Chapter Seventeen
"Come any closer, and I'll slit his throat," Ryan screeched. Sam and Jo stood still, not daring to risk it. They were both staring at Dean, was once again hanging from the ceiling. Only this time, it wasn't zip-ties holding him up. His right hand was impaled by the hook, supporting his body weight. Dean's eyes were screwed shut, tears streaming silently down his face, his breath coming in short, painful gasps.
"Put your weapons down," the demon ordered. The hunters grudgingly obeyed, slowly placing their weapons on the floor in front of them. Sam hated the feeling of vulnerability that came with the action, but they didn't have much choice. Not while a knife was a Dean's throat.
"Alright we put ours down, now you do the same," Sam answered, gesturing to the blade at his brother's neck.
Ryan laughed harshly. "You really think I'm that stupid? I thought you were the smart one, Sammy boy."
"Dean's the only one who can call me that," Sam retorted.
"Well, I don't think Dean is really able to call anybody anything right now." Her words were disproved almost immediately when Dean grunted something that sounded suspiciously like "stupid bitch." Relief flooded through Sam when he heard the words. If Dean was still able to make snarky remarks, albeit weak ones, then there was still fight left in him. He wasn't ready to keel over just yet.
Ryan, however, did not respond kindly to the insult. She swiftly swung the dagger up and across Dean's face, cutting a large slash from his forehead to his cheekbone before replacing the blade at his neck. Dean cried out, his face contorting in pain. He struggled weakly on the hook, but stopped when it aggravated his hand.
"Hey!" Sam exclaimed. He started to move towards Ryan, but he stopped when she increased the pressure on the blade, breaking skin.
"Ah, ah, ah…" she warned.
Sam angrily moved back beside Jo. "What the hell do you want?" he asked heatedly, his eyes never leaving his brother.
"Where's my sister, Sam?" Ryan asked, ignoring his question.
"Back in the pits of hell, where she belongs."
Ryan didn't move, her face unreadable. Then suddenly she threw her arm out and Sam and Jo were thrown across the room and against the wall. The impact knocked the wind out of him. They were held pinned up against the wall, their feet barely brushing the floor. The demon ripped Dean's hand off the hook, eliciting a scream, and threw him back towards the other wall. He hit it hard and crumbled to the floor.
"Dean!" Sam and Jo yelled at the same time. Ryan rushed towards them, her knife raised threateningly. She plunged the blade into the wall beside Sam's head, her demon strength driving the sharp knife into the hard concrete.
"I will make you suffer, you piece of shit." Her voice was low and menacing, her mouth right by his ear. "You will feel the pain of losing someone you love. Starting with the little bitch over there." She jerked her head towards Jo. "I will make her scream and cry for mercy, plead for you to help her, and you won't be able to do a damn thing. I will draw out her suffering for as long as I possibly can, and trust me, that can be for a very long time. Then, when her cold, mutilated corpse is lying dead at your feet, I'll take your worthless brother and I'll skin him alive, right in front of you. That is, if he lives that long. I hope he does, because I would so enjoy ripping his skin off slowly, bit by bit. When both of them are finally dead in front of you, I will torture you until you beg me to kill you. And then, maybe, if I'm feeling generous, I will." She unsheathed the knife from the wall then plunged it into his arm, directly above the gunshot wound. Sam grunted, fighting the urge to scream. "Shall we begin?"
Jo suddenly dropped to the floor, released from the demon's powers. Before she can react, Ryan grabs the back of her shirt, throwing her into the middle of the room where Sam could see her clearly. Jo slid across the smooth floor, bumping into the discarded weapons as she went. The guns and knife skidded to the far wall, out of Jo's reach.
Ryan jumped after her, trapping Jo beneath her weight. She shifted them both around so that she and Jo were facing Sam, blocking Dean from his view. "You're going to regret hurting my sister, Samuel Winchester."
The demon ripped the over-sized jacket off of Jo's shoulders and pinned her arm down flat. The knife flashed as Ryan plunged it into Jo's left forearm, carving something Sam couldn't see into her vulnerable flesh. Jo screamed as the blade sliced through her arm, hot blood pouring out of the fresh wounds.
"Stop! Please, stop!" Sam pleaded desperately. Pinned to the wall as he was, he was powerless to do anything but beg. Just as Ryan wanted.
Ryan finished carving and viciously jerked Jo's arm up so Sam could read the engraved letters. The word bitch stood out in red in sharp contrast to the pale white of Jo's arm. Tears flooded down the female hunter's face. Before Sam could react to the word, Ryan placed one hand on Jo's shoulder and another on her arm and pulled. With a sickening pop, Jo's shoulder once again twisted out of place, causing her to howl in agony. Ryan grinned at the sound.
