Chapter 13: Landslide
Well, I've been afraid of changing
'Cause I've built my life around you.
But time makes you bolder.
Even children get older,
And I'm getting older too.
- Fleetwood Mac
Dean Winchester was a happy man. The happiness came from a number of circumstances currently decorating his life. The happiness he was feeling right now happened to be coming from the double big mac he was eating. He closed his eyes as he took a long sip from Shelby's Dr. Pepper. He had long ago finished his. His little burst of happiness was taken away abruptly when said owner of Dr. Pepper snatched the large cup out of his hand. He pouted towards Shelby and took another bite from his big mac.
"Sam found some possible leads for us. Unless you're too traumatized from the last hunt." The end of Shelby's sentence held laughter to it. She had found Dean clad in his boxers from the waist down after a German Shepherd tore his blue jeans off. He had been running from a cop after breaking into a convenience store after hours for some desperately needed apple pie after the haunted diner they had worked on didn't serve it. That had been about a week ago. She still hadn't let it go. Dean rolled his eyes and grabbed her soda back for another sip. She let him this time, laughing at the face he had made.
"Shut up." Shelby squinted her eyes.
"I mean I love you."
"That's better." Her laughter filled Dean's ears. He hadn't been hearing a lot of it lately. He missed her laugh. It was another thing that made him happy.
Sam sat down at the corner booth and opened his salad. Shelby grabbed a piece of iceberg lettuce out of the plastic container and popped it in her mouth. Sam gave her a look similar to the one she had given Dean. He looked away with a smile as she gave him her best puppy-dog eyes.
"So there's a couple of interesting stories I found that might be up our alley." Sam started listing cases to Dean, who had finished his sandwich and started on his slice of McApple Pie. Shelby smiled to herself. Dean seemed to be a lot happier lately. After seeing their dad, she wasn't sure how Dean would act. Especially since they had made the hard choice to part ways. Shelby definitely knew she felt a bit better. That distraction had made Dean forget about what had been bothering her lately. Although she was worried about Sam. He did not want to part with John after those years away, especially with Yellow Eyes on their tail, but Shelby could tell their was still some tension between the two. They had been picking up whatever leads they could while they waited for word from John about Yellow Eyes. The renewed vigor in the group almost let Shelby forget about the whole I'm-a-Valkyrie thing. Almost. She was still on edge from that Meg chick. She knew that something was off about her when they met her back in Chicago. She was just glad she was dead. She jolted back to reality when she heard a familiar name.
"Shelby, isn't that your mom's maiden name?"
"Elkins. Yeah. Why?" Sam turned the laptop where Shelby could read and her heart dropped. Her Uncle Daniel, her mom's older brother. The article said he was mauled by a bear in his cabin in Colorado. She slammed the computer shut and grabbed her jacket.
"Come on. He wasn't mauled by a bear." Dean and Sam grabbed their stuff and ran out the door after the girl, not questioning her worried movements. Dean's hands flew to his pockets as he watched Shelby fling gravel up behind the Impala as she came to the glass doors. Sam didn't question anything and got the back seat. Dean stood there dumbfounded for a second.
"How the Hell did you get my keys? I'm driving." Dean pouted for a second until Shelby started talking.
"You don't know where to go and I know the roads the maps don't. This is my uncle, Dean. Just get in." Venom was dripping from her words as she spoke. All she could see was red as she slammed on the gas out of the parking lot towards the highway. Dean and Sam grabbed on to whatever they could to keep in their seats.
"It wasn't a bear. It was vampires. There's a huge nest up there that my Uncle kind of watched over. The Master Vampire kept his little flock in control, they hunt the woods, bagging bears most of the time. Mom said every once in a while the local Sheriff would let a child molester loose up the mountains." Dean gave Shelby a look.
"There's some sickos up there. They try to get off on charges by saying they're crazy since the biggest mental ward in the country is up there. The sheriff can always tell."
