Hi hi! I hope you all liked that little flashback into Ariella and the Winchesters' past! We're moving back into Dead Man's Blood with this next chapter, and I hope you like how it plays out! With that, I'll let you get to it! Enjoy! Xoxo-NickyLynn

Begrudgingly, and because they had no other choice, Sam and Dean had followed John back into town after they finished searching the cabin, the three of them booking a room to catch some rest in while they waited. John had opted to stay on the radios while they slept, listening for any reports on missing people. The silence that wrapped around him in the darkness, however, was just about torture. His mind had quickly slipped down a steep slope of anxious thoughts while he watched his sons sleep, not sure how he was going to convince them to let him walk away again. In truth, he had just about screamed in frustration when he had pulled up to Daniel's cabin and saw the Impala parked out front. Everything he had done up until that point was to keep them as far from this thing as possible, but now that they were a part of this, he wasn't sure he'd be able to brush them off again without things spiraling into another huge fight. Their last falling out had him and Sam avoiding each other for two years…he wasn't sure what would happen if things went sour between them again.

The majority of the night rolled by with nothing more than a few domestic disputes coming across the channels, leaving him alone in the depths of his mind for hours, but just shy of dawn a call came in requesting back up on the scene of a 911 call. Apparently when dispatchers got there, no one could be found; car left idling in the middle of the road. John smacked the bottom of Dean and Sam's boots as he stood, knowing that was their next lead.

"Sam! Dean! Let's go!" he ordered as he swiped up his jacket, rousing them from their slumber.

"W-what happened?" Dean questioned tiredly, quickly trying to wake himself up as John moved about the room in a rush.

"Picked up a police call. 911 came in from a couple who found a body in the road. By the time police got there everyone was missing." He explained as Dean and Sam sat up, rubbing the lingering fatigue from their eyes as they tried processing everything. "It's the vampires."

"How do you know?" Sam asked with a groan, body still screaming for sleep he knew he wouldn't be getting anytime soon.

"Just follow me, okay?" John tossed back at him, not bothering to give any more of an explanation as he moved for the door.

Sam and Dean were left to follow reluctantly, the three of three heading over to the location the abandoned car had been found at. Once there, John had thrown even more orders around, adamant that he talk to the cops solo, taking charge of the case as he pushed both Sam and Dean into the backseat.

"I don't see why we couldn't have gone over with him." Sam huffed in complaint while he and Dean watched and waited next to the Impala, practically scowling at the man while he checked out the scene alone.

"Please don't tell me it's already starting." Dean sighed in response, having been wondering how long it would be before someone blew a fuse.

"What's starting?" Sam questioned, feigning he didn't understand what Dean was insinuating.

"You know what." he shot back. Sam's mouth fell open to respond, but before the words could come out, his eyes flicked over Dean's shoulder, catching sight of John trudging back towards. His jaw snapped shut as he approached, dropping the conversation.

"It was them alright." John informed them as he came to a stop. "Looks like they're heading west. We've got to double back if we want to make it around that roadblock."

"How can you be so sure?" Sam challenged skeptically.

"Sam." Dean said in warning, shooting him a look that said 'shut up'.

"I just want to know we're going in the right direction." Sam defended. "If we're wrong about this, then we could be putting Ariella in danger. We can't afford to lose any time chasing after wrong leads."

"We're going the right way." John stated, eyeing him up and down in frustration.

"How do you know?" Sam argued.

John responded by pulling something out of his jacket pocket, holding it up for them to see. "Because I found this." He said, displaying the small, opaque fang. "Now, you gonna keep questioning me, or are you gonna get back in the car and do as I say?"

Sam didn't bother giving a response as he pushed off the trunk with a huff. John moved for his own truck then, casting a look of displeasure over the Impala as he swept past. "Oh, and Dean—" he said, causing him to pause just before pulling his own door open. "Why don't you touch up the car before it starts to rust." He bit out upon seeing the amount of dirt clinging to the undercarriage. "I wouldn't have given you the damn thing if I thought you were going to ruin it."

Dean's face fell at the comment. His eyes slid over to Sam, who was watching him with a raised brow. Sam let out a humorless huff at the backhanded comment before ducking inside the car, finding that John was quickly grating on his nerves the longer they were stuck together.

Sam took over driving, reluctantly following John through the backroads while Dean read through what John had on vampires in his journal. "Vampires nest in groups of eight to ten." He read off. "Smaller packs are sent out to hunt for food. Victims are typically taken back to the nest, where the pack keeps them alive…bleeding them for days or weeks. Which is what he thinks probably happened to Ari." He surmised. "That couple who made the 911 call too, I bet."

