Chapter 8 Dead Man's Blood Part 6

As we get into Dean's Impala with Sam, the giant up front, and me in the back, he fills me in on what came over the police scanner.

"Dad picked up a police call. A couple found a body in the road, when the cops got there everyone was missing. He said it's the vampires, so we're going to check out the scene, see if we can pick up the trail."

"Sounds like a classic vampire trap," I reply.

"I still can't believe vampires are actually a thing. You never mentioned them until now," Dean says.

"It never came up, until now. But, werewolves are real, why not vampires too? All the stories from different parts of the world, with similar lore, had to be based on something real."

"Good point. At least there aren't that many of them left."

The rest of the drive is made in silence, John gets there first and goes over to talk to the police, telling us to wait here. I am not one for taking orders, but not in a mood to argue, I just stand and wait with Sam and Dean.

"I don't see why we couldn't have gone over with him," Sam grumbles. Apparently I am not the only one who isn't a fan of taking orders.

Dean rolls his eyes and looks at Sam, "Don't tell me it's already starting."

"What's starting?" Sam questions, annoyed.

My curiosity is piqued to see the family tensions play out in person, not just in the stories I've heard from Dean, but just then, John walks back over.

"What do you got?," Dean asks to change the subject and hopefully avoid confrontations.

"It was them alright. Looks like they are heading west. We'll have to double back to head around that detour," John informs us.

"How can you be so sure?" Sam questions, clearly not sharing Dean's desire to avoid confrontation.

"Sam…" Dean tries to warn.

"I just want to know we are going in the right direction," Sam defends with attitude and looks straight at John. John stares him down for a second and responds,

"We are."

"How do you know?" Sam demands.

John stares him down some more, but relents and pulls something out of his pocket to show us, "I found this."

"It's a vampire fang," Dean exclaims.

"No fangs, teeth. A second set descends when they attack," John corrects. "Anymore questions?"

Sam just looks away seemingly letting it go for now.

"We should get going, we're losing daylight," I point out. John nods and starts walking back to his truck. As he passes the Impala, he says "Hey Dean why don't you touch up your car, before you get rust. I wouldn't have given you the damn thing if I thought you were going to ruin it."

Dean looks embarrassed as his eyes dart between Sam and I. I keep my comments to myself since they wouldn't be very nice anyway.

As Sam drives the impala behind John's truck, Dean reads about vampires and how they typically operate from his father's journal.

"I wonder if that's what happened to the 911 couple?," Dean comments.

"It's probably what dad is thinking, of course it would be nice if he just told us what he thinks," Sam replies with an attitude. Dean stares at his brother and says, "So it is starting." I just sit in the backseat and watch the family drama unfold.

Sam looks to Dean and says, "What?" like he as no idea what Dean is talking about.

Dean rolls his eyes and replies, "Sam we've been looking for dad all year, now we're not with him for more than a few hours and there's static already?"

Sam scoffs at that and says, "No. Look I'm happy he is okay, alright, and I'm happy we are all working together again…" Dean looks back to the journal and says, "Good." thinking the conversation is done. Sam looks to Dean incredulously and says, "It's just the way he treats us like we're children…" Dean rolls is eyes muttering, "Oh God…"

"He barks orders at us, Dean, he expects us to follow him without question, he keeps us on some crap need to know deal."

"He does what he does for a reason," Dean tries to justify.

"What reason?" Sam asks annoyed.

"Our job, there's no time to argue, no margin for error, alright it's just the way the old man runs things."

"Yea well maybe that worked when we were kids but not anymore, alright, not after everything you and I have been through, Dean. I mean are you telling me you're cool with falling into line and letting him run the whole show?" Sam questions Dean waiting for an answer.

"He has a point, Dean." I pipe up from the back. Deans turns around to glare at me, "Lex, you're not helping!" Sam gives me an appreciative look in the rearview mirror for taking his side. Dean is quiet for a moment, and then answers Sam's question, "If that's what it takes," he says. Sam looks at him incredulous and a little betrayed, he is still upset but drops the subject for now. The car lapses into a tense silence.

Night falls as we are still driving, Dean answers his phone, "Hey dad…" listens to John on the other end and then says "alright got it," and hangs up. He turns to Sam and says, "Pull off at the next exit."

Sam angrily asks, "Why?"

"Because dad thinks we've got the vampires's trail," Dean answers.

"How?" Sam is still angry.

