By the time we reached the Bunker Coyote had caught me up on Sam's latest info, the fact that Felicity had put at least some names to faces, had tracked a few down to where they were staying and Sam's idea that we needed to make sure that whatever hunters we decided to rely on were actually still hunters and not shifters I heartily agreed with that idea and figured we may as well get Oliver's crew used to be tested too, we'd probably be doing it a lot while all this crap was going on. After doing all that we bounced around ideas for the cruise to pass a few hours, which was fun but my heart wasn't really into it.

I'd ended up driving the whole trip, which was probably dumb because my hands had almost locked into place from gripping the wheel for hours but I was in a mood. I do some of my best planning and thinking while driving Baby and there'd been a lot rattling around my head.

Sam met us at the door and took a few of our bags from us as we walked inside. "I put the vamp out of his misery, the quick way. Figured I'd take care of it before you got here."

"Thanks." I hadn't been all that keen on beheading more things but I was going to have to get over that pretty quick if I was going to be useful. "Any updates?"

"Cas should be here in about an hour. He'll probably finish patching you up when he gets here. I told him you'd decided on a warm up match, he said he was pleased that your diplomacy skills still seemed up to par." There was a little quirky twist to his lips when he said that.

"Wait, hold up, Cas is starting to understand sarcasm?"

He started chuckling, "Apparently angels can be taught. Who knows, at the rate he's going he might become one of the funniest angels around in another century or two."

"Not sure I can handle this titanic shift in the universe. Cas with a sense of humor." I shook my head as I set the bags I was carrying down, "What next? Pigs flying?"

"I'll keep an eye out," he replied, completely straight faced.

"Probably a good idea." We headed straight to the kitchen, we hadn't eaten much on the way and I was starving. My usual sleeping and eating scheduled was already thrown off between the multiple naps and craziness of the last few days. Sam and I had pulled a twenty hour or so day when we got the vamps, I'd gotten about three or four hours of sleep before the nightmare, driven straight home which was another six hours, napped again, gotten into a fight, got another three hours of sleep and drove six more hours back to the Bunker. We'd headed out to get the vamps on Wednesday, it was now early evening on Friday and between the emotional crap, lack of sleep and the pain from the fight I was feeling like a train had hit me, backed up and ran over me again just to make sure it'd done a good job. Then I remembered that this was what I'd felt like most of the time I'd hunted. No wonder I'd been such a dick to people. "Oliver and his crew still coming tomorrow, or the day after. Sorry, lost track of who said what when."

"Tomorrow morning, early. Roy,Dig and Oliver are all coming."

He looked as crappy as I was feeling. "Have you slept at all?"

"Kind of, spent some time going through Magnus's stuff, found some more useful things. Here let me..."

"Stop." Coyote said, she'd taken over making sandwiches, since I was still trying to get my hands to move, "Sam, go lay down till Cas gets here. Dean can look through everything while you nap. Then after Cas gets here and we get him all caught up all of us need to pass the hell out for a few hours. You two look like shit already and this has barely started. We can't do anything till Oliver gets here anyway, I assume Cas can man the phones and email list while we get some shut eye.

He stood there, looking wierdly shy and kind of wistful.

"Just do it man, she brought a whole bag of herbs with her, you either pass out voluntarily or she'll make you pass out one way or the other. I've been Shaman roofied twice over the last day or so, and one time I didn't even drink tea."

That earned me a cold stare from her, "Roofied? Really?"

"Uh, cared for using..."

She crossed her arms, crap. "Nope, you're not digging yourself out of that one."

"Shit. Can I plead mental exhaustion?"

"Love to help with that, but don't want you feeling violated somehow."

Sam took stock of the situation and figured out his course of action, "You know, a nap sounds like a great idea right about now."

"Thanks for the help, bitch."

He smiled,"Anytime, jerk." He turned to head down the hall, then stopped. "Oh, room 30 is bigger than yours. I wrestled another bed in there and got some king sized sheets and a comforter for it. It's all set up for you guys."

Coyote smiled and dropped the cranky act, "Thanks Sam, we appreciate it."

He gave a half shrug, "No reason for you two to squeeze onto a twin. All the stuff Felicity's tracked down is in my email. It's up. See ya all in an hour or so."

"Yup."

He disappeared down the hall. Coyote and I finished our food, I got his laptop and started digging through emails and links. Coyote took our stuff down to our room and unpacked.

"Hey Babe?" She said as she walked back in from doing all that, "We need ammo for the guns. I packed what I had but there wasn't a lot. You said Sam has stuff in the armory."

