“No, you didn’t. Walter died for what he believed in. No one was going to convince him otherwise, not even you. Now we have to find a way out of here.”
Dean looked around the room. “What is this place?”
Crates and sacks were stacked up against every wall of the rectangular room. A distinct pungent odor hung in the air. The only fresh ventilation was coming through a large grate in the ceiling.
Dean pried open a crate and looked inside. Dynamite.
“That explains the reinforced steel door,” Sam said, looking over his shoulder. “I bet this was used as some sort of hub when they built the Atlantic Pacific Railroad. They’d need explosives to grade earth and create suitable terrain for the rail lines.”
“Now I feel bad about taking away your Thomas the Train toy.” Dean glanced witheringly at his brother. “This stuff must be like seventy years old. Do you think it still works?”
There was a loud bang at the door, then another. The demons were trying to get in. Each impact dented the steel a bit more. It was only a matter of time.
“We’re not going to have time to find out,” Sam said, guarding the door. “Let’s get these things unpacked.”
Minutes later the trio were hard at work. Julia was stringing detonation wire between the crates of dynamite, and Sam and Dean were ripping open all the various sacks of chemicals and gunpowder. By the time they were done they were knee deep in explosives.
The demons continued to work on the steel door, it was beginning to tear like tin foil.
“Let’s get out of here,” Dean said, unscrewing the bolts on the ventilation shaft.
A faint scratching sound could be heard coming from above.
“Did they get inside there? That’s our only way out,” Julia said nervously, looking up into the darkness between the metal slats.
“We’ve got no choice now. I’ll go first. Julia second. Sam, you cover the back and lay the wire as we go.”
Dean stood on a chair and lifted himself into the vent. He pulled Julia up behind him. Sam managed to bury the denotation wire in the explosives below. The demons were almost all the way through the door when Sam lifted himself up into the shaft and hastily put the grid back on it.
They crawled through the ventilation shaft on their hands and knees. It ran underneath the engine work floor and every twenty feet or so it changed direction. They soon felt like they were going in circles.
“Are you sure you know where this is going?” Julia asked.
“It has to lead somewhere,” Dean said. The enclosed box shape of the duct-work made Dean uneasy, it reminded him of being stuck in a coffin after his death. “This is so not good for my claustrophobia.”
Sam was bringing up the rear, sliding his shotgun in front of him and then crawling up to meet it. The action made a lulling swish-swish sound. But then he heard the distinct screech of metal scraping against metal.
“Dean, I think you need to speed it up a bit,” Sam called ahead.
“I’m going as fast as I can.”
“I think they just got into the vent.”
“Damn it.”
“Hurry!” Sam called. He could hear the demons getting closer.
Sam took the right turn behind Julia, but his leg wouldn’t move. He looked back. A demon, a man in overalls, smiled a toothless grin at him.
“Where you goin’ pretty boy?”
Sam flipped onto his back and shot the man between the eyes in one motion. The salt pellet burned into the demon’s head. Smoke escaped from his mouth, sped across the top of the ventilation shaft and disappeared out of the grate.
“Dean, we need to get out of here!”
Dean slid underneath the grating that led to the outside. He crouched down then pushed it with his back. It wouldn’t budge.
“It’s stuck!”
“I have a whole load of demons on my ass. Figure something out!”
Dean pushed again. The grate gave a bit, then a little more. He scrambled up and disappeared outside.
Another demon quickly crawled toward Sam. He spun and shot it in the heart.
Julia clambered out of the grate ahead of Sam.
Sam managed to follow her, squeezing through the opening just as more demonic black eyes appeared out of the darkness.
He found himself standing on a grassy patch about fifty yards away from the engine warehouse.
Dean started shooting salt rounds into the hole Sam had just vacated. He yelled at Julia over his shoulder.
“Get that car over here.” He pointed at a car parked on the street twenty feet away.
“Let’s get the grate back over it,” Sam said, indicating the hole.
They pulled the iron grate onto the hole just as three more demonic faces appeared below them.