"How is that even possible Shelby?"
"She's a psychic." That shut Dean up. He didn't disagree with the death penalty for molesters. Hell he'd even enforced it before. But death by Vampire isn't something he would wish on anyone. See, he's not totally heartless.
"So your Uncle just lived up there playing Vampire Sheriff? Every time one got out of hand he wasted it?" Sam questioned from the back seat.
"Pretty much. Something must have gone wrong if he's dead."
"You can slow down if you want now. No need to over heat Baby." Shelby just gave Dean a look. He gulped.
"Dean you know I'm a better driver than you." Dean scoffed but kept quiet after that. Shelby took her cell phone out of her back pocket and dialed a number quickly without taking her eyes off the road. Dean tried looking over at the phone screen before she put it up to her ear. Shelby gave him a weird look. She returned her eyes to the road as someone picked up the line on the other end.
"Hey, Damon. It's me. Yeah, I'm fine thanks. Hey listen, real quick, you hear anything about the nest up where my uncle watched over? Up in Manning?" She listened for a minute or two while the other person talked. Smirking at Dean's bitch face. She nodded her head solemnly.
"Okay thanks so much. No, I think we can handle it. I'll give you a call if we can't. Yes, he is. No, not anytime soon. Yes, whenever we're down there, I promise. Now that, I can't. Goodbye Damon. Thanks." Shelby ended the call with a small smile on her tanned face. Dean recognized that name. Some punk that lived down south, some water fall town. He had had to sit through a summer of that kid trying to get into Shelby's pants when she was seventeen. That guy had to be older than Dean was, but that didn't stop him. He wanted to rip his throat out then. He wouldn't have to be pushed to do it now, either. Shelby looked over at Dean with a sarcastic look.
"Everything okay baby?" She sang. Dean's bitch face game was stronger than it ever had been. He moved his candy apple eyes sharply out the window and ignored her question. Shelby sniggered. She loved it when Dean got jealous. He was so adorable. She sobered up. She really didn't contact Damon Salvatore unless she had to. He was a Master Vamp down in Mystic Falls, Virginia. He was an old family friend. On her mother's side. He had lots of eyes and ears all over the country. She laughed half-heartedly to herself. Her mother's side of the family had a lot of supernatural 'friends' now that she thought about it. She supposed it made more sense since she had learned about her true heritage. A lot of them, her father had known about, and wanted to kill; out of respect for his late wife, he never did. He had not regretted that decision. Those friends in low places had saved his ass a time or two. Dean and the other Winchesters knew nothing of any of her family friends being supernatural creatures. If they did, one of the two parties wouldn't last long.
"Damon said some vamp bitch that Daniel missed years ago came back for him. She wiped out the master vamp, ran off most of his followers. Said something about him having some gun. She was under orders of her master to find it." Shelby looked at her watch, then her speedometer. She pressed the gas a little more, not even close to pushing Baby to her limits in her opinion. Dean said nothing, still slightly fuming over Damon. Sam mumbled a response in the back seat, waiting to be patched through to the local P.D. in Manning.
"Just give them my name and she should send everything they've got to you." Sam nodded his head acknowledging Shelby's advice. Shelby turned a five hour drive into a three hour drive. They made it to the cabin before dark.
-TOL-
The homely looking log cabin was turned upside down when Shelby pushed open the wooden door. The police hadn't moved anything after they took his body; probably never would. Sheriff Videl would made sure of it. Shelby made a mental note to call Bobby and have him send someone over to clear it out and put it in storage. She wasn't sure if she could without breaking down. Dean and Sam looked around for any clues as to where the vamps might've gone. Shelby had found an old family photo album of Daniel and her mom growing up. Pocketing a clear photo of her mom on a horse, she jumped slightly when Sam's voice cut through the chilly air.
"Hey guys, look. Here's his journal."
