Chapter 3
"What are you going to do while we sleep?" Sam asked, propping his pillow up in just the right way. Clara shrugged.
"I'll probably go watch the people at the bar across the street, I don't want to die of boredom watching you two." She said, a sly smile on her face. Dean couldn't help but smile back. Sam looked over at his brother and then at Clara. They both looked like idiots, smiling to each other like school children with crushes. Sam folded his arms across his chest in amusement. Clara waved goodbye and floated through the door. Sam looked over at his brother with a dumb grin on his face. Dean noticed his brother and snapped out of it, seriousness plastered across his expression.
"You like her…" Sam said, his voice playful and irritating.
"Sammy please…" Dean dismissed him, pulling off his clothes and crawling into bed.
"No really, I think you really like her!" Sam exclaimed hopping into his bed like a child.
"Sam, please don't harass me. I finally find someone I think could work for me but she's dead." He said, turning away from his brother on the bed. Sam's glee fell from his face. He hadn't thought about it that way. Clara seemed so normal to them that he had forgotten she wasn't alive anymore.
"I'm sorry man…" he said, curling up to face his brother. Dean was turned away from him, but Sam knew he was still awake.
"Maybe Cas can…" but Dean interrupted him.
"I don't want to talk about it anymore." He said, his voice abrupt. Sam rolled away from his brother and fell asleep, hoping Dean would do the same.
They made it to West Virginia in mid-morning the next day. Clara asked a ton of questions about vampires, intrigued by the subject. Dean gladly answered her, giving him any excuse to carry on a full conversation with her. Sam stayed fairly quiet, gazing out the window lost in thought. Dean asked him what was on his mind, but Sam shrugged his gaze never leaving the world outside.
"I can help you, Vampires can't hurt me." She said, almost excited by the idea to assist them. Dean scowled at her in the rear view mirror.
"No way Clara, we're not sure it's even Vampires. I'm not going to risk someone poofing you to Hell or worse." He said, not sure how she would react to his protectiveness. Clara pouted.
"Well once we find out what it is, I want to help in any way I can." She said, her voice full of seriousness and determination. Dean rolled his eyes but let it go. It was obvious he was going to lose this battle.
They ate some lunch and got a hotel room and waited for nightfall. Dan and Sam suited up, grabbing a little bit of everything until they were sure what would kill them and got in the car. Clara watched them as they got ready, not saying much until they got in the car. Dean drove them to the nightclub where all 4 women were seen the night they disappeared and parked.
"Clara, be careful. I know I'm not going to be able to talk you out of coming with us but I can ask you to listen to me." Dean said turning to her in the back seat. Clara nodded and waited for her instructions.
"We're going to go in there and have a drink, you case the place out and report back to us alright? Don't engage any of them, I'm not even sure if they can see you or not." Dean said to her. Clara nodded. He was horribly nervous, but if she could case the join undetected it would save them a lot of time skulking around the back rooms. Clara vanished in the darkness, lightly flickering in the back seat until she was invisible, and they walked into the bar.
They sat down at the bar and the bartender turned around, grinning widely at them.
"What can I get you handsome men?" she asked, her long blonde hair flipping over her shoulder. She pushed it back and placed two napkins in front of them.
"I'll take a rum and coke, he'll have a fuzzy navel." Dean said, and Sam threw his hands up in protest.
"Cute, I like a man in touch with him feminine side." She said, turning from them to make their drinks. Dean looked around the bar scoping out all the possible suspects. A cold breeze caressed his ear, and Clara lightly whispered in his ear.
"I'm going to check in the back, I'll come back to you in a bit." She said and Dean nodded lightly. In seconds she was gone, and Dean wished he could tail her with his eyes, but not even a light ripple in the air was visible.
Dean sipped his drink and waited the long minutes until Clara returned. He wondered if Vampires could see ghosts. The more he thought about it the more uneasy he became. Sam watched his brother fidget in his seat, knowing exactly what was bothering him.
"Do you think they can see ghosts?" Sam asked quietly, his lips barely moving. Dean shook his head.
"Honestly Sammy I have no idea, for once this uncharted territory." He said, finishing off his drink and motioning to the bar tender for another. Sam frowned a little.
"Dean I want to talk to you about something. Something that happened when I didn't have a soul…" He said, twisting his drink in his fingers. Dean shook his head.
"No Sam, you weren't yourself back then. I don't need to know about all the shit you pulled. I don't ever want to know." He said taking a swig of his drink. Sam nodded with a sullen look on his face. Sam wanted to talk to him so badly about some of the things that he'd done, but Sam wasn't sure he wanted Dean to know. He was constantly conflicted with shame for the way he acted, but also knew that he needed to talk to someone, anyone about how he was feeling. Maybe Dean wasn't the right person to talk to.
Clara returned and placed a cold hand on Dean's. Dean looked around instinctively, only to realize he still couldn't see her.
"I'm almost sure it's Vampires, I'm almost 100%. I wanted that man in the black button down take a woman into the back room and then out into the alley way. He bit her on the neck and left her there until a van pulled up and grabbed her body." She whispered in his ear. Dean scanned the room for a man in a nice tailored shirt and spotted him a few tables away, talking to a young beautiful woman.
"Did the man drop anything into her mouth?" Dean mumbled to himself. Sam's eyes widened at the question, unable to hear Clara.
"Yes how did you know? He took out a vial and put a few drops in her mouth, I couldn't see what was inside his hand was covering it." She said, her cold breath tickling him. Dean nodded.
"They're not killing the women, they're turning them. We need to find the nest." He said, watching the man's every move. Sam looked in his direction and then back at Dean. Dean felt Clara float away, and he looked around the room expectantly.
"Clara?" He called as loud as he could without causing attention to himself. Sam looked around himself too, only to remember she was invisible. Dean turned back to the bar in frustration.
"God damnit, she needs to tell me when she leaves." Dean growled, downing the rest of his drink. Sam smiled brazenly.
"I haven't seen you act like this since Lisa." He said finishing off his drink too. He asks the bar tender for a beer before he noticed the anger on his brother's face.
"I told you I'd break your nose if you mentioned them." Dean exclaimed, anger filling his face. Sam's smile faded.
"You can't pretend she didn't happen. She was a big part of your life." Sam said, taking a swig of his beer. Sam was right, Dean couldn't forget about them if he tried. They were a glimpse of what his life might be like if he had been born into a different family. Dean grabbed his brother's beer, took a large drink from it and eyed him angrily.
"I like her around. Kind of like a little sister though, like Jo." He said handing Sam back his beer. Sam frowned again.
"No, she doesn't make you happy like Jo did, It's different." Sam corrected. Dean eyed him again. He hated Sam sometimes, he always knew him more than he knew himself. His attention was ripped away from Sam when a ballpoint pen floated past his face and hovered between them. He watched as his glass was moved off the napkin and the pen began to write. "3346 Tanner St." appeared in ink on the napkin and the pen dropped to the bar with a clank. Sam and Dean couldn't help but smile, and they paid their tab and left the bar.