There was been a vampire attack in Sioux Falls.
Dean pulled me and Sam up outside the police station, parking next to a Sioux Falls Sheriff cruiser.
Jody was standing next to it.
It was raining outside.
Sam, Dean and I got out of the car.
"You guys are a sight," Jody told us.
"Jody," I told her. "How's the shoulder?"
"Eh, only aches when it rains," Jody answered. "How you guys been?"
"Peachy," I told her.
"Touch and go," Sam told her.
"I know the feeling," Jody told us.
I looked around, sighing. "Feels good to be home. And not home-adjacent." I pointed toward the station, looking at Sam and Dean. "Swear, the second I step in there, it'll be like old times when Jody used to arrest me. Whenever she could prove that I had done something wrong." I looked at Jody. "Which wasn't often, by the way."
Jody chuckled. "It was often enough."
Dean looked at me, smiling a small smile, shaking his head, looking at Jody. "So, what you got for us?"
Jody opened the trunk of her car to reveal a headless body inside.
Sam lifted the lip, pushing against the gun to eject a vampire fang. "Yeah, uh, that's a vamp, all right."
Jody closed the trunk.
"I don't know, guys," Dean told us. "Looks like Jody might not need our help anymore."
"Oh, they grow up too fast," I told them.
"Don't they?" Sam asked.
Jody smiled. "Yeah, joke all you want. There's more where this came from."
"More?" Sam repeated.
"My men brought in a runaway last night," Jody explained. "There's no ID on her. Nothing on her, actually, except for a bus ticket out of Nebraska. Total Jane Doe. She won't even give me her name. Girl's basically feral. She's got zero manners. Didn't even thank me for saving her. Anyhow, this thing went to plenty of trouble to get at her. And to hear him tell it, the 'others' will want her at least as bad as he did."
Sam and Dean looked at me knowingly, with guarded expressions, worried about how I would react to this case, considering what happened to me.
I ignored them, looking away.
"Sounds like a nest," Sam told us.
"Yeah," Dean agreed.
"Nest?" Jody repeated. "I'm guessing that's not half as cute and cozy as it sounds."
I shook my head numbly. "Oh, I'm afraid not."
~~~~~~~~
Dean and I were in the interrogation room with the girl.
I was doing a gum check on the girl.
Dean watched.
I stepped behind the girl, looking at Dean, shaking my head, silently telling him she wasn't a vampire.
"Fisher and Murray?" the girl asked. "You two are FBI, then I'm Taylor Swift. That wasn't a dental ID. It was a fang check. You're hunters."
Dean and I exchanged a look.
Dean looked at the girl. "And you're alive because, uh, hunters trained the sheriff. I think the first words out of your mouth should be a thank you." I notice some scars on the girl's neck, putting a hand to my neck where the scars would have been if Cas hadn't healed me in Purgatory. "So, who were you to this vamp, anyway? Hmm? What's so special about you? Is there a nest?"
The girl noticed I was watching, shrugging her shirt collar higher to cover her scars.
I looked at Dean, lowering my hand, giving him a significant look.
Dean understood.
Sam opened the door, popping his head in. "Sorry to interrupt. We got a match on her DNA."
~~~~~~~~
Sam, Dean and I stood with Jody in the main room.
Jody held a missing flyer of a little girl toward me. "Annie Jones. Reported abducted outside of Kenosha in '06. Raised by an elderly grandparent. No living kin." She looked toward the interrogation room where Annie was, turning back to us. "You think the vamps are the ones who took her?"
"Eight years is a long time for a human to live with vampires without getting killed or turned," Dean told us.
"Right," I agreed, gazing off. "Rare. But not impossible."
Dean looked at me knowingly, expressionless with sympathy.
"You're the experts, but there was something... familiar about the way this vamp talked to her," Jody told us.
"And you also have to take in the fact that she had scars on her neck," I told them. "Feeding scars." An officer walked past us, leaving. "They're layered, as if they'd been built on for years. She's a blood slave." Jody looked at us in confusion. "We've seen it before. Vampires keeping people as pets. Human blood bags."
"Sometimes these... victims..." Dean trailed off.
"Stay loyal to their captors," Sam finished.
Dean nodded. "Yeah."
"Right," Sam told us.
"Depends on how young you take them," I told them. "How well you treat them. If you're someone like me, all you've done is piss them off and left them years of scarring, even if you've been healed."
