CHAPTER 26
When the Winchesters got to the manor, Dean placed the demon's briefcase on the table. Sam had picked it up when the demon left it in the alley. Demons didn't usually carry anything, so they thought it best to find out why this one did.
"There was a demon in the morgue both times I was there." Sam explained to the group. "I nearly killed him but he got away. He was carrying this." Sam gestured to the briefcase.
"What the hell's a demon got to do with this anyway?" Dean asked.
"Believe me, I got no idea." Sam replied.
"How did you know it was a demon?" Leo asked. Sam stiffened.
"I, uh, I, um, just instinct, I guess." He replied. Leo nodded.
"So, should we open it?" Paige asked.
"There's a lock on it. It looks like a code." Phoebe observed.
"I could blow it up." Piper suggested.
"It might damage something inside it." Leo said earning a glare from his wife.
Leigh felt that familiar tingling sense in the back of her mind. For a moment, she went rigid and she didn't blink. Sam and Phoebe looked at her oddly, but no one else seemed to notice. Leigh walked over to the bench near the landline, as if on autopilot. She picked up a pen and on a sticky note wrote three symbols. One looked like a percentage sign, one resembled a horseshoe and the last looked like a back-to-front six.
Leigh finally blinked and broke out of her trance. She shook her head dazedly and looked at the sticky note. She lifted it up to examine it. She had never seen these before, why the hell did she draw them?
"Leigh?" Coop's voice brought her out of her thoughts. She wandered back to the group and handed Dean the paper.
"What is this?" he asked. She looked at the case and noticed the three parts of the lock. Each had different symbols which you had to turn to get the code right.
"I-I think it's the code." She said. The hunters looked at each other and shrugged. Dean put in the code and the briefcase swung open revealing a blinding white light. Everyone in the room shielded their eyes and Piper cursed.
Sam reached out and shut the case. He looked at Leigh questioningly.
"How did you know that?" he asked.
"I have no idea, but we can talk about that later. What the hell was that?" she asked pointing to the case.
"I think it was…" Phoebe started gobsmacked.
"Human souls." Paige finished, barely a whisper.
"Of course, it's all starting to make sense!" Leo exclaimed as if he should've known.
"No! No, it can't be! Not again." Piper said sternly.
"Be what again?" Leigh asked.
"A horseman." Paige sighed.
"Famine." Sam stated in a huff.
"Well, that actually explains a lot." Leigh shrugged.
"How does that explain anything?" Dean asked.
"Castiel's appetite; from what Sam's told me angels of the lord don't eat yet Cas was about to stuff his face the last night. Maybe it's his vessel that's hungry. Paige and Dean have been screwing like rabbits; god knows Paige hasn't got some in a while. Piper has been spending a lot of time alone or at work; you've always got the kids, you never have time for yourself. Leo has been with the elders, so maybe you're hungry for knowledge and well, do I even need to say what Phoebe and Coop want?" Leigh offered. They all stared at her dumbfounded.
"What about me?" Sam asked. Leigh's confidence shrunk a little under his gaze.
"I don't know about you." She said, almost shyly. Everyone seemed to accept that as a normal answer, but Sam saw the deeper meaning.
Now was his chance to come clean. He had to do it. He looked into her brown eyes and saw vulnerability. He'd never seen it in her before. Even when she was scared, she was guarded. He had never saw her vulnerable, exposed. That was the effect he had on her. He made her weak, he could hurt her. Since that was the last thing he wanted to do, there was only one thing he could do.
"Um, while we're all here," his eyes did a quick sweep of the room and locked on Leigh. "There's something you should know."