"I don't know, he didn't say." Dean is unperturbed.

Sam starts speeding up in the impala as Dean and I look at him wondering what the hell he is doing. He passes John's truck and stops the car in front of him, getting out of the car to confront his father. Dean mutters, "Oh crap! Here we go…" getting out of the car too. I open my door and stand up too, waiting to see what's about to happen and if I will need to help break up a fight between John and Sam.

John gets out and walks over yelling, "Sam! What the hell was that?"

Unflinching, Sam stands right in his face and says, "We need to talk!"

"About what?," John asks, pissed off.

"About everything!," Sam answers just as pissed off. "Where're we going dad? What's the big deal about this gun?"

Dean tries to prevent the confrontation, saying, "C'mon Sammy we can Q and A after we kill all the vampires."

John says to Sam, "You're brother is right, we don't have time for this."

Sam isn't backing down, "Last time we saw you, you said it was too dangerous to be together, now out of the blue you need our help! Now obviously something big is going down and we want to know what?" Dean looks around helplessly at the scene his family is making.

John says, eerily calm, "Get back in the car."

Sam, unflinching, says, "No."

"I said get back in the damn car," John says again trying to keep his cool.

Right in each other's faces, Sam says, "Yeah, and I said no."

Still trying in vain to keep the peace, Dean butts in, "Alright you've made your point tough guy. We are all tired, we can talk about this later." He grabs Sam by the shirt trying to push him back to the car, "Sammy I mean it, c'mon!" They both turn back towards the impala as Sam mutters, "This is why I left in the first place."

Unfortunately, John heard him and demands, "What did you say?"

Sam turns around back in his dad's face and says, "You heard me!"

John gets right back in his face too, "Yeah, you left! Your brother and me, we needed you, you walked away Sam, you walked away!"

Dean yells, "Stop it both of you!"

Sam continues raging, "You're the one that said don't come back, dad! You're the one who closed that door, not me! You were just pissed off you couldn't control me anymore!"

Dean decides enough is enough, and shoves in to physically separate the two, yelling "Stop it! Stop it! That's enough!" They all take a small step back, I also step forward since things seem to be escalating quickly.

Dean looks to John and says, "That means you too!"

Sam and John both return to their vehicles and Dean stands there for a second looking back and forth between them, throws his hands up and mutters, "Terrific!"

"You okay?, " I ask, he just nods before we both get back in the car too.

Around day break, we finally find the barn where the vampire nest is, to stake out where they will be sleeping for the day. We watch from the woods as a vamp pulls up in a car and is ushered inside by another.

"Son of a bitch, so they really aren't afraid of the sun?" Dean asks.

"Direct sunlight only hurts them like a sunburn, the only way to kill them is…" I start to answer.

"…Is by beheading," John fills in.

I continue, "They sleep during the day, but that doesn't mean they won't wake up."

"So I guess walking right in isn't our best option," Dean says.

John replies with a smirk, "Actually, that's the plan."

I roll my eyes and get up to head back to the car. We all get back to the car and stock up on weapons while John starts telling his sons about the Colt. I listen as John tells the boys the Colt could be their way to kill the demon that killed their mother, and Sam's girlfriend, and that is why we need to get the gun back. I make no comment, because if I'm being honest with myself, I want them to be able to kill that demon for Dean's sake. This is why I'm helping, that and I want a little revenge of my own for Daniel's death.

Once we're geared up and feel like it's been long enough that the vampires should all be asleep, we sneak into the barn through a side window. We get in and silently look around hoping not to wake the sleeping vampires, at least not until after we get the Colt back. There are hammocks with vampires sleeping in them spread out around the barn, there are probably 10 of them. John goes to the back to search for the leader and the Colt, Dean knocks over a beer bottle but luckily didn't wake any of the vamps. Sam and Dean find a girl passed out, tied up, with blood on her shirt; Sam starts to untie her while Dean finds a cage with other victims in it, I look around the hammocks of the sleeping vampires a little more closely looking for the Colt. Dean works on trying to get the cage open, as Sam is untying the girl she begins to wake up. Sam urgently whispers for her to be quiet and lets her know that we are there to help her. Instead of responding, she lets out an inhuman scream, waking up the vampires now surrounding us, and all hell breaks loose.

