Things with Cas were great. We put my bike up in the bed of his truck, and drove out to different leads. I didn't wear the disguise when I was in the car with him, but anytime else I had to wear a new disguise; apparently word had gotten around about Diana Nyx. The new identity for the time being was Erin Willis. Crowley already had some sort of paperwork or cataloging or whatever he did to keep track of which demons were in which people. Erin Willis, young female college athlete. Low-level crossroads work. He even went the extra mile to starting a rumor that I'd died from an angel blade to the heart, to help dissuade any other angry witches or vampires or whatever from looking for me.
I hated wearing these types of disguises, but they worked. Change of clothes along with a heads-up to Mick and Ketch about the new change (as well as the faked death), and I was all good. Blonde hair, typical sporty attire, and eyes that still weren't mine (no matter how many times I put on this kind of disguise, the eyes never looked like ones I could be looking out of.
"I don't like your disguise." Castiel admitted while we were at another random gas station.
"What, too preppy?" I asked. "I know, I know, but look. It's a part of the thing. I'm supposed to be a demon that makes deals for sports contracts or better grades, I've got to look the part."
"No, it's not that." He said. "I'm… I'm happy that you're here with me, I don't want you to misunderstand me on that. However…" he shook his head, finishing up at the pump. "I miss you. I liked seeing you and miss seeing that."
"Cas, the second the car gets rolling I drop this and It's plain me again." I reminded him. "Albeit in clothes that I really don't think are my style, but it's still me. Same dyed hair that's starting to fade now, same shitty singing voice trying to imitate Zeppelin, same me that's me now."
"I wish you could be you no matter what." He admitted. "I wish that you didn't have to disguise yourself and that it was safe for you to not."
"It will be again." I promised him. "The heat on me will die down and I can be me again. We just have to wait this one out."
He didn't like it, but he agreed to it and kept going with it.
I got a call from Dean approximately two weeks after I'd joined up with Castiel. We were in a diner in… Idaho. Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. We were doing recon on the place (also known as eating) before talking with the manager about a possible lead on Kelly (something about aliens or lizard people or something very weird, but at the same time that had gotten a hit on a few really shitty tabloids, the local newspaper, and the Men of Letters facial recognition software). I answered Dean's call almost immediately. He hadn't called me in, well… Since I'd gotten back. "Hey, is everything alright?" I asked. I knew he wouldn't call me if it wasn't important. Castiel looked over at me from across the table.
"Who is it?" He asked. I mouthed Dean's name, and he nodded in understanding.
"Not exactly." The elder hunter said.
"What's wrong?" Cas sat up a little straighter at the mention of a problem. "Is it Sam? Rowena? Crowley? Your mom?"
"None of them." He sighed. I waved Cas down, letting him know it was alright. "It's a… It's a hellhound, and a bitchy one too." I heard arguing, followed by the phone being moved.
"Hey Kylie, it's your favorite demon." Crowley, his voice as sarcastic as ever, but with a bit of a smile to it.
"Crowley you son of a bitch!" I crowed. Castiel raised an eyebrow at that. "What the hell is going on there?"
"A rogue hellhound, guards were stupid and let her lose."
"I didn't think hellhounds could go rogue."
"This one can. Ramsey." I sat, thinking. Ramsey. Ramsey. I'd heard that name before. Our waitress came around, notepad ready to take orders. I motioned for Castiel to go first.
"I'll have a glass of water and a…" He examined the menu a little closer for a minute. "Trashcan omelet?" The waitress nodded, looking over at me.
"Make it two." I said, moving the phone from my mouth a little to speak to her. She smiled and took up the menus as I returned to my conversation, waiting until she was a good distance away before throwing up the normal sound-silencer around us and speaking. "Mind enlightening me a little since I don't exactly know everything about hellhounds?"
"What about a hellhound?" Castiel asked.
"The mother of all hellhounds." Crowley explained. "The true bitch that sires sons and daughters of its own bitchiness."
