Cascading Spirits 4/5
When Dean paced around the fountain then closer to it, Blair watched as Sam tensed. He shifted his weight nervously, lips pressing to a thin line as he stuffed his fists into his jacket pocket. Using his toe, Dean scuffed it along the base of the fountain, and through the grass. When he’d made a complete circuit of the fountain he stood less than half a foot from its edge and looked at Jim for a few seconds before his intense gaze settled on Blair.
It was unsettling.
“So,” Dean began, looking away from them and to the buildings across from the fountain. “We need to know who this blonde woman is, she’s right in the middle of this mess. Any clues how we can ID her?”
Blair had the distinct feeling the older Winchester brother already knew he and Jim were well aware of whom the woman was and he was simply asking to force them to admit their knowledge.
“Maybe if we knew more about her we could come up with a name,” Jim said. It was pretty obvious to Blair his partner had the same person on his mind as Blair.
“Yeah, well, you’re the ones who need to come up with the name,” Dean pressed.
Blair sighed and groaned inwardly, this would be a lot easier if these two didn’t feel the need to antagonize each other with every word. They were saved from an all-out confrontation when Sam hissed in a breath that shrieked pain. The smartass expression dropped off Dean’s face as did some of his color. He shoved away from the fountain and strode toward his brother. “Sam.”
Sam rubbed at his eyes then forehead with forefinger and thumb. He stumbled backwards a few steps as if the world was tilting away from his feet. Looking at him made Blair hurt, pain centered on Sam’s head literally radiated off him. Within the span of a few seconds the kid went from looking fairly normal and healthy to like he’d died last week and no one had bothered to send his body the memo yet.
Jim seemed to completely forget about arguing with Dean and stared at Sam. “Are you okay?”
“Hey, man, what’s wrong?” Blair asked at almost the same time Jim spoke.
Dean was at his brother’s side, one arm around him and tugging him in closer to take some of his weight, mumbling, “Shit, Sammy, not a good time, dude.”
“He’s done this before?” Jim was two steps behind Dean. When he reached out and tried to help Dean support Sam he was given a vicious enough glare from Dean that he backed off. That more than a little bit amazed Blair. Jim never backed down from anyone. Then again Jim probably never really came across someone who was so much like he was, sentinel senses aside.
“You wanted to know how he saw things,” Dean snapped and sidestepped, forcing Sam farther from them.
Blair pointed to the Anthro building. “Your brother shouldn’t be out here. My office is up there, we can-”
“Yeah, I remember.” Dean’s face softened and he drew in a deep breath when Sam’s shoulders relaxed and he tried to stand straighter. “Thanks.” He didn’t take as much offense to Blair when he got on the other side of Sam and took his arm, helping to steer him to the building. Jim ran ahead and got the door open.
Fortunately classes were still in session, so the halls were mostly empty. They managed to get the big kid up the stairs and into Blair’s office with a minimum of attention drawn to them. By the time Sam was settled in a chair some of his color was back, his eyes were clearer and Dean didn’t look as freaked out as he had a few minutes before.
When Blair handed Sam a glass of water, he glanced up and offered him a small smile. “Thanks.”
“He…uh…gets these visions sometimes. That headache goes along with them when they happen,” Dean offered. A hand on Sam’s shoulder drew Sam’s attention to Dean. “What did you see?”
“This is nuts,” Jim snapped.
“It’s not so unbelievable.” Blair grabbed Jim’s arm, stopping him from getting closer to the Winchesters. “Think of it as a sensory overload. The only difference is Sam’s heightened sense is different.”
“There was,” Sam’s voice was soft, barely above a whisper and trembled slightly. He looked up at Blair, sat straighter in the chair and finished off the water. “The fountain and you and that tall blonde woman. She held you face down in the water until you stopped struggling. She had on a suit, um…really nice, dark, blue or black maybe dark gray. And a necklace.” His fingers fluttered to his throat and moved down to his chest before dropping back to his lap. “It was silver and had a couple strands hanging off the part around her neck.”
