This was not what I wanted or needed right now, "Hang on a second. I need to talk to someone."

"Okay," she replied. I muted the phone.

"What's going on?" Coyote asked, she's was keeping her face pretty neutral but she was worried.

"Short version, Krissy's someone Sam and I helped out years ago, hunter's kid. Hunter got in a mess, we got him out of it. They retired, vamp took him out a few years later, she was sixteen when that happened. She got tangled up with another retired hunter who'd teamed up with a vamp to kill parents of kids who he thought would make great hunters, then took them in to train them. Anyway, Sam and I put an end to that and kept an eye on her over the years. She's made a life out of helping hunter kids who lose their parents and kids who've had their lives destroyed by monsters. She has a kid that got a hold of a cursed object somehow, it took him over, made him kill his family. Object's not in the picture anymore but the kid isn't recovering, he's barely sleeping or talking I guess. She thinks with mine and Sam's history, which I'm not sure how she found out about," I sent Sam a pretty serious glare, "We can help out. Any idea how she knows about our history other than random rumors Sam?"

He looked kind of offended by the question, it took a minute but he remembered something. "Oh, um, yeah. She'd been dealing with a kid who's parents got possessed by a demon, I was wiped out from a hunt and kind of drunk. I started describing what the parents would have felt, seen and heard. I got pretty detailed. Sorry."

"Great."

Coyote had grown less worried and a bit more curious, "What does she expect you to do?"

"Not sure. Not even sure I want to know. Do you want me to put her on speaker and hear her out or just tell her not interested? I can hand her off to Sam, he's been possessed often enough, I don't need to be involved."

"Uh Dean?" Sam said, "I'm not that great with kids."

"Maybe you should learn," He winced, that had come out with a lot more force than I'd planned. I didn't want this, I was done. Someone else who'd had a fucked up life could deal with it.

"Babe, if it's upsetting you this much already, tell her no."

I wanted to, trust me, but if Krissy couldn't handle it she may have to send him to some psychiatric facility, they wouldn't believe a word he'd say and just drug him up, or worse, he'd end up in prison since he'd killed his family and he'd spend the rest of his life either drugged up, behind bars or both. The kid didn't deserve that. I knew what being possessed or influenced like that does to a person, not many other people do.

"Dean?" Sam asked.

"Let's hear her out, if you two are okay with that." I was more worried about what Coyote would think than Sam. She didn't say no, didn't say yes either, she left it up to me.

I took the phone of mute, "Hey."

"Yeah?"

"I'm putting you on speaker Sam's here, so's my girlfriend Coyote. She used to be a hunter, I live with her, have for the last year. Understand?"

There was a slight pause, "Yes." I could tell by her tone that she got what I hadn't said. That this wasn't just about me and what I wanted.

I pushed the speaker button, "Start at the top."

"Sure. Hi Sam and Coyote."

"Hi Krissy," they replied.

"I'll start with the cursed object, then tell you guys about Jacob, okay?"

"Fine," I answered.

"Clive, hunter I know, had a storage unit that got wiped out in a flood about a year ago and the door got warped and bent. By the time management had called to let him know a lot of stuff had gotten damaged or sucked out by the water. He had a lot of curse boxes in there. Some went missing, this was one of them."

As much as I wanted to be pissed that someone was storing shit like this in a storage unit I couldn't be, Dad had done the same thing. Not everyone had access to a warded, hidden building like the Bunker. Shit happens.

"This was a blade, turns out it was a blade used in old Zapotec rituals."

"Zapo-who?"

"They were Mesoamerican," Coyote said, "Like the Mayans and Aztecs."

"Oh, okay. Got it, go on."

"Anyway supposedly the blade was a direct link to one of their Gods and when the priests held it during the full moon ritual they went into some sort of religious ecstasy, then sacrificed whoever was put in front of them."

"And the kid knew the ritual somehow?" I asked

"Let me finish," she said. "Clive has been trying to track down all the objects he lost. He got most of them, but there'd been no sign of the blade. Then a few bodies that were killed in a pretty specific manner popped up but by the time he'd gotten there the people were arrested but there was no sign of the blade. The people barely remembered the blade, they were too in shock from waking up from the spell and standing over butchered loved ones that they sort of remembered killing. He thought he'd made a mistake then a few months later more bodies butchered in the same manner showed up. He got lucky that time, found some security vid of a guy who was carrying the curse box into the houses the leaving. Same guy showed up a few days later after the killings and took the box with him. Clive put out a hunter APB on the guy and the box, got a call a from a hunter who'd spotted him at a coffee shop in Jacob's town. By the time Clive got there it was too late to stop Jacob but he got the box and the blade back. Clive grabbed Jacob and brought him to me. He and a few other hunters took care of the guy that was playing delivery guy for the blade. I don't know his story, don't care. Just glad he's dead. Jacob was pretty much catatonic when he showed up. He started getting better the first week and then stopped improving. I don't know how to get through to him. I'm hoping maybe you guys can."

