A Time for War 3/7
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Chapter 2
Cold Oak
I sure hope this works, Dean thought to Gil through their merge-link as the hunters converged on Cold Oak eight hours later.
It ought to, Gil thought back. It’s one of Mom’s plans.
Dean blinked. You sayin’ somethin’ about my plans?
No! I just meant-
Zeetha’s mental laughter interrupted.
I’m not actually worried about the plan part of the plan, Dean admitted. I’m worried about misfires.
It’s not Mom’s fault that Sinclair’s proposal for warding the bunker didn’t include all the wards he put on his own place, Zeetha replied, cutting as usual to the heart of the problem better than Dean could. That won’t be a problem here, or else Andy wouldn’t have been able to get a message out. Besides, both the spells and the plan actually worked when we took the mansion.
Not well enough. Dean couldn’t help remembering Sam and Henry succumbing to Cuthbert Sinclair’s will-draining spell, despite the protective charms Zanta had added to their hex bags.
Zeetha leaned against Dean a little more than usual. Sinclair was a Master of Spells, had been for at least eighty years, and knew a hell of a lot more than a bunch of kids fresh out of college who are just finding out that they’ve got demon blood.
“Will you please stop worrying, Dean?” Sam asked, rather pointedly keeping his gaze fixed on the view from the front passenger window. “Zanta knows what she’s doing.”
“I’m worried about keepin’ you alive, Sam,” Dean returned. “You walk into that town and your invisibility charm fails-”
“This isn’t like the mansion.”
“Thought you said you couldn’t hear us,” Zeetha said and gave Sam’s ear a playful tweak.
Sam huffed. “Anyway, your invisibility charm didn’t fail last time.”
“That’s ’cause Zanta cast it herself,” Dean reminded him. “And it didn’t have a time limit.”
“Dean,” Dad warned from the back seat. “Just get us there.”
Dean stifled a sigh. “Yes, sir.”
Mom patted his shoulder and went back to stuffing hex bags with Jess.
It was only another five minutes before the hunters’ caravan reached the point where the trail to Cold Oak was too narrow to drive down any further. Dean parked, got out, and started counting vehicles. Van, Ardsley, and Henry had ridden with the DuMedds in their Toyota econobox; next came Gil and Agatha’s Chevy HHR, the three Murphys in Tarvek’s BMW, Bobby’s van, Klaus’ truck, and Ellen’s truck last of all.
He jogged down the line to where Bobby was getting out. “Where’s Rufus?”
“’Bout ten minutes behind us,” Bobby reported. “He’ll get here by the time we need him.”
Dean nodded his understanding and shivered despite the heat. Not for nothing was Cold Oak infamous for being the most haunted town in the US. The evil in the atmosphere was palpable-and that was even before he heard someone, or something, scream.
Bobby’s hand landed on Dean’s shoulder. “Settle down, son. We’re all walkin’ into this with our eyes wide open, ’specially Sam. We got enough guns to do the job. But you gotta trust what Her Majesty gave you.”
Dean nodded and ran a hand over his mouth.
“Ready, Dean?” Klaus asked, walking up to them.
Dean nodded again. “Yes, sir.”
“Let’s go, then.”
Dean took a deep breath and fell into step beside Klaus, who handed him a compass. Gil, Agatha, and Henry fell in behind them as they passed back up the trail, but Mom, Dad, Sam, and Zeetha waited by the car until Dean found his position just off the trail and just past the Impala’s back bumper, due east of town. Then, with an exchange of nods, Zeetha teleported to an equidistant point due west, Gil to due north, and Agatha to due south. Klaus and Henry started off to take up their positions at northwest and northeast; Mom and Dad ran around to southwest and southeast. And Sam, holding a bullhorn, walked up the trail to stand beside Dean while Dean threw a shield over the Impala as an added layer of protection for both it and Jess.
It felt like an eternity before Zeetha reported, We’re set.
Dean stuck the compass in his pocket and tugged a little on the brother-bond, and when Sam looked at him, he nodded once. Sam blew the air out of his cheeks, recited the activation spell for the invisibility charm Zanta had given him, and disappeared. When Dean tugged on the brother-bond again, the rapid crunch of running footsteps heralded Sam’s dash down the trail and into town. Another eternity passed before something in the air seemed to click into place, and Sam tugged on his end of the brother-bond to let Dean know he was in position.
Dean couldn’t hear Sam recite Zanta’s Enochian warding spell, but he felt the second it went into effect. Power surged through and around him, and he could just barely see a pale blue-green light flash around the circle anchored by the family and shoot upward into a protective dome covering the town. A split second later, there was another flash at ground level on either side of Dean, which he knew was establishing the lines of a devil’s trap. And a second or two after that, he heard Sam’s voice shouting an Enochian exorcism over the bullhorn.
There were screams in town-and in the surrounding forest.
“Get under cover!” Dean yelled over his shoulder to the other hunters just as Zeetha appeared beside him, merged with him, and teleported to the center of town, landing beside Sam a second before the invisibility charm turned off. A column of bright blue-green light appeared on the other side of Sam, and as Dean and Zeetha unmerged, so did Gil and Agatha.
“Everyone into the center of town!” Sam ordered through the bullhorn, then set it down by his feet.
There were already a few confused kids walking around on the main street, but more came out of the buildings and congregated in front of the new arrivals, and the remaining hunters herded others from the farther corners of the town. Dean tried to count heads as the murmuring crowd grew, but the front line was about twenty yards away, and people were moving around too much for him to get a good fix on.
Only forty, Gil reported as Mom and Klaus turned onto the main street and ran down the boardwalk to join the rest of the hunters.
Dean swore mentally.
We couldn’t have gotten everyone here any faster, Zeetha noted. Don’t blame yourself for the ones we couldn’t save.
“Good afternoon,” Sam began as the last stragglers joined the crowd. “My name’s Sam Winchester. I’m like you.”
A girl toward the front of the crowd laughed and shook her head. “Like hell you are. The rest of us didn’t show up here with an army.”
“Not an army,” Dean returned. “We’re the Stanford Adventure Club, and we’re here to take you home.”
