I was still leaning my head against the door when I heard footsteps. I tilted my head enough to see Sam's feet and expended the required energy to get upright and put my hand up before he spoke. I didn't want our voices to disturb Coyote so I walked towards him, he got the hint and backed up a few feet.

"We're okay, barely," I told him once I got closer. I hadn't expected it to hit me like that, if it hadn't been for Brother Crow I may have ended up with my throat sliced and Coyote standing over my corpse trying to figure out what the hell had just happened.

"You don't look that great. What happened?"

I filled him in, he was just as unnerved as I was. "That's really not good."

"I know. Go check on Krissy and Jacob, going to guess since she didn't come bolting out of the room he's okay but go make sure. I want to stay close to Coyote."

"Got it. Be back in a minute." He padded off down the hall and I returned to the door of the room Coyote was in. If I listened hard enough I could hear her voice rising and lowering in pitch. I didn't know if she was talking to Brother Crow, chanting or talking to herself but she didn't sound scared or weird so she must be working her way through whatever she saw. The sacrifices happened in threes which means Jacob's session was interrupted. If he was in some sort of Goddess induced limbo that would explain why he kept checking in and out of reality, he literally wasn't all here. Some part of him was off with that blade in who knows what alternate dimension with some bloodthirsty Goddess who was waiting for him to finish the job. If and when we got him back there was no telling how screwed up he'd be. Usually I don't think in ifs but how fast that thing hit Coyote and I, well this was a major league power, sure we'd dealt with things like that before but it usually took years to fix it and a lot of self inflicted hell. We were trying to avoid all that and fix it before Jacob hit puberty, which made things a lot more complicated. Logic would dictate that all we'd have to do is kill someone or something else to finish this and make the Goddess move on, but that wasn't really an option. I doubted she'd take a chicken as a substitute offering. I was still pondering alternate sacrifices, judging relative worth against a human when Sam reappeared. Maybe she'd go for a horse, they're big enough after all.

"Jacob twisted and turned a lot, whimpered a few times but stayed mostly asleep. Could be the fact that the room the blade is in is warded too, or whatever Coyote did to the room he's in or both but he's all right. Krissy asked what had happened, I gave her the highlight reel, she's not any happier than we are with this. She asked if she and Jacob should leave.." he paused for a second, "With you being retired and all."

"I already told her not to worry about it," I was retired, not useless or broken for God's sake. "What did you tell her?"

He got this put upon, not actually exasperated but pretending to be look on his face, "That it was too late, your hero complex wouldn't let you back down from a cursed object that tried to take you and your girlfriend out while holding some kid's soul in limbo. You'd find some way to Dean Winchester the shit out of this blade and save the day."

He meant it as funny but I wasn't really feeling it, "God I hope not, my trademark moves usually have a pretty fucked up ending."

That wiped even the gallows humor off his face, "Yeah, sorry. Trying to lighten things up a bit."

"I know. You stick to being the super analytical one and I'll be the smart ass, works better."

"Point taken. So what do I need to analyze?"

"See if this Goddess ever took anything other than humans as a sacrifice."

"Why? Wait," he caught up, "Interesting. I'll check it out. Anything else?"

"Not yet. Let's see what Coyote dredges out of what she saw before we get too set in stone on options."

"Sure," he started to walk away then stopped, "Hey, good call on the guide and limits with her."

"Yeah, saved our skins."

He gave me a rather long, appraising look, "Pre-retirement you wouldn't have done that, you know."

"Pre-retirement me didn't care about making it to the end of the day. Current me sort of wants to make it to next week, at least."

"Good, I like this new version. Stick with it."

"Plan to."

He smiled and left, I sat down on the ground across from the door, leaned my head against the wall and closed my eyes.I wasn't going anywhere till I knew she was safe.

I must have dozed off because the next thing I heard was her voice, "Babe? You awake?"