I held the pendant of my necklace, holding Dean's arm absentmindedly.
Dean looked slightly guilty.
Jody was confused. "So, this girl's not talking 'cause she's got a case of... what? Vampiric stockholm syndrome?"
"She's protecting the nest," Dean told her. "So how the hell are we gonna get her to talk?"
I looked down. "She'll talk to me." Sam and Dean knew I was right. Jody looked at me in confusion. I nodded barely, avoiding their gazes. "She'll talk to me."
~~~~~~~~
I was sitting in the interrogation room across from Annie. "So, you feel a debt. They gave you a home, raised you. Annie, I get it. Loyalty is a very powerful thing."
"My name is Alex," Annie told me.
"No, it's not," I told her. "Your name is Annie Jones. Those vampires stole you. They're monsters, Annie."
"Alex," Annie corrected.
"Okay, fine," I told her. "Alex. But they didn't love you. They loved your blood. They fed on you." Alex looked away. I sighed, looking down for a moment, leaning forward against the table. "See, I've been where you're at. I was like you, Alex." Alex looked at me in confusion, surprised. I nodded barely. "It wasn't for as long as your time with your nest. But they knew I could fight back. They knew I could kill them at my full strength. So they kept me nearly dead from the minute they got their hands on me. And they did a lot more than just feed off me. And I'm taking this a lot harder than I'm letting on. And I'm not trying to let it get to me, but my God..." I took a deep breath. "I was angry. I still am. I still have nightmares. And maybe you do, too. So help me. Please."
"That's where you and me are different," Alex told me. "I fed them. My choice. My brothers? They brought me food when I was hungry. So, when they struck out on a hunt, I fed them. They're my family."
"Okay," I told her. "You care about them, but, Alex... there's a reason you decided to run away."
Alex hesitated. "It was time... to move on and get out on my own."
"And how do you think that decision is gonna sit with the rest of the nest?" I asked. "One of them already pursued you. You think when the rest of them find out that you left, that they're just gonna shrug and cut their losses? You lived with them for years. They've tasted your blood. They have your scent down cold. When a vampire gets your scent, they have it for life. And they can find you anywhere. Anytime. I mean, how far can you run and for how long?" Alex was fighting tears, but one fell down her cheek. "You didn't think this out, did you? What would happen, who might get hurt. Your, uh, 'brother', for one."
"His name's Cody," Alex told me. I nodded barely. Alex looked out the window leading to the main room toward Jody talking to Sam and Dean. "And she killed him."
"Because of a choice you made," I told her. "These are the consequences. You got two options. Them or you. And I can help you. I can keep you safe. But you have to help me. Where's the nest?"
Alex shook her head. "I can't." She was trying not to cry. "After what's happened... Mama finds me, she'll kill me."
Alex started to cry in fear.
I sat back, sighing.
~~~~~~~~
I walked into the main room.
Sam was doing some research on the computer.
Jody stood nearby, lost in thought. "No wonder she didn't thank me. That creep was her brother. You know, mostly, I'm just... I'm hung up on the name. Alex and Annie. They're so close already. Why'd they change it?"
I shook my head. "I don't know."
I paced away from Sam and Jody, far enough to where I was alone.
Dean walked closer with two cups of coffee, holding one toward me. "Ness, you okay?"
I took it, looking down. "I'd be better if this was vodka." Dean smirked a little, taking a drink. I sighed, taking Dean's hand. "Just, uh... Not gonna say I'm fine, 'cause I know that'd be a useless, unbelievable lie." I sat down on a bench against the wall, taking a drink. Dean nodded, sitting down next to me. I looked back toward Alex in the interrogation room through the window. Alex was rubbing at her scars on her neck. I looked at Dean. "See, I can't help but keep thinking that I would have scars just like that if Cas hadn't healed me back in Purgatory." Dean nodded in agreement, sadly. "But, uh... all of my scars are psychological. Which some say is a lot worse."
Dean sighed heavily, looking at me. "See, don't know if I should let you take your angers out on the vampire kind, or take you away at 100 miles per hour."
I smiled a small smile. "It's okay. This is a job. No matter what job it is... how close to home it hits..." I looked around the Sioux Falls police station. "Literally and figuratively, in this case..." I looked at Dean, shaking my head. "I can't walk away."
"I know," Dean told me.
I managed a small smile.
Dean wrapped an arm around my shoulders, kissing my head.
I smiled more convincingly this time.