There was more incredulous laughter at that.
Sam ignored it. “Who’s Andy Gallagher?”
A round-faced guy who looked vaguely like a too-tall hobbit in a dark hoodie waved awkwardly and stepped forward with a wry smile. “Um, hi.”
“Hi. Mind telling me what’s happened since this morning?”
“There’ve... been some more fights. I’ve had to defend myself a couple times. It’s all... really, really freaky, and I really want to go home now.”
Sam nodded and waved Andy forward. Looking relieved, Andy started toward the line of hunters.
“Wait a second,” one of the other kids said. “You called in reinforcements?!”
Andy spun to face the accuser, arms wide. “I called for HELP! I don’t want to kill anybody; I never have! I don’t even know how I managed to connect with Sam-I’ve never done this before.”
“Liar! Cheater!”
Dean still couldn’t tell who was yelling, but he raised a shield over Andy just in time to deflect a ball of lightning. At the same time, Agatha stepped forward, caught the ball of lightning with her own power, and hurled it back at the person who’d cast it, killing-him? her? Dean still couldn’t see-instantly. A shocked murmur ran through the crowd.
“My name is Agatha,” Agatha stated, stepping back into line. “I’m not like you. But Sam and Andy are telling the truth. If you come with us, we’ll help you get home and ensure that the demon that brought you here can never find you again.”
Andy took a deep breath and started forward again.
But the blond guy Andy had originally been standing next to spoke up. “Wait just a minute, Andy.”
Andy rolled his eyes and kept walking. “You’re not my boss, dude.”
“You take one more step,” the blond guy replied in a dangerous tone, prompting Andy to freeze, “and this pretty lady over here gets it right in the head.”
Dean heard Mom squeak and turned to see her struggling not to turn her shotgun on herself.
“Weber, what the hell?” Andy gasped.
“Well, I can’t let you just leave,” Weber replied. “Not without your own twin brother.”
“My WHAT?!”
“Trouble is, our powers don’t work on each other. But now... now I got me a nice little hostage right here.”
“You’re insane.”
“Am I?” Mom’s shotgun rose in spite of her as Weber chuckled. “You and me, we might even manage to win this thing if we work together. So what do you say, hm? Come on back.”
Dean threw a shield around Mom’s head at the same time Andy shouted “NO!” and sprinted toward the hunters. But the shotgun didn’t go off. Instead, Weber let out a distinctive gurgle, and Dean looked back just in time to see Weber collapse with a shuriken buried in his jugular-a shuriken that glinted purple in the late afternoon sun.
“Anybody else got any bright ideas?” Violetta challenged as Andy skidded to a halt behind them and Dean dropped both shields.
The brunette who’d been standing next to Weber clutched her head with a moan. “Ohhh... ohh, my migraine’s coming back....”
“It won’t work, Ava,” Gil stated in that tone that meant his fae sight was working.
The brunette-Ava-froze and stared at Gil. “What?”
“You don’t have a migraine. You’re trying to summon something.”
Ava’s stare widened into deer-in-the-headlights shock. Yahtzee.
“It won’t work,” Gil repeated. “The town’s warded now. Demons can’t get in.”
Ava screamed in rage and lashed out telekinetically but failed to do more to Gil than ruffle his hair. Then she summoned a fireball, but before she could lob it at the hunters, Zeetha shot her. Gil banished the fireball with a wave of his hand before it could burn anybody.
“Look, we’re here to help you,” Sam insisted. “Come with us if you want to live.”
“Listen, man, you don’t understand,” said a black guy in Army fatigues, walking toward Sam. “The yellow-eyed man said only one of us is getting out of here alive. I wanna believe that you think you can help, but look around you. Do the math. We don’t play along, he’s gonna kill us all. It’s... it’s not like I wanna fight you or any of these guys, but-”
He was interrupted by a bark of “Ten hut!” that caused him to halt and snap to wide-eyed attention. “Sound off!” the same voice demanded, and Dean belatedly recognized it as belonging to Klaus.
“Sir! Private Talley, Jacob, sir!” the soldier-Talley-replied automatically.
Klaus stepped forward in full Gunny mode. “Stand down, Talley.”
Talley swallowed hard. “Sir, no, sir.”
“What the hell do you mean, ‘sir, no, sir’? I gave you a direct order, Private!”
“Sir....” Talley was shaking now, but he wasn’t backing down. “I got a family, sir. My mom and little sister, they’re all I got, sir. And the yellow-eyed man said-”
“That yellow-eyed man doesn’t have your family. We do.”
Talley blinked rapidly. “Sir?”
“TURNER!” Klaus bellowed without turning around.
“Keep yer shirt on, Gunny!” Rufus called back from somewhere behind the main group of hunters. “We’re comin’!”
“Jake?” a woman’s voice called. “Jake, honey?”
Hope bloomed on Talley’s face, and he stopped shaking. “Mama?”
“Jakey!” a girl’s voice called, and then Talley had a crying little sister hugging his waist.
“What... how....”
“Long story,” Klaus answered as Mrs. Talley ran up beside him.
“Mr. Turner said you were in trouble,” the little sister sobbed. “Please be all right, Jakey!”
There were tears in Talley’s eyes now. “I’m-I’m AWOL. Even if I live-”
“We’ll get you back to your unit,” Klaus promised. “You’ve only been gone a day. Tell ’em you were kidnapped, and they might not even dock your pay.”
Talley looked at his mom and bit his lip.
“Don’t make it worse, Jake,” Mrs. Talley pleaded. “Let these folks help you, please.”
A tear rolled down Talley’s cheek as he looked down at his sister, who was still clinging to him.
“Stand down, soldier,” Klaus repeated, more gently this time.
Talley drew in a ragged breath and nodded. “Sir, yes, sir.”
Klaus clapped Talley on the back, and little sister finally let go to let Talley hug his mom. Rufus then ushered the Talleys back behind the line of hunters.
“That yellow-eyed man you’ve been seeing in your dreams?” Sam told the rest of the kids. “That’s a demon. His name is Azazel; he’s one of the Princes of Hell. He killed my mother, and I’m willing to bet he killed a lot of your parents, too.”