By the time she finished it'd all started coming back, how much I hated monsters, cursed objects and the supernatural assholes that kill people for no reason. I hated the pain they caused, the enjoyment they got from it but what I hated the most was how it never seemed to end no matter how many we took out and how utterly pointless it all felt.

Coyote's hand took hold of mine and squeezed it tight, "How old is Jacob?" She asked.

"Ten."

"Son of a bitch!" I walked away I had to.

Sam took over, "First off, tell Clive to call me. I'll arrange a meet and take all those cursed objects off his hands. I have a safe place to store them. It's an underground vault, it will take a lot more than a flood to get to them. Second, spread the word to any other hunter that has stuff like that to get in touch. Third, how sure are you that whatever took over Jacob is really gone?"

"Clive says the lore on this is that after the sacrifice is complete, the ecstasy leaves the priest until he picks up the blade again on the next full moon. Jacob hasn't done anything violent and we just had another lunar cycle last week. He's not trying to escape or find the blade, he just sits in his room and stares at the wall. When he's not staring, he's crying and begging for forgiveness. Sometimes he seems to be coherent enough to talk but it's very rare. He does take care of himself and he'll eat if you make him but he won't ask for food. He has nightmares every time he dozes off."

"Krissy," Coyote spoke up, as Krissy had listed Jacob's symptoms I could see the Shaman side come out. Shaman's deal with spirits and his sounded pretty trashed. "I'm a Lakota Sioux Shaman. I may be able to help along with Dean or Sam but we need to discuss a great many things before we decide what to do. I know you're aware of the responsibility you are asking to us to take on. You may not be aware of this but Dean retired for a specific reason, this will not be easy for him to deal with if he agrees to it."

"I understand, I wouldn't have called unless I was out of options. Coyote, the system won't help Jacob, I don't want to send him away to be drugged up and caged somewhere."

She stopped short of begging, which I'd have to thank her for some way or other.

"We understand," Coyote continued. "We will call you back by the end of the day."

"Thank you." She hung up.

I'd learned over the last year that when Coyote shifted into those speech patterns to sit up and listen to what she was about to say. It usually meant that either her guides were talking to her, she just had a vision or at the very least was speaking as Running Coyote the Shaman, not Coyote my lover. There were some very sharp differences between the two and Shaman Running Coyote was not to be screwed with, not at all. Sam hadn't seen her like this very often but he'd seen it enough to know to wait things out as well.

"Dean, I can help Jacob's Spirit to some extent. I am fairly sure I can get him to start communicating again at the very least. That can be accomplished without your presence. Helping him understand what he has gone through and how to deal with it is something else entirely. That would require someone that has gone through this, Sam at least would be needed for this. I don't know anyone else that's been possessed and it sounds like Krissy doesn't either. I'm willing to go and I know Sam would too, you can stay here.'

"Can or should?" She was saying can but her tone sounded a lot more like should.

Her jaw tightened, "Should. This will not help you keep healing from the past."

"How bad do I look to you Coyote?"

"Your Spirit is better but still vulnerable, still exhausted. Just because you don't feel it on a conscious level like you did before doesn't mean it's not weak."

"I need to see for myself. Can you call him out again?" I didn't doubt Coyote's assessment but a kid was in trouble and I wasn't sure I'd be able to look at myself in the mirror if I didn't try to help somehow.

"Dean, are you sure about this?" Sam asked.

"He's ten Sam, yeah, I am."

The woman I loved looked at me with solemn, quiet eyes that seemed years and years older than they should be. "As you wish Dean. I'll need some time to prepare."

"Of course."

She left. Sam watched her go, "What was that all about?" he asked once she'd gone into her Sacred Space upstairs.

"That was Shaman Running Coyote setting aside her feelings for me and for what she wants to do her job. Be a guide for some damn fool who's probably going to make the worst mistake of his life, again."

"Then why do it?"

"For the same reasons she's doing this. It may be the worst mistake of my life but it still may be the right thing to do. I need to think. I'll be in the garage. Let me know when she's back."

I grabbed a beer, stormed into the garage, stopped short of slamming the door because I didn't want to disturb Coyote and leaned on Baby. "Well doesn't this just fucking suck."