"Lovely." I commented, looking over at Cas. "Big momma bitch hound." I explained to him. "So, what, you think I'll be your dogcatcher?" I asked Crowley. More rustling, and Dean had the phone again.
"Look, you can see them, and you used to have one." I fought back a flinch at that. Castiel could see something shift, though. He reached across the table to grasp my hand lightly.
"Yeah, you're right. I did," my voice was tense as I spoke. "Until she was killed by Ramiel trying to help protect all of us."
"I know, and I'm sorry." That caught me by surprise. Dean Winchester, apologizing for the death of a hellhound? That was a new one. "But you're as much of an expert as Crowley is, and in this case we want all the help we can get."
"Why? What's so special about Ramsey?"
"Wait, this is Ramsey?" Castiel asked, gripping my hand tighter. "She's loose?" There was another rustle on the line, and Crowley had the phone again.
"She's not bound by rules." He explained. "No 10 year contract killings. No nothing."
"Like Karma?"
"She was different." Crowley said. "Karma bonded with you, not a demon. And Ramsey bonded with an angel. Specifically, Lucifer."
"So this is Lucifer's dog we're dealing with?" I couldn't help but feel the irony in my situation. I was dealing with Lucifer's dog, Lucifer's baby… Hell, did he have a fucking house? A mortgage? A car? Some sort of evil psycho freaky-deaky favorite food?
"I heard a 'we' just then." Crowley stated. I felt a small smirk find its way to my face, followed by Castiel shaking his head.
"This is a bad idea." He said. "Ramsey is the most feral and vicious hellhound to ever live. She is the original hellhound, the very first one."
"An alpha?" I asked. Crowley and Castiel answered at the same time.
"Yes."
"I literally just killed a different Alpha this month." I pointed out, waving my free hand in the air for a moment. "And now you're asking me to hunt a second?"
"No." Castiel stated.
"Yes." Crowley replied. A small huff of air left me as I sat there. "Is that feathers with you?"
"Yes." I told him.
"Let me talk to him." I looked at the phone in shock before handing it to Cas.
"Crowley wants to speak with you." I said. His face flattened out in to one of… What's the word for loathing with more disdain and a bit of dread all mixed in?
"Yes?" Castiel asked, his voice just as flat as his face. I couldn't quite hear the conversation well, but from Cas' expressions he definitely wasn't happy. "No. No, absolutely not." A small pause. "Crowley, you know the situation right now." Another pause. "Yes, I'm aware as well… Because I want her safe as well." More of a pause. "Dean, tell him it's a bad idea." Dean was on the line? "You don't. Do you know what's going on?" Small pause. "She is being hunted."
"Hey, it's not as bad as you think!" I argued. Cas kept talking.
"Everything." Castiel said. "Yes, Dean. Everything." A longer pause. I could just barely hear arguing on the phone, more than likely between Crowley and Dean. Finally, Cas spoke again. "It was either leave or stay, but hidden. She chose the latter." Cas listened for a while, then handed the phone back to me.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Dean started off with.
"Tell you what?"
"That every fanged, clawed, freaked-out thing is gunning for your head!" He shouted.
"There's no way it can be every single one." I stated, trying to keep my tone light. "There's got to be at least two that don't care or that maybe even like me."
"You know what I mean!" Dean argued. "Why didn't you tell us that you were being hunted?"
"Dean," I said, my voice mellowing out. "When was the last time you spoke to me?" He didn't answer off the bat, so I continued. "Yeah. And that conversation didn't quite go too well, did it?" More silence. "You said you wanted time, I gave you time. It's been a few months. I saw Sam and talked with him sooner than I did you. So…" I took a bit of a breath. "You can't say I didn't have good reason to not reach out. Not this time. This time… I didn't want to bug you or bother you or inconvenience you until you'd taken the time you needed."
I heard Dean take a breath on his end. "I'm sorry." He finally said. "For not calling sooner and for this being because we need your help. But if you're not safe," he thought for a second. "Cas has had to deal with you being dead twice now, both times with him feeling as though he could've done anything else, or where he just blamed himself. I don't think he could deal with doing it a third time. I think… I think one more might break him."