"I don't know if there's anything useful in there for this hunt, but keep it. He taught my dad and I a lot." Sam nodded and slipped the journal into his jacket's over sized inner pocket. Dean knelt down among the debris of paper and cracked furniture. Shelby peered over his shoulder.
"Find anything?"
"Looks like some type of scribbling or scratches in the floor. It has some kind of pattern to it." Shelby turned and grabbed a stray piece of paper out of her late uncle's desk and handed it to Dean. Sam handed him an old #2 pencil. Dean ran the smooth pencil over the scratches in the floor. When he pulled up the blood soaked paper, there were some letters and numbers on the back.
"That's a mail drop combo." Sam grabbed his phone and enter the numbers into the memo pad, keeping it safe for later. Shelby helped pull Dean up.
"Well, something's in there. Might as well go find it." Shelby spoke matter-of-factly. Her mood had dampened again when she saw the mess in here. Whenever she would visit, Daniel would have the place spotless. This wasn't right. Sam stood from his crouching position and started searching again.
"Let's see if we can find where he hid that gun you mentioned. If they were after it, it had to have had some hiding spot. Hopefully they didn't get to it." After about two hours of searching, Shelby stepped outside. She was ready to sleep. She had a long drive, for her at least. She hated driving longer than an hour to get somewhere.
They hadn't found jack in the cabin; save for a previously locked cherry wood COLT case. Sam and Dean joined her shortly after. They decided to abandon the cabin and follow up on the drop box code. About a half hour later, the three hunters were standing in front of a safety deposit box in the small town post office. Opening the box, there was a thick envelope with chicken scratch on the front. It read "A.E." on top in black ink; blood red ink had made a crude "X" over it. Below that was "C.B." in red ink, the same red ink that had put a big "X" over the top initials. "C.B." also had a blue "X" over the top, with "J.W." at the bottom of the white envelope. Three sets of eyes looked up at the same time.
Back in the car, they were trying to decide whether to open the envelope or not when someone thumped on the passenger side window. John Winchester barely had his hands up over his head when Shelby pulled the safety off her .9 mil, aiming it right between his eyes. He smiled solemnly at her, thinking to himself, he should have known better than to sneak up on her. Shelby lowered her gun slowly, giving John one of the best Winchester bitch faces in the books.
-TOL-
A dark haired woman stood outside of a ram shackled red barn in the middle of nowhere Colorado. She was talking rapidly on her cell phone, pacing back and forth in front of the white barn doors. Her studded biker jacket glinted in the sun. She wiped her forehead, not missing a beat in her pacing.
"Yes, I am positive. It's the gun you're looking for. I can send you a picture. Also, sir, there is something else. I saw on your list something about a girl… Well, I saw pictures of her in this Elkins guys cabin. Yes, I did some research and she has the same name." The woman paused and listened intently to whoever was on the other end of the phone. She smiled wickedly.
"Yes sir. I will deliver them both to you within the week. Our scouts have told us they are on their way as we speak. I promise, my guys won't rough her up too badly. Just enough to subdue her to travel to you safely." The woman snapped her phone shut, triumphant smile plastered on her weathered looking skin. She walked into the barn and started barking orders at the group of un-dead slackies she had been given by her boss. She swore, once she got the money from this buyer, she'd take those damn daylight rings off these idiots and find some real muscle. Hell, she'd change them if she had to.
-TOL-
"Thanks for letting me ride with you John. It's so awkward in that damn Impala." John nodded slightly and let a smirk grace his handsome face. He was waiting for the young girl to jump angrily out of the Impala. He could tell by the tense silence coming from both of his boys that they had been arguing about him returning. That's one thing he liked about Shelby. She didn't bullshit. She got to the point. Her bluntness was annoying for some people, but in this life, it was refreshing. He knew he needed to talk to Sam about, well, everything. His passenger had reminded him twice before she even had her seat belt fastened. He was just waiting for Sam. Mostly because he didn't really know what to say.
