Losing Hope | {BOOK 4}

98| Dead Hunters

"Mom? Mom," I looked around the empty motel room.

While I was searching, the door opened and Sam entered with Dean on his heels.

"Ellie?"

"She's not here. All her stuff's gone."

"Okay, breathe," Sam instructed, putting a hand comfortingly on my shoulder. "Did she say she was moving on or-"

"I told you what she said," I snapped. "She said, 'Ellie, call me. We have a problem.' And then that was it. She didn't sound happy."

"Well, you said yourself, when she's not here, she's bunking with the Brits. So maybe-"

"Well, I've called Mick, like, six times. He's been radio silent since they sent him to London."

Dean pulled out his phone, dialing a number.

"Ketch, I'm calling to see if Ellie's mom is with you. It's Dean. Winchester. Because I'd like to speak to her, that's why. No, I'm not being terse. Look, if you haven't seen her, do you know where she is? No, I'm not being curt either. Look, I don't have time for Manners 101 with you, okay? If she's with you, I wanna know about it. Fine."

He rolled his eyes and hung up. 

"Such a dick," he muttered.

"And?" I asked, staring at him.

"He says he hasn't seen your mom in over a week."

"But my mom called me two days ago, said she was working a case with him."

"Which means he's lying."

Dean stepped forward, pulling me against his chest, and I realized I'd begun to hyperventilate. I buried my nose in his chest, breathing in his scent.

"Why would he-?" Sam started, but was cut off as his phone rang.

He pulled it out, glancing at the screen.

"Jody," he said, answering it. "Jody, hey. No, what? Uh, no, we hadn't heard."

"Mom?" I questioned, turning my head, but Sam shook his head.

"Um, when?" he asked Jody. "What the hell happened? Oh, no. No, I-I... Yeah, thanks for letting me know. Bye."

Sam hung up the phone, looking stricken.

"Who?" Dean asked.

"Eileen."

"How?"

"She, was, uh, mauled by a wild animal in a wooded area that doesn't have animals that do that, in South Carolina."

"But I thought she was in Ireland. Sam..."

"Dean, that's the second hunter death we've heard about in two weeks."

"I know. But two doesn't mean a pattern."

"Three would."

"Meaning?"

Sam swallowed, glancing at me.

"Ellie's mom..."

I felt my breath catch in my throat as I realized what he was implying. Dean's arms automatically tightened around me, pulling me even closer against him.

"She's a hunter," Sam continued, seeming apologetic for even having to voice it in front of me, "and no one knows where she is."

⁘

I was numb as we headed into the morgue to look at Eileen's body. Including her and the other death Sam had mentioned, we'd learned of an additional five other hunters who'd been killed by monsters in the past three weeks. Dean kept his fingers interlocked with mine, rubbing his thumb over my knuckles while he and Sam talked.

"Dean, monsters and demons don't team up," Sam stated. "Seven hunters are gone. We can't grab a signal from Emilie's phone. Since Ellie left Cass and Kelly, we don't know where they are. Mick has slipped off the grid. Ketch is lying to us. I-I... I wanna punch something in the face."

"Good. Hold onto that," Dean told him, "'cause it looks like we have a hellhound to deal with. Which means..."

"Crowley."

"Yeah. Come on."

Sam headed out of the room, Dean following while guiding me along beside him.

"Ellie, we'll find her," he whispered, still rubbing a thumb over my knuckles.

I couldn't respond due to the lump in my throat that threatened to close off my airway.

"Hey, Sam," Dean called.

Sam turned and Dean tossed him the keys.

"You drive."

Sam nodded, slipping behind the wheel as Dean opened the back door and let me climb in ahead of him. Once the door was shut and Sam had started the engine, he wrapped an arm around my shoulders, holding me close while we headed back to the Bunker. The familiar dark tendrils of my depression that I hadn't felt in so long were sneaking back in, filling me with the overwhelming urge to cry.

I swallowed a few times, trying to get rid of the blasted lump in my throat. Dean had his nose buried in my hair, murmuring sweet nothings to comfort me against the top of my head. When we got home, he scooped me into his arms, carrying me inside while Sam dialed Crowley's number.

"Crowley, only a demon can control a hellhound, which means one of your people was involved," he growled into the phone. "Right. And you know nothing else of the other hunters who are dying?"

He looked at his phone a second later as Crowley hung up on him.

"Now what?"

"I'm going to get Ellie settled in our room. We need to head back into town, pick up the kids and run a few errands. Start calling around to get more information on the dead hunters."

Sam nodded, dialing another number on his phone while Dean carried me down the hall into our bedroom. He laid me gently on the bed, pulling the covers up around me before pressing a kiss to my forehead.

"It'll be okay, Ellie Bear," he whispered. "Everything'll be okay, I swear."

I still didn't respond, closing my eyes and pulling the blankets closer in my fist. I heard Dean's footsteps retreat and the door close a second later. My lip quivered and my brow furrowed as I tried to fight the darkness seeping into my mind. What felt like an eternity later, sleep finally took me in its arms and allowed me to escape the awful reality where hunters were being killed and my mom was MIA.

⁘

Sam and Dean figured out the Brits bugged the Bunker, and so they set up a fake meeting to try and lure them into a trap. Dean insisted that he and Sam could go, but I said I wanted to. So, while Sam stayed behind with Maddie and Zep, I went with Dean to the meet up spot where we ended up kidnapping Lady Bevell. Dean held a gun on her while I drove.

"Why are you spying on us?" he growled. "Oh, and what do you know about Eileen Leahy?"

"Who?"

"Did you- did- did your people, did they kill her?" I stammered.

"Probably," Bevell replied. "Rule of thumb- if you think we killed someone, then we probably did. Speaking of, you do realize that by attacking me, you invite the retribution of the entire British Men of Letters? Investigation, no trial. Just punishment and ruin. Possibly at the hands of Emilie Dawson."

"The hell is that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"Your mother- she's our permanent guest."

"She's your prisoner?" Dean translated. "Why?"

"Prisoner? Who said anything about prisoner? No, Emilie's joined the team. Even has her own secret decoder ring."

"You're lying," I accused her.

"You're right. There is no ring," she quipped. "Oh, girls and their mums. See, you see her as Mummy. We see her as one of our best killers."