I guess I was a lot more drained than I realized. It's not like I'd actually done much, "Yeah. Everything all right?" She didn't look too wiped out and Brother Crow wasn't right next to her. "Did he leave?"

"He'd been here too long as it was and yes I'm fine, well as fine as I can be." She joined me on the ground and leaned against the wall, "Being around you seems to always bring new adventures doesn't it?"

"Yeah, I'm a regular Disneyland of all things dark and deadly. Sorry."

She frowned, "Stop apologizing. You didn't knock me out, stick me in the trunk and drag me here, I volunteered."

"I know but.."

Her hand went over my mouth and she twisted around to look right at me, "But nothing, no. Whatever happens on this job or any other thing like this we do in the future is not your fault Dean. If I volunteer, I accept the risks. That was the kind of thinking that led to the Mark, you know that. You are not my keeper, my protector or responsible for my welfare. Yes, you'll protect me, just like I'll protect you but if shit happens, it happens. You have to learn to accept that, please."

I tried to nod but I couldn't, it went so against the grain to just accept fate like that and she knew it.

She dropped her hand away, "I won't force a promise out of you, although I probably should, because I know even if you said yes to it deep down you'll be saying no, accepting limits on what you would do was hard enough for you, I know. I just don't want you to be blaming yourself anymore, you've done more than enough of that already. Anyway, topic switch."

At least she wasn't going to make this more uncomfortable.

"This Goddess, the blade, here's what I think is going on. All the usual vision and such caveats on this."

"Of course."

"Like I said earlier, happens in threes. I think that's why it hit us so hard, as far as the blade is concerned the ritual is still going, it's waiting, like an open channel. You get close to it, you pick up on it's signal. The Goddess herself I don't think is so much of an issue. Objects used repeatedly in powerful rituals pick up a power all their own, you know that. I get the feeling that this blade was used for centuries in their ceremonies, it, in itself has become a force to be reckoned with. All that death and power running through it strengthened it and it wants, no needs, the ritual to be finished."

That made me feel a little bit better, if we weren't actually tangling with a pagan god that would make things easier, hopefully. Because cursed objects always have off buttons and stuff...right. "Do you think any death would work, like an animal? I can hit up a local farm and grab a chicken or something."

She was nice enough not to laugh at me, "There's a rather large difference between the energy of a chicken and the energy of a human. We could try it I guess, but if it doesn't work whoever has the blade is going to have to fight the blade's influence. Unless you're planning on putting it back in Jacob's hands and wish for the best."

"We need to run all this by Krissy." I sure as hell wasn't going to make this decision without her. She'd basically become Jacob's guardian, it was up to her. "I sent Sam on a hunt to see if that Goddess ever took animal sacrifices, just in case. Do you think we could bypass all that and just try the soul retrieval idea you had?"

She hesitated, "I could but I doubt it would work with the blade still hooked into him. It was actively trying to get us to finish the ritual Dean," she got this sick look on her face, "I don't know what you saw but I what I saw, what I thought I did, or had to do."

"I know," I put my arm around her shoulders, "I wanted to give you that thing so you could finish the ritual. It was my right as the next sacrifice. You don't need to tell me, I felt enough to get a pretty clear idea of how it wanted things to go."

"Thanks," she took a second or two to get her mind back on track, "As far as the blade is concerned, Jacob's it's priest until further notice, safest thing to do is keep it that way for now. He's not violent, it doesn't seem to be able to impart any supernatural powers other than when the priest is holding it and we can contain him. If someone like you or I get our hands on it, could be a whole other set of circumstances to deal with."

Translate that to Shaman on a rampage or ex-vessel, ex-wielder of the Mark of Cain becoming immortal again and who knows what would happen if Sam touched it. I'd be willing to bet he's got more supernatural residue inside of him than I do. "All right, let's run all this by Krissy and go from there."

