The Monsters In Our Heads (Book 7 Arrow/SPN Crossovers)

Settling In For The Long Haul

We all grabbed something to drink and I took Coyote on a tour of the place. It didn't take her long to be utterly impressed with it.

"How many books and files are in here?"

"Thousands. These guys date back centuries. The things Sam and I have found in here would blow your mind."

"And one demon took them all out?"

"Knight of Hell, a bit more complex than a demon. Damn near unkillable actually. She got inside and just went to town." We rounded the corner and I pulled open the door to the dungeon. "My two favorite features other than the warding are this room and the fact that somehow this place scrambles cell signals. Cell phones weren't even a thought in anyone's head when they built this place. I don't know how they pulled it off, just happy they did." I grabbed the bookcases and slid them apart. "Here's the dungeon."

She shivered, gasped and took a step back, "No!"

I hadn't expected that response, I closed the bookcases as fast as I could "Honey? You okay?"

Her eyes were squeezed shut, I reached out to try to steady her as she leaned against the wall. As soon as my hand touched her skin her eyes flew open and they were totally out of focus. She wasn't seeing me, she was seeing something else. "Demon!"

"Coyote! Hey, it's me!"

Her eyes came back into focus but were totally filled with fear, "I saw you, in a chair, in that room. You had black eyes, you were a demon, the hate, the violence, the sheer evil...you, you never told me. I thought it was just nightmares, fears of what the Mark could do to you. Not that it had happened. Why?"

My heart dropped and my stomach started knotting up, worst mistake ever bringing her here. One of these days I'll actually think my way all the way through a plan. I just hoped she wouldn't see my lack of telling her as lying, that wouldn't go well. "I guess I kind of thought you already knew, plus it's not something I really knew how to bring up. I figured with your Shaman gifts and the pouch you'd have seen it at some point or other. You didn't ask and I didn't want to talk about it. Talking about the nightmares when you asked about them was hard enough."

"How are you not one now? I don't understand, I thought that was pretty much a permanent condition, that you had to be dead to become a demon."

Coyote had hunted, sure, but she'd never gotten too involved with demons. Luck of the draw or just didn't stay in it long enough. Native culture doesn't have demons so she'd never have had to deal with them all that often. "Technically yes, I was dead, King of Hell used the First Blade and the Mark to turn me into a demon. The Mark doesn't let the people it's attached to go all that easily. Sam and I had found a way to cure demons earlier for something else we had to do, he trapped me and turned me back. Those dreams where I tried to kill him? Not just dreams."

As I'd explained things the fear left her, she looked back at the bookcases and shivered again. "That's not all I saw, what they did in there, what they imprisoned. I can still feel it, the spells, the energy, it all lingers in places like that."

"I'm sorry, I didn't think my way all the way through this. Sometimes I forget about what you can pick up on. You're not mad that I didn't tell you about the demon thing?"

She shook her head and straightened up, "I could be I guess but what would be the point? I knew something was seriously wrong with you, my instincts told me to run, I didn't. My choice. You didn't know I was psychically and spiritually linked with you so I can't blame you for subjecting me to that can I? Knowing about it now doesn't change anything. If Sam had called and told me you were a demon, I'd have been right next to him in that dungeon saving your ass. So no, I'm not mad."