Broken Trust (ON HOLD)

Facing the Past (Part 3)

After a quick car ride of thinking, Dean decided to let the whole debate of if Maia was staying or leaving go. He would rather have her with him where he could keep an eye on her especially since she seemed to really be on edge.

The three Winchesters spent hours at their motel doing research. Maia explained to the brothers that Strixes have poisonous claws and put a curse on whoever kills them. 

So, they looked to the internet and Maia's grimoire to find a curse-free way to kill the deadly beast.

At least, that's what Sam and Maia were doing.

Dean sat on one of the beds, a laptop on his lap. But instead of reading up on mythological creatures, he was looking at articles on anxiety.

Earlier he remembered the conversation he and Sam had after dropping Maia off in New Orleans. Dean knew his daughter wasn't actually surprised and called Sam out. Which is when the younger brother admitted that he told Maia the secret because she was starting to feel anxious.

Then seeing how Maia acted around Anthony and in the alley made Dean wonder if that her anxiety she mentioned to Sam.

"You've got to be kidding me." Sam groaned, ending the long silence.

"What?" Dean looked up at his brother.

"Every time I put 'kill' and 'Strix' together in the search bar, all it gives me are fan sites for some book series," Sam explained.

"Huh. What about you? You find anything in that book of weird?" Dean turned to Maia.

"No." She shook her head with a sigh. "It's just saying everything I already know."

"Okay, so now what?" Sam asked. "If we can't kill it without being cursed, how do we stop it?"

"I don't know." Maia's arm dropped to the table, accidentally knocking her phone to the ground. She leaned over to pick it up when she realized something. "Wait... I have an aunt that lives a few hours east of here."

"And?" Dean asked.

"And, she's the biggest history buff in the family. If she doesn't know how to stop a Strix off the top of her head she'll have a book for it."

"Okay." Dean stood up. "Maia and I will go figure out how to kill this son of a bitch, you figure out where it's hiding." He pointed to Sam.

* * *

The ride to Maia's aunt's house was pretty quiet aside from the rock music flowing from the car speakers and the directions Maia uttered every few minutes. Dean wanted to say something about their conversation in the alley but it was such a touchy subject and he really didn't want to piss Maia off when they had to drive back to Oklahoma together.

"Turn into this neighborhood up here," Maia said.

Dean followed her directions, turning into the rich neighborhood. "Wow."

"Yeah, Aunt Teylie definitely likes to flaunt her wealth." Maia scoffed. "Take a turn on Cherry road, it's the house with the big porch and a tire swing."

Dean parked along the curb in front of the house Maia described. He whistled. "How rich is your aunt?"

Maia shrugged. "Not any more than the rest of my family."

Dean furrowed his brows at her. He knew that Damien and Vivienne had a lot of money in their pockets but he didn't know the whole family was loaded. "How rich is your family?"

"I don't know. I don't keep track of their paychecks." She climbed out of the car. "Let's go."

Dean sighed, following her to the front door. Maia knocked three times. A few minutes later, a raven-haired boy answered the door.