Could You Just Hold Me? 19/50
Chapter 19
We are not even. That thought hammered in Ishtar's mind. We are not even.
Decision made Ishtar had to hurry. She'd left her mark on Nick two days ago and it was fading. Fast.
With it gone she wouldn't be able to find him again. And it wasn't helpful that apparently he'd moved as well. She got herself a car, men were so easy, and drove towards that faint beacon. She only stopped for gas once otherwise she drove through but when she reached a town called Sioux Falls, her mark was almost gone. It led her out of town to the outskirts and that was it.
Cursing Ishtar stopped the car and had a look around. Only a few scattered houses around here, open fields and a salvage yard. She was close, she knew it, he was around here somewhere.
It had become night by now and Ishtar used the dark to sneak up to the nearest house. The lights were on and that made it easy to spy on the people inside. A family having dinner. They chatted and looked happy and not like they were hiding someone coming down from a succubus venom trip.
Ishtar made her way through the neighborhood. One house was dark and she couldn't rule it out but she was pretty sure she could cross the others from the list. A woman alone in front of the TV, a boy doing homework at the kitchen table with his father preparing dinner behind him, an old couple on the couch with their dog at their feet. Ordinary suburban boredom.
Which left the salvage yard. Ishtar made her way on foot through the gate telling her that it belonged to somebody named Singer.
Old car wrecks lined the way up to the house that was hidden behind all that junk. Ishtar came around a slight corner and knew this was the place. In front of an old house stood a familiar car.
"Gotcha." Ishtar whispered and ducked behind a dead junker. Right next to Dean Winchester's car was another familiar one, one she hadn't expected to see ever again. She'd only seen it for a second but she would recognize this old thing everywhere.
"Crap." She ducked deeper into the shadows. It wasn't likely that she would be spotted here but this was a bad place to be. As far as she knew there were at least two hunters inside, three if Dean had his brother slash lover with him. Which still was hilarious.
"Okay, okay." She muttered to herself while she tried to figure out how to proceed. First she had to find out what the situation actually was. Were they here for just a visit or would they stay for longer? If she'd found some kind of hunter headquarters, and for sure it looked like it, she had to be very careful. They wouldn't expect her coming for them, that was her advantage over them, but as soon as they suspected she was around the hunt would be on.
Just a little sneak peek, she thought and crept closer. But stumbled backwards when the door suddenly opened and the hunter with the trucker cap stepped outside.
"Let's get your and Sam's stuff inside." The man said over his shoulder to Dean who followed him. "And try unpacking for a change, you're staying for a while. At least until Nick got his footing back."
"Yes, sir." Dean responded and went for the trunk of his car while the other man got several bags out of his.
Dean came up with a single bag and took over another one from the older hunter and weighted both with a tug at the handles.
"Nick has nothing left." He said in a matter of fact way but with sadness behind the words.
"He seemed fine wearing some of your clothes for now." They headed back for the door. "But you probably should take him shopping."
Dean made a face. "I think I'll leave that to Sam, he loves shopping."
The door shut behind them and Ishtar slumped to the ground with her back against the rusty car.
That was close. She let out a shaky breath and fought against the urge to run. What was she doing her? She wasn't a fighter.
But then she let her face shift back to what it really looked like and traced the lines of the scars and the bumps of the deformed bones with her fingertips. Putting her mask back in place she came up to a crouched position. The house was quiet but a few rooms were lit. One upstairs which was useless to her but for sure she could have quick look inside on the ground level. Avoiding the front porch she made her way closer to the house.
The kitchen was empty with used dishes in the sink and she found Dean and that other man in what looked like combined study and living room. Books and papers were piled on every horizontal surface but some piles lay clattered to the ground and the two men were busy tidying up. The older hunter moved way more agile than Dean and at some point he just waved him off and Dean plopped down on the couch. Ishtar couldn't hear what they were saying but Dean didn't look happy that he was sent to his place like a kid.
Not a minute later his chin rested on his chest and he was fast asleep and the other man just stood there for a moment, watching him with a fond smile on his lips. Dean slept, now with a blanket draped over him, and the other hunter quietly continued tidying up.
Ishtar should leave, she knew that. She had no idea where Nick was. Or Sam for that matter. One of them could come up right behind her any second. But she stayed and watched.
The older hunter had sat down with a book at his desk and Dean was still sleeping when another man entered the room.
