Getting kidnapped and brought directly to the vampire's nest was definitely not on Alex's bingo card for the evening, yet she knows that this is full well what has happened when she comes to restrained to a chair in a room completely unfamiliar to her.

Blinking her heavy eyes open, she can't help but let out a small groan as pain throbs across the right side of her face so intensely that it makes her head spin. Hissing, she closes her eyes and inhales through her nose before exhaling slowly through her mouth, trying to fight her way through the pain still ricocheting across her face. Instinct tells her to reach up with her hands and gently rub at the pained area, but when she goes to reach her arms up, she surprisingly finds that all she can do is bend them at the elbow. Frowning, she tilts her fuzzy head down to find that thick layers of rope have been tied tightly across her chest and upper arms, keeping the latter pinned to her side as tightly as a vice.

Well. This is just fucking fantastic.

It takes her a few more minutes to work through the pain and when it becomes somewhat bearable, she throws her head back with an angry huff. She flinches when it hits something solid and warm behind her, and she is quick to crane her neck and turn her body as much as she can to see that a tall and broad figure is also tied to a chair directly behind hers. It's the shaggy brown licks that give Sam away, and everything that had happened before she had blacked out comes rushing back at her;

Sam being knocked out.

The bartender.

The fight in the motel room.

The vampires.

Shit, shit, shit!

"Sam?" She cautiously whispers, hoping that he will respond.

But there's nothing spoken in return – he's likely still unconscious. For the time being, she's on her own.

Alex starts to fidget in her seat, moving as much as she can to try and loosen the restraints keeping her in the chair. Upon closer inspection, she discovers that the same rope wrapped around her is also the same rope tying Sam to his, effectively tying the two of them together. Swearing under her breath, she continues to try and pull and push against the ropes, knowing perfectly well what kind of danger the two of them were in. If the vampires really had brought them back to their nest like she suspects they have, then she sure as hell wants to try and free herself when they are nowhere to be seen.

She continues her struggles for a few minutes with no success, and her jerks eventually pull Sam out of his deep slumber. He comes to with a groan of his own and she feels him move in the seat behind her as he takes in his surroundings. She can also feel him trying to lift his arms but, like her, he is met with very little success.

Hearing her struggling behind him, he turns to face her but can only make out her figure from the corner of his eye. "Alex?"

"Yeah."

"What the hell –?"

"Vampires," she hisses, shushing him at the same time. For the time being, the vamps think that they are unconscious. She would like it to remain that way for as long as possible.

She glances around the dark room that they sit in but can barely make anything out. The only source of light is coming from out in the hall across the side of the room, where Alex can just make out the shape of an old sofa and a cabinet with what she believes is a television on it. They're in a living room of some sort and – most importantly – they appear to be alone.

After a few seconds, when no one comes barging in at the sound of their voices, she whispers, "It was the bartender. He must have put two and two together when we were asking questions at the bar. All that talk about the Barker farm was probably bullshit."

"He waited until we were spit up," Sam realises. "He would have seen Dean and Gordon at the bar and known that we weren't with them."

She nods even though he can't see the action. "He knocked you out, and then he and his friend came after me."

"Are you OK?"

Her head throbs even harder with the question. "Just peachy."

"And it was just the two of them?"

"At the motel, yeah. But there's probably more here."

The words alone are strong enough to send a shiver down Alex's spine. The two vampires could have easily disposed on them back at the motel. They would have had ample opportunity to do so, considering that they had knocked the two hunters out cold. It would have been quick and efficient, executing the two of them before Alex and Sam could hunt them down themselves. But instead, they had dragged the two of them back to the nest, which can only mean one thing;

"I think they've brought us back here just in time for a late-night snack."

Understanding exactly what she means by this, Sam swears. Surveying the dark room, he continues to pull and push at his rope, shifting as much as he can in his seat. "We have to get out of here."

"No shit."

"You don't – ah – you don't happen to have anything on you? Like a knife or something?"

