Close the gates of hell? Easier said than done, when you've got both angels and demons on your ass.
/
'Drowning deep in my sea of loathing, broken your servant I kneel.
It seems what's left of my human side is slowly changing in me
Looking at my own reflection, when suddenly it changes,
Violently it changes.
There is no turning back now that you've woken up the demon in me.'
/
Kerrie tossed her jacket down and plopped down next to it on one of the twin beds in the motel room. Sam stood in the corner with his arms crossed, and Dean leaned against the wall a few feet away from her.
"Start talking," he ordered.
"A few years ago, I came across someone. A friend of a friend of a friend, you could say. She taught me how to build a weapon that could kill a demon. Let's put it this way: she's been around for a while," Kerrie stated simply, eyeing the boys steadily.
"Was she human?" Sam asked. Dean glanced over at him as if the idea hadn't occured to him.
"I don't know, I didn't ask," Kerrie said with a grin. Sam sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Are you being straight right now or jerking us around? Because we do not have time for that," he snapped.
Kerrie released a heaving breath and leaned forward, unwittingly giving Dean a full frontal screening of her cleavage. She was wearing a red lace bra. She caught him staring and pulled her shirt up, giving him a dirty look.
"Could you please focus on something besides your dirty mind, Dean?" Sam asked, exasperated, throwing his hands up in the air.
"What he said," Kerrie added with a growl.
"Sorry," Dean muttered, chastized.
"Look, guys, I'm starting to think I should just trust you and tell you what you want to know," Kerrie started with a frown.
Now it was Dean's turn to throw his hands up. "Hallelujah, at last," he snapped sarcastically.
"Call Bobby," Kerrie said without raising her eyes to the two of them.
Dean was about to ask why when Sam shook his head, catching his brother's eye, and pulled his cellphone out.
"Hey, Bobby," he said into the phone, gazing directly at Kerrie.
"There's a girl here, I wanted to ask you about her. Her name's Kerrie," he continued.
He listened for a second. "Yeah, red hair, Kawasaki bike."
His eyes widened a fraction of an inch. "So what-"
He swallowed, openly staring at Kerrie. She sighed, raising her eyes to look at Dean, who looked confused as hell.
"Right," Sam bit out, "Thanks, Bobby."
Hanging up, he walked towards Kerrie. "You're alright," he muttered, sitting next to her. "Sorry about your mom."
Kerrie looked away, struggling with her emotions for a second, then murmured, "Thank you."
"Anyone gonna tell me what's going on?" Dean asked incredulously.
"Kerrie's mom was possessed. She watched her die after her father paid someone to exorcise her," Sam said quietly, putting a hand on Kerrie's shoulder.
Dean immediately looked completely somber. "Sorry," he said lamely, looking down.
Kerrie just nodded. "It was a long time ago," she said, smiling bitterly. "I've been hunting since I was 10 and I'm not about to stop now."
Dean regarded her with renewed respect.
"So are you guys tracking demonic omens, too?" Kerrie said suddenly, breaking the pitiful silence.
"Yes," Sam replied, his hand dropping from her shoulder. "Do you have any leads?"
"Actually, yes," she replied, standing up. "Gettysburg, Pennsylvania."
"Isn't that like one of the most haunted places in the USA?" Dean said with an ironic smile.
"Now it actually is," Kerrie replied, returning his smile.
"So that's where you were headed when you stopped by here to take care of that demon?" Sam asked, swinging her attention back to him.
"Yep," she replied, clasping her hands behind her back.
Dean frowned, mulling something over in his head, and then, "How many do you think there are?"
Sam looked puzzled. "You mean in the group of demons?"
"There are 16," Kerrie replied pointedly.
Both of the brothers looked at her. "How do you know?" Dean demanded.
"I just do, okay?" she snapped. "You know how Sam sometimes just knows things?"
Sam's head snapped to stare at her as she said this.
She swallowed. "Sorry, Sam," she muttered.
"Are you psychic or something?" Dean asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Or something," she replied, turning away.
/
Dean and Sam both trained their eyes on Kerrie's sleeping form.
"What do you think?" Dean said to Sam quietly, pursing his lips.
"I think she told us the truth," Sam replied, shrugging.
"Yeah, but she sure as hell didn't tell us all of it," Dean shot back, sitting on the other bed, stretching his legs out.
"She's known us for a couple of hours, Dean," Sam said, shaking his head. Walking over to the bed, he sat down beside his brother, and turned to him. "We need to help her trust us if we want her to open up. Besides," he continued, looking back at the red-haired girl, "Bobby says we should keep her with us for a while."
There had once been a time when Dean would object vehemently to a girl travelling with them. However, he'd changed quite a bit since he'd first set out hunting with Sam to find their father. Instead, he just mulled the thought over in his head somewhat disapprovingly.
Suddenly, Kerrie tossed and whimpered. "No, please," her voice pleaded. "Mom..."
Sam's face fell, and he got up to walk over to where she lay. Looking down at her, he said quietly, "We can relate, can't we, Dean?"