“Suck it, bitches.” Dean smiled.
“I don’t think that’s going to hold,” Sam said.
An engine roared. From behind the wheel of the car, Julia motioned for them to get out of the way. She stopped directly over the grate. They could see the demons trying to push the grate open, but it would only move so far up against the undercarriage of the automobile.
Sam pulled the detonation wire about ten feet from the car.
“Find some cover,” Dean called to Julia.
Julia exited the car and took cover behind another car parked on the dark street.
Sam looked at Dean. “Let’s hope this works.”
Sam lit the detonation wire. It sparked, then fizzled out.
“Aww, come on! Let me try.” Dean took the Zippo from his younger brother and tried lighting the wire, but it refused to ignite.
“It’s too old,” Dean said. “Eisheth’s still in there. Let’s light that bitch up.”
“Someone has to go in and light it some other way. I’ll do it,” Sam said.
“Sam, no. No telling what Eisheth will do to you if she catches you.”
“Let me do it. I started this.”
“It’s a suicide mission.”
“It’s not like that. We need to kill Eisheth, she’s leading the charge in there. Those poor possessed people are already dead. We need to put them out of their misery.”
Dean nodded his head, his brother was right.
Sam took the Zippo from Dean.
“Wish me luck.”
He ran off toward the warehouse.
Sam peeked through a dusty window—the warehouse was crawling with demons. Eisheth had somehow recruited yet more. The bodies of the hunters were littered across the floor, not one of them was still standing. Poor people, Sam thought, all of them thought they were on their way to fulfilling some sort of destiny, and they all died today. Because of me.
Sam kicked open the window and climbed inside. He stealthily made his way to the steel staircase. The basement was full of demons all still fighting to get into the anteroom where they had been holed up. Sam looked around for something to light. He saw an old piece of rope and an empty beer bottle. Sam took some oil from a can and poured it into the beer bottle, then he dipped the rope into the oil and shoved that into the top of the bottle.
“I was hoping we would get a little one-on-one time,” a voice said.
Sam spun around to see Eisheth leaning suggestively against the dead body of a hunter splayed over a piece of machinery. She smiled and sauntered toward him.
“I have to say, Lucifer did well. He always had good taste. You’ll soon find that out.” Eisheth reached her hand up to touch Sam’s face. “We are going to have such fun together.”
Sam pulled away. “You disgust me. You should’ve stayed in your genie bottle.”
“Oh, come now, Sam. Aren’t you even a little bit happy to see me? I’m happy to see you. I was cooped up for so long in that jar. I had plenty of time to fantasize about what vessel Lucifer would pick for himself when he rose. And, my oh my, I am glad it’s someone so tall. You know... when Lilith wasn’t around,” Eisheth pressed up close to Sam, “Lucifer and I did some wonderful things together. Would yo
u like me to show you?”
She trailed her fingers over Sam’s chest and down toward his belt buckle.
“Maybe in my next lifetime.”
Eisheth laughed. “You are a comedian, aren’t you? Don’t you understand? I’m your future wife. Maybe not in this body, but I’ll make sure she’s really nice and young. You’d like that, wouldn’t you? In fifty years, when Lucifer is out and inside you... Well, let’s just say I can’t wait to get back to playing our old games.”
Eisheth leaned in to kiss Sam. Sam took a step, spun around and simultaneously lit and threw the bottle into the basement and right at the ante-room door. A couple of demons were blown apart in the quick flare up. It would only be a matter of time before the entire room went up.
Eisheth grabbed Sam by the neck, and threw him up against a wall.
“You think I care about a hundred lesser demons? Burn them all. I just care about you, Samuel. I want you to be safe.”
Sam pushed himself up and lunged at Eisheth. With the demon knife, he slashed at her belly. She moved away with a quick step.
“Silly boy, you can’t kill me. I’m over 2,000 years old.”
Eisheth threw up her hand and Sam went flying fifty feet through the air, landing at the base of the steam engine. His head cracked against the iron.