The knife sitting in the inside of her coat pocket along with her keys grows heavier with his words. She sure as hell does have a knife, but she sure as hell can't use it given that her arms are practically pinned to her sides. "Yeah, in my pocket."

"Can you reach it?"

She wants to remark that if she could then she would have used it by now, but she swallows the smart-ass comment before it comes to see the light of day. Bickering isn't going to do them much good in their current predicament. "No. Can you?"

He doesn't reply, and only strains against his restraints to likely try and reach back towards her pocket. His hand smacks against hers a few times, but his efforts are in vain. Swearing, he gives up after a few failed attempts.

Heart hammering in her chest at their defeat, she steely asks, "What about you? Got anything?" When she sees him shaking his head out of the corner of her eyes, she bites back an angry sigh. "Keep pulling then."

And they do just that, for several more minutes. They shift in their chairs, strain against their restraints and whisper instructions under their breaths, but it's no use. The vampires have tied too much rope around the two of them, and they have tied it tightly.

Sam eventually lets out a sigh of defeat, and she feels him slump back in his chair. "It's no use – they're not gonna budge. Not like this."

Not particularly wanting to meet her end at the hands of a bunch of vampires, Alex ignores him and continues to struggle in her seat. When she is met with the same disappointment as before, her lips curl back into an angry snarl. "I fucking hatevampires."

"Well, we're not real keen on hunters either."

Alex's and Sam's heads whip around at the new voice, immediately alert and straightening up in their sears to see a figure standing in the doorway. Due to the poor light, it is hard for them to discern any distinguishing features and identify who the figure is, but judging from the height and the build, it's a man. This is soon proven true when the figure reaches down to flick at the switch on the wall, immediately flooding the room with light and revealing their face –

The bartender. The one that had attacked them at the motel.

The vampire.

All of the hairs on the back of Alex's neck immediately stand on end as her hands clench by her side, screaming at her to do something. Her mind becomes extremely hyperaware of the fact that she is tied to a chair in a room with a vampire that can easily tear her throat out if it wants, and she wouldn't be able to do a damn thing to stop it. And judging from the murderous glare that he sends their way, she wouldn't be surprised if he jumps straight to it.

"If you're thinking of killing us, then think again," she spits before it has a chance to speak. "There's more of us out there, so if you kill us –"

"– then they'll kill you," Sam finishes.

It's half true. It wouldn't take Dean and Gordon long to realise that Alex and Sam were missing, and Alex had a feeling that Dean would come running if he found out that his younger brother was in any kind of danger. But whether they would make it here in time before the vamps started feeding remains to be seen. She just hopes that the vamp will at least stop to consider their threat.

But their words have the opposite effect to the one they intended, as the vampire only snarls in response. Ignoring their threats (or just not caring about them at all) he stalks forward into the room until he comes to a stop in front of Sam. Alex can't help but lean back in her seat as far as humanely possible, and she watches as the vamp opens his mouth to show the two hunters the mouthful of razor-sharp fangs slowly extending from his gums. He leans towards Sam who immediately starts to fidget in his seat. But there's nothing that he can do but watch as the vamp's mouth widens as it leans even closer, going in for the kill –

"Wait!"

For the second time since waking up, a second voice grabs their attention and causes everyone in the room to momentarily freeze. Turning her head, Alex sees a woman standing in the same doorway that the vamp in front of Sam had been in before, watching the scene unfolding before her intently. Seemingly in her mid to late twenties, the woman is extremely pale – as white as milk, almost – with long, raven-black hair that hangs loosely down her back. She's dressed casually in a dark shirt and jeans, and her round face tilts to the side as her piercing hazel eyes glare at the vampire seconds away from sinking its teeth into Sam's neck.

"Step back, Eli."

To Alex's bewilderment, the vamp – Eli – listens to the mystery woman and reluctantly draws back from Sam, allowing his fangs to retract back into his gums, disappearing from sight.

In any other circumstances, she may have felt some comfort now that there is some distance between herself and Eli, but a newfound wave of caution washes over her as she realises that the reason that Eli had backed off, was because the woman is likely in charge; Alec is staring at Queen Bloodsucker herself.

