Alright guys, here's the next chapter! I've got nothing major to add other than the usual send off of hoping you enjoy! Xoxo-NickyLynn
Nebraska—July 12, 2006
Sam and Dean sat at the small table in the latest diner they had stopped for breakfast in, Dean checking over the local newspaper for their next case while Sam did the same on his laptop. They had been searching for anything out of the ordinary for over an hour now, the waitress coming over every so often to refill their coffees. After scouring through the third newspaper, Dean let out a heavy sigh as he folded it back up before tossing it onto the table in defeat.
"Alight. I've got nothing." he lamented, pulling Sam's focus away from his laptop as he ran a hand down his face in frustration. "What about you?"
"Well, I've been scanning Wyoming…Colorado…South Dakota…not turning up much. A woman in Iowa fell ten thousand feet from an airplane and survived." He offered with a shrug.
"Sounds more like 'that's incredible' than the twilight zone." Dean said, lips pulling down as he thought it over.
"Yeah." Sam agreed with his own sigh. His eyes fell back on his screen for a moment as he continued looking through news articles before they flicked back up to Dean hesitantly. "You, uh…haven't heard anything from Ari, have you?" he asked, knowing it was a delicate topic to skirt around.
Dean's face dropped into a frown, clearly upset by the question. "Of course I haven't." he huffed. "Why? Have you?"
"No." Sam answered, his own mouth pulling down in the corner. "I'm just getting worried is all."
Dean's jaw twitched in anger before it fell open to respond. "If she wants to run off and play lone hero, then it ain't our business to stop her." He snapped, having done his best to keep his mind off of her since she had left them behind in Chicago. They didn't have any way of knowing for sure, but after everything that had transpired, he had high suspicions of her having slipped off with their father….a betrayal he had never thought her capable of.
"She could be in trouble, Dean." Sam insisted, Dean having refused to talk about it over the past couple of weeks.
"Then that's on her." Dean maintained. The way he saw it, if she wanted to be on her own then more power to her. He wasn't going to go chasing after her and try talking her out of it.
"Dean—" Sam pressed.
"Sammy, drop it." Dean snapped, cutting the conversation off.
Sam let his eyes sweep over Dean for a moment before letting out a sigh. "Fine." He relented, knowing it would do no good to keep pestering him about it. "What about this…" he said, focus dropping back onto the list of articles he had been previously combing through. "Man in Colorado by the name of Daniel Elkins was found mauled in his home."
"Elkins…" Dean repeated in thought, the name ringing a bell. "I know that name."
"Well, looks like the cops don't know what to think." Sam continued, not recognizing the name. "They think it was possibly a bear attack but get this—the door was busted right off his hinges and the place was ransacked."
Dean reached into their bag then, pulling out John's journal as the name echoed through his mind. He had seen that name scribbled inside, he was sure of it. Sure enough, he flipped through the pages, finding the name D. Elkins written above a telephone number. His brows creased together as he spun the book around for Sam to see. "Check it out."
Sam took the journal from him, taking in the name with a huff of surprise. "You think it's the same Elkins?" he questioned skeptically.
"It's a Colorado area code." Dean reasoned with a shrug. The likelihood of it actually being the same man was admittedly low, but he figured it was enough to check into.
"Well, we could make it there by nightfall." Sam said as he handed the book back to Dean.
"Colorado it is." Dean nodded.
They were back in the Impala and heading for the small mountain town soon after, driving through the day to make it there just as the town became shadowed in a blanket of darkness. Sam had managed to find the address to the cabin the man had been slain in, the two of them pulling up to it just as the stars began peeking out behind the cover of cloud. Luckily it was a fairly desolate area, which meant that they would have no problem sneaking in and having a look around. They snagged the flashlights out of the trunk before slipping past the police tape still stung up around the perimeter, moving into the cabin with cautious steps.
"Something tells me Yogi didn't do this." Dean remarked upon seeing the amount of furniture knocked over, the whole place looking as if a massive barfight had occurred.
"Yeah, no kidding." Sam huffed in agreement as they moved through the room, broken glass crunching under their boots. His eyebrows dipped together for a moment before he craned his head back, flashlight sweeping up to the ceiling in confusion. "Dean." he said, garnering his attention.
Dean followed his line of sight, quickly realizing what had caught his attention. "Well, I definitely don't think a bear did that." He commented upon seeing the busted window. There was no way in hell a bear would be able to climb up onto the roof and bust the front door down.