“Wait,” said a girl. “You mean that-that fire in my nursery-”
“The night you turned six months old?”
“He did that?! But... but he said he’d picked me because... because....”
“Probably something about being special, right? Strong, powerful, good leader? That’s a lie. He’s looking for someone to help him end the world. We’re trying to stop him.”
A group of three girls looked at each other and started forward anxiously. “Somebody tried to leave yesterday,” one of them said. “She was killed before she even made it to the road. How do we know you can really protect us?”
Sam looked her in the eye. “Because I came here of my own free will. If the protection we’re offering didn’t work, the demons would have kidnapped me just like they kidnapped the rest of you. They didn’t because they couldn’t find me. And we won’t leave the warded area until we make sure they can’t find you anymore, either.”
“That goes for your mom and sister, too, Jake,” Theo said.
“But they know where we live,” another of the girls who were walking forward said.
“We’ve got the resources to help you relocate, if’n it comes to that,” said Bobby. “An’ we’re aimin’ to put a stop to this ’fore Azazel can try to come after you again.”
“I’d say it’s worth a shot,” said one of the guys, striding forward past the three girls, who picked up their pace and followed him. When they all crossed the line safely, more plucked up their courage and came forward, until about half of the kids had accepted the offer. The other half inched closer together and continued watching the hunters with a cross between wariness, anger, and contempt.
Once it became apparent that no one else was willing to accept help, Sam said quietly, “Okay, Andy, stay behind me. We’re gonna back up a few feet and then lead these guys up the trail to a big black car.”
“Big black car, gotcha,” Andy answered. “Why?”
“My wife’s there with the protection you guys need. And that’ll get the girls out of the line of fire.”
“Oh, but don’t you-I mean-”
“They don’t need me for this. Ready?”
“Um. Yeah.”
“All right, let’s go.”
As Sam backed up, Dean and Gil closed ranks in front of him. Van and Ardsley stepped forward between Zeetha and Dad, the DuMedds between Dad and Mom, the Murphys between Agatha and Klaus, and Bobby and Ellen between Klaus and Henry. Further back, Dean could hear murmurs that sounded like Rufus and Talley already ushering the other kids up the trail.
The standoff continued for another moment before one of the remaining boys snorted. “So what now? You just gonna gun us down like we’re the Wild Bunch? We ain’t even armed!”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” Dad replied. “If you weren’t sure you had the power to best us even without weapons, and if you weren’t prepared to use that power against us, you’d be leaving with the rest of these kids.”
“I ain’t lettin’ no man with a gun tell me what to do!”
“We’re not telling you what to do,” Tarvek countered. “We’re offering you a choice. Come with us and live; stay here and probably die; attack us and definitely die. Whatever incentives Azazel’s been offering you if you stay here and fight, rest assured that he’s lying. You can’t enjoy riches and power once the world ends.”
“Especially since you won’t even be you by that point,” Henry added. “There’s a catch in the fine print of this marvelous deal: it ends with you being possessed by Lucifer, the Devil himself. And when Michael kills Lucifer in the final battle, he’ll kill you right along with him.”
“Which means we’re dead no matter what we do,” growled a Hispanic boy. “I know what you are, ese. You’re hunters. You kill anything that’s not full human.”
“That isn’t true,” Zeetha replied.
“Diaz?” asked a broad-shouldered boy who looked practically albino next to the Hispanic kid.
The Hispanic kid, whose last name was presumably Diaz, answered in a torrent of rapid Spanish. Dean thought he caught the words “mi madre” and “bruja,” but that was about it. “I’m tellin’ you, Mittelmind,” Diaz concluded in English. “They want us dead.”
“We don’t,” Agatha insisted. “We’re here to save you.”
“Yeah, right,” an Italian-looking boy on the other side of Diaz sneered. “Hunters couldn’t save my grandmother when an arachne took her.”
“Arachne?!” Henry echoed. “Those haven’t been seen outside of Crete since the time of Christ!”
“You callin’ me a liar?!”
“Mezzasalma,” Mittelmind warned. “We’re better off sticking together here.”
Diaz grumbled something about sociology majors.
Mittelmind ignored him. “We may be outgunned, but we’re hardly outnumbered. Together, I think we can take ’em. And Diaz is right. If they know what we can do-what we have done-how easy it is, how good it feels-there’s no way they’ll let us go.”
“Heh,” said Diaz with the sort of smile Dean associated with serial killers. “Remember what we did to Zonia last night? How she screamed?”
“Zonia was a fruitcake,” Mezzasalma spat, still glaring at Henry. “But nobody who calls me a liar dies that slow.”
“I’m not saying you can’t kill him,” Mittelmind stated in a reasonable tone. “I’m saying you’ll get shot if you do it right now.”
“You’ll get shot if you try it at all,” Klaus growled.
“What’d I tell you?” Diaz hollered, turning to the rest of the holdouts. “We’re dead, you hear me? DEAD!”
“Not if you surrender now,” Dean insisted.
“Oh, we may be goin’ to hell,” snarled the first kid who’d spoken. “But we’re takin’ y’all with us!”
With a roar, the holdouts charged-and ten of them fell as soon as the hunters opened fire. The rest took multiple shots to bring down, and even then Mezzasalma tried to shoot lightning at Henry. Dean blocked it with a shield, and it struck a nearby building, which burst into flame briefly before Zeetha could quell it. Tarvek shot Mezzasalma in the head before he could try anything else.
A long, tense moment of wary silence passed after that before Gil relaxed with a huff. “That’s it. It’s over.”
“Best leave ’em be,” said Bobby. “We can call the police once we’re on the road, have them come clean up the mess, identify the vics. But we best be outta here ’fore nightfall-liable to be after midnight ’fore we get back to my place anyhow.”
“This feels too easy,” Ellen observed with a shake of her head. “Gil, are you sure?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Gil replied. “Souls have all left the bodies, and the Reapers are collecting them now.”
Violetta jogged over to Weber’s corpse to retrieve her shuriken, and Dean picked up the bullhorn with a sigh. He normally didn’t mind killing monsters, but these... these had been kids Sam and Agatha could have gone to school with.