Noticing Alex's clear discomfort, the woman offers a small smile. "My name is Lenore," she greets, her voice as smooth as honey. "And don't worry; we're not going to hurt you."

Alex blinks, not sure if she is imagining the sincerity from how hard she was knocked out. Still, the surprising words prompt her to dazedly reply, "I think that it's a little too late for that."

Lenore's smile turns apologetic as she moves deeper into the room. "I'm sorry, but I knew how you would react if we revealed ourselves to you. I only sent Eli and Henry after you to bring you back here to talk –"

"Talk?" Sam spits. "Yeah. OK. Well, we might have a tough time paying attention to much besides Eli's teeth!"

"He won't hurt you either, you have my word –"

"Your word?" Sam lets out a bark of humourless laughter. "Oh yeah, great. Thanks. Listen, lady, no offence, but you're not the first vampire I've met, OK? I know how this works."

"Oh, yeah?" Eli snaps, earning a stern look from Lenore. A look that he pointedly ignores. "How's that?"

"You brought us back here because you knew that we were the ones hunting you," Alex says. "You pieced everything together back at the bar, and you decided to take us out before we took you out first. So, you brought us here to not only probably lure the others here, but also to feed off us for God knows how long and kill us before we have the chance to kill you. You're not original, alright? You're just like all the other vamps that have done this before."

"We're not like them" Lenore firmly insists.

"Yeah, OK –"

"We don't kill humans, and we don't drink their blood either. In fact, we haven't drunk human blood for a very long time."

It's enough to make Alex pause, but Sam only snorts. "What is this? Some – some kind of joke?"

"Notice how you're still alive? Eli and Henry could have killed you back at the motel if they wanted, and I could have easily let Eli drink from you just moments before when I came into the room. Believe me, if we wanted you dead, then you would already be dead."

Lenore's words are enough to effectively keep Alex quiet at this, as she mulls over the story being sold to her. It is exactly what she had thought before. Eli and Henry truly could have killed Sam and her back at the motel without so much as blinking an eye. It would have been quick, simple, effective. And yeah, bringing them back to the nest could have purely been to feed off the two hunters until they were bone dry, but Lenore had stopped Eli from doing just that. She could have let Eli have him and then deal with Alex herself, and yet they are both still alive, just as Lenore had pointed out.

It's enough to make her stop and consider Lenore's words, but it seems that Sam isn't so easily convinced. "OK, uh, correct me if I'm wrong here, but if you don't drink human blood, then shouldn't you be starving to death?"

"We found other ways – cattle blood."

And just like that, a light bulb goes off above Alex's head. "So you guys are behind the cattle mutilations then."

Lenore nods. "It's not ideal. In fact, it's disgusting. But it allows us to get by."

She slumps back in her chair, dazed. Alex has hunted a lot of vampires over the past few years dealing with a small vampire case had been one of her first hunts when she had first been allowed to start this job – and they have all been the same. Callous killers with little regard for human life, more than willing to suck the life out of any human being not just for survival, but for a sick, twisted sense of pleasure as well. But never in these hunts has she ever come across a vampire who claimed to drink animal blood rather than feed off humans. It was unheard of, really, unless you read those group of vampire books that Isla had been obsessed with during her early college days.

But that was fantasy. This was real life. Surely, there is no real truth behind Lenore's claim, right?

But the cattle mutilations that not even the Sheriff could explain, and the sound belief filtered across Lenore's features inform Alex that maybe she is wrong about this.

Sam, however, still seems sceptical. "Why?"

"Survival. No deaths and no missing locals mean no reason for people like you to come looking for people like us. We easily blend in. Our kind is practically extinct; it turns out we weren't as high up on the food chain as we imagined." Lenore offers them a tight smile. "So, we adapted. We had to if we wanted to live –"

"Why are we explaining ourselves to these killers?" Eli snaps. Up until now, he had been watching and listening to the back-and-forth exchange between Lenore and the two hunters with a hard glare seemingly permanently etched to his face, and it has only hardened to stone the longer that he has listened.