"You see how many locks are on that thing?" Sam said then, pulling Dean eyes over to where Sam's flashlight was now focused. The door frame which had been kicked open was riddled with deadbolts, all of which looked like they had been secured when the door had been busted in.
"Whatever got in was strong." Dean said, giving a shake of his head as he continued searching the place. The longer he looked, the more he believed this was the same man within John's journal. There was no way this place didn't belong to a hunter with the amount of research and newspaper cutouts he came across.
He moved towards one of the side rooms then, getting a look around while Sam continued searching the main room. It didn't look like this room had been touched at all, compared to the living room. He caught sight of a safe tucked into the wall to his right then and he moved for it. The door had been left unlocked, and for a moment he had assumed it had been ransacked too, but as he opened it up, finding a bunch of cash and other items, his confusion only grew. He turned then, eyes sweeping over the desk behind him. His eyes landed on a small wooden box on top, which looked like it housed a gun at one point but now sat empty. He lifted it in curiosity before Sam called out to him from the other room. Dean set the box back down before moving back towards the main room, coming back out to find Sam holding a gun up for him to see.
"Am I crazy, or did this look like Ari's?" Sam asked, brows pulled together with worry as he held it up in the beam of light.
Dean moved over to him, pulling the gun into his own hand as he studied it. He wanted to deny the possibility instantly, figuring it would be highly unlikely, but as his eyes swept over the initials etched into the bottom of the grip, the words died in the back of his throat. His eyes flicked back up to Sam's, both of them knowing beyond a doubt it was hers….the only question was how it got there. And where its owner was.
A crunch of broken glass sounded behind them then, causing Sam and Dean to spin around in alarm, Dean holding out Ariella's gun in defense as both their lights landed on the intruder. Dean's eyes blew wide with surprise as his gaze landed on their dad, gun instantly lowering to his side. "Dad?" he breathed out in shock.
"Hey boys." John greeted, wary eyes moving between him and Sam.
"Dad?" Sam said for himself, eyebrows pulling together in confusion.
Dean was moving for him before he could stop himself, throwing his arms around him as a wave of conflicting emotions rolled through him. One that stood out above the others, however, was how relieved he was to see him. He clung to him for a moment before pulling away as Sam stepped up to the pair.
"Hi, Sam." John said, a pained smile pulling his mouth up as he stepped closer.
"Hi, Dad." Sam said back, sounding as if he didn't believe it was really him standing there.
"Listen, Sammy…" John said then, letting out a heavy sigh. "Last time we were together we had one hell of a fight." He acknowledged, knowing things between the two of them were still immensely complicated. "It's good to see you again….it's been a long time."
There was no anger in his voice, only a sadness over how badly things had unraveled between them. Sam found himself having to fight off a sudden surge of tears that wanted to rush to the surface as John continued staring at him with nothing but regret. "Too long." He responded after a moment, having to swallow past the lump growing in the back of his throat.
John moved for him, and Sam met him halfway, the two wrapping their arms around each other in a tight embrace that said all the things they couldn't in that moment. "Dad…" Dean said as they pulled apart, drawing his eyes back over to him. "What's going on here?" he asked, motioning around the destroyed cabin.
"Is Ari with you?" Sam questioned as well, eyes sweeping to the open doorway briefly, hoping to see her standing there.
John let out a sigh before shaking his head. "She was supposed to be meeting up with Daniel two nights ago and I haven't heard from her since." He admitted honestly.
"But she was with you, though." Dean said, it feeling like a slap to the face to hear him admit it. John nodded in response. "Why?" he demanded, finding himself stuck between a wall of anger and betrayal. "Why would go to her for help and not us? We're your sons."
"Which is exactly why I didn't want to bring you in on this." John told him with a sigh, knowing this argument was bound to happen eventually.
"The hell's that mean?" Dean asked in growing defense. "If you needed help you should have come to us! Why drag Ariella into this and not us?"
"Dean." John said, voice dropping low in warning. "Now's not the time for this."
"Where is she?" Sam asked, voice spiking with worry.
John's eyes moved away from Dean's angry ones as he let his attention fall back onto Sam. "I don't know." he told him honestly.
"What do you mean you don't know?" Sam demanded incredulously. "Was it the demon?"