We saved a third of them, Zeetha noted through the merge-link. We saved half of the ones who were alive when we got here. That’s a lot better than none.
Dean shook his head. They were human, Zee. They were just kids.
Kids who’d already embraced the dark side, Gil replied. Kids who’d already developed a taste for killing and torture. You can’t help someone who refuses to be helped, Dean. Let’s take the win and get out of here before Azazel gets wise.
Dean grimaced and turned to go.
Besides, Zeetha added, turning with him and throwing an arm around his shoulders, we got Sam through it in one piece. And Mom’s spells didn’t fail or misfire.
Dean shot her a sidelong look at the implicit I told you so. She smirked. He rolled his eyes and looked around to check on everyone else. Gil and Agatha were having a mental conversation of their own, judging from the blue and green sparkles flashing in their eyes; Agatha looked grumpy, but Dean couldn’t overhear to know why. Most of the other couples were holding hands as they walked back up the trail but not looking at each other. Mom and Dad seemed to be having a quiet conversation-well, Dad was nodding slowly, so apparently Mom was doing all the talking. Klaus and Violetta were talking about something, too, until he patted her shoulder and she picked up her pace to catch up with Tarvek and Colette. Then Ellen fell into step beside Klaus, and Bobby steered a queasy-looking Henry over to follow them.
“You doin’ okay, Henry?” Dean called.
“I suppose so,” Henry replied. “I have seen worse, after all. Thanks for the assist, by the way.”
“Hell, what kinda hunter would I be if I let my own grandpa get killed?”
Henry managed a wan smile at that, and Bobby patted Henry’s back.
By the time the hunters got back to the cars, Jess was putting the box of hex bags into the Impala’s trunk, and Sam and Rufus were discussing who should ride with whom to get as far as Sioux Falls. “Well, we can get Henry in our car if DZ drives,” Sam was saying as Dean and Zeetha walked up. “That would leave room for Andy in Theo’s car, and then if Gil and Agatha take Jake back to his base right away, nobody has to ride in the back of a truck.”
“Makes sense,” Rufus agreed with a nod and turned to Gil, Agatha, Dean, and Zeetha. “That all right with you four?”
Dean shrugged. “Okay by us. Gil?”
“Not sure how far we can get carrying an extra person,” Gil admitted.
Talley smiled wryly. “Probably not as far as Hawaii.”
“Ah, no, Hawaii is a bit out of range.”
“Just a bit,” Agatha echoed with a chuckle. “Is there a military base anywhere near here?”
“You could try Ellsworth Air Force Base,” Bobby suggested. “That’s just over in Rapid City. He coulda hitchhiked that far.”
“From here?” Talley huffed. “They’ll think I’m nuts.”
“Not if the civilian authorities confirm that something happened here,” Klaus replied. “They’ll find your fingerprints somewhere, I’m sure.”
“And how the hell will the civilian authorities know?” When Klaus raised an eyebrow, Talley amended, “Sir.”
“We’ll call it in from the road.”
“’Cause Sammy here is a damn good actor,” Dean added, slugging Sam’s shoulder with a proud smile. “You shoulda seen him in Our Town.”
Sam grinned and ducked his head.
“Sorry I missed it,” Henry said in a tone that made Dean wonder where his head was, whether their earlier exchange had made Henry regret missing not only most of Dad’s life but most of Sam’s and Dean’s as well.
“Well, you’ll see this performance,” Dean promised. “Is Talley squared away, Jess?”
“We’re all good to go,” Jess confirmed.
Talley turned to hug his mom and sister goodbye, shook hands with Rufus and Klaus, then turned to Gil and Agatha and squared his shoulders. “I’m ready.”
Gil and Agatha each wrapped an arm around the other’s waist, put their free hands on Talley’s shoulders, and vanished. Dean and Zeetha took advantage of the blue-green flash of their departure to merge without any of the other kids noticing.
“Whoa,” said Talley’s sister, staring at the space where her brother had been.
“Can we do that?” Andy asked Sam.
Sam shrugged. “I can’t. But like Agatha said, they’re pretty different.”
“I’ll say.” Andy turned to say something to Dean-and did a triple take upon noticing DZ. “The HELL?!”
DZ smirked. “Surprise.”
“What-how did-” Andy spluttered for a moment, pointing here and there as he seemed to put two and two together, then took a deep breath. “Wow. That’s trippy.”
“You think that’s bad,” Sam said. “First time Jess and I ever saw them like this was on Halloween. I didn’t even recognize them.”
Gil and Agatha returned before the conversation could continue. “Left him within sight of the main gate,” Gil reported. “Guards probably won’t be able to see where he came from.”
Klaus nodded once. “Good.”
“Let’s get this show on the road, then,” Rufus said.
Everyone raced to load into the waiting vehicles, and the caravan got turned around and started back toward the road moments before a cloud that looked too dark to be natural rolled down from the north. While Dean focused on keeping the car on the road, Zeetha used their combined voice to utter warding spells that Gil amplified, and a streak of sunlight remained shining on the cars as they raced away from the cursed town. The cloud seemed to be trying to batter the light barrier down, but the demons-if that was what made up the cloud-couldn’t get close enough to the vehicles to do any damage. Sam, meanwhile, grabbed a burner phone out of the glove compartment and held it ready to dial.
The second the wheels hit tarmac, Dad said, “Call it in, Sam.”
“Yes, sir,” Sam replied and dialed 911. Then he took a deep breath, started panting as if he’d run a marathon, and hit Call. He started swearing even before DZ heard the tinny sound of the dispatcher answering. “Uh, S-S-Sam,” he stammered when the dispatcher prompted him again. “My name’s Sam. I was out here hiking, and I... I found this town-C-Co-Cold Oak, it’s called Cold Oak, there’s a sign-and there’s-there’s dead bodies everywhere! ... No, like real dead bodies and blood-no, no, they’re still warm! It just happened! Oh my-” He hung up, chucked the phone out the window, and turned to Henry. “How was that?”
“My boy, you’re a credit to show business,” Henry answered with a small but genuine smile.
