We made it back and joined the others back at Gerald's room. I guess it said a lot of what they thought of me to pull back without any actual explanation especially when I'd been out of the game for a year.

"What was that all about?" Susan asked.

"The vamp I followed turned out to be a werewolf." Every single pair of eyes in that room got wide, then real damn thoughtful. "She's dead, that's not all though. She sliced a guy's throat and was using a needle to pull blood from his veins for her vamp buddies. Sam? Gerald? Your vamps do anything weird?"

Sam shook his head, "Lured some dude into a corner booth and went for the throat."

"Mine came at me," Gerald said, "Something must have tipped him off. Don't know."

"Okay, there's more." I told them what Kate had said, I didn't go into how I found out. I hadn't really come up with a way to do that that didn't sound insane. No way in hell I beat a werewolf into talking that fast. They all knew it too. They looked at me, then at Sam.

He took a deep breath, this was going to get really uncomfortable fast. "We know, or rather knew, the werewolf."

Sherm crossed his arms, "Start talking."

"Sam, I'll tell it." If they were going to be pissed, they needed to be pissed at me, not him. "It was years back, we were on a case..." I told them everything. When I was done I was kind of shocked they weren't yelling at us or storming out.

Sherm looked at Joey who gave a slight nod, Gerald just shrugged, Susan and Teresa seemed more sad for what Kate had gone through than angry that we hadn't taken her out.

"Dean, don't panic," Joey said, "We've all let one or two go. The hunters that don't are the ones you want to steer clear of, they're freaking loco man."

Sam and I both relaxed, a lot. I remembered a few hunters, like Gordon, who'd lost sight of the larger picture over the years. It was an easy trap to fall into, especially if you didn't have someone to keep you sane. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Back to the problem at hand, the rest of this group is bound to notice that the caterers didn't show back up with the main course and they'll start sniffing around for hunters. Sam and I have to go handle the kid. I know it's not really my place anymore but I'd tell all of you to lay low and keep some distance from those houses. Trail them if you have to but don't get close enough for them to sniff you out. Not until we know more about what's going on."

Sherm raised an eyebrow at me, "Only way to do that is get close enough to hear them talk, or get one somewhere where we can make it talk. Unless Sam has some other new toys hidden in the trunk of that new ride of his."

"I don't, but I know someone who has a lot more toys than I do." Some sort of idea had hit him and I was about four steps behind wherever he'd just headed. "Follow them, get photos, clear as you can. Email them to me. Get license plates too. I've got someone who can find out anything about anyone, even the undead. Don't hunt them, don't engage them. Just get me photos. Three days tops we'll know what names they go by, where they're holing up and probably their original date of birth."

And he'd headed straight into genius land. Felicity could track these bastards some way or other, she was the woman who'd hacked the Vatican after all. This would be child's play for her. I almost started laughing because it was such a sweet idea. "Awesome!"

"Who is this person?' Teresa asked.

"Not a hunter, a computer hacker. Best in the world. I'll send this stuff over to them, you guys split up between different hotels. Stay in groups though and just sit tight until I get back in touch. Please."

I noticed he was being very careful with details about Felicity. I'd have to ask him why when we left, it's not like hunters can't keep secrets.

"Gerald? Let's get your vamp in the backseat of my car. Dean and I will leave now, try to send me photos tonight. We have a window of a few hours here before it gets back to whoever's running this thing that three of their people are missing. Use it."

"Got it," Gerald said then looked around the room at the rest of them, "You heard the man, move."

"Drive safe guys," Susan said.

"We will," I replied, "Keep your heads down." They all nodded and Sam, I and Gerald walked out.

Sam pulled his car right next to Gerald's and we shifted a moaning, half drugged, lanky ass vampire into the back of our car. Sam grabbed zip ties from his pocket and trussed him up nice and neat.

Once he'd shut the door he turned back around to look at Gerald. "Keep them safe."

Gerald smiled, "I'll keep the hounds leashed up nice and tight. You two do what you need to, we'll hunker down for now."

The two of them exchanged a quick hug, then I got the long, speculative stare from Gerald, "You haven't lost a step Dean. Sniffed all that out quick as can be."

I shrugged. "It's a gift, or a curse. I always seem to land right in the middle of a pile of screwed up crap. Been happening all my life, I think I attract it."

"Or you're just smart enough to see the patterns before anyone else does, that's a rare talent."

"It's a retired talent." I knew where he was going to go with this and I didn't need to hear it.

"Yeah, retired." He let it go, reached his hand out and pulled me in for my own quick hug. "I guess I'm off to play vampire paparazzi. Let us know when you get back home."

"Sure thing," Sam assured him.

"Crazy ass world keeps gettin' crazier," He muttered as he walked off.

"That it does," I said to Sam.

Sam shook his head and shrugged, "Let's roll."

"Yeah."

We covered the vamp up with blankets, grabbed some drive thru coffee and hit the freeway.

"So," Sam said about twenty minutes after we hit the open road, "Should we tell them to look for demons? This is some high grade planning here. Crowley could be up to something."

That'd been my first thought too, but now that I'd had some time to mull things over demons didn't sit right. "Crowley won't do anything that doesn't benefit him. Killing hunters doesn't get him a damn thing. Monsters have nothing to barter, they go to Purgatory and we already know how opening Purgatory went last time. It wasn't good for anyone, even Crowley. No way he'd repeat that mistake. What Kate said, that they're hunting hunters, that's not what demons do. They don't hunt, they never come at you straight on, with the rare exception like Abaddon. No, I think there's something else going on. Just don't know what yet. I know I'm usually jump to assumptions guy but not on this one. This you need to let play out, follow the leads."

"Great."

"Sorry, next time someone asks for help I'll stand down. I need to stop bringing the curse of Dean Winchester to the hunting world."

We cleared the city limits and I felt the car accelerate, "Like that's what's going on here. This didn't happen overnight and you know it. Gerald wasn't wrong, you see patterns most people miss."

"Sam please, you thought it was weird, so did he. He told us they were acting cagey. I'm not some super hunter, c'mon. We all caught things. It wasn't just me. I just happened to be the one that ran into Kate, that's all."

"But you were the.."

"Sam! Drop it. You had the genius idea about sending pics to Felicity, that will help you guys much more than I can. You don't need me. Let's just get back to the Bunker and cure Jacob so I can get home and you can get back to business." If he'd spun his head any faster he would've given himself whiplash. I'd slipped back into my giving orders tone. I thought he was mad that I was giving him orders again, "Sorry, shouldn't have snapped."

"No," he said as he shifted his eyes back to the windshield. "I shouldn't have pushed. Just habit I guess, jobs like this, I'm used to you being the one in charge. I've been cherry picking jobs for too long. You're right, I don't need you, just..." He left it hanging.

"I can't, I won't. End of discussion."

"I know." He stopped talking, cranked the tunes up and we spent the next few hours staring out the windows, not saying a word but thinking way too much.