"Eli –"

"We choke on cow's blood so that no human will suffer, and yet they still hunt us down," he continues, ignoring Lenore altogether. "Tonight, they tracked and murdered Conrad at the mill, and they went into town to celebrate their kill."

Alex raises the lower half of her hand as high as the restraints will allow. "Technically, that wasn't me. Just for the record."

"Doesn't matter. You're still all the same. Merciless killers with no regard for anyone that is not like you."

"Funny, I was just gonna say the same about you."

Eli snarls and goes to move forward, but Lenore steps in his path before he can get too close to Alex.

"Eli, that's enough!"

"Yeah, Eli, that's enough," Sam mockingly echoes, causing Alex to curse almost silently under her breath. He beat her by two seconds.

Lenore inhales sharply at the obvious growing tension in the room, a brief anger flashing across her face before she slowly exhales. Looking at Eli, she calmly states, "What's done, is done. We won't escalate things any further. We're leaving town tonight."

"Then why did you even bring us here?" Sam questions. "Why are you even talking to us? We had no clue who you were – you could have skipped town and we wouldn't have even noticed."

Lenore huffs. "Believe me, I'd rather not. But I know your kind. Once you have our scent, you'll keep tracking us and you won't stop until you've killed every single last one of us, no matter where we go. Your friend at the bar tonight? He has been tracking us for almost a year now. We've shaken him off our trail a few times, but he always seems to come right back."

Alex can't help but roll her eyes at Lenore's words, knowing full well who she is talking about. "First of all, Gordon isn't a friend. Far from it, really. And second of all, if he's been such a pain in your ass for the past year, why haven't you just dealt with him yourself already?"

"Like I told you, we want to survive. If we were to kill one of your kind then your people will hunt and slaughter every single one of us until there isn't any of us left." Lenore's face softens, an almost pleading look taking hold of her face. "Please. We have a right to live - we just want to be left alone."

"So, you're asking us not to follow you?" Sam questions.

Lenore nods. "We're not hurting anyone."

"Right, so you keep saying. But give us one reason why we should believe you."

Something in Sam's words strikes something in Lenore, as she moves forward until she stands in front of him. Alex cranes her neck as far back as she can to see what is happening, but due to her restraints, she is limited by what she sees. All she can make out is Lenore bending down so that she is at eye-level with an alert Sam in the chair in front of her, but Alex can't tell from her angle whether or not Lenore's fangs have come out.

"Fine," she hears Lenore softly drawl. "Do you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to let you both go."

Alex's eyes widen in surprise. Out of everything she had been expecting, all the worst-case scenarios that had begun to flow through her head the second that Lenore had moved out of her eyesight, that, had certainly been at the bottom of the list. In fact, she hadn't even considered it as a possibility at all.

Lenore draws back from Sam. "Take them back," she orders Eli. "Henry and David will help you. Make sure that there's not so much as a scratch on them."

Sam, likely too stunned by Lenore's words, remains silent as she goes to leave the room, but Alex can't help but call out behind her, "That's it? You're just gonna let us go?"

Lenore stops in her tracks to give Alex a small yet flat smile over her shoulder. "I told you, we're not going to hurt you. If you would be so kind as to return the favour, it would be appreciated."

And with that, she's gone, leaving a grumpy Eli and the two shocked hunters in her wake.

For a moment, all Alex can do is blink. Surely there was some kind of catch – these vamps wouldn't risk everything and place themselves in potential danger by bringing a group of hunters directly into their nest, and then just letting them walk away. They don't know Sam and Alex – they could easily go and meet with Gordon and Dean back at the bar and bring them back here to kill every last one of them before they had the chance to skip town.

But there's something in Alex's gut that tells her maybe – just maybe – after everything that Lenore has said and done tonight, that doing so would be a big mistake. Maybe she was telling the truth. Maybe these vampires really live about their lives without hurting anyone, which then begs the question; if they weren't doing anything wrong, then do she and her other hunter companions have the right to kill them?