Next
Chapter 2
Cold Oak
I sure hope this works, Dean thought to Gil through their merge-link as the hunters converged on Cold Oak eight hours later.
It ought to, Gil thought back. It’s one of Mom’s plans.
Dean blinked. You sayin’ somethin’ about my plans?
No! I just meant-
Zeetha’s mental laughter interrupted.
I’m not actually worried about the plan part of the plan, Dean admitted. I’m worried about misfires.
It’s not Mom’s fault that Sinclair’s proposal for warding the bunker didn’t include all the wards he put on his own place, Zeetha replied, cutting as usual to the heart of the problem better than Dean could. That won’t be a problem here, or else Andy wouldn’t have been able to get a message out. Besides, both the spells and the plan actually worked when we took the mansion.
Not well enough. Dean couldn’t help remembering Sam and Henry succumbing to Cuthbert Sinclair’s will-draining spell, despite the protective charms Zanta had added to their hex bags.
Zeetha leaned against Dean a little more than usual. Sinclair was a Master of Spells, had been for at least eighty years, and knew a hell of a lot more than a bunch of kids fresh out of college who are just finding out that they’ve got demon blood.
“Will you please stop worrying, Dean?” Sam asked, rather pointedly keeping his gaze fixed on the view from the front passenger window. “Zanta knows what she’s doing.”
“I’m worried about keepin’ you alive, Sam,” Dean returned. “You walk into that town and your invisibility charm fails-”
“This isn’t like the mansion.”
“Thought you said you couldn’t hear us,” Zeetha said and gave Sam’s ear a playful tweak.
Sam huffed. “Anyway, your invisibility charm didn’t fail last time.”
“That’s ’cause Zanta cast it herself,” Dean reminded him. “And it didn’t have a time limit.”
“Dean,” Dad warned from the back seat. “Just get us there.”
Dean stifled a sigh. “Yes, sir.”
Mom patted his shoulder and went back to stuffing hex bags with Jess.
It was only another five minutes before the hunters’ caravan reached the point where the trail to Cold Oak was too narrow to drive down any further. Dean parked, got out, and started counting vehicles. Van, Ardsley, and Henry had ridden with the DuMedds in their Toyota econobox; next came Gil and Agatha’s Chevy HHR, the three Murphys in Tarvek’s BMW, Bobby’s van, Klaus’ truck, and Ellen’s truck last of all.
He jogged down the line to where Bobby was getting out. “Where’s Rufus?”
“’Bout ten minutes behind us,” Bobby reported. “He’ll get here by the time we need him.”
Dean nodded his understanding and shivered despite the heat. Not for nothing was Cold Oak infamous for being the most haunted town in the US. The evil in the atmosphere was palpable-and that was even before he heard someone, or something, scream.
Bobby’s hand landed on Dean’s shoulder. “Settle down, son. We’re all walkin’ into this with our eyes wide open, ’specially Sam. We got enough guns to do the job. But you gotta trust what Her Majesty gave you.”
Dean nodded and ran a hand over his mouth.
“Ready, Dean?” Klaus asked, walking up to them.
Dean nodded again. “Yes, sir.”
“Let’s go, then.”
Dean took a deep breath and fell into step beside Klaus, who handed him a compass. Gil, Agatha, and Henry fell in behind them as they passed back up the trail, but Mom, Dad, Sam, and Zeetha waited by the car until Dean found his position just off the trail and just past the Impala’s back bumper, due east of town. Then, with an exchange of nods, Zeetha teleported to an equidistant point due west, Gil to due north, and Agatha to due south. Klaus and Henry started off to take up their positions at northwest and northeast; Mom and Dad ran around to southwest and southeast. And Sam, holding a bullhorn, walked up the trail to stand beside Dean while Dean threw a shield over the Impala as an added layer of protection for both it and Jess.
It felt like an eternity before Zeetha reported, We’re set.
Dean stuck the compass in his pocket and tugged a little on the brother-bond, and when Sam looked at him, he nodded once. Sam blew the air out of his cheeks, recited the activation spell for the invisibility charm Zanta had given him, and disappeared. When Dean tugged on the brother-bond again, the rapid crunch of running footsteps heralded Sam’s dash down the trail and into town. Another eternity passed before something in the air seemed to click into place, and Sam tugged on his end of the brother-bond to let Dean know he was in position.
Dean couldn’t hear Sam recite Zanta’s Enochian warding spell, but he felt the second it went into effect. Power surged through and around him, and he could just barely see a pale blue-green light flash around the circle anchored by the family and shoot upward into a protective dome covering the town. A split second later, there was another flash at ground level on either side of Dean, which he knew was establishing the lines of a devil’s trap. And a second or two after that, he heard Sam’s voice shouting an Enochian exorcism over the bullhorn.
There were screams in town-and in the surrounding forest.
“Get under cover!” Dean yelled over his shoulder to the other hunters just as Zeetha appeared beside him, merged with him, and teleported to the center of town, landing beside Sam a second before the invisibility charm turned off. A column of bright blue-green light appeared on the other side of Sam, and as Dean and Zeetha unmerged, so did Gil and Agatha.
“Everyone into the center of town!” Sam ordered through the bullhorn, then set it down by his feet.
There were already a few confused kids walking around on the main street, but more came out of the buildings and congregated in front of the new arrivals, and the remaining hunters herded others from the farther corners of the town. Dean tried to count heads as the murmuring crowd grew, but the front line was about twenty yards away, and people were moving around too much for him to get a good fix on.
Only forty, Gil reported as Mom and Klaus turned onto the main street and ran down the boardwalk to join the rest of the hunters.
Dean swore mentally.
We couldn’t have gotten everyone here any faster, Zeetha noted. Don’t blame yourself for the ones we couldn’t save.
“Good afternoon,” Sam began as the last stragglers joined the crowd. “My name’s Sam Winchester. I’m like you.”
A girl toward the front of the crowd laughed and shook her head. “Like hell you are. The rest of us didn’t show up here with an army.”
“Not an army,” Dean returned. “We’re the Stanford Adventure Club, and we’re here to take you home.”