Blair suppressed a shiver as a mental image formed of Alex Barnes when she’d come to his office, this office, the first time. He remembered how he’d thought her necklace was unusual and matched Sam’s description perfectly.
Sam turned to Dean, focused on him and continued. “She had blonde hair, came to just above her shoulders and sort of reminded me of that Borg chick on Star Trek.”
“Movie or series?”
“Series,” Sam said immediately.
“Voyager wasn’t nearly as cool as the other ones.” Dean’s fingers worked Sam’s shoulder a few times before he let go and patted Sam’s back. He took a deep breath and looked at Blair and Jim. “Throw us a bone here, guys.”
“There was a woman by the name of Alex Barnes,” Jim started carefully, crossing his arms over his chest. “Seven years ago we had a run in with her.”
“I’m thinking she’s back for round two,” Dean said.
Blair crossed the office to his filing cabinet, opening it he pulled out a large envelope. Without looking at Jim, he handed it to Sam. “Here’s what little information I had on her. There should be a picture of her in there, see if that’s who you saw.”
Jim’s jaw went white and a muscle along one side jumped. Blair tried not to notice the harsh look sent his way, they’d talk later that was for sure. He wasn’t exactly looking forward to that particular discussion.
With shaking fingers Sam opened the envelope and pulled out the pictures Blair had kept for his research. He shuffled through them with Dean leaning over his shoulder looking.
“Is that her?” Dean asked, pointing at the photos.
Sam nodded. “This is Alex Barnes?”
“Yes,” Blair said, reaching for the envelope.
Fingers tightening on the paper, Sam wouldn’t let go, but pulled other photos from inside. “What are these?” He twisted around to face the table, spreading the photos across it. “I recognize…these seem so familiar.”
“Did you see paintings in your vision?” Dean was moving them around with one finger.
“No, but I saw…” Sam’s voice trailed off when Dean tapped on one. Sam leaned forward and squinted then turned and looked around at them. “This one, Dean, does it look familiar?”
“Jeff’s apartment.”
“I didn’t start having visions of that fountain until I touched that painting in Jeff’s apartment.”
Jim moved forward to stand beside Dean, looking at the pictures. “You saw one of these in your friend’s apartment?”
“Yeah,” Sam said, finger jabbing at one of the photos. “This one. He said he bought it at an auction of some kind.”
“Things from her condo must have been sold off after she died,” Blair said to Jim.
“She’s dead?” Dean asked. “Do you know where she’s buried?”
“She died about a year ago and was cremated. Why?” Jim now seemed more interested in getting the pieces put into place than in challenging the Winchesters.
“So she must be tied to her paintings.” Dean took the photos and stuffed them all back into the envelope. He was talking to Sam; it was as if Jim and Blair weren’t there. “We need to collect anything that she can still be attached to and burn it.”
“Artwork is very personal to the artist, it makes sense she might still be connected to her paintings.” Sam’s voice came out faster and stronger.
“I’ll find out what auction house dealt with Alex’s paintings, shouldn’t take more than a few hours once we have a list of where they went to collect them.” Jim pulled out his phone and moved to the other side of the office, speaking into it in a low voice. Blair knew he was calling the station and having someone look up the information they needed. “Okay, got it, thanks.” Jim covered the distance to Blair’s desk and grabbed a piece of paper and pen, scribbling something down. He folded it and put it in his jeans pocket.
An hour later they had a list of who’d bought the paintings. Fortunately most of them were on or near the campus. Despite protests from both Dean and Jim, they split up, each taking addresses off the list. Blair was the first one to complete his task, and was dragging them up to his office. He’d spent the time collecting the paintings trying to think of a place to burn a sizeable stack of paintings and sketches. One possibility came to mind and he hoped it would be sufficient.
Blair wasn’t exactly sure he believed what the Winchesters had said about Alex’s spirit being tied to her art, but he was determined to keep an open mind. There were stranger things he’d seen and the two brothers certainly were very convinced this was a critical plan of action. They believed in ghosts and the fact Sam had so accurately described not only Alex, but Alex on the day Blair had first met her, was pretty darn persuasive.