I got up first, helped her up and we held hands as we went back and joined Sam. We usually don't do that, hold hands, but I think we both needed the extra reassurance that we were sane and not pissed at each other. Jacob had woken up and he, Sam and Krissy were all sitting at the long tables. Jacob was actively flipping through the pages of the hardcover comic book Sam had shared with him.

Krissy looked up with a smile on her face as we got closer, "Jacob, this is Coyote and Dean. They're helping too."

I guess he was too out of it to remember the first introduction. He timidly turned his head towards us, flinched and looked away. "I saw you, in the bad place."

Both of us stopped walking.

"But you're not bad people, right?"

"No Jacob, we're not," Coyote assured him. "Do you want to talk about the bad place?"

He shook his head and flipped another page.

"All right, I understand," she continued, "Can we borrow Krissy for a minute? We need to talk with her. Sam can stay with you if you want."

He gave us a slight nod. Krissy got up. "Let's go outside," I said. I didn't want him to overhear and I needed to get some air anyway. Coyote's house looks out onto the plains, the Bunker's underground and even though it's not a small place by any means it felt claustrophobic not having any windows around me. You think the guy that grew up in motel rooms would never have that feeling, ever. Once we made it outside I just let Coyote take over.

"You fill her in honey, you have a better hold on this than I do."

"Sure."

She caught Krissy up, gave her the options we'd come up with and then let her mull on it for a few minutes. "When he woke up, he asked about that book."

"Really?" I asked. "Take it he hasn't done that since you got him."

She shook her head, "No, he never really seems to remember things. Maybe when it tried to take you over it let him go long enough for him to remember something? Maybe it quieted the blade somehow?"

"It's possible," Coyote said then looked at me.

Now, back in the day this would be the point where I'd volunteer to pick up the blade while Sam took Jacob somewhere safe, we'd argue about it, I'd order him to do it, he'd shut up and we'd both regret it later. I wasn't doing that this time. An idea hit me, "Maybe an actual death isn't needed. Just some one other than Jacob holding the blade."

"Dean?" Coyote challenged.

"Nope, not any of us. Not risking us but doesn't have to be."

"Huh? Not seeing a lot of other people around here."

"Didn't say it had to be a person either, anything with hands will work."

Both of them seemed to be thinking I'd lost my mind somewhere, they'd probably be sure of that once I clued them in. "We have a handy-dandy dungeon, we can track down a monster with hands, get the blade into their hands, get the link to Jacob to break and then kill said monster. Two birds, one stone."

Krissy smiled, "Not bad."

Coyote didn't smile, "Are you nuts?"

"Most of my best plans are slightly insane, in case you forgot."

She rolled her eyes, "Ignoring the time it would take to hunt, trap and imprison said monster, how the hell are you going to give them the blade without exposing yourself to it? And just what makes you think they'll take it?"

"Hunger." My mind had clicked back into hunter mode, "We may need two of them though."

Coyote threw her hands up, "Oh that's safer."

Krissy seemed to lose confidence with my idea at that point. "I'll text Sam to come up. Krissy, go watch Jacob for a minute, we'll fill you in."

"Uh, sure."

I texted Sam, he sent back he was on his way. Coyote stood there not talking but she really didn't have to, I could see how utterly ridiculous she thought this was. "Hear me out darlin'. It could work."

She crossed her arms and looked away.

Sam made it up the stairs, saw her, saw me and shook his head. "Fighting again? Not good."

"Not fighting, she just thinks I'm nuts."

"Well, yeah, you are," he said.