Sam called from the computer. "Guys." Dean and I sighed, standing, walking closer. "Okay, so, we know from her ticket that Alex hopped a bus out of O'Neill, Nebraska, right?"
"Mm-hmm," Jody answered.
"Obviously, it'd be better to go in with a firm location, but the town ain't that big," Sam told us. "There are no caves or other natural hiding places."
"All right, so go in, canvass it cold," Dean told us.
"Well, I worked together a short list of possible nest locations," Sam told us. "Uh, there's an empty fire station, four or five derelict homes. Nothing we couldn't hit in a day."
"Okay," Dean told us. Sam stood. We walked toward the door. Dean looked at Jody. "You sure you're all right to babysit by yourself?"
We stopped, turning to face each other.
"Oh, well, girl's a flight risk, not exactly friendly," Jody told us. "But I think I can handle babysitting detail."
"The station's been made," I told her. "It might be worth heading upwind for a while. I mean, vamps are trackers."
Jody nodded sarcastically. "Terrific."
I raised my eyebrows barely, looking away. "Yeah."
"Well, I've got an old family cabin outside of town," Jody told us.
"That'll work," I told her.
"Okay," Jody told us. "Well, shouldn't raise too many eyebrows, me being gone for a day."
"Maybe, but you, uh, sure you don't want backup?" Dean asked.
Jody tilted her head. "You want me to enlist my men in a protection detail against vampires? Most of these guys are still recovering, still having nightmares from watching their loved ones turn into brain-eating zombies." I looked down, away. "They're good cops. They're not ready for this."
"Jody, in your late-night reading, did you ever come across anything about dead man's blood?" Sam asked.
Jody shook her head. "Mm-mm."
"It takes vamps down like a horse tranq," Sam told her.
"I would not say no to some of that," Jody told us. "I mean, not that I'll need it. You guys are gonna get the jump on these vamps and be back here before they even realize their kin's missing, right?"
Dean, Sam and I nodded, turning around, walking out, leaving.
~~~~~~~~
In O'Neill, Nebraska, after dark, Sam, Dean and I walked toward one of the derelict homes that Sam had been telling us about, walking inside, searching with flashlights.
The house was obviously being lived in, as there were beds made on the floor with blankets, and food in the kitchen.
"This place is a foreclosure, right?" I asked.
"Yep," Sam answered. "It is, just like the rest of them."
"Well, somebody's squatting here," Dean told us.
"Blackout windows," Sam told us.
There was a noise from behind the house.
We walked outside to investigate.
A woodchipper out back was running.
A man was pushing dead bodies into the grinding jaws of the machine.
Dean approached from behind. "Hey. Hey, you need a hand with that?" The man turned the woodchipper off, turning to face Dean. "Oh." Dean chuckled. "I guess not."
The man transformed, baring vampire fangs, stalking closer to Dean.
I hit the vampire over the head with a shovel, making him fall to the ground.
~~~~~~~~
Inside, we had the vampire chained up.
"You go out with the family, bring home a nice dinner," Dean told him. "How did you get stuck doing the dishes?"
"We all have our roles to play," the vampire told us.
"Yours being destroying the evidence, yeah?" Sam asked. "Nice job." The vampire looked down. Sam looked at two wallets and the IDs inside. "Ralph Hedges. Stacie Kepler. Any reason you targeted them?"
The vampire looked up. "Yeah. Hunger."
The vampire chuckled.
"And, so, the family's what?" I asked. "Out taking a nice after-dinner stroll?"
"Oh, I'm sure they'll be back real soon," the vampire told us.
I stepped closer. "What I asked was..." I grabbed the vampire by the back of his head, by his hair, making him look at me. "Where are they?" The vampire laughed. I let the vampire go in disgust, turning away numbly, turning to face him, backhand punching him in the face. "You don't want to talk. No skin off me. 'Cause you see, a blood-sucking, body-chipping vamp... that's bad enough. But vamps... that keep blood slaves, and kidnap kids... well, I'm going to enjoy putting you down."
"Of course," the vampire told us. "Oh, I knew this was about Alexis. I warned Mama that girl would screw everything up for us one day."
"'Mama'?" Sam repeated. "As in one vamp turned you all?"
"Well, all of us but little sis," the vampire answered. "She was, uh, 'too good to turn'. Mama couldn't bring herself to, no matter what we said, no matter how bad Alexis got."
"Bad?" Dean repeated.
