I didn't even bother looking at Badger as I rejoined Coyote and we started heading towards the door. As we passed Cougar he held his hand up. Coyote stopped and I took her cue.

"Dancing Badger," Cougar said in that deadly empty voice, that one that's soft yet carries through an entire room. I never have gotten that down, "In case you or your friends have difficulty in counting to two and four or five of them try to join in, I will take immediate steps to correct your math. Do I make myself clear?"

Badger managed to look offended at that.

"Don't play innocent with me," Cougar continued, "You're a horrible liar. Dean? Ready?"

Cougar had our back, good. "Yup." He, Coyote and I went out the door. I gave him a quick grin, "Thanks."

The stone faced look he'd had on slipped for a second or two; a tight, bloodthirsty smile swept across his lips then disappeared, "You've hated him for a year. I've hated him since the second grade. Kicked his ass three times already. Be more than happy to do it again."

"Not the brightest tool in the shed is he?"

"No, but he's faster than you think and clever. The only reason Coyote defeated him so easily before is he was overconfident. He had no idea what she'd been doing all the years she'd been gone. He won't make that same mistake with you."

"Not to sound arrogant, but he has even less idea of what I've been doing. Thanks for the tip though."

"Not a problem."

Four cars skidded to a stop in the parking lot, three more were barreling down the street and several people were jogging towards us, "Huh, that traveled fast."

Coyote's hand squeezed my shoulder, "Not much happens around these parts."

"Great, high school all over again."

Rabbit and his family pulled up, along with several of our neighbors, "Dean? What the hell is going on?" Rabbit asked.

I didn't really want to get into all of it, I had other things to look out for, like Chasing Horse and Brown Fox coming my way. They weren't here to talk. "Coyote? Care to bring Rabbit up to speed?"

"Yeah, in a minute." She'd seen the same thing I had. "Dean, Horse loves to use his legs, he'll try to keep you busy to let the others get close. Fox has real martial arts training. Let Cougar or I help."

One of these days I'd learn to think my way all the way through a threat, "Remember last time we did this dance?"

Her hand grabbed mine and squeezed, pain shot up my hand, "Yeah, but I knew I was only fighting him and I wasn't already injured."

I looked away from the guys who were getting ready to kick my ass, or so they thought, put my hands on either side of her face and kissed her. "Those scrapes hardly count as injuries for me. My point was this is the same sort of set up. If we're going to keep living here all this shit would come to a head at some point or other. Better now when I'm calling the shots, then later, and it comes out of nowhere catching one of us at a bad time, if you get my drift."

She thought about it for a second, "You have a point. All right, don't kill any of them."

I had to laugh, "No doubts I'm going to win then huh?"

"Oh you'll win. I wasn't offering to help because I thought you'd lose."

There was fear in her eyes, that's when I got it, "I'm fine. Promise. Fight like this? Doubt it will trigger anything."

Her lips met mine again then she pulled back, "Love you."

"You too."

There was a nice ring of people forming, they were oddly quiet though. Badger and his minions were on the other side, failing at intimidating me with their glares.

I was about to step into the ring when Cougar spoke up again, "Coyote has a point, try not to kill them. However, it would be of great service to the tribe if you could arrange it so Badger needs to have his jaw wired shut for a few weeks."

I couldn't let that one pass, I raised my voice just enough so Badger could hear, "Got it Cougar, one broken jaw comin' up."

Badger's eyes went flat with hate and he started to lunge towards me, the other two pulled him back. "Don't worry about it guys, I'm good. Unless there's some sort of foreplay we're supposed to go through before we do this thing. Faster I slam your faces into the dirt the faster I can get home and pack. I've got more important things to do then this today." People tend to think I bluster because I'm just that cocky. Years ago? Sure. Now it's strategic. If you're pissed off, you fuck up. I've been in too many fights to get emotional about it anymore. Yeah, sure I was pissed about the comments but I got over that about a second after I'd hit the table. Badger hated us and I wanted him seeing red, it'd keep him from actually paying attention, hopefully.

"You think you can defeat three warriors that easily?" Horse snarled. Badger was too busy grinding his teeth to talk, Fox had calmed down. He was going to be the one I had to watch out for.

"Yup. You guys are fighters, sure, wouldn't go so far as to call you warriors. I mean, Coyote kicked Badger's ass a few years back after all. What kind of warrior gets his ass kicked by a woman?"

That got some shocked gasps and a few snickers from the crowd. Badger shoved his friends off of him and came right at me.

Cougar had been right about how fast he was, he almost caught me with a right cross, I blocked at the last second and drove my fist towards his stomach, he hopped back and took up a fighting stance. Huh, he was clever. His face was all contorted like he was pissed but I could see that he was planning things out, waiting for me to make a move. Two things I had to do to not come out on the bottom in this fight, not let any of them get behind me and try to keep one of them getting up after I either chucked them across the ring or tripped them. Two on one I could handle. Three on one would get complicated.

Horse and Fox fanned out to either side of me, "We're going to rip you to shreds," Badger said.