"No." John said instantly, giving a firm shake of his head. "No, this was the work of something else entirely."
"What?" Sam asked, eyebrows weaving together tighter.
"I'm not sure yet."
Sam let out a huff at that answer. "What was she even doing here Dad?"
"Getting something for me." John said, figuring there was no point in keeping them in the dark any longer. "A gun."
"A gun?" Sam repeated in disbelief.
"Is that what she was talking about?" Dean asked, trying to wrap his head around everything. "Back in Chicago she was going on about you finding something capable of killing yellow-eyes. It's a gun?"
John gave another nod. "Looks like somebody beat us to it, though." He sighed then, eyes sweeping around the chaos left behind. "We've got to track down whatever did this and find that gun."
"And Ari." Sam added, surprised he seemed more concerned with finding the weapon than her.
"Right." John said, eyes sliding over to him. "And Ariella."
"So how do we do that?" Dean asked, casting his arms out to the side. "We don't even know what did this."
"I've got a hunch." John said, tipping his head to the side.
"Okay, so what is it?" Sam pressed.
"Daniel Elkins had a long history with one type of monster." He said, eyes moving between the two. "Vampires."
"Vampires." Dean repeated, letting out an internal groan. "Great."
"You don't think—" Sam began, worry growing exponentially. "I mean, she's still—"
"She's alive." John said, already knowing what he was insinuating. "Vamps have a habit of dragging their victims back to the nest…draining them over the course of weeks. If they've got her, I'm sure she's still alive. For now, at least."
"So how do we find their nest?" he asked, feeling a sudden urgency filling him as memories of their last encounter with a vampire flashed across the back of his mind.
"We wait." John said, knowing there was not much more they could do, at least for now. "We'll head into town and listen to the scanners. They're likely not done picking up victims, which means we have to wait and see where they pop up next."
Ariella had been held against her will so many times throughout her life, at this point it was damn near comical. She had been taken back to the vampires' nest the night they had come after Daniel, chaining her up to one of the support beams in the barn they had taken over. She had, surprisingly, not been fed upon yet, left watching the dynamics of the vampires around her in silence while she waited for any opportunity to escape. Unfortunately, no opportunities presented themselves, but in the two days since her capture she had learned a great deal about the creatures who'd taken her.
The nest seemed to live in one constant party. Everyone only seemed concerned with two things: drinking and fucking. Between the rock music playing on loop and the loud heckling of the wild group, Ariella had grown a terrible headache, though she supposed the lack of sleep didn't help that in that regard either. The woman who'd been at the cabin, whom Ariella quickly learned was named Kate, seemed to be in charge of the group. She was the one shouting out orders for the most part, responsible for shooing away anyone who'd come sniffing around too close to Ariella. She wasn't the alpha, however. That title belonged to a man named Luther...who, up until that day, had been out of town. Kate had been keeping Ariella specially for him….a gift, she'd said.
It was well into the second night when one of the rowdier men, a younger vampire named Bo, strolled back up to Ariella after downing a few too many. The stench of alcohol rolled off of him as he strolled up to her, smirk pulling across his face as he eyed her up. Ariella did her best to ignore him as he dropped down next to her, hoping Kate would quickly shoo him off like she had been doing with all the others.
"Wanna drink?" he asked in a husky voice, giving the bottle of beer in his hand a shake. Ariella let her eyes snap over to him, refusing to do more than glare at him as he leaned in closer. "Mmm. Come on, baby." He encouraged, trying to push the rim of the bottle up against her lips. "If you drink enough, I can taste it on your blood." Ariella let him push her head back, taking in a mouthful of the alcohol as he poured it into her mouth with a look of growing satisfaction. As he brought the bottle away, however, that satisfied look of his was instantly washed away as she sprayed the liquid back into his face.
His face morphed with anger as the bottle fell to the ground between them, hand instantly shooting out and tangling into the back of her hair in a tight fist, yanking her head backwards with a sharp tug. "You wanna play?" he seethed, second row of teeth sliding out as he pried her neck to the side.
"Bo!" came the sharp order from Kate, stopping him from lunging at her. "What did I say?" she pressed as his eyes swept up to her. "She's for Luther."
"Come on!" Bo complained, sharpened teeth retracting. "Her scent's been driving me fucking crazy! I'm sure Luther won't mind if I took just a little taste."
"I said she's off limits." Came Kate's stern response as his eyes slid back onto Ariella.