"Let me guess," the vampire told us. "You never had a teenage sister. Dragging her heels, whining, near constant, about everything, but more and more about the blood, like she's somehow above it, like she's better than us 'cause she don't feed on people."
"She is better than you, jackass," I told him darkly.
"Her moping?" the vampire asked. "That teenage crisis-of-conscience crap? It's annoying as hell, but it's just an act. When the chips are down, she'll always choose us over humans. I mean, how do you think we stayed off your radar all these years? Pretty, young, lost-looking thing like her? Irresistible, especially to the kind of man few people would miss. I mean, sure, we hunt sometimes for sport, but it's a lot easier and a lot safer to get delivery."
"She's your lure," Dean realized.
"Best a vamp could ask for," the vampire told us. "And you better believe you don't get that good at it unless you enjoy it. In her own sweet way... girl's as bloodthirsty as any vampire."
I turned to face Sam and Dean. "Jody."
~~~~~~~~
Sam and I were both on the phone.
Sam was finishing his call. "You got it. Thank you."
I hung up. "She's not answering."
Sam hung up. "I just ran the victims' names through local PD. They both worked at the O'Neill bus station."
"So, they killed them for Alex's location," Dean told us.
My phone rang. I looked at the Caller ID, answering. "Jody?"
"Ness, what's up?"
"Listen to me. The vamps knew that Alex went to Sioux Falls, okay? They're probably already there. We're on our way there next. But there's something else. There's something about Alex."
"It can wait. They're here."
"What?"
"At the cabin. Now."
"We're on our way."
"Hurry."
I hung up. "She hung up."
"We moving?" Sam asked.
"Yeah," I answered. "Meet you outside."
I walked into the room with the vampire, without missing a beat, drawing my machete, beheading him in one downward stroke, watching the head fall to the floor.
~~~~~~~~
The sun had come up by the time we pulled up to Jody's cabin in the middle of the woods, getting out of the car to see Jody lying unconscious on the ground with a bleeding, maybe broken nose, running closer.
"Jody?" I asked.
Jody started to wake.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Dean told her.
"Hey, you okay?" Sam asked.
We helped her stand.
"Where's Alex?" Jody asked.
"You tell us," Sam told her.
"They came, and I tried to stop them," Jody told us.
"And you got knocked out," I told her. "Well, happens to the best of us."
"Just lucky you're alive," Sam told her.
"You think they went back to the nest?" Dean asked.
"Of course they did," Sam answered. "Why wouldn't they? Question is, what are they gonna do when they find their brother dead?"
"So we go back now," I told them.
Jody walked past us. "Okay. I'm coming."
We turned after her.
I grabbed her shoulder. "Uh, Jody? Hey, hey. Whoa. Hold on. You're hurt."
"I'm coming," Jody told us.
"Jody, we can handle the nest on our own," Sam told her.
"I don't give a fig about the nest," Jody told us. "That girl was under my protection."
"Okay, that girl can't be trusted," Dean told her. "She's a lure. She's a--a honey trap. She's been feeding people to those vamps."
"I don't care," Jody told us. "Whatever she did, she did because they made her."
"Oh, and that's a reason?" Dean asked.
"She's a kid," Jody told us.
"Yeah, a kid who's been playing vampire murder since before she was in braces," Dean told us.
"Jody, he's right," Sam told her. "A--at best, her loyalties are... screwed."
"And how do you even know she wants to be saved?" Dean asked. "For the past eight years, she has been baiting the hook for an entire nest. She's got more blood on her hands than most monsters we kill."
"Are you saying she's on your list?" Jody asked.
"No, we're not saying that," Sam answered.
"Look, it sucks, okay?" Dean asked. "It does. But with hunting monsters come harsh truths. This is a clean-up mission. It's not a rescue."
"She's coming," I told them, turning toward the Impala, walking away. "And we're not gonna lay a hand on Alex." I stopped, turning to face Sam and Dean. "And if you try to, you'll have to go through me."
Sam and Dean exchanged a look.
I got into the backseat of the Impala.
~~~~~~~~
We were parked down the road from the vampires' house, next to a school bus, raiding the trunk of the Impala.
"Well, their truck's in the driveway," Jody told us.
"So, we're walking right into it?" Sam asked.
"Well, we've faced worse odds," Dean told us.
"Yeah," Sam agreed.
"Jody, this is a raid, so tread lightly," I told her. "We'll take care of clearing the nest. You get Alex."
