She shook Roy's hand, "Nice to meet you, this is Cougar Kills Bears, Cougar for short."

Roy looked a little intimidated by Cougar, not that I blame him. Cougar makes Sam look small and he was all business. His full head of waist length black hair was down, he was wearing a short sleeve black shirt, a vest and black jeans. You didn't need any imagination to see how ripped he was, he had a huge Bowie knife strapped to his waist on the left and another blade tied to his right thigh. The worst part was his face, totally empty. If I didn't know the guy I would have pegged him for a stone cold killer but he wasn't, or hadn't been anyway.

Now that I was over the initial shock of how she felt and being burned at the front door I took another look at her. Whatever she'd been through the last few years had hardened her, given her rough edges that she'd never had before. Her hair was braided as usual but there were several feathers attached to the braids, she was in her standard hunter look. Black t-shirt and jeans but she was wearing knee high moccasins instead of work boots. They were brown and heavily beaded and she had a lot more accessories than usual. There were three necklaces around her neck, one had some sort of quartz pendant that was wrapped with silver, one was a small black pouch that had some pretty complex beadwork on it and the other was a several gemstones all clustered together held together by bronze and sliver wire. The largest stone was a piece of jet black obsidian with something small etched on it that I couldn't quite make out. She still wore the armband with the silver coyote on it and several pouches hung from her belt. One long knife hung from her left hip and I saw the hilt of a knife poking up above her right boot. She'd gained some more muscle, leaned down which told me she'd been training or fighting a lot more than before which worried me although I didn't know why. I knew she was more than capable of handling anything that came her way.

"Nice to meet you," Roy said as he shook both their hands. She gave him a quick smile then looked back at me and time stopped. Her eyes drew me in and I felt dizzy. The neutral look she'd given me when she'd walked in slipped on her face for a second, all I saw was pain and I wasn't sure if it was hers or mine. She lowered her eyes and turned towards Sam. "So catch me up."

I felt like I was swimming in a whirlpool and took a few steps into the hall until it faded. She'd done the shaman thing on me, checked my warrior spirit out. How I was feeling now was pretty damn close to how I felt when Rising Dove had done it years ago. I knew how little of me was left, I had no idea how she perceived it but that look told me enough. Even if I'd wanted to try to fix things somehow, there was no way I could. What the hell did I have to offer her or anyone for that matter. I had barely enough left to get me through a day, much less be supportive of anyone else. The world finally stopped spinning after another minute or two. I had a job to do, that's what I had to think about, not something that I threw away years ago. I pushed off the wall I was leaning on and walked back into the living room. Sam was just finishing up explaining the autopsies and the relationships between everyone. I grabbed the last beer from the case that Roy had bought, popped it open and stood next to Roy. "Fun stuff huh?"

I'm not sure how she looked more solemn than Cougar but she pulled it off somehow. "Where's Jim?"

"Follow me." She nodded and I led her to the laundry room where we'd stashed him. "Roy's kept him dosed up with tranquilizers so he's not up to answering questions."

I heard her pull her knife, "Won't need to."

"Whoa, wait. What's the knife for?"

"I'm not killing him. Who do you think I am?"

"Not sure, it's been a few years and both of you have been playing this pretty close to the chest. We shared, your turn."

She debated that for a minute, I'd really missed watching her face. She's not someone that most guys would go for, she never liked it when I told her she was hot because she didn't think she was. Yeah sure, she wasn't a curvy ass, blonde model type but that didn't make her any less attractive. I couldn't even say I was attracted to her because she was exotic looking, I'd never gone specifically for that either. There was just something about who she was, how she carried herself that had kept me coming back. I'd been around other hunter chicks, and they all had similar traits, sort of had to to survive the job and the guys hitting on you all the time but somehow that never seemed to touch her. Maybe it was because she hadn't grown up in the life, she'd had a career and a damn good one before she hunted. Still had for all I knew. She wasn't as bitter and cynical as the rest of us, that seemed to have changed though.

"Let me take a look at his chest. I need to confirm something."

"Well he's wearing a button down shirt and is knocked out so you can put the blade away."

"It's not for stabbing him, it may end up saving him. If this is what I think it is he's a victim in this, not the main problem."

I blocked the door, "Coyote, spill. You know I don't like to go into things blind."

Coyote doesn't narrow her eyes when she gets mad; she tenses up her jaw and starts cocking her right arm back, which usually isn't a problem but at that particular moment she was holding a rather large, sharp knife. "And just like last time we had a situation like this you have to trust me. My world, my rules. Now move."

"No."

"I swear to God Dean, this isn't the time to mark territory or play the white knight. Move or I'll move you."

Sam and Roy had their eyes fixed on us and Cougar had taken two steps closer. It was time to back down, I didn't need to start a blood bath. "Fine."

She relaxed, I turned the knob and moved out of her way. I watched as she unbuttoned the top three buttons and pulled his shirt down. There was some sort of grotesque brand over his heart, she pulled back the minute she saw it. "Damn it. Cougar, I need the bag."

