(1) The Devil's Hybrid (D. Winchester)

Chapter Twenty Three

Erika keeps moving through the under house tunnel system, barely big enough for her to move. She finds one of Dean's guns. She picks it up and checks it.

"Human is a klepto" she mumbles and moves on, she finds another gun and checks it too. "Danny. Danny" She hears the sound of Danny trying to scream. She turns her head. "Danny?" she asks moving to a hole in the wall, she peers through it and sees Danny, still bound and gagged. She grabs the bricks around the hole and pulls, pulling out the brickwork before moving through, she grabs Danny's bonds and pulls them free. "Come on" she motions to the hole, he nods and scrambles through, she follows.

"Hurry, he's coming back" Erika pauses.

"He?" she asks.

"Her brother" There is an inarticulate yell. A Boy tackles Erika. The Boy stabs at Erika, who holds him off, she manages to get her hands around his face, she pulls, snapping his neck. She sighs and drops him from her, looks to Danny.

"Come on," she tells him. They crawl through the tunnels. "Wait" Erika hisses hearing scuttering, the girl appears ahead, Erika turns to avoid the knife and grabs the girls head before jerking it to the side, snapping her neck. She looks to Danny who stares at her. "Come on, your parents are waiting," she tells him.

...........................

Susan and Brian both hug Danny as he runs to them. Dean moves to Erika who smiles at him, he drapes her coat around her.

"Look at that" he teases. "A monster saved the day, from humans" she shrugs and looks down. "I was joking" he whispers.

"I know," she tells him back. "It's just been a long time since I've killed a human.....not since the second world war, it's just...I remember now, why I stopped killing my victims" she walks away and wraps her coat around her. Dean watches her sadly.

..........................

Dean jacks down the Impala after apparently replacing the tires. Sam pulls Dean's duffel out of the repacked trunk and throws it in the back of the car. Brian and Susan walk over to Dean as Erika appears at his side.

"Thanks for the head start," Dean tells them.

"Why doesn't it surprise me you guys don't like the police?"

"It's sort of a mutual-appreciation thing, really" Sam answers, Brian holds out his hand to Erika, she looks to it and then to Brian before taking it.

"Well, thank you," he tells her. Susan nods and smiles at Erika.

"Thank you," she tells the vampire.

"You okay?" Dean asks.

"No, we're the opposite of okay, but we're together" Brian takes Susan's hand. "Thanks" Dean nods and wraps an arm around Erika.

..........................

Later: under an overpass, Sam and Dean get out of the car, Erika sits in the back still, her journal open in her lap. Sam comes around to Dean's side with burgers. Dean unwraps his, looks at it and wraps it back up.

"You okay?" Sam asks.

"You know, I felt for those sons of bitches back there. Lifelong torture turns you into something like that"

"You were in hell, Dean. Look, maybe you did what you did there, but you're not them. They were barely human"

"Yeah, you're right. I wasn't like them. I was worse. They were animals, Sam, defending territory. Me? I did it for the sheer pleasure"

"What?"

"I enjoyed it, Sam. They took me off the rack, and I tortured souls, and I liked it. All those years, all that pain. Finally getting to deal some out yourself. I didn't care who they put in front of me. Because that pain I felt, it just slipped away. No matter how many people I save, I can't change that. I can't fill this hole. Not ever" Dean admits.