Jody nodded.
~~~~~~~~
Dean, Sam, Jody and I walked inside, clearing the first floor.
Dean and Sam walked upstairs.
I stayed on the first floor, motioning Jody to check the basement.
Jody nodded, slowly walking downstairs.
~~~~~~~~
I made sure the first floor was clear, hearing a vampire yell from upstairs. "Which one of you took off my brother's head?"
I walked upstairs quietly, into a room where the voices was coming from.
Sam and Dean were tied to chairs. They had tubes and IVs injected into their skin, their blood being used to fill blood bags.
Vampire 1 knelt next to Sam, dipping a finger into his blood, licking it off his finger. "Tapped these kegs. Let get loaded and get gone."
Vampire 2 was carrying things out into the hallway. I stepped out of the doorway behind him, beheading him, watching the headless body and the things fall to the floor, making a loud crash.
I walked into the room with Vampire 1, Sam and Dean.
The vampire growled, running toward me. I slashed the machete toward him. He caught my arm, punching me in the face, making me fall over the table to the floor and drop the machete.
~~~~~~~~
I stood, turning to face the vampire, ready. The vampire picked up my machete. I sighed in annoyance. The vampire slashed toward me. I caught his wrist. The vampire turned the other half toward me, trying to behead me, pushing me against the wall. I kept the blade away at arms' length, kneeing him in the crotch, making him loosen his hold, using the blade to spin him toward the wall instead, pinning him against it, pushing the blade closer with all the strength I had. The vampire breathed heavily, looking away. I pushed the blade against his throat, through it completely, beheading him with pure anger and focus, letting the body fall.
I walked toward Sam and Dean, pulling the tubes free to stop the transfusions quickly, starting to untie them.
~~~~~~~~
We got back to Sioux Falls.
Dean and I were standing outside of Jody's cabin.
"Nice work back there," Dean told me. I sighed, nodding. "Although... the anger I saw in you... I never saw that in you before."
I looked down. "Yeah. Well, I'll be the first one to admit that I took this case to heart in a very, very bad way. I guess what I'm saying is... when I looked at them, all I could see was what happened... back in Purgatory. And I got overcome by the anger that I haven't felt before. But with a case like this... with a nest like them, with a girl like Alex..."
I looked toward the cabin, sighing.
"You're not like Alex," Dean told me.
"You're right," I told him. "There was no possible way I could be a lure like she was, because I was too close to death every day. But she made up for it. Even though Mama turned her into a vampire, we can still save her with the cure, because she hasn't fed yet. And she helped Jody take her down. She made up for it." I sighed. "And, uh... I wish there was a way to make up for what happened to both of us. It was bad, Dean. I can't even put into words."
"I know," Dean told me. "And I'm sorry."
I scoffed barely, shaking my head. "That's the thing about you. You feel guilty even though you couldn't have stopped it."
"Well, I'm supposed to protect you," Dean told me. "And I failed in ways that I can't even..."
I shook my head. "You didn't fail, Dean. I'm still here." Dean nodded barely, smiling a small smile. I managed to return the smile, sighing, tilting my head slightly. Sam and Jody walked closer. I looked at Jody. "How's things back at the station?"
"Well, they beat Frank up pretty bad, but at least they left him alive," Jody told us. "He kept apologizing for spilling the beans about the cabin, but I told him that one's on me."
"Well, speaking of apologies, um..." Sam trailed off, looking from Jody to me, gesturing from himself to Dean. "We owe you a big one."
"We were wrong about the girl," Dean told us.
"No," Jody told them. "You were right, about us. Our judgment was clouded. you know, working this case, it brought... feelings back. Feelings I've been trying to bury for years, you know. Buried it under work, religion... even dating. We know how that worked out. But, you know, it was still there, you know, underneath. The grief. Don't know what that means for me. Just that I've been... I've been fooling myself to think that I could ignore it." Dean and I looked at each other knowingly. I looked down. "Anyway, thank you. For coming out, for curing Alex."
"You don't need to thank us," Sam told her. "I mean, you're the one who killed her sire, got her blood."
"Sure it'll work?" Jody asked.
"Well, speaking from experience, it'll be a rough couple of days, but... she should pull through," Dean told her. "You sure you don't want us to stay?"
"I'm good," Jody answered.
"After it's done, you know what to do with her?" I asked.
Jody smiled a small smile.
She was pretty much adopting Alex and taking her in as her own.