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

Checking Things Off The List

I took over driving about two hours in, Sam was fading and fading fast. He, unlike me, hadn't taken a nap so was still functioning on whatever sleep he'd gotten the night before. We were pushing sixteen hours since we'd left the Bunker and had about two more hours to go. He passed out as soon as he got into the passenger seat. We'd stopped at a rest stop and dosed the vamps again. They were barely moving which I was just fine with. We may have to let them sober up a bit before we set blood next to them, I doubt they'd even notice it was there with they way they were now.

I texted Coyote we'd be back with her gift wrapped vamps in about two hours and that Sam was sleeping so I'd talk to her when we got back. Kate's face and what she said kept coming back to me, the more I thought about it the more what she said about whoever it was behind all this had something personal going on, which would make sense if it was a monster. It doesn't get much more personal than getting killed by hunters. But I didn't really know of a monster that would be powerful enough to rally them all together. Crowley had knocked out most of the bigwigs when he was trying to find Purgatory, sure, someone will always rise up to fill a power vaccuum but stilll. I chased my mental tail for another hour then gave up and started thinking about home, which should have put me in a good mood, but it didn't. Paranoia was putting a damper on everything, a lot of hunters know where I live and anyone can be made to talk. Did I want to bring the monsters down on the heads of my friends out there? I know Coyote wouldn't want to move and I sure as hell didn't want to either. Maybe it was time to check into all of Magnus's wards and see if there was something that could be used to trap monsters. He'd had a bunch of them in a zoo after all, he had to know how something about how that all worked, short of getting rid of all the doors and windows. More things I never wanted to have to worry about again.

We pulled up and I shook Sam awake, "Hey we're here."

"Huh? Uh, oh." It took him a second or two to get functioning then he opened the door, "Let's make sure Jacob isn't awake. No need for him to see us lugging bodies around."

"Good point." I told him. "Open the garage too, let's move all the cars in there. No one followed us but..."

He nodded, "Yeah, I get it."

A few minutes later the garage door opened, I pulled in, parked then went inside. I didn't make it much past the door into the Bunker before Coyote's arms went around me and her lips pressed into mine. All that stress from what we'd found out just melted away. I held her as close as I could and enjoyed every second of how it felt to have her body melding with mine, that indescribable sense of love that always coursed through me when she touched me. Her lips left mine for a second, "Welcome back." Then she kissed me again and stepped back.

I ran my hand down her back and let go, even though letting go was the last thing I wanted to do, "I almost want to leave and come back again to get another hug like that."

"Not allowed," she said with a smile, "I've officially decided that missing you sucks ass, even more than it used to. No more road trips for you."

"I have absolutely no problem with that at all.

I returned her smile but hers started to fade the longer she looked at me, "What happened?"

"Later, let's get the vamps locked up then we'll fill you guys in."

"All right, I'll help."

Her and I walked into the garage, Sam showed up a few seconds later. Her and Sam grabbed lanky guy out of the back seat, I threw the chick over my shoulder and we hustled into the dungeon. We grabbed some bowls, trussed them up by their legs, sliced their wrists and set the bowls underneath their arms to catch the blood. I stepped back and had to fight not to react as the blood started running along their skin and into the bowls. Sure, it'd been almost a decade since I'd tortured souls in Hell but some things never leave you, never dull in your mind and never seem like they're in your past. The memories are always right there, waiting for something to spike them and they come rushing back, feeling like it was just yesterday that you were gutting souls for fun. I turned away, Coyote was right behind me, she didn't say anything but she knew. I'd told her more about what I'd done in Hell than I ever told Sam. It never felt right telling him, things you don't want your little brother to know about you. I was too ashamed of breaking to want to open up about it back then, I still had to be the strong one plus there'd been too much going on to dwell into all of that. I didn't have to be that with Coyote, so after one of my many nightmares when I'd woken up in a cold sweat and couldn't get back to sleep she stayed up with me, she didn't ask questions, I just started talking. I could have gone and gotten a drink or ten but I'd promised myself I wouldn't do that when I moved in with her. I spent the rest of that night and most of the rest of the next day talking. That was the beginning of the decrease in nightmares. It'd worked so well that for most of that first month or two we'd spent whole days talking about all the shit I'd been through. One of the best decisions I'd ever made.