There was more incredulous laughter at that.
Sam ignored it. “Who’s Andy Gallagher?”
A round-faced guy who looked vaguely like a too-tall hobbit in a dark hoodie waved awkwardly and stepped forward with a wry smile. “Um, hi.”
“Hi. Mind telling me what’s happened since this morning?”
“There’ve... been some more fights. I’ve had to defend myself a couple times. It’s all... really, really freaky, and I really want to go home now.”
Sam nodded and waved Andy forward. Looking relieved, Andy started toward the line of hunters.
“Wait a second,” one of the other kids said. “You called in reinforcements?!”
Andy spun to face the accuser, arms wide. “I called for HELP! I don’t want to kill anybody; I never have! I don’t even know how I managed to connect with Sam-I’ve never done this before.”
“Liar! Cheater!”
Dean still couldn’t tell who was yelling, but he raised a shield over Andy just in time to deflect a ball of lightning. At the same time, Agatha stepped forward, caught the ball of lightning with her own power, and hurled it back at the person who’d cast it, killing-him? her? Dean still couldn’t see-instantly. A shocked murmur ran through the crowd.
“My name is Agatha,” Agatha stated, stepping back into line. “I’m not like you. But Sam and Andy are telling the truth. If you come with us, we’ll help you get home and ensure that the demon that brought you here can never find you again.”
Andy took a deep breath and started forward again.
But the blond guy Andy had originally been standing next to spoke up. “Wait just a minute, Andy.”
Andy rolled his eyes and kept walking. “You’re not my boss, dude.”
“You take one more step,” the blond guy replied in a dangerous tone, prompting Andy to freeze, “and this pretty lady over here gets it right in the head.”
Dean heard Mom squeak and turned to see her struggling not to turn her shotgun on herself.
“Weber, what the hell?” Andy gasped.
“Well, I can’t let you just leave,” Weber replied. “Not without your own twin brother.”
“My WHAT?!”
“Trouble is, our powers don’t work on each other. But now... now I got me a nice little hostage right here.”
“You’re insane.”
“Am I?” Mom’s shotgun rose in spite of her as Weber chuckled. “You and me, we might even manage to win this thing if we work together. So what do you say, hm? Come on back.”
Dean threw a shield around Mom’s head at the same time Andy shouted “NO!” and sprinted toward the hunters. But the shotgun didn’t go off. Instead, Weber let out a distinctive gurgle, and Dean looked back just in time to see Weber collapse with a shuriken buried in his jugular-a shuriken that glinted purple in the late afternoon sun.
“Anybody else got any bright ideas?” Violetta challenged as Andy skidded to a halt behind them and Dean dropped both shields.
The brunette who’d been standing next to Weber clutched her head with a moan. “Ohhh... ohh, my migraine’s coming back....”
“It won’t work, Ava,” Gil stated in that tone that meant his fae sight was working.
The brunette-Ava-froze and stared at Gil. “What?”
“You don’t have a migraine. You’re trying to summon something.”
Ava’s stare widened into deer-in-the-headlights shock. Yahtzee.
“It won’t work,” Gil repeated. “The town’s warded now. Demons can’t get in.”
Ava screamed in rage and lashed out telekinetically but failed to do more to Gil than ruffle his hair. Then she summoned a fireball, but before she could lob it at the hunters, Zeetha shot her. Gil banished the fireball with a wave of his hand before it could burn anybody.
“Look, we’re here to help you,” Sam insisted. “Come with us if you want to live.”
“Listen, man, you don’t understand,” said a black guy in Army fatigues, walking toward Sam. “The yellow-eyed man said only one of us is getting out of here alive. I wanna believe that you think you can help, but look around you. Do the math. We don’t play along, he’s gonna kill us all. It’s... it’s not like I wanna fight you or any of these guys, but-”
He was interrupted by a bark of “Ten hut!” that caused him to halt and snap to wide-eyed attention. “Sound off!” the same voice demanded, and Dean belatedly recognized it as belonging to Klaus.
“Sir! Private Talley, Jacob, sir!” the soldier-Talley-replied automatically.
Klaus stepped forward in full Gunny mode. “Stand down, Talley.”
Talley swallowed hard. “Sir, no, sir.”
“What the hell do you mean, ‘sir, no, sir’? I gave you a direct order, Private!”
“Sir....” Talley was shaking now, but he wasn’t backing down. “I got a family, sir. My mom and little sister, they’re all I got, sir. And the yellow-eyed man said-”
“That yellow-eyed man doesn’t have your family. We do.”
Talley blinked rapidly. “Sir?”
“TURNER!” Klaus bellowed without turning around.
“Keep yer shirt on, Gunny!” Rufus called back from somewhere behind the main group of hunters. “We’re comin’!”
“Jake?” a woman’s voice called. “Jake, honey?”
Hope bloomed on Talley’s face, and he stopped shaking. “Mama?”
“Jakey!” a girl’s voice called, and then Talley had a crying little sister hugging his waist.
“What... how....”
“Long story,” Klaus answered as Mrs. Talley ran up beside him.
“Mr. Turner said you were in trouble,” the little sister sobbed. “Please be all right, Jakey!”
There were tears in Talley’s eyes now. “I’m-I’m AWOL. Even if I live-”
“We’ll get you back to your unit,” Klaus promised. “You’ve only been gone a day. Tell ’em you were kidnapped, and they might not even dock your pay.”
Talley looked at his mom and bit his lip.
“Don’t make it worse, Jake,” Mrs. Talley pleaded. “Let these folks help you, please.”
A tear rolled down Talley’s cheek as he looked down at his sister, who was still clinging to him.
“Stand down, soldier,” Klaus repeated, more gently this time.
Talley drew in a ragged breath and nodded. “Sir, yes, sir.”
Klaus clapped Talley on the back, and little sister finally let go to let Talley hug his mom. Rufus then ushered the Talleys back behind the line of hunters.
“That yellow-eyed man you’ve been seeing in your dreams?” Sam told the rest of the kids. “That’s a demon. His name is Azazel; he’s one of the Princes of Hell. He killed my mother, and I’m willing to bet he killed a lot of your parents, too.”
