Blood Debt

Chapter 4

Sam couldn't remember the last time he'd slept. He'd lost the trail of the vampires three days ago. They'd just vanished and by now, they could be ten states away. Sam stared blankly at the hotel's yellow walls.

He had stayed on their trail for nine days but never managed to catch up to them. He'd repeatedly found signs that Dean was still alive; a receipt from their stop in Knoxville, a folded up cocktail napkin from Wichita with some waitress' phone number on it, a piece of the lining of his leather jacket. One time he even found his own name scratched into a post. Something about it all didn't feel right, but Sam couldn't put his finger on it and he wanted desperately to believe the clues had been left by his brother, ignoring that nagging fear that he had been led on a wild goose chase.

When he lost the trail he went back repeatedly to the last place he knew they had been, the outskirts of Atlanta. They could have gone any direction from there. Sam feared Dean's time was rapidly running out. According to Daniel Elkins journal, the longest a typical nest would keep someone alive was two weeks, though in a few instances, they had kept people alive for much, much longer. Then there was always the possibility they might decide to turn Dean. Sam shuddered at the thought of beheading his own brother.

He never should have left him.

Sam continued to stare at the yellow wall, absently studying the periodic brown streaks of cockroach crap and small flecks of unknown dried fluids. Two days after Dean had gone missing, he'd called Ellen. She alerted several hunters to be on the watch but no one had come up with anything. He'd called Missouri a few days ago after he'd lost the trail, but she wasn't much help beyond saying that she felt Dean was still alive.

Sam pulled out his cell phone and opened the phone book, slowly scrolling through the names. He paused at the name as he had for the past two days. He didn't know if she'd help for something like this. She owed Dean almost as much as Sam, though, and maybe that would be enough. At this point, he didn't have anything to lose and his options-well, hell, he was out of options, plain and simple. Why couldn't his damned psychic ability work to find his brother? No, he decided, that would be bad seeing as how he only had death visions. Best he not have a vision of Dean in this particular instance. He looked at the name once more and punched the "1" and then "send".

A sleepy sounding voice answered the phone. "Yes?"

"Lenore?" Sam asked hopefully. He couldn't be sure from the one word answer if it was her or not.

"Who is this?"

"Sam. Sam Winchester."

"Sam...Oh, hello, Sam. Yes, it's me." She sounded more awake and he could hear her moving, then heard her yawn.

"I'm sorry I woke you. It's 6 pm where I am. I guess-I guess I just didn't think that you would be asleep."

"Oh, I was going to get up in four hours anyhow." She yawned again. "From the sound of your strained voice, I'd guess you didn't call to exchange social pleasantries. Who's in trouble, us or you?"

Sam swallowed hard. "My brother, Dean. He's missing. He's been taken by some vampires, a Suzanne and Janine. We were in Eastern Tennessee off of state route 74."

"Were you hunting them?" she asked, an edge coming into her voice.

"No. We stopped to help them. It was 2:30 am, cold and rainy, and they had a flat tire. They were-it was a trap."

He heard her muffled laughter. "I'm sorry," she said, then laughed again. "I shouldn't laugh, it's just the complete irony that the two decent vampire hunters out there get caught in a vampire trap," she said. "I assume you're okay?"