You can't exactly serve a punishment when no crime has been committed.

She's startled from her thoughts when Eli moves to stand in her view, having been too engrossed in her troubled thoughts to realise that he has moved across the room towards both her and Sam. There's some shuffling at the doorway and she sees that two other vampires have joined them; she recognises one of them from earlier at the motel.

"Come and untie them," Eli says, not bothering to try and hide his distaste for Lenore's orders. "Once they're up bag 'em and tie their hands together as well. If they try any funny business –" Alex hisses as a knife is suddenly pressed to her throat, the sharp edge just pressing against her skin.

"I'll handle 'em."

Alex tries her best to remain as calm as possible, but it proves difficult with the knife being too close to her. She can feel her heart racing as the other two vamps stalk forward to untie both Sam and her, but she remains still, not daring to move even an inch in case Eli decides to slit her throat. Judging from the way that Sam remains still in the chair behind her, he may have a knife held to him as well.

She immediately feels better when the ropes are pulled away, allowing some circulation to return to her arms. But despite every instinct screaming in her body to move, to fight, she only offers her hands forward when the vamp in front of her demands them. Any move on her part could get herself or Sam killed, and something tells her that the last thing she wants is an angry and vengeful Dean Winchester on her ass for the rest of her life if she ends up getting

Her hands are tied just as tightly together as her arms had been by her sides, and it isn't long before a dark bag is shoved over her head, practically blinding her as she is hauled to her feet. She stumbles as they move through the house, only knowing they've reached outside when the cool air nips at her bare arms. She can hear them dragging Sam somewhere behind her, and they're shoved in the back of a truck a moment later, speeding off into the night back towards the motel.

The drive takes no longer than twenty minutes and is spent in silence, yet Alex is on edge for the entire ride. She half expects the car to stop and for the vamps to drag both her and Sam out of the vehicle to kill them without Lenore knowing, and every time she feels someone shift beside her, her hands instinctively clench into fists. Not that she can do much in this state, but it's the hunter's instinct in her that tells her to be prepared to fight for her life at any

But it never comes.

The truck comes to a screeching halt twenty minutes later, and she is yanked from the car and pushed out into what she assumes is the street. The bag is pulled from her head, and she has to blink her eyes rapidly to adjust to the light streaming from a streetlamp directly above them. Quickly glancing around, she sees that they're at the entrance to the motel parking lot, the motel sign gleaming in the air above them.

Her head jerks around as Eli pushes Sam beside her, wrenching the bag from his head in a similar fashion to hers. Glaring at them – God, did he ever smile? – he snaps, "There. You're back, and in one piece just like Lenore said."

"Yeah, OK," Alex says, her voice dripping with sarcasm. With her head still throbbing from the hit she had taken earlier, she only thrusts her hands forward to the vampire. "How 'bout you finish the favour and untie us, hm?"

To her fury, however, Eli only turns on his heel and starts to walk back to the truck where his two friends wait impatiently for him.

"Hey! Asswipe! Untie us!"

"Have a nice night," Eli calls back without a care in the world, his sarcasm rivalling hers.

She sees red at his retreating figure as he climbs back into the truck. "You fucker –" She starts, moving to rush after him –

– only to be yanked back by Sam behind her. "It's OK, Alex. I'll untie you. Let them go."

She snarls but nevertheless listens to him. However, she can't help but raise her hands and flip off the retreating truck as it drives off back down the street, making sure to use both fingers as she watches them go.

"Here," Sam says, nudging her around with his hands. She offers him hers with no complaints, watching as he pulls at the ropes, struggling a little due to his restraints. "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine. Do you believe them? About not killing people?"

Sam thinks quietly to himself on the matter for a moment, his eyes narrowed as he works away at the ropes around her wrists. It isn't until he pulls them loose and they fall to the ground in between them that he says, "Yeah, I think I do. I mean, they let us go, didn't they? They could have killed us if they wanted to, but they didn't. It explains the cattle mutilations as well."