I hear a crash from the back, three vampires corner me, and a few start moving towards Sam and Dean as well. I tighten my grip on my machete and bring it up into a fighting stance, "Let the fun begin," I mutter as I prepare to attack the three vampires in front of me. I kick out at the one on my left, sending him flying back, I spin forward, ducking the arms of the middle one, swinging my machete up to take his head off as I stand back up. I turn to the side and kick the third one in the chest as the first one starts coming at me again teeth bared. I run at him managing to take his head off too, as the other one gets back up and two more start to come at me. I hear Dean let out a cry of pain from somewhere not too far away and I am momentarily distracted allowing one of the vamps to get the jump on me from behind, I feel their teeth sink in right where my shoulder and neck meet, causing me to cry out as well. The vampire jumps back spitting out my blood like it's battery acid. I feel the power and strength course through me, and I know my eyes must be glowing now. I use the extra power surge to spin around and behead the vamp who jumped me and return my attention to the two in front of me. I manage to knock their heads together and they go down, as my eyes search wildly for Dean. I see John running out from the back towards the exit yelling, "Boys, run!" I see Sam unscathed turn and run for the exit as well. My eyes find Dean pinned against the cage by a vamp who has their teeth in Dean's neck. I run to get to where Dean is, as I reach him, I land a punch to the head of the vamp biting Dean, causing him to let go. Dean falls to his knees and I easily behead this vamp too. I see John and Sam reach the doorway and turn back briefly looking for Dean and I, I make eye contact with John knowing he is seeing my glowing, not so human looking eyes. I yell to them, "I've got Dean! Go!" I manage to push a pillar inside the barn hard enough to break it allowing part of the roof to fall in, bringing in the sunlight with it, giving me the opportunity to help Dean up and run us out of there.

As we get back to the vehicles, Sam and John are already there, waiting for us. John comes toward me with his gun pointed at me saying, "Get away from him! What are you?" I freeze and slowly lower Dean to sit against the impala, Sam going towards him. I slowly stand back up with my arms raised in a sign of surrender while John continues to point his gun at me. Sam checks on Dean and cries out, "Dad! Dean doesn't look so good, he's loosing a lot of blood!"

We all look at Dean, I start speaking to John, "They got his carotid artery. He won't make it to a hospital. I can heal him! I can save his life right now! But you have to let me!"

"What are you? How can I trust you?" he demands again.

"Honestly, I don't know what I am! But we don't have time for this! He is bleeding out!"

"Dad, she's right! Dean trusts her! He told me she has saved his life before! Just let her help him!" Sam pleads.

John looks worried and finally lowers the gun, using it to motion me toward Dean, saying, "Help him!"

I rush to Dean's side kneeling in front of him, he's been seemingly in and out of consciousness during this little exchange. I lightly slap his cheek, his eyes open and he makes eye contact with me, making an affirmative noise. I place my hand over the wound on his neck and allow the power to flow through me, my eyes glow amber again. John and Sam watch in awe as Dean's wound disappears like it never happened and he regains his bearings. Dean places his hand over mine and squeezes it gently, he looks me in the eyes, as they return to normal, and tries to convey how grateful he is, "Thank you!"

I give him a small smile, "Don't mention it."

His eyes catch my neck, "You're bleeding!"

I wince slightly remembering my own wound now, "I'll be fine." I stand up and look at John.

"Are we gonna have a problem?" I question. Dean stands as well, and moves to stand between John and I.

He looks down at the gun in his hand, then back up at Dean, "You really trust her? You knew she has powers?"

Dean looks his dad straight in the eyes and says, "Yes, I knew. And, yes, I trust her with my life!"

John stares at Dean for another beat then turns his eyes to me and says, "I apologize for my reaction, thank you for saving Dean's life!" I nod my head accepting his apology.

John continues, "But, I do want more answers about you, and how the two of you know each other."

"I would expect nothing less," I remark, "But for now, we should get out of here and come up with a plan before night fall and the vamps come gunning for us."

"How have they not caught up with us already?" Sam asks.

"They won't follow during the day, they'll wait until night fall, when they have the upper hand. Once a vampire has your scent, it's for life," I explain to the group.

"So… what the hell do we do now?" Dean asks.

"We have to find the nearest funeral home, that's what," John answers.

"We still have to get the Colt back. Dean and I can go to the funeral home, while you and Sam head back to the motel and start coming up with a plan to go on the offensive," I suggest. John gives a nod accepting the suggestion. John and Sam get in John's truck, while Dean and I get in the impala.