I shifted closer to Horse,"Yeah, been there, done that, still kickin'. " Horse had some long ass legs on him and if I kept close to him he'd have to step back to get any decent power behind his kicks. He backed up, good. Badger feinted towards me, I faded back from his fist and shot my foot towards his near knee. It hit but he'd shuffled back just in time to keep it from doing any real damage.

Fox did this hop skip thing that I saw out of my peripheral and before I could really register what was going on a foot was coming towards my head. Fucker was fast! I ducked but he clipped me and I took a risk. I acted like it hit harder than it had, dropped and rolled closer to Horse.

"Not so tough now huh?" Horse said as he reared his foot back to nail me in the chest.

I love it when people think I'm a weak ass. I was on my side, grimacing and acting like I was out of it, his foot came right at me. I grabbed his ankle with both my hands, rolled forward over the top of his leg and took his ankle with me. The sound of several tendons popping reached my ears as he screamed. I didn't stop there, his knee went completely out of socket as I dropped all my weight on the inside of the joint. Then I slammed my elbow into his crotch and jerked what was left of his foot up, hard. I was pretty sure his hip was out of joint by the end of that.

His eyes went wide as he screamed and then he went limp, guess he blacked out from the pain. Just to make sure he'd stay out I drove my fist into his face, breaking his nose and probably blackening both eyes. I rolled off of him, stood up and faced the other two. Fox was staring at what was left of Horse and Badger started yelling in Lakota.

"Yeah, don't understand a word you're saying," I said, "but I'll assume you're not complimenting my technique. We still going or are you two done?"

Apparently seeing a guy get his leg completely trashed is something the people there weren't used to. It was dead quiet and a few of them had their hands over their mouths. A couple of kids were just staring with their mouths hanging wide open.

Fox started throwing kick after kick at me, I really hate that, but he was keeping me busy and moving. I just kept my arms up to block and made sure to keep my legs moving so he couldn't land a good hit. He was trying to get me to turn my back away from the crowd so Badger could get behind me, I wasn't about to let that happen.

I noticed after the second set that there was a pattern to his kicks. Just as I did Badger flew at me in between a gap in Fox's kicks and I couldn't shift fast enough to block the fist that took me right in the ribs, knocking the wind out of me. He followed that up with a straight jab to the face because I couldn't quite stop my block from dropping as I tried to breathe. I let the hit drive me back.

"You fucking bastard," Badger snarled, then nailed me in the face again.

This was starting to get annoying. I was about to just go all out when I heard Coyote yell, "Neck!"

Shit! I threw my hands up just as Fox got his arm around my throat. I'd been a half a second to slow. I had to give them credit, he'd slipped behind as I turned to face Badger. This was going to get painful. Fox is about four inches shorter than I am so he was bending me back as he tried to choke me out, which screwed with my leverage to try to flip him over somehow. He is, however, lighter than I am. I used that to my advantage. Badger came at me with his fists again. I hooked my foot around Fox's ankles and took the hit from Badger. I used the extra momentum to throw that much more weight at Fox who landed hard beneath me. His grip around my throat weakened, I took a deep breath and rolled to the right as Badger went for me again. He ended up hitting Fox who grunted but held on.

This was getting awkward.

Fox's gripped tightened again, "I won't stop when you pass out white man," Fox whispered in my ear, "Then I'll break your neck as she watches."

Because threatening the guy who just took out your friend's leg in at least three places is such a hot idea. It was starting to get hard to breathe though so something had to give. Since Fox wasn't giving up I had about five seconds to do something to Badger and hope it shook Fox loose. I tried to roll onto my back again but Fox had braced himself somehow, but that might work in my favor. Badger was aiming a kick at my head and fortunately his near leg was the one he was standing on. Heavy boots are so handy for busting knees.

I launched my foot at him, he'd been waiting for it and shifted his kick from my head to my leg. That actually hurt, my leg went limp which wasn't good. He'd nailed the nerves just right, it'd be out of commission for a bit. My vision was tunneling down and I was gasping for air.

"We'll tell your brother you tried," Badger taunted as he leaned in close.

Bad move on his part, as he found out when I did my damnedest to drive his bottom jaw up through his skull. My right hand exploded with shooting pains, Badger reeled back, spitting teeth and blood. Fox shifted his grip to try to break my neck, another bad move. That gave me a second or two to twist out of his hands and drive my other hand into his face. He leaned back, I kept on him. He blocked my right hand and slammed his left into my face. By this point I was tasting blood and one of my eyes was starting to swell shut, both my fists were in pretty intense pain and my throat hurt from the choke hold. Fox's eyes shifted to look over my shoulder, I heard scuffling behind me, that was my cue.

I took the edge of my left hand, slammed it into Fox's throat and rolled to the left. Odd hacking sounds came from Fox as he tried to figure out if I'd crushed his windpipe, I was facing up and Badger was coming at with me with a knife. Not good. Blood was streaming down his chin and the right side of his face was swelling and bruised already. I wasn't quite sure how he was still standing to be honest. I must not have hit him as hard as I thought, damn jacked up knuckles.

"No more, I will not let you and that whore think you're better than the rest of us!" He raised his arm, let out another piercing cry and drove his knife towards my chest. The whole crowd gasped and started hollering.