"Yeah, not sure how much he's got for 45s though, he's using 9mils mostly now. I'll ask him when he gets up."

"Okay, so fill me in." She ran her hand along my back as she settled in the chair next to me.

"Well, four of our friends from the jacked up hunt were still close to there as of yesterday but who knows where they are now. She has a bunch of names but most of them don't pop up on anything less than a year old. They've gone off the grid. Not sure if that's usual for monsters or not, we never tracked vamps using credit cards before. I'd venture a guess that since they all seemed to have disappeared from the records at the same time that it's one of two things, they were all turned around then or they're under orders to pay cash and use fake names, you know, like hunters do."

"That's not disconcerting."

"No, not at all," I added, "And I don't think Sam's actually slept a damn wink since we left. Look at these emails, non stop to other hunters, Felicity, Roy. Damn. He's basically running a complete hunter network from here pretty much on his own. On the one hand it's amazing, on the other it's a serious issue right now. Like he said, we don't know who's who. I can guarantee you half these people have no real clue about internet security and probably have this shit open on their phone or computers all the damn time. A monster grabs a laptop or a phone and we're screwed, if we're not already. I'm half tempted to tell him to just tell everyone radio silence and only communicate by phone or in person, no mass emails until we clear this shit up."

"It's not like that would be a new thing for hunters. It's not a bad idea."

"On the less paranoia inducing front, I found some more useful tips from our exiled Men of Letters. He'd created a pendant that would heat up in the presence of supernatural creatures, it wasn't specific, just told you that you were standing next to something not human. That'd be nice to have, it takes a few days though. One of those long, complicated, stars must align kind of things so not sure it's feasible. He also talked about extinct monsters, or monsters that had been deemed extinct but he wasn't buying the party line on that either. The one he was fixated on was a different form of werewolf, one that actually turned into a wolf whenever the hell it wanted to. Fortunately silver still works."

She'd leaned back in her chair, I saw her mind spinning, trying to make connections just like I was. "And unfortunately?"

"They kill like wolves too, as in eat the whole thing. Makes them hard to find. No heartless corpses laying around." Problem was, Sam had found something, he hadn't had time to really delve into it but as soon as I'd seen it my hunter sense started tingling.

"He found something didn't he?"

"Yeah. According to Magnus about seventy years ago some old school hunters took out a a pack of them. The Men of Letters refused to believe the hunters when they said it was a different species of wolf, they chalked it up to some weird cultural thing. The hunters had tracked a bunch of people who'd disappeared out in a national park. The locals said they'd been seeing non local wolves moving around, they were bigger and looked different. One thing led to another and the hunters managed to take out four, the disappearances stopped. Magnus was kind of obsessed about it. Anyway, Sam being Sam, he'd started looking for reports of weird wolves over the last fifty years. There are quite a few, and even some half decent pics. Now I'm not a biologist but that's not your average wolf." I shifted the laptop so she could get a better look.

Her eyes got wide and she leaned forward. "I've seen wolves up close, not on the Reservation. I went to Yellowstone a few times and yeah, that's not a wolf. The musculature is different, wolves don't have those types of shoulders, those would move more like a cat's shoulders, not a wolf. It's bigger too, a lot bigger. Any recent reports?"

I enlarged a tab on the screen, "One could say that." Two people had disappeared from a local wildlife preserve in Oklahoma about a month back. Local wildlife experts said they spotted wolf tracks. Problem was there's not really any reliable reports of wolves in Oklahoma except for a smaller species that's rarely seen, whatever had made these tracks had to be around a hundred and eighty pounds and closer to the size of a mountain lion. The park was less than a hundred miles from where I'd been forced to kill Kate.

She exhaled nice and slow as she kicked into analytical mode, "So now we have a possible new species of wolf that can blend even better than then ones we know of, along with possible shifters, and a vamp/wolf alliance that may be organized by a former hunter."

"Seems that way. Here I was thinking that the height of my paranoia induced behaviors was reached during the Leviathan fiasco when we were being hunted by the Feds. Who knew it could possibly get worse than that?

I heard footsteps on the stairs leading down from the outside door, "I think the more valid question is, knowing your history Dean, why you would be at all surprised something like this would occur."

Cas's gravely voice filled the room, I looked up and there he was, trenchcoat and all. "Hi Cas. Not surprised, just annoyed."