"I don't plan on dying anytime soon." I promised. "And I'll stay in disguise. But if you guys need help, I'm here to help."
"Cas isn't going to like it." Dean told me. I sighed.
"I know."
"Thank you." Dean said. "I appreciate it. A lot."
"Thanks."
"And I know that Crowley probably misses you."
"That witch? Nagging and complaining and blowing up my curtains?!" Crowley exclaimed from the other end of the line. "I couldn't care less about her!"
"Yeah, yeah, softie." Dean joked. The waitress started walking towards us with food, and I shut down the sound barrier.
"Send me the details and I'll be there as soon as possible." I promised, keeping my voice business-like in case of any unwanted listeners.
"Sounds good. See you soon." Dean said. I hung up, put my phone away in my pocket quickly, and smiled as the waitress set our omelets in front of us. "Thank you." I told her. Castiel did the same, and we took a moment to eat and not speak about the decision I'd just made. I knew he wasn't exactly the biggest fan of this. My situation wasn't the safest at the moment, I was fully aware. But at the same time, this was what we did. We helped people. We were trying to help Kelly. We just needed to find her first.
"I had an idea." Castiel said. I put back up the barrier so he could speak freely. "You are going to help Dean and Sam and Crowley, correct?"
"Yeah." I said, nodding. "I'm sorry. I know you're worried about me getting hurt or something again but, it's what we do and this is the first time since I saw him that Dean has even talked to me and," I was cut off before I could continue.
"I understand." Castiel said. I sat there, stunned, my fork hanging in the air maybe halfway from my mouth.
"You do?"
"Yes." He said. "And even though I am concerned for your well-being in going to their aide, at the same time I believe I would be more concerned if you didn't go." I let out a breath I hadn't been holding, setting my fork down.
"Thank you." I would've hugged him if he wasn't in the other side of the booth. "So what was your idea?" I resumed eating after asking, extremely curious at this point.
"When do you think you will be back from helping them?"
"No idea." I admitted. "But there will be four of us, and if they already know what their big baddie monster of the week is then all they probably need from me is tracking and trapping assistance, especially since it's a hellhound." I shrugged. "At max, maybe three days."
"Well, while you assist them I can easily interview the owner myself," Castiel offered. "And once you return, I was thinking we could…" He gulped. Audibly. "Go out?"
"Like a date?"
"Yes." He smiled a little bit with it. "Like a date."
"Cas, I…" I couldn't help but smile as well. "I've got nothing to wear, first off. Second off," I motioned to myself. "I'm going to have to look like this."
"What if we had a picnic?" Castiel asked. "Away from any people or cameras?"
"Where?" I was game for this now. My phone buzzed, probably with details for where to go, but I ignored it.
"The lake." He said. "I saw it was heavily wooded. Easy enough to find somewhere for two people to be alone, I would believe."
"You realize how creepy this would sound if we were normal people, right?" I asked. "Like, the stereotypical horror movie setup." Castiel offered me a confused look, and I laughed. "What? Nighttime lakeside date, completely alone," I wiggled my fingers at him a bit. "Perfect place to murder a helpless young woman like myself." Castiel ran his hand through his hair for a moment, seemingly exasperated. I reached across and grasped his other hand lightly, squeezing it. "I think it's a wonderful idea, Cas. Very sweet. Very romantic. Very… perfect." He looked up at me, and I could see how happy he looked.
"Thank you." He said.
"It's no worries!" I returned to eating my food, thinking for a moment. "Anything you want me to grab before I come back?"
"Just let me know when you will return." He requested. "Don't worry about the rest."
"Ok." I agreed. "But you'll call me, right? If something big comes up with Kelly?"
"Of course." He promised. "As long as you promise me that you will be safe."
"I'm me." I reminded him. He raised an eyebrow at me. "Fine. I'll do everything in my admittedly large arsenal of power, to keep myself safe." He kept that eyebrow up as high as he could. "And Crowley and Sam and Dean will be there, so I won't wander off without them, ensuring that I have maximum protection from anything and anyone that may be looking for me."
