"Where's Sam?"

Mae blinked, confused as to why Dean was shaking her now. He had just left the room, hadn't he? Dean's words didn't exactly register with her until he asked again. His voice was coarse and heavy with tension. Had he asked something else, she would have assumed this was an altogether different plan Dean had rationalized. Or she was dreaming. Had she fallen asleep? At some point, she must have. She had been unable to still her mind yet the exact cause behind it. She groaned, head spinning as she tried to sit up, until she was halted by the clank of the hand cuff. She stilled. "Dude, what? I don't know. You were in change of him. I was in charge of being here."

Dean looked just as bewildered as she did as he leaned over her. "He...he's gone Just..." He moved back to sit on the edge of her bed. "Gone."

The way her head spun made her feel almost like the first time she came to with any sort of awareness of what was going on with the kitsune. "Why would i know where your brother is?"

"You heard me; he's gone." He snapped at her, but his face fell almost immediately.

"Okay, okay. Well unless you think he's handcuffed to this bed with me, maybe uncuff me."

Dean shook his head, seemingly just realizing their situation. Dean fished the key to the cuffs out of his pocket and leaned back over her to remove the restraint. He rubbed her wrist gently as he unlocked the metal circle. As soon as she was free though, she twisted her hand to take his wrist in her hand. "Hey, you okay?"

Again, he shook his head, still unsure. Perhaps more so than before. "I... feel really off."

She frowned, sitting all the way up now. While concerning, it wasn't the issue they needed to address first. "Okay, so...why do you not know where Sam is?"

"I feel asleep."

"You fell-" she pressed her lips together. There was no pint in being angry at that. He likely had as little control as she or Sam did. "okay well that wasn't part of the plan."

"It's not like I set out to do it. I didn't even feel tired. It... all of the sudden I was awake...and then I wasn't, and the room was empty."

"Okay, well..." she blew out a breath. "You didn't see anything? Feel anything? Nothing?"

Another shake of the head. "Right. So, this thing is smarter, faster and can evidently take any one of us out at any point. Great. Okay. Maybe the kitsune is getting stronger or...I don't know, up to now it didn't seem to be going after you but-"

Dean held up a hand. "We'll dissect later. Let's find Sammy."


Mae removed her boots before getting in bed but was otherwise dressed. She sat on the edge of the bed while she put on and laced up her boots while Dean geared up. As far as Mae knew, the only way to put a kitsune down was cutting off its tail. The blade type didn't much matter, as long as it was sharp. She heard Dean in the other room checking and loading a hand gun and a shot gun. She supposed, provided they could see it, blasting the damn thing with rock salt wouldn't hurt. But it wouldn't stop the thing. It could scare it off and they'd be on the hunt for it again, to say nothing about Sam's safety. And that was if they could find it and get close. She drew the knife from her boot, checking if over once before sheathing it again.

If the kitsune was powerful enough to put them all to sleep and lure Sam out, it did not seem like an easy task to take it down. It was possible, Mae thought, it had been this strong the entire time and had only been baiting them, waiting for them to drop their guard fully. They'd done just that.

"There's nothing good happening tonight." She muttered to herself.

She grabbed a hair tie from her bag after she rose from the bed and made her way to the other room. 'So," she began as she pulled her hair back into a low ponytail and twisted into a tight bun, "what's the plan here, Dean? We can't just... run in guns a'blazin', not just because we don't even know where to run into so..."

Dean grunted, handing her a small bottle of holy water and a gun. "We'll find him and... work out the plan from there."

"That seems like a really bad idea. Maybe..." Mae sighed, trailing off.

"What?"

"I was going to suggest we call Bobby but even if he could get here soon enough, I think all that does is lure him into the same trap."

"We need to find Sam. I... I don't care about the rest. Even if it gets away."

"Yeah, I get the priorities here but...this thing can take us out at the drop of a hat apparently. We could-"

"Best case scenario, this is a trap. But we can't leave Sammy out there with this thing. Maybe if it's trying to feed on him, it won't be able to incapacitate us. And we'll have a chance."

Mae frowned, tucking the gun into the waist band of her jeans, pulling her jacket on and tucking the bottle in at pocket. Of all the plans that weren't really plans, this was the least solid one so far. Of course, Dean knew that, so she said nothing more. When he handed her a shotgun, he did earn himself a sharply raised eyebrow. Dean was planning a display of force she wouldn't have used. Still, she didn't argue with the man, as he grabbed his weapons and keys.


The frown remained etched across her lips as they drove. It was pointless. Both of them knew it, without a clue or a trail, searching like this was pointless. They were just hoping they would stumble upon something. At lease it felt like they were doing something more than just sitting back at the motel room. It was dark, except for the sparse streetlights and the headlights of the car. The only sound was the low and repetitive grumble of the engine. I would have almost been pleasant, if not for everything else going on.

Everything about Dean was tight and on alert. His jaw clenched; his knuckles were white from the grip he kept on the steering wheel. He kept one hand on the shotgun in his lap, which she was certain he would have at the ready at the first sign of movement. They hadn't spent anytime exploring the area outside the town so there was no way of knowing where this thing would have made its den. They didn't even know what they were looking for in that moment. It could have been a woman, a fox, or something they couldn't see at all. they only knew they were looking for Sam too and hopefully he would be easier to spot. If here were still alive.

