Dean thought Paul Dutton might be targeted next, so he decided that the group should tail him. That's how they found themselves sitting in the Impala right outside a bar. Paul was not in the bar, instead he was sitting in his own car, eating the food he had just brought out from inside the bar.
"God this is boring. And depressing." Ivanna complained. Both boys sighed and collapsed their heads into their hands.
"After this, we're getting food right?" She continued as she leaned forward.
"Sure, Ivy. We'll get food if this guy doesn't die tonight." Dean relented as Sam nodded in agreement. Then, Ivanna looked up with a small victorious smile gracing her face, and watched as Paul started thrashing about in his car.
"Umm, guys? Paul's not looking so good." Her voice was apprehensive, watching the scene unfold with inquisitive brows. When the man launched himself out of his car, Dean quickly turned on the engine to the car and sped the short distance to him. The man was kneeled over the pavement when the Impala parked and all three people got out.
"Check the car!" Dean yelled to Sam as he and Ivanna ran to the man. Ivanna placed her hands on the man's back and slammed her palm against it hard, attempting to help him throw up his contents. Dean was crouched by Paul's head so he could view both him and Sam in the car. "Sam, hurry!"
"Got it!" Sam yelled as he stood back up from the car. He then took a mini torch and lit the hex bag on fire, effectively killing the spell. Dean hauled the man up and leaned him against his car. He continued to cough and gasp as the spell started to wear off.
"Are you okay?" Ivanna asked kindly.
"What the hell is happening to me?" Paul breathed towards her, face drowned in fear.
"Someone murdered your wife. Now they're trying to kill you. That's what's happening." Dean explained to him.
"That's impossible. There's no way-"
"Well if we hadn't of been following you, you'd be a doornail right now." Dean continued to argue with him.
"Who wants you dead, Paul?" Ivanna asked, her voice a lot calmer as she crossed her arms against the biting chill. The man sputtered and Ivanna waited and watched on bated breath. "Come on, think."
"Uh, there's a...there's a woman." Paul eventually spoke. Ivanna released a puff of air as her earlier suspicions might've been right.
"Okay, a woman?" Dean asked him, his hand still placed on Paul's shoulder.
"An affair, a...a mistake." Ivanna clicked her tongue as she heard his words. She then looked towards Sam and raised her eyebrows, a disappointed grimace is what she received in return. "She was unbalanced. She was blackmailing me, and I put an end to it a week ago."
"What's her name?" Sam asked, tone strict. Even though Paul tried to plead his guilt into innocence, nobody gave it to him.
"Wha...What could she possibly have to do with what-" Paul stuttered out, his frustration rising. Ivanna's was also rising as she stepped forward and clenched her hands into tight fists,
"Paul, what was the woman's name?" She gritted out through closed teeth, her voice as calm as she could make it. The boys surrounding her, found themselves and little scared at the sight.
"Amanda, Amanda Burns." Paul eventually sighed out, his posture slumped in defeat. Ivanna nodded tersely as she stepped back.
"Alright, let's find an Amanda Burns." She exchanged glances to Dean then Sam, both nodding in agreement. The trio then started back towards the Impala.
"Wait, you can't just leave me here! What's happening? What if this happens again?" Paul shouted to the retreating group, his hands thrashing around in the air. Ivanna stopped and turned back to the man, her door held open with her hand and said,
"We'll take care of it. Try not to piss off any more woman into killing you, yeah?" And with that, she sat in the backseat behind Dean and shut the door. His head shaking and his shoulders jumping the only sign that he was laughing as he started the car and drove off.
****
"Would you like to do the honors this time?" Ivanna asked Dean coyly. The trio was stood on the porch of a white two-story house. Sam was actually the one to find Amanda's location as he brought his laptop in the car with them. Ivanna left her's at the hotel thinking it would be of no use without WiFi, but Sam used the bars WiFi.
"What is your magic all tapped out?" Dean asked ruefully back. His chest was puffed and a broad smile graced his features, cocky and arrogant, a look that made Ivanna stomach tingle.