“I’ve got all mine.” Sam had to turn sideways to get himself and the paintings he had stuffed under one arm through the door. He piled his on top of Blair’s on the conference table in the middle of the office.
“Have you heard from your brother?”
Sam nodded. “Yeah, he’s on his way back, should be here in fifteen minutes or so. The one my friend bought is still in his apartment, I’m going to go grab it. We’re going to need somewhere we can burn this stuff and not set off a dozen alarms, any ideas?”
“I was just thinking about that. There might be a place. One of the older buildings has a big garbage incinerator, I don’t know if it still works or not, but would that do?”
“Perfect.” Sam grinned. “Even if it doesn’t work we can light these up in it and not worry about burning down the college.” He headed toward the door. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“I’ll take these and check out the incinerator.” Blair grabbed a pad of paper and pen off his desk, writing fast and ripping the paper off, holding it out to Sam. “Here’s the address and directions. Meet me there then we can haul the rest of Alex’s art over when Jim and Dean get the rest.” Blair grabbed his phone, keys, the stack of artwork and followed Sam out of the office and down the steps. At the building entrance he veered off in one direction, Sam taking the opposite, breaking into a jog when he hit the sidewalk.
Sam bee-lined to Jeff’s apartment building and took the stairs to his floor three at a time. Jeff was working now, but Sam wasn’t sure how much time he’d have. Pulling his lock picks out, he made short work of the cheap lock on the apartment door, knocking as he opened it and slipped inside. No one answered his knock or when he called out Jeff’s name.
Crossing the main room, Sam snatched the painting off the wall, shoved it under his arm and was back out of the apartment, down the steps and heading back to Blair’s office in no time. No one paid attention to him.
As he passed by the fountain, movement near it caught his attention. Sam stopped and looked at the water, nothing unusual was in it, yet he couldn’t shed the feeling something was around the side, just out of his line of sight. Shaking off the odd feeling and trying to ignore how the hair along the back of his neck rose, how his skin tingled, he took a few more steps around the fountain.
He needed to get back to the Anthro building, but he needed to see what was lurking around the fountain. Keeping his distance he walked a few more steps and stopped, shifting the painting to his left side. When movement almost out of his periphery made him turn around, Sam drew himself straighter and breathed out, “What the hell?”
A cat the size of a motorcycle faced him. Pale yellow eyes stared straight into his from a straw colored face with black spots. It blinked at him; nothing else moved other than the very end of its tail that twitched side to side a few times. Sam blinked back. His brain whirled, too big for ocelot or a Bengal cat? Leopard, jaguar? He had no idea. One spotted cat looked the same as the next to him.
Whatever it was, it was a damn big cat, solid muscle and Sam estimated it to weigh at least as much as he did, scratch that, it probably weighed more. A lot more. This wasn’t anyone’s lost house cat. Cold fear slithered around his gut and pinged off his spine, sending a shiver through him. He took a half step toward the Anthro building, wondering if he could out run what certainly looked like some sort of jungle cat.
Sidestepping with him, long, white whiskers flinched up when the cat’s lips pulled up in a silent snarl. The straight, white, very pointed teeth impressed Sam into freezing in his tracks. By the way the feline’s ears flicked back and forth Sam had the distinct impression the thing could hear his heart hammering in his chest. He certainly knew how those gazelles on National Geographic must have felt when faced with similar predators.
Sam was fast, but there was no way he was as fast as a gazelle.
Licking dry lips with an equally dry tongue, Sam took a step back and glanced around. The area was deserted other than he and an animal that shouldn’t be roaming around loose in Cascade or any other city.
The cat stepped forward, this time a low rumble vibrated through the air from its throat.
When Sam’s cell phone chimed the cat’s tail lashed side to side a few times. Holding out one hand, Sam took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay, just answering the phone, don’t get all hungry.” He carefully took his phone from his pocket, nearly passing out with relief when he saw Dean’s name on the screen. Trying not to shake he flipped open the phone and whispered, “Dean.”
“Sammy, what’s wrong? Where the hell are you?”
“Shut…Up. Don’t scare it.” Oh yeah, who was he kidding? As if this thing would be afraid of a voice on a tiny cell phone.