"Thank you." He said, finally lowering the eyebrow to continue eating. We ate the rest of our meal in silence, just enjoying each other's company for the time being. Once I was done eating, though, it was time for me to go.
"I'll see you in a few days." I promised, squeezing his hand one more time.
"Call me if something happens."
"Only if you do the same." I said, smirking a little bit. I reached in to my pocket, pulling out a twenty. "Food's on me." I tossed it on the table, made sure my phone was in my pocket, and walked outside to the car. Castiel unlocked it from inside the diner, and I was able to grab what I needed. A few items from the back specifically for spells involving hellhounds (holy oil, goofer gust, the normal things), a couple spare changes of clothes, and my backpack to hold it all in. My blades were in their normal sheathes, happy and content. There was just one thing left that I was going to want…
"Where did I put you guys?" I muttered, rooting around the car. I needed some glasses. I kept a fake pair around if I wanted to pass as serious FBI or something, but I hadn't hit them with the holy oil treatment. Not saying that Dean and Sam wouldn't have any, but I liked bringing a spare pair. I checked the glove box and found them. "Boo-yah." I muttered, shoving them in the backpack as well. I could make them Hellhound Specs when I got there.
I looked back at the restaurant to see Castiel looking out the window at me. I closed the door and gave him a thumbs up. He locked it, gave me a much more awkward thumbs up, and waved good-bye. I waved back before checking my phone. Two texts. One from Dean, with specifics as to where I was going. Sheridan County, Nebraska. I'd been there before. Decent places to hole up, really bad takeout service if they think you're homeless. The other text was from Crowley. Just lock on to me.
"I can do that." I muttered, shutting my phone. I stuffed it in my pocket before I disappeared. I showed up right in the middle of Sam and Dean explaining about how to see hellhounds.
"Or you wear a pair of these," Sam said, holding up glasses that had already gotten the holy oil treatment. "They're glasses, treated with holy fire."
"Or you're me." I said, startling everybody except Crowley. "Hi. Kylie. Witch. And…" I took a look at myself. I still looked like Erin. "Shit, hold on." I brushed off my arms for dramatic effect, and took a moment to register the random new girl's surprise at me changing to look like a different person. "Sorry about that. This feels better. Anyways, what was I saying?" I smiled, looking around at everyone.
"Glad to see you still have your sense of humor." Crowley muttered.
"Wait, you can actually see hellhounds?" Dean asked. I nodded.
"Elective eye surgery." I said. "Really, really happy I didn't go blind because of it. And no, I don't recommend it for either of you." I added the last part quickly, seeing Dean and Sam's eyes light up. "Good to see you guys, by the way."
"You just…" The girl started stuttering, pointing at me a little too. "You just… Appeared. Out of nowhere."
"Yeah. I do that sometimes." I admitted. "They tell you I was coming?"
"They said they had an expert coming in." Crowley looked hurt at that.
"Am I not good enough of an expert for you two?" He asked, appalled. I rolled my eyes, walking past him to the girl. She flinched for a second, but held her ground.
"Hi." I repeated, offering her my hand. "I'm Kylie. I'm a witch. I had a hellhound as a pet for the better part of a year. So… Yeah." I shrugged, my hand still extended. She stared at it warily. "I guess I could be considered an expert." Crowley coughed loudly behind me. "And him too," I jerked my other thumb in his direction. "But I'm more fun to be around." I promised. She looked up at my face, then my hand, then my face again. "I promise, this time I'm gonna keep looking like this." I assured her. After a few more minutes, she shook it.
"I'm… I'm Gwen." She said. "Gwen Hernandez."
"Nice to meet you." I moved away from her to give Sam a quick hug before turning to Dean. He'd spoken, which I was taking as a good sign, and he'd been the one to call me. "Hey." I said, offering him a small wave.
"Just freaking hug me, dammit." He muttered, looking away. I broke out in to a huge smile, running over to hug him as well. I caught him hard, and almost knocked him back a few steps. "Whoa, hey kiddo," I could almost hear him smiling. "Hey, I'm glad to see you too."
