Dean was about to park when Bear started growling. He paused once the car was fully stopped and turned to look at the St. Bernard mix.
"What is it Bear?"
Bear continued to growl. Dean would have normally dismissed it, but he knew for a fact Bear did not growl like that unless there was an actual problem. Even when he had gotten clipped by a stray bullet he didn't whine.
The idiot hunter who had nearly shot Bear had gotten his ass kicked by Dean after.
So Dean tended to take his dog's warning signs very seriously.
If Bear was growling, that usually meant big trouble.
"Sammy?"
"Yeah Dean?" asked Sam, having picked up on the not-so-subtle queue Bear was giving off.
"Get the wands and bring out the books," said Dean.
Sam sat up. He had been leaning back in the seat until Dean said that.
"Are you sure?"
"This place gives me the wiggins, and you know every time that's happened everything went to shit in a hurry."
Sam grimaced. The last time Dean had the 'wiggins' as he called them, they had run into a possessed John Winchester. So for him to call for the big guns, (I/E magic) meant that Bear wasn't the only one getting a bad feeling.
Bear submitted to the leash, but when Dean grabbed the wands from the small spot on the trunk's roof, Sam immediately slid it into the holster that went with it.
The next thing Dean took out was a handwritten book. He handed the other one to Sam, who slid it into his jacket.
A few previously spelled weapons were next. Dean fully believed that it was better to be over prepared than to be caught needed something and no way to get it.
Dean immediately impressed the Master Sergeant cleaning his gun by having Bear salute him with his right paw. Which was basically having Bear touch his ear with his right front leg for three seconds. From there they went to the house of the kid Sam had seen killed by Dean.
Sam could tell Dean was nervous, because he was humming. Dean never hummed, especially not from that blasted movie, unless he was nervous. If he started singing from Lilo and Stitch (Dean had the entire soundtrack practically memorized from how often he saw it) then Sam was going to shoot him in the ass, guard dog and blood ties or not. He was not tolerating Dean's tone-deaf voice.
Bear's growling got worse, and the second the door opened and he got a whiff of the guy's scent, he went ballistic.
"Bear! Stop!"
Bear had the father pinned, and Dean could see through the open door that the son had his mother pinned. Dean only barely saw the red eyes on his dog when they burst in.
The kid managed to toss Sam into the bookshelf, stunning him long enough to escape. Bear didn't let the husband up until Dean had him tied up.
"Dean. Eyes."
Dean looked and saw that Bear's eyes were a fiery red. Probably hellfire from his hell hound heritage. Dean sniffed the air. There was a trace of...
"Sam, do you smell sulfur?" asked Dean. He would swear that he was smelling sulfur, but he had no idea where it was coming from.
Sam sniffed.
"Where's that coming from?" he asked, grimacing.
"Bear, where's the sulfur coming from?" Dean asked the dog.
Bear bumped into the husband, causing him to stumble.
By the time they got to the only medical office in town, the husband had to be restrained via spell to avoid his wife being hit.
"What is going on here?!"
"Her husband is drugged up with something. He had his wife tied to a chair and a knife in their son's hand," said Dean flatly.
Thank god Bear's eyes were back to normal. He didn't need the doc thinking his furry partner had rabies.
The wife sobbed in the doctor's arms telling her how her husband and son snapped without any warning or reason, and that they were planning to stab her with the knife when the two 'agents' showed up.
"Sammy, can you go on a food run?" asked Dean while the woman was checked over by the doctor.
"Dean, is this really the best time for... oh. South of the border then?" asked Sam.
Dean nodded.
"I get the feeling we're going to have to stick this one out, and I would rather have Bear armed and ready just in case," said Dean.
"I'll go get the gas masks," sighed Sam.
"I don't like this," said Sam.
Dean wanted to contact the Roadhouse to see if they knew anything about demonic viruses. Mort was suspiciously absent, and they couldn't exactly call for Crowley since there weren't any dirt crossroads within five miles. And whatever had set this loose had knocked out all communication the minute they came into the town.
That left one option...one of them would have to get past whatever was jamming the airwaves.
The thing was that when they had flipped to see who would go, Sam had lost. Which meant he would have to be the one to try and make a break for it.
"Look, just take Bear with you. He seems to be able to smell if someone's infected or not, so that's something at least."
"You're the one with the indestructible creature form!" hissed Sam.
"Yeah, but I didn't lose the coin toss," said Dean smugly. Sam so wanted to punch his brother.
"Besides... you're better at offensive and surprise spells than I am."
"But you're the more powerful of the two of us," said Sam.
Sam was surprisingly good at offensive and obscure magic. Dean was the powerhouse. What he lacked in spell crafting, he made up with imagination and sheer power. He used his spells in ways most people wouldn't consider off hand.
As a result most of the spells Dean had in his 'spellbook' as he jokingly called them, was because Sam had quickly grown sick and tired of Dean borrowing his book of useful spells and helped his brother make one of his own. Sam did find it strange that the spells they used the most were usually the ones Dean found though.
"Wait, you're letting me take Bear?"
"I can handle myself Sammy. Besides, you said it yourself. I'm the one with the indestructible creature form. If nothing else I'll shift to Stitch and stay like that until I hear you coming back. By the way, where's the spray paint?"
Sam handed him the can.
"I'm off the make an invisible Devil Trap," said Dean whistling.
"I'll try to make a break for it," said Sam. He whistled for Bear, who trotted behind him obediently. Bear had been right next to Dean, so he had understood he was to go with Sam.
About half an hour later Sam returned with an extra passenger...the Master Sergeant. He seemed disturbed and slightly confused as to why Sam had seemed so calm when he had a gun pointed at him the entire ride back to the doctor's office.