All of a sudden, the Impala sped up, driving in the wrong lane, beside of John's old truck before it swerved dangerously in front of them. Both vehicles came to a screeching halt in the middle of the road, perpendicular to the winding blacktop. John cursed under his breath and unbuckled his seat belt. Before he could get out of the truck, Shelby put a firm hand over his chest.
"Keep calm, John. He looked up to you all his life, then you let the whole college thing get in the way. He's grown up now but he needs his dad, not an army drill sergeant. " John took in a big breath and nodded. He didn't let it out until he closed the truck door and walked towards Sam, who had rushed out of the Impala's driving seat. Shelby stayed where she was. This was between John and Sam.
Though Dean didn't think so.
She sighed and hopped out of the truck, trying not to overhear their conversation. She grabbed Dean roughly and pulled him off the road. He was mumbling about never trusting Sam to drive again. She rubbed his shoulders through his dad's leather jacket and looked towards the father and son. Dean turned towards her, about to speak.
"No. John and Sam are working this out, now you two need to. I'm not sitting in that damn car while you two sulk." Dean rolled his eyes, but looked defeated. After some time of watching his brother solemnly, he turned towards Shelby with a devilish smirk.
"So, you, uh, come here often?" He winked at the end of his sentence. It was Shelby's turn to roll her green eyes. She kissed him lightly on the lips and pulled away before he could grab her for more.
"Time to go. They're done. And I'm not getting left behind." Dean looked dejectedly towards the two black vehicles. Both with tall silhouettes in the foggy windows. Shelby gave Dean a pointed look.
"Talk to him Dean." He mumbled a grumpy 'okay' to his girlfriend and headed to his car. He made Sam scoot over before backing up and letting John and Shelby in the lead again. Dean situated himself uncomfortably in the driver's seat before glancing at his baby brother.
"So, Sammy…"
-TOL-
Dean was cursing to himself. Those damn vamps had Shelby. He didn't even know how it happened. One minute their little foursome was kicking ass and taking names, the next, Shelby was screaming angrily while three big vampires jumped her from behind. Before anyone could reach her, or the vamps that had her, they sped out of the barn at an inhuman speed. Why would they take her? The hunters hadn't gotten the Colt from the nest. He didn't understand. Dean turned angrily to his father. He still wasn't telling the boys anything.
"You need to start explaining why the Hell this gun is so important that it got Shelby kidnapped." Dean clenched his jaw angrily as John rummaged around in his arsenal. He sighed before putting his machete back in the now organized trunk.
"I'll explain everything on the way."
"On the way to where?"
"Funeral home. We need dead man's blood."
-TOL-
Shelby opened her eyes slowly. Her shoulders ached, as did her head. She groaned when she tried to touch the back of her throbbing head. She looked up slowly. Her wrists were starting to bleed from the zip ties holding her up. She stood on her very tip-toes to relieve some of the stress her arms were under. She sighed, slightly content for now. She blinked a few times to clear the sleep from her now dull green eyes and looked around.
This was a different warehouse than they had ambushed the vamps earlier. She couldn't tell much from the empty floor space and boarded up windows. She could tell that they weren't in the country anymore. She could hear heavy traffic outside. Hopefully the boys and John would find her soon. She wasn't sure if she could get out of here and kill all the vamps alone.
She raked her eyes slowly around the darkened warehouse, trying to collect any information that could help her escape. She saw the Colt strapped in an old leather hip holster on a table in the corner of the room. There was nothing else in the open space. She shifted uncomfortably, wondering silently why the vampires would take her. They hadn't gotten the Colt yet, so they didn't need her as a bargaining chip.
Her questions were answered when she heard the familiar click of boot heels coming towards one of the two doors to the warehouse room. They stopped right outside of the black door. She could see a short, brown-haired woman speaking on a phone through the small slit of a window. Shelby turned her head and concentrated hard to hear what she was saying.