"Oh please," she scoffed, "It's not magic and it's not tapped out." She drew her fingers up and down in an abbreviation simple. "I just thought that I would give you the chance to show off, so please." Ivanna gestured forward. Dean walked up towards the door and started picking the lock. Ivanna looked at Sam and chuckled at the annoyance gracing his face. When the door clicked open, the group grew serious as they drew their guns.
They checked the first floor separately and found nothing amiss. They then decided to crawl up the stairs and search the smaller area together. Ivanna nodded her head towards the only closed door and started forward. She slowly opened the door, a creak being the only sound, and quickly took in the sight before her.
A woman, Amanda Ivanna presumed, was laid down on a table filled with lit candles and her own blood pooled around her. Ivanna's whole body stuttered at the sight, she hadn't seen much of the gory sight in front of her. She felt the boys run into her back and felt her body jolt at Dean's hand on her back. He gently pushed her forward, allowing Sam to check out the woman on the table.
"Alright?" Dean asked simply, his eyes shining with kindness towards Ivanna. She nodded a small nod and set her face back to serious. With a roll of her shoulders and a clearing of her throat, she walked toward the dead woman, herself.
She used her gun to roll the woman's wrist over, as the most of the blood was pooled there. She then did the same to the other wrist. "Three per wrist, vertical." She told the boys, her voice stoic."
"She wasn't fooling around." Dean spoke as he circled the table, also inspecting the woman. Sam grunted in disgust as he covered his mouth and crouched at the table. Ivanna couldn't smell anything over the metallic scent filling the air, but as she watched Sam, she saw a plate of decomposing food. It had maggots and flies in and surrounding the dish, same as the burger that Paul was eating. Ivanna had officially lost her appetite. She decided to focus her gaze on a binder placed in front of the plate.
"Yeah, looks like she was working with some heavyweight evil here." Sam spoke, taking in the same binder of spells she was.
"Yep." Dean agreed.
"A woman scorned." Ivanna shrugged and nodded in agreement. She squinted her eyes as she tried to remember if she knew the symbols on the binder or not. She was more well versed in angelic symbols, but she knew a fair amount of demon symbols. Dean's yell made her jump out of her skin and her heart beat increase to an overwhelming speed. She looked over at him, clutching her racing heart, and saw him in front of a dead rabbit hanging from the ceiling. She blew out a breath as he covered his eyes in shame.
"Freaking witches! Seriously man, come on!" Dean shouted as he turned away from the hanging rabbit aggressively. Sam had stood up behind Ivanna, a sight she was now able to see after checking on Dean, and stood along with him.
"Guess we know where she got the rabbit's teeth from." Sam spoke calmly, unfazed by his brother's anger and embarrassment.
"Well Paul sure knows how to pick 'em, huh? It's like Fatal Attraction all over again." Dean grumbled out. Ivanna scoffed and crossed her arms.
"Or, if Paul just kept his dick in his pants and stayed loyal, this might not be happening." Ivanna argued as she glared at the wall.
"There'd still be a witch in this town, and who's to say she wouldn't become upset with another man and still do all this?" Sam replied to Ivanna, calmly. She found herself once again envious of his ability to remain calm so often. Her shoulders slumped and she nodded her agreement with defeat, she did understand his point.
"Whys the rabbit always get screwed in the deal?" Dean spoke again, steering the conversation back to his earlier gripes as he glared at the rabbit in question. "Poor little guy." His voice trembled.
"You know what I don't get?" Sam addressed the group, Dean turning back around to face his brother once more. "If she was so bent on revenge, why do this?"
"Well, she got Janet Dutton, thought she finished off Paul, decided to cap herself and make it a spurned lover's hat trick." Dean answered with full amusement and no sympathy. Ivanna shook her head and scrunched her eyebrows together,
"It's like some twisted modern day Shakespeare tragedy. How pitiful." Ivanna's voice dripping disgust and sarcasm. She found she always hated tragedies and felt the couples would more often than not bring it upon themselves, the heartache and death.
"Maybe." Sam said simply as he crouched once more to inspect the table.