Mae kept dialing Sam's cell. Maybe he would pick up. Maybe they would hear it. Maybe, the least likely maybe, the kitsune would answer. She didn't know if that would be something she could even tell. It must sound human enough to lure men into close contact. But maybe it didn't need it. She glanced at Dean. Yeah, she could image Dean following a woman to a more secluded area without exchanging a lot of words, if any. Sam would likely need a little more, but this thing seemed to be able to charm him some way, even looking like her. But why? Whatever the creature was doing with them was still unclear.

There was no way Sam was the end goal. The kitsune didn't know about him until after Mae had called the brothers for help. As far as Mae could figure, she was its original target, but something went wrong, something she had either figured out to stop it from possessing her or something about her that interfered with its power. It then went after others to feed. But not kill. Prior to tonight, Dean has seemed immune. Or he wasn't to the kitsune's liking. It was able to incapacitate both of them for several minutes. There were easier targets. Targets who wouldn't even know it existed, if this were just about a next meal. It seemed personal and she would guess revenge.

It was unclear if it had incapacitated Sam, took him somewhere to feed, possessed him, or something else. If it was feeding, why not do it right there in the motel? Maybe it couldn't control all three of them at the same time. That would be their first break, if they could figure out how to use it. If Sam were hurt, or worse, he might be unreliable in the fight. And she might be too, if it could just pass through her and make her lose consciousness. But it couldn't be harming Sam if it did that. And if Sam was already Dead, well, she thought, it didn't really matter what it did. Dean would either try to kill it or it would kill her. At least that's how it played out in her head.

They were behind from the jump on this job, and she couldn't blame anyone but herself. If she hadn't been distracted with everything going on between her and Dean, she knew she would have searched for other kitsunes, cleaned out the den, and make sure nothing was on her tail. While she didn't remember any signs that she had been dealing with more than one, she hadn't ruled it out. Now, Sam and Dean were in the cross-hairs and being punished for helping her.

"We'll find him." Her words didn't sound convincing to her own ears, and she couldn't fully guess where Dean was emotionally with this.

"I know." He sighed. "But not like this. We're just...gettin' nowhere."

The town wasn't that big, and they weren't out long enough for Sam to make it very far on foot. The kitsune was quick but probably not with a human in tow. They were able to circle the area he was most likely to make it to in just under half an hour, with no signs. It was a long shot since they had no idea what direction it had headed off in. But it did seem to calm and focus Dean more. She preferred it over the panic, but it was a more dangerous mood. There was a hint of resignation in his sigh.

Dean decided to head back to the motel, unsure what more they could do just by driving around. Sam was out there with something dangerous though. He had no idea how to find him, let alone help him. It wasn't the first time his brother had been in the situation and Dean could only hope his brother had some kind of upper hand or that because this kitsune hadn't killed those other men. Maybe it would go easy on Sammy.

"Why didn't it go after Sam when he was alone?"

"What so you mean?" Mae asked.

"This whole time, we were sending Sam out because we thought it was after you. He was alone and unprotected. If it was really trying to get to Sam, it had a lot of opportunities. Clearly, it's been following us around. So why now? What's different?"

Mae shook her head. "We were planning to take it out. I mean, we always were but we were luring it specifically this time."

"Do you think it knew?"

"I-" Mae blew out a long breath, "do you think it could?"

Dean shrugged, pulling into the parking lot of the motel. Still dark, still quiet. They hadn't come across man or fox on their search and while they could have kept circling, he wasn't sure to what end. They didn't have any leads. But like almost all of the things they hunted, it had patterns. They had to go back and find what they were missing. And fast. That was the only thing he could think of that wouldn't waste time and gave his brother the best chance of survival. "Skinwalker we ran up against could. Somehow. It's not impossible."

The idea made her pause. She hadn't thought about it but perhaps that was why it never totally drained her life-force or possess her. "Say it can. Then what did it gain here? It's not exactly like we had a foolproof plan. If it knew we were going to kill it, why not move on? Why stay and... make us, what, chase our tails?"

"Funny." Dean said, deadpan, "If I knew, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Seems to me there are three possibilities. It knows what we're trying to do so it's throwing us off to get away. Or it's pissed off over what you did to that other kitsune and... it's taking us out first, which means you'll be saved for last."

He didn't say more, and she knew he was actively not trying to think about that as a possibility. "What's the third one then?"

With a weary sigh, Dean shifted the car into park. "Somethin' I can't figure out, which might be worse."

Mae nodded. "Well, shit."

Dean turned to face her. "We gotta call Bobby. An' maybe any other hunters you know. We need numbers to overwhelm this thing. While we're waiting, we need to figure out what we're missing."

"Agreed."

As quickly and efficiently as they had armed up and gotten in the car, Mae and Dean got out. Walking up to the door, she rested her shotgun over her shoulder, holding the butt with one hand and unlocking the door with the other. The door swung open but after she walked inside, she ran smack into an immovable wall of person.