Losing Hope | {BOOK 4}

53| Ironic Werewolf... or Not

"I tried to kill him," I said, placing a box down next to the gold blades I'd found.

"Well, the two of you are connected somehow by the Mark," Lucifer pointed out.

"Yeah, no, it's, uh... it's more than that," I muttered, not looking at him.

I was starting to regret opening my mouth to tell the archangel anything at all.

"Attraction?" he assumed, and I glanced over at him. "Oh, Eleanor."

"I know. I know. Okay? Whatever it is... a- attraction, connection... It scares me. I don't know that I can stop it. I don't know that I can resist it."

Once again, Lucifer's hand found my shoulder and I flinched at his touch.

"I understand you're scared, Ecclesia, but this could be a good thing. In the end, it might help draw him out."

I was saved from answering as my phone rang. I answered it, moving away from Lucifer once more. It was Sam and he wanted me to look up a name in the Men of Letters files. Apparently, Eileen, the woman we'd met at the retirement home who was also fighting the banshee, was a legacy just like we were. After making Lucifer swear not to tell my husband or his brother what we talked about, I left with the gold blades to head back to the retirement home.

While we were fighting it, it ended up going after me. Lucifer was gone by the time we got back, which I was grateful for. Dean expressed concern, wondering why the banshee had gone after me since the lore said it only went after those who were vulnerable. I tried to dismiss it, saying he was overthinking it and it only went after me because it saw my gold blade, but I don't think he or Sam bought it. I was awake for a long time that night, long after Dean had drifted off, unable to stop thinking about my conversation with Lucifer and what happened at the retirement home.

⁘

I sat across the table from Sam drinking coffee while Maddie and Zep ate bowls of cereal. Dean stumbled in heading over to the fridge and pulling out a container of Chinese food.

"Morning," he mumbled, taking a bite of the food.

"Is that a hickey?" Sam asked, eyeing his brother.

Dean spit out his bite of food and I felt my cheeks heat up as I chugged down more of my coffee.

"And? It was Valentines Day," Dean shrugged. "I can't help it if I'm a hopeless romantic."

"You got half of that right."

"Guys," I piped up, sending a look over at Maddie and Zep when both brothers looked at me.

"Anyway," Sam quickly diverted the topic of conversation as Dean smirked at me. "Check this out. Stacy Altman, 19 year old babysitter from Hudson, Ohio was murdered last night."

"Why is that a better topic of conversation?" I asked.

Sam looked across the table at me, then over at his niece and nephew and I sighed.

"Maddie, why don't you and Zep go find something to do for a little while," I suggested.

"Fine."

Both kids left the table, heading out of the kitchen. Thankfully, both brothers waited until the coast was clear to continue talking.

"How is that us?" Dean asked Sam.

"Because her heart was ripped out."

"On Valentines Day? What is that like an ironic werewolf? Alright, we'll check it out. But first I need bacon."

"No, first you need to shower," I corrected him.

Dean sniffed his armpit and made a face. 

"You're not wrong."

I rolled my eyes as he headed down the hall to go shower.

"Not. A. Word. Samuel," I warned, glaring over at him.

"I wasn't going to say anything," Sam protested, defending himself.

"Sure you weren't," I took another sip of my coffee.

⁘

After dropping the kids off at school and making sure they knew to go home with Connor and Libby, we headed off to Ohio to investigate. When we arrived at the house, we interviewed the couple Stacy babysat for.

"It's like we told the cops," the husband, Dan, said. "Stacy came over about six o'clock. We went to dinner, and by the time we got home-"

"We found Stacy in the living room, in a pool of blood; Tegan in her crib hysterical," the wife, Melissa, finished. "It was awful."

"Can you think of any reason someone would want to hurt Stacy?" I asked.

"No," Melissa shook her head. "Stacy was super sweet and popular and pretty."

"Anyone who met her fell in love with her," Dan added.

"Maybe it was a crime of passion," Dean suggested. "Stacy have any ex-boyfriends?"

"Not that I know of... Honey?"

"Why would I have any idea?" Dan asked.

"Was anything stolen?" Sam inquired. "Any chance this may have been a robbery gone wrong?"

"I don't think so," Melissa shook her head again. "I mean, nothing was missing. Except the nanny cam from the living room."

"Thanks for your time. Give us a call if something comes up."

"Okay, thank you."

As we got outside, we paused to make a plan.

"Is it just me, or is that guy acting a bit hinkey?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing," Dean agreed as I nodded.

"Let's split up," Sam suggested. "You can drop me and Ellie off at the morgue and you hit Dan at the office."

"Yeah, maybe he'll be a little bit more open without his wifey around."

⁘

"Based on the autopsy, the vic was conscious when her heart was ripped out," the ME was telling Sam and I. "Wouldn't want a front row seat to that show."

"Any ideas what could have done this?" I asked him.

"Typically, I'd assume animal attack."

"In the house?" Sam said skeptically.

"Exactly," the ME nodded. "Plus, no claw marks. I'll be honest with you, agents. Been doing this for twenty odd years and I'm stumped."

"Thanks," I told him as Sam took a picture of the corpse on his phone.

We headed back to the motel, beating Dean, and Sam set to work doing research trying to find out what exactly killed Stacy.

"Yo," Sam greeted his brother when he arrived a little while later.

"Hey. Find anything."

"Yeah. Jack. Absolutely nothing points to werewolf."

"Well. Step aside Urkel," Dean pulled a disk out of his pocket. "It was Dan who stole the nanny cam."

"Why?"

Dean gave his brother a pointed look.

"He was stooping the sitter," I beat Sam to the punch, coming over to watch the footage.

"Wait a second," Sam piped up after a moment. "I thought Dan was at dinner with Melissa."

"That's not Dan," Dean said.

As if to prove his point, the Dan look-alike made eye contact with the camera, his eyes flaring on screen.

"Shapeshifter," Sam and I chorused.

"Yahtzee," Dean smiled.