"I mean, this doesn't exactly look like a tv room of a bright and stable person, you know?" Dean looked around as he put his gun in his inside jacket pocket. Ivanna placed her own in the belt of her jeans.
"No, but then..." Sam crawled to the side of the table and reached to one of the corners. "There's this." He pulled out a hex bag and showed it the Ivanna and Dean. He then tossed the bag over to his brother, which Dean caught easily.
"Another hex bag? Come on." Dean grumbled out as he opened the bag and check the contents. He then threw the bag to the floor and took out his phone. "Looks like we got a hit. A little witch-on-witch violence." He flipped his phone open and started typing on it.
"I guess." Sam spoke as Ivanna walked over to the open bag on the floor.
"I'd like to report a dead body at 309 Mayfair Circle." Dean spoke into the phone as he walked over to Sam. He nudged Ivanna's leg with his boot and sent her a questioning glance as she pulled out her lighter.
She watched as his eyes widened in understanding as she burned the bag. "My name? Yeah, sure, my name is..." He then clicked his phone closed and put it back in his pocket.
"Why would a witch kill another?" Ivanna asked as she stood up wiping her hands against her pants.
"I don't know, but I think maybe we got a coven on our hands." Sam answered her solemnly.
****
The next day, the trio found themselves walking towards a woman working in her garden.
"You must have a green thumb." Sam spoke to the woman kneeling, his voice dripping with arrogance.
"Excuse me?" The woman asked, voice defensive as she looked at the group.
"Getting these herbs," Sam swiveled a finger around the plants, " to grow out of season like this."
"Yeah, it's quite impressive. I, myself was never able to keep a plant alive." Ivanna continued in a friendlier manner to help open the woman up.
"I'm sorry. I should've introduced myself first." Sam reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his badge, the action being repeated by Ivanna and Dean. The woman stiff up from the ground to be eye level with them. He then opened it and held the front to be viewed by the woman. "I'm detective Bachman, this is detective Turner, and this is detective Stone."
"Hiya." Ivanna murmured towards the girl, her smile bright, while Dean nodded his greeting. "We're following up on Amanda Burn's death. We've been going around the neighborhood, talking to her neighbors."
"But didn't she...I mean, she killed herself, right?" The woman's face was pensive and cautious as her gaze flickered between the three of them.
"Maybe, maybe. We heard you were friends with the deceased, is that right?" Dean finally spoke up.
"Yeah, I guess so." The woman looked towards her feet and she nodded. Her body language screamed lies to Ivanna, causing her to hitch a brow up in question.
"Do you have any idea about her practices?" Ivanna asked, trying to catch the woman off guard. It worked as she looked to Ivanna startled,
"I'm sorry? What...what kind of practices?"
"Well, see, her house was littered with satanic paraphernalia." Ivanna continued, her tone turning grave.
"No, th- but she was an Episcopalian." The woman argued back, her guarded face cracking at the seams just a bit.
"Oh, well, then we're pretty sure she was using the wrong bible." Dean chuckled out.
"Elizabeth!" A voice called the woman from behind the trio's back. They turned their heads to see two woman strolling up the driveway. "Are you all right?" Their faces were screwed in fake smiles as they ran to Elizabeth's rescue.
"I'm fine. Uh, Renee, these are detectives." Elizabeth speaks out to them assuredly, as they round to stand by her side. "They say Amanda was...She was practicing-"
"Sorry detectives, you can tell Elizabeth is a little upset." The blonde woman spoke to them. Her voice was mocking and fake, causing Ivanna anger to rise. These women reminded her of patronizing adults from her childhood, always look down on her simply because of her age.
"Of course, Miss...?" Dean spoke for the group, his voice kind and his eyes squinted.
"Mrs. Renee Van Allen." She spoke each word like its own sentence, something Ivanna sighed deeply at. "Would you like me to spell it for you?"
"I'll get by, thanks." Dean replied sarcastically, face dripping in mock kindness.
"This Amanda business had been hard for Liz, for all of us." Renee spoke, her voice dropping to fake solemnity.