“Wait,” said a girl. “You mean that-that fire in my nursery-”
“The night you turned six months old?”
“He did that?! But... but he said he’d picked me because... because....”
“Probably something about being special, right? Strong, powerful, good leader? That’s a lie. He’s looking for someone to help him end the world. We’re trying to stop him.”
A group of three girls looked at each other and started forward anxiously. “Somebody tried to leave yesterday,” one of them said. “She was killed before she even made it to the road. How do we know you can really protect us?”
Sam looked her in the eye. “Because I came here of my own free will. If the protection we’re offering didn’t work, the demons would have kidnapped me just like they kidnapped the rest of you. They didn’t because they couldn’t find me. And we won’t leave the warded area until we make sure they can’t find you anymore, either.”
“That goes for your mom and sister, too, Jake,” Theo said.
“But they know where we live,” another of the girls who were walking forward said.
“We’ve got the resources to help you relocate, if’n it comes to that,” said Bobby. “An’ we’re aimin’ to put a stop to this ’fore Azazel can try to come after you again.”
“I’d say it’s worth a shot,” said one of the guys, striding forward past the three girls, who picked up their pace and followed him. When they all crossed the line safely, more plucked up their courage and came forward, until about half of the kids had accepted the offer. The other half inched closer together and continued watching the hunters with a cross between wariness, anger, and contempt.
Once it became apparent that no one else was willing to accept help, Sam said quietly, “Okay, Andy, stay behind me. We’re gonna back up a few feet and then lead these guys up the trail to a big black car.”
“Big black car, gotcha,” Andy answered. “Why?”
“My wife’s there with the protection you guys need. And that’ll get the girls out of the line of fire.”
“Oh, but don’t you-I mean-”
“They don’t need me for this. Ready?”
“Um. Yeah.”
“All right, let’s go.”
As Sam backed up, Dean and Gil closed ranks in front of him. Van and Ardsley stepped forward between Zeetha and Dad, the DuMedds between Dad and Mom, the Murphys between Agatha and Klaus, and Bobby and Ellen between Klaus and Henry. Further back, Dean could hear murmurs that sounded like Rufus and Talley already ushering the other kids up the trail.
The standoff continued for another moment before one of the remaining boys snorted. “So what now? You just gonna gun us down like we’re the Wild Bunch? We ain’t even armed!”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” Dad replied. “If you weren’t sure you had the power to best us even without weapons, and if you weren’t prepared to use that power against us, you’d be leaving with the rest of these kids.”
“I ain’t lettin’ no man with a gun tell me what to do!”
“We’re not telling you what to do,” Tarvek countered. “We’re offering you a choice. Come with us and live; stay here and probably die; attack us and definitely die. Whatever incentives Azazel’s been offering you if you stay here and fight, rest assured that he’s lying. You can’t enjoy riches and power once the world ends.”
“Especially since you won’t even be you by that point,” Henry added. “There’s a catch in the fine print of this marvelous deal: it ends with you being possessed by Lucifer, the Devil himself. And when Michael kills Lucifer in the final battle, he’ll kill you right along with him.”
“Which means we’re dead no matter what we do,” growled a Hispanic boy. “I know what you are, ese. You’re hunters. You kill anything that’s not full human.”
“That isn’t true,” Zeetha replied.
“Diaz?” asked a broad-shouldered boy who looked practically albino next to the Hispanic kid.
The Hispanic kid, whose last name was presumably Diaz, answered in a torrent of rapid Spanish. Dean thought he caught the words “mi madre” and “bruja,” but that was about it. “I’m tellin’ you, Mittelmind,” Diaz concluded in English. “They want us dead.”
“We don’t,” Agatha insisted. “We’re here to save you.”
“Yeah, right,” an Italian-looking boy on the other side of Diaz sneered. “Hunters couldn’t save my grandmother when an arachne took her.”
“Arachne?!” Henry echoed. “Those haven’t been seen outside of Crete since the time of Christ!”
“You callin’ me a liar?!”
“Mezzasalma,” Mittelmind warned. “We’re better off sticking together here.”
Diaz grumbled something about sociology majors.
Mittelmind ignored him. “We may be outgunned, but we’re hardly outnumbered. Together, I think we can take ’em. And Diaz is right. If they know what we can do-what we have done-how easy it is, how good it feels-there’s no way they’ll let us go.”
“Heh,” said Diaz with the sort of smile Dean associated with serial killers. “Remember what we did to Zonia last night? How she screamed?”
“Zonia was a fruitcake,” Mezzasalma spat, still glaring at Henry. “But nobody who calls me a liar dies that slow.”
“I’m not saying you can’t kill him,” Mittelmind stated in a reasonable tone. “I’m saying you’ll get shot if you do it right now.”
“You’ll get shot if you try it at all,” Klaus growled.
“What’d I tell you?” Diaz hollered, turning to the rest of the holdouts. “We’re dead, you hear me? DEAD!”
“Not if you surrender now,” Dean insisted.
“Oh, we may be goin’ to hell,” snarled the first kid who’d spoken. “But we’re takin’ y’all with us!”
With a roar, the holdouts charged-and ten of them fell as soon as the hunters opened fire. The rest took multiple shots to bring down, and even then Mezzasalma tried to shoot lightning at Henry. Dean blocked it with a shield, and it struck a nearby building, which burst into flame briefly before Zeetha could quell it. Tarvek shot Mezzasalma in the head before he could try anything else.
A long, tense moment of wary silence passed after that before Gil relaxed with a huff. “That’s it. It’s over.”
“Best leave ’em be,” said Bobby. “We can call the police once we’re on the road, have them come clean up the mess, identify the vics. But we best be outta here ’fore nightfall-liable to be after midnight ’fore we get back to my place anyhow.”
“This feels too easy,” Ellen observed with a shake of her head. “Gil, are you sure?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Gil replied. “Souls have all left the bodies, and the Reapers are collecting them now.”
Violetta jogged over to Weber’s corpse to retrieve her shuriken, and Dean picked up the bullhorn with a sigh. He normally didn’t mind killing monsters, but these... these had been kids Sam and Agatha could have gone to school with.
