Lina honestly did not like Brady. If Xellos was questionably useful, if highly irritating when you really needed answers, Brady made her want to jump into her admittedly large bathtub filled head to toe with bleach. Last time she ignored that feeling she had landed up in this world after The Lady killed Hellmaster Philbrizzo and sent her here.

Xellos was the only familiar face she saw anymore, and even then he wasn't exactly forthcoming about home. Something about how the timelines were out of sync. However he was useful in other ways, like bringing books from home...and explaining why all her black magic suddenly went from slightly overpowered to complete overkill if she wasn't careful.

Apparently when she had caught the Lord of Nightmares' attention, the Lady decided to make her a Knight in the same manner her sister was. For the most part it meant she was stuck acting as the 'Big Sister' to the Mazoku lords that tried to get into too much trouble even for them, like Hellmaster Philbrizzo when he tried to wipe out an entire world.

Soooo...pretty much what she would have done anyway, except now she was aware she had the Lady's Blessing and Xellos was only slightly less annoying to her.

But now she tapped directly into the true origin of black magic instead of using the proxy of the other Dark Lords, meaning the power level was ten times larger than it was normally, her faith in the Lady meant that white magic was almost as overboosted, and once she figured out how to properly channel astral magic Mazoku wouldn't know what hit them.

Right now the only thing she had to deal with Mazoku was the Ra Tilt and the Elmekia Lance and the higher level one didn't even work half the time.

Lina was about to make a massive sub sandwich (Sam found it was cheaper to buy those in bulk along with the rest because it took Lina twice a long to finish it and he could usually be assured of getting something to eat in the process) when she felt that same sandpaper on skin sensation she always got around Brady and some of Sam's other friends.

Almost like Mazoku, which was ridiculous because the only one she'd felt or seen was Xellos and he had the good sense to let her know he was coming, even if it was a few seconds before dropping in for a chat.

No, this felt worse than Xellos, but as unpleasant as Brady.

And wouldn't you know it, Brady waltzed in like he owned the place with this smile on his face she recognized instantly. Hellmaster had it on his face right before he died.

So the fact he started throwing some weird magic around made her realize this world was almost as bad as her birth one...it just hid magic better. And apparently jewels weren't nearly as common as they were back home, if the look Sam gave his emerald (which was actually made from scrapes of old, rather useless ones) were any indication. She would have used diamond, but for some reason people were unusually stingy about the stupid rocks. And really the only reason she gave him an emerald was because he said green was his favorite color, just like fire-red was hers.

Brady's black eyes gave her a bad feeling. So instead of playing the victim, she took initiative.

So far she ruled out fire as effective. Bastard just healed up. So she threw another bottle (this one a whiskey bottle she had jokingly practiced the blessing on that Sam taught her) and to her surprise he started screaming like she had poured acid on him or something. She grabbed the salt next and his screams became even more pained.

So pained in fact that she was quite startled when black smoke came out of him and then vanished. And then Brady fell onto the table, very obviously dead. It was like the whiskey and the salt killed him, which was patently ridiculous.

"Well this is a nuisance," said Xellos. He had waited for the demon to be dealt with, accidentally on Lina's part, but still dealt with...she was too powerful to be taken out by the things and she would have eventually figured out what caused it pain before she broke out her magic.

"What in the Lady's name was that thing?!"

"Demon. This world's version of Mazoku, though Mother had no part in their creation, and her children can pass through things they can't," said Xellos, toeing the dead body.

Lina looked at the dead Brady in disgust.

"Explains the sandpaper feeling I've been getting from him. Why did he come here?"

"Not for you. If he were after you he would have known better than to show his hand so soon. He was here to push your lover into something."

"You're being surprisingly helpful today," said Lina, now that her heart rate was back down.

"The Lady is pissed that they dared to attack her Knight so blatantly. She wants to make sure you're prepared, because he was just the first," said Xellos.