She hums, reaching forward to return the favour as she starts to tug at his restraints as a thought suddenly strikes her. "Come to think of it … the only bodies that have been found have all been vamps. If they really were killing people, then wouldn't other bodies have shown up by now? Or missing person's reports?"

She watches as Sam's face lights up with realisation, having not thought of this himself yet. It only further cements Lenore's claims, however. With one final tug, his hands are free, and he thanks her as he rubs at his wrists, fingers trailing over the red marks left there by the ropes. "We gotta talk to Dean. I don't know about you… but it feels wrong to kill them if they haven't done anything wrong in the first place."

She hums in agreement, his words mirroring her thoughts from earlier when Lenore had first let them go. The evidence was there to back up what she was saying, clear enough for both her and Sam to realise the truth. She just wonders whether or not Dean and his best buddy Gordon will do the same.

Free of their restraints, Alex gathers the broken pieces of rope and informs Sam that she will get rid of them while he goes and talks to his brother. Somehow, she thinks that the oldest Winchester will take the news better if it comes from Sam rather than herself. They split in the car park, Alex making a beeline for her parked car while Sam heads to his motel room to retrieve his brother. It isn't until Alex has tossed the remnants of the rope in the backseat and slams her car door shut that Sam and Dean emerge – thankfully, without Gordon – pulling the motel door closed behind them.

"Where the hell have you two been anyway?"

"We were in the nest."

"You found it?!"

Alex scoffs, grabbing the brothers' attention. She watches as Dean's brows raise at the sight of her battered face, and she bitterly spits as they come to a stop beside her car, "More like they found us. They ambushed us here and brought us back to the farm."

The surprise on Dean's face is almost comical. "How the hell did you get out?!"

"They let us go."

Dean makes a noise of disbelief at her words, likely thinking that she's joking. It isn't until he turns and sees the way that Sam shrugs his shoulders in a 'it's the truth' kind of way, that the surprise is replaced with disbelief. "Oh, c'mon. There's no way that they just let you go!"

"Dean, that's exactly what they did."

"Well, where's the nest?"

At this Sam hesitates, and he glances at Alex from the corner of his hazel eyes. When she offers him nothing in return, he only turns to his brother and feebly states, "I don't know. We were blindfolded."

"Sam –"

"I really don't know, Dean."

"Donovan?"

She raises her hands, ignoring the way that Dean rolls her eyes with the gesture. "He's not lying, we were blindfolded."

"C'mon, you have to know something –"

"Sorry, but I was too busy focusing on the fact that we were in a car surrounded by vampires that could have killed us whenever they wanted. Was kinda more worried about their sharp fangs than anything else."

As Dean gives yet another roll of his eyes, Sam sighs. "Look, I know that we went over that old bridge right outside of town, but I don't think that we should go after them."

Dean shoots his brother a look that suggests he's gone crazy. "Why the hell not?!"

"We don't think that they're like other vampires," Alex explains. "They're apparently not killing people."

"Oh, really?" Dean scoffs. Like Alex suspected, he's not buying this one bit. "Then how do they stay alive? Or undead or whatever the hell that they are!"

"The cattle mutilations. They said that they feed off of animal blood –"

"And you believed them?!"

"Look at us, Dean!" Sam exclaims, spreading his arms out wide. "They let us go without a scratch –"

Alex clears her throat, pointing a finger towards the bruise forming across her cheek.

"…or, mostly. It would explain the cattle mutilations and the fact that the only bodies that we have found were vampires. No humans, no missing person's reports – Dean, it makes sense."

But Sam's desperate pleas only land on deaf ears, as Dean cuts him of with a firm shake of his head. "No, man. No way. Look, I don't really know why they let you go – and I don't really care – but we still need to find them and waste them."

And with that, he turns on his heels and starts to make his way back to the motel room, leaving his disappointed brother in his wake. Sam looks at him with a blend of disbelief and dismay written all over his face and even Alex can't help but roll her eyes at Dean's continued stubbornness. She knew when Sam had first suggested that they tell Dean the truth that it would take some convincing. She just didn't think he'd be an ass about it.

