Several weeks earlier
"Did you kill him?" A faint voice came from upstairs.
Dean lowered his gun, still focused on the rapidly dissolving shapeshifter body at his feet.
"I'll go check," Sam said, trotting up the stairs.
The house was small and smelled like incense. The walls were painted dark and the furniture, while meticulously neat, was dated and stuffy. The shifter they'd just killed had taken the owner's body. A young man, maybe thirty-five. Judging by the decor Sam was anticipating he'd find the man's mother, probably hiding in a closet somewhere.
So when he walked into the bedroom and found a young woman, barely twenty-five, tied up naked on the bed, he was more than a little surprised.
There was a livid bruise on her right temple and blood ran from rows of horizontal cuts along her wrists, tangling in her long blonde hair.
"Please tell me he's dead," she said, bright green eyes somehow still alert with all the blood loss. There was a faint accent there, and in the shock Sam couldn't quite place what it was.
"Yeah," Sam said, "Yeah, he's dead. I'm Sam. Can you tell me your name?"
"Natalia," she replied as Sam knelt and grabbed his knife. He sliced the ties around her wrists and grabbed a pillowcase to staunch the bleeding. He took off his coat and wrapped it around her, then helped her sit up.
"You'll want to keep pressure on those," he instructed, cutting the ties around Natalia's ankles. The skin beneath was red and raw, "Can you tell me what happened?"
"He um…he came home drunk," she said, "And he punched me. And when I came to I was tied up on the bed. He started taunting me and cutting me and…then you guys showed up."
"I'm so sorry," Sam said, "This thing…this shapeshifter…took your husband's body. And it…"
"So that wasn't him?" She sounded startled, "But my husband is dead right?"
"Yeah, I'm so sorry…" Sam began.
"Oh thank goodness," Natalia slumped forward, her forehead against his chest. And the second that she touched him Sam felt something bizarre. The war in his mind that had raged since the wall broke quieted. Instantly.
"You're relieved?" Sam asked, speaking slowly, trying to process everything at once. She'd just reacted positively upon being told her husband was dead. And she could somehow quiet the horrible thoughts that plagued him? He had about a million questions for this girl.
"Very," Natalia replied, "I thought it would never end."
It was at that moment that Dean came into the room.
"Alright Sammy," he said brusquely, "Call 911 for her and let's get a move on."
"Take me," Natalia said, picking up her head and drilling them both with that emerald green gaze.
"Excuse me?" Dean asked.
"You hunt evil? Yeah?" She asked.
"We do," Sam replied.
"I want to help," Natalia said simply.
"You want to help?" Dean's voice was laced with disbelief.
"You can't send me back to them," she said, "They'll make me marry his brother and he's just as bad and I can't. I can't do it. I don't want to survive a fucking shapeshifter to get murdered by my next husband."
"Murdered by…" Dean trailed off.
"Give us a minute," Sam said, leaning Natalia against the headboard. He took Dean's arm and stepped into the hallway.
"What's going on?" Dean asked.
"Her husband," Sam said, "The guy the shifter took, was abusing her. Pretty seriously. Seriously enough that she didn't find it weird when he tied her down and started cutting her. I don't think we can in good conscious send her back to her family after this."
"Then we give her to a battered women's shelter," Dean suggested.
"She's asking to come learn," Sam said, "We should let her try."
"What aren't you telling me?" Dean asked.
"Nothing, I…"
"What. Aren't. You. Telling. Me?" Dean repeated, cutting him off.
"She gets the war in my head to be quiet, Dean," Sam said softly, "She gets Lucifer out of my thoughts. I don't know how. But I need to find out."
"Okay," Dean ducked his head, "We'll try it."
"Thanks, man," Sam beamed and ducked back into the bedroom.
"Natalia," he said, "You're coming with us."