"Dean!" Coyote screamed.

As Badger's blade came towards me it reflected the sun right into my eyes, and the way his body moved he ended up back lit against the sun, becoming just this looming dark mass above me. An entire, demented and twisted catalog of memories flooded my brain, Alastair holding a knife as he stood over my shattered body, hellhounds chewing into me, Cain stalking me with his huge knife, Abaddon, the First Blade, Azazel hovering over my bed, all of it. I went cold inside, dead, and I didn't think, I just moved.

My foot flew out, nailing him in the chest. The air rushed out of his lungs and the blade faltered in it's downward arc. My hands moved on their own, grabbing his wrist, twisting it, bones breaking, knife dropping. I shoved him back, he stumbled cradling his hand to his chest. His knife had fallen next to me, convienent. I managed to get my legs under me again and I saw it, the fear. He'd realized just what the fuck was standing in front of him.

"That's right idiot," I said as I stalked him, "Now you're starting to understand."

My left leg was just strong enough to support me, I took a step closer. His eyes were clouded with pain, good. I reversed my grip on the blade and slammed the hilt of it into directly into the side of his head and he dropped like a rock to the ground. I flipped the knife back around and walked over to Fox who was managing to breathe again, at least he was until I drove my boot into his ribs.

"Give or do I make it more clear that you're done?"

He raised his hands and shook his head, "Done," he squeaked out.

"Good." I looked around, Horse was still out, Badger was bleeding everywhere and Fox had given up. "Anyone else want to get in on this? I asked. "I'm warmed up now. Could probably go another round or two."

The crowd was barely breathing. All of them, except for Cougar and Coyote, took a long step back.

"Okay then. So no more shit gets said about Coyote, I or my brother. Understood? Coyote and I have to bail to help my friends, you know, the ones that have been working their asses off helping build you a truck stop. When we get back I don't want to see or hear any more crap about white people being in your town. I'm here to fucking stay, you don't like it, keep your mouth shut or you'll end up like these three jackasses. We clear?"

Heads started nodding as fast as possible. I dropped the knife on the ground and looked down at my shirt. There were a few torn buttons and more than a few spots of blood. "Damn." My face was still bleeding and for some stupid reason I didn't want anymore blood to get on the shirt, so I pulled it off over my head.

"Holy shit," I heard a few people mutter and a bunch of quick intakes of breath. Crap.

I have a lot of scars, I don't keep track of them because they come and go. Old ones fade, I get new ones. It'd been a year or so since I'd gotten new ones but there were still plenty of old knife and claw wounds, along with bullet hole and places I'd been impaled while flying across the room thanks to one supernatural thing or another deciding to play Dean toss. I tend not to walk around shirtless around people who don't know me because it's always awkward. Women I'd hook up with over the years thought the scars were cool and made me mysterious, plus we usually had other things on our minds.

These people, however, had just seen me wipe the floor with three of what they considered were their toughest guys. None of them were slouches, they were actually pretty good fighters. They'd have taken most guys out easy, but then I have a ridiculous pain tolerance and more experience than they could ever hope to have. Not that I'd ever wish what I'd been through on anyone. So if you add how quick I took out three guys to the layers of scars on my back and chest, not to mention all the self inflicted ones on my arms and palm and toss in the fact that I had bandages on both sets of knuckles before the fight even started; it totaled up to someone that most people probably don't want to spend a lot of time with. I happened to be standing in the middle of a bunch of people just now figuring that out.

I'm not all that fond of being stared at like I'm some sort of a psychokiller who's been on vacation but it'd look stupid putting the shirt back on now. I looked at Coyote and Cougar, pretty much clueless on how to handle this.

Coyote walked over to me, took the shirt out of my hands and gave me a light kiss on the cheek. "Fortunately I know how to sew buttons back on and I still have soda water in the trunk. We'll dump some on there before we head home. Hydrogen peroxide may stain it."

"Cool."

"Dean," Rabbit said as he took a step towards me.

"Yeah?"

"Here," he pulled his shirt off and tossed it at me.

"Thanks man. I'll wash it before I get it back to you, just in case I get some blood on it." I pulled it on and tried to avoid any fresh blood.

"Don't worry about it, got plenty."

The crowd started moving a bit more, which I took as a good sign.

"Black Hawk, call for an ambulance." Hunting Bat said, "In the meantime, see to your brother's wounds."

"You're going to do nothing!" Black Hawk hissed.

"Dean was outnumbered three to one, it is not his fault your brother is injured. It's your brother's. Dean?"

All the various pains were starting to hit me again but I had to wait it out for another minute or two apparently, "Yes ma'am?"

"Thank you." That drew several what the hells from the crowd.

"For what?"

She gave me one of those long apprising looks, then gestured towards the three guys on the ground. "For showing restraint."

Her and I were going to have a have a long talk at some point it seemed. Course, she'd been around a lot of years, who knew what she'd seen in her life time. "Just remember, this wasn't what I wanted. I'd pretty much planned on not doing crap like this anymore. So take that for what it's worth."

I put my arm around Coyote's shoulders, my leg was starting to go numb again, stupid nerves. "Let's go home. We still have crap to do."

"Sure."