How to Save a Life (Book Two/The Life Series/Supernatural)

Sin City

Dad was still working on the Colt.

I melt metal into bullets.

Dad looked at a magnifying glass at the Colt, looking at a diagram of parts.

Sam and Dean walked in.

"Hey," Sam told us.

I looked up. "Hey, what's up?"

"Might've found some omens in Ohio," Sam told us. "Dry lightning, barometric-pressure drop."

"Well, that's thrilling," I told them sarcastically.

"Plus, some guy blows his head off in a church, and another goes postal in a hobby shop before the cops take him out," Dean told us. "Might be demonic omens."

"Or it could just be a suicide and a psycho scrapbooker," I told them.

"Yeah, but it's our best lead since Lincoln," Sam told us.

"Where in Ohio?" I asked.

"Elizabethville," Sam answered. "It's a half-dead factory town in the rust belt."

"There's got to be a demon or two in South Beach," Dean told us.

Sam smiled. "Sorry, Hef. Maybe next time. How's it going, Bobby?"

"Slow," Dad answered.

"Eh, I tell you, it's a little sad seeing the Colt like that," Dean told us.

"Well, the only thing it's good for now is figuring out what makes it tick," Dad told us.

"So what makes it tick?" Sam asked.

Dad gave Sam an unamused look.

Sam held up his hands in a harmless gesture, amused.

"So, if we want to go check out these omens in Ohio, you think you can have that thing ready by this afternoon?" Dean asked.

Dad gave Dean a look, unamused.

I chuckled, looking at Sam and Dean, smirking.

"Well, it won't kill demons by then, but I can promise you it'll kill you," Dad told him.

I smiled.

Dean looked at Sam. "All right, come on. We're wasting the daylight."

"See you, guys," Sam told us.

Sam and Dean turned to leave.

"Hey," I told them. Sam and Dean turned back. "You boys run into anything—anything—you call us."

Sam and Dean nodded, walking out, leaving.

~~

Outside in the woods, Dad was shooting at a target with the restored Colt, making adjustments after he fired.

"Come on, Dad, you can do better than that," I told him.

Dad gave me a look, unamused.

I smiled in amusement.

A blonde girl appeared in front of the target. "Father daughter bonding. That's cute."

"Who are you?" Dad asked.

"It won't stop a demon, if that's what you think," the blonde told us.

"How the hell would you know?" I asked.

"Oh, I don't know," the blonde told us sarcastically, closing her eyes, opening them, revealing them to be demon black. "Call it an educated guess."

The blonde demon let her eyes return to normal.

"Well, ain't we lucky, then?" Dad asked. "Found a subject for a test fire."

"Luck had nothing to do with it," the blonde demon told us. "But, hey, by all means. Take your best shot." She posed in front of the target, arms outstretched. Dad hesitated. The blonde demon sighed in exasperation. "Are you gonna stand there like a pantywaist, or are you gonna shoot—" I took the Colt from Dad, shooting the blonde demon in the heart. The blonde demon looked down at the gunshot wound. "Ouch! That smarts a little."

"What do you want?" I asked.

The blonde demon shrugged. "Peace on earth. A new shirt. Now, do you want me to help you out with that gun or not? Hmm?"

Dad and I exchanged a look.

~~

The blonde demon was named Ruby. She was the demon that saved Sam from the sin demons, the one that had the knife that could kill them and others.

Ruby had said that Sam and Dean were in trouble and even led us to the exact location where they were.

We got to the house where a demon dressed as a priest had Sam cornered, punching him in the face repeatedly, making him fall to the ground.

Dad fired a shot just past the demon's head, destroying a small statue.

The demon turned toward us, using demon magic to push Dad into the house, making him fall to the ground. He turned to me, using demon magic to push me into the windshield of my car, making it shatter. He turned to the house, blowing off the door, walking inside.

I groaned in pain, rolling off the hood of the car, running toward where Dad laid on the ground. "Dad, you all right?"

Dad nodded. "Yeah."

Sam stood. "How did you know where we—"

Dad handed the rebuilt Colt to Sam. "Go."

"You heard the man," I told him. "Go."

~~

The next day, Dean told me that the demons here, Casey, a girl that had tried to kill Dean, but had been trapped with him down in the basement of the house in a Devil's Trap, and the priest demon, had talked to a human around here named Trotter to turn this town into party central, making people go crazy and murderous and suicidal, saying that the people wanted to destroy themselves because they were the ones doing it to themselves and others.

Dean and I were walking along the main street in Elizabethville.

"Well, what do you think, Ness?" Dean asked. "About what we did here, you think it made a difference?"

I shrugged. "Two less demons to worry about. That's not nothing."

"Yeah, but Trotter's still alive," Dean told me.

"Humans ain't our job," I told him.

"Yeah, but you think anything's really gonna change?" Dean asked. "I mean, maybe these people do just want to really destroy themselves. Maybe it is... a losing battle."

"Is that you or the demon girl talking?" I asked.

"Oh, it's me," Dean answered. "Demon is dead, and so is that hot girl it was possessing."

I sighed. "Well, had to be done. Sam was saving your life."

"Yeah, but you didn't see it, Ness," Dean told me. "It was cold." He stopped, turning to face me, making me stop. "Ness."

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Back in Wyoming, uh, there was this moment," Dean told me. "Yellow Eyes said something to me."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "What'd he say?"

"That maybe when... Sam came back from..." Dean trailed off, shrugging. "Well, wherever... that maybe he came back different."

"Different how?" I asked.

"I don't know," Dean told me. "Whatever it was, it didn't sound good. You think... think something's wrong with my brother?"

I hesitated, thinking, shaking my head. "No. Demons lie. I'm sure Sam's okay."

Dean nodded, still troubled. "Yeah. Yeah, me, too."