"Yeah, I mean, you think you know a person." The brunette on the other side of Elizabeth piped up, her voice more genuine in grief. Small hums of agreement came from Renee.
"Well, I guess we all have secrets, don't we?" Dean spoke up, his own smile fake and wide, waiting to see if they crack at his words. The three women simply stare at him, facial expressions unmoving.
"Well, thank. Um, we'll be in touch." Sam eventually voiced to the group, the air turning awkward and heavy.
"Have a nice day." Dean called out cheerily as he walked away, following Sam.
"Elizabeth." Ivanna nodded her head once at the lady and followed her boys.
****
The Impala hummed as Dean drove it down the road. Ivanna sat in the back, her head in her hand as she read a book. The Encyclopedia of Witches read the front, a book about the history and witches, gifted to her by a hunter she had met years back.
"Well, I'm already sold on that Elizabeth chick." Dean voice spoke out, breaking the comfortable silence they all sat in. "Did you see that victory garden of hers?"
"Belladonna, wolfsbane, mandrake, sage." Ivanna muttered off the plants she took note of as she closed her book and looked at Dean in the center console mirror. Dean nodded as he caught her eyes in the mirror.
"Not to mention that little flinch she threw when we mentioned the occult." Dean continued.
"Well she's definitely had a good run lately." Sam spoke up as he shuffled through some papers that were seated on his lap. Ivanna leaned forward slightly to glance at them. "Gone up a few tax brackets, won almost too many raffles. The kind of thing a little black magic always helps with."
"Yeah." Dean agreed out loud while Ivanna nodded her head.
"I think those other two women are also witches, though. I don't think she's alone." Ivanna spoke as she drummed her fingers against the seat.
"Yeah, it looks like Mrs. Renee Van Allen has won almost every craft contest she's entered in the past three months." Sam swung his head side to side has he spoke her name, mocking her earlier connotation.
"A regular Martha Stewart, huh? Except for the devil worship." Dean muttered out sarcastically, "I'm thinking that was the coven we met back there, minus one member." Dean spoke louder so the group could hear his theory clearly.
"Yeah, I agree, they were too close knit, ya know?" Ivanna agreed with Dean, her question, being more of a sentence, had both boys nodding to her in agreement.
"Amanda was clearly going off the reservation. What do you think, they killed her to keep up with appearances?" Sam asked the group, the only other sound being the papers he was still rifling through.
"Seems like an appearance kind of crowd, don't you think?" Dean challenged back to Sam.
"Yeah, they were very threatening to each other and to us. I think appearance is all they care about." Ivanna voiced her thoughts as she leaned even more forward from her place in the backseat. At this point her head was seated in between the two hunters, blocking their views.
"If they killed the nut job, should we thank them or what?" Dean spoke as he took a hand to Ivanna's face and pushed her back. She grunted against his hand and swatted it away.
"They work in black magic too, Dean. They need to be stopped." Ivanna argued back to him, a glare resting on her delicate features. Sam hummed in agreement, his eyes dazed in thought.
"Stopped, like stopped?" Dean asked, taken aback from Ivanna's words. "They're human, Ivy."
"They're murderers." Sam argued back. Dean looked back towards the road as their words settled in his mind. Eventually, he shook his head saying,
"Burn, witch, burn." Ivanna reached to the space next to her to pick back up her book, when the car startled to sputter and clink. "The hell?" Dean questioned as he looked around the car in his seat. Ivanna felt the car rock around and eventually stop. In front of the now stopped car stood a woman. Ruby, to be exact. She stood with her arms crossed and her hip jutted out.
"Ruby." Sam spoke first, as he was the first one out of the car. Dean was next, followed by Ivanna. She took the longest, as she grabbed her angelic blade, not trusting the woman and the heavy pit in her stomach blooming.
"Sam, listen to me. There's no time" Ruby's voice was rushed and soft as she spoke.
"About what? What are you talking about?" Sam asked as he walked towards her. Dean stood by his door, and Ivanna stepped up to stand next to him.
"You have to get out of town." She continued vaguely.