"Would be nice if he just told us what he thinks." Sam responded moodily, neither one of them being able to get more than vague details and stern orders from the man since coming across him in the cabin.

"So, it is starting." Dean remarked, studying the anger chiseled into Sam's face.

"What?" Sam asked, casting Dean a frustrated look.

"Sam, we've been looking for Dad all year." Dean stated flatly, letting the journal snap closed on his lap. "Now we're not with him more than a couple of hours and there's static already?"

"No." Sam denied before letting out a long breath, the crease in between his eyebrows softening slightly as he did. "Look, I'm glad he's alright. I really am…but this whole thing just feels wrong." He explained. "You heard him last night. He was more concerned with getting ahold of that gun than saving Ariella. And he's the one who sent her into this mess in the first place. Don't you think that's a little, oh, I don't know…odd?"

"Ariella's a big girl, Sam." Dean told him, feeling the need to defend John's actions. "She's survived worse than this and I'm sure she knew the risks before volunteering to get involved."

"Okay, and what about the fact that he's just been barking orders at us like we're kids again?" Sam pressed, quickly growing upset again. "He expects us to follow him without question!"

"He does what he does for a reason." Dean said with a shake of his head.

"What reason?" Sam huffed.

"Our job!" Dean supplied, growing just as frustrated as Sam by the entire conversation. "There's no time to argue. There's no margin for error. It's just the way the old man runs things."

"You still believe that crap he peddled to us as kids?" Sam questioned incredulously. "He's already made a mistake, Dean! And Ariella's paying the price for it! Are you really cool with just falling into line and just letting him run the whole show when her life's on the line?"

"Dad wouldn't let anything happen to her." Dean said resolutely. "He knows what he's doing, Sam. So, I suggest you just quit complaining for five minutes and just do what he says until this is over."

"You don't get it, Dean." Sam maintained with a disappointed shake of his head. "This is never going to be over."

Back in the barn, Ariella had been relocated onto a worn and torn up couch covered in all sorts of stains she didn't want to think about. The rope which had been wrapped around her had now been replaced by a metal chain, wound around her body so tightly, she would likely be left riddled with bruises from it. The other end of the long chain was bound securely to the alpha vampire's ankle, whom she glared daggers at as she sat across from him.

Everyone else had gone to sleep around them after the sun came back up, leaving the two of them alone in silence as the day dredged by excruciatingly slow. Luther had been pulling apart and studying the Colt after Kate presented it to him, Ariella remaining silent as she watched him. After pulling apart what pieces he could and reassembling them back together, his eyes flicked up to Ariella, having caught her staring at it intently.

"You know what this is, don't you." he said, holding the gun up next to his head.

"I know it's mine." She threw back at him in response, knowing if she could just manage to free herself somehow, she could use it to escape. "And I'm going to use it to put a bullet in your head."

The side of Luther's mouth pulled up with that. "You hunters are all the same, you know that? Claiming we're the bloodthirsty ones…but there's bloodlust in you, too." he accused, lowering the gun until the barrel was leveled on her face. "I can see it…raging behind those pretty eyes of yours. We're the same."

"I'm nothing like you!" she seethed, lip curling up over her teeth. "You kill innocent people."

"We only ever take enough to survive." He defended, lowering the revolver before tossing it onto the table separating them. "We have every right to live, same as you."

"If your survival depends on you taking the lives of other people, then, no, you don't." she maintained.

"Says the pot to the kettle." Luther countered with an arched brow. "I met my fair share of hunters and you're all the same. Killing every supernatural creature you come across like it's an addiction. You're as dependent on killing us as we are on killing you."

"We do what's necessary to save people." Ariella snapped, feeling the sudden need to defend herself.

"And what a righteous cause it is." He mocked, bringing his hand up across his chest. "Tell me…if you're so concerned with saving people, you ever hunt down serial killers?" he questioned. "What about child rapists or mass murders? Humans are just as monstrous as us. In some ways even more so. So, why is it that all the fire and brimstone is laid on us alone?"

Ariella thought that over for a moment, trying not to let him get under her skin, though, if she was being honest, he was doing one hell of a job of it. "Oh."he said then, smile stretching across his face as his eyes narrowed down on her thought-filled eyes. "You have killed humans before, haven't you?" Ariella's jaw flexed with the query, refusing to answer. "Like I said…" he said, leaning towards her as his voice dropped low. "We're the same."