He made it the rest of the way down the stairs and stood in front of us. "Yes, I can see that. It seems your year off has benefitted you, your usual response to something like this tends to be much more forceful." He studied me, his blue eyes getting even brighter and sharper. Cas never just looks at someone, he's always seeing things on multiple layers so he studies you, makes you feel like a bug under a microscope most of the time. Other times it's just damn uncomfortable because you know he's seeing all the dark corners and hidden things that you don't even let see the light of day. When Coyote does her Shaman gaze on me and goes full power with it, there's always this spinning, swirling feeling like the world stopped and you're about to fly off of it. She may be gifted with some psychic abilities but she's still human, Cas is an angel and you know it the minute he looks at you. Other angels hid it better, but even then, when they chose to focus on me I always felt small, powerless. Something deep down inside knows, just knows that no matter what the outside looks like, what's behind that human shell can utterly destroy you in a second, without hesitation or remorse. Same with demons. Two sides of the same coin as far as I'm concerned.

"You look well, happy, considering." He was still standing on the opposite of the table, all stiff and awkward. It wasn't that he was feeling awkward, he just was.

"You're going to make me do all the work here aren't you?"

His forehead wrinkled and he tilted his head to one side, "No, I have come to help you."

I gave up, stood up and started walking around the table. When I was halfway towards him he got it.

"Oh, yes. I forgot." He opened his arms as I pulled him towards me. "It has been some time since we've seen each other. A hug would be in order."

I patted his back once or twice and let go, "Yeah, it kind of would. Nice to see you."

"You as well." Then he turned his focus to Coyote who seemed a bit disappointed but she reached her hand out.

"I'm Running Coyote, I've heard a lot about you. Pleasure to meet you."

He took her hand and shook it but his eyes never left her face, "I have never met a follower of the lost spirits before. You are unlike the other pagan priests. You are truly Godless yet there is an air of the divine about you. I always assumed those spirits who had claimed you as children were much weaker."

She stood there, not sure if she was supposed to be offended, flattered or what. I had no clue either.

"You are not very impressed by me I see," he continued.

"Well, to be honest, I expected to have a splitting headache or be blinded by your energy but there's nothing to you. I sense a weird hum of something but nothing all that shocking."

That threw me off. I guess I should have known something was up when she didn't instantly react to him walking in the door.

"Oh, yes. If you wish to see my energy as you call it I can arrange that. I am not sure you should though."

"Yeah, good point." I said, not quite sure why I hadn't thought about this before. "He blinded a psychic once. Wait, how are you muting yourself out?"

"Sam's informed me of Running Coyote's skills and we took steps to protect her. He and I dug through the vaults here and found an old relic that has an ancient form of angel warding on it. It reflects the divine energy away from talented humans."

"Is it locking your power down?" If that was the case I wasn't sure he'd be much help if we had to protect Coyote from being blinded by seeing him.

"Not at all. Here." He put his finger on my forehead. All the pain just left, my face felt normal sized again and my hands returned to their normal, non swollen, selves.

Coyote's mouth dropped wide open, "Whoa, okay, now I'm impressed."

I gave her smart ass grin, now that I could again without it hurting, "Roofie free healing, pretty cool huh?"

She scowled at me and looked at Cas, "If I break his face again, you'll heal it, right?"

"I don't understand, why would you want to break his face again?"

"For being a jackass, that's why."

Cas reached across the table, took hold of her hands and gave her one of the most sincere looks I'd ever seen him pull off, "Running Coyote, if you intend to break his face every time he is, as you say, a jackass, we won't be able to get much else done. Perhaps you should reconsider this course of action."

I tried, I really, really did because he was being so serious but I couldn't help it. Tears started running down my face as I collapsed into the chair laughing. Coyote held out a second longer.

"You," she stopped to push the laugh back down, "Are the most," the giggles had started and she had to rush the rest out, "adorable being I have ever met." The she bent over and rested her head on his hands because she was laughing so hard she couldn't stay upright.

"I was being quite serious," he said.

"Oh, ow, my stomach." I managed to get out in between gasping for air. "We know Cas, we know. I appreciate the sentiment, but I promise, she won't break my face."

"But...oh, I see. This is something that relates to how you show affection. I understand now. I apologize, you being in a relationship with someone other than Sam will take some adjustment on my part."

Coyote had just about gotten things back under control until he said that, "Oh wow, he and Sam aren't..." she couldn't even finish.

"Honey, just go with it. Trust me. You'll get a Cas filter soon enough."

She snorted, took a deep breath and managed to calm down. "I'll work on that."

I glanced up at Cas, for a second there, just a second I thought I caught a hint of humor in his eyes but then he saw me looking and it vanished. Had he just played that whole bit up to get us to relax? Maybe he'd learned a few things over the last year, just like I had.

