The Impala zoomed up a 2-lane, driven by Dean. He was in a good mood, grooving along to his music.
"Whoo! Listen to her purr! Have you ever heard anything so sweet?" Dean said
"Dean, you never told me you had another woman in your life," I teased.
"Oh, don't listen to her, baby. She doesn't understand us,"
Sam laughed "You're in a good mood,"
"Why shouldn't I be?"
"No reason,"
"Got my car, got a case, things are looking up,"
"Wow. Give you a couple of severed heads and a pile of dead cows and you're Mister Sunshine," I said sarcastically.
Dean laughed "How far to Red Lodge?"
"Uh, about another three hundred miles," Sam replied
"Good," Dean floored it.
***
In Red Lodge, a Sheriff with an impressive mustache was talking to Sam, Dean, and I, as we posed as reporters.
"The murder investigation is ongoing, and that's all I can share with the press at this time," The Sheriff said.
"Sure, sure, we understand that, but just for the record, you found the first, uh, head last week, correct?" Sam asked
"Mm-hmm,"
"Okay, and the other, a uh, Christina Flanigan,"
"That was two days ago. Is there-"
A young woman knocked on the door, pointed at her watch.
"Oh. Sorry, time's up, we're done here," The Sherriff said.
"One last question-"
"Yeah, what about the cattle?" Dean asked
"Excuse me?" The Sheriff asked
"You know, the cows found dead, split open, drained...over a dozen cases," I said
"What about them?"
"So you don't think there's a connection?" Sam asked
"Connection...with...?"
"First cattle mutilations, now two murders?"
"Kinda sounds like ritual stuff," I said
"You know, like satanic cult ritual stuff?" Dean asked
The sheriff laughed "You-you're not kidding,"
"No,"
"Those cows aren't being mutilated. You wanna know how I know?"
"How?" I asked
"Because there's no such thing as cattle mutilation. Cow drops, leave it in the sun, within forty-eight hours the bloat'll split it open so clean it's just about surgical. The bodily fluids fall down into the ground and get soaked up because that's what gravity does. But, hey, it could be Satan. What newspaper did you say you work for?"
"World Weekly News..." Dean said
"Weekly World News," Sam said
"World-"
"Weekly World-"
"Weekly..."
"He's new," I told the sheriff.
"Get out of my office," the Sheriff said.
***
Dean, Sam and I entered the morgue. The intern on duty had a name tag that read 'J. Manners.' Dean looked at it, calculating. "John,"
"Jeff,"
"Jeff." I said "I know that. Dr. Dworkin needs to see you in his office right away,"
"But Dr. Dworkin's on vacation,"
I walked over to him. "You're right, he is...but his office isn't..." I leaned closer to his ear, "meet me there in...10 minutes?" I smirked as the Intern ran away. I looked back at the boys "Those Satanists in Florida, they marked their victims, didn't they?"
"Yeah, reversed pentacle on the forehead," Sam said.
"Yeah. So much f'd up crap happens in Florida," Dean handed Sam a pair of latex gloves and put on a pair of his own. I brushed passed Dean as I opened a compartment and wheeled out a corpse; there was a box between its legs. "All right, open it up,"
"You open it," Sam said.
"Wusses," I laughed as I carried the box over to another table and flipped off the lid, Dean grimaced. Sam approached, cringing.
"Well, no pentagram," Dean said
"Poor girl," I said
"Maybe we should, uh, you know, look in her mouth, see if those wackos stuffed anything down her throat. You know, kinda like the moth in Silence of the Lambs,"
"Yeah, here, go ahead," I told him
"No, you go ahead,"
"What?"
"'Put the lotion in the basket.'" Dean quoted.
"Right, yeah, I'm the wuss, huh? Whatever," Sam steeled himself and started poking his fingers into the mouth. "Dean, Kat, get me a bucket?"
"You find something?"
"No. I'm going to puke,"
"Wait, lift the lip up again?"
"What? You want me to throw up, is that it?"
"No, no, no, I think I saw something,"
Sam pulled back the lip.
"What is that, a hole?" I asked
Dean pressed on the gum and a narrow, sharp tooth descended.
"It's a tooth," Sam said
"Sam, that's a fang. Retractable set of vampire fangs. You gotta be kidding me," Dean said
"Well, this changes things," I said
"Ya think?"
