Why the Winchesters? (COMPLETED)

8: Henri and His Rougarou

When we finished the hour drive in less than thirty minutes, I didn't know much more about Rougarous. I did know how to work the mini-flamethrower that Sam had rigged up and to aim for the torso or the face, though.

"And avoid the teeth," Dean remarked sarcastically. "You get anywhere near the teeth and it'll take a snap at you."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," I muttered.

Dean considered that for a moment, then shrugged. "I've been called worse."

Sam turned in his seat and asked, "You remember how to start the flamethrower?"

"Aim for the chest, pull the trigger, avoid the teeth, and don't catch any of us on fire," I listed, monotone. At Sam's disgruntled look, I added gently, "I'll be fine, Sam. You don't have to worry about me."

Dean let out a derisive snort, which earned him two death glares from Sam and I. And then it was time; we pulled into Henri's gravel driveway and Sam and Dean hopped out quickly.

I tried to hop out, too, but Dean pushed my door shut again.

"Hey!" I yelled. "What gives?"

Sam held up a finger in a wait a minute gesture. They both looked around for a minute, I guess checking to see if the coast was clear. When they decided we were safe, Dean leaned against the door and the two brothers began to argue.

I only heard snippets; Sam's voice was harder to hear than Dean's, but I heard a few words.

Dean- "... lock her in and kill this son of..."

Sam- "No, what if it comes... stuck in the car? ... torch the car, and then..."

Dean- "Well we need... keep her from hunting?"

I knocked on the window and got a very rude gesture from Dean. "I do still have a flamethrower, guys!" I yelled.

Sam made a face at Dean, and Dean heaved a huge sigh and shoved himself off the car. I climbed out and smoothed my hair back into an elastic hair tie I'd grabbed from my duffel. "You guys can't keep me from hunting," I stated.

Dean chuckled. "Sweetheart, now you've made it a challenge. But we can't take the risk of you going kamikaze and torching Baby to make a point."

"Baby?" I asked, confused. Sam pointed at the car, his face a mixture of amusement and resignation. I looked at Dean and rolled my eyes. "You named your car? Baby?"

Dean forced an obviously fake chuckle and grouched, "Yeah, yeah, why don't we hunt down this Rougarou and talk about my Baby later."

I rolled my eyes and lifted the flamethrower. "Let's go, then."

#*#*#*#*#*#

After Sam broke down the door and we fanned out (Dean made me stay right next to his hip), it took a few minutes to find Henri, hiding in a room in the basement. Light streamed in brokenly through a dirty, stained, cracking window about two or three feet wide on each direction near the top of the room, opposite the door.

Henri was in the very farthest corner of the closet with a lighter and a can of hairspray.He was a shorter, kind of pudgy, red-haired, acne-spotted guy, maybe in his late teens or early twenties, who was cowering on the floor with a white, blood-spotted bandage around his upper arm.

"Oh, thank you, God! The Winchesters came in time." He had kind of a squeaky, higher pitched voice for a guy. Sam held out his hand and Henri took it, hauling himself up.

Then he saw me, peeking at him from behind Dean's shoulder. "Well, who's this?" he asked, licking his palm and smoothing it over his hair. He positioned his shoulders so that he was squared up to me, and he winked suggestively. I wrinkled my nose in immediate disgust.

Dean must've given him a death glare for the books, because two seconds after he winked at me, Henri caught a glimpse of Dean and his face went from haven't seen the light of day in a year pale, to ohmigod Dean Winchester's gonna shoot me with a flamethrower pale in a millisecond. "Uuh, you know what? Doesn't matter. As soon as you torch Mark, you'll be gone for another four years, and-"

"Wait, hold on," Sam waved his hand in front of Henri's face. "You know the Rougarou?"

Henri looked uncomfortable. "Well, yeah. He was my landlord. He began to turn a few days ago, and I was trying to help him resist the urge to chomp people, keeping him chained up here. Until about an hour ago when I got too close to him."

Dean groaned. "Have you always been this stupid, or is this a new development?"

There was a shuffling noise in the corner of the room. We all spun quickly and found ourselves across a room from Mark the Rougarou.