"All right, back to business," Coyote said, "I should probably see if I can handle you without that relic Cas, just in case something happens to it."

I wasn't too keen on that idea, "Are you sure about that? I wasn't joking about the being blinded part."

She'd gone all solemn and down to business again, "Better to know now then when things are much more dire."

"I cannot heal that damage Running Coyote," Cas warned. "If you are blinded you will remain that way for the rest of your life."

"I'll shut all my perceptions down at first and slowly open them up, if it gets too intense I'll back off. When I shut down I shouldn't be able to really perceive much at all. I've had a lot of practice blocking over the years. Oh and once we're done with that and have some time, I want you to explain the whole lost spirits comment."

"Of course. Let me know when you are prepared."

She nodded and her eyes went slightly out of focus. I didn't notice anything but it was obvious that Cas did. He leaned a little closer to her and was in full angelic examination mode when she nodded.

"Go for it."

He pulled a small, rough hewn stone pendant that was hanging from a strip of leather out from under his shirt and slowly lifted it over his head, then laid it down on the table but kept his hand hovering over it.

She hissed and lurched back in her chair, "What the..."

Her eyes started jumping around, not convulsively but like she was trying to keep track of something moving or just take in a sight that she had had no way to prepare for.

"Honey, you okay?"

She barely nodded, she was too caught up in what she was seeing, "It's, you, are so beautiful."

That seemed to catch Cas off guard, "Thank you. That's not what most humans think when they perceive what I am. I find you quite fascinating as well. How your electromagnetic fields shifted as you closed down your perceptions was something I had never seen before. Most humans with abilities such as yours lack that control."

There was more than a hint of sorrow on her face when she replied, "I wish you could have met my teacher, Rising Dove. He was, well, a master, a true Shaman. Not like me, I have the skills but lack the patience."

I was going to blast that idea out of the water but Cas beat me to it.

"No master starts out filled with patience and fully enlightened. Many of the greatest saints came from lives filled with sin and blasphemy. Then there are angels such as I who thought we were enlightened until we started associating with people who, just as yourself, perceived only their flaws, not their gifts. Do you wish to try to perceive more? I am not sensing that my energy is harming you in any way. You're not looking at my true form technically, so perhaps you will be safe. Pamela, if you remember Dean, was compelling me to show her my true form, that was the source of her blinding."

"How are you seeing so much if you're shut down?" I asked.

"I don't think I could ever block someone like Cas out completely. I saw the demons too remember? Saw what they were."

"Oh, yeah." I could tell she wanted to, she'd always had that curious streak and, just like Sam and I, once she found something she was interested it, she had to find out everything she could.

"Maybe a little bit more." Her face stilled again, but her eyes didn't go out of focus as she started chanting under her breath. She made it another ten seconds before she screamed and violently twisted away, "I can't stop!"

Cas threw the necklace back over his head and backed away, I caught her as she fell out of the chair. "Shit! Coyote!"

"The walls! The wards! It's so bright! Dean! I can't control it!"

Next thing I knew Cas was behind her, his set his hand on her head and she went limp. "She will be fine."

"How the hell do you know that?"

"Because she was not incurring injury, she was just unable to pull back. It appears that once she truly started perceiving my celestial energy she was pulled along with it. I am part of angelic collective of many parts. I think she started to get absorbed into that. My making her sleep it will reset her perceptions. She reminds me of the ancient mystics, she can join with many different resonances. Her teacher must have been powerful indeed if she feels she is somehow inferior to him. I swear to you, she will wake up soon and be fine."

I couldn't quite believe it until I saw it but he sounded pretty damn confident. "All right, thanks for stepping in there."

"Of course. Where is Sam?"

"Sleeping. Go wake him up while I get her somewhere comfortable. He can catch you up, I'm staying with her until she wakes up."

"I assure you.."

"Cas!" Damn, I was already snapping at people, I took a second, "Sorry. Lack of sleep and I'm worried. I'm staying with her."

He nodded and his eyes softened, "Of course."

I shifted her in my arms and picked her up.

"I'll open the door for you." Cas offered.

"Thanks, room thirty. It's bigger, Sam fixed it up for us."

Cas walked in front of me as I carried her down the hall. He opened the door, I took her in and laid her on the bed.

"Dean?" His voice barely carried.

"Yeah?"

"I am happy for you both. You have more than earned the right to have a person such as her by your side."

"Thank you." I wasn't sure what else to say to that.

He nodded, "I'll wake Sam." Then he softly closed the door and left us alone.