***
I stopped before we walked into the bar.
"Hey, Kat, you ok?" Dean asked, he noticed my look and walked over to me "Those people are gone...they're a couple of states over..."
"They might be Dean, but when I went back to SHIELD I looked up the case files, there are so many others just like that family, some of them solved, but a whole hell of a lot of them weren't..."
Dean picked my chin up to look up at him. "I'm not allowing anyone to take you away from me...ever again,"
I smiled as I looked up at him "I..." I leaned up to him but stopped "need a beer,"
"You little minx," Dean laughed
"Oh Winchester, you honestly expected to make this easy for you?"
We approached the bar, Sam smirking at us.
"What took you so long?" Sam asked
"Shut up," I told him.
"How's it going?" Dean asked the bartender
"Living the dream. What can I get for you?" The Bartender asked
"Three beers, please,"
"So, we're looking for some people,"
"You don't look lonely," The Bartender said eyeing me up and down.
"Yeah. But um, that's not what he meant," I said leaning over to hand him a $50 bill, fingering it, and dropped it on the bar; the bartender looked at it, then took it.
"I would have given you any information for free," The Bartender smiled
"Right." I said sarcastically "So these, these people, they would have moved here about six months ago, probably pretty rowdy, like to drink..."
"Yeah, real night owls, you know?" Dean inputted "Sleep all day, party all night,"
"Barker farm got leased out a couple months ago. Real winners. They've been in here a lot-drinkers. Noisy. I've had to 86 them once or twice,"
"Thanks," I told him.
We left our half-finished beers on the table and left. We went down an alley. I pinned a man to the wall, knife at his throat.
"Smile," Dean said
"What?" The man asked
"Show us those pearly whites,"
"Oh, for the love of-you want to stick that thing someplace else? I'm not a vampire,"
I frowned.
"Yeah, that's right. I heard you guys in there,"
"What do you know about vampires?" I asked
"How to kill them. Now seriously, doll. That knife's making me itch,"
Dean cocked his head. The man started to pull away, I pinned him harder.
"Woah. Easy there, Chachi." The man slowly brought his right hand to his lip, pulled it back, revealing normal gums. "See? Fangless. Happy?"
"Kat..." Dean said
I let up.
"Now. Who the hell are you?"
***
At Gordon's car, he pulled out his arsenal, which included a large hook. "Sam and Dean Winchester. I can't believe it. You know I met your old man once? Hell of a guy. Great hunter. I heard he passed. I'm sorry. It's big shoes. But from what I hear you guys fill 'em. Great trackers, good in a tight spot-"
"You seem to know a lot about our family," Dean noted
"Word travels fast. You know how hunters talk,"
"No, we don't, actually,"
"I guess there's a lot your dad never told you, huh?"
"So, um, so those two vampires, they were yours, huh?" Sam asked
"Yep. Been here two weeks,"
"Did you check out that Barker farm?" I asked
"It's a bust. Just a bunch of hippie freaks. Though they could kill you with that patchouli smell alone,"
"Where's the nest, then?"
"I got this one covered. Look, don't get me wrong. It's a real pleasure meetin' you fellas. But I've been on this thing over a year. I killed a fang back in Austin, tracked the nest all the way up here. I'll finish it,"
"We could help," I told him
"Thanks, but uh, I'm kind of a go-it-alone type of guy,"
"Come on, man, I've been itching for a hunt," Dean said
"Sorry. But hey, I hear there's a Chupacabra two states over. You go ahead and knock yourselves out." Gordon got in his car. "It was real good meeting you, though. I'll buy you a drink on the flip side," he drove off.
***
A man was sitting in the quiet mill, alone. He heard a noise, started investigating. He went up to the roof, pulled out a crowbar. A crow flew at his head, startling him. He relaxed, then turned around to find Gordon attacking him with a machete. The man extended his fangs. They struggled near an electric saw; the vampire turned it on, pinning Gordon down below it, nearly decapitating him until Sam pulled him to safety; Katerina attacked the vampire, getting him pinned under the electric saw. She lowered the saw, decapitating him. Kat was sprayed with blood.
"So uh, I guess I gotta buy you that drink," Gordon said.