“Huh? Are you high? What are you-?”
“Dean,” Sam hissed into the phone then held his breath when the cat took another step. “Shut up and listen. There’s a…a…I don’t know, some kind of jungle cat, but it’s the biggest freaking cat I’ve ever seen. It’s yellow with black spots and it’s huge.”
“What?”
“It’s-oh crap!”
The sight would have been amazing and awe inspiring had it not been coming straight at him. Going from zero to what looked to be warp drive in no time the cat gathered its haunches and leapt at him. Sam remembered not to drop the painting as he spun on his heels and leapt into his own sprint.
He was right; he wasn’t faster than a gazelle. Cold hit him a split second before something else pounded against his back and he was flattened to the ground. He waited for the sensation of teeth digging into his neck, but he never felt anything not even when the world went black.
Dean pulled his phone away from his face and stared at it, had he heard correctly? Sam was facing off some sort of wild cat? That couldn’t be right.
He tucked the paintings he’d collected tighter to his side and broke into a run, not stopping until he was bursting through the door of Sandburg’s office, dropping the paintings in a pile on the round conference table in the middle of the room. He’d no sooner pulled out his phone and tried Sam’s number again when Ellison came through the door and deposited the final few paintings onto the pile.
“Where’s Blair?” Ellison asked at once.
“No one was here when I got here. You got a wildlife problem here?”
“Huh?”
“My brother, he just called me and said something about a giant, spotted cat coming after him. That’s when the phone went dead. I was going to go look for him, but I’m not sure where he was when he called.”
“A jaguar?”
“I don’t know,” Dean snapped. “How the hell should I know or how would Sam know? He said a huge wildcat with spots.”
“We have to find your brother.”
“No shit.” Dean brushed by Ellison. He stopped at the door, pulled his handgun out and checked the load, replacing it quickly. “I’ve got a permit,” he mumbled before the question was asked. If this cop decided to give him a hard time and it meant Sam being stuck somewhere then the guy was going to find out how hard Dean could hit and exactly how good his aim was.
“Blair called me a few minutes ago, said he thought of a building on campus that had an incinerator and Sam went to his friend’s apartment to get the last painting.”
Ellison’s sudden change in attitude surprised Dean, but he wasn’t going to question it just now, not with his kid brother’s life on the line.
“That’s a good place to start.”
“No,” Ellison said, stopping him by crossing the room in a few strides and grabbing Dean’s arm. “I think I know what building Blair was thinking of. If Sam had the last painting, and I’m guessing if he saw Alex’s jaguar then we need to go there.”
“Alex had a jaguar? As in the cat, not the car?”
“No. Listen, you asked me to trust you, now I’m doing the same thing. The jaguar is a spirit guide thing and we don’t have time for me to explain now. It’s the only logical place to look, if that’s where the other paintings are. You said yourself she’d be attached to her art.”
Dean nodded and held the door open, following close on Ellison’s heels and pulling the door shut behind him. The Impala was closer than Ellison’s truck, so they took that. Ellison pointed out directions as Dean drove. It was near the edge of campus, an obviously older building, probably one of the original ones built. The building was a few stories, brick and nondescript. Dean hesitated a few seconds at the back of the Impala, managing to get a sawed off loaded with rock salt out and stuffed into a duffel with a few other necessities while Ellison scouted around the building looking for a way inside.
When Ellison gave his duffel an odd and pointed look Dean shrugged. “You didn’t expect me to go in unprepared. Just because you don’t believe in this crap doesn’t mean I don’t. Not all weapons are guns and knives. You can arrest me after I know my brother is safe.”
“Fair enough,” Ellison said and yanked on the closest door. It swung open easily. Dean figured it wasn’t against the law to go into an unlocked building and apparently Ellison agreed. Pulling out his handgun and holding it low and at the ready he strode through.
They spent a few minutes searching out a way to the basement, where the incinerator would likely be located. A quick try of the light switched proved there was no power to the building, which didn’t surprise Dean in the least. He took two flashlights from his duffel, holding one out like an olive branch to Ellison.