Dean was tall. This man was taller. And he seemed to be younger than Dean so this had to be Sam. When the newcomer spotted Dean half-sitting, half-lying wrapped in a blanket on the couch his face became soft with love and there was no doubt, this was Sam the little brother slash lover.
He and the older hunter exchanged a few words before Sam stepped closer to his brother and gently shook his shoulder.
He looked like a kid begging for another five minutes but then Sam said something and Dean was wide awake and a second later out of the room.
Dean didn't come back but Ishtar stayed until Sam made himself comfortable on the couch and the older hunter left the room. The lights went out and then the house lay dark and quiet.
Deep in thoughts Ishtar walked back to her car.
They would stay until Nick got his footing back. She'd fucked him up pretty good so that could take a while. Ishtar smiled to herself.
In her mind she made a list of the things she'd need. First of all, a base of operations, she was planning on staying for a while. Then she needed eyes on them. It was too risky to do that herself but she was pretty sure she could find a man or two willing to help her out.
If she could get one of them alone, things could become interesting. She licked her lips in anticipation and started the car. Dean already knew what she looked like as the woman of his dreams and she doubted they would let Nick out of their sight. And Sam was an unreliability on his own. If he was bi like his brother she could get him, however, if he was gay she would have the same trouble she had with Nick with the difference that Sam was a hunter. The older hunter was probably her best shot. Or Nick again if she could get her hands on him.
"Nick would be fun." She bit her bottom lip. "Definitely worth the trouble."
Ishtar stayed the night at a hotel and didn't even scam her way into a free room. Low profile, was the word of the day. With so many hunters around she didn't want to draw attraction.
She used the next day to get a feeling for this town.
Just cruising around in her car she mapped out the area and tried to get a sense of direction. Around noon she knew where Wall Mart was and most of the bars and restaurants, places she guessed her prey would visit, and she had spotted at least a million Starbucks. She parked the car near the center and sat down in a nice park with a hotdog. The hotdog guy had been quite chatty, pointing her at some things she just had to see around here, and now she just sat there and watched the people around her. A nice town with nice people.
After she'd finished her hotdog she had a little walk around in the center of the town. She walked down the street, passing shops and restaurants, grocery stores and a pawn shop. Nothing of interest and she was on her way back to the car when she felt something strange, an uneasy feeling in her stomach, and for some reason she crossed the street to walk on the other side.
Ishtar stopped and pretending to look at some shoes in the next window she had a careful glance around. She didn't see anything out of the ordinary and was about to shrug the feeling off when she spotted a little bookstore sandwiched between another Starbucks and a copy shop. The building was old and the name was carved in the wood above the door. Inquiring Minds with pentagrams right and left to it.
The one small window displaying several old books had a slogan written on it: Hunting for a good read? We have everything you need.
Okay, that was a place she should have an eye on. It smelled of hunters.
The store seemed to be warded because when she tried again to come near the door, the urge to just leave grew stronger with every step. Very interesting.
Ishtar let the store be for the moment, she didn't want somebody inside to take notice of her, and went back to her car. It was late enough in the day so that most people would be home from work by now and she hoped to find her base of operations in the neighborhood of the salvage yard.
She needed a place preferably without a woman around which left the previously dark house or the one with the father and his son as possible options.
Clutching a battered notebook she'd found in the glove compartment of her borrowed car she approached the first house.
"Evening." She greeted the woman who opened the door and mentally crossed this house from her already short list. "Do you have a few minutes for a small survey? It won't take long, just a few questions."
She even had to come up with some questions because the woman had time for a random survey but that got them into a conversation and Ishtar could sneak in a question or two about the nearby salvage yard. Apparently the owner, a Bobby Singer, was a nice guy who stayed to himself most of the time.
"He sometimes has visitors at the unlikeliest hours." The woman knew to tell.
"I saw this black car, an Impala I think." Ishtar prompted.
"Oh yes." Her eyes lit up. "That belongs to his nephews. Nice young men. They visit him from time to time."
Ishtar thanked her for her time and drove over to the other house.
The boy opened the door.
"Hey, sweetie." She smiled at him. He hadn't hit puberty yet so he was immune to her. "Is your mother home?"
"She doesn't live with us." He answered and Ishtar suppressed a predatory smile.
"Is your daddy home, then?"
continue to chapter 20
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