"And I'm about to lose any and all food that I've eaten in the past 48 hours if you keep up like this." Crowley complained. "Will somebody please fill her in on the plan?" I took a few steps away from Dean, still smiling at him.
"Alright," Dean said. "Crowley and I are gonna hit the woods, see if we can't track down Kujo," he looked over at Gwen. "You stick with Sam, he'll keep you safe."
"You guys want another pair to give to her or you got some?" I asked, slinging my backpack in front of me.
"Sounds like a good idea." Sam agreed. I grabbed the holy oil water bottle and a pair of glasses out. A few seconds later, I had a pair of Hellhound Specs for Gwen. She hopped in the car, testing them out.
"Where am I going?" I asked once the car door was closed. "And what's the deal with her?"
"Ramsey ate her boyfriend." Crowley summed up. "And she hit Ramsey with an ax." I glanced over at the girl.
"I like her." I decided, turning back to the boys.
"You're going with Sam, for now." Dean said. "Ramsey is targeting her specifically. I want you there for added protection."
"And if you two find her first?" I asked, motioning from him to Crowley.
"Then you switch off." Sam said. "Go from us to them and finish her off."
"Is this a retrieval type of mission or is this a dead or alive type of thing?"
"Dead or alive." Sam said. I glanced over at Crowley, and he nodded in conformation.
"Ok. Sounds good." I nodded.
"I need to speak with you for a moment." Crowley added. This time I turned to the boys, making sure they were OK with this.
"Yeah, no worries." Dean said. "I gotta talk with Sam anyways." Crowley and I wandered off a little ways after that, and I waited until he gave me the all-clear before I put up the barrier.
"What's up?" I asked.
"There's something wrong." Crowley stated.
"What do you mean?"
"Your Diana disguise," he explained. "It shouldn't have been found out like it was."
"How was it found out?" I was curious on that. He hadn't explained it last time we'd talked.
"I don't know." Crowley answered. "Rumors got spread, but the source of them or how the connection was made is never explained."
"Maybe I just wasn't careful enough." I said. "Maybe a vampire got away and got a peek at some files or any information on me."
"Maybe." He didn't sound so assured though. "I don't like it, though."
"I'll ask around and see if Ketch or Mick know anything about it." I offered. "Can I ask a favor, by the way?"
"What is it?"
"I need you to find someone for me." I said. "A shapeshifter."
"You're asking a demon to find a shapeshifter." He laughed a little. "Can't you do it with one of your spells?"
"All I have is a name." I said. "Nothing else. I can't find them easily with just a name."
"Then why not have your British friends do it for you?"
"They're already looking," I admitted. "But I had a feeling you would be faster." Crowley thought for a moment.
"What's the name?"
"Louis."
"Just Louis?" He asked. "No last name?" I shook my head.
"The vampire didn't say it." Crowley mulled it over.
"I'll see what I can do, but I can't promise it will be a lot." He said.
"He's considered a traitor." I added. "He's got a price on his head like I do." Crowley seemed to have an idea at that. "What? What is it?"
"More rumors." Was all he answered with. "I can chase them down."
"Do those rumors come with a last name?" I asked. "It could give me a better chance at doing searches on my end."
"Abernathy." He replied, after maybe a few seconds hesitation. "I heard one rumor with the last name Abernathy in it."
"Thank you. I owe you one." I promised, looking around. "Come on, the others will wonder where we went."
"One more thing," Crowley added. I waited for him to speak. "Those rumors about Louis," he took a small breath. "I started hearing them along the same time that rumors about Diana and you being the same person were starting to get around." I felt something settle uneasily in my stomach.
"I don't like this." I admitted.
"I don't either." He agreed. We stood there in an uneasy silence for a moment, neither of us certain what it all meant, but neither of us feeling like it was a good thing either.
"We should get back." I said.
"Yes, we should." He muttered. I took down the barrier and we both headed back, neither of us in the particularly best of moods. Something was going on underground, and I didn't like it.
Neither did Crowley.