Dean didn’t even try to hide his shock when Ellison waved off the flashlight. “I can see fine.”
“Whatever.” Dean clicked the light on and shoved the other back into his duffel.
The building was empty and their footfalls echoed off the walls as they raced down stairs that Dean hoped would not only lead to the basement and incinerator but clues to his brother’s whereabouts as well. As soon as Dean hit the bottom floor and rounded the turn from the steps he saw a familiar lump in the middle of the space that was empty other than the incinerator along the far wall.
Breaking into a run, Dean called, “Shit, Sam!”
Jumping over Sam’s form and dropping at once to his knees, Dean let everything in his hands slide to the floor. Grabbing Sam’s shoulders he gently turned him over, nearly dizzy with relief when Sam sucked in a quick, panicked breath and jerked away from him.
“Hey, Sammy, easy, it’s me.”
Sam blinked at him and eased his arms under him, pushing off the floor. “Dean?”
“Yeah, me, Dean.” Dean had to remember to take long, slower breaths to calm himself. Ellison pointed to the far end of the basement. Dean understood, he was going to look for Blair and check the rest of the area. Nodding, Dean turned his attention back to Sam. “What happened?”
Sam was curled around the painting that had been in Jeff’s apartment and shoved away from it as he rolled to his butt, leaning on Dean’s hands for better balance as he did so. “I was near the fountain, going back with this painting to wait for you and…” His voice trailed off as he rubbed at his forehead a few times. “You’re not going to believe this, but there was a big cat, like a leopard or something.”
“Jaguar?” Ellison’s voice behind them made both he and Sam start. The man hadn’t made a sound moving around the basement and it was more than a little bit creepy. People shouldn’t do that Dean decided. At least not people who weren’t hunters and weren’t Dean’s little brother.
Looking up, Sam shrugged. “I-I don’t know. Maybe. Yeah, I guess. I’m not exactly a wild cat expert. It was big, dark yellow with black spots and a damn lot of long, pointed teeth. It chased me and the last thing I remember was being hit in the back and wondering if it was going to hurt when it chewed my neck apart.” He scrunched his eyebrows together, fingers of one hand wrapping around Dean’s forearm. “And right before it hit me the air got cold, really cold. I woke up here seeing Blair in the fountain. That same wildcat was standing on his back.”
Ellison sucking in a breath had them both looking up at him. Dean stood up and took his arm, steadying him. “Hey, you okay? No pun intended, but you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“I’ve got to find Blair. He’s in a lot of danger,” Ellison said.
Dean nodded, not sure what was going through Ellison’s head, but he decided not to take the time to question it right now. “We can start with this building.”
Reaching down, Dean grabbed Sam’s arm and hoisted him to his feet giving him a critical once over. His brother had the usual sway and pale look he always had after a vision, but seemed otherwise unharmed. When Sam straightened and tugged his jacket into place, offering Dean a slight nod indicating he was able to navigate under his own steam, Dean let go.
“Sam, come with me, we’ll search the first floor, Dean you check the second,” Ellison said, giving Dean a look that plainly spoke, go ahead, challenge me.
So, Dean did. “Hey, wait a minute you can’t-”
“Look, pal, I don’t have time to argue. Your brother here keeps seeing my partner dead in a fountain. He’s got some connection to all this and might help me find Blair.”
“Dean, it’ll be faster if we split up.” Sam reached out and brushed his fingertips across Dean’s arm for a split second. “He’s right, it makes sense and maybe I can help him find his friend.”
They were right and Dean knew it. Positions reversed he’d want the guy seeing things about Sam with him, so he couldn’t blame Ellison for wanting the same. It was clear to Dean Sandburg was important to Ellison and the man would do anything to protect him. Something Dean certainly could relate to. Pointing at Sam, Dean arched an eyebrow and put on his best, I’m the big brother and in charge look. “You call me every ten minutes.”
“I will,” Sam promised and bounced up the stairs three at a time after Ellison.
Of course Sam didn’t call in ten minutes and of course Dean was going to kill Ellison if something had happened to his kid brother.
Part Five