He apparently didn't believe Sam's claim that the dog could smell those infected.
Dean relaxed when the man walked past the devil's trap he had spray painted on the door leading outside without pausing. It might have been invisible to most, but a demon could possibly sense the spell.
Dean sighed. Just what they didn't need...they were surrounded by infected civilians.
He had gone into the back to inform the others when someone rushed in. The teen was the same one identified by Sam...and there was something that set Dean's teeth on edge.
He found out what when a few seconds after the kid entered, he ran headlong into the devil's trap Dean had painted. Which was now visible for everyone to see. Bear's growling took a more vicious turn.
"Well what have we here? A demon. Sammy, I do believe that you Saw something right for once... I'm going to enjoy ganking this son of a bitch," said Dean growling.
The kid's eyes flashed black.
"How did you know?"
"Bear doesn't growl like that unless there's something seriously wrong. Last time it was that deep it was a demon disguise as my so called 'father', right before we gassed his ass. And judging by that pissed expression on your face I'm going to guess you're the son of a bitch who rammed us with that damn semi a few months back," Dean stated flatly with a glare.
"Got it in one, Winchester."
"Okay, once is a coincidence but I'm seriously starting to have doubts about the Pit's information trading. Why the hell does everyone keep calling us Winchester?" asked Sam to Dean.
"Crow was confused at first too. Though that is a really good question... I thought demons could see souls or some shit," said Dean.
This was seriously getting annoying. They had cut ties with John for a damn good reason, and yet the demons still didn't get the damn memo!
"So who gets to exorcise this idiot?" asked Sam.
Today had been a long day.
"I am not letting the fact this asshole hit us with a god damn semi go. And I sure as hell letting him go when he'll just come after us! I bet this asshole is the son of that bastard Azazel to boot. We already exorcised his sister, so why don't we really show our dislike of the stunt he pulled," growled Dean.
"What are you two talking about?"
"This asshole is likely the same one who set whatever the turned the entire town into raving lunatics loose. Now we can either force him to go back to wherever he came from rather painfully, or we can get rid of him once and for all. What would your choice be, Master Sergeant?" asked Dean.
"Never leave a live enemy behind you," he said eyes narrowing.
"Which begs the question. Shall we go make this slow or just kill you outright?" asked Dean.
"Fuck you."
"Slow it is! I hate assholes like you anyway," said Dean cheerfully...right as he took out a foot long polished stick and with a strange motion said "Sectumsempra!"
The demon screamed in pain as his host had his stomach almost literally ripped open from the spell. Because it was made by magic and not by an ordinary blade, he couldn't exactly heal it right away like he could most wounds.
"Dean, where did you learn that one? I've never seen it before," asked Sam.
"Harry Houdini taught me," said Dean flippantly. Sam snorted despite himself.
"Houdini was an escape artist, not someone who specialized in outright damage," said Sam flatly.
"Like I'm going to give away that name to this asshole? Or to anyone they might possess after we leave?"
"...Point. Now get on with it. You're the one pissed about the damage done to the car," said Sam rolling his eyes.
He very pointedly pulled out a pair of head sets and put on some music. It sent a very clear message to the demon...this was Dean's grudge, not his.
To be blunt he felt the idiot did them a favor by indirectly helping them get rid of John Winchester. So no, he was not getting involved.
"Oh goody. I've been meaning to test out a few of these anyway. Plus we still have to deal with the crowd outside..."
"I already sent Bear to guard the doors outside a few minutes after we caught him. It should kick off about..." Sam paused as he heard a loud blast, "Now."
You could see the disbelief on the demon's face when the dog let off that massive fart. Especially when the smell knocked out everyone in the clinic since the doors weren't exactly air proof.
Dean, Sam and the demon were the only ones left awake. The brothers assumed it was the pain that kept the demon awake through that smell.
Sam went back to his music and even grabbed a fantasy novel to read while Dean got his frustrations out in a relatively healthy manner. The kid was probably dead anyway.
"I need pie," said Dean the next morning. He had washed off the blood and even made sure that the former soldier knew to go to Ellen's for information hunting down monsters.
They got to get the asshole who did so much damage to the car and start another person on hunting. All in all, a good case in his opinion.
Bear was sleeping rather contentedly in the back. He had done his business (a rather large sized one at that) and he had been feed recently. He was a happy dog, and in no hurry to wake up.
Sam scratched the hound's ears and grinned when Bear's back leg went nuts until he stopped.
"So Harry knew that spell you used?"
"Got it from one Severus Snape. A newly-made spell at that in the back of a potion's book that belonged to his teacher back when he was still in school. Guy was a total asshole, but he knew his dark spells."
"Dean, I have a question."
"Shoot."
"Why do you hide your real intelligence? I mean most of our useful stuff is usually found by you and you're quicker than I am figuring things out on a hunt. So why do you hide it?"
Dean sighed.
"Habit, I guess. You know how some of Harry keeps bleeding through?"
"Kind of hard to miss."
"Well back when he was a kid, he had to hide the fact he was way smarter than his fat ass cousin. And then when he found out about magic, he had to hide it again because one of his friends was really anal retentive about being the number one student in the school. It's easier to let someone else take the credit I guess," said Dean honestly.
"Does he ever miss it?"
"Sam, he gave up his life for a reason. If he had any regrets, he wouldn't have made that deal with Mort," said Dean flatly.
Sam had heard this story. How Harry had chosen love over everything he had gained during the civil war in Europe. But Dean had never told him everything.
Probably because while there was some 'bleed through' as Mort called it, Dean never had the full scope of Harry's memories.