“Now look what you made me do. I didn’t want to hurt this perfect specimen.”
Eisheth strode toward him.
THIRTY-TWO
“What’s taking him so long?” Dean asked.
Dean and Julia were hidden behind a car, waiting for the four-story brick building to blow.
Without warning, the windows blew out, and hot mercury-colored glass shot in all directions.
There was a rumble, and then another blast as more fire exploded from the windows and roof of the building. Its seven-story smoke stack started to sway. There were a series of smaller percussions which rattled windows in the surrounding buildings. Then everything was silent for a moment.
A sizzling noise came from within the damaged structure, like a thousand tons of bacon frying. A blast like a mini atom bomb shot up into the air, crumbling the fifty-foot walls and sending flaming debris a hundred yards in all directions.
Dean looked at the destroyed shell of foundation.
“Sam?” he said in a small voice.
Then, against the light of the burning inferno, a silhouette appeared. Sam? The figure gradually revealed itself to be Eisheth. She strode up to them, dragging Sam’s body behind her.
Dean leveled his shotgun at her.
“He’s not dead, don’t worry. I’m as upset as you are. His body is so magnificent. I told him I can’t wait until I get to explore it all over.”
“Put him down,” Dean commanded.
Eisheth dropped Sam face first onto the gravel.
“What would you like to do now? I did my job. I stopped all those holier-than-thou hunters from killing the vessels.”
“You killed my father!” Julia shouted.
Eisheth regarded Dean with a smirk.
“Really, this whiney little mouse is attractive to you? Okay, listen sweetheart, I had a job to do. I had to stop all you blood-filled air suckers from thinking you are doing God’s work. If you only knew. From my perspective, God created a hot, dry, dusty, famine-filled world for you. Why would you ever want to help his cause?”
“Hey, Sigourney, can you stop playing Gate Keeper for a moment, and let’s get this over with,” Dean shouted over the roar of the fire.
“Just one more thing, then I’ll get out of your hair. I need the last pages of the scroll. My job is to protect those names, and I’m not letting anyone else get any crazy ideas about killing off the vessels, especially now I’ve met my husband’s. I’m talking to you, mouse.”
Julia stepped out from behind the car and leveled her gun at Eisheth. A lightning quick unseen force pulled Julia toward Eisheth. She flew through the air and landed unconscious at Eisheth’s feet. The demon knelt down and picked her up by the hair, examining her face.
“Nice face, but a little petite, don’t you think? Oh, and by the way, thanks for this. It’s like a token from my homeland. Makes me nostalgic for all those sacrifices people used to do.”
Eisheth held the demon knife at Julia’s throat.
“I know. She’s definitely not like me, but she will bleed regardless. I’m going to have so much fun with this knife. Do you know what I’m going to be able to do with it?” Eisheth dropped Julia and began ranting and gesticulating with the knife like it was a piece of chalk held by a professor. “I can kill off all Lucifer’s precious little demons. I’ll be able to slaughter each and every one. Then he’ll have to listen to me.”
Dean had to think fast.
“What’s your plan?” he said. “You reckon killing demons is going to make your absent husband take you more seriously? You can boil little bunnies Glenn Close-style all you want, Lucifer has bigger fish to fry. You’re just a distraction to him. Second fiddle. He’s Tiger Woods and you’re just another cocktail waitress to text message.”
“Are those the last words your true love is going to hear you say?” Eisheth spat. “Fine with me.”
Grabbing her hair, Eisheth lifted Julia’s body off the ground. She pushed her neck back and held the knife to her throat again.
“What if we could make you a deal?” Dean asked, eyeing the glinting blade as she pressed it to Julia’s skin.
“What could you possibly have that I would have the slightest bit of interest in?”
“We can take you to Lucifer. Now. You won’t have to wait.”
That made Eisheth pause.
“It seems like you haven’t had a face-to-face with your hubby in a long time. Maybe now is the time to try to get into couples therapy?”