"Shut up and listen. Coyote says that the blade itself is the problem, not the Goddess. Blade's convinced that it's in the middle of a ritual, needs a third kill. Krissy said that Jacob woke up asking about that book, she thinks just the fact that the blade tried to take over Coyote and I gave him a break, at least enough of a one to let him remember. You heard what Jacob said, he's hooked into it for sure somehow if he saw Coyote and I. So it seems that to fix him, someone else has to pick up the blade. I won't and I sure as hell won't let either of you or Krissy. So, we need something with hands to do it. Enter monsters, I'm thinking vamps. Hunt down two of them, jack them up on dead man's blood, drain them, chain them up in the dungeon with enough chain to reach the box which is set right next to some bagged blood. They're working on instinct, one of them grabs the blade, kills the other. Blade, in theory gets it's kill or at least someone else holding it, let's go of Jacob, we kill vamps and do what we can to help Jacob heal the rest of the way. Job done, no one gets hurt, except the vamps. Problem solved."

Usually when I stun Sam into silence on a hunt it's because I've just set myself up for some horrible fate or he just found out that lied to him in some way again. I was hoping this time it was because of the sheer brilliance of my idea.

"Let me get this straight, you want to get two vamps, drug them, drag them back here, drain them and then give them a weapon that allowed a ten year old kid to cut inches deep into an adult's chest? You do remember the whole vamp super strength thing right?"

Well, there went that hope. "Yes, which is why they are chained up. Those chains have held demons and vamps before. Says so in the archives."

"You're also overlooking the fact that vamps are undead," Coyote piled on, "We don't know how they'll react to being taken over by the blade or if it would even work."

She had a point, "We don't know if us taking the blade and killing someone would work either. I'm going for the least dangerous to us option here. That's what all of you have been telling me to do right? Think safe? Don't expose myself or us to stupid risks. There are always risks in this life, you all know is the least risky risk I can think of. I don't know of a way to drug shifters or werewolves into weakened states, the only one that has that weakness like that and is fairly easy to find is vamps. Unless you guys want to put a fully human witch in chains and give her access to that kind of power? I'm sure that would work oh so much better. Vamps, when drained enough don't think, they just need to feed and kill as fast as they can. I'm hoping that along with the blade's need to have another death will keep anything else screwy from happening. You guys have any better ideas?"

Sam switched into a pretty passable imitation of Bobby's accent, "You're a special kind of crazy son."

"Maybe, but it's a different kind of crazy than I usually go for. You got to give me that at least."

"There is that," he said in his normal voice. He looked at Coyote, who'd gone from against this whole thing to at least willing to think about it now that I'd explained it more. She still wasn't all that thrilled with it though.

"How secure is that lock on the dungeon door? Those bookcases have any way to be locked into place?"

"The lock is tough as hell, but the door is wood. I hacked through one of them but it took some time. Don't ask," I told her. "The bookcases don't lock but we can rig something up that will work well enough to buy some time if need be."

"I don't know Babe," she didn't seem all that convinced. "What if that blade still calls to whoever is supposed to go in there and kill the surviving vamp and put the blade back in box?"

"The guy that was carrying the blade seemed to get in and out just fine," I pointed out.

"He'd probably dedicated himself to it or was protected somehow," she replied. "Not good enough."

"You know there's not going to be an answer for every possible situation here."

That didn't go down to well. "You wanted guides for me to just look at it and now you're willing to let vampires touch it and hope to hell it works? No, we can do better, we have to." It wasn't anger that was driving her, it was fear, the same fear I'd had earlier. The blade had shown her visions of sacrificing me and who knows what or who else, I couldn't blame her.

"Look, we don't have to leave right now to find vamps. We have time, but unless you guys come up with some other way short of killing someone to fix this I can't see another way to do this."

"How about this?" Sam offered. "We spend the rest of the day researching, we can't find anything else out we go with Dean's slightly less crazy than usual idea. I'm sure there's some amulet to ward against cursed objects in this place that we can wear or figure out how to make."

"I'm good with that," I said, "Darlin'?"

"I'll try to do some things with Jacob, see if I can find out more," she started out, "I don't like this, I don't but compared to the other options we have it's more feasible. Which I can't believe I'm saying."

"Hunter life, never a day goes by where you aren't stuck between a rock, a hard place and your worst nightmares," I reminded her. "Let's do this then."