"Yes, I've got her. The Valkyrie. Yes sir, and the Colt." Shelby's jaw dropped. Her heart rate sped up so fast, she was sure any vamp within a one hundred mile radius could hear it. Smell her fear. Someone had found out about her. Who had? Sam was the only person that knew, besides Missouri. But if that crazy woman wouldn't even tell her, why would she let it slip to anyone else? If someone was coming to terrorize her, wouldn't she see it coming and run? Shelby shook her head clear of her thoughts as the woman barged through the door. She had hung her phone up before she came inside, and Shelby had zoned out before she could hear any more of the conversation.
The woman stopped about ten feet in front of Shelby. The fluorescent lights buzzed on slowly in the room, giving some artificial light to the dim room. The woman nodded at the grungy vamp that flipped the lights to close the door. She turned back around to Shelby and pulled out her phone. She snapped a quick picture before smiling towards the captured huntress. She dialed a number quickly and turned away from Shelby.
"Did you receive the picture? See. I told you it was her. She's aged some since the picture you have was taken. But it is her. I also have the Colt in my possession. I will be on my way with them both tomorrow morning. There's some unfinished business I need to attend to before we leave town. Don't need the men she was with following us to your location. Yes sir, thank you. I look forward to it." The woman smirked and turned back to Shelby. She took in the vampire's appearance while the older woman did the same to her.
She had slightly tanned, leathery skin. She must've laid out a lot while she was still human. Shelby could tell by the rosiness in the hag's cheeks that she had recently fed. Her green eyes trailed down to the woman's hands. She had long, perfectly manicured nails. Her eyes locked onto a gaudy silver ring with a ruby in the middle. That's how the woman got around in daylight. Shelby wasn't sure if Dean, Sam, and John had figured that out about vampires yet. The only reason she knew was from Damon. Thinking of the Master Vampire, Shelby's brain rapidly put together a plan. The woman sneered at Shelby, shaking her momentarily from her thoughts.
"It's a shame my associate wants you so bad. With the strength you have now, who knows how unstoppable you'd be as a vampire. But he's made me an offer I just can't refuse. Hard for us vampires to get a decent job around here. I couldn't believe how many zero's were next to your name." Shelby rolled her eyes. She needed the woman to leave so she could lure her guard over.
"Should I be proud at the amount of money my head will bring you?" She asked sarcastically. The woman sped over to Shelby and backhanded her. Hard. The stars had just started leaving her vision as the lead vampire slammed the door shut. Shelby eyed the guard. He had been young when he turned. He was grungy, like most vampires Shelby had met. She locked eyes with him after a few minutes of trying to get his attention. She nodded her head over to him and tried looking as attractive as she could strung up to the low ceiling. He fell for it. Typical guy.
"How much is this broad paying you to stand guard?" He looked around, not impressed. There was a slight flicker in his eyes that told Shelby his paycheck wouldn't be as much as he thought it should.
"You know how much money she's getting for me? I bet you it's over a million easy. Somethin' like me doesn't come around every day." His body shifted towards Shelby, and he crossed his arms, but nodded his head, signalling for Shelby to continue.
"I know someone who would pay you twice, hell, probably three times as much for my head. And I know he'd kill me quicker than who she's tryin' to sell it to. Whaddya say? Take all that cash for yourself? It'd be enough to make you disappear. That bitch, and whoever she's workin' for won't ever be able to find you. It'll buy you one of those rings she's got. The daylight ring? I know you'd love to have one of those." The vampire stood in front of her with his arms still crossed over his chest, his hip cocked. He stared hard at her for a minute or two. After what felt like forever, he pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and looked at Shelby pointedly. She didn't miss a beat in telling the idiot the phone number that she had memorized so many summers ago.
-TOL-
What did you think?! I've been stuck on this chapter for MONTHS. Finally my writing fire has been fueled. By what? I have no idea! But I'm glad it's back? Who do you think Shelby is gonna call? :) I'm excited to get writing next chapter. Thanks ya'll, Gooseygirl