“I don’t like the way you talk.”
“You’re a smart chick. Despite those 2,000 birthday candles on your cake, I know you get it.” Dean smirked.
“Someone broke the seals?” Eisheth asked.
Dean looked at Sam. Seemed everyone thought it was impossible.
“Someone broke the seals. Lilith did, to be exact, and she’s gone.”
Eisheth’s eyes glowed brightly, the thought of her husband unfettered, free of his favorite wife, was the consolation and redemption she had been waiting for.
Dean needed to rope her in quick.
“Lucifer is walking around just like you and me. But there’s a catch— it’s fifty-six years in the future. But we have a way to get you there.”
“How?”
“All things come to those who wait. You need to do something for us first.”
“I don’t do favors.”
Dean looked at her steadily. “You’ll do this one. Just let Julia go.”
Eisheth looked down at Julia’s limp body.
“Fine,” she said, dropping her to the ground. “What do I have to do?”
“First things first, we have a couple of stops.”
“Where’d you say you found me?” Leanne Keeny asked.
“Wandering around St. Louis. You don’t remember anything?” Dean shot her a sideways glance as he negotiated the country dirt road.
“I thought I went to New York. I got a job, I think. It was my first day. That’s the last thing I remember.”
“You’re a lucky girl. Is this it?” Dean turned the car up a long driveway leading to a white clapboard farmhouse. “Nice place. I’m sure your parents will be happy to see you.”
“They weren’t expecting me until Christmas.”
“Leanne, do me a favor. Stay here on the farm. Raise a family. You don’t need to go to New York to have a good life.”
She shrugged. “Guess you’re right. Besides, New York was awfully expensive.”
“There you go. Smart girl.”
Leanne flashed him a big smile as she got out of the car. She shut the door and leaned in through the open window.
“So,” she hesitated, “maybe you and me could go get
a float sometime.”
“Sorry sweetheart, I’m not the settling-down type.” Dean winked, put the car into reverse and peeled off down the driveway.
Leanne Keeny took a long look at her parents’ farmhouse and then ran inside.
Hours later, Dean pulled into the Twin Pines Motel in Waubay. He parked the car. Julia appeared in the doorway of a cabin. Dean couldn’t take his eyes off her.
“Where’s Sam?” he asked as he shut the car door.
“He’s in a cabin. Sleeping, of all things. Are you sure about all this?”
Dean shrugged. “I’m never sure about anything. But we had to take the risk. Besides, she had a knife to your throat.”
“Thank you for saving my life.” Julia looked up into Dean’s eyes.
He put his arms around her waist and gently pushed her into the cabin, closing the door behind him with his foot.
Dean gently slid onto the bed, pulling Julia with him.
“I’m so sorry for everything,” Julia said as she smoothed her hands over Dean’s chest. “Everything I believed in, everyone I’ve ever known... is gone.”
Dean gazed into her eyes for a moment. It was true that Julia’s life was forever changed. She had lost her father, all of the hunters who were her friends; she had lost her way of life. Dean thought about how hard it would be to go back to living a normal existence. Would there always be an itching to be on the road? Dean didn’t know any other life. But Julia, she was different.
“You’re free, Julia. You’re now free to do what you want.”
Julia pulled back to look at him. “What I want is to be with you.”
“That can’t happen. You know that.”
Julia nodded sadly and laid her head on Dean’s shoulder.
In the early dawn, Dean woke up. As quietly as possible, he crept out of bed, gathered his clothing up off the floor, lingered a moment at the door, then left.
He walked into the other cabin, where Sam was apparently still sleeping.
“You awake? We need to do this.”
Sam sat up in bed. He was already dressed. He nodded and followed Dean out into the parking lot. They walked west into a field by the motel. Dean took the last couple of pages of the War Scroll from inside his leather jacket. Holding them up by one corner, he lit his Zippo and the flame caught the parchment. In a matter of seconds the pages had curled up like black tongues licking up the fire.
Supernatural: War of the Sons Page 23