Dean watched the girl's chest rise and fall, and her pained facial expression. "Yeah," he mumbled. "I guess."
The light began to flicker, and the TV turned on. Both men lurched to their bag and armed themselves, pouring salt at the doorway and the window.
Instantaneously, everything turned off, and sparks sprang from the light fixture, and the window smashed open, glass flying everywhere.
Shielding their eyes, the Winchester brothers looked at each other, alarmed.
"This isn't a demon, Dean," Sam bit out, struggling to stay upright.
Kerrie sprang out of bed, wide awake and alert, holding her gun like a pro, aiming at the door.
"He's here," she spat out, staring at the door, eyes like green flames.
"Who?" Dean asked, glancing between her figure and the doorway.
The door smashed open and a male figure walked in, dressed in a grey suit and leather dress shoes. His dark chestnut hair was combed back and his eyes were fixed on Kerrie. His striking, green eyes.
"Hello, sweetheart," he said with a charming smile.
"Raziel," she sneered.
"Now, honey, you know I prefer it when you call me 'Dad'," the man replied.
"Holy shit," Dean whispered, looking between the two of them, almost seeing the tension spark. "Your father's an angel?"
"Yeah, trust me, only a few years ago, I was just as shocked as you are right now," Kerrie replied, glaring at her father's form.
"Is that possible?" Sam whispered, keeping his eyes on the angel. "I mean, do angels—can angels, err, procreate?"
"Anything is possible," the majestic man replied. Then he shrugged, "I had renounced my title as a soldier of the Lord when I met Kristen's mother."
"It's Kerrie," she snapped, still glaring at the man. If looks could kill, oh boy...
"Okay, everyone just put your guns down," Dean said calmly, letting his gun slowly descend, raising his hands in surrender.
Kerrie slowly lowered her own, but still maintained her tense position.
"Why are you here?" she asked, a strained note in her voice.
"I'm here to warn you," he replied, gazing at her with an almost human expression on his face. Thinking back, Kerrie could not believe how she hadn't noticed that her father was a little strange when she was a child.
"Are you going to tell me that Mom's coming for me?" she hissed. "Because I watched her die, Dad," she made quotation marks with her fingers, "And if her ghost was coming back to haunt anyone, it would be you."
"I mean your real mother. The thing which had been harbouring her body at the time of your conception," he replied quietly.
"Stop saying that!" Kerrie shouted, tears welling up in her eyes. "You've tried to tell me that a hundred times, and it never makes sense! Why would a demon want to—do that—with an angel?"
Raziel shook his head. "I don't know, but you are my daughter, and I am trying to caution you," he began in a reasonable voice, which really only sounded like he was talking to a 6 year old.
Sam was still reeling from the shock of what Raziel had said about Kerrie's conception when Dean finally seemed to grasp it. "Wait, I'm sorry, but did you just say that Kerrie's mother was a demon?"
"Humans. Things which are impossible seem so—unlikely to you," Raziel said, shaking his head, smiling softly. Then his smile turned bitter. "I was not aware of her possession until after the birth of Kristen."
"How is that possible?" Sam asked, sounding spiteful. Kerrie silently thanked him.
Raziel just shook his head. "She had planned the entire thing well, and masked her tracks. I had resigned my position and so did not have my celestial powers, as I suppose you would refer to them, to detect anything out of the ordinary. It seems the demon had been tracking us for some time, because it had learned quite a bit about my late wife," he had to correct himself to say late, almost as if he had forgotten that she was dead. "Anyway," he continued, "the possession took place only on the day of conception, and then she came back during the birthing. She came to me as a psychic woman of healing, and told me that my wife would die during the birth, and she was right. She possessed her to get her through it, which I did not know until years later. It worked, but Diana's body was so worn out, she became ill after. For years she was weak. She was never able to go back to her beloved work. Kristen was the only thing which brought her joy. She began to get better around Kristen's 8th birthday. But the progress was too rapid, too unlikely – too impossible, a human might say. I noticed. And it suddenly dawned on me, everything that I had been missing. So I called someone who came highly recommended."
Kerrie had gone from practically seething to a single tear sliding down her cheek as she crumpled to a sitting position on the edge of the bed.
"Bobby Singer," Raziel sighed, and the name rang a bell of pain in the Winchesters' hearts. "He performed the exorcism."
"And then she died," Kerrie whispered brokenly. "She died asking you, 'Why?' and you just watched."
"Kristen, I did not have a choice," Raziel whispered, sounding surprisingly emotional.
"Everyone always has a choice," Dean said, voice unwavering, and Kerrie stared at him. The corners of his mouth turned up in a reassuring smile.
"You would know about choice, would you not, Dean Winchester?" Raziel stated, smiling at Dean.
Dean's gun arm began to rise, and Sam had to give him the Dean-stop-it-right-now-or-else look.
"What was the name of the demon?" Dean asked, trying very hard not to hit the man in front of him.
"I think you may have heard of her," Raziel replied.
"No," Sam said, at the same time as Kerrie whispered, "Lilith."