Lina's eyes grew hard, and her old self kicked in.

"Get me as many books as you can about these things, or at the very least someone who can help me barricade the house until Sam gets back."

Xellos gave her his usual cryptic smile. He dropped a few books that were useful, then got rid of the body someplace where Lina wouldn't be implicated. Considering she used blessed whiskey on him, that was behind a bar that had nothing to do with the one she worked at. Not that she needed it, considering what she had done shortly before learning they had actual laws about killing bandits in this world, but she needed some way to explain her cash flow.


Sam came home, tired, but in surprisingly good shape considering a woman in white tried to kill him. Imagine his shock finding out Lina's "protection amulet" actually did as advertised. The ghostly woman couldn't hold on to him long enough to do more than pin him down, because the amulet warmed on his skin (not hot enough to burn, but enough that he noticed it) every time she touched him for more than five seconds.

Dean had been pleasantly surprised to find his brother a little shaken and nothing more, even if he did drive his precious car into the house with that stupid ghost with him. Dean was still peeved about that.

He just wanted to crash on the bed, or even the couch...but that went out the window the second he realized several things were off.

For one thing, the table was gone. There were suspicious stains and the faint stains of something definitely not water on the carpet along with what was either sugar or salt. He was betting salt considering the cupboard he kept his salt rations was missing a canister.

Lina could cook (mostly out of necessity) but good at cleaning she was not.

So the fact there was something off made all his restrung hunter's instincts come alive and scream something was wrong.

Then he saw Lina, who looked tired and more than a little pissed about something.

"What happened?"

"Your 'friend' tried to kill me. Or at the very least he came here intent on doing something very unpleasant," said Lina flatly. She sank into the nearest chair and he saw she had the missing canister in her hand.

"What?!"

"I've been over the house putting salt lines on every single entry I could think of from the air vents to the windows and doors."

"What exactly happened?"

"Brady came over, despite the fact he knows I'm not a fan of his. Then his eyes turned black and he tried to attack me. I tried setting him on fire with a bottle of rum, but he healed too quickly. So I threw one of the whiskeys I had jokingly used as a practice bottle for the blessing you taught me and he started screaming like it was acid. I grabbed some salt, thinking it would just hurt him, or at least blind him when all of a sudden a ton of black smoke came out and fled the house. Xellos had to get rid of the body, considering he fell dead the second it was out of him," said Lina tiredly. She had clearly had a couple of sleepless nights.

"Are you alright?" asked Sam, checking his girlfriend over in concern.

"I'm just pissed! The fact some thing could come into my house and try to kill me ticks me off!" said Lina, fury in her eyes.

She had immediately gone over the entire property with some ritual items and blessed the place using something Xellos had bookmarked to keep them from coming near the place. But since she was completely out of depth with these 'demons', she had been unable to sleep.

So having Sam here was something of a relief, if only because she knew that he at least had some idea of how to fight.

Then Dean came in and she heard the words 'demon', 'attack', and 'protection'. The fact she had fought one off and didn't have much of a mark on her apparently surprised Dean.

Honestly, it was like she wasn't aware of the Hunters. It was pretty much what she did out of boredom, except here it was all cloak and dagger crap.

She hated that sort of stuff. If she had to deal with some mystery, she preferred it was out in the open. At least then she could deal with it!


When she woke up in the morning, Sam and Dean were there and they seemed to argue over...something.

Before Sam could say anything Lina cut him off.

"I know you're a hunter. Your brother too, if the way he reacted to your father leaving during a hunt was a big deal. I didn't care then and I don't care now. But I do care about having some thing coming into my home trying to kill me," she said flatly.

Dean stared, before he started laughing.

"You weren't kidding when you called her a firecracker," he said. She was blunt, in-your-face and entirely too unapologetic. He liked her already.

"You... you knew?"

"Xellos confirmed it when I commented on the large amount of salt in the house, and the way you casually left that stupid list of gross crap on the table. I do not appreciate being compared to one of those hack witches," said Lina dangerously.