He walked over to us, opened the backpack he'd been carrying and handed it to her. She dug around inside, pulled out a ziplock bag filled with herbs, a flask, a small metal bowl and took a deep breath. "Dean, back away a few feet, let Cougar get in front of you. I'll explain everything after we do this."

I did what she asked, I know better than to argue when people start working on a spell. She started singing in Lakota as she mixed the herbs with a dark liquid that she poured from the flask. I watched as she dipped the point of her knife into the mixture and then set it on the brand. Jim went from completely unconcious to straining against the ropes and screaming through the gag. Sam and Roy bolted across the room, Sam pulled his gun and Roy was holidng the knife I'd given him earlier.

"She's got it," I told them, "Hold on." Neither of them put their weapons up but they didn't go charging into the room. Jim was writhing in pain, desperately trying to get away from whatever was on her blade but she stayed with him. The brand started twisting and smoking and his voice rose in pitch. Sweat started soaking his shirt, the air in the room went from mildly cool to stifling in seconds. Coyote closed her eyes and put more force behind her words, Jim's voice shifted from screams to a low, hissing growl , the brand glowed a sickly shade of browish yellow and stopped spinning.

She stopped singing, "Cougar! Now!"

Cougar's back was to me so I couldn't see exactly what he did, but I did see the cloud of dirt or crushed herbs he threw into the air. The minute he did that she started pulling the blade away and this weird, half transparent thing came with it. Whatever the hell it was it didn't want to come out and instead of singing she started reciting a phrase over and over while pulling against it. Another cloud of dust or whatever filled the air and a sound I have no idea how to describe came from the thing she was trying to remove. The only thing I can think of to compare it to was a demonic eagle cry. Jim was arching his back so hard I thought he'd break it when the thing came free. It had a bird's body, feathers and all but a neck and head like a snake, was the color of an infected oozing wound, opaque like a ghost and about a foot long. Coyote fell back when it popped out of Jim's chest, Cougar threw another handful of stuff at it which made it scream again, flicker in and out of view then spiral up through the roof and disappear.

She ripped the gag off of Jim's face and uncovered his eyes which were just about popping out of his face while he panted and coughed. "Breathe brother, breathe."

"Thank you, thank you," he repeated that a few more times while tears streamed down his cheeks and he shook. Coyote wrapped her arms around him, hummed that same Healing song that I remembered from the night we did the sweat and calmed him down.

I tore my eyes away from them and looked at Sam and Roy. Sam had put his gun away, his eyes asking all the same questions I wanted to ask while Roy just stood there, totally lost. Poor guy sure had jumped into the deep end of hunting between watching Sam and I remove the Mark and now this.

Cougar sagged against the door frame, "Are you all right?" He asked her.

"Yeah. Dean, can you untie him?"

That was a pretty odd question, I don't make my knots that tight. "Sure."

Cougar took a step back so I could get into the room and wasn't at all thrilled with how drained she looked. Her hands were shaking as she held him.

I crouched down next to her and started undoing the knots, "Guessing this isn't our evil shaman."

"No, she was controlling him," she took a deep breath, "Bending his will to hers. She's done this before, that bitch."

"So you know her?"

"Later. Promise. Let's help him first."

Once the ropes around his legs were off he struggled to his feet, Cougar caught him and they walked outside while she recovered. "The night air will help. I'll fix him some grounding tea in a second." She forced herself to stand, I reached out to help her but she waved me off. "I'm fine."

"Uh Coyote?" Sam said, "What was that thing?"

"Easiest explanation? Sort of the Native version of a demon but not independent of itself. It's kind of like a spiritual parasite that allows the Shaman to influence others." Although she made it to the kitchen she teetered a bit as she bent over to get a bag.

I'd had about enough of this, so I grabbed one of the folding chairs, set it next to her and shoved her into it. "Damn it, sit. You've drove all day, pulled off some crazy ass ritual and probably haven't had a decent meal. Sit, I'll get the bag."

That brought a small smile to her face, although it didn't stay there all that long. "Thanks. Those usually don't take that much out of me but it's been a long week."

I handed her the bag and what was left of the beer I'd opened. "Get me what I'm supposed to make tea with, although this place doesn't have pots."

She took a drink of the beer, then pulled out a ceramic mug and a small pouch of herbs, "Planned ahead. Just nuke some water in here, drop the herbs in and take it outside. Cougar will make sure he drinks it."

"Sure thing. Does this mean you'll start filling us in?"

"Yeah. Well the short version. I want to get to the hotel soon, I'm freaking beat and tomorrow's going to be a long day for all of us."

Sam beat me to it. "Why's that?"

"Because as soon as Jim's calm enough to talk, I'm going to find out where that bitch is and take her out and I'll need your help to do it."

There was something about how she drove the point of her blade deep into the counter top that made it fairly obvious to all of us that this wasn't just another hunt for her.