Bo's upper lip lifted in a sneer before he pulled away with a frustrated grunt, giving another yank of Ariella's head before retracting from her. The sound of the barn door opening pulled his attention from Ariella then, a man which Ariella hadn't seen before walking in with an air of authority. He had long brown hair which reminded Ariella of Sam, and a face which by all rights was attractive. He was sporting torn up Levi's, biker boots, and a leather jacket, exudating the definition of bad boy. If it wasn't for the fact that he was a blood-sucking monster, he would have been just Ariella's type.
Bo was moving away from her as Kate went running for the man, throwing herself around him with an excited squeal that reminded Ariella of a teenage girl more than anything. Her lips were crashing down on him as he held her up around his waist, the two kissing unabashedly. By the way everyone around quieted down in his presence, Ariella had to assume the newcomer was their alpha. He and Kate spoke in hushed voices after pulling away from their kiss before both their gazes landed on Ariella.
He was moving towards her then, eyes studying her in curiosity. "Well now…" he said, dropping down in front of Ariella much like Bo had. "Aren't you an interesting one."
"I thought you'd like her." Kate said from over his shoulder, watching him analyze Ariella in anticipation.
Ariella did the only thing she could at that moment and continued glaring. His gaze didn't feel nearly as scummy as Bo's and the others had been, but still left her feeling incredibly uneasy. He brought his face next to Ariella's then, drawing in a deep breath through his nose as he drew in her scent. "Hmm." he hummed as he pulled away.
"Yeah, apparently I smell like a fucking hostess cake." Ariella snapped at him, sick and tired of everyone drooling over her like a Thanksgiving turkey. "Must be the O negative blood."
Luther's eyes continued to sweep over her, his eyebrows pulling together as if she were a puzzle he was trying to figure out. He reached forward then, wrapping his fingers around her chin before lifting her face up into the light as he analyzed every angle of it. "I've tasted every kind of human under the Sun." he said as he studied her. "And I've not smelled anything like you before." He tipped her head to the side then, eyes narrowing down on the side of her neck. "Well now, that bite mark's not fresh." He remarked upon seeing the white flesh, bringing his other hand up to run his fingers along it. "You've come across vampires before, haven't you?" he questioned, eyes flicking back up to hers.
"Yeah. In New Mexico…when I was fifteen." She spit at him. "And I hacked the head off the fucker who did it to me. Just like I'm going to do to you."
Luther's face dropped as she cast that threat at him, his hand instantly retracting from her. "Kate." He ordered as he stood, eyes snapping over to the female vampire. "Where did you get her?" he questioned.
"That's the best part." Kate told him with a growing grin. "I found her with that old friend of yours—Daniel Elkins. I caught his scent and thought I'd surprise you."
"What did you do?" Luther demanded, voice suddenly laced with worry.
"I made him suffer." Kate answered in satisfaction.
"You shouldn't have done that!" Luther reprimanded, clearly not thinking the revelation nearly as celebratory-worthy as her. His worried eyes bounced down to Ariella again, studying her in a new light. "They'll be others who come digging around…there always are….hunters."
"I—" Kate said, upset that he wasn't happy with her act of love. "I did this for you." she defended. "For what he did to your family."
"Revenge isn't worth much if you wind up dead." he told her with a frustrated shake of his head before he dropped down in front of Ariella again. "The vampire who gave you that." he said, jutting his chin towards her neck. "It happen about eight years ago?" he questioned, going off the statement she had tossed at him. "Just outside Santa Fe?"
Ariella felt her stomach plummet as her mind began piecing everything together. She had thought they had only been after the Colt, but if this had been a revenge story all along, she quickly realized how intertwined in it she truly was. When she didn't answer, Luther let out a small huff. "Because I just so happen to have a brother who lives down there." He explained. "Or at least he did until a couple of hunters came upon his nest. See, they slaughtered his family, so he thought he'd return the favor…give them a taste of what it felt like."
Ariella's heart began racing, which she was sure he could hear, already knowing how this particular story ended. Afterall, she had played a main part in it. "He never made it out, though." He continued, eyes swirling with a mixture of pain and anger. "I found him a few days later….head hacked off." Ariella released a string of silent curses, suddenly wishing she had bitten her tongue. He let out a humorless laugh as his eyes rolled over her again, fingers brushing along the patch of scar tissue on her neck. "What a small world."