." Dean's hair was grabbed and his head was forced to the side. "Now wait a minute-"

"Nighty nighty, junior."

"STOP!" The door banged open and before the vetala could chomp down Clarissa burst in on them. Both vetala turned on her, hissing and crouching to attack.

"Clarissa!" Jimmy cried out. Her eyes turned to him but then the nearest monster struck out at her and she fell back on the floor.

"Damn it!" Dean flattened his hands and tugged back, forcing them under the ropes with the slack he'd ensured. He bolted to his feet and despite the lingering effects of the venom got his hands on the nearest of the monsters and drove his foot into her kneecap. She screamed in agony and collapsed. He moved quickly to the next which was trying to get its maw around Clarissa's throat.

"Bitch!" Dean kicked her as hard as he could to dislodge her from Clarissa. He was still off balance, however, and the move toppled him as well. The monster rolled onto him and he wasn't strong enough to hold her back. Those fangs drove into him again, but only for a second. A metal pipe collided with the creature's skull and she rolled away again.

"Damn," Dean croaked, no venom had gotten him but her fangs had torn his skin and he felt the hot wash rushing out.

"Dean!" Calrissa dropped her weapon but he shoved her back when she tried to help him. "Silver," he urged. "We need something silver to kill it."

Clarissa looked bewildered but then the monster came back at them again. Dean shoved Clarissa away and took the brunt of the blow, but managed to roll with the punch and pull the vetala along with him. They rolled over the floor several times before Dean came up on top and came down on her with a head butt. The room spun. She chuckled and grabbed him around the shoulders, pulling him back to his feet as she stood.

"Such a feisty one." She smiled. "I wish I could have enjoyed you a little longer."

"Screw you."

"In your dreams kid."

She moved in for the third time but when she did Dean saw Clarissa at her back, holding the heavy cross necklace that Jimmy had been wearing.

"Give it to me!" He found a last surge of adrenaline and brought his knee up into the monster. They broke apart for just an instant, just long enough for Clarissa to toss it to Dean. He caught in his left and drove it up sharply just as the monster dove on him. If it hadn't been for her own momentum, he probably couldn't have gotten the cross wedge deep enough to reach the vetala's heart. But as it was, the monster hissed, flailed and went still. He withdrew the necklace and let the creature drop.

"NO!" the other yelled where it was immobilized by its ruined knee. "Bastard."

Dean panted and Clarissa helped support him. He looked down at the necklace and then to the creature.

"You might not want to see this," he warned her, but she shook her head. "They're monsters right? Not human?"

"Right," he confirmed.

"Then do it."

He nodded and she let him got to stagger toward the other vetala. Dean couldn't say he relished in killing something while it pleaded for him to stop, or how it took three agonizing tries to get the small piece of silver deep enough to kill. But when it was done, and he was panting in exhaustion and Clarissa moved back to him and helped him stand.

"Thank you," he gasped out. "We'll have to get rid of this." He held up the necklace covered in blood.

"Good, it was my anniversary gift to him." Her eyes lifted to her boyfriend.

"Clarissa...?"

"Oh come on Jimmy, I saw what she did to lure you here! You left with some tramp while I was throwing up in the bathroom of some seedy bar!"

"Hey, I was drunk-"

"Oh come off it you jerk, you saw an easy lay and you went for it."

"Come on, let's just talk about this after we get out of here." He tugged meaningfully on his restraints but she made no move to leave Dean's side.

"I don't think so."

"You can't just leave us here!"

She looked to Dean. "I have a partner, I'll call him to come clean up."

"Good. Then let's go, Dean."

"Clarissa!" They left Jimmy shouting at their backs. Dean called his Dad, surprised to actually get through to him. John gave him the go ahead to leave the scene and patch himself up. Dean was relieved and joined Clarissa back out on the street.

"I'll take you back to your hotel room," he offered.

"Okay."

"Sorry about Jimmy."

"I wish I could say I was happy he was alive." She slid her hand behind Dean, he wasn't sure if it was to help steady him or not.

By they time they made it back to the hotel, Dean was near fainting. She convinced him to let her clean him up. She did a careful job of cleaning and patching the wound. He thanked her and made to rise from the edge of the bed but she pushed him back down. "Wait." She still had the damp cloth and pressed it to his collar. "There's still blood I haven't cleaned up."

He stilled as she washed along his collar, then lowed, unbuttoning the light cotton shirt he'd bought at a stand to help blend in with the summer crowd. She worked the cloth down his chest with one hand while the other slid the shirt from his shoulders.

"I can feel your heartbeat," she commented and dropped the cloth along with all other pretences as she pressed her hand over the left side of his chest.

"So can Is" he admitted breathlessly, since all he could feel was his pulse pounding in his veins.

"She called you a hunter. And you knew what to do. Is this your life Dean, hunting monsters?"

He just nodded.

"Then you're a hero." She leaned in closer. He swallowed hard when her hand slid from his chest to his hip. "But you're also a liar."

"Wh-what?"

"You're younger than you're letting on, aren't you?"

He hesitated.

"It's okay Dean, just tell me, is it your first time?" He was still silent but it brought a smile to her. "You have such an innocent look for someone who just killed two monsters."

She leaned back and pulled her tank top over her shoulders. Then she took each of his hands and held them up to rest against her bare waist as she settled on his lap.

"Kiss me Dean."

He did. The exhaustion and pain from earlier disappeared in the heat of her body, her gentle touches and the excitement that stole all control from his body. They rolled back on the bed and lost all sense of anything beyond themselves. And for a few hours, Dean was just a teenager doing what all young people do in the throes of youth, on the sunny beaches during Spring break. And even though he caught flack for not returning straight back to the motel; even though he had to say goodbye to Clarissa with one last kiss in the hotel lobby—it was all worth it.

It was, the best case ever.

Next time, Sam and Dean have to return to a place Dean had hoped never to go again-High School.