"Hear that, Sammy? Her pain? That's all thanks to you." Ryan slashed the knife down Jo's side. Sam met Jo's eyes as she gasped in pain. Her pained gaze told him to fight this fugly son of a bitch and kill her sorry ass. The look steeled Sam's determination and he decided he wasn't going to give the demon the reaction she wanted from him.
Seeing no reaction from Sam, Ryan violently threw Jo to the ground. She looked around the small room and sighed dramatically. "Unfortunately, I took all of the toys I used on your brother out of the room. But don't worry, I can be very creative with a knife." Ryan sunk to her knees over Jo. She raised the knife to plunge it into the hunter's side, but the knife never hit its mark. Ryan's body shook as something rammed into her back. The demon screamed and light flashed from the depths of her body, then the demon slumped forward, dead. The hilt of a knife protruded from the demon's back. Ruby's knife.
Sam dropped to the ground as the demon died. Looking up, he saw Dean across the room, supporting himself weakly on one arm, laying by where the discarded weapons had landed. As Sam watched, his brother collapsed to the floor as the spurt of adrenaline faded away.
Sam glanced at Jo, who was shoving the demon's corpse off herself. Jo met his eyes and nodded, telling him to go to Dean and not worry about her for the moment. Sam rushed across the room, sliding to his knees as he reached his brother's side.
Dean was unconscious. His heart in his throat, Sam frantically checked for a pulse. He panicked when he didn't feel one. Checking again, he breathed a sigh of relief when he felt a faint pulse beneath his fingers. A very faint pulse. Dean was alive, but barely.
Sam took a moment to check over the rest of Dean. There were too many cuts and bruises to inventory at the moment, but Sam did note how pale and cold he was and the blue tinge in his lips and fingers. Sam stripped off his hoodie and wrapped it around his brother.
"Is he alright?" Jo crouched down beside Sam, having freed herself from the demon's weight.
"He's alive," Sam replied shortly. He was afraid if he said anymore, admitted how bad his brother's condition was, he would break down. He couldn't afford to do that right now. Dean needed him.
"Are you ok?" Sam asked, glancing at her wounds.
Jo nodded. "I can manage. We need to get him out of here," she said, gesturing to Dean's broken body. She glanced back to the ladder. "Can you carry him out?"
It was Sam's turn to nod. "Don't have much choice, do we?"
Sam carefully lifted Dean up, ignoring the pain in his injured arm. He shifted him to a fireman's carry and walked towards the ladder.
"Wait! Grab the knife!" Sam called, turning. Jo quickly unsheathed the knife from the demon's back and scooped up the guns. She then scampered up the ladder, a little awkwardly because of her re-injured shoulder. Sam followed after, moving slowly, trying to balance Dean with one arm while pulling them both up with the other. Luckily the ladder wasn't tall, and it wasn't long before Jo was pulling Dean off of Sam's shoulders, allowing him to climb out. Sam immediately picked Dean back up and started running towards the door, Jo at his side.
As they were rounding the corner of the house, they almost ran into Christopher. A look of surprise passed over the man's face, and he backed up a few steps. Jo immediately pulled out one of the guns and clicked the safety off.
"The demon's dead. Run, before I shoot you," she threatened.
Christopher turned and ran without hesitation. With both his bosses dead and all prospects of a paycheck gone, he had no reason to risk his neck trying to stop them.
The hunters crossed the short distance to the Impala. Jo grabbed the spare blanket and the first aid kit from the trunk as Sam gently laid Dean down across the backseat. Jo slid in beside the unconscious hunter, lifting his head to rest in her lap. She tossed the blanket over the hypothermic hunter, then opened the first aid kit, digging for the gauze to press against the worst of his wounds.
"Get us to the hospital, fast!" Jo called from the backseat.
"Dean can't go to the hospital," Sam replied grimly as he climbed behind the wheel.
"Why the hell not?"
"Shapeshifter back in St. Louis made sure that he's at the top of the FBI's most wanted list. Soon as we check him in there will be cops crawling all over the place."
Jo groaned, but didn't push the matter. "Then get us to the motel!"
"Can't go there either."
"Damnit, Sam, why not?"
"As of this morning, I'm suspect #1 in two beatings. Cops will be watching the motel." Sam answered heatedly, angry with himself.
"Then where the hell can we go?"
"I've got a place," Sam said. He sped the Impala down the hill, throwing safety to the wind. He needed to help his brother. Once he hit the highway, he pointed the car towards the old cabin and floored it.