"So this is Ruby, huh?" Dean asked as he looked from Ivanna to the blonde demon in front of his car. Suddenly, a gun is pointed towards her from his hand. Ivanna didn't realize he had a gun on him until he cocked it, "Never had the pleasure."
"Dean!" Sam cried, voice aghast as he held his hands outwards in surprise.
"I was hoping you'd show up again." Dean ignored his brother as he stared at the demon.
"Put that thing somewhere else." Ruby threatened out. Dean didn't, instead choosing to cackle loudly,
"Yeah, right." His maniacal laughter died immediately as he spoke. Ivanna placed a hand on his free arm, a warning of her own to him. Ivanna felt no need to escalate the situation until she heard what the demon had to say.
"Sam, please. Go." Ruby sighed and told Sam, voice pleading. "Get in the car and don't look back."
"Why? I-I don't understand?" Sam shook his head.
"Hey, hot stuff, we can take care of a few kitchen witches, thanks." Dean called her attention over, his gun still raised.
"I'm not talking about witches, you jackass." Ruby exclaimed, her face scrunched in anger at the man. "Witches are whores."
"Then who are you talking about?" Ivanna finally spoke towards the demon. Ruby paused as she examined Ivanna, her stare boring uncomfortably into her.
"I'm talking about who they serve."
The air grew thick, the pit in Ivanna's stomach growing.
"Demons." She breathed. The realization causing Sam and Dean's eyebrows to rise to their hairline. "They get their power from demons."
"Yeah." Ruby agreed as Dean turned his head to each member and back again, causing Ivanna imaginary whiplash to her own skull. "And there's one here now."
"Oh, what, you mean besides you?" Dean asked, his voice snarky. His earlier surprise must've been concluded or dropped in favor of making digs at the demon.
"Sam, it knows you're in town, and it's gonna come after you, and it's way more than you can handle." Ivanna's eyebrows furrowed as she heard Ruby address just Sam.
"Oh, come on. What is this, huh? Please tell me you're not listening to this crap." Dean drawled out. His grip on his gun grew slack, instead using it to point emphasis towards Ruby.
"Put a leash on your brother, Sam, if you want to keep him." Ruby threatened, her jaw clenched. Ivanna raised a brow at her threats, knowing damn good and well she could take the demon down before she laid a hand on Dean. Her words caused her to raise her blade slightly in a defensive position.
"Look Dean, just chill out." Sam told him obediently. Ivanna's head swiveled to Sam's in offense for his brother.
"No! No!" Dean yelled as he looked to Sam with his own glare. "She's messing with your head! God knows why. That's who they are."
"I'm telling you the truth."
"And I'm telling you to shut up, bitch!" Dean continued to yell, his gun pointed back at her, hand steady.
"I'm sorry. Why are you even a part of this conversation?" Ruby walked threateningly towards Dean, Ivanna taking her own step forward.
"Oh, I don't know? Maybe because he's my brother, you black-eyed skank!"
"Oh, right, right. And you care about your brother so much. That's why you're checking out, leaving him all alone. Or is that why you recruited her? Setting them up to take your place while you're gone?" Ruby barked back.
"Shut up." Dean said simply, his voice loosing its edge at her words. Ivanna had had enough, Ruby's insults driving her to the edge as she stepped forward and placed her knife under Ruby's throat.
"Is there anything else you'd like to say about me? Or about them, hmm?" Ivanna spoke low, calm and assured. Ruby's eyes widened slightly, the only sign of her fear.
"At least let me try and save Sam since he won't be here to do it anymore."
"I said shut up!" Deans scream cried out behind the women. Sam's scream though, distracted Ivanna enough to look behind her, her blade no longer being pressed against the demons throat. She watched as Sam ran over and threw the gun Dean was holding up, out of Ivanna and Ruby's direction. A shot hit the air loud while the boys wrestled for the gun. Ivanna jumped back, away from Ruby, in surprise at Dean almost shooting her to get to Ruby.
She watched as both boys settled their fighting, looking at the space behind Ivanna. She turned and looked back at Ruby, only to see her gone.
A.N. Feel free to comment and vote if you're liking the story so far!!