"Hack witches?" repeated Dean.

Lina rolled her eyes.

"I'm amazed a Wiccan knew about hunters," said Sam.

Lina stared at him.

"Why on earth would you call me a Wiccan? I don't follow the cycle of the seasons or any of that crap, and frankly I doubt the Lady cares about them either."

"But the occult stuff you have in here..."

"Just because I read about the occult doesn't make me a Wiccan. I could beat any of those pansies in a power match any day of the week, drunk off my ass and half awake," said Lina. "I mostly have those books to find a way to fight."

"Bobby's gonna love meeting her," said Dean.

"So what are we going to do now? Because there's no way in hell I'm sticking around here if you aren't," said Lina.

Sam looked at Dean.

"Pit stop at Bobby's?"

"Works for me. Sure he'd love to meet your girlfriend," said Dean.

"Hope your car can handle a small trailer in the back," said Lina.

"Nuh-uh. No way in hell am I putting a trailer on the back of my baby."

Sam sighed.

"How about we settle things here and meet you at Bobby's house?"

He had a storage unit of his own, across from Lina's. It was less of a headache leaving his weapons and more esoteric tomes in there.

It took them a few days to set up Sam on the online courses and for Lina to quit her job.

Fortunately his professors understood that his father had gone missing and that they needed to find him, but thanks to the internet he could at least keep up with his classes through assignments by the professors. Whether or not he could get his degree and pass the bar without sitting through the classes themselves was entirely up to him.

To be honest, Sam had been feeling rather restless anyway, and Lina's sense of adventure demanded that she go out and do something more interesting than being a waitress. It wasn't like she had any kids to tie her down after all.


Bobby took one look at Lina, then at the books she was carrying.

"Three of those are outdated and the information is half-wrong," he told her. Lina scowled.

"I knew that idiot was being a little too helpful. Figures he'd give me bad books," said Lina.

She was so setting Xellos on fire.

"So who's she?" asked Bobby to Sam.

"My name is Lina and I'm Sam's girlfriend. So where's your library?"

"Down the hall and on the right."

Considering he had tested her almost immediately for possession (and hadn't he been surprised learning you could bless alcohol and not just water) he let her get to work reading through his massive library. She didn't mind letting him have some of her books, though he had a better collection than she did.

Sam had lucked out when it came to picking girlfriends.

Sam and Dean stayed a few days, mostly so Sam had a chance to set up an online account with his professors and confirm he was completing his education that way.

While they got back into the swing of things, Lina would stay at Bobby's learning everything she could about the supernatural and how to fight them...while helping Bobby with the research.

"So...how did you meet Sam?"

"He was the only one brave enough to actually ask me out when I worked at a bar in Stanford. When I didn't scare him off immediately despite the fact I'm not some brainless idiot like half the other girls at campus, we talked. A few months later he moved into my house...though I never expected some jackass with black eyes to ruin it."

"How did you kill the demon?"

"Kill him? All I did was throw a blessed bottle of whiskey on the bastard and when I realized how much pain he was in I threw salt at him for good measure thinking it would hurt him more. I never thought he'd let off black smoke and then die right on my table. Stayed awake for two days waiting for Sam to get home after salting every entry into my house."

Bobby looked at the red head with approval. Trust Sam to find the one girl with some common freaking sense.

Lina could read over half his collection without any problem, and when she asked questions they weren't stupid ones. He really liked Sam's choice in women...much more sensible than Dean's usual one-night stands. The fact she could read all those old languages was nothing short of a miracle in his opinion.

Bobby's phone rang, and when he picked it up it was the boys. Apparently they were going after a Wendigo and Sam felt an extra gun could be handy.

Instead Bobby sent Lina, since she tended to pack several liquor bottles, easily ripped cloth and a lighter to turn them into Molotov cocktails...and since Wendigo were killed by fire it was the perfect match.