It seems that Sam still has a little bit of a fight in him, however, as he is quick to surge forward after his retreating brother. "Why? Why do we have to kill them? They're not hurting anyone, Dean!"

"What part of vampires don't you understand, Sam? If it's supernatural, we kill it, end of story! It's our job!"

"Last time I checked, our job was hunting evil," Alex pipes up from where she still leans against her car. When Dean shoots her a livid look at her input, she only matches his glare with one of her own. She's getting sick and tired of this argument really fast. "And the way that I see it, if these vampires really aren't killing people, then they're not really evil."

"Of course they're killing people! It's what they do, they're all the same –"

"Oh, for God's sake! Can you just shut up for two seconds and listen to what we're trying to get past that thick skull of yours? They're not killing people!"

"They're not human! We have to exterminate every single last one of them –"

"No, Dean," Sam pleads, his tone a lot calmer than Alex's. "I don't think we do. Not this time, not with these vamps –"

Dean jerks a thumb back towards the motel door now behind him. "Gordon's been on this case for a year, he knows."

"Gordon? You're taking his word for it?!"

"That's right."

"Ellen says he's bad news," Alex reveals slowly, her eyes narrowing as yet another thought strikes her. If Gordon has been tracking this nest for over a year now, then wouldn't he have put two and two together now and realised that this nest weren't killing anyone? Unless, of course, he was more of a dick than what she thought and like Dean, just didn't care.

"You called Ellen?"

"Technically, she called me. And yeah. She said that we couldn't trust him."

"And what? Are we supposed to take her word for it? We barely know her!"

Irritation irks her at the implication that it was Ellen who can't be trusted, and she pushes away from the car to angrily stalk towards the two brothers. "I've known Ellen for years now. If there's anyone you can trust, it's her."

"No thanks," Dean dismisses, and it takes everything within Alex not to surge forward and knock some sense in that thick head of his. "I'll stick with Gordon on this one."

"Right, because Gordon is such an old friend."

Sam, who had spent the latter part of the argument silently watching Alex and Dean argue back and forth, suddenly steps past Alex to stand right in front of his brother. "Dean, you really that I don't see this for what it is? He's a substitute for Dad, and a poor one, at that."

Alex pulls a face, suddenly wishing that she were anywhere but with the Winchester brothers right now. Judging from the way that Dean's face hardens, Sam's words seem to bring up a touchy subject that should probably just stay between the two brothers, which is fine by her – she has no interest in getting dragged in the Winchester family drama. But it's almost like trying to look away from an upcoming car wreck. She knows in her gut that whatever is about to unfold isn't good, but she can't find it within herself to turn around and walk away.

"What are you talking about?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about –

"Shut up, Sam."

"He's not even close, not on his best day."

"You know what, I'm not gonna even talk –"

"You slap on this big, fake smile but I can see right through it, because I know how you feel, Dean!" Sam finally explodes, the sudden intensity in his voice catching Alex by surprise. "Dad's dead! And he left a hole that hurts so bad, that you can't take it, but you can't just fill up that hole with whoever you want! It's an insult to his memory!"

Something in Dean's face tightens, and he turns away from his brother. Alex thinks that he's about to walk away, which is why she is completely thrown off guard when he swings back around and slams an angry fist into the side of his younger brother's face.

She jumps at the impact, yelling as Sam's head whips to the side. He lets out a groan of his own and he stumbles to the side, but Alex moves around him to square up to his brother, whose smirk is long gone. He glares at her angry form in front of her but says nothing as she points to the motel door behind them.

"Alright, if you want to act like a fucking child, you can leave," she snaps. "Don't go swinging punches – at your own brother – just because he says something that you don't want to hear."

His hand clenches into an angry fist by his side as he turns his sharp glare to her, which doesn't go unnoticed by Alex. Clenching her fist, she looks him dead in the eye and grits out between her teeth, "Try it. See what happens."

For a split second, she thinks that he will. But Sam, rubbing at his likely throbbing jaw, straightens to stand beside Alex. To her surprise, there's no anger on his face. Just an underlying sadness as he stares at his brother, who at least has the decency to look somewhat guilty underneath his brother's gaze.