We saved a third of them, Zeetha noted through the merge-link. We saved half of the ones who were alive when we got here. That’s a lot better than none.
Dean shook his head. They were human, Zee. They were just kids.
Kids who’d already embraced the dark side, Gil replied. Kids who’d already developed a taste for killing and torture. You can’t help someone who refuses to be helped, Dean. Let’s take the win and get out of here before Azazel gets wise.
Dean grimaced and turned to go.
Besides, Zeetha added, turning with him and throwing an arm around his shoulders, we got Sam through it in one piece. And Mom’s spells didn’t fail or misfire.
Dean shot her a sidelong look at the implicit I told you so. She smirked. He rolled his eyes and looked around to check on everyone else. Gil and Agatha were having a mental conversation of their own, judging from the blue and green sparkles flashing in their eyes; Agatha looked grumpy, but Dean couldn’t overhear to know why. Most of the other couples were holding hands as they walked back up the trail but not looking at each other. Mom and Dad seemed to be having a quiet conversation-well, Dad was nodding slowly, so apparently Mom was doing all the talking. Klaus and Violetta were talking about something, too, until he patted her shoulder and she picked up her pace to catch up with Tarvek and Colette. Then Ellen fell into step beside Klaus, and Bobby steered a queasy-looking Henry over to follow them.
“You doin’ okay, Henry?” Dean called.
“I suppose so,” Henry replied. “I have seen worse, after all. Thanks for the assist, by the way.”
“Hell, what kinda hunter would I be if I let my own grandpa get killed?”
Henry managed a wan smile at that, and Bobby patted Henry’s back.
By the time the hunters got back to the cars, Jess was putting the box of hex bags into the Impala’s trunk, and Sam and Rufus were discussing who should ride with whom to get as far as Sioux Falls. “Well, we can get Henry in our car if DZ drives,” Sam was saying as Dean and Zeetha walked up. “That would leave room for Andy in Theo’s car, and then if Gil and Agatha take Jake back to his base right away, nobody has to ride in the back of a truck.”
“Makes sense,” Rufus agreed with a nod and turned to Gil, Agatha, Dean, and Zeetha. “That all right with you four?”
Dean shrugged. “Okay by us. Gil?”
“Not sure how far we can get carrying an extra person,” Gil admitted.
Talley smiled wryly. “Probably not as far as Hawaii.”
“Ah, no, Hawaii is a bit out of range.”
“Just a bit,” Agatha echoed with a chuckle. “Is there a military base anywhere near here?”
“You could try Ellsworth Air Force Base,” Bobby suggested. “That’s just over in Rapid City. He coulda hitchhiked that far.”
“From here?” Talley huffed. “They’ll think I’m nuts.”
“Not if the civilian authorities confirm that something happened here,” Klaus replied. “They’ll find your fingerprints somewhere, I’m sure.”
“And how the hell will the civilian authorities know?” When Klaus raised an eyebrow, Talley amended, “Sir.”
“We’ll call it in from the road.”
“’Cause Sammy here is a damn good actor,” Dean added, slugging Sam’s shoulder with a proud smile. “You shoulda seen him in Our Town.”
Sam grinned and ducked his head.
“Sorry I missed it,” Henry said in a tone that made Dean wonder where his head was, whether their earlier exchange had made Henry regret missing not only most of Dad’s life but most of Sam’s and Dean’s as well.
“Well, you’ll see this performance,” Dean promised. “Is Talley squared away, Jess?”
“We’re all good to go,” Jess confirmed.
Talley turned to hug his mom and sister goodbye, shook hands with Rufus and Klaus, then turned to Gil and Agatha and squared his shoulders. “I’m ready.”
Gil and Agatha each wrapped an arm around the other’s waist, put their free hands on Talley’s shoulders, and vanished. Dean and Zeetha took advantage of the blue-green flash of their departure to merge without any of the other kids noticing.
“Whoa,” said Talley’s sister, staring at the space where her brother had been.
“Can we do that?” Andy asked Sam.
Sam shrugged. “I can’t. But like Agatha said, they’re pretty different.”
“I’ll say.” Andy turned to say something to Dean-and did a triple take upon noticing DZ. “The HELL?!”
DZ smirked. “Surprise.”
“What-how did-” Andy spluttered for a moment, pointing here and there as he seemed to put two and two together, then took a deep breath. “Wow. That’s trippy.”
“You think that’s bad,” Sam said. “First time Jess and I ever saw them like this was on Halloween. I didn’t even recognize them.”
Gil and Agatha returned before the conversation could continue. “Left him within sight of the main gate,” Gil reported. “Guards probably won’t be able to see where he came from.”
Klaus nodded once. “Good.”
“Let’s get this show on the road, then,” Rufus said.
Everyone raced to load into the waiting vehicles, and the caravan got turned around and started back toward the road moments before a cloud that looked too dark to be natural rolled down from the north. While Dean focused on keeping the car on the road, Zeetha used their combined voice to utter warding spells that Gil amplified, and a streak of sunlight remained shining on the cars as they raced away from the cursed town. The cloud seemed to be trying to batter the light barrier down, but the demons-if that was what made up the cloud-couldn’t get close enough to the vehicles to do any damage. Sam, meanwhile, grabbed a burner phone out of the glove compartment and held it ready to dial.
The second the wheels hit tarmac, Dad said, “Call it in, Sam.”
“Yes, sir,” Sam replied and dialed 911. Then he took a deep breath, started panting as if he’d run a marathon, and hit Call. He started swearing even before DZ heard the tinny sound of the dispatcher answering. “Uh, S-S-Sam,” he stammered when the dispatcher prompted him again. “My name’s Sam. I was out here hiking, and I... I found this town-C-Co-Cold Oak, it’s called Cold Oak, there’s a sign-and there’s-there’s dead bodies everywhere! ... No, like real dead bodies and blood-no, no, they’re still warm! It just happened! Oh my-” He hung up, chucked the phone out the window, and turned to Henry. “How was that?”
“My boy, you’re a credit to show business,” Henry answered with a small but genuine smile.
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