Ariella let her eyes drop to the table, gaze settling on the Colt as a wave of anger rolled through her. "What would you even do with it?" he asked then, having seen where her focus went. "I mean, there's only five bullets left, and a hell of a lot more of us than that."

"I don't need that to kill vampires." she told him, irritated eyes snapping back up to his. "Your brother found that out firsthand." At this point, she no longer cared about pissing him off. She would rub salt into his festering wounds all she wanted.

Luther's hand snaked out and gave a sharp yank on the chain connecting them, pulling her off of the couch with a yelp. She stumbled to her knees before him, unable to even catch herself while her hands were stuck to her sides. Once she regained her balance, now only inches away from him, she glowered up at that satisfied look of his. "Careful little Hunter." He warned. "You might make me angry."

"Wouldn't want that now, would we?" she snarked back, having to fight off the urge to slam her forehead into the bridge of his nose.

"Why are you after the Colt?" he asked again, eyes piercing into hers.

"Because it's the only thing powerful enough to kill a demon." She told him honestly, figuring there was no reason to lie about it.

"A demon?" he repeated, eyebrows inching towards his hairline in surprise. "Well now, that's a heavy weight fighter you want to go up against. Why?"

"To protect my family."

Luther's eyes swept over her features once more before leaning forward, reaching down to wrap his fingers under her chin. "You really have no idea how similar we are." he told her, voice dropping barely above a whisper. "In fact, I think you'd make one hell of an addition to my own family."

Ariella watched the second row of sharpened teeth slide out with wide eyes, heart pounding against her ribs painfully as he bit into the palm of his hand. "I would rather die!" Ariella spit at him, realizing with a wave of terror that he intended to turn her.

"Don't worry." he told her, blood dripping down the length of his chin as he pulled his hand away. "You will."

The grip around her face tightened as he moved towards her, bringing her face closer to his as his eyes dropped down to her mouth. "Touch me and so help me God you will regret it!" she threatened, doing her best to pull her face out of his grip to no avail.

Slowly being drained of blood she could handle, but being forced to become a monster was a fate worse than death.

"You know the saying, don't you…..a life for a life?" he said, breath brushing against her face with how close he was. "You took my brother's….it's only fair you repay it with your own." His lips crashed down onto Ariella in the next moment, forcing the blood which had been pooled in his mouth into her own. The sounds of her protest were drowned out as he kissed her, tongue brushing against hers as the metallic taste of blood overtook her senses.

By the time the Winchesters were able to find the nest of vampires, having tracked them down to a large barn set back on a piece of abandoned property, the sun was high in the sky and burning bright. "Son of a bitch." Dean said as they scoped the place out, the three of them having been hunkered down behind a grove of trees. "Well, Ari's definitely in there." He stated, catching sight of her car parked outside, its bright color sticking out like a sore thumb amongst the other old and dusty cars.

"Alright. We've got a half chance at this while the sun's out." John said, pulling Sam and Dean's focus onto him as he formulated a plan. "They'll likely be asleep, so we sneak in and grab the Colt and Ariella while they're out."

"And if they wake up?" Dean asked skeptically.

"Then you run as fast as you can." John instructed before moving towards the vehicles, leaving Dean and Sam to do the same. "They won't try following until the sun goes down. So, if things go sideways then we get the hell out of there and regroup." He popped his trunk open then, revealing the array of weapons he had tucked neatly into the secure box, more organized than even Ariella's. Dean's eyebrows shot up in surprise before he followed suit, opening the trunk to the Impala to pull a couple of machetes out for him and Sam as John grabbed his own.

Once they were armed, they made their way to the barn, slipping inside as quietly as they could. The wooden walls blocked out the majority of the sunlight, keeping the entire space shadowed in a darkness that had Dean struggling to adjust to the sudden change. He blinked rapidly, trying to let his eyes adjust to the dim light before tiptoeing through the wide room.

There were dozens of vampires scattered around the room, most of which were laid out in hammocks stung up throughout the place like a giant spider web. Dean and the others wove their way through the maze of sleeping vampires, keeping their machetes gripped tightly and footsteps silent as they went. Dean had never been the most agile person, unfortunately, and as he was trying to duck under one of the hammocks he accidentally bumped into his with his shoulder. He froze as the man inside shifted from the sudden movement, watching with bated breath for his eyes to snap open as well. Luckily, he did no more than let out a snore and keep sleeping.

Sam's hushed voice hit Dean's ears then, calling his name, and he was moving again, making his way towards the small room Sam had slipped inside. As Dean dipped around the corner behind him, his gaze instantly fell on the crouched down form of his brother and the chained-up woman he was kneeling in front of. "Ari." he breathed out in relief.