"You can hit me all you want. It won't change anything."

A silence descends on the three of them then, with Sam and Dean locking eyes with one another. A thousand different and silent conversations pass between them while Alex's chocolate brown eyes flicker between the two brothers almost uncertainly. Though it seems that Sam has no intention of finishing what his brother has started, she knows full well that things could escalate further at any given minute. If a fight were to break out she doesn't know if she would be able to break the two of them up before they drew any unwanted attention from the other motel guests. She's surprised they haven't done so already with all the yelling.

Whatever shit it is that is going on between them has clearly been happening for some time now. If Alex were to take a guess, it would probably be from around the time their father passed. Either way, it once again makes her question what exactly it is that she has gotten herself into by agreeing to work with the two of them.

"I'm going to that nest," Dean finally says, effectively breaking the silence and earning a disappointed look from his brother in turn. "You don't want to tell me where it is? Fine. I'll find it myself."

And with that, he turns on his heel and marches back towards the motel room, ignoring Sam's desperate plea as he chases after his big brother. Not particularly wanting to get dragged further into their drama, Alex lets them go. Reaching up to gingerly pry at her battered face, she lets out a hiss as her fingers graze a small cut right on the edge of her cheekbone. Likely caused by the glass from the lamp smashing against her face. Sure enough, when she looks at her reflection in the window of her car, she sees dry blood caking the side of her face and mixing with the hues of blues and purples beginning to take shape on her face. Sighing, she moves to the trunk of her car.

Finding an old, ripped shirt that she had completely forgotten that she owned at the bottom of spare clothes that she leaves in the back of the trunk, she gently dabs at the side of her face to remove the blood stains. Left alone to stew in her thoughts, she can't help but marvel at just how fucked of a night it has been. Running into Gordon, being kidnapped by vampires, getting a glimpse into the fucked-up drama between the two brothers… could the night get any worse?

The motel door swings open, and she looks up to see a furious Dean barging out of the motel, a worried Sam right behind him.

"Gordon's gone," Dean barks before she can get a word out. "He snaked my fucking keys!"

For fuck's sake. Apparently, it could get worse.

"He's going after the nest," she concludes, her words causing Sam's face to twist with worry. "Or he's gone off to look for them, at least. He doesn't know where they are yet."

"He's got some idea," Dean snaps. "We were looking just before you guys came back."

"We have to stop him!"

"Well, that's gonna be difficult without a car, Sam!" Dean exclaims. Shaking his head, his hands clench into fists by his sides as he starts to march towards the car, muttering darkly under his breath as he goes;

"God damn it. I just fixed Baby up, now I've got to fucking hot-wire her…"

It takes Alex all of two seconds to realise that 'Baby' is the sleek, black Impala parked two cars down from hers, and she can't help but snort. Somehow, it doesn't surprise her to learn that Dean is the type of man to name his car. Had circumstances not been so dire, then she might have made a smart-ass comment, but instead, she only tosses her ripped clothing back into the bag that she found it from, and slams the trunk shut.

"You don't have to hot wire anything. We've got a perfectly working car right here."

Dean stops and turns to face her, confusion written all over his face. It takes him a further thirty seconds to realise what it is Alex means and when he does, his face scrunches up.

"You've got to be kidding…"

"Take it or leave it, Dick. I don't care either way, but I'm going after Gordon."

"Thought you said you didn't know where the nest was?"

Her lips purse. Technically, she didn't have any idea where it was that Eli and his other vampire friends had dragged her and Sam to earlier in the evening. But before she can agree and give Dean the satisfaction that he sure as hell doesn't deserve, Sam speaks up beside her;

"I do. I've got a vague idea of where to go."

Dean shoots his brother a look. "So you lied."

Sam returns the look with one of his own that screams 'duh'.

Reaching into her pocket, her fingers curl around the keys to her Elantra, and she pulls them out before swinging them in her hand. "Let's go then."