She was sitting on the dirt floor, back resting against the wall behind her and head tipped to the side. Her eyes were closed and face slack, but her chest was moving up and down in slow, steady rhythms, indicating she was only asleep. The dark circles under her eyes and smear of blood dried around her mouth had his stomach rolling with worry. However, it was the thick chain wrapped around her form that had him concerned the most. There was no way they'd be cutting through that.

Sam was smacking against her cheek lightly, trying to rouse her. Her eyelids began to flutter open in response and as soon as they snapped open, Sam threw his hand over her mouth, muffling her startled response as a look of fear washed over her features. "Hey. It's just us." Sam whispered assuredly. Relief across her features then, tears filling her eyes as she realized who was hovering over her. Sam let his hand fall away once he was sure she wouldn't accidentally alert anyone to their presence.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, keeping her voice low as well.

"What's it look like we're doing?" Dean asked, pulling her wide eyes over to him. "We're saving your ass."

Sam's focus dropped down to the chain wrapped around her then, his eyebrows dipping together as he followed it to its end. When his eyes fell on what she had been chained to, his stomach plummeted. "Dean." he said, drawing his attention over to the bed behind them. There was a man and woman spread out across it half-naked, the other end of the chain being locked around the man's ankle. There was no way they could even move her without waking him.

"Where's the key?" Dean asked Ariella as he moved closer, studying the padlock keeping her stuck within the bindings.

"I don't know." She answered with a shake of her head, tears building in her eyes again.

"We've got to find something to cut through it." Sam reasoned as he stood again, eyes sweeping around the room.

"There's bolt cutters in the trunk." Dean supplied before moving towards the main area. He moved back through the barn as quick as he could then, pausing as he passed his dad. "We found Ari." He informed him, tipping his head back towards the room Sam and her were in.

"And the Colt?" John demanded, eyes snapping in the direction.

"Don't know." He answered honestly. "I've got to grab some bolt cutters to cut her loose." He was moving again then, quickly slipping outside before jogging back to the Impala. Just as he managed to dig the tool out, however, a loud yell came filtering out of the barn, followed by a series of shouts. Dean's feet were instinctively running, knowing something had gone wrong, but slowed as Sam came hauling ass out the door he was about to rush into.

"Go, go!" he yelled, sprinting away from the barn in a blind panic.

Dean followed Sam back to the Impala, eyes casting back to the barn nervously. "Where's Dad and Ari?" he asked, having seen only Sam escape. John came stumbling out of the barn a moment later, but Ariella remained notably absent. "What happened?" he questioned sharply, eyes moving between his dad and Sam.

"He had the Colt on him." John answered as he jogged to a stop next to them, panting heavily. "That bastard had it right in his clutches."

"He woke up when dad tried taking it." Sam explained, the statement coming out harshly. "What the hell did you do that for?" he demanded then, swinging around to face John with a look of anger. "You just ruined our only shot at saving Ariella!" he yelled, casting his hand back to the barn they had been forced to leave her behind in.

"I didn't ruin anything." John defended.

"I told you to wait!" Sam continued to argue, taking a step closer as he went toe-to-toe with the man.

"You're not the one given orders on this." John countered heatedly. "You need to calm down and just listen to me, because we still have a shot at making this work. They've got our scent now. We'll lure a few of them out tonight, capture one of them, and use them as leverage for a trade."

"You really think that will work?" Dean asked.

"Vamps have a real pack mentality, and they mate for life." John reasoned with a nod. "It'll work."

"Who's to say they won't just kill Ariella before we can make the trade?" Sam challenged, anger refusing to dissipate as he stared John down.

"Sam—" Dean said, reaching out to push him away from their dad. "Just calm down."

"Don't tell me to calm down, Dean!" Sam huffed, slapping his hand away angrily. "Admit it, Dad! You made a mistake!"

"Just get back in the car, Sam." John ordered, jaw twitching in growing ire. "This ain't over and we only got a few hours of sunlight left to work with."

Sam continued glaring daggers at John for another moment before pulling away with a scoff. Dean's eyes slid from him to John, not sure whose side he was supposed to be taking on the matter. "Let's go." John barked as he stormed for his truck.

Dean let out a frustrated breath before turning to follow Sam. "Freaking vampires, man." He huffed in complaint, finding irony in the creatures being able to wreak such havoc upon their lives not one, but two times. He just hoped his dad was right and Ariella would be making it out of this time alive…